Welcome back to FutureLab, where we explore the cutting edge of healthspan and longevity. I'm Danny Urbinder, and with me are my co-hosts, Dr. Denise Furness. Hello everyone. Hello. And Trevor Hendy. Hey mate. Super excited today 'cause I've got an old buddy.

Yeah, on, so this is good. This is good. And I must have been, I'm super excited too because today we've got Dr. Damian Kristof, who I've known for a long time actually. Um, I, I knew you when you were practicing as a naturopath. So just to give a bit of background, Damian is a naturopath, he's a chiropractor, he's a nutrition expert and someone who's very passionate about longevity and wellness in general.

And I think that, uh, he has a particular take on this topic, especially when it comes to Blue Zones. This is something that I know that Damian's explored in great detail, so I'm not gonna go into too much detail about this. I'll let Damian do that and welcome to the podcast, Damian. Oh, thanks Danny.

Thanks for having me. Thanks so much. It's a pleasure. Amazing. Thanks for having me guys. No problem. I'm so excited to have you here. I like a little bit of fashion inspiration from you too. Nice. Tight shirt. This with this little, it's got sleeve, everything going on. It's. You, you, you wear it well too. You are embarrassing the first 10 seconds.

No, I, I reckon you, it's what happens. It happens when you buy extra small trips. That's what happens. Yeah. It makes you look bigger. It's all fake. It's all fake. Now, I was very keen to talk to you about Blue Zones longevity and obviously your explore exploration into this. But before we do get into it, it'd be sort of interesting to know how you sort of.

Got your interest in this space and what your journey was to get here. Alright. We've only got 60 minutes here. We can say we haven't got 90 years. That's good. He's good. Well, we do, we've probably got more than that of us, but not Jeff's well, well, well rested now. So he's had a Yeah, he's fresh. He's fresh.

Well, I, my journey into health and wellbeing, nutrition started when I was, um, studying to be an accountant. I, I originally studied commerce, um, at Deakin University. Um, at that point in time, I, I didn't really know much about food and nutrition and I, you know, I. Fruit from things like jam donuts and strawberry.

Strawberries and cream from Allen's strawberry milk, strawberry big eggs. And I had a, I had an account at the local Milk bar. Milk bar. And so the lady used to, you know, allow me to just go and grab stuff and she's whacked on an account. And I paid that with my o study, you know, at the end of the fortnight, you know, so I, I got into bad habits very, very early, um, in my, uh, in my youth.

So at like 18 years old, I wasn't very well. Um, and so I struggled through commerce, didn't really love it, got sick, diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Mm-hmm. You know, this whole story, you know. Then I went to see a naturopath and I saw this naturopath, David Fitz, and he said, Damo, your nutrition's very bad.

And I was quite surprised. I, I didn't know what he meant by that. So, because you're getting your cream and you're getting your fruit. Yeah. I was getting all, I was getting all of my goodness, you know, and so I thought, you know, the only thing might've been lacking was protein. So, but not really, I thought, anyway, so I was diagnosed, he gave me some herbs and, um, some disgusting liver tonics, um, as they did back in the early nineties, uh, in naturopathy.

It wasn't as easy to take stuff back then. No. Um, I think I had, I had a B vitamin and I had a liquid formula for liver. And, uh, he did that with me and following a, a diet program known as, um, the acid alkaline balance thing. Mm-hmm. And so he said 30% acid foods, 70% alkaline. That's what you've gotta do. And so I followed that and I got better.

And six months later I'm. Great. So he basically helped you come out of chronic fatigue. Yeah, very quickly. And especially in those days, it was very unusual. A hundred percent. Well, it depended how you saw chronic fatigue, right? Yeah. So he saw it as a liver issue, um, and a nutrition issue. And for some people it might've been, you know, a mental health issue for other people's leaky gut issue.

You know who, who knows. But for me, that's what my issue was. And he, uh, he showed me away and I, and I thought to myself, what am I studying commerce for? I'm just gonna end up being something or somebody that I don't want to be, so, mm. I said to mom, mom, I don't think I wanna be an accountant. And she said, Hey, what do you wanna be?

And I said, I think I'll be a naturopath. I didn't really know what that was. And so, um, I said to David, do you think I could be a naturopath? He said, I'm the president, I'm the principal of the college. Why don't you apply? And so lo and behold, I got in. And so, um, I'd, I'd already spent two and a half years studying first year accounting.

And uh, I thought, well, that cross over really well, though there's some prior learning, said some numbers, it adds up. There's no RPL. I got no RPL for that one. Um, and I passed my, um, naturopathy course in four years. It was a four year course, so I was excited by that. So I thought that I did have a few brain cells and got through that, went into practice naturopathy.

Really enjoyed it. That's where I met you when you were working with a testing company at that time. Is that nary Warren or is it No, uh, I, well I, northern suburbs, somewhere else. North northeastern suburbs. Well, now Southeast. Now you got me very, I was thinking Warren, I was like, I was, now I'm very confused.

So, no, I, well, I, I practiced, uh, in GaN to start with. Oh, really? I was in so way Southeast was, yeah. Way out there. And then I, I moved a bit closer to Melbourne. I went to Morwell, and then I, uh, went from Morwell into studying chiropractic, and I went to RMIT and went to, uh, practice in Lower Plenty. Yeah. And, and I was studying at RMIT at Bandura.

So I kind of What prompted the transition though, by the way? Why, why did you move from, well, I suppose you didn't move, but you sort of added to. Yeah, I, I, it got to a point where I was a bit, um, I was more concerned about people's health and wellbeing than what they were. Right. And I was studying with compliance.

I was, I was struggling with compliance issues. So I was young and enthusiastic and I wanted my patients who were paying me good money. Um. To do 100% of the things I asked do to follow the protocol or to do the diet. Yes. That's how you actually have to get better. It's not just about seeing you. They've actually got to take the advice.

Yes. And I didn't want them just to buy supplements. I wanted to follow the food program and change their life and get exercising and drink some water and stop having the fizzy drinks and stuff. And, and I found that difficult to communicate. I wasn't taught probably how to communicate and so I, um, I, I, I broke down crying one day and I was like, this is not good.

And the, the wife of the chiropractor that I was working with came in and her name's Di and she said, Damo, what's going on? I said, Di, I don't know if I want to do this anymore. Mm. I said, I'm trying so hard to help people get well and they don't want to be as well as what I want them to be. Yeah. And I said, I, I feel I'm conflicted.

And she said, why don't you be a chiropractor? And I said, okay. And so I decided just like that. I just said, alright, no worries. I had a little boy at the time, he was one and, uh, a little jack and he's now 20, about to turn 25. And, um, and so she said, why don't we just apply now? So we got in touch with the college, RMIT, the applications closed that day.

I sold my practice, I moved to Melbourne. I I got into the course, which was fantastic. And, uh, off the back of that, I, I, I then I, I attempted must be some RPL from natural naturopathy to chiropractic. You, you know what, I got off, I got, I got, um, chemistry by Chem. Yes. Which is great 'cause I hated that.

Anyway. Yes. So I hated it. So I got that off and I, I then, I didn't love the college and so I then was speaking to another chiropractor. He said, why don't you go to New Zealand? I said, okay. So then I, I moved to New Zealand and then, uh, studied natural for, for a better, better college there. Better at the time.

And I would still say, and a burgeoning TV career. Well, this is what ended up happening, Danny. You're right. So I went to New Zealand, um, was running weight loss programs to help people lose weight  'cause I knew how to do that. And, um, I got a phone call one day from a TV company and they said, Hey, we're looking for a nutritionist to come and write some programs.

Would you be up for that? And I said, yep. And I went down to TB three. They said. Could you audition for the presenter role? I said, what's a presenter do? And they said, that's the person in front of the camera. And I said, oh, okay. I'll give it a go. So they got me to do this. Steve Imperson, uh, Steve Erwin impersonation picking stuff out.

They did. They said, give us your best Steve Irwin impersonation. Take this outta the fridge, in the freezer and the pantry and show us what you do. So I was chucking Tim Tams across the other side of the room, and I was throwing, you know, look at this little beauty. Yeah, well, yeah, look at this. This is five minutes on the lips.

10, 10 years on the hips. You know, I was saying, you sort of chuck it across the room. And they said, that's amazing. They took that video to the execs and they said, yeah, you can have the gig. So I was the presenter of this TV show that spanned four years and, um, and its called Downsize Me. And then off the back of that culminate, like that's the end of a lifelong dream to be in television.

Yeah. And then, so I hung up my boots and I've been, you know, retired ever since, you know, so, but no. Then I, I then moved back to Australia and I've been back in Australia for, you know, probably 18 years I think now. And the TV show is about 20 years old. Wow. And, um, and we, we changed lives with that show.

Um. And as I was approaching, we started other podcasts and that's where I met Denise. And so we did all these great things and we interviewed Trev on, um, I think it was The Wellness Guys. We, we did it with, I think a hundred Knot Out might've been a hundred Knot Out. Yeah. It was Hundred Knot Out. Yeah.

With Marcus. Yep. Yeah. And then we started, um, this Wellness Couch thing. And so it was a, a like a, a platform for well being, a wellness podcast, but it really was one of the first podcasts that focused on it. It was complimentary, integrated natural health. Yeah. That was the wellness guys. And then Lawrence decided to leave, and then Brett and I were left.

Then we didn't have the, the two-person magic wasn't the same as a three person magic, so we folded that and PCI, can I say I only remember you? Oh, did you? I thought it was just, I knew you were my favorite for, for a reason. Like you say all the right things for sure. I remember being on the wellness counter, Tony, but I thought it was just you.

Maybe I'm confused. Oh, Denise. Unbelievable. But she also only notices herself when she watches our podcast back too. So did I. I've got a cohost. So funny. Just me. Me. You post her up. That's the best. So sorry to the other people on the world. Sorry, Brett. Sorry Lt. They might not be listening, but if you are, ah, sorry about that.

It's Guy Lawrence, right? Was one of them? No, no. Lawrence Tam. Oh, Lawrence, you don't remember either? No, I didn't. I never watched that one, so no. Well, it was before video. Yeah. Yeah. We were talking over yours audio only. So, then Marcus Pierce and I started 100 Knot Out and that happened because I was 38 and packing myself.

'cause I was gonna turn 40 and I was like. What's gonna happen? Am I sick? Have I been, am I doing the right thing? I had, I'd just been through university and you know, when you go through university studying stuff, you start to get health anxiety. So I was developing health anxiety. I was diagnosed myself with all kinds of issues.

Um, that's a danger with a little bit of knowledge, isn't it? I had a lot of knowledge, Danny. Yeah. I had a lot of knowledge and then I thought, I better go get tested. So I went and got all these tests done and everything was squeaky clean. I thought, oh, that's good. Um, I made it to 40, I'm gonna be fine. And Marcus said, why don't we do a podcast on longevity?

And I'm like, mate, you are like, not even 30 and I'm 38. And he goes, yeah, we can do this. So we started to explore it. And that was 12 years ago. 620 episodes ago. Fantastic. Wow. And, uh, and we're still going and trv, we, when we interviewed you, that was a life-changing moment for me. I remember Oh cool. Going through some times where I was.

Going through your program? Yes. Walking barefoot in freezing cold. 'cause it was a barefoot component and I was walking barefoot through icicles in Elsternwick Park. Yeah. Sitting down and just contemplating and meditating and thinking about things. And it was an amazing time of my life. The Bootcamp for the Soul, bootcamp for the Soul.

It was outstanding. And so, um, you know, through, through all of this, these years, 20. 20 odd years I've met beautiful people, amazing people. And you know, I'm grateful. So now I talk on Longevity. Longevity and I, that was my Kiwi coming out. And I, and I take people longevity and I take people over to iia, which is in Greece and Sardinia in Italy.

And we live for 10 days on these islands with the locals to understand what it is that they've done to award themselves the blue zone status. And so that's what you did. I did not know you were taking groups. I thought you were just, you had experienced these things out of your own interest. So you're actually running these kind of re retreats, which you call them.

Wow. Yes. So this was not your first time to career, is it? No, we've been doing it since 2016. Wow. Okay. So, wow. Obviously there's, you thought longevity was cool. Back when it was wellness. Mm-hmm. Yes. Back when longevity was wellness. And now it's the same staff but rebranded. Mm. And so longevity health span and now, yes.

We say it's not about longevity, it's about the healthy years health span. Correct? Mm-hmm. Yes. And one of our most recent podcasts we interviewed, a lady taught her and taught her, has just completed a, a PhD and she rewrote health span and lifespan. So we talk about lifespan being the dots between your birthdate and your death date, right?

Mm-hmm. And then the health span is a component of your lifespan. Your lifespan is gonna be more dots if you are healthy. And she then spoke about strength span. And she said if your strength span is longer, your health span will be longer, and then your lifespan will be longer. So what does that mean?

What does, what does strength span specifically mean? Your ability to maintain muscle, to avoid sarcopenia. So you are wanting to keep your muscles strong and explosive, so it's no good having strong muscles, but you can't explode out of a situation. You've gotta be able to, so that's. Power. You gotta be strong and powerful.

Yeah. And, uh, so resistance training, protein consumption. Um. Avoidance of sarcopenia, not calorie restriction. And, uh, so matches up with the high intensity interval training too. Component. That's the way we would do it here in the developed west. But in a village in Greece or in, in Italy. I mean, they wouldn't do resistance training per se.

I mean, so I mean, if they live in the Blue Zones and they live for a long time and they maintain muscle mass and Muscle Pal, what are they doing? There's a bunch of, a bunch of Smith machines all around there. They got wall balls. They do Wall balls. Yeah. Wall balls. Yeah. Uh, they don't stop. You know how we have this thing called retirement age?

Um, they don't do that. That's why, um, they just continue to keep on going. So at a young age, um, and particularly the centenarians that are existing these days. So, um, they were born in the 1930s, 1940s. Um. They didn't have running water. They didn't have heating, um, they didn't have refrigeration, so they lived a relatively tough life.

They had to survive all of that. They got through all of that through farming and climbing mountains and getting water vessels and carrying those water vessels back. And so they built good mus young, I think this is important. They built strong muscles at a young age. Yeah. So they weren't starting sarcopenic at 30 years old.

They were strong as oxes at 30 years old. The men and the women, um, the women would have the babies young, um, and then continue to attend the farm and then raise the grandchildren and so on and so forth. The men would be involved in, um, in Sardinia for example, we're talking goat herding and milking the goats and making cheese and products and uh, and hunting and so on and so forth.

And there were very clear roles for men and women. Um, in that sort of lifestyle. So they were fit and strong and they ate from the land, they ate, the food that they had access to. Mm-hmm. Um, there was no refrigeration. Yeah. Um, they would preserve their meat. You know, they, I just had a bit of an epiphany when you said that.

'cause I, when you think of a hundred, you think, wow, what are they doing later in life to, but actually, so they're still living their life. What were they doing 70, 80, 90 years ago that actually lived through that gave them this 'cause, this, this is the result of, of what grew inside of them. Yes. So you talk about, you know, strong, um, resilient.

They had to survive difficult conditions where in some ways we're softer. These days softer. There's less we've had to deal with where everything comes to us. Comfort is the enemy. You know, I can imagine some of the things we see going on now with mobile devices and kids with phones or. Adults with phones in their hand and sitting, you know, sentient.

Sentient? No sedentary. Sedentary, yes. Not sentient. Well, hopefully a little bit sentient. I've picked up on that, but, um, but, um, sedentary and we're back. Think a hundred years forward from that, you know, it's like, what's that 'cause that, what's that developing and creating inside of us, you know? So just, it just made me think, oh, right.

Actually what we do, what we grow through is a very big important part of where we end up. Yeah. You did, you did say something that was revealing to that point. You, you, you, like, when we think about sarcopenia, I think 70, 80, 90, but you, you mentioned 30 and 40. Mm-hmm. That's where, so do we start becoming sarcopenic that young, if we do not exercise our muscles from 30 on, we start to decline in our muscle mass.

And our bone. And our bone. Particularly for women. Yeah. For women. Yeah. Yeah. And well, I think women probably these days with so much estrogen replacement are probably gonna lose less bone than what they have in the past. Yeah. Um, that's not gonna sub out strength, so you can't Exactly. Because I have patients come to me and they're like, oh, I'm worried about my bone density.

Should I, you know, go on HRT or now called, um, MHT, I'm like, that's not gonna fix the problem. You've still gotta do the exercise. You've still gotta get that calcium in, you know, the vitamin D Yes. That might help you. Yeah. But you, it doesn't mean you've gotta get rid of all the foundations or that you can't get away without doing all that work, because that's also the stuff that makes you feel good.

The energy and you know, the muscle and all that kind of stuff. Absolutely. So what do you reckon if I, if I immigrated to IAA and took on the lifestyle, would I, would I still, at my age, mid-fifties, capture some of the gains that they, they actually would've had over a lifetime? Ah, a hundred percent. It's never too late.

It's never too late to change. It's, and it's never too early. This is the thing. So, um, you know, if you wait 10 more years and you try and do it, then of course you're still gonna get gains. Yeah. It's just harder as we get older. Mm. Uh, and it's so much easier when our bodies are young. Mm. And, uh, and all the cells are nice and young, and your muscles are young and strong.

So it's, it's so much easier when we are younger to get the gains. We can still get the gains. You just gotta work harder as you get older. Mm-hmm. You can have smarter epigenetic changes to understand what you've gotta do. Your, you can have quite quickly with, you know, if you're having a very big, you know, change in your environment, cleaner water, less toxins, better food, you know, your food talks to your DNA through epigenetics.

So you could have big epigenetic shifts that would actually make your cells and your muscles. And we have studies on this, actually behave like a younger person. That's good to know that, that would give you an excuse. Yeah, I could have me go there, be great. I could heard goats, so I was saying like, to behave young like a young person.

Woo. Here is so. The blue zone. Yeah. What else do you notice? What else is going on that's happening? Like, 'cause I've heard of things like community, you know, wine, you know, good dairy or cheese or you know, like there's all these different things that are, that are, you know, um, associated with blue zones and different people that are talking about it.

'cause it's a bit of a buzz thing as well. Last few years. Yeah. What do you really notice? What, what are the things that you think really make a difference to people? So, good. Trev. I love that you said, um, wine then good dairy and cheese. Right? Because it's not, 'cause we won't have the wine with the cheese.

Yes. And it's not good wine over there. Let me tell you. So if you, if you're probably Korea, I, I I don't mean that. I apologise. I'm joking. I can't wait to come back for some more. Uh, so, uh, um, as a nutritionist, naturopath, I've always thought that nutrition was quintessential, like I thought it was so important.

And by the time we interviewed a guy by the of Wally Bs, um, Walter Bortz, um. About episode 10 on a 100 Knot Out, I began to realize that nutrition isn't necessarily intrinsically linked to longevity. It doesn't promise you longevity. And this was very difficult for me to understand because my inside, or I rewired and re redesigned all of my DNA and my brain matter to believe 100%, that diet would get me there and probably almost by itself.

Yeah. That that's all I have to do. That's all I gotta do. So when we're interviewing these centenarians that have made it to 100 here in Australia, all of them have a an appalling diet by anyone. Standards. Tell 'em smoke, smoke. Drink. Yeah. Um, they eat, they drink 10 to 12 coffees a day. Their last coffee might be at midnight to help them get to sleep.

Oh, that's my dad. Yeah. To help them get to sleep. Yes. And having sausages and, and stuff that you're just thinking, how did you make it? And so what I then started to understand was diet, if it's good, helps you avoid, helps you avoid chronic health disease or chronic disease. So we're talking heart disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer.

And as we fast forward into the future, we're talking dementia, Alzheimer's. 'cause that that will be revealed. Like, we'll, we'll see that. So that's where your diet, uh, is gonna help you prevent those chronic illnesses, chronic disease. And that's what we'll probably. From a nutrition, um, perspective, help you get to longevity is the avoidance of chronic disease.

Yep. So then you look at movement as being absolutely important, crucial, but it's not necessarily going to the gym. It's not necessarily doing only 50 pushups a day. Um, or it's not necessarily, um, doing the workout of the day and, and then you're gonna be all good. It's appropriate movement, which is what you said mm-hmm.

Before Trev training appropriately. Um, and, and in this case, when you go to the blue zones, they just continue to move. It just, it's incidental movement, isn't it? Like you, you just need to do what you need to do in your day. Yeah. And it just happens to incorporate all the movements that we need to be healthy as humans.

Over there, over here, a lot of people sitting No, no, no. I was sitting over there when, when, when we say exercise and we go for a run. That's probably foreign to them. It's like why, or the gym, why do you come home and sit down at the desk and Yeah. It's like they just need to do things and it involves moving their bodies.

Yeah, that's so true, Danny. But, and if, and so if we think about our day, say we, we wake up in the morning. We walk to the shower. We have a shower. Uh, we sit down to have breakfast. We walk from the breakfast table to the car. We dr. We sit down driving to work. We walk from the car park the closest one to the front door into our office space.

We sit down for peer. Periods of time. We walk from there to the kitchen to get some food. We walk back to our desk eating the food while we're working. We get up, we walk out of our desk to our car to sit down to drive home. We might go past the gym on the way home and maybe do half an hour, an hour's worth of workout.

And we think we've ticked the box of movement. We haven't. And so then we go and sit down again for some dinner. We sit down to watch the tv, we walk to the bed and we fall asleep again. And we rinse and repeat. We do the same thing. Oh, so this is a bad example. I think there's a lot of walking in there.

Some people don't even go to the gym and some people don't even go to work. Like, for example, myself, like, um, I work from home now, the last, you know, five years or whatever, like my office is in the house. Denise. Right. There you go. Right. So you don't have to go very far. No, this is the thing. You're walking through doors.

I need one of those treadmills in front of your computer, just so the point there is that we need to do a lot more movement than just gonna the gym for half an hour or an hour a day or two or three times a week. How do, how do we do that in our, in our, obviously, you know, technological, convenient lifestyles, movement, snacks.

Movement snacks. Right? So good. That's tm, that's trademarked. But Paul Taylor, I done, I took it from Paul Taylor. He's already got it. If he's listening to this, he's probably like, she took my word. I'm acknowledging We love Paul. Alright. Movement meals, there we go. Movement, snacks. Um, yeah, that's what you gotta do.

You gotta find time, uh, to move with purpose. Now, when you said, what do we see over there? These are, these are the two most important things that contribute to the number one, most important thing that keeps people alive. In my opinion. There's purpose. Mm-hmm. And engagement and community. Mm. So we have purpose and engagement, which brings community.

So people maintain their purpose and their purpose. Let's say it's to raise their grandchildren. For me it might be, um. Uh, um, I'll, I'll just, I'll play, I'll say play golf. So I'm, I wanna play golf. That's my purpose. I get outta bed. It gets me outta bed every single day. I keep on doing that. And that, that's my reason for existing.

Yeah, that's not true. But let's just say that is the case for them. It could be that they're looking after the grandchildren, um, or it might be that they're tending to a shop, or it might be that, um, they've gotta go and look after some elderly parents or whatever, but they live a purpose driven life.

It's very important they maintain engagement. So just, just to that point, 'cause I'm thinking pur when we think of purpose, because we're so in, we have an individualistic sort of outlook on life here in the west. I mean, they're part of the west as well, but a different part. When we think purpose, I want to achieve this for myself.

I am or I wanna change the world, or, but it, it, it's usually, it's usually, whereas, I don't know, I'm just taking a stab here, but is purpose for them also, I need to do this for the community. I think they're married together. They purpose and community. Yeah. Or it's like, it, it's so, because we don't tend to think like that, like now I want to do this for my own self-development or, you know, I think I'll enjoy it.

We don't, we don't tend to think of well, that the community needs it and I need the community to survive as well. I think if you broke it down, you might see that you are Mm. So well you just don't think like that. No. But the podcast brings together a community, for example. Um, so I have a hundred out podcast community.

There's thousands of people that listen to us and we, we see that as a community. I've got my practice and that's a community and people come into my practice and that's a community. I'm part of. What So you recognize that? Yeah. But on purpose. Yeah. So I purposely recognize which communities. I'm a part of my golf club.

I'm a member of that community. Um, I'm a member of the community where I live, uh, in, in Middle Park. And so I go down to the shops and I know all of the shop owners and I chat with them, and I know the gym owner and I know, you know, the local massage therapist. You sound like an outer. Well, it may be this inspires people to do something that's similar because in my, in my pursuit of longevity, these are the things that I'm recognizing, uh, are important.

So nutrition, I feel like I've got that to at least 80%, at least. Probably. It could be better, it might be slightly worse. Don't quote me on that. But, so it's, and so we're there. Um, and then from a movement perspective, I, I move a lot. You know, I'm, I'm running, um, I'm at the gym. I, well, not necessarily the gym, but I'm doing, you know, body.

Body weight, um, training, uh, I play a lot of golf. Um, I'm a chiropractor that's very physical, so I'm doing lots of things from a movement perspective, from an engagement perspective, I'm still doing presentations. If you ask me to be on a podcast, it's an automatic, yes. Uh, I'm out at different corporate events and, and speaking, um, in my community, in my practice, I'm engaged in my community.

My, you know, where I live, I'm engaged. Um, with my family, I'm engaged. So there's that. And then from a purpose perspective, we spoke about that. So there's your tenants. So there's like some really important five pieces of the puzzle to longevity, um, that are really important. If you look at the World Health Organization, they might consider that, uh, finance is really important.

Um. 'cause the wealthier countries in the world tend, would, you would expect, would have a better health system. But the reality is, is that Australia has really good longevity, but really poor morbidity. Like we, our last 12 years of our life for ranked I think 21 or 22 in the world, like some of the worst, it's, it's no good.

So we're just doing things wrong. So I don't think finance has got as much to do with it as the other things. 'cause you could not have a lot of money and still live an exceptional life, you know? But that comes down to education a lot of the time as well. So, well awareness like, like as opposed to education.

Education is a funny word, but No. Well, okay, so what I'm trying to say is, um, and I mean you, I suppose you could interchange it with awareness, but if, yes, you can definitely live a healthy life and not be necessarily wealthy. Not have, but. If you do, um, come from a wealthy area, you're more likely to be educated enough to know what health is and how to achieve it, and health literacy understanding.

So those people from poor communities are just unaware of, of what health is and what and what it means to be healthy. We have guidelines for published in The Lancet, um, probably due to be updated soon. They've had two versions, but looking at risks for Alzheimer's and dementia. So aside from, you know, APOE genetics that I do, but education is actually, I think it's like a, you know, I'm not sure how they get these numbers, but it's like a 6%, you know, 'cause you've got smoking, obesity, yeah.

Head traumas Now air pollution was added in the last one, 2% increased risk for Alzheimer's dementia if you're exposed to a lot of air pollution. Yeah. But it puts together all of these things based on evidence. It's the Lancet one of our top medical journals, but education is like, lack of education is a, a risk factor.

So, and I think that comes down to perhaps there may be in a lower socioeconomic area, maybe they're not getting the same level of. Healthcare or food or, but I said the health literacy, sometimes people just don't. Yeah. You know, they'll buy the cereal with the five stars on the, on the thing and go, well, I'm being really healthy.

But actually you're still just getting refined stuff that doesn't have real nutrients. And, um, two, two things I wanna say. Just quickly one, um, first one is when you're talking about these different aspects, like the community, the purpose, everything, and you're talking about your life now because you're learning from this environment that's way over there.

Yeah. But you're bringing that version back to the way you see all your, your communities and the way you feed them. Yeah. I'm really hearing two words you didn't say, but I'm hearing is love and care. Yeah. You know that, that you are living with a sense of purpose, that the person in front of me is important to me in this moment and I'm attending to them.

Yeah. And there's a sense of care and dare I say it, love and affection and getting to know each other like I see you again. And the very fact that I love the, the puppy dog analogy, that when the puppy dog, when the dog sees us, when we come home, it lights up and its tail starts to wag. Yeah. You know? Yeah.

But often, um, maybe in some situations when the wife or the husband come home say, oh, you again, you're back. You know, that adds that. Yeah. But the, but the enthusiasm of the, the dog that is unconditional. That just sees, ha ha, you're back, you're back, you're back. I think living that way where you see people and go, oh, good to see you again.

Like we, we saw each other today. You know, it's like, Hey mate, you know? And a great hug too. Great hug. Yeah. You know, I think, I feel that that changes so much in, and, and once again, a cascade of things that happen in our body comes from this living, from a place of love, care, attention to the moment, attention to others.

Yeah. I find that really fascinating. So I'd love to see what you think about that. But also, just a side note, when you said that I had another little, oh, air, I think air quality is a massive thing. This, they've just added air quality into this measurement to show that it leads to these things. I think that's a, a wonderful, one of the big reasons why some of these communities are having, um, great longevity as well.

So I agree with that, but clean air start with love and care and that, that concept of attention to people, I'm sure that makes a difference. For sure. Trevor. Well, they don't have secrets, so everybody in the community knows everyth. So Right. If somewhere boundaries, like, I feel like that would cause a lot of high cortisol.

Maybe they're different communities only when you got stuff to hide. Yeah. Only if there's stuff to hide. There's no, what did I just disclose? Right. Heidi girl over there. Well call you Heidi from there. Uh, so they, in their community, it's not like they, they know everything, but there's kind of no secrets.

So, you know, if, um, Yani or Yana is unwell, everyone in the community knows, um, if, and everyone thinks, oh, can we contribute in some way? And someone turns up with the pie or someone turns whatever it is. That's exactly right. And people going and checking on them and they're aware and, you know, have you caught up with, um, you know, Peter today, or have you see that's an element of community that as much as what you have described is your life?

Yeah. That can't exist surely. To the extent it does in those parts of the world where the community comes together. I bet he's seeding it though. I bet it's starting to happen. Oh, abso look, absolutely. It, it happened with some communities. We can, but what where my head is at the moment is you are doing amazing things to, um, recognize what makes a good life and a long and healthy life that there, it's represented in that part of the world.

How can I replicate that here? Be the cha be the change you wanna see in your world. Change. Yep. Yeah. But, but I'm just thinking there's gotta be gaps because we are trying to recreate this in many cases from a low base. We, we've, yeah. Yes. And very disconnected, I feel like. But it's human thing. If Australians can be quite, I mean, I just know my family, I think against my family, but we are, we're very disconnected.

That's not necessarily a good thing though. Like, I quite like with community, obviously I've got my community too and you know, I'm the same as you. If there's a podcast, I'm always, you know, gonna conferences, connecting with my people, sharing the knowledge. Yeah. I love it. But, um, I do think there's a, a big disconnect and I agree to, and again, talking about risk factors for Alzheimer's and all chronic conditions, social isolation is a big thing that is a risk factor for cognitive decline, mental health issues.

Um, and getting back to that, no secrets. I mean, the first thing I thought is, God, do you want everyone knowing your business? But the reality is all of a sudden you have a support network. And I think when you look at the mental health issues that are skyrocketing. Here in other countries, often people are suffering alone.

It's so true. Denise. We used to have churches. Mm. So people would go to church and on a Sunday, then they'd have a, a lunch. Mm-hmm. And they'd all hang out and they'd share stories, talk em up for the week. Yeah. They'd all share stories. Um, when we were in Sardinia recently, um, we went to a little town called Oly.

Uh, we were sitting around, was actually walking through and there was a group of men sitting over there, and we walked over to them. We asked, we introduced ourselves. We had a Sardinian translator for us. And Evo asked them what they were doing, and they said, oh, we just sit around. We come here every Wednesday.

We are here at, you know, nine 30 in the morning. We sit here for an hour or two and we tell each other lies and they just laugh, you know? And, you know, it's that kind of, that sense of, you know, community. Their purpose is to kind of catch up with each other and then they walk around and share wine with each other.

And Oly has more centenarians in it than any other place in Sardinia, but it's not considered one of the blue zones. So it's really interesting. Why is that? What, what makes different? They just, I don't think they went through the certification process, but they, they are. They have greater sta better, better statistics.

So there's the Blue Zone thing is a brand now and Yeah. Certified blue zone. That's right. So it's, it's, right. So it's, it's a brand. I want to sort of go back to the fresh air thing. Um, and then the health education thing. So health literacy is different because there's people with health literacy that in their health literacy decision making process, it's down a particular line of health literacy.

Um, and so for them it'll be, oh, I've got a non-inflammatory pain at the moment, so I'm gonna take paracetamol. Um, oh, I've got inflammatory pain at the moment, so I'm gonna take, um, ibuprofen. And so that's the extent of their. Health literacy. And so they would argue black and blue, that every decision that they make around health is informed because they've got health literacy.

But that could in fact lead you down a pathway of mm-hmm. A cascade of intervention. Yeah. Yeah. And so we see people who would say that they've got higher degrees of health literacy, making poor health decisions. Because when we around this table think about health, we are thinking great food, great water movement, exercise, avoidance of pharmaceuticals as much as we can, avoidance of surgery as much as we can.

Integrative approaches to health and wellbeing and longevity. Whereas someone who would argue that their health literate, um, could be making poor quality choices, but are considered to be very health literate. Mm. So we've gotta be careful with, you know, how we define that. So when we go to iia, they would only just be now coming into a second world country or location.

Um, they would've been third world when we first moved there, or close to just coming outta third world. Very poor. Um. Not a lot of access to resource. Uh, no supermarkets on the island. Um, I think there's one policeman on the island, um, no ambulances. The hospital's on the other side of the island, there's no, um, old people's homes.

But they had, did they, did they consider themselves Paul? Uh, nah, they don't even know that we were, they don't even know. They have no idea. Like they dunno the word stress. This is it. They don't value, like there's no value placed on those words or that behavior. And so what is really interesting is they have 50% less heart disease, 30% less diabetes, and 25% less dementia, something like that.

Like it's these numbers, they're outrageous numbers and they have zero health literacy. And they don't have the healthcare. They have no healthcare. All the medical interventions, well, no medical care that we suggest in conventional medicine are going to protect you from these disease that you can't do without.

This is it. They come and save the day. All these things, this is it, right? So they're having food that's in season. They move all of the time. They have a community with a sense of purpose, and they maintain engagement. They know what's happening next door. They know what's happening to their cousins, their aunties, their uncles.

They maintain a unit of family. Whether or not that's your mates or whether it's the people that you're born into, their family is built of people that they love. Which is really important. Marcus and I often have this conversation in his book. He's got a beautiful book called Your Exceptional Life. You would've, you would've seen that trip.

Great. Amazing book. And in it he talks about the eight things that are required for longevity. And I argue that it's seven things and he says it's eight. And I say, no, no, no. Family and friends are the same. He goes, no, no, they're separate. And I go, no, no. They're the same. No. 'cause sometimes your friends are like your family.

Exactly. And you don't have to choose to hang out with the family that you don't want to hang out with. Mm. They might have been born for you, but. And presented on a platter. These are some friends you can have. We call them family, but you don't have to take that on. And so, um, they, they surround themselves with people.

They wanna be around. And there's people of course, you know, there's personality clashes, so they don't necessarily spend time on those people, but they know about those people and you know, they would care for them if they fell over, they go and pick them up. That's right. There still is a degree of care there.

Yeah, of course. If something happened to them, the community would, because the community cares. Yeah, that's exactly right. And the one that you didn't mention there was they tend to their own soil for generations. They they do, they have their own soil. Their soil is part of their family. Yeah. Their soil is the part of their, you know, what they're doing, what they is part of what their, their inheritance almost.

Yeah. It is their inheritance. Yeah. It's not some other big organization coming along, going, ripping it up, putting crops in, oh, we can speed up the process here, da da. It's all done. And we, everything's a sense of care and connection. There's a concept I just wanna throw in here, um, quickly, that the great spiritual truth is that we are all one.

Yeah. We share one life force. And the great spiritual deception is that we are deceived by our eyes to think that we're separate. Mm-hmm. And we're in competition for resources and everything else. Certainly, in the worst versions of the Western world, we're really playing out this competition thing.

Mm-hmm. And the best versions of other aspects of the world. They're playing out the, the connection thing, because I look at it often. I think the closer we out to the great truth, it's just a viewpoint. But the closer we out to the great truth that we are all one. And I see if Danny's struggling and it, it actually concerns me.

You know? So, we've talked about different things. I think Dan it to you as well, has sleep things and everything else and we're talked about today at lunch, you know, it's like. I genuinely feel great to hear of, of his successes that he's happening in sleep. 'cause I think about it, you know, I think my friend is having problems with sleep, you know?

Yeah. Terrible. So that feeling as I've got older, I've started to see everybody as important to me. Yeah. And particularly the people that I'm associating or attracted to the law of attraction, they're my tribe. And that's a large group of people growing. So, it doesn't mean I keep in contact with all of 'em all the time, but when I see them, I go, oh, I see a family member.

You know, and that, that the closer I get in my own wisdom or whatever it is, and I'm really comparing it to where I was, um, it's everybody's important to me. Where before it was important that I finish on top and in front, you know, and with the, with the lion's share of the resources and hold onto it for as long as I possibly can and set myself up for future success.

Yeah. It was all past future. Good, bad, right, wrong. It was all duality, you know, winning. And as that's dying off inside of me, I'm noticing a lot of things that you're talking about. I naturally do in myself as well. I literally notice myself having moved to, to Rum and valley on the Gold Coast from Mermaid Beach.

You know, I literally notice myself really, actually, oh, hey, and talking to the people, and you go, when you fall into a community, you start to actually, it's not like you manufacture it. No. If you're ready, it feels like it just rebounds back to you. Yeah. But we, we don't know that when we're in the other mode of thinking, which is gotta get ahead, gotta stay ahead, gotta stay, even, stay ahead of my own troubles, you know, whatever it is that we're trying to get away from.

Mm-hmm. So, the more I've got in the moment, the more I've found. The connection is a natural thing amongst all of us. Um, but that's what I'm feeling when you're saying, is that you to be open to it. And like you said, it's there. Yeah. They live, they don't have, they're not sitting back there going, the great spiritual truth is that we're all one, you know, they're actually just living closer to that truth without even knowing it, without even thinking, without even thinking about it.

They just see each other as, as important to each other. One, one of the greatest movies of all time describes that exact thing, and no one really sees what this movie is all about. And, and it's avatar. Oh, oh, I love Avatar. Yes. And Avatar, my favorite speaks to the interconnectedness of, of all things. Well, we do because they've got the tree.

How could you not get that up? The mother, mother tree. And a lot of people just saw it as a science fiction thing, right? Oh, really? Yes. Oh, I didn't, I didn't know people saw it like that. Oh, yes. So, yeah. And so, and I would talk to people about, you know, avatar in my practice, and I'm like, you gotta watch Avatar.

What? You know, the blue people? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. The blue people. And so we're talking about it and talking about Blue Zone. That's the, that's the origin of the blue sides. And so, and then, so. The every single, there's a butterfly effect. It's every single thing that you do, every single thought that you have, every single affects the whole, it all affects the whole.

And so, um, hearing you say that it's not possible or, you know, there's too many gaps or, no, I'm, it's not possible. I'm just saying, I just wanted to highlight where the gaps are as a way of perhaps understanding why we're where we are compared to the blue zone and, and what we need to do to get there.

What's really interesting, because I think Australia could be a blue zone. Yeah, I really do. Mm-hmm. We've got enough centenarians, we've got enough people living a lot. We got fresh air. Clean air, you know, look where we live. It's just stunning. Yeah. Singapore is doing it. Singapore is now the sixth blue zone.

Right. Oh, wow. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, they're doing it. That's a densely populated city. Very densely populated, but the, the government set things up, um, in such a way that it's only 500 meters from anywhere, wherever you are in all of Singapore to access a train station, train space, a train station. So, you, you go underground everything up on top.

They're trying to get rid of cars, so they're discouraging purchasing cars. They make a license, a couple hundred thousand dollars. Um, to buy a car is ridiculously expensive. It's another extra couple hundred thousand dollars to buy a car. And, so you only got a car if you a grab driver or a, um, or an Uber driver.

We call it Uber here. And so, and so they've got that. And then, so they're encouraging walking the government funds, um, subsidizes healthy meals. And, so by healthy meals, really it's the, it's the healthy maybe for the people that live there. I go there sometimes for work. I haven't noticed any subsidies.

Hundred percent. Maybe. Maybe for, not for us, it's the church. No, when you go to the Hawker horse, you go to the Hawker markets. If you go into the Hawker market, um, you'll see like a little. Plant logo next to the thing, and it's cheaper and, and it's, it's not only cheaper, but the government. Gives money to the store holder for when they sell that item.

Wow. Yeah. And, so there's encouragement to eat better. And so they're doing that. They encourage movement. They have, and they're so clean. There's no rubbish. No rubbish. This is it. No smoking thing in Singapore. Uh, no chewy, no chewing gum, no chew gum trouble. And I think no chewing gum for a very long time because my mom was a travel agent before she had me.

And I'm 46. And I know she was talking about things 'cause she was starting to take people over to some of these countries. And I remember my dad talking about the no chewing gum. Yeah. As a small child. So this is not a new thing, by the way. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Isn't it? What I like about that is, uh, you know, there's, there's always that part of a, uh, country, um, acting in a way that this is the way it's gonna be for you from now on.

You know, we we're going this direction. Yeah. But I like it. People can leave, you know, like I'm, I'm not really into my government telling me exactly what I'm gonna do and exactly how I'm going to do it, but also have, but we've been through, I always have the choice of leaving, you know, having Victoria. So, but I like it when they, their genuine aim is to make a more healthy environment.

And for sure you're not up for that. Finland's doing it Finland's, you know, on purpose to do that. When we went to, I, the first time we were in, I, we were sitting at a table and some Finnish people came over to us and started chatting. We're chatting with them and we said, what do you guys do? They said, we're from the Ministry of Health, from the Finnish government, and we are here to see what we could take back to Finland to help our people live a healthier life and to be, um, independent and autonomous from the government.

We're like, what do you mean? They say, we've got thousands of islands and we'd love to have people live on these islands and not have to rely on the government and our resources. So we wanna work out how do we. Provide energy and water and make it fully self-sustainable so that they can live in this environment that's clean and natural and live a long time and healthy without needing resources from government like healthcare and energy and so on and so forth.

And so they were there learning all of that in EIA so that they could take it back. Did you introduce 'em to the Australian government people that were there as well studying it? We didn't have any Australian government people there at all. Oh, they weren't there. Right. Unfortunately, they couldn't make it.

I reckon it wouldn't be far before someone hears you though and says, let's go do it. You know, it'd be good. There's a lot clearly that we can learn from those parts of the world. Do you think there's anything that they can learn from us? I mean we, we, I mean the longevity movement is certainly taking off.

Here we are looking at things like boosting NAD, taking nicotinamide, riboside, berberine there. There are certain things that are considered longevity nutrients or longevity supplements. Do they have a place in your thinking? If I'm looking at the blue zones, they didn't need any of that. Yeah. Um, their mitochondria is probably still firing.

'cause you know, why are we having ide rubic side feeding into the NAD feed our mitochondria? Well if they're moving all the time, they've naturally, but if you listen to the, it naturally declines anyway. True. True. If they live till a hundred, could we extend it further? Is there a desire to do that? Is it, is it, yeah, I don't think they desire to live a long time.

In fact, some of 'em go, we're just lucky we got here. Or I didn't start out thinking I was gonna live to a hundred years old. And you know, when we, and Marcus and I talk about this all the time on our podcast, we, we talk about what does longevity mean? Like, does it mean living forever and never dying? You know, you've got people like Brian Johnson, some people it does, you know, Brian Johnson for example, he does, you know, or, um, who's the guy who says that, um, dying is a choice?

Um. Anyway, there's, there's another, I think it is Brian Johnson. He's the one, yeah. Sinclair. It might, it might be David Sinclair. I'm too sure. Yeah. David Sinclair is now talking about you obviously living for a really, really long time. Yeah. Like to 150 or something. Yeah. And so, and this has never been done before.

Like the oldest person on the planet I think made it to about 111, 112. They're also doing things that we don't wanna do. The conversation where before we came in here, like the rapamycin and stuff, and then that Yeah. Well he's not taking that anymore. No. Yes. They've stopped both of them. Brian Johnson and David Sinclair.

That's right. They, they've stopped it. Could we circle back to the food? Like, because I agree with actually everything you're saying to a degree, like, it's hard for someone. 'cause we are the same. We, we, we, we use nutrition as medicine. Yeah. So when I hear you say it, there's a little part of me, it's like, mm.

But you know, food is so important. But I agree with you in the sense that when I ran an autoimmune, I used to run a 12 month autoimmune recovery program after being sick. The diet was month five. So we started with stress and sleep. We started with chemicals and toxins. Yeah. You know, we had all these things and people were quite frustrated.

They're like, just tell me what to eat. And I was like, but there are so many things that I want you to understand before we get to the food. Like it is part of your healing journey, but there are other things we need to do that are actually gonna make it much easier for you to sustain and enjoy and want that healthy food if we get those things in place.

Yeah. But I, I agree with you in a sense that maybe nutrition's not so important, but I feel like their food, and you've already said it, but just to clarify for the listeners, would be so much better quality than ours. And even though diet's not sort of so important, they're not getting the ultra processed food with the chemicals.

The toxins. The pesticides. A hundred percent. And even talking about the NAD boosters. Nicotinamide riboside, you know, we know the mitochondria gets affected by oxidative stress. DNA, damages, chemicals and toxins, all these things that affect epigenetics. They're not getting exposed to those same things.

Denise, you're spot on. You are spot on. A hundred percent. So, so I, my, I'm of the firm belief that a great diet is so important. It's the number one most easy self modifiable factor in our life that we can all take control of with our next meal. Like we can easily change our diet so easily if we choose to.

Not a problem. So that's a simple start, easy start, good basis to work from easy start. So if we go back to what we've identified in the centenarians that live in Australia who had a bad diet, they managed to avoid chronic health or chronic disease, right? So they, they, they didn't get diabetes, they didn't get heart disease till later.

They didn't get dementia. So that they managed to avoid that. When I say they managed to, it's by pure luck or genetics that they missed out on getting that stuff 'cause their diet. For someone who's less lucky, poorer quality genetics. So they got their, in spite of their lifestyle, not because, yes, this is it.

This, and this is where you look at some of the centenarians over in IIA and Sardinia, they say, we're just lucky we, we just got here. We, we didn't mean it, we just got here. So when we Yeah, but a lot more of them got there compared to Yeah. But you were talking quality of air, quality of food, the movement.

It's not just repurposing engagement, there's all of these things. But when we talk about us, like even from a future lab perspective, and we're talking about all of the supplements that we could take, they're all, um, physiological, metabolic biohacks that we can add to our lifestyle to assist us in moving in a more longevity direction.

Mm-hmm. Um, that would, we would use these, um, substances to assist us in preventing. Early decline, which is chronic disease. So it not necessarily I, I would go as far to say, I don't know if any of these supplements will help us live beyond a hundred. I've got no idea. But what I do know is that all of these supplements would contribute to helping our body.

Avoid chronic disease. Mm-hmm. And that's what I think the pursuit is, is to avoid chronic disease and then all of the other fabrics, all the other pieces of the fabric, which is community purpose, engagement movement. Mm-hmm. All of that then enables us to live a long time. Mm-hmm. That's the stuff I really like the way you've summarized that.

'cause that's how it feels to me. Mm-hmm. Um, having been through an athletic past and then gone through a bit of a Well you had Nutrigrain. Yes. You know, well I was vi still here, right? Still Oh you vitamin vitamins, right. You on the front of Nutrigrain. He was like Vita. Yeah, it was great. Kenny on the front of Nutrigrain.

Yeah. Yeah. So you vi bits tj, my son got on the Nutrigrain box. Did, but I was in the Vita Bris box. There we go. My dad ate Bris. But even that, my brother coming out of 14 Vita Brits a morning, you know, and then I discovered I was dairy intolerant. I'm more than a liter of milk every morning. So then it was soy milk, believe it or not, you know.

And then later course we got almond milks. And now in almond milks we see all the seed oils and. So, so many times something comes as the new thing and then you go, oh, hang on. What about that? Mm-hmm. But I look at it from a, my own perspective of 56 years of age. I've got a real purpose in my life. I've got a real, I've, I've got enough awareness to, to keep me exploring and loving my life, right.

But as I move forward, I'm noticing the body changes I go through and everything else. And one of the things I've noticed with the future lab range, because I've been around and involved in that, and it's, it's almost been an organic fit for me, the direction I'm going, I was like, oh, wow. Mm-hmm. Um, is that all of a sudden I start, started to see all of the nutrients that I was missing and started to understand what have I not had for a long time?

Yeah. Based on just what I've been ingesting in my Western diet, even though it's a healthy one. And all of a sudden I saw the, the supplement range come in. I'm like, so what's this? Tell me about that. What's this? Tell me about that. And I started taking these certain things that as an ambassador, I can't even really talk about.

But, but what I can say is that, um, I noticed it was all of a sudden like having a different version of a fruit salad for me. I said this to Danny this morning. It's like. These different colors of things that I'm having. It's like a fruit salad, but my numbers are changing. Things are happening in my system.

We are reversing your biological age. Well, what biological age is reversing? I'm aging at about 0.73 at the moment. That's good. Per year. We'll get you better than Brian Johnson. I, I don't think I'm there. I don't think I'm there right now because I dropped off. Um, he spend millions, doesn't it? But I, if you believe the results and I actually had them replicated three times.

'cause I said to the lab in the US I'm just not sure. But when I finished in end of 2023, 'cause I really focused on my health, stopped drinking, I'd come out of caring for my dad and I just knew my health wasn't good. I was worried that I might, you know, have an autoimmune flare again. And, um, just do what I do.

Just get into research and started a community was, didn't have my business hat on, didn't make money, was like, can't pay the mortgage. But I've got 60 people and we're doing a reversing biological age study, but yeah. Um, but my Dunning pace came down to 0.63. Wow. So that is a little bit lower than Brian John said.

And I did that through diet. We, we've already talked about the protocol openly with donor Aston. I said what the nutrition was, you know, veggies, a certain amount of clean protein. Mm-hmm. Few key supplements, but mainly not drinking, focusing on my sleep, having a bit of mindfulness and um, yeah. You know, huge change in a short, that's what I was talking about with the environmental stuff and the epigenetics.

If you can believe these epigenetic age clocks, by the way, they're new, they're evolving. Mm-hmm. I wouldn't necessarily call it hard science, but we've got ev enough evidence to say they are linked with the development of chronic diseases and things. You can slow this aging process very quickly when you start putting all the right things in and stop being exposed to all the other things that are causing you inflammation, oxidative stress, and I guess the supplements where they come into, I see them kind of like the icing on the cake, like the edge.

You know, in our last podcast we talked a lot about insulin resistance. Yes. You know, and maybe something like berberine can help that just gives you that little bit extra when you are struggling with your insulin because of the, the diet or you know, or something else. You know, whatever it may be. For me, you've mentioned B vitamins at the start.

Someone who's done a PhD in, you know, methylation, epigenetics, whatever. You know, I'm such a big fan of B vitamins. Most people are under chronic stress. They need more B vitamins. Yeah, we need more magnesium. Yeah. And that's because we live a certain kind of lifestyle and we're exposed to certain things we need just that little bit extra, but you never want to forget.

And that, and that's what found, that's what I, I mean, that's a position I would come from is that we don't live that stress free. I would say that they're probably not stress free. They probably deal with stress in a different way, but different stress. Yeah. But we, we, we live a much more high stressed, chronic stress depleted lifestyle.

And I don't know if food in our world cuts it to give us the nutrients we need. I'm thinking magnesium, certain B vitamins. And as we get older, I think ide riboside does help with mitochondrial stress. We start, I had it in my protocol. You've got it. Yeah. And I, I, I mean, I'm, maybe you've got a different perspective.

I just don't know. How we get there without supplements in this world these days. Yeah. Improving. That's because we are under high stress. Stress. But that's exactly things. I exactly the point, close the loop on what I was saying just quickly as well, and that is that I feel like some ancient wisdoms have got modern versions and that's what a lot of this nutrition is.

Yeah. So even in the, with the EANs that there's uh, you know, there's herbal use a lot. Uh, the saying no one in the room is as smart as everyone in the room and it relates to this room, but it relates to this whole planet. Yeah. You know, there's communities around the world that have got pieces to the whole puzzle.

If the puzzle is living a great, healthy life, it's active and fulfilled and, and there's a lot of love present. Yeah. Then the world has the answers. Yeah. In different people all around the world. And I, I see things like, 'cause Berberine came up that berberine's one that's actually, you know, very connected to ancient herbs.

Herbs have been used for a long time. So can I ask, I just find modern versions of it. Have we got time? Like what is there the traditional. Culture, medicinal culture and, and healing. 'cause most, you know, ancient cultures do have this, you know, is it they use herbal medicine and it's largely all gone. It's largely all gone.

Oh yeah. So even if you look at Okinawa, for example, Okinawa unlikely to continue being a blue zone. Yes. So, um, that's a naval base, US naval base these days. Um, KFC are there, Macas are there, in and out. They're all there. And so the diabetes rate of diabetes in, um, Okinawa is the, the greatest in all of Japan.

Oh. Um, and so they've lost it. That's an already, I, I, yeah, I know iia, they, they don't have any kind of traditional medicine, um, healers anymore. Like they, you know, they're probably still seeing a doctor, but they're just not seeing the doctor as early as what we might see the doctor. Um, is there a chance that the, that, that some of their benefit for these, um, centenarians has come from the fact that they did once see those traditional healers and it was simple connected medicines.

Yeah, it's a great thought. Trevor, I may maybe. Mm-hmm. Um, I don't know whether or not, uh, in Dan but's research they covered that. I don't know if they did. Certainly I haven't seen that. But I will when I get there. 'cause I'm gonna get in August, I'll, uh, I'll ask and, and come back to you with that. See if any of those Yeah.

The elders in the community remember what the digital medicine was or if there were certain herbs or certain compounds that they commonly used that were local. Well, they're all growing on the side of the road, you know, here we just poison them. Mm-hmm. Um, but they've, you've got all the herbs so you just grab it.

So they'll go and grab stuff. And so, you know, we wanted a tea one night. Someone was feeling poorly and so Thaa said, you know, oh, let make you tea. So she goes and gets some mountain tea and just like, pulls it from a bush and then just set. And then that was kind of, it's a kind of medicine, you know. Wow.

So it is, yeah. We are putting into supplements, but they just grab them and then have them straight from the plan. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's exactly right. There's something, um, that I wanted to kind of touch on before it was just the stressors, right? Stress wars. And so there's three stressors. Uh, so if we talk about the emotional stress, this is when we say stress, often we think this is it, you know, uh, but that's only one, one part of stress.

There's the chemical stressors, which is what Denise was talking about before, and the elimination of chemical stress from your diet is far better than the introduction of a less stressed diet. You know, you've gotta remove the chemical stressors. Um, and then you've got your physical stressors, which is sitting down, um, injuries, um, not enough sleep, um, and whatever, you know, even not movement, blue light impacting the brain, you know, this is all physical stress, you know, so these sorts of things we need to consider stress as a three-pronged thing.

So we're talking the impact of stress on the body from three different angles. It's the chemical and emotional and physical stressors that we need to consider when we're talking about that. And I agree with you, Danny. Uh, we leave it in an environment where there's a lot of stress. A lot of stress and all three, and, and we are in an environment where you could say that because the stress is there for a long time, it deserves the word chronic.

But I think on a daily basis we experience acute stress. Um, and it's just like repeated chronic or acute microtraumas on a daily basis. And that is compared to our natural, exactly our natural self. It's become normal. We've just said this like said, I just said, you know, a couple weeks off, natural off because I don't usually have a lot of time off when you run a business and you're so passionate, you just work all the time.

But I actually had a little bit of time off. Yeah. I hung out at the beach and you know, I noticed the difference. We were talking about weight in some of the, you lost a couple of kilos. I lost a couple of kilo and I was like, amazing. I've been wanting to do that for a while. Guess what? I'm back at work only a few weeks straight on the back.

And I was like, oh, there they are. I didn't lose them at all there. They're, they were with me. I breathed them back in. You know, that was actually just my lifestyle and being a bit more relaxed and, you know, obvious. Thing a bit better. Not having the cortisol, I wasn't making big changes to my diet, hadn't got back onto my protocol.

My plan is to get back into the protocol. 'cause all my meno mean perimenopause symptoms stopped as well. Oh, ah, yeah. Whether that, you never know. They fluctuate. There should be five B six thing, isn't it? That's so it's like, it's amazing. So cortisol, I notice when I, when I travel internationally, which I have a lot this year, and the no sleep is when things are exacerbated.

Mm-hmm. We can nail you. Yeah. So this is where I see supplements being so important. Uh, and in my practice, I, I recommend supplementation, um, to boost a healthy lifestyle, not just a healthy diet. So it's all of these things that we're talking about. And in my practice, uh, when I'm talking with my chiropractic patients or my nutrition patients, when they ask for supplementation, I investigate first, you know, what, what else are you doing to help you be well?

Yeah. And what are we covering up testing? Because it's not gonna come in a jar finding out what that person needs. Yeah. 'cause we're all a little bit different. We're all different. When you, when you find out what that person needs and you're giving them that. Particular sound's played up with your mic there.

Do you wanna try and see that black cord under it? And I'll, I'll get it. Oh, dun dun. Just there. We're probably gonna do the last three questions too. How, how, uh, yeah. Yeah. But how much have we missed? Just like, tap the mic, just that bit. Yeah. All good. Sorry. Okay. Play on. Alright. Kick the ball. Start, start that response on the fall.

On the fall. Yeah. Start that thing again and testing. Will you, well, you just can talk about your, what you do with your, your patients. Yeah. Yeah. So in my practice, uh, I'm, I'm investigating when they ask me about supplementation, you know, what should they take? I'm trying to understand what it is that they're already doing to create health and wellbeing in their life before I supplement with them or create problems.

True, yeah. And some investigations to find out what they uniquely need. Yeah. 'cause not everyone needs the same supplements. Yeah. They're all different. Everyone's different. Well, we're getting close to wrapping it up, but I suppose, look, we've covered a lot of ground there. Um, is there, I suppose in your mind.

A way that we can sort of package that. What would be the most practical takeaways that you would convey to the average person based on what you have learned from Blue Zones and how what we can apply in, in this world, in our modern Go on your retreat in all this. Come on, come, come with us over to iCare small groups.

We take only small groups. It does sound enticing. Yeah. We take a maximum of 15 people. Yeah. A maximum of 15 people come with us to IA or Sardinia. Um, or both. They can come to both. Tiger went with you, didn't he? Did with Mark Klu? Go on your one or your side. No, he, but he did go. Yes, he, yeah. He went to Sardinia, um, the year before we went.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get, you know, tiger. Yeah. So, um, so you, you can find out information about that on our website, hundred out.com. But, uh, to bring it back to the bits that you can take away, it really does come down to the, the key tenets of longevity, which are the purpose, engagement movement, nutrition.

Community, like that's it. So it's not one without the other. Uh, and don't get overwhelmed with it. Try and work out what it is that's the easiest to change. So Denise and I, because we see patients, we have in our mind a protocol and we'd like everybody to go in that direction. But in giving our best service, it's about meeting people where they're at.

So if they can't find purpose just yet, let, let's work on their food. If they're ready to, mm, if they're ready to, um, move more, um, but they can't change their diet yet, let's just get 'em moving. Um, and then work with people to, you know, eventually get there, to get that whole approach, but to see that whole approach in action.

Then you go and live in those communities and you see it and you actually witness it and you see how simple it is. 'cause we can easily complicate longevity, we can easily complicate it. We can easily complicate wellness. Um, and we've seen how complicated wellness can get. You just look at that Netflix documentary at the moment.

Well look at Brian Johnson and the crazy things he's doing to his body. So complicated. Actually, I think he looks worse and he's probably just causing himself accelerated aging in the end. Something. It's so interesting. It's so interesting. Yeah. And, and we had that story short on him for showing us though.

I think so. And we get to watch and see. Thank you for letting me watch. I'm, I'm so glad he is doing it. You know, because I'm, I'm actually interested to see what happens and there will be people that wanna follow that and do that. And I don't mind, you know, if somebody wants to run a four minute mile, go for gold.

Like, if you want to go and see if you can live to 130, go for gold. Try whatever. You've gotta try to try and make it work. That's just not the way I wanna do it. Yeah. You know, and, and I'm, I'm, I'm okay with that. So, and I've seen firsthand, and I don't think I'm the only one because I use sim, we are doing similar, well, exact same testing, um, that he's doing.

As, I think as good a results through diet, lifestyle and supplementation and you know, the mindfulness to sleep. So I don't necessarily think you need to go to such extremes because he's doing some very invasive extreme things, things. Um, and just getting back to the protocol, I think what you said too, for all of the listeners, you know, I tend to use this word protocol 'cause that's sort of what I put in place in 2023.

And you know, we have all of these things we wanna do, but that can be overwhelming and it's a certain kind of person that is, that's gotta be the right time for them to be able to embrace all of that. Yeah. And often there is no right time. There are so many things going on. So like you said, find the easiest thing or the thing you think that's lacking.

Is it community? Do you need to get out there and join the bowling club or you know, were you religious, get back to church or whatever it may be. Or is it there is a nutrient deficiency, you've done some blood tests with your doctor, have that or you know, go to bed earlier. Don't scroll. Like one thing, just take away out of everything we said, it's like what is something that you could start with just that one thing.

Because if you do too many. You're probably gonna drop off. Um, you will drop it. Yep. Clarity, clarification, purpose, engagement, movement, nutrition, community. Yeah. And what was the other? That'll be it. Purpose. That sounds good. Purpose. Engagement, movement mate. Movement, purpose engagement. Nutrition. Community B.

Go. Five. Five. Pillars. The hand. Five. There you go. Oh. Oh. There we go. I, um, show back. I so love and appreciate you, brother. Thank you brother from another mother. Um, so cool to reconnect. Got a question for you that we ask everybody. I often ask this question in the way of, with all our collective wisdom, if you were able to get an extra 20 years of really incredibly, you know, of incredible wellness and great health and everything, I'm not gonna ask if you could, I'm gonna, you, you are going to.

Yeah. So what are you going to do with, why, why do you want it? What do you want to, what do you wanna do with an extra 10, 20 years of great health? Such a deeper why. My, my number one, why is I wanna watch what my son's capable of. I wanna see what he's capable of. 'cause I really think he's got a great opportunity to live an extraordinary life.

Um, it's nothing selfish or selfish. That's Jack. Yeah, Jack. I wanna see what he's capable of achieving because I think he's capable of achieving great things. Um, and that for me would bring ultimate fulfillment. So I'll look after his kids and all that sort of stuff, and Amber and I'll travel. Um, I wanna one day shoot my age on the golf course.

Mm-hmm. So that's really important to me. Mm-hmm. I'll just hope that my handicap doesn't go out faster than my birthday is. So, you know, eventually if I can shoot a 70 something when I'm 70 something, then I'll be wrapped. You know, so those sorts of things. But I think I love life. Like I love living, I love experiencing great things.

I love eating great food. Um, I love time with my friends and family. And so to get more of that I think is really what I want. Awesome. Where can people find you, mate? Blessing. Yeah. Uh, the best place is you can either listen to the podcast 100 out.com. Um, my website is damien christophe.com. Um, or you can see me in, in my practice at Vita Lifestyles.

Yeah. In Sandham. So, you know, and, and my doors are open. So I love to see people that I'm so grateful for you guys bringing me on, so thank you. No, it's been an, it's absolutely pleasure. Thank you. And, and really eyeopening it. It's, it's encouraging to hear that story because you, you said it, it doesn't have to be complicated.

And we've been doing this for millennia. We are evolved, we're adapted to actually live like that. Mm-hmm. So it's encouraging. It's a new neural pathway. It's actually an old one, but we've gotta open it back up. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Dr. Damian Kristof, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Danny. Thanks.