Latest / The Dr Louise Newson Podcast / 45 - Inflammation, hormones and the hidden cause of chronic disease
Transcript
- 0:00This is a great conversation with Doctor Robert Lufkin who is
- 0:04AUS doctor and he's written a book about lies he learnt at
- 0:08medical school. He talks about things he learnt
- 0:12at medical school aren't quite what he knows now, and we know
- 0:16this because evidence is changing all the time.
- 0:19But he talks a lot about chronic diseases and the underlying
- 0:22cause being related to inflammation, something I'm very
- 0:26fond of. So thinking about how we as
- 0:29individuals can reduce inflammation through our
- 0:32lifestyle and hormones, of course, really important.
- 0:35So it's a very riveting conversation for you to enjoy
- 0:38and to learn from. So, Rob, I've been stalking you
- 0:44for a little while. And I read your book quite soon
- 0:47after it came out. And to be honest, so many pages
- 0:50I've turned down and I've gone back and read and reread it.
- 0:54And it resonated so much with the way that my mind, my brain
- 1:00has changed over the last 30 years of being a doctor.
- 1:04And when I came out of medical school, I thought I knew
- 1:07everything. And I thought everything I
- 1:09learned at medical school would just put me in good stead until
- 1:11the time I retired. And it's changed every every day
- 1:16I learn new things from my patients.
- 1:18And every day I learn new things from reading different articles
- 1:21and scientific evidence and literature and reading books
- 1:24like this as well. So your book is called Lies.
- 1:27I taught in medical school how conventional medicine is making
- 1:31you sicker and what you can do to save your life.
- 1:35So it's pretty powerful cover here.
- 1:37So can you just explain a bit about your background and and
- 1:41then why you wrote this book, which is a New York Times
- 1:45bestseller, I like to add. So congratulations for that.
- 1:48I'm a practicing physician. I'm also a medical school
- 1:51professor, So in addition to seeing patients, I also get to
- 1:54do research and, and write papers and, and also help
- 2:01educate healthcare professionals and, and learning about the
- 2:04world of medicine. And, and I, I done that
- 2:08essentially my entire career. And, and how I got, how I got to
- 2:12this particular point is I was, I was minding my own business as
- 2:17a medical school professor when I suddenly came down with four
- 2:20chronic diseases. And I went to my doctors and you
- 2:25know, they, they said, oh, don't worry, here's a pill.
- 2:29You know, we're going to give you a pill for each one of
- 2:30those. So I was given 4 prescriptions
- 2:33were medications and and I said, you know, hey, what about
- 2:36lifestyle? You know, I hear about that,
- 2:37Does that work? And they go, Nah, that really
- 2:39doesn't work. You're going to be on these
- 2:41pills for the rest of your life. So get used to it.
- 2:43And at that point, my daughters were in elementary school and I
- 2:48knew enough about chronic disease that I was that I knew
- 2:53it wasn't going to end well. And so it forced me to to begin
- 2:57to question my own beliefs, what I've been teaching and what many
- 3:00of my colleagues are still teaching.
- 3:02And I realized there's been a revolution in our understanding
- 3:05about these diseases and, and the mechanisms for them.
- 3:09And that lifestyle actually does matter.
- 3:13And I was able to make a few changes in my own lifestyle.
- 3:16And Long story short, I went back to the doctors.
- 3:20They couldn't believe it. They thought the labs were
- 3:22broken, but they eventually, you know, took me off all
- 3:26medications. The diseases are reversed.
- 3:28And now I've made it my mission to help others take back their
- 3:32health and hopefully not make the same mistakes that I did.
- 3:36And that's why I've written the. Book it's so interesting, isn't
- 3:39it, because I trained as, as you know, as a general physician and
- 3:42I did lots of different jobs rotating through hospital
- 3:45specialties. So you know, renal medicine,
- 3:47cardiology, respiratory rheumatology.
- 3:51And it was really exciting as a junior doctor to make a
- 3:55diagnosis. We'd run loads of tests with
- 3:57people. Scans would just sort of coming
- 4:00in. They were harder to get, but we
- 4:02were doing scans. Once we had a diagnosis, the
- 4:05first thing we did was think about which treatment.
- 4:08And it was always prescribing treatment.
- 4:10And in hospital, as you know, there's layers and layers of
- 4:14treatment. And this was, you know, in the
- 4:1690s, we often didn't really involve our patients.
- 4:20We're just right on the drug chart and then they would just
- 4:22have a, you know, to have the drugs.
- 4:24They'd then go home with the drugs.
- 4:26The GP would carry on the prescription and it was almost
- 4:29like I felt I was doing the best thing for their patients at that
- 4:32time. And I didn't even think about
- 4:36how could we even prevent that disease happening in the 1st
- 4:39place? What's making it happen?
- 4:42And you know, like you, over the last few decades, the incidence
- 4:46of chronic diseases we've just watched getting higher.
- 4:51People are becoming sicker. Despite all these medicines,
- 4:55despite it being, you know, in the 21st century, I feel like we
- 5:00haven't really made the advances that we should have done to keep
- 5:03people well. Yeah, Yeah, totally.
- 5:06I mean, you know, some of your audience may be thinking, wait a
- 5:10minute, you're, you're being critical of Western medicine or,
- 5:14you know, allopathic medicine. But you're part of the problem,
- 5:17right? You were in medical school.
- 5:18You're teaching that you're the problem.
- 5:21And my, my book is very critical of Western medicine and what
- 5:25we're talking about, it is going to be critical of Western
- 5:27medicine. But I think it, you know, in, in
- 5:30the 20th, in the 20th century where you and I grew up and
- 5:34essentially Western medicine was magical.
- 5:37It transformed the lives of humanity truly around the world
- 5:41through the pills and surgeries that were developed, made the
- 5:44world a better place. I mean, largely through public
- 5:46health measures, certainly, but but indeed, it really
- 5:49transformed and elevated the life of everyone around the
- 5:53world. And even today, if I get hit by
- 5:56a car, I'm going to want to have that blood transfusion.
- 6:01I'm going to want my ruptured spleen removed.
- 6:04I'm going to want my bone set. So Western medicine still has a
- 6:07role to play. But I think the problem is in
- 6:10the 21st century, we're now facing this literal tsunami of
- 6:15what you and I are talking about are chronic diseases that while
- 6:19they were present in the 20th century, they're now they're,
- 6:24they're, they're now in biblical numbers never before seen in
- 6:27history by some estimates act occupying up to 80% of
- 6:31healthcare resources. And you know, this list it,
- 6:34it's, it's really why wide-ranging goes all the way
- 6:37from from obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular
- 6:42disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease and mental illness, just
- 6:47to name a few. And these seem like very
- 6:49separate diseases, but they, you know, they're, they, they share
- 6:52a common cause. But the problem is when Western
- 6:54medicine takes the same pills and surgeries, hey, they work in
- 6:58the 20th century and applies them to these chronic diseases.
- 7:02Now they they do help in the acute case and they may be life
- 7:06saving, but the problem is in most cases they don't get to the
- 7:12root cause and these diseases continue to progress.
- 7:16They're sort of a Band-Aid over the symptoms and that's, and
- 7:20that's really the problem. And that's that's what the book
- 7:24is set out to address. And I think, I think that's what
- 7:27you're talking about as well. It's almost got worse because
- 7:30medicine is very siloed. You know, I really trained with
- 7:34some amazing people to be a general physician and I had a
- 7:38lot of interest in all the organs.
- 7:40Whereas now it becomes everyone becomes specialized a lot
- 7:43younger. It's a lot narrower people
- 7:45thinking of one organ. But as you know, I've got a
- 7:48pathology degree as well. And it's really interesting.
- 7:51I love doing pathology because the study of disease makes you
- 7:55think in a molecular way a lot differently to the way you're
- 7:59trained as a medical doctor. And one of the essays that I
- 8:02wrote for my final degree was about atheroma.
- 8:06So the fairing of the arteries being a, a, a pre malignant
- 8:11disease, as in something associated with cancer, which
- 8:15people listening might think how has arteries, you know, diseases
- 8:19of the lining of the blood vessels associated with cancer.
- 8:22And I wrote a three hour essay on this and I was trying to find
- 8:26if I had my exam paper anywhere because I'd love to reread it.
- 8:30Now this was in 1992. I wrote this essay and I loved
- 8:34it because I wrote a lot about inflammation.
- 8:36So the cause of atheroma, this firing of the arteries, and I
- 8:41wrote about inflammation and the cause of cancer and why cancer
- 8:45develops. But it's going back to the
- 8:47basics. And this is what your book does
- 8:50because it sets out all these chronic diseases like heart
- 8:53disease and osteoporosis and that you see even mental health,
- 8:57non alcoholic fatty liver disease.
- 9:00And to specialist people, they would think they're all very
- 9:03separate conditions. But once you get down to the
- 9:06root cause, thinking about in a cellular level what's going
- 9:11wrong in the body, it makes sense to fix that rather than
- 9:15wait for all the diseases to happen and then, like you say,
- 9:17medicalize them all. Yeah, that that's, that's such a
- 9:20great point. And it, it, it was really a wake
- 9:22up call for me. The like to, to realize that the
- 9:27same lifestyle changes that work for obesity and hypertension
- 9:34also work for cancer risk and Alzheimer's disease and mental
- 9:37illness. And it's the it's correcting the
- 9:40same at the root metabolic dysfunction that drives all of
- 9:44these. So it's almost like 11 size fits
- 9:49all. And, and, and the other, the
- 9:51other big weight recall for me was that the diseases didn't
- 9:56start when the doctor diagnosis them.
- 9:59You know, as a doctor, that's why I used to think, you know,
- 10:01and, and our healthcare system is certainly set up that way.
- 10:04You know, you don't have diabetes until your glucose or
- 10:08your, your hemoglobin A1C crosses a certain threshold and
- 10:12then you have diabetes and then the insurance or the payers will
- 10:15start to cover that disease. And you know, before that, a
- 10:18week before you didn't have it. And, and, and I now realize, at
- 10:23least for these chronic diseases that we're talking about, they
- 10:26don't begin when the doctor diagnosis them.
- 10:28They begin actually days to weeks to decades before the
- 10:33doctor diagnosis them. And if we wait until the doctor
- 10:36says, oops, you know, you've got diabetes or, you know, oh, you
- 10:40forgot your keys, you have Alzheimer's.
- 10:42If we wait for the doctor to diagnose them, we'd missed a
- 10:45tremendous. Opportunity.
- 10:47For what you mentioned was, was prevention.
- 10:50And that's why, you know, even Yeah, your friends would go,
- 10:54hey, I'm perfectly healthy. I don't have a single disease.
- 10:56Well, we're all on the path to getting the diseases because the
- 11:01list, those chronic diseases that we're talking about,
- 11:04statistically, those are the diseases that you and I and most
- 11:09of our listeners will die of. And you know, we all die of
- 11:13something, right? You know, as Jim Morrison said,
- 11:15nobody gets out alive. So, you know, they are in our
- 11:18future. But you know, why have the heart
- 11:21attack at 50? Why not have it at 105?
- 11:24You know, why get the Alzheimer's at at 60?
- 11:27Why not get it at 95? You know, let's push them back
- 11:31as far as we can. And that's that's why I believe
- 11:35even, you know, quote, UN quote, healthy people should think
- 11:40about their lifestyle because you could do things now that
- 11:43will keep you healthy longer. It's just by doing these simple
- 11:46things. I totally agree and it's so
- 11:48important because you know, our healthcare system sadly is, is
- 11:52failing like a lot of healthcare systems and it's very reactive.
- 11:55You know, my husband said to me that he, he works in the NHS and
- 11:58he said we haven't got time to think about preventing disease.
- 12:02You know, we are just there to fight and help treat diseases.
- 12:06It's different for him. He's a surgeon, so obviously he
- 12:09can make a huge difference to people.
- 12:12But actually I feel very strongly as a patient, we should
- 12:16be advocates for ourself. We should be working as hard as
- 12:18possible to help our physicians. And the problem is, I think the
- 12:23way the healthcare systems are set up, it's almost waiting for
- 12:27the inevitable to be happening. And then it's like, oh, it's not
- 12:31my fault now 'cause I've got diabetes or hypertension or
- 12:34whatever. But we need to be thinking
- 12:37really holistically and we need to be helping as physicians are
- 12:40our patients to understand this. Because lifestyle to a lot of
- 12:44people seems really scary. But actually thinking about
- 12:48inflammatory diets, thinking about inflammatory lifestyles,
- 12:52there's quite a lot we can do to change our habits quite early
- 12:56on, isn't it? Which makes a big difference
- 12:59because if we can think about keeping well in our 20s and 30s,
- 13:04it's a lot easier to have good habits then than waiting till
- 13:07we're in our 50s and then suddenly realizing we have to
- 13:10change what we eat or stop drinking or smoking or whatever.
- 13:14Yeah, totally. I mean, even though I'm a I'm a
- 13:17doctor, one of the wake up calls I, I realized was that even
- 13:22though I'm a doctor, I now realize that doctors really
- 13:24don't make us healthy, right? It's, it's not a healthcare
- 13:27system, it's a sick care system because for the most part,
- 13:30doctors are too busy dealing with disease and illnesses.
- 13:35You know, like your husband, the surgeon, he's busy operating on
- 13:38things and, and, and taking care of diseases.
- 13:43But if I want to be healthy, a doctor's not going to do it for
- 13:46me. Doctors can't make me healthy.
- 13:48Doctors just make me less sick. And if I want to be healthy me,
- 13:52I as a patient, that's on me. And that's, that's no doctor
- 13:57can, can do lifestyle for me. That's a choice, you know, I
- 14:00make every day when I get up, when I eat, you know, when I'm
- 14:03going to exercise, when I go to the gym, all those things.
- 14:06And but it's really empowering for the patient too as well, I
- 14:09think. Absolutely.
- 14:10And I can see that with younger generations.
- 14:12Actually, my oldest daughters are 22 and 21 and they go and
- 14:18exercise far more than I did as a medical student.
- 14:20They don't smoke. They one of them doesn't drink
- 14:23at all. The other one doesn't drink that
- 14:24much. And you know, they're constantly
- 14:27looking at things. But my oldest daughter has
- 14:29really bad chronic migraine, and she's been under so many
- 14:33different neurologists and we've seen so many different
- 14:35consultants. And she's a trombone player, so
- 14:38she was getting reflux as well. So she saw a gastroenterologist
- 14:42who gave her medication. Her neurologist wanted to give
- 14:45us some medication with lots of side effects for her migraines.
- 14:49And then she saw a respiratory person who wanted to give her
- 14:52other medication for her lungs. And, you know, now she's not on
- 14:57any medication because she's changed a lot with her lifestyle
- 15:00and various other supplements and various other things that
- 15:04she does. But it would have been very easy
- 15:07for her, like you say, to be medicalized on a PPI, you know,
- 15:11proton pump inhibitor to stop reflux.
- 15:13The gastroenterologist said when she was 20, that's fine.
- 15:16She can be on it for life. And I sat there like thinking,
- 15:20oh, my goodness, I wouldn't want really my children to be on
- 15:24something for life unless they really needed it.
- 15:27Just felt like a bit of a crutch almost.
- 15:29And, you know, looking at her gut microbiome, looking at, you
- 15:34know, what she eats all sorts of things, her posture, her
- 15:38exercise, her mental health, all of those things are so
- 15:41important. But it's a lot quicker, isn't
- 15:43it? You can get through loads of
- 15:44patients if you're just giving them all medication.
- 15:47Yeah, I mean, and, and it's not all the fault of the system or,
- 15:52you know, the fault of doctors. I mean, the system is built into
- 15:56doing it the way it is. But I think part of it is
- 16:00patients have some responsibility for it.
- 16:01Because I know as a patient, you know, I'm basically lazy.
- 16:05You know, I would much rather, if I, if I have a symptom, all
- 16:10things being equal, assuming that they're equal, I would much
- 16:13rather get a pill that I only have to take, you know, once a
- 16:16day or even a surgery that, you know, I take a week off from
- 16:19work and then I'm back to normal.
- 16:21I'd rather do that than get a lecture about how I have to
- 16:25change my lifestyle and actually change who I am at the root
- 16:29cause. And you know, no question,
- 16:31everyone would rather have the pill or the surgery.
- 16:34But the, the problem is, it's, it's a, it's a false
- 16:38equivalency. In other words, in most cases,
- 16:42the pills and surgery are not as good as the lifestyle changes.
- 16:45And you know, like with type 2 diabetes, you can, you could go
- 16:49on, you know, insulin and metformin and these things and
- 16:53you, you'll, you won't die of hyperglycemia, but your diabetes
- 16:57becomes a chronic progressive disease going on to, you know,
- 17:00amputation, blindness, renal failure.
- 17:03But when you when you reverse it with lifestyle it the disease
- 17:09stops essentially it goes into remission and it's no longer a
- 17:12chronic progressive disease. So it's not not really a fair
- 17:15equivalency and I don't think that's being presented to
- 17:17patients nearly enough. Starting in April this year, I'm
- 17:22going back on tour across the UK with a brand new show, Breaking
- 17:27the Cycle, The Power of Humans. I'll be visiting 45 venues and
- 17:33my aim is to challenge what we've been told about humans, to
- 17:37unpick the science that's often overlooked, and to explore why
- 17:41there's still so much confusion and misinformation, particularly
- 17:45around hormone health. Our hormones influence
- 17:49everything, our mood, our sleep, our metabolism and our future
- 17:53house. Every single cell in our bodies
- 17:56is impacted by hormones, yet so many people are still left
- 18:00without clear answers. So in this show, I'll be sharing
- 18:05research, some history, the real stories, and some very
- 18:09uncomfortable truths. There will be moments that
- 18:11surprise and maybe shock you, and plenty of opportunities to
- 18:15reflect and ask me questions. So if you want to learn, feel
- 18:19empowered, and be part of a movement that's changing how we
- 18:22think about hormones, I'd love to see you there.
- 18:25You can buy tickets through the link in the show notes.
- 18:31Every medication has side effect.
- 18:33It has a risk. And I didn't really think so
- 18:37much about those when I was younger.
- 18:39You know, I've prescribed a lot of antidepressants, for example,
- 18:43but we know they're associated with osteoporosis, increased
- 18:47incidence of dementia, you know, and side effects.
- 18:49People often have side effects with them.
- 18:51And I'm not saying they're wrong.
- 18:53For some people they are really important, but to be just handed
- 18:57them out as readily as possible and looking at some of the
- 19:02figures for the amount of medical or medical treatments
- 19:07that are prescribed for chronic diseases in your country.
- 19:09In the US but also in the UK, we're catching up.
- 19:12So by the time we're in our 60s and 70s, many people are on 6-7
- 19:17different medications and like you say, they'll be on them
- 19:20forever, won't they? Yeah, yeah, that's that's
- 19:23definitely the thing. I mean, the the numbers are just
- 19:26just staggering. I mean, in the United States
- 19:28most people are overweight or obese.
- 19:32Most people have hypertension or are being treated for
- 19:36hypertension. Most adults, when I say people,
- 19:38I mean adults. But children are affected too.
- 19:401/3 of adolescents in our country now have diabetes or pre
- 19:44diabetes and you know, it goes on and on.
- 19:47These chronic diseases are affecting everyone up to where
- 19:5190% of adults in America have at least one set symptom of
- 19:55metabolic dysfunction. And as you say, you know, most
- 20:00people take many, many. Pills for many of these
- 20:04conditions. One of the things that I
- 20:06obviously spend a lot of my time thinking about is natural
- 20:08hormones. And you know, we know that
- 20:11estradiol, progesterone, testosterone for men and women
- 20:14work on the inflammatory cells. They help reduce inflammation,
- 20:19they help mitochondria to to work and function properly.
- 20:23They really important actually in improving metabolism.
- 20:27We know that people that have replacement hormones have a
- 20:30lower incidence of cardiovascular disease,
- 20:33diabetes, osteoporosis and dementia, depression, non
- 20:38alcoholic fatty liver disease, the list goes on and on.
- 20:42And it's you know, if it was a new drug that was a public
- 20:45health medicine that I had just said, look, Rob, I've got all,
- 20:49I've got this one treatment that we can give to people or three
- 20:53because there's three hormones. But even if you look at
- 20:56estradiol and then testosterone for men to make it even simpler,
- 21:01it has all these disease modifying effects, but most
- 21:06people can't access it because it's cheap, It's not pharma,
- 21:09it's not patented, you know. So there's a big resistance
- 21:13globally for people to have hormones back, although we've
- 21:17got good evidence how important they are to reduce instance of
- 21:20inflammatory disease. Yeah, that's such an important
- 21:23area. I couldn't agree with you more,
- 21:25Louise, on that. Yeah, absolutely.
- 21:30So, but I think this is where like my work, your work to
- 21:33educate people as in patients but also healthcare
- 21:37professionals is really important.
- 21:39And I think as a healthcare professional, you want to keep
- 21:42that professional curiosity. And somehow that seems to have
- 21:46gone in some people. I feel like often people are on
- 21:50a bit of a treadmill and they do something because they've always
- 21:52done it because they've been told that it's the right thing
- 21:55to do. And I I'm very challenging
- 21:58because I like to challenge myself.
- 22:00But I think it's a good thing to challenge guidelines, challenge
- 22:04scientific literature, challenge what others have done because
- 22:08we're learning and changing all the time.
- 22:10And I feel sad that some doctors, clinicians have sort of
- 22:15stuck in a rut. They don't want to be challenged
- 22:18or or think differently somehow. Yeah.
- 22:21And I and I, I, I would suggest those challenges are becoming
- 22:26even greater now, as we, you know, as we accelerate into the
- 22:31age of artificial intelligence, we're now having science being,
- 22:36being developed by artificial intelligence so that the pace of
- 22:40discovery is increasing. I, I'm certainly feeling it.
- 22:45And, you know, each week there's new information.
- 22:49And, you know, some, some optimists are even saying that,
- 22:53you know, we're accelerating so fast that within the next 10
- 22:57years, we'll have as many scientific discoveries in the
- 23:01next 10 years as in the last 100 years.
- 23:04And it's, it's really a, a unique time in human history
- 23:08where with artificial intelligence and quantum
- 23:10computing, we're, we're, we're approaching a singularity in
- 23:15many ways, as many authors talk about.
- 23:17It's interesting, isn't it? Because on one hand we're really
- 23:19advancing and it's wonderful. But the other hand, I look back
- 23:23to when I was growing up in the 1970s and people weren't
- 23:28overweight, people weren't obese, people were healthy.
- 23:31You know, they weren't all lit going to the gyms like people do
- 23:35now, but they were doing a lot more physical exercise just
- 23:37day-to-day with gardening and being outside and walking and,
- 23:42and whatever. And I look back and think, what
- 23:44a shame because they had, they got it right really.
- 23:47They didn't have these inflammatory diets, they didn't
- 23:50have all the drugs because they weren't all available then.
- 23:53So something has really changed over the last 30-40 years.
- 23:57So and they, it was quite a simplistic life, but.
- 24:00Yeah, yeah. And it's it's fascinating to
- 24:02speculate. I mean, nobody really knows the
- 24:04answer, but you can, as you say, you can, you can plot the graph
- 24:08of obesity. You can plot the graph of of
- 24:11diabetes and these other chronic diseases.
- 24:14And going back to the 80s and 90s, there's a hockey stick kind
- 24:18of, you know, sharp uptake in these diseases.
- 24:21Fatty liver disease, non alcoholic fatty liver disease
- 24:24didn't exist before the 1980s. Now in the United States, it's
- 24:28the number one cause of liver failure or liver trans.
- 24:30And you know, it has nothing to do with alcohol.
- 24:32It's fructose, you know, and but I but overall there, you know,
- 24:37there's so many, so many possibilities of what this this
- 24:41could be. You know, certainly the
- 24:43lifestyle factors that you and I talked about are, you know, what
- 24:47first and foremost there, but you know, many people are, you
- 24:51know, suggesting all kinds of different things.
- 24:54But, but hopefully, hopefully the challenge, you know, as we,
- 24:58as we get this unprecedented intellectual power with AI and
- 25:03other things, we'll begin to see these trends reverse.
- 25:06And it's really, it's remarkable.
- 25:07One of the trends has actually begun to reverse in the United
- 25:11States. The, the obesity trend that took
- 25:14off in the, you know, in the 80s and 90s going straight up
- 25:18essentially like that for the first time in 30 years is now
- 25:23showing evidence of levelling out.
- 25:25There's report in the Journal of America Medical Association and
- 25:29a couple other metrics that show at least in America, the number
- 25:35of people that are overweight and obese is, is beginning to
- 25:41actually not slow down, but actually decrease.
- 25:44And, you know, a lot of people are, are, are, are attributing
- 25:49that to the GLP one agonist, which is probably true, you
- 25:52know, but it's interesting to see these, you know, these
- 25:56effects, whatever they are, we're, we're at least beginning
- 26:00to see some change, which is wonderful.
- 26:01So there's a lot more we need to do.
- 26:04Before I end the podcast, I always ask for three take home
- 26:07tips. I want to ask you three things
- 26:10that you think will make the biggest difference to the future
- 26:13generation of doctors because as doctors we do have a
- 26:16responsibility for our patients, their families and and so forth.
- 26:21So what three things do you think of so important for the
- 26:24new generation of doctors to learn?
- 26:26First of all to. To embrace an understanding of
- 26:30metabolic health and these, you know, these root causes,
- 26:33mitochondrial health, you know, we're talking about doing
- 26:36mitochondrial transplants now, you know, who knew, you know,
- 26:39for longevity and stuff, bracing metabolic health and
- 26:42understanding that embracing lifestyle and you know what
- 26:48patients can do as far as prevention and, and really
- 26:53becoming aware of that and you know, and, and accepting that
- 26:57knowledge is changing rapidly. And whatever we know today,
- 27:00whatever we believe to be true today, you know, a large
- 27:04percentage of that is going to be proven wrong just because our
- 27:07models of, of the world are, are, are getting, you know, are
- 27:13continually improving. One last tip, not only for
- 27:16medical students and but for everybody, especially people as
- 27:21they get older and older, is to lift weights.
- 27:24It's something I never, I never even thought of.
- 27:27I never considered it wasn't a part of medical school unless
- 27:29you were an orthopedic surgeon. Nobody lifted weights.
- 27:32But I think now, you know, I everybody should do it.
- 27:35It's a, it's the the secret longevity trick.
- 27:39If our nursing homes had weight rooms, there'd be a lot fewer
- 27:42people in nursing homes, you know?
- 27:44Yeah, it's a. Great tip.
- 27:46I do a lot of yoga, but I have been starting to do weights as
- 27:49well just to join in. So it's so important.
- 27:52But thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and
- 27:55wisdom. It's been great.
- 27:56Thanks, Rob. Thanks so much, Elise.
- 27:58I. Appreciate it.
- 27:58It's been a wonderful conversation.