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Why You Are Aging Faster Than You Want (Or Should)
97 Plays1 year ago
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The Live Longer Formula is your go-to podcast for cutting through the noise and discovering practical, science-backed strategies to not just add years to your life, but to add life to your years. Hosted by longevity author and functional health practitioner Christian Yordanov, this podcast dives deep into the truths (and myths) behind longevity, health optimization, and addressing chronic health problems.
Each episode offers actionable insights drawn from the host's own research, clinical practice, and personal journey, helping you make informed decisions to restore and enhance your health. Whether you're interested in reducing stress, boosting your energy and mental performance, improving your gut health, or simply looking to optimize your diet and lifestyle, this podcast delivers the tools you need to live a healthier, longer life.
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Transcript
Why does aging happen?
00:00:45
chrisyzen
Hey, it's Christian Jourdanoff. Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast once again. Today, I'm going to talk to you about why you may be aging faster than you want or should be. And why the the reason why that happens and what you can do about it at a high level. Of course, we're just going to cover some high level concepts. So to simplify it as much as I can, the reason we age is because we accumulate damage, right? And the reason we age faster than we should or want to is because we are accumulating damage at a higher rate than our body is able to repair said damage, right? So the more damage you um accumulate,
00:01:40
chrisyzen
without ah meeting it where it's at in terms of the the response by the body, the faster you will age. And very ah good examples of this is like if you, I don't know if you've ever interacted with like a person that has been abusing drugs or alcohol or both for a very long time, like on the street, maybe a some kind of,
00:02:10
chrisyzen
interaction I used to work in a bar in my 20s in Dublin the city center of Dublin so you see all kinds of people not necessarily coming into the bar but on the outside because there was tables outside so you would see and interact with a lot of different kinds of characters you know and you can see those folks they look they may be chronologically very young but they look very aged and and that is exactly why because when you're doing drugs and and um whatever ah drinking and smoking cigarettes that's causing a lot of damage and usually those folks they're not exactly going to the store and buying grass-fed beef and blueberries obviously right they're eating some pastries or whatever sandwiches stuff like that you know
What drives aging?
00:03:05
chrisyzen
So in my book, how to actually live longer volume one, I talk about the primary drivers of aging and dysfunction. And the way I kind of have that diagram is we have the three main main ones. So the main one is stress, right? But stress can be psychological. It could be physical. So there's a lot of different flavors of stress. So stress is the archetype. And then in the body, the two archetypal main stressors would be inflammation.
00:03:41
chrisyzen
and oxidative stress and the way I've laid out the diagram is these all feed into each other right so psychological stress ah can feed into and worsen inflammation and oxidative stress likewise inflammation can increase stress ah and oxidative stress and then oxidative stress can cause inflammation so there's a lot of different overlap between these things and then the common factors that contribute to all of these will be things like nutrient deficiencies that's a big one if you have gut dysbiosis or imbalances in the
Lifestyle and dietary impacts on aging
00:04:15
chrisyzen
gut
00:04:15
chrisyzen
That could be an overgrowth of the inflammatory bacteria and so on. That that can contribute to all of these, two putting us chronic stress on the body, ah increasing the inflammatory burden that would that contributes to oxidative stress. So that one is common in many people, toxic chemicals and metals that can also contribute to all of these.
00:04:37
chrisyzen
Immune system dysregulation that also goes hand in hand with gut dysfunction Chronic disease that should go without saying because chronic disease is a result of these stressors Running rampant for a period of time and the body not being able to restore function because it doesn't have the the resources or the stress is just too overwhelming. okay And then we have specific things that of course can contribute to stress, to information, to oxidative stress. right so you know If you're eating a lot of polyunsaturated fats and they're in your tissues, that can contribute to stress, alcohol, sorry, that can contribute to inflammation, alcohol, food sensitivities,
00:05:24
chrisyzen
then the stress aspect, you know fasting, excess excessive exercise, keto, low-carb nonsense, psychological factors, and then oxidative stress, you have a number of other things that you know smoking, alcohol, various drugs, if your energy production system is not up to par. So there are a lot of factors that sort of on this side of the equation the damaging side right there's a lot of different factors in the current world and then on the other side of the equation where these are the quote-unquote protective and reparative factors if we can call them those that
00:06:11
chrisyzen
They will be your nutrition rest sleep, right? ah So the nutrition will be Protein fats are you getting enough calories in general carbohydrates the micronutrients so your vitamins and minerals and stuff like that and the goal the goal is From this in the way I kind of see it and the way kind of we work with clients the goal is to identify as many as possible of the stress factors
Identifying and addressing stress factors
00:06:46
chrisyzen
that are contributing to accelerated aging and basically pulling you in that less than optimal direction of disease and accelerated accelerated aging. and excuse me So we want to identify as many of those with lab testing, with assessments of lifestyle symptoms, um stressors, work, family, financial, whatever the case may be. everybody has ah a microcosm of different variables. so We want to identify as many of those things because once we have identified them,
00:07:20
chrisyzen
We know for many of them what to do about them. And then on top of that, we can layer in some prudent lab testing. So we can check for ah oxidative stress, for inflammatory type things, for DNA damage. We can check for nutrient deficiencies of you know gut dysfunction, food sensitivities. A lot of things that can either contribute to the the inflammation the stress or the oxidative stress or impair the body's ability to protect from them and or repair the damage that they cause right and then on the other side of the equation we are going to layer in the
00:08:05
chrisyzen
the right nourishing foods, remove the inflammatory or potential inflammatory foods. right So with the food the the food sensitivity test that I do with my clients, we don't just look for IgG antibodies like a lot of these tests do.
00:08:20
chrisyzen
um because they're they but they have very limited value. What we do is the lab with this specific food sensitivity test, the lab takes your blood, they take actually quite a bit of blood, and then they expose your blood to almost 180 different foods and chemicals in foods, or the most common ones, and then they measure your response so your immunological response there's a bunch of different molecules that get secreted histamines and leukotrines and prostaglandins and stuff like that then they measure that response and then the higher that response the more
00:09:01
chrisyzen
obviously sensitive you are immunologically speaking to that food and then with that based on the response level obviously if something is very high or medium we're gonna get it out of your diet of course for months at least um And what's often the case is that ah a lot of the time these are staples that people are eating on a daily basis. So immediately the inflammatory burden lowers, crazy amount. With that the immune system responds obviously because that's where the inflammation is coming from. The immune system response is lowered, right? So it's dampened.
00:09:36
chrisyzen
But not because we're suppressing the immune system, like with like all these drugs and corticosteroids and whatever other ah omega-3s that actually suppress the immune system. Instead of suppressing the immune system, which is very stupid and short-sighted and can cause a lot of health problems down the line, we we're actually allowing it to naturally reduce that inflammation because there is those antigenics type um substances are not coming in anymore so the immune system isn't um constantly like sending signals and ah you know increase inflammation right but that's just step one right obviously we do that first but then based on the level of reactivity
Managing inflammation through diet
00:10:22
chrisyzen
to to the the tested foods, there's within the less reactive subset of foods, there's there's still a spectrum there, right? So with that, we actually can reduce the low inflammatory foods that are on the higher end of the spectrum, right? So imagine if the low inflammatory foods be like one to 10,
00:10:49
chrisyzen
in a spectrum we can start kind of removing anything that's five and above for a month and then we can start adding those things back and the higher direct the reactivity level on that spectrum the the longer we take to introduce it back in because that allows basically the system again to the the immune system basically to start producing less and less like um antibodies and kind of just less it becomes a less responsive to that stimulus over time basically which is why
00:11:22
chrisyzen
this is this little tip if you ever remove a food that you were reacting to that you visibly just knew viscerally that you were reacting to and you remove it for a year or whatever if you try that food for the first time a year down the line don't allow yourself to be allowed into a false sense of security because the first time your body might not react at all because it takes some time for the immune system to mount this adaptive immune response. okay So always try it once and then two or three times after that and
00:12:03
chrisyzen
monitor yourself for reactions because if you're gonna react it's likely going to be on subsequent times not the first time so that's just a little pro tip there but so these these are the kind of things that we can identify and then of course if you if you identify nutrient deficiencies ah super important because they can be a big source of imbalance and stress that over the years can cause a lot of just cause a lot of imbalance in the body right so the body is going to make trade-offs to kind of make do, right? But other functions that are less vital for immediate survival will suffer over time. ah So these are the kind of things that the diet is designed to do. So we lower the inflammatory burden.
00:12:45
chrisyzen
we address. so So just to kind of go back for a second. So I said we lower inflammatory foods and then potentially inflammatory foods. right So let me just explain what I mean there. So certain foods are we know will will be inflammatory based on the food sensitivity test that we do.
00:13:05
chrisyzen
But then certain foods on that test might not come back as reactive in that fashion, but we know certain foods can be detrimental in other ways, right? So they can be potentially inflammatory for some people less, for some people more.
00:13:19
chrisyzen
has to do a lot with how how good you ah ah how well functioning your gut barrier is, how resilient to stress you are, your age, other health issues, if any. So just as an example, gluten, you might not feel it, right? So wheat might come back low on your food sensitivity test, or it might come back very high. Then you know you need to keep it the hell out of your diet. um But let's say it comes low, or a certain seed comes low.
00:13:49
chrisyzen
that is good on that side of things, but that does not mean that if you eat that seed or that gluten containing food, it might not harm you in other ways. For example, we know that gluten will increase intestinal permeability for some time, right? Because of the the whole Alessio Fasano and the zonulin protein, this kind of stuff. So there's, this is why I kind of The guidelines I give my clients is to remove certain foods that I believe are just not conducive to longevity. They may be fine for some people. They may do okay with them. They might not cause you problems, but they are suboptimal foods. When we look at
00:14:30
chrisyzen
nutritional bioavailability, the bioavailability of the protein, you know the the forms of fats in them. so they there ah these are be These would be things with like a lot of polyunsaturated fats that you definitely don't need more of, especially in today's environment. So once we remove those,
00:14:52
chrisyzen
and then we add the more nourishing foods what we're doing is we are removing the low quality nutrition for the most part like I'm not like militant about these things you are an adult you do what the hell you whatever the hell you want if you're going to a birthday party you eat whatever the hell you want it's absolutely your choice if you want to do shots of jagermeister and lines of coke off a dirty toilet seat be my guest more power to you just stay the hell away from the polyunsaturated fats that's all i that's all i tell my clients you can do lines of coke off a dirty toilet seat all day long all night long shot the ager at the local club i don't care you're an adult you make your own choices just stay the hell from the polyunsaturated fats that is all i ask
00:15:38
chrisyzen
and And what the hell was I talking about? I just completely distracted myself with this stupid joke that I had in the book. I just love telling that joke. People laugh. So um
Improving nutrition for longevity
00:15:51
chrisyzen
yeah, yeah. So so when and we remove those less than optimal foods, that they were displacing higher quality nutrition and we replace them with the higher quality nutrition, right?
00:16:04
chrisyzen
you now by default on a daily basis will get more nutrient density into your diet in terms of bioavailable protein, in terms of B vitamins, choline, which is a B vitamin, but very important for the brain and the nervous system. Uh, I did say protein, higher quality carbohydrates, not the crappy grains and all this garbage beans and whatever lentils, higher quality fats.
00:16:35
chrisyzen
minerals that are more bioavailable and just in general more, like I think I mentioned, B vitamins, all kinds of the fat solu soluble vitamins, which are very ah rare in the plant kingdom. You know, you have vitamin E, but then the other ones are fairly, fairly rare in there. Right. So then, right. So we, we we have, we, we, that's a good foundation, but we've only just begun then on top of that,
00:17:01
chrisyzen
we're going to layer in the supplement protocol. And this is where a lot of magical things can happen because with that we can further reduce inflammation. We can support the body's detoxification capacities that can lower the burden ah you know from oxidative stress.
00:17:19
chrisyzen
from, you know, the the liver will be supported in its functions, which a lot of which include neutralizing harmful molecules, substances, you know, endotoxins, toxins from the gut, stuff like that.
Role of supplements in aging
00:17:32
chrisyzen
um We're going to lower stress hormones physically, right, that will translate to better sleep. We also support sleep. We'll add minerals, right, because most people are woefully mineral deficient.
00:17:46
chrisyzen
We'll add just a bunch of stuff. We'll put a bunch of stuff in place that will help you go from potentially adequate to to um outstanding, to excellent, in terms of how you're meeting your daily nutritional needs for some of these vitamins or minerals. Because do a little experiment if you don't believe me. Get ah the Chronometer app. ah Monitor your diet for one week.
00:18:15
chrisyzen
then tell me how you're doing RDA wise are you meeting all of your RDAs and my guess will be that on a daily basis you are missing most people at least most people are missing hitting their RDAs and the RDAs remember these are to keep basically to keep the plebs alive that's what they were designed to to do they weren't to make sure that the
00:18:41
chrisyzen
people were optimally healthy and as strong and as vital as possible because if they were then the sick care industry and the insurance industry would not really be thriving as much as it is so that's kind of how you would go about um reducing the speed at which you're aging and potentially even repairing some of the damage which means you're kind of restoring function.
Shared processes of aging and disease
00:19:12
chrisyzen
And that's really, like as I think I mentioned it in a previous episode, aging aging and disease are, they have very similar processes that drive them, right? So in the case of disease, it's just, it can be somewhat localized, maybe at an organ level or maybe at an organ system level.
00:19:38
chrisyzen
whereas aging that phenotype it's more it's more kind of like um at least it looks like on the outside it's a cosmetic type thing right so uh lack uh loss of elasticity in the skin and and kind of more wrinkles and stuff like that and kind of age pigment and the liver spots or age spots stuff like that but if that's happening on the outside you have to understand that is also happening on the inside so there's bone loss there's muscle loss there's more inflammation in fact
00:20:13
chrisyzen
As I discussed in my um my book in the introduction, let me just tell you. So there's one study that they basically looked at older folks, I think they were they were in their 70s, yeah? and They compared them to 20-year-olds.
00:20:32
chrisyzen
20 somethings and then so the older a adults tended to have more inflammation in their body, reduced antioxidant status, more DNA damage, increased stress hormones, lower levels of the protective hormones, increased insulin resistance, poor cognitive function, less muscle mass and strength and increased fat mass.
00:20:58
chrisyzen
Okay, so they have glutathione deficiency, impaired mitochondrial function, increased inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and lower muscle strength and mental cognition, and ah and a bunch of other stuff. But here's the thing. In that study, with a couple of supplements in just a few months, almost all of these were improved in the older folks, right?
Reversing signs of aging
00:21:29
chrisyzen
So it's not that.
00:21:33
chrisyzen
All of these things are just listed like more inflammation, reduced antioxidant status, DNA damage, more stress hormones, lower levels of protective hormones, less muscle mass, you know increased insulin resistance. These are not features of aging per se. These are things, these are aspects or features of of just continuously deteriorating health.
00:22:01
chrisyzen
And people in very severe disease states, they can exhibit these things even in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, whatever, if they um But usually in those people they have some kind of disease as well right now in this study the people they didn't have um They didn't have heart disease thyroid disease liver disease or kidney disease, right? So these were considered somewhat quote-unquote healthy older people. So my basically my my um Thesis here
00:22:37
chrisyzen
is that if we can, even in old age, restore or improve a lot of these deleterious markers of higher stress hormones, inflammation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial function, blah, blah, blah, if we can do that in older age, in older people in their 70s with a couple of supplements,
Biological rejuvenation and cell regeneration
00:22:54
chrisyzen
think what a proper program like the stuff I do with my clients can do, not just to someone in their 70s, right? But someone in their 50s, 60s, or even earlier, the earlier, the better. So if we can address these things in later in life, in the 70s, we can absolutely address them. And a lot of them in a really good way, we could almost restore them back to to rival us in our 20s, right? We can do that pretty damn easily. If these researchers could do that with a couple of supplements, with our more advanced lab testing and the stuff, and like I explained with the dietary stuff, reducing inflammation, immune system dysregulation, with the supplementation, with the health, ah the nutrient-dense diet, all of those things I just explained, we can absolutely
00:23:48
chrisyzen
address all of those things and more and when we do that we are basically biologically becoming younger we might not look the part we might not age back 10 years but we can certainly reach biochemically in terms at least in terms of those markers we can reach those states with that what we had 10 15 20 years ago i genuinely believe that now the the thing is that those people along the way they also accumulated damage right so that structural damage is harder to to address right some of it cannot exactly be be completely restored right but a lot of it can actually
00:24:33
chrisyzen
right? Because cells divide and they kind of regenerate and um when this like I've said before the the cells they use energy to maintain their their structure not just their function right which unlike a machine a physical machine so if we restore any energy production and mitochondrial function and you know give the right fuse and all that good stuff we will some structure We will see some structural improvement. Now, how much of that is going to be cosmetic, superficial? I don't know. But as I always say to me, what's more important is inside our vasculature, right our liver, you know our ah organs, how are they functioning, our brain?
00:25:17
chrisyzen
right How much content-wise is it made of plug-in saturated fats? We want to reduce that as much as possible. So over time, when we do these things, structurally, we will renew and repair renew ah renew and regenerate ourselves. right So these are the things you want to focus on.
Actionable changes for health improvements
00:25:39
chrisyzen
If you want to slow down the aging process,
00:25:43
chrisyzen
and potentially start repairing some of the ah ah damage that this aging process has caused you to accumulate in your body over the the last couple of decades.
00:25:59
chrisyzen
So those are kind of my thoughts there. I just, I woke up today and I wanted to do a little episode on that. I feel like people get some value out of that. So let me know what you thought. um And yeah, thanks for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.