It’s Never Too Late to Age Well w/ Dr. Frank Lipman

on a frantic quest for the fountain of youth. And I don't mean botox. I'm talking aging like sore back, bad knees, my boobs, hitting my my stomach, I don't remember things. I'm losing my hair. There are more wrinkles on my forehead than there were yesterday. So what is our relationship with aging? And how can we make it a health year one? Because there's no antidote to it, We're all going to get old. My guest today is

Dr Frank Lippmann. Dr Frank Lipman is recognized as a vocal pioneer of integrative and functional medicine, or what he calls good medicine. He's the founder of eleven eleven Wellness Center and the Chief medical Officer at the well both in New York City. He's also the best selling author of seven books, including The New Rules of Aging Well A Simple Program for Immune Resilience, Strength and Vitality. Fingers crossed, I'm ten years younger after this conversation, Dr Lippman, thank

you so much for being here. I have a billion questions for you. I hope you're ready. Yeah, I'm ready for a million. I don't know if you'll get to a billion. Ryan. Here's my first question. I'm fifty six. Is it too late for me? No, it's not. I'm sixty six older than you. It's not too loud. If I was seventy six, it wouldn't be too late. So it's never too late. Simply good to know. Never. By the way, where the accent is from? Where where South Africa?

South Africa got it? So I really loved your book, and it's everything i'm worried about thinking about want to change for myself. And I love the idea because listen, the the honest truth is that me and a lot of my female friends, a lot of the idea about aging is ego right, So we think in this world of aging, oh my god, we need botox, we need to lose five pounds. I've already crossed over to oh no, no, no, it's not about bikini weather girls. It's about maintaining what

we have. And I loved that that was actually a line in your book. It's we've got to take care of what's here, you know, because I'm now about straw hats and you know, growing tomatoes. So I'm ready to get my ship together exactly. I think that's what it's all about. I think, look, we're all going to get older, that's normal. It's how we adapt to that and how well we age. I mean, And to answer your first

question again, it's never too late to make changes. You know, how quickly and how well we age is determined by how we live our lives. M hm. And you know, particularly after this horrific year we've had with the pandemic. I had COVID nineteen and I got very sex so uh. And you talk about resilience in your book, So explain

to my listeners what you mean by building up immune resilience. Well, I think, you know, we all as a culture think about not getting sick and not having something happened to us, but we all get sick. Something happens to all of us. A pandemic is a perfect example. Many of the things that happened to us out of our control. How well we whether that storm, how well we get better, how quickly we get better, is all about resilience. And you know,

I'm a Western doctor. Obviously, I've been practicing Western and for over forty years. But I really got into a different way of thinking when I started studying Chinese medicine about Citty I years ago, and I got taught by my Chinese medicine teacher very early on. It's all about creating resilience and helping your patients or the people you work with become more resilient because their understanding is, you know,

bad where there happens, Shit happens. As you are saying, I'm allowed to swear, obviously, so eloquently, yes, I said that, And you know how well we deal with that ship is what it's all about. And that's the way I see it. It's not you know, we're all going to age. How well we age is important, and the more resilient you are, the more you can whether all those storms, the easiest going to be for you. So describe, And I hope I'm saying this right. A top a toy

not bad. It's a big word for a girl like me. Yes, So a tough gy is basically your body's own cleansing mechanisms. You know. It's basically your garbage system and the cleaning crew all in one, in your cells or in your organs or everything. Yeah, everything in your cells and organs. So your body is detoxing or cleansing all the time.

So it's taking proteins that get used up in the body and metabolize from different metabolic processes, and it takes that garbage and it puts it together and it gets rid of it. And your capacity for this self cleansing mechanism is what it's all about with aging, because as we get older, that process decreases a little bit, so you can maintain that or you can strengthen that autofogy process. And I think a lot of aging is about cleaning

out those burnt out cells as old cells. And I think people when you explain it like that, when you explain that if you have a party at night and there's all this mess in your dining room and you don't clean it up the next day. After a few days, it's going to build up and build up. That's what's happening in yourselves. So you need some type of garbage

collection and removal to actually stay healthy. And when it's not working properly, you could equate it to let's say, a garbage disposal that is broken and it gets clogged and filled up, right, And that's what happens as we age. UM. I also wanted to talk about longevity genes, the A M p K and M t O r MP or right emptor. And I'm asking you because even though I

read it, I need more of a description of it. Sure. So, what they've discovered in the last twenty years or so is we have specific genes that we can upregulate or downregulate. In other words, we can manipulate or affect how those genes are expressed. Um. And they're calling them longevity genes because these particular genes which you can affect by how you live your life. And we have twenty or solve these genes. Two of the common ones that they talk about are this A M p K and the empt

or genes. And now they're discovering certain ways of eating or exercising that affect these genes. And now are these hereditary genes or genes that we're all born with? You know the thing about genes, These are the type of genes that you're born with, but how those genes are expressed is determined by how you live your life. So they're not genes, for instance, like a gene for blonde hair or for blue eyes, the genes that you're born with that you can actually manipulate in a good way

by how you live your life. So, for instance, certain genes for heart disease or for even cancer are also able to be upregulated or downregulated. And so nine to the genes we have in our bodies are actually how they expressed is determined by whether you exercise, how you eat, how you sleep, whether you have love in your life, whether you have purpose. All these factors affect how most

of our genes are expressed. And the longevity genes are genes like that, because the hereditary genes, you think a lot of that is bullshit, correct if we rely on them to dictate what kind of life we have exactly, Yes, So, for instance, there's a gene known now as Alzheimer's gene, the APPO E three four gene, which if someone has that particular gene, there's more chance that they're going to get Alzheimer's disease, but only if they eat a lot

of sugar. They're not exercising, they're not sleeping. So these are just genes that are going to be affected by your lifestyle. And you know, it comes down once again in the beginning. Is it too late for you know, you're still young, Elliott. It's never too late, but at fifties six, I think it's still earlier. Thank you for

saying that. That brought my stress down a little bit. Um. You know, this weekend, I was with some friends and we were hiking and we got lost and it was scary because we were in Tennessee and we saw a black bear, and of course my heart was racing and we we we started running and I was as I was running, and of course we were totally fine. But as I was running, I thought, is this what Dr Littman would think is a small stress that makes us stronger?

Is that an example of a small stress. Well probably that's a little bit bigger than a small stress. But that but but but That's a good point to bring up because our bodies are developed to actually deal with those situations, So that was an appropriate response. When you see a bear, your heart starts pounding, you get ready to run to fight or flight mechanism. So that's a little bit different than what's actually happened in our culture and the way we live today. Unfortunately, your body stays

in that mode when you have chronic stress. Most of us have chronic stress. So the ability to turn that on and off and to only try use it when you're facing a bear, or you're in traffic, or you you have some type of stress is importance. But when I'm talking about the small stresses, I'm talking about something a little bit different. What I'm talking about is going from boiling hot shower to a cold shower, for from

a sauna to a cold plant. Doing some high intensity interval training, so when you're exercising, you're sprinting or you know, pushing yourself for half a second for a second and then recovering or fasting is another example of a small stress. So it's a little bit different, but yes, in the same vein. Okay, I'm glad you brought up fasting, so food. You recommend sixteen hours of fasting, which seems like a lot.

And what is the difference between a sixteen hour fast and intermittent fasting which seems to be a fad now I know a lot of people that are doing intermittent fasting. Well, intermittent fast thing is probably very similar to what I'm describing time restricted eating, eating most of your calories within a probably around an eight maybe a ten hour period, so you have at least fourteen to sixteen hours where

your body is not consuming any calories. And why is that important Because after fourteen to sixteen hours, these auto fer gy mechanisms in your body start kicking in, and you want that, especially as you get older, because, as I said earlier, as you get older, toughergy mechanisms in your body aren't as efficient. So if you fast, if you fast for fourteen to sixteen hours, it starts kicking in these self cleansing mechanisms. So it's a very very

powerful anti ageng heck fasting. And you know, it actually does get easier as you start doing it more and more. And I'm not recommending it for everyone. Some people have a problem with it, but for most of us over forty five fifty. It's a really good thing to do. So let's walk through a fast. I have dinner at six o'clock. I have some salmon and some greens and some water, and I go to sleep around nine, but

I haven't eaten anything. Wake up at seven and exercise, because you'd say you don't have to eat before exercise. So the next meal I should have after eating dinner, let's say finishing dinner at seven is maybe like ten in the morning, exactly ten eleven. Yeah, so ten years, fifteen hours, eleven sixteen hours. That's what I do. I eat. I usually try to finish dinner by seven o'clock the latest, and I'll have my first meal by eleven or twelve. You know, I probably go even sometimes a bit longer.

I'll have a cup of black coffee because that doesn't affect your too fergy mechanisms. And you know, I'm so used to it now. It's it's basically like eating dinner earlier and breakfast later. Basically two meals a dur sometimes snack between, but I eat two meals a day. Yeah, And you know that once you start doing it, you just get used to it. And I don't get hungry,

I don't crave food. It's actually not that difficult, and that's probably one of the best things you can do for your weight, for aging, for for helping maintain blood sugars, for treating abnormal lipids. So it has multiple effects. Fasting it's one of the best things you can do for your body as you get older. And you know it's not only is it free, it's probably saving you a lot of money from the food that you're not definitely,

but let me ask you this. You have coffee, but I bet you don't put any sugar or cream in your car. No, no, no, no, So okay, So that's a very important point. So there's a debate whether you can put fat in the coffee, in other words, just plain fat, like full cream, whether that's going to affect your your fast because we know that protein and carbohydrates

will affect the fast. I used to put full cream or unsweetened almond milk into my coffee because theoretically just fat alone should not affect the autopergy and mechanism that kicking when you fast. But now I've just gotten used to black coffee, and I thought, you know, once now I'm at sixty six wives and take a chance. Let's just be sure about it. But it tastes so much better.

It does taste better. But you know, if you're going to do it, and that's the way you're going to do it, then I don't think it's a problem putting a bit of full cream in or unsweetened almond. Look, I don't think that's going to really affect the fast, but I know it does affect the fast if I put a big heaping spoon of sugar in it, or a abby or any other sweetener. Absolutely, not only will that affect your fast, but it's going to affect many

other processes in your body. Sugar is the devil, especially as we get older. I mean, if there's one thing you can get from this podcast is get as much sugar out of your life as possible. You say it's as addictive as heroin and cocaine. Yeah, it's working on the same areas of the brain. Yeah. Anyone who has been addicted to sugar, which is most of us, know

how difficult it is to get off it. It's just a socially accepted drug, and the drug dealers on every corner you never like on your birthday, You don't have a piece of birthday cake? No, no, no, I know I love sugar. I'm not saying I don't like sugar, but I just don't eat it as much as I used to. I can control my sugar intake, don't get me wrong. You know, instead of having to squares of dark chocolate after and I'd like to have six squares or ten squares, you know, I just know it's just

probably not probably it's not worth it. So you know, and this is what happens early as we get older, you start making these choices. Do we want to be vital? And I've got a young grandchild now, so you know, for me, and I staying vital for him so I can play with him as I get older. And these are the choices we make. Do you eat dark chocolate after dinner? Yeah? Absolutely? I love dark sharars. So are you giving me permission to have a little dark chocolate

after dinner? If I if? I you know, maintain a good relationship with sugar in general, if you can? Yeah, absolutely. I don't think that's it. I mean, I think you've got to look at everything in perspective. If you're feeling deprived, that's not going to be healthy for you. It's not just about eating no sugar. If you're unhappy not eating sugar,

that's not a good thing. If it's affecting other parts of your life and you're miserable and you start fighting with your kids or your husband, and then it's not a good thing. So I'm not dogmatic about anything. I think we need to look at all the factors that affect us. And you know, having purpose in life is probably more important, for instance, than eating sugar. Being grateful or being kind to others is probably more important than

having sugar. But I still think sugar is the devil. Yeah, Okay, we're going to take a short break and we'll be right back. Welcome back. And and the other thing is I'm now scared of eggs because at one point during the pandemic, I had cholesterol and my doctor asked me why it was so high, and I said, because I've just been eating cheese and ice cream. But the eggs. I was always told that only eat the egg white, and you have to be very careful. But you say, no, no,

that's not answer. First of all, you don't get cholesterol from eating cholesterol. Second of all, The cholesterol story is much more complicated than just having a high cholesterol, because you can have a high cholesterol and not be a problem. So that's a whole another story. But sugar is more of a problem for cholesterol levels. I actually think egg is a wonderful super food if you're not sensitive to eggs. I think egg is is nature's multivitamin. I'm a huge,

huge fan of eggs. And you're a huge fan of bone broth too, love bone bro Why do you love bone broth? Well, I think bone broth is another super super food. I think it's really good for the gut. And to me, the gut, you know, I would say in my practice, I'd say three quarters of the problems that I see our gut related. And to me, the

gut is low hanging fruit. If you can correct the gut or optimize gut function, you decrease the amount of inflammation in the body, which is probably the key underlying issue for aging, and you you help so many other areas of the body by by optimizing gut function. You know, the guts is also called the second brain. You know, there's more serotonin made in your gut than in your brain. Often see people when you treat their gut, their depression

or anxiety gets better. Se of your immune system is in or around your gut, So if you want to optimize your immune system, you need to optimize your guts. So your gut to me is like the key organ where you start. If you want to start getting healthy, start with your gut. So it's really the mothership for immunity. Yes, absolutely, Yes, that's so interesting because you know, you think about the gut as only equating sort of food and everything to it.

But you talk a lot about, particularly as we get older, leaky gut, Crohn's disease, all these things that come from a hurt gut. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think what happens is a lot of us just when we start getting an little bit, you know, we get a little bit bloated, we've got a lot of gas, we've got a bit of heartburn. We think that's just normal symptoms

of getting older. And you take a thumbs or you take something for the bloating, and you just suppress the symptom, and you think that's good enough, and everyone's got it just normal as we get older. That's not the case, because as the gut starts becoming dysfunctional or it's not functioning as well. It has downstream effects. And part of the biggest downstream effect that that happens from a dysfunctional gut is inflammation. And that's because the gut wall is

extremely extremely thin for most of the landing um. It's one cell thick, which is much much thinner than toilet paper, for instance. And if that gets damage, you have some metabolites from food or from bacteria that leak through the gut wall and then can trigger inflammation all over the body. And that's probably one of the commoners things I see. And and that's reversible, that's treatable, and it's unfortunately not something that typical Western doctor thinks about, or even a

typical gastro enturologists thinks about. So it's an area that I think most of us should be working with. And what is bloating exactly? Is it just inflammation. So bloating can can be caused by a number of things, but bloating often has to do with either you're not processing the food properly, but even more commonly, it's often caused by an imbalance in the good and the bad bacteria. I mean, that's a very simplistic way of looking at it.

But there's something called, for instance, CEBO. If you heard of CEBO, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. That's when bacteria from the large intestine move into the small intestine and you have an overgrowth of these bacteria. And because you have an overgrowth of these bacteria, produces gas, especially when you eat certain foods or sometimes not even when you're eating food. So until you correct that imbalance, you're going to get bloating.

So that's probably the commonest cause of bloating. Yeah, so many people I know have that exact reaction after they eat something to I mean, do they have to have to unbutton their pants they're still bloated or there's pain or there's right, and that's an easy fix, and they should not accept it as being normal. And you say, there's serotonin in the gut. There's more serotonin made in your gut than made in your brain. So in so instead of taking zoe off and prozac, how do we

access the serotonin in our gut. It's a great question. So you know what I've noticed clinically and now even psychiatrists are starting to become more and more accepted, is often when people come to me, they don't really come in with complaining of being anxious or depressed. They come in with digestive problems. They're bloated and they're having paid in and they can't poop properly, or they got loose tools. And you correct their gut, they'll come back and they say, oh,

I'm not anxious anymore, I don't feel as depressed. So yes, there's a major You know, there's this two way highway going from your gut to to your brain. And how these neurotransmitters, which sero turnin is one is affected or manipulated, has a lot to do with your gut. Now, I'm not saying all depression is caused by a gut problem, but I think if depression is not severe in particular,

many times you do not need medication. That's fascinating. I wish gastro intestinal doctors and you know, psychiatrists could work together more closely. Particularly in Western culture. You go see a psychopharmacologist to treat the depression, and you go see a gastro intechnologists and he gives you something else. So you're getting medications from two different people. So exactly. Yeah, and that's yeah, that's one of the shortcomings of our system.

How things are silent like that, as if the bodies everything's not working together. I mean, that's a real shortcoming of our system. And sleep. I've also noticed as I've gotten older and friends of mine complain that they can't sleep. People seem to have insomnia a lot. And I know that, you know, the world is kind of on fire right now, and you have a lot more stresses because you get

older and you acquire more of them. But I find people my age and older, even my parents, have horrible insomnia and they're just not getting the sleep they need right Actually, my latest book is on sleep. I think sleep is fairly complicated, but I think you need to see a sleep as a symptom of some other imbalance in the system. So for woman your age in particular, I see a lot of hormonal imbalances progester own in particular, but also other hormones start dropping as women start getting

you know, late forties into their fifties. That can be a big issue. Stress can be a big issue. I think being out of rhythm is often an issue. And what do I mean by that, I mean that we don't get enough natural light. During the day when we should be we sit under artificial lights and we don't go outside. And at night, when we should be under complete darkness, we have too much artificial light as well, only when it stopped, when your body stopped producing the

natural sleep hormone melatonin. And at night we're sitting under artificial lights or watching TV, so we're affecting our bodies natural rhythms as well, the circadian rhythms. So it's a combination of the stress of the hormone starting to become out of balance and then being out of rhythm or or not being in sync with your body's rhythms, and

then the nutrition part. Well, I think now too everybody goes to bed with computers and cell phones, and I read a lot about how the blue it also interferes with your sleepsych right, and two of the most important tips I give for sleep or things people don't think about. The one is the first thing in the morning, to go outside and get some natural lights so you can help your body get in rhythm. And the second one is to try and go to bed and wake up if you can, at about the same time every night

and every morning. Because our bodies love regularity, so that schedule. It does get harder to to have good sleep as you get older, but I think you need to just pay more attention. But there are a lot of simple things you can do to improve your sleep and affect your sleep. One of them is magnesium. Well, yeah, there's certain supplements that can help, and magnesium is definitely one of them. And a big big fan of magnesium. Affects you know, so many enzymatic processes in the bodies, so

magnesium is great. Another one is CBD. You I've become a big big fan of CBD, and sometimes you know, certain strange of HC together can be helpful as well. So CBD and magnesium are two nutrients that you can absolutely try and and see if it helps. Yeah, and also you you write about bedtime rituals, and my husband has to get up at two thirty in the morning because he does this morning show, Good Morning America, and

so he lives a very regimented life. We have dark shades, we have a sound machine, we have good but he he has rituals to keep his body in that same cycle. So it's herbal t It's read for twenty minutes and that seems to really work for him exactly. So that's exactly that is. So he's really done it well. Most people do not do that well. But if you strict about that and if you can stay on that rhythm that's really important, that's probably one of the best things

you can just say. So good for him. I think that's great. Yeah, And the cb D, I've not taken it, but I'm interested in it. But you know, you kind of need a specialist to help you with how much th HC if any correct? Yes, And though I mean there's just so much out there that is hard, you do need someone to guide you. Because they're now some CBD strains that actually work better for sleep, like CBN, But ultimately you've got to find the dosage that works

for you. I have one or two that we recommend for my patients because I trust those brands, and then we always tell them, Okay, you need to titrate it according to your knees. You'll know. You know, I used to have a very active mind, and I know I'm going to wake up and start thinking about everything that's going on. I'll take CBD. I know what those works for me. How much is a bit too much? How much isn't enough. So if I do take a sleeping aid with th HC, am I going to be stoned?

Is the fish on my table going to start talking to me? Well, I'm not sure about the fish. But you don't have to do the th HC. I mean the CBD alone, especially some of those CBD strains CBN strand for instance, can be very effective and there's no psychoactive effect from it. So theoretically CBD to be legal has to have I think it's less than point three per cent of THC, so you shouldn't get a sarco active effect from CBD. You don't need to add THC in.

And let's talk about medicinal mushrooms because even saying medicinal mushrooms, I feel like it's an acid trip. I'm going to lose lucidity, you know, I think of Timothy Leary, but I'm wrong. Right, So when we're talking about medicinal mushrooms, we're talking about mushrooms that have been around for centuries

and used in most cultures. And a lot of people are eating without even you know, whether it's racio shitaki, but there you know, mushrooms have been used by most medical systems for centuries and that there's no active effect from the mushrooms I'm talking about. Shotgun mushrooms are raci lions maine, these type of mushrooms which have many beneficial effects on the on the body, and I'm a huge, huge fan of mushrooms for immunity, as a tropic effect

for brain. You know, lions maine can be very helpful if you want a little bit more sharpness. Mushrooms are a real important part of the Chinese medicine therapeutic arsenals, but now they become quite popular. Everyone look now their mushrooms and there their mushrooms to use his food to eat right, not necessarily to go to a Chinese herbalist. Absolutely, yes, yeah, there's a lot more to come after the short break

and we're back with more. Goass Galley. So here's another, you know, not myth something I've been told over and over again. Drink water. And I don't like water. Do I have to? Is it that important to my body? Well, as we get older, our perception of thirst decreases, so we don't even realize when we're thirsty. I do think we should drink, you know, a good three glasses, four glasses of water a day. So it is a good idea just to make a habit of having some water

around and drinking and what is that doing. That's part of the cleaning out process. Well, you know, most of our body's water, so yes, it will help with the cleaning, it will help with many different processes. But I think as we get dehydrated and there's not enough water in the cells, they're just not going to function as well and you're going to feel more tired. I mean often when people come into me and they tie it or

they're getting headaches, it's often dehydration. So just be aware of it, and just also be aware that as you get that you're not even realizing that you're thirsty. And about alcohol, you write about red wine. Let's say, of all the alcohols, that's the one you recommend. Yeah, I think alcohol is a toxin. To be quite honest, I'm not a fan of alcohol. I think the context of how you drink alcohol is more important than the alcohol.

So I think the beneficial effects of alcohol come from the community or sitting around at table with your family or with friends. Having said that, red wine does have some you know, good nutrients in it that could be helpful. But you know, I'll take my ras vera trial as a supplement. And which which is healthier? Red wine or tequila? H Well, if you've got a sugar problem, I think tequila. I mean, you know, when I drink alcohol, if I'm going to drink, if I want to get a little

bit drunk, I'll have a tequila. If I just want to sip some red wine, I'll sip some red wine. But tequila is very low cobbor high a rate. So I'm a bigger fan of tequila. Although if you if you really like wine, I mean, I think having you know, some red wine a few times a week is not the end of the world. So you get drunk? Is that what you're saying now? If I do occasionally get drunk, I mean, you know, my my drug days and to me, alcohol is just another drug are long gone. But yeah,

which is more evil to your sugar or alcohol? Um, well, that depends on quantities. If you have a little bit of sugar, it's not a problem. If you having sugar regularly, that's going to build up and that's going to cause carbo hydrate intolerance and then problems down the road. A little bit of alcohol is not the end of the world. I just don't want to give people the impression that, you know, you should never do this and you should never do that. I mean, you've got to live your

life as well. I mean, I think that's important. You've got to enjoy life. Now. You spoke earlier about a cold plunge. Yeah, and you write about how healthy it is for you to go from hot to cold. So to go from a hot hot shower or go from a sauna to a cold plunge. What happens to your body? Why is that so beneficial? So that's the hometic effect, this concept called hormesis, that small stresses are actually good for the body because it triggers this acute sympathetic response.

And that's actually if it's short lived like that, it's actually good because your body learns to recover and it triggers once again or tough agy. It triggers these mechanisms in your body which are good for your longevity genes, and it's good for aging in general. And a sauna, what is it? What are the benefits of a sauna? So I'm a huge fan of saunas. I have a

sauna myself. You know, there's more and more research showing that the extreme heat of the body is also one of those stresses that is actually good for the body. It has many positive effects. That dilates your vessels, it's good for your heart, It relaxes a nervous system that can make you sweat and rid yourself of chemicals and and toxins. So I think extreme heat for short periods is is once again a good thing for the body.

You know, what's interesting, a lot of what I talked about, a lot of what we're finding out to be good for aging is what many cultures have been doing different versions of for centuries, whether it's Eastern cultures and meditation or sweating comes out of the Nordic cultures. You know, mushrooms have been used in so many of these cultures. So a lot of what I believe is we're taking a lot of this old traditional wisdom and sort of making it accessible or explaining it to people in this

modern day age. So it's sort of combining this old words them with modern science. And part of the old wisdom that over the past couple of decades that has become so popular is meditation, and it seems to be something that can really help people battle stress and anxiety. And I've been doing t M. But do you meditate every day? I do most days. I don't do TM per se, but I do a Vedic meditation, which is

also mantra type of meditation. So TM comes from the Vedic tradition, which I think is actually probably the easiest way to learn meditation. And you know you talked about sleep earlier. Meditating in the morning often helps sleep at night. So meditation is to me probably one of those essential keys to aging well. To become more resilient. You don't get as piste off with your husband or your kids. You just tolerate things so much more easily. You don't

get as angry, you know, for stupid little things. So I'm I'm a big believer in meditation. That's changed my life, has changed, you know, thousands of my patients lives. I'm so pleased it's become mainstream now. And I do think TM and Vedic meditation in general is probably the easiest way to learn meditation. So I think it's a great tool to have in this anti aging kit. And if people seem overwhelmed by meditation or they can't remember their mantra.

Even breathing can be helpful, right, yes, so I actually I've written about this meditating without meditating. So the effects of meditation are that it stimulates a parasympathetic nervous system in the body. If you find meditating or sitting on a pillow or chanting a mantra too difficult, you can knit. You know. Meditation is focused concentration if you can find that by exercise, but getting out of your head by knitting,

by gardening, by dancing around the room. You know. Moving meditations are often the way to get people to learn meditation as well. That's why yoga can be so helpful. But most meditations will have breathing as part of it, so you don't have to learn a mantra. But if you can learn to focus on your breath, that's probably good enough. And just one more thing I want to say. You know, there was a guy, Herbert Benson, who is

at Harvard. They did studies to see if it was the mantra that worked or just teaching people to say one over and over again, and just teaching people a mantra of just saying one over and over again had the same effect as someone chanting their mantra, and I think that focused concentration on that one word and repeating that one word is what does it. It's not the

specific sound. And how beneficial is massage especially as you're getting older, well, you know, to me, optimizing the functioning of your muscular schedule system is really as we get older, because one of the biggest problems as we get older is you know, eggs and pains. You know, our hips get tight, our neck and shoulders get tight, and if you don't free that up over time, that just gets worse and worse, and you become a little bit more dysfunctional.

So you can't do the little things or they create more eggs and pains when you do them. And you know, the second part of that story is if your hip gets tight and you don't deal with the tightness in your hip, then over time, your your hip muscles don't fire properly, and then if your back muscles will have to be used to to compensate and you start getting back pain, and if that starts becoming a problem, then

you start getting shoulder pains. So I think the more you can loosen up your tight muscles and tight fashion, the earlier you can the better it is for your body. So if you can't afford a massage, get a foam roller and become your own missus with with with a foam roller. And that's just something you can buy an Amazon and just all over your muscles. Yeah, do at home. Yep, exactly. So here's my favorite thing. You brought up with sense

of humor. Explain why something I make a living at is so helpful to the aging contest because it stimulates the same parasympathetic effect that meditation does. So if you just think of your nervous system, that a sympathetic nervous system, which is what got triggered when you're in front of the bear, which often keeps getting triggered by chronic stress.

And then there's a parasympathetic nervous system and the effects of the parasympathetic nervous system which is a complete opposite of the stress response, and that is triggered by meditation, by laughing, by being kind to others. So your humor or laughing a lot is actually really healthy for you. You know. It's what I always says. The little things that we take for granted, or the little things we do on a daily basis, have enormous effects on her health.

And you know, laughing is one of those little things, listening to music, being grateful, you know, being in nature. All these little things that we don't see as medicine have powerful effects on the body. And you talk about growing your tribe, so friendship and community. Yeah, my mother recently,

she's eighty seven. She recently lost her spouse, which is very traumatic, and I've found that she's become very reclusive and one of the things I know that would help her is to, like you said, grow her tribe, is to have people in the home and around her because it's for me, it's an integral part of my life, is my having my people around me, laughing and drinking red wine and doing all the things we talked about. Yeah, that's important to me. That's probably more important to aging

than the sugar. And now I'm not saying you should go show those intangible things like that to me are more important to how well we age than what we're eating or whether we're exercising or not. Now I'm not saying you shouldn't exercise and you shouldn't eat well, but those little things are really really crucial to how well we age. And there are tons of studies on loneliness and community and agent and how bad loneliness is for agent. Do pets help? I think pets are incredibly helpful. And

I think what's interesting, which is which makes sense? You know, with the pandemic, so many more people got pets, which you know as companions you know, and pets are you unconditional love, you know? So yeah, I think pets are fantastic ways of companionship, of getting love. I'm a huge fan of pets. I think they're important. No, No, I've always I've always had dogs and I can't imagine not

having them. And I think about sort of people I know, my mother's age, and I've noticed that the people with pets seem to be thriving a little bit better than those who don't. I would guess that's the case. Yes, I do want to end with one last question. Do you say take care of your feet? Why should I take care of my feet? Well, because if you don't take care of your feet, then your body starts compin

setting you start getting other problems. So if your feet are twisted or start getting tight, then you don't walk in an aligned way, and then you start maybe getting some knee problems, and then your body compin said and you start getting a tight hip, and you know, sometimes people's headaches or because of how they're walking. So I think taking care of one's feet is important, especially in

our culture. We in these uncomfortable shoes for so many hours of that, especially a woman who have to I mean, I just I can never get how they can wear these high heels or well, one of the few nice things about the pandemic because I swore I'm never going to put a heell on again in my life. Yeah, so I think, you know, taking care of our feet is something we just don't think about. Well, how how do I take care of my feet? Besides a pedicure? What else should I do? Well, first of all, try

to walk barefoot. You know, part of the time. I think it is good to get out of shoes. I think that is good. Rolling your feet can be very important because we tend to get tight, you know, the fashion, which is that thin connectic tissue lining that surrounds all

our muscles gets tired, especially around the feet. So rolling your feet out with a tennis ball, for instance, I mean, it's a good trip and all you do is you take a tennis ball and you roll and you roll it around and you find a tight spot and just stay on that spot and try and release that spot and do that for five minutes and then see the

difference in how your feet feel is pretty amazing. And obviously, if you're lucky enough to be able to get massages, I would say they should put a little effort into your feet as well. Absolutely yes. And do you recommend sort of changing shoes just so our feet don't get used to a certain way of walking. Yeah, I wouldn't say change up to high heels, but yeah, try to change up your shoes and try to walk bare feet

as well. And actually walking barefoot in on the beach or on the earth is actually a really good thing for many reasons. So yes, try change things up with your feet as much as you can see. I knew, I knew feet would be important. I knew I should leave it for the last question, Dr Lippman. I feel younger just speaking to you, so thank you so much, and thank you and and keep yourself and your family and your friends laughing. It's a really good thing to do.

Thank you. Thanks, Edie. So I think what I said at the beginning of the podcast to Dr Lippman about you know, when you're younger, aging is such a superficial thing and it seems so eager driven. You know, aging is how do we stop aging? We're gonna use wrinkle cream or I'm going to dye my gray hair and all those external things at a certain point, and when you reach a certain age, they don't matter anymore. You know.

What matters is what's happening internally, what's happening internally, emotionally, what's happening internally literally with yourselves and your organs. And so I like to say that I've said goodbye to this sexy, sexy chapter of my life and now it's about staving off depth. I mean literally, now it's about being healthy and maintaining and that can be done and enjoyed in exactly the same way. It's about exercising and eating right and sleeping and laughing and having people around

you that make you feel good. And it doesn't have to be a negative thing. This, this sort of back nine of life, or the years quote unquote ahead of us, can be incredibly empowering and vital years. It's just the way we have to kind of pivot our mind and look at them anyway. This is what I'm telling myself right now, because as I'm zooming with Dr Littman, all I saw was wrinkles and a old neck. So I'm trying to be strong and I'm trying to go with

the new roles of aging wealth. Thank you for listening to Go ask Ali. Join me next week for our final episode of the season. Producer and award winning actress Julianna Marklie's talks to me about her long term love affair with George Clooney just kidding. She talks with me about her long term relationship with success. You know her from the long running show The Good Wife and of course e Er, but she acknowledges how tricky success can

be and how she's kept it all and perspective. Be sure to subscribe, rate and review the podcast and follow me on social media on Twitter, Ali e Wentworth and on Instagram The Real Ali Wentworth And if you have questions or guests you'd like to hear from, I'd love to hear from you. Call or text me at three to three four six three five six or email me Go ask Alli podcast at gmail dot com. Go ask Alli is a production of Shonda land Audio and partnership

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