Pillars For Longevity: Do These Everyday To STAY YOUNG & Live Longer | Dr. Mark Hyman

We need to dramatically lower our intake of refined starches and sugars and processed foods that are killing us. So what are the five simple things you can do for better health? What are the daily and weekly practices that I use to keep me biologically younger as I grow chronologically older? First is food. As you know, I'm a big food is medicine guy. I'm a practicing physician. I focus on nutritional medicine, functional medicine for 30 years on real patients, and I've used food as medicine. and I am just blown away and humbled by how our human bodies work and how we need to personalize our nutritional approach. But there are a few universal principles that can guide you to the right diet. And I think there aren't too many people who are on either spectrum. I mean, maybe the extreme carnivore might disagree with something I'm going to say, but most people, whether you're paleo or vegan or keto or whatever it is, Agree, most people, whether they're paleo or vegan or keto or whatever, agree on these principles. One, we should get rid of ultra processed food. We need to dramatically lower our intake of refined starches and sugars and processed foods that are killing us. Two, we should be eating food that's the highest quality we possibly can. And ideally we need to personalize our diet and we need to think of food as medicine. which is the guiding principle for all we're eating. I don't think there'd be anybody in the nutrition space who would disagree with any of those four ideas. And so when you personalize your diet, it should be based on your genetics, your metabolism, your preferences, obviously, but these are really simple principles. So within that, there's a lot of room for what you can eat. Personally, I think a balanced view that's not too extreme is what I call the Pegan diet. And it was sort of poking fun at the extremes of diet. right, paleo and vegan. But we now know that these principles are, and I've written a book about it called the Pegan Diet, which lays out principles for eating in a nutritionally confusing world. And how do we optimize our health by focusing on quality, focusing on food is medicine and personalization? So first thing, we should be understanding that food is the single biggest bioregulator that we are interacting with. It's the single biggest thing that modifies our biochemical, physiological, hormonal neurotransmitter, pretty much every function, microbiome, everything is going in your body. Your gene expression is controlled by what you eat in real time. So you want to eat high quality food as best you can. Lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, not a ton of sugary fruits, but lots of good fruits can be fine if you're metabolically healthy. Lots of good fats, avocados, olive oil, nuts and seeds are really important. Also, people eat more nuts and seeds, have more longevity and better health. Animal foods are definitely a big question mark for people, but I think without going into too much detail here, because we're trying to cover all the five things, I think the data on meat I've discussed deeply in food, what the heck should I eat, in the Pegan diet, and also in Young Forever, I talked about protein and the need for certain kinds of protein as we age. So having good meat is important. I recently visited a ranch out here in Texas where I'm staying, and it was called Rome Ranch, and they provide incredible care to these bison that really regenerated the soil and increased the water tables and increased biodiversity. Bald eagles are coming back, creeks are coming back, they'd been dead for generations. Plants that have been dormant for a hundred years are coming back because of the bison poop fertilizing them was quite amazing. And they produce really healthy regeneratively raised meat. And there's a company called Force of Nature where you can get animal that were, you know, sort of raised in a way that's in their natural habitat and their natural species as they have for centuries and provide really high quality meat that's full of phytochemicals and protein and vitamins and minerals and things that.

Are really essential for us.

I think eggs also, pasture raised eggs are great. They had duck eggs on the farm, which I got, which are really great. if you're gonna eat fish, make sure it's low in mercury and toxins. Eat what I call the smash fish, sardines, mackerel, herring, anchovies and salmon, small salmon ideally. If you're gonna eat grains, make sure you eat more heirloom grains. You eat whole grains, not whole grain flours, or some can be fine like Himalayan, turmeric, buckwheat, completely minimally processed flours. If they're in the original heirloom state, they're higher in protein, lower in glycemic. trigerring starches, they have higher levels of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. I love him only entirely buckwheat, but I definitely would not be eating flour from most sources and I would be avoiding gluten mostly, especially from the American dwarf wheat. Some ancient forms of grain can be fine if you're not gluten sensitive. Beans are great and I think they can be a great part of a healthy diet. Obviously you can't get as much protein from beans and grains as you would from like four, six ounces of chicken or meat, you can get 30 grams of protein. You'd need six cups of brown rice and two cups of beans or two cups of beans to get that same amount. So it's a little harder as we get older. Sugar, obviously processed food, sugar, that's, that's just a problem. Ultra processed food should have zero part of your diet, like zero additives, chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics, all should be completely eliminated. If you're gonna have sugar, that's okay. But just think of it as a recreational drug. Small amounts occasionally can be fine, but not as a daily staple. And eat real sugar, have maple syrup, have honey, you know, I mean have sugar, but don't eat all those artificial weird things. Refined oils can be a problem. I think there are expeller pressed oils, there are high laic oils, there are, oh, they have good mixtures of omega threes and sixes. So I think the sort of narrative, it's all seed oils are bad or not oils are bad. I think it's problematic, but we have to be more, more specific. and it's a little nuanced, but I talk about what that is in my book. And dairy can be great if it's from sheep or goat, and if you're not allergic, but most traditional cow dairy is pretty bad for you, not because, you know, because of all the hormones in it, because of the A1 casein was just super inflammatory, whereas the casein, which is the protein in milk that's in sheep or goat is much less inflammatory. So that's sort of the high level on diet. And if you follow these principles, you can eat lots of different ways, but they're just really core principles of what you should be eating. Next is sleep. Sleep is so important and we don't prioritize sleep in this culture. We think we can cheat sleep and still do well. We can't. We need to practice good sleep hygiene. So what does that look like? And again, you know, people say, I have insomnia. I can't sleep. Well, they often don't practice good sleep hygiene. So go to bed and wake up at the same time every day as best possible. Use your bed for sleep and romance or sex, not TV or work. Create a nice environment in your bedroom. Really limit all the clutter and distractions. Keep it serene, muted colors, get rid of all that crap. Make sure you have blackout shades, or at least an eye mask. Light plays a huge role, and even if our eyes are closed and it's bright out, light will get in and it can affect our melatonin levels and affect our ability to sleep. Keep it quiet, you know, if you're living in a noisy area, use earplugs.

Get grounded.

I think one of the things we don't realize is the electromagnetic frequencies can be a factor and they're actually grounding sheets and grounding tents. In New York City, you know, I had a Geiger counter, which measures like basically not a Geiger counter, but like basically like a EMF detector. And essentially it measures the ambient EMF or electromagnetic frequencies and it basically says, danger, danger, get out of our apartment. because of all the Wi-Fi and everything, you know, there's like all these buildings and all these people with their own Wi-Fi and there's like 100, you know, Wi-Fi things going on. And so we put a kind of like a basically fair, like a faraday cage, which is a, it blocks all the EMFs and you couldn't make a phone call inside the tent over your bed. So I encourage you to either shut off your Wi-Fi at night to get a kind of faraday tent for your bed or something like that and try to keep all the electrical stuff away from your bed and don't check your devices and just just get your device out of bed. Also, get rid of blue light exposure at night. You can use red light bulbs at home at night. You can use blue blocker glasses. You want to avoid computers, smartphones, tablets, at least two hours before bed. Really, use the blue blocker glasses after sunset. It can be great. Caffeine can be fine for people, but if you're a slow metabolizer, you can have a cup in the morning and that can affect your sleep at night. So, it can really interfere with sleep. if you're really struggling, I would encourage you to get off caffeine. Alcohol, I occasionally like to drink, but it is a super bad sleep disruptor. And I can tell when I wear my aura ring or when I'm, you know, tracking my sleep, when I drink something at night, my sleep is always much worse. And I, and I actually feel worse the next day. So I've pretty much given up mostly drinking. Occasionally I'll have a shot of tequila, but not, not on a regular basis also. Make sure in the morning you get light exposure. Getting 20 minutes of bright light exposure in the morning activates the light receptors in your eyes, it affects your brain, your pineal gland, and sets rising cortisol levels and lower melatonin and kind of helps you actually reset your system so you can get a deeper sleep at night. Also, don't eat three hours before bed. So give yourself three hours before your last meal in bed. I can't always do that, but having a heavy meal and going to bed, it's going to screw up your sleep. I went to a dinner party last night and I'm sure the guy wants to eat at six o'clock. And we didn't eat till nine o'clock at night. I came home and I went to bed at 11:30. I was still, by the time I finished dinner was 10, you know, gotten to bed 11:30. It wasn't enough time. And I definitely can feel the effects.

Today of not having as good a sleep.

Also, don't work out at night. Exercising at night will stimulate you and interrupt your sleep. Also, get the crap out of your head that's spinning. So write down your worries. Maybe an hour before bed, do a little journaling. Write down what causes you anxiety, get stuff off your head that your to-do list, what your plans are, just free up your mind a little bit. One of my favorite hacks is a hot bath. I use Epsom salt and lavender oil to lower cortisol. hot water helps to raise your body temperature, which helps you fall asleep faster. And magnesium is absorbed through the skin, which helps you relax. And it's great. So you get the cortisol lowering effects of lavender, and it's just a great, fun way to kind of wind down at night. Also, if you can stretch at night, do a little yoga stretching. If you're lucky, get a massage. Some of the best sleep I've ever had were when I got a massage at night and then go to bed. It's like I just go into a whole different state. Also, heating pads can be great. Warming your middle, heating pad, a water bottle, a warm body helps. Don't take medications that mess up sleep, sedatives, antihistamines, stimulants, cold medications, steroids, often headache medication that takes caffeine in them. Be careful of those. Those can screw up your sleep. Try some herbs, passionflower, valerian root, magnolia, A lot of these things can be very helpful for sleep. Magnesium is one of my favorites. Take magnesium before bed, 2 to 400 milligrams. You can take magnesium citrate if you tend to be constipated, glycinate if you're more likely to just have normal bowels. Some of that melatonin, half a milligram to two milligrams can be helpful for some people. Other things, amino acids like GABA, theanine, 5-HTP, really helpful. Try guided meditation. Sometimes I'll listen to binaural beats at night, which is you can listen to them online and get a headphone and it really helps to really reset your brain. Yoga nidra, guided relaxation, whatever you like, but I would encourage you to try that. And try my sleep masterclass. You can go to drhyman.com/sleep. So sleep's important. And exercise also important. Obviously, if there was a longevity pill, it would be exercise. Certain types of exercise are far more effective for optimizing our health or metabolism or lifespan. Aerobic conditioning, strength, keeping your muscle mass, being flexible, being agile, super important for staying healthy. You want to be able to, you know, do what I call the centenarian Olympics, basically. Peter Tiah talks about the Centurion, you know, decathlon, which is like, what do you do? Get up off the floor, play with your grandkids, tie your shoes, you know, but that requires you to be fit and agile and flexible and build muscle. So really important. It has really powerful effects. It's like a stress and it's this hormesis strategy, which is a stress that doesn't kill you, that makes you stronger. And, what are the main ways we need to do this? One is by boosting your VO2 max. Your VO2 max is basically how much oxygen you can burn a minute. And, that is an indirect measurement of your fitness level and also your mitochondrial function and your metabolism. so the higher it is, the longer you'll live. And the way to get it up is by high intensity interval training and like sprints. Also muscle, super important, maximizing muscle is key. So strength training 30 minutes, three times a week minimum, and having adequate protein after. Getting flexible, yoga classes, stretching, key to keeping your body supple. You know, the stiff old man syndrome is a real thing. So make sure you keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments pliable, flexible. It'll help with your mobility, agility, balance, living pain free. Yoga is really great. So I encourage you to pick up some yoga. You can, there's online classes, easy to do. What do I do? Well, I do four to six days of cardio with interval training. I do road bike mountain biking, tennis is my favorite. Cause I don't even know I'm exercising. Hiking, sometimes I do classes, swimming, 30, 60 minutes session. I do strength training. I use TB 12 sports resistance bands. Sometimes I use weights. I'll do that 30 minutes, four or five times a week. And yoga, I love yoga. So hot yoga, vinyasa yoga, a couple of times a week, stretching a little bit every day, but I definitely get into the yoga. I wish I could do that every day, actually. Also, the next, and so the last, one of the last major things is building community and a sense of purpose. You know, a lot of us, you know, don't have a deep community and loneliness and isolation are big risk factors for, for disease and early death. So also your mind, you know, what happens between the ears determines so much about your health. So develop a growth mindset, learn about the world, explore and be curious about yourself and the world. Figure out what's not working and then in your life and take action to fix it. Create a vision statement for yourself. Like what matters to you? What are your goals? What are your dreams? Do good things for other people. Altruism is actually A medicine literally affects us in a positive way in our biology. Our brain circuits get rewarded with dopamine like they do with heroin or cocaine with altruism. And it's much safer and much healthier. So find something that matters to you. Be part of making the world a better place. There was a well-known Indian guru named Neem Karoli Baba who said, you know, you could reach awakening with simple plan. Love everyone, serve everyone. And he added, feed everyone. So, that's pretty simple. Rules for living. Volunteer, give back to your community, practice kindness to those around you. Also, there's a way to take your struggles and your pain and transform them into a purpose. Many of us have had, you know, traumas in our lives. We've experienced hard things, and we can use those things to help others. And I certainly, you know, did that. I got very sick when I was in my 30s. I had chronic fatigue, and that led me to understand the body in a different way and discover functional medicine. And I, and I see, I saw how many people were suffering. that don't need to with solutions that are available to them. Also find out what makes you happy, what lights you up, what you're passionate about, and do those things. I love to play tennis. I love to be in nature. I love to hang out with my friends. I love to listen to music. So I find those things that give me joy and I go do them. Find out what you care about and what your dreams are and follow those dreams. You can reinvent your life at any age. So just makes sure you take the time to explore your life and make those changes that you need to actually bring more passion and joy to your life and make sure you're connected to community because that's so powerful. It's a part of our medicine is community is medicine. And many of us are, as I mentioned, socially isolated and doesn't matter what it is. It could be a book club, it could be bowling buddies, it can be anything. But the more connected you are to people, the healthier you are, the more your relationships are solid in your life, the better your health is going to be in the longer you're going to live. Also, find out and see people who inspire you. You're only as healthy as the five people you spend the most time with. So if all your friends are, you know, you know, eating McDonald's and drinking soda all day, somebody call it diabetes water, then, you know, that's probably what's going to happen to you. But if all your friends are, are watching and watching Netflix and binging on junk food, you're probably going to be in trouble if your friends are drinking green juices and doing yoga, you know, probably in their focus on growth and development, you're probably going to be healthier too. Also, be nice to yourself. Most of us are pretty hard on ourselves. And if we actually talk to our friends the way we talk to ourself with our inner dialogue, we probably wouldn't have any friends. Ram Dass talks about this idea of non-judgmental loving self-awareness how do we recognize our negative inner dialogue and how do we how do we overcome that? Also prioritize your own self-care. It's not selfish to take care of yourself. You know, the more you take care of yourself, the better you can be in your life for others. So you're going to become a source of energy and light for yourself and for others. And I think, you know, focusing on productivity is not the answer. It's on filling up our hearts and our souls. So do those simple things that bring you back to yourself and support your health. And I know it's for me, it's super important. So after this, I'm going to go for a walk with a friend, and then I'm going to go play tennis later this afternoon, and I invited family members over for dinner tonight. So I try to do this on a daily basis to add those things that bring value. Also, learn how to manage your stress response. We can't stop stress. It's happening all the time. But we can manage it. And we have to learn those techniques. It can be breathing techniques, meditation, yoga, guided meditation, forest bathing, which we call it taking a walk in the woods, writing down your feelings, journaling, super helpful. you know, gratitude Journal, super important. It's actually data on this. It's not just some goofy idea. It's actually something that, where there's real data on practicing gratitude as a method for healing your body and healing yourself. Martin Seligman talks about this in his book flourish, where he unpacks a science of gratitude, and it's how it affects your health and happiness. So focus on what's right and good, not on what's wrong and bad. A lot of us are, you know, focusing what's wrong instead of what's right. And I think We just shift our focus and we'll often be much happier. Also, build your friend network. You know, take time to invest in your friends, whether it's, you know, gatherings you have weekly, it could be a breakfast club, it could be a Zoom gathering you have with your friends all.

Over the country or world.

Just make sure you invest in that. Massage is great if you can do it. It helps breathing out stress. I love mine. One of my favorite techniques, you can trade massage with a friend, with a partner, you can get a professional flog if you can afford it. Exercise also a great way to reduce stress. So there's so many things, the five different things you can do. They're so important. What you eat, exercise, your, your sleep, your, your meaning, purpose, and learning how to manage stress, all super important for living a long and healthy life. If you love that last video, you're gonna love the next one. Check it out here. Remember, I've been doing this for 40 years, I've been learning and incorporating different things, and I've sort of come up with what works for me. But I'm going to share with you what the science and what, and these are science-backed interventions that I've focused on. So, the first is, you know, what.