Rethinking what health looks like after 60, with Allison McCune Davis

In this episode of the Heallist Podcast, we're talking about health, what changes for women in their 50s and 60s, and how a longevity-minded approach can complement conventional care. Joining us is Allison McCune Davis, a traditional naturopath, entrepreneur, mother of five, and author of Sixty Is a Good Start. Allison shares why she believes this stage of life can be one of renewed vitality, purpose, and opportunity rather than decline.

Drawing from her experience in natural health and her own journey, Alison explores the role of movement, hormones, lab testing, and daily habits in supporting healthy aging. We also discuss finding new purpose after major life transitions, how natural health practices may fit alongside conventional care, and why longevity is about maintaining quality of life as much as extending it.

This conversation is shared for educational and reflective purposes, offering perspectives on longevity and wellness that integrate traditional practices with contemporary scientific inquiry.

Key takeaways include:

•  Aging can be approached as a time of opportunity, vitality, and renewed purpose 
•  Daily movement plays an important role in supporting mobility and long-term health 
•  Natural health practices may complement conventional care throughout the aging process 
•  Purpose can continue to evolve through different stages of life 
•  Intentional habits and planning can support long-term well-being and fulfillment

Learn more about Allison's work in her website. 

Visit Heallist.com - your portal to holistic healing, connecting seekers and thousands of practitioners across the globe.

Follow @heal_list on Instagram.

Watch video episodes on Spotify & Youtube.

Transcript

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Yuli 0:00

Welcome to the Heallist Podcast, where we unpack the many layers of holistic health. I'm Yuli, founder of Heallist, your portal to holistic healers worldwide. Now let's go deep. Hello, dear friends, and welcome to the Heallist Podcast. If this content resonates, please hit subscribe or follow to support this independent and advertising-free content. Today we're talking about health in the second half of life, what changes for women in their 50s and 60s, and how a longevity-minded approach fits alongside conventional care. And my wonderful guest today is Alison McCune Davis, an author, traditional naturopath, and mom of five who pursued entrepreneurial business in the world of natural health for the last 14 years while raising our family. And with her new book, 60 is a good start, a powerful body and purposeful life, and a plan to make it happen. She advocates for reimagining life after 60 and inspires women to embrace aging as a time of opportunity, vitality, and purpose. And I couldn't agree more. Alison, welcome to the show. Thank you. It's great to be here. So this episode was selfishly scheduled by me, who I just turned 50. And when I saw your line, I was like, okay, I have to talk to somebody on the other side from the next decade to tell me, tell me what to expect because I feel like honestly, I'm living the best time of my life. Finally.

Allison 1:43

So I remember turning 50 and in my 50s thinking it was awesome. And it was so good.

Yuli 1:50

Amazing. Yeah. And I love reframing those things for people, and especially for women, right? The the whole aging. I mean, there's so much pressure around it. And it's so it's dramatized so much in our society. And it feels like a decline. I don't know who branded it or frame it this way. But I think we're here to try to change this label.

Allison 2:14

Yes. That would be wonderful if we could, because, you know, you think about all those different cultures in the world that revere their older people and older women, you know, for the wisdom that they have and all of those things. But, you know, America is America. I love our country. It's amazing. And at the same time, it is a, you know, a modern give me everything fast. I want it now mentality, you know, and it just seems to be speeding more

Reframing Aging For Women

Allison 2:45

toward that with technology and all the things.

Yuli 2:49

So tell us, give us a little bit of a glimpse. What's some of the core things or maybe reframes that you noticed now being in your 60s that you thought about it when you were younger or you heard or were implanted in you, right? And now you completely change your mind around?

Allison 3:10

Well, I mean, I think, you know, it's gonna be important. It is important to feel good, right? We have to feel good. And I mean physically feel good to be able to have a good decade, let's say, of your 60s or your 50s or or wherever you are. So when I think back about like being in my 20s and looking at women in their 60s, oh my gosh, they seem so old. And yeah, I don't remember them pursuing health and things like that. You know, that maybe that was just in my little world, but it is critical. And I'll tell you, when I I'm 65 right now, and 10 years ago, when I turned 55, I had a real threshold experience where a I had my first child at 37, so a little later than a lot of people. And so at 55, you know, with five kids, I mean, I had a house full. And I had not exercised regularly. In my 20s, I did. And I guess in my early 30s, I did. But, you know, once all that hit and I was just in the thick of it, I was not. And, you know, I'd do maybe like I'd be like, okay, I'm gonna exercise. And then so I would do stuff for, you know, a couple of weeks, and then it would just drop off because things would happen, you know, whatever. And and so when I hit 55, I would just, I thought, oh my gosh, is it too late? Have I waited too long to start something regular? And I remember reading a book that was by some older people, they were like, no, it's not too late. And so that inspired me to get with it. And I mean, I had to in my mind say nothing is going to get in the way of me exercising. Like I started out just like two or three times a week. And nothing from my husband, nothing from my kids, you know, if my kids have dirty clothes and are eating cereal for breakfast and I don't care what. Now, that's not really what happened, but I had to go extreme in my mind because I knew that if I did not get into this, I was potentially not going to be here to be the mother, right? I mean, if I'm just not paying attention to my own health. And so I started going to a gym. I had an appointment and went to a class and it was twice a week. And then I added the third time and the fourth time and the fifth time. And those, my life centered around, you know, those little 45-minute appointments, everything else, you know, because there's always an excuse, right? There's always something that comes up. Oh, I've got to go do that thing. Oh, I got, you know, but you can decide that that is the priority. So that was a huge milestone for me getting into these, you know, older years, let's say 50s and 60s. And so I had done, you know, I had already been on the natural health bandwagon since about age, I guess, 30. So I'd been, you know, using herbs and just exploring the world of natural health as an alternative to prescription medicines or things over the counter in the drugstore. So I was really, you know, doing pretty well in that world. And food, you know, looking for grass-fed beef or wild-caught salmon or raw milk or just the really healthy things and bringing that into my house. But that exercise piece I had not gotten a hold of in the way I really wanted to, because it's important.

Yuli 6:42

That's really, I mean, the basics are so underrated.

Allison 6:46

The basics, my that's what I'm really all about, really, in what I try to teach people and wrote about in my book are the fundamentals and trying to simplify it into a plan, like it says on the subtitle, a plan to make it happen. I was a TV producer before I got married, like in my 20s and 30s, lived in at Los Angeles, and that job required serious planning. I mean, I remember one series I produced, but it was for PBS. It was 26 shows. And we were kind of producing all 26 shows at the same time. Like I'd go interview somebody for shows one, eight, thirteen, and twenty, you know, and so there had to just be this serious organization of, you know, just getting it all done. And then I homeschooled my kids for about 20 years. I haven't in the last, I don't know, eight, except some COVID craziness, I guess, during that time I did. But but in that world of homeschooling, it's the same thing, like this real, you have to plan. There has to be organization and a plan. Not that you always follow it, but at least there has to be a plan that you hopefully are going to be guided by. And so I think if I see a good planner, you know, I'm always gonna buy it and call it research and development. Just because I love a good planner. I love to have a plan, whether it's for the year or for the month or the week or the day. And so that is part of the fundamentals of having a good life. I mean, you know, the book I wrote is really for women, midlife and beyond. But the truth is it's just good basic fundamentals for anybody.

Yuli 8:29

Absolutely. And like you mentioned, movement is such a core piece of it. And you can take any herbs and supplements we want, but if you don't move your body, none of this is going to be helpful or absorbed or integrated.

Allison 8:43

Because ultimately, what do we want? Like when we're 80, 85, 90. I mean, we want to be mobile. We want to be able to pick up a grandchild or, you know, carry a suitcase or, you know, just go on a hike or go on a trip and be able to walk around and, you know, and and do things. And so it's like move it or lose it. Use it or lose it.

Yuli 9:06

And I know you work with a lot of women in this age group.

Making Exercise Non Negotiable

Yuli 9:10

And any stories you can share anonymously, of course. What do you see in your clients? Like what is the biggest piece, like aha moment or the biggest, I guess, task in their planner that really shifts things?

Allison 9:26

I mean, a couple of things I would say, you know, I mean, that movement piece is big for everybody and it's hard for everybody. And so I feel like what I'm trying to do is solve the problem of inconsistency. There's a line I love, and it says, your future is hidden in your daily routine. So what are you doing each day? What do you want to be a year from now or five years from now or 10 years? You know, who do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to be? Okay, is your daily routine getting you there? Because whatever you're doing each day, that's that's what you're gonna be, right? So those sort of fundamental physical things, you know, just so we feel good. But also, I'm gonna say a huge thing that I hear from many women, lots in their 50s and 60s, really, is about purpose. Because 85% of women have children. And so that's a lot of women spending a large part of their life being a parent, you know, giving, being the hub of a family, um, just really constantly thinking about raising, molding, you know, how am I gonna launch this child into the world? And what am I gonna teach them? And are they gonna be okay? And, you know, you're just always like your mind is always there. And so once they start to leave the nest or leave the nest, like now my whole life has shifted. And that that's really kind of what started me in writing the book was I was just looking, and I see so many other women doing this, looking for that new purpose, or not even actually realizing that they do need a new purpose, but just sort of floundering in that space of my kids are gone, or or maybe I've spent 30 years in a career and I'm just sort of sick of it. Like they're just in this place of need limbo, kind of, and needing change and looking for change and not even sure that that's okay, you know, or is there, or are my best years behind me? You know, maybe that I'm just at the end or something, right? And that's so not true. Um, because the beautiful thing now is that we have some mental brain space or some margin, some white space, you know, in our brain there where we can think about what what might we want to do now? What might, what kind of purpose could we have now? Because I think we have purpose till we die. And so it's gonna maybe look different now. And, you know, so I think that's exciting and fascinating. And, you know, I love to ask people, I've seen this with a lot of friends and a lot of, you know, people that I just work with. You know, what were you thinking back when you were like a in a a teenager or or even younger, or maybe even in your 20s, like your early 20s? What were you thinking? You know, what do I want to do with my life? What do I want to be? You know, because it may or may not have turned out that way, but it's sort of like we have to pull on these threads and to sort of get to where we can identify what could you do now? What would you really love to do now? You know, what because you want we want to wake up in the morning and be excited about the day, about what we're gonna do. And if we're not, then we need to go in search of what's that thing gonna be? Because I think we all have something, you know, and it may be that we're affecting one other person, or it may be that we're affecting many other people in you know what turns out to be our new purpose.

Yuli 13:00

I think a lot of people don't connect the purpose piece to health and well-being. But I absolutely agree with you. And somebody who is very driven and overachiever and over-ambitious through my whole life, I had that moment after having my kids not long ago that suddenly uh your world your world shifts and you start questioning, will I ever get back to my purpose? And in my case, I kind of I knew what that there is something bigger. There was never a question, but there was definitely a concern, how can you balance, you know, that family peace and all the sacrifice with achieving your purpose? And I think I sorted it out for myself, and it works for me to pursue both, even though my kids are still young.

Allison 13:49

Yeah, no, I mean I did too when I my kids were young, and that was my time to sort of get out of the house and be with other adult women. It was it was teaching people about natural health. So yeah, I hear you can do some of that.

Yuli 14:03

Exactly. But I do meet a lot of women who decide to dedicate their life to family, and they wake up around that age group that we're talking about, 50s, uh, 60s, and all of a sudden they have another maybe third of life ahead of them with the new um lifespan rules, right? And and all of a sudden, the old kind of retirement model doesn't work anymore. And we have this huge opportunity on one end to reinvent ourselves and find maybe a new purpose or come back to childhood purpose, whatever that is. But it's also scary because all of a sudden you have to step into in this age when we're so habit driven and we're kind of so molded, right? You are asking yourself to re-examine a lot of your patterns

Daily Routines And Finding Purpose

Yuli 14:55

and maybe step into the unknown, which is terrifying for many people, but also this opportunity to heal and um accomplish. And I think I see it as like a beautiful opportunity. You're wiser, you're you're older, you have all those advantages, right? And you can bring so much more to this world. So I admire the work you do because I do see a lot of women around me need that kind of guidance on the that also is um a holistic guidance that combines health and well-being and lifestyle and movement and herbs and all those pieces, but also the purpose, because one can't live without another.

Allison 15:40

That's right. It's that's huge. My sort of theory of working on all this, I call it the self-perpetuating circle of purpose. And it has three pillars: body work, brain work, and worldwork. So body work is the physical, brain work is the mental, emotional, spiritual, and worldwork is, you know, your outer world, whether that's which includes your purpose, but also includes relationships too. And so I have the big five under each of those. And if, you know, and the idea is just to be engaging in those big five regularly, you know, maybe alternating things over time. But in general, you know, those are the fundamentals. And if you're working on those, or maybe some you like, oh, I automatically do that every day. And others you're like, oh, maybe I need to start doing a little bit of that, then I think, you know, you're going to end up with a life without regrets at the end, which is the goal.

Yuli 16:38

So can you share a simple journey maybe of a client that you worked with and what that transformation looked like for somebody in their 60s?

Allison 16:48

Well, one that comes to mind recently was a woman, I think she was 60, and she was a vet. And she was just kind of at this, what we've just described, you know, at this point of, you know, not knowing what her future was going to look like, and you know, sort of getting to this point of kids raised and, you know, 30 years doing what she'd been doing. And so we went through this process I call the 60-day dare, where you look at these three pillars and you choose several things from each that you're going to do for 60 days. Because remember, we're talking about your future is hidden in your daily routine, right? Well, in in the world work area, there's a section called Dream, and there are 60 questions for that person that is in that space of not knowing what their purpose is anymore, like feeling like, okay, everything's changed. It was this, but now I don't know what I'm doing. I feel I need to do something. I want to do something, but I don't know what. And so that person would journal their answer to each of these 60 questions for, you know, one question per day. And hopefully, I really think those questions get you to a point of like going, okay, I I think this is the direction I can go in. And so she was, she was did those 60 questions during that 60-day dare that we did together, along with some other things. And she, at the end of it, she decided she was gonna write a book. And it had been in the back of her mind for quite a while, and it was gonna, you know, come from that point of view of a veterinarian, but you know, she hadn't really fleshed it out by the time we parted ways. But anyway, that I thought that was really cool and exciting.

Yuli 18:39

Yeah, that's an amazing story. And I think a lot of times those creative projects, um speaking, somebody who recently wrote a my first novel that I didn't mean to write, but when I dug deeper, I actually wanted to. And it was I was really surprised how much it fueled a lot of so much creativity.

Allison 19:00

Yeah. Well, we're we're creative beings. You know, one of the big five in brain work I call create. And really, not it's it's more for the purpose of sort of de-stressing. That they're kind of all about de-stressing in a way, but like 45 minutes of creative work. Now, I'm not sure if writing might be in in included in that. Um, but like needlework or stuff you're doing with your hands, you know, could be gardening, could be just something creative, lowers cortisol. So I think that's really interesting and can kind of help get other creative juices going, like for something like writing a book that could be really more in the world of world work. I had another lady that went through some stuff and she ended up deciding, you know, going more into the natural health world and doing um, I don't know if you've ever heard of a raindrop. Have you heard of a raindrop? It's uh it's like a massage. You're on a massage table with a certain essential oils, the really uh good ones that are very pure. Um, but it starts along your feet, along the um the big toe down to the heel, which is the brain down to the down the spine. That's what that represents, like reflexology. And then you turn over and it's also done on your spine. So it's really wonderful. It's a great uh it's for the purpose of boosting your immune system. I mean, that that's really, you know, a lot of viruses will hide in the spine, go dormant in the spine. And so she got into doing that. So, you know, I'm just really serving sort of one person at a time that way, and she loves it.

Yuli 20:39

That's incredible. And I definitely see this trend as well among women who step on this path of rediscovering their purpose and getting more into the health and wellness, and in that process, as they help themselves, they find out that they also have this craving to help others. And I see a lot of people stepping on the healer path through that journey. And it's really fascinating. I don't know if we should call it a trend yet. I don't see it in the mass scale. I don't know if anyone measures, but I I've met a lot of women in that space who came to healing and all of a sudden their 50s and 60s, they leave their traditional careers and they suddenly give themselves permission to step on this uh maybe still unconventional path.

Allison 21:29

Well, you know, I don't know if this is just me or if it's sort of truth for everybody, but it makes a lot of sense. You know, the world of natural health. It just makes sense. The naturopath

The 60 Day Dare That Works

Allison 21:40

is thinking more in terms of we have toxins and we have deficiencies. And so those are the things we need to deal with. What are we deficient in? Like vitamins, minerals, you know, and we can figure that out with different tests, blood work, urine, saliva, different things like that. Where are what do our hormones look like? And then we there are toxins in the world, you know, gosh. Everything people usually it's in your laundry room, your kitchen under your kitchen sink, and in your bathroom, you know, all the things that we put on our bodies and clean our house with, and those, you know, can be so toxic. And so one thing I try to help people do is get rid of all that stuff because there's there are incredibly wonderful alternatives and uh they're not toxic. So, so that's just helping us, you know, helping our bodies to be healthy in in a natural way. And I think the older we get, the more we realize we got to focus on some health. And and health takes a little bit of time. You know, I remember being in my 20s and 30s and just, you know, career and, you know, just running hard and not taking a lot of time. I did exercise back then pretty regularly. Um, but I wasn't thinking, I ate whatever I wanted to eat, wasn't thinking about toxic substances. So it wasn't until a friend of mine actually, when I lived out in LA, I was 30, and I had, I was getting these yeast infections just all the time. And I'd use the over-the-counter, you know, and then come back again. And so finally she said, You need to go to my TCM doctor. I'm like, what is that? My father was a surgeon. So yeah, I was very in this medical world anyway. And um, but America's that way too. So I don't maybe not that different really from anybody else. And she said, that's a traditional Chinese medicine doctor. And I was just like, oh my gosh, my dad would flip, but let's do it because this is not working. So I went to him, took six weeks to get in. He was super busy, and he did all this muscle testing, right, with all these different substances, like environmental substances, foods, different things. And finally he said, Okay, you you are you gotta stop dairy. You can't eat any more dairy. And maybe for like for sure for about a year. And then maybe in a year you'll be able to add it back in, which I was able to, but maybe not. Oh, you know, we'll just wait and see. And then he gave me some herbs. I don't remember what they were, and it worked, and I never got another one. It was just, you know, like I that was my first experience, and I was just like, oh my gosh, something natural solved a problem that the the other thing that was not natural did not. So that was um, then I just really got interested in it and studied it.

Yuli 24:24

I love that story. And um, since you mentioned being a naturopath, I think it would be really interesting to give people like a little better idea. I still like feel even though those modalities become more common, there's still a lot of confusion what each of them does, what it doesn't do, what it helps with.

Allison 24:42

Well, and they there are all kinds of different naturopaths. And that so there's the term naturopath, naturopath doctor, functional health doctor, or integrative medical doctor, those are all kind of interchangeable, those terms. So my advice is always to find somebody like that. And uh, if you still want to go to your regular traditional doctor, fine. They're probably gonna have different opinions on certain things, and you'll have to decide which, you know, direction do you want to go? Do you believe in, and all of that. But one of these natural type doctors is going to be doing a lot more different kinds of tests. They're going to, like on a blood test, they're going to ask for a lot more biomarkers. When you get a lab report, it'll give you the range of what's normal. And are you out of range or are you in range? Well, a naturopath or these other doctors are going to not only want you in that range, but they want to optimize you in an even more narrow range. So, you know, it may look like it's you're in the normal range, but it just may not be good enough. And so, um, and then a lot of them are gonna focus on, you know, different there are so many modalities out there that, you know, this one might focus more on, gosh, I don't know, muscle testing, like that guy, like that guy, muscle testing and herbs. You know, that was his thing out there in Los Angeles. But somebody else might be more into iridology and certain brand of supplements, or, you know, just there's just different things. And there's so many modalities that that's what I've kind of liked to do. I have certain ones that I really like and that I just sort of, you know, default to in my own life. And you know, the things I've tried, I, you know, advise people they could try it too. But yeah, so there's definitely a difference.

Yuli 26:40

Um thank you for this.

Allison 26:43

Yeah. I I mean I hope

Naturopathy Versus Symptom Chasing

Allison 26:45

that that's that's not real specific, but it's just it varies so much with what that person's interest is.

Yuli 26:52

Yeah, no, absolutely. And thank you for this definition. I think it does help and just understanding the process, even that her path might sound also very natural for some people, and they think you just talk to me and I can describe some symptoms and you prescribe some herbs, but it's actually more scientifical than that. It is, it is.

Allison 27:12

And the real thing about it is they're looking for the root cause, the root cause of what's going on. They're also looking at the body as holistic, meaning everything is just one unit and it everything works together. Whereas the traditional medical, or let's call it modern medicine, really, is really compartmentalizes. I mean, when you look at when you go to medical school, one of my favorite books is called Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means. Do you know about that book? And she gives a great description in there about, you know, she went to medical school and then she had to specialize, and then she specialized in ear, ear, nose, and throat surgery. And then they said you should specialize even more. So she specialized in some like just specific area in the nose, and then you'll be known, you know, you can write papers, and then you'll become the expert on that one little tiny area. And she just finally, after doing these surgeries, you know, and she was seeing all these patients just not get better. And she was just like, why are they not getting better? And that's when she left that field and went in to study cell metabolism, which is a very holistic thing to study. You know, she's an MD, but she was really trying to see what, you know, you have to look at the whole body and what again, going, trying to get to the root cause of why somebody's got this issue versus just like uh cut the thing out, or not saying that's not necessary sometimes. I understand that it is, or mask the symptoms with some medicine. So the symptoms go away, but we don't know what what's the root cause. And maybe it can't be fixed, maybe it's too little too late, and you're just trying to, you know, feel good. That's okay. You know, I'm not my father was a surgeon, you know, and I a hundred percent respect that profession. But you know, when you start getting into it, there's there's a lot to think about.

Yuli 29:14

Yeah. Incredible. Well, thank you for this wonderful overview. As we are coming to a close, I wanted to kind of look back into our, you know, this more of a medical conversation than where we started in our 60s. Anything that you see as a naturopath, anything that you see that often women missed or or something that, you know, their traditional doctor might never, I mean, I know there's a lot of things probably, but something that just keeps coming back over and over in the lab works or in the symptoms that you feel like this isn't one thing that you wish people paid more attention to.

Allison 29:56

There's a line in the world of natural health. I I don't know if it's in the other world, but if your hormones aren't right, nothing else really works. So it's that's one of the number one critical things to look at and to to address and to, you know, check maybe every six months or every year, for sure every year. Well, where are your hormones? Your estrogen, your testosterone, your progesterone, you know, where are they? And what are you using to move the needle on those? There's there are supplements that can be used. They're they're just, you know, and and as we age, as we go through 50s and even 60s, you know, it's still changing. And so we need to be constantly looking at that. Now, a lot of people look at that with a blood test, but also it can be with a saliva test. And many naturopath type doctors prefer the saliva test. So that's something to ask about and and to look at. And to you could even do both and compare and see, you know, what are they saying? I think another important one is doing the neurohormone test, which a lot of just tr regular medical doctors are don't do that at all. And that's just a urine test

Hormones And Mood Chemistry Checks

Allison 31:10

and you send it off, and it's looking at dopamine, serotonin, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and some other things that that's pretty interesting. You know, if you're feeling just, you know, kind of down a little bit, your those levels might be off. And it does not mean you have to get on any kind of SSRI. It because there are supplements for that that are just no big deal at all. So those are probably two areas I would definitely want to look at and just see where you are.

Yuli 31:44

Incredible advice. And yes, so very important points. And I think hormones have been a big part of our recent conversation that is finally happening in the women's health. You know, a lot of it is happening more in the um, of course, on the hormonal supplement sides. And, you know, we we are still part of this big industry that is now discovered this new audience of women and being we're being sold so many things that we suddenly need.

Allison 32:13

You know, you just have to find somebody you trust and go that route. There's so much out there.

Yuli 32:18

That's why I believe in the power of practitioners and the power of experts and guides to help you. You can be your own doctor, and I believe in our own power to heal. But I think when it comes to navigating holistic health and the variety of um, you know, modalities, supplement products that are available, it's really crucial to have the right guide. Otherwise, you might end up in that healing process with all the best intentions.

Allison 32:47

Yes.

Yuli 32:47

You might end up not where you wish to be.

Allison 32:50

Yeah, completely.

Yuli 32:51

Well, thank you for being our guide for today. My pleasure. So fun. Yes, absolutely. And uh thank you for this valuable conversation and um wishing you all the best of luck with your book and your practice. Thank you.