Reverse Aging: 5 Secrets to Looking and Feeling Younger!

Today I want to talk to you about how to stop and even reverse aging. Now, this also includes how to reverse chronic disease naturally, and there is not enough resources out there by doctors to help to empower their patients to reverse their disease naturally. There is a lot of emphasis on medication that still does not quite help you to get to the root problem And many times when people take medication, they are still doing damage and deteriorating and aging their body. But today we're gonna find out the proven ways that will actually reverse aging. Yes, that is right. We can anti-age, whether they told you that or not. And the body has a powerful ability to really heal itself and to really just recover you from the damage and the years of bad choices that maybe you've made along the way that caused you to be in predicaments that are not mostly desired by you. So if you pay attention, you can learn a lot that you can actually apply and start seeing results right away, believe it or not. Now, before we get into this, I want you to please make sure that you just take a moment and hit that subscribe button. A lot of people will listen to podcasts and shows that they absolutely enjoy and still do not take a moment to hit subscribe. They'll share and they'll gain content and they'll gain even value to what they're hearing, but still will not hit that subscribe button. So I just want to take a moment to just let you know that I'd love for you to hit that subscribe button because I want to be able to continue to get information to you that can make you, uh, more knowledgeable and give you the power to make choices to affect your life and your well-being. And this is important because your future wants you to be around and wants you to be at your best self. All right, so we have some great things that we are going to talk about today, and I love the topic of reversing chronic disease, because this is what I do for a living. And I love the, the thought of preserving life and making sure that days are being added to a person's life. Like, what better feeling than for someone to have the resources and the tools and the knowledge available to be able to live longer than they potentially would have if they didn't have the information. And here's the easy thing, is that some of these things that I'm going to talk about, you can actually start doing them right now and you can start seeing results. I have a lot of clients that I work with and they see results in the first week. And I'm not just saying that, they really do. And so these aren't things that take forever to start to work. These are things that you can start to do right away. Even if they're on a small level, you'll start to see the results very, very quickly, and you'll start to feel it in your body. And I want to go over some things on nutrition, some very simple things that you can do with your nutrition that can really help you along this health journey. But even aside from that, I have 5 things that I want to share that are pretty much a blueprint for longevity. This is for those who have decided, I need a, a regimen or a system that I could live by that can produce the greatest results for the quality of my life and the quality of my health. And so these are principles that I live by and that I have studied from people who have very good, healthy lives and who have lived to be at an age that I think most of us would like to live and be at in a healthy way. Like, it's one thing to, you know, extend yourself for 10 years, but you are just weak and you are in pain and in agony and on medication and going back and forth to the doctor. And, you know, that does feel good to be around but not be well. Most people, if they're around, they want to be well. And so I often try to consider, what do I want even the last 10 years of my life to look like? Some people, they just want to be here, but trust me, if you're around, you don't want to be in a health state that is preventing you from experiencing life that is full of joy and that is full of vitality, you know, like we want to be around and we want to make sure that we are feeling our best and that we are managing our energy levels so that we are energized because it's nothing like being stripped of energy because you're dealing with a chronic disease. So there are certain principles that you can take and you can literally reverse the damage of your life. I love the fact that our bodies are able to heal, and I often say this, that I believe God made our bodies just as forgiven as he is. Our bodies are forgiving and That forgiveness comes into play if we just make some simple choices that can activate the recovery parts of our body and our being. So that is how we are made in his image, I believe. And you have to understand that, and you have to believe that you are capable of healing and that you are capable of reversing damage to your life and your body. And we're going to get into some of these things so that you can know exactly what you need to do to help to heal yourself of any disease or of any ailments that you are facing and limitations. And I do want to say that you must believe that it is possible to be healed in order to be healed. And so do not, uh, take it from Doctors that tell you, you have to manage things for the rest of your life. There are some things that can just be reversed, period. You do not have to manage your chronic disease for the rest of your life in the sense that it cannot be reversed and you cannot reverse the symptoms. When they speak of the word manage, they mean that you have to deal with the disease and take medicine to masquerade the numbers. That is their idea of manage. I am redefining that. We're not just managing it based on that definition. We are reversing and we are empowering our bodies to anti-age, meaning you can get younger in your body. Maybe not in real life, like your age— your numbers are not going backwards. If you're here, you're here. Another year is another year added to your life, right? But your body can say different. Your body can say, I am now going back and I'm going to be 5 years younger inwardly. Now, the problem with this also, with the fact that your body can be a different age than you actually are, is that your body can be older also. So we want to make sure that that is also not the case. We do not want your body to be 10 years older than what you are. And that is the case if you have chronic disease, is that you are accelerating your body. And we want to be able to be as young and vibrant as possible, right? And so there's some things you got to do to get this right, and all you got to do is do it. And it's going to be one step at a time. It's going to be very simple, and it's not going to be something where you have to do some dramatic thing overnight. This is a process. You do it day by day and make sure that you're doing it consistently, because consistency outweighs intensity. And you don't want to go all in like some people do, like at the beginning of the new year, and then all of a sudden, 2 months later, they're back in autopilot mode. That's intensity, but you don't want intensity that's going to lead you back in the same predicament again, in the same cycle of bad habits. And so we're not thinking intensity, we are thinking one day at a time. Do what you can, apply what you know, and that's going to get you there. Because one kick a thousand days is much better than 1,000 kicks in one day. And so make sure you understand this as you are moving forward in your health journey. So there are 5 things that I designed that makes it really easy to understand what things you must be doing daily and weekly, monthly, yearly to ensure that you are optimizing your health. And I was thinking about this one day because I was wondering, what are the 5 rules that I live by that I really can just take and apply and see the changes in my life? Or what have I done where I can kind of put them in a category and know that these have been powerful markers to health and longevity, not just from my life, but, but from collecting data from other people's lives and experts who understand the topic of longevity. And I came up with 5 different things that you have to address, and they all start with S to help you remember. I put them with starting with S to make it easy for you to remember. So we're going to start with the first thing that helps you with anti-aging and to help you to create a blueprint for longevity, and that is sunlight. Sunlight in the morning when you get up is powerful, and I'll explain why. Sunlight is something that we absolutely need, and our bodies need it to even absorb vitamin D in the body. And vitamin D is crucial to our health, and sunlight is the best way to get vitamin D. Now, the reason why this is important is because if we don't have enough sunlight or vitamin D, then we compromise our immune system. And the big damage that comes from having a lack of sunlight and vitamin D is that we are more prone to having high levels of symptoms from viruses. And even with us just coming out of this whole season dealing with the virus and COVID, and we still deal with the flu every single year, one of the greatest research that has been out there that is a protective mechanism against viruses is making sure to have adequate levels of vitamin D. Now, you can definitely take a supplement, and that's fine, because some people live in the northern states and it's hard to get sunlight. But believe me, sunlight is still the best way to get vitamin D. And people who don't get enough vitamin D will be in a very compromising situation when it comes to viruses like the flu, for example. And I would even put vitamin D up heavy against any type of shot to try to prevent you from getting these viruses, because it is backed with much research that people who have higher levels of vitamin D are not as susceptible to the symptoms of viruses. It has been proven yearly. And as a matter of fact, people who do get the flu jab, for example, they actually compromise their immune system and have been known to have higher levels of susceptibility the next year when it comes to getting a virus. It is so weird because I know so many people who get that shot each year and they all get the flu. It's the weirdest thing. Some of them get it 2 and 3 times. In that season. And I'm like, what good is a shot that's supposed to prevent you from getting a virus, and every time you get it every year, you keep getting the virus? Maybe there's a different way, right? Maybe there's a different route to being able to prevent yourself from getting this virus. So I don't understand it, um, but I think people are comfortable and reliant on it, and they're so wrapped up in the fear of getting it that they don't realize that they're doing something that compromises them and that weakens their immune system. And you'll notice that people who just have, you know, the outlook that they're going to make sure that their levels of vitamin D is high— and when I say high, I mean normal, at a normal level— and also just making sure that they're making lifestyle choices that are wise to their overall health they don't have as many problems. So I just want to introduce that idea that if you are taking this and you're still getting the flu every year, then you might want to reconsider a different way of dealing with it. And as I said, sunlight is a very, very good way to get vitamin D. And not only does it help against viruses, but it also helps with your mood. It helps against inflammatory problems like asthma or just high levels of inflammation. Uh, it also helps with cell functioning when you're getting sunlight. It helps with energy levels. It even helps with your sleep. Even though it's something that you do early in the morning, it plays a huge role on balancing your melatonin levels and balancing your hormones in the evening that allows you to get peaceful rest and for your body to even enter into parasympathetic system. That is the rest and digest, that's the calming system that helps you to relax, and you need that system to operate if you are to get some good rest. And another thing that it also helps with is it helps with bones. And when I say vitamin D, even for supplements, we're talking vitamin D3. So, um, that's the natural occurring vitamin D that is made in your body. And also it helps with your overall mental health and well-being. One of the things that you'll notice about people who deal with depression is when they go get tested, they have low levels of vitamin D. And think about it, when someone's depressed, they're sitting in a room in the dark all day, not wanting to go out and get sunlight. And so one of the great things you can do if somebody's dealing with this depression is somehow find a way for them to get out in the sunlight, especially the elderly. When they start being locked up inside of, you know, a room without getting sun, not, you know, being able to go for a walk, it can just overall change their, their mood and their emotional stability. And that's why it's good to get them out, and it's in the daytime at least, you know, 15 minutes a day of sunlight is really good. Now, if it's cloudy outside, then you want to get a little bit more. There is sunlight in the clouds, uh, even when it's a cloudy day or a dark day. Some people think, oh, I can't go out and get sunlight because it's dark. No, it's It's still light, it's still sun through the clouds. As a matter of fact, it would be dark if there was no sun. So just imagine in the daytime, even if it is a bit cloudy and the sun is not shining, there is still sun. You just have to expose your skin to a little bit more sun. And then also remember that you may have to expose yourself more if it's cold out because you are covered up. And so Really, the more skin exposure you have, the quicker you can get sunlight that penetrates, you know, your body. So, and we're not, we're not talking about getting sunlight through windows, okay, or through a barrier. We're talking about direct access to the sun. So it doesn't work if you say, I'm gonna stand in front of a window and get the sunlight going through the window. I'm talking about actual exposure, going out., you know, 10-15 minutes a day earlier during the day to get exposure to sunlight. Now I noticed even for myself that when I go out and get sunlight, you know, early in the day when it's nice outside and it's not super cold, that I just immediately feel better. And what we got to realize about vitamin D is vitamin D is— it's not really like a vitamin. It doesn't act like a vitamin, it acts more like a hormone. And that's why there's a lot of stability in your hormones when you get enough vitamin D or when you get enough sunlight. And like I said, it does change your overall mood. So you'll notice that when you go to places where there's a lot of sunlight, people are happier. They are not as angry and as moody as when you go up north. When you go up north in the cold, that's how the attitudes are. They are cold. And when you go to the south where it's warm, the attitude is warm. Now, there are just some people who are super moody for other reasons, but just overall, you can tell a difference in the culture of the happiness and the joy that a lot of people experience. Even when you go on vacation, when you're getting more sun, it's just a happier time. You know, you go to an island and everybody's all nice and happy and smile it. And people are just happier when they're outside in the sun. It really does something. That's not coincidental, that is a real thing. And so again, if you do have someone who struggles with levels of sadness and depression, make sure to encourage them to get out, open up the blinds, let there be some level of access to the light, because it does something to our energy levels, our mood, our overall well-being, and it can really make a difference in your health. And this is something that is a part of longevity, is that people understand when they are sculpting out their future and trying to live the healthiest life they can live and trying to make sure that they reverse their age, they know there must be sun involved in this process. And sunlight is a huge factor to longevity. And it may seem very simple, but if you practice this daily, you will start to see a huge difference in just your overall well-being and your functionality. All right, so sunlight is important. Now, number 2, the second thing that you must understand when it comes to your longevity and reversing the damage of aging, whether it's a disease or just the natural phases of getting older, is making sure that you do not live a life that is sedentary. So that is number 2. The S for number 1 is sunlight, and the S for number 2 is sedentary. You cannot be sedentary, and most people right now are sedentary. They are sitting down the majority of the day, whether it is on their laptop or watching TV or playing games on a computer or driving in a car or at their office all day. They are sitting down too much, and this is extremely extremely dangerous for your overall well-being and your life. Actually, it cuts time off your days and it accelerates you into aging. And we are trying to reverse this damage. So what you have to remember is that sitting down for long periods of time will destroy your health. We are not made to sit down. For long periods of time. And that's why we already, as a people, deal with back problems, because the structure of our body is not made to be in a seated position like this, okay? Like, this is why you see certain cultures even sit on the floor, whether it's an Indian style, or you might see them squatting down a lot. You know, when you're sitting in a chair all day, you're not using your back muscle, and then it's causing weakness in back muscles that you actually need, you know, in order to have fluidity and movement. You are made to move. We as humans are made to move. The moment a baby gets inside your stomach, you'll start feeling them move. We're made for movement. And one of the things that has been studied for decades with, you know, centenarians and people who live to be 100 years old is that they are moving. Now, here's the crazy part, is that they're not necessarily always exercising. And when I say exercising, I am extracting things like walking and just normal lifestyle movement that you should have. So I'm not counting that. I'm saying exercise as in, okay, I'm gonna go to a gym and I'm gonna lift weights, I'm gonna take a boxing class or do, you know, a cycling class or something. They don't always exercise to that degree, but one thing you will notice that they do is they move all day, whether they're, you know, in the backyard gardening or, you know, picking their own, you know, vegetables, you know, from their garden, or, you know, going to the grocery store, walking around, being involved in their community, cleaning up the house. Whatever it is, they're moving. And they can give you a routine, and it involves moving. Because once you stop moving, you stop moving. Once you stop moving, you start to die. And so if you don't move, you, you lose that ability to utilize your muscles in ways that you need to, to thrive in life. So if you talk to the healthiest people who are up there in age, they don't have a lifestyle where they're sitting around all day. That is one thing that's for sure. So we gotta look at that, and we gotta find the common denominator between people who live long and they have well-being and they're still functional. We're not talking about being older and not functional, okay? We're talking about thriving older people, okay? So that is one thing that they are committed to doing is moving and Here's the crazy thing that I found out about myself when it came to tracking my metabolic metrics for, you know, exercising throughout the day and how many calories I was burning and post-rate activity and sleep and all of those different things. I used to exercise in a way where I would accommodate my situation to sit around for the rest of of the day. And this was to make me feel like I'm not a loser because I went to exercise. And so I would do a high-intensity interval training, and I would go running and sprinting and climbing up stairs and whatever crazy routine I wanted to do. And, um, I would check my metrics and, you know, check again my calories and, you know, my pulse rate, my strain level, my oxygen levels, how much I sleep. Or what, you know, how much deep sleep I got, how much REM. I mean, everything. Oh, heart rate variability, all of those different things. And they were pretty good. But what I noticed one day after seeing the pattern is that on days where I did not exercise and I just was moving all day, whether it was, you know, I'm, you know, taking my son to his football game and I'm you know, standing up and walking back and cheering. And oh, I went to the grocery store and, you know, I had to stop at the mall, or, you know, I was moving around the house. I was, you know, doing laundry or cleaning up my room or organizing something. It was just a day of being on the go and moving, or being in the house and just moving a lot because I'm working on a project. I realized that my metrics were much better. And finally, after seeing this pattern, I'm like, how could this be possible that I burn more calories, I have better recovery, better sleep, better heart rate variability, better pulse, better oxygen levels? Like, how could this be possible when I was doing— I'm doing focused exercising. Now, this is a day of movement with no exercising. This is not like, oh, I went exercising and then I finished the day with movement. No, this is just, just movement throughout the day compared to a day of exercise where the rest of the day I was just kind of sitting around catching up on some shows, you know, doing the Netflix thing, you know. Uh, and I started to see the pattern over and over, and I realized my body has a better outcome when I'm just moving. And this really shocked me. Now, of course, I love exercising still, and I continue to do it, but I still move throughout the day. I don't like to sit down at— for long periods of time because it— I realize how damaging it is to your body and your mind and your blood flow. And I know that there's a lot of issues that happen when we live a sedentary lifestyle. So some quick things you can do is make sure if you're seated for, you know, 45 minutes to an hour, that you stand up and move around for at least 10 minutes. Or if you are seated, that you do the Soleus push-up. That's when you come up on the toes of your feet to kind of pump and activate that blood flow in the calf, in the lower extremity, 'cause it pushes blood back up to the upper extremities. There's a lot that we need to understand that happens when we are restricted with blood flow from sitting and a lack of movement. The moment we actually stand up, we change our physiological chemistry within our entire body. And even more than that, some of the damage that happens with a sedentary lifestyle is obesity has been connected to it. Also diabetes, heart disease has been connected to it, depression, higher risk of cancer. In addition to that, muscular degeneration, also hypertension, uh, chronic disease, joint pain, osteoporosis, stroke, vascular problems, other chronic illnesses. And in addition to that, mental issues have been reported being connected to a sedentary lifestyle. Now, this is enough research to want to completely change this situation, and it doesn't require any extra money. It does not require any hard efforts, to be honest. It just requires you to have the ability to stand up and to move around, or to make choices that prevent you from sitting down as much. So maybe a standing desk, or, you know, putting one of those computer things on top of a desk to stand up and raise the level of your computer if you are working on your computer. And I know this because I work on my computer a lot, and honestly, I stand up more than I sit down for, you know, when I'm working on my laptop. I'm in a lot of meetings throughout the day, and so I just try to make sure that I'm being conscious of the fact that I am standing and I'm not sitting and creating all kind of problems with my body and restriction of blood flow. And so you're going to notice that a lot of people even are dealing with neurological issues to the body, because when you restrict blood flow, then you are causing some problems in your nervous system. And so that's going to affect your body, right? That's going to affect your— the extremities of your body, you know, and the extensions of your body, because that blood flow is going there to stimulate your activation of being able to be mobile. And so the less movement you have, the more immobile you're going to be, the more you're going to have problems with your mobility. And your agility. So we want to make sure that this is something that is being addressed and you're being very mindful of it. Whether you gotta park far, you know, or maybe stop allowing, you know, the grocery people to do your grocery shopping. Maybe you should go to the grocery store yourself just to get more movement. You have to learn how to put systems in place that can cause you to be successful because you don't rise to the level of your willpower, you fall to the level of your structures. And so if you don't have structures and systems in place to help you to make better decisions, you're not going to make them, because these systems are there as a boundary to your life. And oftentimes we just kind of flow with the normality of whatever habits that we have. And our habits are usually subconscious. They're not things that we actually think about. And systems— we're conscious about systems that we put in place because they're intentional. And so it's a safeguard to just make sure, like, that you are not in autopilot zone deteriorating and just aging yourself at a level that you actually don't have to, because all you have to do is put systems in place to make sure that you're doing the right thing. So a system in place would be to get a standing desk instead of a desk that you can sit in. So think about these things because this is something that is causing so many problems for people. And I guarantee you, you can make the connection. A lot of people who are dealing with chronic disease, they are dealing with being sedentary. And I know this for sure because I work with a lot of clients. Who have chronic disease, and one of the problems they have is that they sit too much during the day. And so these are contributing to those problems. And again, if you're not being mobile and active, you have set and designed yourself to accelerate in ways that you may not even understand, and it's going to affect your longevity. All right, here is advice number 3 for making sure that you reverse your age and reverse the damage of chronic disease to your body, and that is sleep. Okay. So sleep is important because what sleep does is sleep is activated by the parasympathetic system, meaning that when you're sleeping, you're in recovery mode. And so you are activating that part of you that is able to heal the mind and the body. And I cannot tell you how many times I get people who say, "I don't need 6, 7 hours of sleep. I can get off on 3 or 4 hours of sleep." I'm inclined to think that if that's how you feel, you just don't know how much you're damaging your body in the long run. Do you need the same amount of sleep every day? I'm not quite sure. You know, there are some days I think we do need a little bit more rest than other days, depending on how active or overactive our sympathetic system is or our stress levels, or maybe how much sleep we've been getting, you know, the week before. There could be some variation between that, but I know for sure that 2 and 3 hours of sleep is not going to do it. And it's a lot of people who argue that they feel just fine, and this is what I tell them. I tell them that they're borrowing from tomorrow energy for today if they are not tired after 2 or 3 hours of sleep, that means they're running off of adrenaline. And so when you're constantly running off of adrenaline and you are constantly in sympathetic system mode where you are, you know, energized and running throughout the day and you're not recovering, eventually that's going to catch up with you. And so you're borrowing from tomorrow. So if you're okay with that to get the energy that you need today, that's fine. Or what you see people do is load up on caffeine, and then what happens is they become addicted to caffeine, which gets them even more stuck into their sympathetic system, and then they wind up with anxiety. And this is why a lot of people deal with anxiety. Because they are not getting enough sleep or they are not activating the part of them that helps them to recover. I also have worked with Alzheimer's patients for years, you know, 15 years, and one of the things that we started to learn is that long-term sleep deprivation contributes to Alzheimer's. And you have a lot of people who have chronic disease issues that don't sleep well because of the very reason of them not being able to stabilize their autonomic nervous system and not be able to stabilize their parasympathetic system that helps them to recover. And so it's a web and it's a cycle that a lot of people get stuck in. But one thing is for sure, long-term sleep deprivation will cause a lot of suffocation to the brain and your brain needs to recover. And there's just a lot of damage that is happening to our brains, whether it's the trauma from the past, whether it's too much alcohol, because people will then start to move to doing certain things to try to get them to sleep better. And so they think, okay, well, maybe I can have me a nightcap and I can go to sleep. But statistically, alcohol does not help the quality of your sleep. You may feel like you can fall asleep quicker, But once you get into dissecting the intricate parts of your sleep and the REM stages and the deep sleep and the light sleep and being able to understand the complexity of those different realms as it pertains to restoring the brain and restoring your body, it actually has a negative effect. On this entire process. So, that is not a good solution. Now, I do understand that to get better sleep, sometimes you do have to deal with these other issues like chronic disease. And that's why I love the idea of getting sunlight in the morning because it does help with the end of the day. Even though it's the start of the day, it helps with making sure that you are contributing to a better outcome when it is time to rest and to go to sleep. And there are other things that distract you from being able to get quality sleep, like the caffeine addiction. And you might want to be mindful of how much caffeine you have even before you go to sleep. Usually, people can know when the cutoff time is for them to have caffeine, and it changes per person, honestly. But the rule of thumb is it would be good to cut it off 8 to 10 hours before you go to bed to make sure that it's not affecting your sleep. Some people can go a little bit longer with caffeine and it doesn't affect their sleep, but ultimately you want to just make sure that you're being mindful and that caffeine is not overstimulating you to the point where you cannot cut your brain off and you cannot get, uh, rest at night. Melatonin is something that helps with sleep, but it's not something that should be recommended long-term. And the reason why is because it can affect your natural body's ability to release melatonin. And also, you want to be mindful that your melatonin comes in cycles at night. And so there's times where you feel tired and it's like, man, I'm really tired, I need to go to bed. But let's just say you're still up, you're working, you're watching TV, whatever it is that you're doing. Well, what's going to happen is the longer you stay awake, you're going to get a second wind. You ever heard somebody say I got a second wind. And that's because the melatonin levels, they rose and then they fell down because you stayed past the cycle. And usually they come every 90 minutes, so you would have to wait another 90 minutes before getting sleepy again. And when you activate and you stimulate your hormones to stay awake by being on the phone or having, you know, light in front of your face that also interrupts your ability to get tired and go to sleep. So you, you want to really try to start lowering the lights, you know, an hour or two before you want to go to bed to start activating and stimulating the hormones that help you to sleep and get rest. And you want to be able to kind of get yourself in a more calm situation so that you can activate the part of your system that helps you to rest. So That's important also to understand is that those are things that's going to get in the way. And the blue blockers, the glasses kind of help at night. There's some things that you can put on your computer and on your phone that blocks the blue light. And so you can do that, but really starting to dim the lights and getting yourself ready and in a routine really helps. You'll start to see that if you can create a routine at night, it would really, really help you to sleep better. And then also, what I notice is that if I have some space between eating and going to sleep, I get better quality sleep. So you may want to make sure that you're ending your eating time, you know, a couple of hours at least before you go to sleep. You don't want to go to bed on a, a full stomach. And then if you're doing too many sweets or snacks and a lot of sugar at night, it can interrupt your sleep also because those hormone levels, uh, your insulin levels will be unstable, your blood sugar levels will be unstable, and it will also cause some problems with your sleep. All right, so making sure that sleep is a part of the game plan is very important. Now, the fourth thing that you want to pay attention to when it comes to your longevity and reversing age is the idea of sarcopenia. So sarcopenia is muscle loss and the loss of strength. And strength is connected to anti-aging, and it's connected to vitality, meaning when you get weaker, you're aging. And so you have to understand that, for example, when people are sick, they get weaker, or when they're not active, they get weaker. And when they're not as mobile, they get weaker, they lose muscle. And there's a lot of things that can cause this to happen where you're losing muscle. One of the things is sometimes when you are highly restricting your calories, uh, I personally believe that those who are on the medication, the Ozempic medication, they're losing muscle mass because their weight loss is not just coming from fat, but it's also coming from muscle. And there's been some feedback with research that has started to suggest that a lot of the weight loss is coming from muscle mass, and that is compromising longevity. Because remember, these are things that help with anti-aging and reversing aging. And so being able to build muscle helps you with your immune system, with your joints, uh, with your strength. With your ability to, uh, burn more calories, which your overall metabolism. And you can actually eat a little bit more sugar if you have muscles and it not damage your body as much. Now, I'm not saying that it won't damage your body, but what I am saying that is that when there's something that you have to overcome, a sickness a problem, a limitation, the person who has more muscle mass will overcome that limitation or will be able to reverse that issue much quicker than someone who don't have muscle mass. So let's just take, for example, two people who are smoking cigarettes. We all know that smoking cigarettes is bad. That situation of someone smoking cigarettes who have muscle mass versus someone who don't will look very differently because the damage that's being done from the cigarettes won't damage the person who has muscle mass as much as the person who don't have muscle mass. And if they were trying to overcome this issue or the damage, the person who has muscles will overcome it much quicker. It doesn't matter what problem it is. It don't matter if it's diabetes. A person who has more muscle mass will be able to overcome insulin resistance easier than someone who don't have muscle mass. Someone who have muscle mass will be able to burn fat and burn more calories than someone who don't have muscle mass. So muscle mass is protective, is what I want you to know. It's protective for your Longevity is protective for your health, for your body, for your joints, for your immune system, for your metabolism. You need muscle mass, and a loss of muscle mass equates to dying. And I don't mean like you're gonna be dead, but it just equates to deterioration in the body. And so you want to make sure that you're preserving this, especially because it's so much harder to build muscle as you age. It's not easy, right? And even if you're eating enough protein, it's really, really hard sometimes to gain muscle at— after a certain age. And it's even harder if you do struggle with chronic disease or insulin resistance. So you want to make sure that you are optimizing your life around this principle that you need to preserve muscle. Even someone who is dealing with being overweight the person who has more muscle mass will be able to get over that hump a lot quicker. And the issue is not often being overweight or having too much fat. The issue is not having enough muscle. That is a greater issue. And a lot of people, when they want to lose weight, they just kind of want to go to cardio and kind of lose that weight quick. And that's usually the easiest way. And that kind of helps you right now in the present moment, but building muscle mass helps you in the future. So again, when you're dealing with longevity, you have to understand muscle mass is important for longevity. So you want to make sure that you are not compromising this, because if you do, you are compromising your longevity and your well-being and You do not want to be weak. You don't want to be the person who can't hold your grocery bags when you go to the grocery store, because what this does is this minimizes your experience with life, your quality of life. And you don't want your quality of life to go down the drain because you are too weak and don't have enough muscles. So even if you are older, 60, 70, 80, it doesn't matter. You should be doing things to build muscle, to optimize your muscle mass, to make sure even you're not losing muscle. Even if you're not building muscle, don't lose it. That's, that's important for you. Don't lose muscles. No matter what you do. And not being able to utilize your muscle is an easy way to start losing muscle. Not being active, being sedentary, you're going to see your muscles diminish if you're not moving as much. And if you do these crazy calorie-restrictive diets, a lot of times it is going to eat into your muscle also. So you need to be very careful about that. And I'm not saying there's not a time where you don't need to maybe restrict calories because there's some evidence of restricting calories, uh, as it pertains to helping longevity. But mainly we need to restrict calories because we're eating too much of the wrong foods. And so restriction of calories is kind of like the cure because we're eating the wrong foods. If you eat the right food, your body will tell you when you need to stop eating, and you won't overeat when you're eating the right food. The last thing that I want to talk about as it pertains to your longevity. The fifth thing would be supplements. So we have already gone through sunlight, being sedentary, your sleep, sarcopenia, muscle loss, and now we are at supplements. So number 5 for your longevity blueprint is understanding the power of supplements. And we talked a little bit earlier about, for example, if you're not able to get sunlight because you're in the northern states or it's hard to get out for whatever reason, maybe there's a restriction, then the next best thing would be a supplement, which is vitamin D. And that's the case with a lot of things. And supplements should not replace your lifestyle or your diet. Supplements is there to bridge the gap and make up for the inadequacies that are available to us to be able to eat properly and have the lifestyle habits that we need in place. And sometimes they're just temporary, and then there's some things that really work in the long term also that can help us, you know, to maintain a healthy life and a healthy state. And so there's a ton of supplements out there. Now, some are overrated, but there are some that really do perform very well, uh, that provide antioxidants to our body and help with inflammation. There's a few supplements that I absolutely love to take, and of course one is vitamin D because I do live in the northern states, and so if it gets to -10 degrees outside, there's no way I'm going out. I'm sorry. As much sunlight as I love, I'm not going out with -10 degrees. Now, if it gets to about 20, I'll still get out there and try to get as much sunlight as possible. But it's, it's hard sometimes when it's super cold out. And then when you go out, you're all covered up because it's so cold out that you're still not getting as much exposure. And so the winter months are a little bit tougher with, you know, getting sunlight. So vitamin D is a great supplement. And as you see, during the winter months, that's when a lot of people start to get sick and start to get viruses. And so supplements are there to really make up for some of the damage that's happening due to, you know, limitations and restrictions that we have available to us. And we know that some of it is outside of our control because, you know, even the, the food that we eat, sometimes they do have minimal processing and they can cause a little bit of damage. So there's a few things that I believe will really help you with your longevity as far as making sure you have an adequate amount of these, you know, vitamins and minerals. And sometimes you're just not getting it through your diet, and so you have to get it through supplements. And so, as I said, vitamin D is one of them. And also, you also have zinc. That's a powerful antioxidant, especially during the winter months when, you know, your immune system is at risk for, you know, viruses and getting sick. And then magnesium is a huge one because I think a lot of people are magnesium deficient, and so they really need to often take supplements for magnesium. And then often, sometimes even people have to take supplements with adding a little bit of electrolytes to their diet. You know, if you are, you know, an athlete, you're working out a lot and you got to, you know, maybe you're on a ketogenic diet, sometimes supplements for electrolytes will really, really help. I know for me, I have low blood pressure and so I need a little extra salt. So, I'll take an electrolyte that has potassium, magnesium, and sodium in it. And, um, I love glycine. Glycine is amazing. It helps with heart health, muscles, diabetes. It's an antioxidant. It helps to create glutathione in the body that helps against oxidative damage and free radical damage to the cells. And so I love glycine. That's one thing I do take at night. It's also found in red meat. So that is a powerful supplement. Selenium is really, really good, powerful antioxidant. And, um, yeah, there's, there's a ton of supplements that can help for certain issues that you may have that can just kind of help aid you. For those who are like diabetics who, you know, um, tend to, you know, have to take metformin, you know, berberine helps with that. Cinnamon helps with lowering blood sugar also. So, uh, that is something that you can take to help with your blood— regulate your blood sugar levels. And so that's a good supplement. So just depending on what it is that you're dealing with, a lot of times you can have a supplement that just helps to aid in that. And I'm not saying it makes up for the damage or makes up for bad choices or bad lifestyle habits, but it can definitely aid and assist you along the way. And there are, you know, again, some supplements that can help with longevity just in general. I didn't go through all of them, but I named a few important ones. The last ones I will name is vitamin B, you know, B1, B12, B3, B6. You know, there are some B vitamins that most people need because they're deficient, especially like vitamin B1. Vitamin B1 helps with even energy levels and helps with your nervous system. And so a lot of people are deficient on this, and if they don't have vitamin B1 in adequate levels, they'll notice that their energy levels plummet. Uh, also vitamin B12, I mean, it helps with inflammation, helps with your sleep and energy. And so your B vitamins are very, very powerful to make sure that you're getting enough of your vitamin B in your diet. And if you're not, or if you are deficient, it's good to take supplements because of this. And so supplements are powerful, and sometimes we need them. And I'm not saying we need to be dependent on them, or we need to replace, again, our, our habits with vitamins, but they are there to aid and to lead us along the way to reverse all kind of chronic diseases, especially diabetes and hypertension and, you know, chronic fatigue, and even reduce pain in your body from your joints that come from inflammation. You know, there's quick things you can do, and number one is lower your processed foods. And don't forget, like, fruit juices and things like that, usually they have more corn fructose syrup than a lot of pops. Out there. So you want to make sure that you are not doing a lot of corn fructose syrup. And then getting rid of vegetable oils. Omega-6 is hugely impacting our lives because it is highly inflammatory. And the major reason why a lot of people have high levels of inflammatory omega-6 is because of vegetable oils. And so you want to get rid of the plant-based butter, you know, margarine. You want to get rid of canola oil, peanut oil, sunflower oil, safflower, soybean. You know, those are inflammatory oils that cause so much damage to your body and your heart, your arteries. And so it's not good for you, so get rid of that stuff. And then also fasting. Helps. And so restricting your eating time to, you know, maybe 8 hours a day and fasting for maybe 16 hours is, you know, important because it gives your body a chance to kind of recover and heal itself. And some people are just eating too much and they're activating, you know, insulin all day and their blood sugar levels are crazy. And so you want to make sure that you're not you know, eating all day and activating your insulin levels all day, especially if you're trying to reverse disease. Fasting is a powerful way to give your body the chance to allow your liver to kick into play and start to burn off some of that extra fat and burn that sugar that needs to be burned off in the body, or either utilize the fat that's been stored and use it as energy. And this is a great way to do that and to give the body a chance to heal. And then the last thing would be to make sure you prioritize protein. And so I love, you know, the idea of introducing a little bit more red meat and eggs to the diet. Now, some people don't like red meat, but when I ask them why they don't like red meat, it's usually because they think it's harmful, not because they don't like it. And so if you do like it, red meat has a lot of benefits, um, to it. So it's more nutritional than what a lot of people give it credit for. And again, if it's not something that's an issue of you not liking it, then I would suggest increasing some of your red meat intake to get enough protein in. And then also eggs. Eggs are super nutritional, full of your, you know, minerals and vitamins, which is good because remember, you need that good source of protein, very healthy fat. Eggs are amazing, has selenium, vitamin A, you know. So these are a few things that you can do to make sure that you are optimizing your health and, you know, helping to stabilize even your cholesterol levels. You know, with eating something like eggs, that can help with, you know, your triglyceride levels. And so you're going to start to see a change in your triglycerides and even your HDL level, which of eggs actually help to raise good cholesterol. And so you want to start reversing some of the damage and making sure that you're doing everything possible to be able to create the future that you really desire. The cost of not making these choices could be your life and years off your life. I want you to sit and think about that. This is important because your life matter. And if you can just do these few little steps that I talked about today, you will start to experience life much differently. Most people don't really know how sick they are or how bad their energy levels are until they get better. It's just like when you maybe put on glasses for the first time and realize how blind you really were. You didn't know. I know that happened to me when I put on contacts for the first time. I realized I couldn't see, and I didn't even know I couldn't see until I put the contacts on. So some people will get more energy, and then they'll realize, wow, how was I even functioning if this is what energy feels like? I don't know what I was doing. I was moping throughout the day, surviving. I was in survival mode, and now I'm thriving, and I feel great, and I feel my brain feels better and I'm functioning better and I have clearer thoughts and I have better focus and I'm more creative and I'm just producing more. My productivity is well. I don't know what kind of life I was living. I don't have the pain I used to have. Did I get desensitized to the pain or something? I didn't realize I've had back pain for the last 2 years on and off. These are the kind of things that you're going to realize. Just by choosing to make these simple tweaks with your life. Your life can be very different from what it is now, and if you want to experience the best possible life that you can, then these are the things that you must do, just like other people who have done it and have experienced that. I'm not guaranteeing what the outcomes will be, but what I am saying is you're going to put yourself in a much better predicament to be able to reverse your age and to feel better and to reduce the symptoms you've been experiencing and to just give yourself an opportunity to possibly reverse chronic disease. It is one day at a time, and all you have to do is make the choice to do what you can do. Make sure that you put in the comments which one of these 5 powerful resources you are utilizing to create your longevity and give me some of the results that you're having from implementing these 5 steps in your life. And please make sure that you don't hesitate to ask me questions. I do look through the comments, or it can help me to know exactly what kind of content I can give that can answer some of those questions. My name is Kamilah Stevenson, and this has been another episode of Health Goat. I'll see you next time.