Transcript for:
Exploring Health and Longevity Trends

what if I told you experts now predict the  current generation of us children will be   the first in history to live shorter lives  than their parents when I first heard this   I was completely stunned how could this be and  if true is there a way to reverse this trend I'm   Jason Paul and I want to welcome you to the human  longevity project what started out as a 60 minute   documentary has now expanded into a nine part  series that will reveal the surprising sources of   our dramatic health decline in the last 80 years  alone we'll take you on a journey around the globe   to uncover lost wisdom from some of the world's  healthiest and longest living people you'll get   a rare glimpse into the lives of centenarians  remote parts of the world and experience what   their environment and lifestyle was really like  growing up in addition we have interviewed over   90 health experts to explain how we've gotten so  far off track and what we can do to put an end to   this chronic disease epidemic we now face will  cover a lot of ground in the series and you're   going to learn exactly what aging is how to slow  this process and ways you can apply this knowledge   today to live a longer happier and more fulfilled  life I hope you're ready for a new perspective on   longevity I think you'll find the information in  this series collapses the old paradigm of disease   management and provides a refreshing new look on  health creation we welcome you to our community   and ask for your continued support to spread  this message of health by registering to watch   this series you're joining hundreds of thousands  of people who have already said yes to a brighter   future because of you someone you know may get the  solutions they desperately need from this series   so fleets at the share button below and with your  help we can set a new trajectory for health and   longevity in the modern world I know we can do  better we have to if you have any questions or   comments about this series please leave them  below from all of us at the human longevity   project we thank you for joining us on this  very important mission enjoy episode 1 [Music] so it you know we don't need to go and do ancient  history to think about the the changes that really   matter for us so if we just go back to the early  1900s this was the beginning of the electric light   bulb and prior to that we didn't really see shift  work and then we move forward a little bit more   and we see the development of antibiotics which  changed the world and has saved millions of lives   billions of lives potentially then we had the  industrialization of our food supply where is   you you know not that long ago the bulk of the  food that we ate was raised fairly locally it   was consumed rather locally we had a seasonal  variation to it we didn't always have oranges   and watermelons around and and stuff like that you  know in the the dead of winter if we go back just   a little bit you know when I was born this was  pre Information Age so people watch TV there were   three channels when you when you got up and turned  onto the TV and then with the development of the   Information Age we've seen a dramatic decrease in  the amount of physical activity that people do and   then now in the the modern Information Age we can  work from home order our food to our front door   never go outside go online and tell our doctor  that we have a sore throat and get nmi addicts   delivered to the front door we never can we could  construct a life where we literally never have   any meaningful social interaction we try to paper  over that with social media and so in a very brief   period of time really in the period of one very  long lifetime or certainly two generations longer   lifetimes we've seen every facet of our lives  change and change in really profound ways and   in a larger way than happened in the totality the  rest of history the epidemic of chronic illness   has not yet spread to developing nations it is  really a problem in modern industrialized world   so the question is why are awesome ADHD asthma  other immune diseases allergies why are these so   endemic in modern industrialized world why is it  that we see so many kids in the United States in   the UK and Australia with these skyrocketing rates  of every chronic illness out there and the reason   why is because we live differently when you're  looking for the connection between the wives why   do we have such an explosion of chronic disease  where is it coming from and you see it's in the   last 30 40 50 years then you look to see what's  happened in the last 40 50 60 years is there   anything that's changed that may contribute  to the end point result where we're getting   sicker quicker now it's official the experts  in epidemiology have confirmed that in the last   few years life expectancy is not growing anymore  it's regressive and inside us say it's actually   regressive since 1997 but the official numbers  is known the last two years it's going downhill   it's going downhill rapidly meaning that many  people my age will actually see and maybe your   age also is significantly younger but many of you  will outlive your own children we have the crisis   coming that needs to be acknowledged we have  more scientists more doctors more therapists   more gyms more chiropractors more osteopaths and  more nutritionists per capita than we've ever had   and we're the sickest people we've ever been if  you look in the index of medical textbook that   a medical student would see in their program  and you look for health in the index of that   textbook you're not gonna find anything there's no  definition of health in most medical textbooks the   primary focus is on disease up until really very  recently people had every reason in the world to   think that health and disease were a matter either  of bad luck punishment from God or more recently   the unfortunate scripting in our genetics of just  a bad health hand and so the the predetermination   was made that I'm gonna live a life of chronic  disease my parents had diabetes Alzheimer's runs   in my family whatever you hear this all the time  and and this this is you know just echoes of a   tired old outdated story of health we have a  healthcare system that evolved in the context   of acute problems and was really set up to deal  with those and it does a fantastic job by the way   of dealing with those acute problems if I get  hit by a bus I I definitely want to go to the   hospital but it fails miserably when it comes  to these complex chronic problems and that is   the next barrier that we have to overcome in  the search for longevity is looking how do we   understand how to keep ourselves healthy over  the long term and that's not something that the   medical system has ever really thought about that  wasn't really in their remit and the truth is is   that it's probably not going to be created by a  medical system it's going to be created mainly by   patients and patients being inspired by content  by providers by each other the more you learn   the more you realize that we've we've allowed  ourselves to become incredibly dependent on the   healthcare system in general on pharmaceuticals  in general and and have allowed the the industry   to take enormous advantage of the population the  payer system the taxpayer and it's gotten way out   of control so we are currently in a situation  characterized by the fact that almost 10% of   the pediatric population in America is being  treated with psychotropic medications we have   reports through the NHS of in Scotland actually  of a one-year-old baby you know being medicated   psychiatrically this is a possible outcome  of a refusal to acknowledge that something   is wrong you know we treat the body as if it's a  bunch of different parts and we go to the doctor   for that part we have a headache we go to the  head doctor the problem is our headache might   be caused by what we're eating or by our gut flora  or by a nutritional deficiency or by a toxin and   we don't have a way of mapping that because the  the way that the science is shifting so fast we   haven't caught up clinically it's estimated that  over sixteen million Americans currently suffer   from an autoimmune condition and more than 70% of  adults across the u.s. have already been diagnosed   with a chronic disease and perhaps what's most  shocking is that by the year 2030 it's estimated   that nearly half of Americans will be diagnosed  with cancer at some point in their life things   are getting worse and the medical system doesn't  appear to be equipped to handle chronic disease   so before we can address the question of longevity  let's explore the aging process and try to get a   better understanding of what aging actually is  it depends on how you live your life for some   people aging will be the passage of time for some  people aging will be the accumulation of wisdom   and experience and and so it really depends on  what side of the fence you're on but you know   we can define it biochemically by looking at lab  markers and looking at you know novel blood work   or we can look at it as a human experience and the  human experience is really all about experience   and so aging isn't essentially an accumulation of  those experiences and it's really an accumulation   of wisdom as well aging is the process of where  we let go of flow flow in the body so things start   to stiffen become stagnant become more rigid how  I define aging is it's a lack of playfulness you   know evaporating out of the body as well as  the psychology so for me what keeps us young   the Fountain of Youth is playfulness aging is a  process where you just get older you shrivel up   and die it's a loss of the ability of our cells to  adapt to their environment quickly and efficiently   the health of your cells pretty much determines  the health of you like from the cells of your   brain to the cells of your digestive system it all  boils down to cellular health you know from from a   human health perspective when you're looking at  aging you're looking at the ways that the human   body is able to sustain itself despite the fact  that cells are dying at a more rapid rate how can   we continue to adapt even though we're getting  older and moving closer towards death with ample   aging what we have is we have state in which you  have you go into more of a catabolic than anabolic   state so a city with tissues regenerating and  renewing at a healthy weight and your mitochondria   being efficient those systems don't become  impaired then then your mitochondria comes less   efficient you can't produce much energy don't have  as much cell division you become more horrible the   disease you're more prone to inflammation you  can't watch that your feedback loops then that   leads to every disease becoming a greater risk  to develop as these processes take place over   the years there's been lots of different theories  about what kind of layer of physiology is the true   source of illness of symptoms of disease of aging  itself well in in recent years there's been some   really breakthrough research that is now zeroing  in on the mitochondria as the most upstream system   my perspective of Aging it comes from more  mitochondrial perspective if we speak about   mitochondrial aging then we are looking at the  increased number of mitochondria that's getting   damaged as you get older and when you when that  happens a lot more cells also die in the process   because mitochondria regulate that apoptosis or  cell death now there is a balance or trash hole   point which is happens they say it's around mid  40s where everything tilts to the aging process   but in terms of mitochondrial aging is essentially  the accumulation of all the mitochondrial   mutations from oxidative stress and then that  translates to senescence and cell death [Music] now this is reflected in the organs that go first  in aging that are affected by chronic diseases   for example the brain the heart the kidneys the  endocrine organs or those that produce hormones   and your muscles they go first because these  organs have very high mitochondria numbers of   mitochondria in them and they have a very high  energy demand but they have a very low energy   reserve so when the mitochondria start to go  this particular organs start to go all right   here's where things get a little technical but  stay with us because understanding a bit about   mitochondria will be helpful in the rest of the  series as we explained how lifestyle factors such   as diet exercise stress and sleep impact things  like cellular health and genetic expression and   ultimately the aging process and don't worry  we'll unpack these concepts along the way one   of the five top theories of aging is called the  mitochondrial theory of aging mitochondria are   these ancient bacteria about 2 billion years  ago the cells that are ourselves merged with   these mitochondria and we like to tell ourselves  oh we harness them as a power source and they   like to tell themselves we found a petri dish  and we're still in charge so within all their   cells we have a powerhouse that makes energy  called mitochondria and basically every time   we eat foods proteins fats carbohydrates to  make glucose and then glucose combines with   oxygen that's circulating as we breathe it and  then we start to make something called ATP which   then provides us energy to function and the Hired  mitochondria higher functioning your mitochondria   is more ATP you have but if they are weak they are  stressed they cannot turn food and air into energy   then it's gonna be harder for you to do what you  want and that's why mitochondria matter for more   than just aging if they're happy you're happy if  they're stressed you're stressed the mitochondria   in general if I will give a description of  them we have about a hundred quadrillion of   them or that's one followed by 17 zeros and  our human body in an average 70 kilogram male   has only about thirty point seven times ten to  the thirteen number of cells imagine that these   are bacteria that are inside your cells each cell  contains an average of about 500 mitochondria but   that's an unfair thing to say because those with  very high energy demands would have about once   1,000 to 2,000 per cell so your mitochondria have  their own bacteria level intelligence and their   own goals and agendas which are partly to keep you  alive forever because you're a petri dish but also   to make sure you run away from scary things make  sure you eat everything and make sure that you   reproduce with everything else and those behaviors  actually can make you old or they can make you   young so the mitochondria essentially produce not  only energy for you it's also responsible for the   production of what's called the reactive oxygen  species or Ross now reactive oxygen species are   signaling molecules at the proper levels and  they signal the nucleus as regards how much   energy is being produced they also signal cell  death so these are very important functions of   mitochondria so we know it only as an energy  source but it does all of these other things   that are actually vital for aging and for good  health well it turns out that we actually have an   internal antioxidant defense system and it's not  you know this this whole thing of longevity and   resistance to disease isn't a matter of how many  vitamin C and and vitamin A and vitamin E pills   you can pop during your life it's a matter of  are you doing the things that actually stimulate   your mitochondria and your cells to build up  their internal antioxidant defense system the   what's called the a re the antioxidant response  element and interventions like hormesis [Music] actually that's what really builds that system  up and makes it more resilient and what actually   reduces oxidative stress at the cellular level  in the long run for mimic stress is interesting   and that it in this day and age we try to  avoid stress so much we're told to minimize   stress but interestingly whether we place a  human a human child a cat a dog a plant in a   completely stress-free environment they don't  actually thrive and so this is true whether   we're talking about sunlight exposure or kind of  interesting constituents and plants or what have   you it's that stress that actually alerts our  body alerts our system that there's something   maybe not quite right and it may actually be a  little bit in the short-term negatively impactful   on us but then it causes an upregulation and  everything from antioxidant systems to immune   response within military circles they like to  talk about this with regards to resiliency so   resiliency the the physics equation for it  is pretty interesting but what it describes   is that you can test a system and it will become  stronger as a consequence of the testing and so   that's really the basis of hormesis yes we have  certain types of stressors chronic psychological   and emotional stress job stress relationship  stress that can potentially be problematic in   the long run but we're also missing out on certain  key types of metabolic stressors that are actually   critical to health and longevity these things in  small amounts actually confer a pretty profound   protective effect so heat cold wild plants and  other wild foods Sun lights and turns out over   time as a result of of millennia of being in that  situation our bodies not only learn to cope with   that stress but actually evolved in such a  way that we require those types of stressors   in order to be healthy and for just for ourselves  to function normally the in terms of acute stress   we actually should be able to respond to acute  stress and in order to do that we produce lots   more energy and in the process of producing  energy we produce reactive oxygen species at   low level reactive oxygen species can play a role  of different types of mediators signal transducers   but if oxidative stress is excessive it causes  percolation of lipids damage to DNA to proteins   and this if these damages are not repaired  they accumulate the inflammatory response is   intended only for acute purposes but when it's  there chronically then we start developing all   the chronic diseases like neurologic diseases  neurodegenerative diseases diabetes and other   metabolic diseases and even cancers so when we  say inflammatory disease and the free radical and   oxidative stress it is automatically the same when  you say this disease is related to my to conjugate   dysfunction every chronic illnesses linked to the  mitochondria now you know the chronic fatigue the   cancers the you name it I mean let's take the  list was small 15 years ago now exact virtually   every chronic illness involves a mitochondria  whereas no disease which has nothing to do   with mitochondria I mean if you see a certain  patient with a certain symptoms which remind   you of a certain disease file but if something  is off something just doesn't fit the picture   of this particular disease think mitochondria  are so we started to really look at this very   very seriously in the in the early 90s as to how  this would spread the conditions musculoskeletal   problems cardiac problems immune related problems  neurological problems reproductive problems so   you have endocrine dysfunctions you have then  obviously carcinogenesis and and oncogenesis   and cancer all those can be traced back to aspects  of alteration in mitochondrial function the first   time that there was a connection between  human diseases and mitochondrial DNA was   made in 1988 when Doc Wallace published his famous  landmark paper in science in each we have hundreds   thousands mitochondria and inside each mother  country we have between 5 10 15 and more copies of   mitochondrial DNA the number of good mitochondria  versus bad mitochondria is actually an compassed   in what a word called heteroplasmy you know Homo  plasma means there's a lot of healthy mitochondria   I had a plasma means this means it's a mixed  with some bad manikanta in their mitochondrial   DNA when mutated is the basis for mother country  DNA diseases and during the 90s of a number of my   the kanto DNA diseases has literally exploded  clinical implications are of is the balance   between healthy DNA as a healthy Macondo DNA  in one cell and mutated by the Condor DNA that   means the number of mutated DNA has to reach  a certain level when we start seeing clinical   symptoms and before we see screening symptoms or  not then thermo depends on the energy demand of   tissue this particular mother control is in now  if a task of a tissue is to produce insulin for   diabetes and we don't have energy to do that when  we facilitate diabetes if a major function of the   tissue is to think do you have imagination and  we don't have enough energy to do so well when   you cannot think probably anymore if a major task  of a tissue is to run away skeletal muscles and   and you get that lift okay when you so it really  depends on the function of a tissue which is then   impacted and and this is also a reason for that  for multitude of symptoms is hugely the rules so   what Doug Wallace has demonstrated in his research  is that as mitochondrial DNA mutations occur at   higher rates in a given tissue we start to see  disease symptoms show up the more mutations the   more severe the symptoms tend to be in that  given organ so it becomes imperative that we   protect our mitochondrial DNA from excessive  damage especially in women so there's only   one place that baby gets mitochondrial DNA and  that's directly from mom and that's why it is   so imperative that as a society we are looking  after women's health if we want to ensure that   all of humanity is optimized and on its best  we have got to look after that mitochondrial   DNA because that's the lineage that's going to  be passed on the eggs that a woman has today   that will become a future baby we're actually  maturing in her mother's body and her mother's   eggs were actually maturing in her grandmother's  body so when we say lineage we literally mean the   female lineage one of the best ways to look at  the mitochondria from a metaphorical level is to   imagine a city in a blackout when a citizen in a  blackout there is no energy to power up anything   so one of the things that happens is there is loss  of law and order right so you have runaway cells   and you call them cancer cells there is loss of  garbage collection so you have piles and piles of   garbage in there and you could see that happens  in Alzheimer's disease so these are the things   that happen when you have loss of power or when  you have very many defective mitochondria inside   the cell that's unable to power itself as you  get older it has the propensity to produce more   and more dysfunctional mitochondria because the  mitochondrial DNA actually mutates very rapidly   the body has mechanisms to get rid of those  but as you get older that those mechanisms   also become inefficient so there is about that  window that has been talked about in terms of   longevity where the mitochondria cannot catch  up anymore in terms of the medical value Genesis and in terms of the number of my token  dysfunctional getting destroyed such that   now their body will go into eating and senescence  and as the mitochondria become worse and worse at   making food and air and light into energy you  get older and older everyone over age 40 has   mitochondrial decline which means we make less  energy from food than we did when we were young   and half of us under age 40 have early onset  mitochondrial deficiency what what I think is   causing that is lack of hormetic stress in our  lives and when the mitochondria are weakened   by this lack of hormetic stress you know think  of if you've ever broken a bone and you've got   a cast on you know what happens after you get  that cast off you notice that all your muscles   have atrophied right well that's what happens  to mitochondria the inside of your cells when   they're not being exposed to hormetic stress they  weaken they atrophy and they lose their capacity   to produce energy now when that happens they also  lose their resiliency in the face of stress and it   lowers what I call your resiliency threshold which  is this this kind of tipping point it's basically   the amount of stress that your body can can handle  and recover from before it starts to go into you   know various kinds of symptoms and illness and  disease and accelerated aging and as a result   of that you now become much more susceptible to  all these types of stressors in the environment   whether it be infections sleep deprivation toxins  anything else and those stressors can now tip your   cells into cell danger response mode the cell  danger response is kind of the the newest way   or the newest defined way of looking at how  the mitochondria are really functioning to   protect the cell and a lot of the early research  on damage associated molecular patterns and damage   associated molecular proteins have led to a deeper  understanding that the mitochondria do much more   than produce ATP in fact they are now seen as the  primary cellular defense against viruses pathogens   and toxins and some of the work that has been done  by researchers like Robert Navi Oh for example has   clearly demonstrated that extracellular ATP which  originates from the mitochondrial signaling gets   ejected out into the extracellular space in this  extracellular ATP these extracellular purines   are essentially becoming key signaling molecules  that will alert neighboring cells to the threat   of danger this process of cell danger response  signaling will basically cause the mitochondria   to shut down its basic functions as a protective  mechanism the problem with that is if this cell   danger response doesn't turn off once the threat  is resolved this leads to dysfunction of the cell   and dysfunction of the mitochondria it's now been  established that many chronic diseases including   autism spectrum disorders are extraordinarily  linked to this cell danger response signaling   it's looking more and more like that problem of  the body getting locked into this cell danger   response mode maybe underlies many if not most  chronic diseases many different mechanisms will   change in the mitochondria methylation will  then shift away from DNA synthesis towards   more promotion of inflammatory mechanisms so  the mitochondria will actually try to use free   radicals to fight a virus or a pathogen and  so vitamin D metabolism shifts b6 metabolism   shifts purines shift uric acid shifts all of these  different cellular metabolic processes change when   a cell danger response is undertaken and normally  this cell danger response will will appear and   then it will eventually resolve once the threat  has been eliminated and the person's health will   go back to normal but what we now understand is  that some people they cannot shut off their cell   danger response and it's stuck on automatic all  of the time and this is believed to be happening   in at least one condition the autism condition we  know that according to the research of navi o that   the the oldest drug in existence known as sermon  is able to kind of hit the reset button on this   extracellular ATP signaling which is intricately  involved in the cell danger response and by   administering this micro dosing this this very  old drug once every five weeks or so the the cell   danger response has reset in all of the clinical  parameters of autism is significantly improved   so there's an enormous amount of potential with  this therapy so if we look at just everything   on a cellular level and taking a look sniffing  the DNA and you know correcting for even just   correcting for mitochondrial function etc it's a  very short-sighted view because we are organisms   that are built on networks upon networks of of  organisms in itself when we look at the Navi   or research for example the ATP signaling that's  happening in the cell danger response is outside   of the cell and so as we study the intricate  biology of the cell and the intricate genomics   and every little thing we are forgetting that  that cell is existing because it's connected   to a network of cells and to the matrix that  exists outside of it most recently bacteria and   mitochondria have been shown to actually talk to  each other without our knowledge so whereas before   we are only looking at things from our point of  control now we are looking at the point of view   of the bacterial sense of control and we are  simply its host and as mitochondria is back to   a kind of bacteria so the question is who control  mitochondria why mitochondria microbiota [Music] have the share the same characteristic the same  activities in terms of structure and time a term   of mechanistic so we asked the question  whether there is a kind of relationship   between mitochondria and microbiome certain  concepts are actually blowing up our ideas   of what's true you know our current theory of  disease doesn't match the facts the microbiome   is the greatest example where we now know that  gut flora can be causing cancer it can cause   Anna Cleveland Clinic we have know Kara saying  who's researching the microbiome in breast cancer   we have Stan Hazen Singh at the microbiome in  heart disease we have understandings that may   be related to dementia or depression or autism  or autoimmune disease or obesity or diabetes   and you know how do how do we even frame that  right and you don't go to the rheumatologist   with rheumatoid arthritis they go well let me  look at your stool tests and your microbiome   right that's not happening yet it will and we  will get there and the convergence of you know   some major trends is going to transform medicine  healthcare so when you're looking at longevity   you're looking at vitality and I want my body  to be more engaged and alive what we teach this   to for functional medicine all the time you also  need to include an evaluation of the microbiome   the bacteria of your gut this is the organ that  controls everything your microbiome I mean the   guy is at the center of our health I mean this  has been known for thousands of years by ancient   healing traditions and we're just discovering  now we thought you know your poop was just your   poop but now we're understanding that you know  there are more molecules from microbes in your   gut in your bloodstream than your own human  molecules so you are officially you know far   more than just yourself the gut is one of the  most important part of our body and it plays a   significant role in the immune function the main  reason is one of the most important cells of the   immune system which rag relates the immune  system are in the epithelial tissue [Music] I'm sure you know or many people know that  the 70% of the immune system is in the gut   actually and so therefore the communication  of the immune system or cells involved in the   immune system with the environment of the gods  meaning the microbiome and food is playing a   significant role in our overall health we still  have a lot to learn about how they communicate   how they control and affect our health before  we could actually say okay this is what we're   going to do in terms of definitely increasing  our lifespan or this is what we're definitely   going to do in order to prevent disease so when  you change your diet and change your microbiome   that changes all your gene expressions if it  costs exposed to chemicals that changes your   gene expression or higher genes activate in  turn on turn off our genes are not actually   controlling our biology in the way that's  been thought for a very long time they're   not the most upstream thing actually the most  upstream thing is the environment you know a lot   of people think they're just like dealt this  this deck of cards that spells doom for them   once they test their genetics that says they've  got whatever do in my case where I higher the   normal risk for type 2 diabetes or higher than  normal risk for prostate cancer and the the fact   is that there's a wide variety of things that  go way above and beyond just your snips and your markers from a genetic standpoint that  influence whether or not those those issues are   actually going to manifest many people think that  a gene if we have bad genes from our parents that   were screwed we're in trouble but that's not the  case because just because that gene is there and   it might be posing a problem you have to turn it  on so science is clearly shown now that genes do   not dictate our future it's a genetic expression  that actual makes the difference of who we are at   any given point in time our genes themselves  actually have no function it's what actually   brings them to life that makes the difference your  genes don't determine whether you get a disease or   not your genes determine whether you're vulnerable  to getting a disease or not it's the weak link in   your chain so as we know we have nuclear DNA and  we have mitochondrial DNA and they're not the same   mitochondrial DNA are only maternally inherited  our nuclear DNA are inherited from both parents   but there's a crosstalk that's happening between  how our cells function how ATP is getting made   and how our DNA is actually communicating in a  sense to our mitochondria who have found lately   that there is there are communication channels  between the mitochondria and then in the cell   nucleus so what happens the mitochondria releases  some molecules that go in with the nucleus and   make our genome react to what's happening I  mean the reality is that you know we have DNA   DNA is like an instruction manual it's a gigantic  instruction manual that is supposed to say here's   how the body is this body is supposed to operate  given the circumstances what you've inherited but   that DNA has to be translated into RNA and RNA  has to be translated into a protein which is   what you actually use so there can be all kinds  of potential problems that are happening in the   DNA to RNA to protein translation process that we  really don't have a good enough grasp of yet but   we can suspect based upon the initial research  that environmental factors really do have a role   to play in influencing all of these things to  me a gene is simply it's a book to be read so   a gene has a job to do and we have about 19,000  different genes and they all do some do one job   and some do multiple jobs and so if the gene is  told that it needs to turn on then it will do it   and things that will tell a gene to turn on could  be infections it could be your mindset if you get   irritated or pissed off you're firing a lot of  genes to stimulate you so you can take action   we have the lately as a new term in biology has  been born which is called epigenetics it's from   the Greek word epi which means above genetics so  someone is born and most of us are born healthy   there is only one in case in 2500 cases it has  any inborn error of due to two problematic genes   but there is 2499 of us are born healthy so what  we do after our birth which is a pigeon ethics   is that influences is our health and this is the  most important part of your genes are only poor   in the picture how you change them or express them  through the things you do in your life really make   all the difference and when you look at these  genes studies no there's no question that an   environmental factor a diet lifestyle nutritional  factor plays a role in who you become the classic   example in the best models to say that or  twin studies because they share very similar   genotypes identical twins have the exact same  genetic makeup yet over time they become very   very different people because their environments  their lifestyles the food they eat the jobs they   do the people they hang out with environments and  climates they choose to live in they become very   very different people purely based on their  epigenetics you know when you look at us twin   studies that on smokers and non-smokers that  person looks at dramatically different now you   know somebody who's smoking probably if if we dig  a little bit deeper there might be an emotional   component to why they're still smoking and so that  could be what's aging them more so than the actual   cigarettes might be aging them so it's really  hard to study no human beings the way we would   study lab rats or the way we'd study microbes in  a petri dish because there's so many layers of   complexity to the human life span that it's hard  to say it's one particular thing but we certainly   know that they have the same genes being twins and  the environments and conditions that they were and   in the decision that they made altered how they  look and probably how they think and how they   function so when different factors accumulated  great damage at the cellular or biological level   these caused our cell to multiply actually the  sting cells the cells the the mother cells that   can multiply and replace all there or dam itself  that they have to multiply but it's time they   multiplied a part of the of the outer part of the  chromosome which is called the last part in Greek   is called tellers last and part marrows they are  called telomeres they become shorter because the   last part is not copied when the the telomeres  get shorter the DNA in the genome which the genome   is the information contained within the DNA and  the chromosomes becomes unstable so when we have   unstable DNA we are open to diseases already been  death or because the DNA doesn't function well the   shorter our telomers the Moral the old Rugel at  a biological level in terms of aging one of the   indicators that have been given out recently was  telomere length and actually you know a reactive   oxygen species damaged telomeres so you should  take a look at what damages your telomeres first   so that takes precedence over looking at the  telomere length itself so it's a longer view to   take a look at the mitochondria first before you  actually attribute all of these other downstream   changes like in cancer or in telomere length to  the actual mutations in them or the decreasing   function in them and shifted more towards how  much energy are we providing for the continued   maintenance and function of these particular  enzyme systems now the conversation about at   telomeres which is the ends of our genes was very  interesting about a decade ago we studied and   found those shortened with age this is something  we got excited about and we understand now it's   far more about our environmental lifestyle factors  the influence our genes that actually cause them   to either shortens more slowly less slowly or  actually start to reverse in that deterioration   process telomeres are maintained by telomerase  you know as a somatic system that is believed to   have a decreased function over time but why does  it decrease function over and you could take a   look at that most probably there's increased  damage from reactive oxygen species and less   protection because of decline in energy production  of mitochondria and besides all their mitochondria   if your do not replenish them enough will produce  reactive oxygen species also that will damage the   luminaires further so the way of life we do the  diet the stress the environment influence the   degree of damage and the degree of the how fast  or how slow our telomere shortening epigenetics   our environment and lifestyle the foods we eat  the way we move our body the people that we hang   out with the things we think all these dictator  health status at any point in time and we can   change those we can change our health status  at any important time we can choose what food   we put in our mouth we can choose when we move  our body and how we move it we can choose who   we hang out with and we choose how much sleep we  get and how we think about things around us the   only thing we're left to conclude is that health  more than anything else is actually a skill set   and the moment people understand that and really  have processed it the moment I think this concept   of personal responsibility taking ownership will  begin to sink in make sense and induce people to   action we normally only become proactive in  our health when there's something wrong with   us and you know I think that actually makes sense  because sometimes a person's not ready to change   their diet or change their bad ways until they're  sick and tired of being sick and tired they have   to get to the end of the rope before they make  a change sometimes that's just the way that it   is but it's a lot more intelligent to say let's  improve our health so that we don't make disease   processes able to penetrate into our body if  we did that we'd be able to prevent so many   diseases today according to a study by Paul  Marston from the University of Sussex called   mimetics and social contagions Marston suggests  that when faced with a variety of different   options decision-making ability is to simply go or  what is everyone else doing great I'll do that too   and so because of this we blindly follow the rules  from generations pass but the problem is the world   is changing faster than these rules are change  today things change so fast that the rules from   our parents the rules from a society that will  show my religion often no longer apply the way   that we are trained in conventional medicine is  is based on about 300 years of cultural history   and scientific concepts that tell us that problems  can be fixed through application of force and if   it's not working do more force more you know apply  more to the failures of the initial intervention   and so this is how we have literally half of  Americans on psychiatric medications how we   have one in four women of reproductive age taking  antidepressants well we're really socialized in   medicine in America at least as patients to think  that the doctor has an answer for us and that the   doctor also has a bottle with a solution for us  or a procedure that will fix us and so that is   misleading I can remember one time I went and  googled the term sick healthy just to see what   this oxymoron would would produce and I went over  to the images and what you find is is all kinds of   books and apps and propaganda essentially designed  to convince us of the reduce ridiculous oxymoron   that we can be sick and healthy at the same time  so you get books like how to be sick well how to   be well with chronic disease live healthy with  chronic disease I mean craziness think about   it by far the most profitable state if you're  the healthcare industry to keep a person in is   chronically ill it's it's second to healthy third  to dead Dead's not profitable healthy's minimally   profitable chronically ill is a very profitable  state to keep a population in the majority of   the costs in the medical system three point three  trillion dollars is generated after the rillette   the referral from the primary care doctor so now  you're with an endocrinologist and you're with a   you know gastroenterologist and you're with  a hematologist and all these people are very   specialized very expend bill your insurance a  lot the labs are expensive that the procedures   are expensive the drugs are expensive and so the  best way for us to contain the cost both for the   individual for every pair for the individual for  business and for governments is to go upstream   and prevent those things from happening for me  the future of longevity is about keeping that   ancient wisdom going but using the best bits of  modern science to enhance it that's where we've   gone wrong we've got modern medicine getting  into conditions that worthy it does at least   get involved with we should let it concentrate  on the stuff that has been life saving that has   helped increase life expectancies we need a lot  more humility and medicine like we think we know   at all but I mean we're just now discovering  new organs that we never knew exist to me I'm   like that's pretty profound to know that you  know we would nice acting the human body for   a long time and we still Bo are finding new  things we know so little I mean we progress   a lot but we still know so little about what  is it that makes us and whether or not we do   really own our body you know or it's someone  else or something else that's actually running   us we think that we've created some kind of  you know answer to longevity but truly it's   an indigenous cultures that we see longevity  without all these fancy pharmaceuticals and   different kind of manipulations to get there  they're living simply but they're living for   a long time and truly the things that keep you  out of the doctor's office and that really is   the Fountain of Youth secret to life they're not  sexy they're nothing that science is ever going   to show us is new they're the basic things that  our ancestors have taught us through the years   and really what we've we've lost in Western  society maybe I've got a couple cool golden   nuggets of things I can share clinically that  I've done to reverse my health problems and   reverse other people's health problems but what  about people that don't have health problems in   the first place what are they doing that we're  not doing I think there's other puzzle pieces   out there that we just truly understand yet and  if we go study these people will further gone   we've got a good chance of of really setting  the tone for the future you know it's funny   we thought the same thing so we did it in the  spring of 2017 we traveled around the world to   find out what we can learn from those who appear  to be aging successfully without chronic disease there are these pockets of people that are  supporting each other that know each other's   families that have each other's backs they're  intimately involved with the plants they're   intimately involved with each other when someone  is stressed when someone's having a challenge   they all band together they help each other  they laugh a lot they have fun they know how   to take life too seriously all these things  are important health just seems to happen to   these folks in a very natural way they live in  communities they're in relationships with people   they don't stress out about small things  my guess would be they're not so attached   to being on iPhones and iPads and computers my  guess would be they're not on Facebook trying   to prove defend get their needs met and they  have a much deeper feeling of acceptance from   themselves and everyone that's around them they  don't think about health health is the default   option for them by virtue the way that they  choose to live our lives only Susannah stay   at the Frisco astrology only ones dependents  apophysis this abstraction oppose affirmative   action or older to hold you for a variety  collaboration is a tutti santi seola and avocado   so mr. chairman senator record La Coruna VAR o  suta Nicole Palomar a judiciary that says for he feared enoshima's at the western part a  a lobster claw a partnership Nia Party led   tea party although at a bobble yet Sindel -  Rob Apple Falcon the introverts years older   grant oniton jakey gonna stop job or not they  said we're going whatever your isn't it you   know game with the parameter isn't easy being  in total offense Bob lemon eternal night is put   of you gentlemen to Ferrari all right what are all  these people doing they're all living very similar   lifestyles and what they're doing is they're  living on this planet the way we evolved to   live on this planet you know conozco sorbet chibi  me not to that and carelessly put AC Anjali is so   low quality print capital Indian companion imagine  a deep a newborn or can only see steep you in the   supermarket Elektra cheetah non trader the pr2 toe  gerasole only grocery gently me pickle he buys the   channel that Candela lumen a queenly Tramontana  a let non trader certo television and on chair   allah rabbuna said onion is Elena gluten espero  the novelty a year very a and and already - no   you listen to me pero cuando ella la finca tatin  mo every machete on of toes and uma Tony nope in   sanik a look Anderson lamented Oh nos Falcons and  o Kesava miyano este lo que está mi John you know   that or an old you come a dream you know such a  thousand ago represent a chasm and I'm a pig or   a human a marketer holiday the ethnicity sure  nothing cannot imagine so now take a value so   naughty and that's that's alien seven my Laura  a row naughty he made a report for duty under   sahih bukhari madman the very remain a familiar  one do your part to them to level with quality   you know johnandrich when you see peridot at  what Villa who are not one liquid or gravity   the dimension talked to Julie but people on  the team could increase their revival a okhla   I was with us yo our central real vigilante on  oh these are reversible general chatter speed   Elsa - Aldo metal demonic you know such a such  a traditional religion technical analysis such   the caracal generators were born the kids believe  religion the backdrop on peridot blue car I think   when we're pursuing this journey of longevity  we have to find something to live for we have   to find our purpose and our purpose might be to  find our purpose that might be our initial purpose   otherwise I think the pursuit of longevity is just  a fancy way of saying I'm scared of death if we   were taught death is this beautiful life is this  beautiful story here on earth the natural cycles   we would just the same not have as much fear and  or shame around what death represents to us how   they don't know families will make people whole  get off your own body by now yes I mean I know   I'm I'm going where everyone else is going can  I maximize the time either be at the time and   the relationships with the people close to me the  food that I eat the experiences that I have are   we running from death or are we chasing health and  this to me is a pivotal and imperative question to   answer I do not think that death is an avoidable  tragedy and that's how we treat it in the West we   treat death like is an avoidable tragedy but if  we're looking at longevity as a means by which to   optimize our life to optimize our health to start  living more in accordance with nature then this   seems like a very worthwhile pursuit you know one  of these people often don't realize is that we're   biological organisms and then we have to follow  the laws of nature that we you know we wouldn't   feed our dogs things that we feed ourselves right  but we feed them do our kids and we try to ignore   the limits of our human biology and not tend to  the things that are gonna create health I don't   think longevity in and of itself is a core value  quality of life is a core value and that has many   elements oh one of which is health why don't  you tell you that either you're looking this   is it dose it's really easy to rack up a score  and say look I live till this number but what   does that mean empty years or empty years right  and so were they filled with passion where they   filled with time with family and loved ones  what was your purpose what were you doing did   you enjoy the sunshine did you move around like  you wanted to and so these types of things are way   more important than this idea of longevity just  extending life for just that reason our primary   focus instead of longevity I should be happiness  because that happy is the key to longevity versus   the opposite living longer won't make you happy  but being happy will allow you to live longer who   cares if I can extend a telomere if I don't smile  laugh giggle and enjoy every moment of my life   every day the goal really in our life when you  look at everything we try to accomplish is to try   to be like a child you just try to be completely  satisfied in your life know that your needs are   gonna be met have complete confidence in who you  are be in love with who you are who you what you   look like not wanting to change a thing look  in the mirror and just enjoy yourself children   do that we're always trying to get back to that  state of a child when we get back to the state   of a child now that youthful glow that joy that  laughter that energy that attracts us to human to   human anyway is now all culminated within our body  and that truly is what propels us into longevity I hope you enjoyed episode 1 of the human  longevity project as we took a deep dive into   mitochondrial health mitochondria clearly play a  primary role in the aging process by communicating   with our microbiota and our DNA to control genetic  expression so the question is how do we keep our   mitochondria healthy as this series progresses  you'll find out how lifestyle factors like diet   exercise light toxins emotions community and  purpose all affect mitochondria to impact your   state of health and what you can do to live a  happier healthier and more harmonious life the   health issues we're now facing are impact on our  children like never before and because of this   we've made it our mission to reduce the number  of birth related deaths worldwide we're aiming   to impact the lives of 1 million children over  the next several days you'll hear more about this   mission and our plan to accomplish it but we need  your help your involvement your voice and your   passion are critical please continue to spread  the word by hitting the share button below and   help us grow this movement together we can create  a brighter future for all of us thank you [Music] [Music] [Music]