Living a more vibrant life (mitochondrial)

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

And I think you’re talking about lifespan, which is how long we live versus health span, which is how long were healthy during that time.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Yeah, I’d rather call it the Well Span, but that’s just me.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Okay. So the real question, nobody wants to live a long life and not be healthy. I think as soon as I think the majority of people, as soon as they are not feeling well and can’t take care of themselves or lose their minds would rather not be here. I think at least that’s our mindset than I think that’s the mindset of most of our listeners. So really what, what does it take to have an amazing, healthy, vibrant life for as long as you possibly can?

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Well, we put together a framework for that actually, that we want to share with you. I think we’ve shared in and other intros and we want to just do a brief recap of that. And our company is called Five Journeys because we say that you take five unique paths to get to optimal health and they all intertwined. So it’s not like you take one path and ignore the others. They’re really all meant to be optimized. So the five journeys are your physical health, that’s your bones, muscles, ligaments, the way your structures put together your posture. Everyone always sits up straight. When I tell our patients about the posture, they sit up straight, then there’s your chemical journey. That is your food, your nutrients, your minerals, your hormones, your digestion. What are you eating? How are you eating it? Are you chewing it all of that? That’s typically what people think about as functional medicine. That’s the data portion of what we get. And then there’s the emotional journey because all of us have picked up traumas and issues from our past. And so how we are resolving those and how we talk to ourselves and our beliefs about ourselves actually influence the ability of our body to be healthy. So those all do play a role in our health.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

So let’s finish them up and then maybe let’s do an example of each one so that we can think about that. So next is social in terms of how, so Dan Buettner put out a book called Blue zones where he looked at five areas in the world where people lived over 100 years old and were healthy. There were a lot of differences and one of the main similarities is community being together, celebrating life events, sharing food.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

No woman is an island folks.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

So it’s really important community. As in this society, we’ve really just not paid attention to community and we know that’s one major health factor and having community, especially as we get older and especially as a a lot of people when they get older, get more isolated, that’s quite the opposite time to actually be out there and get be with younger people,

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Knowledge, be with people. So the social journey is a critical journey that Ed was just talking about.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

So then there’s the spiritual sense of purpose in the world.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Why are you here? And what legacy are you meant to create?

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

So if you think about it, if you’re an 80 year old guy, why would you want to get up and exercise and eat well if you have no purpose, if you’re just waiting to croak? So the idea is really maybe you don’t have a bigger big huge sense of the world, but maybe it is just taking care of your grandkids or the people in front of you or whatever it is for you, animal welfare, whatever your purpose, whatever is gonna make that heartfelt feeling of contribution. That’s where you want to make sure you have it at.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

It’s big enough to get you up in the morning and it’s big enough to inspire you when things get hard because things are going to get hard. That’s just how life goes, it goes up and it goes down.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

So I want to take a moment to like talk about, let’s talk about the physical body because we talk about body alignment. Everybody sits up but let’s talk what a lot of times happens. Most of us are glued to the keyboard. Ain’t that great? Yeah. And then we go like this and then we go like this and we got, and we go, it’s really hard to be vibrant and alive when you’re one of these older people that are hunched over and can barely walk. It’s, that’s not what we’re looking for. So making sure you’re stretching your core, you’re working your core really hard and you’re stretching your spine, doing things like yoga Pilates bar, anything that’s gonna work your core, move your spine, move all your joints. Walking is amazing and it’s not enough.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Well, I want to jump onto that because one of the things that’s so amazing is that the way you hold your structure. So, are you slouched? Are you taking up space, the way that your body is aligned actually alters and influences your hormones? Meaning if you’re curled in on yourself and you’re kind of apologizing for your space that signals your body to put out lower levels of testosterone, higher levels of cortisone and cortisol. And the way you are perceived is that you are less powerful. Now, on the converse side of it, if you take up space, this is Amy Cuddy’s work. If you take up space, take the power poses like Edwards, just so beautifully demonstrating that when you get into those positions, it signals the body to quiet cortisol increase testosterone. You are viewed as more powerful simply by the position you’re taking. And so it makes a difference in the downstream and the chemical and the emotional when you take positions that open your body up and expand you. So I know it sounds a little woo woo, but it works. So it’s based in data

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

And there’s an exercise that I want that I go through with a lot of my new patients, but we can’t do it here because it’s a participant. You can try at home for a minute when you look down shoulders hunched, try to be really happy here versus here. It’s a band.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Try to be sad in the hunched over position versus the expanded position. So you can see the difference your position makes. It’s really kind of cool. Try it at home four minutes

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

For even 20 seconds. Imagine yourself being sad. Imagine yourself being happy and the other way around for when you’re in the other position and you can notice how much easier it is. Well, let me actually back up. And when you see somebody on the street hunched over and like this, you’re not thinking that they’re happy versus somebody that’s straight up. There’s more happiness and joy. So

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

You perceive them as more powerful

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Perception, but it’s perception also internally that you can change your emotions. Emotions are not just chemistry there also how one holds themselves and we forget that in and I know I forget that a lot. When I talk to people, it’s not when they’re saying they have issues from an emotional point of view. Yes, I’m going to give them supplements, diet changes, lifestyle, etcetera. But it’s also let’s open up your chest. Let’s see how you’re moving. Let’s see how you’re walking in the world because that also changes the world.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

So I think what I would like to do is transition now into the conversation of what would it take to live well to 100 not just live but live well because there are, as you’ll see through the summit, there are some themes and repeats that that happen. So let’s transition. Let’s spend a few minutes talking about that. So the foundations of life, your food, food matters. So minimizing how processed it is aiming for organic whenever possible, avoiding sugar because sugar is pretty bad for you where there’s really no argument we can make for sugar. And then,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Well, let’s do, let’s just say them all six foundation Als Foundations, eating, sleeping, moving, pooping, thinking, breathing

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

And connecting. That’s missing from their

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Connecting/sex and whatever else.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Connecting an intimacy. It doesn’t have to be sex, but it has to be in some way connecting with others. Feeling, seen, feeling connected. That’s the seventh that bugs me that it’s not

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

All right. Seven. So it really, so what you were saying was eating so important how we move our bodies. We just talked about that.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Well, we didn’t really talk about, especially as we age, we need both cardiovascular and weights. And this other part which might fall into the emotional, social spiritual, which is the grounding and the either meditation or grounding or focusing whatever you wanna call it, making sure that your brain is in, in line and on tap.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

And don’t forget, one of the main drivers of longevity is muscle mass. So we need to make sure,

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

You know, you’re like built,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Just look at her muscles and,

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Yeah no, I’m a work in progress. So, and then sleeping,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Sleeping. So essential Matt Cook and so many others have put together how eight hours is really, you need to be getting that significantly less than that. You’re actually causing a lot of the signs of going towards Alzheimer’s, which is really craziness

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

And you can’t detox your brain if you’re not sleeping enough. So that’s really critical

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Glymphatic detox system is really so important. And that only happens when you sleep and, and by the way, you use growth hormone when you sleep, that’s when your testosterone, that’s when your body rebuilds and repairs, not only detoxing. So sleep is critical, do it and making sure you’re well, let’s talk about a second about making sure your sleep architecture is good because you can be sleeping on medications and that’s not gonna be the same as having a natural sleep or making sure that you have to go through all that.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

I don’t think we have enough time to actually go to sleep. We do podcast on that stuff. You can join us on the podcast. We’ll talk about sleep way too deep. Let’s talk about pooping, which is my personal favorite.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

And now we have time for,

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

We’re not gonna go into like what to do to poop, but the importance of it. And so I remember in med school learning about the oro anal reflex, I think I’ve referred to this and thinking it was hilarious because by that point, I was already deep in the depths of celiac and not pooping regularly. And so when I learned that when you eat you’re supposed to poop, it was shocking to me. So I’ll just say it when you eat, you’re supposed to poop, babies do it. But we’ve sort of bred out of ourselves. And so it is important whenever you eat to poop or at least once a day,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

That might be too much. But at least once a day, once, twice a day is a good way to good goal to set. And then one of my other favorite ones is breathing because I think we don’t ever talk about that enough. Most of us breathe. When you look at babies, they all breathe into your belly. But when you look at the majority of people walking around their breathing into the chest,

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Very shallow,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Very, very shallow, which means they’re not using their diaphragm very well. The diaphragm is a muscle right around your ribs that helps bring the lungs down and fill up the lungs when you breathe into your belly. Not only is that a meditation piece, It circulates lymph, it massages the internal organs. It does so many things and it centers and presents you

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

And it also activates parasympathetic, which is rest relaxation, digestion over sympathetic, which is jack you up, fight or flight, run away.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Also spending time every single day breathing and there’s thousands of different techniques you can go. There’s no one that you have to do but

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Do something, do anything,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Learn to breathe into your belly and then practice it constantly. It’s going to serve you well.

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

So what do we missed eating, sleeping, breathing, pooping,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Moving

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Moving, connecting. We’ve talked about the importance of connection and intimacy. This is like the seven dwarfs. Can you list the seven,

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

The last one we have and the power of thoughts and so I wanted to share that. Okay. So really looking at is your, is a cup half empty or half full? Are you listening to a lot of junk news that’s filling you up with junk and getting you negative or is it, are you more filling up with more positive inspiration that’s gonna lead your life? I was just listening to Peter Diamandis and on Abundance and really looking at how we are living in an amazing age with more resources than we’ve ever had a king from a couple 100 years ago, 500 years ago, would be ecstatic to be having a controlled environment, telephones. A lot of what people that are underserved have, they would die for that kind of thing. But we don’t appreciate it. So really having gratitude for what we have, finding gratitude, finding joy is it’s

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

It’s really important. And today, so now that we’re getting into the speakers today, we have a whole lineup of people who are amazing today is all about detox, detox, detox.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Well, no biological age,

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

Biological age, aging, younger, mitochondrial health, beauty products. Really? How do we be in an amazing state of grace and health all through life? So

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Very, very exciting and amazing speakers and I learned a lot. So

Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP

We got to go back and listen to them. So join us today. Have an amazing day, will be here for you afterward and we’ll see you again tomorrow too. Enjoy today.

Edward Levitan, MD, ABIOM, IFMCP

Thank you take care.