My Evidence-Based Health Plan

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A birthday can sneak up on you and suddenly you’re asking a blunt question: what am I actually doing for my health, and am I focused on the right things? As I near 70, I share the health plan I actually follow, not as a template for you to copy, but as a clear way to think about your own evidence-based health plan for longevity, energy, and a life you still want to live.

I organize my choices into three practical buckets. First: what I can influence directly, without needing anyone else or a prescription. That includes aerobic exercise (the easiest “yes” because I love endurance work), sleep (the hardest “yes” because it requires protecting bedtime), alcohol (a real tradeoff because it impacts sleep and raises concerns around dementia risk), and simple nutrition habits like maintaining a healthy weight and getting enough protein without obsessing over the perfect diet. I also talk about injury prevention as we age, because staying consistent beats proving you can suffer, plus the value of N-of-1 experiments like testing magnesium for muscle cramps.

Second: where I need support from others. Knowing the evidence doesn’t guarantee I do the work, and strength training is my best example. I explain why accountability and a trainer can be the bridge between knowing and doing, and I share how getting real help for emotional health, including EMDR, can succeed when decades of solo effort don’t.

Third: where medication is the right evidence-based tool. I push back hard on the wellness narrative that needing prescriptions means you failed, and I walk through how I think about blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and long-term mental health treatment.

If this helps you rethink your own plan, subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. What’s one part of your health plan you can do today, and what’s one part you need help with?

Transcript

A Hard Look At Your Health

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Have you ever stepped back and asked, what am I actually doing for my health? Is it enough? Am I focused on the right things? And where am I trying to do this alone when I might need help? That's what this two-part series is about. I'll use my own life as the case study, not so you can copy me, but so you can think more clearly about your own path. Hi, I'm Dr. Bobby Du Bois, and welcome to Live Long and Well, a podcast about what the evidence can and can't tell us about living healthier lives. As a physician, scientist, iron man triathlete, and author of several hundred scientific papers, I read the studies so you don't have to, helping you cut through the hype, focus on what actually works, and make better choices for your health.

Why I Use My Life

SPEAKER_00 1:15

And today's episode, the health plan I actually follow, and why. I'm turning 70 in July. That number feels different. Not bad, not a tragedy for me, but different. It feels like a threshold. So I've been thinking, what am I doing to preserve the life I want? What am I not doing? What do I worry about? And what have I decided just to let go? Maybe you've had a moment like that too: a birthday, a health scare, or just a quiet thought that you want to be more intentional about how you're living. That's what led me to these two episodes. The first, or today's episode, is called The Health Plan I Actually Follow. And why. It's about what I do in my own life, how I decide what makes it into my plan, and how the evidence shapes those choices. Second episode is called The Health Worries I Actually Take Seriously, and why. That one is about how I decide what deserves my attention, what I respect enough to act on, and perhaps most importantly, what I don't worry about. So today we'll start with my plan. Not because my plan should be your plan. It shouldn't. I have my own genetics, preferences, risks, and limitations. And you you have yours. But I hope there's value for you to hear how I've approached things. So let's begin.

Three Categories That Guide Choices

SPEAKER_00 3:10

After two years of podcast episodes, hard to believe I'm actually at two years, but go figure. But after all of that time looking at evidence for what does and doesn't work, I've come to think about my health plan and my approach in three broad categories. One, what I can influence directly. Two, where I need support from others, and three, where medication is the right approach for me. These categories apply to most of us, but the mix will clearly differ. Some people, some people may need more focus on daily habits, some may need more support from others, and some may need more medication or medical care. So today I'll share what actually makes it into my plan and why. I also want to remind you, if you haven't done so already, please sign up for my newsletter, which I send out summarizing the key stuff from each episode. And of course, it's all free. And I'm now putting together one-page action steps that might help you in very practical ways. So I will summarize today's in a one-pager. Sometimes I'll have a little checkbox, sometimes there'll be a little calendar of what to do. There may be links out to the studies. I really hope these are helpful to you. And as always, as always, please let me know. So just click on the sign up link in the show notes. Or just go to drbobbyevidence.com. Drbobbyevidence.com to sign up. Okay, back to today's topic and what the evidence has convinced me to do. Well, let's start, of course, with the first category,

Aerobic Exercise That Fits

SPEAKER_00 5:20

what I can influence directly. I can do these by myself and I don't need medication. So the first big area for me is aerobic exercise. This is a pretty easy one for me. I enjoy it. I like endurance training. I like being outside. I like feeling that my body can still do something challenging. I'm turning 70, as I said, and I'm gonna do a long run and then jump into a lake. That seems like a fun thing to challenge myself. Okay, in this area, aerobic exercise, I don't need extra discipline here. Aerobic exercise fits my life because I enjoy it. And the evidence really, really supports it. So that's great. Evidence lowers our risk of heart disease, overall mortality, and keeps us being able to do what we love to do as we age. Lots of detail about the evidence in my earlier episodes.

Sleep Rules And Alcohol Boundaries

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Sleep. Sleep is different. Unlike exercise, which just naturally and easily fits into my daily routine. Sleep takes active decision making for me. Here's why. Socrates said, know thyself. Or in my case, know thy sleep. Well, I pretty much wake up around five in the morning every day. Every day. Doesn't matter when I go to bed. It would be super, super nice if my brain said, Well, Bobby stayed up late last night. Let's give him an extra hour of sleep. Nope. I'll still wake up at five. I wish it were different, but that's how I made or how I become. So if I want enough sleep for me, which is seven and a half to eight hours, I can't pretend the morning will rescue me. It won't. So to get my full amount of sleep, I have to actively, rigorously, zealously, or whatever adjective you want, protect my bedtime. That means making nightly choices. To end my evening, stop what I'm doing, or drive home from a party or a dinner out to get myself to bed around nine. That's where the evidence and real life meet. The evidence tells me sleep matters, and for me, that's seven to eight hours. And if I don't make a deliberate choice every night, I'll pay for it the next day. So sleep makes it into my plan. Not as something that naturally happens, but as a real decision I have to make every evening. But it's a decision I'm happy to make. Okay, alcohol is another conscious choice. I like wine and I really enjoy whiskey. And you may as well. But but I've learned that alcohol messes with my sleep and how I feel the next day. The evidence is pretty convincing. So it isn't just personal evidence, personal experience. And then there's the evidence about alcohol and dementia. So since sleep is key, and avoiding dementia is pretty much at the top of my list, I had to think a lot about where alcohol fits or doesn't fit into my health plan. I knit it out, and this is just me, that alcohol once or twice a week works, but more isn't so good. And during weeks when I don't drink at all, yeah. I sleep better and I feel more energetic in the morning.

Food Honesty And Injury Prevention

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Next, food, weight, and protein are also pretty straightforward for me. I'm not a nutrition crazy person. I don't spend my life chasing the perfect diet. I try to maintain a healthy weight, get enough protein, and eat a pretty balanced diet. For me, I just need to pay attention. If I eat too much for a few days, which I frankly have done the last couple of days, I got on the scale this morning and was like, oh, I can't a couple of pounds. So if I do that for a few days, I back off. And uh I notice sometimes that I'm not getting enough protein. I'm just enjoying my carbs, my pasta, my breakfast yummies. So if I'm not getting enough protein, I adjust. It's not complicated, but it does require real honesty. We're back to Socrates and know thyself. It's easy. It's easy for me to tell myself a story. I'm eating pretty well. This is just temporary. I'll get back on track later. Now, sometimes that's true, sometimes it isn't. On to the next one. At this stage of life, avoiding injury also makes it into my plan. And that takes conscious choices, too. When you're younger, we can sometimes get away, and I did, with pushing through everything. A nagging ache or pain, a sprained ankle, had plenty of those and continued to run on those. Um, or a tweaked back, had that, and still have that periodically. Now, maybe we shouldn't continue to do what we do, but we but back then I could. But as you get older, and older probably means over 40? A significant injury can stop your exercise routine dead in its tracks. And that means you're gonna lose fitness and strength, which gets harder and harder to regain. So I try to be smarter. I think about recovery, I think about strength training, I think about not letting ego push me towards an accident. The goal is not to prove I can still suffer. The goal is to stay in the game. And then there's one more area that I can directly influence.

N Of 1 Testing In Real Life

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Not surprisingly, I'm sure you're not gonna be surprised about this one. I do end-of-one testing. Now, I don't mean in a fancy way all the time. Sometimes I just mean I try things and I watch what happens and learn from my own experience. Now, I've shared this experience, this example before. But it's good. Magnesium for muscle cramps. Now, the evidence isn't perfect about whether it actually works. But in my own life, using an N of 1 approach, in the summer heat, when I do my outdoor training and I sweat, and I'm working on the ranch, I found it's useful enough to keep doing. Okay, so that's the first category in my health plan, what I can influence directly. I believe that the evidence supports my choices, and I try to stick to them. Now, this is the most important part, and I'll do this over and over again throughout today. Let me turn it back to you. What can you influence directly? What parts of your health plan come naturally to you? What parts require a real decision? And where do you need to pay closer attention? And might there be an end of one experiment that could help you learn what actually works for you? The goal isn't to build the perfect plan, it's to build one that's doable and hopefully evidence-informed. Okay, end of the first category.

When Support Beats Willpower

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Now the second category, or where I need help from others. There are things that are important, but I can't seem to get them done by myself. This is this is a category that's a bit humbling or embarrassing. Because I realize that knowing what matters, and I'm pretty good at figuring out what actually does matter, that's not the same as me actually doing it. I've spent my life reviewing evidence. I understand studies, I know why strength training, emotional health, and relationships matter. And still in my life, evidence is often not enough. Sometimes there's a missing ingredient. I need support or accountability to make it happen. And that often means I need help from others. Strength training is a great example. As I said, aerobic exercise comes naturally to me. Strength training doesn't. Look, I know I should do it. It helps me with doing stuff on the ranch, improves my balance, and lowers my risk of hurting myself. But knowing that wasn't enough to actually get me to do it. So to solve this problem, to solve the problem, I began working with a trainer. Now that doesn't mean everyone needs a trainer, but for me, that support or guidance or accountability made the difference and got me to do what I hate doing twice a week. Nina arrives at my front door, and I can't really send her away. It also helps. I already paid her up front, so I guess I better do the work. Problem solved. Like strength training, sometimes the best or most realistic move isn't to demand more discipline from yourself. It's to build the support that makes what you want to happen more likely. Now, this approach applies to emotional health too. I talked before about EMDR and how it helped me with the fear pattern around exercise. Look, I I tried solving this in using category one by myself. And I tried this for decades with meditation and reflection. Didn't work. It was clear I needed help or category two if I was going to make any progress. And I'm really happy that I got that help. The EMDR has pretty much solved the problem. Now your turn. Where do you need support from others? Is there an area where you already know what matters, but you're not getting where you want to on your own? Let me know. Reach out to me either through the website or directly through the show notes. I'd like to hear where you need help. Maybe there's some stuff I can suggest. Who knows? Remember, getting support isn't weakness. Often it's it's it's the bridge between knowing and doing. All right, on to the third category.

Medication Is Not A Failure

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Where medication or surgery may be the right tool. This matters. This matters because in some wellness circles and this hurts me deeply, worries me deeply, angers me deeply. In those circles, medication is often treated like a failure, as if the goal is to live so perfectly that you never need a prescription. I don't see it that way. Medication can be one of the most appropriate evidence-based tools we have. And as an internist, that's the key way I actually help folks. Sometimes, sometimes medications are about risk factors, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar. Guess what? I have all three problems. And I take medications for all three. Sometimes medications are about treating an illness, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, or pain. Fortunately, I don't have those, but you might. As I shared in the episode on biology versus understanding, I've taken well butrin for decades. It cured my dysthymia or low-level depression. The point is not, the point's not that medication is always needed, of course, of course it's not. The point is that needing medication is not a failure. I worry when the message, the message we hear becomes if you do lifestyle correctly, optimize your microbiome, reduce inflammation, manage stress, and take the right supplements, you won't need medication. Okay, that may be true for some people, but it hasn't been true for me, and it isn't likely true for many of you. And now your turn. The better question is what problem am I trying to solve? What are my options? What are the benefits and harms? And what does the evidence suggest for someone like me? And medication may be the answer.

The Three Questions To Ask

SPEAKER_00 20:41

So, what makes it into my health plan? Not everything. Not every study, not every trend, not every supplement, not every protocol. Just the things that, as best as I can tell, are most likely to help me. And for me, the plan falls into those three categories. First, what I can influence directly. Aerobic exercise, which I enjoy, sleep, which requires a deliberate evening decision, alcohol, where I ask, what's a give me? What is a takeaway? Avoiding injury because staying in the game matters, and end of one testing, because my own experience helps personalize the plan. Second category, where I need real help from others, or it isn't gonna happen, like a trainer for strength. And the third category, where medication is the right approach. And for me, for me, that includes blood pressure medication, statin, metformin, and well-butrin. For someone else, it might be something completely different. The broader point is that medication is not a failure, as I've said. It's one possible tool and an evidence-informed plan. That's my mix. Not the right mix for everyone, just my mix. But but this was never really about my mix. It was about helping you think about yours. So I'll leave you with three questions. What can you influence directly? Where do you need support from others? And where might medication be the right tool? Next time we'll take this one step further. The episode is called The Health Worries I Actually Take Seriously, and Why? Because the evidence hasn't just changed what I do, it's also changed what I worry about, and maybe, and maybe just as importantly, what I've learned to let go. We'll talk about it next time.

Review And Newsletter Signup

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Thanks so much for listening to Live Long and Well with Dr. Bobby. If you like this episode, please provide a review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen. If you want to continue this journey or want to receive my newsletter on practical and scientific ways to improve your health and longevity, please visit me at Dr. Bobby Livelongandwell.com. That's Doctor as a Dr. Bobby Livelongandwell.com.