Riding The Age Wave with Maddy Dychtwald
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Most people have a vague idea of what IT takes to stay healthy as we age. Some combination of cutting out the delicious, irresponsible activities while adding in more nutritious ones and more boring ones will never seemed overly complicated. IT also has never really sounded very fun.

Today's guest flips that script according to mai dike wall. A healthy mindset can lower stress, which you can actually make IT easier and more enjoyable to exercise and socialize. In other words, you don't have to White knocker IT. When IT comes to health and longevity, you might even look forward to the sometimes tedious tasks that IT takes.

For nearly forty years, matty has been expLoring all aspects of the age wave, and we're part of IT, and she's contributed to researching how an aging population can have profound business, social, health care, financial, workforce and cultural implications. She's also national best selling author, including your latest book, ageless aging. We will talk about that today.

She's at a cleaning public speaker and in overall thought leader on longevity, aging and a new way of you retirement. You often find her insights in blumer business week forms news, week time, fox business, C N B, C N, M P R. Now, for years, a common belief was the genetics predetermined almost all of our destiny.

But matty says that just is IT really true. Some of the new researchers that he talks about suggests that up to ninety percent of our health and well being is related to our lifestyle and our environment. Ninety percent, ninety percent up to us, not at ninety percent up to the genes are born with.

I grilled her on the questions. People, one answer is still least. I hope I did. We do about trends like interment fasting. Is that dubious, cannot really help.

Is walking thirty minutes per day really enough? Or didn't you need to be adding strength, threading? What's the latest you should eat before bedtime? About adopting a pet cannot really add purpose to your life.

What about all timers? And dementia is more likely for manner for women. Mad's answers and wisdom shed so much light on what people can do to stack their heart and brain health to increase both the spin and quality of life in our later years.

We want to live longer, we want to look Better alive that I might be able to help us enjoy the process of doing so along the way. I'm west mos. The prevAiling thought in amErica is that you'll never have enough money and it's almost impossible to retire early.

Actually, I think the opposite is true. For more than twenty years, i've been researching, studying, advising a and families, including those who started late on how to retire sooner and happier. So my mission with retire sooner podcasts to help a million people retire earlier while enjoying the adventure along the way.

I love free to be one of them. Let's get started. Let's do this. Tell us what age wave does in a little more detail.

okay. So I have been on this beat of ageing, longevity and retirement for close to forty years, believe IT or not. So if you do the math, you'll figure out i'm seventy four years old.

I have been digging deep into the subject as cofounder of age wave, we do research and consulting on aging, retirement, longevity and what do they mean for us individually and as a society and for various companies like how is they going to impact their business. So that's been our a mission. And for a long, long time, that's been our mission.

And along the way up through the research we've done, we've ve had the amazing opportunity to interview the top experts in science and physicians, uh, in academia. Uh, we we really have have the opportunity to interact with them and find out what they're what their insider secrets are. And in fact, that's what inspired red me to write age of ageing. I felt like, oh, I have all this insider secrets, if you will, that the world wants to know like, what do I do personally to live Better, longer? And by the way, with that is a question I get all the time.

little, little there. What do I do Better? I would love. I wanted know, by the way.

So this is podcast, but if you were to meet matty in person, the fact that matter is seventy four, whatever matter is doing we all want to be doing unless you're just blessed with the most amazing genes of all time but you've basically not aged. Is that fair? IT doesn't even seem fair or .

you just listening .

to the research. Are you just listening to what you guys do? An age wave?

okay. Well, let's begin by making one fact really clear. Science used to tell us, and you, so you're right about that, that seventy percent of our health and well being was up to our genetics.

So genetics were destiny. So we had absolutely no control. IT was like whatever. However, the most recent science tells us a completely different story. Out of calo labs, which is owned by alphabet.

Uh, coal labs did some research and they found out that nine, up to ninety percent of our health and our well being has to do with both our lifestyle and our environment. So the script has completely slipped. We are in charge of our own health well being. And you know in some ways that is a double that sort that's like scary. Do a lot of people it's like uh then I response yeah .

I don't think like a nice cop out you're right because so matter. I guess i've got mix messaging around that exact fundamental question where I ve had people here on this show say that sixty percent of angevine is your genes.

not anymore.

Okay, so that's that's wrong.

Yeah, that is wrong. But let me put a caviar to that. If you're over the age of eighty five, the genetics start to play much larger role.

So yeah, after eighty five, but up until then, i'm sorry, we have agency over our health and well being. And by the way, finances play a huge role in that. okay.

So to tell me about so calico as an example, are they ve an example, somebody you partner with an age wave? That's right.

but we have not even partnered with them. This is like go to their website, take a look online, you're gonna see that. That's what they say. So this is common available knowledge to eat.

And every one of us, I am going to tear up. I don't have the the sounder for this, but i'm tearing up and i'm throwing away the old idea that we don't have a lot of say. So in our aging, you're saying we do.

Oh, by the way, back forty years when you were starting, this will help. Well received, accepted was the aging side, the wellness, the health span side of retirement planning was is still so nicer. I don't remember forty years ago, I started almost thirty years ago. I don't remember here much about that at all.

No, people were not talking you about IT. In fact, many people referred to age wave as the paul reviews of aging, because what we were trying to do was literally plant seeds. That and IT was a pretty basic west.

I mean, back then, fifty was considered over the hill, and I don't think we even think that way anymore, which is great news. That means that age wave has done their job. We went out to corporate amErica because we figure red.

Let's start with those people who are impacting the marketing messages that we're getting. And we told them there's a new story out here. Fifty isn't what IT used to be.

Those people have money. They are active, they're energetic and they're not necessarily brain loyal. So wake up, smell the roses and get out there and start to reach out to people in their fifties, sixties and beyond. And that was our basic message. And Frankly, I think that was pretty well received.

okay. So maybe let's start with health care. Okay, healthcare and healthcare. I think that the mindset around health care has start to shift IT leads a little bit to wellness, holistic prevention, but it's at still pretty early in, in the I think it's in the early innings. With that, you're right. Uh, where do you think we are as a as a country when IT comes a health care? And why is IT fAiling?

okay. So when we talk about health care, we're talking about the health care system. And as you eluded to very nicely and the nice is way possible that uh, primarily, it's a sick care system. We take care of people when they get sick and we do a relatively decent job of that, although not the best job that could be done. But we you know that that's where we put our emphasis and our resources.

But if we were to shift some of that to the preventative side and we talk prevention, we we save the words, but we don't necessarily reinforce the actions and some of the actions are not very complicated ah and that's a lot of what I wrote about an agal staging. I mean, I interviewed all these people who were the cutting jackpot and what I realized was, oh my god, there is literally a holistic recipe for living Better, longer that is really IT can change your life and some of the ingredients don't have to cost a penny. And that's pretty cool.

I think. okay. So give us then a little bit of a taste of what we would find in ages.

Aging is that I know that you talk about. There's something that there's part of. This is nutrition. And I know that europe, you think sugar is probably like the like a poison, which is I kind of feel that way too.

I feel like so well, it's not really very good for you.

Tell us a little bit about what were some of the big ahs in ages aging from my health perspective.

okay. So there's some things that are surprising and some things that are not surprising. But big picture, it's not just about one thing, it's about a this holistic recipe, and i'll tell you some of the ingredients in a minute.

But what super cool is that these different ingredients, they don't stand in silos independently. So change your diet, and then suddenly you may be sleeping Better and sleep. As a key ingredient, you may have more energy to have exercise in your life.

Another key ingredient, you may have more time and energy to get out there and socialized because social connections are a huge part of IT. And your home mindset, you the way you think about your own aging and aging and general may begin to shift and become, hey, this isn't so bad at all. In fact, it's pretty great and they all impact each other.

There's a kind of rio effect. And as I mentioned earlier, finances are part of that recipe because if you don't have your financial house in order, your cortisol levels go up, which is that mean during anxiety levels are higher, your financial of mind goes down, uh, that impacts IT can actually affect your ability to stave off diseases like cancer and heart disease. And IT just really impact your mindset. You begin to think more negatively about your own aging. And Frankly, mindset is a huge part of act of really aging more agents.

I think that that is what is unique about ages, aging and the way you're perspective on this. And and i've interviewed, I don't know, hundred plus people here, but I think the way you think of IT is a it's almost a stacking effect where it's not of course, it's never one thing, right? But i've thought of aging well as a bunch of positive things you introduce and some of the negatives you take away.

which is a good way to look.

However, what you're saying makes even more sense because IT really a healthy mindset and let's say, lower stress make IT so that it's easier to exercise, easier to socialize, easier to do these things. So it's really like IT, almost like this cumulative impact of doing these things together.

That's especially right. You one hundred percent get IT, but and then there's some surprises even in the ones like, yeah I know nutrition really matters, but you know so we know um get rid of the ultra process foods up and even the seed oils because they're definitely not good for you. I mean, that's a pretty easy thing to do, let's be honest about but also you know eating, eating the more you know eating, eating the rainbow is what I say in my book is was seeing and the reason I say that it's no it's not fruit loops that are colorful but .

there there by the way, two there's a ban on two can in Kelly, right? There's no.

no well, deserve band.

I did, I did a hold show segment on the banning of fruit loops.

You know what? I'm i'm favorite, you know, sorry, colleagues.

So I have four kids and there is nothing like seeing your kids sit down, particular of your travelling. You go on these hotels into the perfect and it's literally what you've got is is captain crush and you have fruit loops, and you might as well just eat a snickers .

bar for actly.

Well, just became guys, just go get a milky wave. Why even eat through loop? Just just do the real thing, get like a reasons get of milk. A snickers bar for breakfast is same thing isn't IT .

I would save if they're very similar. I mean, they have a similar impact on your body. But one of the things that I learned now, we all heard of intervention, fasting.

You know, everybody talking about IT is so super cool. But I went right to the source, to doctor vulture longer, who is the pioneer behind the whole concept of intermit and fasting. A super smart, interesting guy.

Anyway, he said to me, oh, no, no, no and he's italian, so I can't even imitate his accent. IT was very cute and he said, oh, no, no, no. The biohackers have IT all wrong.

Uh, don't go sixteen, eighteen hours. It's actually bad. Hard on your system, hard on your kidneys.

No, especially for women. What you want to do is you want to go twelve to thirteen hours without eating. So after dinner, don't need until. If you saved in a dinner at eight at night, don't breakfast to late the next morning. Now that's that's so hard to do.

hard at all. I feel like guy do that. I accidentally do innovate, fasting every day.

I think a lot of us do, and he ought, but he did say a couple other things that I thought we're really interesting, he said. But be sure to finish eating dinner at least three hours before you go to sleep because and that too, it's it's like, simple, okay, yeah, I don't want to be digesting my food while my body is trying to sleep. That makes super sense. And then he also said something that my grandmother used to tell me, and that is, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I was surprised to hear that because all these biohackers are saying, no, I don't need until three o'clock in the afternoon.

I'm in the south, right? So I don't know for six months behind california or we like six years, maybe we are like a decade. So I don't know any biohackers. When I read the wall street journal, I read about biohacker there from california.

Yeah.

mostly they are catch .

my audience.

They're rosty men OK. So it's wealthy man that are biohacking. And once a while you read about like a you know a billionaire that's trying to cry of freeze and and live to two hundred, give, tell, tell us a little bit about the biohacking craze because my audience, I don't think fully knows that describe IT.

okay. So there is. And you kind of describe them effectively. So I I I don't want to send anyone, but it's generally men who are very affluent, who are very motivated to live longer. They want to extend their lifespan.

So um and then many of the more evolved thinking is that not only do I want to live longer, but I also want to increase my husband so the number of healthy years that I live because on average in the united states, this is an average that we spend the last twelve years of our life in a cast ade of bad health. Uh, things like our threats or cancer or heart disease, seems you don't want to get. So they're like trying to make sure they don't get those things.

But more than anything, they want to live to one hundred, one hundred and twenty. They see life extension as being their reality. So they're willing to experiment with things that are still experimental in terms of drugs and supplement um exercise physiology and nutritional supplements the whole thing.

They're willing to spend a good deal of their life both researching and experimenting with these things, some of which are really smart and and very helpful. Look, let me give you an example for a, for a usage ing. I interviewed a doctor who from the male clinic, who is on the cutting edge of a lot of the F D.

A clinical trials that are going on right now with synthetics. And synthetics are a group of either supplements or drugs that are already approved, Frankly, that are being used off label to try to extend lifespan and or health. And there's some that are are really terrific, and there are others that are just not well tested for lifespan extension. I give us an .

example a little, but I mean, my audience is like OK what these california people are, maybe they're crazy, but there maybe on to something.

So okay, there is a drug that is called metformin that a lot of the biohackers are using. It's I wouldn't say common knowledge but people know about that. But yeah I mean that it's pretty well known that's why I mention IT um and met forman has been approved for diabetes.

It's been around forever, but IT has never been because it's been around for a long time, never tested on women. So that's something to keep in mind. I of course, wanted to try IT.

So I went to my doctor. I said, hey, want to try this and she's like, no, it's never been tested on women. But okay, if you really want to do IT, go for IT and we'll just keep testing you.

Well, I got really sick from IT. Within two weeks, my whole digestive system went into chaos. And so obviously I stopped. But so the point is it's experimental. If you're using IT off label, I don't have diabetes, so I was using .

IT off label. Yeah yeah. So what is your perspective from whether it's biohacking, which is more cutting edge vers understanding, let's say, more traditional things that we do know that are Better for us, but then really putting them together and making sure that they cumulatively increase our health span? Where do you come down on that?

Okay, I comes somewhere in the middle. But keep in mind that my book was published ago. Sagen was published by the middle clinic press.

So they made me go through not just an editorial review, but a medical editorial review with three different high level physicians there. So they wouldn't let me include anything that was so controversial 啊 that IT would give them in trouble， or me in trouble. So that's where I went with this book.

But IT doesn't include some things that maybe our little, not so traditional like inference sonus, which are becoming pretty mainstream, but they have great impact on our health and well being. IT really fights inflation tion. IT helps you stay feeling good at, lowers our stress levels. I mean, these are good things. Uh, we know that cyl therapy.

Yeah that that was my next question is cry.

Yeah, it's good for you. I mean, that may feel like a crazy thing to do, but it's been shown to fight information. And inflation tion. Inflation magin, as they would call IT, is one of the hallMarks of aging. And by the way, I think it's one of the most important ones that we can focus on because if we can lower our information levels, we're gonna live Better, longer, not just longer, but Better.

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Schedule an appointment with our team today and your wealth dot com. That's why you are your wealth dot com. So if I think about inflation tion, let's go back to sugar. And what other things from our hytner perspective do you really believe in that are anti in flam ory, which is kind of that really you can say if there's one major enemy with aging is IT not inflame tion. Well.

there are others that inflation tion is a big one. And I have a personal story about that. Um I I actually was having terrible hip pain a couple of years back, like a bunch of years back, like five years back.

And I tried everything, I tried prp treatments. Again, another cutting edge thing, worked for a while, but only for a few months. Then went more traditional cortisone up.

But i'm a big exerciser, and I was experiencing horrible pain in my hibs. Finally, my son turned to me and instant, mom, get yourself to the doctor. Like, get an mr.

You look like you one hundred verses and the way you are moving. So I did. And the doctor told me you are bone on bone in both hips.

You were born with hip displacer. It's amazing that I didn't show up until now, so you need to get a double hip replacement. And I literally, I was I was like an emotional reach because of IT, but finally got myself together enough to say, OK. So what would you do if you were me? That's my favorite line.

The doctor, what did he said? What the door and what he said.

i'd get a double hyp replacement, and I do IT as fast as I can. And here's who you to go to, because he's got like a factory. This is all he does, his hip replacement. So I did I went to the guy who, yeah, that's all he does, but he was very busy. He couldn't see me for three months in terms of getting the surgery.

So I said to what what should I do in the meantime? Because, well, maybe you should think about getting a cane and no, no, that's not going to go over big when I go to the gym. I can't do that. So um that if there's anything wrong with getting a cane if you needed but I didn't feel like I was there.

And so I went I reached out to my network, people like mark hamon and andy while, and hey, what should I do? What should I do? And a lot of other people, and I determined that one of the key pieces, and they gave me a few pieces of advice, do some information, start meditating, a change your exercise, your change slightly actually increased, but make IT a little less, a little gentler, uh, and go on an anti in flam matory diet.

And i'm like, I eat really healthy. What do you mean? And this is what they told me, just cut out luton, cut out dairy and cut out sugar as much as you can, because you can cut out all sugar.

It's impossible. It's in everything. So I did. And an amazing thing happened within six weeks, all the pain in my hips went away, all of IT. And like, so I didn't need the surgery. I still got IT because I was bone on bone.

but still your pain went away.

My pain went completely away. And I mean, that's a radical transformation. And when I tell people that they like older ISO, like I don't believe that, but it's true.

I mean, that is what happened. And not only that, the orthopedic gel said to me, okay, you're gonna in the hospital probably five days. You going to be home like using a cane or a Walker, probably a month.

You know, just get that in your head. And I might not think i'm gonna that in my head so they won't like to get out of the hospital until you can walk stairs. And somebody told me something amazing. They said, if you can walk up one there, you can walk up one hundred. So I was out of the hospital in a day, and that felt really good because I ve got to go home where I have tons .

of stairs glossy of both. Hibs replaced both. And you were in your, this is your late sixties.

I was sixty eight.

both hips. However, you had already started. So this is what I yeah .

I did something called recovery, and I don't think I invented that term. I talk about IT and I went into a very heavy a couple months in advance recovery program, which you know the anti inflammatory diet was a big part .

of IT so matter you weren't already thinking about your diet anyway and you're focus on health. Didn't you think you are already doing something that is somewhat anti inflammatory or or are you missing some pieces?

I haven't een me and forty years and by the way, to anyone who's thinking, oh, should I cut me out in my diet? Not necessarily. Just be sure that you're eating past your raised uh, meat.

Organic meat is really the best way to go and it's worth the extra money so you don't have to cut that out. I just I eating was burgers and how talks? So I figured, Better step.

So I did. I eat a lot of fish. I need a lot of plants, a lot of veggies.

I eat the rainbow. But I wasn't necessarily cutting out gluten or dairy. And I was minimizing sugar for sure.

But getting rid of gluten diary was kind of the final .

big step to get in the day. It's not like a like and tolerant, but I had some kind of act on. And from what I understand about the gluten IT wasn't the gluten per say, but it's the way it's process in the united states that really makes a difference.

Tell us about the rainbow IT described to the audience. Tell us about the rainy OK.

It's really simple. And you and by the way, let's keep things as simple as possible. We don't have to make everything so complicated that you're, I go, boy, how am I gonna ver do that? okay?

It's eating fruits, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and fresh whole grains. Easy, not hard to do IT all and a variety. You know, in agal staging, I talk about, you know, specifics, what each food or vegetable or whole grain can actually do to your body. But, you know, try to mix IT up, you know, eat a rainbow salad .

matter that when IT comes to grain, this is always confuse me a little bit. Isn't grain though we eating gluten? Yeah.

there is a lot of IT, but they're some that are not a kinda is definitely not weed that's yes, definitely not weed. I mean, there are some that are weak and some that are not.

So you can still .

eat yeah you you I an and there are so many gluten free posters available now and there's you know that the getting squash linga, it's really good.

How about the aging? And I know you talk about this in the book. The aging different to fee men and women are.

wow, pretty big difference so keep .

my life who's aging harder .

for well, okay, first, when he comes to longevity women, we women have ung jd tterbusch. We live five to six years longer on average than men, and that's super lucky and cool and more years to do all the things that we care about. But there is a huge downside, even when you correct for the fact that we live longer.

And that is that women spend more years in a cascade of poor health. They spend up to fourteen years, on average, in the cascade poor health at the end of their lives. And they're often living alone because they outlive their husbands, and they're often living on a fixed income and often times have taken whatever money that they've saved with her husband to help their husbands in his final years of life.

So that complicates the matter as well as you might imagine. Ah yeah, women have IT a little bit tougher in terms of their health span and their brain spend. So get a lot of this when IT comes to brain spam. Women are twice as likely to suffer from alzheimer disease as men, twice as likely.

Why I don't, if I knew that, why is IT so different? Is IT because because of more years is IT because now it's .

just even when you correct for that, that's not the .

only reason.

Double doubles, man, scientists are not really sure, I believe if I were to take a guest and really please position this as I guess that are hormones uh, going to menopause and not being treated for metai correctly may have something to do with IT.

Holy cow, I know I guess I if you really if I think about IT, yeah I don't know. I still have the perception that men are more likely but yeah I guess statistically .

it's no they're not yeah maybe a little crazier .

than women but okay, so this is when you talk about health span versus mind span or brain span, is this really the conversation from brain span or what's let's say, you don't end up with less of that decline? Tell us about your perspective .

on brain span. okay. So in general, science used to tell us that when I came to brain span, we were really destined, by the way, our parents and our grandparents lived. I mean that genetics were our destiny.

Uh but the most recent science when IT comes specifically to brainstem tells us the different story and it's similar to what they say about how spin and that is that we have far more control than we used to think. But this is a relatively new story. I mean, it's only in the last three to five years that scientists, neurologists and neurosurgeons and brain experts turned around that yeah, we do have some control prevention or certainly delaying is within our control.

And and to me, that's great news. But there's also some things that we can do. And I would suggest if your listeners are in their thirties or forties or even fifties, the earlier you start the Better uh and you know it's doing the things that are good for your heart are also good for your brain so that means, yeah, it's the rainbow.

Get rid of those culture, process, foods, exercise. And by the way, just walking thirty minutes today. And i'm sure a lot of people so that's a good start to a really good start, but that's nothing answer, especially once you hit your thirties because we begin to lose muscle as early is in our thirties, and that's called Sarah pena.

So you don't want to lose muscle mass because that actually can impact your brain health, uh, as well as your physical health. So no, get out those bands, get out those weights. Do strengthening exercises at least three to five times a week.

So walking is a great start and that is again, i've had some expert er on the show remind me of that. So that's been held fine. And I do try to take the advice of pretty much everybody that we have on this show.

But you look at your own good shape.

good enough. You know, I I did have a physical therapist on a couple of, I don't know what, I recently had a physical there person, and he kind of motivated me to take care of what I thought I needed shoulder surgery. And ultimately go to physical therapy here.

A A really, really good physical therapy group basically just said, rip all the stuff up. Just take the mrs. Put them away. No, no, you don't need surgery. And within within about two weeks, I was there like A I told you you don't need surgery at all now you needed .

its a pretty .

serious physical therapy in my mind was like they keep really do that but right, right? Mean, but they can so that was a big motivator for me to get some help and a and avoided surgeon, hopefully avoided for and forever.

hopefully I can.

Sure is a big deal now.

which is a.

so yeah, i've got a little bit of damage, but essentially pt told me not. Now it's not enough. You you can fix this to ninety five percent with physical therapy and do not do surgery.

And I was extremely and IT thanked to one of our experts here on the show, is why I did that. Okay, so we eat the rainbow extra thirty minutes. They do muscle work, do exercise. But this is not just for your muscles, but this is for brain span.

for brain span, for health span. I mean, it's really good for your heart to uh IT IT can stave off things like cancer. I mean, it's not to be all and all, but it's pretty close to silver bullet.

And I think this is maybe where finance start to come in because to some extent, and this is just my perspective and and I think a lot of people listening would agree to this, there's how I feel. It's a big job to stay healthy IT IT takes money. IT takes time.

Now you can say well with you if again, IT sounds like it's pretty worth IT, but I think it's good to recognized that is a big deal to walk thirty minutes today, to work out three times a week, to eat healthy, to schedule all of these things throughout your week. And I think that often when we talk about health, you hear one piece of advice and you like, of course, I should do that. And then you here the other, of course I should do that.

And then you start putting together, wait a minute. It's like a part time job just to stay healthy. And that's partially why you read about these ultra rich people that I go.

I'm going to spend three hours a week extending my life. Well, good for you. But what about the rest of yeah.

now we have to integrate .

IT into our lives.

How do we do that? Okay, there's a couple hacks, if you will, that can help us do that.

First of all, that's a Kelly word. So the Kelly .

folks say.

we say practical solutions here in .

the practical solutions. Sorry.

I like, I love anyone I love.

Okay, so the first thing I would tell everyone to do is s you know, based their action steps on science. So science tells us that if you can change your attitude about your own aging, have a more positive attitude about your aging, IT can add up to seven and a half years to your life. That doesn't cost a penny. Is just a matter of switching the messaging that you give to your brain.

Or give me the example of, give me the example of of that. What is what's the average fifty year old OK?

And by the way, the impact that has on Younger people is huge, because from the research I did for my book, I found that Younger people were more frightened about getting older. And part of the reason that they're so scared as they don't have a whole lot of great role models for what IT means to get older of people aren't getting up there. Like I said, okay, i'm seventy four years old.

Not many people are doing that, especially women. There's been this honest against putting out age, especially if you're over the age of fifty, sixty or seventy, that it's not cool, that you're no longer relevant. And who wants to no longer be relevant? We don't want to do that.

So we've got ta change the narrative. We have to make a positive. We need to make this aging process.

We need to own the fact that, hey, we are super lucky to live to be seventy, eighty, ninety or beyond and to be in relatively good shape and that we have created our future. That is really an important step. IT doesn't have to take a lot of time, so that's one thing.

The second thing I would say there is something called stacking, and I would suggest people get into stacking. So what does that mean? Well, okay, when you're going to take a walk in the morning, take a walk with a friend. Because social connections have been proven, proven scientifically to add years to our life and to let add years to our house band as well. So now you're doing two things at once and then maybe take a along two pound weights so that while you're walking, you're also holding some hand weights and doing some hand exercises s with your friend.

So it's really efficiency.

Yeah yeah. And you know what? That could be kind of fun.

God forbid exercise is fun.

And if you're having fun, I mean, that actually joy is like a big part of the recipe. You know, one of the experts I spoke to was a neuroscientist based in france. And you know, i'm sure you understand that alcohol is not great for your brain health, actually can can kill brain cells, especially excessive amounts of alcohol.

And I said to, okay, you live in friends. People drink wine all day and night. What do you do and he said, you know, I have a classic wine every night with my dinner, because IT brings me joy and is as important as any of the other ingredients in this whole concept of living Better, longer.

okay. So you're not a proponent of not drinking at all. You're okay with a little bit of a little bit of alcohol.

Well, I personally used to have glass of wine every night, and I don't anymore. I have really cut down because what I noticed was that I was affecting my sleep. yeah. So if I didn't think, and I sleep is not my superpower at all, I mean, it's the one thing that i've really tried to improve and have improved by learning what i've learned by writing, eating. But so I think having a glass of an occasional glass of wine, I limit IT to one a week. And I don't even make like a big deal about IT because when I make a big deal about IT, everyone around me starts getting all anxious and that kind of takes the fun out of the night so .

um yeah so so we want we change our attitude about engine, which we can do for free and we can do IT quickly to when we are building our schedule to focus in on our health. We want to stacking is really efficiency. So we do a couple things all at once .

and also keep in mind that there's something called neat at a neural, energetic dynamic thermal dynamic exercise. I don't remember the exact words, but it's basically telling us that if we're doing chores around the house, that actually burns calories in a way that is very good for our health band. So you know, if you're gonna vacuum, oh IT and say, hey, this is really great, not only in my cleaning my house and making IT healthier, but i'm also making myself healthier because I move in my body and then put on some music and really enjoy IT sounds.

IT makes me want to a vacuum. I love vacuum ing and mowing the one. There are two. Yeah, just because you get IT like a result.

yeah. Oh, I like that.

I love the, in fact, there's a different task. I'll do IT work and I call IT mowing the lawn because IT feels like, oh, I get an immediate satisfactory result. right.

So now we go to working. I mean, you're seventy four. I'm sure you don't have to work financially.

You guys have ve had this great company for many years. You're working because IT is healthy for your brain. Let's talk about work.

okay? Well, that's part of IT. But I will tell you that one of the studies we did recently at age wave, we ask, poverty is so those who are working? And we ask, we ask private eries, what do you think you're gonna miss most about work? And then we ask retirees, well, okay, what do you actually miss most about work? So the answer we got from prev retirees was predictable.

They said the income. And that makes a lot of sense because living on a fixed income is a lot harder then when you're actually earning. So I I hear that I think it's smart. Uh then when we asked retirees or what you actually miss, they did miss the money, but even more than the money, they missed the social connections.

So having friends or your colleagues that you work with all the time, even if you're working remotely, you're doing exam calls or phone cause you're interacting with people um that's a really important part of this whole holistic recipe for aging. More agee cy, but let me take IT a step further. And then has to do with the sense of purpose ah we used to just think our purpose is really nice.

We really think it's a good thing to have. But science has told us a slightly different story. They tell us it's a necessary part of living Better, longer.

And you probably thinking if you're a listener, oh my god, so i'm gna have to go out and start an on profit or get a new job or like do something big. But no, you don't have to do that. People get purpose from a variety of different ways and things. So you maybe babysitting for your grandchildren or walk in the dog in the morning. In fact, what some people have asked me now to say this, but I think .

it's I like IT. If it's anywhere controversial, we want to well.

okay, so we did ask, well, what would be the one thing you'd be willing to do to have more purpose in your life? And almost everyone said.

adopted pet way. Why is that? Oh, get only for so you with california would think that's that's controversial. That that sounds amazing. Yeah, okay, yeah.

That is it's like it's not, you know, bark freedman, who's IT like an expert on social connections in purpose. He told me there's purpose with a big pee, and there's purpose with a little pee, and they're both important. So let's not forget the little piece of reason we get out of bed in the morning. You have to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. And i'm all about that matter.

what happens with I guess I I think I think about this. I still have kids that are Young enough. They're still not out of the house that we have a ways, little ways to go before that happens. But I look at some of my friends that say they are last kids in high school going to college and there, and i'm started to see, even in my age range, empty nesting. And then you see a big time in your they're ID fifties, and then the cancer totally out the house and I think gets really I hadn't gone through IT, but that to me really looks hard.

And imagine eua, what would be your advice be to parents, maybe a mam dad, who really did stay home and they weren't not working, didn't really that they have a career and the kids are no longer there. What have you seen parents do to gain back some sense of purpose? I think it's hard.

Yeah, no, I think it's really important, especially if there is women who did devote a tremendous amount of their life to raising their children and probably doing an amazing job.

Uh, my guess is they might have been involved in a lot of volunteer activities at school and in sports and what have you used in their community ah and I would say that maybe they should think about ramping those things up a little bit more ah maybe if your children are still are not in school anymore, you know finds a nonprofit that in your community that services kids. Maybe it's reading in after school programs or maybe it's helping out in in homes of people who are who have parents who are suffering. There's all kinds of available options out there.

Now IT used to be if you signed up for volunteering jobs, they kind of put you in the corner until you to lik stamps. But I don't think that's the case anymore. I think you have a lot more control over the kind of activities you can do to help a nonprofit to thrive. And I think these women have built up up set up skills and knowledge and confidence that they can translate into volunteer work, but they can also translate IT into work if they choose to go back to the workforce. And that can be a choice.

You work is especially when you're financially don't have to. There's no reason work can be a lot of fun. As we started to rap up here, what is the obstacle that makes IT so that so many folks don't put in the time or they're not paying attention to health and they're not paying attention to brain span? And there's probably a lot different there's a lot of obstacles and reasons. But what are either some of the obstacles that you can that you can help people remove or watch out for so that we can focus in on longevity, health span, OK?

So there's three things I would say about that. First, change is hard. Any kind of change is really hard. It's about creating new habits.

And you need to give yourself some time and recognize that you may fall off the wag in every once in a while. And that's okay. So that's number one.

Number two, one of the physicians that I talk to who was a preventive cardiologist at male clinic, a told me doctor Stephen kopec. I he told me that he thinks people should find one entry point that is kind of easy for them to do. And I have some success there.

And I would add that we should all put those things on our calendar for in in the last few weeks, I have not have the band with to exercise as much as I like. So starting this week, I started putting exercise on my calendar and I treated as importantly as having a podcast with U. S.

wow. I think they're both. They're equally important, but you're going to get so you yes.

they're equally so finding an entry point that you're comfortable with having some success there and then saying, hey, i'm really good of this exercise thing. Maybe I should eat a little healthier and see how that impacts me and maybe if I were able to sleep Better. Um and by the way, one of the secrets to sleep is that I learned that has really been helpful to me is that it's not about sleep, it's about so cadia rhymes. So wake up in the morning and open up your shades or get outside and have the sunlight really be one of your first experiences of the day. Another easy thing to do.

Yeah, yeah, that is easy to do. Okay, so when you say entry point matter, you mean take one health step forward.

One health step may be it's may be it's lep. Uh, maybe it's a nutrition. Maybe it's spending more time with friends and family, uh, maybe it's amp up your experience of purpose. Maybe it's like paying more attention to your finance is learning the lingo, uh, IT could be a lot of different entry points, have some success there and then keep adding points, you know, different ingredients in your holistic recipe as you go along. However.

by the way, I have a hack i'm going to come back to for you.

Oh, you're gonna come back to with.

i'm going to give you a hack. But we hold on new number three, understand changes are to have find IT one entry .

point and three is do at all that wants okay so doctor dean ornish is a friend of mine um he told me, yeah it's fine, just an entry point but and that if you want to do this preventative vely but if you're struggling with some health issues, you have author itis, you have cancer, you have heart disease, you Better like pilot t on on at once and make IT a lifetime commitment. And you're going to see such big changes in such a short amount of time that you're going to say, yes, this is my new life commitment.

right? Here's my it's not really a bio hack, but IT is I think IT is a hack because, again, I thought I understand the importance of being being able to do all of these things together. And it's and I think I asked you earlier, like it's hard to figure that out.

My favorite tool, the number one thing that I if I want to pick, if I go back to using artificial intelligence and using k pick them doesn't matter. Gm, I ChatGPT h whatever. The number one thing that i'd like over the past, it's been almost two years now with A I is to have the help of A I redo my entire schedule of life because because so IT does is such an amazing thing.

So your seven day schedule is, I think, pretty complicated. You've got seven days and you've got five, six, seven, eight things in any given deck. And when you start to add in one thing, it's hard to we schedule everything.

But what I found as again, I guess you guys were called a hack, is that you can have A, I build U A schedule and then anytime you want to change IT or modify or make IT Better and Better and Better, you just haven't add one thing, and I read us all of IT for you is really a complex thing to figure out. But instead of spending, really it's too hard for me to do without this. But I i've found IT really helpful, took kind of ressort dule my life with up with more of a focus on family and health.

And it's probably my favorite thing that A I is helping with over the last year is really saying like scheduling in walk time, scheduling in yoga class, scheduling in social time, scheduling in time for sport, scheduling in work time, segregating client and family time versus media time. It's a complicated schedule. We all live and I mean, i'm in different. I've got four kids, two jobs, you name IT. And IT is really helped me figure out how to optimize A A weekly pattern that otherwise I was like too complicated for me to figure out.

But I love that.

But having a workable calender that can just as soon as you want to change one element and reshuffle everything a according to your directions, that's been pretty cool and very helpful.

I love IT that I .

had I told you I had hack.

I knew you would. Even though you hate the words.

I don't hate that. I don't hate that you haven't embrace IT.

No.

I did today. Today he's the first day of embrace the .

I love IT and plus you gave me a good one. I'm going, you know, i'm right now working on a new chapter for the updated version of my book that will be coming out, I don't know, like probably here and a half, and I can include .

that well and try and just .

put you to definitely try before. Well.

a full blown, I guess they must use some sort of excel and it's pretty amazing how works. Alright, so i'm GTA let you wrap up here. Um obviously we want people to go out by the book ageless, aging, a women's guy. But I think that of course, men can use a lot of us yeah .

they can and but you know keep in mind women live longer than men in their house span and brain span isn't this goodest men and there's a few things we can do differently than men um and but otherwise yeah it's it's for men and women in terms of a lot of the advice. In fact, i've had a lot of men write me and say, can you write this book for man?

So the next chapter of age wave for you, you get the next really who knows, the next year to to longer to talk about and educate folks around the the latest research and the latest book ages aging individuals utilize age wave. Or is that is that a little bit more institutional? Is that more companies that come to you guys?

Yeah, there's companies that come to us. We do what called thought leadership studies for them. So um for instance, we just did one with a johna hartford foundation, a on the health care system and together we try to know we work with the Harris poll and we do surveys and interviews and you know just kind of everything like what I suggested.

And we ultimately come up with a summary of thought leadership points and share them with the media. And those have gone over really well. Can I both do a lot of keynote speeches for corporate audiences? H, i've been doing more and more on with a wellness focus, but i've done a lot on retirement. You know the new retirement because retirement is more thing as we both know.

What do you mean by a new retirement? I know that can has talked certainly about that over his, by the way, for those listed can who we've had on the show maybe a year ago is mattis husband and and that so you guys have work together with each way for forty years.

So it's been a for forty years yeah we .

have who does more work? Media can I .

don't want to answer that.

Who's bore important to the business matter or .

can what kind is the C E O? So maybe he is .

you don't have to answer that and that's alright. So the majority the work of the you guys do is with companies authors. Um it's not so much wonder one.

It's not no not want one. We we work with corporations are doing these research studies. We also do a lot of key ut speeches, especially in financial services.

Yeah, that's the kind of work we do. We do consulting. Well.

i'm going to leave IT there a that I thank you for being here so much.

It's my pleasure. It's been fun.

Hey, all this is melly with a retire sooner team. Please be sure to write and subscribe to this podcast and share with a friend if you have any questions. You can find us at west mars 点 com， that's W E S M O S S 点 com。 You can also follow us on instagram and youtube.

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