Longevity, Ageing & Biohacking: What Should You Really Focus On?

In this episode of Shift Happens, we explore ageing, longevity, and the pressure to optimise our health. Starting with a conversation about birthdays and how they feel as we get older, we unpack why ageing can feel emotional, and how expectations change over time.

We then dive into longevity, biohacking, and wellness trends, discussing the difference between prevention and cure, and why the foundations, nutrition, exercise, sleep, and social connection, matter most. We also explore the impact of marketing, health anxiety, and the reality that not everything can (or should) be optimised.

This episode is a reminder to keep things simple, focus on the basics, and embrace the natural process of ageing.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

First things first, happy belated birthday. Thank you. Um turning 30. Turning 30, what is it? The ninth anniversary of your 30th birthday? Sorry. I mean, happy 21st.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

That is actually well, that's my last year in my 30s.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

Well, technically, technically, you're in your 40th year.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Whatever, I hate this thing about one. Yes, because you're in your born and you enter your first year. Okay. Technically, I'm 39. And and also nearly your birthday tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

Not tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

The next day.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Not the next day.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Yeah. How does 36 feel?

SPEAKER_02 0:44

36? I don't know. You tell me. How did that how did it feel for you three years ago? I always find it hilarious that everyone always thinks that you are younger than me. Kind of.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah. That is a genuine thing.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

That is a genuine thing. It's um kind of heartbreaking every time.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I find it brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

We've just stopped asking people. Well, you keep asking them. And I'm like, don't you dare answer wrong. Um, but yeah, so for us, April and May are always quite busy months. There's um birthdays. Your birthday, yes, for birthdays. Your birthday now, Mr. T's.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Who we share, nearly share birthdays. Nearly share a birthday. Which is really sweet. It's a really nice thing because I feel like as you get older, you don't really enjoy celebrating your birthday so much. So now every year for the rest of my life, hopefully, obviously, um, he we we just don't really need to celebrate mine. But then yeah, it's a really nice um it's a really nice thing that he gets excited about. However, one thing I would say, and I think this is quite a mum thing, but I find the birthday of your child quite emotional. Because I suppose that it's like they're growing older, which is really nice and obviously what you want, but at the same time, it's like time, it's a reminder of how time quick is going. Yeah and how quickly time is going. And I've spoken to other mums about it, and they're always the same. They're like, Yeah, it's a really emotional, it's not like necessarily a bad emotion, but it's really emotionally driven. Like, I genuinely had tears the night before his birthday on the Wednesday night. I put him to bed and gave him kisses, and I had tears in my eyes because how much I can't believe that he was turning two and that it was his birthday was so moving.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

And um it's really funny because the night before my birthday I have tears in my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

For a different reason.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

But because I'm just getting a year older.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

But then I think that um it's like yeah, I suppose it's like a I I can imagine as as your child grows, that it is a you know, then it may be at the moment it's it's the years, but maybe afterwards it's like, oh, when they turn 18, they're finally adults, or when when they go to to different stages of their life, that it is, you know, a a a reminder of time passing. Whereas, and also I'd say for adults, I do think triggers are uh birthdays are triggering.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So I then have the next day where I'm like, whoa, I'm 39, whoa, the last year before I'm 40. Whoa. So then it's like a completely different type of emotion of trigger. But that means that the two together every year is quite an emotional weekend. Yeah, it really is. It's actually quite charged, and I couldn't really work out last week why I was feeling so like it's not necessarily bad, but it's this emotion, like all of these things coming up to the surface, and like you ponder and you reflect, and you this and that, and then I realized I was like, oh my gosh, because there's this and there's this, and they're kind of like it's two big emotions, yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

I mean, I can't attest to you know, understanding what it is to have a kid who's aging, but I think, yeah, definitely. I mean, I know when I every year in my birthday, and I always do that classic thing where I'm like, I'm I'm just gonna forget about it. Yeah, it doesn't matter, it's just it doesn't matter, it's just another year, it's another day, and so I don't plan anything, and then it inevitably comes to the day, and I'm like, No, I feel so lonely, no one's no one's coming, no one's doing anything for me, and it's like, but you don't want anything, yeah. But I didn't mean it, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

And actually, in our family, our parents are very um non-I I mean, they never make big fusses a birthday. I mean, actually, I think I spent 45 minutes with dad on Friday morning until mum arrived and said happy birthday, and he was like, Oh yeah, I forgot, literally, and it's not I don't take it offense, it's literally like he is not something that we overly um No in our family we haven't made a huge as children we did. I think as children we had parties and things, but certainly as adults, it's never like oh I need to be back in London for Clem's birthday, or oh you guys we're all gonna be together for dad's birthday. Like we never really ever did those kind of things.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

I think there was a year where you and Vic forgot to message me for my birthday.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

No, I never did. Never did. Vic probably, yes. Sorry, Vic, but Vic does.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Yeah, Vic, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Um and but yeah, we never make birthdays like a huge thing, and maybe that's why when no one does anything, it's like a it's like an underlying like sensitive point. We're like no one can. I used to do that. I used to never take the day off work, and then on the day I'm like, why the hell am I here? I don't want to be here. It's my birthday. Yeah, I should do what I want.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yeah, I do remember. I mean, I think around my late teens, mum and dad were perpetually not in London for my birthday. So I always had my birthday slightly sort of shifted a week before or after.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

They travel plans, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

Yeah, basically they used to go to Italy every year. Um, great for them. Uh, but also because my birthday It's like your birthday now will be on the 1st of May.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, no, it's the third.

SPEAKER_02 5:47

But I think because it my birthday always tended to be around that May Day bank holiday. So it was, oh yeah, but you know, we have plans to go away or something, so can we just do it the weekend before? But in a way, I guess I've not I've never been overly attached to it. I think if somebody doesn't message me for my birthday, I really don't take offense. Okay, wait until Saturday comes around. No, and it has happened, right? It has happened. People are, oh my gosh, I forgot your birthday last week. I'm like, it doesn't matter. Like, especially because now people don't use Facebook anymore. Where are people gonna know?

SPEAKER_01 6:19

My my reminder is when people repost on Instagram their own happy birthdays, and then I'm like, oh yeah, it was that person's birthday. Um because you're right, how do you remember people's birthdays?

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Yeah. I mean, I've now got into the habit, like important people they go in my calendar.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Oh, interesting. I don't do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

So I do do that, and then as soon as like I'll hear someone say, Oh, my birthday, I'll be like, okay, put it in.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

That's a really good thing. Because I do think it's actually a really thoughtful thing if you even people who don't expect, um like like you say, the fact that Vic say didn't message me for my birthday, I don't mind, it's my sister. Uh you know, it doesn't you know she loves it, but when it's someone who you didn't expect remembered to remember, remembers it's actually a nice thing.

SPEAKER_02 7:03

So your birthday last week, my birthday this weekend. I think we thought this was gonna be a really good opportunity to discuss something that I think on my Instagram is a hundred times a day I hear the word longevity.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

Is it something that's algorithmically probably because you introduced that topic to me when we discussed um having this conversation, said to me, I want to talk about it, which was really interesting because I didn't really know that this was a concept that was buzzing.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Do you have doctors of longevity now?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Yes, I know. I saw that. So I did some research online, yeah, and it's incredible how this the I suppose it's again, it's the wellness industry, you know, growing and growing and growing, and they're finding pockets of things that they can push forward. But what I would say, from my understanding, which I think is it is to do with prevention, which is a new way of looking at uh of medical kind of uh systems. We apparently used to be in a system or are in a system of you know reaction. So when you something is wrong, our parents' generation, our grandparents' generation, potentially our generation is to do with we go to the doctors uh when something's gone wrong, we have an operation when something's gone wrong, etc. The new way of thinking in the medical world apparently is to do with prevention, which is where longevity comes in. So you try and prevent things from happening, yeah, and therefore it increases your quality and your length of the life that you have. So it's interesting, which I think is a good thing. I think prevention in medical terms.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Prevention over cure is 100% the way forward. But what I do find interesting is that that as like someone who's sort of discovering the space, those are the first messages that kind of get bombarded to you. Because I think the other thing to think about is public health initiatives have been around for decades, and public health is all about prevention. Okay, weight management, cardiovascular disease prevention, you know, reducing salt intake, reducing fat intake, exercising, movement, all of that. That has been part of public health for decades and decades and decades. And so this narrative of oh, well, the medical field has always been about um, you know, uh curing rather than prevention.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Well, no, there has also been public health campaigns around. And you could also argue that, for instance, if you have a genetic predisposition to cardiovascular disease, taking statins will prevent you from having a heart attack. That is kind of part of prevention, right? It's a medication for sure, but it's one that prevents you from having an incident.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah. I feel that the longevity piece is a bit of a recalibration to how far we've moved probably in the last 30 years. Probably like really our generation. So I'm sure the 80s was still fairly, you know. We really are the the the kind of generation of excess of everything of obesity, of fatness, of lack of movement, of you know, all of these, you know, poor eating diets, etc. And I suppose that longevity is a bit of a a buzz term to kind of get people on board with okay, you can't live this way and expect to have a long life.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah, but I feel like it's been like all these things, they've buzzwords. Yeah, like social media as well, right? Yeah, pillars, right? And we've talked about these so much.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Actually, I looked at the the five pillars of longevity is nutrition, social capital, yeah, exercise, stress management, and sleep. Exactly. And that's what they get you to concentrate on. And interestingly, what I saw was that it prioritizes um uh no quick fixes, no overnight change, but small intentional um uh habit uh changes that then create a longer life. So it's actually very much the kind of um uh the kind of message that we've been talking about for it is a long time.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Oh my god, since the beginning of the year podcast. Um but like all of these things, yeah, people have taken the buzzword longevity. It's great. Because longevity, what does it mean? It's and actually when you look at the definition of longevity, it's about length but quality.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Quality, yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah, and I think that's really important because you have people like uh Brian Johnson or um what's her name, Kayla Lentz uh Barnes Lentz, um, who want to live into the 150s. So these are so Brian Johnson is the more famous of the two, and he spends two million dollars a year on his health. Yeah. On his health. And he actually gets the plasma of his 18-year-old son like injected into him, and his whole shtick is that he wants to have the so he's gonna outlive his children. Well, if he's taking taking all their blood, yeah. I mean, by the sounds of it, but he he spends two million bucks a year. That's crazy, and he goes to bed every day at like 8 30 p.m., stops eating before 6 30 p.m.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

cell regeneration, cell stem bariatic chambers. What's it cell I read about stem cells, yeah. Stem cell uh therapy.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah, I mean you can use stem cell therapy in lots of different things. Classically, it's like for hair and plants.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

So you a stem cell design, it's actually pretty quite it can be quite dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

I I'm sure. I'm sure. But now we're veering off of this, you know, the key pillars. Yes, it's becoming nutrition, and there's a couple of absurds. And you're like, okay, but you're also doing highly dangerous procedures, not tested procedures, yeah, and you're also taking pills, and this is kind of going back to this discussion we had about supplements, pills that have been very little, you know, little research has been done with them, and you're kind of taking it face value that they're gonna do this magical thing that can make you live.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And the interesting thing, so this guy sounds like a hoot. Um he sounds so much fun going. Can you imagine going for dinner? Yeah, exactly. And he's like, I'm off, and well, he probably doesn't eat anything from the menu. But um the interesting thing is he's doing all that, and what about if he walks out the front door and then God forbid he gets hit by a bus or he's in a car accident? Like, how much of your life, of your longevity or lifespan, yeah, is actually out of your control? Yeah, this is something that not none of these um places that I researched really talked about. Like you are, yes, of course, you can control your well-being, and in a way, it's like live your life daily like you're going to live to a hundred, but behave in a way which is that you might die tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

The narrative that I find interesting coming out of that is the mindset, this idea of people now are just afraid of aging. There's this like fear of growing older, and that you are expected to feel like an 18-year-old when you're in your 40s, and I find that really strange. There's not much of that embracing the fact that you are changing and the fact that you are evolving, and part of that is physically things will change, but also mentally things will change. You're wiser, you things that might have bothered you before probably don't bother you as much now. Like there is a natural evolution that people are are are really pushing back and not embracing.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

And I don't know how maybe that's gonna be the next um the next uh fad will be from longevity to like embracing aging. You know, it's like a it's like a because it's gonna be get pushed like everything so far that then there might be a movement coming back to like actually aging is a blessing and embracing it is part of now the new yeah, you know, I mean the new norm.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

As they say, aging is the worst thing other than the alternative. Because if you're not aging, you're dead.

unknown 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

No, no, I agree, I agree. But it's true, I mean, it doesn't feel good to as and actually the other interesting piece about this longevity that I looked on that I found online was that uh nearly all of it is tested on men, none of it on women, and the only space women have had in this longevity or or kind of not growing old piece has always been about physical appearance, not about their health. And it's true if you think about um reducing aging or or slowing down aging or or you know m moving these milestones, it's always about if you think about women, it's anti-aging cream, it's it's physical changes to your face or your body that's gonna make you look or feel younger. Um whereas for the men's point of view, what is happening out now is much more of this supplementation and this, you know, what this guy's doing, the the the self plasma thing. Yeah, okay. So then the area around aging that you uh kind of wanted to touch upon is that we're not we're still we want to live longer, but we want to do it in a beautiful looking way. Like, are we actually embracing the true process of aging?

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I think there's two things, right? There's one embracing the process of aging, and two, I think there is don't let the marketing hype of longevity make you feel like this stuff is out of reach. Like, I think exactly like you said at the beginning, the core pillars of health that's longevity. That's all it is, it doesn't get much more complicated than that. Okay, and I think these you know, I would bet certain so much that nine out of ten of people who use the word longevity have something to sell you on the back of that.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

Well, interestingly, have you ever spoken to someone who practices longevity in the way that we're talking about it today? Um like have you ever had a conversation with someone that's like, yeah, yeah, take these pills and this and that and the other? Yeah, regularly. And what kind of stuff do they say? Like, so what how will they just I because I've never had a so how do they talk about like you know, what is it that they are in the same way someone might say, Oh, I'm a smoker, I smoke cigarettes. Yeah, how does a longevity behave?

SPEAKER_02 18:06

You know, they'll say, Well, I'm into this like biohacking space, that's another word. Biohacking, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

You taught me that the other day. I was like, What?

SPEAKER_02 18:13

The biohacking space, and you know, I'm just trying to really optimize my longevity, and these are the literally the sort of things, and you say, Okay, so what are you doing? Well, you know, I'm um having 40 grams of protein at every meal, I'm exercising so many times a day. So nutrition. So yeah, you're like nutrition, exercise, I'm prioritizing my sleep, like great, and then I have a long list of supplements, fine, you figured out what it is you want to supplement. And then typically it's like okay, but then I go on holiday and then I don't do any of that.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, okay. So and then it's so so it's actually a chore, then. If you're on the holiday, you can't maintain it, it's obviously a chore.

SPEAKER_02 18:59

And so I always I'm like, okay, but you know, the kind of the whole point, going back to your point about longevity, is that it's sustained over a very long period. And often what you find with people who are just very much into this longevity space, they'll do it for like intensively for like three, four months. They're like, Yeah, I feel like I'm a 20-year-old again. And then you see them six months later and they're like, Oh, you know, fell off the bag, fell off the bat, or have a completely different regime. Like, oh, I'm intermittent fasting now, or I read something. It wasn't working for them. It wasn't working, or they've read another article and so they've changed it. And basically they're just never sticking to anything. And like I would say to my patients, the consistency is the hard bit, right? And so, whatever it is you find for you, just make sure you can stick to it and you can do it over a really long period of time. Yeah, that's a different conversation.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Um, but yeah, biohacking is and that is so you taught me that the other day because I didn't know I'd read that word, but I thought it was quite like a it must have been like a type of uh of practice of some kind that I didn't know about. And you basically said like you can biohack everything.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Well, biohack basically just means you've figured out if you have any like deficiencies and you're supplementing them.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

So, how are we using that in a sentence?

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Like, um I'm into biohacking, which basically means I take supplements.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Okay, what else can I say?

SPEAKER_02 20:24

Um you could say um this person's a biohacker. And what and they sell supplements or they like promote supplements. Yeah, biohacking is more sort of the idea of like, oh, I did a blood test, I figured out this. There's a okay, but how does it bio from biology and hacking from like like a hack, like a hackathon or yeah, like decoding. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Oh, so I decoded my biology. Yeah, and so there's there's two ways to see it, right?

SPEAKER_02 20:55

You've got the people who supplement because they're deficient, like you're taking vitamin D, you're technically your biohacking.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Okay, right, got you.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

Right, you're back. Because you're not taking your vitamin D.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Haven't taken any supplements practically.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

But also for some people who go into these um these supplements that are not part of your required supplements, but that marketing will say ones and exactly, like the lion's may or neutro what are they called? Nootropics, which are basically supposed to make you think faster, or yeah, or I saw this woman on TV who was talking about um putting uh what is it, medium chain fatty acids um in her coffee, and that basically was a way of doing it was a way of biohacking GLP1. Yeah, biohacking. Exactly. But they're not the ones that you need.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

No, well they're the ones that have been put together formulated to create a marketing Yeah, but where you wouldn't take a blood test and be like, oh, I'm deficient.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Lion's mane. Yeah. You're not deficient in lion's, you don't need lion's mane. It's just supposedly someone has convinced you that it makes you think more sharply. Yes. That's more biohacking. Got you. Got you. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

I'm definitely not biohacking. But longevity and biohacking kind of lucky if I can have my piece of toast whilst I'm running out the door.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

Yeah. Exactly. But and then this goes back to like what are the realities of people's lives?

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Like I'm not surprised if your bi hacking is basically like a full-time job by the sounds of it.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Yeah. And this is it. But these are people who are online telling other people they should do that. And other people are looking at this and they're like, yeah, but I have a real life.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Like I still have to do a food shop, I have kids I have to look after, I've got a job I got to go to. I got a budget.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

Being a bi hack is actually an additional stress. And this is it.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

And then you get health anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

So the watches, and I'm actually in the process of I think weaning myself off of wearing my watch. Were you looking at it too much? Yeah, and it was convincing me that I hadn't slept well, even though I'd had plenty of sleep. And so then you're like, but I've slept enough. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

But this is telling me off bad sleep, and you're like, oh, exactly. I must be wrong.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Exactly. And I think it also breeds this reward system, which is like, well, if I'm not wearing my watch, then have I even exercised? You know.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

And people who wear that ring.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

The ooh ring. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

That's a big one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 23:21

Well, you're starting to see some people stopping wearing all these digital products and kind of going back more to okay, how am I feeling? Like do I feel like I've stepped in?

SPEAKER_01 23:31

What we're saying is that that's one of the things we talked about is like the mind-body connection rather than relying on external sources. Exactly. And having, you know, some device tell you something, actually just listening to your body and creating that mind-body connection is essential.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Absolutely. But I think it's yeah, the world of longevity and biohacking is it's wild when you get there. And it can get really dangerous actually when you go to the fringes, people starting to inject what you call peptides. Um, you have thousands of different peptides, and people are just and people have no idea what they do, and they're just sort of injecting randomly on the basis of exactly, and I think trying to compare themselves to people who spend their whole time just doing that.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

So, in terms of aging though, there are some realities that it is important to acknowledge in aging, other than obviously the physical aspects of wrinkles. Like I, you know, definitely can tell my face is different now than it was 10 years ago. And I do Botox every so often because I do like the look of it, but then you know, actually doing this podcast, I feel like I have gels.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah, I mean it's my the bags and my eyes.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

So there's obviously these things that happen, and and you you know, maybe I should biohack into my skin or something, but I suppose it's just the natural process of aging. Yeah. Um, but an important one that really needs to be addressed is fertility.

unknown 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

And that is something that no matter how much you buy hack, surely you may be able to improve your chances than if you were, you know, a heavy smoker, heavy drinker, etc. etc. But but we know that we're born with a kind of a a biological clock. Yeah, and I'm sure to a certain extent we've managed to extend it a little bit, but we can't really do that. You can live to 150, but you can't have kids until you're 100. No. And I don't think anything at this stage could really change that.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Not that I know of, put it that way. I think um, yeah, and I think that, like you said, there's some natural life changes as a woman. I think we've got to be able to do that. But in men as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:35

I mean, I know men can have babies until later, but it is also true that their sperm quality and quantity uh goes down, and you know, etc. So it's not just a woman, it's a human. But I feel like women fertility is not meant to be a fruit thing.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

And I think women have inflection points, right? So we all like men, we go through puberty, yeah, but then women really have that like childbearing ages, and then it declines we get to the menopause to the point where it stops, to the point where it stops, and interestingly, that childbearing years actually that's what protects us from a lot of diseases. Yes, you said I remember so actually we get this sort of temporary protection for what 20, 30 years. So 30 years. So you have about a 30-year protection window, and then when our hormones drop, it's essentially progesterone and estrogen, then we actually mimic much more male type um physiology, and we actually catch up with male risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, then we kind of get on par with them.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

And in a way, you kind of have to go back to this inception of concept, I suppose, of you know, cycles of life, how well the well, how well our biology is made that we can do that, and then we're trying to constantly interrupt that. It's part of you know, and I'm not saying it's wrong to have fertility treatments or do some of these longevity practices, but in a way you have to also accept and embrace that it is going to happen and that it's part of the cycle. And you know, I've actually also, for example, heard of uh fathers who've had children later on in years, and they will attest to that being exhausting. Because if you have a child at 50, you are not physically the same person as when you were 25, and they find that is, and it's not to say it's a it's a bad thing to do, but because it's like, oh, biology didn't mean intend that to be the case, you know. Um, so it's interesting because maybe we're also denying ourselves the reality of um the life cycle.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

And I think we're so focused on again the physicality of it, we forget also the mental the mental benefits that we get. I definitely feel like as you age, a lot of anxieties, some you get more of some and you get fewer of others, but you probab you accumulate more experiences and more learn, you know, more learnings and hopefully quote unquote wisdom in that sense. Um for some people, maybe not for others.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

For sure you do. But first I think if you think about your brain is not fully mature until the age of 25. Yeah. So all the the pro years before that, your impulse control, your emotional regulation, your think your rational brain, your thinking, you know, the way you you problem solve, all of that is not fully mature. Yeah. So if you then go into so the way you die, and as a result, how you behave and how you direct your life is going to be different. And so then you enter mature years, yeah, and then you enter, you know, so every decade has its own benefits, and it will also therefore I see I suppose change how you view things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

Okay. So I think I mean I think I think the concept of longevity and aging and all of that. I wonder if we've got uh key takeaways.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Well, key takeaways, I would say, is that we are it is a good practice to engage in, but just keep it simple.

SPEAKER_02 29:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Rather than buy into this marketing social media, you know, um piece on buy having to buy things, having to do procedures, having to do in intervention, essentially, maybe just go strip it back to what's my sleep, what's my nutrition, yeah, am I socializing and you know, yeah, surrounding myself with people I love and and enjoying that. Am I managing my stress levels? Yeah, and then exercise. Am I exercising? Am I moving my body? And if you can, if you can, you know, essentially spend 20% of your week on each of those areas That's quick math. Yeah, so quick. You must have been taking some really good supplements. Yeah, you're taking lines, mate. Yeah, um then I think if each of those areas are pretty much balanced, yeah, then you're probably gonna optimize your longevity in the in the most realistic fashion.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Yeah, and I think you're gonna get probably 95% of those benefits. Yes. And most people can't do that already. And I think this is where we also forget, it's like it is it is, it's not easy, but it is quite simple, but it just does require discipline with all of these things. I think another one I would say is um embracing it. I think embrace that's difficult though. I I that is very difficult.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

I can't I do think it's difficult because just saying looking at your face, you you then look at you. It's hard to embrace uh change. Not saying that looking at my face. Yeah, looking at your face.

SPEAKER_02 30:59

I'm like, you've got some embracing to do.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

I empathize. Um, I'm not saying it's not impossible, but I do think it is a difficult thing to do in this day and age with social media, with cameras, with pictures, with phones, with all this, you look at it and you we're critical of that stuff. I think it sounds like it's a very noisy area. Yeah, it's a very noisy space, but actually, if you try and cut through the noise, you don't have to budget for this, particularly. No, you don't have to increase your stress levels around your health, um, anxiety. Um, you probably go back to basics and actually can do a pretty good job there without it affecting um, you know, key things like how much money you're spending on supplements, how much time am I putting into this? Like, am I gonna be able to like go to out with my friends and see them? You know, it shouldn't if it shouldn't be, I suppose, affecting your life in a negative way.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

And I think the key with all of these pillars is finding what works for you. What helps you manage your stress, what helps you find community, what helps you eat better, what helps you exercise and find pleasure in exercising, how can you get yourself good sleep patterns? I think all of these things are gonna be super individual. So what someone is touting online of what their hacks for longevity are just might not apply to me.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Yeah, think about it. Like, do you really, really want to live to 120? Like, actually, what you're gonna do, who you're gonna be hang out with?

SPEAKER_02 32:31

I still maintain to this day it is the biggest marketing con to say that because none of us are gonna be around to verify. Yeah, there's gonna be like three of them in there.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

A couple of bad hackers you might not even get along with. And so I'm just like, this is yeah, it's a bit of a nod concept. Like, okay, I'm doing all these things. Say you buy into all of this and you you spend two million bucks a year on this. Yeah, what are my who am I gonna be with at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_02 32:56

Who am I gonna be with? And if I die sooner, what happens then? Like you've just wasted a whole load of time and effort on.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

I always this is so interesting because I always like thought like when you're dead, you're the last person that cares. Everyone else who's alive cares, but yourself, you just you think, Well, I'm gone. Yeah, just think about watching everything and maybe but you know, it's a funny concept to be like, but I don't want to be that one gone, but it's like, but you're gone.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Yeah, no, but I don't want to be like the one that's gone. But again, this whole thing of like, why has living forever been this thing that people want to do? Yeah, immortality. Immortality, that's I suppose that is where the world is going, is these extremes, but it's such an egotistical concept concept. It's like, what about making lots of people healthier rather than you? I saw a really interesting quote, which is um Um, I want to die young, but in a very, very long time. That's cute. That's really nice. Thank you so much for watching Shift Happens. Um we yeah, we're here every week. We're releasing new episodes. You can catch this episode and all the other episodes we've had wherever you listen to your podcast. So thank you so much. Sound great.