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Lewis HowesLewis Howes

The ROOT CAUSE Of Alzheimer's & How To PREVENT IT! |Dr. Steven Gundry

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Dr. Steven GundryguestLewis Howeshost
Mar 18, 201959mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

  1. 0:00 – 5:33

    Book Success and Why Genes Matter Less Than You Think

    1. SG

      90% of the cells that make up you, me, are non-human. They are bacteria, viruses, fungus, uh, parasites. Knowing what these guys want to eat will determine what's going to happen to you.

    2. LH

      [upbeat music] Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got the legendary Dr. Steven Gundry in the house. My man, good to see you.

    3. SG

      Pleasure to see you again.

    4. LH

      I'm glad you're back on. The last interview we did blew up on the internet.

    5. SG

      I'm sorry.

    6. LH

      Uh, yeah, I know, in a good way.

    7. SG

      Oh, phew.

    8. LH

      In a good way. Plant Paradox has been a, a massive New York Times bestselling book. How many times on the list? Was it how many weeks?

    9. SG

      I think it was 34 weeks.

    10. LH

      34?

    11. SG

      Uh, yeah, 34 weeks.

    12. LH

      Wow.

    13. SG

      And then the subsequent books, the cookbook was on 14 weeks, something like that.

    14. LH

      Wow.

    15. SG

      And the other one joined the list as well, so.

    16. LH

      That's incredible.

    17. SG

      Yeah.

    18. LH

      34 weeks in a row? Or did it kind of like go off and on?

    19. SG

      It actually went off for two weeks and then hopped right back on.

    20. LH

      Oh, all right.

    21. SG

      It was kind of funny, and then it ran forever and-

    22. LH

      Amazing

    23. SG

      ... then Kelly Clarkson, God bless her, you know, cured her Hashimoto's by following my book.

    24. LH

      Wow.

    25. SG

      And that-

    26. LH

      Really? She did?

    27. SG

      ... had a, had a big f- Yeah.

    28. LH

      And she talked about it publicly?

    29. SG

      Yeah, she talked about it publicly.

    30. LH

      [laughs]

  2. 5:33 – 9:44

    You Are a Condominium for Bugs: The Microbiome

    1. LH

      So you talk about this microbiome, the gut. That's really like the brain, right?

    2. SG

      Yeah.

    3. LH

      That's the brain.

    4. SG

      It is the brain.

    5. LH

      So-

    6. SG

      Sorry about that

    7. LH

      ... and we, we need to have these, and there's always, there's bugs inside of us right now.

    8. SG

      Yep. Trillions.

    9. LH

      Trillions-

    10. SG

      Trillions

    11. LH

      ... of like little bugs-

    12. SG

      Little bugs

    13. LH

      ... insects-

    14. SG

      Well, not insects

    15. LH

      ... not insects.

    16. SG

      No.

    17. LH

      Microbiome.

    18. SG

      They're bacteria.

    19. LH

      Bacteria.

    20. SG

      So they're not only bacteria, but they're also viruses. There's also fungi. There's all sorts of molds and mushrooms and things like that growing in you.

    21. LH

      Mushrooms in my gut?

    22. SG

      Yeah.

    23. LH

      Well

    24. SG

      In fact, fun fact, your recent study shows that women's breast milk has bacteria and funguses in the breast milk that feed the microbiome, that seed the microbiome of the baby. We've known for quite some time that, you know, the microbiome, and the microbiome again is, is all these other inhabitants of us. And-

    25. LH

      Like for example?

    26. SG

      Okay, so getting back to genetics. 90% of the cells that make up you, me, are non-human. They are bacteria, viruses, fungus, uh, parasites, uh, worms.

    27. LH

      Wow.

    28. SG

      So 90% of you and me is, is not me, is not you. It's all these other guys.

    29. LH

      Wow.

    30. SG

      So you're basically a condominium for what I call bugs. And if we look at the genetic material that constitutes us, the genes, the genet- genetic material, all the DNA of all these other guys is 99% of all the genetic material that's in you and me. So w- the book is Let's Take Care-- Forget about the one percenters, our genes. Let's understand that 99% of the genetic material in us is non-us, but that's the important guys. And-

  3. 9:44 – 14:36

    The Mouth, Brain Gateways, and Alzheimer's Risk

    1. LH

      Doesn't most-- I, I heard this from a, a oral, uh, [clicks tongue] I guess hygienist or a dentist or, or doctor who said a lot of the disease we, we capture is through the mouth.

    2. SG

      Yeah, correct. Um, Dale Bredesen, who wrote The End of Alzheimer's, who's, uh, become a good friend of mine, uh, he and I are fascinated with the effect of the-

    3. LH

      Mm-hmm

    4. SG

      ... oral microbiome-

    5. LH

      Mm-hmm

    6. SG

      ... on dementia. And, uh, for instance, uh, in the, in The Plant Paradox, uh, I wrote about, there's kind of a fun study in rats where you can take LPSs, um, lipopolysaccharides, which are the outside wall of bacteria. They're not living bacteria. They're just the dead bacteria.

    7. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    8. SG

      And in my book, you know, I don't swear, but I call them little pieces of shit-

    9. LH

      [laughs] Mm-hmm

    10. SG

      ... because that's what they are.

    11. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    12. SG

      LPSs.

    13. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    14. SG

      They literally are dead bacteria. And so these, you can take rats, and you can swab one of their noses with LPSs. They're not living bacteria. They're pieces of dead bacteria. And the other side of the nostril, you can just put a cotton swab with nothing on it.

    15. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    16. SG

      Right? And you do that every day. The rats who get the swab up one side of the nose, their other side of their body gets Parkinson's disease.

    17. LH

      No way.

    18. SG

      Yeah.

    19. LH

      [laughs]

    20. SG

      Gets Parkinson's disease. The other side, you know, the opposite side doesn't. And you go, "What the heck is going on?" Well, if you think about it, your nose and your mouth are gateways to your brain. I mean, literally the back of your mouth and the top of your nose is your brain. Your brain's just sitting there. And so this is a direct shot into your brain. And as I talk about-- I talked about it in The Plant Paradox, but-

    21. LH

      Hmm

    22. SG

      ... I really go into this in The Longevity Paradox, that to prevent Alzheimer's and to prevent Parkinson's and dementia, one of the things you gotta do is the care and feeding of your microbiome, and that includes your oral microbiome. Because [coughs] excuse me, this is a direct shot.

    23. LH

      Yeah.

    24. SG

      And you gotta, you gotta take care of it.

    25. LH

      So how do you take care of that in your mouth?

    26. SG

      So there are, believe it or not, certain bacteria, uh, one's called, uh, P. gingivitis, that is now been isolated from the brains of, uh, Alzheimer's patients. And how did it get there? Well, it got there through your mouth, through bad dental hygiene, through-

    27. LH

      Really?

    28. SG

      ... gingivitis. That's how the name-

    29. LH

      So you can get Alzheimer’s through-

    30. SG

      Through your mouth

  4. 14:36 – 20:15

    Gut Roots, Soil, and Microbial Diversity

    1. LH

      Yeah.

    2. SG

      Yeah, how'd they g- do that? Well, uh, and we can do this 'cause it's kind of fun. Um, I'm fascinated with plants, as you know, the plant paradox. And, you know, plants are actually very intelligent human beings.

    3. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    4. SG

      Uh, they actually see. A new book has proven that plants see.

    5. LH

      Hmm.

    6. SG

      Uh, anyhow, so plants have a root system in the soil that they get their nourishment, and those roots are surrounded by a microbiome of the soil, and there's fungi and bacteria.

    7. LH

      Hmm. Hmm.

    8. SG

      And it's actually that microbiome that gets the food into the plant, gets all the nutrients into the plant. So we actually have roots, and this surface area, um, those of you who remember high school biology, we have all these little projections called microvilli. And th- think, think of it kind of as a shag carpet. And so we have roots that go into our intestines, and everything we eat is actually the soil. And-

    9. LH

      So our intestines are like the roots?

    10. SG

      Yeah, they're our intestines. Out of our intestines are these roots.

    11. LH

      Got it.

    12. SG

      And our... And the soil is what we eat.

    13. LH

      Hmm.

    14. SG

      But the main component of the soil is the microbiome. So you've got four to five pounds of bugs-

    15. LH

      In my gut

    16. SG

      ... in your gut.

    17. LH

      Wow.

    18. SG

      And they're there. We used to think they were just a bunch of crap. They-

    19. LH

      But we actually need it.

    20. SG

      We, we not only need it-

    21. LH

      [laughs]

    22. SG

      ... they control everything that's going to happen to you.

    23. LH

      Do I want 10 pounds of bugs, or do I just want four or five?

    24. SG

      You a- Well, actually, the more, the more diverse set of bugs you have, the more kind of mixing pot United Nations of bugs, the better off you're going to be. In fact-

    25. LH

      Why is that?

    26. SG

      Turns out if you take, you look at what's called microbial diversity, in other words, you know, how many... Th- We now know that there are at least 10,000 different species of bacteria that live in your gut.

    27. LH

      Oh my gosh.

    28. SG

      In fact, few weeks ago, another thousand was, was found that nobody realized. So y- your gut is basically a tropical rainforest.

    29. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    30. SG

      And you've got, you know, all these creatures and things happening, and one creature depends on another.

  5. 20:15 – 25:30

    Naked Mole Rats, Mushrooms, and Alzheimer's Prevention

    1. LH

      So how do we attract all these diverse good bugs?

    2. SG

      I'm so glad you asked. [laughs]

    3. LH

      [laughs]

    4. SG

      So we know that good bugs, uh, like to eat certain foods

    5. LH

      Okay

    6. SG

      And a lot of this was actually based on, there's this fascinating creature called the naked mole rat. And naked mole rats, make sure everybody who's listening or watching Googles nakle- naked mole rats

    7. LH

      Mm-hmm

    8. SG

      And, uh, here will be my first controversial statement-

    9. LH

      Okay [laughs]

    10. SG

      ... of the day. Naked mole rats have sometimes been described as a penis with buck teeth

    11. LH

      Okay

    12. SG

      Okay? So Google it

    13. LH

      There you go

    14. SG

      You'll, you'll see it. So these are probably one of the ugliest creatures in the world. They, th... Naked mole rats live in the Sahara Desert, and they live in colonies very much like termites or bees, and they live in subterranean tunnels. And th- naked mole rats appear to have no end, uh, mortality. In other words, naked mole rats live at least 10 to 20 times longer than any other rat

    15. LH

      Hm

    16. SG

      Rats live about two years

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm

    18. SG

      Naked mole rats have lived 20, 30 years

    19. LH

      Wow

    20. SG

      In fact, no one has actually known that you could actually have a end life of a naked mole rat. So they've been the darling of longevity researchers-

    21. LH

      Hm

    22. SG

      ... for a very long time. And in fact, hilariously, uh, when I was professor at Loma Linda, which is a blue zone, I had behind my desk this giant iridescent, uh, naked mole rat picture-

    23. LH

      Really?

    24. SG

      ... from the San Diego Zoo. And everybody goes-

    25. LH

      Huh

    26. SG

      ... "What, you know, what's the deal? You're a famous heart surgeon, and what the deal do you got this naked mole rat behind your desk?" I mean, it was bright pink and purple. And I've been fascinated with naked mole rats because they're the longest-

    27. LH

      Hm

    28. SG

      ... you know, living creatures. So naked mole rats have the same diverse microbiome as 105-year-old people

    29. LH

      Really?

    30. SG

      Really. And what are, what the heck is going on? Well, it turns out naked mole rats, unlike any other rat, eats roots, eats tubers, and eats fungi that are growing in the subterranean area. So if you think I would like you to eat some roots and tubers-

  6. 25:30 – 28:26

    Longevity Key #1: Olive Oil

    1. SG

      The first thing they must do is realize that the only purpose of food is to get olive oil into your mouth, the only purpose of food, and preferably it'd be mushrooms that you pour the, the olive oil on.

    2. LH

      Mm.

    3. SG

      That's number one. Uh, the evidence that the polyphenols in olive oil, if you really, you know, wanted to live well, uh, for a very long time, olive oil is the key. Two of the blue zones, actually three if you count the Ikarians, use a liter of olive oil per week.

    4. LH

      [laughs]

    5. SG

      Now, that's a lot of olive oil. Uh, it's like 10 to 12 tablespoons a day. So there's a beautiful study out of Spain that I talk about where you took 65-year-old people, and we'll dumb it down real quick. Two groups. One group had to use a liter of olive oil per week for five years, and they changed their olive oil once a week at the clinic. The other group had to eat a low-fat Mediterranean diet-

    6. LH

      Mm-hmm

    7. SG

      ... both Mediterranean diets of Spain. At the end of five years, the olive oil group had better memory, had improved memory than when they started. The low-fat group lost memory. The women in the olive oil group had a 67% less incidence of breast cancer than the low-fat group. People in both groups who had coronary artery disease, the group that got the olive oil had a 30% less incidence of new events versus the group that had the low-fat diet.

    8. LH

      Mm.

    9. SG

      And so if, you know, three blue zones and this study doesn't convince you that you better b- get olive oil into you, olive oil br- grows brain cells, and it's not the oil-

    10. LH

      Wow

    11. SG

      ... per se. It's actually the polyphenols in olive oil. Olive oil, the polyphenols literally make your blood vessels slippery, and I've actually published data on this, that your blood vessels, you cannot stick cholesterol to blood vessels if you have olive oil in your system.

    12. LH

      Huh.

    13. SG

      Yeah. So, you know, drink the dumb stuff. Pour-

    14. LH

      Do you drink it?

    15. SG

      Yeah, I do.

    16. LH

      Wow.

    17. SG

      Yeah. I take a shot of it.

    18. LH

      I know [laughs] Craig's always talking about-

    19. SG

      Yeah

    20. LH

      ... how he can drink as much as possible.

    21. SG

      But what I would urge people to do is, so you can cook in olive oil. This myth that olive oil oxidizes when you cook it is, is one of the worst internet myths there is.

    22. LH

      Really?

    23. SG

      It turns out that olive oil is the least oxidizable oil. It's even better than avocado oil or coconut oil. It does not oxidize.

    24. LH

      Oxidize meaning, like, evaporate?

    25. SG

      No, o-

    26. LH

      Or you mean in the air?

    27. SG

      ... oxidize meaning it gets damaged.

    28. LH

      Damaged.

    29. SG

      Damaged.

    30. LH

      Got it. Okay.

  7. 28:26 – 30:51

    Longevity Key #2: Vitamin D3

    1. LH

      number one.

    2. SG

      Number one. Number two, you gotta take vitamin D3. You've got to.

    3. LH

      Vitamin D3.

    4. SG

      Three.

    5. LH

      Not D.

    6. SG

      Not... Yeah. Well, there's, there's D2.

    7. LH

      Okay.

    8. SG

      There's D1.

    9. LH

      What's vitamin D3, and why is it important?

    10. SG

      So D3 is the active form of vitamin D that we use. You will be shocked that people who have the highest levels of vitamin D in their bloodstream live the longest and live well-

    11. LH

      Right

    12. SG

      ... compared to people with the lowest levels of vitamin D3. It turns out that you have to have vitamin D3 to activate stem cells activation. And we can-

    13. LH

      Vitamin D is also through the sun. Is that correct?

    14. SG

      Correct, but it's nearly impossible to get enough vitamin D through the sun.

    15. LH

      Re- really?

    16. SG

      Nearly impossible. 80% of Southern Californians are vitamin D deficient because we're slathering sunscreen on us and we're layer- wearing long f- sleeve shirts to protect it.

    17. LH

      Uh-huh. We're inside a lot still.

    18. SG

      We're inside a lot.

    19. LH

      Yeah.

    20. SG

      You know, uh, uh, I live in Palm Springs. It's pretty hot in the summer.

    21. LH

      Really hot there.

    22. SG

      We tend not to go out a lot in the summer, so we don't have enough vitamin D, and so you have to swallow vitamin D. The University of California, San Diego-

    23. LH

      Huh

    24. SG

      ... has published a study that the average human being, to have an adequate level of vitamin D3, should be taking 9,600 international units a day, so basically 10,000 international units.

    25. LH

      Wow.

    26. SG

      They found no one who had vitamin D toxicity at 40,000 international units a day.

    27. LH

      You can't overdose on vitamin D?

    28. SG

      I have yet to see vitamin D toxicity, and I've been measuring vitamin D levels for 20 years-

    29. LH

      Wow

    30. SG

      ... in patients every three months. I personally run my vitamin D level greater than 120 nanograms per milliliter for the last 12 years to prove I'm not dead.

  8. 30:51 – 36:00

    Vitamin C, the Ghost Gene, and the Kitavans

    1. LH

      Everyone always says you should take vitamin C when you start to feel like a scratchy throat.

    2. SG

      Yeah, it really doesn't work.

    3. LH

      [laughs]

    4. SG

      Vitamin D is probably one of the best antivirals that's ever been discovered.

    5. LH

      So vitamin C really doesn't help that much? Or-

    6. SG

      Really doesn't help that much.

    7. LH

      You, you take a-

    8. SG

      I'll, we can get into vitamin C.

    9. LH

      Wow.

    10. SG

      And I think everybody should take a time release vitamin C twice a day, and it's actually for a different purpose.

    11. LH

      What's the purpose? [laughs]

    12. SG

      All right.

    13. LH

      The quick version.

    14. SG

      All right, the quick version. So you and I are one of the few animals that don't manufacture our own vitamin C.

    15. LH

      Mm.

    16. SG

      Us, monkeys, and guinea pigs, and we have actually all the genes to manufacture vitamin C. There's actually five of them. The last gene is turned off. It's called a ghost gene. Why do we do that? Well, we manufacture vitamin C from sugar, from glucose.

    17. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    18. SG

      And it's actually very expensive to manufacture vitamin C. So the theory is, and I like the theory, is we grew up, uh, in Africa with lots of vitamin C containing plants in our diet. And so it was unnecessary for us to manufacture vitamin C, and the theory goes we'd have some extra glucose left over that we could store as fat-

    19. LH

      Mm

    20. SG

      ... to make it through the winter when times were rough, and we're the only fat storing ape. So the problem is vitamin C is essential to repair collagen in everybody. Collagen, okay? The, the reason smokers get wrinkles-

    21. LH

      Mm

    22. SG

      ... is collagen is broken because you actually repair cracks in collagen with vitamin C, and smokers use up all their vitamin C with, uh, what's called oxidative stress, so they don't have any vitamin C. In fact, here's another controversial statement. If I've got a smoker with heart disease-

    23. LH

      Uh-huh

    24. SG

      ... I'm willing to trade him his smoking with him taking large amo- amounts of vitamin C while I get the rest of his diet squared away rather than tell him to stop smoking.

    25. LH

      Wow.

    26. SG

      Now, the reason I say that is, and I talk about this in the book, there's this fascinating island people called the Kitavans in New Guinea who smoke like fiends. They eat 60% of their diet is taro root. The other part of their diet is coconut oil.

    27. LH

      Hm.

    28. SG

      And they live into their mid 90s with no medical care, but they've been studied ex- extensively. There has never been a case of a heart attack, heart disease, or a stroke in these smokers. What they do do is they eat a lot of vitamin C containing fruits and vegetables-

    29. LH

      Mm

    30. SG

      ... as part of their diet.

  9. 36:00 – 38:59

    Longevity Key #3: Omega-3s and DHA

    1. SG

      Next is you gotta get some form of long chain omega-3 fat, be- better known as fish oil.

    2. LH

      Hm.

    3. SG

      And vegans have no excuse anymore. There is algae-based DHA and EPA, but here's the deal. Your brain, uh, is about 70% fat. So if you want to call me a fat head, you know I, I will bat you.

    4. LH

      You'll take it. Yeah, yeah.

    5. SG

      And, uh, I can just see now the internet lighting up and-

    6. LH

      Memes

    7. SG

      ... under is a f-

    8. LH

      [laughs]

    9. SG

      Yeah.

    10. LH

      Fat head.

    11. SG

      So half of the fat in your brain Is actually an omega-3 fat called DHA. So half, basically half of your brain-

    12. LH

      Mm-hmm

    13. SG

      ... is fish oil.

    14. LH

      Wow.

    15. SG

      And as I talk about in The Longevity Paradox, you look at people, what are called the omega-3 index, which basically looks at how much DHA you have in you over the past two months. People with the highest omega-3 index have the largest brains and the largest areas of memory, the hippocampus. People with the lowest levels of DHA have the most shrunken brains and the smallest memor- um, memory areas, hippocampus.

    16. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    17. SG

      So Mom was right when she said fish is brain food. You know, she was absolut- she didn't know why it was, but we now know it's DHA is really what makes your brain.

    18. LH

      So sushi's good.

    19. SG

      Sushi is actually not a good idea.

    20. LH

      Oh, wow.

    21. SG

      Most of the people I see with high mercury levels are sushi eaters or dentists, uh, so and particularly-

    22. LH

      Wow

    23. SG

      ... sashimi grade tuna.

    24. LH

      God, it's so good, though

    25. SG

      You just wanna... You just kinda-

    26. LH

      So good

    27. SG

      ... wanna stay away from it.

    28. LH

      Ah, sugarfish-

    29. SG

      Sorry

    30. LH

      ... is amazing, though.

  10. 38:59 – 45:06

    Longevity Key #4: Polyphenols and Bitter Plants

    1. SG

      So you gotta have polyphenols in your diet.

    2. LH

      So poly- [laughs] What the heck is a polyphenol?

    3. SG

      How do you remember polyphenol? Think, think about Polly Want A Phenol.

    4. LH

      Okay.

    5. SG

      Um, phenols are plant compounds. Polyphenols are plant compounds that plants use primarily to protect themselves-

    6. LH

      Oh

    7. SG

      ... against stress and sunlight.

    8. LH

      Uh-huh.

    9. SG

      Uh, just interesting fact, we know that red wine is beneficial for you because of actually two polyphenols. The most famous is resveratrol. The other one is quercetin or quercetin. The higher the grapes are grown, the higher in altitude the grapes are grown, the more polyphenols they make-

    10. LH

      'Cause they need more to protect themselves, right?

    11. SG

      Exa- exactly. It's basically, uh, suntan.

    12. LH

      Mm-hmm.

    13. SG

      Uh, you know, they, they've actually protected themselves against sunburn.

    14. LH

      Interesting.

    15. SG

      Also, the more the plant is stressed, the more polyphenols it makes to protect itself.

    16. LH

      Right.

    17. SG

      Okay? So polyphenols are traditionally in dark colored berries, so for instance, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. Interesting fun fact, the leaves of these trees or vines have more polyphenols than the actual fruit does.

    18. LH

      Hmm.

    19. SG

      So for instance, black raspberry leaves have far more polyphenols than black raspberries. Um-

    20. LH

      Wow

    21. SG

      ... and I take black raspberry capsules, oh, by the way, and it's in the book.

    22. LH

      There you go.

    23. SG

      Um, so olives, for instance, are loaded with polyphenols.

    24. LH

      Huh.

    25. SG

      And olives that are stressed, uh, produce-

    26. LH

      Even better

    27. SG

      ... are even better.

    28. LH

      Wow.

    29. SG

      Olive leaves have more polyphenols than olives, so olive leaf extract is an easy way of getting s- the huge amount of benefits without drinking a liter of olive oil.

    30. LH

      So d- what about like, uh, you know, leafy greens?

  11. 45:06 – 51:06

    Longevity Key #5: Turning Down mTOR with Fasting

    1. SG

      Great. So last thing we want to do is we want to turn off as much as w- we can the sensor called mTOR. Um, originally called the mammalian target of rapamycin. Uh, it's subsequently been discovered in all organisms-

    2. LH

      Mm

    3. SG

      ... besides mammals and so now it's called the mechanistic target of rapamycin. And so mTOR is an energy sensor, and it's in all of our cells. And w- basically we come from a circadian rhythm-

    4. LH

      Mm-hmm

    5. SG

      ... system of plentiful food at one time of the year, and very little food-

    6. LH

      Right

    7. SG

      ... at another time of year.

    8. LH

      Right. Fruit sometimes, nothing.

    9. SG

      Exactly.

    10. LH

      Yeah.

    11. SG

      And we use fruit to gain weight for the winter, and that's a whole nother subject. So mTOR senses energy availability, and it senses sugar molecules, and it also senses amino acids, protein. Now, it turns out that it's very sensitive to particular amino acids-

    12. LH

      Mm

    13. SG

      ... rather than all amino acids. The ones it's most sensitive to are amino acids contained in animal protein, and animals include fish. Animal protein includes eggs, it includes cheeses, and besides, you know, meat. So beautiful work that's been done, a lot of it done by now my friend Valter Longo from USC, from the Longevity Center.

    14. LH

      Mm. Is that the mimicking-

    15. SG

      Yeah

    16. LH

      ... fasting diet?

    17. SG

      The fasting mimicking diet.

    18. LH

      I s- I've taken that a couple times.

    19. SG

      Yeah. And I, him, that he got a patent for-

    20. LH

      Yeah

    21. SG

      ... ProLong.

    22. LH

      Yeah. ProLong.

    23. SG

      Yeah.

    24. LH

      Yeah, yeah.

    25. SG

      He got a patent for it.

    26. LH

      I did this.

    27. SG

      So ProLong-

    28. LH

      Yeah. It's good

    29. SG

      ... so ProLong is a vegan low amino acid diet that you do for five days.

    30. LH

      Yeah. It's tough the first time.

  12. 51:06 – 55:40

    Avoiding the Old-Age Trap: Reversing Decline and Wrap-Up

    1. SG

      Yeah, you do.

    2. LH

      I f- I looked younger. I looked healthier, younger. After like three days, I can notice a difference. And so for me, it was very challenging 'cause I usually eat thousands of calories a day. But to have, you know, 800, 900 a day was, and the specific calories, you know, the specific, specific things that it gives you, uh, and you talk about it in here how to do that as well.

    3. SG

      Yeah. Here's how to do it. And you don't, you know, uh, God bless him, you know, all of his profits go back into research-

    4. LH

      Yeah, that's great

    5. SG

      ... uh, which is great. Um, it's a good product. Uh, I show people how to do it-

    6. LH

      Without that

    7. SG

      ... just in their own home without that.

    8. LH

      Perfect.

    9. SG

      Um, and, and he, you know, bless him, he, he backs my way of doing it.

    10. LH

      Right.

    11. SG

      So we're... But again, these are the, these are the tricks, um-

    12. LH

      Mm-hmm

    13. SG

      ... to, you know, you re- most of us, the reason it's called Longevity Paradox is most of us look at what's happening, and old age doesn't look very good.

    14. LH

      No. [laughs]

    15. SG

      Um, you know, it really doesn't. Uh, people now, you know, assume that they're gonna get their hips and their knees replaced, and they're gonna have a bypass or a stent or a valve replacement, and they're gonna end up anyhow in the old folks home, you know, drooling in their oatmeal. And none of us, you know, we've seen that, you know, happen to our parents or our grandparents and we go-

    16. LH

      We don't want that

    17. SG

      ... eh, I don't want that. It doesn't have to be that way. What, what shocked me is I've had a number of people, and I talk about some of them in the book, who have been scheduled for knee or hip replacement and have come to me for cardiac clearance, get a stress test, make sure they can come through the test. And we would put them on my program in, you know, anticipation of getting them in better shape for their hip or knee replacement. And, uh, one of them that I talk about in the book, uh, he was scheduled for a knee replacement. He was a diabetic. He had heart disease. We put him on the program for six months pending his knee replacement.

    18. LH

      Mm.

    19. SG

      And when I saw him right before the knee replacement to, you know, do the final test, I said, "Okay, you know, you're ready to go. You're, you don't have diabetes anymore."

    20. LH

      Yes.

    21. SG

      "You don't, you know, your, you passed your stress test." I said, "You know, you can have your knee replacement." And then the guy says, "What knee replacement? I canceled it, you know? My knee doesn't hurt anymore."

    22. LH

      Wow.

    23. SG

      And he starts skipping around the exam room. And it, people can regrow cartilage.

    24. LH

      Wow.

    25. SG

      Um, and I talk about why you lose cartilage with, because of the things you eat, including lectins.

    26. LH

      Mm.

    27. SG

      Lectins are one of the major reasons why people have arthritis.

    28. LH

      [sighs] Darn. More in The Plant Paradox. Uh, this book is called The Longevity Paradox: How to Die Young at a Ripe Old Age. It's out right now. You guys can get it. I highly recommend it. There's 40-plus pages of, uh, notes backing all of the data and the research and the science, uh, in the back. Uh, you've got all the research. You've got the diet programs, what to eat, what to take, everything you need.

    29. SG

      Yeah.

    30. LH

      Get this for yourself. Get it for your parents. Get it for friends. Um, this is gonna be a game changer. Make sure you guys check this out. You brought me a bunch of goodies for my birthday, so I'm gonna-

  13. 55:40 – 58:52

    Defining Greatness and the Bonus Key: Never Retire

    1. LH

      So I'll just ask one f- I, I wanna acknowledge you for this. You continue to show up and do the research to help people live healthier, longer lives. And I think it's really cool to know that you're this heart surgeon who worked on, I think, 10,000 heart surgeries.

    2. SG

      Yeah.

    3. LH

      And you started to look within and a- and ask yourself the question, like, "This isn't working." When people are going through heart surgery, then they come back three years later, it's-

    4. SG

      Here we go again

    5. LH

      ... it's a Band-Aid, but it's not fixing the, the root cause. And we need more roots, I guess, in our gut is what you're saying. So, uh, I acknowledge you for essentially evolving something that you were taught early on, that you spent a lot of time and money going to school for, and evolving out of that to help people live longer, healthier, happier lives. So I acknowledge you for everything you do. Dr. Gundry, you're an inspiration. And, um, my final question is what's your definition of greatness?

    6. SG

      Let's see. Uh, what did I... I've forgotten what I saw-

    7. LH

      I know

    8. SG

      ... said last time.

    9. LH

      We'll compare both of them, yeah.

    10. SG

      You know, um, if, if I can, if I can teach somebody, uh, how to fish, I don't have to give them a fish.

    11. LH

      Mm.

    12. SG

      And so teaching somebody, um, is, is my definition of greatness.

    13. LH

      Yeah.

    14. SG

      And again, I used to give people fish by operating on them.

    15. LH

      Mm.

    16. SG

      And now I teach them how to fish-

    17. LH

      Yeah

    18. SG

      ... and they don't have to have operations anymore. And I, again, I-- the greatness that I see is, uh, and I've talked about this in dedications, I owe everything to my patients.

    19. LH

      Mm.

    20. SG

      Because they either asked me a question I couldn't answer, or they were willing every three months to, you know, do some silly dietary thing or go to Costco and Trader Joe's and buy a supplement, and I'd look to see what happens. Without them, uh, I couldn't do this.

    21. LH

      Mm.

    22. SG

      And I was at a meeting a few months ago walking with another very famous nutritionist, and he said, "You don't still see patients, do you?" And I said, "Oh, gosh, yeah, I see them every day. I actually, on Saturdays and Sundays, I have a full practice tomorrow in Santa Barbara."

    23. LH

      Mm.

    24. SG

      And he says, "What do you do that for?" And I said, "Well, 'cause I learn every day-"

    25. LH

      Mm

    26. SG

      ... "from my patients. I learned a couple things yesterday from my patients." So I can't imagine doing what I do without having my patients help me.

    27. LH

      Yeah.

    28. SG

      So I'm never gonna retire. Oh, and that's the fifth thing. Never retire, ever. I-- particularly men. Um, we are social creatures, and you have to be in a social network. And men in general find that in the workplace, women more and more, and I see so many men, uh, and now women who retire, and it starts the downward spiral.

    29. LH

      Wow.

    30. SG

      And it's because their social network is gone.

Episode duration: 59:07

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