Good Neighbor Podcast: Orange County

Longevity, Not Just Longer Life

• Rachel Fyffe & Dr. Anita Wang

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What if “you’re fine” doesn’t match how you feel? We sit down with Dr. Anita Wang with Wellness :: Longevity :: Aesthetics —ER physician turned functional medicine and longevity expert—to unpack why so many people live between normal labs and a life that actually works. She shares how to design a true health span, where energy, strength, sleep, and clarity hold steady as the years pass, and how to measure progress in a way that finally makes sense.

We dig into a smarter approach to testing, moving beyond generic panels to optimal ranges that map to real-world outcomes. Dr. Anita explains why muscle is the engine of aging well, how mitochondrial function rises or falls with what you do today, and why pelvic floor strength can transform balance, continence, and intimacy. She demystifies popular tools often seen as purely cosmetic—like body contouring and electromagnetic muscle stimulation—and reframes them as targeted strategies to rebuild mitochondria, improve gait, and reduce fall risk. Along the way, we talk hormones, thyroid patterns hidden by “normal” results, and the case for compounding supplements based on actual needs, not trends.

The conversation turns to mindset and the nervous system, showing why you can’t heal in a chronic stress loop. With neuro-focused sessions that calm anxiety and lift mood, patients can access the parasympathetic state where repair happens and healthy habits stick. We tie it all together with four pillars—food, movement, mood, and rest—and a simple commitment: test first, then act. You’ll hear a powerful success story that reframes aging from decline to possibility, plus clear steps to start building a health span you can feel.

If this resonates, tap follow, share with a friend who needs hope, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Ready to take the next step? Reach out to Dr. Anita  for a complimentary discovery call and ask about the free 3D body scan ($60.00 value) offer mentioned in the episode.

Visit: https://www.anitawangmd.com/

SPEAKER_00:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Rachel Fife.

SPEAKER_02:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Now, if you're looking for a new approach to wellness that is really focused on longevity, well, this resource is really closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Dr. Anita Wong, with Wellness, Longevity, and Aesthetics. Dr.

SPEAKER_01:

Anita, how is it going? Great. It's very nice a day before Thanksgiving, so happy Thanksgiving to you all. Well, wonderful. Well, I'll tell you, we are really, really excited to learn about your practice. So tell us all about it. Well, I started this practice because I'm I'm an ER doctor who actually was uh, you know, saw what was going on over the years. Um, people, I can uh do reactive medicine really well, take care of the people who are critically ill. Um, but then there's a component of those people who are just not um doing well. They were seeing their primary care doctors over and over and over. They would come back and they say, You know me the best. But that's chronic care. So chronic illnesses became a big problem in this country, and people weren't getting the care and they weren't being identified what was going on because they needed a reaction. But the reaction could be, I have a headache, I have indigestion, I have constipation. And then they would get all these battery tests and they were still fatigued, and they say, Oh, you're fine, you're healthy, but yet they weren't functioning well, right? They would say their golden years weren't weren't golden. I saw this over and over because I've been in medicine since I was 17, and over the years I would see the frustration of people. And then I have I found functional medicine, which really explained things because when I was doing um emergency medicine, I had this um two critical ill patients. So, and we treated them both. One did well and the other one didn't. And um, I asked my attendee, you know, why did this guy not make it? We did everything right. Well, I don't get it. And he said, Well, there it's uh just piss poor protoplasm. Well, we're made of protoplasm, that's what we're made of. And it just didn't make sense because babies are born, babies, what's the healthiest protoplasm there could be? New cells, new everything. Yet they have illnesses and they succumb. So I don't, I didn't get it. So functional medicine, because we think in conventional medicine, it's the absence of disease. We're treating disease. So when you get a diagnosis and you have the disease, then we can take action. And so conventional medicine is phenomenal about that. We have cutting-edge technology, that's what we need. We need that, but if you don't add up to disease and you're not functioning well, then we don't get it, right? So you have 20, 20-year-olds who have um who are healthy, you give all 20 of them birth control pills, but one gets a blood clot. Then we check and say, oh, look, it you have a clotting disorder, you have a family, genetic things. Then we look at that. Functional medicine, we do that first because we say you're born, you're vital, you don't decline, you're born, you're vital, and you maintain. And so we need to know your genetic makeup. So that's what I do. I look up what what are the cards you were dealt with? How do you play that hand of cards? So, what is your genetic makeup? What is um, you know, what is your cellular function? How is it functioning? What is the lifestyle? How is it affecting you? And we want to have your lifespan, whatever it is, to be as long, you want to have a healthy lifespan. So people say, Oh, yeah, my grandmother lived 110, but she didn't know where she was, she was in bed, bedridden, couldn't feed herself, had to be wiped and changed. That's not a health span. So, longevity to me is being having a health span. So I took an 88-year-old who came in and said, I'm fatigued, I can't sleep, I'm up every two hours, I can't do not even one thing a day. I I want to be back to my old self. Well, she's 94 years old and she's back to her old self. She just did a five-day road trip and went to five different golf courses. She plays nine holes. She walks them though, played five holes. She went to a trip of Italy. She says, I'm back, I'm back to my old self. That is what longevity is about, is not living long, it's being healthy for as long as your genetics is going to take you, and you want to be vital. So it matters what you do today, and we can monitor it. So everything I do here is to stimulate and monitor your mitochondrians. You have to have a mindset and a healthy brain. So I have tools, I have m scope meal, I have exomine, I have a little bit of a little bit.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, I didn't pause. I didn't pause recording, so that's okay. Cause the the audio. You want to keep going? Do you want to just because you got such great information? Yeah, whatever you uh it's your shelf. Yeah, so let's pick it up from uh you were talking. So so tell us what so what do you actually do here at your practice? You mentioned kind of, you know, then it kind of goes in how you got into it. So um some of the tools you used for longevity, can you expand on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_01:

So um, you know, when somebody comes in, I do an assessment. When you go to your doctors, they just give you a a, you know, a ram of, you know, a battery of tests, right? So I'll I'll take those tests and I'll look at it. So when I look on it, when I put my conventional hat on as an ER doctor, and I'm looking at it and I'll go, oh, it's all normal. But if I put my functional medicine hat on, I'll go, this is not optimal. This is not optimal, this needs adjustment. So there's a difference of looking at the labs. So somebody, they'll come into me and they said, Oh, all my labs were normal. And I'll look at it, I said, but your thyroid's not working really well. And they said, and they came in for weight management, right? So um, so there's things that can be adjusted. So I'm I'm looking at your labs, adjusting your hormones, um, getting your body to work optimal. Then I do specialty testing depending on your budget. What do you want to monitor, looking at your mitochondria and seeing what it is, and then I so I have a wellness membership that just focuses on that. I can compound your supplements. So people say, Well, what supplements do I need to take? I'm like, I don't know. We have to test, don't guess. So once I test, then I know exactly what you need, and I can compound specifically what you need to boost your your system. It's not a deficiency, it's what the cells need to optimize because the cells want to be healthy. Your body wants to be healthy, and you can just keep abusing and it just keeps on ticking. The body is amazing. I'd love just watching people and watching how the body, because I've seen it in the air, people who are drug addicts, alcoholics, and they abuse their body, but they still keep going on, right? Because the body is just working, trying to do its best to repair with whatever onset you have. So it could be environmental, it could be the air, it could be the oxygen, it could be the foods, it could be your whatever you're doing. So we're gonna adjust those and look at those those. Those are four pillars of life, right? Your food you eat, whether or not you move, what what your mood is, um, how you you rest and repair and restore. So those are the four pillars. And if you do those all perfectly and you're still not functioning optimally, well, then we can take a deep dive internally and take a look. So that's the functional medicine. And then have a vitality that composed that composites that too. If you're not critically ill, but you want to get a boost and you want to stay ahead of aging, because get this hot flash. We're all aging. You're losing your collagen, you're losing your muscles, your sag is sinking. I mean, you're all of it. If you want to stay ahead of the game, then I have those secret weapons. So people think of those tools as something that makes them look useful and young, but it's actually about repairing and keeping you vital. So when you do M scope Neo, people think about that as a tool to have a six-pack abs or a Brazilian booty. But actually, what I'm doing is increasing your mitochondrion. So as you lose muscle mass, you lose mitochondrion and you lose the function, the ability of your body to repair. But when I restore it with these tools, you improve. Pelvic muscles, people don't think about it. You don't do your cagos, people have men have loss of their erectile dysfunction. It's because their pelvic muscles isn't good, their circulation is good, nitric oxygen isn't good. So if I boost and you do 11,000 kagels in 28 minutes at a greater intensity, you have a better stable gait, you don't, you're not a fall risk, and you have better intimacy. Women have better orgasms. Who doesn't want that? Right? So that's a tool that I have. Um, and then if you're having vaginal type um, you know, dryness from postmental puzzle, I have a tool for that. I have something that will help you with that. And then I have a tool that will help you. If you have a mindset for stresses, you have emotional trauma, that you've had um you've been abused, whatever it is, when you have emotional trauma and you're stuck, I can't get your physical body to be better. So when you because you're not in the parasympathetic drive, you're not in the rest and digest, and I have the exomind that actually can help you eliminate depression, anxiety, helps with ADHD, helps you just feel euphoria, helps you get that positive attitude. And you don't have to go talk to anybody. You can just sit there, relax, and 28 minutes, you get a better mindset and you feel you feel better. It helps with your sleep, it helps with so much more. So it's all about mind, body, spirit. You can't just work on the body alone. I gotta know what's your spirit. If your spirit is broken, I can't work with you. If your mindset is is not there and you've given up hope, I can't work with you, right? It can't just be about the body, it's the whole person. The cardiologist can't just take care of the heart. The the endocrinologist just taking a thyroid, it doesn't, the body doesn't work that way. It's the whole thing, including the mindset and your spirit and your and way you're thinking. So I am a your MD coach, a functional medicine coach that gets you thinking the right way, doing the right things, getting a lifestyle change. It's not about a new diet, a new exercise, a new gimmick, or anything. It's a commitment to a lifestyle change that affords you the vitality and the functionality that you want. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02:

Gosh, a lot, a lot of information there. So now um I'm gonna kind of move forward, like just how we know marketing is really the heart of every business. So, how are you finding your patients and your clients and such?

SPEAKER_01:

I think my, you know, the biggest thing for me is um word of mouth, um, because uh, you know, I I try to work with people who are gonna be successful. Um, so I find have to find good partnerships. And people who aren't good partnerships, I don't want them to, I don't set them up for failure. We I have a discussion. So I do a discovery call, they feel me out, I feel them out because it's not, I'm not doing the hard work. I'm just giving you the information, and you have to, so they have you have to be ready. So a lot of it is word of mouth, and even those people who come in, I'll tell them or their friends that oh, you're the one for me, and I'll say, Yeah, but you're not ready to do the work, are you? Right? Um, and then Google searching SEOs, all of that is the the big thing for me, is um uh just getting, hopefully they they can understand my website and just getting the messaging, they'll come in different ways. So wherever people pains point from my met from my website, it's either that they have a sagging face, they don't like their 11s, their neck is saggy, and then they'll come in and I'll say, Yes, we can take care of that. But did you know if you had a good diet and had good omega-3s, and that's your skin, and we stimulate your collagen from the inside out, well, I try to, you know, get them, educate them and get them to think a differently. Or they could come in and say myself, because I I've had hormone problems. I need you to balance, I need you to give me biodental hormones, and I've had this gut problem, I have all this extra weight. So, depending on where their pain point is that they connect with me on with in the website is where they enter. Because people don't think about what I'm talking about. They're thinking about, oh, I got this extra belly I don't want. Oh, I got this booty that's sagging, oh, I got these flabby arms, that's where they come in. Or I don't have the energy, I'm fatigued. And so they'll find, they'll Google me and they'll whatever they're searching for, whether it's that you're tired, you want a good doctor, or you want, you know, the magic tool. So I think Google's my friend and word of mouth. Well, have you ever thought of doing your own podcast? Um, I so you can see all the technical problems, yes. I so no. Oh my well, I'm not the business one, I want to be the doctor.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, all right, fair enough.

SPEAKER_01:

So now outside of work, what do you like to do for fun? Um, oh, I mean, right now I have two high school boys, or not high school boys, they're freshmen in college. Now, so the freshmen in college, so they're very expensive. So my hobby is my business, so I'll be here for a while. But I I do love, I used I love cooking, so they haven't been around, so I like to cook for them. But I was I cycle around the world, so I love cycling. Um, I'm a sailor, I love to go out sailing, I love hiking, I love uh any movement. I'm a dancer. If I would, I would be back into um a dance company. So I love dancing. Um, so many things. And my I love reading. So, you know, I try to stay fit with my yoga and exercise all anything they could do. Tennis. Anybody want a tennis partner? I need to get back in the game. So that's well, Dr.

SPEAKER_02:

Anita, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about wellness, longevity, aesthetics.

SPEAKER_01:

That um I I have all the tools for you for anything that's uh ailing you. Whatever you have a problem, just give me a call and let's just chat about it and see if we're a good fit. So wonderful.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, how can our listeners learn more about uh Dr. Anita Wellness, longevity, and aesthetics?

SPEAKER_01:

So you should call me at 949-734-0580, and um you can message me or book your complimentary discovery call at A-N-I-T-A-W-A-N-G-M-D.com. So it's Anita Wong with an A dot com. And we can uh discover and then I can do a 3D. If you say that you saw us here, I am happy to give you a 3D image of your body that will help you on your to to get your fitness goals, health goals, and your um aesthetic goals, weight loss. So if you mention that you saw me here, I will give you, which is$60, a free 3D scanner.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. Well, Dr. Anita, I really appreciate you being on the show, your wealth of knowledge, and we wish you and your business um really all the best moving forward. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

I appreciate what you do for all of us small business people. Great.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnporangecounty.com. That's gnpoachcounty.com or call 714 94182.