Rapamycin, Metformin, Senolytics & Exercise: How to Add DECADES to Your Life | Siim Land

Exercise is by far the most potent anti aging intervention that we know of right now because it improves all of your blood markers, it improves your risk factors for all the chronic diseases, it targets all the hallmarks of aging that are considered to be like characteristics of aging that happen as you get older. And it also improves all organ functions. If you want to be healthy and live a long time, you should do some form of exercise.

Hello everybody. Welcome Back to the Dr. Joy Kong podcast. You know, I am here to help enhance your life, make you healthier and happier and whatever I can bring, and I often bring experts onto my show. And today I have the pleasure of bringing Sim Land, who is quite a biohacker and an incredible writer with multiple books. So Sim, thank you so much for being here.

Yeah, I'm happy to be here.

Yeah. So just a little bit about you and you have, you're eight times best selling author on health and longevity. You have a degree in anthropology, but you've been interested in human life expansion for quite some time. And you're very young, you're only 30 years old and to have written eight books, I don't know how you do it. So, so tell us what you went from anthropology and all the way to longevity. What's the journey like?

Yeah, so I was studying anthropology and in the middle of studying I figured what I was going to do with my life or what is going to be, I guess the vocation or profession after the studying. Because as an anthropologist you either become a professor at the university or you start writing ethnographies about different people and different groups. So I did like the idea of writing. I wasn't planning to become an ethnographer, but yeah, writing was something that I discovered came very naturally to me or like I was very good at it. Like in uni as an anthropologist, you know, most of the exams and tests, they're not like, you know, question and answer tests. They're most like essays and literature reviews and those kind of things or like writing esque tasks. And I was always like very good at it and I was able to, you know, write very fast and comprehensively. So that's where I started to, you know, I guess entertain the idea of becoming a writer. And during the last year of college I also started my blog which was just me sharing like different, I guess like life lessons and tips for productivity, tips for health and nutrition, fitness and all those, you know, just personal development style content on my blog. I did, you know, grow like a very small following with that. I did like, you know, write some articles that eventually became a bit more popular on the. On Google search. But quickly I switched from the blog to creating YouTube videos as well. And yeah, the YouTube is where I gained more significant following. Started my YouTube in 2016, at the end of 2016. And yeah, right now I've been doing it for, you know, nine years, almost creating a content on YouTube and progressively covering different topics. Initially it was yeah, similar to just everything I was learning about and was sharing my tips about like reading and book reviews and nutrition and exercise and those things and slowly move towards more health because that was what I was more interested in. And yeah, over the course of a few years, switched mostly to longevity topics because I think that is a very interesting topic. It's also the most umbrella condition, aging and longevity. That is very hard problem to solve and it's very fascinating. So yeah, I was just starting to cover those topics on the YouTube channel, having my podcast as well with different doctors and scientists on there on these topics. And along that journey wrote a lot of books as well. Like the first of those eight books was published in 2019 and by now it's eight books.

Yeah, that's very impressive. Yeah. So writing, you must be quite an intellectual. So if you are, things are just flowing out of you. That means that there's a lot inside that wants to come out. Yeah, that's wonderful. And that's YouTube is how I found you. I was searching different content and of course in the longevity and health space. So you popped up very young, but talking about all these things about longevity. So very interesting. And of course you are living what you're preaching, right. You're in great shape, you're, you're optimizing your health. So that's also great to see. So I would love to hear you share some of the tips that you, you have from all these years. You are into fitness, right? And also into supplementation to see what we can do to optimize. Maybe we talk about what you do for fitness. What do you think will be the most effective way for people to stay in good shape, gain muscle, you know, have good body composition? What will be your advice?

Yeah, so fitness is in like the modern world is quite like a paradox in the sense that in the ancestral environment we needed to be physically fit to survive, to catch prey and survive the landscape and the environment. We needed to be physically fit, strong and have good endurance. In a modern world, we can survive without having a lot of strength and physical endurance, but our bodies still require us to be physically healthy and Fit because it's just good for your overall health and slows down physical aging and the consequences of not being fit. They also impose this kind of natural selection in that sense that being unfit in the modern world is equally as bad as if it was in the past. If you were unfit in the ancestral environment, you didn't survive because you couldn't catch food. But in the modern world, if you're unfit, you're just going to die to some sort of a chronic disease like a metabolic disease or heart disease or something like that. So being fit is just a way to keep your body healthy and slow down the aging of the body. So exercise is by far the most potent anti aging intervention that we know of right now because it improves all of your blood markers, it improves your risk factors for all the chronic diseases. It targets, all the hallmarks of aging that are considered to be like characteristics of aging that happen as you get older. And it also improves all organ functions. So it doesn't matter who, who you are or what your goals are. If you want to be healthy and live a long time, you should do some form of exercise. And you know, you don't need to necessarily become an athlete. You don't need to compete, you don't need to enslave yourself at gym. What they find in the studies is that, you know, going from sedentary to just some physical activity provides the greatest risk reduction. So even like walking, if you go from being predominantly sedentary, so walking around 2,000 steps a day, which is, you know, 10 to 15 minutes of walking throughout the entire day, and that's, you know, you're basically on the couch most of the time and sitting in the car, going from 2,000 steps to 8,700 steps, which is maybe like an hour and a half of walking throughout the entire day. That yields a 60% risk reduction in all cause mortality. So just going from being sedentary to being semi active and not being like, even like an athlete, that gives you a massive benefit for reducing the risk of a lot of chronic diseases as well as all cause mortality. And if you go beyond that, you go to 16,000 steps per day, you do gain like a small benefit, you gain an additional 5% risk reduction. But as you can see, the majority of benefits come from just getting off the couch and being somewhat active. And if you go for like, you know, very high levels of physical activity, you gain a very small percentage of extra benefits.

So that's why people are aiming at the 10,000 steps a day, because that's.

A. Yeah, that's like an easy number to aim for. Yeah, but yeah, the message is that you don't necessarily need to graduate to some very strenuous and time consuming exercise program. Just doing something is better than not doing or doing nothing at all. Because yeah, the greatest risk reductions actually come from going off the couch and doing something, even if it's, you know, 10 minutes a day of some form of physical activity. You know, how do you. So that's like, you know, the first step, my first lesson. How do you like actually optimize it? So ideally, we want to do both resistance training and cardiorespiratory fitness. The reason being because our body loses both muscle mass, but our cardiorespiratory fitness, our cardiac function also declines with age. And when you look at the research, then people who do both have better health outcomes than people who do only one or the other. So rather than thinking of becoming like a very specialized athlete, training for longevity and health comes down to being more generalists in all different areas of fitness. So you want to have, you know, semi good cardiorespiratory fitness, you want to have semi good strength, semi good muscle mass, semi good flexibility and mobility, semi good speed and power, rather than being just like a power lifter and having with it with poor cardio or vice versa, being an ultra endurance athlete with very low muscle strength or low bone density. So yeah, more like a generalist approach is the way to train for health and longevity.

I think people know the importance of resistance training. Maybe you can just talk a little bit about the benefits of resistance training. But I also want to ask you a question about the cardio and what qualifies as cardiovascular exercise?

Yeah, so resistance training is like muscle strengthening activity that requires your muscles to encounter a certain type of resistance at a near maximum effort. And that then results in increase in muscle strength and muscle mass as well. So that can be kettlebells, it can be your body weight, it can be barbell, it can be yoga, it can be resistance bands. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a special type of lifting. It can be many different types of resistance training. But the main driver of that stimulus is the mechanical tension. So your muscle fibers need to recruit themselves at near maximum intensity for a certain duration or a certain amount of repetitions to then facilitate this protein synthesis that makes you build muscle. And strength is also like there's neuronal context there. That strength is like a skill that also requires your neurons to fire at a certain, like a pattern. And the more you Practice that, the better you become at the lifting itself as well. So it's not only that you have a lot of muscle and a lot of strength, there is also like the skill component, because if you look at like Olympic weightlifters, they train specifically in a way that requires a lot of skill and they practice the skill rather than just pack on a lot of muscle or pure strength. So it's very skill based movement and the same with like gymnasts. But regardless, as a, let's say, training for health and longevity, the mechanical tension is the biggest driver of muscle growth and muscle strength. So you need to encounter this resistance that is close to your maximum. So if it's too light, if you're lifting a broom or a coffee cup all day, then it's so light it doesn't require your muscle fibers to recruit at this near maximum effort. Whereas if you lift a dumbbell that's, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 kg, then for most people that is quite close to their maximum. And if you do it a few repetitions, then eventually the muscle fibers will reach their limit and you trigger this adaptation.

So what's the systemic benefit of growing your muscles or fighting against resistance?

Yeah, with age there is a decline in muscle mass and muscle strength. A lot of it is because of being sedentary. So not using your muscles and not lifting anything, not exercising is like the biggest reason why people's muscle mass declines. And what we see from research is that low muscle mass and low strength are associated with increased risk of mortality from all causes, not not only just heart disease or diabetes or something like that. So there is a lot of benefits to having more muscle and muscle strength, mostly because, you know, first of all, to have more muscle and muscle strength you need to exercise. And if you exercise, you trigger all of these other systemic adaptations that improve your metabolic health, lower inflammation, lower blood pressure, improve blood flow, improve mitochondrial function. So just the mere act of exercise itself is the reason why, I guess muscle mass and muscle strength is associated with better health outcomes. So let's say even if you didn't build any muscle or strength, but you just exercised, you would gain a lot of those similar benefits, or at least part of them. But having more muscle, you know, once you have it, that also has benefits for your metabolic health. Because muscle is very hungry for glucose, especially if you are exercising regularly, you have a better insulin sensitivity and metabolic health. If you have more muscle, you'll be able to eat more carbohydrates, you're able to eat more calories without Gaining weight and without rising, raising your blood sugar too high. So just from a metabolic standpoint, having more muscle is very beneficial, but training for that, so like the way you get to the muscle. So you need to, you need to train. The act of the training itself is where most of the benefits come from, from the systemic benefits.

I see. Okay. And then when it comes to cardiovascular exercise, I do wonder, because you have to hit your heart rate at a certain level, right? Like what would you target? What would you tell people to target?

Yeah. So cardiorespiratory fitness also declines with age. You know, it's important for heart function and cardiac function. And having good cardio respiratory fitness similarly is associated with lower mortality. And the reason for that again is mostly because people who have a higher rea2 max, they also exercise more. So it's not something that you can maintain by doing nothing. Yes, there are like some genetic differences and health differences. If you're healthy and you have good genetics, you know, you're able to maintain a higher VO2 max as you get older, but it's going to decline anyway. And so there's no like 70 year old who doesn't train at all who has that a higher VO2 max than a 30 year old who exercises or who doesn't exercise. So there's a natural decline in VO2 max and cardiorespiratory fitness, which I guess is, yeah, more like a side effect or the, the outcome of aging of the heart and aging of the cardiovascular system overall. And having good cardiorespiratory fitness, again is more like the outcome of exercising, which improves your heart function and improves your lung function. Cardiorespiratory fitness requires more than just the heart. It also involves muscles, it also involves the lungs and the heart. And you know, it's a systemic phenomenon. And. But if you exercise regularly, you do cardiovascular exercise, you will increase your VR2 max. And in so doing you'll also improve all the other organ functions. You'll improve heart function better, I guess. Integrity of the blood vessels and lower blood pressure just be healthier by exercising more regularly. What is the threshold for that? The research shows that you can increase your VO2 max and card respiratory fitness with both high intensity exercise and low intensity exercise. Both will increase VO2 max. You see a lot of professional athletes embracing this kind of 80, 20 split. That 80% of their training is spent in low intensity zone. So something like less than 60% of their max heart rate and 20% is spent in the high intensity zone. So over 80% of their maximum heart rate. And you calculate your maximum heart rate by dividing your age from 220. So if you, you know, I'm 32, 20 minus 30, my maximum heart rate supposedly would be 190. Now it's not necessarily that it depends a lot on your fitness and genetics as well. But that's like a easy way to start to know. Okay, what would be your estimated heart rate? Zones. So the heart rate zones go from zone one to zone five. So zone one anything up to 40%, zone two should be like 60 to 70%. Zone three 70 to 80, zone four 80 to 90 and zone five 90 to 100%. So it's from mere walking and the jogging up to a full out sprinting and being out of breath. So both, both the low intensity and the high intensity will increase your VO2 max. So if you just start running, if you just get off the couch and start running randomly, you will increase your VO2 max just because you're imposing your body under this adaptation or your body requires to adapt to it. But a lot of training protocols focus on either the low intensity or the high intensity training. Which one is more effective depends on the person and their, I guess, level of fitness. Like I said, pro athletes, they spend 80% of their time in the low intensity training and 20% in high intensity. Now it doesn't necessarily mean that low intensity is better. They a lot of the reasons or big reason why they do that is because high intensity training can also be more strenuous on the nervous system and they might have a higher risk of injuries as well. So they don't want to get injured, they don't want to overtrain. So that's why they do a lot of this low intensity training. To get the same adaptations from low intensity exercise, you need to train a lot longer. Whereas with high intensity exercise you can get the same adaptations, but you do it in a shorter period of time. So this high intensity interval training is seen to provide similar adaptations as low intensity cardio. But you do it in a short time. So you more like a compressed time window, you can get similar adaptations. So any form of cardio will increase your VO2 max. Figuring out which one is the best, I would say, you know, you want to do both again, you want to do at least once a week, some form of high intensity interval training, and maybe once or twice a week steady state low intensity cardio.

So high intensity would be zone three and above.

Yeah, so technically high intensity would be more like zone four and five. So a lot of People consider like zone three to be this kind of gray zone that people tend to avoid. Like you either do the zone 2 low intensity training or the high intensity interval training. Now it doesn't, it's not true. Like, you can still gain benefits and you can still increase your VO2 max in zone 3 as well. It's just a lot of, a lot of, like, athletes tend to avoid it. I mean, there are occasions that they, that they, you know, do use zone three and four training. And it has its benefits for different reasons, but oftentimes people tend to gravitate only towards either the high intensity training or the low intensity training. Yeah, so high intensity is anything like above 80% of max heart rate, and it involves like several rounds. So you do a few minutes at 80 to 90% of your max heart rate. So you're like going as fast as you can or trying to maintain this heart rate zone of 80 to 90%. You know, eventually you're not able to go as fast as you can, but you're just trying to maintain that heart rate zone for a few minutes. So the intervals can be anywhere from, you know, 30 seconds up to five minutes. The research has shown that longer intervals are slightly better than shorter intervals. So over 2 1/2 minutes of intervals appears to be superior to like 30 second intervals in increasing VO2 max. At least now shorter intervals have their place as well. So it requires, like just structuring a good workout plan. But if you do long intervals, you do three, four minutes of very high intensity intervals, like the one round being three, four minutes, then you're in this kind of a pain cave or in this very high intensity zone so long that it's just a very powerful signal for your body to adapt. And if you are able to maintain, let's say, 80 to 90% of your max heart rate for four minutes, then, yeah, it's a very good signal for increasing your cardio fitness. If you're doing the interval that you start off at 80 to 90%, but then after 30 seconds you'll get tired and your heart rate drops down to 60, 70% then. Yeah, like it's not a complete interval in that sense, then you need to reduce the speed or adjust the intensity in some other ways. But the goal is to do at least two and a half minutes of intervals repeated for a few rounds. So you usually do two and a half minutes of the interval. You rest for again, two and a half minutes, which, you know, you reduce your speed, you either walk or jog or swim or bike or Whichever method you're using. So you reduce the speed to, you know, some people reduce it to 60% of their heart rate, others to 40%, depending on which one you prefer. But yeah, you reduce it for the few minutes, two and a half minutes, and then repeat the interval for, you know, three, four or five rounds, depending on, on the workout plan.

Hmm. Okay. Yeah. I'm curious about doing exercises like hot yoga, which increase your heart rate quite a bit, but you're not, you know, you're not doing the traditional cardio per se. Do those count as, as high intensity cardiovascular workout?

Depends on. Yeah. How high the heart rate goes.

Yeah. So if it does go up to like what we were talking about, you know, 80 to 90% of your max.

I would imagine that with yoga your heart rate could rise to something like 60 or 70%. I find it hard that it would rise to the 80 to 90% because it's quite hard. Like you're really, you know, grasping for air and like breathing through your mouth at that heart rate zone. So yeah, the 80 to 90%, you're pretty much like close to breathlessness. Whereas with, with zone twos or like 60 to 70%, you're still able to breathe through the nose. Like you're splitting, you're breathing hard, but you're able to still breathe through the nose. I think that is very realistic for yoga. But you know, if the yoga involves some more strength based movements or something like, I don't know, like. Yeah, something that requires very intense activity, then maybe like jumping jacks and. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there is research that if you are, let's say with a lower cardiorespiratory fitness, then you can see increases in VO2 max from resistance training as well, but only like up until the point you get more advanced. So if you're a beginner with cardio training, you will see increases in your cardio and endurance from resistance training as well. But if you're more advanced with cardio, then not so much.

Okay. Then you really need to turn up the heat. Well, turn, turn up your, your, your, your movements get your lungs and heart really pumping. Yeah, that's fantastic. Thank you so much. That's really, really helpful. And then what are your perspectives on supplements? Because I see lots of patients and some of them are very much into longevity. And there's a trend for people to pile on lots of supplements because it is like a FOMO syndrome, right. They, they see somebody taking something or they read something that's been really good. Oh my God, look at this. List of benefits, so they didn't want to miss out. What are your thoughts on people taking sometimes 60, 70 or 120 supplements?

Yeah, with supplements, you know, you have to know why you're taking them and whether or not they work. So there are literally like hundreds of supplements that you could take. Most of them don't have, you know, that much evidence that they would have benefits or they, the benefits might be over hyped or overstated. So if someone is taking, you know, any more than like 20 supplements, then that tends to raise some questions like, okay, are you sure that they all work? Are you sure that you need them and are you sure you're actually getting the right doses and how much does it all cost? So if you don't have problems with the budget, you have unlimited budget, you can pay as much as you want for the supplements, then I don't see any real harm in taking hundreds of supplements per day. The biggest concern is usually the cost for most people. They don't necessarily need to take it. So I don't see a reason why they would want to take that many supplements in that case either. But there are of course, a lot of supplements that do have evidence and they have quite a lot of clinical trials showing that they work for different things. So for example, creatine is one of the most researched supplements of all time. It has, you know, I think it's pretty universally shown to increase muscle strength and muscle mass and muscle power. It also has benefits in improving cognitive function in people who have cognitive deficits like, like the aging population or some neurodegenerative conditions or a traumatic brain injury, for example. There are like a few studies showing that creatine has protective effects in those cases and it might even have some benefits in counteracting sleep deprivation, for example. So creatine is one of those good examples that yes, most people would benefit from creatine supplementation in some shape or form. Another one is like omega 3s. I think most people would benefit from omega 3s so improving their fatty acid status. Omega 3s help with lowering triglycerides, they help with lowering inflammation and improving insulin sensitivity.

What will be your favorite form of Omega 3? Because a lot of people take fish oil and I'm really becoming a little concerned about fish oil because of the, the oxidation and that. Right. The going rancid and actually does harm. I, I'm wondering if it does more harm than good. Right?

Yeah, I mean, you want to get as high quality Omega 3 supplement as you can find and afford pretty much the concern with like oxidation of the fats in omega 3s and fish oil is certainly like valid. Is there a potential risk that these omega 3s, polar unsaturated fats in the omega 3s can get oxidized quite easily. But I find. So there is like a study that looked at what happens if you give highly oxidized fish oil to humans for a few weeks. So they actually artificially use some sort of industrial methods to oxidize the fish oil. So it's not like that they just took an oxidized fish oil from the supplement store. They just really mechanically oxidized the fish oil and gave it to the humans for a few weeks. And they found that it didn't raise inflammation in these humans at all. And it had like no effects on this lipid peroxidation or those other parameters of inflammation. But what it did do is raise omega 3 status, which we know from studies is associated with a lower risk of all cause mortality and heart disease. So I guess it's hard to. Yeah, I mean, yeah, like it's. I guess it's kind of hard to say how big of a deal the oxidation of these omega 3s would be if they indeed are oxidized. Because keep in mind this study didn't take a regular supplement from the store that might be slightly oxidized, but it's definitely not as oxidized as the Omega 3s they used in this study, which they oxidized in a way that is not possible with natural means. So yes, you know, most regular omega 3s and fish oil in the supermarket are probably somewhat more oxidized than a high quality one. And the one that has been, you know, shielded from sunlight and is in the cold, stored in the cold. But how big of a negative effect it actually has on your health is, is not clear. Like, based on the study that I mentioned, based on that study, you have like no negative effects on your health. It would.

That's good to know. What kind of Omega 3 do you take and do you think are really good sources?

Yeah, there's. I think it's International Fish oil standard organization, IFSO, that has listed like quality omega 3 brands that are tested for heavy metals and that they actually contain the omega 3s. So that's like a website that lists out, you know, good brands. I would like check it out because, you know, it depends a lot of the region and, and the location.

So you still think fish oil will be the ideal source?

I think fish oil is not the best source necessarily, but it's also not like as bad as people make it out to be. I think that it, if that's your only option, then it's better than nothing in my opinion.

Well, krill oil be better.

Krill oil? Yes. Like it does contain omega 3 fatty acids and it also has other like protective compounds that can actually protect the omega 3s against oxidation, like astaxanthin for example. So that's a somewhat better option. Another, you know, completely alternative option is algae oil. So that's from the algae plant. And the studies show that algae oil is equally as good in raising omega 3 levels as fish based omega 3 supplements. So you wouldn't be missing out on anything if you just take an algae oil.

Oh, that's really cool. I didn't even know that they are doing algae oil. That's. Yeah, it's good to know.

Yeah. And you know, algae oil might have like a slightly lower risk of toxicity and, and usually it's like higher quality as well. But of course most supplements can be still contaminated with heavy metals in some shape or form.

Yeah. Okay, so these are really good tips. So creatine and omega 3. And so these will be amount if you take 20 supplements, these will be really, really good to include. What other ones do you think would be highly beneficial?

Yeah, I like astaxanthin as well. So astaxanthin is a carotenoid that you get from pink foods like salmon and shrimp and crabs. Astaxanthin has some research on inflammation and potentially blood pressure and cholesterol levels as well in humans, but it mostly works in people who have elevated inflammation or elevated blood pressure, for example. So it doesn't work for all people in that parameters. One interesting thing about asaxanthin is that it has potential skin anti aging effects. So it protects the skin against UV radiation because it's a powerful carotenoid. And there are human studies as well that it reverses some photo damage or like improves photo aged skin in humans. So you know, this is one of those things that regardless of a health status, it doesn't matter how fit you are. If you know your goal is maybe improve skin aging, then asaxanthin is a worthwhile supplement in my opinion.

It's funny, it's reminding me of like a semi, a battle between me and a doctor at a, at a summit that we were, she was stressing on SPF and sunscreens and I, I believe if you take appropriate antioxidants you can protect yourself against lots of skin damage. So it's A divergent perspective. And I, I do think the, the sunscreens, there could be a lot of potential hormone disruptors and may not be the best idea. And, and I think a small amount of sunlight and the UV light, I think it's good for you. It's all about the dose. If you have too much, I think yes, it can damage your DNA and cellular structure. But yeah. What are your thoughts on sunscreen?

Yeah, I agree that sunlight is very beneficial. Excess sunlight will definitely accelerate skin aging. So it depends a lot on the dose and frequency and duration of exposure. I think people who spend a lot of time outside and especially in the midday when the sun is the hottest, then they would probably benefit from sunscreen. If you're only exposed to sun in the morning and in the evening and you spend outside maybe 10, 15 minutes, then maybe you can get away with not using sunlight sunscreen. So yeah, it depends a lot on the location and how much sun are you getting and for how long.

Yeah, I don't think I've used sunscreen for five years and my skin is pretty darn good. But anyhow, yeah, so astaxanthin could be very protective for your skin. That's good to know. Okay. Any other supplements that you really like?

Yeah, I mean there are a lot of supplements with certain benefits. You know, you can, you can find clinical trials on Ashwagandha improving testosterone and estrogen levels as well as stress and sleep. You can see magnesium improving sleep in some situations and lower blood pressure and lower inflammation. You can see NAC having anti inflammatory effects and may help with like liver, liver health as well to a certain extent.

To an assistocysteine.

Yeah. Plus like taurine has been quite popular recently. There are like some human studies that helps with metabolic health as well as exercise performance. Trimethylglycine can lower homocysteine which is a risk factor for heart disease. Trimethylglycine might also have some exercise benefits. Glycine helps with sleep and blood sugar regulation, possibly with collagen. Collagen peptides itself support skin anti aging and improve skin elasticity. So there are, you know, a lot of supplements that do work, I guess they're a main, main point to remember is that, yeah, like why are you taking it and do you need it? So you know, if you don't suffer from stress or sleep, then you maybe don't need Ashwagandha and magnesium. But if you do have stress and sleep problems, then you could, at least based on the clinical trials, you might benefit from Ashwagandha or magnesium, for example. So it all comes down to the individual, like, what do they need and what are some of their requirements when it comes to supplements.

Mm. Yeah, I think it's getting. The supplement realm is getting pretty overwhelming for patients to figure out. What do you think of the senolytics that's popping up and that people seem to be excited about?

Yeah. So senolytics have been seen to reduce senescent cells in animals, and some of them have been seen to do so in humans as well. So these senescent cells accumulate during aging, and reducing senescent cells, if I'm not mistaken, has been seen to extend lifespan in animals as well. So there is some possible, I guess, mechanism or way that it might extend lifespan in humans as well, although there's no studies to look at it. And unfortunately, there aren't any clinical trials on senolytics in humans either. There are, like, a few that most of their results will be out in a few years or something. So based on the current information, we know if senolytics will have, like, health benefits in humans. They do appear to reduce senescent cells, but there's no conclusive clinical trials yet on these analytics.

And rapamycin will be considered one of them, right?

Yeah. Rapamycin does have, like, synolytic properties. It does a lot of other things as well. And the main mechanism by which it's thought to extend lifespan in animals is the suppression of mtor. So this growth pathway that rapamycin suppresses. But with rapamycin. Yeah. There's not a lot of human clinical trials either, from longevity standpoint.

Yeah. And a lot of people are taking it, and I've heard quite a few people with side effects that they ended up stopped taking it. Like mouth sores, infections. Is that what you've seen as well?

I have read a paper by Matt Kaeberlane, who did research on these recreational rapamycin users. And mouth ulcers was the most common side effect that was reported. There were a few other ones, like gastrointestinal distress and similar symptoms, but they appear to be quite rare and can be avoided with adjusting the dose or frequency. So with rapamycin, what they find is that chronic rapamycin use, so taking it frequently, almost every day, that does appear to suppress the immune system, which is why they use it for organ transplant, to prevent organ transplant. Projection. So they use it every day to suppress the person's immune system. But if you use it infrequently, so like once a week at different doses, then you don't see this suppression of the immune system. And interestingly, rapamycin might, in that scenario, actually enhance immune system function. So there are some of these studies in humans that it increases the effectiveness of vaccination in older people. So the people taking rapamycin and getting vaccinated, they have a better response to the vaccine when they take rapamycin. So it's very interesting. And it doesn't even appear to result in muscle loss either if you take it this infrequent dose. So one of the fear might be that because you suppress mtor, you suppress this growth pathway, you're going to lose muscle. But that doesn't appear to be the case if you take it, you know, once a week or just infrequently. There are like, I think one study by Brad Stanfield, he's like conducting a clinical trial on rapamycin. I think right now that looks at it, is it going to affect muscle mass? But the initial findings from other studies indicate that it doesn't result in muscle loss, which is very interesting.

Okay, that's good to know. Another popular supplement medication is metformin, and there's a little bit of controversy. So do you have your take based on all the literature you've reviewed?

Metformin is very beneficial for people who have diabetes or pre diabetes. So it reduces mortality, reduces cancer and mortality and heart disease mortality in diabetics. There was a study a few years ago that saw that the individuals who were taking metformin and they had diabetes, they lived or they had a lower mortality risk than non diabetics not taking metformin. So that's just remarkable. That would imply that. That metformin is better than not having diabetes, which would be, yeah, quite, quite, you know, miraculous. But the. I think two years ago or something, they analyzed the data again and they discovered that, no, that it's not the case that diabetics taking metformin still have higher mortality than non diabetics not taking metformin. So diabetes is, you know, very harmful for your health and increases the risk of mortality. And metformin isn't going to reduce your mortality more than not having diabetes in the first place.

Wow. So they just did not analyze the data correctly. That's how we got that myth.

I don't remember exactly what was the reason, and I think it had to do something with adjusting for certain models. I don't remember exactly what it was. But yeah, if you have diabetes, then metformin will reduce your mortality risk. But if you don't have diabetes, Then taking metformin isn't going to reduce it further. H. So it's best to not have diabetes in the first place. But if you have diabetes, then metformin is, you know, quite beneficial and very powerful drug for anti. For reducing the risk of mortality in diabetes.

Well, in the longevity field, a lot of people are taking metformin, they don't have diabetes, and the prevailing thought is that it is going to enhance their lifespan.

Right, Yeah. I mean, we don't know. Maybe it will, maybe it won't, but there's no data that would indicate that it would be the case. Even in, like, animal research in mice, metformin hasn't been seen to extend lifespan repeatedly. So it hasn't been repeated, replicated, these findings. Yes, there are some studies that find it, but it's not consistent. So there's nothing that would indicate that metformin would extend lifespan in humans because.

For a while it was the only medication that was touted to be the one that could extend lifespan.

Yeah, but I think if I remember correctly, then it had to do with the mice they used. They used a specific genetically edited mice that saw that effect, but it wasn't. You didn't see these same effects in other. Other mice, if I'm not mistaken. So, yeah, I mean, the theory might be that if you have lower blood sugar and metformin tends to also, like, have other effects, obviously. But if, you know, the main mechanism is the reduction in insulin and reduction in blood sugar, that by doing that, then you'll extend your lifespan as a human. But there's no evidence that it would be the case. So.

Yeah, yeah. And we're talking about blood sugar. That reminds me of how much people eat. So one of the ways of extend lifespan is supposedly calorie restriction, which doesn't sound very much fun. So what are your thoughts on calorie restriction? And can people eat a lot and live a very long life?

Yeah, calorie restriction is the most replicated intervention for extending lifespan in animals and it, you know, has a lot of metabolic benefits in humans as well. So if you are in a calorie or state, you tend to lose weight, you lose visceral fat, you lose. Or you lower your blood sugar, you lower inflammation, you lower cholesterol, you lower blood pressure. So, like, all the biomarkers of metabolic health, at least, tend to gravitate towards improvements. So the problem is. Yeah, that, you know, how much calorie restriction and how long are you able to do it? Because if you're too calorie Restricted, you can also lose muscle tissue. You know, you can have other negative effects, especially on your like mental health or life satisfaction. So it's not clear whether or not it will have those same effects in humans and how much of a calorie restricted state you need to be in. I think the best bet for everyone would be to just not get overweight and trying to maintain a leaner body composition so, you know, have a slightly lower body fat percentage, at least for men. The, the evidence in men appears to be that the linear you are, the better it is for your longevity. Of course, to a certain point, if you're like single digit body fat percentage all the time, then maybe not. But at least below 15% body fat is better than being above 15% body fat for men. For women, there's less association between body fat and mortality. So anything between 20 to 35%, there's no difference in mortality risk. So anything other than being very underweight and skinny or very clinically obese, anything between that is pretty much okay to go for women when it comes to mortality risk, risk. And you know, maybe it has to do with some sex differences, maybe childbirth, estrogen, you know, there's maybe a lot of reasons why it might be, but for, yeah, men it's more important to be slightly leaner. But I think for both sexes it's better to not become like overweight. Try to maintain a healthy body composition with lower body fat percentage and you know, eat in a way that supports your exercise and good body composition. So you want to have good muscle mass, but you don't want to become too, you, you don't want to have too much body fat either.

Yeah. Okay, that's really interesting. That's nice that women are allowed to have a little bit more leeway, more padding. Okay, so any other thoughts that you think that people really, really should pay attention to if they want to live a long life?

The biggest predictor of life satisfaction is, you know, relationships, having a good partner and friends and family around you. Because if you're super fit and super healthy, but you're alone, or you have poor, poor toxic relationships, then you probably don't like your life, you're not enjoying it. But if you're even unhealthy, you're overweight, obese, you have, you know, a lot of diseases, but you are surrounded by people you love and you know, you're.

Having fun, you're having a good time.

Yeah. So like, you know, which one would you choose? Obviously many people would choose this different answer. Some people will choose being super fit and lonely. Other people would choose the overweight and. But happy. You know, we don't have to like fall into the extreme examples, but the takeaway is that the social relationships and friends and family and having a partner, I think those are the like biggest determinants of your actual life satisfaction. So if you're, you know, on your deathbed, whatever age that might be, then you're not really looking at your VHMX or your muscle strength. You're, you know, looking at your family and friends and family and what kind of memories you made with them. So not losing sight of, of that because yeah, at the end of the day, that's what truly matters and what will bring you the biggest life satisfaction and memories.

Right. And really what we want is just to be happy.

Right?

That's.

Yeah, I like to say that, you know, what people want is to be happy. That's the like the first goal, be happy and have like good life satisfaction and once you reach that and then the second goal is to extend that. So live a long time. So be happy and live long is the main two motivations of humans, I think.

Good point. Be happy first and then work on living long. Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. And sim, where can people find your books?

Yeah, my books are all on Amazon and I'm seamland on social media.

So you wrote one, a big book on longevity. Right. So that's kind of like every aspect you've uncovered that's good for longevity.

Yeah, it's the longevity leap and it covers all the major chronic diseases, covers exercise, nutrition, sleep, socializing, different supplements, blood markers. So it's. Yeah, like very thorough and in depth of a book.

Wonderful. And you also, as far as your blog and where can people follow. Follow your, you know, your, your thoughts and expertise?

Yeah, I don't keep the blog anymore. Like most of my thoughts and, and information comes from, you know, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Okay, wonderful. And you also lead some retreats, right? Which is very interesting.

Yeah, I have a retreat in India at the clinic with a five star hotel and we do like this thorough diagnostic program. So we do comprehensive blood tests, we do fitness tests, different kind of cardiac tests, ultrasound, full body mri, plus physiotherapists, consultations with doctors, skin analysis, dental analysis. So yeah, like a 360 health checkup.

Yeah, that sounds fantastic. I've always wanted to go back to India so I may use that opportunity, you know, check on my health and then explore India more. Thank you so much. Sim, this is fantastic. I learned a lot from you and I'm sure my audience as well. Well. So I wish you all the best and keep on doing the great work.

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you.