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The Keys to Life Longevity & Youthfulness | 70 · The Driven Athlete

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If you're a driven, active person who wants to reach and pursue a higher quality life with some ambition, then guess what this podcast is for you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: This is the Driven Athlete Podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: What's up?
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Y'all, it's your man.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Dr Kyle Got a really cool topic of stuff to talk about today.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It's something that I heard on a TED Talk actually another podcast.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: They were mentioning it too, some other people that I really admire and would recommend y'all listening to.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: But really interesting topic that I feel like has shaped the perspective and habits that I've tried to incorporate in my own life but then also like instilling in my family and with my patients and stuff and people are training really hard, but anyway, it's really the fountain of youth and the six qualities or habits and things to focus on that a neuroscientist has found to be and other studies included, that a combination of all these things kind of over the span of a long period of time and really it's just consistency over a long period of time if you're doing a little bit all the time has really been found to improve the quality and length of quality of life, because I feel like time isn't really necessarily the most important thing in life if you think about it.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: It's not time, because I've met plenty of people that weren't.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: They're ill, they're not well and they've lost family members and they're like ready to go.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So they have plenty of time left, but they're like ready to go.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So they have plenty of time left, but they're like they're not enjoying it.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: It's way different, right?
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So I'm like man, let's take it a step further.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: It's not time, but maybe it's time while you're healthy.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: That might be the most important thing in life and the most valuable commodity on earth, and one of our mission statement quotes that things we believe in on earth, and one of our mission statement quotes that things we believe in, but anyway.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: So the fountain of youth to help for longevity and the consistency and length of quality of life that we can maintain for ourselves.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: And it was just a really interesting topic that this neuroscientist that I was introduced to with this topic was talking about the six keys and qualities for the fountain of youth to focus on.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: All right, and what she was saying was that she was studying there was a study about these Alzheimer's patients for mental health and, just being sharp right, they studied this group of patients that were displaying Alzheimer's symptoms Okay, and they're definitely declining cognitively, unfortunately, all right, and we know that Alzheimer's is a progressive disease that really can't be reversed, unfortunately.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: And then they were studying this other group, a control group of nuns that were of the same age group and they were studying the images of the brain scans that they were going through.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And neurofibrillary tangles and amyloid plaques are the two things that seem to be really consistently found on patients with Alzheimer's and degenerative brain problems and cognitive decline, all right, and they were finding that this group of nuns in the control group had the same, if not more, images of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that these Alzheimer's patients also had.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: So they both had really the same amount of these abnormalities found in these images for their brain scans that you would think oh, they're four.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Then they would both have similar Alzheimer's symptoms and cognitive decline, sundowning, memory loss, stuff like that.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And really that's not the case.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: The group of nuns actually were totally fine, they were sharp, they were doing well, they were still high cognitive thinkers and really to function really high and well.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: So higher quality of life at that stage and demographic.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: And then the other group, the experimental group that had symptoms of Alzheimer's, right, were definitely not as sharp as they would like to have been at that stage, right?
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: So, anyway, they were like how is that possible, right?
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So what they were finding?
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: This neuroscientist was studying this stuff and she was like the difference seemed to be a collection of these six things over a consistent period of time and just focusing on that stuff.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And the six things are this all right?
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: The first one is nutrition.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, it's across the board nutrition and the things that we consume and eat as people is definitely one of the biggest influences in our health and longevity, for physique and mental health, right, recovery, body composition and physicality, right.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And joint health, all that stuff, immune health, across the board, right, nutrition.
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting is I was like let's reframe this Then.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: All right, you got to eat good.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: All right, what does that not look like?
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: What does it not look like?
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And what they were suggesting was excessive amounts of alcohol, excessive smoking, high cholesterol, consuming a bunch of simple sugars and a diet that doesn't consist of more organic sources of stuff All right, high vegetables and fruits, lean protein sources and an appropriate amount of carbs, and a diet that doesn't consist of more organic sources of stuff all right, high vegetables and fruits, lean protein sources and an appropriate amount of carbs right.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Carbs aren't bad, it's just a matter of like what the sources are and how much.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: All right, moderations in the portion sizes and that was the other one is portion sizes, smaller portions and then multiple times throughout the day.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: So eating lean and eating well, not smoking and then not consuming a ton of alcohol right, that seems to be what the nutrition looks like.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: That component, the next component that was really important is sleep.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: It's also across the board.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: It seems like a lot of people that I've respected and admired across the board in health and fitness and wellness field, that sleep is the most important thing for recovery and feeling rested and feeling energetic for the next day.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: It's like what can I take to feel energetic tomorrow or today?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Right, and the answer is usually coffee, right, caffeine or a Red Bull of taurine right, seems to be the active ingredient there.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: And then, unfortunately, with the medical prescription med pandemic or epidemic we have going on with just candy, prescribing everything but Adderall for ADHD and just giving it to kids and over-prescribing to kids in my humble opinion, but that seems to be the route people go when it really it's like man, the most influential thing is just consistently getting quality sleep the night before and then consistently over time.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: And it's interesting like, what does that not look like?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Not getting deep, not reaching deep sleep for an optimal amount of time, and the things that can influence that and what the studies have suggested.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Again, it seems to be like a cold, dark room and then minimizing distractions and that's where like earplugs or like eye patch, like a eye patch visor, can work for that, and then even a white noise machine that helps to keep yourself from being distracted but that allows you to reach a deeper sleep and then consistently doing that over a long period of time.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: That helps for recovery and we can't neglect that the most important thing for recovery and healing and also mental recovery is the sleep that you can get at night.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so less than optimal amount of volume of sleep has been shown to negatively affect your immune function and defense mechanism in your body for pathogens.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Even just missing a couple hours in one night has been shown to have a significant percentage drop in immune function.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: But then I'm like okay, well, no need to panic.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: It's like I didn't sleep good last night.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Or if you're laying in bed and you're like looking at the ceiling and staring and like just fall asleep, fall asleep right now.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I just need to sleep.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: And you're getting pissed off.
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: Right, it's like getting frustrated because I'm kind of get like that.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: It's like no, I'm missing out on my recovery potential and I'm going to feel good tomorrow.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: There's also been studies to find that even just laying in bed with your eyes closed and just relaxing as if you were trying to sleep there even is still, at that point, some kind of benefit.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: That the same way as if you were getting real sleep.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: So even you're still getting a benefit if you're just laying in bed and just attempting to sleep similar benefit as if you were actually asleep.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: But anyway, the goal eventually is to get enough quality and reach deep sleep for a long, long enough amount of time and of course, studies range between like seven to nine hours, right, that's across the board.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Some people are different than other people, but anyway, at least getting an adequate amount of sleep, that's right for you and then reaching a deep sleep to get to there.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: But anyway.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: So the the that was a tough one for me, cause I'm like man, there's definitely times where I'm, I'm, I'm grinding at night.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I'm finishing up some work stuff, or I want to train, or like my kids are like not going to sleep and getting.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It's been rough the past couple of nights, by the way, for our kiddos just getting out of bed and like ready to play.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: It's like it's time to go to sleep and you're an hour and a half past your bedtime and me and my wife are like ready to go to bed.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Now that's a tough one, but anyway, that's a super important one we can't neglect.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: So nutrition, sleep.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And then the third one seems to be stress management.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: So stress always comes in our life and by no means am I an expert on this stuff.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: I'm just relaying information that I've heard from more apt and qualified individuals and just sharing with you all because I thought it was interesting.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: But it seems like stress management is also high on the list where chronically being overstressed or not managing your stress well for a person just increases the likelihood for cardiovascular disease in the future.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And my also suggestion with that is like, if stress management seems to be an issue, right, because this is for everybody, it's an issue for me too.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying I'm perfect by any means.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Let's get to the root cause of what's causing the lack of stress management and oftentimes it seems like the mental health component is really a big stimulation for the root cause of that.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: So I'm like that's the cause and the only way to fix that is to address the mental health issue in that person's life right, and that's usually what I call it in professional, but anyway that can really affect then also sleep and also stress eating.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting how these things kind of play together and how they can influence each other and it's a cascade then that leads to just chronically and consistently not implementing these as optimal things as possible for the fountain of youth.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: So stress management right, that's a.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: That's a key one, I guess.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Another thing I was gonna say with that is stress comes and goes all the time.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: It doesn't get any less and and some mentors that I've had in the past have always been like, as you get older and more responsibilities layer in with kids and family and other responsibilities stress doesn't decrease, it actually increases.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: But your capacity and ability to tolerate and handle that stress gets better and better and better and improves.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: So I was like that makes total sense.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: So how can I improve and manage my ability to tolerate the stresses that come towards me.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: That just comes with practice and purposefulness and awareness to be at the beginning.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so fourth one okay, number four out of six is getting enough appropriate exercise and fitness and same kind of thought.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Let's look at what is that?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Not Overtraining, vanity and kind of also taking over your life?
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: However, there's worse things to be addicted to than working out a ton all the time, right.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: It's more just about appropriately stressing your system and your body, mainly your cardiopulmonary system, your heart and your lungs and they relate together and their efficiency and effectiveness to deliver oxygen to your tissues, and then also your skeletal muscle and your bones right, the skeletal system, all right.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: So your muscles and your bones get more dense and thicker, they're able to tolerate more stress physical, physical wise and then also your heart and lung system as they work together, getting more efficient and able to tolerate um, deliver oxygen to the tissues for your organs and health and nervous system.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: All that stuff right, but we can't neglect.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: There's a ton of research and this is another podcast topic, by the way in the future talking about the benefits of strength training and exercise.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of doing it appropriately and not doing too much, too fast.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: People get really motivated that I've noticed right, and it's like man, I'm going to work out a ton and then they just get after it.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Um, but not gradually, progressively increasing the load and the, the, the for the level to tolerate at the moment, but, um, jumping in too much, too fast, with a flash of intensity, and then it's too much and they get sick or like they don't feel good and they're getting super sore, they're over training, they're not recovering well enough, with not adequate sleep.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: The nutrition isn't also being focused on, so they don't feel good and they're not getting the benefits they could get out of it.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: That's when it falls off and that's also not a great look at like what that should be for fitness and exercise.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting with the Fountain of Youth.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: They're all correlated and all kind of work together.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: But an appropriate nutrition schedule that looks like sleeping adequately and reaching deep sleep as best as possible cold, dark room, non-distractions, white noise can be a good thing, and then also a weighted blanket, and then managing stress and then also exercise.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: And then the fifth one is actively and regularly trying to incorporate mentally stimulating activities.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Let's look again.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: What does that not look like.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: It doesn't look like what the and this is what the research suggests.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: So if I'm offending anybody, I'm sorry.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Doing crossword puzzles seems to not be what they're talking about here.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: The reason is because you're just learning things that you already know.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: So the key with this is you have to create new synapses in your brain and the neurons to stimulate new pathways for the neuroplasticity benefit that we have in our brain, which is in our nervous system, which is really cool.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: We can leverage our neuroplasticity to maintain this mental health and cognitive sharpness.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: It's just a matter of being willing to trudge through the mud and learn something new that's challenging, which sucks right, like it's a hard thing to do and with anything with discipline, it seems like that's the main thing that people are unwilling to trudge through the mud and work through the really challenging discomfort at the beginning, the pain and discomfort short-term at the beginning for the long-term win and the long-term benefit.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: It is a matter of being okay with sucking for a while, whatever the new thing is, but being consistent in trying to incorporate and learn new things that are challenging, to stimulate new synapses and new neuron activity and development, angiogenesis and neuroplasticity for the long-term cognitive sharpness.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: That seems to be what they're suggesting, versus learning things that you already know, like a crossword puzzle.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: Or, if you're a musician, learning a new instrument or a new avenue for music, versus just practicing the same things you already know.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: That's not stimulating new activity in your nervous system and neural development and neuroplasticity.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: You're just learning things that you already know.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: That's not stimulating new activity in your nervous system and neural development and neural plasticity.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: You're just learning things that you already know.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: That's not creating new pathways.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: So, anyway, the suggestion is learn mentally stimulating and challenging things, which looks like learning new things, as in like a new language, like learning Spanish, french, italian, whatever, learning a new instrument.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: Those are two things that they would suggest as, like you know, that's challenging to do to learn and that's just a mentally stimulating activity that can really be a huge benefit for cognitive sharpness and lowering the risk of cognitive decline over time.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: All right, so the last one and this is a very interesting one that seems to be very demographic dependent is meaningful social engagement.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: So the sixth thing in this fountain youth is meaningful social engagement, and that looks like having more meaningfulness and purpose of your life and believing that what you're doing is meaningful and then also doing it with people that are like-minded and sharing good social relationships and the community.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: That's what it looks like.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: So when I said like this is demographic dependent, what I meant was it's like dudes and men are usually more likely to isolate and be like, nah, I don't want to go, I don't need to do that.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Or like I don't need to go, share my feelings and emotions with people or share experiences, like I'd rather just do it by myself, I'd rather sit in my recliner and drink by myself and watch Fox News or CNN than go outside.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: But meaningful social and women are usually more likely to like, congregate and share and engage in social activity.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: So that's what I meant by demographic dependent.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: But anyway, they were suggesting this study.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: The difference between this study they were doing with the control group of the nuns were very highly socially engaging, they were in groups all the time and they were participating with each other in meaningful social relationships that they felt meaningful and sharing their emotions, experiences together, and the other group that were a little more isolated at this point in their life and they weren't actively trying to engage in social interactions and meaningful social engagement.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: So that was really interesting and I heard this from another person that I admire on a podcast that they were describing.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: This person was describing how they're very successful.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: Okay, this person and it made me think of this right away this person was suggesting they're very well off, they've made hundreds of millions of dollars and they're still youthful, but they were describing the most important thing for them.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: And the most important thing for them, that is the definition of happiness that they want to pursue and implement more.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Like why do I do what I do?
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: It's so that I can do this more.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: It's the freedom and the ability to do what they enjoy with the people that mean the most to them.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: And I was like yo.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Like that's exactly what I'm trying to pursue is having the number one the available time and freedom to do that, versus being locked in with a current employment situation or whatever, but the freedom and availability with the people that I love the most.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: So those two things at the same time.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: And I was like yo.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: That makes total sense.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: And I was like this dude is super wise and has a lot of success and a lot of material possessions that he could if he wanted to.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: And this person is very successful and well off, but yet the most important thing that this person was describing, that he wanted to pursue, and the most hands down pinpoint definition of happiness, is doing the things that they enjoy with the people that they love the most, and I was like that makes total sense, like I'm on board, let's do that.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: And that's the sixth thing really of like the of this fountain of youth is meaningful social engagement deep, vulnerable, authentic relationships, energy giving relationships, which is a big engagement.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Deep, vulnerable, authentic relationships.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Energy giving relationships, which is a big difference.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: Right, there's energy draining relationships and energy vampires, I feel like in everyone's life, and then there's also energy giving relationships.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: This is something to a little food for thought and reflect on.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: But anyway, those six things seem to be the key factors for what this neuroscientist and other researchers was suggesting as the fountain of youth.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Some of these things for my own life, right, and instill that in some of my team members and also my patients and clients that we work with.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: And then I was like man I want to relate this to you guys and listeners because I think this is a really key thing and, again, in my humble opinion, I feel that the most valuable commodity on earth is time while you're healthy versus just time right, because there's a lot of time available, for some people they don't want it, but a time while you're healthy with a high quality?
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: If that's the case, then how can we purposefully implement and manage our time and then how can we have the highest quality within that time over the longest period of time possible, right For longevity?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: And it seems like these six habits or things, aspects of life to focus on, are the for health, wise and also mental health seems to be the biggest influencers for longevity and health over time.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so I'm always open to suggestions and questions and comments and concerns on this stuff.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: So definitely shoot me a text or email or comment on on here.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: But uh, that seems to be the really influential things that I try to implement my own life.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Hey, hold up.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: As you know, we're a small local practice and we don't run any ads or something on this podcast, but it would mean the world if you could share, write a post or word of mouth recommendation for somebody just like you that's athletic and active, that wants to live their dynamic lifestyle and pay some good karma and pay it forward to somebody else just like you, and who knows, you could change their world, and a 10 second review could be that avenue.