Longevity – How fast are you aging? Show Notes
Gary Huber, D.O. is a board-certified physician of Integrative medicine. He is a professor of integrative medicine for the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) and the Metabolic medicine Institute (MMI) out of George Washington University. He is a preceptor for University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy students and medical students at Ohio University. He lectures weekly to fellows training in integrative medicine and is the medical director for an educational website called HippEvo.com.
Chelsea Dorsett, R.D., L.D. is a dietitian, an integrative health coach, a corporate health director and integral member of Dr. Huber’s health team and practice.
A quick note on HippEvo.com. Hippocrates was a Greek physician in 400 B.C. and is known as the "Father of Medicine", a title awarded for his commitment to evolving the medical arts of his day. He is famous for many quotes but a few are shared here:
• Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
• It is more important to know what type of person has a disease than what type of disease a person has.
• The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.
• The natural force within each of us is the greatest healer of all.
• Just as food causes chronic disease, it can be the most powerful cure
Doctors take a Hippocratic oath when they receive their medical license. I fear that if Hippocrates were alive today, he would be sadly disappointed with much of what we have done with medical care. It is my contention that if Hippcrates were to lead medicine forward he would have EVOLVED into an integrative minded approach. Drugs are powerful and have their place in medicine, but they hold very little power to heal or reverse disease and no ability to drive true health. HippEvo is an abbreviation of Hippocrates Evolution and represents a union of the best that medicine has to offer blended with all of the other health sciences to generate the most powerful healing tool in medical care. It combines nutritional science, stress management, exercise, meditation, sleep science, IV nutrition, hyperbaric oxygen, herbs and plant-based elements and most of all common sense. HippEvo’s mission is to fuel the patient’s ability to understand their body and take responsibility for their own health. Yes, doctors have a role here but doctors are helpless if the patient isn’t moving their lifestyle in the right direction. HippEvo was built to serve. It exist as platform where integrative doctors and healthy minded patients can come together to create something special. Check it out for yourself at Hippevo.com.
Podcast #1 Show Notes
What gets measured gets done so the point of this podcast is for to have tools for measuring your "rate of aging". Using a simple questionnaire, some fitness measure and some lab measures you can gain keen insights to your rate of aging and more importantly engage steps to slow it down. Future webinars will explore exact action to engage and why these actions send youthful signals to your cells. First . . . measure it.
Centenarians are people that live beyond 100 years of age. That may not be your specific goal, but we learn a lot when studying them. See the Netflix special on "Blue Zones". The "standard American" lifespan is not very sexy as we begin to lose vitality in our 30’s and by the time we are 50 we are on medication 50% of the time. Glucose and cholesterol problems begin in your 30’s and 40’s and by age 60 there is a 75% chance that you are taking drugs to control it. Lifespan is length of life but Healthspan reflects "quality" of life.
By contrast, centenarian are going strong at age 70, no meds, lots of energy and none of the slow decline. If they start to show signs of age-related disease it typically isn’t affecting them until they are in their 80’s. Most Americans aren’t living to see 80.
Aging involves our decline in hormones, immune system function and mitochondrial (cellular energy) decline. We will address how to improve all of these marks in future podcasts.
We spoke of the Stevens study looking at numbers from the National Health and Nutrition Examination which showed that only 12% of Americans even qualify as being metabolically healthy. That is a sad fact but also a statistic that you easily avoid with proper lifestyle change.
Beyond this we discussed the 2018 study in JAMA that compared 11 prosperous countries with good health care systems and showed that even though Americans smoke and drink less alcohol than many other countries, we ranked dead last in longevity!! Ouch!
But wait . . . it gets worse. In 2023 the Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. reported that life expectancy had continued to DECLINE and our average life expectancy was now down to 76.4 years while Japan and other European countries continued to show gains in longevity. That same study reported on drug use and here again the U.S. was not the shining example of health. This also shed light on our general love of drug therapy or maybe it’s simply our love of money that comes from drug sales. Lots of drugs but not much health to show for it.
The Dunedin study was a very curious exploration into aging. It followed 954 people from birth to age 38 and measured labs and vitals to assess their rate of aging. It was clear from this study that the rate of aging could be quantified to some degree with simple measures. You can read about fancy DNA methylation testing based on the Horvath clock but this study of simple lab tests and fitness showed equally meaningful measures and clearly pointed to flaws in lifestyle that could be corrected.
I have developed our own "Aging Score" based on an even deeper and more exacting exploration into labs and other lifestyle habits that offer a broader scope and therefore a more meaningful measure of your rate of aging. This questionnaire and aging guide can be seen on HippEvo.com by looking in the LEARN section under ARTICLES. https://www.hippevo.com/articles/aging-score
Taking Action:
It all starts by getting a baseline measure to see where you are. Your body wants to heal and can definitely get younger but how do you know where to start if you don’t have a line in the sand. Make the decision that you want to be in control of your health journey rather than a victim of it. Get some labs done – I recommend starting with a look at some detailed labs.
If insurance will cover your labs then that's great but if not then don’t get robbed – use discounted lab option through HippEvoShop.com where you can order labs on a cash pay basis and save a ton. You need an NMR lipid panel, HgbA1c, Glucose (chem14) and insulin, and a CRP-hs as a good start point. Add to this your sex appropriate hormone test panel that includes testosterone and SHBG.
Yes, there is more that can be measured but this is a good start. If you want to order all of the labs seen in the "Aging Score" questionnaire then contact Liz at HippEvo.com (Phone 513-366-2100) and request the Longevity full panel which includes: NMR lipids, Insulin, Chem14, HgbA1c, Testosterone, DHEAS, Thyroid, CRP, ApoE gene, Omega 6:3 ratio, Lp(a), Glutathione, Vitamin D, SHBG. You can also order this panel direct off the HippEvoShop.com site. The price is $699.00 but there isn’t a cheaper more inclusive panel to be found anywhere.
Then measure your fitness as outlined on the "Aging Score" sheet. This is when reality sets in but that's a good thing. No more mystery. We are filling in facts and details to arrive at a statement of health. You are putting yourself in the driver seat by laying claim to your reality. More importantly, once measured you can begin to sculpt a different result. Don’t be American – Age slowly.
Future Podcasts – where do we go from here?
The sky is the limit as we uncover the bare facts behind each of these tools listed below.
It will be FUN and you will empower yourself with the skill set you need to accelerate your health while you put the brakes on AGING. Next month . . . "Dementia" will be our topic. How do I protect my valuable brain and avoid Alzheimers? How can strengthen my cognition to reduce some early signs?
