There's a lot of buzz on social media right now about determining your biological
age versus the chronological age. For example, Brian Johnson, a 45 year old
tech entrepreneur has been in the news and social media for dumping roughly 2 million dollars
annually into slowing his own aging down. Of course, I'm a big devotee of the
pursuit of dying young at a ripe old age. In fact, I've written an entire book about it and there's much more about how to de
age in my upcoming book, Gut Check. Also, there's a slew of companies
out there claiming that they can give you your biologic age for a fee, of course. So what is biological age
versus chronological age? Chronological age basically goes how
many times you've been around the sun. In other words, your actual age in years,
that's a chronological age. A biological age on the other hand, claims to tell you how you might compare to other people of
a chronological age of younger. And so, for instance, I just turned 73. That's my chronological age. But personally, I'd like to know
if my biological age is a lot younger than my chronological age or conversely, I might really want to know if my biological
age is a lot worse than my chronological age.
In other words, what if I'm 40 and my biologic
age is 73? I probably wouldn't want to have that. And I'd wanna know steps that have made me so
quote, biologically old, despite being young, chronologically. And I've written about,
I've done podcasts about when I was 40, I was much older than I am
now by many measurements. So how can we potentially measure biologic age? Well, there are ways of looking at this that are
touted and there's some interesting experimental evidence that gives us hope that some
of these tests or all of these tests can give us an idea of what our biologic
age is rather than our chronological age. For instance, one of the first attempts at
looking at this was the length of telomeres. Now, most people have heard of telomeres.
But if you haven't, there are little end caps
on the ends of your chromosomes. Chromosomes, of course, are where our DNA is kept and these
little caps, the ends of these chromosomes, there is some correlation between telomere length or
the thickness of those caps and your biologic age. In other words, the longer or thicker these caps
on your telomeres are, the younger you are. Now unfortunately, the science is not perfect in this. In fact, there is some contradictory evidence
that maybe in some cells, a shorter telomere might actually correlate with good things
happening rather than bad things happening. And there's some evidence that a
longer telomere is a good thing. My personal feeling is, although
you can measure telomere length, I'm not ready for prime time on this one. There are compounds that have been
associated with lengthening telomere. I talk about them in my other books
and I'm not gonna bore you now.
But there's some evidence that some of these
compounds may increase telomere length. And are they worth your money? That's for me to decide and you to decide. But I got better things for you to worry about. Now, one of the most recent
exciting areas is in epigenetics, epigenetic markers. We've learned since the human
genome project that we thought we were in the most complex genome of any animal only to find
out that our genome isn't very interesting. In fact, there are animals like
the sand flea that has far more genes than we do and that makes us pretty poor.
In fact, corn has more genes than you do. So, if it wasn't for our complexity, we thought
it was our genes and in fact, it wasn't, but it's how genes are turned on or turned off. That seems to be the magic of
what makes us so distinctive. And so the epigenetic signal of how genes are turned on and turned off has
become the darling of aging. Now, why is that? Well, one of the things that's been intriguing
recently is methylation of genes of DNA and methyl groups. You've heard me talk about before,
I've written about them before. Methyl groups are a carbon
atom in three hydrogen atoms, CH3 and methyl groups are one of the
distinct ways we turn DNA on or turn DNA off. And most of the time we want methyl groups
to do the turning off and turning on. In fact, one of the interesting things
about methyl groups is about 50% of us carry mutations of genes that are called
the MTHFR genes that make enzymes that attach methyl groups to multiple
B vitamins like B12 and folic acid.
And about 50% of us lack one or
more of these genes that do that. So 50% of us may lack the amount of methyl groups
that we need to turn off DNA or turn on DNA. Now, why is that important? Well, the more we're looking at how DNA is
activated or suppressed in terms of cancer, the more we think that this is a valuable
way of just seeing what our status is. And there are researchers who have come up with indexes of methylation of DNA as a
way of looking at biological age. And you'll see some of my compatriots talk
about their chronological age and then tell you that their biological age based on
DNA methylation is dramatically lower. And that is why they believe
they're so much younger than they may actually look or certainly
in terms of celebrating birthdays.
Now there's another area that's
getting excitement and that is looking at protein unfolding
and not to bore you to tears. But we used to think of proteins as
these big long chemical structures because that's how we could draw
them on a blackboard or in a book. But we now know that proteins actually are
in a three dimensional shape and it's how those proteins are folded or not folded that
actually makes them active or not active. Why? That's interesting is much of the research in,
for instance, dementia or Alzheimer's shows that part of the whole problem is that these proteins
are misfolded or not folded properly and it's the kinks in the folding of the proteins, almost
like origami that makes them work or not work. And so that's the next frontier
of looking at aging is well, how well do your proteins fold and unfold? And can we measure that at
least in a clinical test? Now, quite frankly, I've never had any of these tests done on me and I have
no interest in doing them.
Why is that? Because with every passing year
since the human microbiome project got completed in , the evidence is
that it's actually the interaction between the species of microbes in
our gut, in our mouth on our skin. That actually is the major impact
of all of these other processes. And that's what's to me so exciting. And that to me confirms Hippocrates dictum years ago, that all
disease, all disease begins in the gut. And I think I could safely say based
on his knowledge and the knowledge from the human microbiome project
that all aging begins in the gut. Now, why is that so important? Because if all aging begins in the gut, then that's where we should look to
slow down aging or reverse aging. Now, there's a very famous model of
aging that has stood the test of time. There's this cute little worm called sea
elegance and it's a little flatt worm. And the interesting thing about
this flatworm is that so far, all the anti-aging strategies that have
ever been developed including things like my friend David Sinclair's favorite
compound resveratrol in red wine.
By the way, all these various compounds, polyphenols and anti-aging have been tested
in sea elegance first and whatever has been tested in sea elegance has always stood
the test of moving to a higher model. Now, what's fascinating about sea elegance
is sea elegance actually eats bacteria, but sea elegance has its own microbiome. NC elegance has its own digestive track, a very rudimentary digestive tract,
but just like our digestive track. Its cell is wall between what it swallows and the
rest of it is only one cell thick just like ours. Now, ours is significantly longer as you know, ours is the same surface area as a tennis
court, but it's still only one cell thick. And what's been shown in sea
elegance is that that animal only lives as long as that gut barrier is intact. And as that gut barrier breaks down, as gaps
develop in the wall of that little animal's gut, that's when it starts to age and
that's when it starts to die.
And so the integrity of that gut wall
determines how long that animal lives. Now, if that's the case and it certainly does, then Hippocrates was right, that
all disease begins in the gut. And for that matter, aging begins in the gut as
our gut wall ages as it begins to fall apart. So do we. Now, my last couple of books have been
trying to educate myself and others about the process that causes
that gut wall to break down. And the new book, Gut Check,
goes into that even further. So what? Well, it turns out that we're
now beginning to determine by looking at people who are105 years old,
what sort of gut microbiome they have that makes them so unique at 105 years old. Why aren't there aging 105 year olds? Why are they young? And it turns out that the composition of these gut
biome is remarkably similar, no matter where these people live, whether they're in Japan, whether
they're in the Mediterranean where they're up in North Dakota and it's the composition of this
gut microbiome and the post biotic compounds that their microbiome make, that actually determines
why they happen to be 105 and 110 years old.
And don't show the typical signs of aging. So for me, with every passing
year, we get to experience what compounds are unique to these super
agers and we can begin to find out what the bacteria of these super-agers like to eat that made
these bacteria stick around in these super-agers. And that's what's so exciting. For instance, two weeks ago, fascinating
paper was published that a product of bial acid metabolism and bial acid comes from bial made
by your liver squirted out by your gallbladder.
It turns out that certain bacteria
like certain compounds in bial and if you have the right bacteria and the
right bial acids, they make some really cool compounds that actually go to your
brain and keep your brain really young. And when they look at super old people, they find that son of a gun, these super
old people have bacteria that like to eat these bial acids and they produce compounds that
keep these super old people brains healthy.
So to me it's which came
first, the chicken or the egg, believe me, which came first
is your gut microbiome. You are a symbiotic organism. You are the home to 100 trillion different
bacteria, fungi, viruses that have a interest in keeping their home alive as long
as you will give them what they need to eat. And that's the principle of my last three books.
And if you give your gut microbiome, what
they need, they will take care of you. And the exciting thing about the human
microbiome project is we're beginning now to understand which bacteria we need and
what those bacteria want to eat so that they will produce compounds that keep that
single cell layer of your gut wall intact. And that's the exciting thing that we
don't need all of these other tests to do. We just need to go back to the
basics that Hippocrates figured out 2500 years ago that all disease begins in the gut. You take care of your gut, you don't have to worry about your biological
age because you will die young at a ripe old age.
Remember nobody's getting out alive? Sorry about that. But you want to have health span that is excessively long and still be
biologically extremely young. So how do you tell how your guts doing? Well, there's pretty easy ways to do it. One of the surprising things that so many
of my patients come to me and say, you know, you said that you'll know when your guts in good
shape that you don't need toilet paper anymore. And to bring home a valuable lesson. If you wipe and see something on your toilet
paper, you probably don't have perfect gut health. And you wouldn't believe the number of my
patients who walk in finally and say, oh my gosh. You know you were right. I had no idea that this was possible. And all you gotta do is check out your dogs. They don't need toilet paper.
Your cat doesn't need toilet paper. A bear going in the woods
doesn't need toilet paper. There's a reason behind that because in general,
they have a really good balanced microbiome. How else do you tell? Well, if you have an autoimmune disease, I can guarantee you that you have a
dysfunctional dysbiotic gut microbiome. Number one and number two, you have a leaky
gut, you have a breakdown in your gut barrier. And just last week, I got a wonderful
review of someone whose eczema for 20 years miraculously went away when he
went on the Plant Paradox Program. And he was delighted, obviously, and shocked.
But since 80% of my patients are now autoimmune
patients who've kind of run out of options, that's important. Just last week, surprise, surprise, a paper was published that biologics used
in the treatment of eczema of psoriasis actually made Crohn's rheumatoid
arthritis and lupus markers worse. Can you imagine you're taking a
biologic to relieve one autoimmune disease and it's actually worsening
other autoimmune diseases within you? And I see this all the time with my patients.
So biologics are not the answer. The answer is getting good microbiome. So your biologic age may be 45, but what we wanna do is get you to a
biologic feeling of like you were in 20. All right. Are there other tests that you can use to really give you a quick and dirty way of
how fast or how slow you're aging? Is there a crystal ball
that's cheap and accessible? And yeah, I happen to think
there is, first of all, get yourself a fasting insulin level
that's different than a hemoglobin A1C. You see hemoglobin A1C on TV. Every night I got my A1C down. Good for you. That looks at how you're handling sugars and
proteins for two months prior to the test. That doesn't tell you how you're
going about handling those. And so many patients that I see with a normal
or even low hemoglobin A one C have an elevated fasting insulin level and a fasting insulin
level is one of the best markers for aging. If you want to step it up another level. Get yourself a insulin-like growth
factor one level IGF-one.
Now, if you're or below, you actually are
going to have a high insulin like growth factor. But as you age, super ages have a very
low insulin like growth factor and you want to be able to follow this and read
my books to find out how to control this. Now, one of the things that worry most people
is we do know that muscle mass as you age, correlates not only with longevity but also in
your ability to function as a moving animal. Now, does that mean you have to
go to the gym to get muscle mass? Well, absolutely not one of
the things that's remarkable about super old people is that they've
never been to the gym in their lives. Just last week in one of the major magazines,
there was a very large editorial by physical therapist and fitness trainer who gave it up,
who realized that the fitness industry and machines was probably one of the worst things
that ever happened to our health because we no longer based on machines and gyms move our body
through ways that our body was designed to move.
And he proposes that if you actually
wanted to have good fitness, that you should do what super ager
do, which I've been saying all along. First of all, you need to get out and walk. Secondly, if at all possible work against gravity. Now, it doesn't matter that you go up a hill,
you can go down a hill and there have been some very interesting papers that I've talked about
from Austria, having people either ride a tram up a mountain and then walk down or, or to
hike up the mountain and ride the tram down. Now, needless to say most people would volunteer
for the ride up and the walk down, but they divided people in the group and they wanted
to look at their muscle mass and the thought was the people going uphill were gonna have a lot
better muscle mass than the people going downhill.
And they found the exact opposite
was true that both of them actually had significant changes in their muscle mass. And the surprising thing was that the people going
downhill actually had slightly better muscle mass. And that's because they were working against
gravity and exercise, that shortens muscles actually is more efficient than
exercise, that lengthens muscles. So anyhow, long story short, get out there and
move, buy a dog, get a dog from a rescue shelter. It's one of the best investments in
your long term health that you can get. There are plenty of easy to read books about
how your body is your own gym and you can get a complete workout without ever going
to a gym in the privacy of your own home. If you're worried about body shaming, get a book, your body is your own gym
is a great place to start. Finally, there are a lot of influencers that
are convinced that certain prescription drugs like Metformin, like Rapamycin
may be the key to longevity.
And there are some of my colleagues
who dabble in these prescriptions. Now, I have no problem using Metformin as
a prescription to treat somebody who's a diabetic who I first see, I personally don't
have a problem in someone who just had a stent or a coronary bypass in using a statin drug
as an anti-inflammatory until I can get the process that caused the problem under control and
correct it just like I would have no problem of putting a cast on someone's leg if they have a
broken bone, but you're not gonna wear a cast the rest of your life, you're gonna wait for the
bone to heal and then you don't need the cast. Similarly, we don't need drugs to accomplish
what anti-aging can be done by having a properly constructed microbiome and giving the microbiome
what they need and then the drugs aren't needed. Interestingly enough, Metformin,
this amazing anti-aging drug actually works by changing the microbiome to a
more friendly microbiome, son of a gun who knew. So that's my practice in my office.
I'm not afraid to use a drug
when we need it temporarily. But then to get a person on the road to getting
their microbiome and they got well stabilized in. You'll know in an instant how that's
going along with the toilet paper test. Finally, skin is merely a reflection
of what's going on in the gut. People are shocked with the changes they see and what they assume was old age on their
hand, on their skin, in their wrinkles.
Once they see what's going on with
their gut and not a day goes by that. Somebody wants to look at my hands when I'm
across them and going, let me see your hands. What the heck is that all about? Yeah, my wife's a perfect example. She was a marathon runner. She was thin. She was eating quote healthy
foods that were leck and rich. And once we took those lectin rich foods away
from her, her skin changed dramatically and what she thought was a normal process
of aging and potentially sun damage. Wasn't that at all? It was actually a reflection
of the damage that had been being done to her gut by these lectin rich foods. And once we removed them, changes on her skin
were obvious and she was pretty happy about that. So it's all skin is merely a reflection of
what's going on in the wall of your gut. Lots of easy ways that don't cost really any money or very little money to
reverse your biological age. Don't worry about your chronological age.
Let things take care of themselves after all. We wanna be super ager and we know now the tricks of super aging relate to what's going
on with your microbiome and that's an easy fix. And my books are a great
guidebook to how you get there. More amazing episodes just like this one. Watch now. Fish oil actually sends signals to your
brain that actually modulate your food intake. In other words, makes you eat
less and you're less hungry..