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Introduction to Longevity Medicine 0:00

Most people wait until the symptoms show up to take action, meaning they have a chronic disease already. But by then, a lot of the damage has already been happening at the surface. This is even symptoms like a headache or energy decline. We want to be proactive. So early intervention, addressing these pillars before you feel unwell gives you the best chance to stay strong, energetic, and independent for decades. Prevention is always more effective than waiting for the disease to disappear. This is Dr.

Talks, real talk from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most. Hi everyone. My name is Dr. Jen Flegar. I am so excited to be here and I'm going to talk to you today about longevity and the basics of longevity medicine. Here's the thing. We hear this as a buzzword so much, but why does it actually matter for your health span and your quality of life? Longevity medicine is an approach that focuses on extending not just the lifespan, but health span. And this is the number of years you live in good health.

And this is free from chronic disease and disability. Being a board certified emergency medicine doctor and board certified integrative medicine physician, I have seen people have lifespan, but not health span. And it's a big difference.

Hallmarks of Aging 1:24

You don't want to be in the ER with chronic kidney disease. having chest pain after dialysis, you know, in your sixties or seventies, because I have seen that all the time. And this is why I'm so passionate about longevity medicine and integrative medicine. Now, before we can understand longevity, let's break down the processes of aging. So scientists now understand that aging isn't just some random thing that happens. It's driven by predictable changes in ourselves and systems, our organ systems over time.

So some of the most important hallmarks and processes of aging include genomic instability. This is damage to your DNA, which accumulates over the years from toxins, radiation, and errors in replication. There's telomere shortening. Telomere are protective caps on the ends of your chromosomes. So each time a cell divides, telomeres are shortened, eventually leading to cell aging or senescence, we call it. There's epigenetic changes over time, chemical tags on your DNA change and they alter gene expression in ways that promote aging and disease.

Some of those things we can change. This is the great thing about longevity. There's also the loss of proteostasis. And this is your body's ability to keep proteins folded up and functional decline. So this, this declines as you age and this contributes to diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's. There's mitochondria dysfunction. Mitochondria are your cellular power plants and power houses. And they gradually produce less energy and they have more reactive oxygen species. And this can happen for many reasons.

Environmental changes are a big thing. Toxins, mycotoxins, all of that. There's cellular senescence. Senescence cells are known as zombie cells, and these cells, they stop dividing, but they refuse to die. And because of this, they keep secreting inflammatory molecules that damage the surrounding tissues and basically make a mess like you think zombies would. There's stem cell exhaustion. Your reservoir of stem cells gradually depletes, reducing your capacity to repair and regenerate your tissues.

There's altered intracellular communication. These inflammatory signals and hormonal changes disrupt how our cells talk to each other, leading to systemic confusion and dysfunction. Basically like a bad game of telephone. These processes, they don't happen overnight and they start silently, sometimes decades before the diseases show up.

The Three Pillars of Longevity 4:03

And this is why longevity medicine is preventative. And we really care about preventing disease before there is actually disease. Let's talk about the key pillars of longevity. There are three main pillars that you should know about that impact nearly all of these processes that we spoke about. The first is metabolic health. If you guys know me or watch my Instagram or listen to my podcasts or watch me on the YouTube channel, you know that metabolic health is so important to me. And this is one of the big pillars that I talk to about my patients in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s and up.

Okay. And also I practice what I preach, so it's very important to me also. So your metabolic drive is how your body uses and stores energy. Insulin sensitivity, glucose control and body composition are crucial. This is why I love muscle. Poor metabolic health, it accelerates our aging, it increases inflammation and contributes to almost like every chronic disease we have. And we know that you can't have disease without inflammation. So metabolic health should be on the forefront of everyone's mind when we talk about longevity.

Inflammation, this chronic low-grade inflammation, often called inflammation, damages tissues over time. And this contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration. Managing inflammation is essential for staying vibrant and functional. And this is where your integrative physician can find out, do you have chronic low-grade inflammation? And I have patients that have this low-grade inflammation, usually from gut health, but sometimes from other things. And it might not show up on lab work or even a CRP, but I know it's there.

I know it's there from their energy levels, right? Because their mitochondria are not healthy. So there's different ways that if you work with a season-trained integrative physician, they will definitely pick up on these markers and these clues of low-grade inflammation. And then the third is mitochondrial function. When your mitochondria declines, your energy, resilience, and ability to repair damage plummets. Supporting mitochondrial health help maintains your vitality, stamina, and cellular repair as you age.

Why Early Intervention Matters 6:21

So why are we listening to this? Why do we care? Because early intervention matters. Most people wait until the symptoms show up to take action, meaning they have a chronic disease already. But by then, a lot of the damage has already been happening at the surface. This is even symptoms like a headache or energy decline. We want to be proactive. So early intervention, addressing these pillars before you feel unwell gives you the best chance to stay strong, energetic, and independent for decades.

Prevention is always more effective than waiting for the disease to disappear. So there are some tools that we could talk about quickly. So what can you do to support this longevity? So your diet is so important, nutrient-dense food that is going to stabilize your blood sugar, anti-inflammatory foods. So we don't want a bunch of processed sugars and processed flours. We want real food, food that doesn't have an ingredient list on the back.

Nutrition, Exercise, and Fasting 7:27

And this food that is micronutrient dense, like meat and eggs, that's going to provide a bunch of key vitamins, minerals, and polyphenols. Exercise. So strength training helps preserve muscle. And then we can mix in some cardio from time to time to help our VO2 max, which is also very important for longevity. But muscle is going to stabilize your blood sugar. It's going to help you be more insulin sensitive. It's going to help keep that good body composition. And it's a balance. You know, we know that bodybuilders that maybe take some stimulants too, but the real bodybuilders that are stimulating mTOR like all the time or workout multiple times a day, we do know that that is not good.

We want this like sweet spot and balance. If you need some muscle, but you also don't want to work out hours and hours a day, can stimulate mTOR continuously. And this is also where you can throw in some fasting to this. And for women, I coach, especially perimenopausal women, totally different. And that is really important to me to treat them differently on when they fast. Peptides are really helpful. These are short chains of amino acids. We're going to dig into this a little later. The signal repair, regeneration, and immune modulation.

I love bioregulators. They're even shorter chains of peptides, little snippets, a few amino acids discovered by Russian research that balance gene expression and cellular function.

Peptides, Bioregulators, and Lifestyle 8:51

And this really can help restore youthful aging. And then our lifestyle, we need stress reduction, high quality sleep. prayer is amazing, you know, reading your Bible and maintaining strong social connections. That all helps with accelerated aging. So I would love you guys to stay tuned and listen for more. And thanks for learning about longevity. Thank you for tuning into Dr. 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, www.doctortalks.com. Stay connected, stay healthy, and join us next time on Doctor Talks. Real talks from real doctors on the issues that matter to you most.