Advice From the #1 Longevity Doctor: Add 10 Years to Your Life With 3 Simple Habits

1. 0:00 – 2:23

   Welcome

   1. MRMel Robbins0:00

      I wanna read to you from your book, because you had some strong words about the anti-aging industry. This is a scientist and doctor whose work has been cited 365,000 times. What do you wanna say about the anti-aging craze and all the marketing around it?

   2. ETDr. Eric Topol0:19

      I mean, there's all kinds of stuff going on right now. It's pretty scary. People keep talking about longevity.

   3. MRMel Robbins0:25

      Right.

   4. ETDr. Eric Topol0:25

      What we wanna do is improve our health span. Turns out that exercise is the only thing we know that lowers our biological age.

   5. MRMel Robbins0:33

      What are the top three things, Dr. Topol, that most people are doing that are actually aging them faster?

   6. ETDr. Eric Topol0:39

      The problem, Mel, is the things that they're not doing. Poor diet, not nearly enough exercise, and then, of course, this is what I think most people don't understand. Ultimately, if you do all the things that we're talking about that's been study after study, this extends healthy aging by seven to 10 years.

   7. MRMel Robbins0:57

      Wait. No, hold on. So... Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to The Mel Robbins Podcast. I am so excited that you're here. I'm excited that I'm here, and I am really excited that our guest, Dr. Eric Topol, is here today. It's always such an honor to spend time with you and to be together, and if you're a new listener, I just wanna take a moment and personally welcome you to The Mel Robbins Podcast family. I'm glad you're here. And because you made the time to listen to this particular episode, here's what I know about you. I know that you're the kind of person who not only values your time, but you value your health and you're interested in longevity, and you could not have picked a better conversation to spend your time on because this is gonna be one of the most valuable things you could ever listen to on longevity, on the science of aging, because you're gonna be learning from one of the most respected living medical researchers and scientists alive today. And if you're listening right now because somebody in your life shared this with you, I wanna point something out. That's really cool because it means you have people in your life that care about you and that care about your health and they wanted you to have the opportunity to learn from one of the top researchers in the world about simple things that you can do based on the evidence to live longer, to be healthier, and to have a better life, because that's exactly what you and I are gonna talk about today with the extraordinary Dr. Eric Topol.

2. 2:23 – 7:16

   The Science of Longevity

   1. MRMel Robbins2:23

      Dr. Topol is a pioneering physician scientist. He's a cardiologist who practiced for almost four decades and is one of the most renowned researchers in the world. He is the founder and director of the world renowned Scripps Research Translational Institute where he currently serves as the executive vice president and professor of molecular medicine. Previously, Dr. Topol was the chairman of cardiovascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic, one of the top hospitals in the world, and it was ranked number one in heart care for over a decade during Dr. Topol's tenure. And if you're thinking, "What else could this guy possibly do?" well, he's also among the top 10 most cited researchers in medicine in the world. He's published over 1,370 peer-reviewed articles, which is an enormous number, and his research is so respected that it's been cited by other researchers more than 365,000 times. I mean, just to put that into perspective, that's more than 99.99% of all scientists globally. He's also the author of several best-selling books, including his newest mega best-seller, SuperAgers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity, which has already been endorsed by, check this out, five Nobel laureates and several of the world's top medical researchers. I am absolutely honored that he chose the Mel Robbins Podcast and a conversation with you and me as the very first interview that he granted for his new book. Dr. Eric Topol, thank you so much for getting on a plane, flying across the country, and being here on the Mel Robbins Podcast. I'm absolutely thrilled to unpack SuperAgers with you, your brand new book.

   2. ETDr. Eric Topol4:00

      Oh, thanks so much, Mel. It's great to be with you.

   3. MRMel Robbins4:02

      Well, here's where I'd like to start, because you are one of the most credentialed and cited experts. The book, of course, is an evidence-based approach to longevity. I would love to have you start by talking directly to the person who's listening, and tell them what they might experience that will be different about their life or the life of somebody that they care about if they take everything to heart that you're about to teach us today.

   4. ETDr. Eric Topol4:27

      Well, there's a lot of things that we can do about our lifestyle that are more than just the diet, sleep, exercise stuff that people have been hearing about for decades.

   5. MRMel Robbins4:36

      Mm-hmm.

   6. ETDr. Eric Topol4:36

      Uh, but also, the three major diseases, cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative like dementia, Alzheimer's, those three diseases take more than 20 years to take hold. So if we plan enough in advance, we can prevent those diseases from ever occurring, and particularly those people who are at high risk. So it's an exciting opportunity that we're only realizing now that we have ways to prevent age-related diseases.

   7. MRMel Robbins5:04

      Well, one of the things that I loved about reading SuperAgers is, first of all, not only do I feel smarter now, but I also could feel the passion and your optimism, that there are simple things that absolutely anybody can do starting today that will not only make you healthier, but more importantly, based on the science of aging, it will actually extend your life.

   8. ETDr. Eric Topol5:28

      Ultimately, if you do all the things that we're talking about that's been study after study, this extends healthy aging by seven to 10 years.

   9. MRMel Robbins5:37

      Wow.

   10. ETDr. Eric Topol5:37

       People keep talking about longevity.

   11. MRMel Robbins5:39

       Right.

   12. ETDr. Eric Topol5:39

       What we wanna do is improve our health span, that is, our years of healthy living. And so, we can do that now, uh, if only we pay attention to the, the, the hard evidence that exists today. We don't need a magic pill or potion. (laughs) We can just work with what we have right now, and that, you know, to have seven to 10 years more of healthy life...

   13. MRMel Robbins6:02

       And is that true for anyone, Dr. Topol? Like if the person listening is y- you know, kind of, one of the, one of the things that I always find when I'm listening to somebody who is as smart as you are, who has done the research and you're like, "Here are the simple things to do." And you go, "Oh my God, I really screwed up and now it's too late." Like does the science of aging show that even if you're starting from a baseline where you have not taken care of yourself, you're not getting sleep, you haven't been moving your body, you've basically been living out of a box or a bag of chips for most of your life, do these interventions also help you start to reclaim your health in terms of extending your life?

   14. ETDr. Eric Topol6:41

       It's never too late. So it's, it's also, uh, um, never too early.

   15. MRMel Robbins6:45

       Yeah.

   16. ETDr. Eric Topol6:45

       I mean, if you start doing this when you're in your 20s and you do it the whole, your whole life, you get even more years. But you could start this at age 70, 80 and you still will benefit. So, uh, the whole point here is that all of us, if we had the, the real, um, extraordinary attention to these lifestyle factors, which, you know, are, are mu- much more diverse and extensive than we have previously-

   17. MRMel Robbins7:12

       Mm-hmm.

   18. ETDr. Eric Topol7:13

       ... uh, accepted because they involve our environment,

3. 7:16 – 25:05

   How to Stay Healthy as You Get Older

   1. ETDr. Eric Topol7:16

      they involve being in nature, they involve many other things, um, that we, if we really tuned into all this, no matter what age, all the data supports, uh, promotion of healthy aging.

   2. MRMel Robbins7:28

      You're basically saying there is a m- huge difference between what somebody like me and the person listening is seeing out in the media about anti-aging and the anti-aging craze versus what you're here to teach us about the science of aging, and simple changes that you can make that not only will help you live a longer and healthier life, but these same changes also help prevent the big three diseases of cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative issues like dementia.

   3. ETDr. Eric Topol8:02

      Exactly. So these diseases, um, are related to particular organs in the body.

   4. MRMel Robbins8:07

      Mm-hmm.

   5. ETDr. Eric Topol8:08

      And only now do we have these things called organ clocks, where these proteins in our body can tell us that a particular organ in a particular person is aging faster than it should. So not only can we tell people, or they are particularly higher risk, but which is the organ, which is the condition that is off-kilter, that, you know, outta whack. And that's when that prevention can really kick in to be targeted against that condition or organ, uh, that's affected. So we have, from the tools of science of aging-

   6. MRMel Robbins8:41

      Mm-hmm.

   7. ETDr. Eric Topol8:41

      ... we have new metrics now that we never had before that's gonna help us to make a huge dent in preventing age-related diseases in the future.

   8. MRMel Robbins8:51

      You know, one of the things that I was surprised by, Dr. Topol, when I was reading your best-selling book Super Agers, is that literally a third of this book is dedicated to diseases. It never even occurred to me that one way to live a longer, healthier life is to actually avoid having a chronic disease.

   9. ETDr. Eric Topol9:11

      Right.

   10. MRMel Robbins9:12

       And there's so much hope and science that you have in this. So how important is avoiding or, like, not getting one of these chronic diseases to the science of aging and longevity?

   11. ETDr. Eric Topol9:25

       Now that we realized it's just the big three, you know, cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative, uh, which is mainly Alzheimer's and Parkinson's-

   12. MRMel Robbins9:33

       Mm-hmm.

   13. ETDr. Eric Topol9:34

       ... the exciting future, which is beginning now, is that we can say you are at risk for this particular of the three and using the things that we know prevent that condition. That's what's so extraordinary right now is that we're at a cusp of being able to say, uh, this individualized, or a lot of people call precision medicine-

   14. MRMel Robbins9:55

       Yep.

   15. ETDr. Eric Topol9:56

       ... that we're gonna be able to say, "You know, the only thing that you're at risk for is this disease and we're gonna get all over it, so you'll never really have to worry about getting it. Or if you do get it, it will be 10 or 15 years beyond when you would've had it otherwise."

   16. MRMel Robbins10:11

       First of all, when I read the statistic that for Americans age 60 and older, 95% of Americans 60 or older have some sort of chronic disease, that was jaw-dropping. But what I find encouraging is that all of this extensive research that you lay out in this book basically is the prescription, the lifestyle plus modifications that you're talking about when it comes to sleep and loneliness and exercise and lowering the, the amount of processed foods that we have, that all of these are actual interventions that help you fight these chronic diseases and may also help you never even get one. Is that-

   17. ETDr. Eric Topol10:55

       Yeah. So-

   18. MRMel Robbins10:55

       Am I, am I stating that accurately?

   19. ETDr. Eric Topol10:56

       No, you... Again, you really have this right because what you're talking about is today people 65 and older are just riddled with chronic diseases.

   20. MRMel Robbins11:07

       Yes.

   21. ETDr. Eric Topol11:08

       If those same people had started at age 50 with what we're talking about today, they would unlikely to have those chronic diseases, or-

   22. MRMel Robbins11:17

       Seriously?

   23. ETDr. Eric Topol11:18

       ... they might've had it when they're 75 or 80 rather than when they're 60. So that's what it... The, the data's supporting adopting lifestyle factors with these diseases. This is what I think most people don't understand. You've got 20 years to develop one of these diseases. Cancer doesn't just strike, you know, all of a sudden. You don't have a heart attack or a stroke all of a sudden. You have 20 plus years while this is working in your body, developing, incubating if you will. And so if you started to do these things earlier in life... And again, as we r- reviewed earlier today, uh, it's never too late, but these d- diseases could be avoided. The problem is most people who are 65-

   24. MRMel Robbins11:59

       Mm-hmm.

   25. ETDr. Eric Topol11:59

       ... and have these chronic diseases have not followed these lifestyle plus factors, not taken advantage of what we know today.

   26. MRMel Robbins12:08

       And just to be, like-... clear because I'm sure somebody will push back on that. There are all kinds of cancers and diseases that hit people when they're little or when they are in their 20s that are not, like, determined by lifestyle. What you're saying is, based on the science of aging, that the big three th- diseases that kill people that you said over and over, heart disease, cancer, and, uh, the neurodegenerative things like dementia, that people develop later in life, that by and large, the research shows that these lifestyle plus interventions not only make these, uh, help you treat the diseases, but if you were to implement what you're talking about based on the research, you might never get these diseases in the first place.

   27. ETDr. Eric Topol12:54

       There are s- people, diseases that young people get. We're not talking about that. We're talking about the ones that are clearly, there's certain types of cancer, most of them in fact, um, and obviously the neurodegenerative and, and cardiovascular. These are the principal age-related diseases. And that's what I think a lot of people don't understand is aging increases the risk. But we have ways to change that whole pace, that clock, uh, if you will. And that's what is exciting now.

   28. MRMel Robbins13:25

       Well, you write about this on page 125, chapter six. "By 2050, the number of people dying from cancer, age-related cancers, projected to nearly double. But we have not yet incorporated over half a century of extraordinary breakthroughs in the understanding and use of certain biological mechanisms that can stop cancer from killing us now." What do you want the person listening, what's the most important thing that they could do in order to put to use these extraordinary breakthroughs in the science of aging and use biologic mechanism to stop cancer?

   29. ETDr. Eric Topol14:05

       Yeah, this is an area that's so ripe to reboot, which is how we, uh, address cancer.

   30. MRMel Robbins14:10

       Mm-hmm.
4. 25:05 – 34:31

   The Truth About Anti-Aging, According to Science

   1. MRMel Robbins25:05

      get into. So Dr. Topol, I wanna read to you from your book because you got some strong words about the anti-aging industry, and I'm reading from chapter 12, and it is, uh, page 277. And I just wanna remind you as you're listening, this is a scientist and doctor whose work has been cited 365,000 times, and here are his thoughts and words about anti-aging. "Have you visited the longevity lifespan circus lately? There are over 800 longevity clinics in the United States. Some charge up to $50,000 per week. Fitness centers now have intravenous anti-aging drips. There are carnival barker scientists making false claims and hawking supplements. These entrepreneurial companies and investments aren't likely to settle down anytime soon because we are seeing some real progress in understanding the science of the aging process. Unfortunately, though, that has led to irrational exuberance in many dimensions. I'm hoping to set the record straight on what we know, what we don't know, and how likely it is that we'll be able to modulate the aging process to some extent one day." So Dr. Topol, those are strong words. What do you wanna say about the anti-aging craze and all the marketing around it?

   2. ETDr. Eric Topol26:30

      There is n- nothing, uh, that's been proven in people to, uh, promote the slowing or reversing of aging, whether they're pills, or compounds, or, uh, tra- infusions, transfusions, none of that is proven to have an anti-aging effect in human beings. There's a lot of that that's been looked really good in mice or rats, uh, but not in people. So we'll start with rapamycin. A lot of people are taking this drug. It suppresses our immune system. That could be very risky to do that. And unfortunately, too many people are advocating that. There's nicotinamide, NAD+, a supplement. There are no data to show that it improves healthy aging in people. Uh, there's this epigenetic, uh, reprogramming, very elegant, uh, it could cause cancer. It isn't in people yet, but it's, it's certainly a risk. There's senolytic drugs that take out our senescent cells. They're indiscriminate. They could take out bad cells out of our body, these drugs that do that. Uh, there's plasmapheresis, taking young people's plasma and infusing it into old people's plasma to promote healthy aging and better cognition. There are clinics doing that. There are no data to support it. There's all kinds of infusions of, uh, kind of multivitamins and whatnot, uh, there's just no data to support any of it. And it's really unfortunate because people that believe this stuff, uh, are the prey. Not only, uh, are they expensive, but they are posing significant risks. Uh, it could be cancer, it could be, um, immunosuppression. These are not things you wanna play around with.

   3. MRMel Robbins28:12

      You actually warn about the dangers and this obsession of trying to stop or reverse aging. Could you explain, Dr. Topol, the problem with stopping or reversing aging?

   4. ETDr. Eric Topol28:26

      Well, so one of the most elegant approaches, uh, which caught a lot of interest in the biomedical community was the idea of giving genes to an old animal, in this case, uh, a mouse, and now extended to other species, and these are known as Yamanaka factors because they have the ability to reprogram the organism, the cells of an organism.

   5. MRMel Robbins28:50

      Okay, so you're taking genes from a younger animal, and then you're injecting them into the older animal with the presumption that the genes of the younger animal can then infiltrate and reprogram older genes, thereby making you younger?

   6. ETDr. Eric Topol29:07

      Close.

   7. MRMel Robbins29:07

      Okay.

   8. ETDr. Eric Topol29:07

      But these genes don't come from a, a younger animal. They just are known to turn the clock backwards.

   9. MRMel Robbins29:12

      Okay.

   10. ETDr. Eric Topol29:13

       And so the whole idea was, "Okay, we're gonna inject these four into the, uh, animal."

   11. MRMel Robbins29:17

       Mm-hmm.

   12. ETDr. Eric Topol29:18

       "And we're gonna take an older animal, and it's gonna affect all their cells, and they're gonna get young." And it happened. Say, "Wow, this is amazing," right? And-

   13. MRMel Robbins29:26

       Well, how do you tell if it looks young? Like, when you say that to me, it's like-

   14. ETDr. Eric Topol29:29

       Yeah.

   15. MRMel Robbins29:29

       ... I'm just, like, a normal person, so I'm like, "Okay, you're gonna inject me with genes. It's gonna make me turn young." I feel like my wrinkles disappear-

   16. ETDr. Eric Topol29:36

       (laughs)

   17. MRMel Robbins29:36

       ... you know, I'm not sagging in places I wish I weren't sagging. My skin's a little fir-

   18. ETDr. Eric Topol29:40

       (laughs)

   19. MRMel Robbins29:40

       You know what I'm saying? Like-

   20. ETDr. Eric Topol29:41

       Yeah.

   21. MRMel Robbins29:41

       ... is that what you mean by you look young?

   22. ETDr. Eric Topol29:43

       It's actually pretty deep. So it wasn't just that their gray hair went away-

   23. MRMel Robbins29:46

       Okay.

   24. ETDr. Eric Topol29:46

       ... you know, but also, the fact that at the organ level-

   25. MRMel Robbins29:50

       Uh-huh.

   26. ETDr. Eric Topol29:50

       ... they had, for example, their glucose regulation turn back to normal.

   27. MRMel Robbins29:54

       Hmm.

   28. ETDr. Eric Topol29:54

       Their, many of their organs showed young, um, a, a young look rather than having all the things that you would associate with, you know, a very old organism. So-

   29. MRMel Robbins30:04

       Yep.

   30. ETDr. Eric Topol30:05

       ... it, it looks great. You say-
5. 34:31 – 48:28

   How Ultra-Processed Foods Speed up Aging

   1. ETDr. Eric Topol34:31

   2. MRMel Robbins34:31

      I wanna call something out because I found it absolutely fascinating. On page 19 through 20, you talk a lot about diet and the impact that diet has on the aging process, and you write that based on the research, 22% of all deaths are linked to someone's diet. That means one in five d- how can that be true, Dr. Topol?

   3. ETDr. Eric Topol34:58

      Yeah, no, it's- it's amazing. So the Global Burden of Disease, uh, comes out of University of Washington. They've studied this globally.

   4. MRMel Robbins35:06

      Okay.

   5. ETDr. Eric Topol35:06

      And what we've learned is that overnutrition, which is really bad, having, you know, very-

   6. MRMel Robbins35:12

      What i- that's a nice way to say what? What's overnutrition?

   7. ETDr. Eric Topol35:14

      Being obese or significantly overweight.

   8. MRMel Robbins35:17

      Okay.

   9. ETDr. Eric Topol35:18

      Undernutrition or malnutrition.

   10. MRMel Robbins35:20

       Uh-huh.

   11. ETDr. Eric Topol35:20

       Uh, and then poor nutrition, which is, as we talked about, the unprocessed foods, for example. Those three categories collectively account for, they- they have shown in their work, one in five deaths. Yes, nutrition is- is fundamental.

   12. MRMel Robbins35:36

       And you write a lot about ultra-processed foods, and you write in particular on page 21 that, "Eating ultra-processed food... likely involves the disruption of the gut-brain signals that unprocessed food conveys to the brain" and that this has "a direct connection to a markedly heightened risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases." Can you talk a little bit about ultra-processed foods? So, you know, I think about ultra-processed as anything that's in a box or a bag and that I can't read the ingredients on the back of the label. But you say that you believe that ultra-processed foods and the big food industry, particularly here in the United States, at some point, we're gonna wake the hell up and realize that this is just like a modern-day cigarette in terms of how it's killing us. What do you mean by that, Dr. Topol?

   13. ETDr. Eric Topol36:35

       Yeah, I'm glad you brought that out because this is, um, a serious matter. We have the big food industry that markets this, and they- basically because of the gut-brain axis, you eat these u- ultra-processed foods and you wanna eat more.

   14. MRMel Robbins36:50

       Mm-hmm.

   15. ETDr. Eric Topol36:50

       That we- we've- we've seen very careful studies that it promotes overeating. So that's bad enough in itself, but what it also does, it promotes inflammation in the body. And so when you have that, that's when you have your glucose dysregulation and you can move on to type 2 diabetes. It also then a-... uh, increases the risk of atherosclerosis-

   16. MRMel Robbins37:13

       What is that?

   17. ETDr. Eric Topol37:13

       ... heart disease, where you-

   18. MRMel Robbins37:13

       Oh, that's a fancy word for heart disease.

   19. ETDr. Eric Topol37:15

       Yeah.

   20. MRMel Robbins37:15

       What was that called?

   21. ETDr. Eric Topol37:16

       You're basically accumulating cholesterol plaque in your arteries, which you can get heart attacks or strokes. And it also, of course, has effects, um, on, at the level of the brain, promoting inflammation, the last thing we want there, and the risk of cancer. And so all the data on ultra-processed foods, which it's not just that you can't read because of all these ingredients, it's just that when you do read them, you don't recognize them-

   22. MRMel Robbins37:40

       Mm-hmm.

   23. ETDr. Eric Topol37:40

       ... because they are all foreign things that would never be found in your kitchen. Everything about these suggests that they're, uh, they're in- inducing a lot of harm. They're promoting aging. And one of the stories in the book, uh, I reviewed is there's a fellow named, uh, scientist, uh, physician in the UK, Chris van Tulleken.

   24. MRMel Robbins38:00

       Mm-hmm.

   25. ETDr. Eric Topol38:00

       And he wrote a book called Ultra-Processed People.

   26. MRMel Robbins38:03

       Mm-hmm.

   27. ETDr. Eric Topol38:04

       And so he actually, uh... Remember that Super Size Me thing, that guy did it, went to McDonald's every day for-

   28. MRMel Robbins38:10

       Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

   29. ETDr. Eric Topol38:11

       Yeah. Well-

   30. MRMel Robbins38:11

       It was a documentary where he ate it for 40 days.
6. 48:28 – 54:49

   The #1 Habit That Helps You Live Longer

   1. MRMel Robbins48:28

      in a movie. So you talk a little bit about exercise because the research that you present in this book, it's honestly astonishing. It's astonishing. You say, Dr. Topol, that the single most effective medical intervention that we know of that's even more effective than an antidepressant for treating depression, you write about this on page 263 in your best-selling book, SuperAgers, the findings are further strengthened by a meta-analysis of 41 randomized controlled trials of exercise for a major depressive disorder that markedly reduce symptoms of depression. Can you talk to us about exercise and the benefits when it comes to the science of aging and longevity?

   2. ETDr. Eric Topol49:14

      Yeah, this is actually amazing, and it's so much more profound than we had, uh, generally accepted. We've been hearing about it for years, but now talking about those clocks of aging and what we learned from the science of aging, there's a thing called an epigenetic clock, which is these methyl groups on our DNA, the side chains, and they can predict your biological age.... so not your chronological age.

   3. MRMel Robbins49:38

      Okay.

   4. ETDr. Eric Topol49:38

      But instead of let's say you're 70 and your, your epigenetic age is 60, like, wow, you hit the jackpot. Turns out that exercise is the only thing we know that lowers our biological age, okay? So it, it, your... The gap between your real age and your biological age is widened. Now, it's not just aerobic exercise. So as a cardiologist, I've been saying you gotta, you know, get on, um, you know, walks or, you know, a treadmill, bicycle, elliptical, whatever, uh, 30 minutes a day, five days a week. I've been pushing that, and then I didn't realize the data that's so striking regarding resistance training.

   5. MRMel Robbins50:17

      Okay.

   6. ETDr. Eric Topol50:17

      So you need that just as much, a couple, few times a week. And that data has now become very solid. And it isn't just about getting stronger. It's having better balance. It's essential. There's nothing that we can talk about that exceeds exercise for decreasing our aging process, our body-wide aging process. And again, we wouldn't have known about this if there hadn't been all this science of aging.

   7. MRMel Robbins50:43

      So let's just say, Dr. Topol, that I'm sitting in your office and I've brought along my husband, and he has not been taking good care of himself. And I, I have a feeling that you are often finding yourself being both a marriage therapist and a medical doctor with your patients, and I also have a feeling that there are a large number of people around the world who are gonna not only be excited about what you're sharing for themselves, but they're gonna share this with somebody that they care about. And so what would you prescribe as one of the most respected and cited researchers and medical doctors in the world i- in the science of aging? What is your prescription for the minimum, the minimum (laughs) amount that we should be doing every week?

   8. ETDr. Eric Topol51:31

      Yeah.

   9. MRMel Robbins51:31

      What would you say?

   10. ETDr. Eric Topol51:32

       As long as you are getting at least 30 minutes of constant motion-

   11. MRMel Robbins51:37

       Okay.

   12. ETDr. Eric Topol51:37

       ... getting your heart rate up-

   13. MRMel Robbins51:39

       Okay.

   14. ETDr. Eric Topol51:39

       ... you know, get, taking your body out on the highway, if you will-

   15. MRMel Robbins51:42

       Yep, yep.

   16. ETDr. Eric Topol51:42

       ... at least 30 minutes five times a week.

   17. MRMel Robbins51:44

       Okay.

   18. ETDr. Eric Topol51:44

       Ideally every day if you can do that.

   19. MRMel Robbins51:46

       Gotcha.

   20. ETDr. Eric Topol51:46

       But if you're getting five days a week... Uh, typically when I talk to my patients, I'll say, "All right, when are we gonna do this? What time of day works for you? You know, you're not a morning person, you're not gonna..." (laughs) Uh, also, um, "How are we gonna do this? Are we gonna go to the gym?"

   21. MRMel Robbins52:00

       Mm-hmm.

   22. ETDr. Eric Topol52:00

       "Do you have some equipment at home?" Or, you know, "Can you go outside and walk?" Or whatever. It... To fit that in, figure that out, and it... Not just the aerobic side, but then, you know, things like bands to increase resistance-

   23. MRMel Robbins52:13

       Mm-hmm.

   24. ETDr. Eric Topol52:13

       ... they're very inexpensive-

   25. MRMel Robbins52:14

       Mm-hmm.

   26. ETDr. Eric Topol52:14

       ... and they can be so much, uh, of a, a plus for promoting, uh, muscle strength. And things like, you know, standing on one leg for a minute, uh, alternating your course on w- each foot. I mean, these are free, (laughs) you know?

   27. MRMel Robbins52:27

       Yes.

   28. ETDr. Eric Topol52:28

       But work on, uh, strength, work on balance, uh, posture, and of course, this aerobic exercise is, is also critical. So get that as part of your life and you'll notice quickly as you do this for weeks that, "Wow, I am more fit than I've been in a long time. I have better posture. I have, um, you know, better balance, and also-"

   29. MRMel Robbins52:50

       My golf swing is better.

   30. ETDr. Eric Topol52:52

       Everything.
7. 54:49 – 1:02:04

   The Science Behind Mental Health & Aging Well

   1. MRMel Robbins54:49

      You know, you say to live longer, we do need to address our mental health. Why does your mental health affect the process of aging, which impacts your lifespan?

   2. ETDr. Eric Topol55:00

      Yeah, so this is something that, again, a, a lot of physicians don't buy into this, but the data is really strong. The relationship of stress and bad health outcomes-

   3. MRMel Robbins55:11

      Mm-hmm.

   4. ETDr. Eric Topol55:11

      ... like cancer, like heart disease, heart attacks, and even the neurodegenerative diseases. So what we wanna do is have adaptive stress. Like for example, if stress makes you exercise more, that's really good.

   5. MRMel Robbins55:25

      Right.

   6. ETDr. Eric Topol55:26

      But also, you know, we, we've learned things that, again, I wasn't aware of all the data. Being out in nature is remarkable. Music, things that we can do more of that are good for our mental health. Uh, and so-... um, there's this interaction between our physical and mental health which is deep, much more intertwined than we have accepted. And so, if we're gonna have a positive outlook, it's taking advantage of these things that we've learned from. And so, you know, being outdoors, you can't spend enough time doing that and it is really good for mental health. These are things that add in that whole category of, uh, lifestyle factors. But social isolation is critical. So, people that are lonely and hermits that just-

   7. MRMel Robbins56:15

      Mm-hmm.

   8. ETDr. Eric Topol56:15

      ... are living in a cave-

   9. MRMel Robbins56:16

      Mm-hmm.

   10. ETDr. Eric Topol56:17

       ... that's having an ill effect on mental health and physical health. So, it's really important that, you know, get together with friends, make friends, find ways to have social interactions because they're rich and they help reduce the toll of a burden of anxiety and depression.

   11. MRMel Robbins56:35

       Well, you write about this in SuperAgers and I- I'm actually looking at a graph on page 264 that is adapted from who Americans spend their time with by age. And you can see that as people get older, the amount of time that they spend alone, without a partner, without family, without kids, without their coworkers, spikes pretty dramatically. And I would also think, we probably don't have the data, but coming out of the pandemic, I would think that you're gonna see a lot of that even for younger age groups because of hybrid work. And I'd love to have you connect the dots between the aging process and longevity and time spent alone, and why that is a massive stressor that ages the body.

   12. ETDr. Eric Topol57:25

       Yes. Well, I'm glad you pointed to that graph 'cause it's, it's also very striking. The more rich, uh, interactions we have with other people, the- the essentiality of being human-

   13. MRMel Robbins57:37

       Mm.

   14. ETDr. Eric Topol57:37

       ... the more, uh, we see evidence that it is associated with healthy aging, health outcomes that are favorable. And unfortunately, we're going in the wrong direction. But there's something magical about the human-human bond. And in this world of AI, which, you know, in some of the aspects of the book, you know, we were gonna rely on AI to do analytics for us to know if we're at high risk. But here, this is something A- AI will never replace, which is the human bond, whether it's patient and doctor, but more importantly, in your own life, seeking out and- and fostering social interaction because they inevitably, uh, will be associated with better health outcomes. And so rather than turning inward, we need to turn outward.

   15. MRMel Robbins58:26

       I- I would love to also just, for the person listening, really connect the dots between mental, lonely, stress because I think when you hear the word mental health, you tend to just think about your thoughts. But there's something much deeper going on because you mentioned stress and medically speaking, when you're stressed out or burnt out or on edge or just kind of feeling like when is the next shoe gonna drop, and I think there's recent research that shows that one of the biggest groups of people that are impacted by this right now are caregivers.

   16. ETDr. Eric Topol59:01

       Yeah.

   17. MRMel Robbins59:01

       We think about first responders, but we don't think about caregivers and parents and... That being in a state of stress actually means that your body is running on overdrive and you're in fight or flight oftentimes. And does that state age you faster if you're living in a state of stress?

   18. ETDr. Eric Topol59:22

       Yeah, this is a really big issue that you're bringing up because the stress, when it's chronic and when it's accentuated, you see more body inflammation.

   19. MRMel Robbins59:30

       Mm.

   20. ETDr. Eric Topol59:31

       And so what you're getting is your immune system is losing some of its integrity. It's aging faster. And if there's one system that is kinda governing our whole aging, it's our immune system, which of course, as you know, that interacts with inflammation. When your immune system gets off track, these cells-

   21. MRMel Robbins59:49

       Yeah.

   22. ETDr. Eric Topol59:49

       ... start to release these proteins that rev up inflammation.

   23. MRMel Robbins59:53

       Yeah.

   24. ETDr. Eric Topol59:53

       So, stress and our immune system and inflammation is a very tight interdependence. And so what we wanna do is have adaptive responses to stress so we don't have this chronic inflammation. If we- once you get chronic inflammation, you get accelerated aging. And so here again, the science of aging is teaching us about these processes. It's not teaching us about this magical pill-

   25. MRMel Robbins1:00:19

       Right.

   26. ETDr. Eric Topol1:00:19

       ... but it's teaching us about how do we connect the dots between what's going on in our stress in our daily lives and what's going on in- in our body.

   27. MRMel Robbins1:00:29

       And you know what I love is if we go back to the very beginning where you talked about the three things that age us the fastest, these are also the same three things that help us actually slow down the aging and that would be getting better sleep, moving your body even though you got a lot of those things going on, and changes to your diet so you bring down the amount of ultra-processed food. Is there anything else that you prescribe to your patients that are going through a period of their life or maybe they're caring for aging parents or something crazy stressful is going on at work or they've had a big life change, spouse has died, divorce, some job change where they're in that state of stress? Is there something that you recommend that people do, Dr. Topol?

   28. ETDr. Eric Topol1:01:10

       It still comes down to, uh, a person's lifestyle and typically, a caregiver is so much, um, absorbed by caring-

   29. MRMel Robbins1:01:20

       Yes.

   30. ETDr. Eric Topol1:01:20

       ... that they don't care for themselves.
8. 1:02:04 – 1:05:26

   Your Best Years Aren’t Behind You

   1. MRMel Robbins1:02:04

      Dr. Topol, if the person listening to this conversation takes just one action today from absolutely everything that you shared, what would be the one thing that you would want them to do?

   2. ETDr. Eric Topol1:02:15

      If you really d- do a, a m- d- dedication to lifestyle, um, plus factors, you're gonna get years more of healthy aging. And you can ignore all the false anti-aging supplements and, uh, drugs and interventions that exist today, 'cause they're... they have n- no data. They're fact-free, if you will. So, this is the thing, is that it's right here now. We've had... We have more solid evidence for the lifestyle story than we've ever had before. And it... And as we have been reviewing, it's not just the big three of diet, um, exercise, and sleep, it's a lot of details within each of them and then several other layers of the lifestyle story that we need to be paying attention to.

   3. MRMel Robbins1:03:03

      What are your parting words, Dr. Topol?

   4. ETDr. Eric Topol1:03:05

      We are in a, uh, time of medicine that I've been dreaming about. Eh, eh, as a practicing cardiologist now, eh, heading into a fourth decade (laughs) , I've been thinking, you know, why am I seeing these people, you know, after they've had a heart attack or after they've already had a stent? Um, and to think that we are going to be able to prevent this better than we ever had before, and along with that, the other two major diseases. So, for me, the idea that we have capabilities we've never had before is enthralling. Um, and I think that... Whereas, uh, a lot of things are sobering these days, uh, in the world, this... If you, if you pay attention to what's going on in life science and medicine, it's never been more exciting as it is right now.

   5. MRMel Robbins1:03:56

      Well, you wanna know what else is enthralling? You.

   6. ETDr. Eric Topol1:03:59

      (laughs) Oh, thank you.

   7. MRMel Robbins1:04:00

      And your incredible best-selling new book, SuperAgers. Dr. Topol, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the work that you do. Thank you for writing this book. Thank you for showing up, flying across the country, spending time today, not only teaching, but really infusing the message with so much passion. I just cannot tell you how much I appreciate you.

   8. ETDr. Eric Topol1:04:22

      Oh, you're really kind. I... So much appreciated, Mel.

   9. MRMel Robbins1:04:25

      Thank you. And I also wanna thank you. Thank you for taking the time to listen to something that will not only make your life better, it'll actually help you and the people that you love live longer. I can't recommend SuperAgers more, and I also wanna be sure to tell you in case no one else does, I love you, and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And Dr. Topol just gave you a roadmap that, based on science and evidence, will do it. Alrighty. I'll see you in a few days. I'll be waiting in the very next episode to welcome you in the moment you hit play. I'll see you there. (instrumental music plays) And for you sitting here watching with me on YouTube, I just wanna say please share this with somebody. Don't just sit and watch. Please do something. And take a minute and subscribe to this channel, because it's really a way that you can support me in bringing you new videos every single day. And I'm sure you're looking for something really inspiring to watch, to really move you, so I want you to check out this video next.

Episode duration: 1:05:26