Latest / The Dr Louise Newson Podcast / 60 – Liz Earle on how to age well

Transcript

60 – Liz Earle on how to age well · The Dr Louise Newson Podcast

0:00
So Liz, you've been on this podcast a few times.
0:04
I feel like you're a regular guest, but there's always more
0:06
we can talk about. And today is a really exciting
0:10
day for me, but more exciting for you.
0:13
So can you just explain what why it's so?
0:15
Exciting, My gosh. Well, thank you, Louise.
0:18
Thank you so much for holding me back on today publication day,
0:23
How to age Now you know about this because you're featured in
0:26
this tone and it's it's been a real labour of love.
0:31
It's it's my best book yet. I don't know whether you feel
0:33
that bad. Books when?
0:35
When you write them, but I think we gain knowledge, don't we?
0:38
Experience and passion. And yeah, it's, it's a good one.
0:42
So I'm thrilled. So thank you for having me on
0:44
today. I think it's brilliant because,
0:48
well, there's lots of good things about the book, but one
0:50
of the great things about you is that you're very evidence based
0:54
and you research things. So although you have a massive
0:56
connection of people who you lean to and ask for advice, you
1:00
don't just take their opinion. You use it as a vehicle to to
1:04
get more information. And then some of the so-called
1:08
experts that you might connect with are not then the ones that
1:11
you think are quite so credible because you work it out for
1:14
yourself. And you've always been, you
1:15
know, you're, I guess in some ways very similar because you're
1:18
very quizzical and you ask lots of questions and you're very
1:21
reflective. You don't just absorb and take.
1:24
This is face value, which a lot of people could do.
1:27
Well, I think it's kind of you to say I'm very fortunate to
1:30
connect with a lot of world class academics and medics and
1:34
researchers and, you know, people like yourself, real
1:36
experts in the field. Because I'm not a medic, you
1:39
know, I'm not a doctor, I'm not an academic.
1:41
I'm not even a scientific researcher.
1:44
I think my role is as a communicator and somebody who
1:46
can go in without a medical or scientific background and ask
1:51
those questions. And I always think, you know, if
1:54
I we can understand something, if I can ask these amazing
1:57
academics and people working in their ivory towers and their
1:59
labs, whatever to explain things to me really in a simple way, I
2:04
can then hopefully translate that and give that information
2:07
across to the public. You know, particularly when you
2:09
look at something like aging, because, you know, we're all
2:12
aging and there's so much that's really super interesting that's
2:16
going on in the labs and in the world of academia behind closed
2:20
doors, which will probably take, well, they say, don't they, 17
2:24
years from bench to bedside. Well, I haven't got 17 years to
2:28
wait and I'm mid 60s. So thank you very much.
2:31
You know, I'd like to know about this now if it's going to help
2:33
me. And I need to go into those labs
2:35
now and get the information and pull it out before, even before
2:38
it's published in many cases. Yeah, and I like, I mean, I love
2:43
the title of your book because it's how to age rather than anti
2:49
aging, because we all age, you know.
2:52
And I think there's so much market and confusion out there
2:56
about what ageing really is. There's a great paper, you might
3:01
have read it. It came out and many years ago
3:03
about is ageing a disease? And it's a philosophical debate
3:08
and it does fill the criteria for a disease, although it
3:12
affects all populations, as some purists will say, well, you
3:16
can't have a disease that affects 100% of the population.
3:20
But I'm very interested in accelerated aging, like what
3:24
happens with and, and, and a lot of people still.
3:29
And I don't think it's as much now with your name on it, but
3:32
maybe it would have done if you produced this book 20 years ago.
3:35
Think it's just about skin and it's about how you look.
3:38
And, and I think there's two things.
3:40
Partly it is because the skin is an organ.
3:42
And if your skin is healthy, your internal organs are
3:45
healthy. It's a window into your organs.
3:47
So I don't think it's a bad thing.
3:49
But the other other thing is it's taken as it's whatever you
3:52
put on your face and that's the way how healthy you are.
3:56
And that's completely wrong, isn't it?
3:58
Absolutely. I mean it's funny going back in
4:00
the day. So obviously I'm known for
4:03
having founded a beauty company, but even when my Co founder Kim
4:07
and I were in the beauty company and we have no connection to it
4:10
now we've sold the company back in 2010, but we were never using
4:14
the term anti ageing. You know, we never used on any,
4:17
you know, skin cream or marketing material, whatever.
4:20
Because I want to age, you know, I mean ageing for gift.
4:24
And you know, we all know several people sadly no longer
4:26
with us who didn't have that opportunity.
4:28
So it's about pro ageing. You know, we are going to age.
4:31
Hopefully we're living longer. We know that statistically,
4:33
particularly as women, but we're living more years now in poor
4:37
health than ever before, which is just a tragedy because who
4:41
wants to spend the last, you know, 10 to 15 years of their
4:44
life with immobility, dementia, you know, recurrent Utis.
4:50
I mean, loss of purpose, just invisible to society, loss of
4:54
joy, loss of motivation, you know, just everything seems to
4:58
be a lack. And actually for me, thinking
5:01
about aging, it's I always think of it as almost as like the last
5:04
taboo for women. I remember when I was asked to
5:08
write a book on menopause and when we first connected, do you
5:11
know, my instinctive reaction at the time was no, because I
5:14
didn't want to be associated with that word.
5:16
I mean, now thankfully, we've come on, haven't we?
5:19
I mean, the last 10 years, we can all sit and menopause
5:22
without fear or embarrassment or shame, which there was, I think
5:26
back in the day. And I didn't really want to use
5:28
the word menopause at the beginning because I thought I
5:31
would be associated with decrepitude and just being, you
5:35
know, not worthy and, you know, just, I don't know, just really
5:39
decrepit, you know, and frail. And I didn't feel that in any
5:42
way. And I think the same is true of
5:44
aging. It's almost like the last taboo
5:46
for women that we're not allowed to age and to age with vitality
5:52
and vigor. If you kind of Google images of
5:54
older women, you get mobility scooters and care homes.
5:59
You know you don't. Get these dynamic.
6:01
Women lifting weights and. And it's, it's really
6:04
interesting though, but if you look back in time, even in the
6:07
70s, what the sort of average, even sort of celebrities when
6:11
they were fifty, they look quite a lot older than than they do
6:15
now. And lifestyle and everything has
6:17
changed. But yesterday I was in Buxton
6:20
just with my daughter and this lady was hobbling into this tea
6:23
shop and she was very stooped. She would have have
6:26
osteoporosis. You could see in her hands she
6:29
had arthritis. Every step was very painful for
6:32
and she had very dry skin, very wrinkled.
6:35
And she's probably, I'm sure, pretty much younger than my
6:38
mother and mother-in-law. And she was lovely.
6:41
I mean, she smiled and we said good afternoon and Jessica, my
6:45
daughter and I just looked at each other and we were both
6:47
thinking what a shame because she won't be on hormones.
6:51
You can tell when older people on hormones and it's I just feel
6:57
like medicine has let people down because you've got to have
7:00
choices quite early on when you're thinking about how to not
7:07
reduce, but how to slow down the ageing process because we don't
7:11
want our organs to age. Like it's not about how many
7:14
wrinkles we have around our eyes, but actually if we have
7:17
wrinkles on our face and losing collagen, we're losing collagen
7:21
in our tissues and we're losing bone density.
7:24
And there's good studies that women who have more wrinkles
7:27
have a more likely to have osteoporosis.
7:30
You don't need a DEXA scan. You can look at someone's face.
7:33
And so, you know, there's all this pushback about how women
7:37
look, but actually it's really important.
7:39
Men and women, you know, we have to be thinking quite early on.
7:43
And I think it's harder because there's so much inflammation in
7:48
our bodies with all the the diets and the lifestyle and
7:51
everyone we have. So the way that you've
7:54
approached the book is not about taking pharma medication or even
8:00
not necessarily taking lots of supplements.
8:03
And I think that's what's really important is that you've, you've
8:06
gone about it with a real like looking at everything so people
8:10
can choose. Well, it's quite counterculture.
8:15
You know, I think when I wrote A Better Second-half, which was my
8:18
last book, that was kind of a manifesto for midlife, and it
8:22
was the core pillars. You know, we talked a lot about
8:24
hormones in that book, you know, diet, eating more protein,
8:27
lifting weights, getting exercise, prioritizing sleep,
8:30
getting some purpose in life, you know, those kind of core
8:33
pillars. And they are still the
8:34
fundamentals. But what I discovered in more
8:37
recent years is that there's a lot more that we are not being
8:41
told that is really simple. And a lot of it comes down to
8:46
our mighty mitochondria, which are does this.
8:49
Explain what they are, Yeah. OK, so mitochondria these then
8:54
kind of known as the batteries within our cells, they're little
8:56
organelles within almost all cells in the body and they're
9:00
actually much more than batteries, although one of their
9:02
main jobs is to produce energy to produce ATP, which we use all
9:06
over the body, you know, particularly in the brain that's
9:08
very ATP hungry. And the mitochondria do so much
9:13
without mitochondria, I mean, we just, you know, we just fall
9:16
apart and they protect us against DNA damage.
9:19
They're very much involved in energy processes.
9:21
They are what keep keeps us going for longer.
9:25
And I guess the whole kind of if you have to, to pray see, you
9:28
know, how to age in in a simple way, it would be if you look
9:31
after your mitochondria, they will look after you.
9:34
And the simple things that mitochondria love are free and
9:40
ancestral, and they're things that we don't even discuss in
9:44
modern medicine or even kind of the biohackers and the aging
9:47
kind of gurus don't really talk about the Wellness warriors.
9:50
If you like, don't talk about them.
9:52
Why? Possibly because they're free.
9:54
There's nothing to sell. You know, it's just as simple as
9:57
getting outside your relationship with daylight.
10:00
The circadian rhythm is really important.
10:03
Looking at things like structured water in our cells,
10:05
looking at vibrational energy, which sounds a bit woo woo and
10:09
it, you know, it can be at 1 extreme, but it's also things
10:12
like sound waves, you know, the impact of sound waves and what
10:16
different frequencies have on ourselves.
10:19
I mean, it's completely fascinating.
10:21
And once you start to dig into what our mitochondria actually
10:24
like and give them the inputs that make them respond better,
10:29
you just automatically feel energized.
10:31
You know, my skin has never, well, not for decades, look this
10:35
young. And I think it's because my
10:36
mitochondria are thriving. You talk about collagen.
10:40
You know, collagen and elastin is really important.
10:42
We need our mitochondria to be making those things.
10:45
So yes, you can take collagen supplements and I do and I do
10:48
all of that as well. But since looking after my
10:50
mitochondria, I think my pro ageing has got so much better.
10:54
I just want to share that because it's positive.
10:56
Yeah, and it makes sense. I mean, we've got trillions of
10:59
mitochondria throughout our body and it's it's so important.
11:03
And often in medicine we forget the basics.
11:06
And you know, I think that's mainly often because the way
11:10
doctors are taught about diagnosing a disease and then
11:13
treating with medicine, but actually preventative medicine
11:17
in my mind is the most important thing we can do.
11:20
And, and looking at the basics that you write a lot about
11:24
sunlight. And obviously there's all sorts
11:26
of benefits with sunlight and not just with the vitamin D and
11:31
getting outside, walking outside with bare feet and being happy.
11:36
Like really, I know it sounds quite trivial, but it's really
11:40
basic things that are so important.
11:43
Because I know you've written a bit about biohacking and there
11:47
are lots of, like you say, sort of innovative commas, often
11:52
gurus who are selling all sorts of things and making all sorts
11:56
of claims. So then this sort of anti
12:00
ageing, Wellness, longevity space can get very confusing.
12:04
And it seems to be for some people, wealthy people are
12:08
really just fine tuning things, whereas you and me really are
12:13
keen to help as many people as possible with our knowledge.
12:17
And so I think 80% of what you say in practice are basic things
12:23
that aren't aren't rocket science.
12:26
But they've somehow been forgotten with the noise of
12:28
medicine and supplements and everything else as well.
12:32
I think one of the things that really fascinated me is the
12:35
whole concept of our circadian rhythm and the fact that our
12:38
body runs on this 24 hour cycle and everything.
12:41
You'll know this because it cascades.
12:43
All our hormones start and, and are so connected to our
12:46
circadian rhythm and that starts at Daybreak.
12:49
So ancestrally, you know, we were designed are created,
12:54
evolved, however you like to call it, to get up with the
12:57
light. You know, the sun rises, we get
12:59
up, you know, and that early morning light, it gives us that
13:02
little spike of cortisol that gets us going and we get that UV
13:06
going into our eyes. Not even UV actually early on.
13:08
It's more near infrared and and red and green light, you know,
13:11
before we even get UVA coming. And what that's doing is it's
13:14
sending signals into the, the mitochondria in our retina
13:18
that's setting up our entire circadian rhythm and our hormone
13:21
cascade for the day, including time setting for us to produce
13:25
melanin at night. So if you get up early in the
13:28
morning and you, you're up close to Daybreak within kind of 60
13:31
minutes or so of, of Daybreak and you're outdoors maybe only
13:35
for 10 minutes, but you're letting that light into your
13:37
eyes with no sunglasses, no glasses, no contact lenses.
13:41
If it's safe to do so, you know, you just need to be out looking
13:44
at the light or even open a window, even if you can't
13:46
physically get outside, get that natural light, not through a
13:49
pane of blast, but that actual daylight because of all the
13:52
spectrum wavelengths that come in, that's producing more
13:55
melatonin, which is helping me sleep better at night.
13:58
So that early morning clock just sets everything up properly for
14:03
the day. And, and so much of that is
14:05
going to cascade through hormones, not only the sex
14:08
hormones that, you know, you talk about, you know, the
14:10
progesterone, estrogen island and testosterone are lovely pet
14:13
hormones, which I talk about obviously with you in this book.
14:17
But also, you know, our serotonin and our GABA.
14:20
You know that the cat had chemicals that make us feel calm
14:23
and happy and confident of energy.
14:26
And it's so simple and yet we've become disconnected.
14:29
Nobody's ever said to me, open a window first thing in the
14:33
morning. My mantra now for my kids is sky
14:36
before screens. It's really simple.
14:39
We sleep with our phones, don't we?
14:40
Waking us up and we get drawn into that world.
14:43
First thing is I defy anybody who puts their phone, you know,
14:47
as their alarm and you turn it on and you suddenly, you know,
14:50
you've got 15 WhatsApp messages. What are you going to do?
14:53
You're going to open them, aren't you?
14:54
And then you're immediately into the doom scroll and the the
14:58
activation of everything else. And actually you need to get
15:01
that broad spectrum daylight before you get that single
15:04
wavelength of blue light that we're getting from our screens.
15:08
And the other thing that you've become since I've met you more
15:12
and more interested in is doing weights.
15:15
And the way you exercise is quite different as well.
15:18
And many people who follow you on Instagram will will know
15:21
because you let us into that side of your life.
15:23
But but that's really important that somehow people still get
15:29
very confused what type of exercise to do.
15:31
It can be very confusing. I still really think it needs to
15:34
be individualized. But actually doing weights is
15:38
really powerful because our muscles aren't just there to
15:41
prop up our skeleton. They are biologically and
15:44
metabolically active as well, aren't they?
15:47
That's the fascinating thing. And I think that's something
15:49
that I've only realized relatively recently is just this
15:52
activity that goes on within our muscles.
15:55
And I wish somebody had told me earlier, just lift a few
15:57
weights. You know, I was at that era
15:59
because, you know, being in my 60s now, when I was in my 20s
16:02
and 30s and I had my gym club membership, I was in a shiny
16:06
leotard, you know, jumping up and down to Jane Fonda, doing
16:08
step classes for an hour and actually not really achieve
16:11
anything. And just 10-15 minutes of
16:15
lifting some weights instead will do so much more for your
16:18
body. And if you don't have to lift
16:20
dumbbells, you can just do some push ups.
16:23
You know, you can do some squats, you can do resistance,
16:25
your own body resistance. You don't even have to invest in
16:28
any equipment to do it. And the other thing that I've
16:30
started doing and adding into my exercise routine is looking
16:34
after my lymph. So moving my lymph every
16:37
morning. So I'm aware that I've been
16:39
lying flat for, you know, hopefully good part of, you
16:41
know, 7-8 hours or so and you know, just tapping here where
16:45
the mains of lymph nodes are that kind of recirculate all
16:48
comes back to the sort of clavicles.
16:50
Doing that and doing a bit of facial massage and then I jump
16:53
up and down. I literally like a mad woman.
16:56
I'm jumping, maybe doing 4050 jumps, knowing that that impact
17:00
is then helping to create bone density and strengthen my bone
17:04
and stimulate the production of of stronger skeletal system.
17:09
So all the time I'm thinking about how how can I age well,
17:13
but in a way that doesn't really take up any time or cost too
17:16
much money. And it's doing it, so it's part
17:19
of a routine is really important as well, isn't it?
17:23
And I, as you know, I often get off and do yoga before I start
17:28
my day because then it's done. And like you say, I'm not, I'm
17:30
not drawn into the screen. It's just part of my routine.
17:34
And, and I'm very lucky because I do an infrared sauna every day
17:39
as well. And I, you know, anything that
17:42
yeah, anything to reduce inflammation.
17:45
Inflammation. Really good.
17:47
And that's something that you explain.
17:50
I mean, I've obviously explained it in my new book, but you
17:53
explain it and that's a pivotal part that's been missing for so
17:57
long. I think you know, anything we
17:59
drink, anything we eat and when we move everything is got to be
18:03
associated with. That and you know, I was really
18:06
fascinated, you know, when we spoke for the section in my book
18:09
on estradiol and its role as anti-inflammatory.
18:12
So I write about anti-inflammatory foods, you
18:15
know, what you can put on the end of your fork that's really
18:17
going to help. Interestingly, you talk about
18:19
infrared light. You know, I'm a big fan of
18:21
infrared light. I also have an infrared sauna,
18:23
which I actually bought when Lily, my oldest, was.
18:26
So I'll with her autoimmune because I'd read that it would
18:30
help her. And I started to use it as well.
18:32
It was it was a big part of her recovery too.
18:35
And then I noticed that my skin started to look so much better
18:38
as well because I was using it. And of course, infrared is one
18:41
of the key wavelengths that we get early in the morning and
18:45
later in the evening. So if you want a free infrared
18:48
session, go outside as close to Daybreak as you can.
18:52
Go outside and watch the sunset. And also what's interesting is
18:56
looking at the work of people like Professor Glenn Jeffrey,
18:59
who's an amazing neuroscientist and ophthalmic expert based at
19:04
UCLM and more fields Together. He's done various research
19:08
papers on wavelengths and looking at these long
19:11
wavelengths of infrared, showing that they penetrate clothing.
19:14
So actually you don't even have to strip off to get the
19:17
benefits. You know, you can go outside at
19:19
sunrise and sunset. And again, it's giving chemical
19:23
signals to the body. So around our cells we have this
19:26
a lot of water. Obviously, you know that we are
19:29
composed of a lot of water, which is why hydration is so
19:31
important, especially as we get older and we lose a lot of those
19:34
first signals. As we get older, we may not
19:36
realize that we're so dehydrated, but the water that's
19:39
around our cells is structured so it's more like a gel like
19:44
water. And there's this great research
19:47
in America, Professor Jerry Pollock, who discovered what
19:50
they're calling the fourth phase of water.
19:53
So previously we thought that there was just three phases of
19:55
water. There's turn on the tap, you get
19:57
liquid water, you boil it, you get vapour, you get steam, and
20:02
then you freeze it and it goes solid.
20:04
So there's the three phases of water.
20:06
Established science. But of course, science has never
20:09
settled. Is it?
20:09
It's always any theory until somebody comes along and smashes
20:12
it. So along came Jerry Pollock and
20:14
his research lab, and they discovered the fourth phase of
20:18
water, which is structured water.
20:20
And that's water that molecularly has changed.
20:22
So when you look at it under a microscope, it's literally
20:25
structured. The little particles are kind of
20:27
organized. They're not just sort of
20:29
scattered in a random way. And you can go online if you
20:31
Google or search, you know, structured water images.
20:34
It's fascinating. And there are various things
20:36
that influence the structure of water, which we have in our own
20:40
body. The body structures its own
20:42
water. It's structured.
20:43
The mitochondria are involved in structuring water, and one of
20:46
the things that structures water is sunlight, or even just
20:49
daylight, but primarily sunlight.
20:52
So by removing ourselves from our exposure to natural light,
20:56
we're removing one of the basic components, the fundamentals
20:59
that our cells need to age well. And maybe that's why people who
21:03
are living in the Mediterranean, we talk about the Mediterranean
21:06
diet effect being so healthy. Maybe it's just that they're
21:09
receiving more daylight and their cells are behaving
21:12
healthier because of that. It's so interesting.
21:15
There's so many basic things that we either don't understand
21:19
or forgotten or have been suppressed.
21:21
And I think this is where it's really useful that you're not a
21:25
medical person. Do you think so?
21:28
Yeah, because a lot of guidelines are written with
21:32
pharmaceutical influence, a lot of the way we're taught as
21:35
doctors are with pharmaceutical influence.
21:37
I mean, as you know, I don't work with pharmaceutical
21:39
companies, but my training and everything else has been very
21:42
much about pharma. And so a lot of the books that I
21:46
now read or have read looking at inflammation and ageing, looking
21:52
at basic principles and not about pharma, but a lot of
21:56
things are still hidden from the public.
21:58
And I think that's really difficult.
22:01
And like you said, some of it sounds a bit woo woo.
22:04
Well, it's not really, but it's just not out there.
22:07
So your book is a is a sort of easy access way of people trying
22:12
to maybe think differently about how they can have day-to-day
22:16
living without spending a fortune, which is really
22:20
important, isn't it? And it's unbiased.
22:23
You know, I'm not paid by anybody to promote anything
22:26
here. And what I tried to do when I
22:29
was writing it was obviously I had access to a lot of real
22:31
world class medics, particularly those working in this sort of
22:34
emerging field of science or quantum biology, which is
22:38
looking at circadian rhythm, particularly in light and
22:40
structured water and energy and magnetism and all those really
22:44
amazing things which will become more mainstream.
22:46
But I think it's difficult because there is nothing to
22:48
sell. And when you look at things like
22:51
grounding, you know, you talk about me going out and being
22:54
barefoot on the ground in the morning, whether it's even I've
22:57
been doing city streets. I've been known to get up in the
22:59
middle of Manchester and stand outside on the pavement because
23:02
I'm still going to be grounding barefoot even if I'm not at home
23:05
on the grass. And we know that that can reduce
23:08
inflammation in the body to a certain extent.
23:11
And there have been small studies that show that.
23:14
And people will say yes, but we know where's your randomized
23:17
controlled trial? And it's like seriously guys,
23:20
who is going to spend quarter of £1,000,000 on an RCT to prove
23:23
that you don't need anti inflammatories?
23:26
No, it's going to. Happen is where science becomes
23:30
so stupid really, because even with hormones, people still say,
23:34
well, we haven't got randomized control studies.
23:37
Well, you never will actually. But even if you did, the people
23:41
in the studies are not the same as the person in front of me.
23:45
And a lot of it is common sense. You know, it's not doing any
23:49
harm. Maybe standing in the middle of
23:51
the road in Manchester might be, but standing outside, it's not
23:55
going to cause any harm. Taking natural hormones is not
23:59
going to cause any harm, but the harm is by not doing these
24:03
things. And a lot of them is a
24:04
cumulative effect as well. So you don't see any instant
24:09
results often, but you do after a while and make it part of
24:13
routine is also important because others will watch you
24:17
and learn from you. And then it has this ripple
24:20
effect, doesn't it? When you live in a more healthy
24:23
way, I think. You know, the more you do, the
24:25
more you want to do. And I think the good news is
24:28
it's never too late. It's also never too early.
24:30
So this is the information that I give my daughter's, you know,
24:33
Brella, who's 20, and Lily in her 30s.
24:36
And so they can kind of hopefully build it in, as you
24:39
say, it becomes a ritual. It's a habit.
24:40
It's like brushing your teeth. If you're gonna brush your
24:42
teeth, you're in the bathroom. Open the window.
24:44
You know, you get in the daylight.
24:46
OK. It's a really simple thing to
24:47
do. It doesn't cost anything,
24:48
doesn't take any time, but I think it's about consistency,
24:51
little and often and you just build in these little habits.
24:55
And you know, I'm not anti medicine.
24:57
I'm extremely grateful for, you know, surgery and antibiotics
25:00
and all the rest of it. But I think particularly as we
25:02
age, especially as women, and you'll see this as a doctor, the
25:06
whole kind of polypharmacy of women, particularly being
25:10
prescribed one thing and then the next and then the next and
25:12
then the next. And actually, if we can take a
25:14
step back and look at what functional medicine is more
25:17
about, it's like what are the causes of these symptoms?
25:20
How can we actually address it? You know, obviously natural
25:23
bioidentical hormones is going to be part of that.
25:26
But just the way that we live and our exposure to natural
25:29
things, you know, like daylight and outdoors and, you know, hot
25:34
and cold, you know, having a bit of a cold shower or whatever is,
25:37
is, is worth doing. That whole shock system actually
25:41
is very healthy for for producing healthier cells.
25:46
So, yeah, and knowing why you're doing it is really important.
25:50
So there's a lot in the book that sometimes first reading is
25:54
a bit scientific and it might people might think goodness, but
25:57
actually it's really important because if you understand why
26:00
you're doing something, you're more likely to do it as well.
26:03
So your book's very well resourced and referenced, and
26:06
like you say, you've got good experts as well.
26:08
So it must have taken you a long time to write.
26:12
It's funny, I started writing it.
26:13
I started writing it in my head actually, even before I finished
26:16
the last one. So.
26:19
More than three years coming because I realized that this was
26:22
the next wave. And I know that some of it is
26:24
going to sound a bit out there, but it is the way ahead.
26:28
And I'm really certain of that. And I don't think that what I'm
26:32
saying is wrong. I think it's early.
26:35
So, and I'm quite prepared to stick my head up and say, I
26:38
think this is this is early. But I gave the manuscript to a
26:42
number of medics, serious medics, you know, who I really
26:45
respect, I mean, yourself included.
26:47
But people that, you know, Professor Tim Spector, Dr. Rupi,
26:50
there are lots of, you know, medics sort of come in to
26:52
Stockholm has, you know, wrote an amazing endorsement saying,
26:55
you know, this is stuff that we should all be learning at
26:57
medical school. You know, so and I and it's full
27:00
of references, just like your book has all the medical
27:03
references in the back. I was very clear with the
27:05
publishing that I wanted it to be read and taken seriously by
27:10
academics and medics who would go, this is just all a bit of
27:13
woo woo fluff. And you can't say that because
27:15
the references are there and there is some hardcore kind of
27:20
geeky sciency bits. But you can skip it if you want.
27:23
I've broken into absolutely. I say at the end of each
27:26
chapter, this is a summary. If you don't want to get into
27:28
the weeds, just read this little bit that tells you what to do at
27:31
the end of each day. And then I think for me, the
27:34
more you know, the more you want to know and the more you do, the
27:37
more you feel capable of adding in that little bit extra every
27:41
day. And when you see the results
27:43
actually and you feel so much better, that's that's the goal.
27:49
Yeah, it's yeah, it's also important.
27:52
So your book should really be bought by everybody to learn
27:56
from. And it's not actually just for
27:58
women. I chased them to add because we
28:00
all like to and and our sell processes in men are the same As
28:05
for women. So really important that anyone
28:07
can read and learn from it. So three take home tips.
28:10
This is really obvious, but three reasons why someone should
28:14
buy or read your book list. Well, I think 3 take home tips.
28:18
I mean, firstly, we're all aging and I think we need to take
28:21
ourselves in hand and say we're going to age.
28:23
Well, you know, I'm in my 60s and I am fitter, stronger,
28:28
definitely happier than I was in my 40s or 50s.
28:31
And now why can't that trajectory carry on up?
28:34
Why does it have to be downhill? You know, I want to be sitting
28:36
here with you, Louise, in 10 years time, in my 70s going,
28:39
yeah, well, I was kind of OK in my 60s, but I'm so much better
28:42
in my 70s, you know, that. That's my goal.
28:44
And I think it's fully achievable if you know how to
28:47
look after your cells. So I think you know #2 look
28:50
after your cells and they will look after you.
28:52
Take it back to the mitochondria.
28:54
Just take a moment to learn what your mitochondria need and what
28:57
they use to thrive on because if you feed them with the things
29:01
they need to thrive, like daylight, you will see a
29:05
dramatic difference. It may not be immediate, but you
29:07
will see it definitely over time.
29:09
Not very much time. You're talking, you know, weeks
29:11
and months, not years. And I think just, you know,
29:15
remain the basics, remain the same, you know, eat lots of nice
29:19
protein, get your sleep, prioritize sleep more than
29:22
anything else. Sleep is a superpower for women.
29:25
You know, make sure that your hormones are sorted so that you
29:27
do sleep well. But then, you know, make sure
29:30
that you might want to try and get to bed a little bit earlier
29:33
so that you can get that morning light in.
29:35
Because I'm a night owl, I find that really hard.
29:38
But I have managed to do it because I see the benefits of
29:42
getting up early and seeing that early morning light.
29:46
Brilliant. So we can all look forward to
29:48
our 60s, seventies, 80s. Way beyond.
29:52
Well, some of you might know my mother-in-law recently turned 90
29:55
and she's pretty amazing. There's lots, lots we should
29:58
aspire to do and change. And it's never too late to make
30:02
small changes either. That's really important.
30:04
As more changes, and I should actually just say that just as
30:07
we've got good daylight, light is really good, the daylight,
30:11
there's also light that's not so good and increasing evidence
30:14
that LED lighting is not so good.
30:17
So some other really simple change that you can do as a
30:19
little take away is whenever you can change your LED's to old
30:24
fashioned incandescent light bulbs, even if it's just one
30:26
bedside light or one lamp that you have on your desk, try and
30:29
make an intent incandescent light bulb.
30:32
And there's a lot of research out there.
30:33
I think we're going to be hearing more and more about the
30:35
issues of not only the benefits of outdoor lighting, but also
30:38
some of the hazards of the modern indoor lighting too.
30:42
Thank you so much for your time, Liz, and good luck with
30:45
Publication Day. Thank you.
30:47
Thank you. Exciting.