The 100-Year Heart: Blueprint For Lifelong Cardiac Wellness

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Yeah, I think it’s definitely designed to make it to 100 and beyond. And when you think about the heart muscle and you think about the fact that it beats on average about 30 million times per year and then if you extend that over the course of a hundred years, well, of course, that now comes into like three billion heartbeats that somebody experiences over their lifetime. And it is designed for that. And it is an amazing muscle that propels blood forward and circulates the blood, oxygen, and all the nutrients around the body. And our creator designed us in that way for 100-plus years. And we see that in the many centenarians that exist out there. There’s no reason why we should not live until 100 years, say, for some kind of traumatic experience or emergency, you know, chronic disease is, the number one killer, cardiovascular disease is. But again, that’s all preventable. I believe we are genetically built perfectly. And when we give the body what it needs, take away what it does. And that’s the 100-year heart strategy.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, for sure. And so what in conventional medicine, what are they doing? Like, how are they treating cardiovascular issues? How are they looking at people when it comes to heart health?

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Well, and life expectancy in the United States is like the late 70s for men, maybe 77, or 78, depending on the year, maybe 80 years of age for women. And that’s clearly not good enough. It’s not the way that it should be. And they’re not only are they only lasting until that age in modern medicine, the modern medical world, but they’re not thriving. They’re just surviving. They’re limping across that finish line. And you see, that’s the last several years of life are often spent in and out of hospitals, certainly in and out of doctor’s offices. And that’s just not the way that it should be. The medical model with their foundation of pharmaceuticals and surgeries is a failure. It was designed by people who only had their financial interests at best in heart. And that’s it. When you look at things through that lens of how they’re trying to push the pharma, how they brainwash the medical doctors into the pharmaceutical surgical model, you can just see the failures. But ultimately, 80 years is not good enough for me. My father died when he was 63 and of a Parkinson-like illness called progressive supranuclear palsy. And the Mayo Clinic had no idea why my father was sick and dying. And to tell my back story is that I met a young woman who was a 29-year-old doctor of chiropractic, and she told me all the reasons why my father was sick and dying. And I listened. I changed and now bring the message of natural heart health, and longevity to the world.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah. So, your father was a medical doctor as well. And, you know, a lot of medical doctors, unfortunately, are dying early. They should be the ones leading when it comes to health. Right. And they should be the ones living and having great life span in health span. Right. And you were talking about that lifespan. Our life span is a certain amount, 78, 79 years, or whatever. But the health span is typically like 55, right after 55 people are typically on a lot of medications, surgeries and that health span shrinking. And so it’s definitely scary. But yeah, your father was conventionally trained medical doctor, so he should be leading the way when it comes to health and unfortunately got sick at a young age.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Yeah you know but he was he was just indoctrinated in the mainstream medical model, which is of pharmaceuticals and surgeries. And I like to think about this, David, that when I was in my mother’s womb, I’m listening to the conversations that were going on. And I was born into the medical matrix, into the medical paradigm where I’m hearing again in utero of my father talking about cardiology. And then I’m a baby and I’m hearing this. So it’s like I was just indoctrinated from day one. So I really understand all of those nuances and all of the methodologies of what they do. And of course, I would, you know, work in the biggest group in the state of Arizona as a hospital-based cardiologist for 10 years up until 2012. And I just saw all the failures in there. And to your point, the medical doctors, they buy into this whole thing, too, and they don’t last long either. So they take all the different pharmaceuticals, they take the statin drugs, they take the aspirin, take the blood pressure drugs. But at best, they are minimally effective. At worst, they kill people. And I think you can find arguments certainly on both sides. And I will tell you that ultimately and tell your audience because I know you know this as well as I do, that the pharmaceuticals are not the answer. God bless the men and women who work in emergency rooms and trauma centers. But for everything else, we got to go at things naturally. And I’m proud to, you know, and thankful for you to, you know, put out this message with me.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah. And that’s what you and your team do. Natural and integrative cardiology and what sort of lab testing. So if somebody comes in, they bring in labs or if they want to run labs, what are some biomarkers that people can look at that really help them understand a little bit more about what’s going on in their body and in particular, their cardiovascular health?

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Well, our methodology in Natural Heart Doctor is to eat well, live well, and think well. And then all the different components that would stem from that. But we’re I think we help a lot of people is in the test don’t guess methodology because a lot of people believe they’re living this healthy lifestyle and that’s great but we need to trust but verify. So let’s verify what their numbers are. And I know you’re a big proponent of this and you’ve written books on this as it relates to inflammation. Measuring the markers of inflammation and oxidative stress is the ultimate guide to kind of where you are status-wise. It certainly is not total cholesterol or lipid ratio that really has little to do with what we are trying to accomplish. Now, if you see abnormalities there in the lipids or if you see abnormalities in the inflammation markers, you need to find out why. Now the lipids react to inflammation. They’re part of the anti-inflammatory mechanism of the body among all the wonderful, beautiful things that LDL and HDL do for us. But we need to figure out the source of why there is all this inflammation. The medical community, as you know, David, that they understand that inflammation is bad. 

Now, their hammer to that particular nail is a statin drug. It’s an aspirin, it’s an antihypertensive. It’s other, you know, cholesterol-related drugs. They’re even coming up with other injectable, you know, technologies for this, you know, for this purpose. But it’s all about trying to figure out the why, because when you have the why and you can reverse the why, that’s where it becomes very special. Now, real quick, when you look at people with high blood pressure, of which 47% of adult Americans are labeled with hypertension, what we find is that there are really four groups of people. So let me try and break this down real quick so that the healthiest people are people with normal blood pressure, no pharma. The most unhealthy people are people with high blood pressure. Still with high blood pressure on pharma. Those people die the quickest. Now, the next category is kind of tie, where we have people with untreated hypertension, basically equivalent to the people with normal blood pressure, because of pharmaceuticals. So what I’m trying to say is that if your blood pressure is normal and you’re on pharma don’t think you’re at the same risk as Dr. Jack Wolfson and Dr. David Jackers, because you’re not, they have falsely lowered a number and it does not lead to significant benefit by any stretch. And that’s looking at the benefits, let alone the side effects. So ultimately, if we’re looking for longevity, pharma, and longevity, it’s an oxymoron. They do not exist together in the same sentence.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, so that’s interesting to hear. So basically if somebody has high blood pressure, they want to figure out why their blood pressure is high and address the root cause. You talked about it. Think well, move well, eat well. We’re going to go back to that. But just taking a pharmaceutical to get the blood pressure normal. Now, the blood pressure is good. The cardiologist looks at it and says, okay, great, the drug is doing its job. Blood pressure’s normal. Now you’re your he might think he or she might think you’re healthy. Right. And that patient could walk out of the the doctor’s office thinking, okay, great, blood pressure’s good, I’m healthy. But they never actually got to the root cause. The research shows that there’s still at the same level of risk as when they had the blood pressure high without the medication.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

You know, there you go. And I think that’s why they’re not that. I think and I know that’s one of the reasons why I say that high blood pressure drugs kill millions of people, statin drugs kill millions of people. Now, why would I say that? Where’s the evidence of that? Well, the evidence of that is this fact. If we take someone whom we put on statin drugs, for example, and according to their data and we could talk about is their data real or is it not. Or could money influence the creation of data? I think everybody knows that is certainly a possibility. But let’s just take it at face value. The goal is not to reduce your risk of having a heart attack over the next year from 2% to 1.8%. The goal is to reduce it to 0%. The goal is not to reduce your chances of dying of cardiovascular disease over the next year from 1.3% to 1.2%. But yet these are the numbers that exist. And why would I say that we’re killing millions of people? Because millions of people are still part of that percentage on pharma who are still dying and they die because they think and really because they’ve been told, just take this pharmaceutical and you’ll be fine. You can eat whatever you want, live however you want, and think however you want. None of that stuff matters. Anything. Take the drug. And that’s why I would say that over the course of 40 years of statin drugs have been around as the number one revenue-generating class of drugs of all time, that it has been responsible for millions of deaths.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah. And there are so many reported side effects with statin drugs on top of what you’re talking about, where people just kind of get this false assurance and never really change their lifestyle. So let’s talk about what people need to do to be healthy. Let’s talk about start with the best foods for metabolic health, and better, the best foods for cardiovascular health.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Well, I think that in the concept of what kind of foods to eat and stuff like that, I do want to be clear about one thing is that because, you know, we can argue about vegan, vegetarian, paleo, keto, carnivore, all these various things that people would argue about. But first of all, let’s get the chemicals out of our food and make our food organic. So no matter what you do, right? So, you know, if you want to go vegan, just make sure it’s vegan organic. And if you want to go Keto, just make sure that all your stuff in there is super clean. And that’s, you know, really is clean meats, clean poultry, clean eggs, clean seafood, clean, you know, produce, you know, as well plant, you know, type of things. Let’s all agree on that. If you’re like, hey, listen, I’m listening to Wolfson and Jacobs right now and I feel like having some ice cream. Hey, listen, I’m not going to promote it, but if you’re going to go do it, just go get organic ice cream. If you’re thinking about organic cookies or cupcakes or whatever. And I think you and I, both as parents and for children each, that really stems into the childhood as well, just making sure that, hey, you know, the kids are going to a birthday party. Okay, listen, go to a birthday party, have a good time. But we’re not eating the Costco cake. You know, we’re bringing in our own gluten-free muffins. We did.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

We’ve done that many times.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Yep. Yeah. I mean, it’s just I think the beautiful thing about that, too, is, yes, we’re supporting our children, but we’re also sending a message to the world like, hey, this is doable. It’s not easy in this world. There are a lot of things that can inhibit that. But this is the stuff that we need to do to protect our children and promote health and wellness to the world. So on top of the organic story, I do believe that seafood is the healthiest food on the planet. People with the highest levels of omega-3 from consumption of seafood have the lowest risk of everything. Heart attack, stroke, cancer, dementia, Parkinson’s illnesses, and stuff like that. On top of that, and where do we go with that? Wild salmon, sardines, anchovies, clams, oysters, shrimp, lobster, crab. I think that’s ancestral food. It’s common sense and again, makes perfect sense to me. Next, I would also say that nose-to-tail nutrition is critical as well. So my favorite animal for that sense is the bison. We honor the bison, we honor that. We honor everything that we eat. We pray over everything we eat. And we’re thankful for everything that we eat. And that that free range grass fed really is just a wild bison that exists inside of, you know, miles of fencing, but nonetheless is wild and really untouched by man. 

That particular source of not only the meat as we would think about, you know, steaks and ground and burgers, but also liver, heart, kidney, and the other organs. I think that organs are just some of this just perfect, perfect foods. So there we go with that. And then ultimately, we’re also, we personally in the Wolfson household, we’re gluten-free. I profess that to my patients as well. It’s just not something that we need, whether or not it affects you. You know, we can debate all day long. We can test on that. And there’s some phenomenal testing that we do on all of our patients. But there’s really no need to eat gluten-containing grains. So we keep our grain intake to a minimum. Hunter-gatherer, that’s the way to go from the nutrition side. And then again, you know, certainly you’re one of the worldwide experts as it relates to fasting. And fasting is a wonderful way, you know, to be healthy. We include that, of course, in the eat well conversation. I guess of the times when you don’t eat well because you don’t eat and all you’re maybe doing is a water fast. And I do think and you and I have discussed this before and I’ve seen this in my patients, that once you get to that really extended duration of fast, once you get out that 48 and certainly 72 hours, that’s when we’re starting to see plaque reversal where the body is saying, I need nutrition and I’m not getting it orally and I don’t have much fat stores to break down at this point. So, therefore, I’m going to start breaking down scar tissue. And scar tissue in coronary arteries is plaque and we have seen a lot of people reduce and reverse their coronary plaque and coronary calcification, although I do not recommend a CT scan. Another conversation. But for those who did, we are seeing a reversal and I’m excited about that. And ultimately it just it makes it makes perfect sense when you look at it that way.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, it’s amazing when the body goes into that mode, when insulin really, really drops, when you’re fasting like that, your body needs that. You know, it needs protein, right? Because you got to continue to build white blood cells, albumin, you know, for pulling things around in the blood. I mean, you constantly need a renewed supply of protein. If you’re not consuming it, it’s going to pull it from somewhere. And the innate intelligence understands that the plaque should only be there for a temporary period of time. Right. And it’s only patching up a wound, but it’s not the ideal tissue. So that’s the perfect tissue to use to build new, healthy, more stress-resilient proteins. So it’s going to start pulling it out and yeah, it’s amazing that you guys are seeing that with those kinds of results. And so fasting can be really key. Obviously, we’re talking a lot about that on my podcast in my summits. And so super key, what other lifestyle strategies I know you talked about move well think well how does that play in here.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Yeah. There’s so much debate always right about the eat well part but the live well and the think well are just as important so looking at the concepts inside of live well and really this is just common sense type things which the medical doctors do not get trained in the common sense methodologies. There are thousands of studies that show the benefits of sleep, and good sleep, and quality sleep. Going to sleep shortly after the sundown and waking up before the sunrise, which is truly how we live. You and I are recording this and as we speak, you know, that’s you know, it’s, you know, we go to bed typically around 8-8:30 at the latest. And naturally, I wake up around 430 and I start my day and I believe that’s totally ancestral. We also talk about the importance of sunshine. So getting our solar panel a.k.a our skin and our eyeballs, getting that out into the natural light. So as a record this with you right now I’m daytime, I’m sitting in the sun in an outdoor area, you know, getting shade at this moment. But I embrace the power of the sun. Obviously, we know that it increases vitamin D. And interestingly enough, the way that we make vitamin D is the sunlight hits the skin and cholesterol coursing through the skin’s vessels is turned into vitamin D, therefore, vitamin D goes up and total cholesterol goes down. But not only does the sun create the vitamin D, but it also creates nitric oxide, which is a visual dilator, and it’s anti-platelet and improves circulation and flow. 

And one of the other amazing benefits, of course, of the sun is that it helps to create melatonin. So when you get sun exposure during the day, melatonin is released at night when you go to sleep, and melatonin is the master hormone that controls everything else going on in the body. You know, it’s not the master hormone is not thyroid. And, you know, it’s not ACTH. It’s not testosterone, estrogen, progesterone. It’s all predicated on healthy melatonin levels. So we want that. All right. So we talk about sleep, sun movement, and physical activity. The more we move, the more physical we are outdoors, the longer we’re going to live. And then big category in the live well is the environmental toxins and pollutants. And first and foremost in that area. I spilled the beans on that one is mold. Mold mycotoxins bacterial toxins from water damage in your home. You may be sitting there thinking, my home doesn’t have that. My home is brand new. I don’t really care about what your opinion is on this. People, you need to get tested. Your life depends on it. The family’s life depends on it. The dog and the pets and everybody’s life depends on that home not having water damage leading to mold and bacterial exposure. Lots of new information coming out on this every single day. In addition to all the other things, you know, the EMF and the pesticides and all of these things that we talk about. And then to kind of wrap up the live well, everybody has to be under chiropractic care. The chiropractors are the neurologists. They are the real neurologists. They’re the real neurology specialists. Because not only do they diagnose neurologic-related and brain-related issues, but they actually have the ability to fix them. Neurologists in the M.D. version don’t. They’re just a bunch of pill pushers, and they recommend CTS and MRIs. But the chiropractors, not only are they phenomenal musculoskeletal, but they are the neurologists. So make sure everybody is under chiropractic care. And finally, holistic dentistry. Just really make sure that your teeth are in good shape, and well taken care of. Again, hundreds and hundreds of studies link dental sickness or oral health issues to cardiovascular disease. So very, very important to make sure you your taken care of there. And then, you know, you wrap that up with I think. Well.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, I mean, it’s so key. So for a lot of people who are listening, hey, if you’ve tried, if you’re following nutrition strategies, you are exercising regularly, you’re sleeping, you feel like you’re sleeping well, you feel like you’re following all these things and you still have chronic symptoms. You still not feeling good. You have to you really have to investigate what’s happening in your mouth, your oral health, and what’s happening with your spine and nervous system. That’s where a chiropractor comes in. What’s happening in your house, right? As far as household mold or other toxins you may be exposed to. You had to go through that, that series, and in a sense, address all of those areas. And then when you put all that together, you’re going to have a plan for that 100-year heart.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

You know, let me let me throw this out there, you know, to you and to, you know, whoever is listening as well. I thought of this recently as I heard someone make the statements, and we’ve all heard this before, you know, where they say, my friend was healthy and then they died. You know, my friend was healthy and then they had a stroke or had a heart attack. Here’s the thing. If you are healthy, truly healthy through the lens of eat well, live well, and think well and you test on guess if you are truly healthy and all those facets, you can’t die. You are you can die of age-related. You know again when you’re 120 years of age, but you can’t die of a heart attack. You can’t die of a stroke. You can die of trauma, obviously.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

But you’re not going to be a 50-year-old man running, going for a 5k, and all of a sudden drop dead of a heart attack. That’s not going to happen healthy.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Exactly. If you are truly healthy, that wouldn’t it. So whenever we think about someone who died of cardiovascular disease or cancer or some kind of autoimmune or even stemming that into, you know, suicidal behavior, certainly, which I’m not going to profess to be an expert in that area, but a healthy person in the lens of eat well, live well, think well, doesn’t have anxiety, stress or suicidal ideations, and they don’t. So the idea is, is that if you are truly healthy, you never get sick. Let me say, you know, it’s not that you don’t get sick. You’re not going to die from any of these things. Now, a truly healthy person, I mean, certainly if you are exposed to some kind of environmental toxin, you may manifest the the symptoms of your immune system kicking in, you know, to heal. But let me also, you know, step into, you know, think well. So I make sure that I hit this topic is that the think well may be more important than all of these different issues that we talked about the eat while in the live well so to think well as we look at the literature we know that people who have anxiety, stress, depression have a much higher risk of cardiovascular disorders. We know that people with depression actually had a ten times higher risk of being hospitalized for COVID over the last several years. So we need to make sure that people find their happy place. And I think that happiness really stems from these areas inside of think well, where we focus on our spirituality, we focus on our purpose. 

You know, what are we here for? I’m here to change the world of cardiovascular disease. You know, you have all the different things that you’re here for. We’re also here to be, you know, husbands and fathers. And again, wrapping that back into spirituality, what we’re here for is, you know, to serve, you know, our creator. But that passion and purpose, having that sense, and having gratitude is huge and self-acceptance. And then the sense of community, you know, social isolation is a massive, massive killer. People who identify themselves as socially isolated. They don’t have a good community, friends, or family support systems. They die very young. They die much, much, much quicker. And then ultimately, our sense of security, safety, do we feel safe in our homes? Do we feel safe in our job, in our workspace? Do we feel safe in our relationships, safe financially? You know as well, there’s a lot of things that go into that. So we want people to really take focus on that think while aspect. Certainly, as a cardiologist, we never got any training in any of the things that I discuss right now, but certainly not in that think well space. But, you know, there’s a lot of different people out there who can help in this arena as well. But I just want to really identify that this is a problem and it needs to be taken care of to preserve your longevity.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, for sure. From a longevity perspective, just understanding you have a purpose. A lot of people, especially as they get older, they retire whatever it is, and they lose that purpose and, you know, I always say you got to have a Y that makes you cry, right? So a purpose statement or a why that really inspires you to the point where you could get in tears and then, you know, that’s going to drive you. It’s going to drive good behaviors in your life that help lead you towards a really healthy, long life.

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

Yeah, you know, because not everyone is maybe going to have the purpose or the why to want to change the world, you know, on a global level, you know, as my goals, you know, would be in yours as well. But maybe your why is yeah, to be a spouse to be a parent, to be a brother or sister, to be a friend, to be involved in charitable causes, to again, be a steward of, you know, religion and spirituality, to be a steward of the environment. And that really is available to anyone and everyone of every single age.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, it’s the best antidepressant ever studied is when you go out and serve somebody else. If you’re depressed, if you’re anxious, if you’re feeling these kinds of, this sort of like troubled mood, rage is going out. It’s taking your mind off yourself and just going out and serving. Helping other people is a great asana depressant. So really powerful stuff. Well, great. Dr. Jack, I know you’ve got, obviously, you got your bestselling book, The Paleo Cardiologists, where people can learn more about this, and also naturalheartdoctor.com. Where are they going to find when they go check out your website?

Jack Wolfson, DO, FACC

You know, we’re trying to, you know, just identify to people that, hey, we are the worldwide leaders in cardiovascular health. Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic are the worldwide leaders in cardiovascular disease. But, you know, we know your cardiovascular condition. And if we want to be able to help you with that particular condition, and that’s what we do at Natural Heart Doctor. And it really is just I’ve seen so much pain and suffering from unnecessary pharmaceuticals, unnecessary surgeries, unnecessary sickness from people. And I’ve, you know, been on the on the wrong side of this equation. You know, god bless the men and women who work in emergency rooms and trauma centers. But for everything else, mainstream medicine is not your answer. I promise you.

David Jockers, DNM, DC, MS

Yeah, absolutely. Total agreement. And thanks so much for your time, Dr. Jack. You’re always a wealth of knowledge. Always enjoy our conversations, guys. Check out naturalheartdoctor.com and we’ll see you in a future interview. Be blessed, everybody.