2022-08-28 - Interview Dr. David Sinclair - Optimize Longevity - Aging: DNA is not your destiny. Food is

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• Length: 24:12
• Interviewee: Dr. David Sinclair
• Interviewer: Serena Poon

- Which purely genetic factors play into aging - What we've learned from the longest living mammals and how we can apply that to our life-lengthening mechanisms - Plant-based diets and longevity - Antioxidants - Supplementing with NAD, NR, & NMN, metformin, and berberine - Cutting sugar

Transcript

0:00	how does fasting work
0:02	how is it how does it fit into different
0:04	people's lifestyles when should you
0:06	start does it matter your sex does it
0:09	matter if you work out these kind of
0:11	things i think most people they don't
0:12	want just one size fits all because they
0:14	know that right fasting isn't for
0:16	everybody and it's different for
0:17	everybody to be affected
0:21	[Music]
0:41	okay great okay so i i've already uh
0:44	i've already sort of you know reminded
0:46	everybody about what we're talking about
0:47	today
0:48	uh and that we're gonna try and focus
0:50	the next 20 to 30 minutes on just
0:53	fasting and their questions specifically
0:55	about fasting i know that there are
0:57	questions about everything else that you
0:59	talk about
1:00	um
1:01	nmn and you know all the things but
1:03	we're really going to try and focus on
1:05	fasting today so that
1:07	we can give you guys a handful of
1:10	takeaways that you can you know leave
1:12	this with and then i have a little
1:14	surprise for you guys at the end
1:17	um but i went to the end so to show you
1:20	guys so should you one why don't you
1:23	start because obviously you're the
1:24	expert here i will address some things
1:26	about fasting and female health and
1:29	fertility but
1:30	we can get to that um you know towards
1:33	the latter half
1:34	great
1:35	well it's great to be back on hi
1:37	everyone thanks for
1:38	joining it's nice to see you and uh yeah
1:42	so today we're going to have a pretty
1:43	quick uh session about fasting you and i
1:46	uh have been talking about fasting for a
1:48	long time um
1:50	we talk about it a lot and we have
1:52	actually we have some different views
1:54	i'm i'm a male
1:55	um sometimes i work out
1:58	we're different ages and so really the
2:00	the question i think we should talk
2:01	about is
2:03	uh
2:03	how does fasting work
2:06	how is it how does it fit into different
2:07	people's lifestyles when should you
2:10	start does it matter your sex does it
2:12	matter if you work out these kind of
2:14	things i think most people they don't
2:16	want just one size fits all because they
2:17	know that right fasting isn't for
2:19	everybody and it's different for
2:21	everybody to be affected
2:23	and actually i'd like to really
2:24	emphasize that because some people don't
2:26	actually know that so and that's
2:28	definitely what we're here to sort of
2:30	highlight that it isn't one size fit all
2:33	um
2:34	keep that in mind
2:37	well yeah so i started um skipping meals
2:40	when i was
2:41	in my 20s actually and so often i'm
2:43	asked
2:44	when
2:45	should people start and the answer i
2:47	think is
2:49	well in your 20s actually you can start
2:52	not eating three full meals a day
2:55	especially if you are a nice healthy
2:58	weight we're not talking about of course
3:00	today we're not talking about
3:01	malnutrition or or starvation that's
3:03	very important to to make that point but
3:06	what
3:06	i've like to do in my whole life is to
3:09	gradually reduce
3:11	um
3:12	not just how much i eat because i'm
3:13	actually slowing down in my metabolism
3:15	now 53 as of
3:17	a couple of days ago
3:19	but i also think it's important to
3:21	gradually increase the period where you
3:24	don't eat and re
3:25	shorten the period where you do eat and
3:27	that's what i would like to cover today
3:31	agree we're on the same page with that
3:34	yeah so i've um
3:36	i i started my life in my 20s doing a
3:39	lot of exercise i was working out at the
3:40	gym
3:41	i needed a lot of energy so i was eating
3:44	um
3:45	regular three meals a day and then i
3:46	decided
3:47	well you know i'm not hungry in the
3:48	morning so let me just skip breakfast
3:50	and see what happens and put my calories
3:52	into the later part of the day
3:54	uh and that worked really well for me i
3:56	didn't have this morning
3:58	fog brain fog uh and i could power
4:00	through the day i could learn my my
4:02	lectures or uh not fall asleep during
4:05	lectures in college
4:07	and uh and so i've done that most of my
4:08	life i'd rarely eat a big breakfast or
4:11	breakfast at all and i think that's a
4:13	that's a good way to start if you're
4:15	young and you're considering trying to
4:17	reduce the window of when you eat you
4:19	could either eat uh later in the day so
4:22	start eating a an early lunch or a
4:25	a lunch only
4:27	um and then uh or if you if you don't
4:29	don't like to skip breakfast you can
4:31	actually uh skip
4:33	dinner or at least reduce
4:35	how late you eat but what you want to do
4:37	and certainly we talk about this a lot
4:38	is so if it's a clock you want to have
4:42	an extended period that includes sleep
4:44	because sleep is the easiest time to
4:45	fast by far so either
4:48	try to extend the time in the morning
4:49	when you don't eat or at night before
4:52	you go to bed
4:54	um no i i absolutely agree and you know
4:57	there are a few other factors that i
4:58	factor into it as well
5:00	and something i've chatted about with a
5:02	colleague of mine who's you know the the
5:05	sleep doctor uh but sometimes you know
5:08	the time of the day that you're born can
5:10	affect your personal circadian rhythm
5:12	obviously there is a circadian rhythm
5:14	that we go by because of you know the
5:16	sun
5:17	um
5:18	but
5:19	it's really about the window that you
5:21	eat and the window that you fast and so
5:23	for different people it's different
5:25	things as you said for some people it's
5:27	easier if you skip wrappers for some
5:29	people it's easier you skip dinner
5:33	the hours that you allow your body to
5:37	to just digest and rest and be in a
5:41	state where it's not in abundance as you
5:43	always talk about uh david where it
5:45	feels like it's in lack and
5:48	for those people who are jumping on for
5:49	the first time who don't really know why
5:51	we would fast at all um you know maybe
5:54	you can give like two or three sentences
5:56	of why fasting is good for you why it's
5:59	great for longevity what is happening
6:01	with your body in your body when you're
6:03	fasting
6:04	yeah
6:06	well it's been known for thousands of
6:08	years that societies who have a fasting
6:10	period
6:11	are more disease resistant and healthier
6:13	in the long run so it's a tradition but
6:16	science over the last 70 years has shown
6:19	that reducing not just the number of
6:21	calories but actually when you eat
6:24	is super important for longevity and in
6:26	in rodent studies where most of these
6:28	studies have been done and a few in
6:29	monkeys and a few in humans but the
6:32	rodent studies are very clear these are
6:34	these are the conclusions
6:36	that if you restrict the time period
6:39	during the day which you give an animal
6:42	uh to when they can eat it has a huge
6:44	impact on their health and their
6:46	longevity if you say okay let's take the
6:48	same number of calories and spread it
6:50	out throughout the entire
6:52	waking day or for a mouse waking night
6:55	it doesn't work as well you get a little
6:57	bit of health if you reduce calories but
6:59	it's more important
7:01	uh when you eat
7:03	um and it's also
7:04	of course it's important what you eat
7:06	it's you can't just eat terrible food
7:08	and expect to get away with it but there
7:10	was a an amazing study done by a friend
7:12	of mine down at the national institutes
7:14	of health rafa to cover
7:16	and he thought that he could find the
7:17	optimal diet for a mouse and he put in
7:19	different quantities of protein and
7:21	carbohydrates and fats
7:23	and after studying over 10 000 mice
7:25	found that
7:26	it really didn't matter what they ate so
7:28	much they're all healthy relatively
7:29	healthy diets but the combination of
7:32	ingredients didn't matter it was
7:33	actually when they eat and it was eight
7:35	during the day and it was the the one
7:37	hour window that they got that these
7:38	mice lived a whopping 35 percent which
7:41	is a
7:42	imagine we could do that um and so that
7:45	and other studies looking at
7:47	the amount of calories and when the mice
7:50	typically
7:51	has told us that very likely
7:54	we're eating too often
7:56	and that's why we fast we believe that
7:57	when we're in a state of adversity or at
8:00	least perceived adversity our bodies
8:02	turn on protective genes they turn on
8:05	the sertum genes that we've worked on
8:07	for 20 something years and there are
8:09	other genes such as mtor gets down
8:11	regulated ampk gets upregulated and
8:14	these are longevity genes that protect
8:16	the body we know this from from many
8:19	many studies over the years in animals
8:21	and in humans that there are longevity
8:23	genes that protect us and if we sit
8:25	around and we're always full or at least
8:27	we're snacking on bars during the day
8:29	and we're not moving our bodies say
8:31	that's great we don't need to worry we
8:33	can exhaust our
8:35	our uh
8:36	our bodies early our reproductive
8:38	systems will actually age more
8:40	prematurely
8:41	um someone raised the question about
8:44	fertility and i know you'll talk about
8:46	it later serena the
8:48	one study that was fascinating was that
8:50	mice that didn't uh that restricted
8:52	their feeding the females actually even
8:54	though their fertility uh was not as
8:57	abundant they did extend the period at
8:59	which they were fertile so it does seem
9:01	like there's this trade-off between
9:03	calories longevity and fertility which
9:05	we'll get into more later but really
9:08	what i'm saying is you just want to make
9:10	your body have a little bit of a threat
9:13	to survival so it fights against aging
9:16	yeah and so for anyone who's new to our
9:19	chats uh when dr st clara says adversity
9:23	um and threat
9:25	you know what he's saying is when we're
9:27	not putting food into our bodies when um
9:30	we're restricting that kind of food and
9:33	intake
9:35	our bodies feel like um it's it's in
9:38	luck and it's it's in adversity and so
9:42	that's for anyone who's new to our type
9:44	of chats that's that's what he that's
9:46	what he's referring to um and um that's
9:50	you know that's why it's good for long
9:52	longevity um in addition to that
9:55	i was just gonna add that um it's
9:57	similar to the effects of exercise and
10:00	cold therapy and hot uh you know and and
10:02	sauna these are all the types of
10:04	adversity that we're learning
10:06	uh puts the body into a defensive state
10:09	that fights disease
10:10	yeah and and um again for any newbies
10:13	out there it also means like when we're
10:15	stressing our bodies that when it sort
10:17	of perceives stress like you know how
10:19	cold punch can feel like
10:21	awful you know when you're in it until
10:23	you're out of it or
10:25	uh you know the type of exercise that
10:27	seems like a really taxing your body is
10:29	and of course when we're fasting and we
10:31	may feel like we're starving ourselves
10:33	it's that stress and that sense of
10:35	adversity that we're giving our bodies
10:37	alongside that we're also allowing our
10:40	bodies to kind of heal you know giving
10:43	it a break to
10:45	um
10:46	you know to kind of rest recover detox
10:50	um which supports other benefits it
10:52	supports gut health it supports brain
10:54	health it supports our immunity all
10:56	which lead to uh longevity and lifespan
11:00	so so so now that you know there's a
11:02	little bit of background for people who
11:04	maybe aren't don't know you know what
11:06	we're talking about today and just
11:07	happen to jump on uh let's talk a little
11:10	bit about the windows uh
11:12	i don't have my messages here but just
11:14	you know what feels good um what what 12
11:17	and 12 mean
11:19	what 16 and 8 mean i know that you've
11:21	also talked about um you know 20
11:25	and 4 even uh and so and so if if there
11:29	are differences on average and i know we
11:31	talked we said it's individualistic
11:33	um but just to give some people some
11:35	insight so that they can figure out what
11:37	works for them and how to figure out
11:39	what works for them
11:41	right so if you hear these numbers that
11:43	serena just mentioned they're talking
11:45	about the window of eating so
11:48	uh for instance the the 16-hour window
11:50	you'll hear people talk about that
11:53	typically means you want to skip or
11:54	you're skipping breakfast and having a
11:56	late lunch
11:58	which is what a lot of people can do
12:00	um if you go further you can do 18 hours
12:02	a day
12:03	and some people go to 20 hours a day
12:06	and then you just you know four hours is
12:07	still
12:08	you know one meal and it's all also
12:10	called omad is our one meal a day
12:13	um but importantly i i always want to
12:16	put um with adequate nutrition
12:18	so if it's confusing to you one then the
12:21	larger number is the number as the our
12:25	the larger number applies to the hours
12:26	that you're not eating so 16 would be
12:29	the hours that you're not eating and
12:30	then um eight would be the hours that
12:33	you can eat
12:34	yeah and so that's what we're referring
12:36	to when we're talking about the numbers
12:38	and
12:39	dr sinclair was talking about one meal a
12:41	day
12:42	we differs just slightly there because
12:45	i'm really more about eating within that
12:47	window and it can all come in one meal
12:50	as
12:51	david said if you get a nutritionally
12:53	dense meal and if you you can't get it
12:56	all in one meal it's okay to have more
12:58	than one meal just as long as within the
13:00	eating window of you know eight hours or
13:04	six hours or four hours whatever it is
13:06	that you're doing
13:08	yeah you also want to match your fitting
13:09	to your circadian rhythms uh it turns
13:12	out these longevity genes that we work
13:14	on the sartunes they actually control
13:16	the clock and if you've ever heard me
13:17	talk about nad this molecule that
13:20	is essential for life and longevity it
13:22	also goes up and down with the day
13:25	and
13:26	what you eat controls your nad levels
13:28	and if you start to eat
13:30	fairly uh irregularly let's say one day
13:33	your breakfast the other day you have
13:34	you you know you skip breakfast and then
13:36	you eat a big dinner and the next day
13:37	you skip dinner it'll it'll make it's
13:40	not as good as being consistent actually
13:42	because what's going to happen is that
13:43	your your sleep wake cycle and your nad
13:46	cycle is going to get out of whack and
13:48	you might even feel jet lagged
13:49	um
13:50	so that that's an important thing and
13:52	there was actually a study in mice that
13:54	if they they fed the mice in periods
13:56	when they would not normally eat let's
13:58	say they only gave them some food uh
14:00	when they were asleep and made them go
14:02	and get that food they didn't live
14:04	longer so
14:05	timing of this is very important so i
14:07	try
14:08	most days to match it and so i like to
14:11	eat most of my calories if i can
14:14	around dinner time try not to go too
14:16	late if possible uh and then fast
14:18	through the night and have very small
14:20	amounts of food up until then if
14:23	possible oh and i just want to mention
14:25	if possible because i'm not perfect at
14:27	this you know you've seen me eat before
14:30	i
14:31	typically have a little bit of yogurt in
14:32	the morning because i have polyphenols
14:34	that are insoluble and i mix that so
14:38	it's okay to have a little a few bits of
14:40	calories you can have a coffee with a
14:41	bit of milk this is not going to break
14:44	it fast terribly and your body will
14:45	still i believe and the results say from
14:48	the lab that you'll still still get the
14:50	benefits
14:51	but often when you're starting these uh
14:53	how about we talk about how difficult
14:55	this is and how to make it easier
14:57	yeah that's actually that's that's great
14:59	um to kind of segue there for people who
15:02	you know for those of you who um
15:05	are just used to having breakfast every
15:07	single day that's sort of how you're
15:09	brought up how you're raised how what
15:10	your knows kind of part of your your
15:12	rituals and and how you go about your
15:15	day i think an easier way to start would
15:17	be try for 12 hours and as david said
15:20	include your sleep time so if you're
15:23	sleeping for
15:24	uh
15:25	you know eight hours or or six hours or
15:28	seven hours all you have to do is
15:30	bookend it so that means starting your
15:33	fast you know plus
15:35	one plus or minus one or two or three
15:38	hours before you go to bed and then
15:40	adding on those other hours plus or
15:42	minus on the on the other end of
15:44	sleeping so
15:46	again if you sleep for eight hours and
15:48	you want to try fasting for 12 then that
15:51	means you just stop eating for two hours
15:53	before the that sleep period of eight
15:56	hours and then you add in two hours when
15:58	you wake up where you don't eat and then
16:00	really that's that's 12 hours and you
16:03	really only make an effort for
16:05	you know for those hours and then it
16:07	becomes easier to just add another hour
16:10	and just add another hour and if you do
16:12	it on the book ends it's much easier and
16:14	it doesn't seem as stressful or as a
16:17	strain
16:18	so um
16:19	so yeah
16:23	yeah stephanie said it's easier than she
16:25	thought so it really can be easier than
16:27	than it sounds
16:29	um just to answer a couple of questions
16:31	that have come up um i do
16:33	occasionally have drinks in the morning
16:34	athletic greens is one
16:37	i've checked my blood glucose levels
16:38	they don't go up at all when i drink it
16:40	so for me
16:42	i'm getting the vitamins and it's very
16:43	low glycemic index
16:45	someone asked me what about a 72-hour
16:47	fast rust asked about it 72 hour faster
16:50	are often done by people who really want
16:53	to get a deep cleanse 72 hours is when
16:56	deep autophagy or recycling of proteins
16:59	it's called
17:00	kicks in
17:02	i've never actually been able to do that
17:04	i can only go for a day
17:07	but there are some people who can do 72
17:09	hours and i think that if you do that
17:11	i would say every couple of weeks i
17:14	would or maybe a month is more more
17:16	reasonable um that would be great
17:19	biologically to be able to clear out the
17:20	body
17:21	yeah and we can actually talk a little
17:24	bit more about that if you guys have an
17:25	interest there are seven you know
17:27	24-hour fast 72-hour fast five days
17:30	seven days and people have done 10 and
17:31	30 days there are different ways to do
17:34	fast like that um and different ways to
17:37	support your body when you are doing
17:38	fast like that and so i'd want to dive
17:40	into that properly so that you guys have
17:43	the tools and the information to support
17:45	you um but yes there are obviously
17:48	benefits so as long as you do it the
17:49	right way um and and
17:52	water and liquids are super important in
17:54	any yeah you have to stay super hydrated
17:57	uh
17:58	so
17:59	so yes um okay so covered that uh i know
18:03	that some people
18:04	uh about women's health i know we're
18:06	kind of coming up on time so i did want
18:09	to address some of that um about women's
18:12	health and
18:13	how to fast and as david brought up
18:16	earlier it's different for women and men
18:18	so how a man can fast is definitely
18:21	different than how a woman can and he
18:23	also brought up how it can affect
18:25	fertility so you know as females we
18:29	require different nutrients at different
18:31	times of the day different times of the
18:32	month and it does have to do with our
18:34	hormones um and
18:37	we kind of have to modify this
18:39	throughout our lifespan
18:40	through the different chapters so as
18:42	people move into menopause
18:43	pre-menopausal so
18:46	cycling is sort of the best way in terms
18:48	of fasting for women so the first and
18:52	second weeks of your cycle you do want
18:54	to do some sort of fasting um
18:57	and that's and that's sort of your bleed
18:59	week and bleed after and a week after um
19:03	for lack of a better term
19:05	sorry all our to our male audience um
19:08	but during these times we're much more
19:10	resilient to
19:12	um carbohydrate restriction so you want
19:15	to be eating foods that are more for
19:17	estrogen metabolism during that time and
19:19	you want to prioritize those type of
19:22	carbohydrates in the form of fiber-rich
19:24	foods um we've talked about that before
19:26	and we have content on that and we can
19:28	dive into more detail if you want on
19:30	another time um but that's sort of what
19:33	you should keep in mind when you are
19:35	fasting
19:36	and what you're eating during the fast
19:39	and so and then your second week um your
19:42	anabolic hormones they go up which is
19:45	your estrogen and your testosterone and
19:47	so you need to increase your protein
19:48	intake a little bit and that can come in
19:50	the form of animal protein or implant
19:54	protein but just to be more mindful of
19:56	that and then in your third and fourth
19:58	fourth week which is your ovulation week
20:00	um your luteal week
20:02	your body is in sort of a different
20:04	hormonal environment and so
20:07	you want to kind of focus more on
20:10	resistant starches and when so when
20:12	you're fasting to keep those things in
20:14	mind you can't be as aggressive we can't
20:17	be like the boys unfortunately because
20:19	if we're a little bit too aggressive we
20:21	fast for too long of a period of time we
20:24	keep our body in ketosis we can actually
20:26	produce more reverse t3 um and that's
20:29	not what we want to do you can even make
20:31	yourself insulin resistant so as females
20:33	we just have to be more mindful and be a
20:35	little bit more gentle um when we
20:39	during the different weeks of the month
20:40	um in our ovulation in our cycles so
20:43	that's what i would say and it's not a
20:44	blanket for everyone it's just to keep
20:47	those things in mind and to support
20:48	yourself while you're fasting um with
20:50	those type of foods
20:52	and i think we're coming up close to
20:54	time so i know there's a lot more
20:56	fasting for vegan women i'm vegan i fast
21:00	i do intermittent this intermittent
21:02	fasting that we're talking about i try
21:04	to pretty much do it every single day
21:06	some days i fall off that's okay um but
21:09	it's pretty much a daily a daily thing
21:11	minimum of 12 i
21:14	i target 16 and that happens most days
21:17	of the week
21:18	uh and just to make sure that i get in
21:21	those foods during specific weeks of the
21:23	month
21:25	i was just called a beast i'm not sure
21:27	if that's a compliment or not but uh
21:28	thank you anyway uh just a few things
21:30	i've seen come up i'll quickly address
21:32	during a for lack of time uh and a man
21:35	and a man i take it in the morning i
21:37	don't take it at night because you want
21:38	your nad levels to go up in the morning
21:40	otherwise you'll you'll probably feel
21:42	jet lag i take it with water you don't
21:44	need food with that
21:45	i'm currently taking a gram at
21:48	uh well half a gram of day i've reduced
21:49	it recently but i used to take the gram
21:51	a day
21:53	resveratrol i still take that in the
21:54	morning with my nmn in the yogurt
21:56	because that gives me my
21:58	my my boost that gives me the energy and
22:00	uh
22:01	matches the circadian rhythms
22:03	um so yeah this is uh
22:05	i think unfortunately running out of
22:06	time straight away
22:08	for another few hours i know i think
22:10	we'll have to wrap it up i know that
22:11	there's been a lot of comments um just
22:14	about how much we can we can kind of get
22:17	in into a chat and sometimes we don't
22:20	answer all your questions the most
22:22	helpful thing is to either send messages
22:25	you can send it to the community app you
22:26	can send it to uh
22:29	two direct messages and just flag that
22:31	these are questions that you'd like to
22:32	have answered in the lives um actually
22:35	the best thing you can do is when we
22:37	share that we are doing a live i'm
22:40	usually in stories or on a post
22:42	drop your questions there and then
22:44	that's really the ones that we're going
22:45	to pull from um it's sort of the easiest
22:48	for us and that way we can address
22:49	questions and prepare for them because
22:51	we do spend
22:53	time and energy and love preparing for
22:55	these for you guys so we want to serve
22:57	you guys in the best way possible
22:59	uh so that's it time does fly we're at
23:02	30 minutes and so we're going to wrap it
23:04	up but we are going to do more of these
23:06	yes we will save this for later as
23:07	always we edit we clean up and uh we
23:10	reshare we repost uh and we still have
23:13	our link up if you guys want to sign up
23:15	uh for
23:17	our series basically and get the notes
23:19	from our chats
23:21	and that there's a burning question i
23:22	think that i i raised that somebody
23:24	posted
23:25	why would i reduce my animation levels
23:28	oh
23:29	this gizmo okay
23:32	um and so the answer to that is um i'm
23:35	trying different things i want to see
23:36	what might work and i want to see if
23:37	lower levels will make any difference
23:39	it's an experiment and we'll see how
23:41	things go
23:42	okay great all right thanks so much
23:44	david thank you guys and thank you for
23:46	all the thank yous that i see here and
23:48	we'll see you guys next time alright
23:50	thanks
23:51	bye everyone
24:12	you