Week 7: A Doctor’s 52 Week Journey to an Unprocessed Life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyLWydO833Y

Speaker-Organized Summary

Dr. Brent Laartz

Key Points and Decisions

Reported on last week's package-free challenge, which was not fully successful but led to a full package-free day

Acknowledged setbacks around social gatherings and the difficulty of maintaining a package-free week

Emphasized the importance of making whole, healthy foods at home to avoid processed items

Discussed the debate around protein intake and longevity, noting that animal studies suggest lower protein may be better

Introduced the 5Fs of a good diet: fiber, polyphenols, healthy fats, fermented foods, and whole foods

Excited to ferment a curried red cabbage and experiment with fermenting onions

Mentioned the benefits of adding clove to fermented foods due to its high polyphenol content

Next Steps

Continue incorporating more fermented foods, such as chickpea and habanero fermentation

Experiment with fermenting other foods like hot sauces, green beans, and curried cabbage

Introduce more intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding to achieve weight loss and improve gut health

Try an oil-free day and cook mainly with water

Continue exploring different fermentation projects, including the curried cabbage and fermented onions

Overall Summary

This week's podcast focused on the doctor's journey towards an unprocessed life, with a particular emphasis on incorporating more fermented foods, experimenting with intermittent fasting, and reducing the use of plastics and processed foods. The speaker and his guest discussed various fermentation projects they plan to try, including chickpea and habanero fermentation, fermented hot sauces, green beans, and curried cabbage. They also highlighted the importance of balance in diet and lifestyle, noting that while protein is important, excessive intake may not be beneficial for longevity. The next steps involve continuing to explore fermentation, implementing more intermittent fasting, and reducing the use of plastics and processed foods in the home.

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

[ 00:00:17,410 ] All right, everyone, welcome to another Go Unpro podcast. This is week seven, a doctor's 52-week journey to an unprocessed life. Can't wait for this week. We're going to have a fun day because this is field trip day, and we're going to try to have more field trips along the way, taking you to the gym, to the kitchen, and that kind of thing. and I can't wait for that. Um, reporting back on last week's success of the package free week— not a very successful week, as far as a full package free week, but I did manage to get a full package day.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:00:56,970 ] Where we got rid of all packages, only did Whole Foods, and more learning to occur as far as how we can maintain that. In the future. So we're going to build on that for the future. Not going to call it a failure. It's a stumbling block. It is a success in the fact that we're learning how to do this, okay? So... The setbacks were basically around some social gatherings and it's very difficult to maintain a package-free entire week when there are certain celebrations happening and you're out in public. You can certainly... to learn from that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:01:45,160 ] Then bringing in your own food and bringing that to, let's say, a party you're going to and that kind of thing, making your own. So a lot of this future of longevity is going to be making food myself.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:02:02,610 ] That I know is whole food, that I know is healthy, that I know is certain oils that I want to avoid. Certain sugar items that I want to avoid. And that's not going to occur every day. And I want to maintain this for, let's say, a 90% success rate. Failure is inevitable, right? Let it go. Let it go if you fail one time. And get back up on the horse. The deal is you have to be successful. Nine times out of ten? And so it's very difficult to have a nine times out of ten success rate. If you go two days in a row of not getting the proper either sleep, or diet, movement. So if you have two days where you don't get on to your exercise program. That is the difficulty. So try to maintain and I'm trying to maintain the ability to not go that second day. If I fail in just one of these situations, if I know my sleep score was in the 60s, I know that the very next night I need to recover that sleep.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:08,820 ] Same thing for diet, same thing for movement, same thing for connectivity. If I... Periodically.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:15,710 ] I want to be alone. I may want to not have connectivity. You know, everybody has those days when they want to get to B.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:25,240 ] You know, sitting in bed and watching TV by themselves. Maybe they're in a funk for a day, but get back up on that horse. Get connected the very next day. Get that relaxation that you need. Get that self time, the me time, the self love time.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:44,600 ] Get that, and then... Maintain that connectivity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:03:51,240 ] And that's going to make me more healthy in the long run. My longevity is truly a reflection of the strength of the mitochondria. Which are poisoned by excess calories. They're also poisoned by any kind of loneliness. And this is all through mTOR.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:04:09,050 ] Let's talk about the elephant in the room— somewhat in the fact that there are a lot of people out there, espousing CERTAIN health behaviors. That they think are good because they are gym bros, that they are, whatever kind of influencer that's telling you. That you need to eat. Oodles and oodles amounts of protein.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:04:33,350 ] There is a lot of data in animal studies suggesting that protein is actually not good for longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:04:43,010 ] Because there are animal studies showing that if you decrease the amount of protein, or if you... Only... Feed these animals a diet that is deficient in leucine.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:01,330 ] That they will live longer than the animals fed a calorie similar diet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:10,580 ] That has those either protein or leucine. Leucine is an essential amino acid. So if you feed a mouse. That diet. That is deficient in a protein and the amino acid that is essential for building proteins.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:05:31,150 ] How can that be since obviously we also know the corollary of a lot of... longevity is that we also need strength and you need muscle for strength, right? And you need protein for building strength. Well, maybe it's not so simple as just we need a lot of protein and we need a lot of strength. Because if you... Take and give a mouse leucine, it actually stimulates mTOR and stimulates muscle growth through mTOR. So if mTOR is the enemy of longevity, and you need mTOR to build protein or to build muscle, then there must be something, some other balance there, some either hormesis that you can't just feed. A whole ton of protein to somebody, especially if they're not using any resistance training, right? So, That's the... elephant in the room. Which is it? Is it Is it protein that we need a lot? Or is it low protein?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:06:31,970 ] Is it low calories because we also know that calorie restriction is associated with longevity. So, Which is it? Is it muscle? Or is it both? Can you actually build muscle or maintain muscle? With a calorie restriction. And we know that certain calorie restriction diets and use of the GLP-1s and the other diet medications that they may induce sarcopenia. But that sarcopenia, which is lack of muscle, that sarcopenia can be mitigated by.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:07,470 ] resistance training. So is it resistance training, calorie restriction, protein? low or moderate amount of protein. And... That's what I think there's still some studies that need to be done to show. what is the best in humans and obviously longevity studies in humans are relatively difficult. And we need these animal studies. But is a human equivalent to a mouse? A mouse eats a similar omnivorous diet in the laboratory.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:38,670 ] However, in difference to humans.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:07:44,530 ] They don't really die of necessarily falls or frailty per se, because they're not going to fall and break a hip like humans do. So certainly protein, there could be some differences here. Thank you. But they also... develop similar cancers. They also develop heart disease. They also develop diabetes. If they're fed too much sugar and and so there's a lot of studies regarding keto diets and similar diets and carnivore diets. That show that carnivore diets are not necessarily so good because they have a high saturated fat.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:08:19,330 ] And so what is the... The best diet. The best diet is an individual's choice. But I can tell you that the people who live to be 100 and areas where they live to be 100 eat less meat. They may have an okay amount of protein in their diet from other sources— beans and nuts and this and alike. They eat grains, but they eat grains that are whole grains and they eat grains that they've grown themselves. They also have a lot of movement because they do a lot of their own work. They don't have other people doing their work for them. They don't just go buy packaged foods or fast foods and just eat them. They make their own foods and they have a lot of connection in these places. And people who live to be 100. They have a lot of connection with family, with friends, with volunteering, with... groups or their religion, et cetera. So I can tell you that not every person is going to benefit from one diet, one lifestyle, but it needs to be sensible and it needs to have all of the five tenets of longevity, diet, movement, creativity, and better sleep. And then... Also, potentially, less plastic, less processed foods.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:09:55,310 ] So we're going to be talking about diet first and this we're going to talk about the five F's of a good diet and that is fiber.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:10:05,620 ] Polyphenols, the pH in there being the F, healthy fats, fermented foods, and whole foods. So we're going to be eating these things, less meat, mostly plant-based diet, plant forward as it might be. There's this new... Slang being bantered about, being plant forward now. Um and so we're going to be talking about that this diet and um I'm going to build upon what we've already talked about. The 5Fs, we're going to be showing you some fermented foods. With basically all five of these, we're going to get that in our fermented foods.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:10:52,200 ] Berries and greens, we've already talked about doing these every day. Omega-3s, calcium and vitamin D and B12.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:11:01,170 ] We're introducing this week a little bit more of the intermittent fasting and the time-restricted feeding. As we go along, we achieve some weight loss and we achieve our diet—bringing our microbiome better involvement. In our livelihood and a better microbiome in our intestines, we're going to be able to experience and accomplish this intermittent fasting and time-restricted feeding better. Intermittent fasting would involve, and some would say that intermittent fasting will decrease um insulin secretion in your body such that insulin can be actually a carcinogen and a bad thing if there's too much of it or if your body is resistant to it and you're needing to use too much of it. To be able to accomplish your glycemic control, then it can be actually bad so obviously if you're needing to secrete that much, then obviously calorie restriction, and other of these.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:12:12,520 ] accomplishments you need to continue. Time-restricted feeding is basically just you only want to eat a certain amount of time during the day and intermittent fasting. is you're going to fast for a certain period of time. Could be 24 hours, could be 36 hours. Some would say that also that NME MTOR. that it takes... A pretty prolonged fast up to two to three days in order to diminish mitochondrial activity enough to affect longevity. I think the overall consensus of this is that The main. accomplishment that we're getting here is calorie restriction. If you can only eat for six hours out of the day, and as long as you don't overeat during those six to eight hours, then you're less likely to eat. a high amount of calories. Um, I'm also going to try to go for an oil-free day and cook mainly with water. Um, So. What have we done this week? The fermented foods. Here's something I've started to do.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:13:13,550 ] And we've got a... I purchased several of these fermentation jars. They have weights in them so that it can weigh down the... Uh... Contents of it. This is a chickpea fermentation that also has habanero peppers. It has some onions and some spices in there, some peppercorns. And this is. You can see the airlock here, which only allows air to escape. You can accomplish this relatively cheaply and not have to get this kind of a jar. In that there are they make lids for your mason jars that you can just use a mason jar and lids that have an airlock in them and so This is something we're going to be doing a lot more of, and I'll show you some of the fruits of our labor on this.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:14:05,890 ] Amazing. I hope this is going to taste good. This has been fermenting for about, I'd say, 7 to 10 days.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:14:15,340 ] as long as you want you can ferment for just three days and it might have less of a tangy taste with that and then you can extend that up to two three weeks because some of my fermentations in the past my fermented hot sauces I've fermented for two to three weeks um That's probably the easiest and first place to start is with a fermented hot sauce or fermented jalapeno peppers because it's a relatively easy process and it's more difficult to... to go wrong with it. You can see, perhaps, you can see the maybe bubbles come up out of there. There's a couple of bubbles in the side. And you can see the what used to be a pretty clear surface there now probably has some lactic acid in it and has some other waste products of the fermentation process. The reason fermentation is useful is because of the products of the bacteria that are in there.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:15:16,020 ] are being incorporated into now your milieu here. And that often involves fatty acids such as butyrate, butyric acid, and a few others that are... that are actually food for our intestines. So even if I were to kill all of the bacteria here, that is potentially some prebiotic and probiotic compounds in there that will help your intestines digest and help the bacteria in your intestines. And then, some of these bacteria, if you don't kill the bacteria, obviously they may be able to populate your... intestinal milieu. What some have found is that the bacteria that are in probiotics, such as yogurt, and those types of bacteria that you might take in a... in a capsule, those probiotics, have a difficult time incorporating into the microbiome of your intestine.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:21,580 ] And so... fermented foods actually have a better ability to incorporate it into the microbiome. Um.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:31,840 ] And, um.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:33,970 ] So.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:16:35,380 ] Um... Any questions regarding this? I think that amazing situation here. I think we've just begun to, and I've experimented. Over many years of fermentation, but I think we're going to get more heavy into it and try to do this with a lot of our food sources because we bought several jars like this so we can try a lot of different things. What are we going to be trying to ferment soon? More hot sauces.

SPEAKER_1

[ 00:17:05,829 ] What vegetables are you looking forward to fermenting the most?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:17:08,859 ] Oh, you and I both love, and we've talked about this. This is Emma. She is joining the podcast here today. Emma and I both love spicy foods. And so anything we can do spicy, if we're going to ferment something, I am sure we're going to add habanero or serrano peppers to it because 100% that's going to be there. I think fermented green beans.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:17:37,110 ] What are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER_1

[ 00:17:38,940 ] I think I'm excited most to ferment a red cabbage that maybe has some curry aspects to it. And then I'm really big into pickles, as you know, and I think that it's going to be fun to just taste the difference in sourness between naturally fermented cucumbers and actually pickled cucumbers without vinegar.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:18:01,870 ] Yeah, so this week we experimented with just... Pickling a set of cucumbers and so that involves just you and carrots— involve uh, involving just using vinegar, right? So um, certainly um, vinegar is uh, a great health benefit in and of itself, but certainly then you can also have the fermentation produced some similar compounds.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:18:32,520 ] Naturally. So we're going to compare. Um, fermenting pickled. pickles and carrots to the actual just pickled pickles and carrots, pickled pickles and carrots. Say that three times. All right. So.

SPEAKER_1

[ 00:18:48,260 ] we haven't uh mentioned that I think we should do this week too is onions because I don't necessarily like pickled onions—I was like raw onions, um— but I think maybe we should ferment some yellow Yeah, I think some yellow onions, that might be interesting.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:03,320 ] And one thing, I'm not sure if you could hear her talk about doing. The cabbage this and and a curried cabbage fermented.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:19:15,310 ] This obviously is something different from kimchi. But... and or sauerkraut. But fermented cabbage is certainly a way to go and see if you can flavor it such that. It will be. I'm not a big fan of sauerkraut for the most part, maybe I've put it on certain products in the past. And I don't mind it. And I kind of like the taste of it on. You know, let's say a Polish sausage or a... bratwurst, etc. Um, obviously that's some processed food right there, but, and the, Sauerkraut. Does have a pickled taste to it. And maybe there will be something different about the. Kimchi that we do ourselves—I'm not a fan of fishy-tasting foods. So adding fish sauce or what is it that they add to a kimchi that has a kind of fish flakes or fish? Yeah. So we're going to try to alter kind of the kimchi cabbage.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:20:19,520 ] And make it curry, make it spicy. And I think that would be interesting too. So obviously there's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_1

[ 00:20:26,130 ] Um, Don't forget to add clove, actually, when you're fermenting because clove, per gram, has one of the highest concentrations of polyphenols of all foods.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:20:37,410 ] So potentially adding... So potentially adding cloves to your pickling spice that you might use, because there is a lot of polyphenols, as she said in there. Other things that we're going to be doing.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:20:50,620 ] I love a good salsa, and so... um. Here. And obviously, when you make a salsa, what do you put with your salsa? And are you going to use chips, which are... you know, if you can find the right chips that have been baked in better oil, all the better. And obviously, potentially. Has some carbs to it. But you can always... um. Do something different. Here's my salsa. There's this salsa, which has onions and fresh tomatoes and onions and avocado.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:26,530 ] And... And I think it was habanero peppers, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:32,760 ] This I made earlier today. And instead of chips, slice up a pepper. Now red bell pepper here.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:41,240 ] Mmm. Amazing. So.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:21:45,360 ] The other thing I ate today for my package-free foods is Purple Japanese sweet potatoes. The amount of polyphenols, can you see how purple that is? That's amazing. That right there is polyphenols. Polyphenols.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:04,580 ] And all of these antioxidants that you get from that. That is amazing.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:11,650 ] So baking this creates an amazing product.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:17,880 ] It goes a long way toward your health. And toward your brain function. I think. Emma wants to have some more of that too.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:26,060 ] And. Good Lord, we're going to take a little snack break here and I'm going to. Have a little bit because I didn't get any avocado on that last pepper that I ate.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:39,380 ] Bye for now. Yeah, there's a little snack attack here. I can't. Stand up. Have an avocado go to waste.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:46,480 ] And isn't it amazing? Isn't it horrible how... short of a shelf life avocados have.

SPEAKER_1

[ 00:22:53,470 ] You can store them in water in the fridge and then...

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:22:56,080 ] And you can store them better, yeah. There's ways that you can do that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:00,200 ] All right, so On two.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:03,320 ] The next, this is our, this week, week seven. We're going to. Try to eat more fermented foods this week. We're going to continue to get our omega-3 and we're going to have more intermittent fasting. I had gone a few weeks with not as ideal of a diet. And I think that intermittent fast for me. Really? tends to reset things.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:30,730 ] Um and time-restricted feeding helps me avoid, I don't need breakfast in the morning, and I tend to use that as my time restriction. Where I am not eating.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:23:42,780 ] Certainly there are days I need breakfast for some reason or another, and that can be the case for anybody. And everybody's different. And I'm going to try to go oil-free. For days, some days, try to cook with just water, but sometimes I want to use my olive oil and cook with it. Okay, so here's part of our fuel. Trip. We're going to leave here, going to head out, and we're going to join in the gym first for one of our two field trips. We're going to have two field trips. You ever go to school and have two field trips in one day? Impossible, right? Today, two field trips. Heading out. All right. So we'll see you there.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:24:24,860 ] All right, now we're back in the gym. Got done with all of our diet. And we're now on the movement section. Of our exercise every week, we're trying to get three resistance trainings, three cardiovascular trainings, every week, maybe a day of rest on that day of rest, I want to make sure that I am doing some stretching and some core exercises, some planks and some sit-ups on that day off as well, not to take a full day of rest on that day. However, here is the important thing— one of the most important things in older life. To prevent falls and that is a major morbidity and mortality, in other words, people die when they fall. When they're above age, 60 years of age, they die when they fall at any age, for that matter. Because of what happens with the immobility after the fall. Okay, so and what can happen later on in life with that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:25:23,250 ] Thank you. The important things we talked about before of resistance training and getting that strength up. People live longer when they are stronger and that helps prevent falls, but that's not it. So there's been some data lately saying that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:25:37,930 ] The different varieties of movement is what helps make you live longer. And that is the key. The different types of movement that you're doing is going to give you different types of, let's say, balance. If you're playing tennis, you're going from side to side, and that helps. But if you're running... You're going really just. in a single plane of motion. Right. That running is very important for cardiovascular exercise, but might not necessarily help you falling. Certainly, you're going to hit some curves and hit some cracks in the sidewalk, et cetera, that's going to help you prevent falls. But here's what I'm going to add to my resistance training every time I... uh, do my resistance training and that is some balance exercises already. I do some of these already. You've seen a week ago when I was in the British Virgin Islands, didn't have a gym, so I did a lot of lunges, did a lot of yoga type activities, and training on the beach. That involves a lot of balance.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:26:38,660 ] So here we're going to start out with our lunges. Sorry, we're going to start out with some jump squats. Okay, so holding myself over my knees, just above my knees.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:26:52,570 ] thighs parallel, if I can get it down to that spot, and then... doing a jump squat. Holding steady in that station, right? That is the key. Getting those thighs working and thighs burning. Then doing another jump. I'm going to do, usually I do at least 10 of these.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:15,270 ] This is part of my thigh strength training. Also the quads and the hamstrings. Okay. So next I'm going to do some lunges. Okay. So lunges, same kind of activity is going to be there. Getting down to a parallel thigh.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:37,290 ] In this. is somewhat of a one-legged balance almost, right? So you're out over your knee. You don't want to get too far over your knee. You don't want to be too far behind. You want to get some stress on that quads, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:53,860 ] And if you wanted to.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:27:57,000 ] In your gym or wherever you're at, you can. See you when I was in the... British Virgin Islands.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:03,720 ] That I just went up and down the beach this way.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:07,750 ] 50 yards and 50 yards back.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:10,770 ] Really burns the quads, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:13,230 ] So now a little bit of. Something we can get from the balance if you have a ball or if you have a small Bench.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:24,560 ] You can try to just go.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:26,780 ] Onto that ball.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:28,560 ] Practice your balance. Be very careful not to fall.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:31,760 ] One thing I don't want to do.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:34,260 ] is create a fault, create an injury, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:37,340 ] So... I'm doing what I can.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:42,730 ] And in that knee parallel.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:45,950 ] 90 degree angle.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:28:49,380 ] The ball gives you a little bit of... instability there that you need to work against. Here's another way. You can get onto this, right? So something a little simpler like that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:01,830 ] Next, we're going side to side, right? So.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:08,230 ] Going all the way from there to here, try to go. This is almost like the speed skating or skiing, right?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:23,400 ] That bounce, single leg, because that is going to be an important thing. Because you're going to trip.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:31,580 ] The key is going to be to catch yourself quickly. It's going to be the amount of force that you're leg, and your foot, and your calf muscles.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:43,500 ] The whole gamut.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:45,290 ] The whole appendage there. Every single muscle must need to be trained to get there. To keep you from falling, okay?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:54,430 ] That balance.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:56,580 ] Last part.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:29:58,480 ] A little warm down.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:00,540 ] Not as much activity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:02,790 ] We're going to do some one-legged exercise.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:05,590 ] With the tree pose from yoga.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:08,510 ] Okay, so... I'm not the best yoga person.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:14,600 ] But.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:16,230 ] I'm going to be... trying to do 30 seconds to a minute here every time.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:25,620 ] Going to the other leg.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:29,970 ] Okay, so doing that, and. You can do a couple of other one-legged exercises potentially.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:36,590 ] Kind of the, almost a warrior pose.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:45,010 ] You can do variations on it. See, kept me from falling, right? So, and then when you're really tired.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:53,040 ] This is going to be difficult, so be very careful. I'm very careful.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:30:59,459 ] Okay, so trying to stay on one leg. You can try to bring your foot forward.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:05,370 ] You can try to do it. Pistol squat.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:08,670 ] Which I can't do. Okay, so.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:12,930 ] Pistol squat there. Can't do it, but.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:16,700 ] Keep working on anything you can do.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:31:19,650 ] To prevent falls in the future and to get your strength up to where that strength and that ability to prevent falls in the future is going to be immensely important. So, Look forward to week eight. We're coming back here. I'll see you on the other side for. Some more talk about. Sleep. Circadian rhythms, we're going to visit the sauna. We're going to be talking about some other ways to avoid plastics and packaged foods so I'm going to be doing this week to prevent that plastic buildup and that processed foods. Processed foods are the enemy, and I'm going to try to avoid them as at all possible. So thank you very much for joining me in the gym. We're going to be doing a lot more field trips like this in the future. We'll see you soon.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:32:14,040 ] All right, we're back. Was that fun or what? Um... So... Welcome back again. We are going to be talking about some creativity and connection next.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:32:27,880 ] And, you know, I can't stress enough from where we were in the gym about the prevention of falls and the importance of balance. And the speed of reaction and strength. So think about what happens when you fall, right? Remember falling? and you trip over something, What is the difference between you falling and injuring yourself? and you catching yourself. It's the speed of the reaction, right? So that, there is metrics to measure the speed of your reaction and also the speed of your ability to take a foot.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:33:07,570 ] TRIP! And then. Take your other foot. And get it. out over yourself to catch yourself, right? So those kind of things are what I need to do to train for myself for, you know, 20 years from now when maybe I won't be as strong as I am now.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:33:30,340 ] And it's all about putting in the bank.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:33:34,450 ] that strength. and increasing your strength now.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:33:38,550 ] Because if you aren't strong now and you don't do anything about it, you can only get weaker. Okay, so and your reaction times are only going to get less, and then you're going to potentially fall. There was one time that I was uh running on Bay Shore, which is a long sidewalk in Tampa, it's along the water. And I had just lifted weights.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:34:03,510 ] And I, um... I was weak as heck because I had really gone to max, probably something I shouldn't have done, but I went to max. And. I couldn't probably do another bench press if I tried.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:34:20,839 ] And I was out running. I was with a run club and I was out running. And I tripped. and tried to catch myself, and couldn't catch myself with my legs because they were so tired. Couldn't catch myself even with my arms when I reached out onto the cement to catch myself.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:34:39,000 ] They wouldn't even support me and I hit my face. And so that kind of thing. I can realize right now exactly how bad it can get. If you are weak, and obviously that was an artificial weakness that I created myself. But think about that. Think about. that you can become so weak. And if you are not doing resistance training, that. And approximately 70% of Americans at least do no resistance training whatsoever. And that is the difference between... Health. and non-health, okay? So... Um, all right, so let's uh, move on to the next uh, part you know, the The third part of our pillars here, of our five pillars. Creativity and connection. This week. And we started this over a few weeks here.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:35:31,310 ] That connection to your community, you have.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:35:35,410 ] A community wherever you live. It can be multiple communities. It could be a community that is even far from you. You could have um, a place you used to live, um, like I have a hometown that I've haven't been back to in a while. And I hope to get back to see them because there are some connections there I'd like to reconnect with and see some of these people. Um, But volunteering in your community can really connect you with the community and the needs of the community. It can be a lot of different possibilities. Could be faith-based, it could be not faith-based. Big brother, big sister. It can be volunteering at a homeless shelter. Um, it can be, um, making sandwiches for. Um, homeless, uh, Emma. had just last weekend. She and her mother cooked, uh, didn't cook— they made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, um, for and they made about what 30 of them or so, 30 something sandwiches just drove around to some of the areas of our town, Tampa.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:36:38,550 ] And... Gave them out to some homeless people. What else was it you gave to them? Cookies. Cookies and some cookies. They made some cookies and gave them. So, little things like that really connect you and ground you and help you realize that, number one, that you can help other people. Number two, that sometimes when we have a woe is me attitude— and and— and oh, my life is so either you might complain about your life or you might. Maybe complain less if you went and helped some other people with their lives. So that is what we're doing for our creativity connection. We're also continuing painting. I'm continuing to learn two foreign languages. I think that is something that if you want to try to do—try to learn a foreign language. Obviously, there are multiple apps on phones. and multiple programs you can get that can help you do that. And it helps that I have a daughter who is in... France, studying abroad right now, and so I'm going to be learning more French. I've learned French over the years a bit, and I'm relatively fluent. In Spanish. So these are some things you can do to add to your brain processing on a daily basis and creating positive connections through language with other people, through volunteering with other people, through connections with your friends. Try again, continuing everything we've done in the past as well through connection.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:38:19,750 ] The last part, not the last part, the next part we're going to be talking about. About is sleep, okay. So and this is going to involve another field trip. We're not going to go have a sleepover or anything like that. That's not our field trip. But we're going to meet someplace that you wouldn't expect. It's going to help with your sleep. But it helps improve your score.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:38:49,370 ] And we're trying to improve our sleep scores. And tracking this on a day-to-day basis with a tracker, with, let's say, a ring or a watch, etc., those things can really help you determine what helps you and what doesn't. And I've noticed that this thing, where we're going to go, and it's going to be to the sauna.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:39:13,470 ] Heat therapy, such as a sauna or hot tub or other. Um, 20 minutes, five days a week. Potentially decreases cardiovascular mortality. So we're going to go check out. the sauna and we're going to talk a little bit more about it.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:39:35,570 ] All right, so we are here in the sauna getting some heat therapy. 20 minutes of heat therapy. By the end of this, I'll be good. Sweating. I've got it already really warmed up. Got to get this camera back out of this heat for a minute but so. 20 minutes, usually in the morning or the afternoon. I like in the afternoon because that has been shown to improve cardiovascular. Outcomes but also improve sleep outcomes. You don't want to do and I don't want to do and this comes from experience. I've been in a house that I've had a hot tub, been in the hot tub late at night. And the next morning, I don't feel as refreshed after that hot tub. And some of it may be because I really love the heat. So I really love to get into the hot tub. And stay there for a long time. So I'm somewhat of a hot tub and sauna addict.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:40:37,930 ] You might say so. Here is part of our sleep schedule improvement for this week, and that is to try to do at least three to five days of sauna or hot tub in the afternoon. And that. will try to help my sleep. I've already done all of these other things with regards to sleep. And for as far as daylight cycle, getting less light in the evening, more light in the morning, exercising sometime in the morning to afternoon.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:41:13,380 ] Less in the late night. I know that sometimes I have to do it that way. It doesn't usually seem to affect my sleep too much as long as I can get enough sleep and as long as I'm not exercising until midnight. I used to be a really late night runner when I lived on Davis Island, Florida. had the island basically to myself at night and I would go out at midnight. Sometimes I would go out at noon or 6 a. M., but there were often times I was out there at midnight running, and I find that this kind of relaxes me in the evening. But, I can tell you that, with experience, it probably wasn't the best for my sleep. Really, that some sort of sleep monitoring is really important so you can see exactly what you're getting and what you're getting out of your nighttime. Really? Uh, Can't stress enough for myself that I sleep better when I get some kind of activity, if I'm really sedentary during the day and don't get anything accomplished, or if I take a nap during the day.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:42:18,590 ] Then I can almost be guaranteed that I am not going to get a good night's sleep that night. and may take a little longer to get to sleep, or we may wake up in the middle of the night because I'm too rested from other sedentary activities. So here we go, where we're going to, from here, talk about some of our connectivity and the rest, and I'll see you on the other side.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:42:44,760 ] Really get out into the field from now on. Week seven, we're almost to two months on this, and I know that I've had some delays in this, and so even though it says week seven and I'm really trying, I know I'm... I'm busy. I'm a physician. I have all of these activities. I've had travel, et cetera, to interrupt my filming of this. But I can tell you that I am really. Concentrating on this every week, even though it's taken me a while to get these seven weeks out. This will culminate in this 52 weeks— really strongly. I can't stress that enough. Once you've fallen off the wagon, you get off your goals one day. Try to get back, right back on the horse that next day. Never do two in a row. Two in a row is bad, okay? Two in a row. means that you could be heading toward the other opposite end of habits. We want to get the good, healthy habits. Getting off the horse for two days in a row is a trend.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:43:45,660 ] That we want to stay away from because the trend we want is two days in a row, three days in a row, five days in a row, seven days in a row. We want all of these days in a row. And I'm telling you, this is an amazing undertaking that you are taking if you're coming right along with me. I am taking, and I can't wait to live the rest of my life in a healthy manner. Can't wait to be a hundred years old and say, 'God damn.' At 100 years of age, I'm doing this. But you know why I'm doing this at 100 years of age? Because I did that at 57 years of age, or I did that at 40 years of age, 30 years of age, I continued at it, and really, it can't be too late of a start. Okay, even if you can start at age 50, if you can start at age 60 or even 70. Those kinds of things will really help you in the long run. We'll see you on the other side. I've already gone through the diet, the movement. We're at sleep. We're heading toward the connectivity and the rest of the time. We'll see you at the other side.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:44:52,810 ] All right, wasn't that fun? I hope that you can have the opportunity to try to get some heat therapy somehow through a sauna or a hot tub. Not everyone has that opportunity. Obviously, I have a gym here that has a sauna.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:45:07,170 ] My brother has his own sauna in his house, so that would be amazing.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:45:12,920 ] So, 20 minutes, five days a week. Is better than one day a week. For cardiovascular mortality isn't that amazing. So, um, certainly, there is this— your sleep, you need to have a sloping, decreasing temperature throughout the evening. And a low point in during sleep. A low point in your temperature and that improves your sleep and any perturbation of that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:45:42,990 ] During sleep could be a problem. And. So, theoretically, and I think the timing of this usually is in the mid-afternoon or late afternoon or at the latest early evening, and I've noticed, and as I said, I've noticed in the past that if I sat in the hot tub late at night, 10 o'clock. And I went to bed at 10 o'clock. I was not very rested the next night, but.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:46:08,720 ] Theoretically, you would think, 'Oh, I'm supposed to be decreasing my temperature in the mid-afternoon to the evening.' Perturb that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:46:18,330 ] Too late, that could be a problem, but you would think maybe even in the mid-afternoon that could be a problem, but actually... the increase in temperature briefly has some cortisol secretion, briefly raises your temperature. Obviously, your temperature is going up, but your temperature actually quickly comes back down after. Uh, using the hot tub so, um, then, you know, and this goes toward basically stress hormesis. So you, a good, a small amount of stress is good, and your body's reaction to stress is good. Stress is good as long as it's not prolonged stress and as long as it's not stress that is stretched into the bedtime time frame. So when you're getting to bed, you're not going to want to have a major amount of stress.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:47:07,920 ] Don't bring work or laptop into your bed. Don't bring homework into your bed. And that's been some kind of tenant of basically trying to keep that sleep space.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:47:19,530 ] The bedroom space should be reserved only for sleep and relaxation, if you watch TV in your bed, as long as that kind of is relaxing to you. Don't watch the evening news in bed because certainly that's stressful, right? When you're seeing all the killing, et cetera. That's going on around the world and the news and all the depressing news. Try not to do that. Try to watch something. entertaining, but if you are watching television in the bedroom. At night, right before you go to bed, number one, lights off. Number two, the TV should be a good distance away from your bed so there's not so much light streaming into your eyes because you don't want the eyes to be exposed to a lot of light at night.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:48:09,010 ] Those things, and then potentially do what we talked about last week, which is entrainment and meditation right before bedtime. So about... 20 minutes. before bedtime. All right, so continuing on that vein.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:48:24,720 ] Thanks for joining me in the gym and in the sauna. We're going to be going into the kitchen a bit soon too. So we're going to be showing you some things to do in the kitchen as well on some field trips. We're going to make a lot of different field trips in the near future.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:48:41,720 ] Next, you know, that fifth pillar that we've talked about— processed foods, packaged foods and plastics— trying to avoid plastics in our home, household, this is a very difficult thing and can be done slowly if you can, because sometimes this can be an expensive venture if you... If your entire kitchen is filled with plastic, and you want to replace that all at once, that could cost hundreds of dollars at the start. I think the main thing, as we talked about in week one in the introduction, the main thing, the first thing, food storage, getting away from plastics, getting away from the plastic bags. And if anything can go in a plastic bag, it can also go in a glass container, right? So that inert substance of glass that does not leach into the food— Um... is essential. Okay, so that part. But we're going to expand upon that—package-free days that we talked about last week— and go to potentially one to two package-free days every week. Okay.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:49:49,420 ] You're not going to be able to avoid all packaged foods all the time. Um, but. Whole Foods. Generally, 90% of the time. And when I talk about that, I am only vegan, let's say one to two to three days a week right now, and I'm trying to get to six, that vegan... Uh, diet. Even though I'm only one to two right now, or three, actually, I'm probably right close to three.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:50:17,400 ] Um, that vegan extends into the rest of the week and that I will have probably at least every day a fully vegan, fully whole food, fully... Um, healthy Meal?

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:50:34,040 ] But, you know, I might have some chicken later on that day or I might have some seafood. And it is exceedingly rare that I have any beef right now. I personally am trying to avoid beef. In general, that package free days is extremely important. All right, so let's talk about a little bit about this processed foods and these blue zones. Again, we've always talked about blue zones and where people live 100 years. All the most and where dementia is less, it's through these potentially older diets that are similar to the MIND diet, similar to the Mediterranean diets. Those people and our ancestors.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:51:23,330 ] Let's say, great-grandparents going back, they did not eat much meat because meat was a luxury back then, right? So, luxuries, of me.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:51:35,650 ] I think that's how we need to think about it. That meat should be a luxury. Meat should be a once-a-week, maybe. It could be even less than that, maybe once a month, because our ancestors and people in these blue zones really only eat meat about once a month. Meat is not absolutely necessary. Meat is not absolutely necessary for protein. Protein can be obtained by these beans and nuts and legumes, peas, etc. that um that we can consume and get plenty of protein from. And there are examples of some of these. For example, bodybuilders, weightlifters who are vegan, and you can find them out there. Obviously, there are few and far between. Because a lot of these people are gym bros and they're going to be eating, you know, oodles of protein from meat.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:52:27,810 ] I can tell you that.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:52:31,980 ] I can tell you that, let's say, football players and people who are eating a lot of meat do not live longer than those people who are less of a carnivore diet. So these package-free days we're going to talk about, some we're going to try to limit our screen time, and for plastics, this week, we're going to discuss our oral care, our dental tablets. I'm using dental tablets, which come in plastic-free.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:53:06,030 ] Packaging fluoride-free and I also use a boar's head brush now— so a boar's head toothbrush— to try to avoid the plastic and certainly. You know, if you're brushing your teeth, if you've ever had... looked at your toothbrush and they only have about a half of the toothbrushes left after about a month. Where does that plastic toothbrush go? Does it go into your intestines? Does it get degraded? Where does that go? So when you think about these things. Think about what process and what on a daily basis. I can do this. This is what I've been thinking about. What I can do to avoid plastic and, we talked about clothing before. Um, all right, so.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:53:51,490 ] We'll talk more about that. And so, in review, um, uh, that's our plastic-free for the week and review these blue zones, the studies of the Mediterranean diet and movement we've gone through. And shown. what my process is going to be. And in my diet, let's review what we've done over the last six weeks and now a seventh week. gotten into this Mediterranean diet, intermittent fasting, creating nutrient scarcity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:54:22,100 ] Nutrient scarcity is the key to decreasing mTOR. So mTOR is is decreased when we have nutrient scarcity. That nutrient scarcity can be any of the three macronutrients right so obviously we need to continue our vitamins we need to get Continue vitamin health. Um, and. However, The... macronutrients, sugar, protein, and fat don't necessarily need to be the unhealthy. But that nutrient scarcity is what inhibits mTOR. And that's what is the key for longevity is inhibiting mTOR. That's what's behind. The possibility that some of these medications and diet alterations actually increase longevity. And you can't be... You know, you can't be anorexic. You can't be bulimic. You can't start throwing up your food because you ate too much food. You can't be. You can't have... orthorexia either. You can't be rigid about something because that is going to create certain psychological issues over the long run. And so here's where I want to have a sensible change, right? So... I've increased my fiber, which is food for microbiomes, signaling, and better hormone balance. Psyllium, husk in the morning, I use with a lot of water. Oats. Organic foods, organic... uh, seeds and and grains.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:55:53,330 ] No fast food. We've gone to very little processed food, all organic.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:55:59,420 ] Antioxidants are the key. If you're going to eat something that has potentially sugar in it, then make it worthwhile. And that worthwhileness is the antioxidants and the polyphenols and the other antioxidant compounds that come in. Berries and olives and, hence why, potentially olive oil might be one of the better oils that you can use— is because of the antioxidants. I've gone to almost no dairy, though I had nachos that had some cheese in it last night. I drink almost no milk. No red meat, almost no red meat. I do a Sunday meal prep. I drink less alcohol, low sugar, almost keto, but only sugar in the form of the berries, dates and honey perhaps.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:56:44,290 ] And now I've gone to fermented foods and yogurts. Some of those homemade. greens and berries daily, beans and nuts as my protein source. and vegan one to three days per week. Okay, so that's our review of what we've gone through. Every week, we're going to go through a review of where we're at in the process and what we've done in the past that's going to help us in the future. future of what we're doing this week to change.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:57:09,220 ] Exercising, again, we've increased our strength, increasing cardiovascular fitness. We're trying to avoid falls and injury avoidance too, because one thing... For sure. Especially in the gym, bro. Gym kind of mentality of 'let's do a heavyweight and max, those create injuries. And I can tell you that I've seen a lot of weightlifters later in life when I see them at age 60 or 70. They have major problems—okay, so they have major back problems, major mobility problems. And that's going to affect them in the long run. So if at all.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:57:50,090 ] Protect yourself from injury. And obviously you can't protect yourself from all injury. You have to do some strength training. But. At some point in your life, you don't need to be a bodybuilder. You don't need, you know, I think what was the plates for dates or something like that was a book somebody put out that basically said, 'I'm gonna, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna have big muscles and that's basically, you need to lift weights in order to get the girl' kind of thing. What the heck. You know, and certainly that can be true. To a degree. When you're young, right? Once you reach a certain age, you really need to start thinking about longevity more.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:58:30,740 ] And that is not max. I see some older people at age 50 still in the gym doing maxes and they're maybe taking some.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:58:41,730 ] Products that allow them, you know, there are certain over-the-counter products that may or may not have some testosterone in them that the FDA kind of catches every once in a while. Those compounds... may have some detrimental effect in the future. Um, and.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:59:01,130 ] Same with those maxes and any injuries that they have and, you know, any kind of spinal issues and let's say disc problems that they might have in the future because of heavy weightlifting. So I can tell you that I am doing injury avoidance. I'm doing higher reps. So let's say, anywhere from 12 to 24 reps.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:59:22,490 ] I'm never, and I am potentially to failure almost. I'm never to failure. I'm always to maybe two or three short of failure. But if I get to 24 reps, I can tell you. Then, no matter what it is, whether it's curls or whether it's shoulder presses, that I am getting some benefit with resistance training there with injury avoidance, okay? Different forms of exercise, different forms of movement, bicycling, running, walking, lifting, dumbbells, stretching.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 00:59:53,500 ] Potentially tennis, any kind of sport. That you can avoid. Injury. And we see a lot of people that are getting injured, let's say, for example, with pickleball. Pickleball is a sport that some people get involved with— it may not necessarily be a very good athlete. And I tell you. Um, If you can get involved with pickleball, and you can get involved with it safely, do it. It does have a lot of benefits because you are doing some of that same thing with tennis where you're getting side to side motion, you're pivoting. But do it safely and do it lightly. Don't go out there and get on a two and two. And go do some kind of pickleball tournament where you are getting.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:00:38,450 ] Um, high-risk situations where you are straining to win a game, win a match when you may not. Be able to keep yourself from falling in those situations. Do it lightly. Go out and volley with someone. You know, that's my favorite kind of tennis— is just falling. I may hit the ball hard. But I try to avoid injury, okay? So, six days a week, we're doing... Three days of... cardiovascular exercise, three days of resistance training, a day of rest. But on that day of rest, we just talked about that, is stretching. Injury-free, some rest on that day, but also some stretching and I want to also do some of that core workout, maybe just a little bit of planking, maybe a little bit of sit-ups on that day. To try to maintain on that day. But give yourself that day of rest where you're not doing any resistance training, cardiovascular. Give your body ability to recover. Okay. That's important recovery. That's. That's a, on your. On your Ring and your Apple Watch, you might have some data that says whether you are in good recovery, whether you get resilience. That kind of thing. And look at that and really take heed to what's either your physician or anybody else is telling you.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:02:03,230 ] About what you need to do. And listen to your physician. No matter what you see me doing. Whatever you see some influencer out there doing, some kind of somebody who is on any other podcast, etc. What they're doing is not necessarily for you. What's great for me. Everybody is individual. And some people have talked about the N of one, right? So.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:02:28,320 ] Everybody's different. Everybody has different genes. Everybody has different cholesterol issues. Everybody has... different things that could impact their health in the long run and So, don't necessarily take it from me exactly what to do. This is what I'm doing. Not necessarily what you should be doing. Okay. So again, there's, there is at the end of every podcast I do, there is this thing that you need to research for yourself what you want to do for your longevity. Research longevity. Research the animal studies of longevity.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:02:59,120 ] If you do a deep dive under Chat GPT and say, 'Give me 100 research studies on the effects of Whatever on longevity, diet on longevity,' look at those. Research studies because those are what inform you. Okay, so the other things we're doing—focusing on connection—include increasing our connection to family and friends, going through our phone book ( not our phone book or you know, yellow pages or white pages), and going through a phone book in our in our phone. And look for somebody you've lost connection with. Somebody you can connect with again. Somebody you can meet up with.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:03:39,890 ] Uh, I being in Florida, I always have my friends from Iowa coming down uh to come to Florida. So I try to find that. Whenever they're coming down. Um, to, uh, to try to connect with some of them. Uh, create a social enablement of this new lifestyle that you want to do. This is what I'm doing. I'm trying to create a social enablement. I have a girlfriend who is helping me with cooking and... Creating these delicious foods, if you have a difficulty with cooking, there are a lot of different mail order foods that you can get, but always make sure that they are whole foods, that you can try to make it so that they are more healthy, less meat, and more of a plant-based diet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:04:29,220 ] Which might be good for you. So the other connectivity is texting, phone calls, but really the connectivity is really in person. So try to meet up with people that you've lost touch with. Okay. So then the creativity comes in and that is something we're doing. Every Friday we're doing poetry for Friday Frime Day, and painting.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:04:53,890 ] We're doing some painting, some acrylic painting that I've been doing. So try to get that kind of connectivity and creativity. I've also started my third book. If you don't know that I have read, have written two novels. Plus the scientific book that had been written. I started my third novel.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:05:14,069 ] Also, at the end of this 52 weeks, I'm hoping to put this into a book as well. So look for reading, look for... Going to a play, let's say, for example. Or an opera. Try that out. See what you can find. Music is certainly a creative outlet.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:05:34,430 ] Try to, if you know how to, play the guitar, which I've learned a slight amount of. Learning a guitar. If you can try to do that, that will go a long ways toward your. You're. ability to live in the future without dementia because music and creativity is is certainly a factor in preventing dementia. and obviously connection as well in sleep we've talked about circadian rhythms getting morning light exercise. stretching in the morning to try to loosen up the muscles potentially and getting less stress meditation so if you do have a stressful day trying to diminish that stress trying to cope with stress better Potentially, if you might need a psychologist to help you with that, you might have had stressful or traumatic issues in the past. That's important.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:06:30,460 ] that mindset at bedtime. Also, uh, helps, uh, lights down phone out of the room at night, um, red light at night, um, and then, Training, meditation, and stress-free bedtimes, we just talked about this week. Plastics, we've gotten rid of a lot of my plastic containers and gone to glass, stainless steel. Or, uh, or potentially wooden utensils. Bottles, trying to get rid of some of those. Not all bottles can be plastic-free. It's very difficult. Cookware, trying to stay away from the... Um, non-stick cookware and going to stainless steel is what I like. Prepping food, processing, trying to get that to a glass and stainless steel food processor. Same thing with a stainless steel mixer that you can get. Uh, utensils trading in those spatulas—I've gone to all wood.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:07:32,620 ] You can't get rid of all silicone. You know that thing. My girlfriend says yeah. I have to have that silicone thing that scrapes the bowl well. Um, you know, I can always just leave some for waste, but she likes the silicone thing. You know, and the more waste you have in the bowl, the more you can lick your finger and and be able to get some of it, you know, the cookie dough on your finger so you can eat it, right? So the more... you leave in there, the better. Why would you get rid of it all with that silicone um, scraper, right? So, Um. You know, everybody has a different opinion on this. The more you can get rid of plastic, the better though.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:08:11,790 ] Packaged food, we're getting rid of packaged food as well. So again, so look for us anywhere you get your podcasts.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:08:22,609 ] We're on YouTube. We are on Spotify. We're on Apple Podcasts. We are on... YouTube Music. Um, and some of these are in video format. So if you um If you saw... Some of the video where we were in the sauna and we were in the gym, you probably weren't able to see it if you'd only had this through audio. But let me tell you, we're going to be doing more field trips and I'll try to do a little bit better at. Explaining what I'm doing when we're on our field trips, because I know that a lot of you are on audio and not video podcasts.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:09:03,600 ] We are on... TikTok, Brent W. Lartz, MD. um and we are on our website, go on pro . com. We have all of our videos there. We have um Instagram, we have Facebook, we have threads, we have a sub stack that all of our videos are available on as well. Our podcast videos are on YouTube. And again, as I said, our podcast is on YouTube music. We have now something every week. We have the Monday meditation.

Dr. Brent Laartz

[ 01:09:39,760 ] We have the Sunday Science now going on. We have, we're going to be doing, starting something called Throwback Thursdays. where we talk about the history of medicine. We also have, uh, Friday. Friday, we're gonna be talking about poetry and and reading some poetry that I've written. And, um, and then, probably, usually, either Thursday or Friday, we're going to be releasing this 52-week episodes, okay? So thank you very much. For joining. Again, follow us on our Instagram. Follow us on our TikTok. Check out some of the short videos that we're doing. Also, I can't wait to see you again next week at week eight.

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