Welcome to The Aging Well Podcast, where we challenge the fear-driven, profit-fueled narratives surrounding aging and replace them with science-backed, soul-centered strategies for living fully. In this episode, Dr. Jeff Armstrong and co-host Corbin Bruton take on the myths of modern longevity culture—biohacking hype, anti-aging products, and pharmaceutical promises—and ask a bold question: What if aging isn’t a disease to cure, but a process to honor?They unpack the cultural forces distorting our view of aging and offer a holistic, inclusive alternative grounded in the 6 Pillars of Aging Well: movement, nutrition, body composition, sleep hygiene, social connection, and spiritual well-being. This conversation covers:Why aging is not a problem to fix—but a season to embraceThe risks of labeling aging as a diseaseHow to cultivate strength, resilience, and purpose over timeThe difference between lifespan and healthspanHow to live better, not just longerThe power of small, sustainable lifestyle changesWhat it means to be pro-living in a world obsessed with performanceIf you're looking for an authentic, compassionate, and research-informed guide to aging well—one that values connection, meaning, and humanity over metrics and gimmicks—this episode is for you.Please, support The Aging Well Podcast by hitting the ‘like’ button, subscribing/following the podcast, sharing with a friend, and….BUY the products you need to… age well from our trusted affiliates and support the mission of The Aging Well Podcast*.Thrive25—Your personal longevity advisor | https://www.thrive25.com/early-access?via=william-jeffreyMemory Lane TV | the first therapeutic streaming platform for people living with dementia — designed to replace overstimulating television with multisensory, evidence-based media that soothes, orients, and restores | for 30% off the annual subscription visit https://www.memory-lane.tv/?rfsn=8714090.a500b0Fusionary Formulas | Combining Ayurvedic wisdom with Western science for optimal health support. | 15% off Code: AGINGWELL | https://fusionaryformulas.com/Jigsaw Health | Trusted supplements. “It’s fun to feel good.” | Click the following link for 10% off: https://www.jigsawhealth.com/?rfsn=8710089.1dddcf3&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=8710089.1dddcf3Auro Wellness | Glutaryl—Antioxidant spray that delivers high doses of glutathione (“Master Antioxidant”) | 10% off Code: AGINGWELL at https://aurowellness.com/?ref=1957Dr Lewis Nutrition | Fight neurodegeneration and cognitive decline with Daily Brain Care by Dr Lewis Nutrition—a proven daily formula designed to protect and restore brain function. | 10% off code: AGINGWELL or use the link: https://drlewisnutrition.com/AGINGWELLTruDiagnostic—Your source for epigenetic testing | 12% off Code: AGEWELL or use the link: https://shop.trudiagnostic.com/discount/AGEWELL*We receive commission on these purchases. Thank you.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcome to the Aging Well podcast where we explored the
science stories and strategies behind living a longer,
healthier, and more purposeful life.
I am your host, Doctor Jeff Armstrong, joined by my Co host
Corbin Bruton. Let's be honest, most of what we
hear about aging today is eitherdriven by fear or profit.
We're told we need to hack our biology, optimize every metric,
(00:23):
or buy the latest supplement to stay young.
We are bombarded with promises from pharmaceutical giants, tech
billionaires chasing immortality, and fitness
influencers peddling silver bullet solutions.
And through it all, one crucial truth gets lost.
Aging isn't a problem to be solved, it's a process to be
honored. Here at the Aging Well Podcast,
(00:46):
we're offering an alternative. Our mission is inclusive, not
exclusive. We believe aging well is not
just for the wealthy. The bio optimized or the
genetically gifted? It's for all of us grounded in
spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional and
social well-being as well as thesix pillars that we often talk
(01:06):
about here on this podcast. If you're tired of the noise and
looking for a space where science meets soul, where
longevity is about more than lifespan, it's about health,
span, meaning and connection, you're in the right place.
This is not anti aging. This is pro living.
This is the aging well podcast. Aging well.
(01:29):
Doctor Armstrong, I have a question for you, and I think we
should just dive right in on today's episode.
So let's just start here. What are we missing when we
treat aging like a disease? I think we're missing quite a
few things, actually. I mean, I, it bothers me that we
call aging a disease because aging is a natural process and
(01:50):
disease is an unnatural process.It's, you know, it's where
Physiology is messed up. And so there's a lot of problems
that come from just telling people that aging is something
that is a disease. It's something to be feared.
It's something to be prevented. And you know, you can't prevent
aging and you can't prevent disease.
(02:10):
And so I think by focusing in onit as a disease, we kind of
overlook really the positive benefits of aging.
And when you think about being awisdom and resilience and, you
know, the opportunity to reflectback on a life well lived and to
have grandchildren and you know,aging is a great opportunity for
(02:33):
us. And I think this idea of aging
is a disease really just promotes ageism.
It puts a stigma on aging. And it also harms us in that it
causes us to begin to expect decline.
You know, you hear people, they have aches and pains in their
joints. It's oh, it's just a matter of
aging. Or you go to your doctor and
(02:55):
it's like, oh, you're fine. You're just, you know, you just
got to accept you're getting older.
It's like, no, I don't accept that I'm, you know, old.
Getting older means that I have to, you know, struggle through
these things. You know, I think by expecting
decline, it causes us to ignore the opportunities to age well.
So what are your thoughts? No, I think that's funny that
(03:17):
you're bringing that up because there's been some certain
scenarios where and it could just be little things here and
there where I was having some knee issues.
You know. Yeah, that's what everyone was
saying. They're like, oh, you're just,
you're just getting old. Or if I cut myself, I notice it
takes a lot longer to heal than it normally would in the past.
(03:41):
Or even when I get sick, right when I get sick when I was
younger, maybe a day of rest andI'd be fine.
Now it's like almost 3 days and everyone's like, oh, well, it's
because you're getting older. And I'm like, well, maybe the
flu evolved. You know, I just, I don't accept
(04:02):
that. Don't, don't, don't put that
curse on me. I don't want that I and you
know, I know a lot of people have a fear of getting old.
And I think it comes from what they've seen with their
grandparents or their own parents, where they've seen what
that old age kind of do to them or did to them.
(04:22):
And the fact that, you know, that they, they used to be
really youthful and they used tobe able to move around.
And now they're not, they don't exactly move around as well as
they once did. And they kind of rely on other
individuals to drive them to andfro and they're not as strong as
they once were. And then on the other aspects,
(04:43):
some people are like, well, I don't want to get wrinkles and I
don't want to have Gray hair andI don't want to have my teeth
fall out. You know, there, there's,
there's other side effect, whatever it is.
A lot of people don't want to beold.
But old is just a term. Because even when, when, when I
was younger, as a kid, being 20,23 was considered old because
(05:06):
you, you had no concept, you have no perspective of it.
And now you know, I think 57 is actually fairly young.
I really do. Fairly young.
Yeah, I think it's fairly young,you know, I.
Think it's very young, I'm 62. Well, that's true.
I I remember when my aunt turned30, my aunt Linda, and how
(05:29):
devastated she was. It's like I'm getting old.
And it's like when I hit 30, I was like, what was she?
So UPS, you know, bent out of shape.
I thought, this isn't so bad. And, you know, now I'm 62, it's
like, I want to kick aging in the ass.
Yeah. You know, I just finished a
cycle of 10 by 10, three days a week, searcher squats.
And I finished my final round at300 lbs.
(05:52):
So I did 300 lbs of searcher squats for 10 sets of 10
repetitions. I never thought I'd hit that,
but that was my goal, to get over 300.
So I hit 305. And now my newest goal is at 6
foot five, I wanna be able to search her deadlift off the
ground. And I, I have takes a little bit
of warm up, you know, I have to kind of work my way down to
(06:13):
where I can get deep enough to the ground, but I hit it, I got,
you know, a lightweight, it was only 135 lbs, but I can get
under the bar and lift it up. So my goal now is without a,
without any kind of warm up, be able to just get down deep under
the bar, pick it up and then start getting heavier.
And, you know, you'll watch someof these different videos on
(06:34):
YouTube and stuff like our people saying things you
shouldn't do over the age of 50,you know, and, and it's all
bullshit. You know, it's like who who's to
say what I can or cannot do as Iget older?
And because, you know, I have another birthday, I'm supposed
to just expect that my body isn't going to be functioning as
well. Yeah, there's going to be a
little bit of decline in there. It's inevitable.
(06:56):
But how much of that decline is due to inactivity, not due to
some disease? I mean, it's aging isn't
something you catch. It's an opportunity you have to
live well or live poorly. So it's a choice.
You know we're going to get older.
Getting older is inevitable. The only way to not get older is
(07:16):
to die, right? But every day that we're on this
planet, we are older. And so aging is inevitable.
How we age is a choice, it's nota disease.
That's good. Well, a lot of people, they may
want to try and do some alternative measures in order to
prevent aging. But I know that in previous
(07:39):
episodes you've called out the bio hacking movement.
So what's your concern with how it approaches aging?
I hate the term bio hacking. I hate the term hacking because
hacking to me just implies a shortcut.
And so I know there's a lot of well meaning people to use the
term biohack and it's it's kind of again, that counter to the
(08:01):
aging process. But there's nothing, you know,
we go through our six pillars. Those are not a hack.
Those are a lifestyle that is going to enable you to live more
effectively, live with vitality,live well, live longer.
And biohacking just it kind of implies that we can skip past
(08:22):
the, the little things that we need to do and just take a pill,
take a supplement, you know, take a, you know, million, spend
$1,000,000 a year on activities and supplements and things that
are going to so-called reverse the aging process.
And it's, it's frankly bullshit.I don't like the idea that we're
(08:45):
hacking our systems. We are just working the
Physiology of the body in a positive manner to slow this
process of decline. And there's nothing hacking
about it. And so my concern with it is
that people can think that they can continue to just live a poor
lifestyle and just take a pill and they'll be able to reverse
(09:06):
the whole decline that they've created for themselves.
And so by you're not hacking anything, you are working your
body's natural systems to be as effective as possible.
You know, it's like you think that you, you're driving this
old car and you suddenly start putting premium gasoline in it
and it's going to start running like new.
(09:27):
No, you have to take care of it from the start.
There's no, you know, you can drop a new engine in a car, but
that's not the same as, you know, taking, taking some kind
of supplement and changing your Physiology.
It kind of reminds me, there's this one gentleman.
He was on YouTube. He still is on YouTube, but
Netflix actually picked him up and did a whole documentary on
(09:49):
him. And he's for the last, I don't
know, it's 6-8 years or so. He's kind of been on this quest
to, to prevent himself from aging.
And he does, you know, he's on asuper strict diet.
He, he gets his sleep down, You know, a couple of our pillars
that we talked about. He exercises and he has a really
(10:13):
strict regiment. He's got all different type of
supplements that he takes. He's got a skin care routine.
And to me, physically, his physique, yeah, he has like a
young, like athletic supermodel physique.
In the face, though, he just kind of looks kind of looks like
(10:33):
a robot. Looks plastic.
Yeah, he just looks, but he sayshe hasn't had any plastic
surgery. But what's crazy is he's doing
this really weird quote UN quotebiohacking thing and he's taking
his like, it sounds real weird. He's taking his son's blood and
(10:54):
injecting it into himself. And then he does this like test
and he's like, wow, my genetic makeup now makes me 30 years
younger or something like that. And then he took his own blood
and then he put it in his dad. It's just, it's, it's a weird
documentary. It's so weird.
(11:14):
Well, I know who you're talking about and the guy, I mean, yeah,
OK, you can spend $1,000,000 a year when you're a billionaire.
And yeah, I'm not impressed withhow he looks.
And he's younger than me. You know, I physically, I don't
know what he can lift or any of that kind of stuff.
I've seen interviews with him where it's like your physique
(11:36):
doesn't look all that great and,and not that you're judging
anybody based on their physique 'cause that's not the the whole
point of aging. But yeah, his face looks very
plastic to me. And is that if you're only aging
physiologically? Well, what about all the other
parameters? You know, we, we have our spies,
you know, our spiritual, physical, intellectual,
(11:59):
emotional and social. Those are all contributing
factors to aging well. And those are ignored by the
biohacking movement. I, you know, there's very few in
the whole longevity movement that really excite me of work
they're doing. And you know, there are some
things I like and don't like that Doctor Peter Attia
(12:20):
promotes. He's overall pretty good.
We've talked several times and we've had Doctor Caberline on
the podcast and I, I like his approach.
I mean, he very much kind of follows the basic principles.
He's not really looking for hacks.
He's looking for, you know, maybe certain pharmacological
treatments and things like that that we can do to assist us in
(12:44):
aging well. And that's the difference, you
know, bio hack, somebody is trying to use that drug, that
supplement to fix the aging problem, trying to reverse
aging. And we're not trying to fix the
aging process. We're trying to slow the aging
process. We're trying to do the things
that are going to help us to live with the greatest amount of
(13:05):
vitality and the greatest amountof health span.
Well, you know, and I think somepeople, they want that, that
little easy pill, right? Everybody wants the easy pill.
I mean, we've become a very lazysociety.
We think we can fix everything by taking a pill.
And part of that is the the rolethat the, you know, medical
(13:26):
profession, you know, Western medicine, pharmaceutical
companies and stuff have kind ofinterjected into this whole
process. Well, that's a perfect segue
into my next question. So how do you think
pharmaceutical companies and supplement brands shape the
aging conversation in ways that might be more harmful than
helpful? Again, I think they under score
(13:49):
the idea that aging is a diseaseand they also kind of under
score the whole biohacking process that we can just fix the
problem. You know, the Western medicine,
the pharmaceutical companies, supplements all think that we
have a problem to fix and that by treating the symptoms of
aging, we're fixing the problem.And we're aging is not a problem
(14:12):
to solve. It's it's a process that we need
to just focus on doing better. And I think the pharmaceutical
companies are all about not making us well, but keeping us
just sick enough that they can keep providing us with their
product. And, you know, I think it was
Doctor Lupkin when we interviewed him that he pointed
(14:33):
out that, you know, medicine never cures anything.
All it does is treat the symptoms.
And, you know, it's about lifestyle changes.
And I know the supplement brandswill say, well, you know, taking
the supplements is a lifestyle, but is it, is it really because
you're supplementing, you're not, you know it, it's filling a
void that you're not filling through natural nutrition,
(14:56):
exercise, good sleep and all those types of things.
And I, I'm not knocking, there are supplements that I think are
useful, especially as our environments would make it a
little bit harder to age well. But you know, there's a
difference between selling something that is helping to
promote our health versus basically selling snake oil that
(15:19):
is intended to mask a problem orconvince us that we're reversing
the problem. If you're enjoying the Aging
Well podcast, be sure to like, subscribe or follow on your
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And if you find our conversations helpful, please
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(15:40):
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viewers and listeners. Thank you.
And now back to the podcast. I also think that supplements,
(16:01):
well, I think supplements have abenefit in the fact that yes, we
are supplementing, but a lot of people aren't getting the proper
nutrition or the proper whateverthat they need.
But I also think when a supplement becomes too awesome
and starts well and it starts really cutting back on a lot of
(16:22):
symptoms, I think big Pharma comes in and kind of deludes the
supplement per SE. Because let's see, Ashwagandha,
for example. Ashwagandha, a few years ago, no
one had really heard of it. And those that had heard of it,
when they would take it, it would, it would help a lot, help
(16:43):
regulate hormone levels. It would help do all these
things. And then all sudden Ashwagandha
blew up and it became really popular.
And now it's like, it's almost like you take it.
It's a completely different supplement than what it once
was. And it's almost like placebo
effect. It's almost like this isn't
really, this isn't the same. It's not the same same with
(17:08):
apple cider vinegar. I mean, even apple cider
vinegar, what it used to look like in stores was thick and
almost it had that mother the pulp inside of it and it was
brown. And now it's almost like it's
almost like pea yellow, very clear.
And it's a it's, it's a completely different supplement
(17:30):
altogether. I think when supplements are a
threat to big pharma and they are a threat to start start
working, I think something, something crazy happens or maybe
they're just mass producing it too much and and it's losing its
potent potency. I think that's more the issue.
(17:50):
I don't think there's like a bigconspiracy for farm, you know,
because pharmaceutical companies, they're not buying up
the supplement companies and kind of watering down the
brands. They're they're more concerned
with trying to convince people that supplements don't work,
that they have to take the medications that give you a
whole boatload of side effects. But I think what's happening in
the supplement industry is when something does get identified as
(18:12):
being somewhat beneficial and they're either ramping up the
dosage, you know, ours is more powerful, more potent, and we
have more of this in it. And they're selling you again,
just more snake oil, or they, they are just putting the least
quality product they can in the bottle.
(18:32):
And you're just convinced that it's, it's good stuff.
And so you're taking it. And so it's really hard to trust
the supplement industry. And there are companies again,
that are doing, doing it well. And I think it behooves us as
consumers to do our research in the product that we're actually
buying and, and the supplement that we're taking.
(18:52):
I was listening to a podcast yesterday.
That nutritionist was talking about melatonin and how, you
know, we keep pushing melatonin.What Melatonin, according to
this individual, only adds about3 minutes to our sleep.
And yet it's the top rate, you know, it's the top supplement
that somebody's going to take ifthey're having difficulty
sleeping, but. It's also something our body
(19:12):
naturally produces. Right.
And and the dosages that they'reputting into these supplements
are magnitude more than what ourbody naturally produces in order
to cause us to sleep. So let me ask you this though,
could that affect just testosterone is another thing If
people start doing testosterone replacement therapy or or
(19:36):
wanting to inject testosterone in eventually their body says,
OK, this is too much I don't want to produce anymore.
Could it be the exact same thingwith melatonin where they're
taking a melatonin supplement and then their body's like, OK,
this is too much I I don't want to produce anymore?
Possibly, particularly in the younger population, as we age,
(19:58):
we do see declines in melatonin.And so it could be beneficial
for an aging individual to to take some melatonin.
They only need a small amount. And the thing we have to
consider with melatonin is it doesn't help us sleep.
It helps us get to sleep. It just tells our body, OK, it's
time to go to bed, time to sleep.
And so it's going to trigger us falling asleep, but it's not
(20:20):
going to necessarily keep us asleep.
I think it was Doctor Neustadt that pointed out that it has
like a couple hour half life to it, that, you know, it's only
going to do its trick for the initial hours of sleep, get you
to sleep. But we still need to stay asleep
in order for our sleep to be effective.
And so, yeah, if you're traveling a lot back and forth
(20:40):
between time zones or you are aging and you're having trouble
just falling asleep, small dosesof melatonin can be beneficial.
The bigger the dose, the more you're just peeing it out.
So it's not as beneficial for you.
And you mentioned testosterone therapy.
I think, you know, individuals who are taking testosterone
replacement therapy are taking it because their testosterone
(21:02):
levels aren't optimized and so they're not producing enough.
And so it's it's not a matter ofit's shutting down our natural
hormonal processes. It's trying to replace the fact
that we are seeing a decline. Now the first thing of course
you should be looking at is, is there something physiologically
that's causing me not to producetestosterone optimally and
(21:23):
trying to fix that problem rather than just taking the
supplement or taking testosterone, taking the
hormone. But you know as we age we do
expect that to decline. And so if we're seeing
physiological challenges with that, then there's probably not
a huge issue with an older agingindividual taking testosterone
in order to optimize. But if you're a young 20 year
old and you're taking testosterone when your body is
(21:44):
still producing it, it's significant, right?
Yeah, you're, you're going to bedamaging your own processes
being able to continue to produce your own testosterone.
And so if you're not producing enough testosterone when you're
younger, then what can we do to boost that natural production so
that it, you know, the body's continuing to make it, you know,
when somebody takes exogenous testosterone, you know,
(22:06):
steroids, testosterone is a steroid.
I don't know why we think of steroids being the nasty stuff.
But then if you're, you're taking it for aging, you are
taking it for therapy reasons. And so it's, you know,
replacement therapy instead of, you know, doing steroids.
But if you're taking it young, it, it can have a much more
(22:27):
damaging effect when you get older and you're doing it to
optimize. I think it's against a more of a
personal choice. It can be, you know, expensive.
So no, it's it's really up to you in that regard.
But I don't think it's quite thesame as, you know, taking
melatonin when our body is stillnaturally producing it, maybe
not quite as much, but we're taking huge mega doses of it.
(22:48):
Does that make sense? Yeah, it totally makes sense.
I think it's also certain people, they need to, their
bodies are going to have a different reaction, right?
Caffeine is a great example. If I take in caffeine and you
take in caffeine and it's the same milligrams, our bodies are
going to have two different reaction.
(23:09):
You know, you might be able to completely handle it because you
have a higher tolerance to caffeine and I might be bouncing
off the walls because even though it was the exact same
amount and you're physically showing minimal effects, I'm my
body's not able to handle that. So if someone is going to be
(23:30):
experimenting with supplements, then they got it.
They they got to a know the effects on what it's going to do
with your body. But also, I would say kind of
play around with it. You know, we had a general on
this podcast who was talking about the benefits of magnesium.
And at first we were kind of like, oh man, you know, I don't,
(23:54):
I don't know, I didn't feel anything.
And currently I've kind of played around with magnesium and
I, I kind of have it down on what works for me.
I take my magnesium tricenate inthe mornings and then I take
right around lunchtime. I take an Omega-3 fish oil and
(24:15):
then at night time I take magnesium glycinate combined
with NAC and that combination I just feel way more energetic
throughout the day. I feel way more alert, I feel
way more focused and just that those that combination, I was
like, this is a really good combination and I, I'm
(24:36):
physically feeling these awesomeeffects and it's been months and
I'm like, OK, I figured it out, you know, but it took me a while
to do that. Yeah.
And I think the key with supplements is are you trying to
fix a problem or are you just trying to manage your natural
Physiology? And there's a big difference in
(24:58):
there. And the key is, if we're going
to use supplements, they should be to augment our natural
Physiology as opposed to fix tryand fix a problem that could be
solved through something else, like getting enough sleep,
getting enough exercise, eating some different foods and that
kind of stuff. Yeah.
So I do have a question for you.I've noticed that on our last
(25:21):
few episodes you really emphasize when you say the Aging
Well podcast, really like drive it in with the V What what's,
what's the importance of the V? Well, I think we we, we really
pushed that in kind of the firstepisode of this season 4.
But there are a number and I'm seeing aging well appear a lot
(25:46):
more. And I'm kind of somewhat hopeful
that maybe it's because people are kind of seeing this podcast
and kind of catching on to the phrasing.
But there are a number of different podcasts that are out
there. But when I look at them, it's
like they're, you know, they're,it's more like, you know, what's
it like to be getting old? You know, and, you know, maybe
countering ageism and some of that kind of stuff.
But I want to emphasize that this is the aging Well podcast,
(26:10):
that this is where people could come if they want to get
information that's going to helpthem to live with vitality, to
increase their health span, increase their well span and,
you know, be better in life, youknow, living as well as
possible, living longer, but also living better.
And so this is the aging Well podcast.
(26:33):
So the other ones, they're, they're good podcasts.
And you, you might see people talk about things to do to to
age well, but I want this to be the resource where people are
going to come for information about how to age well.
Right. We should probably just give
this opportunity right now. If there's anyone who, you know,
(26:53):
believes in our six pillars, I think that would be a really
cool thing. So if you're a nutritionist, if
you're a sleep hygienist, if you're, you know, just start
promoting it, just come on. We'd love to we'd love to
interview with you. We'd love to talk with you.
We'd love to share your knowledge.
If you're a subject matter expert, if you're a doctor, if
(27:16):
you're you know, if, if you, if you have the knowledge, if you
have some breakthrough stuff, come on in.
Would we'd love to chat with you.
Now I would emphasize, you know,when we are looking for guests,
we want those guests who are looking at the preventative side
of, you know, medicine and agingwell.
We're not looking at being reactive.
(27:37):
We're not looking at biohacking.And God help me if I have one
more guest request for somebody with, you know, male
enhancement. I mean, that is not about aging
well. You know, So, yeah, our topics
are going to be centered on, andthey are centered on, you know,
people who are great examples ofaging well, people who have
(28:00):
information and they're going tohelp us to age well.
And also people that are going to help us through some of the
challenges that might come with,you know, the difficulties that
come with aging. You know, we will have illness.
We will have, you know, older parents maybe that are declining
and need assistance. And we want to help kind of
provide direction toward that. But our goal is to get everybody
(28:25):
living to be 120 and living withvitality and living with purpose
and, you know, living out the spies and living out those
pillars and just aging the heck out of life.
Right. You know, I, I think I figured
it out why those other aging well podcasts aren't necessarily
(28:45):
they're not they're not, they'renot going to be the.
It's outdated, I think. It's more that it is is
(29:19):
inadequate. And we started this podcast with
much more of a diet exercise perspective.
I mean, the exercise nights. Yeah.
But I brought into it, you know,a little bit of my well centered
fitness. You know, that was a small
component of the start of this podcast, thinking of the
(29:39):
spiritual, physical, intellectual and emotional, You
know, shout out to Jay again. He's going to start asking for
royalties every time we point out that he he's the one who
identified the SPIES acronym. But you know, there's more to
aging than just the exercise andthe diet.
And, you know, we started with four pillars, you know, that
(30:02):
I've identified from teaching pathophysiology and exercise.
That was the, you know, exerciseand physical activity.
Eat a healthy diet, maintain healthy body composition and
don't smoke. And we've talked recently about,
you know, how fewer and fewer people are smoking.
So that's a little bit less maybe of a concern.
But where we have really leaned into a little bit more is sleep
(30:25):
hygiene and purposeful social connections and the importance
of those things. And it's all of those factors,
you know, whether we label them as six pillars or, you know,
others or kind of label them at 4:00.
And I'm kind of drawing a blank right now on how Matt Caberline
labels his. And he just kind of it's like, I
(30:48):
figure how it goes. It's like move, eat, sleep and
connect, I think is how he does it, which you know, it's, it's
basically shaping the same, you know, it's just another way of
painting the same picture. But there's more than just the
exercise. And I think, you know, we've
recognized too, that sleep, as hard as it is to say, as an
(31:09):
exercise physiologist, is probably more important than
exercise when it comes to aging Well, because if we don't get
enough sleep, our hormones get out of order.
You know, our ability to manage blood glucose levels, manage
stress function in our jobs, function in our relationships,
to be able to recover from exercise and to be able to
(31:29):
exercise is all going to be affected by that lack of sleep.
And so getting adequate sleep really becomes a major priority.
But of course, we got to still exercise.
We still have to look at our diets and we still have to not
smoke. And, you know, we, we want to be
interacting with people socially.
And so all those things are important.
(31:50):
And so it's not that the model is outdated, I think it's just a
limited model. Gotcha.
See, you mentioned the six pillars of aging well, but can
you get dive into a little bit more detail and and really
breakdown each pillar and how itcontributes to a more holistic
life, especially as we age? Yeah, and we do.
(32:13):
Did a recent episode on that andI don't have the number on the
top of my head, but anybody kindof just looking at the list of
episodes and it might actually air after this I believe so look
for an episode on the six pillars of aging well, but I
kind of break that down shortly here is you know first one is
exercise and physical activity. Our bodies need to be moving in
(32:35):
order to age well and we emphasize strength over
cardiovascular much more. Not the cardiovascular is not
important, but without adequate muscle strength and hypertrophy,
bone health is affected our ability to move, which means if
we can't move as well, then we're not going to be able to
stress the heart and the respiratory system as
(32:57):
effectively. Our ability to do activities of
daily living are going to decline.
We're not going to be able to enjoy the things that we enjoyed
when we were younger, maybe not able to move as well to enjoy
our grandchildren, great grandchildren, maybe in some
cases great, great grandchildrenif we're living well enough.
And so exercise is hugely important just for keeping our
(33:21):
bodies functioning properly. And it's the proper type of
exercise. You know, it's a lot of times,
you know, we talk about how one of my big pet peeves in the
fitness industry is how talk about training like an athlete.
You don't want to train like an athlete because if you talk to
any athlete that is training intensely to be able to perform
at their best, they're beating the hell out of their bodies.
(33:43):
That is not natural to be an elite athlete.
It's hard on our bodies to elevate ourselves to where we
are outperforming the next person.
And so that's not how we want totrain.
We want to train in a more moderate level, to be more
functional, to improve our bloodchemistries, to maintain our
muscle mass, increase our musclemass efficiently, keep our heart
(34:06):
healthy, keep our ability to move well, you know, speed,
power, balance, coordination, all those types of things are
important. Exercise is, is a key pillar.
And then we get into diet. You know, we have to have a
healthy diet and that's nothing crazy.
It's just eating natural, eatingbalanced foods, you know, and
(34:29):
we'll have discussions probably in future episodes.
And we've had some already talking about the different
diets that are out there. There is no one perfect diet.
As I teach diet, I talk of diet in terms of being our cultural
food, you know, what we normallyintake in our, in our daily
consumption of food. And the American diet tends to
(34:49):
be a little bit more diverse, a lot more processed and crappy
than when compared to other diets across the globe.
But, you know, we talked about, oh, well, the Mediterranean diet
is when the healthiest for hearthealth.
It's the principles of the metabolic diet that are critical
there. And, you know, we talked about
the Nordic diet. You can look at, you know, paleo
(35:10):
versus, you know, carnivore versus vegan plant based.
I was just listening a conversation and the Andrew
Huberman show talking about how horrible plant the plant based
phraseology is because it drivespeople away because I think
vegan and you know, vegan approach has had its negativity
(35:32):
with it. It may or may not be the best.
I mean, I think there needs to be a balance somewhere between
vegan and carnivore or keto, youknow, So there's a lot of
different diets. They're all going to work
differently in our physiologies.And so we have to find what
works for us. And so diet is important, but
it's getting good, healthy, balanced foods in a proper
(35:54):
quantity. And then that leads into
maintaining healthy body composition.
You know, we're not fat shaming.We're talking about having a
body composition that is going to promote health as opposed to,
you know, Instagram photos or onthe other extreme, insulin
resistance and metabolic syndrome.
Would you recommend for an individual, because you said
(36:20):
that you know, you got to figureout what diet is going to work
best for you, right? Would you recommend that someone
perhaps goes on a little fast, an elimination diet 1st and then
kind of add certain foods, certain vegetables back in and
see what effect that is going tohave on their body?
(36:42):
Because with, you know, talking about, excuse me, my allergies
are just out of control today going back to a plant based
diet. You know, there's also a lot of
literature out there that, you know, vegetables may not be as
good as people once thought. There's that whole movement that
(37:06):
that is happening and it's due to, it's due to like the
pesticides that are sprayed on the vegetables and then the
pesticides that are naturally produced from the vegetables.
Like there, there are a lot of benefits from vegetables.
There always has been certain certain individuals they're
starting to see like inflammation or improper gut
(37:27):
helps health due to that. And I don't know, I just, I
would assume that since every single person is different, what
works for one may not work for the other.
I think if someone does want to go down this journey, I think an
elimination diet at 1st and thenslowly implementing certain
(37:48):
things and just being really in tune and paying attention to
their body could be beneficial for an individual who is trying
to age well. I mean, I, I think it can be, I
don't know that it's necessary. I think it's just being in tune
with your body and what you're consuming and what effect it has
on you now. And it's just trying to eat as
(38:08):
few unhealthy processed foods aspossible.
You know, we've talked about how, you know, there's going to
be foods that are processed thatare healthy.
We really just want to look at what impact the foods that we
are eating is having on our bodies, having on the
environment and having on our communities as well and just
(38:29):
eating, you know, a good balanced diet.
We don't have to eat as much meat.
We should be eating a lot more vegetables and a lot more
legumes, some fruit and eating, you know, nuts and things like
that, eating healthy oils, you know, making better choices.
And yeah, we're probably not going to escape all the the
pesticides and some of that kindof stuff, but I, I think we're
(38:52):
working toward maybe getting ridof a lot more of those, which
could be a good boost for, you know, our health.
But, you know, it's, it's baby steps when it comes to diet.
And when you talk elimination diet, sometimes I think it's
beyond baby steps. It's like, OK, we're going to
eliminate everything. I'm only going to drink water
for a week. I'm going to eliminate cleanse
my body of all this stuff and then I'm going to a little bit
(39:15):
by little bit add things in, youknow, that can take forever.
You know, we should be able to be in tune enough of their
bodies to know that if I eat this, it's going to have an
impact. Like I know and I for years not
eating pork and I still don't eat pork.
I refuse to eat, you know, grossmeats that, you know, roll
around in their own shit, but and eat the bottom feeder.
(39:38):
So I don't eat shellfish. But if I go to a restaurant and,
you know, they use a lot of pork, even though I get a dish,
it doesn't have pork in it, I can expect, I mean, have a
little bit of a reaction to it. Chinese food does this all the
time to me. And it's usually, even though I
don't eat, eat something that isintentionally having pork in it,
I'm going to see a response. And so I know my body is
(39:59):
sensitive to pork. And that's been something that
has been more or less self-inflicted because when I
was younger I could eat pork without any problem.
But I kind of wised up to eatingit and start eating less of it.
And, you know, now my body rejects it when it gets it, you
know, it's going to go through my system.
It's going to blow through my system so fast just to get rid
(40:21):
of those toxins and that, you know, stuff that negatively
effects my body. So if I eat something you know
that has a negative effect, thenI probably shouldn't be eating
it and. You don't have lobster either.
Oh hell no. Really.
No, I love that. Never.
Like, I mean, what makes lobstertaste good?
Butter. You have to put tons and tons of
(40:41):
butter on. You tell me anybody can eat
lobster without just plain lobster, without any kind of
seasoning, without any kind of butter on it.
You know, when lobster was firstintroduced, it was a poor man's
food. And, you know, it was
embarrassing to eat lobster. Lobster was a bottle feeder.
It's not intended to be eaten. I'm sorry and I'm sure people
(41:03):
will disagree with me on that, but you know, we're all free to
our own views when it comes to our diet.
But you know, eat what is available, healthy to you, and
just do your best to eat the best you can without having a
negative impact on the environment.
So I I did interrupt you. So we talked about exercise, we
(41:24):
talked about. Body hygiene.
We talked about nutrition, what's what are the next three
pillars? Oh, smoking, I think we.
Yeah, don't, don't smoke. That's.
Yeah, don't smoke and I don't think that's an issue.
Well, I think you just listed all four there because we talked
about body composition, we talked about exercise, we talked
(41:44):
about diet, we've talked about not smoking, we've talked about
sleep hygiene. Really the the last remaining
one is the purposeful social connections.
And you know, just more and more, and I think this really
came to light during COVID, particularly in the older
population. I mean, how many older adults
(42:06):
had to die without their families nearby because they
weren't permitted to be in the same room with those
individuals? And it's just, it really points
out that we need to be focused much more on interacting and
having better social connections.
We are such a divided society right now.
Nobody can get along. I mean, it's always US versus
(42:27):
them in so many different ways. I've talked repeatedly about the
need to get back to building houses with a front porch so
that we're out in front and we're interacting with our
neighbors rather than hiding on our back decks or inside.
We, we need that good social, purposeful connection.
You know, we need to interact between generations.
(42:47):
We need to interact between genders, between races, you
know, we just need to come together just to boost society.
And I, I just think it is hugelyimportant that we, we consider
relationships. And that's why again, we go back
to the spies model, the spiritual, physical,
intellectual, emotional and social being the pinnacle of
(43:09):
that being in the kind of the keystone of the whole process of
spies and well centered fitness.And so that becomes equally as
critical. Now we we've talked a little bit
about alcohol and rolled alcohol.
I think, you know, the reason alcohol doesn't have to fit into
our pillars is that a, we all respond a little bit differently
(43:32):
to it. How we use alcohol fits into
those various areas. I mean, it's going to have an
impact on our exercise, on our sleep, it's going to impact our
social connections, it impacts our diet as part of our caloric
intake. You know, so it kind of spreads
across all of those and how we use it is going to have positive
(43:53):
and negative impacts on those six pillars.
And I think we added a 7th pillar, didn't we?
Especially stealing from our ourspies approach which is adding a
spiritual aspect to it. Am I?
Well, I'm not, I don't. I mean, I think when we talk
about the pillars of aging, well, it encompasses all of the,
(44:17):
the spies. I mean, the spiritual and
physical increasingly dovetail in my, my view.
And, you know, when we're looking at what are we doing
across the board, across the, you know, exercise, diet, all
that, there's a spiritual component to that.
You know, it's there's somethinggreater than self.
And so that kind of in part is our why, why are we doing what
(44:41):
we're doing to age well? Why age well?
So I think there's a certain separation yet a connection
between the six pillars and the well centered fitness model at
the spies when that alcohol in there is a pillar because I
think it transcends all of thosesix different dimensions or
pillars. Gotcha for those.
(45:02):
Of you that are wanting to know more about the spiritual aspect,
just a little plug. Doctor Armstrong actually has
another solo podcast called We Have a Spiritual Problem where
he dives deep into spiritual, spiritual conversations.
It's pretty cool. I recommend our listeners go
(45:24):
check it out, go support him on that.
And yeah, just didn't know I wasgoing to give you a plug.
No, I didn't. There you go.
Thanks for the. Plug.
There we go. But back to aging.
Well, Doctor Armstrong, you being a an exercise scientist
and really, really understandingthe science of exercise, what
(45:44):
does the typical exercise science approach miss when it
comes to older adults? I think probably the biggest
thing it misses. Is the principle of
individuality. You know, it assumes that every
aging adult is the same and it assumes that when you hit a
certain age that all your functions are going to decline
dramatically. And it doesn't really understand
(46:08):
that movement should be purposeful, should be working on
maintaining a high level of performance.
It's not it's I think exercise sciences, it looks at aging
tends to ignore the performance aspect of exercise for the
health and so-called maybe health span, maybe longevity
(46:28):
piece, but not really looking atOK, yeah, we can live longer and
maybe not get as sick, but are we really functioning as well?
And I think I've pointed out before I teach my exercise
testing and prescription class, I've just more recently started
to really notice and point out that, you know, when we go over
like the norms for the bench press, it shows that when you're
(46:49):
in your 20s, if you bench your body weight, you're in fair
condition. But when you hit 60, if you can
bench your body weight, which I still can with a little bit of
pain, you're suddenly superhuman.
You're like at the 99th percentile.
And it's like, that shouldn't bethe case.
And I've talked about as well when after how many years ago it
was now that I went to the American College of Sports
(47:11):
Medicine conference and they were honoring a bunch of the
senior fellows. And so you had all these people
and they were probably at that point in their 80s, what I would
consider super old. But I watch these people walking
around and it's like, they're all kyphotic, walking slow, very
frail. And it just struck me as like, I
(47:31):
don't want to look like that. I should not look like that when
I'm in my 80s. And I realized that these were
all of the physiologists that back in the 70s and 80s was
pushing cardio, cardio, cardio. And they're really, and it's
only been recently that ACSM hasstarted to focus a little bit
more on the strength training guidelines.
(47:53):
You know, it's been much more heart health, really focusing
more on the health related components of physical fitness,
you know, cardio, respiratory endurance, muscle endurance, not
enough to the strength and dirt,you know, muscle strength, the
flexibility and certain extent body composition.
But when you focus on body composition, it's lose body fat.
Well, we diet and we lose weight, we lose muscle mass.
(48:15):
So it hasn't been that focus or emphasis on building strength,
building muscle mass and maintaining that muscle mass.
And it just struck me as, okay, these these people weren't
lifting weights, they weren't building muscle to be able to
maintain their functionality well into their senior years.
And so I think one of the biggest things that we've missed
(48:38):
is the idea of improving performance as we age, you know,
growing into it, you know, our bodies being stronger as we age,
being able to do more with the freedom that we get as we get
into kind of the third age of life.
And I think that's been one of the big things that they've
missed. And then also, you know, really
trying to understand the complexities of nutrition and
(49:02):
performance in individuals. And that's a hard one to kind of
study. And, you know, exercise science
in general is hard to study because of the huge amount of
variability amongst individuals.But when it comes to older
adults, I think we've just ignored the fact that some
people are aging better than others.
We can do a lot more as we age than we tend to be told we can
(49:24):
do. And we've been overly cautious
in regards to what we should or should not do.
And so, yeah, I think we've fallen pretty short in a lot of
different areas when it comes toexercise, science and the aging
adult. Well, I think.
This is a good portion for our listeners to take a break and if
they want to continue listening to this conversation, they can
(49:46):
join us next week for Part 2 of the Aging Well podcast.
And as always, keep aging well. Thank you for listening.
Hope you benefited from today's podcast and until next time,
keep aging well.
Welcome to the Aging Well podcast where we explored the
science stories and strategies behind living a longer,
healthier, and more purposeful life.
I am your host, Doctor Jeff Armstrong, joined by my Co host
Corbin Bruton. Let's be honest, most of what we
hear about aging today is eitherdriven by fear or profit.
We're told we need to hack our biology, optimize every metric,
(00:23):
or buy the latest supplement to stay young.
We are bombarded with promises from pharmaceutical giants, tech
billionaires chasing immortality, and fitness
influencers peddling silver bullet solutions.
And through it all, one crucial truth gets lost.
Aging isn't a problem to be solved, it's a process to be
honored. Here at the Aging Well Podcast,
(00:46):
we're offering an alternative. Our mission is inclusive, not
exclusive. We believe aging well is not
just for the wealthy. The bio optimized or the
genetically gifted? It's for all of us grounded in
spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional and
social well-being as well as thesix pillars that we often talk
(01:06):
about here on this podcast. If you're tired of the noise and
looking for a space where science meets soul, where
longevity is about more than lifespan, it's about health,
span, meaning and connection, you're in the right place.
This is not anti aging. This is pro living.
This is the aging well podcast. Aging well.
(01:29):
Doctor Armstrong, I have a question for you, and I think we
should just dive right in on today's episode.
So let's just start here. What are we missing when we
treat aging like a disease? I think we're missing quite a
few things, actually. I mean, I, it bothers me that we
call aging a disease because aging is a natural process and
(01:50):
disease is an unnatural process.It's, you know, it's where
Physiology is messed up. And so there's a lot of problems
that come from just telling people that aging is something
that is a disease. It's something to be feared.
It's something to be prevented. And you know, you can't prevent
aging and you can't prevent disease.
(02:10):
And so I think by focusing in onit as a disease, we kind of
overlook really the positive benefits of aging.
And when you think about being awisdom and resilience and, you
know, the opportunity to reflectback on a life well lived and to
have grandchildren and you know,aging is a great opportunity for
(02:33):
us. And I think this idea of aging
is a disease really just promotes ageism.
It puts a stigma on aging. And it also harms us in that it
causes us to begin to expect decline.
You know, you hear people, they have aches and pains in their
joints. It's oh, it's just a matter of
aging. Or you go to your doctor and
(02:55):
it's like, oh, you're fine. You're just, you know, you just
got to accept you're getting older.
It's like, no, I don't accept that I'm, you know, old.
Getting older means that I have to, you know, struggle through
these things. You know, I think by expecting
decline, it causes us to ignore the opportunities to age well.
So what are your thoughts? No, I think that's funny that
(03:17):
you're bringing that up because there's been some certain
scenarios where and it could just be little things here and
there where I was having some knee issues.
You know. Yeah, that's what everyone was
saying. They're like, oh, you're just,
you're just getting old. Or if I cut myself, I notice it
takes a lot longer to heal than it normally would in the past.
(03:41):
Or even when I get sick, right when I get sick when I was
younger, maybe a day of rest andI'd be fine.
Now it's like almost 3 days and everyone's like, oh, well, it's
because you're getting older. And I'm like, well, maybe the
flu evolved. You know, I just, I don't accept
(04:02):
that. Don't, don't, don't put that
curse on me. I don't want that I and you
know, I know a lot of people have a fear of getting old.
And I think it comes from what they've seen with their
grandparents or their own parents, where they've seen what
that old age kind of do to them or did to them.
(04:22):
And the fact that, you know, that they, they used to be
really youthful and they used tobe able to move around.
And now they're not, they don't exactly move around as well as
they once did. And they kind of rely on other
individuals to drive them to andfro and they're not as strong as
they once were. And then on the other aspects,
(04:43):
some people are like, well, I don't want to get wrinkles and I
don't want to have Gray hair andI don't want to have my teeth
fall out. You know, there, there's,
there's other side effect, whatever it is.
A lot of people don't want to beold.
But old is just a term. Because even when, when, when I
was younger, as a kid, being 20,23 was considered old because
(05:06):
you, you had no concept, you have no perspective of it.
And now you know, I think 57 is actually fairly young.
I really do. Fairly young.
Yeah, I think it's fairly young,you know, I.
Think it's very young, I'm 62. Well, that's true.
I I remember when my aunt turned30, my aunt Linda, and how
(05:29):
devastated she was. It's like I'm getting old.
And it's like when I hit 30, I was like, what was she?
So UPS, you know, bent out of shape.
I thought, this isn't so bad. And, you know, now I'm 62, it's
like, I want to kick aging in the ass.
Yeah. You know, I just finished a
cycle of 10 by 10, three days a week, searcher squats.
And I finished my final round at300 lbs.
(05:52):
So I did 300 lbs of searcher squats for 10 sets of 10
repetitions. I never thought I'd hit that,
but that was my goal, to get over 300.
So I hit 305. And now my newest goal is at 6
foot five, I wanna be able to search her deadlift off the
ground. And I, I have takes a little bit
of warm up, you know, I have to kind of work my way down to
(06:13):
where I can get deep enough to the ground, but I hit it, I got,
you know, a lightweight, it was only 135 lbs, but I can get
under the bar and lift it up. So my goal now is without a,
without any kind of warm up, be able to just get down deep under
the bar, pick it up and then start getting heavier.
And, you know, you'll watch someof these different videos on
(06:34):
YouTube and stuff like our people saying things you
shouldn't do over the age of 50,you know, and, and it's all
bullshit. You know, it's like who who's to
say what I can or cannot do as Iget older?
And because, you know, I have another birthday, I'm supposed
to just expect that my body isn't going to be functioning as
well. Yeah, there's going to be a
little bit of decline in there. It's inevitable.
(06:56):
But how much of that decline is due to inactivity, not due to
some disease? I mean, it's aging isn't
something you catch. It's an opportunity you have to
live well or live poorly. So it's a choice.
You know we're going to get older.
Getting older is inevitable. The only way to not get older is
(07:16):
to die, right? But every day that we're on this
planet, we are older. And so aging is inevitable.
How we age is a choice, it's nota disease.
That's good. Well, a lot of people, they may
want to try and do some alternative measures in order to
prevent aging. But I know that in previous
(07:39):
episodes you've called out the bio hacking movement.
So what's your concern with how it approaches aging?
I hate the term bio hacking. I hate the term hacking because
hacking to me just implies a shortcut.
And so I know there's a lot of well meaning people to use the
term biohack and it's it's kind of again, that counter to the
(08:01):
aging process. But there's nothing, you know,
we go through our six pillars. Those are not a hack.
Those are a lifestyle that is going to enable you to live more
effectively, live with vitality,live well, live longer.
And biohacking just it kind of implies that we can skip past
(08:22):
the, the little things that we need to do and just take a pill,
take a supplement, you know, take a, you know, million, spend
$1,000,000 a year on activities and supplements and things that
are going to so-called reverse the aging process.
And it's, it's frankly bullshit.I don't like the idea that we're
(08:45):
hacking our systems. We are just working the
Physiology of the body in a positive manner to slow this
process of decline. And there's nothing hacking
about it. And so my concern with it is
that people can think that they can continue to just live a poor
lifestyle and just take a pill and they'll be able to reverse
(09:06):
the whole decline that they've created for themselves.
And so by you're not hacking anything, you are working your
body's natural systems to be as effective as possible.
You know, it's like you think that you, you're driving this
old car and you suddenly start putting premium gasoline in it
and it's going to start running like new.
(09:27):
No, you have to take care of it from the start.
There's no, you know, you can drop a new engine in a car, but
that's not the same as, you know, taking, taking some kind
of supplement and changing your Physiology.
It kind of reminds me, there's this one gentleman.
He was on YouTube. He still is on YouTube, but
Netflix actually picked him up and did a whole documentary on
(09:49):
him. And he's for the last, I don't
know, it's 6-8 years or so. He's kind of been on this quest
to, to prevent himself from aging.
And he does, you know, he's on asuper strict diet.
He, he gets his sleep down, You know, a couple of our pillars
that we talked about. He exercises and he has a really
(10:13):
strict regiment. He's got all different type of
supplements that he takes. He's got a skin care routine.
And to me, physically, his physique, yeah, he has like a
young, like athletic supermodel physique.
In the face, though, he just kind of looks kind of looks like
(10:33):
a robot. Looks plastic.
Yeah, he just looks, but he sayshe hasn't had any plastic
surgery. But what's crazy is he's doing
this really weird quote UN quotebiohacking thing and he's taking
his like, it sounds real weird. He's taking his son's blood and
(10:54):
injecting it into himself. And then he does this like test
and he's like, wow, my genetic makeup now makes me 30 years
younger or something like that. And then he took his own blood
and then he put it in his dad. It's just, it's, it's a weird
documentary. It's so weird.
(11:14):
Well, I know who you're talking about and the guy, I mean, yeah,
OK, you can spend $1,000,000 a year when you're a billionaire.
And yeah, I'm not impressed withhow he looks.
And he's younger than me. You know, I physically, I don't
know what he can lift or any of that kind of stuff.
I've seen interviews with him where it's like your physique
(11:36):
doesn't look all that great and,and not that you're judging
anybody based on their physique 'cause that's not the the whole
point of aging. But yeah, his face looks very
plastic to me. And is that if you're only aging
physiologically? Well, what about all the other
parameters? You know, we, we have our spies,
you know, our spiritual, physical, intellectual,
(11:59):
emotional and social. Those are all contributing
factors to aging well. And those are ignored by the
biohacking movement. I, you know, there's very few in
the whole longevity movement that really excite me of work
they're doing. And you know, there are some
things I like and don't like that Doctor Peter Attia
(12:20):
promotes. He's overall pretty good.
We've talked several times and we've had Doctor Caberline on
the podcast and I, I like his approach.
I mean, he very much kind of follows the basic principles.
He's not really looking for hacks.
He's looking for, you know, maybe certain pharmacological
treatments and things like that that we can do to assist us in
(12:44):
aging well. And that's the difference, you
know, bio hack, somebody is trying to use that drug, that
supplement to fix the aging problem, trying to reverse
aging. And we're not trying to fix the
aging process. We're trying to slow the aging
process. We're trying to do the things
that are going to help us to live with the greatest amount of
(13:05):
vitality and the greatest amountof health span.
Well, you know, and I think somepeople, they want that, that
little easy pill, right? Everybody wants the easy pill.
I mean, we've become a very lazysociety.
We think we can fix everything by taking a pill.
And part of that is the the rolethat the, you know, medical
(13:26):
profession, you know, Western medicine, pharmaceutical
companies and stuff have kind ofinterjected into this whole
process. Well, that's a perfect segue
into my next question. So how do you think
pharmaceutical companies and supplement brands shape the
aging conversation in ways that might be more harmful than
helpful? Again, I think they under score
(13:49):
the idea that aging is a diseaseand they also kind of under
score the whole biohacking process that we can just fix the
problem. You know, the Western medicine,
the pharmaceutical companies, supplements all think that we
have a problem to fix and that by treating the symptoms of
aging, we're fixing the problem.And we're aging is not a problem
(14:12):
to solve. It's it's a process that we need
to just focus on doing better. And I think the pharmaceutical
companies are all about not making us well, but keeping us
just sick enough that they can keep providing us with their
product. And, you know, I think it was
Doctor Lupkin when we interviewed him that he pointed
(14:33):
out that, you know, medicine never cures anything.
All it does is treat the symptoms.
And, you know, it's about lifestyle changes.
And I know the supplement brandswill say, well, you know, taking
the supplements is a lifestyle, but is it, is it really because
you're supplementing, you're not, you know it, it's filling a
void that you're not filling through natural nutrition,
(14:56):
exercise, good sleep and all those types of things.
And I, I'm not knocking, there are supplements that I think are
useful, especially as our environments would make it a
little bit harder to age well. But you know, there's a
difference between selling something that is helping to
promote our health versus basically selling snake oil that
(15:19):
is intended to mask a problem orconvince us that we're reversing
the problem. If you're enjoying the Aging
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And if you find our conversations helpful, please
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(15:40):
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viewers and listeners. Thank you.
And now back to the podcast. I also think that supplements,
(16:01):
well, I think supplements have abenefit in the fact that yes, we
are supplementing, but a lot of people aren't getting the proper
nutrition or the proper whateverthat they need.
But I also think when a supplement becomes too awesome
and starts well and it starts really cutting back on a lot of
(16:22):
symptoms, I think big Pharma comes in and kind of deludes the
supplement per SE. Because let's see, Ashwagandha,
for example. Ashwagandha, a few years ago, no
one had really heard of it. And those that had heard of it,
when they would take it, it would, it would help a lot, help
(16:43):
regulate hormone levels. It would help do all these
things. And then all sudden Ashwagandha
blew up and it became really popular.
And now it's like, it's almost like you take it.
It's a completely different supplement than what it once
was. And it's almost like placebo
effect. It's almost like this isn't
really, this isn't the same. It's not the same same with
(17:08):
apple cider vinegar. I mean, even apple cider
vinegar, what it used to look like in stores was thick and
almost it had that mother the pulp inside of it and it was
brown. And now it's almost like it's
almost like pea yellow, very clear.
And it's a it's, it's a completely different supplement
(17:30):
altogether. I think when supplements are a
threat to big pharma and they are a threat to start start
working, I think something, something crazy happens or maybe
they're just mass producing it too much and and it's losing its
potent potency. I think that's more the issue.
(17:50):
I don't think there's like a bigconspiracy for farm, you know,
because pharmaceutical companies, they're not buying up
the supplement companies and kind of watering down the
brands. They're they're more concerned
with trying to convince people that supplements don't work,
that they have to take the medications that give you a
whole boatload of side effects. But I think what's happening in
the supplement industry is when something does get identified as
(18:12):
being somewhat beneficial and they're either ramping up the
dosage, you know, ours is more powerful, more potent, and we
have more of this in it. And they're selling you again,
just more snake oil, or they, they are just putting the least
quality product they can in the bottle.
(18:32):
And you're just convinced that it's, it's good stuff.
And so you're taking it. And so it's really hard to trust
the supplement industry. And there are companies again,
that are doing, doing it well. And I think it behooves us as
consumers to do our research in the product that we're actually
buying and, and the supplement that we're taking.
(18:52):
I was listening to a podcast yesterday.
That nutritionist was talking about melatonin and how, you
know, we keep pushing melatonin.What Melatonin, according to
this individual, only adds about3 minutes to our sleep.
And yet it's the top rate, you know, it's the top supplement
that somebody's going to take ifthey're having difficulty
sleeping, but. It's also something our body
(19:12):
naturally produces. Right.
And and the dosages that they'reputting into these supplements
are magnitude more than what ourbody naturally produces in order
to cause us to sleep. So let me ask you this though,
could that affect just testosterone is another thing If
people start doing testosterone replacement therapy or or
(19:36):
wanting to inject testosterone in eventually their body says,
OK, this is too much I don't want to produce anymore.
Could it be the exact same thingwith melatonin where they're
taking a melatonin supplement and then their body's like, OK,
this is too much I I don't want to produce anymore?
Possibly, particularly in the younger population, as we age,
(19:58):
we do see declines in melatonin.And so it could be beneficial
for an aging individual to to take some melatonin.
They only need a small amount. And the thing we have to
consider with melatonin is it doesn't help us sleep.
It helps us get to sleep. It just tells our body, OK, it's
time to go to bed, time to sleep.
And so it's going to trigger us falling asleep, but it's not
(20:20):
going to necessarily keep us asleep.
I think it was Doctor Neustadt that pointed out that it has
like a couple hour half life to it, that, you know, it's only
going to do its trick for the initial hours of sleep, get you
to sleep. But we still need to stay asleep
in order for our sleep to be effective.
And so, yeah, if you're traveling a lot back and forth
(20:40):
between time zones or you are aging and you're having trouble
just falling asleep, small dosesof melatonin can be beneficial.
The bigger the dose, the more you're just peeing it out.
So it's not as beneficial for you.
And you mentioned testosterone therapy.
I think, you know, individuals who are taking testosterone
replacement therapy are taking it because their testosterone
(21:02):
levels aren't optimized and so they're not producing enough.
And so it's it's not a matter ofit's shutting down our natural
hormonal processes. It's trying to replace the fact
that we are seeing a decline. Now the first thing of course
you should be looking at is, is there something physiologically
that's causing me not to producetestosterone optimally and
(21:23):
trying to fix that problem rather than just taking the
supplement or taking testosterone, taking the
hormone. But you know as we age we do
expect that to decline. And so if we're seeing
physiological challenges with that, then there's probably not
a huge issue with an older agingindividual taking testosterone
in order to optimize. But if you're a young 20 year
old and you're taking testosterone when your body is
(21:44):
still producing it, it's significant, right?
Yeah, you're, you're going to bedamaging your own processes
being able to continue to produce your own testosterone.
And so if you're not producing enough testosterone when you're
younger, then what can we do to boost that natural production so
that it, you know, the body's continuing to make it, you know,
when somebody takes exogenous testosterone, you know,
(22:06):
steroids, testosterone is a steroid.
I don't know why we think of steroids being the nasty stuff.
But then if you're, you're taking it for aging, you are
taking it for therapy reasons. And so it's, you know,
replacement therapy instead of, you know, doing steroids.
But if you're taking it young, it, it can have a much more
(22:27):
damaging effect when you get older and you're doing it to
optimize. I think it's against a more of a
personal choice. It can be, you know, expensive.
So no, it's it's really up to you in that regard.
But I don't think it's quite thesame as, you know, taking
melatonin when our body is stillnaturally producing it, maybe
not quite as much, but we're taking huge mega doses of it.
(22:48):
Does that make sense? Yeah, it totally makes sense.
I think it's also certain people, they need to, their
bodies are going to have a different reaction, right?
Caffeine is a great example. If I take in caffeine and you
take in caffeine and it's the same milligrams, our bodies are
going to have two different reaction.
(23:09):
You know, you might be able to completely handle it because you
have a higher tolerance to caffeine and I might be bouncing
off the walls because even though it was the exact same
amount and you're physically showing minimal effects, I'm my
body's not able to handle that. So if someone is going to be
(23:30):
experimenting with supplements, then they got it.
They they got to a know the effects on what it's going to do
with your body. But also, I would say kind of
play around with it. You know, we had a general on
this podcast who was talking about the benefits of magnesium.
And at first we were kind of like, oh man, you know, I don't,
(23:54):
I don't know, I didn't feel anything.
And currently I've kind of played around with magnesium and
I, I kind of have it down on what works for me.
I take my magnesium tricenate inthe mornings and then I take
right around lunchtime. I take an Omega-3 fish oil and
(24:15):
then at night time I take magnesium glycinate combined
with NAC and that combination I just feel way more energetic
throughout the day. I feel way more alert, I feel
way more focused and just that those that combination, I was
like, this is a really good combination and I, I'm
(24:36):
physically feeling these awesomeeffects and it's been months and
I'm like, OK, I figured it out, you know, but it took me a while
to do that. Yeah.
And I think the key with supplements is are you trying to
fix a problem or are you just trying to manage your natural
Physiology? And there's a big difference in
(24:58):
there. And the key is, if we're going
to use supplements, they should be to augment our natural
Physiology as opposed to fix tryand fix a problem that could be
solved through something else, like getting enough sleep,
getting enough exercise, eating some different foods and that
kind of stuff. Yeah.
So I do have a question for you.I've noticed that on our last
(25:21):
few episodes you really emphasize when you say the Aging
Well podcast, really like drive it in with the V What what's,
what's the importance of the V? Well, I think we we, we really
pushed that in kind of the firstepisode of this season 4.
But there are a number and I'm seeing aging well appear a lot
(25:46):
more. And I'm kind of somewhat hopeful
that maybe it's because people are kind of seeing this podcast
and kind of catching on to the phrasing.
But there are a number of different podcasts that are out
there. But when I look at them, it's
like they're, you know, they're,it's more like, you know, what's
it like to be getting old? You know, and, you know, maybe
countering ageism and some of that kind of stuff.
But I want to emphasize that this is the aging Well podcast,
(26:10):
that this is where people could come if they want to get
information that's going to helpthem to live with vitality, to
increase their health span, increase their well span and,
you know, be better in life, youknow, living as well as
possible, living longer, but also living better.
And so this is the aging Well podcast.
(26:33):
So the other ones, they're, they're good podcasts.
And you, you might see people talk about things to do to to
age well, but I want this to be the resource where people are
going to come for information about how to age well.
Right. We should probably just give
this opportunity right now. If there's anyone who, you know,
(26:53):
believes in our six pillars, I think that would be a really
cool thing. So if you're a nutritionist, if
you're a sleep hygienist, if you're, you know, just start
promoting it, just come on. We'd love to we'd love to
interview with you. We'd love to talk with you.
We'd love to share your knowledge.
If you're a subject matter expert, if you're a doctor, if
(27:16):
you're you know, if, if you, if you have the knowledge, if you
have some breakthrough stuff, come on in.
Would we'd love to chat with you.
Now I would emphasize, you know,when we are looking for guests,
we want those guests who are looking at the preventative side
of, you know, medicine and agingwell.
We're not looking at being reactive.
(27:37):
We're not looking at biohacking.And God help me if I have one
more guest request for somebody with, you know, male
enhancement. I mean, that is not about aging
well. You know, So, yeah, our topics
are going to be centered on, andthey are centered on, you know,
people who are great examples ofaging well, people who have
(28:00):
information and they're going tohelp us to age well.
And also people that are going to help us through some of the
challenges that might come with,you know, the difficulties that
come with aging. You know, we will have illness.
We will have, you know, older parents maybe that are declining
and need assistance. And we want to help kind of
provide direction toward that. But our goal is to get everybody
(28:25):
living to be 120 and living withvitality and living with purpose
and, you know, living out the spies and living out those
pillars and just aging the heck out of life.
Right. You know, I, I think I figured
it out why those other aging well podcasts aren't necessarily
(28:45):
they're not they're not, they'renot going to be the.
It's outdated, I think. It's more that it is is
(29:19):
inadequate. And we started this podcast with
much more of a diet exercise perspective.
I mean, the exercise nights. Yeah.
But I brought into it, you know,a little bit of my well centered
fitness. You know, that was a small
component of the start of this podcast, thinking of the
(29:39):
spiritual, physical, intellectual and emotional, You
know, shout out to Jay again. He's going to start asking for
royalties every time we point out that he he's the one who
identified the SPIES acronym. But you know, there's more to
aging than just the exercise andthe diet.
And, you know, we started with four pillars, you know, that
(30:02):
I've identified from teaching pathophysiology and exercise.
That was the, you know, exerciseand physical activity.
Eat a healthy diet, maintain healthy body composition and
don't smoke. And we've talked recently about,
you know, how fewer and fewer people are smoking.
So that's a little bit less maybe of a concern.
But where we have really leaned into a little bit more is sleep
(30:25):
hygiene and purposeful social connections and the importance
of those things. And it's all of those factors,
you know, whether we label them as six pillars or, you know,
others or kind of label them at 4:00.
And I'm kind of drawing a blank right now on how Matt Caberline
labels his. And he just kind of it's like, I
(30:48):
figure how it goes. It's like move, eat, sleep and
connect, I think is how he does it, which you know, it's, it's
basically shaping the same, you know, it's just another way of
painting the same picture. But there's more than just the
exercise. And I think, you know, we've
recognized too, that sleep, as hard as it is to say, as an
(31:09):
exercise physiologist, is probably more important than
exercise when it comes to aging Well, because if we don't get
enough sleep, our hormones get out of order.
You know, our ability to manage blood glucose levels, manage
stress function in our jobs, function in our relationships,
to be able to recover from exercise and to be able to
(31:29):
exercise is all going to be affected by that lack of sleep.
And so getting adequate sleep really becomes a major priority.
But of course, we got to still exercise.
We still have to look at our diets and we still have to not
smoke. And, you know, we, we want to be
interacting with people socially.
And so all those things are important.
(31:50):
And so it's not that the model is outdated, I think it's just a
limited model. Gotcha.
See, you mentioned the six pillars of aging well, but can
you get dive into a little bit more detail and and really
breakdown each pillar and how itcontributes to a more holistic
life, especially as we age? Yeah, and we do.
(32:13):
Did a recent episode on that andI don't have the number on the
top of my head, but anybody kindof just looking at the list of
episodes and it might actually air after this I believe so look
for an episode on the six pillars of aging well, but I
kind of break that down shortly here is you know first one is
exercise and physical activity. Our bodies need to be moving in
(32:35):
order to age well and we emphasize strength over
cardiovascular much more. Not the cardiovascular is not
important, but without adequate muscle strength and hypertrophy,
bone health is affected our ability to move, which means if
we can't move as well, then we're not going to be able to
stress the heart and the respiratory system as
(32:57):
effectively. Our ability to do activities of
daily living are going to decline.
We're not going to be able to enjoy the things that we enjoyed
when we were younger, maybe not able to move as well to enjoy
our grandchildren, great grandchildren, maybe in some
cases great, great grandchildrenif we're living well enough.
And so exercise is hugely important just for keeping our
(33:21):
bodies functioning properly. And it's the proper type of
exercise. You know, it's a lot of times,
you know, we talk about how one of my big pet peeves in the
fitness industry is how talk about training like an athlete.
You don't want to train like an athlete because if you talk to
any athlete that is training intensely to be able to perform
at their best, they're beating the hell out of their bodies.
(33:43):
That is not natural to be an elite athlete.
It's hard on our bodies to elevate ourselves to where we
are outperforming the next person.
And so that's not how we want totrain.
We want to train in a more moderate level, to be more
functional, to improve our bloodchemistries, to maintain our
muscle mass, increase our musclemass efficiently, keep our heart
(34:06):
healthy, keep our ability to move well, you know, speed,
power, balance, coordination, all those types of things are
important. Exercise is, is a key pillar.
And then we get into diet. You know, we have to have a
healthy diet and that's nothing crazy.
It's just eating natural, eatingbalanced foods, you know, and
(34:29):
we'll have discussions probably in future episodes.
And we've had some already talking about the different
diets that are out there. There is no one perfect diet.
As I teach diet, I talk of diet in terms of being our cultural
food, you know, what we normallyintake in our, in our daily
consumption of food. And the American diet tends to
(34:49):
be a little bit more diverse, a lot more processed and crappy
than when compared to other diets across the globe.
But, you know, we talked about, oh, well, the Mediterranean diet
is when the healthiest for hearthealth.
It's the principles of the metabolic diet that are critical
there. And, you know, we talked about
the Nordic diet. You can look at, you know, paleo
(35:10):
versus, you know, carnivore versus vegan plant based.
I was just listening a conversation and the Andrew
Huberman show talking about how horrible plant the plant based
phraseology is because it drivespeople away because I think
vegan and you know, vegan approach has had its negativity
(35:32):
with it. It may or may not be the best.
I mean, I think there needs to be a balance somewhere between
vegan and carnivore or keto, youknow, So there's a lot of
different diets. They're all going to work
differently in our physiologies.And so we have to find what
works for us. And so diet is important, but
it's getting good, healthy, balanced foods in a proper
(35:54):
quantity. And then that leads into
maintaining healthy body composition.
You know, we're not fat shaming.We're talking about having a
body composition that is going to promote health as opposed to,
you know, Instagram photos or onthe other extreme, insulin
resistance and metabolic syndrome.
Would you recommend for an individual, because you said
(36:20):
that you know, you got to figureout what diet is going to work
best for you, right? Would you recommend that someone
perhaps goes on a little fast, an elimination diet 1st and then
kind of add certain foods, certain vegetables back in and
see what effect that is going tohave on their body?
(36:42):
Because with, you know, talking about, excuse me, my allergies
are just out of control today going back to a plant based
diet. You know, there's also a lot of
literature out there that, you know, vegetables may not be as
good as people once thought. There's that whole movement that
(37:06):
that is happening and it's due to, it's due to like the
pesticides that are sprayed on the vegetables and then the
pesticides that are naturally produced from the vegetables.
Like there, there are a lot of benefits from vegetables.
There always has been certain certain individuals they're
starting to see like inflammation or improper gut
(37:27):
helps health due to that. And I don't know, I just, I
would assume that since every single person is different, what
works for one may not work for the other.
I think if someone does want to go down this journey, I think an
elimination diet at 1st and thenslowly implementing certain
(37:48):
things and just being really in tune and paying attention to
their body could be beneficial for an individual who is trying
to age well. I mean, I, I think it can be, I
don't know that it's necessary. I think it's just being in tune
with your body and what you're consuming and what effect it has
on you now. And it's just trying to eat as
(38:08):
few unhealthy processed foods aspossible.
You know, we've talked about how, you know, there's going to
be foods that are processed thatare healthy.
We really just want to look at what impact the foods that we
are eating is having on our bodies, having on the
environment and having on our communities as well and just
(38:29):
eating, you know, a good balanced diet.
We don't have to eat as much meat.
We should be eating a lot more vegetables and a lot more
legumes, some fruit and eating, you know, nuts and things like
that, eating healthy oils, you know, making better choices.
And yeah, we're probably not going to escape all the the
pesticides and some of that kindof stuff, but I, I think we're
(38:52):
working toward maybe getting ridof a lot more of those, which
could be a good boost for, you know, our health.
But, you know, it's, it's baby steps when it comes to diet.
And when you talk elimination diet, sometimes I think it's
beyond baby steps. It's like, OK, we're going to
eliminate everything. I'm only going to drink water
for a week. I'm going to eliminate cleanse
my body of all this stuff and then I'm going to a little bit
(39:15):
by little bit add things in, youknow, that can take forever.
You know, we should be able to be in tune enough of their
bodies to know that if I eat this, it's going to have an
impact. Like I know and I for years not
eating pork and I still don't eat pork.
I refuse to eat, you know, grossmeats that, you know, roll
around in their own shit, but and eat the bottom feeder.
(39:38):
So I don't eat shellfish. But if I go to a restaurant and,
you know, they use a lot of pork, even though I get a dish,
it doesn't have pork in it, I can expect, I mean, have a
little bit of a reaction to it. Chinese food does this all the
time to me. And it's usually, even though I
don't eat, eat something that isintentionally having pork in it,
I'm going to see a response. And so I know my body is
(39:59):
sensitive to pork. And that's been something that
has been more or less self-inflicted because when I
was younger I could eat pork without any problem.
But I kind of wised up to eatingit and start eating less of it.
And, you know, now my body rejects it when it gets it, you
know, it's going to go through my system.
It's going to blow through my system so fast just to get rid
(40:21):
of those toxins and that, you know, stuff that negatively
effects my body. So if I eat something you know
that has a negative effect, thenI probably shouldn't be eating
it and. You don't have lobster either.
Oh hell no. Really.
No, I love that. Never.
Like, I mean, what makes lobstertaste good?
Butter. You have to put tons and tons of
(40:41):
butter on. You tell me anybody can eat
lobster without just plain lobster, without any kind of
seasoning, without any kind of butter on it.
You know, when lobster was firstintroduced, it was a poor man's
food. And, you know, it was
embarrassing to eat lobster. Lobster was a bottle feeder.
It's not intended to be eaten. I'm sorry and I'm sure people
(41:03):
will disagree with me on that, but you know, we're all free to
our own views when it comes to our diet.
But you know, eat what is available, healthy to you, and
just do your best to eat the best you can without having a
negative impact on the environment.
So I I did interrupt you. So we talked about exercise, we
(41:24):
talked about. Body hygiene.
We talked about nutrition, what's what are the next three
pillars? Oh, smoking, I think we.
Yeah, don't, don't smoke. That's.
Yeah, don't smoke and I don't think that's an issue.
Well, I think you just listed all four there because we talked
about body composition, we talked about exercise, we talked
(41:44):
about diet, we've talked about not smoking, we've talked about
sleep hygiene. Really the the last remaining
one is the purposeful social connections.
And you know, just more and more, and I think this really
came to light during COVID, particularly in the older
population. I mean, how many older adults
(42:06):
had to die without their families nearby because they
weren't permitted to be in the same room with those
individuals? And it's just, it really points
out that we need to be focused much more on interacting and
having better social connections.
We are such a divided society right now.
Nobody can get along. I mean, it's always US versus
(42:27):
them in so many different ways. I've talked repeatedly about the
need to get back to building houses with a front porch so
that we're out in front and we're interacting with our
neighbors rather than hiding on our back decks or inside.
We, we need that good social, purposeful connection.
You know, we need to interact between generations.
(42:47):
We need to interact between genders, between races, you
know, we just need to come together just to boost society.
And I, I just think it is hugelyimportant that we, we consider
relationships. And that's why again, we go back
to the spies model, the spiritual, physical,
intellectual, emotional and social being the pinnacle of
(43:09):
that being in the kind of the keystone of the whole process of
spies and well centered fitness.And so that becomes equally as
critical. Now we we've talked a little bit
about alcohol and rolled alcohol.
I think, you know, the reason alcohol doesn't have to fit into
our pillars is that a, we all respond a little bit differently
(43:32):
to it. How we use alcohol fits into
those various areas. I mean, it's going to have an
impact on our exercise, on our sleep, it's going to impact our
social connections, it impacts our diet as part of our caloric
intake. You know, so it kind of spreads
across all of those and how we use it is going to have positive
(43:53):
and negative impacts on those six pillars.
And I think we added a 7th pillar, didn't we?
Especially stealing from our ourspies approach which is adding a
spiritual aspect to it. Am I?
Well, I'm not, I don't. I mean, I think when we talk
about the pillars of aging, well, it encompasses all of the,
(44:17):
the spies. I mean, the spiritual and
physical increasingly dovetail in my, my view.
And, you know, when we're looking at what are we doing
across the board, across the, you know, exercise, diet, all
that, there's a spiritual component to that.
You know, it's there's somethinggreater than self.
And so that kind of in part is our why, why are we doing what
(44:41):
we're doing to age well? Why age well?
So I think there's a certain separation yet a connection
between the six pillars and the well centered fitness model at
the spies when that alcohol in there is a pillar because I
think it transcends all of thosesix different dimensions or
pillars. Gotcha for those.
(45:02):
Of you that are wanting to know more about the spiritual aspect,
just a little plug. Doctor Armstrong actually has
another solo podcast called We Have a Spiritual Problem where
he dives deep into spiritual, spiritual conversations.
It's pretty cool. I recommend our listeners go
(45:24):
check it out, go support him on that.
And yeah, just didn't know I wasgoing to give you a plug.
No, I didn't. There you go.
Thanks for the. Plug.
There we go. But back to aging.
Well, Doctor Armstrong, you being a an exercise scientist
and really, really understandingthe science of exercise, what
(45:44):
does the typical exercise science approach miss when it
comes to older adults? I think probably the biggest
thing it misses. Is the principle of
individuality. You know, it assumes that every
aging adult is the same and it assumes that when you hit a
certain age that all your functions are going to decline
dramatically. And it doesn't really understand
(46:08):
that movement should be purposeful, should be working on
maintaining a high level of performance.
It's not it's I think exercise sciences, it looks at aging
tends to ignore the performance aspect of exercise for the
health and so-called maybe health span, maybe longevity
(46:28):
piece, but not really looking atOK, yeah, we can live longer and
maybe not get as sick, but are we really functioning as well?
And I think I've pointed out before I teach my exercise
testing and prescription class, I've just more recently started
to really notice and point out that, you know, when we go over
like the norms for the bench press, it shows that when you're
(46:49):
in your 20s, if you bench your body weight, you're in fair
condition. But when you hit 60, if you can
bench your body weight, which I still can with a little bit of
pain, you're suddenly superhuman.
You're like at the 99th percentile.
And it's like, that shouldn't bethe case.
And I've talked about as well when after how many years ago it
was now that I went to the American College of Sports
(47:11):
Medicine conference and they were honoring a bunch of the
senior fellows. And so you had all these people
and they were probably at that point in their 80s, what I would
consider super old. But I watch these people walking
around and it's like, they're all kyphotic, walking slow, very
frail. And it just struck me as like, I
(47:31):
don't want to look like that. I should not look like that when
I'm in my 80s. And I realized that these were
all of the physiologists that back in the 70s and 80s was
pushing cardio, cardio, cardio. And they're really, and it's
only been recently that ACSM hasstarted to focus a little bit
more on the strength training guidelines.
(47:53):
You know, it's been much more heart health, really focusing
more on the health related components of physical fitness,
you know, cardio, respiratory endurance, muscle endurance, not
enough to the strength and dirt,you know, muscle strength, the
flexibility and certain extent body composition.
But when you focus on body composition, it's lose body fat.
Well, we diet and we lose weight, we lose muscle mass.
(48:15):
So it hasn't been that focus or emphasis on building strength,
building muscle mass and maintaining that muscle mass.
And it just struck me as, okay, these these people weren't
lifting weights, they weren't building muscle to be able to
maintain their functionality well into their senior years.
And so I think one of the biggest things that we've missed
(48:38):
is the idea of improving performance as we age, you know,
growing into it, you know, our bodies being stronger as we age,
being able to do more with the freedom that we get as we get
into kind of the third age of life.
And I think that's been one of the big things that they've
missed. And then also, you know, really
trying to understand the complexities of nutrition and
(49:02):
performance in individuals. And that's a hard one to kind of
study. And, you know, exercise science
in general is hard to study because of the huge amount of
variability amongst individuals.But when it comes to older
adults, I think we've just ignored the fact that some
people are aging better than others.
We can do a lot more as we age than we tend to be told we can
(49:24):
do. And we've been overly cautious
in regards to what we should or should not do.
And so, yeah, I think we've fallen pretty short in a lot of
different areas when it comes toexercise, science and the aging
adult. Well, I think.
This is a good portion for our listeners to take a break and if
they want to continue listening to this conversation, they can
(49:46):
join us next week for Part 2 of the Aging Well podcast.
And as always, keep aging well. Thank you for listening.
Hope you benefited from today's podcast and until next time,
keep aging well.
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