Speaker 1: Welcome to Go Ask Ali, a production of Shonda Land
Speaker 1: Audio and partnership with I Heart Radio. Hi am Ally
Speaker 1: Wentworth And you're listening to Go ask Alli? Where this
Speaker 1: season I'm asking how do you grow a healthy relationship
Speaker 1: with the sibling, with a spouse, it with a guy
Speaker 1: that gives you colonics. I'm not going to judge. In
Speaker 1: this episode, we're talking about getting older. Yes, the optimistic
Speaker 1: way of looking at it is like a fine wine,
Speaker 1: we get better with age. But I've kind of been
Speaker 1: on a frantic quest for the fountain of youth. And
Speaker 1: I don't mean botox. I'm talking aging like sore back,
Speaker 1: bad knees, my boobs, hitting my my stomach, I don't
Speaker 1: remember things. I'm losing my hair. There are more wrinkles
Speaker 1: on my forehead than there were yesterday. So what is
Speaker 1: our relationship with aging? And how can we make it
Speaker 1: a health year one? Because there's no antidote to it,
Speaker 1: We're all going to get old. My guest today is
Speaker 1: Dr Frank Lippmann. Dr Frank Lipman is recognized as a
Speaker 1: vocal pioneer of integrative and functional medicine, or what he
Speaker 1: calls good medicine. He's the founder of eleven eleven Wellness
Speaker 1: Center and the Chief medical Officer at the well both
Speaker 1: in New York City. He's also the best selling author
Speaker 1: of seven books, including The New Rules of Aging Well
Speaker 1: A Simple Program for Immune Resilience, Strength and Vitality. Fingers crossed,
Speaker 1: I'm ten years younger after this conversation, Dr Lippman, thank
Speaker 1: you so much for being here. I have a billion
Speaker 1: questions for you. I hope you're ready. Yeah, I'm ready
Speaker 1: for a million. I don't know if you'll get to
Speaker 1: a billion. Ryan. Here's my first question. I'm fifty six.
Speaker 1: Is it too late for me? No, it's not. I'm
Speaker 1: sixty six older than you. It's not too loud. If
Speaker 1: I was seventy six, it wouldn't be too late. So
Speaker 1: it's never too late. Simply good to know. Never. By
Speaker 1: the way, where the accent is from? Where where South Africa?
Speaker 1: South Africa got it? So I really loved your book,
Speaker 1: and it's everything i'm worried about thinking about want to
Speaker 1: change for myself. And I love the idea because listen,
Speaker 1: the the honest truth is that me and a lot
Speaker 1: of my female friends, a lot of the idea about
Speaker 1: aging is ego right, So we think in this world
Speaker 1: of aging, oh my god, we need botox, we need
Speaker 1: to lose five pounds. I've already crossed over to oh no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's not about bikini weather girls. It's about maintaining what
Speaker 1: we have. And I loved that that was actually a
Speaker 1: line in your book. It's we've got to take care
Speaker 1: of what's here, you know, because I'm now about straw
Speaker 1: hats and you know, growing tomatoes. So I'm ready to
Speaker 1: get my ship together exactly. I think that's what it's
Speaker 1: all about. I think, look, we're all going to get older,
Speaker 1: that's normal. It's how we adapt to that and how
Speaker 1: well we age. I mean, And to answer your first
Speaker 1: question again, it's never too late to make changes. You know,
Speaker 1: how quickly and how well we age is determined by
Speaker 1: how we live our lives. M hm. And you know,
Speaker 1: particularly after this horrific year we've had with the pandemic.
Speaker 1: I had COVID nineteen and I got very sex so uh.
Speaker 1: And you talk about resilience in your book, So explain
Speaker 1: to my listeners what you mean by building up immune resilience. Well,
Speaker 1: I think, you know, we all as a culture think
Speaker 1: about not getting sick and not having something happened to us,
Speaker 1: but we all get sick. Something happens to all of us.
Speaker 1: A pandemic is a perfect example. Many of the things
Speaker 1: that happened to us out of our control. How well
Speaker 1: we whether that storm, how well we get better, how
Speaker 1: quickly we get better, is all about resilience. And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a Western doctor. Obviously, I've been practicing Western and
Speaker 1: for over forty years. But I really got into a
Speaker 1: different way of thinking when I started studying Chinese medicine
Speaker 1: about Citty I years ago, and I got taught by
Speaker 1: my Chinese medicine teacher very early on. It's all about
Speaker 1: creating resilience and helping your patients or the people you
Speaker 1: work with become more resilient because their understanding is, you know,
Speaker 1: bad where there happens, Shit happens. As you are saying,
Speaker 1: I'm allowed to swear, obviously, so eloquently, yes, I said that,
Speaker 1: And you know how well we deal with that ship
Speaker 1: is what it's all about. And that's the way I
Speaker 1: see it. It's not you know, we're all going to age.
Speaker 1: How well we age is important, and the more resilient
Speaker 1: you are, the more you can whether all those storms,
Speaker 1: the easiest going to be for you. So describe, And
Speaker 1: I hope I'm saying this right. A top a toy
Speaker 1: not bad. It's a big word for a girl like me. Yes,
Speaker 1: So a tough gy is basically your body's own cleansing mechanisms.
Speaker 1: You know. It's basically your garbage system and the cleaning
Speaker 1: crew all in one, in your cells or in your
Speaker 1: organs or everything. Yeah, everything in your cells and organs.
Speaker 1: So your body is detoxing or cleansing all the time.
Speaker 1: So it's taking proteins that get used up in the
Speaker 1: body and metabolize from different metabolic processes, and it takes
Speaker 1: that garbage and it puts it together and it gets
Speaker 1: rid of it. And your capacity for this self cleansing
Speaker 1: mechanism is what it's all about with aging, because as
Speaker 1: we get older, that process decreases a little bit, so
Speaker 1: you can maintain that or you can strengthen that autofogy process.
Speaker 1: And I think a lot of aging is about cleaning
Speaker 1: out those burnt out cells as old cells. And I
Speaker 1: think people when you explain it like that, when you
Speaker 1: explain that if you have a party at night and
Speaker 1: there's all this mess in your dining room and you
Speaker 1: don't clean it up the next day. After a few days,
Speaker 1: it's going to build up and build up. That's what's
Speaker 1: happening in yourselves. So you need some type of garbage
Speaker 1: collection and removal to actually stay healthy. And when it's
Speaker 1: not working properly, you could equate it to let's say,
Speaker 1: a garbage disposal that is broken and it gets clogged
Speaker 1: and filled up, right, And that's what happens as we age. UM.
Speaker 1: I also wanted to talk about longevity genes, the A
Speaker 1: M p K and M t O r MP or
Speaker 1: right emptor. And I'm asking you because even though I
Speaker 1: read it, I need more of a description of it. Sure. So,
Speaker 1: what they've discovered in the last twenty years or so
Speaker 1: is we have specific genes that we can upregulate or downregulate.
Speaker 1: In other words, we can manipulate or affect how those
Speaker 1: genes are expressed. Um. And they're calling them longevity genes
Speaker 1: because these particular genes which you can affect by how
Speaker 1: you live your life. And we have twenty or solve
Speaker 1: these genes. Two of the common ones that they talk
Speaker 1: about are this A M p K and the empt
Speaker 1: or genes. And now they're discovering certain ways of eating
Speaker 1: or exercising that affect these genes. And now are these
Speaker 1: hereditary genes or genes that we're all born with? You
Speaker 1: know the thing about genes, These are the type of
Speaker 1: genes that you're born with, but how those genes are
Speaker 1: expressed is determined by how you live your life. So
Speaker 1: they're not genes, for instance, like a gene for blonde
Speaker 1: hair or for blue eyes, the genes that you're born
Speaker 1: with that you can actually manipulate in a good way
Speaker 1: by how you live your life. So, for instance, certain
Speaker 1: genes for heart disease or for even cancer are also
Speaker 1: able to be upregulated or downregulated. And so nine to
Speaker 1: the genes we have in our bodies are actually how
Speaker 1: they expressed is determined by whether you exercise, how you eat,
Speaker 1: how you sleep, whether you have love in your life,
Speaker 1: whether you have purpose. All these factors affect how most
Speaker 1: of our genes are expressed. And the longevity genes are
Speaker 1: genes like that, because the hereditary genes, you think a
Speaker 1: lot of that is bullshit, correct if we rely on
Speaker 1: them to dictate what kind of life we have exactly, Yes, So,
Speaker 1: for instance, there's a gene known now as Alzheimer's gene,
Speaker 1: the APPO E three four gene, which if someone has
Speaker 1: that particular gene, there's more chance that they're going to
Speaker 1: get Alzheimer's disease, but only if they eat a lot
Speaker 1: of sugar. They're not exercising, they're not sleeping. So these
Speaker 1: are just genes that are going to be affected by
Speaker 1: your lifestyle. And you know, it comes down once again
Speaker 1: in the beginning. Is it too late for you know,
Speaker 1: you're still young, Elliott. It's never too late, but at
Speaker 1: fifties six, I think it's still earlier. Thank you for
Speaker 1: saying that. That brought my stress down a little bit. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, this weekend, I was with some friends and
Speaker 1: we were hiking and we got lost and it was
Speaker 1: scary because we were in Tennessee and we saw a
Speaker 1: black bear, and of course my heart was racing and
Speaker 1: we we we started running and I was as I
Speaker 1: was running, and of course we were totally fine. But
Speaker 1: as I was running, I thought, is this what Dr
Speaker 1: Littman would think is a small stress that makes us stronger?
Speaker 1: Is that an example of a small stress. Well probably
Speaker 1: that's a little bit bigger than a small stress. But
Speaker 1: that but but but That's a good point to bring
Speaker 1: up because our bodies are developed to actually deal with
Speaker 1: those situations, So that was an appropriate response. When you
Speaker 1: see a bear, your heart starts pounding, you get ready
Speaker 1: to run to fight or flight mechanism. So that's a
Speaker 1: little bit different than what's actually happened in our culture
Speaker 1: and the way we live today. Unfortunately, your body stays
Speaker 1: in that mode when you have chronic stress. Most of
Speaker 1: us have chronic stress. So the ability to turn that
Speaker 1: on and off and to only try use it when
Speaker 1: you're facing a bear, or you're in traffic, or you
Speaker 1: you have some type of stress is importance. But when
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the small stresses, I'm talking about something
Speaker 1: a little bit different. What I'm talking about is going
Speaker 1: from boiling hot shower to a cold shower, for from
Speaker 1: a sauna to a cold plant. Doing some high intensity
Speaker 1: interval training, so when you're exercising, you're sprinting or you know,
Speaker 1: pushing yourself for half a second for a second and
Speaker 1: then recovering or fasting is another example of a small stress.
Speaker 1: So it's a little bit different, but yes, in the
Speaker 1: same vein. Okay, I'm glad you brought up fasting, so food.
Speaker 1: You recommend sixteen hours of fasting, which seems like a lot.
Speaker 1: And what is the difference between a sixteen hour fast
Speaker 1: and intermittent fasting which seems to be a fad now
Speaker 1: I know a lot of people that are doing intermittent fasting. Well,
Speaker 1: intermittent fast thing is probably very similar to what I'm
Speaker 1: describing time restricted eating, eating most of your calories within
Speaker 1: a probably around an eight maybe a ten hour period,
Speaker 1: so you have at least fourteen to sixteen hours where
Speaker 1: your body is not consuming any calories. And why is
Speaker 1: that important Because after fourteen to sixteen hours, these auto
Speaker 1: fer gy mechanisms in your body start kicking in, and
Speaker 1: you want that, especially as you get older, because, as
Speaker 1: I said earlier, as you get older, toughergy mechanisms in
Speaker 1: your body aren't as efficient. So if you fast, if
Speaker 1: you fast for fourteen to sixteen hours, it starts kicking
Speaker 1: in these self cleansing mechanisms. So it's a very very
Speaker 1: powerful anti ageng heck fasting. And you know, it actually
Speaker 1: does get easier as you start doing it more and more.
Speaker 1: And I'm not recommending it for everyone. Some people have
Speaker 1: a problem with it, but for most of us over
Speaker 1: forty five fifty. It's a really good thing to do.
Speaker 1: So let's walk through a fast. I have dinner at
Speaker 1: six o'clock. I have some salmon and some greens and
Speaker 1: some water, and I go to sleep around nine, but
Speaker 1: I haven't eaten anything. Wake up at seven and exercise,
Speaker 1: because you'd say you don't have to eat before exercise.
Speaker 1: So the next meal I should have after eating dinner,
Speaker 1: let's say finishing dinner at seven is maybe like ten
Speaker 1: in the morning, exactly ten eleven. Yeah, so ten years,
Speaker 1: fifteen hours, eleven sixteen hours. That's what I do. I eat.
Speaker 1: I usually try to finish dinner by seven o'clock the latest,
Speaker 1: and I'll have my first meal by eleven or twelve.
Speaker 1: You know, I probably go even sometimes a bit longer.
Speaker 1: I'll have a cup of black coffee because that doesn't
Speaker 1: affect your too fergy mechanisms. And you know, I'm so
Speaker 1: used to it now. It's it's basically like eating dinner
Speaker 1: earlier and breakfast later. Basically two meals a dur sometimes
Speaker 1: snack between, but I eat two meals a day. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And you know that once you start doing it, you
Speaker 1: just get used to it. And I don't get hungry,
Speaker 1: I don't crave food. It's actually not that difficult, and
Speaker 1: that's probably one of the best things you can do
Speaker 1: for your weight, for aging, for for helping maintain blood sugars,
Speaker 1: for treating abnormal lipids. So it has multiple effects. Fasting
Speaker 1: it's one of the best things you can do for
Speaker 1: your body as you get older. And you know it's
Speaker 1: not only is it free, it's probably saving you a
Speaker 1: lot of money from the food that you're not definitely,
Speaker 1: but let me ask you this. You have coffee, but
Speaker 1: I bet you don't put any sugar or cream in
Speaker 1: your car. No, no, no, no, So okay, So that's
Speaker 1: a very important point. So there's a debate whether you
Speaker 1: can put fat in the coffee, in other words, just
Speaker 1: plain fat, like full cream, whether that's going to affect
Speaker 1: your your fast because we know that protein and carbohydrates
Speaker 1: will affect the fast. I used to put full cream
Speaker 1: or unsweetened almond milk into my coffee because theoretically just
Speaker 1: fat alone should not affect the autopergy and mechanism that
Speaker 1: kicking when you fast. But now I've just gotten used
Speaker 1: to black coffee, and I thought, you know, once now
Speaker 1: I'm at sixty six wives and take a chance. Let's
Speaker 1: just be sure about it. But it tastes so much better.
Speaker 1: It does taste better. But you know, if you're going
Speaker 1: to do it, and that's the way you're going to
Speaker 1: do it, then I don't think it's a problem putting
Speaker 1: a bit of full cream in or unsweetened almond. Look,
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to really affect the fast,
Speaker 1: but I know it does affect the fast if I
Speaker 1: put a big heaping spoon of sugar in it, or
Speaker 1: a abby or any other sweetener. Absolutely, not only will
Speaker 1: that affect your fast, but it's going to affect many
Speaker 1: other processes in your body. Sugar is the devil, especially
Speaker 1: as we get older. I mean, if there's one thing
Speaker 1: you can get from this podcast is get as much
Speaker 1: sugar out of your life as possible. You say it's
Speaker 1: as addictive as heroin and cocaine. Yeah, it's working on
Speaker 1: the same areas of the brain. Yeah. Anyone who has
Speaker 1: been addicted to sugar, which is most of us, know
Speaker 1: how difficult it is to get off it. It's just
Speaker 1: a socially accepted drug, and the drug dealers on every
Speaker 1: corner you never like on your birthday, You don't have
Speaker 1: a piece of birthday cake? No, no, no, I know
Speaker 1: I love sugar. I'm not saying I don't like sugar,
Speaker 1: but I just don't eat it as much as I
Speaker 1: used to. I can control my sugar intake, don't get
Speaker 1: me wrong. You know, instead of having to squares of
Speaker 1: dark chocolate after and I'd like to have six squares
Speaker 1: or ten squares, you know, I just know it's just
Speaker 1: probably not probably it's not worth it. So you know,
Speaker 1: and this is what happens early as we get older,
Speaker 1: you start making these choices. Do we want to be vital?
Speaker 1: And I've got a young grandchild now, so you know,
Speaker 1: for me, and I staying vital for him so I
Speaker 1: can play with him as I get older. And these
Speaker 1: are the choices we make. Do you eat dark chocolate
Speaker 1: after dinner? Yeah? Absolutely? I love dark sharars. So are
Speaker 1: you giving me permission to have a little dark chocolate
Speaker 1: after dinner? If I if? I you know, maintain a
Speaker 1: good relationship with sugar in general, if you can? Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's it. I mean, I think you've
Speaker 1: got to look at everything in perspective. If you're feeling deprived,
Speaker 1: that's not going to be healthy for you. It's not
Speaker 1: just about eating no sugar. If you're unhappy not eating sugar,
Speaker 1: that's not a good thing. If it's affecting other parts
Speaker 1: of your life and you're miserable and you start fighting
Speaker 1: with your kids or your husband, and then it's not
Speaker 1: a good thing. So I'm not dogmatic about anything. I
Speaker 1: think we need to look at all the factors that
Speaker 1: affect us. And you know, having purpose in life is
Speaker 1: probably more important, for instance, than eating sugar. Being grateful
Speaker 1: or being kind to others is probably more important than
Speaker 1: having sugar. But I still think sugar is the devil. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to take a short break and we'll be
Speaker 1: right back. Welcome back. And and the other thing is
Speaker 1: I'm now scared of eggs because at one point during
Speaker 1: the pandemic, I had cholesterol and my doctor asked me
Speaker 1: why it was so high, and I said, because I've
Speaker 1: just been eating cheese and ice cream. But the eggs.
Speaker 1: I was always told that only eat the egg white,
Speaker 1: and you have to be very careful. But you say, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's not answer. First of all, you don't get cholesterol
Speaker 1: from eating cholesterol. Second of all, The cholesterol story is
Speaker 1: much more complicated than just having a high cholesterol, because
Speaker 1: you can have a high cholesterol and not be a problem.
Speaker 1: So that's a whole another story. But sugar is more
Speaker 1: of a problem for cholesterol levels. I actually think egg
Speaker 1: is a wonderful super food if you're not sensitive to eggs.
Speaker 1: I think egg is is nature's multivitamin. I'm a huge,
Speaker 1: huge fan of eggs. And you're a huge fan of
Speaker 1: bone broth too, love bone bro Why do you love
Speaker 1: bone broth? Well, I think bone broth is another super
Speaker 1: super food. I think it's really good for the gut.
Speaker 1: And to me, the gut, you know, I would say
Speaker 1: in my practice, I'd say three quarters of the problems
Speaker 1: that I see our gut related. And to me, the
Speaker 1: gut is low hanging fruit. If you can correct the
Speaker 1: gut or optimize gut function, you decrease the amount of
Speaker 1: inflammation in the body, which is probably the key underlying
Speaker 1: issue for aging, and you you help so many other
Speaker 1: areas of the body by by optimizing gut function. You know,
Speaker 1: the guts is also called the second brain. You know,
Speaker 1: there's more serotonin made in your gut than in your brain.
Speaker 1: Often see people when you treat their gut, their depression
Speaker 1: or anxiety gets better. Se of your immune system is
Speaker 1: in or around your gut, So if you want to
Speaker 1: optimize your immune system, you need to optimize your guts.
Speaker 1: So your gut to me is like the key organ
Speaker 1: where you start. If you want to start getting healthy,
Speaker 1: start with your gut. So it's really the mothership for immunity. Yes, absolutely, Yes,
Speaker 1: that's so interesting because you know, you think about the
Speaker 1: gut as only equating sort of food and everything to it.
Speaker 1: But you talk a lot about, particularly as we get older,
Speaker 1: leaky gut, Crohn's disease, all these things that come from
Speaker 1: a hurt gut. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think what
Speaker 1: happens is a lot of us just when we start
Speaker 1: getting an little bit, you know, we get a little
Speaker 1: bit bloated, we've got a lot of gas, we've got
Speaker 1: a bit of heartburn. We think that's just normal symptoms
Speaker 1: of getting older. And you take a thumbs or you
Speaker 1: take something for the bloating, and you just suppress the symptom,
Speaker 1: and you think that's good enough, and everyone's got it
Speaker 1: just normal as we get older. That's not the case,
Speaker 1: because as the gut starts becoming dysfunctional or it's not
Speaker 1: functioning as well. It has downstream effects. And part of
Speaker 1: the biggest downstream effect that that happens from a dysfunctional
Speaker 1: gut is inflammation. And that's because the gut wall is
Speaker 1: extremely extremely thin for most of the landing um. It's
Speaker 1: one cell thick, which is much much thinner than toilet paper,
Speaker 1: for instance. And if that gets damage, you have some
Speaker 1: metabolites from food or from bacteria that leak through the
Speaker 1: gut wall and then can trigger inflammation all over the body.
Speaker 1: And that's probably one of the commoners things I see.
Speaker 1: And and that's reversible, that's treatable, and it's unfortunately not
Speaker 1: something that typical Western doctor thinks about, or even a
Speaker 1: typical gastro enturologists thinks about. So it's an area that
Speaker 1: I think most of us should be working with. And
Speaker 1: what is bloating exactly? Is it just inflammation. So bloating
Speaker 1: can can be caused by a number of things, but
Speaker 1: bloating often has to do with either you're not processing
Speaker 1: the food properly, but even more commonly, it's often caused
Speaker 1: by an imbalance in the good and the bad bacteria.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a very simplistic way of looking at it.
Speaker 1: But there's something called, for instance, CEBO. If you heard
Speaker 1: of CEBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. That's when bacteria from
Speaker 1: the large intestine move into the small intestine and you
Speaker 1: have an overgrowth of these bacteria. And because you have
Speaker 1: an overgrowth of these bacteria, produces gas, especially when you
Speaker 1: eat certain foods or sometimes not even when you're eating food.
Speaker 1: So until you correct that imbalance, you're going to get bloating.
Speaker 1: So that's probably the commonest cause of bloating. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: many people I know have that exact reaction after they
Speaker 1: eat something to I mean, do they have to have
Speaker 1: to unbutton their pants they're still bloated or there's pain
Speaker 1: or there's right, and that's an easy fix, and they
Speaker 1: should not accept it as being normal. And you say,
Speaker 1: there's serotonin in the gut. There's more serotonin made in
Speaker 1: your gut than made in your brain. So in so
Speaker 1: instead of taking zoe off and prozac, how do we
Speaker 1: access the serotonin in our gut. It's a great question.
Speaker 1: So you know what I've noticed clinically and now even
Speaker 1: psychiatrists are starting to become more and more accepted, is
Speaker 1: often when people come to me, they don't really come
Speaker 1: in with complaining of being anxious or depressed. They come
Speaker 1: in with digestive problems. They're bloated and they're having paid
Speaker 1: in and they can't poop properly, or they got loose tools.
Speaker 1: And you correct their gut, they'll come back and they say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm not anxious anymore, I don't feel as depressed. So yes,
Speaker 1: there's a major You know, there's this two way highway
Speaker 1: going from your gut to to your brain. And how
Speaker 1: these neurotransmitters, which sero turnin is one is affected or manipulated,
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with your gut. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: not saying all depression is caused by a gut problem,
Speaker 1: but I think if depression is not severe in particular,
Speaker 1: many times you do not need medication. That's fascinating. I
Speaker 1: wish gastro intestinal doctors and you know, psychiatrists could work
Speaker 1: together more closely. Particularly in Western culture. You go see
Speaker 1: a psychopharmacologist to treat the depression, and you go see
Speaker 1: a gastro intechnologists and he gives you something else. So
Speaker 1: you're getting medications from two different people. So exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's yeah, that's one of the shortcomings of our system.
Speaker 1: How things are silent like that, as if the bodies
Speaker 1: everything's not working together. I mean, that's a real shortcoming
Speaker 1: of our system. And sleep. I've also noticed as I've
Speaker 1: gotten older and friends of mine complain that they can't sleep.
Speaker 1: People seem to have insomnia a lot. And I know that,
Speaker 1: you know, the world is kind of on fire right now,
Speaker 1: and you have a lot more stresses because you get
Speaker 1: older and you acquire more of them. But I find
Speaker 1: people my age and older, even my parents, have horrible
Speaker 1: insomnia and they're just not getting the sleep they need
Speaker 1: right Actually, my latest book is on sleep. I think
Speaker 1: sleep is fairly complicated, but I think you need to
Speaker 1: see a sleep as a symptom of some other imbalance
Speaker 1: in the system. So for woman your age in particular,
Speaker 1: I see a lot of hormonal imbalances progester own in particular,
Speaker 1: but also other hormones start dropping as women start getting
Speaker 1: you know, late forties into their fifties. That can be
Speaker 1: a big issue. Stress can be a big issue. I
Speaker 1: think being out of rhythm is often an issue. And
Speaker 1: what do I mean by that, I mean that we
Speaker 1: don't get enough natural light. During the day when we
Speaker 1: should be we sit under artificial lights and we don't
Speaker 1: go outside. And at night, when we should be under
Speaker 1: complete darkness, we have too much artificial light as well,
Speaker 1: only when it stopped, when your body stopped producing the
Speaker 1: natural sleep hormone melatonin. And at night we're sitting under
Speaker 1: artificial lights or watching TV, so we're affecting our bodies
Speaker 1: natural rhythms as well, the circadian rhythms. So it's a
Speaker 1: combination of the stress of the hormone starting to become
Speaker 1: out of balance and then being out of rhythm or
Speaker 1: or not being in sync with your body's rhythms, and
Speaker 1: then the nutrition part. Well, I think now too everybody
Speaker 1: goes to bed with computers and cell phones, and I
Speaker 1: read a lot about how the blue it also interferes
Speaker 1: with your sleepsych right, and two of the most important
Speaker 1: tips I give for sleep or things people don't think about.
Speaker 1: The one is the first thing in the morning, to
Speaker 1: go outside and get some natural lights so you can
Speaker 1: help your body get in rhythm. And the second one
Speaker 1: is to try and go to bed and wake up
Speaker 1: if you can, at about the same time every night
Speaker 1: and every morning. Because our bodies love regularity, so that schedule.
Speaker 1: It does get harder to to have good sleep as
Speaker 1: you get older, but I think you need to just
Speaker 1: pay more attention. But there are a lot of simple
Speaker 1: things you can do to improve your sleep and affect
Speaker 1: your sleep. One of them is magnesium. Well, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: certain supplements that can help, and magnesium is definitely one
Speaker 1: of them. And a big big fan of magnesium. Affects
Speaker 1: you know, so many enzymatic processes in the bodies, so
Speaker 1: magnesium is great. Another one is CBD. You I've become
Speaker 1: a big big fan of CBD, and sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: certain strange of HC together can be helpful as well.
Speaker 1: So CBD and magnesium are two nutrients that you can
Speaker 1: absolutely try and and see if it helps. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: also you you write about bedtime rituals, and my husband
Speaker 1: has to get up at two thirty in the morning
Speaker 1: because he does this morning show, Good Morning America, and
Speaker 1: so he lives a very regimented life. We have dark shades,
Speaker 1: we have a sound machine, we have good but he
Speaker 1: he has rituals to keep his body in that same cycle.
Speaker 1: So it's herbal t It's read for twenty minutes and
Speaker 1: that seems to really work for him exactly. So that's
Speaker 1: exactly that is. So he's really done it well. Most
Speaker 1: people do not do that well. But if you strict
Speaker 1: about that and if you can stay on that rhythm
Speaker 1: that's really important, that's probably one of the best things
Speaker 1: you can just say. So good for him. I think
Speaker 1: that's great. Yeah, And the cb D, I've not taken it,
Speaker 1: but I'm interested in it. But you know, you kind
Speaker 1: of need a specialist to help you with how much
Speaker 1: th HC if any correct? Yes, And though I mean
Speaker 1: there's just so much out there that is hard, you
Speaker 1: do need someone to guide you. Because they're now some
Speaker 1: CBD strains that actually work better for sleep, like CBN,
Speaker 1: But ultimately you've got to find the dosage that works
Speaker 1: for you. I have one or two that we recommend
Speaker 1: for my patients because I trust those brands, and then
Speaker 1: we always tell them, Okay, you need to titrate it
Speaker 1: according to your knees. You'll know. You know, I used
Speaker 1: to have a very active mind, and I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to wake up and start thinking about everything that's
Speaker 1: going on. I'll take CBD. I know what those works
Speaker 1: for me. How much is a bit too much? How
Speaker 1: much isn't enough. So if I do take a sleeping
Speaker 1: aid with th HC, am I going to be stoned?
Speaker 1: Is the fish on my table going to start talking
Speaker 1: to me? Well, I'm not sure about the fish. But
Speaker 1: you don't have to do the th HC. I mean
Speaker 1: the CBD alone, especially some of those CBD strains CBN
Speaker 1: strand for instance, can be very effective and there's no
Speaker 1: psychoactive effect from it. So theoretically CBD to be legal
Speaker 1: has to have I think it's less than point three
Speaker 1: per cent of THC, so you shouldn't get a sarco
Speaker 1: active effect from CBD. You don't need to add THC in.
Speaker 1: And let's talk about medicinal mushrooms because even saying medicinal mushrooms,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's an acid trip. I'm going to
Speaker 1: lose lucidity, you know, I think of Timothy Leary, but
Speaker 1: I'm wrong. Right, So when we're talking about medicinal mushrooms,
Speaker 1: we're talking about mushrooms that have been around for centuries
Speaker 1: and used in most cultures. And a lot of people
Speaker 1: are eating without even you know, whether it's racio shitaki,
Speaker 1: but there you know, mushrooms have been used by most
Speaker 1: medical systems for centuries and that there's no active effect
Speaker 1: from the mushrooms I'm talking about. Shotgun mushrooms are raci
Speaker 1: lions maine, these type of mushrooms which have many beneficial
Speaker 1: effects on the on the body, and I'm a huge,
Speaker 1: huge fan of mushrooms for immunity, as a tropic effect
Speaker 1: for brain. You know, lions maine can be very helpful
Speaker 1: if you want a little bit more sharpness. Mushrooms are
Speaker 1: a real important part of the Chinese medicine therapeutic arsenals,
Speaker 1: but now they become quite popular. Everyone look now their
Speaker 1: mushrooms and there their mushrooms to use his food to
Speaker 1: eat right, not necessarily to go to a Chinese herbalist. Absolutely, yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot more to come after the short break
Speaker 1: and we're back with more. Goass Galley. So here's another,
Speaker 1: you know, not myth something I've been told over and
Speaker 1: over again. Drink water. And I don't like water. Do
Speaker 1: I have to? Is it that important to my body? Well,
Speaker 1: as we get older, our perception of thirst decreases, so
Speaker 1: we don't even realize when we're thirsty. I do think
Speaker 1: we should drink, you know, a good three glasses, four
Speaker 1: glasses of water a day. So it is a good
Speaker 1: idea just to make a habit of having some water
Speaker 1: around and drinking and what is that doing. That's part
Speaker 1: of the cleaning out process. Well, you know, most of
Speaker 1: our body's water, so yes, it will help with the cleaning,
Speaker 1: it will help with many different processes. But I think
Speaker 1: as we get dehydrated and there's not enough water in
Speaker 1: the cells, they're just not going to function as well
Speaker 1: and you're going to feel more tired. I mean often
Speaker 1: when people come into me and they tie it or
Speaker 1: they're getting headaches, it's often dehydration. So just be aware
Speaker 1: of it, and just also be aware that as you
Speaker 1: get that you're not even realizing that you're thirsty. And
Speaker 1: about alcohol, you write about red wine. Let's say, of
Speaker 1: all the alcohols, that's the one you recommend. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think alcohol is a toxin. To be quite honest, I'm
Speaker 1: not a fan of alcohol. I think the context of
Speaker 1: how you drink alcohol is more important than the alcohol.
Speaker 1: So I think the beneficial effects of alcohol come from
Speaker 1: the community or sitting around at table with your family
Speaker 1: or with friends. Having said that, red wine does have
Speaker 1: some you know, good nutrients in it that could be helpful.
Speaker 1: But you know, I'll take my ras vera trial as
Speaker 1: a supplement. And which which is healthier? Red wine or tequila?
Speaker 1: H Well, if you've got a sugar problem, I think tequila.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when I drink alcohol, if I'm
Speaker 1: going to drink, if I want to get a little
Speaker 1: bit drunk, I'll have a tequila. If I just want
Speaker 1: to sip some red wine, I'll sip some red wine.
Speaker 1: But tequila is very low cobbor high a rate. So
Speaker 1: I'm a bigger fan of tequila. Although if you if
Speaker 1: you really like wine, I mean, I think having you know,
Speaker 1: some red wine a few times a week is not
Speaker 1: the end of the world. So you get drunk? Is
Speaker 1: that what you're saying now? If I do occasionally get drunk,
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, my my drug days and to me,
Speaker 1: alcohol is just another drug are long gone. But yeah,
Speaker 1: which is more evil to your sugar or alcohol? Um, well,
Speaker 1: that depends on quantities. If you have a little bit
Speaker 1: of sugar, it's not a problem. If you having sugar regularly,
Speaker 1: that's going to build up and that's going to cause
Speaker 1: carbo hydrate intolerance and then problems down the road. A
Speaker 1: little bit of alcohol is not the end of the world.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to give people the impression that,
Speaker 1: you know, you should never do this and you should
Speaker 1: never do that. I mean, you've got to live your
Speaker 1: life as well. I mean, I think that's important. You've
Speaker 1: got to enjoy life. Now. You spoke earlier about a
Speaker 1: cold plunge. Yeah, and you write about how healthy it
Speaker 1: is for you to go from hot to cold. So
Speaker 1: to go from a hot hot shower or go from
Speaker 1: a sauna to a cold plunge. What happens to your body?
Speaker 1: Why is that so beneficial? So that's the hometic effect,
Speaker 1: this concept called hormesis, that small stresses are actually good
Speaker 1: for the body because it triggers this acute sympathetic response.
Speaker 1: And that's actually if it's short lived like that, it's
Speaker 1: actually good because your body learns to recover and it
Speaker 1: triggers once again or tough agy. It triggers these mechanisms
Speaker 1: in your body which are good for your longevity genes,
Speaker 1: and it's good for aging in general. And a sauna,
Speaker 1: what is it? What are the benefits of a sauna?
Speaker 1: So I'm a huge fan of saunas. I have a
Speaker 1: sauna myself. You know, there's more and more research showing
Speaker 1: that the extreme heat of the body is also one
Speaker 1: of those stresses that is actually good for the body.
Speaker 1: It has many positive effects. That dilates your vessels, it's
Speaker 1: good for your heart, It relaxes a nervous system that
Speaker 1: can make you sweat and rid yourself of chemicals and
Speaker 1: and toxins. So I think extreme heat for short periods
Speaker 1: is is once again a good thing for the body.
Speaker 1: You know, what's interesting, a lot of what I talked about,
Speaker 1: a lot of what we're finding out to be good
Speaker 1: for aging is what many cultures have been doing different
Speaker 1: versions of for centuries, whether it's Eastern cultures and meditation
Speaker 1: or sweating comes out of the Nordic cultures. You know,
Speaker 1: mushrooms have been used in so many of these cultures.
Speaker 1: So a lot of what I believe is we're taking
Speaker 1: a lot of this old traditional wisdom and sort of
Speaker 1: making it accessible or explaining it to people in this
Speaker 1: modern day age. So it's sort of combining this old
Speaker 1: words them with modern science. And part of the old
Speaker 1: wisdom that over the past couple of decades that has
Speaker 1: become so popular is meditation, and it seems to be
Speaker 1: something that can really help people battle stress and anxiety.
Speaker 1: And I've been doing t M. But do you meditate
Speaker 1: every day? I do most days. I don't do TM
Speaker 1: per se, but I do a Vedic meditation, which is
Speaker 1: also mantra type of meditation. So TM comes from the
Speaker 1: Vedic tradition, which I think is actually probably the easiest
Speaker 1: way to learn meditation. And you know you talked about
Speaker 1: sleep earlier. Meditating in the morning often helps sleep at night.
Speaker 1: So meditation is to me probably one of those essential
Speaker 1: keys to aging well. To become more resilient. You don't
Speaker 1: get as piste off with your husband or your kids.
Speaker 1: You just tolerate things so much more easily. You don't
Speaker 1: get as angry, you know, for stupid little things. So
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a big believer in meditation. That's changed my life,
Speaker 1: has changed, you know, thousands of my patients lives. I'm
Speaker 1: so pleased it's become mainstream now. And I do think
Speaker 1: TM and Vedic meditation in general is probably the easiest
Speaker 1: way to learn meditation. So I think it's a great
Speaker 1: tool to have in this anti aging kit. And if
Speaker 1: people seem overwhelmed by meditation or they can't remember their mantra.
Speaker 1: Even breathing can be helpful, right, yes, so I actually
Speaker 1: I've written about this meditating without meditating. So the effects
Speaker 1: of meditation are that it stimulates a parasympathetic nervous system
Speaker 1: in the body. If you find meditating or sitting on
Speaker 1: a pillow or chanting a mantra too difficult, you can knit.
Speaker 1: You know. Meditation is focused concentration if you can find
Speaker 1: that by exercise, but getting out of your head by knitting,
Speaker 1: by gardening, by dancing around the room. You know. Moving
Speaker 1: meditations are often the way to get people to learn
Speaker 1: meditation as well. That's why yoga can be so helpful.
Speaker 1: But most meditations will have breathing as part of it,
Speaker 1: so you don't have to learn a mantra. But if
Speaker 1: you can learn to focus on your breath, that's probably
Speaker 1: good enough. And just one more thing I want to say.
Speaker 1: You know, there was a guy, Herbert Benson, who is
Speaker 1: at Harvard. They did studies to see if it was
Speaker 1: the mantra that worked or just teaching people to say
Speaker 1: one over and over again, and just teaching people a
Speaker 1: mantra of just saying one over and over again had
Speaker 1: the same effect as someone chanting their mantra, and I
Speaker 1: think that focused concentration on that one word and repeating
Speaker 1: that one word is what does it. It's not the
Speaker 1: specific sound. And how beneficial is massage especially as you're
Speaker 1: getting older, well, you know, to me, optimizing the functioning
Speaker 1: of your muscular schedule system is really as we get older,
Speaker 1: because one of the biggest problems as we get older
Speaker 1: is you know, eggs and pains. You know, our hips
Speaker 1: get tight, our neck and shoulders get tight, and if
Speaker 1: you don't free that up over time, that just gets
Speaker 1: worse and worse, and you become a little bit more dysfunctional.
Speaker 1: So you can't do the little things or they create
Speaker 1: more eggs and pains when you do them. And you know,
Speaker 1: the second part of that story is if your hip
Speaker 1: gets tight and you don't deal with the tightness in
Speaker 1: your hip, then over time, your your hip muscles don't
Speaker 1: fire properly, and then if your back muscles will have
Speaker 1: to be used to to compensate and you start getting
Speaker 1: back pain, and if that starts becoming a problem, then
Speaker 1: you start getting shoulder pains. So I think the more
Speaker 1: you can loosen up your tight muscles and tight fashion,
Speaker 1: the earlier you can the better it is for your body.
Speaker 1: So if you can't afford a massage, get a foam
Speaker 1: roller and become your own missus with with with a
Speaker 1: foam roller. And that's just something you can buy an
Speaker 1: Amazon and just all over your muscles. Yeah, do at home. Yep, exactly.
Speaker 1: So here's my favorite thing. You brought up with sense
Speaker 1: of humor. Explain why something I make a living at
Speaker 1: is so helpful to the aging contest because it stimulates
Speaker 1: the same parasympathetic effect that meditation does. So if you
Speaker 1: just think of your nervous system, that a sympathetic nervous system,
Speaker 1: which is what got triggered when you're in front of
Speaker 1: the bear, which often keeps getting triggered by chronic stress.
Speaker 1: And then there's a parasympathetic nervous system and the effects
Speaker 1: of the parasympathetic nervous system which is a complete opposite
Speaker 1: of the stress response, and that is triggered by meditation,
Speaker 1: by laughing, by being kind to others. So your humor
Speaker 1: or laughing a lot is actually really healthy for you.
Speaker 1: You know. It's what I always says. The little things
Speaker 1: that we take for granted, or the little things we
Speaker 1: do on a daily basis, have enormous effects on her health.
Speaker 1: And you know, laughing is one of those little things,
Speaker 1: listening to music, being grateful, you know, being in nature.
Speaker 1: All these little things that we don't see as medicine
Speaker 1: have powerful effects on the body. And you talk about
Speaker 1: growing your tribe, so friendship and community. Yeah, my mother recently,
Speaker 1: she's eighty seven. She recently lost her spouse, which is
Speaker 1: very traumatic, and I've found that she's become very reclusive
Speaker 1: and one of the things I know that would help
Speaker 1: her is to, like you said, grow her tribe, is
Speaker 1: to have people in the home and around her because
Speaker 1: it's for me, it's an integral part of my life,
Speaker 1: is my having my people around me, laughing and drinking
Speaker 1: red wine and doing all the things we talked about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's important to me. That's probably more important to aging
Speaker 1: than the sugar. And now I'm not saying you should
Speaker 1: go show those intangible things like that to me are
Speaker 1: more important to how well we age than what we're
Speaker 1: eating or whether we're exercising or not. Now I'm not
Speaker 1: saying you shouldn't exercise and you shouldn't eat well, but
Speaker 1: those little things are really really crucial to how well
Speaker 1: we age. And there are tons of studies on loneliness
Speaker 1: and community and agent and how bad loneliness is for agent.
Speaker 1: Do pets help? I think pets are incredibly helpful. And
Speaker 1: I think what's interesting, which is which makes sense? You know,
Speaker 1: with the pandemic, so many more people got pets, which
Speaker 1: you know as companions you know, and pets are you
Speaker 1: unconditional love, you know? So yeah, I think pets are
Speaker 1: fantastic ways of companionship, of getting love. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: fan of pets. I think they're important. No, No, I've
Speaker 1: always I've always had dogs and I can't imagine not
Speaker 1: having them. And I think about sort of people I know,
Speaker 1: my mother's age, and I've noticed that the people with
Speaker 1: pets seem to be thriving a little bit better than
Speaker 1: those who don't. I would guess that's the case. Yes,
Speaker 1: I do want to end with one last question. Do
Speaker 1: you say take care of your feet? Why should I
Speaker 1: take care of my feet? Well, because if you don't
Speaker 1: take care of your feet, then your body starts compin
Speaker 1: setting you start getting other problems. So if your feet
Speaker 1: are twisted or start getting tight, then you don't walk
Speaker 1: in an aligned way, and then you start maybe getting
Speaker 1: some knee problems, and then your body compin said and
Speaker 1: you start getting a tight hip, and you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: people's headaches or because of how they're walking. So I
Speaker 1: think taking care of one's feet is important, especially in
Speaker 1: our culture. We in these uncomfortable shoes for so many
Speaker 1: hours of that, especially a woman who have to I mean,
Speaker 1: I just I can never get how they can wear
Speaker 1: these high heels or well, one of the few nice
Speaker 1: things about the pandemic because I swore I'm never going
Speaker 1: to put a heell on again in my life. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I think, you know, taking care of our feet
Speaker 1: is something we just don't think about. Well, how how
Speaker 1: do I take care of my feet? Besides a pedicure?
Speaker 1: What else should I do? Well, first of all, try
Speaker 1: to walk barefoot. You know, part of the time. I
Speaker 1: think it is good to get out of shoes. I
Speaker 1: think that is good. Rolling your feet can be very
Speaker 1: important because we tend to get tight, you know, the fashion,
Speaker 1: which is that thin connectic tissue lining that surrounds all
Speaker 1: our muscles gets tired, especially around the feet. So rolling
Speaker 1: your feet out with a tennis ball, for instance, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a good trip and all you do is you
Speaker 1: take a tennis ball and you roll and you roll
Speaker 1: it around and you find a tight spot and just
Speaker 1: stay on that spot and try and release that spot
Speaker 1: and do that for five minutes and then see the
Speaker 1: difference in how your feet feel is pretty amazing. And obviously,
Speaker 1: if you're lucky enough to be able to get massages,
Speaker 1: I would say they should put a little effort into
Speaker 1: your feet as well. Absolutely yes. And do you recommend
Speaker 1: sort of changing shoes just so our feet don't get
Speaker 1: used to a certain way of walking. Yeah, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: say change up to high heels, but yeah, try to
Speaker 1: change up your shoes and try to walk bare feet
Speaker 1: as well. And actually walking barefoot in on the beach
Speaker 1: or on the earth is actually a really good thing
Speaker 1: for many reasons. So yes, try change things up with
Speaker 1: your feet as much as you can see. I knew,
Speaker 1: I knew feet would be important. I knew I should
Speaker 1: leave it for the last question, Dr Lippman. I feel
Speaker 1: younger just speaking to you, so thank you so much,
Speaker 1: and thank you and and keep yourself and your family
Speaker 1: and your friends laughing. It's a really good thing to do.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thanks, Edie. So I think what I said
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the podcast to Dr Lippman about
Speaker 1: you know, when you're younger, aging is such a superficial
Speaker 1: thing and it seems so eager driven. You know, aging
Speaker 1: is how do we stop aging? We're gonna use wrinkle
Speaker 1: cream or I'm going to dye my gray hair and
Speaker 1: all those external things at a certain point, and when
Speaker 1: you reach a certain age, they don't matter anymore. You know.
Speaker 1: What matters is what's happening internally, what's happening internally, emotionally,
Speaker 1: what's happening internally literally with yourselves and your organs. And
Speaker 1: so I like to say that I've said goodbye to
Speaker 1: this sexy, sexy chapter of my life and now it's
Speaker 1: about staving off depth. I mean literally, now it's about
Speaker 1: being healthy and maintaining and that can be done and
Speaker 1: enjoyed in exactly the same way. It's about exercising and
Speaker 1: eating right and sleeping and laughing and having people around
Speaker 1: you that make you feel good. And it doesn't have
Speaker 1: to be a negative thing. This, this sort of back
Speaker 1: nine of life, or the years quote unquote ahead of us,
Speaker 1: can be incredibly empowering and vital years. It's just the
Speaker 1: way we have to kind of pivot our mind and
Speaker 1: look at them anyway. This is what I'm telling myself
Speaker 1: right now, because as I'm zooming with Dr Littman, all
Speaker 1: I saw was wrinkles and a old neck. So I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be strong and I'm trying to go with
Speaker 1: the new roles of aging wealth. Thank you for listening
Speaker 1: to Go ask Ali. Join me next week for our
Speaker 1: final episode of the season. Producer and award winning actress
Speaker 1: Julianna Marklie's talks to me about her long term love
Speaker 1: affair with George Clooney just kidding. She talks with me
Speaker 1: about her long term relationship with success. You know her
Speaker 1: from the long running show The Good Wife and of
Speaker 1: course e Er, but she acknowledges how tricky success can
Speaker 1: be and how she's kept it all and perspective. Be
Speaker 1: sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and follow
Speaker 1: me on social media on Twitter, Ali e Wentworth and
Speaker 1: on Instagram The Real Ali Wentworth And if you have
Speaker 1: questions or guests you'd like to hear from, I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Call or text me at three
Speaker 1: to three four six three five six or email me
Speaker 1: Go ask Alli podcast at gmail dot com. Go ask
Speaker 1: Alli is a production of Shonda land Audio and partnership
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