Breathwork, Peptides, and Psychedelics: Inside the New Era of Personalized Health

Healthspan vs. Lifespan 0:00

Why do you feel that? Healthspan really is the goal of the longevity movement. Because if we don't have Healthspan, then it's going to tax the entire system to the point where we won't be able to sustain the services we offer for health care. Like we can't have everyone living to 130 being sick. We just cannot sustain that health. And the health care system cannot sustain that. Now we can have people living to 130 if they are healthy. And so there's a very big difference between the two. And health is the number of healthy years of living.

And, you know, the country that has the highest health span is Singapore. And they designed an entire health care system around efficiency, around health, around ensuring that people are taken care of, but also ensuring that society is designed in a way that encourages health versus just fixes disease. Welcome to Doctor Talks, the podcast where every episode leads to a healthier you. Join us as we navigate the world of optimal health, uncovering groundbreaking strategies to conquer chronic disease.

In each episode, we'll bring you the latest insights from leading health experts, medical innovators, and wellness warriors. If you're seeking to transform your health journey, or if you're looking for answers to burning questions. You've come to the right place. Get ready to unlock the secrets of lifelong health and vitality. This is Doctor Talks, real talk from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most. Hi everyone and welcome back to Rad Cast Where Science Meets Soul and the quest to extend human health, vitality, and purpose.

I'm your host, Doctor Melissa Girl Peterson, and today's guest is a force of nature in the longevity movement. Doctor Molly, I love, from the halls of Stamford to the inner circles of Silicon Valley. Molly has become one of the most exciting and insightful voices in health span optimization. Her work blends everything from mitochondrial medicine and digital health to biofeedback, biohacking and emotional intimacy, proving that true longevity isn't just about living longer. It truly is about living better.

She's the author of The Spark Factor, the first biohacking guide designed specifically for women. And she's here today to talk all about her systems based framework for rewiring, healthspan and reclaiming vitality for every level of life. Dr. Molly, welcome to activist. My god, Melissa, thank you for that introduction. Jeez. Yes. Good to be here. I mean, come on, I love you. You know, I was so thrilled that last summer, actually, last fall, we got to participate in the Women's Longevity Lab together at Rad Fest.

And I'm like, this woman is like a soul sister. And I can't wait for just more points of connection and collaboration as time goes by. And so it's been too long. I can't believe it's already been so many months, but it's just really great to have you back here. So thank you. Yeah, well, you have you know, when I think about, life lived, you have lived so much, you've you have been, you have. And we were just talking about like, oh, it's person you built for it, right? Like, you really are such a true leader.

You're out there taking a stance in so many innovative ways. And, you know, you've you've had this emphasis on healthspan over lifespan. There's kind of just been at the core of your work. So let's talk let's just kind of create a container for those coming in today who are maybe newer to that conversation or terminology. Why do you feel that healthspan really is the goal of the longevity movement? Because if we don't have Healthspan, then it's going to tax the entire system to the point where we won't be able to sustain the services we offer for health care.

Like we can't have everyone living to 130 being sick. We just cannot sustain that. Health in the health care system cannot sustain that. Now we can have people living to 130 if they are healthy.

Stress Resilience and Recovery Tools 4:06

And so there's a very big difference between the two and Healthspan is the number of healthy years of living. And, you know, the country that has the highest healthspan is Singapore. And they designed an entire health care system around efficiency, around health, around ensuring that people are taken care of. But also ensuring that society is designed in a way that encourages health versus just fixes disease. They really, from the ground up, built a health care system based on health, whereas our system is based on sickness.

And there's a big problem when our health care system is 18% of the GDP, because that is a very expensive system. And it's obviously not super effective, because if it were, we'd be living longer and healthier lives. So when I started my career, I was honestly terrified because I was leaving mainstream medicine, I was leaving my residency, I was getting my license, and I basically stepped out of mainstream health care and was like, I have such a deep conviction that health is more than fixing sickness, that I have to build a practice around optimizing health, and I want to build perfect world medicine.

What would medicine look like if you had a great doctor who could spend all the time they wanted on you, order all the labs they could want, do all the questions asked in the longest history, and I really like. I'm so grateful to my early patients who let me work with them because they helped me shape my practice, which today is actually based on a lot of the same first principles, which is you apply the lessons of allopathic medicine to health, which means you you do have an emphasis on empiricism.

You do measure things. You want to you understand the pathways that you're trying to work with, but you also understand the qualitative history. And then you're not just looking at the medical problems, but you're also looking at functional biology. And when you do those two things, you have your objective, you objective, then you create your assessment. And I do assessments in all the different systems and then plans, and then you systematically work on different systems until the body gets back into homeostasis.

Now it's very influenced by all apothic medicine. But I also have been influenced by functional medicine and osteopathy and, naturopathic medicine and Chinese medicine and eastern medicine and energy medicine. So and regenerative medicine. And so I look at longevity medicine today, and it's not like one single thing. It's a it's like a bunch of different ways of thinking about the body to get it into balance so that it can be resilient. And so the definition of health that I use is the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of adversity.

And, look, we're not none of us are immune to adversity. But the real question is, is how badly do you break down if you get hit with major stressors? And last year in my life, I got hit with so many stressors, it was like I was tested hardcore. And I'm super lucky that I had all the tools in the toolbox to get better, because it was a really tough year last year, and I'm still fixing fixing things, but I, I was able to continue working and, you know, doing all the things that I do despite my challenges.

And to me, that's a testament to, to having good health as a baseline. So first of all, thank you for sharing that. It's already created at least six questions I want to ask you a little work in reverse, which is, you know, that you had a really stressful year. Yeah. And so, you know, one of the tenants that you to your work and that you really support your clients and patients with is this appreciation of rewiring stress. You know, if we if we can take a different approach to stress that it can actually help us to live longer, better.

So what would you say are some of the things that you've personally done from your own toolbox that you share with your patients that you really apply to self first, that you believe helped you the most through that time? Well, I learned I was very lucky to learn a breathwork, yoga and meditation sequence from Sadhguru who, by the way, I will fully admit I think is running the largest cult in the world. He's basically our generation's Osho. But oh my god, does he know his stuff? When it comes to resetting the inner sort of compass?

And I'm very I'm actually not like a cult member. I'm not like, I really love the organization, but I am a Christian and a Jew, and I like Buddhism, so I don't really fit within any religious context. But I learned these. I basically like optimizing resiliency starts from like it's an inside job. So if you're not finding time for peace and stability, like I meditated this morning, first thing when I got up, I was feeling a little tense and I was like, oh my God, I just need to sit and just pause and breathe.

And so I meditate daily. I do breathwork, and it's not like Wim Hof breathwork. It's like very it's a lot of counting and it's a lot of chanting and it's a lot of stuff that I learned through that grew. But toning and combing and chanting and breathing and counting all those things actually do contribute to improved, heart rate variability. And so I do I notice a really big difference when I'm consistent with my practices. And it's become and then like hatha yoga is like something anybody can learn how to do.

I used to be Ashtanga, but I do Ashtanga when I'm not super stressed. I do hatha yoga when I'm like, oh shit, I am really at my breaking point. I just need to do something that's not super intense. That's going to get me back to balance. So I look at like different things for different reasons, right? Like when you're feeling strong, when you're feeling resilient and stable, that's when you do stuff like Wim Hof and cold plunges and hot and Ashtanga yoga. But when you're feeling like burned out or tired or energetically spent, that's when you do the gentle stuff.

And, you know, I was struggling with getting into cardio, because I was like feeling really overwhelmed. But I got into rocking because I was like, this is so easy that I can do this even though I'm tired, and you only need to do like 20 to 25 minutes of rocking versus like a lot of chronic cardio. Maybe it won't help if you're already running on empty, you know, and I do weight training. I honestly don't think I will ever stop weight training because, I mean, I did. There's a few months last year I did, and we train because I was pretty exhausted.

But I feel better when I weight train consistently, but I'm not going to go hit my personal best. If I'm feeling like running on empty, I'll do main maintenance. You know, maybe I'll add 5 pounds here and there, but I'm not going to go super hard in the gym. And then I don't know if hot tubs are healthy or unhealthy, but when I get into the hot tub and I'm watching the sunrise over the Tetons, it's like, it's like the greatest thing in the world. So that I do do. But I think they might be toxic.

Other things that I do would be, you know, a lot of people struggle with metabolism when they're really stressed out. Yeah, yeah, I got into I recently got introduced to this product called keto five. And so a lot of people are like, if you're really struggling metabolically because you're really exhausted. And by the way, all the things that happened to me last year were like accidents and infections and stuff that happened that like, I did not know I was even I had no idea that would happen to me.

Right. Like I thought I was. So I, but I wasn't. And so I got hit with a bunch of weird shit that like, was not things that I feel like I called in, but stuff that just happened. So, like, I had a head injury last year and I had a bike accident and I, my face was all jacked and I was able to heal it with wound cream I created. But I started experiencing pretty obvious cognitive cognition and memory issues. So I had to do a lot of first of all, I did have to I didn't quit work, but I scaled back work, briefly for like a

Finding the Right Longevity Practitioner 11:40

couple of months just to get really full grounding. I did have stellate block this year. I neural therapy with this guy, Doctor Door, who lives in Sedona, and I do a retreat with Katrina Belinsky every year. And, it's like a super serious biohacking regenerative medicine retreat in Sedona. So if anyone's listening, they can join, but they have to contact me. We'll do contact at the end of the end of the episode. But doctor two door like if you've dealt with, I had like a, I had a PTSD inducing event last year, which I don't need to get into the details of, but it was like pretty intense.

And so those first block I did felt like it reduced my symptoms by at least 50%. And so like blocks are basically resetting your autonomic nervous system and, I'm a really big fan of looking at the body first through first principles. So like stress is really tough to manage if you've if you've experienced any trauma. And so what do you do. Right. Well, psychedelics are currently illegal, but I do think they have a role. I did do one ceremonial journey with MDMA and mushrooms with a, the guide, and that was majorly helpful.

But I also did the cell block and like, you know, you got to go to the right practitioner. And my favorite person is doctor tutor. But I also do recommend, if you're in the Bay area, doctor Matt Cook does really a really good stuff block, but is such a game changer for getting your parasympathetic nervous system back on line and getting your sympathetic nervous system to chill out. And I was like, oh my God, this is so awesome. And what else? If you're dealing with a lot of stress, you know, you do need to deal with the gut because the gut usually gets compromised with serious stressors.

So I did start a peptide regimen for fixing my gut, which was incredible. I so I, I had a lot of women out there, and men, may never have heard of this pathogen called urea plasma, but I've gotten this at least twice from men that I've dated, and it can cause actual, in fact, infective symptoms, even though most doctors aren't even looking for it, can also cause infertility. So I ended up having to take antibiotics for it, which led to stuff. So that led to me getting like, I mean, I didn't get hospitalized, but I, I actually gave myself a stool transplant from, the company called Novel Biome.

And then I used BPC, PR, Cfpb, and La Raza, Tide and Tribe Uterine. And I mean those that combination I mean my got back to normal. So like you really fix stuff when things break. They shouldn't break in the first place. And unfortunately urea plasma is like a is a is like they actually check for it in China and they treat it like they treat it like chlamydia. But they don't do that in America because 50% is about 40% of people carry it and have no symptoms. So it's considered a commensal in some people's cases.

But in other people's cases it can cause symptoms. And I've dealt with this with a lot of my clients actually, this client of mine who's like flown all the way from different countries to see me, but specifically because they couldn't get this stuff figured out and I was able to find it. And so now I'm looking at every patient, but it's a really big A, it's a really big bug that people aren't looking at. Unfortunately, I should have found a like a natural traffic solution. But yeah, last year sucked.

Like I had a real. But you know what? The beauty. I looked at it all as a gift. I was like, God, thank you for showing me all these things that you could teach me because I was able to fix so many things. And like, I became a much better doctor because I was like, so forced to fix myself. And I hadn't had to deal with health issues for so long that I was like, wow, what a great lesson, because you really learn a lot from fixing yourself. And so now I'm like, you know, I'm grateful in a weird way, but it was really annoying at the time.

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Meet the people you want to make forever with Rad Fest 2025. Take advantage of lower advanced pricing now at Radford. Scott. Well, it's, it's interesting, right? Because when we when we listen, just so I always put myself in the role of I'm a layperson listening to this and I want to learn more. And it's like, Holy cow, she's a doctor who had to give herself her own fecal transplant. I can't do that to myself. How do I figure this stuff out when I want to be? I want to be expressing greater health here today.

And and you're right. Like you thought you were indestructible and you were doing all the right things. I mean, it is your brand. It's who you are. It's what you do. And it is interesting how when, when we when it's time for us to be the student, the teacher arises. And not always in the way that we think, oh, I'm going to be totally honest with you. My greatest teacher is actually this woman, Katrina Belinsky, and she has a secret weapon behind so many doctors, like she is this woman who grew up near Chernobyl and was unfortunately exposed to a lot of radiation and healed herself from cancer twice.

So she's like the top 1% of healers in this country. And it's like, and it's like a deep honor to even work with her. But she basically is like who I go to for everything cutting edge and I actually but I discovered novel biome on my own because I got a message from the founder on it, on LinkedIn. And, you know, the one eight the widow of the one of the weird things about my life is that when I need something, it comes to me very quickly.

Immune System, Gut Health, and Detox 17:28

It's like somehow, I swear to God, I must have gods. I must have like angels or guides out there. Like literally watching because it seems like the moment I need something, it's like, boom, it's there. But I also think that part of the reason why I'm blessed with this kind of gift of being able to learn and call in solutions is because my job is to go out and preach to like all these podcasts like, hey guys, we have got to build a new health care system, and it's happening, but it's starting with the longevity space one.

Every space is where people are starting to wake up to like make. Maybe I want to pay for this and you've got to find a doctor who understands longevity. There is a great organization called Longevity Docs. There's another organization, Rad Fest. There's organizations out there, a forum where you can search these directories and you can find doctors, but you want to find someone who is ideally interacting with longevity doctors and has a community around them. Because those of us in this space, we're not doing this alone.

I literally query like 100 doctors on a regular basis. If I have a question that I don't have the answer to. And I mean, there is a there is a serious level of information sharing happening in longevity medicine that I have not seen in mainstream medicine. In fact, I saw a lot of doctors not sharing their knowledge with other doctors. And it's like a really interesting thing where the doctors that are really the doctors of the future, they're like, they want to help each other. But you do have to unfortunately be one of the early adopters who has to pay for it. And I hate to say it, but like it's longevity, medicine is still too expensive.

But it's because it's not covered by insurance and it works. And so like typically the stuff that works as an insurance is not cheap. But let me tell you right now, like there's a lot of stuff you can learn on your own. I just educating yourself and watching, watch listening to podcasts like I listen to doctors that I respect. I listen to their podcasts all the time because I'm getting like, new ideas. Like, I'm sure, Melissa, you've got so many podcasts I need to listen to. Are you ready to redefine aging and unlock your full potential as a longevity leader at the Human Longevity Institute?

Our world class certification programs train doctors, coaches, and wellness professionals how to deliver cutting edge, integrative longevity health solutions so people can live better today for longer, healthier, and more vibrant tomorrows. If you're ready to join the Longevity Revolution, visit Human Longevity institute.com to enroll and become a practitioner today. Yeah, it's it's, it's a beautiful time of to your point, I love that about the longevity industry as well. As far as peer to peer collaboration, it is the most uplifting thing in my heart.

When I'm sitting with a group of my peers and just the hunger and the desire to learn, it's a whole different mindset. And so to your point, you know, seeking out providers that are in this longevity, regenerative, integrative. When you see those terms, it's already somebody who's spending more money on their own education. They are surrounding themselves. They are they are the early adopters. They're kind of going out and discovering things that are maybe not being readily discussed or available again, in just allopathic circles.

And, and you want those outliers. And so and if we go all the way back to where the conversation started, and I loved how you brought it up, Japan is one of the few. There's a few countries around the world. And, you know, I just came back from Saudi Arabia from the Global Health Span Summit in, that was this past February. And to see the conversations that are happening in a few pockets of the world, but there are a few pockets that get it. And they are they are running like wildfire with it to that.

Really, by the time 2030 gets here in five short years, this conversation around health span and the way we're going to see the ripple effect. And, you know, in the Western world, we can either catch up or we will end up really falling behind because we do have innovators like Japan, which is one of the few countries that has started it relatively early on. And they they are the longest lived population. And so, you know, I was just, speaking with Aubrey deGrom just a few minutes just before this, I was on a call with him, and again, we were talking about Andrew Scott's work.

And, you know, just really the understanding of, you know, the longevity economy and when we can actually extend health span by one year, the same amount of debt that health care is currently costing is the amount of economic gain. We can infuse 4 trillion into the economy every single year. And so because of this, just because we know it now more than ever, because there's a growing demand, because I think we're all sick and tired of being sick and tired, then we understand that it doesn't have to continue to be the way that it's always been.

And so I love the fact that, you know, even with flex spend an HSA accounts, there is more money available in insurance policies to the consumer that they're able to exercise some freedom of choice. So let's talk about how you're doing it in your practice over it. But M3 health span because, you know, after going through a year of kind of having to step back from patient care and be the patient, you got to fall even deeper in love with the the importance of how health care is delivered. So talk to us about your approach in your practice and how you're really kind of setting the standard that can be, you know, that can inspire other health care practitioners as well as the consumer to know what they should be looking for.

Well, first, I think, a lot of people are just looking at lab testing, which is really crucial. But in the functional model, I think there's a lot of sort of one size fits all protocols being delivered. And I've unfortunately seen a fair amount of casualties from functional medicine clinics. So, I would say that like the biggest innovation that I've learned in, in optimizing health has been kind of really examining my first principles. So I was always focused on mitochondrial health, right? That was really important to me. And it still is.

But I have gone really deep into immune system biology in the last year because basically, even if you have enough energy, if your immune system fails you, as you get older, you're going to die. And so I have started learning how to use this thing called a lymphocyte map. And you can actually map out your entire immune system. And, it's really, really useful because a lot of what you see on the CBC, you can't see, like actual imbalances unless you look at a flow to flow cytometry. So typically flow cytometry is used for people with cancer or HIV or like something that would be like leukemias and lymphomas.

But you can use it for a healthy person who looks healthy, who might actually have immune system issues. So I really like the lymphocyte map. It can really help guide which which, labs a person should be doing next because it can teach you like what's actually in balancing the immune system and even creating immune system deficiencies or overactive immune system. It'll tell you someone might have chronic infections or maybe has autoimmunity, and it can really help you understand, when to start peptides and when to really look at gut health to fix that, because it gut and immune system are tied very closely.

So you have to to really get a person to heal from a lot of chronic illness, you have to do a few things. First, you have to get the immune system to be balanced. You have to get the energy up. And those are really core things that you need to do. And then you also need to detoxify a person because it's a lot of toxins. So my favorite detoxification tool is Ebola. Not able to be oh, and not the Malaysia machines. Make sure to ask don't use those machines. They are not good. And a hooks reaction with those.

You want to get the more newer models, but you want to go to the right people for Ebola because it can filter microplastics. It can ozone eat the blood. It can, you can some some companies even have hemo lumens, which can add UV light to energize the blood. But filtering the blood is really a great tool in the toolbox for longevity and for detox and for immune system health. For somebody who's dealing with autoimmunity, you might even want to go as far as a for raises. But it's expensive. And so it's kind of a pain in the ass because it's way, way expensive.

But that's if you're dealing with like a, like a beginnings of autoimmunity and you really want to get the body out of inflammation, that thing works great. So I'm a big fan of blood filtration. And then when it comes to, you know, fixing the body, you have to look at nutrition because that's going to feed the gut. And that's also going to affect the mitochondria. And so I'm really looking at, you know, a lot of different factors to analyze a person's diet. And I see this sometimes and it's kind of interesting.

I see people not thriving on certain diets. And then I switch them to the exact opposite. And there's like there's a spectrum. Right? So there's vegan. Vegetarian. Mediterranean zone, paleo and and keto and that's like highest fat, lowest carb, lowest fat, highest carb. And I find that if you find someone on the spectrum of like six different diets and they're like they're doing keto on, they're failing miserably or doing paleo and they're not making progress, or they're like carnivore and they're not making progress.

Then you actually move over to more of like a mediterranean plant based and they will like it's really funny. There are probably three main metabolic types. And yet people are like told, like I should just be vegan. And then if I take a vegan and I actually get them on a paleo diet, it's like, whoa, you know, like sometimes if you're not thriving on the current diet, you need to go in the opposite direction and see if you can balance yourself with with different facets. Because like when you go more keto, carnivore, paleo, you're doing more animal, more ancestral, less plants usually, unless you're doing like a walls protocol.

But if you're doing more and, like pescatarian, vegetarian, or like, vegetarian vegan, you're really going higher on the plants, but you're also activating activating them. That immune response. Right. Which it's not surprising that you see a lot of people with cancer go on these detox diets, right? It's also not surprising that you see people on autoimmunity go on these these, like, you know, autoimmune paleo diets, right? So and then like, well, what does a plant based diet do. They do. It's really going to activate that immune system which you need to fight off cancer.

What is a paleo diet going to do. It's going to dampen down that immune system. Right. So I'm all about experimentation nutritionally. And a lot of people just would do just great on a balanced diet. But well, people are sick. They tend to gear on one. They tend to like shift gears and that care maybe from gear to shift. So, that's when I want to that's that's one of the things that I really do talk a lot about. My practice is food because so crucial.

Nutrition, Metabolic Flexibility, and Lab Testing 28:38

It's so, so, so crucial for health. And, you can fix a lot of things, the right diet, but other people just can't do the right diet. So like, let me ask you this just out of curiosity, in your practice, what are what are the what's the pattern around food that you most commonly see? And I'm not here to make a judgment on some of these behaviors. But if you had to say, man, this is where we're we're missing the mark, right? Like this thing just keeps coming up and coming up and coming up. Like, do you see 1 or 2 core things that seem to be pretty predominant that, in across the population?

Yeah. I mean, I would say that there's a lot of people. Right. Let's go. There's two, two main categories. One is like there's these like plant based people that are wasting away and they're just really nutritionally deficient and they're running on fumes and they're just like, they don't have enough nourishment. And it's really clear on their urine, organic assets that they're not getting enough protein. They're not getting enough vitamins, minerals, nutrients. If you can do a healthy vegetarian vegan diet, it is just a lot of work and you have to be vigilant and you have to look at your you've got to measure everything.

People who do this in a healthy way are eating a lot of food. You have to eat a lot of food. Can you tell you, I lived on a farm and I've seen how animals eat and graze, and there is literally like it takes for a one bale of hay. It takes like a very large space of, of a plant. So you're going to be very big and you actually have to eat a lot of food, and I don't see them eating enough. And so then they get deficient, it can be done. I can I've seen it done healthily. It's just they're not the when people are getting it right, they're actually eating a lot.

And then you won't get fat on a if you're eating the healthy way. Now I also see in those people that they're eating a lot of processed foods, like there's a lot of processed vegan products and some of them are good, some of them are garbage, but there's a lot of garbage. And so I'm like, all for whole food plant based. If you're going to do plant based but not really super for like all the processed crap. Now, on the other end of the spectrum, I see a lot of people going low carb, paleo, keto and they get really acid stick and they get really high lipids and it's like that.

That tells me when I see a person who has high lipids, high acid load, they need to actually eat more plants and carbs, they need to scoot over a little bit. And the spectrum of diets and oftentimes, like they're in acidosis because they're in ketoacidosis and it's not AA, but it's definitely there in they're in ketosis. And it's like, I'm not going to say you shouldn't do ketosis, but I'm not a huge believer in continuous ketosis because that's not how nature really looks. Nature. Nature is more about intermittent ketosis.

Right. And so, especially for women, you got to cycle in and out. You know, that's really how you get into the best metabolic flexibility is cycling, carb cycling and keto cycling. And like doing a few days a week where your low carb keto and a few days a week where you're normal to higher carb, weight training. And then you do maybe one day a week where you fast 24 hours and then you maybe you do, one feast day every other week, you know, like stuff like that. You know, that, like learning how to do metabolic flexibility training is not something most people have learned.

And if you want to learn how to do it, simply join the faster way to fat loss matter of this program. She's a she's a rockstar. Her program is basically metabolic flexibility. It's a good it's a good time around, especially for the people looking to lose weight. But yeah. So those are the two things I see is like, they're stuck on either end of the spectrum and they probably need to be the middle. And usually what I'll do for the people that are vegan vegetarians, they'll say, can you eat some fish?

And then usually for the people that are the paleo, I'm like, let's try to up your carbs and lower a little bit of the excess protein, you know, and I had a client that was doing this like and by the way, I don't totally trust the blood type diet, but I use it as a like maybe, maybe this will help us inform things because like, for example, I had a client, those doing paleo could not lose weight at all. Eating lower carb, higher protein could not lose weight. She starts. She would just lose. I said, like, let's switch you over. Your a positive.

Let's switch you over to like maybe a more, slightly more plant based, a little bit more carbs. She's like, oh my God, Molly, I'm losing weight. It's like, yeah, because there was this is not my work, by the way. This is the work of Doctor Kelly and Doctor Gonzalez, these this dentist and this cardio cardiologist that died. They're old. They're both dead. But they were these luminaries, these, like, people that figured out basically how the nervous system gets balanced with nutrition. And they had type two these different types of diets out.

And you can generally tell what a person is by looking at them. Like if somebody is really lean, skinny and burns carbs, like no problem at all, they're probably going to be able to be more a little more plant oriented. Somebody who's naturally fatter and bigger and bigger boned, they're probably going to actually going to do better with lower carb diet. And someone who's in the middle, like me can kind of go both ways a little bit, but usually need more in the middle. And, yeah. So I, I'm really I really like labs to help, you know, look at this stuff and you guys see someone in acidosis, it's like, hey, your diet and acidosis and high lipids and lower carb diet.

Yeah. There are consequences to eating carnivore people always. Yes. It's not always it's not always a silver bullet for people. And they think and red meat is really not an unhealthy food, but it's not good for everyone. And the thing that I want to teach you about nutrition is that not everybody thrives on trendy diets. Right? Like I have an ApoE4 gene so I can do some saturated fat, but if I eat a lot of dairy, I just spike my my, my, cholesterol. Yeah. And my my gut gets super compromised. So my, my genetics basically say, don't do a lot of dairy.

Molly and I experimented with that last summer, and it did not help me like absolutely not something for you. So so I love this. I mean it's you know, again, we are really in a time and thanks to genomics, thanks to the eye, thanks to a lot of the technology and companies that you've even consulted with, the way that we're able to to look at our data, to understand that we truly are more and more every day deepening our levels of personalized precision medicine. And hence that's under this landscape.

You all that are listening of, of longevity medicine because it is taking this personalized approach. It is understanding. It is not one size fits most at all. We are each unique. We each have our own blueprint. And and while there are some general, you know, best practices, it still gets nuanced for each of us individually. We are not all the same, and what works for one doesn't work for the other. But let's go ahead and talk about some of the foundational best practices that really are kind of those core tenets of of just how you really help to optimize your patient's health.

Well, I like to order. I'll start with labs. I like to order, a stool study. I really like the company called by tracked. I like to order a new trouble. I'm also experimenting with a company called theory. Right now, which is kind of a nutritional on steroids and metabolome. Metabolomics test. So we've got that. We've got metabolomics testing, and then I do hormone tests because I really want to look at the whole metabolism of the hormone cascade. I use Dutch, but I also sometimes use Genova. I also like, blood labs for everybody.

So I'm doing a large panel of blood labs, checking the full thyroid panel, looking at three T4 free T3 teeth for T3, reverse T3, TSH, TPO, thyroid, thyroid globulin, antibodies and how much for for heart health? Homocysteine, LPA, high high resolution CRP, and then apob NMR lipoprotein profile and an omega three profile because that's going to help determine insulin resistance and oxidative stress and inflammation. And then I always look at iron studies for everyone. I look at ferritin tabc iron CBC with differential to get a kind of a preview on the immune system CMP for all the organ system markers, sex hormone binding globulin, and then all of the serum hormones because they can be useful as well for, you know, looking at, a person's baseline hormone status.

And then I look at pre testosterone, I calculate that on every body because it's very overlooked by a lot of people. And then I'm also looking at what else is on my normal panel. B12 and folate. Kind of always check magnesium and vitamin D and vitamin D levels need to be a lot higher for most people. And, from there, I mean, I will add things on if someone has a history, right? If I take it I do this long story and it's like, okay, what am I missing here? So if I, if I think someone has leaky gut or food sensitivities, I will run a food sensitivity test.

I think someone I most people need a total tax burden just as a screener for toxicity. Really, really common. But I like the neutral for kind of a preliminary look because I can see the mitochondria, I can see oxidative stress. I can see, nutritional status. I can look and see if a person needs methylation, supplements. So the neutral vial does a lot of stuff and it takes it's taking me a long time to learn how to interpret all those little markers. So that is very really useful. And then I like, and then, and then if someone is giving me maybe they've got chronic infections, maybe they've got chronic like, chronic immune system dysregulation that I will do a lymphocyte map, I'll do an autoimmune panel.

I used to use sirups, but now I'm using vibrant for the autoimmune panel. And then I also will ride like a rheumatoid factor RNA. And then I'll also look at, what else am I missing? Yeah. Those are the big ones that I look at. That's kind of how I approach things because I'm looking at oh yeah. And then there's a company called me screen and it measures your how your cells incubate a cultured muscle cell from their lab and how that changes the muscle cells behavior. And so it's a mitochondrial test.

And so I like to I like to I like to know what I'm dealing with before I'm optimizing because I'm blind. Right. Also if somebody has symptoms of Sibo, I'll run a Sibo test. I like to know what I'm dealing with before I really tackle everything. And, I don't I don't order this entire thing. I people, I take a history and then I determine course, of course, but I do run genetics through the company called Self to Code. And, I switched to them recently because they're just they're just a good company.

They've got a, reports and they're, they're pretty affordable. Honestly, I have given a lot of other companies costs. So I'll use that to determine a lot of things like nutritional status. What what you know what? I will look at their family history, and then I'll look at their their genetics, and then we'll be like, okay, knowing your history, you know, knowing this is your family history, knowing this is your genetics, we may want to be a little bit more vigilant with you on checking cancer or checking for heart disease, and maybe want to do more imaging in your case.

So maybe we'll go do a pendulum scan for someone with a strong history of cancer, maybe a grill test, doing some clinical research right now on, circulating tumor cell testing. And then for heart disease, you know, if I see someone is looking like they might get heart disease and they'll do like a clearly or a heart heart slow, but making sure that they're not ignoring, some imaging testing. So let me ask you this. Really so, so from and this is fantastic. So anybody listening, you know, that this is not your standard test.

This is not standard medicine. This is like high ultra high end care. Yes. This is very in-depth, very comprehensive. You're going to learn a lot about yourself and it can feel overwhelming and exciting and all of it. But when you're working with an expert like Doctor Molly, this is layered over time. And so this isn't just to go and get a thing, get a pill and you're done. Like the way that this works really is over a 12 month process. Just you start and then the beautiful thing and you had mentioned this in the beginning, you know, step one is getting people back to homeostasis.

And then really what's so exciting about longevity medicine. And this is what we teach it. Human Longevity Institute is that it's and what isn't discussed enough is that we think that's where it ends, because actually where it begins, that's where the fun starts. That's where the system we get to take it into greater and greater states of resilience, of capacity, of adaptability. And so it really is about how do we continue to fortify and enhance greater and greater expressions of health. It doesn't have to be one step forward, two steps back.

And we're always trying to, you know, to straddle that line once we get back, we really can. When we are working with experts like Doctor Molly, continue to support our systems to thrive forward. And so so first of all, I love everything you're doing. I'm like, yep yep yep yep yep yep yep. Love it. I'm going to check into the lymphocyte map because I hadn't even thought of it in that way. I'm just like, really? I wrote that one down. I'm like, all right, got it like that. That's a it takes some time to learn it, by the way, because there's like 12 different immuno types.

So it's like you only learn by doing it. Yeah. And they do have some presentations on their website. But it's been really helpful for me. And you know, again, I, I would credit Katrina Wolinsky for being my greatest teacher because if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't even know about this test or peptides or, you know, like, you know, the company called By Track is also really great. They they do direct to consumer super high grade clinical testing. And they've got a cheaper version. They've got a more expensive one coming out.

It's 102 to $300 is still cheaper than most all studies that are functional tests. And so I'm big fan of that company because they do, I believe shotgun sequencing, which means that they are going to be a little bit more, accurate than the other companies that are typically doing, like PCR and things like that. So. Well, and what I want to point out to everybody, and you said it in the very beginning, it's like, okay, you know, your, your, foundational principles. We used to be mitochondria still is, but still is mitochondria.

But you don't have metabolism. So I do put it as here's the thing, I do put a CGM on everyone. And I still look at everyone's ordering and I look at their sleeping well, if they're stressed, if they're moving, if their circadian rhythm biology is really important. So you can't ignore the mitochondria. They are light sensitive organelles. So you got to get enough light in the morning. But they are not enough anymore. I'm realizing they are not enough. It's like it was when I really saw the role of the immune system in aging that I was like, just what?

I think, I know what I'm doing. I have all watched and that much more. I am grateful because it's like, you know, I just wish I would have been to my step, my, my bone marrow when I had the chance like six years ago. I really wish I would have done that, but I didn't want to leave it. Yes, yes. And I will say to everybody, listen, I mean, this is why, you know, recently I actually I think it's up this week as we're interviewing, doing our interview today. But my conversation with doctor Greg Fahy, when we really look at the immune system, when we look at what affects that rate and pace of aging, you know, one of the things he and I were speaking about is, again, just the the simplicity of having access to some fundamental molecules that can support the immune system, which we know is naturally declining because of the thymus gland and ballooning.

So as we chronologically age, there, there is, you know, there's a natural process that unfolds. So the more that we can support that, there is a cool company that I just discovered and I'm so excited about right now. Hold on. So they're called cell life therapies. And okay, so everyone out there in the paleo world is taking all these supplements, right? They're taking like organ supplements and brain supplements. And you know what those things are. You take like a handful of those a day to get even an iota of the growth factors and that. Right.

So what I'm stoked about is like like I think about there's a few things that I just wanted to share on this because like I, there's a big things that I've learned, I learned about through Katrina has been and my other doctors. This is actually from Morgan Camp who discovered this company. So there's a lot of people like me who have dealt with adrenal issues and, hydrocortisone can only go so far and adrenal gland healers can only go so far. So I recently got introduced this company called Solo Therapies, and I'm in the process of doing their adrenal insomnia protocol, even though I don't have insomnia.

It's like it's an adrenal protocol. And what they do is they, they take all of these different organs from pigs and they basically highly, highly, highly refined the hypothalamus, the pituitary, the dimers, the adrenals. They're like refining the these extracts. Right. And they're turning it into this highly refined product that you put under your tongue for like 5 or 10 minutes. And you do this for like the course of a month. And they have incredible testimonials. They're not really like, this is really big medicine.

And like Europe. Yeah, this is not a big thing in America, but it's actually a bigger thing. And things like China, for example, like and China, there's a big belief that like, like heals like and like homeopathic medicine is like, you know, you need to basically like you need to address the problem with something. That's that's the problem sort of, you know, in a weird way. And, so everyone is kind of approaching like bio regulators. Everyone knows about peptides, right? Everyone's learning about BPC, Cfpb all the all the time is in peptides.

Advanced Longevity Therapies and Relationships 46:38

But not everybody knows about bio regulators and what I learned about by regulators and that they were part of like European and Russian medicine. But I was like, oh my God, why are we not using these things? This is amazing. So I started experimenting with them. And there's a lot of value to these things because they are very safe to take. And they're just you're basically just like, literally giving the body the support it needs with the growth factors and with the bio regulators that come from that same, similar organ system.

And, so I'm stoked. I will have to report back on how it goes in a month. But I'm very excited about this company because they have all these different formulas for a lot of problems of aging. And so companies like this are they're typically not easy to find, you know. And then another thing I want to add is like there's a company called Blue Scorpion. And I think that the, the homeopathic venom space is going to it's going to explode in the next year because these are super safe tools for inflammation, for inflammatory bowel disease, for for like, like pain.

And there's so many people dealing with chronic pain and they're getting these like, very dangerous opioids prescribed when they didn't even know they could just take a homeopathic scorpion product. Right now, it's not cheap, but it actually is a really cool tool. The toolbox. So I'm just I'm just excited because there's a lot of stuff out there. It's not about it's not always about throwing big guns at the body like antibiotics. And sometimes it's actually using more gentle forms of healing to get the body back into balance.

Yeah. And I think that kind of takes us back to where we started. And I know we only have a few minutes left, which I want more time. So we'll have to do a part two to this. But you know, the reality, the reminder, the invitation, I believe for us all is life is busy and it's full. And it's easy to think more and more and more and more, more, more must be better. Whether there is more exercise, more movement, more biohacking, more read more. There's more supplements. And we we forget that in order for the system to grow stronger and live longer, it has to be able to recover.

It has to have recovery and it is. And so, you know, a softer approach. Rest isn't just sleeping. There's active forms of rest. So truly doing things like a very gentle yoga, even doing breathwork classes, going and doing forest bathing, doing things where, okay, there's yeah, there's so much benefit to it. Right. And it is re regulating the autonomic nervous system and, and and giving back time for that body to recover and then integrate. So it's like we have the learning. But if we don't we if we can't integrate it, if we can't do something with it, then it's just going to break us down.

So we're going to be applied. So there's so much more. My gosh. All right. Listen, we have to have a part two soon. And I know we kind of got to talk off camera before the conversation started today about, you know, really all the pioneering work that you've been doing in emotional intimacy. There is such an important conversation around people without. Yeah, I'm sorry I interrupt you, but I don't want people to leave without thinking that there's like, the biggest driver of longevity and happiness is your relationship quality.

It's really about your primary, closest relationships that will determine the quality of the length of your life. Also, dogs are great. Like a dog can extend your life by like eight years. So people need oxytocin. And oxytocin is an anti-inflammatory. It's an antioxidant. It's protective. It's cardioprotective. It's a great way to get healthier. But you need humans. You need human interaction. And so don't underestimate the power of hugging or making out with your partner. Sex, orgasm, you name it.

Like, just like cuddling, you know, your dog. Like hanging out with children, playing with kids, getting massage, even just like, briefly tickling your arm that can release oxytocin during the day. You can just do that naturally. So I'm a big believer in oxytocin neurobiology as a past longevity. And I built a company called Adamo Bioscience to study this. And we actually have a really cool, clinically studied, sex therapy for couples. If you guys are interested in learning about how to create more intimacy, connection, and love in your relationship, try the best sex ed course that you could ever get.

So that's a dot living adamo.com. And then if you want to learn more about me and my practice, you can go to Doctor Mollycoddle. I'm actually going to be putting up a new website soon, so there'll be a lot more about the practice on the site. But I am also available on Instagram at Doctor Micro. I'm on LinkedIn and it's at Molly Maloof, M.D. and I, I do respond to most of my messages. So I'm not hard to get Ahold of. You are an amazing human. So let's wrap with this one because you are such a woman of mission.

And so what legacy are you most inspired to leave, not just as a doctor, but really as the catalyst that you are? And I see you, and I believe so many people see you are is for human thriving. I mean, I feel like everything I have at this point in life is a bonus, but I've set a goal a decade ago to radically extend human health span, and I was like, I just want to. And I think what I have basically ended up doing is becoming a catalyst for a lot of doctors to to know that there is a new path of being a doctor and that you don't have to just practice mainstream medicine if you want to be a doctor, you can actually do health span medicine and longevity medicine.

And to me, just being able to know that I've influenced like a bunch of, you know, doctors and patients in the world is like, frankly, enough. But I do hope in the next decade that I can become more of a, you know, just like more of a I don't know if I want to be a public figure or not, but I definitely want to be more of an educator. And I love education. I taught at Stanford. It was one of the most meaningful things I've ever done with my career. So I do hope that more education is part of my job in the next decade.

I'm sure it will be. You are brilliant inside and out. We are so honored to have you here. Thank you doctor Molly, it's been great so much. Yeah, absolutely. All right everybody, the links, all the ways to reach this incredible human are in the show notes. Please be sure to check those out. And fingers crossed she'll be back with us at the Women's Longevity Lab at this year's Rad Fest, the ten year anniversary July 10th through the 13th. We're working it out right now. But for sure we'll have more to come with Doctor Molly on this platform and more.

And so until next time, everybody continue to be bold, stay curious and express your greatest state of aliveness. Take care. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Doctor Talks. We hope today's episode has enlightened and inspired you on your path to optimal health. Each day is a new opportunity to make choices that empower your well-being. For more insights and strategies, subscribe to our podcast and visit our website WW dei doctor Talksport.com. Stay connected, stay healthy and join us next time on Doctor Talks.

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