Prof LUSTGARTEN is not only a world class scientist but also a great and enjoyable communicator in that sense the messages he delivers are always on the point, well explained, comprehensive and above all, and this is important for non native English listeners, with and articulate pronunciation and an optimal and gentle speed of speaking words. If I were a UA-cam channel owner I would insist on this aspect of communication and improve my skills in that direction.
Thank you for a great interview. I'm reinvigorated to do better tracking. I especially loved the "Conquer Aging or Die Trying" mindset analogy with long-enduring structures.
Made my day to hear how Dr. L battles with sleep, but is yet so successful in his aging conquest. As someone pursuing longevity, sleep is by far the hardest thing for me to manage. I can exercise. I can eat what I need to. I can take supplements. I CANNOT control how much overall, deep, and REM sleep I get. So frustrating.
Sorry to hear that @Aaron-iu5hg. The basics (which have helped my sleep quality a lot) are sleeping with earplugs (I'm on a noisy Boston street), sleeping in complete darkness (or as close-to it as I can), ending the eating window relatively early (< 130PM on most days), and sleep consistency-going to bed at close-to the same time every night. Additionally, room temp and humidity may play a role in sleep quality...
Thanks Michael. Great discussion. Look forward to your continued evolution in this sphere. BTW, here's a copy of my comment on Hannah's channel for what it's worth: "Thanks! Been following Michael for years. Tracking markers and making changes is key even if some of the markers are not as precise as we'd like. Would be great if we had a hierarchy of biomarkers. Might be that by identifying certain nodes or upstream markers to optimize we take care of most things downstream. As it is now a lot of markers are put on a roughly equal footing by default. Also, would be good to identify the primary markers for each organ system. But even in this case, it might be that by focusing on optimizing for the brain or the cardiovascular system, and few other organs like liver and kidney, we take care of most things and create a system within most people's capability to implement."
Thanks @peterz53. I'm not a fan of the hierarchy approach, instead trying to optimize biomarkers of as many organ systems as possible. For example, creatinine, BUN, uric acid, but also, uremic metabolites as markers of kidney function would all equally be scored. I'm ok with others using a hierarchy-based approach, placing greater strength or not on biomarkers, but I think that increases the probability of holes...
Iron: an underrated factor in aging (Oct 6, 2021), Dennis Mangan. Note: women are generally protected from this type of premature aging during years of menstruation. After menopause, women very often begin the process of cardiovascular disease progression unless they opt out through improved lifestyle.
PS On a book deal, based on what I've observed, part of the success is just getting exposure on a number of large podcasts. In fact, just getting interviewed on a few big podcasts could give your channel a huge boost. Or interviewing some of the other bigger credible names in the health and aging podcast universe as well as interviewing scientists.
I've seen people get book deals without any social media presence... Alternatively, I may crowd source it, as publishers take a big chunk of the revenue
Great content, I agree it would be nice to just leave full time job, it is exciting to think about but you are a special contributor in the field and I would hate to lose someone that actually cares and can make a difference with your knowledge and research. Thanks for all you do!! ❤
If by DNA test you mean full genome sequencing, it's important, but that's only the script for what can happen... In contrast, everything that I'm tracking is an indicator of what happened, or is actively happening, which is more informative
Although DunedinPACE has been validated on base of CR, that's not in line with your personal data, right? IIRC you only had a negative correlation with cinnamon and salt and a posivte with coconut butter and dates. Calories and/of body weight showed no correlation with DunedinPACE in your own data. Is that right?
After Test #9, nothing was significantly correlated with DunedinPACE (p< 0.05), for both macros, micros, and foods. Maybe that will change with upcoming tests, we'll see...
Michael, during the sleep optimization portion you mentioned getting yourself back to sleep using meditation or other means. This has been one of my own biggest challenges (getting back to sleep) and I was wondering what type of meditation works best for you (or are there any other tips you can offer)? Thanks so much!
What's worked (most of the time) is simple positive self-talk, i.e. "you can do this, relax", and then I try my best to zone out and sleep. That's potentially important because it's unfortunately easy for me to have negative self-talk when I'm up in the middle of the night, in combination with some anxiety, which makes it hard to fall back to sleep if I don't calm that down. But, it's not a perfect system-I'm about an hour in sleep-debt today, which is fortunately a rare event (so far) in 2024.
Michael, a great episode! Have you considered creating a tech-based service that would help people collect their data and find correlations to help them make more informed decisions about optimizing their health? You, Bryan, and a few others talk about measuring everything and optimizing based on that, but it is really hard to do for someone like me who doesn't have much expertise or a team of doctors to help. I believe you could be in a unique position to build a service that would help the everyday longevity-conscious person get more out of the data they have.
Hi @niklaskari, thanks, and definitely. I'm working with a startup to do some of that, especially in terms of optimal ranges for biomarkers. Correlations with biomarkers would be a next step...
@@conqueragingordietrying123 That is great to hear. If your start-up is looking for someone to interview for customer development / product discovery purposes, I would be happy to share my insights on the pain points in this domain.
Michael, you mentioned in the chat that you found a dietary method that showed impact on lp(a). Could you expand on that or point me to a video where you expand on that please? I have high lp(a) and I am interested in gains even if marginal. Thanks for all your content by the way
Hi @robbulman9324, I haven't covered Lp(a) in a video for a long time-I'm not sure if I presented that data (yet). Over 29 Lp(a) tests since 2015, total fat intake is significantly correlated with lower levels (in my data). Lp(a) has been as high as 150 nmol/L, but since discovering that, it's been consistently 80-90, which is still on the high side but reduced by ~45%. That said, total fat intake is also significantly correlated with more biomarkers going in the wrong direction than right, so I can't go too high for fat intake to potentially improve Lp(a), while making others worse.That said, the sweet spot (for me) is ~80g of total fat/d, ~40% of total calories.
@@conqueragingordietrying123 that is amazing Michael and thanks for getting back so quick. Mine at my last test was 173nmol/l so a 45% drop would be good, though I was on a statin at the time and I have read that they can increase your lp(a) level too. Can I assume that your fat intake is mostly unsaturated fat?
What is your opinion on protein intake? There are so many studies out there about you should have high protein intake or you should have really low protein intake. Your personal data seems to support the low protein intake conclusion...
Hey JC, from the published studies, at most 1.6g/kg BW maximizes muscle mass gains as a result of regular training, so that could be an upper limit. Interestingly, I'm currently at 1.5g/kg BW, not because of the above, but that amount is correlated with my best biomarker profile. Note that's not my lowest intake, either, which has been ~1g/kg/BW. I've also been as high as ~2g kg/BW, but more biomarkers went in the wrong direction than right. Aside from a general recommendations, that's the approach that I'd favor-titrating intake based on a panel of biomarkers.
Hello Dr. Lustgarten, I am a big fan of your work, which I consider to be the most important in the anti-aging field. I listened to your interview today and heard you mention that you reply to all comments, which is why I'm writing to you. I want to bring your attention to two main topics. Firstly, regarding the Levine clock, you mentioned it in the interview, and it is an important part of your toolkit. However, there are two significant flaws in it. The first flaw is that it uses chronological age to calculate biological age. Although you often mention this, I'm not sure if you fully understand the "weight" of the chronological age in the Levine clock. The correlation of the clock with biological age is 94%, but if we exclude chronological age from the inputs, the correlation drops to less than 45%. You can experiment with different random inputs in a spreadsheet, keeping the age constant. The second flaw is that the clock doesn't use certain inputs, which are essentially "free" and could improve its predictions. For example, White Blood Cell (WBC) counts differ between men and women, so not including biological sex as an input decreases its accuracy. WBC counts also vary between ethnic groups. Other "free" inputs that could help predict mortality include body weight and waist circumference. The second topic I want to mention is "face age." In the interview around 20:50, you talked about "youthful look". You surely know there are calculators that estimate age based on facial pictures. I am personally using an open-source AI face age predictor, recording my score daily, and tracking correlations with food, supplements, activities, etc. This allows me to see correlations after a week or two. This is similar to having daily average heart rate data points, providing much more insight than testing 7 times per year. I occasionally check the face age of other people as well. Your face looks much younger than your biological age, around 35 years old. Thank you for all your videos, Nikola
Michael, I havent had a chance to listen to this entire interview yet but I was wondering what supplements besides alpha ketoglutarate and sodium butyrate (tributyrin) do you think would be good for reversing methylation age. I see Forskolin was included in some combinations of Sinclair's recently released work but some prior studies make me wary of taking that.
I don't think AKG is worth anything, but sodium butyrate may be worthwhile. As an argument against that, do systemic butyrate levels matter as much if they're first produced in the colon?
@conqueragingordietrying1797 Thanks, the only thing I can say about calcium AKG is it has made my eyesight go back to like it was in my early 40s and I am 55 now. I got that effect after taking it for about 6 months and it seemed to hit me all at once at the 6 month point. I started Tributyrin after that.
Women have lower metabolism, lower total cell count, smaller, less weight and more petite. Eating much less total calories over a lifetime is big too. Differences between testosterone and estrogen also plays a role. Ofcourse, the average male is more self destructive too. Still, lifespan difference is not that big and healthspan tends to favor males. Osteoporosis wrecks havoc on women in late life. Once you lose complete mobility, fast downward spiral to the grave.
@@conqueragingordietrying123 thank you for your speedy reply. seems odd that other organs have specific measures (e,g, ALT hepatic function) but the brain doesn't. expect that the BBB prevents direct measurement. Do you think Glucose/A1C levels could also be indicative of brain health?
women are smaller than men, that's the answer (I think) as to why women live longer despite going through menopause and pregnancy. it's probably why petite asians live kinda long too.
Prof LUSTGARTEN is not only a world class scientist but also a great and enjoyable communicator in that sense the messages he delivers are always on the point, well explained, comprehensive and above all, and this is important for non native English listeners, with and articulate pronunciation and an optimal and gentle speed of speaking words. If I were a UA-cam channel owner I would insist on this aspect of communication and improve my skills in that direction.
High praise, thanks @abdelilahbenahmed4350!
Michael so great that you're spreading the wealth !!!!
Thanks @longevityisthekey7982, more coming soon...(potentially tomorrow on ABC news)
Thank you for a great interview.
I'm reinvigorated to do better tracking.
I especially loved the "Conquer Aging or Die Trying" mindset analogy with long-enduring structures.
Thanks @natelf4825!
Made my day to hear how Dr. L battles with sleep, but is yet so successful in his aging conquest. As someone pursuing longevity, sleep is by far the hardest thing for me to manage. I can exercise. I can eat what I need to. I can take supplements. I CANNOT control how much overall, deep, and REM sleep I get. So frustrating.
Sorry to hear that @Aaron-iu5hg. The basics (which have helped my sleep quality a lot) are sleeping with earplugs (I'm on a noisy Boston street), sleeping in complete darkness (or as close-to it as I can), ending the eating window relatively early (< 130PM on most days), and sleep consistency-going to bed at close-to the same time every night.
Additionally, room temp and humidity may play a role in sleep quality...
Great interview! Let’s help get Michael on Rogan!
Thanks @JennyAndAlex. Ha, if I live long enough, it's only a matter of time!
Great podcast!
Thanks Olya!
Thanks Michael. Great discussion. Look forward to your continued evolution in this sphere. BTW, here's a copy of my comment on Hannah's channel for what it's worth: "Thanks! Been following Michael for years. Tracking markers and making changes is key even if some of the markers are not as precise as we'd like. Would be great if we had a hierarchy of biomarkers. Might be that by identifying certain nodes or upstream markers to optimize we take care of most things downstream. As it is now a lot of markers are put on a roughly equal footing by default. Also, would be good to identify the primary markers for each organ system. But even in this case, it might be that by focusing on optimizing for the brain or the cardiovascular system, and few other organs like liver and kidney, we take care of most things and create a system within most people's capability to implement."
Thanks @peterz53. I'm not a fan of the hierarchy approach, instead trying to optimize biomarkers of as many organ systems as possible. For example, creatinine, BUN, uric acid, but also, uremic metabolites as markers of kidney function would all equally be scored. I'm ok with others using a hierarchy-based approach, placing greater strength or not on biomarkers, but I think that increases the probability of holes...
Iron: an underrated factor in aging (Oct 6, 2021), Dennis Mangan.
Note: women are generally protected from this type of premature aging during years of menstruation.
After menopause, women very often begin the process of cardiovascular disease progression unless they opt out through improved lifestyle.
Yes, thanks @greensmoothieparty ,Dennis and I follow each other on X, I'm familiar
Love the content. Thank you!
Thanks @richardheck3794!
PS On a book deal, based on what I've observed, part of the success is just getting exposure on a number of large podcasts. In fact, just getting interviewed on a few big podcasts could give your channel a huge boost. Or interviewing some of the other bigger credible names in the health and aging podcast universe as well as interviewing scientists.
I've seen people get book deals without any social media presence...
Alternatively, I may crowd source it, as publishers take a big chunk of the revenue
Michael, have you looked into getting in home sauna? This really helps my sleep.
Hmm, I haven't, good idea, but I live in a relatively small apt, so it's impractical for now
Great content, I agree it would be nice to just leave full time job, it is exciting to think about but you are a special contributor in the field and I would hate to lose someone that actually cares and can make a difference with your knowledge and research. Thanks for all you do!! ❤
Definitely, and thanks @user-xc9sv5hk2d!
What do you think of the Gary Brecka dna test. Is this worth doing?
If by DNA test you mean full genome sequencing, it's important, but that's only the script for what can happen...
In contrast, everything that I'm tracking is an indicator of what happened, or is actively happening, which is more informative
L theanine works for me to remain asleep more. It's true that this is a bandage covering other problems.
Although DunedinPACE has been validated on base of CR, that's not in line with your personal data, right? IIRC you only had a negative correlation with cinnamon and salt and a posivte with coconut butter and dates. Calories and/of body weight showed no correlation with DunedinPACE in your own data. Is that right?
After Test #9, nothing was significantly correlated with DunedinPACE (p< 0.05), for both macros, micros, and foods. Maybe that will change with upcoming tests, we'll see...
Michael, during the sleep optimization portion you mentioned getting yourself back to sleep using meditation or other means. This has been one of my own biggest challenges (getting back to sleep) and I was wondering what type of meditation works best for you (or are there any other tips you can offer)? Thanks so much!
What's worked (most of the time) is simple positive self-talk, i.e. "you can do this, relax", and then I try my best to zone out and sleep.
That's potentially important because it's unfortunately easy for me to have negative self-talk when I'm up in the middle of the night, in combination with some anxiety, which makes it hard to fall back to sleep if I don't calm that down.
But, it's not a perfect system-I'm about an hour in sleep-debt today, which is fortunately a rare event (so far) in 2024.
Michael, a great episode! Have you considered creating a tech-based service that would help people collect their data and find correlations to help them make more informed decisions about optimizing their health? You, Bryan, and a few others talk about measuring everything and optimizing based on that, but it is really hard to do for someone like me who doesn't have much expertise or a team of doctors to help. I believe you could be in a unique position to build a service that would help the everyday longevity-conscious person get more out of the data they have.
Hi @niklaskari, thanks, and definitely. I'm working with a startup to do some of that, especially in terms of optimal ranges for biomarkers. Correlations with biomarkers would be a next step...
@@conqueragingordietrying123 That is great to hear. If your start-up is looking for someone to interview for customer development / product discovery purposes, I would be happy to share my insights on the pain points in this domain.
Michael, you mentioned in the chat that you found a dietary method that showed impact on lp(a). Could you expand on that or point me to a video where you expand on that please? I have high lp(a) and I am interested in gains even if marginal. Thanks for all your content by the way
Hi @robbulman9324, I haven't covered Lp(a) in a video for a long time-I'm not sure if I presented that data (yet).
Over 29 Lp(a) tests since 2015, total fat intake is significantly correlated with lower levels (in my data). Lp(a) has been as high as 150 nmol/L, but since discovering that, it's been consistently 80-90, which is still on the high side but reduced by ~45%.
That said, total fat intake is also significantly correlated with more biomarkers going in the wrong direction than right, so I can't go too high for fat intake to potentially improve Lp(a), while making others worse.That said, the sweet spot (for me) is ~80g of total fat/d, ~40% of total calories.
@@conqueragingordietrying123 that is amazing Michael and thanks for getting back so quick. Mine at my last test was 173nmol/l so a 45% drop would be good, though I was on a statin at the time and I have read that they can increase your lp(a) level too. Can I assume that your fat intake is mostly unsaturated fat?
What is your opinion on protein intake? There are so many studies out there about you should have high protein intake or you should have really low protein intake. Your personal data seems to support the low protein intake conclusion...
Hey JC, from the published studies, at most 1.6g/kg BW maximizes muscle mass gains as a result of regular training, so that could be an upper limit.
Interestingly, I'm currently at 1.5g/kg BW, not because of the above, but that amount is correlated with my best biomarker profile. Note that's not my lowest intake, either, which has been ~1g/kg/BW.
I've also been as high as ~2g kg/BW, but more biomarkers went in the wrong direction than right. Aside from a general recommendations, that's the approach that I'd favor-titrating intake based on a panel of biomarkers.
@@conqueragingordietrying123 awesome post! Thank you for the guidance. Now on to test my own biomarkers!
Hello Dr. Lustgarten,
I am a big fan of your work, which I consider to be the most important in the anti-aging field. I listened to your interview today and heard you mention that you reply to all comments, which is why I'm writing to you. I want to bring your attention to two main topics.
Firstly, regarding the Levine clock, you mentioned it in the interview, and it is an important part of your toolkit. However, there are two significant flaws in it. The first flaw is that it uses chronological age to calculate biological age. Although you often mention this, I'm not sure if you fully understand the "weight" of the chronological age in the Levine clock. The correlation of the clock with biological age is 94%, but if we exclude chronological age from the inputs, the correlation drops to less than 45%. You can experiment with different random inputs in a spreadsheet, keeping the age constant.
The second flaw is that the clock doesn't use certain inputs, which are essentially "free" and could improve its predictions. For example, White Blood Cell (WBC) counts differ between men and women, so not including biological sex as an input decreases its accuracy. WBC counts also vary between ethnic groups. Other "free" inputs that could help predict mortality include body weight and waist circumference.
The second topic I want to mention is "face age." In the interview around 20:50, you talked about "youthful look". You surely know there are calculators that estimate age based on facial pictures. I am personally using an open-source AI face age predictor, recording my score daily, and tracking correlations with food, supplements, activities, etc. This allows me to see correlations after a week or two. This is similar to having daily average heart rate data points, providing much more insight than testing 7 times per year.
I occasionally check the face age of other people as well. Your face looks much younger than your biological age, around 35 years old.
Thank you for all your videos,
Nikola
Sorry, I meant "Your face looks much younger than your chronological age"
I love the info but i need timestamp
Michael, I havent had a chance to listen to this entire interview yet but I was wondering what supplements besides alpha ketoglutarate and sodium butyrate (tributyrin) do you think would be good for reversing methylation age. I see Forskolin was included in some combinations of Sinclair's recently released work but some prior studies make me wary of taking that.
I don't think AKG is worth anything, but sodium butyrate may be worthwhile. As an argument against that, do systemic butyrate levels matter as much if they're first produced in the colon?
@conqueragingordietrying1797 Thanks, the only thing I can say about calcium AKG is it has made my eyesight go back to like it was in my early 40s and I am 55 now. I got that effect after taking it for about 6 months and it seemed to hit me all at once at the 6 month point. I started Tributyrin after that.
Women have lower metabolism, lower total cell count, smaller, less weight and more petite. Eating much less total calories over a lifetime is big too. Differences between testosterone and estrogen also plays a role. Ofcourse, the average male is more self destructive too. Still, lifespan difference is not that big and healthspan tends to favor males. Osteoporosis wrecks havoc on women in late life. Once you lose complete mobility, fast downward spiral to the grave.
Question. Which test/bio markers are you tracking for brain age?
Primarily BP, for now
@@conqueragingordietrying123 thank you for your speedy reply. seems odd that other organs have specific measures (e,g, ALT hepatic function) but the brain doesn't. expect that the BBB prevents direct measurement. Do you think Glucose/A1C levels could also be indicative of brain health?
women are smaller than men, that's the answer (I think) as to why women live longer despite going through menopause and pregnancy. it's probably why petite asians live kinda long too.