The Longevity Doctor: These 4 Gut Bacteria Keep You Young & Disease-Free! Eat This to Get Them!

1. 0:00 – 3:22

   Intro

   1. WLDr. William Li0:00

      So what are the common denominators of people who live a really long time? Everybody knows that gut health is important. The question is, is there something in the gut microbiome in super-agers 100 and above that pop out as important? A research study was done out of Italy. It turns out there are four bacteria that are standouts in people that live to 100 and beyond.

   2. LHLewis Howes0:24

      Really?

   3. SPSpeaker0:25

      Dr. Li's work has impacted more than 50 million people worldwide.

   4. WLDr. William Li0:29

      Dr. William Li.

   5. LHLewis Howes0:30

      Dr. William Li.

   6. WLDr. William Li0:31

      Dr. William Li. Dr. William Li.

   7. SPSpeaker0:33

      Please help me welcome Dr. William Li.

   8. WLDr. William Li0:35

      Do you know that recently we've discovered that your brain has its own microbiome? We got bacteria that grow naturally, healthily in our brain.

   9. LHLewis Howes0:45

      Wow.

   10. WLDr. William Li0:45

       And it's 20% the same bacteria that's in our gut. It's actually found in our brain, and we're beginning to realize that gum disease and bacteria that are either growing or not growing in your mouth might actually be one of the trigger points for dementia.

   11. LHLewis Howes1:03

       What are the key foods that we can eat to cultivate the best bacteria to help us live longer?

   12. WLDr. William Li1:08

       Okay. So...

   13. LHLewis Howes1:13

       Welcome back everyone to The School of Greatness. Very excited about our guest. We have the inspiring Dr. William Li in the house. So good to see you. Thank you for being here.

   14. WLDr. William Li1:20

       Good to see you, Lewis. Thanks for having me.

   15. LHLewis Howes1:22

       Very excited about this because you've been on the show a couple of times, and you've been a researcher, a scientist, a physician for many years, mostly helping people figure out about how to cure cancer. That's kind of where your background is, around the cancer world, but you've also gone in different places around medicine and science and research, and currently you're, you're s- you're diving in deep into the longevity topic, which is really interesting. We were just talking off-camera about a new approach to what you're seeing, that the, you know, supercentenarians, I guess, are experiencing. And a lot of people wanna know right now how to live longer, but also how to live healthy longer, how to have a good healthspan as well, because it's not, it's not fun if you live to 100 but for 25 years you're on machines, you can't walk, you can't move, and you're not healthy. And so I think that's what a lot of people want. So the first question I wanna ask you is, why do you think people care so much about being immortal or living for as long as they can? And what are some of the new things that you're seeing in the longevity world?

   16. WLDr. William Li2:33

       Great questions. Okay, so first of all, my... I am a cancer researcher, but I will tell you how I got into cancer research and then ultimately into longevity research. I'm interested in common denominators of health or of disease. So in other words, you know, uh, uh, as in, you know, in academic research you see people taking an inch of a territory and diving a mile deep, and they're super experts in this stuff. I took a different approach. I wanted to figure out like, you know, how everything was interconnected and what are the common denominators between cancer, heart disease, blindness, arthritis, Alzheimer's? Like, if you could drain the Pacific Ocean, how do all those islands connect? And my feeling is that if you could, you could get an economy of scale of knowledge, if you could figure

2. 3:22 – 6:59

   The Role of Blood Vessels in Disease and Aging

   1. WLDr. William Li3:22

      out those connections, you could pull the bow back and send a single arrow through multiple conditions at the same time.

   2. LHLewis Howes3:27

      Really?

   3. WLDr. William Li3:28

      That's my... That was my approach, which is why I started the Angiogenesis Foundation. It's a not-for-profit organization. It's focused on the common denominator of blood vessels.

   4. LHLewis Howes3:37

      Wow.

   5. WLDr. William Li3:38

      40 milli- four, uh, it's... We've got 40, uh, 400 miles worth of blood vessels in our brain, and that's a fraction of the 60,000 miles of blood vessels in our body, and it connects every organ-

   6. LHLewis Howes3:52

      Wow

   7. WLDr. William Li3:52

      ... every cell. And so these are the highways and byways of health, and when they're messed up, compromised, diseased, that becomes the, uh, the common denominator of disease. So that's really kind of like my unique angle to look at diseases, anything from cancer to blindness to wound healing, and now I'm looking at aging, uh, you know, in a slightly different way, uh, which is I've had a whole career of building brick by brick, looking at, uh, what are the hallmarks of: hallmarks of cancer, hallmarks of diabetes, hallmarks of aging now. Um, all right? And that is actually how we advance the science. That's how we under- advance our understanding of our, of ourselves. And the quest for longevity, immortality, okay? I, I like how you said the quest for immortality being, um, an ages-old-

   8. LHLewis Howes4:48

      Mm-hmm

   9. WLDr. William Li4:48

      ... um, enterprise, okay?

   10. LHLewis Howes4:51

       Suit.

   11. WLDr. William Li4:51

       Pursuit, is... I think is part of our humanity. Like, we always want to know how we can actually go beyond our own limitations. I think that's probably ultimately what has led this interest, and of course it's a huge interest now. I mean, if you look at the success of books like Outlive by Peter Attia and David Sinclair's books, people, you know, are gone go- they go gonzo over these, like, incredible books written by really amazing people. Um, uh, but I'll tell you, the first emperor of China, okay, uh, uh, set off to try to find that little elixir, the vial. Remember that Indiana Jones movie where they're look, looking for some, like, vial of immortality? Hey, you know, this has been going on for a long time, and the first emperor of China didn't find it. Uh, he wound up dying, and before he died he built, like, the 10,000 terracotta warriors to look over his tomb. That was his ultimate solution to immortality. That was before science, before Google's Calico to try to conquer blindness, before all the amazing work that's going on right now to build up those brick by brick by brick, you know, and putting in the grout in between. To be able to build out that wall of understanding. So we are still looking. We're beginning to have a better understanding. Um, but I- my approach to it is to say like, "All right. So what are the common denominators of people who live a really long time? What are we finding?" And you know, my friend, and I think yours as Dan Buettner, you know, from the Blue Zones.

   12. LHLewis Howes6:29

       Mm-hmm.

   13. WLDr. William Li6:30

       The guy is amazing 'cause he found like, "Oh, it's okay. It's place. It's where you live, and where you do... W- what you do in terms of where you live that actually can contribute." So I, I'm a, I'm a researcher, so I take a... I ask that same question from a slightly different perspective.

   14. LHLewis Howes6:44

       Right, right. Yeah, he has a number of different, like things, which is community, and your activity level, and the foods you eat, and-

   15. WLDr. William Li6:51

       Yeah

   16. LHLewis Howes6:51

       ... having a purpose, and kind of these things.

   17. WLDr. William Li6:53

       He's into beans.

   18. LHLewis Howes6:54

       Beans.

   19. WLDr. William Li6:54

       [laughs]

   20. LHLewis Howes6:55

       Big into beans, right? Yeah.

   21. WLDr. William Li6:55

       Yeah. [laughs]

   22. LHLewis Howes6:56

       And, um, but that may not necessarily,

3. 6:59 – 10:20

   Exploring the Impact of Blue Zones on Longevity

   1. LHLewis Howes6:59

      like, I guess, be the only solution, right?

   2. WLDr. William Li7:02

      No.

   3. LHLewis Howes7:02

      If you, if you follow these kind of core tenants that he has from the Blue Zones, and we're also seeing that some of those Blue Zones are no longer Blue Zones, I think, or they're diminishing their Blue Zones because of the way people are changing their food intake or things like that, I think, right? Like the places in Japan-

   4. WLDr. William Li7:16

      And, and, and there may be more Blue Zones that haven't been discovered yet.

   5. LHLewis Howes7:19

      Interesting. Um, and so are there... What are the new things that you're observing that most people aren't noticing about people that live well into their 100s?

   6. WLDr. William Li7:31

      All right. So let me take you on a little bit of a journey into our gut. Now, everybody knows that gut health is important for overall health, and even the people who are the experts, you know, and I've, I've gotten into this space now, we don't know entirely. We don't have the whole answer, right? And, and you know you're talking to a real scientist when... Because real scientists tell you we don't know everything.

   7. LHLewis Howes7:57

      Right.

   8. WLDr. William Li7:57

      All right? So, but what's good scientists do is they observe. Uh, we take a look at what's going on, and we, we see what is common, what... We've come up with ideas. And so, m- um, what's really interesting is to think about gut health not just in terms of somebody in the middle of their life, you know, like a 30 or 40 or 50-year-old person who, you know, um, has inflammation, and how do I actually get over my autoimmunity? That's important, too. But I got interested because we're beginning to understand that people who have dementia actually have problems with their gut health. And what is the connection between your gut and your brain? Well, that's a gut-brain axis. But what if the problem with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, you know, vascular dementia, what if, what if the common denominator actually isn't the little sticky plaque or the little single molecule that people have been diving on and billions of dollars have been spent? What if there is another factor that has been hidden in plain sight, which is our gut bacteria-

   9. LHLewis Howes9:04

      Wow

   10. WLDr. William Li9:05

       ... okay?

   11. LHLewis Howes9:05

       On how the gut impacts the brain.

   12. WLDr. William Li9:07

       The brain, yeah. And until recently, we didn't have the tools. We didn't have that, um, the tools in the toolbox to be able to look at it, but today, and th- this is pretty new, we can actually take a sample of poop, okay, uh, uh, send it off to a testing machine, and I'm oversimplifying obviously. Thank you.

   13. LHLewis Howes9:29

       And get the l- and get the lab details on the bacteria, right?

   14. WLDr. William Li9:32

       And get the lab details, and, you know, we are able to do the crime scene investigation of our poop to figure out what bacteria are in there, and we get a pretty good approximation, and we can find out what are the standouts, okay? So look, there's 39 trillion bacteria. You can't count every single one of them.

   15. LHLewis Howes9:48

       39 trillion?

   16. WLDr. William Li9:49

       Yeah, in your gut microbiome.

   17. LHLewis Howes9:50

       Wow.

   18. WLDr. William Li9:51

       So we can't get every single one, but if there are standouts, oh, man, you've got, like four or five really bad guys that are, like popping out in high levels, we know you got a problem. Or if you're missing a handful of really good guys, all right, we're beginning to say, "Hmm, maybe these good guys are playing a bigger role." And this is the story that's emerging on dementia, that your gut bacter- And by the way, it's not just in your poop. Your gut starts in your mouth, and

4. 10:20 – 13:34

   Understanding the Connection Between Oral Health and Dementia

   1. WLDr. William Li10:20

      we're beginning to realize that gum disease and bacteria that are either growing or not growing in your mouth might actually be one of the trigger points for dementia.

   2. LHLewis Howes10:32

      Gum disease?

   3. WLDr. William Li10:33

      Gum disease.

   4. LHLewis Howes10:33

      Wow.

   5. WLDr. William Li10:34

      Gingivitis, all right?

   6. LHLewis Howes10:36

      What is... So okay, so it sounds like it starts with the mouth, and then it's the gut.

   7. WLDr. William Li10:39

      Yeah.

   8. LHLewis Howes10:39

      'Cause what you put in the mouth is gonna be in the gut as well.

   9. WLDr. William Li10:42

      That... For food, yes, but, but all throughout, from your mouth all the way to your tailpipe-

   10. LHLewis Howes10:47

       Ah

   11. WLDr. William Li10:47

       ... uh, you've got bacteria growing.

   12. LHLewis Howes10:49

       Yes.

   13. WLDr. William Li10:49

       And by the way, so the two biggest concentration of bacteria when you talk about gut bacteria, one is in your mouth. Our mouth is packed with bacteria, good bacteria. When bad bacteria overgrow, you get bad breath, you get cavities, you get gum disease. You get all the things that, you know, like, uh, like you, you know pretty quickly, right? Or your-

   14. LHLewis Howes11:09

       Sure

   15. WLDr. William Li11:09

       ... partner actually knows.

   16. LHLewis Howes11:10

       Sure, sure.

   17. WLDr. William Li11:11

       Okay? Uh, when you're, uh... So there, there's a big concentration in your mouth, and we're beginning, we're still beginning to figure out what those are. Your lower gut, which we classically think as gut bacteria, your gut microbiome, you know where it is in the gut? Do you know, like what, what part of the gut anatomy-wise, like what section of the gut?

   18. LHLewis Howes11:29

       The lower gut?

   19. WLDr. William Li11:30

       Yeah, lower gut.

   20. LHLewis Howes11:31

       It's, uh... I have no idea.

   21. WLDr. William Li11:32

       Okay. So, you know, if you imagine your gut from mouth to end, anus, 40 feet long, okay?

   22. LHLewis Howes11:39

       Is that what it is?

   23. WLDr. William Li11:40

       Yeah. The last 25% is your colon.

   24. LHLewis Howes11:43

       Uh-huh.

   25. WLDr. William Li11:43

       Right? You've heard of colon cancer and-

   26. LHLewis Howes11:45

       Uh-huh

   27. WLDr. William Li11:45

       ... everything else, or colonoscopy. So that's the last part. It's like, it's basically where, like everything gets, all the, the stuff gathers before you get rid of it. But that's actually where the gut bacteria is, and it's in a particular part, a little sack in your colon called the cecum, spelled C-E-C-U-M. And you know where the s- what's near, in the cecum? It's the appendix.

   28. LHLewis Howes12:07

       Mm.

   29. WLDr. William Li12:07

       Now, a lot of people have had their appendix out, okay? We used to think it's an unnecessary organ. Maybe Just maybe that appendix plays a role that we didn't suspect

   30. LHLewis Howes12:18

       What's that role?
5. 13:34 – 17:09

   Alzheimer's Research and Gut Health Connection

   1. WLDr. William Li13:34

      you would not actually call Alzheimer's research to be good because for the bang for the buck that we put in there, we're actually getting very little bang.

   2. LHLewis Howes13:41

      And we, we still don't know how to reverse Alzheimer's or prevent it, I guess, or...?

   3. WLDr. William Li13:44

      Not, not really. But, but, but I'll tell you that, that what I'm excited by is this idea that maybe there, uh, could... This is the, the theory.

   4. LHLewis Howes13:56

      Yeah, yeah.

   5. WLDr. William Li13:56

      Could there be some bad bacteria or the absence of some good bacteria, um, in your mouth even, okay, uh, or in the lower gut, that actually is a trigger for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's?

   6. LHLewis Howes14:10

      Wow.

   7. WLDr. William Li14:10

      You know? By the way, there is a, there is a bacteria, a probiotic that's been researched to show that it can actually, um, uh, really slow down the symptoms of Parkinson's disease. It's called Lactobacillus plantarum, and it's a probiotic called PS128. And, you know, it's, it's surprising that a probiotic could had such a profound effect on the brain.

   8. LHLewis Howes14:32

      What is that called again?

   9. WLDr. William Li14:33

      PS, like Paul and Sam, 128. And the actual bacteria is called Lactobacillus plantarum, okay? So I'm just sharing with you discoveries, okay, uh, w- w- about the brain. And, and so what I got interested in terms of longevity, and I'm not a neuroscientist and I'm not, uh, a dementia specialist, but I am somebody that is sort of really good at framing out, um, if there's a connection between gut and brain, maybe we should be looking at the connection between gut and longevity.

   10. LHLewis Howes15:08

       Interesting.

   11. WLDr. William Li15:09

       And that's where some of the really exciting new stuff is coming out as well.

   12. LHLewis Howes15:13

       And so what is the main things that you've been able to observe, then, about the gut and how it relates to people that live over 100?

   13. WLDr. William Li15:19

       So first of all, people who live to 100 are called centenarians, right? Cent, like 100. Um, and we think that if you could live to 100, like, that's 100 candles on your birthday cake. Like, that's-

   14. LHLewis Howes15:32

       It's a big deal

   15. WLDr. William Li15:33

       ... that's a big deal, right? That's a big... That's the big birthday.

   16. LHLewis Howes15:35

       That is.

   17. WLDr. William Li15:36

       All right? Now, I have to tell you, my great uncle lived to 104.

   18. LHLewis Howes15:41

       Wow.

   19. WLDr. William Li15:41

       Okay? I was at his 100-

   20. LHLewis Howes15:42

       Come on

   21. WLDr. William Li15:43

       ... birthday party, and I, I saw 100 candles on his cake.

   22. LHLewis Howes15:45

       That's impressive.

   23. WLDr. William Li15:46

       Yeah, so I, I, I, I know it can happen in my own family.

   24. LHLewis Howes15:49

       Did he have the energy to blow all the candles out?

   25. WLDr. William Li15:51

       Not only did he have the energy to blow the candles out, he planned the party himself.

   26. LHLewis Howes15:55

       Wow.

   27. WLDr. William Li15:56

       Okay? He invited the guest list. He actually... I mean, he, he made the guest list. He planned the meal. You know, he hosted the thing. Uh, so, so-

   28. LHLewis Howes16:06

       Pretty cool

   29. WLDr. William Li16:06

       ... it's possible.

   30. LHLewis Howes16:07

       Yeah.
6. 17:09 – 20:45

   The Secret to Longevity: Gut Microbiome of Centenarians

   1. WLDr. William Li17:09

      ... and the microbiome of people who are 100 and older. So centenarians are people who live to 100, but it turns out that there's something called a supercentenarian or an alt- a super-ager, and these are people that live to 114, 115 years old, all right? Um, and, like, they're really interesting. So a research study was done out of Italy looking at people across the lifespan from young adulthood, you know, like, 20 to 40, 40 to 70, 70 to 90, 90 to 100, and, and then, and then, like, the super-agers, okay? Like, 100 to 115 or 114. And in today's technology, all right, like, l- believe me, I, I think that, um, wearables are great. I think that, you know, um, biohacking devices are quite amazing. But I think it's even more amazing that we can actually study the-

   2. LHLewis Howes18:01

      Yeah

   3. WLDr. William Li18:01

      ... gut microbiome of, like, these super-agers.

   4. LHLewis Howes18:03

      Sure.

   5. WLDr. William Li18:04

      So the question is, is there something in the gut microbiome in super-agers 100 and above that pop out as important? It's not present in people who don't live that, that long. Okay? It turns out, uh, there are four bacteria that are standouts in people that live to 100 and beyond.

   6. LHLewis Howes18:29

      Does that mean there are four bacteria in people that live 100 beyond in their, their gut bacteria that people under 100 don't have?

   7. WLDr. William Li18:39

      They have more of it.

   8. LHLewis Howes18:40

      Gotcha.

   9. WLDr. William Li18:40

      They have more of it. Like they're, like in, for them it really stands out as, as a super big spike.

   10. LHLewis Howes18:46

       Okay.

   11. WLDr. William Li18:47

       These four bacteria, you wanna hear about them?

   12. LHLewis Howes18:48

       Yes.

   13. WLDr. William Li18:49

       All right. They've got names that... One of the names you might have heard of, I think we talked about it on my last time I was on a podcast. But there is four bacteria. One of them is called odoribacter. Okay?

   14. LHLewis Howes19:00

       O- odorbacter?

   15. WLDr. William Li19:01

       Odoribacter. Okay?

   16. LHLewis Howes19:03

       Okay.

   17. WLDr. William Li19:04

       One of them is called oscillobacter. Um, one of them is called christensen- uh, christin- uh, sinella. And then the fourth one is our old friend akkermansia.

   18. LHLewis Howes19:19

       Okay.

   19. WLDr. William Li19:19

       And we've talked about akkermansia before.

   20. LHLewis Howes19:21

       Okay.

   21. WLDr. William Li19:21

       Um, uh, which, which, you know, uh, uh, it's, it's sort of in making the rounds as a important gut bacteria. Um, I think the last time I was here I was telling you that there've been discoveries that if you have cancer and you're on immunotherapy, which a- which jacks up your own immune system to attack the cancer. It's not chemo. It's one of the most natural ways of approaching cancer. It's re- it's re- resulting in complete responses, meaning stage four to stage zero. Okay?

   22. LHLewis Howes19:50

       Wow.

   23. WLDr. William Li19:50

       Um, turns out akkermansia, having this gut bacteria may wind up being one of the critical pieces that you have to have to connect the dots to, for that to happen. Okay? To really get a great response.

   24. LHLewis Howes20:03

       To help you reverse cancer?

   25. WLDr. William Li20:05

       Yeah. Help your own immune system reverse cancer.

   26. LHLewis Howes20:07

       Wow.

   27. WLDr. William Li20:07

       Okay?

   28. LHLewis Howes20:08

       Interesting.

   29. WLDr. William Li20:09

       Gut bacteria talks to your immune system. 70% of your immune system lives in your gut, all right? Uh, and so you've got the right bacteria. They know how to speak the, uh, the right language to your immune system to tell it to do what it's supposed to do.

   30. LHLewis Howes20:24

       70% of your immune system lives in the gut?
7. 20:45 – 24:12

   How Your Gut Microbiome Influences Your Health

   1. WLDr. William Li20:45

      live.

   2. LHLewis Howes20:45

      That's where your immune system is.

   3. WLDr. William Li20:47

      The, your immune system lives in the wall-

   4. LHLewis Howes20:48

      Uh-huh

   5. WLDr. William Li20:49

      ... of the, of the garden hose. Inside the wall.

   6. LHLewis Howes20:52

      And the bacteria is-

   7. WLDr. William Li20:53

      And the bacteria live inside the, inside the, inside the cavity of the garden hose.

   8. LHLewis Howes20:56

      Wow.

   9. WLDr. William Li20:56

      And they talk to each other like college students, um, shouting at each other through a cheap wall in a dorm room.

   10. LHLewis Howes21:02

       So the immune system's kinda like the insulation in a house. Is that right? In the walling of the house.

   11. WLDr. William Li21:08

       The immune system lives in the-

   12. LHLewis Howes21:10

       The walls

   13. WLDr. William Li21:10

       ... in between the drywall of the house.

   14. LHLewis Howes21:11

       Yeah.

   15. WLDr. William Li21:12

       Yeah.

   16. LHLewis Howes21:12

       So it's kinda like the insulation-

   17. WLDr. William Li21:13

       Exactly. Exactly

   18. LHLewis Howes21:14

       ... or whatever inside the drywall.

   19. WLDr. William Li21:14

       Exactly. Yeah.

   20. LHLewis Howes21:15

       And whatever's in the house is the bacteria.

   21. WLDr. William Li21:17

       Exactly.

   22. LHLewis Howes21:18

       The people, the dogs, the cats, all, you know, yeah.

   23. WLDr. William Li21:20

       All moving around.

   24. LHLewis Howes21:21

       Plants, whatever, yeah.

   25. WLDr. William Li21:22

       Exactly.

   26. LHLewis Howes21:22

       Okay.

   27. WLDr. William Li21:22

       Exactly. So what do we eat that affects our gut microbiome, the healthy bacteria, directly affects our immune system? You know-

   28. LHLewis Howes21:29

       And impacts our brain

   29. WLDr. William Li21:31

       ... and then it impacts our brain.

   30. LHLewis Howes21:33

       How much of what we eat impacts our brain?
8. 24:12 – 27:46

   Role of Oxytocin and Gut Bacteria in Human Physiology

   1. WLDr. William Li24:12

      like French kiss.

   2. LHLewis Howes24:13

      Yes.

   3. WLDr. William Li24:13

      Oxytocin. Oxytocin is also what your brain releases when you have an orgasm.

   4. LHLewis Howes24:18

      Uh-huh.

   5. WLDr. William Li24:18

      Okay? So this is a very important brain hormone. This bacteria makes your brain release it Okay. Now-

   6. LHLewis Howes24:25

      And this isn't a drug, this is just like a-

   7. WLDr. William Li24:27

      No, this is like, I'm just telling you normal-

   8. LHLewis Howes24:28

      ... probiotic. Yeah

   9. WLDr. William Li24:29

      ... nor- well, I'm telling you, this is a normal physiol- I'm talking about the physiology, like how-

   10. LHLewis Howes24:32

       Physiology

   11. WLDr. William Li24:33

       ... it normally works. Okay? By the way, moms would, uh, give the babies, her babies, this bacteria because, and this is like a crazy story, that normal gut bacteria at around, uh, seven or eight months of pregnancy, there'd be a signal sent to the gut, "Hey, you know, the, the, the, the cake's almost done." All right? "Bun's almost ready to come out of the oven."

   12. LHLewis Howes25:01

       Right. Right.

   13. WLDr. William Li25:02

       All right? And then these bacteria would hitch a ride on a blood cell. It's like calling an Uber. And then-

   14. LHLewis Howes25:08

       Send it to the baby

   15. WLDr. William Li25:08

       ... and then take the bacteria, your normal blood cells would take the bacteria, drop it off at the nipple, right? Uber, okay? Destination. And then when the baby takes their first suckle-

   16. LHLewis Howes25:21

       They get a rush

   17. WLDr. William Li25:21

       ... they get, they get, they get the rush-

   18. LHLewis Howes25:22

       Yeah

   19. WLDr. William Li25:22

       ... of the bacteria. That's how... That's another way that moms actually give-

   20. LHLewis Howes25:26

       That's the baby, isn't it?

   21. WLDr. William Li25:26

       ... babies their... They get the injection of bacteria, including Lactobacillus reuteri, right? Okay. Now, this bacteria, um, uh-

   22. LHLewis Howes25:34

       So it's important to do breastfeeding then?

   23. WLDr. William Li25:36

       Oh, yeah. It's part of the reasons. You al- you also get immune cells and a lot of other good stuff, uh, from breastfeeding. Um-

   24. LHLewis Howes25:44

       Side note, how long should a mother breastfeed a newborn?

   25. WLDr. William Li25:47

       You know, I think it's, it's very individualized based on the mom and the baby, but, like, I, I would say that the, the categorical yes, unless there's a medical reason not to do it, is you should definitely breastfeed. That's like the, that's like the non-controversial thing.

   26. LHLewis Howes26:01

       100% -

   27. WLDr. William Li26:02

       100%

   28. LHLewis Howes26:02

       ... breastfeed. Don't go right to a bottle or formula or something like that, right?

   29. WLDr. William Li26:06

       No, 'cause mom, uh, I can tell you that the companies that make formula, they can't mimic Mother Nature.

   30. LHLewis Howes26:12

       They cannot.
9. 27:46 – 31:08

   Understanding the Role of Gut Health in Disease Prevention

   1. WLDr. William Li27:46

      really good. Um, it's got bioactives like ellagitannins that actually help your gut, uh, nurture the akkermansia.

   2. LHLewis Howes27:54

      Hmm.

   3. WLDr. William Li27:54

      Okay? Um, it turns out that, uh, chili peppers can do the same thing. Um, black raspberry, turns out, can do the same thing. Oh, by the way, for akkermansia, here's, like, a new discovery as well. So I'm all about, like, my, my science background is all about discovery and, like, pushing the frontiers of things. You know, akkermansia, um, it's a bacteria. A bacteria, um, has a shell around it, like a beetle has a hard shell around it.

   4. LHLewis Howes28:23

      Yeah.

   5. WLDr. William Li28:24

      Recently, they've discovered that around akkermansia, the shell of akkermansia, there's a piece of the akkermansia that they na- they, they, they gave it a name. It's called P as in Peter, Peter Nock, P9. All right? They've now discovered that that P9 bacteria, uh, the ba- P9 fragment of akkermansia actually causes your body to secrete its own GLP-1.

   6. LHLewis Howes28:51

      Which is the fat-burning-

   7. WLDr. William Li28:52

      Which is the same thing that we use for prescription weight loss drugs. Your bacteria's been doing this, your healthy bacteria's been doing this behind the scenes this whole time.

   8. LHLewis Howes29:00

      Interesting.

   9. WLDr. William Li29:01

      Right? So this is what I'm saying is, like, you know, we learn a lot from pharmaceuticals, but we might actually learn a lot more from what the gut bacteria are doing. Mother Nature's kind of like-

   10. LHLewis Howes29:11

       So fascinating. It seem... So it seems like how much disease stems from the gut?

   11. WLDr. William Li29:16

       More than we think.

   12. LHLewis Howes29:17

       Yeah.

   13. WLDr. William Li29:17

       You know? Probably a good number of our neurodegenerative diseases like dementia. I think that, um, uh, a lot of the diseases of aging, for sure, the chronic diseases. Um, we do know that-

   14. LHLewis Howes29:31

       Dia- diabetes is from-

   15. WLDr. William Li29:32

       Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah

   16. LHLewis Howes29:33

       ... from the gut.

   17. WLDr. William Li29:33

       Absolutely.

   18. LHLewis Howes29:34

       Cancers are from the gut.

   19. WLDr. William Li29:35

       Probably cancer, probably cardiovascular disease. You know, like, the, the big ones. You know, all the big ones, uh, are, are diabetes, cancer, cardi- cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative diseases, probably even lung diseases.

   20. LHLewis Howes29:47

       'Cause the, what... You know, the society is talking a lot in the last few years about mental health. Like, it seems like there's a lot more anxiety, depression, uh, ADHD, and these types of mental health conditions or diseases that are, that are accelerating in mass numbers.

   21. WLDr. William Li30:05

       Yeah.

   22. LHLewis Howes30:06

       But based on what I'm hearing you talk about, it almost sounds like if we stop thinking about mental health, not stop thinking about it, but focus more on gut health, it sounds like it connects to the brain and the mind, and it'll create more alignment in ease versus dis-ease.

   23. WLDr. William Li30:22

       More... It's a, it's a new frontier. It opens up the avenue for more solutions. And by the way, because the gut also connects to other parts of our body as well- You know, again, remember I told you, like I'm all about the common denominator. Pull that bow back and send a single arrow through as many things, many problems as you can. Imagine if we could actually tackle mental health, mental wellness, uh, and physical wellness all at the same time.

   24. LHLewis Howes30:48

       Yeah.

   25. WLDr. William Li30:48

       And, you know, gut bacteria clearly plays a role. It's not, uh, you know, it's not the-

   26. LHLewis Howes30:53

       The only

   27. WLDr. William Li30:53

       ... it's not the only thing, but, you know, it is the undiscovered country.

   28. LHLewis Howes30:57

       'Cause there's a... Who is the, um, the doctor? Dr. Emeran Mayer, I think it is. I don't know if he... He's got a book called Gut-Brain Connection, I think-

   29. WLDr. William Li31:03

       Yeah

   30. LHLewis Howes31:03

       ... or something like that-
10. 31:08 – 34:20

    Gut Health and Longevity: Unraveling the Connection

    1. LHLewis Howes31:08

       that are stemming from the brain disease or challenges is in the gut.

    2. WLDr. William Li31:12

       Yeah.

    3. LHLewis Howes31:12

       And it's also linked to longevity it sounds like as well.

    4. WLDr. William Li31:15

       Exactly. Exact- well, this is what we're beginning to really, uh, I would say, unravel and take, you know, go into the layers of the onion to say, all right, if gut health is important for you in your, you know, normal, active adult life, which we now know it is, what role could it play towards actually fostering, supporting, maybe even triggering those signals for longevity? I mean, maybe... Listen, I mean, so I, I always talk about our body like this. Um, we're all different. You know, we've got different genetics, we've got different, uh, you know, like, and peop- of course most people say they've got different metabolisms. But it turns out that when we are born, it's like taking a laptop out of the box. Our operating system is all set. When we, when you and I are born, my operating system and your operating system, pretty much the same. Our OS was exactly the same.

    5. LHLewis Howes32:10

       Yeah. Exactly.

    6. WLDr. William Li32:10

       All right? And so why is it that our met- I mean, maybe your metabolism and my metabolism are closer than more different, but, you know, 'cause we take care of ourselves. But, uh, why is it that people develop such divergent, so different, um, uh, metabolisms for example? Or maybe longevity patterns. And it turns out, you know, just like your laptop, uh, you know, if you take care of your laptop, you turn it off at night, you clear the cache.

    7. LHLewis Howes32:39

       I'll update the software.

    8. WLDr. William Li32:39

       Yeah, you update the software. You make sure that you pad it when you're traveling.

    9. LHLewis Howes32:44

       And clean it, yeah.

    10. WLDr. William Li32:44

        Clean it, all that kind of stuff. And, uh, let's say I'm not so careful. I, I, I drop it. It stays, gets really hot in the car. Um, I spill coffee on it or whatever, you know. What do you think's gonna happen to our operating system? Or I download all kinds of stuff.

    11. LHLewis Howes32:57

        It's gonna break.

    12. WLDr. William Li32:58

        I- well, it's, what's gonna happen is that your computer operating system and mine are gonna diverge. You're gonna go this way, I'm gonna go that way. And actually probably for our meta- definitely for our metabolism, but probably for our longevity as well, you know, that's actually what happens, is that we start to diverge our patterns. We're all born the same way. And the reason I'm bringing this up, because I think for anybody who's listening to this or watching this, people, people tend to think, "I'm, I'm the fate of my genetics. You know, there's nothing I can do about it, so screw it, I'm just gonna do whatever I wanna do."

    13. LHLewis Howes33:29

        Eat whatever, drink whatever. Yeah.

    14. WLDr. William Li33:30

        You know, what I wanna really emphasize is that we are all hardwired to actually heal. We can get back to that healing s- we can heal to get back to our original state, which is designed, like the laptop, to function its entire life of the device with an intact operating system, you know? What do you do with your op- what do you do with your computer? You know, uh, you know, hopefully you don't have to reinstall the operating system. Take good care of it, but if you don't take good care of it, clean the cache, clear, do a virus scan. You know, like clean it up.

    15. LHLewis Howes34:03

        Yeah.

    16. WLDr. William Li34:03

        Take good care of it. And that's kind of how I think people should think about longevity, is that it's not like just set a number, okay? This is not like booking a seat in a movie theater online.

    17. LHLewis Howes34:14

        [laughs]

    18. WLDr. William Li34:14

        I'm gonna get that number and that's what I want, okay? Like-

    19. LHLewis Howes34:17

        Good luck

    20. WLDr. William Li34:19

        ... good luck, you know?

11. 34:20 – 37:45

    Embracing Longevity and Living in the Moment

    1. WLDr. William Li34:20

       I think that, you know, it's a journey we need to focus on today and keep focusing on s- as far as we can actually see, and keep doing that. You know, it's like longevity, there, you know, there's a quote, um, from E.L. Doctorow, who was a novelist, who once said like, um, "Writing is like driving at night. You can't see beyond your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." And that's kind of how I think about, um, uh, longevity. Living as long as you can go, that, I mean, you know, but you wanna actually make sure that you're enjoying yourself and you're fully aware of what you're doing along the same way.

    2. LHLewis Howes34:55

       Yeah, 100%. And seeing what's in front of you, not just only focusing on, how do I make it to 100 or 110? Just enjoying the moment.

    3. WLDr. William Li35:02

       The horizon's important, but honestly, like so is what's directly in front of you.

    4. LHLewis Howes35:06

       Sure. If someone watching or listening has maybe neglected their health for many years, and they're now living in excess weight or maybe, maybe even obesity, and they've been on a pattern and a routine of eating poorly, drinking a lot of excess alcohol, whatever it might be, and just not taking care of their health, and you were to prescribe just a 90-day game plan to reset their metabolism and try to get the right things going again, how f- what would you prescribe that individual, and how much do you think they could actually recover and start to heal from years of, of not taking care of their health?

    5. WLDr. William Li35:54

       First of all, I think that we're able to recover a lot of our health and heal ourselves by making small moves, and that, and this is really important, because big-

    6. LHLewis Howes36:05

       Not extreme moves

    7. WLDr. William Li36:06

       ... big moves are, some people can do them. Most people can't maintain big moves. All right? Small moves almost anybody can actually do. And of course, you know, people are very complicated and, you know, the, the scenario you described of somebody who's like, you know, been super unhealthy their whole lives and, you know, not done the right things and are overweight and they're alcoho- I mean, I think you were stacking.

    8. LHLewis Howes36:29

       Yeah.

    9. WLDr. William Li36:30

       You know? I mean, it's-

    10. LHLewis Howes36:31

        Maybe it's not that extreme-

    11. WLDr. William Li36:32

        [laughs]

    12. LHLewis Howes36:32

        ... but maybe it's, you know-

    13. WLDr. William Li36:33

        You know, like I-

    14. LHLewis Howes36:33

        ... 240 pounds overweight

    15. WLDr. William Li36:34

        ... how about, how about this? Like the typical person who hasn't taken care of themselves-

    16. LHLewis Howes36:37

        Yeah, exactly

    17. WLDr. William Li36:38

        ... for most of their life.

    18. LHLewis Howes36:38

        Maybe not too extreme.

    19. WLDr. William Li36:39

        What, what can they actually do? You know? And, and maybe it's not 90 days. I would say, you know, like, "Hey, you know, I think you should take a look at things that you can actually do in a month or two." Give yourself a little runway, all right? Take it easy on yourself 'cause, you know, stress and, you know, putting too much pressure on yourself doesn't naturally help. But some of the principles I will tell you that is supported by evidence, scientific evidence and clinical evidence, is number one, um, uh, I would say, uh, switch to eating more of a plant-based diet with whole foods. All right? So I, I just said a mouthful there because what I'm saying is that, um, eat more foods that you are buying whole and fresh and cook them yourself.

    20. LHLewis Howes37:23

        Not processed.

    21. WLDr. William Li37:23

        Not processed, okay? Um, uh, so you can cut down on your ultra-processed foods and focus more on your whole, fresh foods. Immediately, you're gonna be flooding your body with more of mother nature's pharmacy, that's pharmacy with a-

    22. LHLewis Howes37:38

        Mm-hmm

    23. WLDr. William Li37:38

        ... F not a PH.

    24. LHLewis Howes37:39

        Yes.

    25. WLDr. William Li37:40

        All right? And, and that's gonna start healing and, and prompting your gut to start doing it

12. 37:45 – 41:05

    Understanding Processed vs. Ultra-Processed Foods

    1. WLDr. William Li37:45

       as well, but you're gonna start getting a lot of stuff that it's not prescription.

    2. LHLewis Howes37:48

       Before you go to the next point, can you make a distinction, if you can explain to people, 'cause I don't think people truly understand, when you eat one processed meal, what is happening with a processed food, whether it's ultra-processed or just processed and not its complete whole food, uh, that you cook, what happens when it enters the mouth of a ultra-processed food or something that's processed and goes through the gut and out? What is happening to your body with that versus just single ingredient whole foods cooked and, and in the system?

    3. WLDr. William Li38:26

       First of all, I think that this idea, the, the word... I mean, we're now beginning to have this conversation about ultra-processed foods as a, as a society.

    4. LHLewis Howes38:34

       Yeah.

    5. WLDr. William Li38:34

       Right? Uh, and, and, and it's, and it's, and it's damn well time that we actually did. All right? Because we do know that ultra-processed foods aren't good for you. But the word processed and ultra-processed often gets confused, so let's start there. Okay. So raw foods are, I mean whole food ingredients are like going to the grocery store and just eating the food without doing anything to it.

    6. LHLewis Howes38:58

       Banana.

    7. WLDr. William Li38:59

       Yeah.

    8. LHLewis Howes38:59

       Apple.

    9. WLDr. William Li38:59

       Exactly.

    10. LHLewis Howes39:00

        Spinach.

    11. WLDr. William Li39:00

        Oh, right.

    12. LHLewis Howes39:01

        Carrot.

    13. WLDr. William Li39:02

        Right, like take a salad bar.

    14. LHLewis Howes39:03

        Single ingredient. Yeah, single ingredient.

    15. WLDr. William Li39:04

        Let's say the salad bar is a great example of really just, like, whole individual ingredients that you put into a bowl and just eat them one by one. Most foods that we cook, by cooking them, we're processing.

    16. LHLewis Howes39:17

        Okay.

    17. WLDr. William Li39:17

        I don't know if you've ever seen... Uh, so anything that we do to manipulate food is processing. So if you've ever made pasta by yourself, you take a big pile of, of flour, and you crack some eggs in it, and you just take your fingertips and work it. And you then roll it up and roll it out and cut it up and... Okay, so that's processing.

    18. LHLewis Howes39:34

        Yeah, of course.

    19. WLDr. William Li39:34

        So that's different-

    20. LHLewis Howes39:36

        Than ultra-processed

    21. WLDr. William Li39:36

        ... than going to ultra-processing, which is having a factory extrude the ingredients, shape them into animal crackers or whatever, and then adding flavors.

    22. LHLewis Howes39:46

        Food colorings in there.

    23. WLDr. William Li39:47

        Adding coloring, um, a- adding stabilizers, adding emulsifiers, and then throwing in all these, like, uh, chemical ingredients that you can't pronounce.

    24. LHLewis Howes39:56

        Sure.

    25. WLDr. William Li39:57

        You have no idea what they do in there. That's ultra-processed.

    26. LHLewis Howes39:59

        Okay, so the difference between something minimally processed versus ultra-processed, what happens to the gut, the bacteria in your gut, and the body and immune system with having tho- those different options?

    27. WLDr. William Li40:14

        Yeah. And I'll tell you what we know as it relates to longevity. So first of all, um, I try to break it down really simply. Uh, our body is like your car. When you put... Our food is our fuel. Uh, when you go to the filling station, you get a choice. You're gonna actually put in, like, you got four different kinds of fuel you could put in. All right? If you, uh, put in good quality fuel, it, your car's gonna drive better. Over the long haul, it's gonna drive better. Every now and then, you put in some crummy, cheap fuel, it's all right, you're not gonna notice. But if you do that day in and day out, you're gonna notice it for sure. All right? So you put something good into your body, your body's gonna respond really well. You put something bad in your body, your body's also gonna respond accordingly-

    28. LHLewis Howes40:57

        Sure

    29. WLDr. William Li40:57

        ... in a negative way. So simply, in simplest terms, that's actually what the difference is between ultra-processed, which isn't really good for you, and your body's

13. 41:05 – 44:40

    Impact of Microplastics and Ultra-Processed Foods

    1. WLDr. William Li41:05

       gonna revolt. Uh, it's, and it's gonna trash your body from the inside out in ways, some ways we know and other ways we don't even know yet. Um, uh, by the way, the whole c- conversation about ultraplastics, uh, microplastics, all right? Hey, you know what? I- if you've ever see, like, the amount of machinery and plastic that has to, you know, the, or the machines that the processed food has to go through-

    2. LHLewis Howes41:31

       Yeah

    3. WLDr. William Li41:31

       ... who knows how much ultra, uh, you know, microplastics are actually found in ultra-processed foods.

    4. LHLewis Howes41:35

       It's, like, leaching through, yeah.

    5. WLDr. William Li41:37

       That, that remains to be f- that remains to be seen, you know? And, and so what I say is that the least amount of processing you can have for your food, the more you can be assured that it's gonna be a quality food that you're actually gonna put in your body, and your body will react well. So what's, what's going on when you feed your food, uh, minimally processed, uh, whole foods, your body is gonna extract immediately as many of the polyphenols as it can out of it. Goes in your stomach, it's absorbed into your bloodstream. Those polyphenols go to town. The effect of a polyphenol, of eating polyphenols, and there's a lot of polyphenols in foods. Strawberries, blueberries, an orange, an apple, uh, uh, broccoli. All right? When those, all those polyphenols basically get into your bloodstream, and think about it, um, like, uh, starting a symphony of effects. You know? If you ever go to, like, listen to a, a, a symphony orchestra, it's not just usually one instrument that goes off. The whole, the whole orchestra goes off, and that's what happens when we eat poly- foods with polyphenols. The dietary fiber tumbles down. We might absorb some of it, some of it we don't absorb. Goes, tumbles down all the way to your lower gut. What does it do? It feeds our gut microbiome. We've got 39 trillion hungry little baby birds in the nest waiting to be fed, okay? And the dietary fiber we eat actually feeds them. How important is this? And we know it's really important, not only because dietary fiber seems to be ... Eating dietary fiber lowers the risk of diseases like dementia, uh, diabetes, cancer, um, improves outcomes for cancer. But for cancer, for example, there was a study from the MD Anderson Cancer Center that looked at people with melanoma, okay? A, a deadly form of skin cancer, getting immunotherapy, so they're getting the state-of-the-art treatment, requires their own immune system to go to town. That's the 70% in your gut, requires the gut bacteria. Gut bacteria need to eat, okay? Gotta feed them. Turns out for every five to six grams of dietary fiber, it decreased mortality by 30%. Mortality, death, okay? Death.

    6. LHLewis Howes43:56

       Decreased it.

    7. WLDr. William Li43:56

       Decrease it by five to six gram of dietary fiber per day. Now, what, what does that look like, dietary fiber, five to six gram? You get an ... A medium-sized pear has five to six grams of dietary fiber. Not a big ask, okay?

    8. LHLewis Howes44:10

       And you do one of those a day.

    9. WLDr. William Li44:11

       One of those a day or, or, or, or the equivalent-

    10. LHLewis Howes44:14

        Mixing it up throughout the day

    11. WLDr. William Li44:14

        ... to get the dietary fiber.

    12. LHLewis Howes44:15

        Of course.

    13. WLDr. William Li44:15

        All right? So and again, now you get all the t- polyphenols and so, like, powerful effects. How quickly does it actually, does dietary fiber, uh, and these polyphenols, how quickly can they change your, uh, uh, the fate of your gut bacteria? Within 24 hours.

    14. LHLewis Howes44:32

        Come on.

    15. WLDr. William Li44:32

        You can start getting changes. So and I wrote about this in my book, Eat to Beat Disease. You have kiwis, okay? Um, and you measure the gut

14. 44:40 – 47:59

    Benefits of Whole Foods on Gut Health

    1. WLDr. William Li44:40

       microbiome, uh, and you can, within 24 hours after eating one kiwi, you can start to grow more healthy gut bacteria in the first day. All right? By four days, you start growing other bacteria that are healthy as well. So b- you know, like you're asking me, what about the, what about the dude who actually hasn't been taking care of himself? Look, this is what I'm telling you. Go eat some whole fresh foods that you prepare yourself, okay? Cut down some of that ultra-processed stuff. I'll talk about what the ultra-processed stuff does in a second, and you'll start to get these changes. You're hardwired to do this. Your body wants to do it, you know? Let it do its job.

    2. LHLewis Howes45:18

       Yeah.

    3. WLDr. William Li45:18

       Okay? Now-

    4. LHLewis Howes45:19

       You'll start to feel the effects or maybe or at least your body will feel the effects within 24 hours.

    5. WLDr. William Li45:24

       Well, you, you're ... The, the changes start fast. And so, you know, definitely within a few days you will start to feel much better. I mean, listen, you ever, you ever go on like on a, on like a crummy food bender, uh, and then [laughs] , right? Like you feel-

    6. LHLewis Howes45:37

       Don't feel good. Yeah

    7. WLDr. William Li45:38

       ... d- don't feel good, and then you say, "You know what? This is, this sucks. I'm gonna actually, like, eat healthy now." You start getting it back pretty quick.

    8. LHLewis Howes45:46

       Yes.

    9. WLDr. William Li45:47

       You're like, "I, I am so glad I'm doing this," right? So the changes happen fast. So I think, you know, uh, so number one, it is in within everyone's power to be able to actually make these moves, okay, that count simply by shifting to whole, uh, good healthy foods 'cause, you know, the bad stuff with the artificial ch- preservatives and artificial coloring and all that, they ... W- you know, the simplest way to think about what they might do besides dump chemicals into your body is they can kill your gut bacteria. That's not what you wanna do. You know, uh, killing the gut bacteria, by the way, is like we're talking about the symphony, Beethoven's Fifth, you know, or Handel's Messiah, big choir in a, in a big concert hall. You know, like hurting your gut bacteria, like ultra-processed foods with all these artificial things, it's like sending in, um, uh, uh ... It- it's like sending in hooligans from a, from a, uh, British, uh, football game-

    10. LHLewis Howes46:46

        Screaming and they ... Yeah, yeah

    11. WLDr. William Li46:47

        ... screaming into a concert hall and kicking over all the instruments.

    12. LHLewis Howes46:50

        Wow, that's what processed foods do, ultra-processed.

    13. WLDr. William Li46:53

        Yeah.

    14. LHLewis Howes46:54

        What are other things that ruin the gut bacteria then besides ultra-processed foods?

    15. WLDr. William Li47:01

        Well, alcohol will do it. Um, smoking also can affect it. Um, not getting enough good sleep, uh, not getting exercise can also affect your gut. Uh-

    16. LHLewis Howes47:09

        What about vaping?

    17. WLDr. William Li47:11

        Vaping? Oh, yeah, va- vaping is also ... I mean, look, cigarettes, vaping, cigars, pipes, it's all part of the same continuum. There's noth- there's nothing better about vaping. In fact, research has actually shown that the flavoring that they put in vapes are actually probably even worse, uh, than some of the stuff that you have in just in a plain cigarette. So you know, it, it-

    18. LHLewis Howes47:32

        So vaping or smoking or cigars, that doesn't help the gut bacteria at all?

    19. WLDr. William Li47:36

        No, not at all.

    20. LHLewis Howes47:36

        Does it impact it in a negative way, or is it just-

    21. WLDr. William Li47:38

        Yeah, it impacts it in a negative way.

    22. LHLewis Howes47:39

        Really?

    23. WLDr. William Li47:40

        Yeah, because guess what? All those chemicals in- instead of eating them, now you're inhaling them and they go right into your bloodstream instead from your gut and your stomach, it just goes right into your bloodstream from your lungs, and now, you know, everything is affected. That 60,000 mile channel of highways and byways is delivering whatever

15. 47:59 – 51:15

    Health Impact of Smoking and Environmental Toxins

    1. WLDr. William Li47:59

       the menthol flavor or the whatever flavor you got all over the place. You really don't want that.

    2. LHLewis Howes48:05

       How much of a, a block ... If someone is smoking every day or vaping or doing cigars or pipes every day or they're inhaling some type of smoke, how much of a dam are they creating in the f- the flow of health, uh, throughout their, their nervous system-

    3. WLDr. William Li48:22

       I, I don't-

    4. LHLewis Howes48:22

       ... their bloodstream, their-

    5. WLDr. William Li48:23

       Yeah. I, I don't have a number for you, but I-

    6. LHLewis Howes48:25

       Right

    7. WLDr. William Li48:25

       ... it's pretty significant.

    8. LHLewis Howes48:26

       Really?

    9. WLDr. William Li48:26

       In fact, it's so significant that, you know, some of the researchers looking at environmental toxins, um, uh, have been even looking at not just not only smoking and vaping, all right, but looking at even, like, cooking. Think about the line cooks at a restaurant.

    10. LHLewis Howes48:45

        The smoke, you mean, or-

    11. WLDr. William Li48:46

        And all the, the fryer smoke.

    12. LHLewis Howes48:48

        Oh, yeah.

    13. WLDr. William Li48:49

        Your-

    14. LHLewis Howes48:49

        The grease and everything coming up

    15. WLDr. William Li48:50

        ... li- listen Uh, like you, you and I-

    16. LHLewis Howes48:52

        Smells good, yeah

    17. WLDr. William Li48:53

        ... like we're, we, we probably have spent more time, we've probably done our time-

    18. LHLewis Howes48:57

        Oh, yeah

    19. WLDr. William Li48:57

        ... standing in front of a grill-

    20. LHLewis Howes48:58

        Oh, yeah

    21. WLDr. William Li48:59

        ... over the summer, right?

    22. LHLewis Howes49:00

        Of course.

    23. WLDr. William Li49:00

        And we're flipping the burgers or-

    24. LHLewis Howes49:02

        Right

    25. WLDr. William Li49:02

        ... grilling the steaks. Hey, you know, like that's part of the, that's, that's part of the, the, the, uh, you know, that's, it's, it's part of growing up, you know? And, and doing your, doing our thing. All right? Think about all that stuff that we're breathing. We know that, that grilling meat puts carcinogens into the meat. What do you think we're breathing in?

    26. LHLewis Howes49:21

        Oh, man.

    27. WLDr. William Li49:22

        Okay? At, fortunately, you know, like most people aren't-

    28. LHLewis Howes49:24

        It's minimal

    29. WLDr. William Li49:25

        ... grilling every day.

    30. LHLewis Howes49:25

        Yeah, yeah.
16. 51:15 – 54:26

    Understanding Hunger and Satisfaction: The Clicker Concept

    1. WLDr. William Li51:15

       where can I find a gas station?" That's all you can think about and that's basically how our body works. Like we don't think about eating until, you know, our-

    2. LHLewis Howes51:21

       Getting hungry, right

    3. WLDr. William Li51:22

       ... the fuel tank goes, uh, you know, your tank's running low. Now like, "Okay, I gotta get something to eat." Okay? So that's the same way and what happens is that when we go to the filling station with a car, we put hopefully high quality fuel into our gas tank, which is a metal container in the side of the car. We fill it up, right? And what happens is when the gas tank in a car fills up to the top, it goes click and now no more gas comes out. We get out, we put it away, okay, and then we drive off, right? And our, our tank's full. Our body doesn't have the clicker.

    4. LHLewis Howes51:55

       Wouldn't that be amazing if it did?

    5. WLDr. William Li51:57

       If we had a clicker?

    6. LHLewis Howes51:58

       Yeah, if we had a clicker and it said, "Okay, you've eaten all you need to fill your tank today. Stop eating."

    7. WLDr. William Li52:04

       I'm gonna-

    8. LHLewis Howes52:04

       "Go burn it now. Go run."

    9. WLDr. William Li52:05

       I, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you what the, uh, our... We, we kind of do have a clicker and I'm gonna tell you what it is. We, if you eat slowly-

    10. LHLewis Howes52:12

        Yes

    11. WLDr. William Li52:13

        ... you will actually feel satiated, full, and if you stop there, stop. Before you're full, you're satisfied before you're full. Now it, this requires a little bit of finesse for you to know yourself, okay?

    12. LHLewis Howes52:29

        Well, also when you're eating pr- when I eat ultra-processed foods, I never feel full. It's like I can have two pizzas and candy and it's like-

    13. WLDr. William Li52:36

        And you want more and more

    14. LHLewis Howes52:37

        ... I'm still hungry.

    15. WLDr. William Li52:37

        Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

    16. LHLewis Howes52:38

        And so y- the clicker doesn't turn on-

    17. WLDr. William Li52:40

        Yeah

    18. LHLewis Howes52:40

        ... with ultra-processed foods like it would with whole foods where you feel like, "Oh, I got a lot of good fiber in me. I got some good greens. I got some, you know, meat or beans or vegetables." Like I feel satisfied.

    19. WLDr. William Li52:51

        So that's the key thing, feeling satisfied, knowing you're satisfied, and stopping no matter what's else, like I, I don't care if you haven't cleaned your plate, stop.

    20. LHLewis Howes53:01

        Stop.

    21. WLDr. William Li53:02

        Quit the clean plate club.

    22. LHLewis Howes53:04

        Yeah, that's good.

    23. WLDr. William Li53:04

        Okay? You gotta cl- quit it, all right? And then, then in that case you shouldn't have put so much food on your plate to begin with.

    24. LHLewis Howes53:10

        Exactly.

    25. WLDr. William Li53:10

        Right? So this is my overarching second piece of advice for somebody who wants to take better care of themselves. Don't put too much food on the plate. Don't feel like you have to clean the plate. Um, take your time eating so that when your stomach starts to get full, you'll start feeling that you're satisfied. You don't have to feel full. Like we're trained to eat until we're full.

    26. LHLewis Howes53:33

        Yeah.

    27. WLDr. William Li53:34

        All right? But you know, like listen. Anybody who's been at a big Thanksgiving dinner will know this, right? So you've been, uh, hungry all day. You can't wait for that meal with all the amazing food and all the amazing family, look forward to it every, every year, and you go there and it's time to eat, and you pile your plate up and you're eating, okay? And you're like, "Oh my God, I gotta go back and get more," right? So you go back and get more and you take one forkful of that second plate, and you cross that line and you're like-

    28. LHLewis Howes54:00

        And you got all this food left over, yeah, yeah

    29. WLDr. William Li54:01

        ... yeah, and then you feel like, "Oh man, I, I don't think I can eat any more." And then you are on the couch feeling crummy for the rest of the day. That's crossing the line. You ate so fast you didn't pay attention, right? So second piece of advice for people, don't overeat.

    30. LHLewis Howes54:16

        Okay.
17. 54:26 – 57:40

    Simple Steps to Begin Your Healing Journey

    1. WLDr. William Li54:26

       All right? That's the key thing. You don't have to be, you know, like a, a s- a super wealthy person and buy all this and order all these supplements and do all this crazy stuff and track your glucose and all that k- you don't need to do all that stuff. This is a simple way to heal yourself and get started 'cause your body's got the operating system already hardwired into you.

    2. LHLewis Howes54:45

       Yes.

    3. WLDr. William Li54:46

       It's an easy first step for anybody. Now, third thing is every now and then skip a meal. I do it about three times a week, two to three times a week. Easiest meal for me to skip is breakfast. Okay? I, I get up, I take, I take my time. If I, if my workday starts early, if I got a ton of stuff I gotta do, sometimes I'm so busy I just don't even have time to eat breakfast. Um, uh, and that's totally okay. We were told by our moms we gotta eat breakfast in order to have, you know, to learn something at school-

    4. LHLewis Howes55:17

       Sure

    5. WLDr. William Li55:17

       ... have enough energy. Totally not true.

    6. LHLewis Howes55:19

       Yeah.

    7. WLDr. William Li55:20

       By not eating breakfast, what we are immediately doing is extending this fasting period from overnight when we weren't eating after, you know, when we went to sleep, now you're still not eating until let's call it lunchtime. You've extended your, quote, "fasting period"-

    8. LHLewis Howes55:38

       Yes

    9. WLDr. William Li55:39

       ... maybe 12 hours. Okay? That's the easiest way to do intermittent fasting. You don't have to, like, go, go into a schedule and do anything else. I always tell people, like, "Don't bother going into these crazy plans. Just skip a meal or two, and if y- and even if you don't do it every single day," which, you know, that's probably hard for everybody to skip breakfast or skip lunch every single day. Uh, but if you do it two or three times a week, okay, you'll be fine.

    10. LHLewis Howes56:04

        Yeah.

    11. WLDr. William Li56:04

        It's, these are the easy steps. This is the third thing I would do. Fourth thing I would do is say get on your feet and go for a walk after dinner.

    12. LHLewis Howes56:11

        Yes.

    13. WLDr. William Li56:11

        Okay? And by the way, when I'm saying a walk, I'm saying, like a, like a brisk walk. Like, uh, you know, don't drag your feet. Walk until, you know, like, you're feeling it. You know? Like you're feeling like you're getting some good exercise. If you can do it with a friend or a family member, even better. Catch up on things. If you don't have anybody to walk with, hey, there's something called podcasts.

    14. LHLewis Howes56:32

        Yeah, exactly.

    15. WLDr. William Li56:34

        Listen to School of Greatness.

    16. LHLewis Howes56:35

        Yes.

    17. WLDr. William Li56:35

        Okay? Listen to an episode. Listen to this episode. All right? And by the time it's done, you'll have actually gotten some pretty good exercise-

    18. LHLewis Howes56:41

        Yeah

    19. WLDr. William Li56:41

        ... and movement. If you can squeeze it in to do a workout plan or join a gym or go swimming or cycling, more power to you, but I'm saying you can do it-

    20. LHLewis Howes56:51

        Walk

    21. WLDr. William Li56:52

        ... the really, really easy way anybody can do is just walk. Unless you're in a wheelchair, okay, uh, this is something you can do to actually start to gain your health back. All right? That is the next thing, and then the final thing that I think is a start, 'cause you can't stack too many things on, is try to get some good sleep.

    22. LHLewis Howes57:10

        Yes.

    23. WLDr. William Li57:10

        Just get some good sleep. And by the way, you know why? Because when you sleep really, really well, and look, even if you don't sleep well now, there's, at some point in your life you did get good sleep, so we all know how to do it. All right? When you get good sleep, deep REM sleep, dreaming sleep, what happens is that your body regenerates itself. Your stem cells get regen- start to regenerate. Your brain cleans itself out. By the way, you, did, did, uh, have you heard of the glymphatic system in the brain?

18. 57:40 – 1:00:59

    Understanding the Glymphatic System: Brain's Hidden Sewer

    1. LHLewis Howes57:40

       I've heard it, but what does it do?

    2. WLDr. William Li57:41

       Okay. So there is a hidden sewer system in our brain called the glymphatic system. You've heard of lymphatic system.

    3. LHLewis Howes57:50

       Yeah.

    4. WLDr. William Li57:50

       But the glymphatic system, they, they say glymph because the cells in our brain are called glia, G-L-I-A. So glymphatic system is a sewer system that's normally closed during the day, and so, you know, like here we are during the day. You know, we're doing this podcast. We're doing oth- other things. You know, you prep before. You gotta do some stuff afterwards. Me too. All right? You know what's happening? We're building up, um, toxins in our brain. Oxidative stress, all kinds of stuff is going on in our brain. When we sleep tonight, okay, hopefully I'm gonna get some good sleep and hopefully you too.

    5. LHLewis Howes58:26

       Yes.

    6. WLDr. William Li58:26

       All right? When we get good sleep, and only when we get good sleep, the glymphatic systems open up. It's like the sewers of Paris. Drains the toxins from your brain. All right? And that's how we re- regenerate the freshness of our brain. That's why they say get a good night's sleep before an exam.

    7. LHLewis Howes58:46

       Yeah.

    8. WLDr. William Li58:46

       All right? And, and if you don't, by the way, you get brain fog. You know why you get brain fog? Because you've kept those toxins in.

    9. LHLewis Howes58:52

       Wow. If someone, say, has one glass of wine or one drink of alcohol before you- they go to sleep, and they say to themselves, "Ah, it's not that much. It's just one glass or one drink," how much is that impacting the brain to not be able to recover, flush out those toxins, and feel fully rested?

    10. WLDr. William Li59:12

        D- different for everybody.

    11. LHLewis Howes59:13

        Okay.

    12. WLDr. William Li59:13

        Okay? Now, I, I, you know, I think in general what I would say is that I have a, I have an opinion about alcohol, okay? And my opinion about alcohol is this: From the time that humans started to grow grains and, uh, you know, and ferment them, all right, we've been having alcohol, and alcohol is part of human ritual. We celebrate birthdays and funerals and wakes and holidays with it. So to me, I think that, you know, drinking some wine, uh, uh, having some alcohol is really part of our humanity. All right? The problem becomes when we actually start really abusing it and drinking too much of it, and here's the reason. The alcohol in all alcoholic beverages, the ethanol, okay, which is present in all of them, that's a toxin. So whether you drink a little or a lot, you know, the bottom line is it's still a toxin. So the more you have, the more toxicity your br- body's... More toxin your body's gotta purge.

    13. LHLewis Howes1:00:09

        Yes.

    14. WLDr. William Li1:00:10

        Every now and then, uh, it's probably not a big deal, like celeb- to have, have a great glass of wine or bottle of wine on your birthday. Don't drink the whole bottle, but-

    15. LHLewis Howes1:00:17

        Sure, sure

    16. WLDr. William Li1:00:18

        ... enjoy it with some friends, okay? Like social drinking in, in the con- in that context I think is okay. But-

    17. LHLewis Howes1:00:23

        But if you're doing it every night, just one glass.

    18. WLDr. William Li1:00:25

        Uh, what I would tell you is this. You know, your body's gotta work against that to clear it, and everybody's body's different. You know, uh, your liver w- might work a little bit more efficiently than mine, so you're gonna clear it a little bit better, and the faster you clear it, the better the sleep you're gonna get. And by the way, al- alcohol itself is a brain toxin, so it knocks out a few neurons. You gotta regenerate those, so you're gonna regenerate them when you're sleeping, right? So it's all interlinked, and so I don't like to character assassinate Any food, really. I think, you know, like w- w- you know, you gotta, you gotta enjoy... If you're gonna want, if

19. 1:00:59 – 1:04:17

    Understanding Gut Health for Longevity

    1. WLDr. William Li1:00:59

       you wanna live for a long time, you want, aiming for longevity, you know, life is for the living, so you gotta live your life. I'm a big believer in that. Um, but just, you, but you gotta be aware of what it is you're putting into your body and how your body's responding to it.

    2. LHLewis Howes1:01:13

       So again, these four bacteria that are in the gut of people that are living well beyond 100, we talked about those before. You gave a few different foods that can support you, and I guess the four-

    3. WLDr. William Li1:01:25

       A few of them, yeah

    4. LHLewis Howes1:01:26

       ... the fourth one-

    5. WLDr. William Li1:01:27

       Yeah, there, there's, there's, there's more, uh, for, for, for all these bacteria. Like, I'm not gonna... Le- let's not go through every single one-

    6. LHLewis Howes1:01:33

       Sure, sure

    7. WLDr. William Li1:01:33

       ... because this is, like, still a relatively new area of research for me, but I'll tell you, I, I was surprised to discover that, um, resistant starches can grow some of them as well. You know what a resistant starch is? Starch, right? It's a carb, right? Like rice and all this other kind of stuff. Um, uh, banana. All right? When you actually change the starch so it becomes a little harder to digest, like you refrigerate, like, day-old rice, okay, um, uh, it becomes a resistant starch. A potato. If you're gonna roast some potatoes, all right, you stick 'em in the fridge, the next day the, the natural chemistry of the potato, the starches, changes. You got some resistant starch. Resistant starch can grow some of those bacteria that are found in ultra-agers, super-agers.

    8. LHLewis Howes1:02:19

       Interesting.

    9. WLDr. William Li1:02:20

       Okay? Um, uh, also some natural foods, uh, green bananas, resistant starch, plantains, resistant starch. All right? So, uh, uh, any roasted potato, stick it in the fridge, have it the next day. You actually have created your own resistant starch. So those actually, um, uh, also can help grow some of the healthy gut bacteria as well.

    10. LHLewis Howes1:02:42

        Amazing. What I mean, what are the things that are blocking us beyond the processed foods, beyond smoking, alcohol? Uh, here's actually a question I have for you about this. If you're eating all the right foods but you, say, take a Tylenol once a day, or take a ibuprofen once a day, or take some type of chemical compound that is a drug, even if it seems like it's safe over the counter, what does that do to the gut microbiome when you take a Tylenol, Advil, ibuprofen, or some type of painkiller?

    11. WLDr. William Li1:03:16

        We, we, we don't know. Uh, and it's gonna be different for different, different medicines. Like, I will tell you that, um, a, uh, some medicines might actually be very harmful, okay? And I think that we're just still at the beginning of discovering... Like, we're, we're, our consciousness has only been recently raised as researchers to think about the gut microbiome. So there's a lot more work to be done. But-

    12. LHLewis Howes1:03:39

        Few years in. Yeah, yeah

    13. WLDr. William Li1:03:40

        ... we're just a few years in, but I'll tell you, there are some surprises. Um, and I know that on your program you've actually had, uh, people in, coming in to talk about longevity drugs like rapamycin and metformin. You know that metformin's been discovered to improve your gut microbiome.

    14. LHLewis Howes1:03:55

        Really?

    15. WLDr. William Li1:03:55

        Yeah. So medicines don't al- aren't always bad. Some of them-

    16. LHLewis Howes1:03:59

        Right

    17. WLDr. William Li1:03:59

        ... might actually be good. We- we're just starting to figure this out-

    18. LHLewis Howes1:04:02

        Interesting

    19. WLDr. William Li1:04:02

        ... and understand it.

    20. LHLewis Howes1:04:03

        Yeah. Interesting. I guess I'm curious if there are side effects that would also hurt. Maybe they'd help in some way, but then hurt some, in some other way. I'm not sure, but...

    21. WLDr. William Li1:04:11

        We don't really know yet, and I think that's really part of the, this new frontier I'm, I'm really

20. 1:04:17 – 1:07:31

    Discoveries in Medical Science

    1. WLDr. William Li1:04:17

       excited about because I think that, you know, when I went to medical school and I was learning and studying and reading all these books and, you know, like, we're digesting 4,000 years of medical knowledge, you, you graduate medical school with your stethoscope around your neck-

    2. LHLewis Howes1:04:32

       [laughs]

    3. WLDr. William Li1:04:32

       ... figuring that, you know, like, "Okay, I probably know most of what there is to know." Heck, no. We are still discovering new cells in the body, new organs in the body, new pieces of our physiology and how our body works that we didn't even imagine. So that's what's exciting to me as a medical research and a physician, as a scientist, and then, you know, like, part of what I do is, you know, as, as I write books, I like to translate some of the most exciting but also pragmatic, like, practical things we're discovering that you can actually do something about.

    4. LHLewis Howes1:05:06

       This may sound a little woo-woo, this question, but how much do our thoughts and our mindset impact our gut, but also our, our overall health?

    5. WLDr. William Li1:05:16

       Oh, I think it's huge. As it re- relates to the gut, we do know that it's a two-way street, so if we're depressed or, you know, like, some other thing is going on in our brain, inevitably the gut's gonna be affected in some way. We're-

    6. LHLewis Howes1:05:30

       Really?

    7. WLDr. William Li1:05:30

       As I said, like, we, we don't have it all figured out yet. But-

    8. LHLewis Howes1:05:32

       But it's impacting it

    9. WLDr. William Li1:05:34

       ... probably not for the better.

    10. LHLewis Howes1:05:36

        So stress, overwhelm, anxiety, depression-

    11. WLDr. William Li1:05:39

        Yeah

    12. LHLewis Howes1:05:39

        ... bad thoughts.

    13. WLDr. William Li1:05:40

        And, and it, and it, and it may actually, it may be a, uh, uh-

    14. LHLewis Howes1:05:44

        Gut signaling the brain

    15. WLDr. William Li1:05:45

        ... signaling ba- back to the brain, you know? Like, like two people playing pickleball-

    16. LHLewis Howes1:05:50

        Interesting

    17. WLDr. William Li1:05:50

        ... you know, like batting, you know, like nasty thing, nastiness back to each other. That could well be happening, okay, with, with, with brain and gut. Um, we do know that it can be good. You know, there's beneficial-

    18. LHLewis Howes1:06:03

        Sure

    19. WLDr. William Li1:06:03

        ... gut-brain interactions, so it makes sense that there might be some negative ones. But I can tell you that, um, I think that the, um, uh, the, that too often we disconnect mental wellness with physical wellness. We call them two separate things. You know, "Oh, the psychiatrist or the therapist deals with this," and, you know, a medical doctor says, "Oh, well, I deal with the liver," or, "I deal with the kidney." Yeah, you know, what we're beginning to realize is there's all this interconnectivity. And again, back to what I do, I'm all about the common denominator of health and the common denominators of disease. If we can actually take a science-based approach to look at, you know, uh, w- how everything is connected, i- it's that idea of, like, draining the Pacific Ocean and seeing how the islands are connected. We get a lot more mileage out of that than just taking an inch wide and going a mile deep and thinking that you've got the answer.

    20. LHLewis Howes1:06:55

        Yeah. It almost sounds like- If you're eating unhealthy foods, ultra-processed foods, it's more than likely going to have an impact on the way you think, 'cause you're gonna feel a certain thing or maybe the, the signals are sending something up of, "This is not enough. I need more nutrients, I need something else," and therefore it's going to create some type of fogginess in your thinking or in your mind. And if you're thinking your mind is a lower energy, a lower frequency, uh, you know, thinking, "Ah, I'm tired," it's gonna send it back to the gut. It seems like it's kind of connecting the same time. So when you eat

21. 1:07:31 – 1:10:55

    Importance of Gut-Brain Connection for Longevity

    1. LHLewis Howes1:07:31

       something healthy, hopefully it's impacting your mind or your brain to think better. And if you're thinking better, hopefully your gut is being impacted in a bet- in a better way also.

    2. WLDr. William Li1:07:41

       And that's connected to longevity, because one of the goals that we all wanna have is, uh, we wanna be clear in mind, we wanna have good cognition.

    3. LHLewis Howes1:07:49

       Yeah.

    4. WLDr. William Li1:07:49

       It's not just about memory-

    5. LHLewis Howes1:07:50

       Yes

    6. WLDr. William Li1:07:50

       ... it's really about decision-making. What am I gonna do today? What am I gonna do next week? And making good decisions, right? I mean, you know, like I, I just think that, uh, rather than pick a number, you know, "I'm gonna do 150," or whatever, let's think about this whole journey and everything we need to do to enjoy, uh, where we're going. You're gonna go on vacation, right? You wanna d- you wanna really plan your vacation. Where are you gonna eat? What are you gonna pack? You know, what's the weather gonna be like? Like, all these c- all these components I think are, at least from my perspective, longevity is not just about the big number, it's really about your healthspan and the quality of your life along the way.

    7. LHLewis Howes1:08:31

       Yeah.

    8. WLDr. William Li1:08:31

       And that, to me, is really the exciting thing, is really the science of that enjoyment along the way. I'm, I'm a big believer in joy and in pleasure-

    9. LHLewis Howes1:08:42

       Yes

    10. WLDr. William Li1:08:42

        ... and in making life worth living.

    11. LHLewis Howes1:08:45

        100%. And if you could, I'm, I'm, we got a couple final questions for you, but if you were to focus on a few supplements you think people should be taking to just non-negotiables that you think is gonna help their, their gut, their lifespan, their everything, what would those few supplements be?

    12. WLDr. William Li1:09:03

        I can only tell you what I do.

    13. LHLewis Howes1:09:04

        Okay.

    14. WLDr. William Li1:09:04

        All right? 'Cause I, I don't think I can really fairly address ev- this should be for everybody, the non-negotiables. But I'll tell you for me, um, I know that it's hard for me to get enough vitamin D, so I'll take a vitamin D supplement. I know it's, even though I enjoy seafood, um, and I like, you know, plant-based sources of, of, uh, omega-3s, it's hard for me to get enough. So an omega-3 supplement is good for my brain, good for my heart, uh, it's good for my muscles, so I take an omega-3 supplement. I think those are, um, for me, non-negotiables-

    15. LHLewis Howes1:09:35

        Sure

    16. WLDr. William Li1:09:36

        ... 'cause I just don't get enough, and I think most people don't get enough either, honestly. Um, uh, because I do work in this area, um, you know, I have an unfair advantage of seeing the results of research and thinking, "Oh, wow, why don't I do this if I've been seeing this?"

    17. LHLewis Howes1:09:54

        Right.

    18. WLDr. William Li1:09:54

        So I do take some probiotics, um, and it's all based on the research that I've actually seen. So that bacteria I told you, Lactobacillus reuteri, uh, you can find it in food. Sometimes it's in yogurt. It's in sourdough bread, but I don't want to eat too much sourdough bread, it's a carb. It- Lactobacillus is what makes the sourdough bread tangy, which people like, but you can't eat that much sourdough bread. Lactobacillus reuteri is also in the Italian version of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

    19. LHLewis Howes1:10:24

        Mm, it's so good.

    20. WLDr. William Li1:10:24

        The big-

    21. LHLewis Howes1:10:25

        Yeah

    22. WLDr. William Li1:10:25

        ... you know, orange wheels, okay? It's a starter bacteria for it. You don't want to be eating too much of that. Shave a little bit on, okay? But you're not gonna be eating, like, mouthfuls of it. So I can't get enough of that. And, and I've seen enough research from what I've done to know that it's good for my immune system, it lowers inflammation. Um, I've seen really good data in animals from the lab that it reduces the development of colon tumors and breast tumors. Um, it,

22. 1:10:55 – 1:14:16

    Benefits of Lactobacillus Reuteri and Probiotics

    1. WLDr. William Li1:10:55

       uh, also improves your metabolism and your lipids. It text messages your brain for that oxytocin. So, uh-

    2. LHLewis Howes1:11:01

       What's, what's that one called again?

    3. WLDr. William Li1:11:02

       Lactobacillus reuteri. And by the way, uh, it's Lactobacillus, uh, s- reuteri, it's spelled R-E-U-T-E-R-I. I, I'll give it to you so you can put it in the show notes.

    4. LHLewis Howes1:11:13

       Yeah, please.

    5. WLDr. William Li1:11:13

       Lactobacillus reuteri. And I'll tell you, I actually order the kind ... Like, this is the stuff you can get on Amazon. I, I, I get the kind that you can chew.

    6. LHLewis Howes1:11:20

       Okay. I like that.

    7. WLDr. William Li1:11:21

       Children's chewable version. You know why? Because there's other data in humans that this healthy bacteria in the gut ... Remember I told you the gut starts in the mouth, actually kills the bacteria that causes cavities.

    8. LHLewis Howes1:11:35

       Really?

    9. WLDr. William Li1:11:36

       I brush my teeth, then I'll chew up a couple of these-

    10. LHLewis Howes1:11:39

        Come on

    11. WLDr. William Li1:11:39

        ... babies.

    12. LHLewis Howes1:11:40

        I want some of it.

    13. WLDr. William Li1:11:40

        I'll swish them around, then I swallow it. Good for the upstairs, good for the downstairs.

    14. LHLewis Howes1:11:44

        I'm in.

    15. WLDr. William Li1:11:45

        Right? And remember I told you, we're beginning to see links between gum disease, gingivitis, bad bacteria in your mouth, and dementia, okay? So, uh, uh, you know, I, I didn't have to convince you very hard on that one.

    16. LHLewis Howes1:11:58

        No, I'm in.

    17. WLDr. William Li1:11:58

        All right? I-

    18. LHLewis Howes1:11:59

        I'm in

    19. WLDr. William Li1:11:59

        ... um-

    20. LHLewis Howes1:12:00

        You take these every day?

    21. WLDr. William Li1:12:01

        I do. And then, you know, and then I happen to be involved with the research on Akkermansia, and I know that they're ... People say it's been so talked about on, you know, on, on social media and YouTube and podcasts. I'm like, "I, I do the research on it, okay? So I... And, and my colleagues are doing the research on it. So I'm looking at it, and this bacteria actually is really, really important.

    22. LHLewis Howes1:12:24

        Wow.

    23. WLDr. William Li1:12:24

        And I'm a cancer researcher, so I know just how important that can be. So I do take that ba- I do take that probiotic. But I also don't rely on probiotics. Like I, you know, for my Akkermansia, I also drink some pomegranate juice, and I'll, you know, have dried cranberries. And I, I, you know, I-

    24. LHLewis Howes1:12:40

        Sure

    25. WLDr. William Li1:12:40

        ... I try to make, um ... I use supplements as a top-off, which is what supplement means.

    26. LHLewis Howes1:12:46

        Yeah, yeah.

    27. WLDr. William Li1:12:47

        All right? But I try to get most of my-

    28. LHLewis Howes1:12:49

        The foods

    29. WLDr. William Li1:12:49

        ... things from foods, yeah.

    30. LHLewis Howes1:12:51

        Yeah. So what is that one called? The Akkermansia?
23. 1:14:16 – 1:17:19

    Combating Misinformation in Health Advice

    1. WLDr. William Li1:14:16

       ask me. So I, I get lots of... I could collect information, like what are the questions that people wanna know, and then I c- create my YouTube content based on answering what people wanna know.

    2. LHLewis Howes1:14:25

       What's the biggest pain that people are facing around their health today that you've been answering?

    3. WLDr. William Li1:14:29

       You know, confusion about, uh, what they should do. Uh, they get so much in- misinformation, it becomes confusing for them. And so what I always try to pe- tell people to do is, um, um, I'm trying to give you information that's based on science, that I know to be true as w- as well as we understand it now. You can count on me to be a trusted source of information. I'm a scientist, so if I don't know it, I'm gonna tell you I don't know.

    4. LHLewis Howes1:14:50

       Yeah.

    5. WLDr. William Li1:14:50

       And that's okay-

    6. LHLewis Howes1:14:51

       Yeah

    7. WLDr. William Li1:14:51

       ... 'cause we can't know everything, you know? And I think that, and, and you know, and just like what we talked about today, I'm a pragmatic, but I'm a practical person. Do what's practical. You don't have to do what's expensive. You can't... You know, this is not... Health is not elitism. Health is universal. It's something we can all do because we're all hardwired to heal, we're all hardwired to have good metabolism, we're hardwired to have our health defenses. So if you have been off the, the path, don't worry. You can get back on it, you know? Just, you know, follow your own signals with a little bit of guidance and you can get there.

    8. LHLewis Howes1:15:26

       This is powerful. I want people to go subscribe to your YouTube, check you out, all your books, drwilliamli.com. You're gonna be updating people there. You have a newsletter, all these different things people can check out. Um, also, I wanna get a link or a list of all the supplements you talked about and add it to the show notes. So I'll get that from you later, and I'll add it to the show notes on YouTube and on, and, uh, all the different audio platforms. But this has been very powerful. I appreciate you for, for revealing some of the new research that you're discovering and you're seeing that I haven't heard anyone talk about, which is kind of understanding the gap- the gut bacteria connection to longer term health and longevity, and I think it's really important that we need to start exploring more of this. And I'm assuming over the coming years you're gonna be talking more about this on your YouTube channel, about what you're discovering, and sharing the research and the science that people can have for themselves.

    9. WLDr. William Li1:16:18

       Yeah, the... It's so exciting what we're actually finding out in terms of how to live long and live well. To me, that's the alignment. You want years and quality at the same time. That's what I'm focused on like a laser beam.

    10. LHLewis Howes1:16:32

        Mm. Dr. William Li, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.

    11. WLDr. William Li1:16:35

        Thanks for inviting me again.

    12. LHLewis Howes1:16:36

        Powerful. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you got some value from this episode as much as I did. If you did, please do me a favor and click the like button right now. If you like this, it's gonna help share it out into the YouTube world even more for us. Please click that like button and leave a comment below on your biggest takeaway or if you have any questions that you want me to follow up with. Also, subscribe to our channel because when you do, you help us book even bigger guests, and I want you to have the best information out there in the world because that's what the School of Greatness is all about. So make sure to subscribe right now, like this video, share a comment below on your biggest takeaway. And also, I've

24. 1:17:19 – 1:17:58

    Announcing "Make Money Easy" for Financial Freedom

    1. LHLewis Howes1:17:19

       got some big news, a new book. If you're looking to create financial freedom in your life and you want more abundance and you want a richer life, then make sure to check out my new book, Make Money Easy. I think you're gonna love this, and it's all about creating financial freedom. The link is below in the description, or you can go to makemoneyeasybook.com and check it out.

    2. SPSpeaker1:17:40

       75% of the calories in our supermarket is three foods.

    3. LHLewis Howes1:17:44

       What are those three foods?

    4. SPSpeaker1:17:45

       Wheat, corn, and soy.

    5. LHLewis Howes1:17:47

       Wow.

    6. SPSpeaker1:17:48

       Yes. That is 75% of the calories in the supermarket. Now granted, most of those are ultra-processed. Right? So I'm here to advocate for real food: fruits, vegetables, whole grains, seeds and-

Episode duration: 1:17:58