Week 4: The Go UnPro Podcast: A Doctor's 52 Week Journey to an Unprocessed Life

Summary of Key Points, Decisions, and Next Steps by Speaker

Dr. Brent Laartz

Key Points and Decisions:

Focusing on longevity and healthspan, not just cosmetic appearance

Importance of polyphenols, calorie restriction, and certain medications (acarbose, canaglifosin) for longevity

Emphasis on strength, grip strength, and quick movements to maintain activity into older age

Strategies for navigating the holidays, including bringing own food, doing active activities with family, and tracking progress

Next Steps:

Continuing low-carb, no-sugar diet with focus on whole foods, vegetables, and limited pasta/bread

Increasing cardiovascular exercise to 3 times per week and resistance training 2-3 times per week

Improving sleep habits, including using Oura ring, avoiding screens before bed, and exploring 40Hz light/sound therapy

Engaging in more mindfulness, creativity, and connection activities like writing, music, and spending time with loved ones

Further reducing plastic use by switching to cotton clothing, glass/stainless steel cookware and utensils, and natural oral hygiene products

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:00:00,000 ]Welcome to the Go Unpro Podcast, a doctor's 52-week journey to an unprocessed life.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:00:05,670 ] Now, here is your host, Dr. Brent W. Lartz, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine, Neuroscientist, and Best-Selling Author.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:00:17,800 ] All right, everyone, welcome again to Go On Pro, a doctor's 52-week journey to an unprocessed life. This is week four of my journey. I'm going to bring in... some info on diet, movement, and longevity. Certainly, lifespan and healthspan are the most important parts. And this is the second week of our holiday edition. Certainly, holidays are more than just one week, right? They're sometimes six, eight weeks in the end of the year. Some holidays are just a weekend. I am here live from Las Vegas at the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. A lot of things that I've seen here are cosmetic and supplements. And as you know, most supplements are just that expensive pee, right? They are going to go through you. You need or I need to.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:01:06,380 ] get these vitamins, minerals from the food I eat. There are a certain number of vitamins and minerals that you can't necessarily get enough of in your diet. And that's why we've talked about calcium and vitamin D, omega-3 oils, and B12 and B vitamins that I take.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:01:25,300 ] Um, But longevity and healthspan are the goals. It's not cosmetic. It's not having a young-looking face. It's not having a young-looking body. Because while those may be a benefit of your health and healthspan, those are not the goals. The goals are healthspan and longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:01:43,440 ] I heard a quote, basically. Let us not go gentle into the night. And this is how it is that I want to live. I want to live very active into the night, very active into my old age, very active into my 90s, into my 100s.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:01:58,780 ] um heard a lot today about polyphenols being very important.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:02:07,230 ] A lot of data for that, with healthspan, lifespan, and preventing neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. Not only that, but preventing cardiovascular disease and preventing a lot of... the aging that occurs to our proteins and our joints, et cetera. And this is a personal transformation I'm making. This is a personal transformation for a lot of these people at this conference, of mostly doctors, but there's a lot of products here that are things like, uh, and compounding pharmacies, et cetera, that are trying to hawk their wares, right? And different things, hyperbaric medicine that may not necessarily have a lot of data for lung. Longevity and healthspan. OK, so let's talk a little bit about what things could impact people's longevity if they are not having good access to care. However, the caveat to that is it's not just access to care because physicians, you would think we have the best access to care possible, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:19,040 ] Because we have all the knowledge, but oftentimes we aren't very healthy. A lot of my colleagues are not very healthy. I do know a few that are healthy, but... Many are not very healthy. Many don't take the time for their own care. They are caregivers and they don't think about taking care of themselves.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:38,270 ] Because of that, physicians have a life expectancy of only 0. 4 years more than the average person. Geography plays a part and genetics play a part.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:48,859 ] If you have a predisposition to get diabetes or obesity, certainly there are genes that can impact that, but these are being affected by some of these.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:59,600 ] Um, interventions that we can do for ourselves, but you need to get to your doctor, visit your doctor, get laboratory work, research and get a functional health lab or providers to help you out because that's what I'm doing for myself. Okay. So certainly.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:04:20,529 ] That life expectancy and those genetics can be impacted by the different things that are... Can impact your lifespan, such as calorie restriction, nutrient scarcity. This is based on mouse studies showing it is mTOR, RAS, and PKA inhibition that improves longevity. The drugs acarbose, canaglifosin, which is an SGLT2 inhibitor. Decreased carbs, sugar, glucose control, decreased insulin secretion in your body to the point where it has this under control, and these impact inflammation, which is part of the problem with aging, okay? So these same regimens appear to decrease dementia as well. Strength, grip strength, thigh strength, core strength is important. These all protect you from falls, show that you are active into your older age. And hence, I'm working on my flexibility, quick movement, lunges, et cetera, to improve that and continuing.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:26,140 ] To be involved in sports to really continue to keep that quick movement capability. Plenty of people, I was thinking about this the other day, that plenty of people I know that are skinny. not overweight. cut calories. Restrict calories. They exercise, maintain connections. And these people still might die at a normal age. And certainly if you have an accident, certainly that is not something that's predictable. Right. And not something you can prevent, other than wearing helmets while you're wearing a bike or wearing a seatbelt, et cetera. And we all have our own family, that and colleagues that we know, that are not healthy also.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:06:09,840 ] We know that that comes at a price. So here's a couple of holiday tips that I'm trying to institute for myself. When I go to a relative's house, I try to bring food over to that house, bring my own food, bring my own meal prepping, snack prepping, and also going to holiday parties is popular, right? So I need to bring my own offerings, try to bring sweets that are more healthy.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:06:39,090 ] Also, one tip I'm trying to do with my family is doing something active, going to someplace where you can do a sport. Certainly in the wintertime. It's cold outside, right? So you're not able to just go outside and play basketball or, uh, or, um, run around the neighborhood, right? Uh, with your knit, with your.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:00,540 ] Family, friends, et cetera. But you can do other things. You can go ice skating. You can go snow skiing. You can get to a park that is shoveled off. And something I've been doing is bringing a stainless steel container to wherever I go, either to work or to a holiday party. And then... The holidays are. Full of stress. Right. And certainly. One way to combat this is to reflect on that stress and barriers to your change, and reflecting on your family and your past— as to what got you here. And what got you to, if you think— that you had. Poor health in the past, why that is, and reflect on those goals to change, and not waiting on the world to change. You need to wait.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:54,010 ] Only as far as you are willing to wait.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:57,910 ] Certainly, you have to have the will to change, okay? Don't wait on everybody else to change. You might have a... family friend or a loved one that you want to be healthy with you. That's not always going to happen. Certainly, it helps if you can have a loved one that is willing to change with you. Always important. That's not always going to happen, so you can't wait for them. You need to have your goals. I have my goals. I'm moving forward on that change to make myself healthier. It certainly is a battle between comfort and change, okay? Comfort is... going on with the way you think you are or think you've always been, the thing that has limited you in the past, that's comfort, right? That's the reason. I might have had— um, overweight, um, facilities in the past and, um, versus on the right here, change.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:08:58,120 ] Okay. Change for the better. Get rid of that comfort. And move toward the change. Last week, we talked about pre-and post-holiday work to make the holiday work, the holiday.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:14,350 ] treats that you might have worth it. You need to have that treat because certainly you're going to be with your family, but you need to get put in that pre and post-holiday work. Either exercise or diet improvements during the other time so that you can have that one or two days of cheating on your diet. The passion needs to overcome that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:38,630 ] treats that you're going to get over the holiday.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:41,450 ] Tracking that time and tracking the different things that you do during the holidays is very important because, again, I showed you last week my tracking apps that I have that I can show exactly what kind of cheating I did over the holiday on each one of my goals. I have about six of them. That I track either alcohol or or vegan, or berries and greens, or exercise, and I can see exactly what exercise I've done, I can look back at that week and say, 'Oh, look.' Like Thursday during Thanksgiving, I didn't do much for exercise. So look now Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I'm going to try to get back to that. So I did some of that. Okay. So time can get away from you. Okay. So try to look at that tracking quickly and often so that you can overcome those days more quickly. So, if you wait a week and you've gone seven days without exercising, then I'm going to have potentially a whole week to come back from, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:10:50,880 ] Now, what are we going to do this week? Again, the four pillars: diet, movement, sleep, and mindfulness and creativity. And connection. Okay. So in diet, I'm trending again toward low carb, no artificial sugar, no sugar, no added sugar. To my diet. I'm only using honey, agave, and dates. Remember, the only sugar allowed comes with an antioxidant reason to consume it. So table sugar simply removed all the antioxidants of the plant and just basically gave you sugar and glucose and fructose in a... two-sugar compound. This, if you eat honey, has some antioxidants in it, and dates have some antioxidants and other nutrients.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:11:37,290 ] If you, in your different recipes, add those instead of sugar to sweeten whatever you want to sweeten, that will at least give you some reason to have. I'm going to decrease my pasta to only pastas and breads to no more than one to two times per week. That means getting rid of crackers, chips, pasta, breads. I'm going to substitute veggies with my marinara, let's say. And therefore, I'm going to get squash, carrots, Japanese sweet potatoes, other vegetables that I can use to julienne, let's say, to put in with a marinara. Those will be a homemade marinara with basil, Roma tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic. Again, with my travel, that I'm doing a lot of, hence I'm here in Vegas, in hotels, I need to try to get to restaurants that are healthier. I went to a great whole food kitchen that only uses olive oils, very healthy, a lot of whole foods.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:12:43,760 ] Again, their dates were in this cauliflower dish we had there. Amazing.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:12:49,730 ] Again, I'm going to do time-restricted feeding three days this week. And this time I want to try to get to only six hours of feeding per day. But again, a goal of at least... At the most eight hours of feeding, three days in the week, and trying to do it most, almost all days of the week. One day this week, I'm going to eat. Nothing from a package. Remember the 40 vegetable challenge that we had? I basically counted the number of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans that I ate during the week and tried to get 40 different ones. That's pretty much a challenge because you need to do some grocery shopping and planning to get to that, right? But if you can try to get to it and try to make those fresh vegetables and nuts and that kind of thing—without, you know, pre-packaged. That kind of thing. So movement: here's where the movement is going to increase to 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise times three.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:13:48,730 ] I'm trying to increase my cardiovascular exercise.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:13:53,130 ] I'm resistance training at least twice a week with what I'm, my goal is to do three rounds of the eight exercises, including legs. The eight exercises can be as little as 30 minutes if I do them quickly enough. So that's going to be at least two times per week with the goal of getting to three cardiovascular exercises per week and three resistance training exercises. Those eight simple exercises— curls, presses, bench presses, lat pull-downs, tricep extensions, sit-ups, and some sort of a leg press or a lunge— something for the thighs and calves to get those strengthened. Okay, stretching to... include movement, lunges, balance, left and right, lateral balance, and quick movements. Also a sports of some sort and try to make it something that's going to be injury-free and go easy at it, okay? There's a lot of people who are trying to do.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:14:56,210 ] Pickleball, let's say, for example, and they come in with a broken wrist because they tried to overdo it. These sports that you need to do should be. Attempt to be injury free. Certainly my sports that I did this week were skiing. That's a difficult sport to keep injury free, right? But just take it easy with it, okay? I'm doing sports that I am.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:15:18,520 ] Avoiding injury, okay? Injury is probably the biggest thing that can put a setback into a good regimen of... longevity, four pillars. Okay. So all right. The next part that I am going to try to institute further is my sleep patterns. Trying to track it. I'm ordering an Oura ring this week. I'm going to start tracking better. I've put my phone in the other room at 9:30 p. m. That way I don't have that in the room. There have been studies showing an increased ability to sleep and increased satisfaction when that phone is in the other room.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:03,660 ] Meditation, affirmations at bedtime, a positive timeframe. All right. And then there is some benefit. I've heard some data and I'm going to look into this this week about getting a 40 Hertz light and a 40 Hertz sound.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:23,600 ] instrument, so that I can use those at bedtime and at wake time to increase my quality of my sleep and also the quality of the wake time and my concentration. Again, tracking that sleep, diet in the evening. Again, if I'm going to be trying to do... a time-restricted feeding that's going to improve that diet in the evening because I'm not going to be eating after 8 p. m. and also trying to decrease stress in the evening. Try not to watch the news. Eight or 10 o'clock at night. That's the news and different types of social media. introduces stress, if you can avoid that, after 9 o'clock p. m., set your space where you're sleeping as your space for sleeping, okay? Don't put, don't put your homework, if you're a student, don't put your work, if you're bringing home work, okay, don't put that in your bed, okay, so keep that space in your bed for sleep.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:17:29,110 ] I'm going to work on mindfulness, creativity, and connection. I had a recent event where my father died and had a celebration of life. wrote a poem. I'm going to continue with some poem writing this week, this time a self-reflecting poem, a short story about myself and my family. I'm going to do the poem as a full one-page poem and also a short story, three to five pages. I want three characters at least in this and an interaction between the family. Write also a self-reflecting poem about a family member, about someone you know or a friend. And what's your thoughts about them and their impact on you. Write a future prediction story and what you need to get to that future, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:18:18,110 ] That's always important. It's almost like a vision board, but in a short story or a poem, okay? Go to a concert without drinking a single drop of alcohol. Enjoy it just for the music. Go to a play or musical. These are great outlets for creativity, okay? So I'm going to try to do that. I am here in Vegas and going to Zach Brown Band tonight at The Sphere. What an amazing place, The Sphere is. I've already been to Kenny Chesney there. And music is certainly a positive outlet. Now, we don't want it to be a negative outlet where alcohol is impacting our sleep and our health. OK, so plastics again, our week this week of getting rid of plastics for our unprocessed life.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:07,020 ] I've already used cotton underwear. I'm trying to use some cotton socks. I'm going to try to increase that use, maybe even bamboo shirts.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:17,170 ] I like Pima cotton. Dry fit things are kind of hard to replace, but these have some different plastics in them. And there's been some studies that show that. Those plastics actually aerosolize into the air and you can breathe them in and swallow them. In oral health, I'm decreasing my plastic by using a boar's hair toothbrush. They avoid the plastic bristles. And I use a toothpaste that is not a toothpaste, but a toothpaste tablet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:47,790 ] And I have a glass food processor now that I got off of Amazon. It's made by Geniza. It has some plastic blades in it, but it has a glass and a stainless steel bowl. And I replaced those blades because you can find online on Amazon replacement blades that fit that. So just Google Geniza. and you can find that. Ghaniza is G-A-N-I-Z-A. I've gone to an all stainless steel mandolin as well. We talked about julienning those carrots and vegetables above to replace our pasta. That stainless steel mandolin. Boom. It's going to revolutionize my life as far as being able to slice things without using plastic wear, okay? And I've used steel cookware for quite some time, but I'm going to institute that this week. No plastic or nonstick coatings. I try to avoid aluminum cookware.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:20:49,520 ] All right. So that's our, how we're getting rid of our plastics this week. Thank you. So let's recap. OK, so. We've got in our diet, starting in week one, we went to a detox Monday where we used berries during that day. Freestyle packaged foods used only water that day and berries. We went to that. Then on week two, we went to no fast food, no sodas. OK, getting rid of sodas. No sugar, no candy. and only water, okay? So only water as far as our liquid that we're imbibing. uh amazing how it can impact how I feel. Okay. So dairy and red meat free on week three, I'm eating only poultry. seafood except on limited times. Obviously, there are cheat days. I'm eating daily greens and berries and tracking that. Nuts and beans. I'm using psyllium. In the morning, two tablespoons plus water, and I'm doing time-restricted feeding.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:51,490 ] Then I started at one time per week. Now we're up to at least three times per week with a goal of getting to that every single day, okay? Supplements, again, we talked about this: that I only use calcium and vitamin D, omega-3 and a B12 supplement.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:09,930 ] Potentially there are other things that are longevity-based medications that can be used that could overcome some genetics that you might have. And certainly there are a lot of people using these GLP-1s and SGLT-2s. And a carbose for longevity. But again, this is something we'll get to later. After I start... with all of these other changes in my diet, exercise, and creativity is first. Okay, so for movement, we started out with just getting... getting some comfortable, good shoes. I use Brooks shoes for my running. We started out on week two with... just 10 minutes, three times per week and instituting one time, a resistance training episode. And then week three, we upped our cardiovascular exercise to up to three times and resistance training up to three times. And we continued that this week.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:13,080 ] Including some sports, okay? With sleep, we started out just having a goal, six to eight hours of sleep. And then, on week two, we talked about getting bright light early in the morning and low or red light at night so that we can not impact our circadian rhythms.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:32,750 ] Decreasing our alcohol to 15 drinks per month maximum. That kind of number helps you get to the point where it's less than one drink per week. Uh, and that is going to, sorry, one less than one drink per day. And that kind of alcohol limit will help you with your sleep. Even just one drink. close to bedtime can impact your sleep. Mindfulness and creativity and connection. We started talking about motivations in week one and trying to get daily affirmation. And also getting connection and phone calls to people that we've lost touch with, a yoga app, creativity, and getting into music, art, or writing, whatever. Creativity you want. I've started with a lot of these different things. I started a week three, a weekly journal and increasing those connections. And then again, this week, starting with trying to do some creative writing and getting to some music. In our plastics, we started out by getting rid of our plastic containers and using glass containers for storage in our refrigerators and our cupboards.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:24:42,700 ] Week two, we went to wooden utensils. We started using steel and glasses for our drinking and decreasing water bottles, bringing that glass container or steel container to work so that you can use that for water there and then we continue this week starting to use cotton clothing and starting to use glass food processor, stainless steel mandolin, steel cookware, and oral health. So those are the things. Reiterating my goal. My goal. is longevity and healthspan. So I want to live to my hundreds, reiterating that in order to get to that point for myself, I need to eat whole foods, mostly vegan, low carb, calorie restricted with daily cardiovascular and resistance training. Daily mindfulness and connection to self and others, and better sleep. Okay. So that is going to help me live into my hundreds. Very healthy.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:25:44,920 ] And none of this happens overnight. If I had poor eating habits, any bit of overweightness, lack of movement, poor sleep, poor connection, these all are interrelated. If I had poor sleep, then potentially that poor sleep might cause me to need a poor diet or to... crave a poor diet. Okay. Some of that stress that I have because of lack of mindfulness and poor connection might also cause me to overeat.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:26:16,350 ] Increasing all of these four pillars and improving them is interrelated and changing all of them is a full-time occupation.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:26:25,500 ] Once is a start. So we made it to week one. That's a start. Two weeks is a trend. Three times is a habit. And now this is our fourth week. Four times is a life change, okay? So thank you for joining the Go On Pro podcast. We're going to be here each week. talking about this. You're going to see some Sunday science. You'll get some mindful meditation from me on Mondays. And every Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, I'm going to... be posting this weekly podcast, A Doctor's 52-Week Journey to an Unprocessed Life. Catch us on YouTube, Substack, go on. pro. com, caribe, id . com, instagram, tiktok, facebook, and threads. follow us and subscribe. we're going to be posting some different social media episodes, some previews to some episodes. and i hope you subscribe to us on any of these places that you can find your podcasts or your social media.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:29,660 ] thank you very much for joining us. have a beautiful rest of your week. and i look forward to telling you how i am changing again next week.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:40,680 ] thank you.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:27:50,110 ] this site and any information communicated within it are not intended as medical advice.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:27:55,160 ] the information herein is not intended as medical care, diagnosis, or treatment of any medical condition.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:28:01,520 ] No component of this content, including discussion or comments, shall be construed or implied as establishing a doctor-patient relationship.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:28:09,390 ] Before you translate or copy any of the information, diet, exercise, or products utilized herein or on any social media post to your own practice, consult your own research, physician, therapist, or nutritionist for your own health.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:28:23,100 ] No warranties or claims are made as to the benefits or risks of any treatments, diet, exercise, or products herein. Research any treatments, diet, exercise, or products thoroughly before trying for yourself.

Announcer Lucas

[ 00:28:36,390 ] Referral, affiliate, or advertising fees may be garnered by this site.