Longevity Influencers Are Making You Sick — Transcript

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1. 0:00five popular longevity strategies are
2. 0:02trending everywhere but instead of
3. 0:04improving your health they likely
4. 0:06shorten your lifespan plus they deviate
5. 0:08significantly from the preventative care
6. 0:10clinical guidelines number one is a low
7. 0:12protein diet and the detrimental effects
8. 0:15are made even worse when combined with
9. 0:17number two on the list which we'll cover
10. 0:18shortly excitement for the low protein
11. 0:21diet kicked into overdrive after a
12. 0:23landmark paper was published in 2014
13. 0:25that study trialled 25 different diets
14. 0:28to see what the effect would be on mice
15. 0:30lifespan the authors found that
16. 0:32longevity and health were optimized when
17. 0:35protein was replaced with carbohydrate
18. 0:37resulting in the average lifespan
19. 0:39increasing from 95 weeks to 125 weeks or
20. 0:43a roughly 30 Improvement in lifespan as
21. 0:46the protein content in the food
22. 0:47decreased the presumed mechanism for
23. 0:50these findings centers around an enzyme
24. 0:52called mtor so when we activate mtor we
25. 0:55activate muscle and protein building and
26. 0:57when we consume protein particularly the
27. 0:59amino acid leucine it powerfully
28. 1:02activates mtor so by reducing protein
29. 1:04intake we reduce mtor activation and
30. 1:07that results in the mice living longer
31. 1:09think of it like the body can only do so
32. 1:12much building and once you reach that
33. 1:13point time is up so if we can slow down
34. 1:16that building process by reducing mtor
35. 1:18we can extend lifespan added to that
36. 1:21theory is work done on a molecule called
37. 1:23rapamycin which blocks mtor and when
38. 1:26mice are given mtor it extends mice
39. 1:28lifespan by about 20 percent overall
40. 1:31then it sounds like a compelling case
41. 1:33but here's the problem we are not mice
42. 1:36living in a controlled lab instead a
43. 1:38growing body of evidence suggests that
44. 1:41higher muscle strength is associated
45. 1:42with lower all-cause death rates even
46. 1:45after adjusting for cardiorespiratory
47. 1:47Fitness human muscle undergoes
48. 1:49remarkable changes with aging we lose
49. 1:52about one percent of our strength and
50. 1:53mass per year from the age of around 40
51. 1:56years old that's a huge problem and is
52. 1:58why we should be trying to maximize our
53. 2:00muscle strength in youth maintain that
54. 2:03muscle strength in our middle age and
55. 2:04minimize that loss in older age and is
56. 2:07why the clinical guidelines recommend to
57. 2:09increase protein intake to maximize our
58. 2:12muscle strength and stores the
59. 2:13international Society of Sports
60. 2:15Nutrition suggests that adults should be
61. 2:17taking about 1.4 to 2 grams of protein
62. 2:21intake per kilogram of body weight per
63. 2:23day to maximize the benefits from
64. 2:25exercise and ideally our protein intakes
65. 2:28should be evenly distributed across the
66. 2:30day every three to four hours overall
67. 2:33then we want high protein intake spaced
68. 2:35evenly throughout the day so we want to
69. 2:37have hits of protein intake to stimulate
70. 2:39muscle building exploring those
71. 2:41recommendations further from emitter
72. 2:43analysis published in 2018 it suggests
73. 2:46that the ideal protein intake is
74. 2:49actually 1.6 grams of protein intake per
75. 2:51kilogram of body weight per day that is
76. 2:54a loss of protein but we see from a
77. 2:56British medical journal paper published
78. 2:58in 2020 that high higher protein intakes
79. 3:01are associated with a lower risk of all
80. 3:03cause death rates again we are not mice
81. 3:06living in a safe controlled lab humans
82. 3:08need to maintain their muscle strength
83. 3:10to be resilient against disease on the
84. 3:13point of mtor and muscle building the
85. 3:15negative effects of the low protein diet
86. 3:17are made even worse by the second
87. 3:19popular longevity strategy which is to
88. 3:21use metformin for non-diabetics and if
89. 3:24you think things are bad already wait
90. 3:26until we add number three on the list
91. 3:28metformin indirectly lowers mtor and
92. 3:31igf-1 or insulin-like growth factor one
93. 3:34to avoid confusion every day at the
94. 3:37clinic I prescribe metformin for my
95. 3:39pre-diabetic and type 2 diabetic
96. 3:41patients what I'm talking about here is
97. 3:43longevity influences using Metformin for
98. 3:45non-diabetics and excitement for the
99. 3:48strategy started to kick off in 2008
100. 3:50when we had a mice study suggesting that
101. 3:53metformin increased lifespan by 37.8
102. 3:56percent and in 2014 we had an
103. 3:59observational human and study suggesting
104. 4:01that diabetics who are taking metformin
105. 4:03appeared to live 15 percent longer
106. 4:05compared to non-diabetics here are the
107. 4:08problems though that 2008 paper used
108. 4:11spontaneously hypertensive rats they are
109. 4:13inbred and develop high blood pressure
110. 4:15so in 2016 the interventions testing
111. 4:18program trialled metformin but the
112. 4:20difference here is that they used
113. 4:22genetically diverse mice and there was
114. 4:24no benefit whatsoever seen from
115. 4:26metformin so the pre-clinical mice
116. 4:29studies do not support the idea of using
117. 4:31Metformin for non-diabetics and moving
118. 4:34to the human studies that 2014 paper
119. 4:36that generated so much excitement is an
120. 4:39observational study so it's looking in
121. 4:41the rear view mirror that means that a
122. 4:43lot of other factors can influence those
123. 4:45results so in 2021 a massive study was
124. 4:48published by the diabetes prevention
125. 4:50program involving over 3 000 adults at
126. 4:53high risk of type 2 diabetes it was a
127. 4:55placebo-controlled study over a 21-year
128. 4:58period and compared with Evo metformin
129. 5:01did not improve death rates cancer or
130. 5:03cardiovascular disease so the mice and
131. 5:06human research does not support the idea
132. 5:08that non-diabetics should use metformin
133. 5:11but here's the kicker as explained
134. 5:13earlier metformin it indirectly blocks
135. 5:15mtor and we can see from multiple
136. 5:18studies that metformin it blunts the
137. 5:20positive effects of exercise it also
138. 5:22reduces testosterone levels so using a
139. 5:25low protein diet and combining that with
140. 5:27metformin is terrible for our muscles
141. 5:30and muscle strength but it gets even
142. 5:32worse the next strategy that longevity
143. 5:34influencers promote is intermittent
144. 5:36fasting which is especially bad when you
145. 5:39add the fourth strategy to this mess now
146. 5:41just like metformin it's important not
147. 5:43to confuse this point so some people
148. 5:45find that intermittent fasting is a
149. 5:47fantastic way for them to control their
150. 5:49calorie intake and reduce their blood
151. 5:51sugar levels and weight that's brilliant
152. 5:53but that's not what I'm talking about
153. 5:55here I'm talking about otherwise healthy
154. 5:57people using intermittent fasting as a a
155. 6:00way to extend their lifespan the
156. 6:02proposed mechanism for this idea centers
157. 6:04around a concept called autophagy or the
158. 6:06cell clearance process autophagy is
159. 6:09strongly activated by starvation so in
160. 6:11the mice studies when they are fasted
161. 6:13for 16 hours they activate autophagy and
162. 6:16clear away their old damaged components
163. 6:18resulting in a longer lifespan once
164. 6:21again though we are not mice so a mouse
165. 6:24fasting for 16 hours is vastly different
166. 6:26to a human fasting for 16 hours it's
167. 6:29roughly the equivalent of a human
168. 6:31fasting for four days when we have a
169. 6:33look at a Cochrane review that combined
170. 6:35all of the relevant clinical studies
171. 6:36together to see if there are any
172. 6:38benefits from intermittent fasting what
173. 6:40they found is that there were no added
174. 6:42benefits from intermittent fasting
175. 6:43Beyond calorie restriction in particular
176. 6:46there were no added benefits to blood
177. 6:48sugar levels so to be clear because this
178. 6:50often gets confused in the comments
179. 6:52there is no added benefit to
180. 6:54intermittent fasting Beyond calorie
181. 6:56restriction so when people fast during
182. 6:58the day they generally eat less calories
183. 7:01and if you're trying to lose weight or
184. 7:03you're a type 2 diabetic that's
185. 7:04generally fantastic but for otherwise
186. 7:06healthy people it's not a great strategy
187. 7:09and here's why most fasting diets do not
188. 7:11achieve the ideal 1.6 gram of protein
189. 7:14intake per kilogram of body weight per
190. 7:16day Target fasting diets also don't
191. 7:19allow for correct protein timing
192. 7:21remember we want to have multiple
193. 7:23protein meals spaced three to four hours
194. 7:25apart during the day we want hits of
195. 7:28protein intake so that we can stimulate
196. 7:30our own muscle building that's why
197. 7:32multiple reviews now conclude that
198. 7:34intermittent fasting represents a
199. 7:36sub-optimal dietary approach for
200. 7:38skeletal muscle and it can impact the
201. 7:40ability to maintain or enhance muscle
202. 7:42mass and quality and it's not just
203. 7:45Theory when we do dexa scans of people
204. 7:47that do intermittent fasting we can see
205. 7:49significant decreases in their lean
206. 7:51muscle mass but muscle mass isn't the
207. 7:54only problem when it comes to
208. 7:55intermittent fasting so most people who
209. 7:57do intermittent fasting they do the sick
210. 7:5916 8 strategy so they fast for 16 hours
211. 8:03during the day and most people do this
212. 8:05by skipping breakfast that's a terrible
213. 8:07idea we have truckloads of human studies
214. 8:10showing that skipping breakfast is
215. 8:12terrible for our insulin levels blood
216. 8:14sugar levels and it actually increases
217. 8:16body fat percentages the fourth damaging
218. 8:18strategy that longevity influences
219. 8:20promote is Resveratrol and the fifth
220. 8:23strategy is also a supplement for people
221. 8:25new to the Resveratrol Scandal the
222. 8:27initial hype kicked off in the early
223. 8:292000s based on a series of lab mistakes
224. 8:32and misconduct by Dr David Sinclair that
225. 8:34should have been stopped in its tracks
226. 8:36in 2005 when professors Matt cableline
227. 8:39and Brian Kennedy published a paper
228. 8:41showing that Resveratrol does not
229. 8:43activate sir II which was the proposed
230. 8:45mechanism for how Resveratrol may offer
231. 8:47benefits instead the original hype was
232. 8:50based on a lab era where it was the
233. 8:52fluorescent dye that was activating the
234. 8:54sur2 gene nevertheless David Sinclair
235. 8:57sold his original Resveratrol research
236. 8:59to the the pharmaceutical giant GSK for
237. 9:02an eye-watering 720 million dollars
238. 9:04after GSK spent Millions more and
239. 9:07realizing that this was a dead end they
240. 9:09shuttered their Resveratrol into two in
241. 9:11divisions unfortunately the Resveratrol
242. 9:14hype continues to this day despite
243. 9:16multiple mice experiments showing no
244. 9:18benefits from Resveratrol whatsoever
245. 9:19despite clear evidence of absorption of
246. 9:22Resveratrol into the bloodstream there's
247. 9:24also no benefits from multiple human
248. 9:26studies and the clinical guidelines
249. 9:27specifically advise against Resveratrol
250. 9:30supplements and we now know the real
251. 9:32impact that Resveratrol has on our human
252. 9:35cells it stresses them its poison so
253. 9:38longevity influences have pivoted to say
254. 9:40that a low dose of this poison is
255. 9:43actually a good thing this low-dose
256. 9:44stress can signal to our cells that they
257. 9:47need to become more efficient now this
258. 9:49theory is utterly ridiculous so you want
259. 9:51people to take a low-dose poison in an
260. 9:54attempt to make the body more efficient
261. 9:55that just makes no sense particularly
262. 9:58because we've got evidence of harm from
263. 10:00low-dose Resveratrol so low dose
264. 10:02Resveratrol is typically thought of as
265. 10:04250 milligrams or less and we've got
266. 10:07multiple human studies showing that just
267. 10:09like metformin Resveratrol blunts the
268. 10:12positive effects of exercise and again
269. 10:14just like metformin it lowers
270. 10:16testosterone levels so you can imagine
271. 10:18if you're combining all four of these
272. 10:20strategies the detrimental effects that
273. 10:22it would have on your muscle performance
274. 10:24and strength let alone adding in number
275. 10:26five on the list which is antioxidant
276. 10:28supplements and then I'll go through
277. 10:30what the preventative care guidelines
278. 10:31suggests you do for a healthy long life
279. 10:34so many longevity influences will
280. 10:36encourage you to take high doses of
281. 10:38vitamin C and vitamin E for the
282. 10:40anti-cancer and heart protection effects
283. 10:43but taking vitamin C as an example we
284. 10:45know that our cells have got all of the
285. 10:47vitamin C that they need at Daily
286. 10:49intakes of only 100 milligrams when
287. 10:52higher doses are tested in humans
288. 10:53there's no benefits seen so there's no
289. 10:56improvement on cardiovascular disease
290. 10:58cancer or death rates things are even
291. 11:01worse for vitamin E supplements where we
292. 11:03can see an increase in death rates
293. 11:05instead what we want is a balance
294. 11:07between oxidants and antioxidants and
295. 11:10taking high doses of antioxidant
296. 11:11supplements can disrupt this balance
297. 11:13plus antioxidant supplements likely
298. 11:16interfere with the benefits from
299. 11:17exercise so when we exercise we stress
300. 11:20our body and we release all sorts of
301. 11:22oxidants so that stress from exercise is
302. 11:24a good thing that instead of Resveratrol
303. 11:27does signal to our bodies to become more
304. 11:29efficient but if we're taking
305. 11:30antioxidant supplements that blunts that
306. 11:33oxidant increase so it doesn't give our
307. 11:35cells as much signal to become more
308. 11:37efficient and we can see this effect in
309. 11:40multiple human studies you can see that
310. 11:42these five popular longevity strategies
311. 11:44are terrible for our body and they
312. 11:46significantly weaken our muscles they go
313. 11:49completely against the preventative care
314. 11:51clinical guidelines those guidelines
315. 11:52suggest to increase lean protein intake
316. 11:55eat Whole Foods regularly exercise have
317. 11:58high quality sleep and overall increase
318. 12:01your lean muscle mass I'm a primary care
319. 12:04physician every day at the clinic
320. 12:05there's a massive emphasis on
321. 12:07preventative care we want to prevent
322. 12:09disease rather than treat it we have a
323. 12:11health coach who helps to optimize a
324. 12:13patient's diet exercise and sleep so
325. 12:16when they see me I can focus on things
326. 12:18like cancer screening programs blood
327. 12:20pressure blood tests and medications if
328. 12:22necessary so I honestly don't understand
329. 12:25why Primary Care should be rebranded to
330. 12:27longevity instead we should follow the
331. 12:30preventative care clinical guidelines
332. 12:31and I've summarized those guidelines in
333. 12:34a free easy to read roadmap which you
334. 12:36can find a link to in the pinned comment
335. 12:38and as part of those preventative care
336. 12:40guidelines there are seven specific
337. 12:42blood tests that you should get and you
338. 12:44can learn about them in the next video
339. 12:46here and a massive thank you to all of
340. 12:48the patrons supporting the channel