Latest / Ageless and Timeless Podcast® / Maddy Dychtwald, best-selling author, acclaimed public speaker, and thought leader

Transcript

Maddy Dychtwald, best-selling author, acclaimed public speaker, and thought leader · Ageless and Timeless Podcast®

0:10
Speaker 1: Good morning everyone. This is Michelle Hughes from Ageless and Timeless.
0:15
Speaker 1: I hope you're having a really great day, and I
0:18
Speaker 1: am already. I've already done my fire infrared sauna. I'm
0:22
Speaker 1: about to go for a hike right after this podcast.
0:26
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, I'm really excited because I have
0:28
Speaker 1: a wonderful guest today. Her name is Maddidikwald and you
0:33
Speaker 1: may have heard of Maddie, those of you who are
0:36
Speaker 1: in the health and longevity world that are watching today.
0:41
Speaker 1: Maddie has been prolific since her forty years actually, and
0:46
Speaker 1: I'm going to let her tell us her story. But
0:49
Speaker 1: welcome Maddie. I'm glad to have you here today.
0:52
Speaker 2: Now, Thanks Michelle, it's such a pleasure to be here
0:54
Speaker 2: with you.
0:55
Speaker 1: Well, we have so much in common, and it's just
0:59
Speaker 1: amazing when you meet somebody that you have that energy
1:02
Speaker 1: alignment with and you really want to explore all the
1:06
Speaker 1: possibilities and all share all your knowledge and experience, and well,
1:11
Speaker 1: forty years will take us a while, right, Maddie. Oh yeah, Well,
1:15
Speaker 1: the first question I have for you is, you know,
1:17
Speaker 1: tell us about your journey. Everybody always wants to know
1:20
Speaker 1: who are you what led you to your current position?
1:25
Speaker 1: What were some of the biggest events along the way?
1:28
Speaker 1: So why don't you start as way back when.
1:30
Speaker 2: Andy came give us back in the day.
1:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, give us a quick synopsis of your journey and longevity.
1:39
Speaker 2: Okay for sure. So I've been on this beat of aging, longevity,
1:45
Speaker 2: even retirement and reinventing what retirement really means for close
1:50
Speaker 2: to forty years. My husband Ken and I actually started
1:54
Speaker 2: age Wave, which is a think tank focused on aging, longevity,
1:59
Speaker 2: retirement back in the day. And you could do the
2:05
Speaker 2: math and figure out I started out in my thirties.
2:08
Speaker 2: I am now in my seventies, so seventy four years old.
2:12
Speaker 2: And I say it loud, and I think all of us,
2:16
Speaker 2: especially women, ought to be proud of our chronologic aging
2:20
Speaker 2: because it's I mean, the alternative kind of sucks, right.
2:26
Speaker 2: So yeah, And what we discovered way back then was
2:31
Speaker 2: fifty was considered over the hill. Imagine that. I mean
2:35
Speaker 2: things have really changed since then, which is the good news.
2:38
Speaker 2: So we were determined to go out to frankly, corporate
2:43
Speaker 2: America because they have so much influence and power and
2:46
Speaker 2: try to reinvent the story of aging for them. Tell
2:51
Speaker 2: them that there's this new kind of aging that's going
2:54
Speaker 2: on that's more positive, more empowering, u ttunity for them
3:00
Speaker 2: to build brands that can appeal to a larger audience
3:06
Speaker 2: because at that time, we were seeing a demographic shift.
3:09
Speaker 2: At the same time, we were seeing that younger population,
3:14
Speaker 2: which is usually where growth takes place, begin to shrink
3:18
Speaker 2: because people just were not having babies the way they
3:21
Speaker 2: used to. And we started to see because of good
3:25
Speaker 2: health and wellness practices, we began to see that people
3:30
Speaker 2: were living longer and that the fastest growing segment of
3:35
Speaker 2: the population was the oldest segment of the population. So
3:39
Speaker 2: we wanted to tell that story, and we went out
3:42
Speaker 2: and we did it.
3:43
Speaker 1: How did you and Ken meet? And how did you
3:45
Speaker 1: know when you met him that this was going to
3:48
Speaker 1: be the soulmate that you would do not only as
3:51
Speaker 1: they say, for better or for worse, but not for lunch.
3:54
Speaker 1: But you did for better or for worse and for lunch.
3:57
Speaker 2: Yeah.
3:58
Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely, real test of a relationship when you can
4:02
Speaker 1: be together in both your personal life and your business life.
4:06
Speaker 1: So how did that? How did that happen? Well?
4:08
Speaker 2: Ken and I actually both grew up part of the time,
4:13
Speaker 2: at least My family moved all the time when I
4:16
Speaker 2: was a kid, I mean every three years, we were
4:18
Speaker 2: living in a different location all over the country. But
4:22
Speaker 2: when I was in high school, I was living in
4:24
Speaker 2: New Jersey and he was too, and he claims that
4:28
Speaker 2: he knew who I was. Who knew anyway, Fast forward
4:34
Speaker 2: just to college and we were both at a party
4:37
Speaker 2: in Miami over spring break. And you know, that was
4:41
Speaker 2: back in the day. I mean, none of us were.
4:43
Speaker 2: I mean, we were doing everything that you can imagine.
4:46
Speaker 2: And he claims that he met me there. I have
4:49
Speaker 2: no recollection of that at all. But then fast forward
4:54
Speaker 2: to the nineteen eighties and I was living in la
4:59
Speaker 2: he was living up in the Bay Area, and we
5:02
Speaker 2: had some friends in common, and I get this phone
5:05
Speaker 2: call one day from Ken and you know him assuming
5:09
Speaker 2: that I knew who he was. I had no idea
5:11
Speaker 2: who he was. But we did form this friendship on
5:16
Speaker 2: the phone, and literally we spoke on the phone for
5:19
Speaker 2: six months before we even met face to face, and
5:23
Speaker 2: which was great because we really got to know each
5:25
Speaker 2: other on a deep level. And we were not I
5:29
Speaker 2: was one of those people who ran away from relationships
5:33
Speaker 2: if they lasted too long. But because we had this
5:38
Speaker 2: underpinning of deep emotional and intellectual connection. By the time
5:45
Speaker 2: we met, it was kind of love at first sight.
5:48
Speaker 1: And so of course he claimed that he had met
5:50
Speaker 1: you already, but.
5:52
Speaker 2: He keeps saying that, yeah. And he sent me all
5:53
Speaker 2: his articles and his books. And I was at the
5:56
Speaker 2: time working as an actor doing commerce shols and soap
6:01
Speaker 2: operas and things like that, so I sent him my things.
6:04
Speaker 2: It was pretty goofy if you think about it, but
6:07
Speaker 2: it was fun. How did he great social media?
6:10
Speaker 3: Right?
6:10
Speaker 1: But how did he ever get you to leave the
6:12
Speaker 1: acting world which is really exciting and you're in la it's,
6:16
Speaker 1: you know, the heart of it all. How did he
6:18
Speaker 1: ever convince you? He must be a pretty persuasive guy,
6:22
Speaker 1: but he is.
6:24
Speaker 2: He's a very persuasive guy. But it went well beyond that, Michelle,
6:28
Speaker 2: because Ken met me at a time where I was
6:33
Speaker 2: at a pivotal place in my career that if I
6:36
Speaker 2: didn't take off, I was a working actor. So I
6:39
Speaker 2: was making a great living as an actor, but I
6:42
Speaker 2: wasn't going to where I had envisions, very frankly, and
6:47
Speaker 2: I was at the point where, like I wanted to
6:50
Speaker 2: reinvent myself, and I was completely fascinated because I was
6:55
Speaker 2: in my late twenties early thirties. I was obsessed with
6:59
Speaker 2: the idea of there were things you could do yourself,
7:05
Speaker 2: lifestyle steps you could take to look better, feel better,
7:10
Speaker 2: actually be better. And it although it wasn't the same
7:16
Speaker 2: thing that Ken was involved in, because he was really
7:19
Speaker 2: interested in the field of aging, we began to see
7:23
Speaker 2: that there were a lot of connections between what I
7:26
Speaker 2: was interested in and what he was already working in,
7:30
Speaker 2: and we decided, you know what, let's try to combine
7:32
Speaker 2: it in some kind of interesting and exciting way. And
7:35
Speaker 2: we did.
7:36
Speaker 1: So. Tell us more about age Wave and what it
7:40
Speaker 1: actually represents in terms of your mission statement and your
7:45
Speaker 1: and the future of longevity, because you know, this is
7:47
Speaker 1: a long time now that you've been doing this, so yeah,
7:50
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've had many many iterations we have. Yeah,
7:55
Speaker 1: so tell us tell us more about that history.
7:58
Speaker 2: Okay. So we started Wave at our kitchen table, deciding
8:02
Speaker 2: that this was going to be a great idea. We'd
8:04
Speaker 2: go out and do keynote speeches at corporate headquarters all
8:09
Speaker 2: over the countries, and you know what it caught on.
8:12
Speaker 2: We thought of ourselves as being the Paul reveres of aging,
8:16
Speaker 2: planting seeds almost like Johnny apple Seed also kind of
8:20
Speaker 2: planting seeds all over the country about a new, better
8:24
Speaker 2: kind of aging. And so from there we started doing
8:29
Speaker 2: on behalf of various corporations. We frankly then and still now,
8:35
Speaker 2: work with a lot of the Fortune five hundred companies,
8:38
Speaker 2: in fact, mostly Fortune fifty companies, companies like Bank of
8:42
Speaker 2: America and Edward Jones and Procter and Gamble. I mean,
8:47
Speaker 2: we were working with the creme de la creme of
8:49
Speaker 2: corporate America, and they would come to us and say, gee,
8:52
Speaker 2: could you dig deeper into better understanding what older Americans
8:57
Speaker 2: are like, what, what are they looking for, what do
9:02
Speaker 2: they want, what are they wants to need? And how
9:04
Speaker 2: can we help them better prepare for that next phase
9:08
Speaker 2: of life. So through research and consulting, frankly, you know,
9:13
Speaker 2: you could think of us as a kind of think
9:15
Speaker 2: tank or consulting firm focused on research and consulting having
9:21
Speaker 2: to do with aging, longevity and this new retirement and
9:24
Speaker 2: really digging deep into the subjects. And by the way,
9:27
Speaker 2: one of the great benefits of that is through our
9:31
Speaker 2: research we reached out and created a network of other
9:35
Speaker 2: experts academics, researchers, scientists, physicians who were at the cutting
9:43
Speaker 2: edge of their expertise, and we got to learn from
9:48
Speaker 2: them as they got to learn from us, and that
9:51
Speaker 2: was pretty awesome.
9:52
Speaker 1: And so, what changes have you seen in the demographics
9:56
Speaker 1: and the psychographics for these years, these long years that
9:59
Speaker 1: you've mane doing this, and how have you adapted to
10:02
Speaker 1: those changes that ageway.
10:04
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11:05
Speaker 2: Well, one of the key changes is that we used
11:08
Speaker 2: to talk about this as this growing population of older adults,
11:13
Speaker 2: and along the way we became part of the age
11:17
Speaker 2: way of ourselves. So that began to change things, and
11:20
Speaker 2: we began to see also that, yeah, it's a positive story.
11:24
Speaker 2: No longer do people think of fifty or sixty or
11:28
Speaker 2: even seventy as being over the hill, and that's good news.
11:32
Speaker 2: But we also got to see that as you begin
11:36
Speaker 2: to hit your fifties and sixties, it's a little bit
11:38
Speaker 2: like playing dodgeball. You're dodging different issues that come up.
11:45
Speaker 2: Maybe you lost a loved one, or maybe you're coping
11:49
Speaker 2: with heart disease or another chronic illness. These are things
11:53
Speaker 2: that as you get older, you're going to have to
11:56
Speaker 2: deal with and try to get to the other side of.
11:59
Speaker 2: And we became more aware of that. I mean, my
12:01
Speaker 2: mom developed Alzheimer's disease, so watching her go down that
12:07
Speaker 2: rabbit hole of cognitive decline was first of all heartbreaking,
12:13
Speaker 2: but also it made me realize, we've got to end
12:16
Speaker 2: this disease. We've got to come up with solutions that
12:20
Speaker 2: are long term, not just getting rid of symptoms along
12:23
Speaker 2: the way, which don't always work very well to begin with.
12:27
Speaker 2: So Ken and I both became interested and involved in
12:33
Speaker 2: trying to come up with a cure, trying to prevent
12:37
Speaker 2: or at least delay the onset of Alzheimer's and other
12:42
Speaker 2: cognitive declines, because over the years, we used to label
12:45
Speaker 2: everything Alzheimer's disease, and we've come to learn that there
12:49
Speaker 2: are a variety of different kinds of cognitive decline, and
12:53
Speaker 2: all of which are like that black hole, one of
12:57
Speaker 2: the worst things we need to think about, worry about,
13:00
Speaker 2: and we all worry about it as we get older.
13:04
Speaker 1: So in that context, just in brain health, what have
13:09
Speaker 1: you learned that has changed your direction and your opinion
13:13
Speaker 1: about the you know, the prevent ability for us to
13:18
Speaker 1: prevent Alzheimer's or other cognitive decline.
13:22
Speaker 2: We don't have a cure. We don't, but we used
13:27
Speaker 2: to think it was all about our genetics. If you
13:31
Speaker 2: have a bad genetic package, which by the way, I
13:34
Speaker 2: do have a bad genetic package when it comes to Alzheimer's,
13:38
Speaker 2: then you're kind of screwed. It's not a pretty picture,
13:42
Speaker 2: and that frightened me to death. But the good news,
13:47
Speaker 2: and there is some good news, is that scientists and
13:51
Speaker 2: researchers only in the last three or four years have said,
13:55
Speaker 2: you know what, that's not the case. Only thirty percent
13:58
Speaker 2: of Alzheimer's these comes directly from genetics. Right, So if
14:04
Speaker 2: you're if you've got a bad genetics package like I do,
14:09
Speaker 2: you're okay if you take some preventative steps, and there
14:13
Speaker 2: are some preventative steps, and that's unbelievably great news.
14:18
Speaker 1: Well, epigenetics has been the greatest development in I think
14:24
Speaker 1: in the last ten years, right, so that we're not stuck.
14:28
Speaker 1: We have somewhere, like I think in my I did
14:32
Speaker 1: the one with the DNA company of sixty pages and wow,
14:37
Speaker 1: Unfortunately the APO for the gene for Alzheimer's was negative,
14:42
Speaker 1: so that was some great news. However, I told him,
14:45
Speaker 1: how did I ever get the obesity gene? That was
14:48
Speaker 1: one of my you know, I've been a size since.
14:51
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, if anyone ever saw what
14:53
Speaker 2: you look.
14:54
Speaker 1: Like, thank you. But and so you know, there's an
14:57
Speaker 1: example I think maybe if I hadn't been so disciplined,
15:01
Speaker 1: and I'm using this as an example for the same
15:04
Speaker 1: thing that you're dealing with, which is we're not stuck
15:07
Speaker 1: with these genes. We can do something about it. And
15:09
Speaker 1: that's one of the greatest hopeful messages. I think of
15:13
Speaker 1: our times that don't take it as the gospel and
15:16
Speaker 1: now give up. No, this is really just your starting
15:20
Speaker 1: point for lifestyle. So epigenetics is really lifestyle genetics, and
15:25
Speaker 1: it means that you can influence You don't have to
15:30
Speaker 1: be stuck. You can influence your genes by your lifestyle.
15:33
Speaker 1: So tell us how you did it with the Alzheimer's.
15:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So we know that epigenetics is about turning
15:40
Speaker 2: on and turning off different genes that you have correct
15:44
Speaker 2: in your genetic package, and that, as you said, it's
15:48
Speaker 2: like a revelatory it's like awesome and amazing, and I,
15:52
Speaker 2: you know, I get really excited about it. One short
15:55
Speaker 2: cut to think about is that what's good for our
15:58
Speaker 2: heart is also good for our brain. And that's sort
16:03
Speaker 2: of a shortcut for all of us. Was we know,
16:05
Speaker 2: oh yeah, exercise really good for your brain. It has
16:10
Speaker 2: a dramatic impact on your brain health. Now, interestingly, what
16:16
Speaker 2: I learned along the way when I was writing Ageless
16:18
Speaker 2: aging is that if you exercise in the morning, you're
16:22
Speaker 2: more likely to get good benefits than if you exercise
16:25
Speaker 2: later in the day. And if you do it on
16:27
Speaker 2: an empty stomach. It even improves the effect of your exercise.
16:34
Speaker 2: One more good piece of news, especially for women, is
16:37
Speaker 2: well only for women, is that we don't have to
16:40
Speaker 2: exercise as hard or as long as men to get
16:43
Speaker 2: the same benefits. So that's the exercise piece. But what
16:46
Speaker 2: we eat, you know, my grandmother used to say to me,
16:51
Speaker 2: you are what you eat, and you are right and all.
16:56
Speaker 2: You want to get rid of those ultra processed foods
16:58
Speaker 2: and the seed oil, and you want to focus on eating.
17:02
Speaker 2: What I talk about in age aging is eating the rainbow,
17:07
Speaker 2: and that doesn't mean you know, colored cereals. It means
17:11
Speaker 2: eating fruits and vegetables and whole grains that are real food.
17:17
Speaker 2: That's the focus, is eating real food. Then sleep, I
17:21
Speaker 2: mean sleep is definitely not my superpower. But what we
17:26
Speaker 2: know is sleeping is when your brain takes out the
17:30
Speaker 2: trash and you want that trash, those toxins to leave
17:33
Speaker 2: your body. So, yeah, you want to get six to
17:37
Speaker 2: eight hours of sleep a night. And by the way,
17:40
Speaker 2: from the sleep experts that I spoke to, it's not
17:43
Speaker 2: necessarily just the quantity of your sleep. It's the quality
17:48
Speaker 2: of your sleep that really matters. So if you're only
17:50
Speaker 2: getting five hours a night of sleep. I'm not suggesting
17:54
Speaker 2: that that's a good thing, but it's the quality is
17:57
Speaker 2: really strong, certainly in better shape than if it's not.
18:02
Speaker 2: So that's a few things up. Social, social connections. I
18:07
Speaker 2: just read something this morning about the newest information about loneliness.
18:12
Speaker 2: Now we know loneliness is the equivalent of smoking fifteen
18:17
Speaker 2: cigarettes a day in terms of your health. You know,
18:20
Speaker 2: it affects your blood pressure, it affects the size of
18:24
Speaker 2: your brain. I mean, think about that. That's crazy. So
18:29
Speaker 2: you definitely want that social connections, and keep in mind
18:35
Speaker 2: social connections and loneliness, they're not just two ends of
18:40
Speaker 2: the spectrum. I know that I love to spend some
18:44
Speaker 2: time by myself, so spending some alone time is not
18:47
Speaker 2: the same thing as loneliness, and I think people need
18:51
Speaker 2: to understand that difference. Having a sense of purpose truly
18:55
Speaker 2: affects our brain. And you know, again, you don't have
18:59
Speaker 2: to be like inventing yourself or coming up with, oh,
19:03
Speaker 2: I'm going to start a nonprofit. It can be something small.
19:06
Speaker 2: It can be like babysitting your grandchildren, or maybe it's
19:11
Speaker 2: walking your dog in the morning. Having a sense of
19:14
Speaker 2: purpose is a really strong thing to have. And the
19:18
Speaker 2: last thing I'll mention in well, there's a couple others,
19:21
Speaker 2: but the one thing that I really want to emphasize
19:24
Speaker 2: is our attitude towards our own aging really affects the
19:28
Speaker 2: gray matter in our brain. We want to keep a
19:31
Speaker 2: more positive attitude about aging, which is part of the
19:35
Speaker 2: reason why I tell people, you know, say your age,
19:38
Speaker 2: and say it proudly.
19:41
Speaker 1: You know, I'm so glad you said ageless aging, because
19:44
Speaker 1: I didn't. I neglected to tell everyone that this is
19:47
Speaker 1: the life changing book that you've just written. And you've
19:52
Speaker 1: had many books, and I so admire anyone that can
19:55
Speaker 1: write a book. I think it takes amazing discipline and
20:00
Speaker 1: ageless aging. I'm just about done. I mean, i've read
20:04
Speaker 1: I think I think onto the next of the last chapter.
20:07
Speaker 1: So I've been amazed at how much I already knew
20:12
Speaker 1: by but how much you reinforce what I already knew.
20:15
Speaker 1: So I'm not to say that I'm some expert, but
20:18
Speaker 1: I do, uh, you know, I practice all the the
20:22
Speaker 1: advice that you give in the book. And I encourage
20:26
Speaker 1: anyone who has not read this book, any woman, because
20:30
Speaker 1: it is focused on women's aging. Although I think men
20:33
Speaker 1: should read it because then they could understand the women.
20:35
Speaker 2: In their lives absolutely better.
20:37
Speaker 1: So I don't say, you know, don't read it. It
20:40
Speaker 1: is really a life changing book. So here, I have
20:43
Speaker 1: it right here. I'll put it up for people if
20:46
Speaker 1: you can see that. I hope ageless aging. And you
20:50
Speaker 1: wrote it with Kate Hanley. So is she someone that
20:55
Speaker 1: has influenced your life and you just joined to collaborate together?
21:00
Speaker 2: Okay, So yeah, I knew that I needed someone to
21:04
Speaker 2: work with. I work best the way I really succeed.
21:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I've had a partnership with my husband. We
21:12
Speaker 2: have other people at Age Wave that I feel really
21:14
Speaker 2: connected to. I love to brainstorm ideas and thoughts, and
21:19
Speaker 2: I always find it better to collaborate than not. It's
21:23
Speaker 2: a good way of getting social connection as well. And
21:26
Speaker 2: I saw that Kate had helped Kara Fitzgerald write her
21:34
Speaker 2: book Younger You, and I reached out to Kara and
21:40
Speaker 2: she told me, oh, Kate Kate pretty much well. She
21:44
Speaker 2: was very helpful in writing the book, and so I
21:47
Speaker 2: used Kate in the same exact way. She's a terrific person.
21:51
Speaker 2: She is not an expert on aging per se, but
21:54
Speaker 2: she's fantastic and really well immersed in the health and
21:58
Speaker 2: wellness space. She helped Joseph Merccolo with his books as well.
22:04
Speaker 2: She's working right now on a metopause book with someone,
22:07
Speaker 2: So this is what she does, right, She's fantastic and
22:11
Speaker 2: I would recommend her to anyone.
22:13
Speaker 1: Right right, Well, you know, just to stop for one
22:16
Speaker 1: second on this on the being an author because of
22:20
Speaker 1: what I said, I think it takes amazing discipline. And
22:23
Speaker 1: of course, in a busy schedule like yours, you're running
22:25
Speaker 1: a company that's been enormously successful and you're continuing to
22:31
Speaker 1: further that success with new developments and technologies and so forth.
22:35
Speaker 1: So you and Ken, I'm sure, spend a good part
22:37
Speaker 1: of your day with age Wave and making sure that
22:42
Speaker 1: the companies that you serve are getting the best information
22:45
Speaker 1: and are not only getting the information but applying it.
22:49
Speaker 1: So this is I think that just as a segue,
22:53
Speaker 1: I think that's probably one of the most difficult challenges
22:56
Speaker 1: is not you know, you're providing them with a baseline
23:00
Speaker 1: of information up to them with your guidance to then
23:04
Speaker 1: apply that to their corporations and to their for their employees.
23:08
Speaker 1: So you know, compliance to information are applying it and
23:13
Speaker 1: making it an action plan. That's not only true for corporations,
23:17
Speaker 1: that's true for all of us. And you know, it's
23:20
Speaker 1: one thing to read a book. It's another thing to
23:22
Speaker 1: go use the information you got in an action plan
23:25
Speaker 1: to change your life for the better. But but the
23:29
Speaker 1: one thing I did want to ask you, in terms
23:31
Speaker 1: of being an author, how much do you find you
23:36
Speaker 1: learn from writing your own book about helping to teach others?
23:41
Speaker 1: You know, your book has an incredible amount of research
23:44
Speaker 1: and people that you've interviewed, and it must have taken you,
23:50
Speaker 1: you know, a long time to get fun to make
23:52
Speaker 1: sure that these are authentic, credible sources, and then to
23:57
Speaker 1: go and interview them, and then to put this all
23:59
Speaker 1: in the book. And then you have a big reference
24:02
Speaker 1: section in the back, which you know that in itself
24:05
Speaker 1: is huge to show that there is scientific research behind
24:10
Speaker 1: the claims that you're making and the people that you've interviewed. So,
24:14
Speaker 1: just as a curiosity question for anyone that you know
24:17
Speaker 1: is reading the book but also is interested in their
24:20
Speaker 1: own journey of potentially being an author, what does it take?
24:25
Speaker 1: Give us a list of qualities that you think it
24:27
Speaker 1: takes to be a good author.
24:30
Speaker 2: Okay, well, let me begin by describing my process, because
24:34
Speaker 2: I think that might be helpful. I am a very
24:38
Speaker 2: social person and that's part of what I love about
24:42
Speaker 2: age Wave. That really puts me in touch with information
24:45
Speaker 2: and individuals. And when I started to think about writing
24:50
Speaker 2: Ageless Aging, I realized, Okay, I'm not a doctor, I'm
24:54
Speaker 2: an expert. I'm a social scientist interested in aging and
25:00
Speaker 2: the research focused on aging and longevity and health and wellness.
25:04
Speaker 2: That's my thing. So along the way we had created
25:08
Speaker 2: this unbelievable network of other experts, which I mentioned earlier,
25:12
Speaker 2: people at the cutting edge, physicians, scientists, researchers, academics. So
25:19
Speaker 2: what I decided to do was to reach out to them.
25:22
Speaker 2: And I reached out to about almost one hundred of
25:25
Speaker 2: those people who I thought were at the cutting edge,
25:28
Speaker 2: so beyond any kind of doubt, the best scientific and
25:33
Speaker 2: research and academic minds I could think of, and I
25:37
Speaker 2: thought maybe ten twenty would respond. Well, almost every single
25:42
Speaker 2: person responded positively, which was so great, and it was
25:48
Speaker 2: you know, during part of COVID. So I scheduled Zoom
25:53
Speaker 2: meetings and we recorded the Zoom meetings and from those
25:58
Speaker 2: Zoom meetings. You know, I went back and I marked
26:01
Speaker 2: up all the things that I thought were the most interesting,
26:04
Speaker 2: and you know, I had an idea of where I
26:07
Speaker 2: was going for each chapter, but I was very influenced
26:11
Speaker 2: by the information that I got, and I tried to
26:14
Speaker 2: collect the most recent, the most cutting edge information, and
26:20
Speaker 2: that was my process. And frankly, I have an amazing
26:24
Speaker 2: literary agent, and my literary agent coerced me, for a
26:32
Speaker 2: lack of a better word, because you need to have
26:35
Speaker 2: not just like a proposal of your idea, but you
26:37
Speaker 2: need to have a roadmap that shows exactly what you
26:41
Speaker 2: have in mind and where you're going. And I even
26:42
Speaker 2: included some of my interviews, you know, just little excerpts
26:47
Speaker 2: from them in my proposal. So my proposal itself was
26:51
Speaker 2: one hundred pages.
26:53
Speaker 1: Oh wow.
26:53
Speaker 2: And I included a whole marketing section, and I mean
26:56
Speaker 2: it was very complete. And as a result, we had
27:01
Speaker 2: seventeen interested publishers, which it's really almost unheard of in
27:07
Speaker 2: today's publishing marketplace. And so I chose Mayo Clinic Press
27:13
Speaker 2: because again I'm not a doctor. I thought, oh good,
27:16
Speaker 2: let's get the Mayo Clinic Press to put their stamp
27:20
Speaker 2: of approval on this and frankly, it was a great
27:23
Speaker 2: idea to do. I you know, that was one of
27:25
Speaker 2: my smarter moves. I was well advised to move in
27:28
Speaker 2: that direction rather than other publishers. And they were very rigorous.
27:36
Speaker 2: They put me through medical editorial review at the end
27:42
Speaker 2: as well as a regular editorial review, and everything was
27:46
Speaker 2: so well researched that they hardly had any comments.
27:51
Speaker 1: Well, I have to say with the kudos to them
27:55
Speaker 1: and to you and to all your contacts, because the
28:00
Speaker 1: in is concise and nothing in the book and I'm
28:05
Speaker 1: just I'm not saying this to be it's gratuitous. I'm
28:08
Speaker 1: just telling you because I read a lot of books,
28:10
Speaker 1: and as you can imagine, being a podcast host and
28:13
Speaker 1: hopefully an influencer, I want my audience to know that
28:18
Speaker 1: when I recommend something that it's worth their while. So
28:22
Speaker 1: I want to give you that compliment. But I also
28:24
Speaker 1: want to keep think that, you know, it's a book
28:27
Speaker 1: that has so much mean on the bone that you
28:31
Speaker 1: have to I've had to read it in doses, you know,
28:34
Speaker 1: I couldn't just do it all at the same time,
28:36
Speaker 1: and I took copious notes and I you know, a
28:39
Speaker 1: lot of questions that came out of it that you know,
28:41
Speaker 1: you and I can talk about offline, but I'm sure
28:44
Speaker 1: people who are reading it will also have questions. But
28:48
Speaker 1: just one question for you about that, is there any
28:52
Speaker 1: one person that you would single out that really changed
28:56
Speaker 1: your perspective on women's aging doing this book.
29:05
Speaker 2: There were a few I did not recognize the fact
29:11
Speaker 2: prior to working on this book, the strong differences between
29:16
Speaker 2: women and men. Now I knew that women live longer
29:19
Speaker 2: than men, and that there was a gender gap when
29:23
Speaker 2: it comes to our health span or the number of
29:26
Speaker 2: healthy years that we lived. That women may live longer,
29:30
Speaker 2: you know, yay, we won the longevity lottery. However, we
29:34
Speaker 2: don't do as well when it comes to our health span,
29:38
Speaker 2: even when you correct for the fact that we live longer.
29:40
Speaker 2: So I was a little freaked out by that until
29:45
Speaker 2: I really saw the most recent research telling me that
29:50
Speaker 2: up to ninety percent and that's from Calico Labs, Calico
29:55
Speaker 2: Life Sciences. They set up to ninety percent of your
30:00
Speaker 2: health and well being has to do with your lifestyle
30:03
Speaker 2: and your environment. So that's really what inspired me in
30:08
Speaker 2: many ways to write the book, because I'm like, oh wow,
30:11
Speaker 2: this is the control is in our hands, I mean,
30:15
Speaker 2: we are responsible. And then I saw that, you know,
30:19
Speaker 2: the healthcare system, as much as it's been created by
30:25
Speaker 2: well meaning men, for the most part, it doesn't really
30:30
Speaker 2: talk to women. I mean, yeah, there's women's health, but
30:34
Speaker 2: that's all about reproductive health. When it comes to, for instance,
30:39
Speaker 2: drug testing. Up until twenty and sixteen, the FDA didn't
30:44
Speaker 2: even ask pharmaceutical companies to include women in their clinical trials.
30:51
Speaker 2: Now that's crazy, I mean, think about that. And I
30:55
Speaker 2: learned that from several people. Carol Lee Lee from WHAM
31:00
Speaker 2: and Jennifer Garrison told me that as well from the
31:04
Speaker 2: Buck Institute, and so yeah, I mean that was something
31:09
Speaker 2: that other experts already knew and I just learned and
31:14
Speaker 2: I was shocked, and I was also like also felt, Okay,
31:20
Speaker 2: this is a chance to help women have agency over
31:24
Speaker 2: their health and well being through information and action steps.
31:29
Speaker 1: And you interviewed the Stanford Longevity Health ahead of that.
31:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, Laura, Laura Carsonsen, And.
31:37
Speaker 1: Has she provided any any innovative and groundbreaking information to
31:44
Speaker 1: you that you thought you didn't know before?
31:49
Speaker 2: Although it wasn't something I didn't know before, but it
31:53
Speaker 2: confirmed some research that we did at Age Wave and
31:57
Speaker 2: that is that as people get older, or as they
32:00
Speaker 2: hit fifty and sixty, their sense of happiness actually and
32:07
Speaker 2: resilience actually increases. And I thought, wow, that's pretty incredible,
32:13
Speaker 2: and people ought to know that that there's three kinds
32:15
Speaker 2: of aging. We have the chronologic, which we've talked about
32:20
Speaker 2: the number of birthdays you have. Then there's the biologic,
32:24
Speaker 2: which is the age of your different organs and such
32:30
Speaker 2: in your body. And then the third kind is your
32:34
Speaker 2: emotional aging. And when it comes to emotional aging, that's
32:38
Speaker 2: something that you know, barring having cognitive decline, can actually
32:43
Speaker 2: increase as you get older. So again, happiness, resilience, lack
32:47
Speaker 2: of stress, and anxiety, these are all things that we
32:51
Speaker 2: gain as we get older. And that to me is amazing.
32:56
Speaker 1: You know, I think this is really important for people
32:59
Speaker 1: to understand because in our society, you know, usefulness is
33:02
Speaker 1: always what is so applauded, and and it's you know,
33:06
Speaker 1: thanks to the media, you know, makes women who are
33:09
Speaker 1: getting older so stressed out there. You know, if they
33:15
Speaker 1: see a wrinkle under their eye, they say, oh my god,
33:18
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go to the grave. You know, it's
33:20
Speaker 1: it's dramatic. And so what you're doing is helping women
33:24
Speaker 1: to love themselves more and love the fact that the
33:28
Speaker 1: aging does bring this wisdom understanding. And you know, particularly
33:32
Speaker 1: women who have gone through careers or raised children and
33:36
Speaker 1: had you know, a really full life and by the way,
33:39
Speaker 1: had loved in their life. Love is I think one
33:42
Speaker 1: of the well, it is everything in terms of everything,
33:45
Speaker 1: even the way you've talked about today. If you love yourself,
33:48
Speaker 1: you're going to take the steps to better care for
33:53
Speaker 1: yourself in all as facets of your life and all
33:57
Speaker 1: the things that you've discussed as the key ingredients for that.
34:00
Speaker 1: And then if you love another or another loves you,
34:03
Speaker 1: and the mutual relationship like you've had with Ken and
34:07
Speaker 1: I had with my late husband, you know, this is
34:10
Speaker 1: this is probably the cornerstone of ourself image, is that
34:14
Speaker 1: we have known how to give and receive love. And honestly,
34:19
Speaker 1: I think that you know, the psychological and emotional part
34:23
Speaker 1: of the aging quotient that you just talked about is
34:27
Speaker 1: not often discussed, and I think you opened up the
34:32
Speaker 1: you know, the understanding of those three categories or ingredients
34:37
Speaker 1: for aging. This curious, what is your biological age?
34:42
Speaker 2: Okay, so again there's those three kinds of aging, biologic
34:47
Speaker 2: aging can be tested. Now I'm not one hundred percent
34:51
Speaker 2: sure how accurate these tests are, but I have done
34:54
Speaker 2: a test and again, I'm seventy four and my biologic
34:59
Speaker 2: age was fifty one.
35:01
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. So you and I,
35:04
Speaker 1: you know, we're about the same age and we both
35:06
Speaker 1: have the similar biological ages, and and I agree with you.
35:09
Speaker 1: I'm going to do that test again. Me too, Yeah,
35:12
Speaker 1: because there are many many technonological updates. And you know,
35:17
Speaker 1: if you have had one situation in your life. Let's
35:20
Speaker 1: say in your case, you had the hip replacement.
35:24
Speaker 2: In my case, I double hip replacement, double hip.
35:26
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, yes, right, in my case, I had, you know,
35:30
Speaker 1: a bike accident, so I you know it caused me
35:32
Speaker 1: a broken ankle to meibulous. So those are you know,
35:37
Speaker 1: life changing and could cause some age issue aging issues.
35:42
Speaker 1: Even though they're physiological, they have a mental component.
35:46
Speaker 2: Because no doubt about it.
35:48
Speaker 1: I remember reading in your book and I couldn't tell
35:51
Speaker 1: you how I want everybody to know just how much
35:54
Speaker 1: compassion I felt for you, because I absolutely felt the
35:57
Speaker 1: same way. When when you first get through a surgery,
36:01
Speaker 1: you know they want you to use equipment. Let's say
36:04
Speaker 1: a king or crutches or a walker or a walker,
36:10
Speaker 1: and so you know, when you're as healthy as we
36:13
Speaker 1: are and you're told that, oh you have to have
36:15
Speaker 1: these or use these, it's a real setback psychologically. Just
36:20
Speaker 1: don't see yourself, you know, I mean I I you know,
36:24
Speaker 1: when I get off the airplane and I see wheelchairs
36:26
Speaker 1: coming for people, I have the greatest amount of empathy
36:32
Speaker 1: and determination that will never be me. Same thing for
36:36
Speaker 1: assisted living. I think it's incredible that there are some
36:39
Speaker 1: really good options. But my determination and my goal is
36:44
Speaker 1: that I'll always live on my own. Wanted to do
36:48
Speaker 1: something like that would only be for the social part,
36:51
Speaker 1: But honestly, I believe that I'll live in my home
36:53
Speaker 1: for the till the end of my life. And I
36:57
Speaker 1: imagine that you know you feel the same way. But
37:00
Speaker 1: in your book you mentioned that you couldn't you just
37:03
Speaker 1: could not accept that your doctor wanted you to use
37:08
Speaker 1: a cane or yeah.
37:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got a lot of you know, doctors, especially surgeons,
37:15
Speaker 2: they're really good at what they do, and what they
37:17
Speaker 2: do is surgery, and so they're not necessarily so good
37:23
Speaker 2: at precovery or recovery. And so I had to come
37:27
Speaker 2: up with my own plan. And you know, their line
37:31
Speaker 2: of reasoning, which makes sense, is you know what, it's
37:34
Speaker 2: going to take you a long time to get over this.
37:37
Speaker 2: You're going to be in the hospital because I was
37:39
Speaker 2: doing two hips at one time. He said two hips
37:42
Speaker 2: one time. You're going to be in the hospital for
37:44
Speaker 2: five days, then you're going to go home, and you're
37:46
Speaker 2: probably going to be walking with assistants for you know,
37:49
Speaker 2: either a walker or a cane for let's say a month.
37:54
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, I'm not going to do that.
37:58
Speaker 2: And so I created a plan for my and one
38:02
Speaker 2: of the key ingredients for that plan was an anti
38:04
Speaker 2: inflammatory diet because I wanted to get my inflammation. Even
38:08
Speaker 2: though I ate a healthy diet already, I wanted to
38:11
Speaker 2: get rid of all inflammation in my body. And that's
38:14
Speaker 2: when I started meditating also, and I did a number
38:18
Speaker 2: of other things. But instead of spending four or five
38:22
Speaker 2: days in the hospital, I spent one night. And they
38:26
Speaker 2: don't let you leave the hospital until you can walk upstairs.
38:30
Speaker 2: And one nurse gave me the best piece of advice.
38:33
Speaker 2: She said, if you can walk up one stair, you
38:36
Speaker 2: can walk up as many as you want.
38:38
Speaker 1: Wow.
38:38
Speaker 2: And I said, Okay, that's that's something I can use.
38:42
Speaker 2: Then I went home and my house has a lot
38:44
Speaker 2: of stairs. But within two days I was able to
38:50
Speaker 2: walk without any assistance, no cane, no walker. I walked
38:54
Speaker 2: like a duck. I looked so silly, but I was
38:58
Speaker 2: able to walk on my own, and it was so empowering.
39:02
Speaker 1: Well, this is inspirational for anybody that has to go
39:05
Speaker 1: through any kind of debilitating experience. But also it's it's
39:09
Speaker 1: for anybody because it just shows you the power of
39:12
Speaker 1: the mental, your your mental and psychological uh uh powers
39:19
Speaker 1: to influence action.
39:21
Speaker 2: And results and getting rid of inflammation. Yeah, in every
39:25
Speaker 2: way possible. I mean inflammation to me seems to be
39:29
Speaker 2: one of the biggest culprits when it comes to aging.
39:34
Speaker 1: You know, it's funny because just a week ago, Adam
39:36
Speaker 1: Perlman was on my uh you know Adam from uh
39:40
Speaker 1: from Pendulum. He's the chief scientific officer and Pendulum has
39:44
Speaker 1: become one of the most important companies I think around
39:48
Speaker 1: with the research on the gut microbio and its connection
39:53
Speaker 1: to the brain and connection to weight loss. And but
39:56
Speaker 1: he was he and I were talking just about this
39:59
Speaker 1: very subject, and I was telling him that I was
40:01
Speaker 1: on the advisory board for doctor Barry Shears way way
40:05
Speaker 1: back in the nineties, I think, and that Barry Sears
40:08
Speaker 1: was the very first doctor to talk about inflammation really
40:13
Speaker 1: well eric and academy of anti aging. He wasn't that
40:16
Speaker 1: well received initially, and then over time he became the
40:21
Speaker 1: hero because you know, he had the zone diet and
40:25
Speaker 1: you know, he believes that the anti inflammatory diet which
40:29
Speaker 1: the zone was the basis of that was anti inflammatory.
40:33
Speaker 1: But that term has now become the cornerstone of of wellness.
40:39
Speaker 2: And it's one of the hallmarks of aging inflammation, not
40:42
Speaker 2: the only one, but it's one that we can really
40:45
Speaker 2: grab onto and do something about. And there's saying that
40:50
Speaker 2: it impacts. You know, none of these hallmarks are in
40:55
Speaker 2: silos on their own. They all influence each other. So
40:59
Speaker 2: it's a great place to start.
41:00
Speaker 1: And that's why they call it integrative medicine because so
41:03
Speaker 1: we are it isn't just one source or one influence
41:08
Speaker 1: or one cause. It's a mixture. But you touched on
41:11
Speaker 1: many of them today, So tell us about the anti
41:14
Speaker 1: inflammatory diet that you adopted.
41:17
Speaker 2: Okay, So I did a lot of research. I spoke
41:20
Speaker 2: to some of the experts in my own network. And
41:24
Speaker 2: it's very simple. You know, I haven't eaten red meat,
41:28
Speaker 2: and I'm not saying red meat is bad. I just
41:30
Speaker 2: haven't eaten it in forty years because at the time
41:35
Speaker 2: I stopped eating it, the belief was it wasn't good
41:38
Speaker 2: for you. So I eat chicken, and I eat fish,
41:41
Speaker 2: mostly fish, and lots of fruits and veggies. But what
41:45
Speaker 2: I did is I cut out all gluten, and I
41:49
Speaker 2: cut out all dairy, and I cut out as much
41:51
Speaker 2: sugar as I could. Sugar is hard because it's in everything.
41:57
Speaker 2: And what I found was and I was an excrucion
42:00
Speaker 2: shading pain. Minds you. I was still exercising, but I was,
42:03
Speaker 2: you know, taking advils before i'd exercise, and I was
42:09
Speaker 2: kind of I wouldn't say a mess, but I was
42:11
Speaker 2: in that direction.
42:12
Speaker 1: Uh.
42:12
Speaker 2: And what I found was I was able in a
42:15
Speaker 2: few weeks to stop taking any kind of anti inflammatory
42:19
Speaker 2: before I exercised, and then within six weeks all the
42:23
Speaker 2: pain in my hips went away, all of it. I mean,
42:28
Speaker 2: it was crazy.
42:31
Speaker 1: So in telling other people who you know, with all
42:35
Speaker 1: the influencers and the temptations in our lives, how do
42:39
Speaker 1: you get people to make those changes so you know,
42:42
Speaker 1: because you know it's going to help them. Yeah, and
42:45
Speaker 1: it's the same thing of compliance that we talked about
42:47
Speaker 1: with age Wave and getting your corporations and your clients
42:50
Speaker 1: there too, you know, to basically influence the results with
42:54
Speaker 1: their employees. So how did how do you do that
42:57
Speaker 1: with with people that are you know, you know the truth,
43:00
Speaker 1: you know the facts, and yet not everybody can follow
43:04
Speaker 1: your advice.
43:06
Speaker 2: Okay, well, yeah, you are one hundred percent right, Michelle.
43:09
Speaker 2: I've had a couple of people call me on the
43:11
Speaker 2: phone and I was happy to talk to them and
43:14
Speaker 2: tell because they were having hip problems or knee problems
43:17
Speaker 2: or shoulder problems, and I would describe the diet and
43:20
Speaker 2: they would say, oh, no, no, that's way too hard,
43:22
Speaker 2: I can't do that. But it's not hard at all.
43:26
Speaker 2: I mean, the gluten free products that are out there
43:28
Speaker 2: today are amazing. Cutting out dairy is not such a
43:32
Speaker 2: big deal, and you know, cutting out sugar, you're going
43:35
Speaker 2: to feel so much better that you're going to be
43:39
Speaker 2: happy about the choice you made. But you know, the
43:42
Speaker 2: obstacle is getting started and staying committed and recognizing the
43:46
Speaker 2: fact that you may fall off the wagon. And that's okay.
43:50
Speaker 2: So you know, in ageless aging, I do suggest a
43:54
Speaker 2: process for getting there, but the most important thing is
44:00
Speaker 2: to really have a goal, and to be very clear
44:02
Speaker 2: about the goal, and to write that goal down and
44:06
Speaker 2: journal every day. Okay, how did I do? And if
44:08
Speaker 2: you're not perfect, that's fine, but moving in the right direction,
44:12
Speaker 2: and as you see progress, maybe you fall off the
44:15
Speaker 2: wagon once in a while and get back on. I
44:18
Speaker 2: mean that experience of getting back on afterwards will make
44:22
Speaker 2: you even more committed.
44:25
Speaker 1: You know, I promised you yesterday when we both that
44:28
Speaker 1: we met, which was wonderful. Thank you so much. It
44:30
Speaker 1: was a great time to have met you in person.
44:33
Speaker 1: And I always say I said this with Adam because
44:36
Speaker 1: I met him in person, that it makes it so
44:38
Speaker 1: much more exciting to interview a guest on my podcast
44:43
Speaker 1: when I've actually had a chance to one on one
44:47
Speaker 1: get to know them. So but I did promise you
44:50
Speaker 1: I was going to ask you one question, and that
44:52
Speaker 1: is what I hope you've had some time to think
44:55
Speaker 1: about it. You have been prolific, and you know I've
44:59
Speaker 1: all the internet, I've listened to your talks, I now
45:04
Speaker 1: read almost finished your book, and I haven't read your
45:07
Speaker 1: other books. But how how in all of these talks
45:11
Speaker 1: that you've done and your public speaking and your writing,
45:15
Speaker 1: what questions have never been asked of you that you're
45:19
Speaker 1: passionate about.
45:22
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say never been asked, but keep in mind
45:27
Speaker 2: that what I suggest to people is that it's not
45:29
Speaker 2: just about one thing. It's about a holistic list of ingredients.
45:34
Speaker 2: And we've talked about a bunch of them, like exercise
45:37
Speaker 2: and social connections and purpose, but one of the ingredients,
45:41
Speaker 2: and by the way, they all impact each other, We've
45:44
Speaker 2: kind of mentioned that earlier, so it's got this cascading
45:48
Speaker 2: positive effect. But one of the ingredients that you don't
45:53
Speaker 2: hear a lot about in other books on longevity and
45:56
Speaker 2: aging has to do with our financial wellbeing because finances,
46:02
Speaker 2: that's a piece of the puzzle. That's one of the ingredients.
46:06
Speaker 2: And we talk about wealth and it's kind of like
46:09
Speaker 2: a dirty word in our world. We think of it
46:13
Speaker 2: as entitlement and wealth and privilege and well the derivation
46:19
Speaker 2: of the word wealth it comes from the Welsh and
46:22
Speaker 2: it means well being. And I would say having an
46:27
Speaker 2: understanding of finances and putting a financial plan into action,
46:32
Speaker 2: especially for women, who live longer than men and are
46:35
Speaker 2: going to need that extra financial security is of utmost importance.
46:41
Speaker 2: And keep in mind, when you aren't feeling financially secure,
46:48
Speaker 2: it creates a lot of stress. Cortisol levels go up
46:51
Speaker 2: and that can manifest as disease and you don't even
46:55
Speaker 2: want to go there. So you know, as a step
46:57
Speaker 2: number one, I would say, learn the language of finance,
47:02
Speaker 2: and you can do that online. I mean, it's so available.
47:04
Speaker 2: And then find someone, be a friend, it could be
47:09
Speaker 2: a mentor, it could be a financial advisor, and get started,
47:15
Speaker 2: start somewhere. Maybe it's just enrolling in a four oh
47:18
Speaker 2: one K program, but the earlier you can get started,
47:21
Speaker 2: the better. And on the other side of the coin,
47:24
Speaker 2: it's never too late.
47:28
Speaker 1: Well, you know, the downturn in two thousand and eight
47:32
Speaker 1: and the last few years and our lives have been
47:38
Speaker 1: a real test of people's ability to be resilient. Yes,
47:42
Speaker 1: so many people who well what do they say, seventy
47:45
Speaker 1: percent of the people in the world in the United
47:48
Speaker 1: States feel like, you know, they've been disadvantaged and economically
47:53
Speaker 1: in the last several years, and started in two thousand
47:55
Speaker 1: and eight, I think there was a bit of a
47:57
Speaker 1: rebound for a few people. But but it really has
48:00
Speaker 1: been difficult, and I and then and then not to
48:04
Speaker 1: mention COVID, which you know that caused so much mental
48:08
Speaker 1: uh debilitating mental illness and to a milder degree, the
48:13
Speaker 1: stress levels that being isolated because you mentioned earlier social connection.
48:18
Speaker 1: So I think we have been really tested. And that's
48:22
Speaker 1: why your book is so timely, because it does give
48:25
Speaker 1: hope that we always have resilience to turn to. We
48:29
Speaker 1: always have to believe in ourselves and love ourselves so
48:33
Speaker 1: that we can rebound. You know, it's about I always
48:37
Speaker 1: use the humpty dumpty, you know, you know, pick up
48:41
Speaker 1: the pieces and start again. You know, never ever give up.
48:44
Speaker 1: If someone asked, what is your mantra? What? What would
48:47
Speaker 1: you say? That's mine? But what would you say?
48:54
Speaker 2: I come back to this idea of keeping a positive
48:56
Speaker 2: attitude all the time, even when I'm down in the
49:00
Speaker 2: dumps or something horrible happens. I remind myself and I
49:04
Speaker 2: look at the research, you know, because I'm kind of
49:06
Speaker 2: a research wonk, and I know that having a positive attitude,
49:13
Speaker 2: even about aging and your own aging and your own
49:17
Speaker 2: health and wellness, it actually influences your gene, your epigenetics,
49:22
Speaker 2: and your brain health. And you know, if I'm going
49:27
Speaker 2: to be alive, I want to be in the best
49:30
Speaker 2: shape possible. So you know, for right now, for example,
49:34
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a little I can get anxious watching
49:37
Speaker 2: the news, so I have taken a sabbatical from the news.
49:42
Speaker 2: I just you know, I have blocked news Instagram posts
49:47
Speaker 2: that I used to thrive on. I have I won't
49:51
Speaker 2: put on the TV and listen to any of the
49:53
Speaker 2: morning shows or anything like that. And I have really
49:58
Speaker 2: blocked some of the the newsletters and periodicals that I get,
50:05
Speaker 2: at least temporarily because it just makes me a little crazy.
50:10
Speaker 2: And I recognize that you and I am I putting
50:13
Speaker 2: my head in the sand.
50:14
Speaker 1: Yes, well maybe a little bit, but that isn't really
50:17
Speaker 1: a permanent thing. I think you're you're you know, you're
50:20
Speaker 1: absolutely correct in that you're basically saying, I'm not in denial.
50:24
Speaker 1: I'm only doing what I know is healthy for me
50:28
Speaker 1: and as a as a human being. And I want
50:32
Speaker 1: to be sure that I don't diverse, I mean, digress
50:37
Speaker 1: from my journey, my purpose, and if that purpose is
50:40
Speaker 1: being minimized or are compromised by the divisiveness in the
50:46
Speaker 1: world today, that that you know, you're doing what's healthy
50:50
Speaker 1: for you. And I think this is a good message
50:52
Speaker 1: for people not to say, you know, just to derail
50:55
Speaker 1: your involvement in your community and in the world, but
51:00
Speaker 1: yet just do what you have to do to stay
51:02
Speaker 1: on your journey, on your trap, and then it'll all.
51:08
Speaker 1: You know, everything always has a way of coming around.
51:10
Speaker 2: Right, I hope you're right.
51:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, today is not going to be what is here.
51:16
Speaker 1: You know, four years from today, hopefully we're getting a
51:19
Speaker 1: more positive direction in the world and we'll be going
51:22
Speaker 1: through to the so called Golden Age of living. I
51:26
Speaker 1: do think, however, that health is one of the biggest
51:30
Speaker 1: challenges facing our world. Why is it that the United
51:33
Speaker 1: States used to be number one in the Western world
51:37
Speaker 1: as far as healthcare and now we're number thirty seven.
51:40
Speaker 1: I mean we're last or close to.
51:42
Speaker 2: Last in the Western world.
51:44
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, that's what I'm you know, only limiting it
51:47
Speaker 1: to that. But we are the leader of the Western world,
51:50
Speaker 1: So why are we not leading in terms of healthcare?
51:54
Speaker 1: And you said it in your book and you said
51:56
Speaker 1: it today that we can live, women can live long.
52:00
Speaker 1: But if we're not living better. And when you ask
52:02
Speaker 1: your audience to raise their hand and say, yeah, you know,
52:06
Speaker 1: how many want to live to one hundred, and how
52:08
Speaker 1: many want to live to one hundred if the last
52:11
Speaker 1: years are not healthy years? And and everybody is going
52:13
Speaker 1: to lower their hand. Yeah, it's that health span and lifespan,
52:18
Speaker 1: uh paradigm that you focus on. And I just wonder
52:24
Speaker 1: is there anything that you see that can change that
52:28
Speaker 1: that para that you know, that paradigm, so that the
52:31
Speaker 1: United States and US as women within that, that that
52:38
Speaker 1: cohort can become healthier with the not and only the
52:46
Speaker 1: certain things that you say in the book, but just
52:48
Speaker 1: one one lesson that you would say lesson learned to
52:52
Speaker 1: live longer but healthier life.
52:54
Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay, So, as you pointed out, we spend more
53:00
Speaker 2: on healthcare in the United States than any other country,
53:04
Speaker 2: and yet the results are horrible. I mean, we are
53:07
Speaker 2: not doing well in terms of health span, brain span,
53:11
Speaker 2: or lifespan. So it's a sad reality. I think that
53:17
Speaker 2: our healthcare system is sick care. It's reactive. It reacts
53:22
Speaker 2: when you already have something and tries to either fix
53:27
Speaker 2: it or halt it, which I think is too late.
53:30
Speaker 2: I think the idea of preventative health care and health
53:35
Speaker 2: and wellness early on, creating prevention early in our thirties, forties, fifties,
53:42
Speaker 2: you know, that's when we should start thinking about these things,
53:45
Speaker 2: but also recognizing that there are small things that we
53:50
Speaker 2: can do. I mean, if you start doing muscle strengthening
53:54
Speaker 2: to fight sarcopenia, which is muscle weakness and muscle loss,
54:00
Speaker 2: which starts to happen by the way, in your thirties,
54:05
Speaker 2: you can actually reverse the situation. That's remarkable that you
54:10
Speaker 2: can start building muscle mass, muscle strength and become more powerful.
54:16
Speaker 2: And that's just such a great metaphor for what we
54:18
Speaker 2: can do if we recognize the fact that we have
54:22
Speaker 2: agency over our own health and wellness and that we're
54:26
Speaker 2: in charge. It's not the healthcare system, it's the individuals.
54:30
Speaker 2: We are in charge.
54:33
Speaker 1: I love that. However, information is power.
54:38
Speaker 2: Yes.
54:39
Speaker 1: One of the things that Peter Diamandis said, and I've
54:42
Speaker 1: mentioned it several times on my podcast and with other guests,
54:46
Speaker 1: that really excited me. One of the things he said
54:50
Speaker 1: at the A four M at the American Academy of Anti
54:53
Speaker 1: Aging two years ago, right during COVID Well, actually, no,
54:57
Speaker 1: it was let's see two years, yeah, twenty two. He
55:00
Speaker 1: was the keynote when they've had their first I think
55:03
Speaker 1: it was the first meeting after COVID.
55:05
Speaker 2: I remember I was there.
55:06
Speaker 1: You were there. Do you remember what he said about
55:09
Speaker 1: in the last ten years, we've had more technological gains
55:14
Speaker 1: in healthcare than in the last one hundred years. And
55:18
Speaker 1: I think the audience really stood up and like took
55:21
Speaker 1: notice to that bold statement. But when you think about
55:24
Speaker 1: it and break it down into its components, you know,
55:27
Speaker 1: it does make a lot of sense. Look at what
55:29
Speaker 1: we've got. You know, we have the testing you and
55:31
Speaker 1: I talked about with our true age, our biological age.
55:36
Speaker 1: We have the stem cell research. Now you can even
55:40
Speaker 1: take stem cells orally, and according to one of my
55:44
Speaker 1: guests at stem Reten, doctor Christian Japo, you don't have
55:49
Speaker 1: to go to do you know, offshore or wherever to
55:53
Speaker 1: get injections. Some people it's out of range crosswise. And
55:58
Speaker 1: then we have telemere testing, we have DNA methilation testing,
56:04
Speaker 1: we have peptides. These peptides are you know, the new darlings.
56:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody loves them.
56:11
Speaker 1: Yeah. So you know, do you think that that statement
56:14
Speaker 1: was too aggressive or no?
56:18
Speaker 2: No, I think he's right, and at the same time,
56:22
Speaker 2: I think that those technologies are not available to everyone
56:28
Speaker 2: and that we need to recognize that. And I personally
56:31
Speaker 2: think that there's some things that are low cost or
56:34
Speaker 2: no costs that I talk about in age with Aging
56:37
Speaker 2: that I think that we need to take advantage of
56:43
Speaker 2: and for those of us who are lucky enough to
56:47
Speaker 2: know about and I talk about a lot of these
56:50
Speaker 2: things in Ageless Aging, but to take advantage of yeah, sure,
56:56
Speaker 2: take it. But many of these things are still experimental.
56:59
Speaker 2: Although a I is going to completely change the game,
57:04
Speaker 2: and I'm super excited about that.
57:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's like one of the biggest ones.
57:08
Speaker 1: And he was actually the keynote. The essence of his
57:12
Speaker 1: speech was about AI. So yeah, yeah, I'm sorry I
57:15
Speaker 1: forgot that one. That's a huge So, because I know
57:19
Speaker 1: we're going to have to end soon, Maddie, I just
57:21
Speaker 1: want to ask you kind of an introspective question. Where
57:26
Speaker 1: do you want to go from here? Where do you
57:29
Speaker 1: see your life journey heading now as we move into
57:33
Speaker 1: the next phase.
57:37
Speaker 2: Well, I'm working on a new chapter We're coming out
57:42
Speaker 2: in October with Mayo Clinic. Press asked me if I
57:46
Speaker 2: would add a new chapter with all the newest technologies
57:50
Speaker 2: and such as you're alluding to these things in Ageless Aging.
57:55
Speaker 2: So that'll be coming out next October.
57:58
Speaker 1: Oh that is so exciting. So right, I mean that
58:02
Speaker 1: question I just asked you is really quite appropriate.
58:05
Speaker 2: Because yeah, it is, It definitely is. I'm in fact,
58:08
Speaker 2: That's why I spoke with Adam Pearlman. He's gave me
58:11
Speaker 2: a lot of information because I'm really interested. I'm really
58:15
Speaker 2: interested in a couple of things. I'm really interested in
58:18
Speaker 2: the gut brain connection, and with that in mind, I'm
58:21
Speaker 2: because I think that that has a lot to do
58:25
Speaker 2: with our future health, especially women who have so many
58:30
Speaker 2: gut health issues. And also the vagus nerve, which travels
58:35
Speaker 2: from our gut up to our brain. I think that
58:38
Speaker 2: that is so underappreciated as something that affects our health.
58:43
Speaker 2: So those are two things that I'm kind of obsessed
58:46
Speaker 2: with right now. I'm also I'm doing a lot of keynotes.
58:50
Speaker 2: I love doing that. I love getting in as many
58:53
Speaker 2: ways as I can getting the message out that's really
58:58
Speaker 2: simple that you know, we are in charge of our
59:01
Speaker 2: health and well being. It's not the doctors, it's not
59:04
Speaker 2: the healthcare system. It's us. It's what we choose to do.
59:10
Speaker 2: And there's some very low costs or no cost steps
59:14
Speaker 2: we can take. And then there's some super cool things
59:18
Speaker 2: that are a little more experimental that are coming onto
59:22
Speaker 2: the playing field and that's awesome.
59:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, you say in the book, be the CEO of
59:28
Speaker 1: your own health, of your healthcare, and that is I
59:32
Speaker 1: think that it says it in a nutshell. If you
59:35
Speaker 1: don't take the responsibility, no one else is going to
59:37
Speaker 1: do it for you.
59:38
Speaker 2: So doctors don't have the time.
59:41
Speaker 1: Exactly, and our healthcare system doesn't set up, at least
59:44
Speaker 1: the allopathic system doctors to be able to accept insurance
59:50
Speaker 1: and give you a lot of personal time. It's just
59:53
Speaker 1: not the way it works. And so accept that and
59:56
Speaker 1: then do something about it that takes individual responsibility.
1:00:00
Speaker 2: Just do something.
1:00:02
Speaker 1: Something right and learn from people like you hopefully and
1:00:06
Speaker 1: people like me. We just thank you have studied this
1:00:09
Speaker 1: field and we really want to make a difference. I mean,
1:00:12
Speaker 1: when I started the podcast, the whole point was to
1:00:16
Speaker 1: spread information to affect people's lives, to influence people positively,
1:00:21
Speaker 1: to make changes. But information is power, and so I
1:00:26
Speaker 1: was always passionate about wellness, even back in my twenties,
1:00:32
Speaker 1: just like you. So the fact I've had a lot
1:00:35
Speaker 1: of years to do the research and hey, by the way,
1:00:38
Speaker 1: there were a lot of dead ends. I want people
1:00:41
Speaker 1: to know that there isn't always an equal playing field.
1:00:44
Speaker 1: You do make a lot of false starts and journeys
1:00:48
Speaker 1: that don't end up where you want them to take.
1:00:51
Speaker 1: You spend money on things that you know don't pay
1:00:54
Speaker 1: you back, and so don't think it's it's going to
1:00:57
Speaker 1: be easy sailing, because it is definitely a learning experience
1:01:02
Speaker 1: and that is always full of challenges. So I just
1:01:05
Speaker 1: want to thank you so much for taking the time
1:01:07
Speaker 1: with us today, Maddie, And before we close, I just
1:01:10
Speaker 1: want I did want to mention to everyone that you've
1:01:14
Speaker 1: offered something very generous, which is your book Ageless Agent
1:01:20
Speaker 1: can be autographed, and I know you personally do it
1:01:22
Speaker 1: right I do.
1:01:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun. I love doing it.
1:01:27
Speaker 1: Contact you and ask for that. So can you tell
1:01:29
Speaker 1: us the information that would be what people would do
1:01:33
Speaker 1: if they want to get that copy of your.
1:01:35
Speaker 2: Book, They can go to my website Maddidikwall dot com
1:01:41
Speaker 2: and send me an email and I'll be happy to
1:01:44
Speaker 2: do it with your mailing address and if.
1:01:47
Speaker 1: They use the ageless code, that will give you the
1:01:50
Speaker 1: ageless Yeah, if they were calling because we saw ageless
1:01:54
Speaker 1: and timeless or we have the ageless code, and that
1:01:57
Speaker 1: will trigger you. But they do have to pay for
1:02:00
Speaker 1: the book right first. And then do they send the
1:02:03
Speaker 1: book to you or do you send them the book
1:02:06
Speaker 1: autographed after they have done the financial part of it.
1:02:12
Speaker 2: I can send them the book autographed after they do
1:02:14
Speaker 2: the financial part of it.
1:02:16
Speaker 1: Perfect, to make.
1:02:17
Speaker 2: It as easy as possible.
1:02:18
Speaker 1: Right, and that would be through your website, not on Amazon.
1:02:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, do it through my website. I'll be happy to
1:02:25
Speaker 2: make that happen for you and make.
1:02:27
Speaker 1: Sure it just spelled your last name for everybody.
1:02:30
Speaker 2: Okay, So my first name is Maddy m A D
1:02:33
Speaker 2: D Y. I know a lot of Maddie's spell it ie,
1:02:36
Speaker 2: not me. And the last name is Dyke Wald very
1:02:41
Speaker 2: hard last name D like David, Y C H T
1:02:46
Speaker 2: like Tom, W A L D like David. They could
1:02:51
Speaker 2: also go to age wave, which is a little easier,
1:02:54
Speaker 2: age like getting older, a wave like a wave in
1:02:56
Speaker 2: the ocean.
1:02:57
Speaker 1: Right, which is a great name. By the way, Oh,
1:02:59
Speaker 1: thank you all right, And I did tell you that
1:03:02
Speaker 1: your husband influenced me dramatically in my journey, and I
1:03:07
Speaker 1: heard him speak and went out and ran out and
1:03:11
Speaker 1: got his book, and this was back and it was
1:03:14
Speaker 1: leither the late eighties of the nineties. It must have
1:03:15
Speaker 1: been the nineties, because that was about forty forty years ago, right,
1:03:19
Speaker 1: But he was amazing, and honestly, you please tell him
1:03:25
Speaker 1: that that he has really wasn't It was a day
1:03:28
Speaker 1: of reckoning, really listening. And I was in the corporate
1:03:32
Speaker 1: world at that point, so you know, I wanted to
1:03:34
Speaker 1: take his information and give it to everybody.
1:03:37
Speaker 2: Oh great, I love that. I'll definitely share that with him.
1:03:41
Speaker 2: He'll love hearing that.
1:03:42
Speaker 1: Okay, good, all right, Well, thank you again, and I
1:03:45
Speaker 1: want you to have a wonderful weekend. I know you
1:03:47
Speaker 1: have a beautiful family and you're going to be going
1:03:50
Speaker 1: to vacation with them at Christmas. So this is a
1:03:54
Speaker 1: time to again make yourself younger because you're with the
1:03:57
Speaker 1: loved ones and is that always brings joy and peace
1:04:02
Speaker 1: and and and happiness. So all the best of you, Maddie.
1:04:06
Speaker 2: Thank to you, and thank you for having me as
1:04:08
Speaker 2: a guest. I loved it.
1:04:10
Speaker 1: Okay, you take care, bye bye bye.