The #1 antidote to aging | Daniel Lieberman, Morgan Levine & more

- I'm ready to fight. - I think everyone worries about death. That's why people have always wondered if this was something that could really be controlled. Many people don't realize how much power we really have over our

aging

process. - Aging is a topic that seems to be shrouded in all kinds of mystery. I don't think getting older is a bad thing. I think we should want to age well inside and out, and it is possible. - What is that lifelong story, that trajectory of what we should be doing for our gender, for our age, for our genetic background that will make the

aging

process

more

beautiful for us? - Physical exercise and good health.

Those things act significantly to reduce the chances and eliminate age-related memory loss or at least restrict it significantly. - We evolved to live long so we can be physically active and that physical activity helps us live longer and stay healthy. - Hello big thinkers, your metabolic health is one of the biggest predictors of how long you will live and how well you will feel while you live. But metabolic health can be difficult to measure. One of the best ways to understand how your daily decisions impact your metabolic health is by tracking your glucose, which you can do thanks to today's video sponsor, Levels.

Levels is an application that allows you to obtain real-time information about your metabolic health. And it's one of the most interesting health apps I've ever tried. The way it works is simple. By connecting to a continuous glucose monitor, Levels can track the stability of your glucose levels as the day progresses. When you eat a meal, you can log into the Levels app and determine how the foods you eat affect the glucose levels in your body. That same knowledge applies to other daily activities such as exercise and sleep. So Levels sent me a starter kit to experience the platform for myself.

Fitness and diet are things I have struggled with my entire life. I've gained weight, tried extreme exercise nutrition plans, and generally have a hard time deciding what to eat. As someone who has meticulously tracked diet and exercise in the past, the Levels platform added a layer of data about how my body works that I had never had access to before. I now have a much better idea of ​​how my body reacts to different types of foods and activities, and I can use that information to alleviate some of the anxieties I feel around my food choices. A simple example is popcorn.

It is one of my favorite snacks. But not all brands of popcorn have the same kind of effect on my blood sugar. So I've been able to see which types have the biggest impact and have decided to stop eating those that cause my glucose levels to rise. So if you're interested in trying Levels to see how it affects your health, we have a special offer. Two months free with annual membership at levels.link/bigthink. Now let's get back to the science of exercise and longevity. - We know that sometimes there is a disconnection between this concept, what we call life expectancy and life expectancy.

So life expectancy is just the time you've been alive between birth and death. And what scientists believe to be health span is the time you are alive in a healthiest functioning state. We want to increase the quality of life and maintain it over time. And if that produces a longer life, that's an added bonus, but that's not the end goal. Therefore, when we think about changes associated with old age, we think about functional changes. Things like how fast you can run or walk or your ability to climb stairs. Aging is really personified by dysfunction and we see a lot of this in the diseases that tend to arise with age. - So, as people age, they are susceptible to one of two types of cognitive decline.

One is Alzheimer's disease, which begins in the 70s, but becomes almost an epidemic by the time people are 90 years old, when almost half of the population suffers from Alzheimer's disease. And the other, quite different from Alzheimer's disease, is called age-related memory loss. This differs from Alzheimer's disease in that it begins early, begins in middle age, and involves a different part of the brain. It begins in the dentate gyrus. Alzheimer's disease begins in the entorhinal cortex. - But other things that we associate with aging are also changes in body composition. Very often people may gain fat mass around their waist or lose muscle mass. - And one of the really serious and most pernicious problems of aging is a problem called sarcopenia. "Sarco" is meat and "penia" is loss.

So it's meat loss. As people age, they tend to lose a lot of strength and power, and that makes basic tasks difficult. And when that happens, people become less active. When they become less active, they become less fit. And in a way it sets in motion a really disastrous vicious cycle. And so, as we get older, strength training becomes

more

and more important so that we can avoid those losses of stamina that are really important for maintaining health and staying strong and healthy as we get older. - The lifestyle right now is actually our best ticket in terms of slowing down our aging process.

And this is actually because living systems are adaptive. We adapt to our environment, we adapt to the things we experience. Therefore, aspects such as resilience can be improved through different lifestyles. - And then health is really the key. And what physical activity does is increase life expectancy, and therefore life expectancy increases life expectancy. So the word exercise comes from the Latin "exercitatio" and it meant to train. I would say that the definition I use for exercise is pretty much the standard definition that people in the world of fitness and exercise science use. That is why it is important to make a distinction between physical activity and exercise.

So physical activity is simply moving. You do anything. Go shopping. You know, pick up your purchases and take them to your car. That's physical activity. When you sweep the kitchen floor, that's physical activity. But exercise is a voluntary, discretionary physical activity for the sake of health and fitness, right? It is planned. So, it can include everything from sports to running on a treadmill and, you know, going for a walk. - Every time you move your body, even when you run, you are giving your brain what I call "a wonderful bubble bath of neurochemicals." Those neurochemicals include dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, endorphins, but they also include what are called growth factors.

Several different growth factors are released with movement, and that contributes to the long-term effects of exercise that can actually help grow and strengthen two key areas of the brain: one is the hippocampus, which is critical for long-term memory. And the second is the prefrontal cortex, essential for the ability to shift and focus attention. The hippocampus is an extraordinary structure because it is one of the only areas of the human brain that can develop completely new brain cells in adulthood. And what does that mean? Your memory is better. The other area of ​​the brain that benefits in terms of growth and strength is the prefrontal cortex.

Now, it's not generating new cells. Some evidence suggests that the outputs of prefrontal cortex cells called axons from those cells work better with more exercise. - But there is another benefit, right? And the other benefit is that physical activity is important because when you are physically active, you stress your body. You produce what are called reactive oxygen species, which cause cellular damage throughout the body. It causes mutations, it causes inflammation. But since that is normal, our bodies activate all kinds of repair and maintenance mechanisms that counteract them. And as we age, that repair and maintenance becomes really important because it prevents senescence, it prevents our bodies from breaking down.

So when people become physically inactive as they age, they no longer activate those mechanisms that we evolved to use, right, that help us age better, and that makes us more vulnerable to disease and we age faster. - So when we think about stress, we often think that stress is bad, but in reality, stress is designed to make us stronger, whether emotionally or physically. Someone has osteoporosis or osteopenia, right? Your bone density is compromised as you age. Okay, well, why do we recommend exercising, particularly with weights? The idea is that stress is an injury. We're injuring the muscles, we're injuring the bones, right?

The bone remodels and becomes denser. - Your bones are an endocrine gland. They release a hormone called osteocalcin and it improves memory storage in young people, but it also improves memory storage in older people. And one of the reasons exercise is important is because it increases bone mass. This is particularly important in women, where bone mass tends to decrease more dramatically than in men, but it is important for everyone. So when you exercise, you increase your bone mass, increase osteocalcin, and improve age-related memory loss. - So as we get older, let's not reduce physical activity, let's maintain it.

Do some strength, do some resistance. The evidence is incontrovertible. The older we get, the more beneficial physical activity really is. According to the CDC, only about 20% of Americans perform the minimum levels of exercise that all health organizations in the world consider the minimum for an adult: 150 minutes a week. So 80% of us really struggle and fail to do very basic amounts of exercise. But almost everyone says they want to get enough exercise. You know, no one exercised in the Stone Age, right? People were physically active when they needed to be, but voluntarily going for a 5-mile run in the morning or going to the gym to lift weights whose sole purpose is to be lifted?

That's really weird, weird, trendy behavior. And there are all kinds of instincts we have not to do that, and we shouldn't make people feel bad; instead, we should help them find ways to overcome those instincts. - And so, in order for these in-the-moment unpleasant behaviors to become manageable, you must have perspective and a worthwhile long-term goal. And we call that “Finding your why?” Is it, "I want to wear a two-piece suit instead of a one-piece on spring break because I'm 22?" Or is it, "I want to see my grandchildren graduate from college because I'm 62 years old?" Whatever your motivation, that's the bottom line.

You need to think about what ways being healthy will improve your quality of life, because I'll tell you right now that being healthy is often unpleasant. - So everyone is wondering what is the best time to exercise. And my first answer to that question is whenever you can do it, from morning to night, do it. Physical activity is the most transformative thing you can do, not only for your body, but also for your brain. That is the key message. And you don't have to become a marathon runner or triathlete to get these benefits. - In fact, lots of research shows that physical activities like running actually cause joints to repair and stay healthy.

But you have to learn to do it correctly. One of the ways we medicalize exercise in the Western world is that we think there's a certain amount of things you should do, right? We prescribe it, you know? You should take two aspirin, sleep eight hours and walk 10,000 steps a day. You know, we like that, right? And there's nothing necessarily wrong with having a goal. If you do 8,000 steps, that's fine. If you do 15,000 steps, that's fine. The important thing is to be physically active because something is better than nothing. There is no magic number. - I like to set smaller goals.

Feasible goals. That's the key. Maybe it's a walk along the shore, a walk to the gym, a walk to the museum with friends. Gardening. People think those things don't count. They all count. Be broader in your definition of bringing more movement into your life. - So, will science really solve death? The important thing is that death is not the end goal in terms of aging research. What we really want to do is keep people healthy and functioning for as long as possible. And if that results in a longer life expectancy, that ends up being just the added bonus.