Skip to content
The Mel Robbins PodcastThe Mel Robbins Podcast

Your Body Reset: How to Eat & Exercise for a Healthier and Longer Life

Today's episode is a MUST listen. You will learn the surprising science of exercise and nutrition, the mistakes you’re making, and the simple changes that lead to better health and longevity. In this powerful episode, Mel sits down with one of her dream guests, Dr. Rhonda Patrick PhD. Dr. Patrick is a biomedical scientist who has spent her career studying nutrition, aging, and disease prevention. Ever wonder why you can walk every day and still not feel stronger? Or why you’re exhausted, stressed, and carrying more weight around your middle? There’s a reason for that. Today, Dr. Rhonda Patrick reveals why traditional fitness advice doesn’t work, the mistakes most people are making, and the simple changes that can help you build better health, more energy, and a longer life. For way too long, you’ve been taught that getting healthy means more time at the gym, restrictive diets, and no “off” days. Dr. Patrick says we have it all wrong. Today, she breaks down the science of what really matters for your health and longevity - and the good news is, it’s way simpler than you think. In this episode, you’ll learn: -What the “talk test” is and how to use it to find the right level of exercise -Where the 10,000-step goal came from - and what to focus on instead -How 9–10 minutes of daily “exercise snacks” can improve your health -What visceral fat is and how to improve fat loss -Scientifically speaking, why sleep is critical for recovery, stress, and longevity -The simple lifestyle habits that can add healthy years to your life -Dr. Patrick’s daily smoothie recipe for getting more key nutrients After today you will have the small, science-backed actions that improve your health, energy, mood, brain, resilience, and future. For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page: https://www.melrobbins.com/episode/episode-408/ Follow The Mel Robbins Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelrobbinspodcast I’m just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I’ll see you in the next episode. In this episode: 00:00 Meet the Guest 06:19 The Fastest Way to Improve Your Health 09:57 Exercise Intensity Matters More For Your Health Than Steps 19:50 Forget the Gym: This 3-Minute Exercise Routine is All You Need 25:54 The 1-Minute Exercise Protocol for Better Health 31:56 Just 1 Minute of Exercise is Enough 38:15 What Does Doing Hard Things Do To Your Brain? 46:01 This Type of Fat Doubles Mortality Risk 52:50 The Weight-Loss Mistake Most People Make 56:14 How to Lose Weight with 5 Questions 01:01:57 The Longevity Smoothie That Can Add 14 Years to Your Life 01:17:09 The 7 Foods That Matter Most 01:20:31 The Only 5 Supplements You Really Need 01:23:59 The #1 Health Habit to Start Today This episode is brought to you by Apple Pay — Follow Mel: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melrobbins/ TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@melrobbins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melrobbins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melrobbins Website: http://melrobbins.com​ — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins​?sub_confirmation=1 — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here: The Let Them Theory: https://amzn.to/3IQ21Oe The Let Them Theory Audiobook: https://amzn.to/413SObp The High 5 Habit: https://amzn.to/3fMvfPQ The 5 Second Rule: https://amzn.to/4l54fah

Dr. Rhonda PatrickguestMel Robbinshost
Jun 25, 20261h 26mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 6:19

    Meet the Guest

    1. RP

      For the person listening, it's really important to understand that they don't have to do 50 different health hacks to improve the way they feel, and ultimately, the way they age.

    2. MR

      Today, you and I are here with Dr. Rhonda Patrick, and she's teaching you the science of living a longer and healthier life.

    3. RP

      But let's talk about why I wanna replace 10,000 steps with 10 breathless minutes.

    4. MR

      I live in the old world where, in my mind, it doesn't count as exercise unless I'm in the exercise clothes and I am doing something for at least a half an hour.

    5. RP

      These moments count. They add up. They're cumulative, and we have the research to show that.

    6. MR

      There are five supplements that, based on the research, you recommend that everyone takes.

    7. RP

      So omega-3s are really at the top of the list. The second would be a multivitamin, and then you wanna take a vitamin D. So the fourth supplement would be magnesium a- and then lastly... When you are sleeping, so many different things are repairing in your body. Your DNA's being damaged every day. When you sleep, that is being repaired.

    8. MR

      What?

    9. RP

      Yeah. There's just a few core behaviors that we should be doing that are really not that difficult to do and that are ultimately going to make us feel better and age better.

    10. MR

      What do you think the most important thing to do today is?

    11. RP

      You should focus on the-

    12. MR

      Hey, it's Mel, and before we get into this episode, my team was showing me 57% of you who watch The Mel Robbins Podcast here on YouTube are not subscribed yet. Could you do me a quick favor? Just hit subscribe so that you don't miss any of the episodes that we post here on YouTube. It lets me know you're enjoying the guests and the content that we're bringing you, because I wanna make sure you don't miss a thing, and I'm so glad you're here for this episode 'cause this is a really good one. All right. Let's dive in. Please help me welcome Dr. Rhonda Patrick to The Mel Robbins Podcast. I'm so excited you're here.

    13. RP

      So excited to be here, Mel.

    14. MR

      Thank you. I know how busy you are. I really appreciate you hopping on a plane and coming and spending time with us. Here's where I wanna start, Dr. Patrick. If the person who's listening is overwhelmed, like I'm overwhelmed, by all the advice about health, and they follow your research-backed approach that you're about to teach us today, what might change about their life or their health outcomes?

    15. RP

      I think for the person listening, it's really important to understand that they don't have to do 50 different health hacks to improve the way they feel and, ultimately, the way they age. The way I like to look at health is, what are the few behaviors that we can adopt that are gonna affect many different underlying biological processes in our body that will affect these things that we care about, that's gonna improve our mood, reduce inflammation, improve metabolism, ultimately, you know, improve cardiovascular health, brain health, and just the way you age? And I think that if we sort of zoom out and, and take that approach, we realize there's just a few core behaviors that we should be doing that are really not that difficult to do and that are ultimately going to make us feel better and age better. And so what are those behaviors? And I'm sort of gonna speak in a sort of just 10,000 feet up, you know, like big zoom-out sort of picture because I think, again, they're very easy for people to do. First, top of the list, move every day. And when I say move every day, we wanna make sure we're getting some vigorous exercise, we're gonna talk about what that means, and we're gonna challenge our muscles. Very, very important because your body is very resilient. And if you can put a good type of stress on it, which exercise is, it's going to adapt. And when stress is thrown at you later, you know, in, in life or in the day or in the minute, whatever, your body's already dealt with stress. It's adapted. And so when that stress comes, you're gonna be stronger, and you're gonna be able to deal with it. Mental stress as well. By the way, challenging your muscles, doing exercise, vigorous exercise, this is challenging many systems, your lungs, your heart, your brain as well, because it's hard to do hard things. And so, again, you wanna be resilient, and that's what it's doing. Um, number two, make sure you're just eating a nutritious diet that is f- you know, giving you the proper nutrients that you need, and we'll talk about that. Not that hard to do. Number three, make sure you're focusing on good sleep. You have to be able to repair, recover, rejuvenate, and that's what sleep is.

    16. MR

      Could you just tell the person who's listening, based on your expertise, why they should trust these recommendations and really just focus on this?

    17. RP

      Yeah. I mean, because there's a lot of research that has been done by amazing scientists all over the world for decades looking at what we can do in our diet and lifestyle to improve things like mood and metabolism and inflammation and the way we age. And so we have the evidence here. We can see what type of robust gains we're gonna get. So I just think what people that are... You know, if someone's listening right now, you know, the, the reality is, is that we have science, and science has done amazing things for our, you know, advancing human life expectancy, and also in de- in basically helping treat and prevent disease. And so if you look at the data- It's there, you just have to look at it, and I think that's kind of my role. I look at this data and then I help explain it to people. So, um, it really is that easy. It really, really is. And we're gonna talk about what kind of gains that you can expect. It's kind of mind-blowing, to be honest.

    18. MR

      Well, I'm ready to have my mind blown and my life simplified and the gains

  2. 6:19 – 9:57

    The Fastest Way to Improve Your Health

    1. MR

      made easy. So let's jump [laughs] into the first category, which is moving every day. And you know, I think we've all heard this obsession around 10,000 steps that we should be getting every single day. Is that a useful goal? What does the research say, Dr. Patrick?

    2. RP

      So I think that we need to replace 10,000 steps a day with 10 breathless minutes a day.

    3. MR

      Breathless?

    4. RP

      Breathless. And what I mean by that is 10 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise, which means you're breathless. I don't wanna throw walking out, because walking is better than sitting, right? So what, what are you comparing it to? Okay, walking is better than being sedentary, not moving. But you know, this 10,000 steps a day originated back in the 1960s from Japan. There was a J- Japanese group that was trying to sell pedometers, and that's where it came from. It didn't come from science, didn't come from medical research. It came from a Japanese company wanting to sell a pedometer, and it was very catchy. Now, since the 1960s, of course there's been a lot of research on walking and moving and not being sedentary, so there, there are health benefits. But let's talk about why I wanna replace 10,000 steps with 10 breathless minutes, 10 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise. And why I say breathless is because, you know, it depends on where you're coming from. You're coming... If you're very, you know, already exercising and very fit, breathless for you might be sprinting. It might, you know, it might be running. If you're someone that doesn't really exercise a lot, maybe you only walk, then breathless for you might just be walking uphill, you know, going up the stairs. So it all depends on our starting point, and that's why I like to say breathless instead of heart rate or, you know, any other definition, because I think we can all relate to if I am at the point where I can only say a few words and then I have to take a breath, and then a few words and then I have to take... You know, you can't talk. You c- certainly can't sing. Breathless would be that, where you're just a couple of words in and then you have to take a breath because you're really working hard. Um, why is that important and why do I wanna replace the 10,000 steps a day? There has been overwhelming research over the years, but even as of most recently within the last few months, a very brand-new study came out. Now research is done very differently than it was, you know, 20 years ago when we were relying on people's memory and questionnaires. "How, how frequent do you exercise?" And they have to t- think back and remember. Now we can actually measure it. We have these accelerometers on people's wrists where they can measure movement and how fast they're going. And so there was this huge study that was published showing that people that are moving more vigorously, it's exponential in terms of h- you know, b- health benefits versus moderately moving. So that would be where you're not breathless, but you're not able to sing. So that's kinda like you can kind of talk a little bit but you're still breathy while you're doing it, versus the light activity, which is kind of like, you know, just walking around the house maybe. So we know that for every one minute of vigorous exercise, you have to do four minutes of moderate intensity, that would be brisk walking, for example, to get the same drop in all-cause mortality. Dying from cancer, dying from respiratory diseases, dying from cardiovascular disease, right? All non-accidental causes. Four minutes. If you're gonna do light exercise, for every one minute of vigorous, you have to do about 53 minutes of light walking, gentle walking

  3. 9:57 – 19:50

    Exercise Intensity Matters More For Your Health Than Steps

    1. RP

      around.

    2. MR

      Wait, hold on a second. I wanna make sure I understand this. [laughs] Because first of all, I love the idea of replacing the 10,000 steps, because that might take me an hour and a half, and I don't really have that kind of time to walk five miles, right? 'Cause it feels like this goal that's very hard to achieve if you're somebody that's working and taking care of people and you've got a very busy life, which most people do. So when you say, Dr. Patrick, "Okay, look, we really wanna look at the research, and I wanna replace this idea of 10,000 steps with 10 minutes of breathless exercise," which to me, I would love to have you unpack breathless just so that as we're trying to absorb this information, we understand what you mean by that. And I've heard you talk about the talk test. What does that mean?

    3. RP

      Right. Yes. So it, the talk test is really that test of, okay, I'm talking to you right now.

    4. MR

      Yep.

    5. RP

      Right? I'm talking to you and I'm not breathle- breathless. I'm not breathing heavy, right? It's easy. I could even sing if I wanted to.

    6. MR

      [laughs]

    7. RP

      Right? So the talk test is you can't sing, but when you're talking, you're a little bit breathy. That is, you know, talk te- that is moderate intensity exercise. The talk test means if you can talk a little bit but you're breathy, that's moderate intensity. That would be like briskly walking. If you are doing vigorous intensity exercise, the breathless type of exercise-

    8. MR

      Okay

    9. RP

      ... this is a little bit more like jogging, running. This is where you are, "Okay, Mel." So, uh, yeah. This is a vig- vigorous intensity, because you have to take breaths, uh, quite a few breaths in between words. That would be vigorous intensity exercise. So the, the, that's the breathless type of exercise I'm talking about.

    10. MR

      Got it. Okay, so I'll give an example. So there's a walking loop by my house, and I would say for three-quarters of it, it's four miles long, love to walk it with my girlfriends. Shout out to my Wednesday walking group. Uh, three-quarters of it- I'm chatting up a storm. We are catching up. We're sharing details about our family. Dogs are running wild. There is a hill where the entire hill, everybody's silent because nobody can talk 'cause we're going up. [panting] I'll catch up with you. And that's the vigorous part.

    11. RP

      That is exactly the vigorous type of exercise I'm talking about. That's the breathless moment, the breathless, breathless minute, or two minutes or three minutes or four, however long it takes you to get up that hill.

    12. MR

      Okay.

    13. RP

      Yes.

    14. MR

      Okay. Now, I just wanna make sure I'm tracking because that's the breathless part, but you also talked about moderate. And so would moderate be, like this is kind of a long, hard walk, but I'm still able to talk to you-

    15. RP

      Yes

    16. MR

      ... and I feel myself sweating and I'm definitely exerting myself, but I can still carry on a conversation?

    17. RP

      That's correct.

    18. MR

      Okay.

    19. RP

      That would be moderate, where you can still, like, carry a conversation, but you're kinda like this, you know?

    20. MR

      Yes.

    21. RP

      You're just, like, taking a little... It's like you're more breath... Like, if you were on the phone, you weren't with someone with, in... Or if you were recording it and, you know, the, like, s- the person listening was listening to it-

    22. MR

      Yeah

    23. RP

      ... they would, they could tell that you were walking, right?

    24. MR

      Got it.

    25. RP

      Like, right now it's obvious we're not walking, right?

    26. MR

      Mm-hmm.

    27. RP

      So that would be, that would be the moderate intensity.

    28. MR

      Okay.

    29. RP

      And the vigorous is so much more powerful. So I said for every one minute for all-cause mortality reduction, you have to do 53 minutes of light, just walking around.

    30. MR

      Well, that's the piece I wanted to unpack. So you're basically saying the one minute that I am walking up that hill and I can't actually really talk 'cause I'm exerting effort, I'm getting a 53-minute gain in that one minute against the other 53 minutes I'm walking the rest of the loop?

  4. 19:50 – 25:54

    Forget the Gym: This 3-Minute Exercise Routine is All You Need

    1. RP

      doing that. I mean, so in these, in these studies that I'm, that I'm talking about where people are wearing accelerometers, th- there are also many other studies that are very tangential where they're measuring people doing these types of what are called exercise snacks. So when I'm talking about one breathless minute, perhaps two breathless minutes, maybe three, this is something called an exercise snack. Talked about it before. But it's essentially like you can either have it structured where you're getting up and you're doing a minute of body weight squats, or you're doing some jumping jacks, or high knees, or burpees, or whatever fill-in-the-blank you wanna do to get your heart rate up and to be able to be in that zone where you can't really talk but a few words, right? Um, or it could be taking advantage of everyday life. I work on the fourth floor of an office building. I am not gonna take the elevator. I'm gonna walk up the stairs. I'm not only gonna walk up the stairs, I'm gonna walk fast up the stairs. Or I, you know, work a few blocks from my house. I'm not gonna drive there. I'm gonna briskly walk or perhaps even jog or bike. You know, so you're basically taking advantage of everyday life. I have a grandkid or I have a child. I'm gonna play tag with them for a couple of minutes. I have a new puppy. I'm gonna run around with my puppy. These moments count. They add up. They're cumulative, and we have the research to show that. So there's, this is called vigorous intermittent lifestyle activity, VILPA for short. It's these people that are taking advantage of everyday life to really get that vigorous minute or two or three in. Multiple studies have shown that if you do this, you actually get the same type of benefits as people that exercise. They've directly compared. When I say people that exercise, I mean people that are identifying as going to the gym, taking some block of time out to go and get their heart rate up. So very different types of ways to get your heart rate up, right? One is just taking advantage of everyday life and just going for it. I'm playing tag with my grandkids. Or one is taking time to go to the gym. What do we see? We see that people that do three minutes of it, the three minutes of this breathless, so it could be walking uphill for three minutes. It could be playing with your, tag with your grandkids for three minutes, right? Three minutes, three times a day. So we're at nine minutes a day. This is where I get the 10 from. We're at nine minutes a day. Those individuals have a 40% reduction in cancer-related mortality, 40% reduction in all-cause mortality, and a 50% reduction in cardiovascular-related mortality. This is even in people that are not identifying as going to the gym and exercising. If you were to ask them, "Do you exercise?" They would say no, because they don't count those moments. They don't count when they're playing tag with their kids or grandkids. They don't count when they're, you know, going fast up the stairs to get to work. But it does count. Exercise and the way our body adapts to this exercise doesn't, it doesn't matter if you go to the gym or not, right? It just matters that you're doing it. And so I think, again, this is so... It's like take a breath of relief because, and when I talk to people about it, it's like, oh, thank God. Some people don't like going to the gym. I love it. I love, I love it. But not everyone does. Some people literally don't have time. They don't have time. But do you have time to do three minutes after breakfast, three minutes after lunch, three minutes after dinner? Yes. You have that time. You just have to take it and do it. And it, it, it's fast. It goes by very fast. I also have, for the exercise snacks, I have a, a free guide out there, how to train guide according to the experts, and essentially it talks about the different ways to do exercise snacks, what exercise snacks, you know, you can do, how to do them, and also a variety of other training, you know, modalities out there that can help improve your brain health, your mood, and also the way you age. It's howtotrainguide.com if people are interested in picking that up.

    2. MR

      Awesome, and we will link to that in all the show notes with all the resources related to this conversation. You know, Dr. Patrick, couple things. First of all, I really like the name exercise snack versus the vigorous intermittent lifestyle, whatever the last word was.

    3. RP

      VILPA. [laughs]

    4. MR

      Exercise snack sounds like s- like I could do it. And I wanna make sure as you're listening or you're watching right now, that you really got the very simple instructions from Dr. Patrick based on the research. ... that it's just three minutes, three times a day, of this vigorous, kind of breathless activity. And in fact, you know what I'm realizing? My husband, Chris, will often, like first thing in the morning, he drops and does like 11 or 20 pushups or whatever it is he's, he's doing it. And I'll see him do it in the kitchen midday. And I, I, I never really kinda understood why. I was like, "Oh, that's kind of interesting and sexy, but I don't feel like doing that right now." But I didn't feel like it counted. I live in the old world where, in my mind, it doesn't count as exercise unless I'm in the exercise clothes and I am doing something for at least a half an hour, and that it is a form of exercise that I tend to not like. And what you're saying is, no, no, no, no, three minutes three times a day, whether you're doing squats or kinda jogging up a flight of stairs or you are going up a hill or you're playing tag with your grandkids, anything that gets you in that state, this counts and has massive impacts on all kinds of health outcomes.

    5. RP

      Yeah, absolutely.

    6. MR

      For how long do I have to do this? Like, for the rest of my life is what you're gonna say.

    7. RP

      [laughs]

    8. MR

      But, you know.

    9. RP

      I mean-

    10. MR

      Like, when do I feel better?

    11. RP

      10, 10 minutes a day.

    12. MR

      Yeah?

    13. RP

      So l- so look, um, you will feel better after... I mean, we could get up and do right now one minute.

    14. MR

      Okay.

    15. RP

      And you're gonna feel better because you're gonna get increased blood flow to your brain.

    16. MR

      All right, let's do it.

    17. RP

      I love doing exercise snacks to break up my workday.

    18. MR

      Okay.

    19. RP

      You wanna do it?

    20. MR

      Yes.

    21. RP

      Then let's go do it.

    22. MR

      Okay, let's do it. All right, let's go into the studio and do it 'cause I don't think we have enough space in here to do it.

    23. RP

      Sounds good.

    24. MR

      All right, let's do it.

  5. 25:54 – 31:56

    The 1-Minute Exercise Protocol for Better Health

    1. MR

      So we're walking out of the studio right now, and we're coming out into the office where everybody's working. Hey, everybody. Okay, Dr. Patrick, what are we doing?

    2. RP

      So, I mean, we can choose the kind of structured exercise snack we wanna do. I think considering-

    3. MR

      Something easy

    4. RP

      ... our clothing.

    5. MR

      [laughs]

    6. RP

      Let's do, let's do some body weight squats. Are you-

    7. MR

      Okay

    8. RP

      ... are you thinking you can do body weight squats?

    9. MR

      Yeah, I can do that. Okay, let's do it.

    10. RP

      Now, again, y- you wanna try to get breathless. I'm, I'm gonna get close to that 'cause we're kinda talking, right?

    11. MR

      Okay.

    12. RP

      But let me set my timer here. I've got a timer. Um, I'm gonna s- I'm s- just on my, my-

    13. MR

      And you're in jeans, and you're in a really cool top, and your hair looks amazing, and she's in boots with heels.

    14. RP

      I got boots with heels.

    15. MR

      I am in-

    16. RP

      And I'm doing it, guys

    17. MR

      ... and I'm in, like s- black dress pants and a black dress shirt and heels.

    18. RP

      And your heels are higher than mine.

    19. MR

      Okay.

    20. RP

      I will, I will point that out.

    21. MR

      I'm gonna try it with the heels, but we'll see. Do, should I leave the heels on?

    22. RP

      I, I think you should be okay as long as you have... Do you have good balance?

    23. MR

      I do.

    24. RP

      Okay.

    25. MR

      But we'll test it.

    26. RP

      All right. Let's test it out. You ready?

    27. MR

      Yeah, okay.

    28. RP

      One.

    29. MR

      Let me get up, let me get on the carpet. Okay.

    30. RP

      Two.

  6. 31:56 – 38:15

    Just 1 Minute of Exercise is Enough

    1. MR

      that was unbelievable how stressful that was.

    2. RP

      Yeah.

    3. MR

      I mean, that, in one minute-

    4. RP

      I am sweating. So for people watching, if, um, I look really dewy, now you know why.

    5. MR

      [laughs] Um, so we're back in the studio, and I would just love to have you explain how just a minute of air squats like that, which was really hard and took my breath away, what is happening in my body, and what is the positive benefit that I'm gonna receive, whether it's from a biological standpoint, a mental standpoint, resilience standpoint, physiological standpoint, simply from incorporating these three-minute exercise snacks into your day-to-day life?

    6. RP

      Well, the first question you asked me, I talked about finding behaviors that are gonna impact multiple systems in your body, right? That's the key. You don't wanna just target one thing. You want it to affect multiple systems in your body, and that is what this type of vigorous intensity exercise is doing. So for one, when you're working hard, you're forcing your heart to work. It has to pump blood. You know, it's, it's beating... Your heart's beating faster, right? Your heart rate goes up. What happens is that blood is pumping through your arteries and your veins, your endothelial system, as it's called, and it creates this type of stress on your, on your blood vessels called shear stress. You can kind of think of, like, a difference between just, like, a flowing river and, like, a hurricane, right?

    7. MR

      Hmm.

    8. RP

      You want the hurricane. You want the big stress, because what's happening is the endothelial cells, these are little cells that are lining your, your veins and your arteries, they're feeling that mechanical force, that stress, and they're adapting. They're going, "Wait a minute. This is like... What is this? I better figure out a way to deal with this so that I don't, you know, die," right? So it's like it's a, it's a way of putting that stress on your system, and then your system creates more nitric oxide. You know, this is causing vasodilation. It's, it's making your, your arteries become more malleable and flexible, right? You want that. That's something... You don't want them to be really stiff, right? Stiff- stiffness is, is what causes cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, things like that. So it's making these adaptations. They're called adaptations because it's adapting to the stress that you put on it, and that's what I mean by the stronger the stress. Walking does great things. You get your heart rate up more, and you are increasing blood flow a little bit. But when you're, like, running or you're walking uphill, you're getting to that breathless point where you're vigorous-

    9. MR

      Yes

    10. RP

      ... it's, it's, it's orders of magnitude more beneficial. It's more stress, and the body's adapting to what stress you're putting on it. So if you're putting a little bit of stress, it's gonna adapt a little bit. You put a lot of stress, it's gonna really robustly adapt, okay? That's why we get the one to eight, the one minute, you know, one minute of vigorous to 53 minutes of light, gentle walking, right? Big differences here. It's also affecting your lungs, right? You're breathing in oxygen. You're breathing in oxygen. So what happens is your body's going, "I need oxygen, and I need it to get to my muscles." We were just working our muscles as we were doing these bodyweight squats. And as you're doing them, your body goes, "Well, I gotta find a way to get it there faster, or I'm not gonna make energy in those muscles," right? And so you start to improve this cardiorespiratory fitness, and we can unpack that a little bit more, more later. But essentially, it's a really important, um, physiologic reserve for your, for your, for your body, for your, your lungs and your heart, right? And so... And your muscles. And so that's improving as well. Your muscles, right? You're doing mechanical force. Whether you're doing jumping jacks or bodyweight squats or you're walking up the hill or the stairs, you're engaging your muscles, right? So this mechanical force is now making your muscles adapt, going, "Whoa, this is... I better get bigger and stronger because this is, like, this is hard," right?

    11. MR

      Yeah.

    12. RP

      So you're, you're getting that muscle hypertrophy, and you're building muscle strength. The muscle cells are getting bigger and stronger, and that happens when you put force, mechanical force on them. So you're doing that. You're building your muscles, right? Muscles are very important as we age. Frailty is a, is a big morbidity, but also loss of independence, right?

    13. MR

      Mm-hmm.

    14. RP

      We don't want our parents to be immobile, to be dependent on us. We ourselves don't want our kids to have to take care of us like that, right? So the more you can build up your muscle strength and muscle mass with getting adequate protein and putting that mechanical force on your muscles, you are building... It's your, it is your... You're putting into your retirement fund, right? This is my retirement fund for my health. And you're contributing to it because as you age, you're gonna be pulling from it. You start to lose muscle mass more easy. It's not as easy to gain. I mean, all these things happen, right? So the more you build up that muscle reserve, you're gonna have a buffer to get you through l- through, you know, older, the older decades of your life. You're going to make it where you're more independent, where you're not having your kids take care of you, and you're not having to take care of your parents. All these things are so important for enjoying life, right? And it's really not that hard to do. Um, the brain also. You know, when you're doing hard things, you're fighting yourself. You're going, "I don't wanna do that. That's hard," right? There's a little battle, an internal battle in your, in your mind. And I think this, for me, was one of the biggest, I would say, shocking benefits that I realized I was getting from doing things like exercise snacks, body weight squats, any kind of challenging my muscles, weight training, resistance training. I was like, "This is hard. I'm scared. I don't wanna do this." [laughs] And the more I did it, I realized the rest of the day was so much easier for me. All the things that were coming at me, whether it's work-related, you know, motherhood-related, anything coming at me, I was, like, so much more ready to deal with it, and that is because you are building mental toughness when you are doing hard things. When you do hard things, and it doesn't necessarily have to be exercise. There's other hard things, right? Um, learning. Like, people, people listening right now, you're learning. This is hard. It's not always easy to learn. So doing hard things builds mental toughness, and that will make the psychological things that come at you easier to deal with, for sure.

    15. MR

      How-

    16. RP

      And that, in a nutshell, is kind of some of the, the ways that it's

  7. 38:15 – 46:01

    What Does Doing Hard Things Do To Your Brain?

    1. RP

      helping.

    2. MR

      So how does forcing yourself to do something that's hard physically, challenging your muscles, doing breathless exercise vigorously, even for short bursts of time, how exactly in the brain and body does making yourself do something hard help you manage the challenges of life? You know what I mean? Like, I've heard people talk about the, is it the anterior cingul-

    3. RP

      Mm-hmm

    4. MR

      ... torul- Like, I can't even say that word.

    5. RP

      Yeah, the anterior singl- single c- cingular cortex.

    6. MR

      Yes. I don't know if that's kinda what you're referring to in terms of the research, or, but if you could, Dr. Patrick, just explain. When you challenge your muscles, it boosts your ability to handle the challenges of life, and the more you force yourself to do hard physical things, the easier your life starts to feel.

    7. RP

      There's a lot of things that happen. One of them is activating that part of the brain as well, which seems to also play a role in protecting against neurodegenerative disease. Um, I'm not a neuroscientist, so I'm gonna explain some of the other parts that I'm also excited about, and one is that feeling of uncomfortableness that you felt when you were doing body weight squats.

    8. MR

      Yes.

    9. RP

      Did you feel uncomfortable?

    10. MR

      Oh, I hated you.

    11. RP

      Yeah.

    12. MR

      I was literally like, "My entire team is staring at me," the, which is why I was yelling at them to start doing it. I also wanted them to feel it, but I didn't wanna feel like a, you know, I'm on display doing this thing that's really hard. And I immediately could not talk. And I was confronted by feeling very out of shape, uh, on camera next to you as you're, like, going up and da, da, da, da, da. And thinking, "Uh-oh, I, I gotta... This is something I can do more of, and this is something I need to do more of." So that's what was happening for me, and it felt very hard.

    13. RP

      Yes. It feels very hard. That uncomfortable feeling that you feel when you are getting to that vigorous type of exercise, whether it's doing a, a run or it's, you know, doing some resistance training where you're really doing hard things. That uncomfortableness, there's also a neurochemical reaction going on in your brain.

    14. MR

      Oh.

    15. RP

      So we have an endogenous, that just means in our body, opioid system. Okay? Opioids, we're usually thinking of, you know, maybe exogenous ones that people take to help with pain relief, right? Like morphine, for example. We make our own end- en- um, opioids. Endorphins, right? Endorphins are something that we make. Those are the feel-good opioids that we make in our, in our, in our brain. They make us feel good. You do make that with exercise, but you also make a type of opioid that makes you feel uncomfortable. It's called dynorphin. It's responsible for that uncomfortable feeling, that feeling that's like, "Ugh, I wanna stop. I can't do this. It's hard," right? Dynorphin is, is that uncomfortable, like, neurochemical that's being produced. And what that does is when your brain is making that and you don't give up, you keep pushing past it, it has this feedback loop in your brain where then your brain goes, "Oh, this is that bad..." No, it's, I don't wanna call it bad. It's the, uh, dysphoric feeling. "I better figure out a way to deal with that and adapt and make something good so that later when I have that uncomfortable dysphoric feeling, I don't feel so uncomfortable." And so what happens is your brain starts to make more of these receptors. Receptors are things that neurochemicals and neurotransmitters and things like that bind to, to have a, an effect. So they make more of the receptors that bind to endorphins. They're called mu-opioid receptors, and they become more sensitive to endorphins. This happens only when you're getting that uncomfortable dynorphin, you know, flooding your brain. And so what happens is then later on when anything happens that's a little bit pleasant, you're gonna feel it better and for a longer period of time. And so that just makes everything easier. When you have that sensitive, that sensitization to these endorphins, which we are making all throughout the day, little things like, yo, seeing your friend, smile. Like, all these little things. They're making... You make endorphins. And it's just a matter of how powerful are you gonna feel that endorphin. And so the uncomfortableness of the dynorphin is what is doing that, but you have to engage in the hard, uncomfortable thing that makes you feel that dysphoric feeling-

    16. MR

      That makes-

    17. RP

      ... to get there

    18. MR

      ... so much sense. So if you force yourself to do, and we're just talking about moving your body, to do some form of exercise, even just for a minute- Even for three minutes, even for 10 minutes, that what's happening because you're experiencing all of that discomfort is it paves the way for you to now really magnify all of the beautiful and wonderful and comfortable things that follow it, 'cause you got the discomfort out of the way.

    19. RP

      Isn't it amazing?

    20. MR

      It's actually amazing because I think we've all had an experience, and as you're listening or you're watching right now, think about something that you pushed yourself to do physically, whether it was a 5K or it was some trail that you hiked that was harder than you thought, but you got to the top, or maybe you climbed a ridiculous amount of stairs, and you get to the top, and you surprise yourself, and you're out of breath. It is true that when you look up, the view is spectacular. The rest of the day is downhill, so to speak, because you got the hard thing out of the way.

    21. RP

      You got the hard thing out of the way, and your body adapted to that hard thing and said, "Hey, I'm gonna make the good things feel even better because I gotta negate some of that hard stuff that I, I know it's gonna... I'm gonna face again."

    22. MR

      In the old world, Mel Robbins would've gone straight to the refrigerator and grabbed a snack to make me feel comfortable. Based on hearing all of this research, I suspect that if I were to do a exercise snack instead, and I were to do a minute to three minutes of air squats or go just walk up the hill by my house or climb some stairs or high knees or whatever, and I'm breathless in the kitchen, that would have a massive benefit on how I feel right after and my ability to handle the stress of whatever I'm in in that moment. Is that right?

    23. RP

      Absolutely right. Massive. Massive benefit. Exercise snack is exactly what you should do in those types of moments. It's, it, it, until you do it, you don't realize how powerful it is because you hear, "One minute, three minutes." No way. But when you do it, you actually then realize it's so powerful. She's right, the exercise snack.

    24. MR

      This message is brought to you by Apple Pay. Pay with your card on iPhone using Apple Pay. It's accepted at millions of places, anywhere you can tap a physical card. And with privacy and security features built in, it's more secure than using a physical card. Look, we all know somebody who is constantly losing their wallet, or maybe you're a little bit like me. You're always forgetting to bring your wallet into the store with you. Well, that can't happen when you choose Apple Pay. I mean, just the other day, I was in line at the plant store. I've got this huge cart full of geraniums and impatiens and other perennials. I'm waiting in line forever. I get to the front of the line, and I think, "Oh, my God, I left the wallet in the car." So now I'm gonna have to explain to everybody, "I'll be right back. Please hold my space." And then I realize, "Wait a minute, Mel, you can just pull up Apple Pay on your phone." So that's what I did. Tap. There you go. Problem solved. I love how quick, safe, and easy it makes paying for things, and now I use it all the time. I don't even need my wallet. Just add your debit or credit card to the Wallet app, and when you're ready to check out, double-click the side button to authenticate with Face ID and tap. It's that easy. Set up Apple Pay on your iPhone today. Terms apply.

  8. 46:01 – 52:50

    This Type of Fat Doubles Mortality Risk

    1. MR

      You know, one topic that I hear a lot of people talking about is visceral fat, and I'm not even sure I understand exactly what it is. And is that like when you see a guy that's relatively skinny, and then they look like they're kind of pregnant? Or what, what... And I don't mean to be offensive to anybody, but I don't really understand what visceral fat is.

    2. RP

      Visceral fat is the kind of fat that you, you cannot pinch. So the pa- the fat that you can pinch is subcutaneous fat.

    3. MR

      Okay.

    4. RP

      That's the fat that's stored as, as energy. It's energy storage. Visceral fat is, yes, it is usually around the midsection, this belly fat, but it's the deep, deep belly fat. It's actually surrounding organs like the liver, the kidneys. It's surrounding the organs. And unlike the subcutaneous fat, this fat is not just stored energy. It's like an endocrine organ. Endocrine organs, like, make hormones. It's making hormones. It's making inflammatory molecules causing inflammation that are wreaking havoc on your body. It is something that not necessarily... Someone that looks maybe lean, they might actually have visceral fat. So waist circumference is, is a indirect way of measuring it. So for a, a woman, if you have a waist circumference of 35 inches or higher, that's a good, pretty good indicator that you have a high amount of visceral fat. For men, it would be about 40 inches or higher. But it doesn't necessarily have to be the waist circumference because some people are lean, and they don't eat good diets. We can talk about the main drivers of it. They can increase their visceral fat. It's... Why is it something to care about is, is also a really important question, I think, because, you know, most people when they think about fat, they're thinking about, "Well, I don't... You know, my looks. I don't look good."

    5. MR

      Right.

    6. RP

      Um, but they're, they're thinking about their long-term health. You know, obesity and being overweight is obviously a major driver of, you know, increasing many different diseases, Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, for example, right? But visceral fat is double... It doubles mortality. So people with a, with a high amount of visceral fat die, you know, sooner. So you're, you're talking about double risk mortality. It also increases cancer incidents. So people that are, you know, making these inflammatory cytokines, inflammation drives cancer. And so people that have visceral fat have, like, a 44% higher risk of having cancer. It's insulin resistance. It's causing insulin resistance, you know, metabolic dysfunction. But I think what people relate to more is the effects that are happening on a day-to-day basis. So because visceral fat is causing inflammation, it's activating your immune system each day, right? You don't want your immune sy- system to be activated each day. You want it to be activated, you know, when you're exposed to a pathogen. That's what the immune system is, is there for, right? It's there to fight off foreign invaders, whether that's a virus or a bacterial invader, or whether it's a, a cancer cell, right? This is what your, your immune system's meant to do and be activated for. When you have this chronic inflammatory signal that's being produced by your own body inside your own body, it's activating your immune system, which is extremely energetically demanding. It is taking energy. I mean, when you're sick, you're sleepy, you're tired, you're fatigued. You have no energy. Well, that's happening to some degree when someone has this chronic inflammatory signal from visceral fat. It is gonna make you feel fatigued because the energy's literally being sucked away to your immune system because that's what it needs to activate the immune system is a lot of energy. So you're gonna feel chronic fatigue. The other thing it's gonna make people feel is they're gonna have these energy crashes followed by cravings, and the reason for that is because visceral fat is metabolically active. It is breaking down fatty acids, and these fatty acids, because of the location of it right around your liver, it's going straight to the liver, and essentially it's the liver's prioritizing that fuel rather than the fuel you eat. Perhaps you eat a meal. You're gonna have your blood sugar. Your blood glucose is gonna go up. Usually you'll make insulin in a response to that, and the glucose will then go into your muscle or go into adipose tissue. What happens when you have visceral fat is that whole process is completely dysregulated. Because you're constantly making fatty acids, those fatty acids stop the body from making insulin. So after you eat a meal, the glucose stays around, your body freaks out and goes, "I better make more insulin." So it overcompensates, makes a lot of insulin. Then all the glucose goes out of your bloodstream, goes into adipose tissue or muscle, whatever, and all of a sudden your blood glucose drops and you are crashing. Your energy goes down. Then your brain is sensing that and going, "Oh my gosh, I need energy. What's the quickest way I can have energy?" And you start to get these cravings for the quickest type of fuel, typically processed junk food. So this is kind of the vicious cycle of visceral fat causing fatigue, causing energy crashes, causing cravings, and then insulin resistance sort of in the making, and eventually type two diabetes.

    7. MR

      Okay. The thing I wanna unpack is how you described it. So I personally found it extremely helpful to understand that there are two different types. One is the kind we can pinch, and the other is this visceral fat which, as you were describing it, is something that is surrounding your organs. It sounded like a invasive species that is coating certain organs and then starting to expand out, and in doing so creates almost like its own little toxic ecosystem around your organs. And I personally, maybe somebody's explained it to me like that, I've never visually imagined it like that. And the second that you described it that way, and that it, you know, is the kind of thing that's like a... It's, like, dense. Like, it- you're not gonna fix this with a crunch it- at the gym. I immediately thought, "My God, if I have that sort of, uh, uh, you know, invasive species encasing my organs, how the hell do I get rid of this?" 'Cause I don't want that happening underneath the surface and robbing me of years of my life, robbing me of energy, disrupting my metabolic

  9. 52:50 – 56:14

    The Weight-Loss Mistake Most People Make

    1. MR

      systems. What is the research say, Dr. Patrick, about the specific thing you should do if this is you or somebody that you love?

    2. RP

      Well, the good news is, is that it is easy to get rid of it.

    3. MR

      It is?

    4. RP

      It is. It is actually the first kind of fat you lose if you're on any type of weight loss program. The way that you lose visceral fat is kind of in- entangled in with how you can gain it easily as well, and I think they're both important to understand-

    5. MR

      Mm-hmm

    6. RP

      ... because you can gain it very easily quite quickly if you're eating a lot of calories. So there's studies showing that men, healthy young college men, you know, they're eating 1,200 more calories a day for five days. They will gain excess visceral fat without even gaining weight. So they're... You get on a scale, really not much weight gain at all, but you are gaining visceral fat, and that's important to point out because I think sometimes people think, "Oh, if I'm not gaining weight, if I'm weighing myself every morning, then I'm fine." Not necessarily the case. So if you're eating excess calories, particularly in the form of processed foods, things that don't have a lot of fiber. You're eating, like, refined sugars. Really easy to gain visceral fat. Good news is, also easy to lose. The ways that you can lose visceral fat, for one, would be caloric deficit. Any sort of weight loss program. In fact, it's one of the first types of fat that you lose. High-intensity interval training, vigorous types of exercise. That is one of the most robust ways to help lose visceral fat. Again, you will lose it without even seeing that reflected on a scale. So just know that if you are doing your 10 breathless minutes, perhaps you're doing 30 minutes a day. You're adding in some moderate intensity. You're adding in some walking, brisk walking in addition to the 10 breathless minutes, the 10 vigorous minutes that you're doing. That is really has been shown to help lose visceral fat even if you don't see that reflected on the scale. Very important to keep in mind. Sleep is extremely important, and that is because being in a chronically stressed state can cause your body to react and start to accumulate visceral fat. There are studies showing that two weeks of sleep deprivation, so from, for an individual going from nine hours of sleep per night to four hours for two weeks, they will gain about 11% of visceral fat just in two weeks.

    7. MR

      Wow.

    8. RP

      So big, big time making sure you're prioritizing your sleep and not being chronically sleep deprived. Very important. Also stress. You know, a lot of that psychological stress. Being able to deal with that stress better, and again, that comes down to the exercise. It's gonna help your, your reaction, your cortisol response to the psychological stress is gonna be buffered by that exercise that you're doing. So that's the key. Those are the main things that are really helping you lose fat and the drivers of it, so making sure you're not sleep deprived, making sure you're dealing with your stress are important. But any, any sort of weight loss and then doing, doing the vigorous exercise is the most important type of exercise. Resistance training is important. You don't lose as much vis- visceral fat, but it does overall help your metabolic health, which will help you prevent you from gaining as much visceral fat, if that makes sense. So g- engaging in resistance training is a very important part of your exercise program. You wanna make sure you're maintaining muscle mass. Those body weight squats are a way to do that. But you can also do them vigorously and get, get the, you know, both, best of both worlds,

  10. 56:14 – 1:01:57

    How to Lose Weight with 5 Questions

    1. RP

      I would say.

    2. MR

      I have a quick question, though. If somebody's listening to you and they're saying, "Oh my God, I've been doing everything."

    3. RP

      Mm-hmm.

    4. MR

      "I've been going to the gym. I've been watching what I eat. I've been drinking my water. I've been trying to sleep, and nothing is changing," Dr. Patrick, what is the first thing you would have them audit about their lifestyle?

    5. RP

      I think for someone that, that really thinks they're doing all the right things-

    6. MR

      Mm-hmm

    7. RP

      ... first of all, I would ask, are you getting seven and a half to nine hours of sleep? Not being in bed for seven and a half to nine hours. I mean sleep, right? I would ask, are you getting bright light exposure within 30 minutes of waking up for at least 15 to 30 minutes? Because that is what is resetting your biological clock, your circadian clock. So every organ in our body has a clock, and everything is running on a clock, our metabolism, our neurotransmitter synthesis, like making neurochemicals, our immune function, everything, hormone production, right? And so you wanna reset that clock every morning, and the bright light exposure is the reset. It's the master regulator in your brain. It's called the suprachiasmatic nucleus region. Light is what is resetting it so that your brain and your body know, start, this is the reset, start of the clock. It's gonna start making the hormones at the right time. So that bright light is gonna make something called cortisol. We've all heard of it. We're all scared of it. We shouldn't be. It's very important. It's a hormone that you want to be making first thing in the morning, and you wanna make a lot of it because it's regulating 20% of your human genome. A lot of important things that it's, it's regulating. What you don't want is that slow drip cortisol where it's not getting the big amplitude peak. It's just little-

    8. MR

      Mm

    9. RP

      ... peak, a little drip, drip, drip throughout the day. It's making that stress response, and it's disregulating all those 20% of genes, right? So that happens first thing in the morning because cortisol actually wakes you up, gives you energy. You want that. So the bright light is really important because that'll also help you, your body will know when to go to sleep. It'll start to make melatonin, that s- that sleepy hormone at the right time. Your, your core body temperature will dip at the right time during sleep so that you can stay asleep. All these little things you don't think, but your heart rate will be going down right. All those little things, that's all controlled by your circadian clock, and if you don't reset it, it's not gonna be working properly, right? So bright light exposure. Are you waking up at the same time every morning? Very much like bright light exposure, that's also a reset for your clock. Your body anticipates when it's supposed to wake up. When you start to get these erratic wake-up times, let's say you're, you're socializing, you're out late, and you're doing it constantly, your brain's like can't figure out when it's supposed to wake up and so all these hormones and all these things that are important and on a clock don't happen. So it really affects your sleep. Then I would ask, are you eating within three hours of going to bed? Because that also really affects your sleep. You don't want to be digesting food when you're sleeping. So if you're eating an hour before you go to bed, it takes about five hours to digest your food. When you're digesting food, you're activating what's called the sympathetic nervous system. That's the fight or flight response. It's when your heart rate's going up. It's when your bo- it's signaling to your body, "Time to be awake. Time to be awake." So you might be sleeping, but you're fighting. Your body's going, "No, no, I'm digesting. I'm, I'm supposed to be awake." And so your sleep isn't gonna be good. You're gonna have more awakenings. It's also been shown in studies to not, you're not gonna have that robust cardiovascular reset. Your blood pressure won't dip as low. It'll dip a little bit, but it won't have that big amplitude dip, and that's very important, again, for preventing... In fact, there's studies showing that if you don't have that cardiovascular dip as robustly, you're 20% more likely to get cardiovascular disease earlier in life.

    10. MR

      Wow.

    11. RP

      So very important. And then alcohol consumption would be the thing I would also ask. Are you drinking alcohol too close to bed? Because a lot of people have this misconception because alcohol can help you fall asleep faster. That's why people like to drink alcohol at night. It disrupts your REM sleep, so you're gonna have... And it also causes more awakenings in the night. So that would be the first thing I would ask. I know that was a lot, but it's important because I don't think that many people are realizing perhaps their sleep isn't optimized, and there are a few core behaviors that you can sort of tweak that will really affect your sleep. And that would be a place to start because if you're not getting, if you're chronically sleep deprived, like I mentioned, you're gonna be getting visceral fat. You're gaining visceral fat. And you're going, "Why am I still gaining it when I'm, you know, doing some exercise?" And, you know, you're, you're battling. It's like the, the battle. Like, you know, it's, it's tug of war essentially.

    12. MR

      Well, first, Dr. Patrick, I wanna thank you. Because when I asked you that question of what would be the lifestyle audit that you would focus on if somebody feels like they're doing all the right things, but nothing is changing about their health or their body composition, I thought you were gonna say, "Look at what you're eating." And so the fact that you said you need to do an audit of your sleep was both surprising to me, and it was also very helpful to have you walk through those five questions that you need to ask yourself because those questions around how much sleep are you getting, and are you getting bright light in the morning, are you waking up at the same time every morning, when are you eating in terms of how close are you eating to your bedtime, and then finally, are you drinking at night, those five questions give you almost like a treasure hunt the answers to the things you need to change in order to get a better night's sleep.

  11. 1:01:57 – 1:17:09

    The Longevity Smoothie That Can Add 14 Years to Your Life

    1. MR

      So now, Dr. Patrick, I wanna s- shift gears and go into the category of nutrition, and you have a daily smoothie recipe that makes it simple and easy for us to get a lot of the things that we need every single day in one smoothie.

    2. RP

      Let's do it.

    3. MR

      All right. Let's step out of the studio and head into the kitchen here in Boston. So Dr. Patrick, you are about to teach us how you make the smoothie that you have every day. And for those of you that are listening, I'm just gonna tell you, I see kale, I see blueberry, I see avocado, I see protein, and I see something I can't pronounce. Okay.

    4. RP

      [laughs] It's a beta-glucan powder made from barley. Before we get into the smoothie I make every day, I kinda wanna give a little bit of reason why I like to do a smoothie every day.

    5. MR

      Okay.

    6. RP

      And it really has to... It comes down to realizing that what we do in our lifestyle and our diet really is impactful on the way we age and our life expectancy. A lot of people think genetics are the most important thing, and when it comes down to it, really, 80% of how long we live and how well we live has to do with our lifestyle.

    7. MR

      Hold on. 80%?

    8. RP

      80%. About 80%, yeah. I, I would say about 20 to 25% is, is genetics. But what I'm gonna tell you is a study that actually came out of Harvard, here in Boston, and it was really... I mean, it was a few years ago, but it was really a compelling study because what it did was looked at people's diet and lifestyle and their life expectancy and found that if people follow just, like, five different lifestyle factors-

    9. MR

      Uh-huh

    10. RP

      ... it could increase their life expectancy between 12 and 14 years. So women, on average, that were not doing all five of these lifestyle factors, which is, a big part of it is what we're gonna be looking at here, they lived on average about 79 years. If they did include all five of the lifestyle factors, they lived to the age of about... They added 14 years. So they lived to about 93.

    11. MR

      What? 14 years?

    12. RP

      14 years. If they started at age 50, five different healthy lifestyle factors, and included all five, they lived to age 93. So it was a 14-year increase in life expectancy. For men that started at age 50, it was a 12-year increased life expectancy-

    13. MR

      Oh my gosh

    14. RP

      ... so they were living on average 74.5-- 75.5 years, and they went up to about 86 years.

    15. MR

      And just what are, quickly-

    16. RP

      Yes

    17. MR

      ... those five lifestyle-

    18. RP

      The five are adopting a healthy lifestyle pattern, which we're gonna talk about.

    19. MR

      Okay.

    20. RP

      Not smoking, doing three and a half hours of moderate or vigorous intensity per week. We talked a lot about the vigorous intensity exercise, 10 minutes a day. That would be 70 minutes a week. And so you're basically g- gonna add on to that by doing some of the more moderate intensity exercise, okay?

    21. MR

      Got it. Okay.

    22. RP

      So that was number three. Number four is not consuming excess alcohol. So women were consuming l- fewer than one drink per day, and men consumed about one drink per day or fewer.

    23. MR

      Okay.

    24. RP

      And then the last one is maintaining a healthy BMI. Those were the five lifestyle factors that could add between 12 to 14 years to your life expectancy. And on top of that, those individuals were free from diseases like cardiovascular disease-

    25. MR

      Wow

    26. RP

      ... diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, cancer, right? So you're living healthy years, which is what you want.

    27. MR

      Yes.

    28. RP

      The nutrition part is a big component of this. So those individuals were eating... They were in the top 40% of the, what's called the alternative healthy eating pattern. And what that includes is, first and foremost, you have to have four to five servings of fruits and vegetables per day. So those vegetables, s- what's a serving is the question. A serving was either a cup of leafy greens. So you have to have four to five of that. And so you can see here, this is a measuring cup. This is a cup for those people-

    29. MR

      Yep

    30. RP

      ... um, that person that's listening.

  12. 1:17:09 – 1:20:31

    The 7 Foods That Matter Most

    1. RP

      prebiotic fiber that's a little bit different.

    2. MR

      Mm-hmm. 'Cause I know if you were doing, like, psyllium husk or some-

    3. RP

      Yeah

    4. MR

      ... of the other stuff, you gotta really make sure-

    5. RP

      Yeah

    6. MR

      ... you're hydrating.

    7. RP

      Right. It's, it's bringing... It's, you gotta make sure you get more water in you.

    8. MR

      Right. Amazing. We're gonna go back in the studio and talk about what else we could be eating in the bucket of nutrition, and here's to your health. You know, one of the other things that I noticed, Dr. Patrick, about the smoothie is that it had five ingredients. [laughs] And you were talking about those five, like, healthy lifestyle index factors that really have a massive impact on your, the quality of your life and your health. The smoothie was terrific, and again, you promised easy ways to apply the advice every single day. What are other foods we should focus on eating?

    9. RP

      Yeah, so some of the other foods that are important, first and foremost, getting omega-3 fatty acids. Some people don't like fish, which is why the supplementation of omega-3 is great. But if you wanna take... If the, the healthy, Alternative Healthy Eating Index has two servings per week of four ounces of fatty fish, like salmon or mackerel, right?

    10. MR

      Okay.

    11. RP

      So that would be two servings per week, four ounces each. And then you wanna make sure you're getting enough whole grains. And these whole grains in this, you know, healthy eating index come from oats, barley, quinoa, brown rice, farro, those types of whole grains. Women need to take in about 70 grams per day, and men need to take in about 90 grams per day.

    12. MR

      Hmm.

    13. RP

      And just to give you a little background here, 98% of the population's not getting enough fiber every day, and that plays a very important role in our colon health and our overall health, LDL cholesterol as well. And then- Red meat, processed meat, these are also foods that are on the list. How much should you be eating? It seems like the sweet spot for red meat is about 12 to 18 ounces per week, not going over that. And then almost no processed meats, like less than one serving per week. So really cutting out the lunch meats and the processed meats, the hot dogs, the bacon. That stuff is processed meats, and that also has been associated with colon cancer. The other thing on this healthy eating index is sodium intake. So you wanna make sure that you're not really going above... Usually, it was like two- 2,300 milligrams per day. Ideally, 1,500 milligrams a day. And I do think sodium intake is really also just a proxy for our ultra-processed foods. You wanna really be minimizing that. A lot of those have a lot of high sodium. If you're getting foods that are, if you're eating at a restaurant-

    14. MR

      Mm

    15. RP

      ... you might have a lot of sodium in that as well. So that's also important. And then also making sure that we're not eating and drinking sugar-sweetened beverages, so that's zero of those. Th- this is all part of that study where we're, we're trying to really, like, be at the top 40% of that-

    16. MR

      Yes

    17. RP

      ... healthy, you know, eating index. And so you wanna make sure you're at zero sugar-sweetened beverages per day, including juice. So if you're gonna eat fruit, it has to be with the whole fruit and the fiber. That changes the way your body is processing and absorbing glucose. Very important. And then the ultra-processed foods are pretty much less than one serving a, you know, I would, I'd say less than one ser- one to two servings a week. So really, really low on eating the, the junk

  13. 1:20:31 – 1:23:59

    The Only 5 Supplements You Really Need

    1. RP

      food.

    2. MR

      Dr. Patrick, you mentioned omega-3s, and I know that there are five supplements that, based on the research, you recommend that everyone takes. What are those five supplements that should be on our list, and how much should you be taking?

    3. RP

      So omega-3s are really at the top of the list, mostly because most people don't wanna eat two servings of fish per week either. And it seems as though to get from a low omega-3 index to a high omega-3 index, it takes about two grams a day, so that's a pretty good starting point for omega-3 supplementation. The second would be a multivitamin, and this, depending on what the serving size is, I take one a day, 'cause that's my serving size. Some multivitamins are three capsules. So you wanna take one of those, and that's filling a lot of nutritional gaps. And then you wanna take a vitamin D. Vitamin D is very important because it is converted into a hormone. 70% of us are not getting enough of it. Usually, a good spot for vitamin D is 4,000 IUs a day. So the fourth supplement would be magnesium. We did get some magnesium from those kale leaves that we had in the smoothie. Magnesium is a very, very important cofactor for 300 different processes in the body. I personally like to take 250 milligrams a day. That's two capsules of my 125, and that seems to help me when I take it at night with sleep as well. Plus, I'm getting to that goal of about 300. For me, it's more like 350 milligrams a day, 'cause I do sweat, and you lose magnesium through sweat. So that would be the fourth supplement. And then lastly, creatine is something I think a lot of people can benefit, because one, it does, if you're working out and exercising, which you should be after this episode. You know that exercise-

    4. MR

      [laughs] Yes

    5. RP

      ... snacks are achievable, attainable, and that you should be doing them every day, like you brush your teeth. That'll help you with those exercise snacks. It'll make them easier. You'll be able to do them more. You'll recover quicker.

    6. MR

      Really?

    7. RP

      Yes. Yes, they will.

    8. MR

      Like, if I take creatine powder in the morning, how much am I taking?

    9. RP

      You're taking 10 grams. I would do, I do five and five. So I, I do five before my workout, and then I do five after my workout.

    10. MR

      Okay.

    11. RP

      The reason the creatine is gonna help you with that workout... By the way, it's gonna take about four weeks before your muscles saturate. So four, four weeks of getting at least five grams a day-

    12. MR

      Okay

    13. RP

      ... your muscles will be saturated. So if you're starting off fresh, give yourself about a month before you-

    14. MR

      Okay, so it's not like magic juice.

    15. RP

      It's not like magic juice.

    16. MR

      I'm not gonna take this, and all of a sudden, those air squats are a breeze.

    17. RP

      It'll take four weeks before it builds up in your muscle.

    18. MR

      Okay.

    19. RP

      And once you get to that buildup point, that saturation point, then the five days is just keeping it there, keeping it there, right? So what you'll notice is that your air squats will be easier, because you can repl- you can replenish ATP, which you're using as you're doing them, quicker.

    20. MR

      Huh.

    21. RP

      So that's-

    22. MR

      And what's the other benefit, though?

    23. RP

      So the five grams after is to benefit the brain, because we now know from research that it takes about 10 grams per day for it to get into the brain. Five grams is greedily taken up by muscle. Once you get t- past that to 10 grams, it gets into the brain, and there's research showing that there's benefits in the brain, particularly if your brain is stressed, like sleep deprivation, you know, uh, you know, any sort of neurodegenerative disease or I like to extrapolate and say just the chronic stresses of daily life.

    24. MR

      So you're taking 10 grams of creatine every morning?

    25. RP

      Yes, I take 10 grams every morning. I split it up in two five-gram doses. Um, sometimes I do 10 if I don't have time, but I do 10 grams every day. That's my baseline. When I'm traveling, sleep-deprived, I go up to 20 to 25 grams, depending on how sleep-deprived I am, 'cause studies show that helps with sleep deprivation.

  14. 1:23:59 – 1:26:48

    The #1 Health Habit to Start Today

    1. MR

      Uh, if you had to boil everything down, I would love to have you speak directly to the person who's here listening or watching right now. And out of everything that you talked about, all the research that you shared, the simplified recommendations based on this exquisite research, if the person listening or watching takes just one action out of all of this, what do you think the most important thing to do today is?

    2. RP

      10 minutes of breathless exercise. The 10 minutes of vigorous exercise, exercise snacks.

    3. MR

      Mm.

    4. RP

      That would be the most important thing.

    5. MR

      And Dr. Patrick, what are your parting words?

    6. RP

      My parting words are you can do this. You can do this, and you should do it. And then once you do it, you're gonna realize how much you can do it, and you're gonna wanna do it because you're gonna feel amazing.

    7. MR

      I love you. I need that on repeat as the alarm every morning. You should do this. You can do this, and you're gonna feel better when you do this. Thank you for giving us the simple things to do and for also explaining why it matters and how it is gonna make us feel better. You're amazing, Dr. Patrick.

    8. RP

      Thanks so much, Mel. I really had a great time. Looking forward to the next one.

    9. MR

      Me too. We're gonna be talking supplements. And I also wanna thank you. Thank you for making the time to listen to something that's not only going to improve your health and make you feel better, it'll add years to your life and life to those years. Thank you for being generous with this episode and sharing it with everybody in your life that you care about, because everybody deserves the gift that is Dr. Patrick. And in case nobody else tells you, I wanted to be sure to tell you as your friend that I love you and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life, and I know you can, because if you follow everything, the simple recommendations that Dr. Patrick just laid out to us, your life will get better. So go do it. I'll see you in the very next episode. I'm gonna welcome you in the moment you hit play. And thank you for watching all the way to the end. Wasn't Dr. Patrick extraordinary? Here's what I wanna ask you. If the subscribe button is lit up down there, yep, it means you're not subscribed. Would you do me and the team a solid, and Dr. Patrick, and hit subscribe? You're the kinda person that loves supporting people that support you, and hitting subscribe really supports us in bringing you world-class experts like Dr. Patrick for free. Thank you for doing that. It also ensures that you don't miss a thing, and it tells us that you love the content that we're bringing you to help you create a better life. All right. Thanks in advance, and I know you want another video, so this one you're gonna love to watch next, and I'll be there to welcome you in the moment you hit play. [outro music]

Episode duration: 1:26:50

Install uListen for AI-powered chat & search across the full episode — Get Full Transcript

Transcript of episode BPZBIzf39M0

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.

iOSAndroidClaudeChrome