The 6 Pillars That Help You Stay Strong, Sharp, and Independent | Ep. 269 - The Aging Well Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
Welcome to the Aging Well podcast, where we explore the
science stories and strategies that help us live longer,
healthier, and more purposeful lives.
I'm your host, Doctor Jeff Armstrong, PhD, exercise
physiologist, joined by my Co host Corbin Bruton.
In today's episode, we're breaking down what we call the
Six Pillars of Health, Span and Longevity, A comprehensive
framework for aging well that goes beyond just living longer.

(00:27):
We're talking about living better with energy, clarity,
strength and connection. From physical fitness and
nutrition to mental resilience, emotional well-being, social
connection, and spiritual purpose, these six pillars form
the foundation for a life that not only lasts, but thrives.
These six pillars include exercise and physical activity,

(00:47):
maintaining a healthy body composition, eating a nutrient
rich balanced diet, not smoking,practicing good sleep hygiene,
and cultivating purposeful social connections.
These aren't just good habits, they're foundational to
longevity and vibrant aging. Whether you're looking to add
years to your life or life to your years, this conversation is

(01:08):
packed with actionable insights,real life strategies, and a few
surprising truths about what it really means to age well.
Armstrong So I was going back and I was listening to some of
the podcast episodes and I thinkit was like episode 266 right
around there. We actually mentioned the six

(01:28):
pillars that are important as you age well, and I thought it'd
be really cool for us to dive into those.
Yeah, I think we talk about those a lot and we just kind of
allude to them. But I think, you know, and it
was actually, I think it was 267that we, we kind of promised we
would come up with a podcast that would, you know, kind of
under score this 6 pillars. And so I think it's a great

(01:48):
topic for us to just kind of dive into and just elaborate on
each of those a little bit more.It was funny.
I was teaching in the last week of my advanced topics class this
term. I played for the students a, an
interview between Matt Kaberleinfrom Optuspan and SIM Land, who
is a longevity, if we consider himself an expert, but he's an

(02:14):
influencer in that area, big promoter.
And they're having this conversation and they start
talking about the, the lifestylethings that you need to do for
longevity. And I'm counting for my
students, I'm putting a finger up at a time as they went
through and they pretty much gave all six of our pillars in
the conversation. So I got to smile at my students
say, see, see what I'm telling you, 6 pillars.

(02:36):
So what are those six pillars that we always talk about?
So we have exercise and physicalactivity, maintaining a healthy
body composition, eating a healthy diet, good sleep
hygiene, having a purposeful social connection and of course
not smoking. Right.
And then not smoking one that's going to start with that one,
because I think that is one thatthankfully much more of our

(03:00):
population is not smoking. I mean, rates of smokers is down
considerably, although they're still, I still pass people on
the road with their windows down, their little cigarette out
the window as they're driving by, still walk by.
I drive to campus most mornings.If I hit it right, there's a
guy, he's taking a smoking breakright on the edge of campus
because we're on a smoke free campus now, which helps to kind

(03:20):
of limit the smoking a bit. But now we still have people
that are smoking, but it's not quite as much.
But you know, I wonder, do we need to expand our pillars to
include alcohol consumption to acertain extent?
Yeah, totally. I think so.
Especially just the damage that alcohol can do on the overall of
the overall aspect of the body, not just the liver, but the

(03:42):
muscles, the brain, the nerve. And then us also talking about
epigenetics, that it doesn't just affect you, it can possibly
affect your children and your grandchildren in the future.
And that that yes, I think we should talk about alcohol, just
like smoking is technically legal and alcohol is also legal.

(04:03):
Is it something that we should be consuming or putting into our
our body if we're aware of the effects and the impacts that?
It has, and I think, you know, Ihave no problems with alcohol
consumption. I, I consume some alcohol.
I have significantly decreased my alcohol consumption.
And again, I don't, I was never a heavy drinker.
So when I say I significantly decreased, I basically went down

(04:26):
to, I'm down to maybe 2 glasses of wine or two beers a week.
And that's an average, which means sometimes it's a little
bit less than that. Rarely anymore is it more than
that. But you know, is we also talk
about alcohol. We could also lump alcohol
within the eating healthy diet and in the sleep hygiene aspect

(04:48):
as well because we know alcohol has a lot of empty calories.
It is going to impact our metabolism to a certain extent,
but it also impacts our sleep. And so if we are going to have
alcohol, we want it to be, you know, a few, maybe 1-2 small
drinks on a daily basis, ideallynot a daily basis, but no more

(05:09):
than two drinks a day. And it should be consumed in a
good period of time prior to sleep because the closer it gets
the bedtime, the more it's goingto disrupt our sleep hygiene.
And actually had a student this week that appointed on class
that he'd come across somewhere on the Internet.
And I had not formally heard this role before, although
probably heard it indirectly. But he talked about the 321 role

(05:29):
for sleep hygiene. And it's like, don't eat after
three hours before bedtime, don't drink.
And by drink he meant fluids. You know, don't drink fluids 2
hours before bedtime and then start to turn down the lights,
turn off electronics and all that an hour before bedtime.
So that 321 and I would put in that three hour rule stop.

(05:51):
No, don't consume alcohol withinthree hours of bedtime.
And I know that's really, reallyhard, but if we're going to stop
eating at dinner time, you know,3 hours before bedtime, that
three hour window is a good timeto don't drink after you're done
eating your dinner. You know, we don't need a
nightcap. We don't need to be out hanging
out the barn until 10/11/12, 1:00 in the morning drinking

(06:12):
alcohol. We want to, you know, if we're
going to have it, have it for more relaxed social purposes.
So again, it kind of ties into the purposeful social
connections. So I think kind of alcohol as we
talk about that really kind of underlies all the other, you
know, the six pillars that we talk about even smoking.
I mean, if I, I know people thatwill tell me I only smoke when I

(06:34):
go out to the bars. And this was a little bit more
so before they really banned indoor smoking because people
would get into bars and people be smoking and they get that
kind of hint of nicotine and it would just trigger their
compulsion to consume the nicotine.
And so, yeah. So I guess alcohol doesn't need
to be its own pillar. So which one you want to do

(06:54):
first? I guess we did smoking.
We did smoking already. So just that's an easy one.
Don't smoke. If you smoke, stop.
Yeah, there's there's no conversation about that.
Just don't smoke. And if you're listening and you
do smoke, I mean, we're not putting down smokers.
We understand that it is is a very, very hard habit to break
and that's why don't start and there are young people
listening. Don't start If you're already

(07:15):
smoking, stop. What if there is a listener
though in their life? Well, actually, there's a lot
of, you know, literature out there that's saying that the
nicotine portion of cigarettes and smoking actually has
cognitive benefits. Umm and they're just trying to
be argumentative as you're telling them not to smoke and

(07:36):
they're like, well, actually there is one benefit.
What would you how would you respond in?
That Well, I mean, it's like what, yeah, you can make the
argument that nicotine is a brain stimulant, but that what
comes along with that nicotine, you know, even if you say, OK,
well, I'm not going to smoke I'mjust going to put a nicotine
patch on or I'm going to vape and like baking, vaping is

(07:58):
supposed to be any healthier. But you know, you talk about a
gateway drug. Nicotine is going to be a
gateway drug to tobacco use, youknow, because you're going to be
craving it and it's going to be a way that you can get it.
And there are far too many secondary health issues that
come along with cigarette smoking tobacco use.
And when I talk about smoking, Ialways love my dad smoked a pipe

(08:21):
and occasional cigars and insisted that he was a
non-smoker. That you're smoking you might
not be inhaling directly from the cigar of the pipe.
It's going in your old cavity, which there's an opportunity for
cancer to be initiated within the oral cavity just from doing
that. You're not sucking it down into
the lungs. But what air are you breathing

(08:42):
between those puffs on the cigar?
You're breathing the air around you.
What's in that air? All that residual smoke that you
just blew out. So you're smoking.
You're just not smoking as intensely as somebody who's, you
know, smoking a cigarette. Just picture I'm smoking a pipe
right now. No, that's such a rarity to see
in today's day. Yes, I would say, let's just

(09:04):
dive into what I would think would be debatably one of the
second easiest one, which is exercise and physical activity.
That's what I would like. OK, So again, it's, it's just
getting moving, you know, it's, it's we want to over complicate
exercise and physical activity when it comes to aging well.
And the majority of Americans are not even hitting the minimum

(09:25):
guidelines for physical activitythat are kind of laid out by the
American College of Sports Medicine.
And that's that's all. Only, you know, like 300 minutes
of moderate and intensity physical activity that that's.
Just. Walking, I mean, which means
it's probably not hitting your 10,000 steps a day.
You know, we're sitting on our butts far more of the day and
not getting up and moving around.

(09:47):
And if we can just begin to get up and move, that's going to
take us a step closer, no pun intended there, but a step
closer to getting healthier and just taking more step.
And, you know, there's simple things that we can do to
increase that. And you know, think of like
exercise, snacking, you know, 5 minutes here or there, taking
the stairs instead of the elevator, you know, walking a

(10:08):
little bit farther from, you know, where you park your car a
little bit farther away from thegrocery store or work or
whatever. So we have to walk.
You know, I always talk to my students about the 100
kilocalorie rule. That's a very general rule of
thumb. It's 100 kilocalories per mile,
whether you walk, jog or run. That's based off of kind of a
more average size individual. So I think it's like 70 kilogram

(10:29):
individual. So someone like myself over 2,
20, close to 230 lbs, I'm going to be expending a lot more
calories walking that distance. But you know, if I just kind of
hundreds of an easy number to remember.
If I walk, park 1/4 mile fartheraway from the building and walk
that quarter mile from my car tothe building and then have to
walk back as I leave, that's a half mile, that's 50

(10:50):
kilocalories right there. That adds up.
You know, and you do that a couple times a day, a few times
a week, you're adding up calories that you're expending
that you wouldn't otherwise haveexpended.
And then we can start talking about.
OK, well let's get into formal exercise.
What should we be doing and whatshouldn't we be doing?
And what would you prioritize for overall health and longevity

(11:11):
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(11:33):
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And now back to the podcast. Resistance training by far.
I like just resistance training is what I would prioritize as
far as strengthening bones, strengthening in your muscles,
not just for physical strength such as carrying things, but

(11:55):
also helping with your balance and stability as well.
I think in the long run, prioritizing resistance
training. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's
so simple. You can read thousands of
literature out there and they would, they would all back back
up what we're saying that prioritizing resistance training

(12:18):
is going to be far more beneficial than providing, umm,
prioritizing cardiovascular, your typical running and jogging
and all that. Focus on the resistance training
and lifting heavy. That's also what you would
prioritize and not to sacrifice your form.
If you can't lift heavy yet, just stick with body weights.

(12:38):
But eventually the goal is to improve so much that you are
lifting heavier and you're adding that resistance.
That's what I. Yeah, I think we have to under
score what heavy means. You know, a lot of people think,
well, I can't lift heavy, I can't squat 500 lbs.
Well, you don't need to squat £500 for it to be heavy for you.
You know, if 100 lbs is heavy for you, meaning that you can

(12:58):
only do, you know, three to fiverepetitions of that £100, that's
heavy for you and you just keep progressing and lifting heavier
and heavier. We don't want to, you know, be
that person that goes to the gym, picks up the 5 LB dumbbells
and spends their, you know, fiveyears at the gym using that same
weight. You want to progress from there.
If it's heavy for you at the start of the exercise, great.

(13:19):
Keep adding weight to aggressiveoverload and eventually you'll
get stronger and stronger. And I think there's a
misconception among the older population that when you hit a
certain age, you got to stop lifting heavy.
And there's a certain bit of truth to that in that, you know,
we have to be a bit more cautious about our joints and
our stability and whatnot. But heavy is relative.
And if I'm a power lifter in my 30s and hit in my 40s, 50s, I

(13:43):
might not want to continue to belifting those big, big heavy
weights because that's going to be an undue stress on my body.
And it's not essential. But if I can cut that a little
bit and then maintain, you know,if I can deadlift £400, that's
pretty functional. You're going to be able to do a
lot of activity. It's not going to prevent you
from doing activity. I've really been leaning into

(14:05):
the, the Zertra squat a lot moreas as you all are well aware, my
students, like a few of them in their recent project projects
were all mentioned the Zurcher squats because they thought
they'd garnered them some favor with the professor.
But I, I think if I can only do 1 lift, I'm going to do the
Zurcher squat because it captures so much of the body.
And I think I did about a four or five week kind of high volume

(14:29):
Zurcher squat training cycle here just recently.
And I just, I started relativelylight, 10 sets of 10, started
with just one 35 lbs on the bar was relatively light, added 10
lbs every workout. Kind of concluded that cycle
with ten sets at 300 lbs and I'm62 and I felt better.
I feel like my muscle mass increased over that period of

(14:51):
time. Now I'm not going to continue
that for a long, long period of time.
I'm done with it. I'm going to cycle into
something else. But that particular lift, I just
felt like even my bench press felt stronger.
And I have a lot of shoulder issues.
I felt my bench press was much more stable because the back
strength that I had gained from doing that enabled me to
stabilize my shoulders a bit more effectively.

(15:12):
And so it doesn't take a lot in terms of the strengthening
exercises. You know, you pick, we talk
often about our basic 5. I know you like to extend that
to the superior 7. We're not going to go down that
route today. But if we're doing basically a
squat, a hip hinge, A horizontalpress like a bench press, an
overhead press or some shoulder exercises and a rowing exercise,

(15:33):
you're covering your bases. It doesn't take long and you're
going to maintain a level of strength and functionality that
then is going to carry over to you being able to maintain your
cardiovascular fitness much. Yeah, nailed it.
He nailed it. I totally agree.
Also, I kind of want to go back to your baby steps as far as
being physically active. I would say with us rolling into

(15:57):
summertime right now, having people just added a part of
their daily routine to after their last meal.
If they have the luxury of living in a neighborhood where
they can walk around, I would say just go on a walk.
Go on like a little 3045 minute walk right after that last meal.
One, you're going to help regulate insulin levels and then

(16:18):
two, you're getting your steps in.
Three, it's so unbelievably just, ah, you relieve so much
stress after like a long hectic day at work and you just kind of
walk around your neighborhood asthe sun is still out and you're
getting that sun and the birds are out and you're hearing the
chirping and, but that smell of summer is in the air.

(16:39):
It's really, it's awesome. I'm going to totally take an
advantage of that myself. And yeah, it's, it's amazing.
Plus, it's not so hot out that the that you're not burning your
dog's feet. If you want to take your dog on
a walk, that's. Well, I was going to say if you
have a dog, then, you know, increasing The Walking of the
dog is going to give you more physical activity.

(16:59):
I heard somebody comment recently that, you know, you see
a fat dog, you're going to see afat dog owner because the dog's
not getting the exercise. That means they're not getting
the exercise. So.
So, yeah, just getting out moving.
Find find excuses to move and that's all we really need to do.
You know, our pillar is exercising physical activity.
Physical activity is just getting your butt butt up out of

(17:21):
the chair and moving. And the more we can lean that
into exercise ranging from, you know, low moderate intensity
cardiovascular activity up to, you know, more intensive
strength training, the better we're going to be overall all.
Right. I think the next one is a
perfect segue talking about thatmovement and fat dogs.

(17:42):
I think maintaining healthy bodycomposition would be great to
hop into our next pillar. Yeah.
And I think, you know, it alwayshas to be a little bit of
caution as you start talking about body composition and
healthy body composition. And I under score healthy
because a lot of people immediately go to, if you start
talking about body composition, they start talking, you know,
oh, you're fat shaming. I'm comfortable at my weight.

(18:04):
I feel healthy at my weight, which I I'm going to go on a
record here saying if you are morbidly obese and you feel
healthy, you're in denial. You're just not, there's no way
you're healthy. It's, there's far more problems
that go along with that. Does that mean you have to have
6 pack abs? I think if you've got 6 pack
abs, in many cases, unless you're like so genetically

(18:25):
predisposed to those, you're at an unhealthy body composition.
So that healthy body compositionis really in that range where
you got a little bit of fat on you maybe, you know, maybe you
want to lose a little bit to go to the beach, but you don't have
to lose a lot. You know, you're comfortable in
your weight, you're able to eat a healthy diet, so you're not
thriving yourself, but you're also not overeating.

(18:46):
So healthy body composition is probably, if we start looking at
BMI, it's actually a BMI that's a little bit on the higher side.
And I would say it's probably somewhere between 23 to 26,
maybe even 27 for BMI. And BMI, for those who are
listening or might not be aware,is basically your body weight in

(19:07):
kilograms divided by your heightin centimeters or height in
meters squared. And so.
So you know 25 is actually considered to be overweight and
then 30 is considered obese. But at 25 I have no desire that
my BMI below 25 because if I know if I go below 25 based on
my height and my body type I'm going to be under under muscled

(19:28):
more likely and matter. The percentage based stuff of
male versus female or is it just2530 across?
Well, that's the interesting thing.
You don't see any differentiation between males
and females when they talk aboutBMI.
Now females possibly might even need to have a slightly higher

(19:49):
BMI than males because they do need a little bit more body fat
or naturally have a little bit more body fat than males, but
they also have a little less muscle mass, so.
You know it's it's. Kind of an awkward number and
that's why I hate the BMI. Because it doesn't tell you
anything about the body composition.
And so you may have a woman who is very muscled compared to a
woman who is very fat. And they might have the same

(20:11):
BMI. Do they have the same health?
Probably not. And so you really want to look
at, OK, how much my goal should be to add muscle.
And so by adding muscle and my body weight goes up.
And it's because of muscle mass,my percent body fat's going
down. So I'm, I'm becoming healthy.
If I lose weight but don't lose muscle mass, now my weight goes
down, my body composition's going down.

(20:31):
But if my weight go stays the same and I'm losing muscle mass
as I age, I'm not staying healthy.
I'm getting more and more unhealthy.
And that kind of leans into whatwe talked about in Episode 3,
three 67367 I believe it was. That, you know, you can become
increasingly skinny fat and become metabolically sick.

(20:54):
And so we want more muscle mass to favor that healthier
metabolic system. Thus, you know, what stinks
about this is certain individuals for their job, they
have open enrollments here. And it's to determine what kind
of like what kind of insurance you're going to have.
And is your insurance going to properly cover you?

(21:16):
And you have to put in your height in your weight, which
then determines the the BMI. And then if you're in a, if
you're in the green zones, then you're fine.
But if you're in the red zones, then you're, you're not fine,
which you know, like you said, that 20, 5% range, you're,
you're closer to that red zone. And that just, that just just

(21:37):
seems like a flawed system personally, especially since
BMI, for lack of the better word, it's kind of kind of
irrelevant, kind of doesn't really matter.
We think it's got to be a better, more efficient way where
we can justify an individual. I think an easy way would just
be for healthcare systems to offer and to your insurance

(22:00):
companies pay for for an annual DEXA scan because the DEXA scan
is going to give you. You know, full.
Body bone mineral density tell you how much muscle mass you
have and how much fat mass you have.
I mean, it's probably one of thebest indicators and it's
relatively maybe maybe every year isn't as good because
there's a level of radiation that you get with that.
But you know, it's a pretty low level.

(22:22):
And there are some very strong health benefits that we can get
from knowing what our body composition really is.
Not just going by OK, the chart says that you are over over.
It's like, OK, yeah, but your BMI is lower than me, doctor,
and you don't look near as healthy as I do, right?
You know, let's have a squat competition and see.

(22:43):
So. So, yeah.
So body composition is somethingthat we really have to consider.
And you know, I grew up with theold Special K pinch an inch.
I don't know if you've ever saw those commercials, but you know
if you could pinch an inch of fat at your belly, then you
needed special. K cereal now I'm not
recommending that you know, so you're doing a Special K diet to
lose weight. They're healthier diets out

(23:03):
there, but. You know, we can tell where our
body fat is, you know, just by kind of monitoring, just kind of
pinching how much belly fat we have and you know if.
If that number is growing, then we're getting less and less out,
decreasing, then we're getting healthier.
And if there's really nothing there, well, we have to consider
is it too low or is it OK? Gotcha.

(23:24):
Well, I think in order to maintain that healthy body
weight also we need to focus on eating healthy.
So what a perfect segue to our next pillar, eating a healthy
diet. Yeah, and eating healthy.
Oh. Go for it.
Go. Sorry, I was just going to say
eating a healthy diet is is important and it leads into
those other areas. I mean, it's going to fuel the

(23:45):
body for the physical activity. It's going to help us to
maintain a healthy body composition.
But there's even that more important now building into the
nutrients. You know, we talk, I always
teach my students that about 50%of weight management weight, you
know, success in weight management is going to come from
caloric balance and then you getin about percent is going to be
your macro balance, which kind of takes us from the healthy

(24:09):
body composition now more to thehealthier eating and more
nutrient rich balanced diet. What were you going to say
'cause I interrupted you? Oh, I was.
Just going to say, now we've talked a lot about what kind of
healthy diets are our choice, such as the Mediterranean and
the Nordic diet, but are there any other diets that you could

(24:29):
potentially recommend? Or is it just going to be just
those two? And I asked because there's so
many, especially on social mediaand all these other trends,
there's, there's such a push forall these different types of
diets. And you know, a lot of them are
actually debatably backed up by science.
And some of them have, you know,social media doctors that are

(24:51):
kind of pushing, leading the charge and pushing that
information that's out there. So what's your take on that?
Yeah, I actually drew this on the whiteboard the other day in
class where I had kind of on thefar left.
I drew the 100% sugar diet, which I actually had a friend in
grad school. He was in a master's program
when I was working on my PhD. It was a distance runner and had

(25:12):
a horrible diet. I mean, he literally like Jelly
on white bread and he would buy boxes of macaroni and cheese and
throw away the UN quote cheese that's not real cheese that they
put in those things and then just, you know, boil and eat the
macaroni. I mean pure, pure low grade carb
diet. And he was losing teeth and
wondering why. I mean, he just had tons of

(25:34):
health. Issues within it.
Like dude, you know you. Have to eat, Yeah, other than
just sugary carbs. And so, you know, you can have
that pure sugar diet. And then on the right side of
the board, I put out, you know, pure carnivore.
And The thing is funny with, youknow, people that say they're
pure carnivore, it's like, do you season your meat?
You know, because that seasoninghas got some carbs in it, you

(25:55):
know, so you're not purely carnivore.
You're not, you know, carnivore is, you know, you, you tackle
the gazelle, you RIP it open andyou start eating it.
You know, it's raw meat, no spices, no cooking whatsoever.
And so we have this really wide continuum.
And then there's so many different diets that fall within

(26:15):
that. And, you know, there's
principles that we should be driven by in terms of what
decisions we made. I, I think there's a very strong
Gray area between a healthy, sayMediterranean Nordic diet and a
purely vegetarian diet. I think a challenge with a
vegetarian diet, you know, eating a purely plant based diet

(26:37):
can be challenged, challenging for many of us who maybe want
more protein or actually like eating meat.
And so you can kind of shift away from the vegetarian a
little bit into more of a flexitarian diet, which would be
1, where you are overall eating mostly plant based foods, but
you allow yourself some healthier meats.

(26:58):
You generally are avoiding, you know, red meats.
You're eating more fish. Particularly, you know, healthy
fatty fish, maybe chicken, you eat eggs, you have other animal
based protein sources and then you have your what is it?
I'm drawing a blank on the name they.
Eat purely fish. Pescatarian, I believe is what
it's called. Yeah.
And so that's just eating. You eat fish, but.

(27:20):
That's it. That's the only type of meat.
You eat and then you're eating your healthier vegetables, which
is a little bit more. I mean, it's where you get into
all these nuanced different terminologies that are used.
I mean to me I kind of joke thata flexitarian is just somebody
that's not willing to commit 100% to a plant based diet.
But Mediterranean diet is essentially anywhere from a
pescetarian to a flexitarian type of diet.

(27:42):
They do allow a certain amount of meat, but you can still eat a
vegetarian diet within that as well.
What you're not going to be eating is a more purely keto or
paleo diet or carnivore diet, which really leans more into the
meat and, and fat level. And so I think if we kind of
stay in that middle range, if you choose not to eat meat and

(28:04):
many people do that for whateverreasons, but if you're not going
to eat meat, you're eating 100% plant based, you have to be very
cognizant of where what proteinsyou're getting.
Are you getting enough proteins?Where are you getting those
proteins? And I think if we go back to the
interview with Louis Bertis talking about, you know,
labeling a food. Food is you.
Had whole fruits, whole vegetables, whole grains,

(28:26):
legumes and nuts and healthy nuts and eating those you're
going to be getting, especially if you're eating a variety and
you're eating them in various combinations, you can get your
protein. I would probably also suggest
somebody that is eating a purelyplant based diet to supplement
with creatine. You know, you need your creatine
in order to make sure that we'rereally topping off that

(28:47):
phosphocreatine in the muscle and the brain also needs
creatine. It's important for brain
development as well as the agingbrain and it's important for a
muscle function as well. So maybe supplement with, you
know, creatine or branched chainamino acids just to make sure
that you're getting, you know, kind of hopping off the gas tank
a little bit. But otherwise, you know, you can

(29:07):
eat a fairly healthy plant baseddiet and it's going to be much
more satiating, much more full. He recommended no more than 15%
fat in that and again, being more plant based fats.
So your olive oil, your coconut oil, oil, avocado, that kind of
stuff. Not oils, not necessarily
leaning into the beef tallow andsome of those fats.

(29:29):
And then as we get over kind of into a little bit more of a
flexitarian, just making healthier meat choices, you
know, trying to limit the red meat.
I'm I try and limit red meat a little bit more.
It's a bit harder, kind of like a burger once in a while.
I I like some red meat. You know, if I could, I'm going
to lean into Buffalo is my red meat choice.
Very healthy meat. Yeah.

(29:50):
And so, yeah, just try and make the healthier choices with
those. Louis recommended.
You know, if you're going to eatmeat, then try and go for an
8020 break, you know, where it'slike 80% of your diet is plant
based, 20% is going to be healthier meats.
So when you fill up your plate, you know, palm size, amount of
meat on the plate and then fill in the rest with very healthy

(30:12):
vegetables is going to be the way to go.
You know, and we look at Nordic diet versus the Mediterranean
diet. It's really just the difference
in the food items that are goingto be included in the diet.
You know, what's what's reason regionally and sustainably
available where you are living is going to be the healthier
approach. So again, we go back to, you

(30:34):
know, the whole fruits, whole vegetables, whole grains, the
nuts and legumes, which of thoseare available in your area?
The Nordic diet tends to favor alittle bit more roots because
the environment there, Mediterranean is probably
favoring a bit more legumes. But you know.
Eat those styles. Diets within your cultural norm,
you know, if you're, you know, growing up in a Hispanic family

(30:57):
and you know, kind of Mexican food is your your normal food,
there are choices that you can make.
I mean, obviously beans. Are a big component of that
tortillas. You know, rice, there's, there's
plenty of foods that you can eatthat are going to be similar
without, you know, making the food unhealthy.
You know, we look at various Asian cuisines or East, you
know, Mediterranean cuisines other than like the Greek,

(31:19):
Italian, that kind of stuff. They're all unique, but they all
follow kind of some of the same basic principles.
It's kind. Of hard to say there's a lot of
you know, I'm actually I'm actually for more red meat.
I know you're not, but like everything else, as far as
getting your in and your fruit all on board with that, I do
believe that we need to get fishing.

(31:40):
I do believe that we need to getour leaner meats, our white
meats like Turkey and chicken and actually quail is phenomenal
too. But I also am an advocate for
red beats, maybe not necessarilybeef as one would think, but,
you know, your elk, your bison, your even lamb.

(32:02):
I really like lamb. It's really good.
And it's, it's super high in omegas.
It's one of the only land mammals that have a high level
of omega-3 in there. Pretty good.
I like it. I like.
Yeah, that's a good taste. But I.
Think you have to be careful in advocating.
For a higher red. Meat diet, because most people,

(32:23):
when they associate red meat, they're gonna associate it with
cattle with, you know. You know, beef cattle and.
Well, there's a difference, right, Because when I was in
Costa Rica, they have Brahma cattle for their So we have a
different style beef here in America.
We have that cattle, you know, whatever, whatever you're
picturing right now on the Yellowstone ranch, that's what

(32:46):
we have is our main source of but like.
I wouldn't say the Yellowstone Ranch.
I would say probably more like the, I don't want to pick on any
particular state, but the, the factory beef processing farms,
you know, where it's basically cattle that have limited range
movement. I mean, you go in the
Yellowstone kind of watching that series, they're they're

(33:09):
much more grass range fed beef that's healthier beef.
But we're talking about this, you know, they kind of corn fed,
soy fed, hormone laden beef thathas grown, you know, just for
the sake of getting the cow as big and as fat as possible.
And that is not necessarily healthy red meat.
And so we want to look at the quality of the red meat.

(33:30):
Yeah. If you can eat wild game, that's
great. I mean, I have family in West
Virginia, my sister's husband and my nephews, They get their
limit of deer every year and they have a freezer full of
deer. They're getting some healthy
meat eating there. But, you know, growing, going to
the local grocery store and buying the on sale cheap red

(33:50):
meat is probably not necessarilythe healthiest choice now.
Yeah. Do we need to avoid that 100%?
I would not make that argument that I'm going to give up a
steak once in a while or a hamburger or something like
that. But yeah, you want to just lean
into as healthier choices as we can afford.
Yeah. That's another thing to consider
when we're looking at diet is what is affordable to us, that

(34:11):
we can get the healthiest amountof nutrients out of the food
that we can afford to buy. And for some people it's, I
mean, chicken is probably going to be ultimately cheapest
overall meat that you have access to and other than
hunting, but you know, get what,get what you like, just eat a
little bit less of it and eat a little bit more plants and
healthier food. Yeah, Speaking of steak, that's

(34:31):
what I'm gonna do for Father's Day.
I think I'm gonna have my dad over, you know, I think I'm
gonna get some tomahawk steaks because, you know, yeah, treat
yourself every now and then. Whoa.
We're talking about eating healthy here.
Come on. All right, let's dive into the
next pillar, which we've we've talked about a good healthy
diet, we've talked about maintaining a healthy body
weight when we talked about physical activities, but all of

(34:53):
those mean nothing without good sleep.
Right. And I've been kind of telling my
students that although we're an exercise science major, sleep
hygiene is really starting to kind of creep slightly above the
rankings above exercise and physical activity for
importance. Because again, if we can't
exercise, if we're not adequately recovered in and we

(35:15):
need that rest and recovery in order for the exercise to be
effective. And so sleep becomes really kind
of a cornerstone piece of these pillars.
I know I'm kind of mixing metaphors there with pillars and
cornerstones, but hopefully the listeners and the viewers are
getting the point that sleep is really, really important.
We know, you know, from interviews with like the
Kleonski's and other doctors howcritical sleep is to brain

(35:38):
health and how, you know, getting quality sleep, you know,
getting good REM sleep, getting good deep sleep.
Isn't important. It's not so much the hours that
we are spending in bed, it's thequality of the hours that we're
spending in bed. And really, you know, we've been
emphasizing quite a bit over thecourse of the last year of this
podcast the importance of good quality sleep hygiene.
And we mentioned earlier the 321principle that, you know, stop

(36:03):
eating 3 hours before bedtime, stop drinking fluids about two
hours before bedtime. So that way you know, you're not
going to have to get up too frequently in night, so you'll
be able to sleep more. And then turn turning off your
electronics, dimming the lights and closing the blinds, getting
in a dark sleep promoting environment about an hour before
sleep. You know, maybe that's when you

(36:24):
read a book, you know, and, and do things that are going to calm
your body. Maybe a little bit of
meditation, journaling, the things that are calming the mind
so that we are prepared now to lay our head down on the pillow
and go to sleep. Yeah, I mean, I think I would
refer the listeners to the Kleonski's.
Think I would also refer them tolisten to the episode with

(36:44):
Doctor Pharaoh. Yeah, for a for a long while we
were really interviewing a lot of professionals and a lot of
doctors that, you know that was their that was their area of
study. They were a subject matter
expert on that and it was really, really eye opening the
importance of sleep. Like you can always be told how

(37:06):
important sleep is, but when someone else tells you something
that you've heard your whole life, but then breaks down the
importance and the actual effects and really shows you the
information, it's Yeah. So I, I would, I would recommend
that our listeners go back and listen to the outs with the
Kleonski's and Doctor Farrow andmaybe you can add someone else

(37:29):
that you think would be good in there as well.
Doctor Armstrong. Well, there's there's tons of
them in there. I mean, in terms of some
recommendations for just monitoring sleep and
recoverability, I would recommend that the readers do
get Doctor Farrow says Torkel Farrell Pharaoh spell it
correctly and we'll leave it writing the name and a link to

(37:52):
his book in the description notes is the book the pulse
cure, I think is a good read. Kind of understand what are we
looking for as we're looking into some of the sleep monitors
and heart rate variability monitors, right?
There's a lot of different options out there.
You have the aura rings, you have the whoop, you have the
Garmin, which is what I use. And then you know, what
information can we get from those?

(38:14):
And you know, it's helpful. It can be a little bit
overwhelming and a little bit and get a little bit overly
compulsive about tracking your sleep data, but knowing how we
are recovering in our sleep, howmuch time we're getting.
In our deep sleep or REM sleep, how many hours of sleep are we
getting can be very critical. I would recommend people get a

(38:34):
sleep study done because sleep apnea is much more common than
we think. And with that being said, my
sleep apnea journey has been quite a frustrating journey for
me over the last year. I mean, it was about a year ago
that I first considered, you know, that I need to get a sleep
study done to see if I have sleep apnea because I am a bit

(38:56):
of a snorer, probably more than a bit of a snore.
But I put in a request to my doctor to have a sleep study
done and, you know, waited and waited.
And finally it was my October checkup.
He's, oh, I noted in your, your notes that you requested a, a
sleep study. Do you still want to do that?
I'm like, well, yeah, I wanted to do it like 6 months ago.

(39:17):
So it took a couple months to get it actually scheduled where
I was actually able to meet witha sleep specialist, go through
all the questionings and things like that.
And then they recommended a homesleep study that took a while to
get done because I had to actually go pick up the sleep
kit and bring it home and do that study and it had to be back
like immediately the next day. So it was very cumbersome to get

(39:39):
that done. And then it was weeks to get the
results. And then I got the results and
it was a recommendation for CPAPmachine.
So then it was weeks before I could get in to get fitted for
my CPAP. And then once I got fitted for
that, then it was few. It was like a good month before
the equipment actually came camein and now I've been doing it.

(39:59):
I think I'm at about 5 weeks andmy sleep scores have sucked.
I'm not sleeping well. My my overall body battery,
which is the garment score for heart rate variability, has
really been in the toilet most of the nights that I've been
using the seat. I've only Thursday night I
finally got a score back up in the 80s.

(40:21):
You want to score in the hundreds?
Today, no, today was kind of I think under under 50, but if,
but I'm not sure, you know, and I'm waiting to kind of meet with
the sleep specialist to get a little bit better reading on
what all this means. But it just it tells me that I
have to be very focused on how am I using the CPAP at night,
how am I sleeping? You know, what's causing me to

(40:44):
get up. And so I'm much more aware of
what am I doing, what am I eating, when am I eating?
And, you know, just trying to 0 in on all that because if we're
not recovering well and we're stress, cortisol levels go
through the roof and that presents all kinds of different
health issues. And so if you are diagnosed with

(41:05):
sleep apnea, you know, you want to get the right equipment that
is going to help you to sleep and use it and get used to doing
it. It might take some time to
actually, you know, get recoveryfrom it and learn how to use the
equipment. Maybe.
You know, I've gone back and forth trying to figure out what
attachment to use. I've tried a nasal pillow, which

(41:26):
despite the name of pillow is actually the one that goes up in
the nostrils. The cushion is the one that sits
under the nostrils. I I'm a nose breather, so the
cushion has worked better for me.
I'm a mouth breather rather. So the cushion has worked well
for me, but I've had to get a chin strap to keep my mouth shut
because I had a tendency to wantto, especially if the pressure
gets too high. No, I want to just blow out air.

(41:48):
And, and so, you know, it, it takes a little bit of practice,
takes a little bit of, you know,trial and error and, you know,
work on it and get the sleep better.
But the key is what are we doingleading up to our sleep and in
preparation? First, when we talk about sleep
hygiene, it's not having clean sheets.
It's about having, you know, thehabits that are going to promote

(42:11):
our bodies being ready for sleepand getting the best quality of
sleep possible. Having a bedtime, having a
rising time in the morning, keeping that consistent seven
days a week as much as possible within probably plus or minus
1/2 an hour. You know, dimming the lights,
turning off all the electronics,doing something relaxing in that
last hour. Now again, drinking less fluid,

(42:33):
going into bed and eating our meals earlier and that kind of
goes. Back to healthy eating as well
that we're kind of in that more circadian type of intermittent
fasting where we're getting our fasting period being longer
because we're eating earlier in the day as opposed to eating
later in the day. How about you with your CPAP?
Have you gotten back on that andput you on the goals here?

(42:54):
Yeah. No, no, I haven't.
I, I ordered one and then I tookout the old because mine got
recalled and then I had to, so Ihad to take out that one and put
in my new one. And they didn't, they didn't put
the prescription in it. So now I have to go through the
process of contacting my doctor and trying to get that

(43:16):
prescription, the program into the actual CPAP itself.
And that has been a, that that has been a process in itself.
So. Yeah, So what?
Why, why is that? I mean, it's like we want
preventative care. We want, we know how important
it is to get good quality sleep and how detrimental sleep apnea
can be. And yet it is such a slow

(43:38):
process. You know, for me with my higher
cholesterol, I could be on statins right now no problem.
But it's a process to try and get, you know, the, the
treatment I need to be able to get better sleep to bring my
cortisol down, which I believe is going to ultimately affect my
body weight and my hormone levels.
I think you know the answer. So, so sleep, sleep is

(43:59):
important. We want to make sure we're
getting the best sleep hygiene possible in order to age well.
What other pillars what have we missed we've talked about?
One's the purposeful social connections.
Yeah. And that's one I think you know,
when you look at the blue zones,that's one of the most common
features amongst the people in those blue zones is that they

(44:19):
have very purposeful social connections.
And we interject that purposefulin front of social connections
because it's having positive relationships as you know,
interactions that are going to help us to grow to be healthy,
supportive individuals, not people that are bringing us down
and causing us greater amount ofstress.
These are people that are going to help alleviate our stress and

(44:41):
help us to grow into better people, help us to age well.
Yeah, I agree with that. I was actually just having this
conversation with couple people actually.
And I'm at the phase of my life where, you know, my personality
is on a huge social budget butterfly.
And I love interaction with people.
But I'm also at a phase where I don't want to hang out with

(45:03):
people that are gonna dole me, you know what I mean?
And so I like to have great conversations.
I like to be sharp and I like tostay sharp.
So if I am around someone who, you know, I, after I leave with
them, I feel like, man, I don't feel sharp.
I don't feel more inner. I feel like I'm drained

(45:24):
completely. Or if I hang out with someone
and I feel that I'm doing that with them.
Just at the phase of my life where I have to make a decision,
like, is this work now? And you know, it's, that's OK,
that's OK to make that decision.You know what I mean?
You don't have to worry necessarily about, Oh, am I
going to offend this person? Or if I'm not, because you know
what, like I'm learning life is too short and I feel like

(45:47):
certain people will understand. And I, I like to be, I like to
stay sharp. I like to be sharp.
You know, there's that old proverbs that iron sharpens
iron. And I don't want to be around
individuals that are going to dole me, whether, you know,
they're bringing me down mentally or they're bringing me
down emotionally or spiritually or whatever the case may be.

(46:09):
If I hang out with people or if I go to an event, shouldn't
leave there feeling exhausted and drained.
And it's, it's not fun. So I want to be around people
that are going to lift me up, that are going to encourage me,
that are going going to challenge my thought process a
bit and make me stay and keep moving me forward.
So that's what I like, that's what I need.

(46:30):
What thoughts? You got me thinking about the
What About Bob movie. Yeah, when he talks about, you
know, it's, it's just a bad connection.
Just hang up the phone, right? And we're trying to remember
that exact quote because that was a pretty funny scene.
But yeah, we won't. We want to, you know, there's
nothing wrong with, maybe we don't want to necessarily delete

(46:50):
people from our Facebook, Facebook page or social media,
but you know, you can kind of mute them so that you're not
getting all of their bad energy.When we are socializing, we want
to socialize with the people that are bringing in Assad,
bringing us down. And, you know, if you have that
friend who's trying to get you to go to the bar instead of the
gym, that's not a healthy friend, you know?

(47:10):
And so just be purposeful in therelationships and you know, it's
what are we giving and what are we getting from the
relationship? Because there's a lot of people
that, you know, the idea of purpose relationships is what
can I get out of this relationship?
But if it's not a give and take,it's not a healthy relationship
either. But I think we and.
I think the, the pillar is a purposeful social connection,

(47:32):
right? So you want to be around
individuals that you find purpose in, you know, and it it
may not be individuals per SE, it could just be a purposeful
activity if you're having that connection.
So maybe you're giving to the community or maybe you're
leading a hiking team or whatever the case may be, but
you're you're finding purpose inwhat it is that you do and those

(47:56):
people around you also have thatsame.
Yeah, we want it to be intergenerational, too.
You know, that's another aspect of the social connections.
And I think Becky Blue in, I forget what episode that was
earlier this year mentioned about she has a goal of having,
you know, friends in every decade of life.
I'm not sure how that works for the first decade of life, but

(48:17):
I'm sure it's like, you know, helping out with, you know,
kids. It's coaching or whatever it
might be, but you know, being connected across the lifespan
just feeds, it fuels. And there as we get older, we
want to try and be giving back to the younger community as well
because the kids benefit from being.
Around us as well as we benefit from being around the younger
people I think one of the healthiest things for me as a

(48:39):
professor is you know I'm alwaysaround 20 year old and as I get
older, you know my jokes maybe get a little bit more stale or a
little bit more outdated but youknow I keep up with the energy
that the. Younger people have, and I'm
able to bring a greater amount of wisdom to them as I get
older. And so connections are not just
within our age group because as we age, we're going to start

(49:01):
losing those connections much faster than we would like.
And if we only have friends thatare within our own age group,
we're going to get to a point where we're alone.
But if we're making friendships across the lifespan, you always
have those relationships. And I think COVID really showed
us how important to face to facein person connections are and
not just the social media connections that we might have

(49:23):
with individuals, you know, and having, you know, texting
friends back and forth or your, you know, your Instagram fanship
or whatever they call it is not social connection.
That's a very shallow social connection.
We want to be as in person as possible.
I think we need to bring back the front porch talk about that
a lot in some of the different episodes, you know, where we're

(49:44):
outside and interacting much more with our communities and
knowing our neighbors better. That is an important part of
purposeful social Was there anything we missed in this
conversation about the six pillars?
No, The only thing I can think of is perhaps, you know, just
tying in spies with the six pillars as far as spiritual
goes, possibly adding a seventh pillar of having a higher power,

(50:09):
you know, like having that spiritual fate.
Because I just think a lot of uscan do it on our own.
I mean, yeah, some of us have that willpower and some of us
have that grit, but where's thatgrit?
You know, we were created for a purpose.
And then to have that relationship with with our
creator is just, I think that's a beautiful thing.

(50:29):
And I find it awesome because praying is super easy.
It's cheap, it's free, and it itfeels good.
It makes your heart feel good. So yeah, just having that
relationship. Well, there then I have to do a
plug for my We Have a Spiritual Problem podcast as we dive into
those different topics. And and I would under score for,
you know, somebody might have just said, well, Nope, you lost

(50:50):
me there on the God thing. I don't believe in God.
I'm an atheist. That does not discount the
purposeful social connection. I think when we talk about
purpose is we put that purpose in the social connections that
implies again that spiritual aspect of spies.
And again, we got to give a plugout to Jay for coining the spies

(51:11):
for our spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional and
social. Yeah.
So he's all happy now he's goingto start wanting royalties for
every time we spies. But you know that that purpose
piece is understanding that we're doing that.
These relationships are beyond the self.
And you know, we can you can getinto and you know, I'm with you

(51:34):
in terms of believing in God andthe purpose of God.
And I'm kind of leaning a lot more into a bigger, more cosmic
God, cosmic creator, whatever you want to call it.
But as we lean into just simply understanding that.
There is something that connectsus all together, whether we want
to call that a God, a higher power, a, you know, force, a

(51:56):
source, a, you know, Unicorn. I don't know.
Whatever it might be, it's what's.
Connecting us, joining us all together.
And that's one of those very important parts of that
purposeful social connections, you know, So the social
connection piece to me really kind of brings together that
spiritual, physical, the intellectual, the emotional, and

(52:17):
the social, well, centeredness. All into and they're like one
big. Umbrella And so yeah, I guess if
we if we were to add a 7th pillar, it would have to be just
simply spies, you know, having that spiritual, physical,
intellectual, emotional and social wealth centeredness.
You know, I also coined this as the well centered fitness.

(52:38):
It all kind of falls under and Ithink maybe the six pillars
actually act as a support for that and that that is such a key
component for aging well. And I guess maybe we just.
Conclude with that. Yeah, you know, with your, you
know, if you you want to age well, let's focus in on, you
know, balancing that well centered fitness, the spies and

(52:59):
underscoring the six pillars, the need for physical activity
and exercise, need to eat a healthy diet, maintain a healthy
body composition, have good slight sleep hygiene, don't
smoke and most importantly, havethose good purposeful social
connection. Thank you for listening.
Hope you benefited from today's podcast.
And until next time. Keep aging well.

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The 6 Pillars That Help You Stay Strong, Sharp, and Independent | Ep. 269

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The 6 Pillars That Help You Stay Strong, Sharp, and Independent | Ep. 269