First off, I want to thank you for your support and continued readership in 2017. The Longevity Edge was officially started late in February and because of so many loyal long-term friends and customers we had what anyone would consider a very good successful year.
As has always been the case the main thrust is to create more, newer and better products. Anti-Aging and Rejuvenation has been my passion for the past 2 decades and I thank you deeply for your role and participation in this pioneering experiment we are doing to reclaim our health and escape the bounds of what society has told us we must believe!
To that end I view money as a current of energy that is constantly recirculated into creation and manifestation. In this case it’s the realization of additional tools to help you get the most our of life, in length and wellness.
A huge part of it is education, both yours and mine. As I go through the bevy of conferences, some as a scholar and some as a student I will continue to share what I know with you.
This brings us to the Number 1 tool for 2018: Education and even more…learning.
Everything is advancing at a huge rate and one cannot possibly follow it all. In the Yin Yang philosophy of things when you have a lot of one thing you have less of another. This world is full of digital distractions that are at best entertainment. Try getting rid of some of them to free up more time for real questions and contemplation. Not everything needs to be spoon fed to you like entertainment.
The supplement tool for this is Brain Force One and while I would never use the word nootropic because of the recent unpleasant attention given to this class, you can look over the ingredients and make your own conclusion.
Either way continued learning is the Number 1 Tool.
Tool 2: Proper Nutrition: This concept and especially the word “proper” continues to evolve. My personal nutrigenomics favors a high fat low carb diet with intermittent calorie restriction. The Horrendous Diet done with friend guru and mentor Matt Furey is a frank discussion of the pro’s and con’s of this kind of diet. It may not work for you but odds are it will work very well. 4 years ago, I predicted the rise of ketogenic diets again and look where we are at now.
Along those lines expect a tool to help you maintain ketosis in the form of a supplement probably by June. In the meantime, experiment with various macronutrients and keep two goals in mind: insulin levels (lower is better so sugars and carbs need to be reduced) and calorie restriction. On the later I think intermittent fasting works as well as long term calorie reduction but I tell everyone. “Try 500 calories a day for 4 days just to see how addicted to certain food groups you are and to also see how much of your eating (dessert, night time eating, alcohol at bedtime) are simply bad habits and not true hunger.
You will emerge enlightened.
Tool 3: Exercise: We are in the midst of a scientific revolution and a scientific revelation. All kinds of exercises from Yoga to Zumba from HIIT to LSD are being touted as THE THING to do. The current thinking is based on movement- 10,000 steps and so forth. And while one cannot fault this logic, its drive hamburgers compared to filet mignon in terms of what you and I want. If you have the time integrate some form of soft tissue and stretching into strength and endurance. If you are pressed for time and are not concerned with outstanding achievement awards then body weight cannot be beat.
There is so much information out there and I am blessed to know people like Matt Furey and JC Santana who are cutting edge in very different formats of exercise. I will leave you with this thought that I was reminded of when I made a small contribution to JC’s latest book.
You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet, and how you look is more a function of what you eat than what you do!!! And frankly the issue of telomere lengthening and exercise is questionable.
JC said it best and I paraphrase: NO one ever died from not doing push ups or bench presses but plenty of people die from bad nutritional choices!
Tool 4: Sleep! I have given lectures to doctors about this for years. A year or two ago I did a telecon with America’s Sleep Doctor, Michael Brues PhD and for years I have made a tool to help you get the phasic sleep you need to be at your best. My latest updated version of that tool will be available through The Longevity Edge web site in the next month or so, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, remember, sleep is an essential part of your daily rhythm and when its off, so are you. Most of the hormones needed for your body to function are cycled during sleep. Much of the repair and the decisions to be lean or fat are made as a result of your sleep quality and quantity. And finally, there is learning and memory which at the very least are integrated during your sleep cycles.
If you pay attention to those 4 tools, and take your fish oil of course, your odds of having a happy healthy and quite frankly the best year you could have will go up dramatically.
And that is what I wish for you in 2018!!!
Thanks for joining me and helping me help you and thousands of others!
Doc