Latest / Books4Guys / The Lies We’ve Been Told About Health | Dr. Robert Lufkin on Lifestyle, Longevity, and Chronic Disease

Transcript

The Lies We’ve Been Told About Health | Dr. Robert Lufkin on Lifestyle, Longevity, and Chronic Disease · Books4Guys

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: I got I go back and forth.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in my home office now, but I do it.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_01: I have I I have depending on where I am, but I'm sort of doing some stuff here too as well.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it's it's you know, it's great recording them like this, you know.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you can do it, do it anywhere.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: But no, Dr.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, I know you are in Southern California, beautiful part of the country.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm coming to you from Nashville where it's uh 95 degrees today, believe it or not.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the summer in the south has started to kick in over this way.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, Dr.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, this is uh this is an honor because I've been, I was, I was telling you right before I pushed record how excited I am to talk with you just because um, and and I I want to make sure I say the title of your book so that everyone knows kind of what we're gonna get into.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: But Lies I Taught in Medical School how conventional medicine is making you sicker and what you can do to save your own life.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So very powerful title.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think everyone kind of knows what message you're putting out there.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: But Dr.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, I'd love for you just to kick things off and just kind of share, share your story, share your career progression into what motivated you to write your book.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, thanks.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Chris.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: First of all, uh, thank you for inviting me to be on your program.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's a real pleasure.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking forward to our conversation here.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, my my journey is uh I'm a I'm a medical doctor, I'm a physician, and right out of medical school, you know, did my residency and internship as people do and fellowship.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I I was focusing on medical imaging initially.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I I uh liked research, I like patients, I like the I like teaching so much that I immediately joined the faculty of UCLA, which is a large medical center down here in California.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I basically got to, you know, it's been a dream life, really.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I because as a medical professor, you get to not only see patients and take care of people, but you also get to uh do research and and you also get to teach and as often as not learn from the students and doctors in training that you work with.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it it it's it's been a great ride and everything was going fine uh until you ask what you know what prompted this book was just a few years ago, I I came down with four chronic diseases, which are sort of unexpected.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And these are chronic diseases that that most adult Americans have at least one of these, and many adults have a couple of them.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, like any good patient, I went to my doctors and I said, okay, what what can I do for these?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Oh, don't worry.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: Here's a prescription.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I got four prescriptions, one for each one.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, and I said, Yeah, okay, is there anything I could do?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like what about lifestyle, anything like that?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: And they go, nah, that really doesn't work.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're gonna be on these pills for the rest of your life, so get used to it.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I at that point my kids were still in elementary school, and I realized that wasn't, you know, it wasn't gonna end well.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: If so, I it forced me out of literally out of self-interest to examine, you know, what I, my beliefs, what I knew about the thing.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I realized there's been a revolution in our knowledge about these chronic diseases and what causes them, and a tremendous amount of research that that I wasn't aware, and many of my colleagues weren't aware of either.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: And specifically, this research emphasized the value of literally lifestyle and how at a fundamental level that can really make a difference.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I implemented relatively simple lifestyle changes, and then within a few months, I went back to my doctors and they couldn't believe it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: They thought the labs were broken or something.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so basically, long story short, I was able to reverse all four of those chronic diseases and get off the medications.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And now I've really devoted my life and made it my mission to help others take back their health and hopefully not make the same mistakes that I did.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's incredible.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I I was I wanted you to share.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've done a lot of personal research on your story and uh just just again what you overcame and kind of it flipped the way you were thinking about practicing.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I uh I'm interested to know because here I was telling you for some reason, you know, my family, there's diabetes in my family.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: My wife just got recently diagnosed as a type one diabetic, um, which was very shocking because she's the most fit-strict person I know, and and even more so now.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so we've, you know, pay attention to every ingredient.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're constantly exercising and moving and uh trying to do things to make sure that our lifestyle is as optimized and the best that it can be.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious to know just your thought because we obviously there's so many documentaries and stories out about how lifestyle is really such a contributing factor to your health, yet the medical field is still such a medicine, you know, prescriber.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's not a lot of even my wife, we were I we were going to the hospital for the first time and they just kept saying, Well, you're gonna take this and this and this, and she's like, But I'm healthy, like I can what can I do just normal day to day to combat this?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just curious, like, why, if we know this, why is it so difficult for us as I'll just say as a country to flip our thinking and just get healthier and health and eliminate some of these diseases that we keep getting?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, that's that's really it's a great question, and that's really fundamental.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And let me let me back up a little bit and say the book and is is critical of Western medicine, you know, Western meaning allopathic medicine, not East and West or anything, but sort of modern orthodox medicine, of which medical schools where I work is really the primary culprit, right?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I'm part of the problem, obviously.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: So why is that?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, like I said, I'm critical of Western medicine, but I I'm the I'm the first to admit, I think if if I get hit by a car in front of my house or on the street, uh, I'm gonna want Western medicine.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna want, you know, a blood transfusion, my ruptured spleen surgically removed, my bones set, all that sort of thing.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: And Western medicine excels at that.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, during the 20th century, when I went to medical school, uh, Western medicine had truly revolutionized really life in the 20th century for much of the modern world through, you know, the pills, the surgeries that were developed, and also largely public health measures.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: But but they were very effective and magical and transformative at reducing disease and making the world a much better place to live in.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, fast forward to the 21st century, we're now facing a literally a tsunami of these chronic diseases, four of which I had, but they include everything from obesity, hypertension, diabetes, largely type 2 diabetes, and we can talk more about that, but but also cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and even mental illness.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And these are seen in, you know, almost biblical numbers that haven't been seen be before.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the problem is when Western medicine takes the same pills and surgeries that, hey, they work so well, you know, in the 20th century and applies them to this, these new what are called chronic diseases, in many cases they they work for the symptoms.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, they they can make the patient better.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I'm not recommending anyone not, you know, stop, take their medications or do anything against what their doctor has recommended because this is an individual choice and everything is personalized.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: But in general, these pills and surgeries that work so great in the 20th century, they don't work as well on these chronic diseases.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: They may control the symptoms and they may be truly life-saving in the short term.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: But what does that mean?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they in many cases they don't control the underlying progression of the disease.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, in other words, putting a stent in the heart for a heart attack and opening up the blood vessel, you know, may save your life, but it doesn't do anything with your long-term survival of heart disease because the heart disease continues to progress onward.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that's true for drug interventions as well.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that's really, that's really the challenge.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And there isn't really a drug that works on these chronic diseases for, in many cases, reversing the long-term effects.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: But interestingly, lifestyle, which directly attacks metabolic dysfunction, which I believe is it is at the root underlying cause, at least a major, if not the major cause for all these diseases.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: And the one lifestyle intervention that we do for one of them works for all of them, which is really amazing.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's everything you're saying.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just soaking this all in.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'm sitting here thinking just how tough of a profession that that doctors have, because it really seems like difficult.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many people that need help.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned it, you're saying everybody, every person is so different.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like you've got to, there's a lot of time that goes into figuring out what's wrong, how you can treat it.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And and again, we've gone through this experience recently where we've, you know, we went to three or four doctors and it was a their first reaction.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: It seemed like they have so many patients to see that it's just that the easiest thing to do is to prescribe what they prescribe, and they don't put a lot of time into figuring out what the different route is.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: But we were we did find someone who did spend a lot of time with us, and then we've seen a big difference there.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that also plays a part in just kind of where we're at as a country and in our in the the practice of medicine and that may maybe we don't get the attention individually that we need to try and figure out lifestyle changes before we get prescribed something?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: There just seems to be a lot of different issues, and they're hard to wrangle to together to have that solution.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, those are all those are all great points, Chris.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I I want to push back a little bit too.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think part of it is the system.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: We have 10 minutes for an office visit, and you can't get much done in that short amount of time, you know, for a meaningful interaction.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's challenging.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I I wanna I don't want to put all the blame on the system or the doctors or the providers because I know as a patient, patients are responsible.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm basically lazy.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if I go into a doctor's office and I have a health problem, right, and they say, well, you know, we can give you a pill and that will take care of it.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a pill, assuming there are no side effects, and you know, all medicines have side effects, but assuming the side effects are minor, taking a pill once a day is really it's no trouble.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: It, you know, and the cost, you know, assuming the cost is affordable and everything, I would, you know, I will accept that.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'll even accept surgery if, you know, if the surgery means I take a week off from work, maybe, and then I recover and then I go back and I'm better.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I would much rather have a pill or surgery than have a lecture about lifestyle and where I have to change actually who I am.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because being taking a pill, I don't change anything.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: My life is still the same except for, you know, one minute in the morning or whatever.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: And even for the surgery, it's the same.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: So asking a patient to change their lifestyle is a bigger ask.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's a bigger lift, forces people to look closely at their behavior and their motivations and cultural things.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's a much bigger question.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Although I would I would submit, it's my experience and my belief that that changing lifestyle is a much more powerful intervention than practically any of the pills or surgery is as far as reversing or slowing down these these chronic diseases across the board.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's really remarkable.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, and again, yeah, you you said it right.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of what I wanted to say was just like there's so many factors to it that it is difficult to just, you know, it's not an easy fix.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I I do really appreciate that you are one of the doctors out there promoting the lifestyle and and living healthier and and challenging people to look at that, even because that you said it right.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's the hard path.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: It seems to be probably the most right path, but it is the most difficult given just where we're at as a society and so much going on and external factors, and I totally get that that sometimes it's just a little bit more convenient to do, you know, take some medicine or or you know, get the surgery, certainly.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're good at is finding those solutions that to help people maintain their lifestyle 100%.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: How do you personally find your balance as far as you know, your teachings and what you're a part of in your profession, but also your personal, I don't want to say beliefs, but your convictions on living a certain healthy lifestyle.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: How do you balance that out as you're teaching students or or in your practice and trying to find that fine line of saying what's right, but also, you know, doing your job and with medicine and and those solutions as well.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't think, I don't think they're mutually exclusive.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: In either words, it's not lifestyle only and never take drugs, or it's not take drugs and never do your lifestyle.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm saying that the lifestyle is an underutilized tool that if you do it right, you may need fewer drugs, or you know, you'll have a better outcome than you would with drugs.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's getting, it's getting that message out there.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing I've come to realize, you know, after being a uh a physician for decades, is that, you know, even though I'm a doctor, I I now realize that doctors really don't make us healthy, right?
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Doctors make us less sick.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Our system is the medical system, by and large, is designed to treat disease.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: In other words, you have a disease, you get a treatment.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you don't have the disease, you don't get a treatment, right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: You're you're quote disease-free.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: But disease-free doesn't equal healthy.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um part of that realization is especially the chronic diseases that I mentioned, basically all of them that you know, that now take up 80% the diseases take up 80% by some estimates of our healthcare dollars in in the 20 in the 2026 is now.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Those those diseases, they don't begin when the doctor diagnoses them.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: When I, you know, cross the threshold for all right, your blood sugar is high or A1C is high, now you have prediabetes or you have diabetes, or you forgot your keys.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: You have Alzheimer's disease.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, they didn't begin when the doctor diagnoses them, but almost all of these diseases begin years to decades before the doctor makes the diagnosis.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if we wait for the doctor to make the diagnosis before we improve our lifestyle and take steps to live healthier, we're missing a tremendous opportunity.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: So doctors, by and large, don't make me healthy, they just make me less sick.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And if if I, as a patient, want to be healthy, that's on me.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: And in my opinion, that resolves the first foundation for that is lifestyle.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, no doctor can do lifestyle for me.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they can they can prescribe pills, but they can't, you know, they can't make me lift weights, you know, or or you know, go to the gym or you know, do other things like that necessarily.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_01: Lifestyle's about me.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I it's it's exciting to see more and more people today, you know, this kind of health and wellness craze is growing.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: People realize that, you know, there's there's more to there's more to health than just seeing your doctor regularly, and your doctor says, oh, your labs are normal, you don't have disease.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Normal isn't optimal.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: And if most Americans have one chronic disease, you don't want to be normal, you know, because that's not a good thing.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_01: People aren't accepting that anymore.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And people are looking for ways to get healthy and taking agency.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I'm I'm not saying, you know, ignore doctors, but but we need to step up as a CEO of our own health and begin managing our our lifestyle and health so we don't need to go to the doctor, or well, you know, we don't need to be treated by the doctor until later on in the scenario.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, I think people are realizing being sick and not feeling well is no fun.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and I almost operate out of out of a fear because I've seen family members go through type 2 diabetes and issues with that or you know, obesity.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, it's like I don't want to deal with what they're dealing with, so I'm gonna try and, you know, be healthy.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people take that approach.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Dr.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Lovkin, this may be kind of an unfair question to doctors because I I'm really glad you explained it the way you did, because you're right, are there to treat when when needed.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: But what is the I don't know, I guess as a as a country, as a society, it seems like we've not done a really good job of discussing how to be healthy at an earlier age to where you do prevent getting sick and having these chronic diseases.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: What can we do better to make sure that kids, you know, understand how important it is to be healthy and eat right and exercise so that they don't get sick?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because I understand until you get sick, you're not really thinking a whole lot about it.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: But how I don't know, how can we do a better job of getting that message out there to the next generation so that they're they're not as sick as maybe is the current one?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the first step is getting it into the national conversation where people are aware of it, they start talking about it, and they're they're thinking about it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the zeitgeist.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's that's happening more and more.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: And and then, of course, you want to have the right information.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was raised, uh, my mom was a dietitian, and I was raised believing that that fat was unhealthy, and then I should substitute margarine for butter, which has unhealthy seed oils, and that a high carbohydrate, low-fat diet was healthier than a high-fat, low carbohydrate diet, which which I believe is healthier.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: So getting the messaging right, but I think, you know, now uh, you know, politics aside, it's it's amazing to see a national that people from our government are uttering the words like seed oils and glyphosate and taking a hard look at the food pyramid, which which was really overdue for being redesigned, and looking at, you know, food coloring in our food supply, looking at glyphosate, you know, which is the weed killer, and you know, in all the grains and cereals we have that you know that's outlawed in 30 countries around the world because of its health concerns.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: So the conversation, people are becoming more and more aware of it.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, our government is is becoming more proactive in these things.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I think it's it's changing.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like if a child sat down, you know, if a child was at a daycare or at a elementary school and they pulled out a cigarette and started smoking, you know, they'd get jumped by six parents with, you know, wrestle it from their hands.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: But if that same child instead takes a bowl of sugar cereal and pours chocolate milk on it, which my kids had at their elementary school, you know, parents will smile and they won't realize that, you know, the metabolic damage that junk food and ultra-processed foods are doing to all of us, but especially our children as well.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it just simply seems to come down just being educated on it and learning about that.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm laughing because when my wife and I go to the store, she's all she looks at every ingredient and she's very quick to nope, can't do that.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, we're not eating that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: But then we don't mean to, but we'll see someone else with a grocer or a cart full of groceries, and we're like, man, they just don't know what they're putting in their bodies.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we're in a situation where we my wife needs to know, you know, to live.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's like, they they shouldn't be eating that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: They shouldn't be eating that.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: But they they to your point, there's just not enough education out there.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't seem yet for people to realize what they're intaking and and what that's causing.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: But you're also right in that it does seem people are talking about it more, and it does seem to be broadcasting out there to where people are at least seeing or hearing something, and hopefully over time that transition will maybe start to happen where people pay attention a little bit more.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe companies stop putting certain ingredients in food that shouldn't be there.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: We can only hope.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um well yeah, the good work you're doing with this podcast is getting, you know, getting the word out there.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: We're getting guests who can, you know, talk about this like we're doing today.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully that will, you know, reach reach people as well.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, and these are very I've listened to plenty of podcasts from other people where they've they've talked about this thing, and it's just it is refreshing, and hopefully others will will adapt to that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: But Dr.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, I'm again and I and I love the way you're describing and answering my questions because by no means do I want to paint you as someone who's against medicine or uh you know only for this.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I would like to know when someone does read your book, they don't take anything else away from it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: What is one message you hope they do take away and implement that can help them and their life?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the the overlying message I think is that the the lifestyle changes that we have, the opportunity to make for ourselves will be the most powerful medicines that most of us will ever have in our lifetime.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And to not not avail ourselves of those is really a huge missed opportunity for our health.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: No, I that's a great message.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Dr.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, I've just got one more question for you.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I ask every every guest this question just from a book standpoint, for books for guys, I'm always curious to know what is a book or two that has meant a lot to you personally or professionally, and what's a book that you love to recommend to others?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I, you know, the whole space of longevity is moving so fast that it's happening.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: But there's a a new book out on longevity that's written by a 91-year-old uh molecular professor of, I'm sorry, of physics, of quantum physics.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: And he is he talks about mitochondria and the energy hypothesis of aging.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's just came, it just came out.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: His name is John Kramer.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: That book really is the best book on longevity I've ever read.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's really inspiring for people who want to look at that.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: And here's a man who's 91 years old who is now getting mitochondrial transplants himself from his great-granddaughter to uh to become you know an N of one and hopefully move the needle for himself.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Good recommendation.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, that led me to just one more question for you.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I would love to know just what's one or two things that you do personally to optimize your life and make sure that you stay healthy.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then what is your outlook over the next five to 10 years on some of the maybe medical breakthroughs that may help a large portion of the population be healthy?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you mentioned kind of like mitochondria.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking of things as like maybe stem cells, you know, those are constantly being researched, and and I'm kind of leaning into longevity because I'm trying to optimize too and make sure I can like live as long as possible.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: But what are a couple of things you do personally and what's your outlook over the next decade on maybe some of the breakthroughs you think we'll see as a as a generation?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think all the things in lifestyle are important, you know, nutrition is foundational, sleep, exercise, stress.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing that I think most people don't take advantage of, that I certainly didn't, was that is strength training, lifting weights.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: I now do it every other day.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just to, you know, build muscles because muscle is the main source of brain-derived neurotropic factor, which actually grows our brains and is metabolic sink.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: So lifting weights is something that I've often said if they had weight rooms in nursing homes, there'd be a lot fewer nursing homes because people get healthy and avoid sarcopenia and move out.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: As far as the longevity lifestyle breakthroughs, well, I think you know, there's a lot of things happening in medicine.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: People have said in the next 10 years, we can expect a hundred years of scientific progress based on AI and the acceleration of knowledge.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it's super exciting time.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: But the the one that's what's really exciting is a friend of mine, Dave Sinclair, is a um is a longevity scientist from Harvard.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: He has the first human study using partial epigenetic reprogramming to reverse the age in the eyes of people who are who are blind, basically.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_01: And by reversing the age, their blindness is due to age-related diseases.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: The idea is if you reverse the age in those cells, those age-related diseases will go away.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And they've done it in non-human primates, but they just they're in an FDA phase one clinical trial.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: They've recruited 18 people as of a couple weeks ago, and it's it's super exciting.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: But mitochondrial transplantation is super exciting too.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: And stem cells, there's so many things.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is an amazing time to be alive.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: 2026 is the best year in scientific, you know, human history.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's only going to be surpassed by 2027.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: No, and I mean, while while there is, you know, uh an epidemic of certain negatives, it's also very exciting for the potential breakthroughs that we see because we see those happening every day as well.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we definitely want to put focus and spotlight the amazing things that are being done out there too.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Dr.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, thank you again for taking the time to do this.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: I think this uh I think there's a lot of people who will really enjoy hearing what you have to say.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope a lot of people pick up your book and read that as well and then follow along with your career and all the things that you continue to promote and do.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so, Dr.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Lufkin, I really appreciate it.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Chris.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's been a pleasure.