Greetings listeners
in today's episode. I'm bringing you along to the American Academy of anti-aging medicines longevity Fest conference
where I had the honor of presenting
a keynote this last December, we'll explore some foundational yet effective tactics to enhance longevity and prevent diseases additionally we'll delve into more intensive lifestyle modifications that despite their demands offer significant longevity benefits. If you would like to view the slides I presented along with this presentation you can
Find this episode on my YouTube channel called found my Fitness in this episode. You will learn the evidence that vitamin D deficiency increases mortality and my thoughts on achieving optimal levels partly through supplementation why magnesium deficiency reduces DNA damage repair and what this means for cancer and aging you'll learn about the dangers of inadequate omega-3 intake and why you may want to measure your omega-3 index to make sure you were at least in the eight percent range.
You'll learn some practical take homes for correcting vitamin D Omega 3 and magnesium inadequacies why vigorous exercise is the best longevity drug and how increasing vo2max affects life expectancy. You'll learn some of the most evidence-based protocols for increasing VO2 max and how to get a good estimate of VO2 max without directly measuring it in a lab. You'll also learn what science suggests that takes to reverse 20 years of age Associated structural changes to the heart the brain and blood pressure.
Benefits of vigorous exercise and in
particular why vigorous
exercise seems uniquely able to improve qualities of cognition like Focus attention and generally reduces the Aging of the brain, you'll learn anti-cancer effects of vigorous exercise and how exercise snacks can be used to break up sedentary time throughout the day and why this is so beneficial before we jump off to the presentation and in the spirit of unwavering commitment to optimizing Health and Longevity. I've put together a guide that
Stands at the intersection of rigorous science and actionable strategies. It's a blueprint that draws on the robust evidence behind enhancing cognitive function and delaying the aging process of the brain. You can access it now at bdnf protocols.com at no cost within this guide, you'll find a comprehensive exploration of the lifestyle modifications that hold the power to reshape your cognitive landscape from the nuances of exercise to the specifics of
nutrition and the Strategic use of supplements we delve into how these factors can significantly elevate your cognitive prowess and fortify your brains defenses against times where and Terror Central to these strategies is the pivotal role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor bdnf a key player in maintaining and improving Neural Health. I also share a personal journey through Rhonda's protocols, which is a candid look at the practices. I've integrated.
Into my own life and The Cutting Edge strategies. I'm currently investigating each protocol is curated not just for its scientific grounding, but for its potential to make a meaningful difference in cognitive function and neuroprotection. If you are serious about optimizing your cognitive health and pushing the boundaries of what your brain can achieve I invite you to download this guide at bdnf protocols.com. Once again, you can find that free guide at bdnf.
If protocols.com and now I invite you to listen to my presentation at the American Academy of anti-aging medicines longevity Fest.
Good morning.
Nice to be here today. I was just mentioning that my son eats about two cups of pomegranate a day. So his ear with an A Levels must be off the charts and maybe he'll live to be 100 but probably gene therapy is going to be involved in that. So today we're going to be talking about some of the what I think are powerful lifestyle habits that can affect the way you age. So there's some what I call low hanging fruit. So these are things that I think are really easy.
It can be as simple as a you know, dietary modification or a supplement you take
and then there's some things that are a little more
effortful which require effort and so that would of course be exercised. And so what we're going to get into that as well.
So the first part of the talk we're going
to talk about optimizing micronutrient deficiencies. And in the second part, we're going to be talking about what kind of exercise and how it affects the
way we age on a molecular level as well.
so first up, I think there's really
three main micronutrient deficiencies that I want to talk about for a couple of reasons one because their widespread prevalence in terms of either deficiency or inadequacy and too because I think they played a very important role in a lot of physiological processes in our body and that affect the way we age so first we're going to talk about vitamin D and most of you guys probably already heard enough about
Vitamin D but it's important to talk about because it's more than a vitamin so vitamin D gets converted into a steroid hormone and it goes into the nucleus of cells and interacts with DNA. So it recognizes a very specific sequence of DNA called a vitamin D response element and in this is encoded in our DNA and that interaction then either turns genes on and activates them or it does the opposite it sort of
Of turns them down and represses them. So it's very important for orchestrating. I mean, we're talking about over five percent of the protein encoding human genome is regulated by vitamin D, which is quite a lot. And so, you know, you can imagine if you're running a car and your Pistons or firing out of sync with each other. I mean, that's kind of what's happening when you when you don't have adequate levels of vitamin D your genes.
Being regulated in the way. They're supposed to be so things aren't being activated when they're supposed to be or repressed when they're supposed to be something you're kind of, you know going going
awry and as I mentioned
about its widespread prevalently in terms of inadequacy, so about 70 percent of the population has inadequate levels of vitamin D, which we'll talk about in a minute. It's about 30 nanograms per milliliter or
less and it's a very simple solution and that's also why I like to talk about it
because it's
Most just as simple as taking a basically a supplement that cost a penny a pill Vitamin D supplements are one of the most affordable supplements out there and there's really just no reason other than lack of, you know education about vitamin D for people to be so deficient and insufficient
a lot of reasons for the widespread
deficiency. You know, we make vitamin
D3 and our skin.
So UVB radiation is essential to make vitamin D3 anything that blocks out you
He be radiation is going to stop that production of vitamin D. So we're talking sunscreen. Melanin, which is the dark skin pigmentation that protects us from the burning rays of The Sun Also is a natural sunscreen. So that is also a form of sunscreen also depending on where you live. So a northern latitude UVB radiation can't even reach the atmosphere, you know several months out of the year. So when you combine some of these factors or let's say you take someone with darker pigmentation
from let's say East
Asia and they move somewhere like Chicago or
they move to
Sweden where
you know, six months out of the year, you're not even getting that UVB radiation you're talking about just a you know, compounding effect on vitamin D deficiency because you know, there's been studies out of the University of Chicago that have shown
that for example African Americans
have to stay in the sun anywhere between 6 to 10 times longer than Caucasians with fair skin.
Make the same amount of vitamin D3 In Their Skin
So you're talking I mean, it's a
very it's a compounding effect with respect to the to the melanin production as well and
then age plays a role. So as we age, you know,
everything is less efficient. So, you know a seventy-year-old makes about I think it's four times less vitamin D3 and their skin then their former 20 year old self. So and then of course modern day Society, so we have were inside and doors were at our
shooters were in our cubicles were technology. You know, we're not
out where it's not an
Agricultural Society. We're not outside, you know as much as we used to be and so vitamin D is just not being made in our skins like it was 100 years ago. So there's a lot of reasons why it's widespread.
I like to show this this slide it was a study published several years ago was 2009 and and it's showing when you knock out the vitamin D receptor in in mice that it affects the way they age. So the top of the panel you can see that both mice that wild type and then the vitamin D receptor knockout sort of Aging the same and then four months later the vitamin D receptor Mouse is just it's a accelerated aging model and you know, yeah.
I look terrible but like the organs and every level things were sort of accelerated in the way they were aging. So it's just kind of a nice visual to see but of course, we're not mice and I've always often wondered why my Stephen need Vitamin D because you know, they're nocturnal and they had it's just one of those things where it's like, I don't know how much
of that actually translates to humans. So let's talk about some human studies. We know that there's a lot of
data out there observational data that's correlated vitamin D.
Levels too low vitamin D levels to higher all-cause mortality risk higher cancer mortality, but there's always that question of healthy user bias may be people with higher vitamin D or outside and more physically active and of course you try to correct for as many commune. Oh confounding factors as possible. It's you never really can establish causation. That's where mendelian randomization comes into play. So this is we you know, we have a variety of genes that are responsible for converting.
Vitamin D3 into 25 hydroxy vitamin D which is the most, you know, Act of circulating form of vitamin D and then subsequently into the steroid hormone, which is 125 hydroxy vitamin D.
Some of these genes that make
enzymes we all are different. And so some people have ones that don't do it as
efficiently and so I've been dealing randomization
takes G these jeans. They say these single nucleotide polymorphisms in these jeans and says, okay, we're going to randomize them.
Them people that
have these genes that we know make them
basically have lower levels of 25 hydroxy vitamin D and see what they're you know correlate that to health outcomes like all-cause
mortality. So it's kind of in a way right away randomizing people and people that have genetically low vitamin D levels independent of what their lifestyle is. They have a much higher all-cause mortality. They have a
higher cancer related mortality and they have a higher respiratory disease mortality with
with very little or no effect on cardiovascular mortality.
and there's also been
with randomized controlled trials. Obviously,
you're not going to have a lifelong randomized control trial looking at mortality. But there's you know, there's
other biomarkers that can be looked at one is epigenetic aging which I'm sure you guys heard about yesterday. So one study that took people that were vitamin D deficient and that's it's important to start out with a cohort of participants that are deficient right? Because if you already have someone that's sufficient giving them a vitamin D supplement really shouldn't do much because they're already
at a sufficient level. So these were African-American individuals that were also overweight and so they were they were very vitamin D deficient. They were given a vitamin D supplement with 4000 I use the vitamin D a day and it decreased their epigenetic age by almost two years.
So the question is what is deficiency insufficiency adequacy? So technically it's kind of I would say depending on what institute you're looking at. But the Endocrinology Institute defines deficiency as Vitamin 25 hydroxy vitamin D levels less than 20 nanograms per mil sufficiency is about 30 getting you know, so if your insufficient you're less than 30, but if you're sufficient your War than 30
Seems as though The Sweet Spot for vitamin D is between 40 to
60 nanograms per milliliter. And you know, there's there's
all-cause mortality. So he's also
looking at vitamin D levels. There's meta-analyses of these, you know ranging for from 1960s all the way to the you know mid like 2015 and it's really it seems like 40 to 60 is a really good sweet spot for the lowest all-cause mortality with vitamin D
as I mentioned 4000 I mentioned 4000 IU's of vitamin D and A.
Cuz that's the the tolerable upper intake for vitamin D. So it's quite safe. And in general 1000 IU's of vitamin D generally raises people's blood levels by about five nanograms per mil. So the key is to just get a vitamin D blood test do it, you know after you're supplementing make sure your levels are adequate because again a lot of these single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes that affect our enzymes that are metabolizing vitamin D.
Also affect how we respond to supplemental vitamin D in some people can require a much higher dose than other people. So really the key here is blood test and measuring you don't know what you don't measure right.
So the next micronutrient, I want to kind of shift gears and talk
about is magnesium. And this again, it's widespread inadequacy here about half the u.s. Population has inadequate levels of
magnesium. So magnesium is found at the
center of a chlorophyll molecule. So plants in a you know, chlorophyll gives plants their green color. So dark leafy greens are really good source of magnesium and essentially people aren't eating enough greens, which is why half the
he doesn't have adequate levels of magnesium magnesium is a cofactor for over 300 different enzymes in the body a lot of metabolic processes. So it's important for the production of energy in the form of ATP. It's important for the utilization of energy in the form of ATP, but it's also important for repairing DNA damage. So DNA repair enzymes require magnesium to function and this is where I think the Aging
Role in aging comes into play because
DNA damage is something that's happening every day. It's happening right now and all of us as you know, our or metabolizing food was we're breathing in
oxygen immune system slightly activated whatever it's constantly happening
and our bodies are repairing that damage
but it's an
Insidious type of damage right? It's not something that you can just wake up and look in the mirror and see right you're not you're not scurvy is like, okay, my
gums are bleeding and things
something's wrong. You can see that.
Right DNA damage isn't something that you really think about on a daily basis, but it's
happening and it accumulates with age.
So you want to be able to repair that problem that damage effectively right for many reasons. So DNA damage can lead eventually over the course of several decades to oncogenic mutations that could lead to cancer. And
so there have been actually a variety of studies that have looked and
correlated magnesium levels magnesium intake with cancer mortality. So there was one study that found for everyone.
Hundred milligrams of magnesium intake there was a 24 percent decrease in pancreatic cancer risk, and also
another study that found that people that had the highest levels of magnesium. They were in the top quintile had a 40% lower all-cause mortality compared to people in the lowest and then they had a 50% decrease in cancer mortality compared to people in the lowest. So magnesium is one of those again, I think it's best.
Try to get it from dietary sources dark leafy greens are a great source, but also supplemental forms of magnesium. I think is a great sort of insurance. So to speak so magnesium glycinate magnesium malate magnesium citrate. These are all pretty bioavailable forms of magnesium the requirements for magnesium depend on age gender. So, you know men require a little bit more than women. It's somewhere like 400 mg a day for men and somewhere like 300 or 350 or something like that for women if you're
Leduc if you're sweating if you're you know,
Physically Active a lot use the
sauna you actually can require anywhere between 10 to 20
percent above the RGA because you do lose magnesium through
sweat. So if half the u.s.
Population isn't meaning even that RDA then you can imagine the Physically Active people are probably, you know faring even worse because they're already there requirements or even higher so
it's a simple solution simple
dietary dietary.
Location supplement you can take to help sort of get your magnesium levels
higher.
So Omega 3 is the is sort of the last micronutrient that I want to cover before getting into the next part of my talk
and omega-3. There's three forms a bit. So there's a la which is found in plant forms, like flaxseed walnuts.
There's EPA and
DHA which are Marine sources. So they're found in seafood and there's a study out of Harvard that was published. Gosh. It was like 2009 and this
Study identified the top six preventable causes of death. So
these are these are things that are you know,
lifestyle-related. So hypertension for example smoking
like not having, you know, avoiding hypertension avoiding smoking. Those
were those were one of the you know, some of the top six preventable causes of
death. Well omega-3 not getting enough omega-3 from Seafood. So this
was a marine source of Omega-3 EPA and DHA was in that top
six and researchers from Harvard had
defied that not getting enough omega-3 from Seafood was
responsible for about eighty four thousand deaths a year
and that was compared to trans fats. So trans fats were also in consuming trans trans
fats were one of the top avoidable, you know preventable cause of death
will try eating trans fats were responsible for
82 thousand deaths per year pretty much the same as not getting enough omega-3 from seafood.
And you know, what's funny is that, you know, everybody knows about trans fats you
I can to any supermarket and you grocery store.
Everything is marketed 0 0 trans fat zero trans
fats, but nobody's thinking about they're not
getting enough omega-3. They're not eating enough seafood or fish or taking microalgae or you know, fish oil supplement to get omega-3. And so
I just kind of like to highlight that because it's again, I think that the way thinking about food in that you know, what are we? What do we need to
feed our body our
Ilysm we need cofactors magnesium, you know
vitamin D omega-3 like these are things if we focus on what we need to consume, we don't end up eating all the other stuff. And so, you know people sort of get fixed it and what to avoid and don't think about what they're
actually supposed to be taking in what they're supposed to be eating.
So the omega-3 index is one of the best measures of Omega-3. So this was pioneered by dr. Bill
Harris and his colleague Bond shaky many years
ago back in 2004 and it's measuring omega-3
levels in red blood cell membranes as opposed to plasma phospholipids. And the reason for that is because it is a long-term biomarker of Omega-3. So your red blood cells take about 120 days to turn over. Whereas your plasma phospholipid.
It's more like if you get your omega-3 levels measured and it's plasma phospholipids, it's more like what did I eat? You know the past week or you know, something like that. So
it's kind of a comparison is, you
know, fasting blood glucose would be the immediate, you know biomarker and then the hba1c right is your long-term blood glucose level. So it's sort of similar here. So Omega 3 and X is a really important way to measure omega-3 and it's now being increasingly used in many scientific
studies.
Of course many I think a lot of conflicting data out. There also
has to do with the fact that plasma phospholipids were measured
and again, it goes down to
this. Well, was it just that they didn't eat omega-3 in the last week or they did and so we're saying they have high omega-3 because of that just recent dietary choice, right?
So omega-3
index was this is again from Bill Harris is group. He found him and his colleagues found that people with a high omega-3 index which is defined as 8% at least 8%
And had a 90 percent reduced risk of sudden cardiac
death compared to people with a
low omega-3 index of 4 percent the
standard in the
US the omega-3 index most people it's about it's less than 5% So it's about four percent. So most people in the United States are are at a very low Mega 3 and X. They don't even have to seafood and fish, you know, so sudden cardiac death was reduced by 90% If you're in the high high omega-3 index
group
cardiovascular disease is the number one killer in the United States.
And actually most all developed countries every 33 seconds. Someone died of a heart attack. So anything you can do to improve cardiovascular health is really really on your side in terms of improving Health span and proving
lifespan.
Hi Amanda, the high omega-3 index also from Bill Harris is Group found
that people again with an 8% omega-3 index had a
five-year increase life
expectancy compared to people with a 4% omega-3 index. So that was the low end and it's interesting because in
Japan their life expectancy on average about five years longer than in the United States or average life expectancy is five years less here than in Japan.
And they happen to have an omega-3 index in general above 8 percent. Whereas again, I mentioned were below 5% So sort of an interesting sort of observation that also correlates with the increased average life expectancy in a country that eats a lot of seafood. But this is what really I think is almost isn't eye-opening. It's part of the same study from Bill Harris is group where they stratified these participants and looked at their omega-3 index and then also look at
they're smoking. So they're very very top curve the green curve people live the longest if they had the 8% omega-3 index and they were non-smokers and the very very bottom curve. The red one was people that were smokers and how they'll Omega 3 and x 4 percent. So those they had the lowest life expectancy, but this is what blows my mind if you look at the orange and blue curves there, they're completely overlaid on top of each other. So people that had AI
Omega-3 index but smoked had the same life expectancy as people that didn't
smoke but had a low in Omega 3 and
X. So essentially if you just look at this data alone smoking was like having a low omega-3
index and it just again it's one of those things where of course is observational data and you can
never really establish causation, but I just feel like that's really eye-opening because again, everyone knows smoking is bad for you, but nobody's thinking about
how we're not getting enough Omega-3
and how easy is it to take a fish oil supplement for example or increase your stamina
intake?
So to summarize this part of my talk with respect to micronutrients, we talked about vitamin D low-hanging
fruit as simple as a supplement. 4,000 IU's a day is pretty good start to get most people who are deficient to a sufficient level that's been shown in several studies getting people from you know different level up to a sufficient level can be done with 4,000. I use the vitamin D A Day omega-3 fatty acids
omega-3 index getting the omega-3 index test. You want your levels to be
In the eight percent you want to be high
and then there's been studies showing that it
takes around two grams
of supplemental omega-3 to get from a 4% omega-3 index to an 8% It's really not that hard and then again omega-3 is found in prescription for my didn't go into all the randomized controlled trials today because that would take the remainder of my my time here, but you can get omega-3 in purified.
Ethyl Ester form either in the form of EPA only of a sepia or DHA + EP AR Lovaza. And those are prescribed in four grams a day per dose. And so what I said was, you know, sort of conservative it takes about 2 grams a day just to get from a four percent on average four percent omega-3 index in a percent. And again, it's just simple as getting the test done and you know supplementing and then testing again and seeing if you're getting your index up to 8% and then magnesium we talked about, you know, getting getting that are
DEA hitting it with either, you know increasing or a combination ideally increasing leafy greens and also taking a supplement magnesium glycinate citrate male are all pretty bioavailable sources of magnesium.
Okay, so we're going out we're going to shift gears and we're going to get into the effortful part of this presentation this talk this this this requires putting in the work, right?
This isn't this isn't as simple as taking a pill
but at the very least I think that
you know taking the pill is easier for a lot of people but then there's the of course the people that want to go the step further and they're willing to put in the effort. So let's talk about that. We're going to
talk about
why I'm convinced that vigorous.
Exercise is the
most powerful
longevity drug that you're going to get more than metformin more than
rapamycin more than any of those things. If you could
pill up what you can do with vigorous exercise than I think that is like right now what the best longevity drug we have for delaying the aging process and improving Health span and improving life span.
So when I say vigorous exercise, what do I meet generally speaking? Of course, there's there's a sliding scale here because you can't
Someone who's completely sedentary never really done any aerobic exercise
vigorous exercise for them is going to be probably
more what light to moderate exercise is for people that are Physically Active
but generally speaking once you kind of adapt and get you know, used to Fizz being Physically Active vigorous exercise is
about getting to 80% your max heart rate or estimated next heart rate.
That's that's really what I'm talking
about 75 to 80% of your your maximum heart rate.
wait
So cardiorespiratory Fitness. This is one of the best biomarkers for
longevity in my opinion. So cardiorespiratory Fitness is measured empirically by vo2max. So that's the maximum amount of oxygen that you can take up during maximal exercise.
So when I use vo2max all you know, sometimes these are like interchangeable cardiorespiratory Fitness vo2max. I kind of use them interchangeably in this in this talk but VO2 max is just directly measuring cardiorespiratory Fitness. So cardiorespiratory Fitness is associated with improve longevity. It does improve longevity and and the biggest improvements are going to get is if you're going from low normal so for your age group for your for your gender, if you're low normal and going anywhere above that is where you get the biggest bang for.
A
buck so people that have a low normal vo2max if they just go up to a if they're below sorry if they're below normal
and they go up to just
low-normal they get about a 2.1
increased life expectancy
if they're below normal and they go up to high normal. They get almost a three year increased life expectancy. And then if they go from below normal to the
upper amount of normal, so this is the top 5% of the population. This is more like you're getting into
the elite athlete level that's associate with almost a five-year increase in life
expectancy.
So just to give you some perspective here about half of the US population is they have a low normal cardiorespiratory Fitness and the other half has about a
high normal cardiorespiratory Fitness. So again, just mostly having to do with being physically active or not being physically active
and on average for every unit increase in VO2 max its associated with a 45-day increase in life expectancy, and there was a really important study.
Rush in Jama back in 2018
that I just like to mention because it kind of established that there was no upper limit to the mortality
reduction of having a high cardiorespiratory Fitness. I mean obviously within human normal human life expectancy ranges, right?
So people that were in the the bottom 25% of
cardiorespiratory Fitness or their VO2 max
and also I like these studies because they're measuring something empirically I'm talking about vo2max, right? This is a fitness test that's done. Its measured its empirical versus a lot of studies in conflicting data out there when you have these questionnaires how Physically Active are you you know, and you think about your last week or month and then that's like you extrapolate it out.
And go, okay. Well based on this last week. This is how Physically Active we think this person is over the you know, their lifetime or whatever and I just it's not a very, you know, it's all we have in some respects. But if you can if you can measure something and periodically it's going to really help clear up a lot of the confounding and a lot of the, you know, conflicting data that you see out there. So I really like studies that measure VO2 max because it's something that's actually actually empirical rather than going off a question.
Right with that's it does have all sorts of problems. So
going from the Low Bottom 25% of VO2 max up
to the elite level. So you're talking about the top two point three percent. I mean the see these are the Elite athletes
that's associated with an 80%
reduction in all cause all-cause mortality. So comparing those two groups people in the low 25% group versus the like the elite level
but even going from the high
cardiorespiratory Fitness, so this is a top 25%
The
population they're good. I mean, these are people that are there committed exercisers. They're really they're physically active they if they go up to the
elite level they get a
you know, even 20% more
reduction all-cause mortality.
So if you compare the elite to the
high cardiorespiratory Fitness, you're still you're still getting a 20% lower all-cause mortality by just moving up to that Elite level.
And what was really interesting about this study. Was that being in that low 25%
That that you know, there are there in the bottom 25% for VO2
max that was comparable to a either same risk or greater risk than format immortality early mortality as type 2 diabetes as smoking
and as having heart disease, so again putting that into perspective, you know, we all think about these diseases and how they're you know, they're, you know, increasing our early mortality arrest, but like
just not having a good cardio respiratory.
We Fitness can do the same thing.
So, how do you improve your VO2 max? How do you improve your cardio respiratory Fitness? Well any exercise any aerobic exercise is obviously going to be good for small changes in cardiorespiratory Fitness, but in particular there have been meta-analysis that have found that vigorous intensity exercises. They mentioned in particularly high intensity interval training, which we're going to talk about. So this is where you're doing sort of short bursts. There's of, you know, very vigorous exercise your at least at 80 percent max heart rate sometimes
Is going even above that and then and then having rest periods are doing those intervals and why that's important is because they've been some studies that have found that even people that are meeting the guidelines for moderate aerobic exercise. So they're doing two and a half hours of moderate intensity aerobic exercise per week.
Do not about 40 percent of those people do not
respond. In other words. They do not get vo2max improvements. They are not improving their cardiorespiratory Fitness by doing two and a half hours of moderate intensity exercise every week
and it's not really known why
exactly there's these non-responder
effect, but that's a large percent of the population. However, when those people do more of a high-intensity interval training workout, they do more vigorous exercise and they
start to respond and
Of their VO2
max and it's thought because you know vo2max cardiorespiratory Fitness to get those changes to get those improvements. You really have to increase cardiac output. So the stronger the signal the stronger the more intense the signal
the adaptations or greater. So your body responds by improving the delivery of oxygen to your tissues, right? So that's essentially what you're wanting to improve your cardiorespiratory Fitness and So that's its kind of thought why vigorous intensity and particularly high intensity will training is so important for improving.
Being cardiorespiratory Fitness
and and one of the
there's been several studies looking at this and for example, dr. Martin developed Kabbalah out of McMaster University over and Ontario. Canada has been a lot of studies looking at different high-intensity interval training
protocols. And it really seems if you're really wanting to
improve that cardiorespiratory Fitness that you have to do longer intervals. So 3 to 5 minute intervals of just the maximum intensity that you can maintain
n for that three to five minutes and so a really good and well studying a lot of evidence on the Norwegian 4x4 protocol.
So this is four minutes of the highest intensity that you can
do and then it's three minutes recovery. So you're really going down to like light light exercise. You want your heart rate to go down you want to sort of really give yourself some rest so that you can do it again. So you repeat this four times. That's why it's called 4 by 4, and this is one of the best protocols for improving
VO2 max if you don't want to go
into a lab
To get your VO2 max measured or you don't have access to it for whatever
reason one of the
best evidence-based ways of measuring VO2 max at home. So to speak not necessarily home is What's called the 12-minute run tests or
walk test depending on your Fitness level essentially. You need some sort of, you know
wearable device that can track your your distance. So Apple watch your Fitbit, whatever and
you need to
You need to have like a
flat surface that you can run on so like a track
field and you want to run for
12 minutes or walk depending on your Fitness level
their maximum intensity that you can maintain for
that 12 minutes and you basically your distance is going to be covered and then you look up this equation and it converts, you know, your VO2 max based on that distance. And the reason you don't want Hills and stuff is because that'll make you run. You know, the distance will be less. So you want to make sure you're giving yourself a flat surface so that you actually are more accurate in terms.
ERM what your distance is during that 12-minute
one test.
This are this this study
out of UT Southwestern in Dallas by a doctor been
lovin will is really what has
convinced me that vigorous exercise is extremely important for
for the heart and the way the heart
ages. So I mentioned cardiovascular disease. I mean, that's the number one killer in developed countries, right?
So as we age our heart goes undergoes certain inevitable
changes, its it
gets smaller it shrinks
and it gets stiffer less flexible and this affects a lot of things that affects our cardiovascular disease
risk, it affects our cardiorespiratory Fitness the ability for us to do aerobic
exercise.
And so what Ben did in the study, dr. Levine didn't the study was really remarkable. He took a cohort of participants that were 50 years old on average and these were sedentary individuals that were otherwise healthy, so they didn't have any, you know, type 2 diabetes hypertension Etc. They were Quantified healthy, but they were sedentary.
Any separate them into two groups. So the first group is the control group who did sort of stretching and yoga for two years and then the second group was the exercise intervention group. So these are the people that were going to be doing the
exercise and
ended up being a bigger ass exercise protocol. But because there were sedentary
started out sort of lower to moderate intensity. And by the time it was six months these individuals are doing
5 to 6 hours a week of aerobic exercise with a large percentage of
of that
time being in What's called the maximal steady state. So that's what I'm talking about when
you're going as hard as you can and you maintain that for about 20 or 30 minutes. So it's usually around
75 80 percent max heart rate and you're doing that for about you know, 20 30 minutes.
They also did the old Norwegian 4x4
protocol once a week
and after 2 years.
They essentially reverse these structural changes in their aging Heart by like 20 years. So their their hearts were essentially looking more like a 30 year old heart after that
two years of
vigorous intensity exercise now like I mentioned they were doing five to six hours a week of vigorous a large portion of it in vigorous vigorous exercise, but it's simply
astonishing, you know, the structural changes that they found so there was more than 25% Improvement in the elasticity of the heart after those two years.
Particularly the left ventricular muscle of the heart. Of course, they did increase their their their
VO2 max by about twenty twenty percent as well. So it's just quite astounding that you can take a 50 year-old put them on a pretty intense exercise program for two years
and essentially reverse a lot of the structural changes that happen, you know in with the heart with the aging
process.
Blood pressure improvements are also you know for people that are willing to put in the effort most of the time I'm there's always non-responders, but they can have drug size defects. In other words. It can be comparable to some drugs that are given to reduce hypertension. So there's been an analysis of 24 different randomized controlled trials found that six weeks of a pretty, you know, moderate to vigorous intensity exercise 20 to 60 Minutes of that three to four days a week.
Like had almost drug size effects and reducing blood pressure. So, you know hypertension is not only a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. It's also a very very important risk factor for dementia and Alzheimer's disease. So there's every reason to want to not have hypertension and 20% of the young people aged, you know, 18 to 39 have hypertension and then half the, you know about half the u.s. Population of you know, an older adults.
Have hypertension. So it's a very common, you know thing that again can be
modified to work to a quite a bit of an extent with
robic exercise particularly vigorous intensity
exercise.
Let's talk a little bit about on the molecular level. Why why I'm talking about vigorous exercise and really that eighty percent max heart rate. It has to do with the fact that you are pushing when you push your muscles to work harder
than the oxygen
can get to them to make energy they shift to from using mitochondria and using oxygen for energy to using glucose through glycolysis, and it's a quick process. That doesn't require oxygen.
Jigeon, it makes lactate as a by-product only. It's not a byproduct. We often thought about it as a metabolic Prime my product but it's so much more than that. So la tete generated from muscles is is what it's an extra kind. It's a myo Kine and it's a signaling molecule it gets into circulation and it is consumed by the brain. It's consumed by the Heart by the liver also by the muscle, its
And as a very easily utilizable source of energy but also as a signaling molecule as we'll talk about in this is
called the lactate shuttle. It was pioneered by dr. George
Brooks at out of UC
Berkeley. And when I say A signaling molecule, it's a way for your muscles to directly
communicate with other parts of the body like the brain and so lactate itself has been shown to be responsible for increasing brain-derived neurotropic Factor both in the plasma. This is in human studies.
Humans that exercise lactate correlates with the bdnf activation plasma bdnf can cross over the blood-brain barrier but also animal studies showing that a directly increases brain derived neurotrophic factor in the brain. So b d and f is a very important neurotrophic factor. It's responsible responsible for neuroplasticity. So that's the ability of your your brain your neurons in your brain to adapt to changing environment. It's very important during the aging process, you know as
These
are you know changing and
stuff your you want your brain to adapt to those changes. It's also important for depression people with depression. Don't often adapt to the changing environment and it is partly responsible for some of the depressive symptoms.
But brain derived neurotrophic Factor also is important for neurogenesis the
increase of new neurons particularly in some brain regions like the
hippocampus, which is involved in learning and memory.
It's a it's a helps, you know, existing neurons survive.
There have been animal studies that have shown that when you when you induce them to do exercise and they get those learning and memory improvements that have also been found in human studies that if you give them a drug and block brain derived neurotrophic
Factor, they don't get those learning and memory benefits.
So really seems as though brain-derived neurotrophic factor is important to get those learning and
memory benefits from exercise. And again lactate is a key signaling molecule that increases brain derived neurotrophic
Factor lactate is generated from
you're exercising muscles when you're forcing them to work hard. This isn't just going on a brisk walk. This is really getting your heart rate up sweating getting flush in the face.
Lactate is also a signaling molecule to increase neurotransmitters in the brain. This has been shown in both human studies and animal studies. So
it's important for the production of
Serotonin. So Studies have found that people that exercise produce a lot of lactate this correlates with an increase in serotonin,
which also correlated with improved impulse control serotonin plays an important role
in many neurological
processes including impulse control. So they're being able to have this inhibitory.
Effect which also plays a role in Focus
intention and attention norepinephrine is another one that's been shown. So as we're exercising really hard our muscles are working harder our heart as working harder, but our brain is also working harder on there have been human
studies out of I believe it's Norway that I found that the
lactate produced during vigorous intensity exercise good crosses. The blood-brain barrier is consumed by the brain and this
correlates with a burst of norepinephrine production, which fuels the brain
I work harder
during exercise. It's also important for
focus and attention and some of those effects that you get after, you know, after you do like a vigorous intensity workout.
There's some protocols that have been shown to maximize brain derived neurotrophic factor in humans and some of these have also correlated
with lactate levels. It seems as
though like the the best is getting getting The Best of Both Worlds. So you want vigorous-intensity about 80% max heart rate, but you also want duration. So you want to get like 30 to 40 minutes of that is
the most robust at increasing brain derived neurotrophic Factor as measured in plasma and
people but 20 minutes will
also increase
crease it as well. Just 30 to 40 minutes. Does it even more there's also some protocols that are more high intensity interval
training. So doing six rounds of 40 second intervals where you're going as hard as you can for 40 seconds followed by a recovery period also really increases brain derived neurotrophic factor. In fact, it were increases it four to five times more and people
compared to individuals that are doing about an hour and a half of War lower intensity intensity cycling at about 25.
percent their VO2
max Peak
I want to just shift gears for a minute and talk about some of the anti-cancer effects of vigorous intensity exercise, you know independent of the immune system. So the immune system
exercise activates the immune system. There's a robust effect on a variety of you know, anti anti metastatic affects their but just the mechanical
force of blood flow
blood flow actually
affects what are called circulating tumor cells so circulating to
Yourselves escaped from the primary site of the tumor get into
circulation eventually travel to distant sites and then they take residence and establish a new tumor elsewhere. So this is the metastasis so circulating tumor cells you obviously do not want to have them in circulation because they can play a role in taxes while the
shearing forces of blood flow itself can kill these circular like circulating tumor cells because on every cell surface we have a mechanic. Oh
We have these mechanical mechanoreceptors. They'll respond to movement and cancer cells are all
wonky and disrupted and messed up and so they just can't handle that movement and they die. So the more intense the
exercise the more the greater the blood flow the the
higher proportion of circulating tumor cells that are better actually undergo apoptosis and die.
In some studies looking at people that
undergo about six months of aerobic exercise anywhere between 50 to 70
percent max heart rate for 150 minutes a
week that significantly reduces the circulating tumor cells in people with anywhere between stage 1 to stage 3 colon
cancer other Studies have found in correlated that circulating tumor cells are linked to a three times higher risk of Cancer
recurrence and a four times higher risk of cancer mortality in people
with cancer
also stage three colon.
Our patients that engaged in aerobic exercise have a 40% reduction in Cancer recurrence and a 63 percent reduction in cancer mortality.
So exercise is
also a very important plays a very important role in in, you know cancer metastasis and also in helping as an adjunct therapy to treating cancer as
well.
But you don't have to do the 40 minutes of you know, vigorous intensity exercise every day to get benefits. So there's something called exercise snacks. These are very short and we're between one to three minute and bursts of intense exercise. You're getting your heart rate up 75 80 90 percent max heart rate. You can be doing anything from jumping jacks to sprinting stairs to high knees to air squats, you know, there's a lot of ways
Do it and you do it just in a short burst. So it's a really great way to break up. You know the workday. It's also a really great way to improve metabolic Health particular when you tie it around Mills,
which we'll talk about in a
minute and the way it does that partly. Well, there's a lot of
mechanisms at play.
But one of them again comes back to lactate
being generated, you know, very cutely from exercising
muscle which then causes and glucose Transporters on the muscle surface to translocate.
82 the muscle
surface. So these are glued for Transporters these then allow glucose circulating in circulation to them being taken up into muscle therefore improving your blood glucose levels, and it also improves insulin sensitivity sensitivity as well
when they're timed around Meal Time anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour dramatically has an effect on blood
glucose levels and insulin sensitivity particularly people with metabolic
syndrome type 2 diabetes, so it's a great way. Also you just get up do some
Knees for a minute or you know jumping jacks or do something that you can do quickly to,
you know, get that exercise snack
in and another way. It's a proving metabolic Health. I'll
just mention briefly because we're running out of time is is through improving mitochondrial biogenesis the generation of new healthy young mitochondria. It's been trying to do this in muscle cells and this is also happening through lactate lactate is in is a signaling
molecule yet again increasing the expression of a very important protein involved.
In mitochondrial
biogenesis called PGC 1 Alpha and so it plays an important role in increasing new mitochondria and muscle this has been shown in
human studies. But also a most Studies have found that exercise increases lactate which crosses the blood-brain barrier and gets into the brain and increases mitochondrial biogenesis in the hippocampus in neurons in the hippocampus. So mitochondria in neurons in the hippocampus for being a grease. I don't know why that mechanism wouldn't be conserved in humans. So, you know the fact that
That it's happening in animals is also encouraging.
But exercise snacks are also associated with improved longevity. So I was talking about this sort of deliberate form of exercise snacks where you're doing high knees or jumping jacks. Well, there's there's large studies that have have been
under under way and been published and there's ongoing
studies looking at vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity. So at the type of exercise snack where you use everyday
life situations to get your heart rate up high for a minute or two minutes or three minutes for example you
or you have to take the stairs every day.
To get to work one set of walking up the stairs you sprint so people are wearing these accelerometers and
and you know, so their heart rate is being measured and you know, scientists have been able to
gather all this data and they found a people that have engaged in 1 to 2 minutes of vigorous intermittent Activity 3 3 times a day have a 40% reduction in all in all cause and in cancer mortality and a 50% reduction in cardiovascular related
mortality. This is compared to non exercisers now also,
People that even identify themselves as non exercisers. So, you know, they're doing this in this vigorous stair climbing and stuff, but they don't actually go to the gym or take do any Leisure Time activity. They still get these improvements. So it's a really great way to break up sedentary time. Send being sedentary itself is an independent risk factor for all cause mortality cancer mortality. So in other words just periods when were sitting like now is a risk factor, even if you you're going to go to the gym, you know later today, so breaking upset.
And Terry time is really important. There's a lot of ways to break up your sedentary time. And I think that these exercise snacks are a great way to do it. You just get up and you do high knees for one minute two minutes three minutes and I really kind of wanted to just have everyone do it for 30 seconds. If we could do that real quick. I'm going to ending my talk. So if you guys could just get up and we're going to do high knees right now. So that is where you do the you try to get your leg as high as you can and you do the opposite hand up and then we're going to just do it. We're just do it for 30 seconds, but really try to do it.
As hard as you can if you're wearing heels take them off You Ready set go? All right, get your heart rate up. You really will get your heart rate up there go fast.
Now remember we're doing 30 seconds and I said 12 minutes you do this. You're actually going to be tired. You're probably like, oh my gosh, it's not up yet. All right, we're only going to just 30 seconds because of time all right time, but as you can see
it works right so
Maybe maybe we get a little more brand writer or try to prevent neurotropic factor a little more attentive for the next talk.
And I just want to close by saying yeah, we've talked a lot about vigorous intensity exercise. But the reality is that any exercise you can do to form a habit to that you can do on a daily basis if it's not bigger its intensity any kind of exercise is beneficial. So keep that in mind. I was kind of going for the top here like you want to reach for the stars. But really what you want to do is a form a habit.
So that's the most important thing with that said we talked about a lot today. I think I've covered a lot of the summaries what a micronutrient insufficiencies addressing the lack of you know, vigorous intensity exercise. But again forming that habit do what you can do. I think I've been you guys a lot of tools here to measure things try to implement some Norwegian 4 by 4, which is group brutal or just do exercise snacks. You guys tell the next speaker, you know in a couple of hours. We got to get up and get our blood blood.
Go higher heart rate up. And with that. Thank you so much for listening today. Hope you guys learned something
as we conclude today's exploration into the Realms of cognitive enhancement and the science of longevity. I hope you've gained valuable insights that not only Peak your interest but also motivate you towards actionable steps in line with today's discussions as mentioned at the start of this episode. I have worked with my team to meticulously develop a guide that serves as a practical extension of our conversation this
Worse is centered around the critical role of brain derived neurotrophic factor or bdnf a key player in your brain's ability to adapt learn and even regenerate it's about turning the science of neuroplasticity into tangible practices that sakin significantly impact your cognitive function and decelerate the aging process of your brain. This guide takes a deep dive into specific lifestyle adjustments focusing on exercise nutrition and beyond that have been shown to boost bdnf levels.
Evils and intern cognitive Health. It also includes a special segment Rhonda's protocols where I share both my personal experimentation and science back strategies aimed at enhancing cognitive performance and Longevity. These are not just guidelines but a framework for integrating these practices into your life tailored to Foster significant cognitive improvements for those ready to translate today's insights into action. I invite you to download this guide at bdnf.
Calls.com it's crafted for anyone passionate about leveraging science to enhance cognition and to use a handful of key lifestyle tactics to meaningfully impact brain aging and improve the quality of cognition today. Once again, you can find this protocols guide at bdnf protocols.com. Thank you so much for listening and I'll talk to you guys soon.
