Reginald D: Welcome to Real Talk with Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D. On today's episode, I have Dr. William Bruno. Dr. Bruno is a board certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, California, and also a wellness and longevity practitioner who believes that your health is not accidental, it's intentional. Today's conversation is not just about health. It's about how long you're going to be here and how well you're going to live while you here. Welcome to the show, Dr. Bruno. Dr. Bruno: Oh, thanks for having me, Reginald. Happy to be here. Reginald D: Absolutely, absolutely. Thank you so much, sir. So, Dr. Bruno, can you tell us a little bit about your life, how you grew up as a child? Dr. Bruno: Yeah, you know, I was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at a young age. I was around 4 years old. So I was in and out of hospitals a lot, which actually led me to become a physician. There was no physicians in my family, but I spent so much time around doctors and hospitals that instead of fearing it, I was drawn to it. And that's what made me want to become, you know, a physician. And then as I went along in my training, I really enjoyed the artistry and problem solving that plastic surgery had to offer. We're operating on men and women, young and old, head to toe. And I mentioned I went to Duke University for my plastic surgery training. And then when I finished there, I moved out to Southern California mainly for the weather. And now I'm, you know, mostly doing aesthetic procedures, but also developed a real interest and passion for wellness and longevity because about eight or nine years ago, I found out I had high cholesterol, which led to a series of tests where I found out I had coronary artery disease on a, on a test called the calcium scan. And that really led me to change a lot about my lifestyle, to improve my nutrition and exercise and sleep and really make big improvements in lifestyle, which is something we're not really taught in traditional medical school here in America, and the power that we each have to affect our health and affect, you know, our longevity. So that's what sort of drew me to, you know, wellness and longevity. So I'm a practicing plastic surgeon, but I do coaching and longevity. I created a digital course on it, aging and how to create your own longevity blueprint and so on. So that's a little background on me. Reginald D: So when you talk about lifestyle as it relates to longevity, what are the biggest daily habits you see that shortens people's lives without them even realizing it? Dr. Bruno: I would say first and foremost is the food decisions that we make each Day. I think most people, you know, certainly in the United States, we've become one of the unhealthiest countries, one of the more overweight or obese countries in the world. And a lot of metabolic health, and by that I mean, you know, type 2 diabetes has become rampant, especially in the teenage population as well as adults. So I think, you know, the choices we make, like most people are eating ultra processed foods. And I think one change, you know, all of us can do is try to eat more whole foods and without getting into, you know, what's the best diet, because people always like to have passionate, you know, opinions about that. I think it's really about eating whole foods that are minimally processed, organic if you can get them with the least amount of pesticides and so on. And also maybe trying to optimize the amount of fiber we're eating. Most Americans should probably be shooting for about 30 grams of fiber, but only like 2% of the population's getting that. And then also trying to emphasize protein. You know, the US Guideline pyramid was just revised a couple months ago and that came out really stating that we almost need to double the amount of protein intake compared to the previous, previous food recommendations, which quite honestly, it's about time they finally caught up. And having a more protein centric diet, whether you want to do that with meat, eggs, beans, tofu, however you do it, it's important as we age because, you know, the amount of muscle mass we have on our body is really important for our longevity, you know, giving us strength as we get older. So back to your question. I would say nutrition, those choices we make, and then movement, exercise, let's say, as a category, you know, most people are sedentary, they're not getting enough steps. Even if you start with walking and try to build your up to maybe 6, 7, 8, 9,000 steps a day is a good starting point. On top of that, maybe try to do a couple, maybe two resistance training sessions a week. And this goes for people young and old. I think again, back to the muscle mass component. The more muscle you have, the longer you will live. And they've shown this in many studies. It's correlated to grip strength. You know, the stronger your grip, which is a proxy for overall body strength, the longer someone will live. And also the more muscle you have on your body also helps you to stay independent as you age, but it also helps regulate your blood sugars, it regulates your metabolism. It's not just for the aesthetics of looking good. It truly matters. And also, you know, let's not neglect cardio. I think getting a certain amount of cardio, the Recommendation is about 150 minutes a week, which is like 2 and a half hours of low intensity cardio a week. And then I'd say the third sort of pillar, if you will, would be sleep. Most people aren't optimizing sleep. They're not getting enough sleep, they're eating too close to bedtime, they're on screens, they're watching TV late at night, they're on their computers. And that's really harming the sleep because it's in our sleep where the real healing happens. That's where, you know, fat burning happens, that's where muscle building happens, that's where brain detoxification happens. So if we could really try to get seven, eight hours of sleep and really be consistent with your bedtime and your wake time, that's probably the most important habit. You know, other things like sleeping in a cold, dark, quiet room, you know, a lot of us know that, but really being consistent, even on the weekends, trying to get up and go to bed at the same time. So those I would just categorize probably as the base of what we can be doing in our lifestyle as far as food choices, or let's call that nutrition, exercise and sleep as the basis. Reginald D: Yeah, and let's talk about that for a second because a lot of people feel overwhelmed when they hear eat better, exercise more, manage stress. What are the first simple changes that actually make the biggest impact on long term health? Dr. Bruno: You know, I would say if you go back to the nutrition component is when you're, let's say when you're grocery shopping, for example, what you bring into the home, making those better decisions, the whole foods, try not to get the foods that are packaged in a bag or in a box. And you know, if you could try to eat most of your meals at home versus takeout or ordering out, you can control those ingredients, you can control how the food is prepared. You know, there's a lot of talk nowadays about seed oils and minimizing a lot of these vegetable oils, which quite honestly, that's used most of the time when you go out to dinner. But if you could try to eat like let's say 80% of your meals at home, 80% of your meals, having good choices, you'll see that alone will make you feel more full. If you're eating high protein, high fiber, you know, as much organic as you can, and you're preparing the foods, that's gonna eliminate a lot of the ultra processed foods and the ultra processed foods like the chips and the cookies and so on, they contain so many chemicals and they contain so much salt, sugar and fat, but no nutrients. So we need to sort of get a more nutrient dense diet. And if you're eating a whole food like you're eating an apple instead of apple juice, just something like that. For example, you know, you can have beef maybe if you can get access to it, you know, grass fed beef for example. Probably better than eating deli meats or cold cuts. So just I think changing the environment of your home. So what are the kind of foods that you're going to allow into your kitchen or into your pantry? That would be like a first good step. And try not to eat out as much. As far as the movement, I'd say start with steps. And one thing is, do you have any idea how many steps you're taking? You know, we have all these wearables and even on our iPhone. I myself was really unaware of this till about three years ago. And I looked and I was getting like 2,500 steps a day, which is horrible. It's considered sedentary if you're under 4,000. And I realized I was either in surgery or in the office seeing patients. So I started looking at it and the importance of tracking something. I have a walking pad in my office now, so now I'm up to between 6 or 7,000 steps a day, which is pretty good. It's not 10,000, but it's an improvement. But I was intentional about it and I would say that to anyone or to your audience, try to be intentional and try to track something. Maybe it's your protein intake you're going to track for a while or you know, your steps or your sleep. I've been using an OURA ring for the last couple years. It's something I wear at night and it tells me the quality of the sleep, the duration of the sleep and how I can prevent it. Because if you. The old saying is what gets measured gets managed, right? So I think trying to look at what can you change and these are things you could change today or tomorrow. You could say, I'm going to go for a 10 minute walk, I'm going to go for a 30 minute walk. And I think that's where it begins. You don't have to go to a orange theory class or a high intensity class or anything like that. You can may just start at home with some dumbbells at home. But be intentional and take action. Because most people, they say, well, I'm gonna Go to the doctor. I see him once a year. He says, I'm okay. Probably not sufficient enough. I think we need to be checking our blood work more frequently. Maybe twice a year, maybe three times a year. Maybe go to your doctor and ask questions. Just because they say your cholesterol is quote, unquote normal, that doesn't mean you don't have heart disease. That doesn't mean you're healthy. So I think making these little changes are what really makes big impacts. So in other words, tiny changes to your daily habits, they build up over time, and then by the end of the year, they become your routine. So you're like, yeah, Now I take 6,000 steps a day. Now I eat, you know, 30 grams of fiber a day. Because these are things you've made an intentional, you know, pivot in your lifestyle to do. And it doesn't take a lot. And it doesn't take a lot of money necessarily to do these things. You don't need fancy gadgets, but try to be intentional. And I guess those are some of the basics, I'd say. Reginald D: And I think one of the things is eating better, I think, is more of a discipline thing. Cause if you think about it, you know, you don't have to cook the meals, prep them for the week. But you can say, I'm going to the store on a weekend and I'm buying, you know, groceries for the wheat. And you buy the things that are healthy for you instead of some people. You know, back in the day when I was single, you know, I used to just like, all right, I worry about food when I get off or something. So I'm at the grocery store every day and I'm just flying by the seat of my pants, you know, was quick what I feel and this and that other. But it wasn't healthy because it wasn't planned. Dr. Bruno: Right? And a lot of people fall back to what's convenient, what's fast. And most of the fast food and the convenience foods or the packaged foods, unfortunately, most of them are not healthy. They have preservatives. They don't have enough fiber or, you know, quality protein to keep you full. And that's why you can eat a whole bag of chips, because there's nothing in it that's making you full. It's tasty, and it's by design. They have food scientists to make these foods ultra palatable. So you just keep eating one after another. Next thing you know, you've eaten a whole bag of chips, 800 calories, 1 gram of protein, and no Fiber. And these are the things. If you'd never had that bag of chips in your house, it wouldn't have happened. So there are small incremental changes that I think we can all try to make. You know, you're either every food decision you make pushes you towards health or it pushes you towards disease. And, you know, I hate to be black and white about that, but it's kind of true. Reginald D: Yeah, absolutely. And you talk about those chips, you notice one of them have what you can't eat. Just one. Dr. Bruno: Exactly. Reginald D: It's not lazy, right? Dr. Bruno: That's exactly right. And that's by design. It's not a coincidence. They want you to keep eating. Unfortunately, though, those food companies, all they care about is profit. They don't care about us as consumers. They just want to keep increasing their revenue, whether it's soda or chips or cookies or fast food chains or, you know, whatever. Reginald D: Right, right. So, Dr. Bruno, let's talk about this. You tapped on it for a minute there. What are the most important medical tests or screenings people should be asking their primary care doctor about, but often they don't do it. Dr. Bruno: Yeah. And, you know, going back to my personal experience at the time, I was 49 years old when I requested this test. It's called a calcium scan, and basically it's a CAT scan of your heart. And it can tell you if you have calcifications in the blood vessels that feed your heart. And you're supposed to have zero. Like a calcium score of zero is normal. And at the time, my score was like 400, which led me to another test, which is called the CT angiogram, where they inject dye into you and then they do that same CAT scan. It gives you a better image of the blood vessels. But the reason I focus on these heart tests is heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States and in the world. So you have to think, well, what's going to kill me? So statistically, heart disease. So I would think about asking your doctor if you're like over 40, I would say for sure, certainly over 45 or 50 for a calcium scan, which is a CAT scan on the heart. It might not be covered by insurance, but the cost is maybe $200. And it's a very valuable test. If it's positive, then it would lead to you maybe getting a CT angiogram, which is basically that CAT scan will die. And now they use AI superimpose over it, and it can give you a really good image of what's going on. Inside the blood vessels. I've had that test done twice, and it really tells me where the blockages are. And then through lifestyle changes or if you need medication to lower your cholesterol, you can improve these things, and you can repeat the test several years later and see changes in it. But I'd begin there, because heart disease is our number one killer. So those are tests to talk to your doctor about. And the number two killer in the United States and in the world for that matter, is cancer. Now, cancer, one way to look at this is how do we screen for it? You know, in addition to doing your colonoscopies and, you know, prostate exams and Pap smears and things like that, mammograms, you want to say, well, what can I do beyond this? And I'd say, anyone over the age of 50, and this we know is at a higher risk of cancer is age. So what do we do for over 50? You can get a full body MRI. That's a test. Unfortunately, it's not covered by insurance. It might cost $2,000, but it'll tell you if you have a tumor anywhere or an aneurysm or something in your brain or your. Or your abdomen or your chest at an early stage where it can be treated. And then from a blood test standpoint, there's a company called Gallery, and they have a blood test, and it tests for over 50 different types of cancers that aren't routinely screened for. In other words, just because you have a colonoscopy and a prostate exam and your mammogram, that doesn't mean you don't have cancer, let's say, of your pancreas or your liver or your gallbladder. So there are blood tests out there with very high degrees of accuracy that you can get to screen for those. And again, these are not covered by insurance. They might cost eight or $900. But these are worth having conversations with your primary care doctor about, because, you know, if I can rule out the number one and number two causes of death, that's pretty good. That improves my chances of longevity. Right? How long are we going to live? So you can keep implementing all these lifestyle changes of, you know, decreasing stress, improving your sleep and exercise and eating. But from a testing standpoint, I would start there in addition to maybe some expanded blood panels, because a lot of times you go to your doctor and they say, oh, your cholesterol's fine. There are special types of cholesterol tests that'll tell you the size of the particles, how many LDL particles You have. Are they big, are they small? So just beyond just the regular, you know, LDL bad cholesterol, HDL good and total cholesterol. And then finally, I'd say maybe metabolic disease, I think a lot more people are testing for hemoglobin A1C. You know, with the popularity of Ozempic and WeGova, you see these commercials like, I lowered my A1C. Yeah, you can do that with lifestyle. You don't necessarily need to have a weight loss injection, but that's a blood test that's gaining popularity. And also just testing a your fasting insulin, because sometimes most doctors, they just check glucose, but your glucose can be stable for decades. But it's your resting fasting insulin that should be looked at because that is high in a lot of people. But it goes undetected for years and years. So those are just some basic tests I would, you know, inquire with your primary care doctor about. And, you know, I think it's important to work with your doctor and bring a lot of questions and information to the doctor. And, you know, if you're not getting the answers or the assistance that you need, sometimes you have to look at maybe finding an integrative medicine doctor or a functional medicine doctor or a lifestyle medicine doctor. These are physicians that they get to the root cause of disease instead of just treating the symptoms. Like I'm trained in Western, you know, traditional medicine. And yeah, we just treated symptoms. That's why we learn all these pharmaceuticals. Because the pharmaceutical companies, quite frankly, they run a lot of the curriculum in the medical schools in the United States. So we don't really get at the cause. So I guess I would urge anyone or your audience, you know, try to be more proactive, because the United States healthcare system, it's reactive. It's just when it's too late, like you have a disease, okay, here's a pill or here's an injection to help with it. But they never really got to what caused it. Like, what can I do to reverse a certain disease? Like, type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle disease, really? And it's totally treatable. Reginald D: Yeah, absolutely, it is. I've seen so many people who reversed it when they got it. So let me ask you this. Cause I've talked with so many people, I know a lot of friends. Everybody goes on these different diets is different stuff because they're looking at whatever they look at or who they talk to or whatever. So let's talk about fasting. How do you feel about fasting and when should you fast? Dr. Bruno: You know, I think there's a lot of positive literature on intermittent fasting and so called time restricted eating. I think it's great. I myself do it, I've been doing it for years. And I think you have to think about what are your goals and it's a tool, like you know anything else. I would say not everyone has to fast. But if you could think about your eating window, like for example, if you say I'm going to only eat for eight hours, Mary, any from 10 in the morning to 6 at night, then I'm going to fast for the other 16 hours. I think that's a great strategy because now you're eating in accordance with your body's circadian rhythm. You're eating when it's light out, you stop eating when it's dark out. And the body responds to that very well. So if you want to optimize your body composition, meaning you want to lose fat, build muscle, that's a good strategy to employ. And then some people would even benefit from maybe once a week or once a month doing a 24 hour fast where you eat nothing like from dinner on Monday night, then you eat dinner Tuesday night. Now you have water in between, you know, and I would certainly recommend water and electrolytes. Some people are doing two or three day fasts. I think those, you might want to consult with a physician certainly before doing a fast of that length. But to do daily, you know, so called 16, 8, where you fast for 16 and eat for 8. I think that's great because I think what has contributed to the country being overweight and unhealthy and metabolically, you know, diseased is we're just snacking too much. Constant snacking, constant eating. We eat from the moment we wake up. We eat dinner and then people have a late night snack before they go to bed. That destroys your sleep. And then in your sleep, you know, they've done studies on this. You're going to gain more body fat because you're eating too close to bedtime. Because every time we eat, even if it's something healthy, say you have an apple, well that increases our blood sugar, which increases our insulin. Insulin in the bloodstream sends a signal to the body to store fat. Now if you eat, they say the average American eats like 11 to 14 times a day. And when I say eat, it's like anything, it could be bag of chips or whatever. If we could just eat like say three or four times a day, actual meals, you would decrease all these, you know, peaks and valleys of blood sugar Going up and going down, Insulin going up and coming down. So, yeah, to your question, I think fasting is a great tool. It's not for everyone. And they say, you know, it's not strongly recommended to maybe postmenopausal women to do it because it's very taxing to the body. But I'd say for the general population, eating in a shorter window, whether that's eight hours or 10 hours, is relatively healthy. And I would do that in accordance with the daylight. A lot of people like to skip breakfast. Not bad. But if you think about it, if you could skip dinner, that's probably even a better strategy. Have a nice breakfast, maybe a nice lunch and no dinner or a small dinner. That's probably more in line with, with all our ancestors is like, you know, when it gets dark out, no one was eating at nine at night because there was no light, you know, really? So, yeah, I think fasting is a great strategy and most people can benefit from it. Reginald D: Awesome. So, Dr. Bruno, what myths about aging and health do you wish people would stop believing? Dr. Bruno: You know, I think a lot of people think, well, it's too late for me to, you know, start a diet program or exercise program. I think some people think, well, I'm just gonn. As I get older, I'm going to become, you know, dependent on people. I'm going to have to go to a nursing home and I'm going to have to live my remaining years, five, ten years in a nursing home, let's say bedridden. And it's totally untrue. And I think that in America, the pattern seems to be most people are relatively healthy till their early 60s and then the last 15 years, let's say, of their life. They are sick, they are ill, they might be bedridden, they might be in a nursing home, and then let's say they die in their late 70s. That's a very typical lifespan in America. But I think what we want to try to do, to break out of this myth is say you can get healthy even starting in your 50s, if you have a good lifestyle. And some of the things we mentioned before, like better nutrition, exercise, sleep, you can actually add 14 to 15 years of good quality life years to your life. So it's not just what can we do to live longer? That's lifespan we want to do. What can we do to live better, which is our health span. And you'd like for your health span to be as long as your lifespan. Like you'd like to live to be 95 and die in your sleep, let's say, versus, you know, living to be 95, but having the last 15 or 20 years being poor quality or you're. You can't walk around, you can't move. And that's why if you start doing things, even if it's in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, like exercise or weight training, you can make big impacts in your life. You can change your diet, you can start eating more whole foods, and you can start to control and maybe even reverse certain disease states. So I guess one myth is, well, it's just my genetics or my mom died of this or my dad died of this. That's not true. You have a lot of control over your health. The genetics might only be like a 20% contributing factor. So you think about it, 80% of how long or how well you'll live is directly under your control. And that's lifestyle. You know, not smoking, not drinking so much, controlling your environment. You know, toxins in the air, pollution, what are the food you're eating, the movement you're doing, the sleep you're getting. So I think that's the biggest myth, is we are not at the mercy of our genetics. Reginald D: I'm glad you said that, because I hear people say a lot of times my father passed away when he was 50 something years old, and I don't think I have that much longer to live. My grandfather passed away when he was 50 something, and my dad, I mean, it's like, I'm like, dude, really? You know, it's like they look at it as a genetic thing, but then when you ask the questions like, hey, how did they pass away or what happened? And they talk about all these bad habits that they had, and I was like, okay, you probably won't go down that road if you don't do what they did. Dr. Bruno: Yeah, it's usually the bad habits that run in families, like certain foods, not so much the bad genetics. Reginald D: Yes, absolutely. So, Dr. Bruno, let's talk about this. And this is a big thing. In the life we live today, every day, stress is one of the most common silent killers. How does chronic stress show up in the body? And what practical steps can people take to reduce its impact? Dr. Bruno: You know, stress is definitely one of the higher contributing factors to things like heart disease. And most of the chronic diseases, whether it's dementia, cancer, metabolic disease, it's rooted at, you know, cortisol. It gets secreted from our adrenal glands when we're under stress. And that puts us in this state of, you know, elevated heart rate, elevated Blood pressure. It causes us to gain weight. It affects our sleep, and then the poor sleep contributes to higher stress and higher cortisol and more weight gain. It's a vicious cycle there. And I think most people, they're sort of adding to their stress, like you said before, by eating these, you know, sort of toxic foods, processed foods, not controlling their light, you know, blue light, basically having all the screens. And at nighttime, that's probably one of the biggest stressors, believe it or not, is just exposure to, you know, radiation. We have all our cell phones on at all times. We have electricity near our bed, you know, like things plugged in next to our head, which is very bad for us. These stressors are kind of invisible. I think these things are really leading to a lot of the health issues that we have. And there's ways to control it. You know, I think, although not in the traditional sense of stress, all the toxins in our environment, these are a form of stress. Whether that's, you know, the type of toothpaste we use, the type of personal care products, the laundry detergent we use, what are we cleaning our. In our kitchen. Those are all toxins that are absorbed through our skin, absorbed in our GI tract. That adds to stress. It's like this, they say, a bucket of stress. And when that gets so toxic and over, you know, the bucket is overflowing. Yeah, people have problems, and it's hard to clear these toxins. And unfortunately, you know, microplastics in the environment are heavy metals. And there's so many things that we're bombarded with. If we should just take inventory of what can we do, let's say, in our home, from a practical standpoint, to reduce these toxic burden, which is stress? You know, maybe you're going to filter your water. Maybe you're going to get a nice air filter. Maybe you're going to change what you're using as a laundry detergent. Maybe you're going to change your shampoo or your body wash. These little changes, again, will make a big difference and offload a lot of this stress on the body. So that's one way, I think, to look at stress. You know, other people say, well, what, you know, you can do meditation. People do certain, you know, breathing exercises. And there's lots of value. There's. But I think having an outlet like exercise, if you go back to that, that's a great way to reduce stress. You know, being out in nature. I think one of the most important things that most people are not doing is getting early morning sunlight which will help you fall asleep at night. You know, most people, they get in their car, they drive to work, they're in fluorescent lights like I am now, and then they go home and it's the same thing. They're not getting quality sunlight, which is important well beyond just vitamin D, that sunlight in the morning resets our internal clock, our circadian clock, and that helps us to fall asleep, which again, good sleep leads to less stress. So I think, you know, being aware of your environment and trying to get a little bit more outdoors absolutely will help you with stress. Reginald D: Absolutely. It makes a lot of sense. So, Dr. Bruno, you created a digital longevity course and a virtual course, you know, coaching program. What gaps in traditional healthcare were you trying to fill with these programs? Dr. Bruno: You know, again, a lot of the gaps that were in my medical school training, which, you know, I went to medical school, you know, maybe in the early 90s, and we learned nothing about exercise and diet and nutrition and sleep. And unfortunately, most medical schools to this day are still not teaching these things, which are how do we prevent disease? The US Healthcare system is focused on how do we treat it once it's happened. And we're very good at certain acute things, if you have trauma or infections and things like that, but not very good at how do we prevent. So the idea behind my digital course is it's like a self paced digital course. It's probably seven hours of video content that you could go through. It goes through what is aging, the science of aging. And then each module is like on nutrition, sleep, exercise, then again to supplements and alternative therapies like red light, hot sauna, you know, things like that, that there's so much science behind most of these things. But in a, in a traditional, you know, medical school system, we're not really learning about that. So I wanted to bring that to patients. And then in my virtual coaching program was about how do we take some of those principles and what can we do to improve our body composition, which is losing fat and gaining muscle. Because beyond the aesthetics of looking better, if you have more muscle on your body and less fat, you will be healthier, you will be metabolically healthier, you will have a lower risk of heart disease, you will have less risk of metabolic disease, lower risk of dementia. Like, they've proven this, that exercise and getting good quality sleep can actually grow neurons, you know, brain cells. So, you know, and it's never too late. And they've done studies where taking people like in their 70s and put them on a weight training program for a few months and they can build significant lean body mass. So I think I was just trying to bring that to reach more people beyond the patients I see in my office, you know, interested in plastic surgery. And I share this with them. But I wanted to try to reach a larger audience. Reginald D: That's amazing, because everybody needs that. You know, I think a lot of people are trying to pick and choose this and that and the other. And I think they need a solid foundation for someone that's telling them, hey, this is what you need to do. And it's not difficult. I think a lot of people think transformation is difficult or getting healthier is difficult. But, you know, think about the food. Hey, food costs so much. If I go ahead and do organic, if I do it this way, I do it that way. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think a lot of lifestyle changes, which doesn't always have to be food, you know, movement and exercising and rest and sleep. Sleep doesn't cause anything. Exercise really don't cost much, you know, I mean, you walk around the block, it's not going to cost you anything. Dr. Bruno: Yeah, being outside in the sun, you know, just getting back into nature, getting back to the ancestral ways is actually healthier. Like modern technology and a lot of the modern conveniences have almost been detrimental to our health. And you see this in teens who are, like, socially isolated, sitting in their basement, you know, on Instagram or, you know, they call it social media, but everyone's home and they're not engaging the way people did, you know, thirty, forty, you know, hundred years ago. So, yeah, getting back to some of those, you know, primitive or ancestral ways of living was healthier in certain ways. And technology is great and you have wearables and you can track things, but we don't want to go too overboard. And I think, you know, just pick one thing. If there's one thing, you say, hey, I'm going to eat more protein or I'm going to take more steps, or I'm going to really, you know, go to bed at 10 o', clock, or I'm not going to stay up till midnight watching Netflix. One decision. And just add to that every week or every month. And again, these things aren't necessarily costly. Reginald D: So, Dr. Bruno, let me ask you this. For someone who feels like they've already messed up their health, is it ever too late to turn things around? What does recovery actually look like to you? Dr. Bruno: I don't think it's ever too late, really. I think whether it's changing, you know, what you're eating you're changing, you know, movement. I don't think it's ever too late. I mean, unless someone has a terminal cancer, you know, something, you know, beyond that. But. And I don't think there's any age that's too late. You know, if you're. Even if you're like in your 70s and you're like, well, I just can't do. No, you can start. And I just start somewhere, you know, whether you need, you know, help, like getting a nutritionist, getting a personal trainer, or, you know, something like that starting somewhere. But I don't think it's ever too late for someone to improve their health. And it really starts with, like, you. You were asking at the beginning, what are those food choices? Start there. Like, we all make that choice at least three times a day, right? Like, make good choices. And you can choose. Are you going to move or not? Are you going to go for a walk or not? You choose when you get to go to sleep. You know, these are all things that we have under our direct control. And again, these things, they're not expensive. You don't need. You don't need to do a hyperbaric oxygen session, you don't need to do an IV glutathione, or all these different infusions that people are getting. I think if you start with the basics of eating, moving and sleep. Sunlight and getting light. Light is almost like a nutrient. I think we don't give it the respect that it deserves. But, yeah, I would start there. And it's never too late. There's always room for improvement. Reginald D: Absolutely. So, Dr. Bruno, I have what I call rapid fire questions. Dr. Bruno: Okay. Reginald D: You ready? Dr. Bruno: Yeah. Reginald D: No right or wrong answer. Okay. Dr. Bruno: Okay. Reginald D: What is one daily habit you believe has the biggest impact on longevity? Dr. Bruno: One daily habit. Morning sunlight. Reginald D: One lab test. You think every adult should know their Dr. Bruno: numbers for apolipoprotein B, also known as apob. It's the amount of bad cholesterol that you have. Reginald D: A lifestyle choice that ages people faster than genetics. Smoking. Right. That's the one wellness myth that needs to be retired immediately. Dr. Bruno: I would say that what you mentioned earlier, that we are victims of our genetics, and we are not. A lot of people think that and they just can't get out of their own way. Reginald D: Absolutely. Now, what's one silent warning sign your body gives you before real disease shows up? Dr. Bruno: A silent warning sign? I think what most people suffer from, they'll have generalized fatigue. And this could be. You know, there's so many things, whether it's high cortisol High blood sugars, high blood pressure that they don't know. And again, if they're not seeing their doctor, people are just guessing. They're just like, I feel okay, but your blood pressure is like 160 over 100. You know, truly the silent killer, by the way. You know, hypertension or high blood pressure. But, yeah, I think your fatigue or brain fog, these kind of vague symptoms, they're worth looking into. And you need to work with your healthcare provider and not just attribute it to. Well, that's just aging, because, you know, you don't have to age poorly. There's, you know, there's people who are 50. Right. 50 years old, and they look like they're 70, and there's people who are 50 and they look like they're 35 and they're fit. So if we choose that, like I say, 80% is lifestyle, 20% might be genetics. Some people might have really gifted genetics, but most of us can always improve upon our starting point. So, yeah, I would say, like fatigue and not to just ignore it. Reginald D: Yeah. And you hit it right on the head. Because I was thinking fatigue. The reason I was thinking that is because I know at least four people close to me that were young and they kept saying they were tired. You know, they come home, man, I'm tired, I'm tired. And one realized that he was diabetic. You know, it didn't know, but he was just so tired and going to work every day, and he just worn out, and all he wanted to do was sleep. Figured out he was a diabetic. The other three actually died with a heart attack at a young age. Yeah, but fatigue was the first thing that set in with them. They just kept saying they were so tired, so tired, you know, but never went to the doctor to see, hey, man, what's going on? So they actually passed away, and I'm talking about, like 50 years old or younger. Dr. Bruno: Yeah. And, you know, again, you shouldn't assume that it's normal. Well, like, in your 40s, you shouldn't be fatigued. That's still relatively young from where I sit. I'm almost 58. But I believe that. Yeah, that's unfortunate to hear that. And again, that's why it's important to look into these things. Like, it's not normal to be tired. There's always a reason. There's always. If you dig deep enough and get with the right doctor and do the right tests, there's always a reason for the symptom that we have and let. And try to get at the root cause. Reginald D: Yeah. And I really believe that you've lived with your body so long, it's telling you stuff. Something's not normal. Now I get it. You may come home tired, you work 20 hours that day and you just tired. It's one thing. But you sit around on the weekends not doing anything and you just feel like you drained and you wore out. And day after day you feel in this certain way, then you know something wrong, it's different then. Dr. Bruno: Yeah. And you know, you know your own body. So if you have symptoms, you know, be the CEO of your own healthcare and, like, be in charge of it. Work with your doctor. But say, you know what, I don't feel bad. And if you're getting blown off by your doctor, you might have to find another doctor. Reginald D: That's it. That's it. So lastly, Dr. Bruno, how can people reach out to you and sign up for your wellness and longevity course? Dr. Bruno: Yeah, the best place is my website, which is william bruno m d.com and it's a plastic surgery website. It's my main website, but I have a dropdown tab. It just says wellness. And I have a lot of offerings. I actually have two free ebooks there that your audience might like. One is top 10 tips for longevity, and the other one is about body recomposition. And then a digital course is there. And then more information on my virtual coaching program. Everything is there. And also I'm. I'm active on Instagram at the same name, which is William Bruno, MD. Reginald D: Got it. Dr. William Bruno. Thank you so much, sir. Take your time out. Dr. Bruno: Thank you for having me, Reginald. This is a pleasure. Reginald D: Oh, yes, sir. And very informative. Very informative. I mean, I love the way you just broke things down. It's so simple for people to at least try it, you know what I'm saying? Because a lot of things are so difficult. People like, man, I ain't got time to even deal with it. Dr. Bruno: Yeah. You know, I would leave your audience with take action. Even if it's one of the things we talked about. Take action. And, you know, it's one thing to have knowledge, but if you don't take action, you're never going to see a change in your body, whether it's tracking something or eating more protein or, you know, making a doctor's appointment, you know, asking, you know, get your blood checked, something. I would just encourage anyone to do that. Reginald D: Absolutely. You just can't think about it. You got to do it. Right. Dr. Bruno: That's right. Reginald D: Thank you so much, Dr. Bruno. Dr. Bruno: Thank you, Reginald. Reginald D: Absolutely thanks for listening to Real Talk with Reginald D. If you enjoy listening to Real Talk with Reginald D, please rate and review on Apple Podcasts. See you next time.