WEBVTT - Conversations with Cornesy - Dr Peter Larkins 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:04.320 Did everyone. Welcome to conversations again. Guest today is doctor 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:09.360 Peter Larkins. Now, Peter's a friend of the program. He's 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:11.159 a friend of the Crows in the early days. He's 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:13.480 one of our Crows doctors when we went to Melbourne. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.640 He's top sports medico. That's a great description. But he's 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.119 highly qualified and he's very informative and he's written a 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:24.959 new book called The Healthy Hundred one hundred Ways to 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:28.880 a healthier, happier and longer life to get to one hundred. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.360 Peter Larkins, how are you, nie? 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:33.159 I'm really great, great to chat with you and we're 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:34.880 both still here. Isn't that fantastic? 0:00:35.440 --> 0:00:35.640 Yeah? 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.800 Well it this fantastic. So well, you're determined to reach 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:40.000 a hundred day that I think. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.159 One hundred and beyond was the original title, but it 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:43.960 got shortened by the publisher. But you know, in the 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:45.559 days when you and I are at school, if you 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:47.960 reached one hundred and got a telegram from the Queen, 0:00:48.040 --> 0:00:50.239 that was such a huge achievement, you know, in our 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:52.879 era growing up, and I thought, well, you know, why 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:54.760 are we setting the target of one hundred? And then 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:57.680 I started looking at longevity and you know, my patients 0:00:57.680 --> 0:00:59.960 were all concerned about they were slowing down an age, 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.720 and so I started to look at why we age 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:03.840 and why we slow down, and you know, found all 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.680 these populations in the world, Graham where people were living 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:08.280 to one hundred and five one hundred and six. So 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.800 one hundred isn't the target anymore. It's one hundred and 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.880 beyond provided you live healthy. So the whole content my 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:16.080 book is not just how long you live, it's how 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:18.479 well you live. And so you want to be living, 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:20.840 you know, in your nineties and it may be nineties, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:23.600 but the point is, you know, when the life expectancy 0:01:23.680 --> 0:01:26.720 only fifty years ago was seventy something in Australia. Now 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.280 it's hit at eighty one if you're a male, eighty 0:01:29.280 --> 0:01:30.760 three and a half if you're a female. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:32.120 It's still well short of one hundred. 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:34.520 But there are plenty of people reaching one hundred and 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:36.200 so that was the target in my book is how 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.399 to look after yourself to try and offset the things 0:01:39.400 --> 0:01:41.760 the killers, because they're all documented. We know what kills 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:45.200 as heart to these, bowel cancer, lung cancer, you know, stroke, 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:47.080 So there's all those things in the book about hey, 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.680 you identify those early and get your check ups done. 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.120 Well, what part does genetics play. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:55.160 Though, it's important part, So would you say twenty percent 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:58.160 is important? So eighty percent is lifestyle, whether you smoke, 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:00.640 whether you're over eight, where you're a weight, where you're 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.480 eating crap. But twenty percent, absolutely you need to know 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.800 your genetics. So if you've got a family history of 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.000 prostate cancer, you've got a family history of heart disease, 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.680 that puts you on the front foot to start checking 0:02:11.760 --> 0:02:14.000 for those things, perhaps a bit earlier than the general 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:15.840 GP check us be cause people say when should you 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.320 start having checkups? Well, you know, the medical world sort 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:20.840 of says at age forty. But if everyone in your 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.880 family had breast cancer in their forties and you're a female, 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:25.840 you should be having checkups in your twenties. So the 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.239 genetics is only twenty maybe twenty five percent, depending on 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:31.920 which statistics you look at, Graham. So the other eighty 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:33.480 percent is lifestyle choices. 0:02:34.200 --> 0:02:35.799 Right, we're going to part of the book now, We're 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:38.040 going to come back to the book because I think 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:42.880 your journey has been really interesting. That your age is 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:45.560 no secret. You've turned seventy, it's weill got a full 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:47.239 head of hair, looking good. I don't know what you 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.280 do in face where you have the botox done and 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.680 all that sort of stuff, But maybe it's the athletic background. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:55.920 But let's go back even further than that. Tell us 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:56.919 about your early days. 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.639 Yeah, look, sport has really been fash my life the 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:02.840 whole way through. I was very fortunate to grow up, 0:03:03.680 --> 0:03:05.639 you know, in a town called Geelong. I think people 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.040 in Adelaide have heard of Gelong Graham and you know, 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:10.600 it was a very it was a rural city at 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:12.919 the time, but I went to a private boys college 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.320 with sport was not mandatory, but it was sort of 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:17.760 expected that you'd play sports. So from a very early 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:20.639 age I was into the typical sports that you play 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.919 at school as well as the academic achievement being expected. 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.880 So cricket, footy and athletics were a sort of three 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:28.079 big sports that I went into. 0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:29.560 What school was it. 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.600 It's Saint Joseph's CBC, which is a large boys only 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:37.120 school at the time in Geelong, so it's on the 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:38.960 top of the hill overlooking the rest of the school, 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:41.320 so it's a big school zone, but it's still there, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:43.240 still going well. In fact, a real of side point, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.520 it's got the most number of AFL recruits of any 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.840 school in Australia now from Saint JOWI So whether you 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.800 go camer or Jimmy Bartel or Sam Walsh or Patty McCartin, 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:54.840 the list goes on fame. 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:57.080 So we're a strong footy school. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.280 I was lucky enough to captain school footy, so you know, 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.040 from under tea, under twelves, under fifteen and first eighteen 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.360 I had a fair run at footy. But athletics was 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.160 also in the genes side to speak, not so much 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.440 from my dad who wasn't He just played footy and 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:12.840 used to nail the stops into the bottom of his 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:13.600 work boots on. 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:15.200 The weekend and go then take him out to go 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:15.800 back to work. 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.400 That's true story back but my brother was a very 0:04:18.400 --> 0:04:20.240 good runner a few years older than me, and he 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:22.000 was a very good cross country runner and won a 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:23.960 few trophies. So I sort of had a target to 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:26.080 try and out do my brother and so I got 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:29.040 into sport at a very age, which then obviously got 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.320 me looking into performance. So when you look into sport, 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.160 you look at what you should eat and watcher should 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.080 train and you know what should you stretch? And so 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:37.840 the principles of getting best out of himself even as 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:40.799 an eight or nine year old was sort of instilled 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:42.640 in me by a very good coach that I had 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:45.400 at a place called Landy Field, named after John Landy. 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:49.560 Tell us about your dad though, what did he do well? 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.840 My dad worked for the local council. He was sort 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.760 of in the construction and heavy machinery driving. So I 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:57.120 was always impressed that my dad would drive left hand 0:04:58.080 --> 0:04:59.920 cars and left hand machinery because a lot of them, 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.640 assuming those days, was imported. So my dad was on 0:05:02.760 --> 0:05:05.800 the a driver for the council on construction and so 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.760 he was involved in driving heavy equipment equipment, particularly left 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:11.960 hand drive. But he also was involved at the social 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:13.840 club down at Geelong. He was very good friends with 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:16.200 a bloke called Frank Costa, who people don't know. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:16.880 Frank Costa. 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:18.839 You yeah, I know, you're smiling, Graham and Frank Costa 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:20.920 was Mayor of Geelong. He was the head of the 0:05:21.000 --> 0:05:24.240 fruit and vegetable industry in Australia, also president of Gelong 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.720 Footy Club. So the Costa family and my dad so 0:05:26.800 --> 0:05:28.719 we had a pretty good connection with the footy club 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:30.400 and in fact my uncle Pat. When I was nine 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.320 years of age, I was in the chains rooms down 0:05:32.320 --> 0:05:35.120 at Gelong Footy Club, smelling the liniment and watching ankles 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.160 be strapped. So at nine I got into the medical 0:05:37.200 --> 0:05:40.160 side of sports so to speak, by watching my uncle Pat, 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:42.480 who was second head trainer down at the Cats. And 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:44.840 that was in the sixties when Polly Farmer and Billy 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.640 Gog and Johnny Sharick were playing. So I really had 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.800 a pretty good entry into sports medicine, even though it 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:51.120 was pretty rudimentary at the time. 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.560 Grame to get the medical degrees that you had, you 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.960 must have had an innate intellect. So were you smart 0:05:58.000 --> 0:06:00.240 at school? Were you one of the ducks of the 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:01.240 school so to speak? 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.440 Well, I was, so to speak. 0:06:04.960 --> 0:06:07.080 These days you sort of choose a sporting career or 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.360 an academic career. In those days, it wasn't the option, 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.040 you know, because really it was secondary to academic. And 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.799 as I said, Sin Joey's, you know, the Christian Brothers 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:16.880 school as it was at the time, not so much now. 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:19.040 The Christian Brothers have moved on and they're lay teachers. 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.680 But yeah, academically I was always in the top one 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:24.080 or two in my classes on the way through, and 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.640 I guess I was always driven to achieve, and that 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.160 wasn't driven by my parents or I wasn't pushed. You know, 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.040 you've either got an innate hunger to be successful, I think, 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.160 whether in sport or careers. Graham and so luckily, you know, 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.320 I had a few academic brains, and so I did okay, 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.440 And I was always planning to go to university. 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:41.800 I really didn't. 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:44.680 Decide on a medical career until I was about sixteen 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:47.400 because I always thought I'd be a scientist. But my 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.640 brother was a scientist. He was a Rhodes scholar and 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.119 a Churchill Fellow. So my brother was the true rocket 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.160 scientist in the family and he was older than me. 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:57.280 So I was always stepping gingerly in footsteps after my 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.680 brother Frank, who's a professor twice over professor, went to 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:03.600 Oxford College as a Rhodes scholar. So academically I was 0:07:03.680 --> 0:07:05.800 under a bit of pressure peer pressure like your boys. 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:07.640 I guess when they were playing footy, the oldest one 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:10.600 you got the next one coming through. But academically, yes, 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.440 I went. I luckily got into the medical degree. But 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:16.840 so I was running, you know, in the state team 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:20.960 at seventeen and eighteen State senior team, and then during medicine. 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:23.120 It was really difficult because it was a really sort 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:25.000 of those days. You know, you expected to put your 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:26.320 head down and study, which I did. 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:28.240 By the age of twenty, I was sort of on 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.120 the brink of the national team in athletics. 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:31.720 So I given up footy at seventeen when I got 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.200 knocked out twice in my last game down a Codinia Park, 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.120 So I decided footy wasn't for me. But you know, academically, 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.600 I was trying to study medicine, but also had fortunately 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.040 a nine or ten year international career right up until 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:46.800 after I graduated in medicine. 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:51.360 Well come to that. Can I explore this concept of intellect? 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.240 I mean I having coach Maddie Liptak, I was able 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.520 to combine footy sport, but he had a natural in 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.120 collected that you obviously one of the smart kids at 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.680 school now and you obviously were that. Where did it 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:08.200 come from? And did it come easily to you? 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.160 I never considered myself a smart kid. I considered myself 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.840 a kid who knew you had to work hard to achieve. 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:16.120 And I mean that seriously, Graham, So Maddie they take, 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:17.720 of course, was in the team when I was working 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:19.800 with you at the Crows back in the early days, 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:22.200 and Maddie went on to be a great orthoptic surgeon. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.400 Still have contact with him from time to time as well. 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:27.280 But so it didn't come easy. I mean, you know, 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:31.040 the obvious answer is was hard work. I studied so 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.480 at university, just not to go too far ahead, but 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.600 at school I studied and I trained, and my social 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.640 life was pretty ordinary. I lived outside Gelong for a 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.079 while on a property, so it wasn't easy to be socializing, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:40.439 isn't it. 0:08:40.559 --> 0:08:40.760 Uni. 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:43.199 You know, I used to study and then train, and 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.280 then I lived on campus because I wasn't from Melbourne, 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:48.480 and so that you know that you just sort of 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.599 put your head down and decided that you needed to 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:53.200 do well. And I thought part of that was influenced 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:55.520 by I know, my parents had worked hard off and 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:59.800 two jobs to give my siblings an iron and education Graham, 0:08:59.800 --> 0:09:02.439 and so without feeling pressure, there was a sort of 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.200 an innate obligation to want to reward them by doing 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.360 well academically. So the hard work was partly driven by 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:14.599 wanting to achieve, but also it just meant that you 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:16.439 worked harder than other people, the same you do when 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.920 you're training in sport. Did you mum have a career, Yeah, 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:22.000 my mum had a great career. She worked at the 0:09:22.040 --> 0:09:24.560 Geelong woolen mills and she was in charge of quality 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.599 control before the woven wool went off to Italy to 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.520 be woven into those expensive battalion suits that you like 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.960 to buy. Graham So Wool and Western District Wool, as 0:09:34.000 --> 0:09:36.880 you know, between Adelaide and Geelong's the Western District is 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:39.240 called where all the great wool growing has done. So 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.120 Geelong is famous for its woolen mills. So the wool 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:44.960 would come in and there would be processed and then 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:47.720 woven into fabric. And my mum worked at the woolen 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.160 mills for many many years, even worked at home at 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.319 one stage where the big roles of wool would be 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:55.440 delivered to our place and Mom would sit there checking 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:57.079 them before they went on the ships out of the 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.199 harbor at Gelong to go off to Europe to be 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.760 made into all the beautiful woolen fabrics. 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:04.520 That we now pay so much money for. 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:07.040 And yet they were coming off the off the farms 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.360 down Western District so that was her job right up 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.400 until the time. You know, she retired about sixty. My 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:15.439 dad retired at the compulsory retirement age of sixty, which 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:17.199 is bizarre now because at sixty, you and I have 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:18.959 passed sixty. Imagine if we were told we had to 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:20.280 stop what we're doing at sixty. 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:21.040 It's just bizarre. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:23.400 Mom and Dad still with us. 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:28.000 No, No, Mum made it to ninety three, and you know, 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.600 she had a great life, and she unfortunately developed one 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.400 of the nasty cancers. So we talk about cancer check us. 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.360 But pancreatic cancer is a very famous one in the 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:39.800 medical world. And my dad did die of a heart 0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:42.360 attack at a younger age, and so I'm very conscious 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:43.760 of making sure I keep ahead of that. 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:45.920 So they've both passed on some time ago. 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.439 Oh that's sad. Dr Peter Larkins is my guess. He's 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:51.840 talking to us about his book The Healthy Hundred one 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:54.760 hundred Ways to a Healthier, Happy, and Longer Life, originally 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:56.840 was called How to Live to one hundred and Beyond 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:02.000 one hundred and Beyond backshortly, folks. Peter Larkins is my guest. Folks, 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.000 we're doing this on the zoom. Peter where you based 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:06.559 at the moment. Where are we speaking to you from? 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.559 Well, you're speaking from You've done the beautiful Mornington Peninsula, 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.760 which is about an hour and a quarter from Melbourne 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:16.319 down south, so it's a nice little part of the 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:18.480 part of Melbourne. I've sort of just snuck down here 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:20.440 for a day to do a few tidy ups at 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.760 a place down here. My working life is still based 0:11:23.760 --> 0:11:26.800 in Melbourne four days a week, Graham at Epworth Hospital, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.520 which is one of the large private hospitals here, very 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:31.640 close to the MCG so we've got a good connection 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:34.440 with the footy clubs. But I work in the sports 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:38.000 and orthopedic area. So my elite athlete patients started about 0:11:38.040 --> 0:11:40.120 age fifty these days and go to age ninety, so 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:42.400 I'm looking after all the broken down hips and knees 0:11:42.520 --> 0:11:50.079 and shoulders. But a limited association with some sport elite stuff, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:52.640 including the World Championships of the Hawaii iron Man, which 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:55.000 is another story in itself. But I go over here 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.839 to the World Triathlon Championships. But my medical work four 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.599 days a week is really at but just down the 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.400 beautiful mornings in Pininsula today. 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:07.680 Okay, so let's split the athletic career from the medical career. 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.200 We'll come back to the medical career. So you've got 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.920 the geens to run. Obviously, you're a three thousand meter 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:19.240 steeple chase runner. How did you morph into a into 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:20.640 a steeple chase athlete? 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:23.640 Yeah, well, again, trying to make it a short story. 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:26.160 At school, I was an eight hundred meter runner, Graham, 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:28.400 So that was my sort of go to event all 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:33.040 through schoolboys state championships, national championships up until about fifteen 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:35.079 or sixteen. At eight hundred meters, I didn't think I 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.320 was capable of running further of that. But I had 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:39.920 a fantastic coach called Rudy hop Writer who'd beat an 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.160 Austrian Olympian in his day, and he was coaching me 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:44.079 from about the age of ten, and he insisted that 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.120 you do every event. You do the sprints, you do 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.760 the hurdles. You just wanted to all round, you know. 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:50.800 So speed training was a big thing for him, even 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:52.319 though I was training for eight hundred. So I was 0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:55.000 a good hurdler. In fact, I was glong schoolboy hurdles champion. 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.040 But then one day I was watching the steeple chase 0:12:58.080 --> 0:12:59.959 and I thought that's an interesting event. There's a distance 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:02.280 race where you've got a hurdle things I was about 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.560 when I was fifteen at the time, and the junior 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.520 distance was fifteen hundred meters steeplechase, whereas the Olympic and 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.360 international one is three thousand. So I had a crack 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.760 over the fifteen hundred meter steeplechase just to try it out. 0:13:14.840 --> 0:13:17.000 And it just felt natural to me because I hurdled 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:19.439 the jump. So as people will know, if you're in 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:21.559 school hurdles, you hit the hurdle, it falls over. But 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:23.240 if you're in a steeple chase, you hit the hurdle, 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.560 you fall over because everybody sowd and so I. 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:28.199 Just I learned that and so with it. 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:30.400 At fifteen, I sort of had a crack and within 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:32.760 my third I think it was my third race, I 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:36.280 set a national record at the junior distance and I thought, geez, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.640 maybe I'm onto something here. So and by that stage 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.160 I was getting to sort of sixteen seventeen and I 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.360 was running fifteen hundred meters, so I really did more 0:13:43.400 --> 0:13:46.000 fifteen hundred meters running because the steeplechase was something that 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:49.079 I reserved really for big events. It was only so 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.240 many per year you could do, but it was the 0:13:51.280 --> 0:13:53.599 one I was best at, so eventually became you know, 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:57.079 national champion and then obviously in the Australian team for 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.199 that by morphing through. So in my international care I 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.400 ran steeplechase, but I also ran fifteen hundred meters as 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.160 much as I could too, Graham, it was an easier 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:05.719 event for me. 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.400 What time did you get for fifteen hundred meters? I mean, 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.600 I love that event. It's my favorite. 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.520 I got down to three forty one back in the while, 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:16.959 I'll be honest, in the seventies. So it was still 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.760 running miles in those days occasionally too, so there was 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:21.880 a few good milers around, blokes like John Walker and 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:27.200 Rod Dixon from New Zealand and John Walker, I should said, 0:14:27.200 --> 0:14:30.280 and then Graham Crouds here, so I ran a few 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.120 miles along the way in events when they didn't have 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:36.160 a steeple chase on the program. But yeah, it was 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:40.160 then the steeple I was running. Kerry O'Brien, if you remember, 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.560 from South Australia, had the work, but he also had 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.600 the Australian record, so there was a record recognized which 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.400 around internationally got home and I'd break Kerry O'Brien's record 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:50.160 when I was twenty one years of age, and so 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:52.840 I suddenly thought I was onto something then because Kerry 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:54.560 was a bit of a he was a standout. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:54.680 There. 0:14:54.680 --> 0:14:57.680 Weren't many steeple chases internationally from Australia and Kerry was 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.040 a standout. So I never met him, but he certainly 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:02.080 was from what I looked up to. 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:07.480 He was a legend here. Of course Kerry O'Brien will 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.480 knew him, and he was a fitness coach, fitness and 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:15.120 conditioning coach of Port Adelaide put La Magpies in the 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:20.120 sandfle I haven't heard from him lately, but he was 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.640 quite a legend here. So you never ran against him, 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:22.960 I guess. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:24.720 Oh no, No, he was a bit older than me, 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.320 so aged me that much. He was older than me, 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:30.520 and so I had a couple of really people I 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:32.600 looked up to. Kerry because of what he did, never met. 0:15:32.600 --> 0:15:34.120 And then a guy called Ralph de Bell, if you've 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.720 ever heard of Ralph de Bell, who was my brother's 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:38.720 best friend at university and used to come and stay 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:41.400 at Gelong with my brother and they go training down 0:15:41.440 --> 0:15:44.280 the sand dunes doing the old Percy Srity sand Dune. 0:15:44.320 --> 0:15:46.840 So Ralph won the gold medal in the Olympics in 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:49.280 nineteen sixty eight at Mexico City World and set a 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:53.160 world record. So Ralph was another great mentor in one sense, 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.040 but just someone I looked up to. So Kerry and 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:58.800 Ralph were two guys. Ralph still around, still see him 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.080 at the Olympic Club that we have annually. 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:03.600 Obviously it was a dream to represent Australia in the 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:08.000 Olympic Games, which you did. Tell us how that progressed. 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.280 Yeah, when you stay a dream, I know kids talk 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.000 about I've dreamt about this. I never did. 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:14.160 I never thought I was that good Graham around the 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:16.880 first Olympics nineteen seventy six. At nineteen seventy five, I 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:20.040 was Australian champion. I was just off qualifying and by 0:16:20.080 --> 0:16:22.040 that stage I'd moved on from Rudy as my coach 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.120 Ready hock Rider, a guy called Alan Barlow at Boux 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:26.680 Hill Athletic Club now Box Seals are very famous athletics 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:29.000 club in Melbourne and Allen was coaching me from the 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:31.600 time I went to university because I couldn't get to Geelong. 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:34.120 So really Allen took over about nineteen seventy four, so 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:36.200 I was two years into him, and he said to 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.040 me in nineteen seventy five, I think you could make 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:38.920 the Olympics next year. 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.160 And I just thought he was delusional. Grame, I really did, 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:41.640 because I was. 0:16:41.640 --> 0:16:44.320 In medical school. I was already in the hospital, working 0:16:44.440 --> 0:16:47.880 working pretty long hours. I'd moved away from the living 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:49.760 on campus because I did the first three years, and 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:51.920 then I was living in hospital, and I thought, but 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:54.440 I was still trying to train around my studies. And 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.640 I improved seventeen seconds between nineteen seventy five and nineteen 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.880 seventy six in my time, and that was just between 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:04.000 the age of twenty and twenty one. So it's interesting, 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.480 how incredible. And it was him believing in me that 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.240 said it. And so suddenly I'm in the Olympic squad. 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:11.560 I'm going, my god, Alan, you were right. 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:13.119 I mean, you know, I wasn't the thing on dreaming 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:14.800 to be the Olympics. And then I thought, geez, what 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:16.119 am I going to do? Now? I've got to train. 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.400 Harder, which which was silly because you shouldn't train harder, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:20.840 you should just do what works for you. But I 0:17:20.880 --> 0:17:22.840 suddenly then got caught up in thinking, oh, I've got 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.120 to train harder and how am I going to get 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:26.480 away because it was quite hard to balance. In fact, 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.000 I took a year off and did an exercise physiology 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.119 degree in nineteen seventy six. So I went back to 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:34.399 and did a master's degree at Melbourne UNI because I 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.640 really couldn't commit to the medical program and also get 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:39.240 away enough time to run at the Olympics. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.320 That intrigued me. We've mentioned Maddie Leftak a few times 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:47.280 seeing how he was able to combine his medical studies 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:51.920 with football. But when you say you improved seventeen seconds that, 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:54.840 how did that happen? I mean you must have. You 0:17:54.920 --> 0:17:57.720 must have had some change in your training program or 0:17:57.840 --> 0:17:58.760 some extra commitment. 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:02.840 Look probably a bit of extra commitment in the sense 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:05.880 that Alan taught me. Well, it was a different training style. 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.440 Ellen taught about we about recovery, and so I was 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:12.040 recovering better. Alan was all about quality. There were two 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.600 streams of thought in athletics in those days. There was 0:18:14.640 --> 0:18:17.920 the Ron Clark Rob de Costella sort of group that 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.200 was Glenn Huntley Athletic Club. That was distance distance endurance, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.879 cardio cardio, and then there was the Alan Barlow School 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:28.000 at box Hill, which was high quality intensity, good recovery, 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:30.600 high quality intensity. I mean my event only went for 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:34.119 eight minutes, four minutes, three minutes forty if you talk 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:36.080 about fifteen hundred. I didn't need to do these two 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:38.400 hour runs that these guys were doing, So the quality 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:43.480 of training probably improved. I was training fifteen sessions a week, 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.400 so twice a day every day, three on a Saturday, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:48.800 including the day's week, so we'd train in the morning 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.200 and then compete in a grade in the afternoon and then. 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:52.960 Do a recovery run at night on a Saturday. 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:55.840 So the quality of the training, I mean, you know, 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.760 in terms of volume, you know, I was running around 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.240 one hundred and twenty one hundred and thirty k's a 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:05.560 week was the sweet spot for me. But that you know, 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.040 half of that was on the track doing high quality 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:12.520 intervals short recovery interval short recovery. So yeah, look, the 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:14.080 quality of the training was good. But I thought I 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:16.200 trained hard in seventy five, but in seventy six it 0:19:16.320 --> 0:19:18.200 quably went up a little bit. But actually, you know 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.000 that's I trained harder when I made the team, so 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:23.879 I improved that seventeen seconds. Really off the back of 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:26.880 the work I'd done in seventy three and seventy four. 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:28.520 That's what I really credited with, Graham. 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.959 Can you remember the emotions of being selected to represent 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:34.720 Australia at an Olympic Games. 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:35.360 Yeah? 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:37.520 Now, the biggest emotion was my mum and dad had 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.920 their photo on the front page of the Gelong Advertiser. 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:41.280 Serious. 0:19:41.320 --> 0:19:43.320 That was the greatest thrill for me because of what 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:45.600 my folks had done. My dad drove me to training, 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:47.399 drove me to foot he picked me up. I'd go 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.040 and run the cross country in the same muddy shorts 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:51.920 that I'd played footy on At ten o'clock. I'd be 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.480 doing the cross country at one o'clock in my dad's 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:56.000 car with that even a shower in between. 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:59.000 So they'd worked. Really, my dad was a timekeeper at 0:19:59.040 --> 0:19:59.920 every event that I went. 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.159 Who We waved the flags at the footy as the 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:05.040 goal umpired And I know it sounds Gleod, but you 0:20:05.080 --> 0:20:07.439 know it was a great thrill to make it because I. 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:08.280 Hadn't expected it. 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:11.720 And my mom and dad on the front page of 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:15.480 the paper was the biggest highlight of the year, apart 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:18.480 from the opening ceremony and getting across to Montreal, which 0:20:18.560 --> 0:20:20.840 is again, once you're there, it's a whole different world. 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:24.359 We'll talk about that after the break. Dr Peter Larkins 0:20:24.480 --> 0:20:26.560 is my guest, folks. He's here to talk about his 0:20:26.680 --> 0:20:28.720 new book, The Healthy Hundred, How we Can Live to 0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:31.840 one hundred and beyond. But he's just been selected in 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:36.080 the Australian team to represent Australia at the Montreal Olympics. 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:39.800 Back after the break, Welcome back to conversations everybody. If 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.800 you've just tuned in, we're chatting with Dr Peter Larkins, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.600 one of our foremost sports medicos. I I don't know 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:51.440 how else to describe you, so highly qualified. Was one 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:54.960 of the Crows Club doctors in the early days and 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:57.680 we went to Melbourne, Doctor Larkins would always be there. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.680 But if you just tuned in these combined his medical studies, 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.479 he's decided he discovered that he can actually he's got 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.480 a talent for athletics, get selected to represent Australia in 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.240 the Montreal Olympics in the steeple chase event. Montreal was 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.600 now finest moment as an Olympic Games, was it? Peter? 0:21:15.680 --> 0:21:17.359 But can you tell me your experience. 0:21:18.200 --> 0:21:19.800 Yeah, what you're alluding to is we didn't win a 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:23.520 gold medal and that was just historical for Australia given 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:25.760 our history of sport. I'm talking about athletics, I'm talking 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:27.840 about any sport, whether you talked about rowing, whether you 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:29.600 talk about hockey, you talk about swimming. 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:33.200 Was we had some real favorites in that. 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.159 But I can tell you now, look the experience was 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:39.600 it blurs a little bit because you know, I was 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.760 twenty one years of age Graham and I was sort 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:43.480 of it was such a new world. You know, I 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:47.159 really hadn't been overseas and can I tell you you know, 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:49.560 if you look at the way teams prepare these days, 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:52.560 they have these training camps overseas before Olympics. And just 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:54.040 as a quick side story, so if you're in the 0:21:54.119 --> 0:21:55.680 rowing team or you're in the hockey team, you go 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:59.320 away and you spend weeks competing for the month or 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:01.440 two before the Olympics, and you go to the Olympics 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.280 really in match condition. Imagine playing a Grand Final having 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.160 not played a practice match. That's what we did in Montreal. 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:10.639 It was eight degrees in Melbourne when we got on 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:13.200 the chartered plane and we flew to Montreal. It was 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:16.320 thirty four degrees. We went straight into the village, no 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:20.040 pre competition. So this was in about July of seventy six, 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:22.320 So we came out of winter in Australia on a 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.000 chartered flight. The swimmers, the hockey plays, everyone on the 0:22:25.040 --> 0:22:27.080 same plane. I say, next to Blake called Steve Holland, 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:29.600 who was called the Fish, and he was supposed to 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.080 be a big swimming star that was going to be there, 0:22:32.640 --> 0:22:35.680 and so it was totally the wrong preparation I think 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:38.360 in the Olympic Committee in those days and all the sports, 0:22:38.400 --> 0:22:41.280 it just doesn't happen those days. So we're off season 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:45.399 because the Olympics are usually held in the Northern Hemisphere season. 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:47.560 So we got into the village and we were the 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:49.960 first big team to arrive. There was a few small teams. 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:52.160 We had I think two hundred and something. We arrived 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:55.119 in this big village and what happened was we had 0:22:55.280 --> 0:22:57.520 so much time to hang around doing nothing. The swimmers 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.720 all put on about ten kilos if you look back 0:22:59.720 --> 0:23:01.960 at the history of that, because there's twenty four hours 0:23:02.000 --> 0:23:05.000 a day buffet food and so the swimmers all got fat. 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:07.560 We did ten, not ten kilograms. 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.160 They would have time they put on weight. 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.359 Exactly what I'm saying is you go there, you know, 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:16.080 supposedly lean and fit and ready to go. 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:18.600 Three weeks is a long time. 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:20.440 I remember, you know, when you arrive at the village, 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:22.280 they raised the Australian flag and have a bit of 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:24.479 a welcoming stumm and there was only about three flags going. 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:26.719 Remember there's two hundred teams going to be there. There 0:23:26.760 --> 0:23:29.960 was only three flags flying, and then Australian team goes up. 0:23:30.359 --> 0:23:33.359 So we had to train in the heat, no racing 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:34.000 under our belts. 0:23:34.000 --> 0:23:35.840 So for me it was you know, I really was 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:38.560 good at peeking off the back of racing a lot, 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:40.720 so I used to like, as I said, imagine playing 0:23:40.720 --> 0:23:42.520 the granny and not having a practice match. 0:23:43.040 --> 0:23:44.320 So we didn't do well. 0:23:44.480 --> 0:23:47.160 I was ranked fourth in the world, only I ran 0:23:47.280 --> 0:23:50.240 tenth when I got over there. You know, I was 0:23:50.359 --> 0:23:53.200 training okay, but I also had developed an injury back 0:23:53.240 --> 0:23:56.200 in May competing in a road relay in Australia where 0:23:56.200 --> 0:23:58.600 I developed an inflame back and I was put on 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:02.200 some pretty high powered tablets that don't even exist anymore. 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:03.920 But they thinned my blood down and I got a 0:24:04.000 --> 0:24:06.280 low blood count, Graham, So I was quite a mneemic 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:09.399 which was only discovered in the village as well. So 0:24:09.560 --> 0:24:11.840 off the back of not being as prepared as I 0:24:11.880 --> 0:24:13.720 should be, I also had a low blood count which 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:15.840 really worked against me, and I was very disappointed in 0:24:15.920 --> 0:24:18.960 my performance, even though the experience, of course is life 0:24:19.040 --> 0:24:22.240 changing and you know, very memorable for lots. 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:22.919 Of other reasons. 0:24:23.400 --> 0:24:25.159 Who won the gold medal in that event. 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:28.399 One of the Italians who was on the blood doping. 0:24:28.480 --> 0:24:30.800 So blood doping is when you take blood out of 0:24:30.840 --> 0:24:32.760 your arm, stow it in the fridge, and then you 0:24:32.840 --> 0:24:34.760 put it in a day or two before the event, 0:24:34.840 --> 0:24:37.240 so your blood boosting. This was the days now we're 0:24:37.240 --> 0:24:39.520 talking seventies, Graham, and so there was a lot of 0:24:39.600 --> 0:24:40.800 dodgy stuff being done. 0:24:41.320 --> 0:24:44.920 East Germany and Russia were sort of at their peak. 0:24:45.440 --> 0:24:46.800 You know, there was a lot going I was lucky 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:49.280 enough to travel a lot on the international circuit behind 0:24:49.320 --> 0:24:53.480 the iron curtains, so Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, and 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:55.600 as a medical student, my eyes were as wide as 0:24:55.640 --> 0:24:58.840 they could be wide, I'm saying when I saw the 0:24:58.880 --> 0:24:59.760 stuff that was going on. 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:02.040 So there was and Montreal. 0:25:02.119 --> 0:25:04.440 If you look back as well, there was just the 0:25:04.600 --> 0:25:08.560 rudimentary beginning of drug testing. So we were competing in 0:25:08.680 --> 0:25:11.159 the distance against people that were on EPO and on 0:25:11.280 --> 0:25:14.959 blood doping, and you know, we were just so far behind. 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:17.880 And we still don't cheat in Australia, but the drug 0:25:17.960 --> 0:25:20.960 testing was just coming in. That was the first time 0:25:21.200 --> 0:25:23.400 ever that anabolic agents were. 0:25:23.359 --> 0:25:23.840 Tested for it. 0:25:23.920 --> 0:25:26.760 The Olympics was seventy six and it's fair to say 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:27.880 there weren't many detections. 0:25:28.480 --> 0:25:33.160 What's your long lasting a memory of being an Olympian? 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:36.320 I mean, I think it's such a such an achievement. 0:25:36.400 --> 0:25:38.640 I mean, maybe you didn't live up to your expectations, 0:25:38.720 --> 0:25:41.520 but it's an amazing thing to have done in an 0:25:41.560 --> 0:25:42.119 event like that. 0:25:42.240 --> 0:25:44.359 I would have thought it's hard not to dwell on 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:47.040 the fact that you didn't perform as well as you should. 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:48.399 I know, you've got to move on, and I have. 0:25:48.640 --> 0:25:50.920 But you know, my memory is that I was disappointed 0:25:50.920 --> 0:25:54.359 in my own performance. But when people talk about the 0:25:54.440 --> 0:25:56.119 fact that, you know, you went to the Olympics and 0:25:56.200 --> 0:25:59.680 with the people that I met, and the experience and 0:26:00.160 --> 0:26:03.639 taught me about preparation and what we learned from that 0:26:03.840 --> 0:26:07.280 and I was selected in the eighty Moscow team as well, Graham. 0:26:07.480 --> 0:26:09.280 Four years later, I'd really put my head down to 0:26:09.440 --> 0:26:10.600 work really really hard. 0:26:10.920 --> 0:26:14.119 I'd already graduated from medicine, so again I won the 0:26:14.160 --> 0:26:16.880 selection and I was running just the same speed four 0:26:17.000 --> 0:26:20.200 years later, four years older, four years more experienced. I'd 0:26:20.200 --> 0:26:24.760 won every national title in between. But in eighty the 0:26:24.840 --> 0:26:28.080 Olympics again were a disaster because the government didn't fund 0:26:28.240 --> 0:26:31.600 the Olympic teams and all the Olympic teams were restricted 0:26:31.680 --> 0:26:34.720 on finance, and I was one of the athletes who 0:26:34.840 --> 0:26:37.679 was dropped out of the Olympic team through later months 0:26:38.160 --> 0:26:40.560 and so never got to a pear in Moscow even 0:26:40.560 --> 0:26:42.400 though I was and in fact it was embarrassing because 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:44.040 I was on the front page of the Herald Sun 0:26:44.160 --> 0:26:46.720 newspaper here in Melbourne when I made my second Olympic 0:26:46.800 --> 0:26:51.040 team getting presented with the Olympic tie by Rick Pannell, 0:26:51.080 --> 0:26:54.879 who was the CEO of Athletics Australia. So that was 0:26:54.960 --> 0:26:58.639 my second Olympic memory was being selected and not allowed 0:26:58.640 --> 0:27:01.800 to eat because Malcolm Fraser with drew all the government funding. 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:03.440 Are you bitter about that? 0:27:04.440 --> 0:27:04.640 Yeah? 0:27:04.760 --> 0:27:08.359 I am, because I committed four years mentally and emotionally, 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:10.159 and I took a year off from MIDS and so 0:27:10.280 --> 0:27:13.800 in eighty I actually stepped aside from working because I 0:27:13.920 --> 0:27:16.320 really in seventy six I studied and I felt that 0:27:16.440 --> 0:27:19.040 that probably inhibited my performance. So in eighty i'd actually 0:27:19.160 --> 0:27:23.000 taken a year off work, so no income and was 0:27:23.400 --> 0:27:24.800 trying to prepare for the Olympics. 0:27:24.840 --> 0:27:27.240 So beeh a bit better at the Australian government over that? 0:27:27.600 --> 0:27:28.280 Did you get over it? 0:27:29.400 --> 0:27:30.040 Now? Doesn't? 0:27:32.240 --> 0:27:35.760 Well, I'm saying I was a dual Olympian by selection, 0:27:35.880 --> 0:27:38.119 but only competed in one and I've been Look, I've 0:27:38.160 --> 0:27:40.359 been to nine Olympics in total, and so my Olympic 0:27:40.440 --> 0:27:42.160 career was really started by Montfior. 0:27:42.240 --> 0:27:43.840 That's the positive thing. You know. 0:27:44.359 --> 0:27:46.720 I've been a contributor in the Olympic movement over a 0:27:46.800 --> 0:27:49.600 long long time, so you know, it's once you're an Olympian, 0:27:49.640 --> 0:27:51.239 you're always an Olympian, and there's no such thing as 0:27:51.280 --> 0:27:55.120 a former Olympian. So it has is open enormous pathways 0:27:55.119 --> 0:27:57.600 for me. So there's a positive side that I'm really 0:27:57.840 --> 0:28:00.080 pleased about it. And now it's just so different the 0:28:00.119 --> 0:28:01.960 way the athletes prepare in the fact that they don't 0:28:02.000 --> 0:28:03.639 try and study full time while they're training. 0:28:03.840 --> 0:28:05.560 They really put their head down and have a crack. 0:28:06.320 --> 0:28:08.159 That intrigues me. Do you think could you have done it? 0:28:08.240 --> 0:28:11.200 Could you have qualified today if you were under the 0:28:11.240 --> 0:28:11.920 same regiment. 0:28:12.840 --> 0:28:14.720 Yeah, I would have qualified. Now you know whether or 0:28:14.760 --> 0:28:16.920 not I would have had the ability to do that, 0:28:17.040 --> 0:28:17.520 I don't know. 0:28:17.920 --> 0:28:21.120 So you know I was. I was capable of improving further. 0:28:21.680 --> 0:28:24.520 In fact, after eighty I started to really put my 0:28:24.600 --> 0:28:26.639 head down and concentrate on mits and even more. But 0:28:26.760 --> 0:28:29.879 I came back from a traveling fellowship at the end 0:28:29.920 --> 0:28:32.720 of nineteen eighty three having competed, I thought for the 0:28:32.800 --> 0:28:34.679 last time at the kom Off Games in eighty two 0:28:34.760 --> 0:28:36.119 up in Brisbane, which I don't know if you were 0:28:36.119 --> 0:28:37.920 their Graham, but it was. You know, we obviously host 0:28:38.000 --> 0:28:41.080 them in Brisbane in eighty two, and a coach at 0:28:41.120 --> 0:28:42.600 the end of eighty three when I came back from 0:28:42.640 --> 0:28:42.920 me you. 0:28:42.920 --> 0:28:44.560 Said do you fit? And I said, oh, I'm halfway fit. 0:28:44.640 --> 0:28:46.520 He said, we've got eight weeks to the Olympic trials. 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:48.200 Do you want to have a crack? And I said, 0:28:48.320 --> 0:28:49.560 you know, I haven't raced for a. 0:28:49.640 --> 0:28:51.640 Year, and you know I trained hard with Ellen for 0:28:51.720 --> 0:28:53.680 six weeks. You know, I missed out on the Olympic 0:28:53.720 --> 0:28:55.800 selection by three seconds. 0:28:55.960 --> 0:28:57.080 You know what three seconds is? 0:28:57.480 --> 0:29:00.720 One two three, That's how much I missed out a 0:29:00.760 --> 0:29:01.720 third Olympic selection. 0:29:02.000 --> 0:29:05.080 One two three Gray, And that's all I was. 0:29:05.440 --> 0:29:08.240 So I was still running pretty well in my early thirties, 0:29:08.600 --> 0:29:10.520 but that stage the world had moved on. So I 0:29:10.520 --> 0:29:12.760 would have been a selection without necessarily being a threat 0:29:12.800 --> 0:29:14.760 when I got there. It's like making like being eighth 0:29:14.840 --> 0:29:16.800 in the in the in the AFL eight, You're not 0:29:16.880 --> 0:29:18.800 really a threat. You're just snuck into the finals. 0:29:19.720 --> 0:29:21.840 You did so much. I mean, maybe we're going back 0:29:21.880 --> 0:29:23.640 a little bit. I just want to read a few things. 0:29:24.360 --> 0:29:28.320 You had degrees in medicine and exercise physiology. You were 0:29:28.360 --> 0:29:32.040 rewarded the inaugural Sir Robert Menzi's Medical Scholarship. You did 0:29:32.120 --> 0:29:36.600 postgraduate studies in sports and exercise medicine in Canada, the USA, England, 0:29:36.680 --> 0:29:41.600 and East Africa before coming back to continue your practice. 0:29:41.640 --> 0:29:44.840 You completed medical training at Alfred Hospital. You wrote a 0:29:44.920 --> 0:29:50.920 master's thesis in exercise physiology, receiving the Hume Turnbull Research 0:29:51.120 --> 0:29:53.640 Fellowship during your fourth year of study. So I mean, 0:29:54.920 --> 0:29:57.360 I mean, or of somebody who's such a high achievement. 0:29:57.480 --> 0:29:59.240 Can I just pick a little snippet out of that? 0:29:59.600 --> 0:30:01.920 What did you doing East Africa? Was that Kenya? I 0:30:02.000 --> 0:30:02.480 guess it? 0:30:03.520 --> 0:30:04.160 Yeah, well done? 0:30:04.280 --> 0:30:06.400 Yeah it was because if you think back in the eighties, 0:30:07.120 --> 0:30:10.719 who were the dominant distance runners, think of those great battles, 0:30:10.760 --> 0:30:14.800 So the Kenyans, the Ethiopians and the Tanzanians. So they 0:30:14.840 --> 0:30:17.040 were the three East African countries that I was just 0:30:17.760 --> 0:30:20.160 fascinated by these these there were young kids that I 0:30:20.320 --> 0:30:23.360 was racing against them, and they were most gentle people. 0:30:24.080 --> 0:30:27.080 And so when I had the opportunity and so that fellowship, 0:30:27.200 --> 0:30:27.560 I had to. 0:30:27.560 --> 0:30:30.080 Spend time in commonwealth countries, one of which was a 0:30:30.200 --> 0:30:32.680 developing area of the world. And in fact that the 0:30:32.760 --> 0:30:34.280 people that gave me the scholarship wanted me to go 0:30:34.360 --> 0:30:36.480 to India to study the hockey program. And I said, 0:30:36.520 --> 0:30:39.080 I've got no interest in hockey, with all due respect 0:30:39.080 --> 0:30:39.800 to hockey players. 0:30:42.080 --> 0:30:44.000 Yea, they said to. 0:30:44.040 --> 0:30:45.600 Me, I said, want to go to East Africa And 0:30:45.640 --> 0:30:47.360 they said, well, is it because I'm fascinated to know 0:30:47.520 --> 0:30:50.280 the talent identification program over there? Everyone says it's because 0:30:50.280 --> 0:30:52.160 they live at altitude and I just didn't believe that, 0:30:52.840 --> 0:30:56.080 And so I went and spent nearly six months living 0:30:56.120 --> 0:30:59.040 in East Africa, watching them train, watching the kids run 0:30:59.120 --> 0:31:02.800 to and from school barefoot. Literally that they grew all 0:31:02.880 --> 0:31:05.360 the food that they ate, everything was organic, the healthiest 0:31:05.400 --> 0:31:08.000 diet of vegetables and fruit you can imagine. But the 0:31:08.080 --> 0:31:09.920 big thing Graham was from the altitude. It was the 0:31:10.000 --> 0:31:12.640 motivation to do something with their life. They're very poor 0:31:12.720 --> 0:31:14.320 over there, and if you want a scholarship to go 0:31:14.440 --> 0:31:17.520 America as a runner, you were made for life, you know. 0:31:17.640 --> 0:31:20.000 And the road racing those days they could win good money, 0:31:20.040 --> 0:31:21.680 and that means you could buy land, because only the 0:31:21.760 --> 0:31:23.120 rich people owned land over there. 0:31:23.480 --> 0:31:25.440 So it was an interesting thing to go across. And 0:31:25.480 --> 0:31:27.360 I wrote a sort of more of a social. 0:31:27.120 --> 0:31:31.480 Thesis, not a medical thesis, about how the kids any 0:31:31.480 --> 0:31:34.280 of the Opia and Kenya are really motivated to follow 0:31:34.360 --> 0:31:37.920 their idols like kip Kino and Jibouti and these other 0:31:37.960 --> 0:31:41.600 guys that have run and just a very quick story. 0:31:41.640 --> 0:31:41.840 Again. 0:31:41.880 --> 0:31:44.120 I went to a place called Elderette up and the 0:31:44.200 --> 0:31:46.840 highlands of Kenya, and I busited Kip. 0:31:46.760 --> 0:31:47.680 Kino, who was well known. 0:31:47.720 --> 0:31:50.120 He ran against Ron Clark and we stood on the 0:31:50.160 --> 0:31:52.240 porch of his house, Graham, and you could see all 0:31:52.280 --> 0:31:54.240 the lights of the villages in the distance, and there 0:31:54.280 --> 0:31:57.240 were ten different villages that I could see lights from, 0:31:57.280 --> 0:31:59.760 and he told me there are eleven world record holders 0:32:00.160 --> 0:32:03.120 that had come from those villages that I could see 0:32:03.320 --> 0:32:07.200 just at night within within visuals you distance of where 0:32:07.280 --> 0:32:08.120 Kip Kino lived. 0:32:09.320 --> 0:32:10.200 So fascinating. 0:32:10.200 --> 0:32:13.440 Talk about genetics, well maybe you know that, but the 0:32:13.560 --> 0:32:16.760 motivation to be the next Skip Kino or the next 0:32:17.160 --> 0:32:22.560 Gilbert Baye who was the great runner from from Tanzania. 0:32:22.760 --> 0:32:25.160 So it was an interesting study side thing for me. 0:32:25.200 --> 0:32:27.360 And I've got great respect for the East African runners. 0:32:28.080 --> 0:32:33.440 Doctor Peter Larkins lepygathlete, medico author. His book is called 0:32:33.480 --> 0:32:35.920 The Healthy Hundred. We'll talk about that in a bit 0:32:35.960 --> 0:32:39.440 more detail after the break. Acutly my guest on conversations 0:32:39.520 --> 0:32:42.960 is doctor Peter Larkins. He's an author as well as 0:32:42.960 --> 0:32:46.280 all the other great things he's done. When we went 0:32:46.320 --> 0:32:49.320 to Melbourne, he was our club doctor in the early 0:32:49.520 --> 0:32:52.160 in the early days. How did that connection come about 0:32:52.200 --> 0:32:53.440 with the Crows, Peter. 0:32:53.800 --> 0:32:56.400 Yeah, Well, look I had a strong AFL history, if 0:32:56.400 --> 0:32:59.240 you like. With down with my dad at Geelong and 0:32:59.320 --> 0:33:01.840 my uncle Pat. But then when I first came back 0:33:01.840 --> 0:33:04.680 from overseas travels, I helped Kevin Threlfel, who was the 0:33:04.720 --> 0:33:06.040 club doctor down at Geelong. 0:33:06.160 --> 0:33:07.920 So I had the Cats for the first six years 0:33:07.960 --> 0:33:09.360 as an assistant doctor down there. 0:33:09.360 --> 0:33:11.400 And then of course when the Crows got their license, 0:33:11.480 --> 0:33:14.160 I was good friends with doctor Brian Sando, who of 0:33:14.200 --> 0:33:15.280 course you had a lot to do with. 0:33:15.400 --> 0:33:15.520 Now. 0:33:15.640 --> 0:33:18.440 Brian and I went back to our Olympic connection because 0:33:18.440 --> 0:33:20.480 he was involved in Olympic teams with the swimming and 0:33:20.560 --> 0:33:23.080 the diving, and so Brian and I had a chat 0:33:23.160 --> 0:33:25.600 and Brian when the Crows were coming in, he said, Pete, 0:33:25.760 --> 0:33:28.120 we need someone in Melbourne who knows the Melbourne scene 0:33:28.160 --> 0:33:30.080 in case a player needs an X ray or needs 0:33:30.200 --> 0:33:32.480 to stay overnight, it's got a broken rear ball. We 0:33:32.600 --> 0:33:36.160 need a specialist in this all that area. So I 0:33:36.280 --> 0:33:39.280 sort of became on board right from game one day 0:33:39.360 --> 0:33:42.400 one as one of the Crow's medical officers, assisting out 0:33:42.440 --> 0:33:44.360 with all the Victorian program. And you and I cross 0:33:44.400 --> 0:33:46.080 paths of course when you were coaching there, and I 0:33:46.160 --> 0:33:48.440 still remember your talks about bringing. 0:33:48.200 --> 0:33:51.160 The oxygen breathe the oxygen deep breeds steep breaths. 0:33:51.240 --> 0:33:53.960 It was the Corns mantra at the court at time 0:33:54.040 --> 0:33:58.240 breaks gorn, So you were famous. Brian Sando unfortunately passed on, 0:33:58.400 --> 0:34:00.920 but he was a great doc in the sports world 0:34:01.000 --> 0:34:02.680 and my connection that led to the Crows. 0:34:03.080 --> 0:34:05.600 I should have known more about your career. Mean to me, 0:34:05.680 --> 0:34:08.360 you were just another face in the background when I 0:34:08.440 --> 0:34:11.600 was worried about a footy team. No, I don't think 0:34:11.640 --> 0:34:14.480 I've paid you the respect you were worthy of those days. 0:34:16.320 --> 0:34:17.560 Well, you know what coaching is like. 0:34:17.640 --> 0:34:20.200 You've got your blinkers on, and I was just happy 0:34:20.239 --> 0:34:21.839 to help Brian out because I knew a fair bit 0:34:21.840 --> 0:34:24.520 about medical stuff with sport, and Brian knew that. 0:34:24.719 --> 0:34:26.279 Brian knew a bit more about me than you did. 0:34:26.360 --> 0:34:28.800 But that's all right now, you're very polite. 0:34:29.640 --> 0:34:32.719 Well that's good. I shudder sometimes and I think how 0:34:32.760 --> 0:34:35.200 I must have spoken to and treated some of the 0:34:35.320 --> 0:34:38.640 room stuff. You book, The Healthy hundred, it's a book 0:34:39.160 --> 0:34:41.279 I've heard you say, and I've lived it. You can 0:34:41.920 --> 0:34:44.040 pick it up and go to any page and find 0:34:44.160 --> 0:34:48.319 something that's useful in it. How did you distill it down? 0:34:49.160 --> 0:34:51.320 Yeah, Look, it's sort of a it was a compilation. 0:34:51.400 --> 0:34:53.239 I mean it was something that you know, a lot 0:34:53.280 --> 0:34:55.560 of advice I gived in my day to day sort 0:34:55.560 --> 0:34:58.200 of work with patients is how to sort of keep 0:34:58.239 --> 0:35:00.399 ahead of the curve of slowing down, you know, whether 0:35:00.400 --> 0:35:03.120 it's muscle wasting or whether it's their lack of energy 0:35:03.360 --> 0:35:06.120 or looking after their joints. And so, you know, I 0:35:06.280 --> 0:35:08.239 was doing a lot of this sort of advisory work 0:35:08.320 --> 0:35:09.640 just in the day to day work that I do 0:35:09.760 --> 0:35:11.759 with people about how to live healthier and how to 0:35:11.840 --> 0:35:14.440 keep away from doctors, which is you know, and then 0:35:14.440 --> 0:35:15.840 a few years ago I got to ask to a 0:35:15.880 --> 0:35:18.560 few men's health talks, and so I was really compiling 0:35:18.600 --> 0:35:20.200 the things that men have to do with their health 0:35:20.280 --> 0:35:22.600 checkups and you know, finding out about your background, if 0:35:22.600 --> 0:35:24.719 you've got heart disease and your family history, et cetera, 0:35:25.360 --> 0:35:27.680 and just being you know, making sure you eat well 0:35:27.719 --> 0:35:29.600 and don't be overweighted, don't smoke. And I thought, why 0:35:29.600 --> 0:35:31.120 am I just talking about men that anyone in the 0:35:31.160 --> 0:35:34.239 community should be taking that advice. So I started to 0:35:34.320 --> 0:35:38.160 distill down all the healthy living principles. And so when 0:35:38.200 --> 0:35:39.719 you look back at my sporting career, there was a 0:35:39.760 --> 0:35:42.000 whole lot of concepts that an athlete puts together like 0:35:42.120 --> 0:35:45.480 nutrition and sleep and mental preparation and looking after their 0:35:45.520 --> 0:35:48.040 body with the niggles, And that was about high performance 0:35:48.080 --> 0:35:50.080 in sports. So I really wrote a book about high 0:35:50.080 --> 0:35:53.120 performance in life, and it was all about the things 0:35:53.160 --> 0:35:53.680 that we can do. 0:35:54.400 --> 0:35:56.640 So again, I think COVID. 0:35:56.320 --> 0:35:59.719 Made is really aware of our frailty and our vulnerability, 0:36:00.000 --> 0:36:01.759 certainly here in Melbourne, but in Melbourne we had a 0:36:01.880 --> 0:36:04.920 terrible time with social isolation. So the mental health and 0:36:04.960 --> 0:36:07.239 the mental stress became a thing. So in the book, 0:36:07.280 --> 0:36:09.320 I don't just talk about physical things like why we 0:36:09.360 --> 0:36:12.080 should exercise and why we should eat well. I talk 0:36:12.120 --> 0:36:16.120 about two other really key pillars in life to perform well, 0:36:16.200 --> 0:36:19.720 and that is setting mental challenges for yourself and always 0:36:19.719 --> 0:36:22.719 looking at personal development. And I talk about social connectivity. 0:36:23.080 --> 0:36:25.000 So if you look at those aging populations around the 0:36:25.040 --> 0:36:26.560 world where people live to one hundred and five one 0:36:26.640 --> 0:36:29.279 hundred and six, they're socially connected with each other. 0:36:29.400 --> 0:36:31.120 The generations look after each other. 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:33.279 And so the book was a sort of a bit 0:36:33.360 --> 0:36:35.520 of an at z because every weekend you pick up 0:36:35.560 --> 0:36:37.720 a weekend magazine and to be a story about sugar, 0:36:37.800 --> 0:36:39.600 there'd be a story about caffeine, or a story about 0:36:39.600 --> 0:36:41.279 how much sleep you should get, and I thought, I 0:36:41.400 --> 0:36:42.960 know all that, why don't I put it all together 0:36:43.040 --> 0:36:44.040 and try and make a little. 0:36:43.920 --> 0:36:46.200 Encyclopedia of helping living principles. 0:36:46.360 --> 0:36:49.279 I'm not an expert in any of those gram but 0:36:49.400 --> 0:36:51.560 I tried to to steal them down into everyday language 0:36:51.600 --> 0:36:55.719 that people could understand. The cornerstone being exercises, medicine, exercises 0:36:55.760 --> 0:36:57.040 the greatest drug will ever take. 0:36:57.480 --> 0:37:00.480 I understand that. But as you get older, slow down? 0:37:00.560 --> 0:37:02.680 How do you how do you modify your I see 0:37:02.719 --> 0:37:06.879 guys running part and ladies running past my place every day, 0:37:07.520 --> 0:37:12.279 and slowly they age and slowly they stop. And I 0:37:12.480 --> 0:37:16.359 just how how important is running? I mean other more 0:37:16.400 --> 0:37:18.080 important forms of exercise. 0:37:18.520 --> 0:37:19.200 You have to move. 0:37:19.480 --> 0:37:22.680 The body doesn't know the difference between cycling, swimming, a 0:37:22.800 --> 0:37:29.040 rowing machine, skipping, walking, exercising on a treadmill. It's called moving, Graham, 0:37:29.400 --> 0:37:31.799 and you do slow down, but consistency is the key. 0:37:31.960 --> 0:37:36.759 So moving creates metabolic things in the body. Seriously about antioxidants. 0:37:36.760 --> 0:37:38.960 There's certain chemicals that are released that are lower your 0:37:39.000 --> 0:37:41.160 blood pressure, lower your cholesterol, so you. 0:37:41.160 --> 0:37:41.880 Don't have to run them. 0:37:41.920 --> 0:37:44.120 And as a runner, because there's a there's a there's 0:37:44.120 --> 0:37:45.960 a chapter in my book saying I hate to run, 0:37:46.280 --> 0:37:48.040 and it's because my pace better. 0:37:48.080 --> 0:37:48.560 You're a runner. 0:37:48.560 --> 0:37:50.080 You don't talking about running, I said, I'm not talking 0:37:50.120 --> 0:37:52.440 about running, I'm talking about moving. You know, if you're 0:37:52.680 --> 0:37:54.960 out an exercise bike, that's great. If you just walk 0:37:55.000 --> 0:37:57.400 around the you know, the greatest piece of exercise equipment 0:37:57.440 --> 0:37:59.960 you'll ever buy, Graham as a dog. It's not a treadmill, 0:38:00.320 --> 0:38:02.200 it's not an exercise bike. And people say, I got 0:38:02.280 --> 0:38:03.680 to take my dog for a walk. I say, no, no, 0:38:03.840 --> 0:38:07.760 your dog's taking you for a walk. That's keeping you healthy. 0:38:07.880 --> 0:38:09.960 So those people you see going past you you're down 0:38:10.000 --> 0:38:11.440 near the beach, I think so, I think people going 0:38:11.480 --> 0:38:13.440 past your place, well they used to run five years ago. 0:38:13.480 --> 0:38:16.040 As long as they're walking past your place, then in 0:38:16.120 --> 0:38:19.440 fact they're still moving, so they're still getting the exercise component, 0:38:19.480 --> 0:38:23.759 which includes mental health. So the importance of mental health 0:38:24.000 --> 0:38:26.440 and the dopamine and sero tone and the two famous 0:38:26.520 --> 0:38:28.719 chemicals that doctors prescribe when you go in there with 0:38:28.840 --> 0:38:32.960 anxiety and depression, they give you tablets that help stabilize. 0:38:32.400 --> 0:38:33.160 Those two hormones. 0:38:33.160 --> 0:38:34.799 You know, when you go for a walk today, those 0:38:34.880 --> 0:38:39.040 hormones are naturally being harmonized by your own body. So 0:38:39.600 --> 0:38:41.839 I think in the book I just talk about being 0:38:41.920 --> 0:38:45.080 responsible for your health. You will slow down, but you 0:38:45.160 --> 0:38:47.560 want to slow down slowly. The secret of life is 0:38:47.680 --> 0:38:49.840 to die young, but to do it late. And what 0:38:50.320 --> 0:38:52.200 that says in the book is want to be ninety 0:38:52.280 --> 0:38:55.000 and hour. But it doesn't mean you're running at the Olympics, 0:38:55.080 --> 0:38:57.160 or it doesn't mean you're playing footy for the crows 0:38:57.239 --> 0:38:59.359 or the cats. It just means that you're actually looking 0:38:59.400 --> 0:39:02.760 after yourself. Just getting out the door and social connection. 0:39:02.920 --> 0:39:07.239 Having someone a buddy to walk with or to play 0:39:07.320 --> 0:39:09.719 golf with, or to go and do something with, really 0:39:09.800 --> 0:39:12.960 makes you compliance a lot better because it's very hard 0:39:13.040 --> 0:39:15.200 sometimes to get up and do it by yourself. Having 0:39:15.239 --> 0:39:17.000 a commitment to meet someone who's a big tip in 0:39:17.040 --> 0:39:18.480 the book. It's one of the one hundred tips. 0:39:19.040 --> 0:39:22.000 So what about as you developed these afflictions, as you 0:39:22.040 --> 0:39:24.200 get older and the doctors want to put you on 0:39:24.320 --> 0:39:28.279 medication or get you to take supplements. How important are 0:39:28.400 --> 0:39:32.600 supplements and how important is to listen to a doctor's 0:39:32.640 --> 0:39:37.359 advice to take the cholesterol and if you have maybe 0:39:37.480 --> 0:39:38.680 blood thinners and things like that. 0:39:39.800 --> 0:39:42.560 No, I think your medicine is obviously very important. And 0:39:42.640 --> 0:39:44.600 this is not a replacement. This is not a medical book, 0:39:44.600 --> 0:39:46.080 and it says that very early on, if you've got 0:39:46.200 --> 0:39:48.160 high blood pressure, then make sure you're getting that tree 0:39:48.160 --> 0:39:50.480 to a low exercise will probably lower that. Meeds you 0:39:50.560 --> 0:39:52.960 need a lower dose of the medication. You've got high cholesterol, 0:39:53.040 --> 0:39:54.800 get that true to because we know these things do 0:39:54.960 --> 0:39:58.400 contribute to particularly to heart disease and stroke. And so 0:39:58.560 --> 0:40:01.480 doctors who are tuned in to healthy practices should be 0:40:01.840 --> 0:40:04.520 giving you the exercise advice. The greatest prescription they can 0:40:04.560 --> 0:40:06.160 give you is to buy a dog or walk around 0:40:06.200 --> 0:40:09.960 the block. But certainly the medication for inflammation. Inflammation ages 0:40:10.040 --> 0:40:11.759 our body. So we know that inflammation can be a 0:40:11.840 --> 0:40:14.040 sore knee or a sore hip. There's a new term 0:40:14.120 --> 0:40:17.880 camp called inflammaging. So the role of inflammation in aging 0:40:17.960 --> 0:40:21.880 our body more quickly, Graham so things to reduce inflammation, 0:40:21.920 --> 0:40:23.680 which is good nutrition. So a lot of the stuff 0:40:23.719 --> 0:40:26.480 we buy today has got preservatives, colorings. 0:40:26.480 --> 0:40:28.200 You look at the numbers on the label. 0:40:28.239 --> 0:40:30.759 If they've got numbers, it means it's artificial, right, So 0:40:30.920 --> 0:40:32.920 healthy living like God grew up on a farm. So 0:40:33.600 --> 0:40:36.600 the amount of foods can control inflammation and slow you down. 0:40:36.760 --> 0:40:40.760 So healthy living involves healthy nutrition. But the medication absolutely, 0:40:40.760 --> 0:40:42.880 whether it's diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure. 0:40:42.920 --> 0:40:45.600 Make sure you get your doctor's advice. But hopefully part 0:40:45.640 --> 0:40:47.560 of his advice is to be active. 0:40:47.680 --> 0:40:49.319 Because we're all going to slow down. I'm just trying 0:40:49.360 --> 0:40:51.600 to slow it down more slowly. So the art of 0:40:51.800 --> 0:40:53.640 aging youthfully, that's. 0:40:53.560 --> 0:40:54.239 What we're trying to do. 0:40:54.920 --> 0:40:55.640 Do you still run? 0:40:56.560 --> 0:40:58.680 I rock? So there's a term called rourking. 0:40:58.800 --> 0:41:02.120 It's half running and half wall looking and need surgery 0:41:02.200 --> 0:41:04.799 for a bit of treadware on my kneecap from all 0:41:04.840 --> 0:41:07.320 one hundred thousand k's of running that I've done. So 0:41:07.520 --> 0:41:10.000 what I do now I do five or six days 0:41:10.040 --> 0:41:11.880 a week up to an hour, and it's a mixture 0:41:11.920 --> 0:41:13.719 of walking a bit, running a bit, walking a bit. 0:41:13.800 --> 0:41:16.359 So my longest run in the last year's probably been 0:41:16.400 --> 0:41:18.839 two minutes gram so it doesn't sound like a run peat, 0:41:18.920 --> 0:41:21.520 but I run two minutes, walk two minutes, run two minutes, 0:41:21.520 --> 0:41:24.200 walk two minutes. That way I can control the load 0:41:24.640 --> 0:41:27.319 that I'm putting on my joints. My brain still thinks 0:41:27.320 --> 0:41:29.960 I'm running. My heart rate goes up into a running zone. 0:41:30.719 --> 0:41:32.879 So I think the fitness benefits are there, but I'm 0:41:32.960 --> 0:41:33.560 careful about it. 0:41:33.560 --> 0:41:35.200 I do it. And the other point is strength training. 0:41:35.280 --> 0:41:39.520 So cardio is obviously running, walking, you know, the tread mills, kipping, 0:41:39.680 --> 0:41:41.399 as I said, swimming, that's the big part. 0:41:41.480 --> 0:41:43.839 But strength training. As we get older, we lose muscle mass, 0:41:44.320 --> 0:41:44.520 and so. 0:41:44.600 --> 0:41:47.239 Getting up out of a chair, just getting up, you know, 0:41:47.640 --> 0:41:50.440 you say I'm tired, because you get fatigued. So strength 0:41:50.480 --> 0:41:52.320 training two or three times a week for half and 0:41:52.440 --> 0:41:55.640 now it's just some home resistance bands or resistance weights. 0:41:55.960 --> 0:41:58.200 Everyone over fifty should be working on that as well. 0:41:58.320 --> 0:42:00.320 So I do two or three days where I do 0:42:00.400 --> 0:42:03.239 some strength work and probably five or six days where 0:42:03.239 --> 0:42:05.640 I get out and smell the roses and do that. 0:42:05.840 --> 0:42:07.560 Rawking, I'm going to put you. 0:42:07.600 --> 0:42:10.000 Right on the spot here. The book is called The 0:42:10.080 --> 0:42:12.640 Healthy Hundred, one hundred Ways to a healthier, happier and 0:42:12.800 --> 0:42:16.279 longer life. Just give me one, give me the most 0:42:16.360 --> 0:42:17.560 important one. 0:42:19.320 --> 0:42:21.919 To Graham. You see, I've got one hundred. You're trying 0:42:21.920 --> 0:42:22.480 to pick one. 0:42:24.280 --> 0:42:26.600 I know it's a combination of that, but for some 0:42:26.719 --> 0:42:29.680 people make small changes. If they could do one thing. 0:42:29.960 --> 0:42:32.239 One of the whole hundred look, I think I'll give 0:42:32.280 --> 0:42:36.239 you three because one is to move regularly. Two is 0:42:36.320 --> 0:42:38.080 to have your health check ups with your doctor to 0:42:38.200 --> 0:42:41.160 find out medical care is so much better for prostate cancer, 0:42:41.239 --> 0:42:44.520 bowel cancer, lung cancer, melanomas, So have your check up 0:42:44.560 --> 0:42:46.719 so you can get ahead of it. And the third 0:42:46.800 --> 0:42:51.720 one is prioritize social connection. Keep up with your mates. 0:42:51.880 --> 0:42:54.000 I'm sure you make an effort to have friends, whether 0:42:54.080 --> 0:42:56.200 it's a lunch, whether it's a warp, whether it's a 0:42:56.280 --> 0:42:59.920 game of pickleball or a golf So be socially connected, 0:43:00.480 --> 0:43:02.839 get your health checkups, and get out there and move. 0:43:03.360 --> 0:43:05.239 Well, there's another ninety seven really in the book. 0:43:05.840 --> 0:43:08.239 There is. It's not a hundred eight. You've got to 0:43:08.239 --> 0:43:10.080 get it. You've got to get it at dr Peterlarkins 0:43:10.160 --> 0:43:10.520 dot com. 0:43:11.040 --> 0:43:12.840 You've got to get it at Amazon, or you've got 0:43:12.920 --> 0:43:14.680 to get at any bookstore in Adelaide. 0:43:14.680 --> 0:43:16.600 They'll get it in for you. But doctor Peter Arkins 0:43:16.640 --> 0:43:18.200 dot com we can post it out to people. 0:43:18.640 --> 0:43:20.239 Great to catch up, Peter, Thanks for your. 0:43:20.160 --> 0:43:23.440 Time, appreciate it the chat. It's been fun. Thank you. 0:43:23.920 --> 0:43:26.360 Doctor Peter Larkins is my guest. Folks. This book is 0:43:26.360 --> 0:43:29.040 called The Healthy hundred, one hundred ways to a healthier, 0:43:29.280 --> 0:43:32.280 happier and longer life. Just open it to any page 0:43:32.280 --> 0:43:35.040 and you will find something interesting. Thank you for joining us.