Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Is Whoop Predicting My Death?

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Is Whoop Predicting My Death? · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: So I have this WHOOP device on my wrist. And you
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  know what? When I look at what it says, my whoop
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  says that I'm eight years older than I actually
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  am. So let me ask the question that I know some of
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  you are asking right now. Does that mean I'm going
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  to die sooner? Is my little whoop device
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  predicting my fate? You know, on every tombstone,
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  there's two numbers. The year you were born and
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  the year you died. But the most important part of
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  your life isn't either number. It's the dash
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  between. The dash represents your life, your
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  health, mobility, independence, your curiosity.
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  And when we talk about longevity, what we really
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  care about isn't stretching the second number as
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  much as making sure those two numbers are far
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  apart. And the dash in between, the strong, active
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  and meaningful, as long as possible. What we call
• 0:56
  healthspan. A lot of you are thinking about
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  improving things in the new year. Better sleep,
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  more movement, less stress, fewer bad habits. And
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  if you're like many people, you might be thinking
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  about buying one of the many devices that promise
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  to monitor you, score you, rank you, and tell you
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  how you're doing, and maybe motivate you to game
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  the system and push along to a better you. So,
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  full disclosure, I'm a nerd. I have several of
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  these devices. I wear a whoop, which, by the way,
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  isn't actually a watch. It doesn't tell time, but
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  it does tell how hard I've been living. I also use
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  a Withings watch, which tells a very different
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  approach. And when one of these devices tells you
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  that your biologic age is older than your calendar
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  age, it's easy to panic. It feels like someone
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  just etched a new date on your tombstone. But
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  here's the truth. Your wearable is not carving
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  anything in granite. It's giving you feedback, not
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  fate. Today on 4Q, we're going to make sense of
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  the madness of biologic age, what these numbers
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  really mean and what they absolutely do not mean,
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  and how to use them to improve your life. Right
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  now, instead of worrying about the date on a
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  tombstone you haven't earned yet. M, I am, um,
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  your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry
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  Simpson, and this is. This is Fork U. Fork
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  University, where we bust myths, make sense of the
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  madness of biologic age, and teach you a little
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  bit about food and medicine. Let's start with the
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  obvious. Biologic age is not a prophecy. It is not
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  a countdown clock, and it's definitely not the
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  date you're going to die. And it's also not like
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  telomeres that we talked about in a previous
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  episode. This is not time unraveling one
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  chromosome at a time. No DNA caps are shortening
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  in real time because of what your watch or WHOOP
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  says about you. Biologic age is a model, an
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  estimate built from physiologic signals like
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  resting heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep
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  duration and consistency, activity and recovery
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  patterns, and sometimes weight or blood pressure.
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  Different devices measure different things. Then
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  they average them into a number or a model. And
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  that number reflects how your body is functioning
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  recently, not where you're headed or how long you
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  live. Think of biologic age like a check engine
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  light, not like a crystal ball. Why does WHOOP say
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  that I'm older? And here's a little trick. So
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  WHOOP leans heavily on heart rate variability,
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  recovery timing, strain, sleep debt. So if you've
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  traveled, slept, uh, poorly, trained hard, been
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  stressed, or had alcohol, your biologic age goes
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  up. In my case, it doesn't mean that I aged eight
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  years or I don't look good for my age or look
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  really good for my age. It just means that my body
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  was under load when it was checked. Oh, here's a
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  little trick that I did for myself. If you don't
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  like what WHOOP says about your age, lie. Lie to
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  whoop. Tell your whoop you're younger than you
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  actually are and guess what happens. All of a
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  sudden your whoop biologic age is younger than
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  your real age. That tells you everything you need
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  to know. Whoop isn't measuring where you're going
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  to end up. I'm telling you how that this is a, uh,
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  relative to the age you are told you are. It's
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  feedback. It's not destiny. It's telling you how
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  you are doing relative to what age you tell WHOOP
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  you are. You may doing poorly, you may doing
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  better, but if you say you're 70 years old and you
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  have party hardy and you're 30 years old, guess
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  what? Who's going to say your biologic age might
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  be 80? If you say you're 20, it might say your
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  biologic age is 30. It's just giving you a number.
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  It's a model. And like the old person used to say,
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  all models are flawed and some are useful. Now why
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  do I prefer withings?
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  Let's talk about withings. And no, withings didn't
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  pay me to say this. And they're not sponsoring me.
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  No affiliate code, no kickback. But here's why. I
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  like their approach better. And I have the
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  withings ecosystem. I have their blood pressure
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  cuff, I have their Watch. Which is lovely, by the
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  way. You know, I've talked about this before, but
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  Withings doesn't try to scare you with a single
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  age number. They don't imply fate. They don't
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  whisper about your funeral. They focus on things
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  that actually improve your life today. The trends
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  in blood pressure, the weight and body
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  composition, your heart rhythm, sleep duration,
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  consistency over time. They simply ask, in my
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  opinion, better questions, like, are you sleeping
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  better? Is your blood pressure improving? Are your
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  habits trending in the right direction? It's
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  medicine. It's not numerology. Telomeres,
• 6:01
  epigenetics, and wearables. Earlier in the
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  longevity series, we talked about telomeres. These
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  are these little egglets on chromosomes that
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  shorten slowly over decades. Unless you have
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  certain diseases, wearables do not measure the
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  length of the telomere. Now, some blood tests
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  measure epigenic clocks, which are more stable but
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  still imperfect. Wearables measure physiology and
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  behavior. And your diary gives them even more
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  information. They're snapshots. They're not
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  archives. They're weather reports. They're not
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  climate change. Now, here's the biggest mistake a
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  lot of people make. They treat biologic age like a
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  grade or a score or a moral judgment. They feel
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  virtuous when it's low, and they panic when it's
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  high. That's the wrong frame. The only question
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  that matters is, are you moving in the right
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  direction over time?
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  Now, uh, as the New Year comes in, let's talk
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  about some New Year's resolutions that actually
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  improve healthspan. Here's the things for New
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  Year's resolutions. I'd like you to think about
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  focusing on this year. Sleeping better and more
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  consistently, building and maintaining muscle,
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  moving daily, eating better Mediterranean style,
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  enjoying friends and community, and lowering
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  stress where you can. Those are things that
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  actually extend your health span, the quality of
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  the years you have. Here's my takeaway. My goal
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  for this year is to improve those things that will
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  help my health span. I want to sleep better. I
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  want to do all of those things. That's where
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  biologic numbers improve on their own. Your watch,
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  your wearable, is not your destiny. Your
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  chronologic age may or may not be fixed. I don't
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  know. It may be your time to be or die. I can't go
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  into that. But I can tell you that healthspan is
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  absolutely controlled by your life's battle. Uh,
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  and when you see that Woohp says you're eight
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  years older. That's not a sentence, that's
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  feedback. Use it as such. This episode was written
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  and directed by me, Dr. Terri Simpson. And while I
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  am a doctor, I am not your doctor. And this is
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  purely for educational information. If you're
• 8:22
  going to start making changes and want to make
• 8:23
  changes in your life, please see your board
• 8:25
  certified physician. Maybe talk with a registered
• 8:28
  dietitian and a certified personal trainer. And if
• 8:32
  you're thinking about making more sense of madness
• 8:34
  of longevity, know that we are considering having
• 8:37
  a cruise the second week of August in the
• 8:39
  Mediterranean to talk about longevity and have
• 8:41
  some great speakers there and presentations and
• 8:44
  wonderful shore excursions. You learn about
• 8:46
  longevity from the real science of it, not from
• 8:50
  the woo. If you like the series, please subscribe
• 8:52
  to Fork you wherever you listen to your podcasts.
• 8:55
  All things audio were done by my friends at
• 8:57
  Simpler Media and the pod got himself Mr. Evo
• 9:00
  Terra. Thank you everybody. Have a great week. And
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  don't worry about that age number. Age is just a
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  number. In my case, it's a big number. To evil.
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  You know, my biologic age keeps drifting down, but
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  my actual age keeps going up. I guess I'll take
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  that as a trade. It turns out the secret to
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  longevity isn't beating time. It's treating your
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  body well enough that time doesn't beat you up. Of
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  course, some people treat their body like a
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  temple. Uh, I probably treated mine more more like
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  a tent. Yeah, I hear you there. Mine is more like
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  the Temple of Doom. Happy Holidays, my friend.