852. 3 Dimensions of Longevity That Will Extend Your Life
How Strong Are Your Mitochondria?
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’m obsessed with mitochondria.
Mitochondria are little cellular power plants. You have trillions of them all across your body, and they produce the power to fuel just about everything you do, whether you’re lifting heavy weight at the gym or thinking through a big project at work.
Mitochondria also play a central role in longevity – the better your mitochondria, the longer you live[*].
With stronger mitochondria, your body literally makes more energy. As a result, upgrading your mitochondria will give you better performance across every part of your life.
The good news is that your diet and lifestyle play a major role in your mitochondrial health. With a few changes, you can optimize your mitochondria for fitness and longevity.
How Strong Are Your Mitochondria?
Biohacking is all about data: you want to measure your body’s baseline, then track improvements in your performance over time.
Mitochondria are no different. You can measure their efficiency, density (more mitochondria means more power output), and more, and you can see whether or not they get better over time.
Testing your mitochondria used to be both invasive and prohibitively expensive. However, these days you can get a Health Intelligence Test from Viome that includes a full mitochondrial assessment, gut health test, biological age, and more, all without leaving your home.
You can test every couple months to see how much your mitochondria improve. I recommend measuring your mitochondrial health at baseline, then trying the lifestyle changes below.
How to Build Stronger Mitochondria
1. Do HIIT
High intensity interval training (HIIT) involves brief bouts of exercise at high intensity, with just a few seconds of rest in between.
If you want to upgrade your body fast, HIIT is your best option. A single HIIT workout increases human growth hormone (HGH) by around 2000%[*] (an hour of strength training only boosts HGH by 200-700%[*]).
HIIT training also boosts testosterone significantly more than other types of exercise[*].
But HIIT doesn’t just improve your hormones. A 2011 study discovered that your body makes brand new mitochondria after a HIIT workout[*].
Try a basic HIIT workout and see how you feel. It should be absolutely exhausting –– but it’s one of the fastest ways to upgrade your body and create new mitochondria.
2. Hack Your Sleep
Poor sleep and sleep disorders lead to mitochondrial dysfunction, slowing down your body’s energy production and making you age faster[*].
Good sleep, on the other hand, keeps your mitochondria strong –– and if you get a few nights of good sleep in a row, your mitochondria will turn on even more at night and improve your brain function during the day.
Mitochondria power your glymphatic system, which clears out toxic proteins and metabolites from your brain while you sleep[*]. Deep sleep will activate your glymphatic system and make your brain stronger, powering up your mitochondria and starting a positive feedback loop that improves your performance over time.
It all starts with a good night’s sleep. Try a few simple sleep hacks to get deeper, more restorative sleep.
3. Fast
Fasting is another simple way to upgrade your mitochondria.
Research shows that fasting prevents your mitochondria from aging[*], keeping you biologically younger.
Fasting also makes your mitochondria more efficient and protects you from cellular stress that damages mitochondria and slows them down[*].
My book, Fast This Way, teaches you how to optimize your fasting for maximum results with minimal hunger. You can also try basic intermittent fasting.
Start Upgrading Your Mitochondria Today
If you want to build powerful, resilient mitochondria, start by measuring your mitochondrial health.
Once you know where you stand, use these lifestyle hacks to improve your mitochondrial function. Mitochondrial upgrades take time, but you should feel the difference within a few weeks –– you’ll notice more mental clarity, more energy, and faster recovery (and you’ll live longer, too.)
And make sure you retest your mitochondrial function every two or three months. That way you can track your improvement, find out what works best for you, and keep getting stronger.
3 Rs to Up Your Energy: Rest, Recovery & Restoration – Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith & Kate Northrup – #851
Habits from Simple to Atomic Propel Big Life Changes – BJ Fogg & James Clear – #850
ENERGY: 3 Ways to Find Your Flow – A Top 10 Episode with Dr. Barry Morguelan
Welcome to Your Upgraded Summer!
This new series revisits the Top 10 Bulletproof Radio episodes of all time. The topics cover essentials like nutrition, energy, hormones, sleep and autophagy, as well as gut, brain, autoimmune and women’s health.
You’ll get the main points in a shortened version so you can get the good stuff and get on with your summer plans. And if you want to listen to more, tune in to the original episode.
Dr. Barry Morguelan takes the No. 3 spot: The Ancient Energy Discipline That Stimulates Healing and Vitality – Dr. Barry Morguelan – #413
Dr. Morguelan is one of only about a dozen living grandmasters of Chinese energy healing techniques. He’s spent nearly four decades studying ways he can help others access their energy.
He’s also a gastroenterologist and endoscopic surgeon, with four decades of experience in Western medicine techniques. His search for ways to better help and heal his patients led him to ancient Chinese energy medicine.
He began by learning acupuncture, herbology, massage and acupressure in a traditional Chinese medicine hospital. He moved onto martial arts, which taught him a larger scope of his senses and situational awareness. He was asked to complete challenges that taught him what his body was truly capable of, and he’s taken all of those practices to help people harness their full energy.
In this episode of Bulletproof Radio with one of our most popular guests, we discuss how his studies impact the way he does his current work, and how you can reach your physical, mental and emotional goals. We also get into how practice, patience and consistent work can help you access the energy you hold to be your best self.
Here’s what Dr. Morguelan has to say:
- “When I got to work there, finally, I had the opportunity when I was in one of the hospitals to read some books that had pictures in them. And those books had pictures of people treating somebody, but not touching them, not doing anything. And the person was getting well. So I asked the doctors I was working with there, and they said, yeah, that’s the source of all of Chinese medicine.”
- “You had to be able to stand on your hands. One of the things that people do here in the military, which is not very common for doctors, one hand pushups, then four finger pushups, three finger pushups, those things I’m not. My hands are for surgery, not for those things, but they were always intimating, which turned out to be absolutely true is that you sort of have two bodies.”
- “You need to open your eyes and wake up to the fact that all throughout life you’ve had this, at least, maybe no one told you directly, but it’s in the culture. It’s in the cultural middle of you, that your life is supposed to go like this. And then like this, and like this, and like this.”
Enjoy! And get more resources at Dave.Asprey/podcasts.
Got a comment, idea or question for the podcast? Submit via this form.
7TH ANNUAL BIOHACKING CONFERENCE: SEPTEMBER 17-19, 2021: https://www.biohackingconference.com
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Follow Along with the Transcript
ENERGY- 3 Ways to Find Your Flow – A Top 10 Episode with Dr. Barry Morguelan
Links/Resources
- Website: energyforsuccess.com
- Facebook: facebook.com/EnergyforSuccess/
- Intagram: instagram.com/energyforsuccessofficial/
- YouTube: Energy for Success
Special Guided Breathing Exercise with Dr. Barry Morguelan and Dave Asprey
Bulletproof Radio:
Key Notes
- I started practicing in ’78 and then began into gastroenterology and boards around the ’80s. – 2:05
- You didn’t just go to China. What other places have you been to learn about energy medicine? – 2;25
- Every city I would go into, I’d ask the doctors, okay, what do you have different? What do you have that you use instead of routine Western medicine. – 4:21
- How did you get to the next level? Did you go to the Shaolin Temple, or what was the deal there? – 6:23
- You have the situational awareness and you still have your martial art sort of background? – 8:58
- I was just watching people actually doing the thing I’ve been searching for all these years and didn’t even know it existed. So finally I knew it existed. So this was like the greatest experience. I was like happy. And they didn’t even act like I existed. – 11;53
- What was the highest level of challenge? The most challenging one you went through? – 15:31
- People’s bodies are within a certain range. And then that’s not your only body. You’ve got all this energy to connect to in the world. Some people like to say your energy body. – 16:20
- There’s like eight major areas that you can definitely see something happening dramatically. So first would be, do you want me to go into them? – 18:46
- One of the other eight is called serendipity on command, which is that people notice not only your relationships get better and people are nicer to you, but that also, and you’re nicer to them. – 21:12
- If someone came to you tomorrow and said, look, Barry, I want to be better at everything I do. I want to perform better at just being a human. Three most important pieces of advice you have for them, what would they be? – 25:35
- I pretty much have worked a seven day week for, I guess, about 15, 16 years. And the energy is the only way to do that effectively. – 28:51
If you like today’s episode, check us out on Apple Podcasts at daveasprey.com/apple and leave us a (hopefully) 5-star rating and a creative review.
Go check out my new book “Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever“ and also “Game Changers“, “Headstrong” and “The Bulletproof Diet” on Amazon and consider leaving a review!
Want to help others reach their full potential? Check out the incredible Human Potential Coach Training program I set up with Dr. Mark Atkinson.
BRAIN POWER: Feeding Neurotransmitters Improves Mental Health – A Top 10 Episode with William Walsh, Ph.D.
Welcome to Your Upgraded Summer!
This new series revisits the Top 10 Bulletproof Radio episodes of all time. The topics cover essentials like nutrition, energy, hormones, sleep and autophagy, as well as gut, brain, autoimmune and women’s health.
You’ll get the main points in a shortened version so you can get the good stuff and get on with your summer plans. And if you want to listen to more, tune in to the original episode.
William Walsh, Ph.D., takes the No. 10 spot: Tailor Your Brain’s Neurotransmission with Nutrients — William J. Walsh, Ph.D. #567
In this revamped episode of Bulletproof Radio, I talk with research scientist Dr. Bill Walsh about how brain cells function, how they’re nourished, and what we need to clear out our brain’s trash and keep the good stuff around. He’s spent over three decades studying how you can use nutrients and foods to improve your brain health. His expertise shows how mental health can be improved with nutritional psychiatry.
More than 100 neurotransmitters in the brain act as chemical messengers. Research shows us that with certain nutrients you can directly affect how those neurotransmitters work. For people who struggle with addiction, for people who have a mental illness, for those who want to live longer, improve their memory and so much more, Dr. Walsh walks you through the nutrients that can make a difference.
New research over the past decade shows us what protects our mind and body, and how much our environment influences that. Here’s more of what Bill discovered:
- “Neuroscience advances and my interest has always been on the brain and on people with brain disorders, depression, anxiety, autism, schizophrenia–the whole litany of brain science. And my focus has to be on the neurotransmitters themselves. There are about five or six that seem to be especially important in mental disorders. For the first time in the last 10 years, we now are able with nutrients to directly affect neurotransmission of many of the most important neurotransmitters.”
- “It seems like all the research is still aimed at finding the next billion-dollar drug that can help people. And we now have enough knowledge that from the new research, when you put it all together, we’re learning that with nutrients and with diet even, we can make radical improvements in people with depression and anxiety and problems like that. And that we don’t necessarily need a drug.”
- “If you’re going to do one test, do a zinc test. Because if you’re low in zinc, that means your chance of getting cancer, chance of developing dementia, chance of developing heart disease is much greater. I would guess that probably half of Americans would benefit from more zinc.”
Enjoy! And get more resources at Dave.Asprey/podcasts.
Got a comment, idea or question for the podcast? Submit via this form.
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7TH ANNUAL BIOHACKING CONFERENCE: SEPTEMBER 17-19, 2021
https://www.biohackingconference.com
DAVE ASPREY BOX
https://daveaspreybox.com/
UPGRADE YOURSELF WITH Dave Asprey
https://ourupgradecollective.com
Follow Along with the Transcript
Links/Resources
- Website: walshinstitute.org
- Book: Nutrient Power: Heal Your Biochemistry and Heal Your Brain
- Facebook: facebook.com/walshresearchinstitute
- Twitter: @WalshResearch
- YouTube: Walsh Institute Channel
Bulletproof Radio:
Dave Asprey Blog:
- Brain Food: 5 Nutrients that Upgrade Your Mind
- Brain Health: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Your Brain Young and Strong
- 4 Top Antinutrients to Avoid – and Why
Key Notes
- I would love to know, what have you discovered since we last talked? – 1:41
- It works on the glial cells that surround neurons. It acts as what’s known as an anti-porter. It shoves cysteine into the glial cells and shoves glutamate into the synapse. – 4:58
- There’s something called memory extinction that resides in the NMDA. And that’s what the problem that addicts and OCD people have. – 5:46
- We’re learning that with nutrients and with diet even, we can make radical improvements in people with depression and anxiety and problems like that. And that we don’t necessarily need a drug. – 10:11
- What is some things that people listening today might do in order to strengthen their defenses given what we know? – 13:06
- There’s all these mysteries of bipolar that have plagued people for more than 100 years. For example, people don’t understand why it’s a late onset disorder. – 14;50
- The weak link in your DNA for some people who are predisposed to this problem is the guanine. Well, we have 30 trillion of these DNAs containing, that’s one of the four nucleotides that make up DNA. And when that starts to deteriorate, it shows up in the blood stream. – 18:04
- Some people simply don’t make enough natural antioxidants and they’re the ones who die young and develop all kinds of diseases. And I think that the good news is nutrient supplements can do that job for us. – 19:50
- 8% of Americans are born genetically with too much methylation. So they could be harmed by things like methionine or SAMe. Whereas people who have too little methylation capability, that would be like mother’s milk for them. – 21:31
- Listen to podcasts like yours and others. And try to identify maybe the five or six or the 10 most promising nutrients that might help them. And then to try them one by one and see if it really makes a difference in their life. – 23:12
- How long do you think you’re going to live with a highly functioning brain? – 26:12
If you like today’s episode, check us out on Apple Podcasts at daveasprey.com/apple and leave us a (hopefully) 5-star rating and a creative review.
Go check out my new book “Super Human: The Bulletproof Plan to Age Backward and Maybe Even Live Forever“ and also “Game Changers“, “Headstrong” and “The Bulletproof Diet” on Amazon and consider leaving a review!
Want to help others reach their full potential? Check out the incredible Human Potential Coach Training program I set up with Dr. Mark Atkinson.
