Avoid These Aging Mistakes: Doctor Reveals Surprising Truths | Dr. Amy Killen DSH #747

Summary

Digital Social Hour: Avoid These Aging Mistakes – Doctor Reveals Surprising Truths | Dr. Amy Killen DSH #747

Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Dr. Amy Killen
Release Date: September 22, 2024

Dr. Amy Killen joins Sean Kelly on the Digital Social Hour to discuss innovative approaches to aging, including stem cell therapies, hormonal health, and the impact of lifestyle choices on longevity. The episode delves into Dr. Killen's transition from emergency medicine to a focus on preventative health and holistic treatments.

---

1. Dr. Amy Killen’s Professional Journey

Transition from Emergency Medicine:
Dr. Killen shares her decade-long experience in emergency departments in Austin and Tucson. The demands of her role, especially while raising three young children single-handedly after her husband moved out of state, led her to reassess her own health and lifestyle.

Dr. Amy Killen [09:00]: “I realized that if I didn't get my act together, I was going to be those people in five years.”

This pivotal moment prompted her shift from treating acute emergencies to focusing on disease prevention and overall wellness.

2. Stem Cells and Skin Health

Benefits of Stem Cells for Aging Skin:
Dr. Killen explains how stem cell therapies can enhance skin quality by boosting collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid production, thus combating signs of aging like fine lines and decreased hydration.

Dr. Amy Killen [01:11]: “We can increase collagen production as well as elastin and hyaluronic acid, helping with the structure and hydration of your skin.”

Supplementing Collagen: While Dr. Killen supports the use of collagen supplements, she emphasizes the importance of sun protection to prevent collagen breakdown due to environmental factors.

Dr. Amy Killen [01:26]: “Making less and you're also breaking down more. So it's this two-pronged thing. Bad.”

3. Sun Exposure: Balancing Benefits and Risks

Sunlight’s Dual Role:
The conversation highlights the necessity of sunlight for vitamin D synthesis and overall health versus its detrimental effects on skin aging and cancer risk.

Dr. Amy Killen [02:19]: “Those who are really avoiding the sun are increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity and multiple cancers.”

Dr. Killen advises moderated sun exposure, aligning with findings that excessive sunlight accelerates skin aging.

Dr. Amy Killen [03:26]: “Everything in moderation. You don't want to get too much or your skin will start to age more quickly.”

4. Hormonal Health in Men and Women

Addressing Hormonal Changes:
Dr. Killen discusses the significance of hormones like testosterone in men and estrogen in women, particularly during periods like andropause and menopause. She stresses the importance of free testosterone levels as a more accurate indicator of hormonal health.

Dr. Amy Killen [10:54]: “Free testosterone is the active form... you really want that to be in the upper end of the range.”

Hormone Replacement Therapies:
While acknowledging the benefits of hormone injections, Dr. Killen points out the lack of FDA-approved testosterone treatments for women, highlighting the need for safer and more regulated options.

Dr. Amy Killen [12:14]: “We have to basically steal, you know, men's testosterone and use it in women at lower doses.”

5. Impact of Environmental Toxins

Microplastics and Hormonal Disruption:
The episode addresses the pervasive presence of microplastics and their role in disrupting hormone levels, citing studies that detect these particles in various body tissues.

Dr. Amy Killen [13:03]: “They're everywhere... even in the heart.”

Dr. Killen underscores the urgency of mitigating exposure to these environmental toxins to preserve hormonal balance and overall health.

6. Exosomes: The Future of Stem Cell Therapy

Understanding Exosomes:
Dr. Killen introduces exosomes as messenger particles derived from stem cells that facilitate cellular communication without introducing foreign DNA.

Dr. Amy Killen [14:06]: “Exosomes are like little messenger bubbles that are the way that stem cells communicate with other cells.”

Therapeutic Applications:
Exosomes offer versatile treatment options, including crossing the blood-brain barrier, making them promising for brain injuries and other conditions.

Dr. Amy Killen [15:10]: “They can cross the blood-brain barrier, so you can give exosomes in your IV and they actually can get into your brain.”

7. Enhancing Sexual Health with Stem Cells

Stem Cell Injections for Sexual Function:
Dr. Killen explains the application of stem cells and exosomes in improving sexual health by increasing blood flow, reducing inflammation, and repairing tissues in both men and women.

Dr. Amy Killen [16:40]: “You're increasing blood flow, so increasing blood vessel formations and you're increasing... repair of the tissue itself.”

Combining Therapies:
She highlights the effectiveness of combining shockwave therapy with stem cells to address erectile dysfunction, offering a comprehensive approach to sexual health.

Dr. Amy Killen [17:15]: “Shockwave therapy in men is amazing. It's... super easy and extremely low risk.”

8. Longevity Supplements and Clinics

Hop – Longevity Supplements:
Dr. Killen introduces Hop (Human Optimization Project), her longevity supplement company offering a curated "Hop Box" containing essential supplements to combat aging.

Dr. Amy Killen [20:05]: “It's like your longevity stack in a pack... everything you need to help combat the drivers of aging.”

Humanot Health – Longevity Clinics:
As co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Humanot Health, Dr. Killen discusses plans to expand longevity clinics across Texas, aiming for 100 locations in two years. These clinics integrate hormones, peptides, stem cells, and functional medicine with advanced diagnostics.

Dr. Amy Killen [21:58]: “We're trying to use technology, using AI and other tools to make this accessible to more people who deserve it.”

9. Technological Integration: Wearables and AI

Reputable – Tech Platform for Health Studies:
Dr. Killen explains Reputable, a platform enabling health and wellness businesses to conduct large-scale, affordable studies using wearable data and AI for real-time analytics.

Dr. Amy Killen [25:54]: “You can run these very inexpensive studies but get very specific, quantifiable information from them.”

Personal Use of Wearables:
Dr. Killen mentions using the Oura Ring to monitor her health, although she notes occasional discrepancies in data accuracy.

Dr. Amy Killen [27:01]: “Sometimes it tells me like you slept really well last night. I'm like, no, I didn't.”

10. Challenges in Modern Medicine

Slow Adoption of New Therapies:
Dr. Killen critiques the medical industry's slow integration of innovative treatments due to lengthy education processes and bureaucratic hurdles.

Dr. Amy Killen [23:00]: “It's a slow ship and not nimble at all.”

Influence of Pharmaceutical Funding:
She attributes the resistance to holistic treatments partly to the overwhelming influence of pharmaceutical funding, which limits research and acceptance of alternative therapies.

Dr. Amy Killen [24:09]: “There just aren't as good as studies because there's not as much money to do the studies.”

11. Final Thoughts and Resources

Dr. Killen emphasizes the importance of proactive health management through modern therapies and maintaining a balanced lifestyle. She encourages listeners to explore her initiatives and seek personalized health solutions.

Dr. Amy Killen [27:57]: “I'm active on Instagram, Dr. Amybkillen, and then hopbox.com and humanothealth.com.”

---

Notable Quotes:

• Dr. Amy Killen [09:00]: “I realized that if I didn't get my act together, I was going to be those people in five years.”

• Dr. Amy Killen [14:06]: “Exosomes are like little messenger bubbles that are the way that stem cells communicate with other cells.”

• Dr. Amy Killen [17:15]: “Shockwave therapy in men is amazing. It's... super easy and extremely low risk.”

• Dr. Amy Killen [23:00]: “It's a slow ship and not nimble at all.”

---

Resources and Contact Information

• Website: doctoramykillen.com
• Instagram: @Dr.Amybkillen
• Hop Box: hopbox.com
• Humanot Health: humanothealth.com
• Reputable Health: reputablehealth.com

Dr. Amy Killen’s multifaceted approach integrates cutting-edge therapies with traditional medicine, offering comprehensive solutions for aging and overall health optimization. Her initiatives aim to make advanced health treatments more accessible, leveraging technology and personalized care to enhance longevity and quality of life.

---

Note: This summary excludes advertisements and non-essential content from the original podcast transcript to focus on the key discussions and insights shared by Dr. Amy Killen.

Transcript

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

So you were in emergency medicine for a bit and then you transitioned.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I worked in the emergency departments in mostly in Austin and Tucson for about 10 years. And then in 2013, I have three kids. I'd had three kids within two years, and my husband had moved out of state taking care of these kids by myself. I was working in the ER and getting up at like 4 in the morning to go to work every day. And I was looking out at like, all these people waiting to be seen in the er and I just realized that if I didn't get my act together, I was going to be those people in five years. Foreign.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Guys, got Dr. Amy Killen here today. We're going to talk stem cells.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yay.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Fun topic. And you do it in the US which is unique.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I do, yes.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I get a lot of people messaging me from other countries to get them, but I haven't seen any in the.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

U.S. yeah, we can do them. We just have some limitations. You can't do quite the same. Same things that you can do out of the country.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Got it. I'm sure you get a ton of athletes, people looking to recover, right?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

We get some athletes. We get a lot of kind of biohackers and people who are just really into, you know, health and wellness. And then we also get people who just have injuries or have, you know, I do a lot with skin and sexual health, so I do a lot of people who just have issues and they want some help and they don't want to travel too far away.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

So what skin problems can stem cells help with?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Just general aging. So we can increase collagen production as well as elastin and hyaluronic acid. So helping with structure of your skin and hydration and, you know, fine lines and things like that. So just really improving skin quality as you get older and also helping to prevent some of the aging that happens.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Well, is it true the body stops producing collagen after 25?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It slows way down. Yeah, your production goes like, after 25. It's just a. It's a. A slow road to. To no collagen.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That's pretty young to start dropping drastically. 25.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And we also see increased breakdown of collagen, you know, as you get older, because you have more exposure to the sun, you have more exposure to environmental toxins and, you know, things like that. So you're making less and you're also breaking down more. So it's this like, you know, two pronged thing. Bad.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. So do you advise people to take collagen supplements then?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I do like collagen. I think it can be helpful. There are some studies that have some pretty good results. I think that, you know, the main things are making sure that you're avoiding the sun, at least in the areas where you are worried about, you know, so I like the sun in general. I think it's great. But if you're worried about skin aging, like on your face, the sun isn't great for that.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That's why when you see people in Florida or like beach towns, they look old, their skin looks super wrinkly.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And yeah, the sun is, you know, it's one of these things where it has so many benefits and we definitely don't want to stay out of the sun completely. And their studies are. Study in Sweden show that people who stayed out of the sun had, you know, significantly increased risk of. Of just dying in general. And it was on par with smoking cigarettes.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Holy crap.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And so those who are really avoiding the sun, you're increasing your risk of, you know, diabetes and obesity and multiple cancers and all of these things because the sun does have benefits. However, it also causes rapid aging at the skin, especially in your face and neck. And of course, skin cancer is possible as well.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, I just got my blood results back. My vitamin D3 was low. And one of the doctors told me, Dr. Sean O'Mara told me to get sunlight.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I love Sean. Yes, the visceral fat guy.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Oh, he scared the out of me with my MRI results too.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

He knows his stuff, though.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

He does. So he. He talks a lot about that, that it's really important. Visceral fat is really important. And he's super at that.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, I had a ton. He. He showed me his chart compared to mine, and he's 61. His was way better than mine. I was like, wow.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, he's very impressive.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Super impressive. And then I saw Brian Johnson's post on sunlight. So he only does it in the morning and late afternoon because he said when the UV ray is above 3 or something, it's damaging to the skin.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, I mean, I think that you could just kind of everything in moderation. Right. Like, I like a little sun on my body. I think it feels great. It does. It's. It's great for your mood. It's great for increasing nitric oxide, which is good for blood flow. There's all kinds of hormonal benefits, but at the same time, you don't want to get too much or your skin will start to age more quickly.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. How damaging are these beauty products and like, Body washes and deodorants on the skin.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I think you got to be careful for sure. There's a lot of chemicals and you know, if there's, if there are fragrances in there, artificial fragrances, there's likely maybe chemicals. There's oftentimes, you know, endocrine disrupting chemicals in it. I mean, everywhere in the environment, certainly in beauty products, but also just everywhere.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So I think that, you know, going for more clean brands, more, you know, more healthy brands is definitely a good idea if you could do it.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Do you do any lasers?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, we, we do some different lasers, you know, to get rid of sunspots, to help with fine lines and wrinkles. Yeah, I think that lasers can be really beneficial in combination. You know, you can do stem cells for skin health, you can do lasers for skin tightening as well as other things like pigments. You can do. There's obvious surgeries as well, of course, but there's all different ways to treat your skin and they all do different things.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, I've done it twice. Definitely helps. Yeah, I had some big hyperpigmentation because I never wore sunscreen growing up. I was that cool kid or whatever.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

And I was an outdoor runner and I thought it was cool not to wear it.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

And I had so much sun damage on my face.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

The first time I have ever had an ipl, which is the kind of laser that you did probably. Yeah, I had, I'd. I'd been on a month long backpacking trip in the Wind river range in Wyoming. So we were backpack for a month.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

With carrying like these 80 pound backpacks, it was ridiculous, but yeah, it was too much. But it was fun. But I came back with just.

[Sponsor Representative]

All right guys, shout out to LinkedIn, today's sponsor. As a B2B marketer, you know how noisy the ad space can be. If your message isn't targeted to the right audience, it just disappears into the noise. Luckily, with LinkedIn ads, you could precisely reach the professionals who are more likely to find your ad relevant. With LinkedIn's targeting capabilities, you could reach them by job title, industry company and more. Stand out with LinkedIn Ads and start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Today.

[Sponsor Representative]

LinkedIn Ads allows you to build the right relationships, drive results and reach your customers in a respectful environment. You'll have direct access and build relationships with decision makers. There's over a billion members on their platform, 180 million senior level executives and 10 million C level executives. You'll be able to drive results with targeting and measurement tools built specifically from B2B. In technology, LinkedIn generated 2 to 5x higher return on ad spend than other social media platforms. You'll work with a partner who respects.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

The B2B world you operate in.

[Sponsor Representative]

79% of their content marketers said LinkedIn produces the best results for paid media. Me personally, I've found some great podcast guests and it's been incredible platform for finding out new information. Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. We'll even give you $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com Social to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com Social terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn. The place to be.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So much sun damage. Like, my whole face was like, it was like a different. I was like spotted. Yeah, like a leper leop. And so, yeah, I did an IPL and my skin just completely sloughed off and it was like. It was the most dramatic thing I've ever seen from a laser is my very first time. And since then it hasn't been as dramatic, but I do great.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That's impressive. What's the science behind it? Is it just your skin healing over, over the bad skin?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It's basically, it pulls the, the, the pigment out of the skin so it's actually going straight to the pigment. It pulls it out and then you kind of are able to slough it off and you get new skin growth underneath it.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That's cool. A month in Wyoming. What animals were you seeing out there?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

We saw everything. We saw, we saw bison, we saw, you know, we saw all kinds of animals and we had to go over like really some pretty serious mountain passes and go in the snow and it was, it was, it was the hardest thing I'd ever done up to that point in my life.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That sounds really difficult.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Any moments where the animals got vicious.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

The animals did not get too vicious. I think it was more like our own internal, like, psyche that was vicious. Like, I remember like halfway in, sitting on a stream, like, I was like washing out my underwear because you only have like one pair. One pair.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Oh, that's it.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Like, keep watching. Yeah, you're. Because you're carrying like everything on your back for an entire month. And so you don't have a lot of stuff. And so I'm washing out my clothes and I just, you know, being attacked by mosquitoes because they're everywhere and you can't get away from them. And you know, I'm, I had these huge bruises on my hips and on my Shoulders. My backpack was so big and I'm fairly, I was fairly small. Anyway, I just started bawling and I'm not a crier. Like I'm not someone who cries usually. And I was like, why am I crying? Like, what's going on? But I think, you know, you're just, you're out in the elements the entire time. It's hard every single day. And you really, you just learn like what you could do.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Were you solo?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

No, we had a whole, we had a group of. There was like 20 of us.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Oh, wow.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, it was a whole group and we were all doing the whole thing together.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

And what sparked this? Did you want a spiritual awakening or something?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I had just finished college and I was going to be going to medical school and I just wanted to do something. I worked at Yellowstone national park during the college a few times, like for the summers. I worked for summers there. So I got into backpacking and outdoor activities and just thought it'd be fun to, you know, to push myself and learn something different.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

So Yellowstone is beautiful.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It's beautiful.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That was one of my favorite childhood trips.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It's a great job if you, if, if you're a young person looking for a job, go get a job at Yellowstone or any of the national park. There's so many fun jobs. You can spend the whole weekend, you know, the whole summer there and it's, it's super fun.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I love it. So you were in emergency medicine for a bit and then you transitioned?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, my, I did my residency in er, so that's a, you know, a three year residency. And then I worked in the emergency departments in, mostly in Austin and Tucson for about 10 years. And then in 2005, 13, I had, I'd had, I've, I have three kids and I'd had three kids within two years and my husband had moved out of state for a job. So I had, yeah, I had like twins.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Trying to do the math.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

How does this work? I had twins plus one and they were all under two for a while. And then my husband had moved out of state for a job and so I was basically like, I was taking care of these kids by myself. I was working in the ER and getting up at like 4 in the morning to go to work every day. And as you might imagine, not sleeping well, not eating well, not exercising, kind of like about to lose my mind and, and I realized I would go to work and it was, you know, I was kind of not doing well. And I remember one day I showed up at the, at the office, my er. And I was looking out at like all these people waiting to be seen in the er. They've had heart attacks and strokes and chronic, all these chronic medical conditions. And I just realized that if I didn't get my act together, I was going to be those people in five years.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Or 10 years. Like I was going to be on the other side with a chronic medical condition that I could have prevented if I'd had the education and the wherewithal to do that.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So I just made the switch to learning more about how do we prevent disease versus just treat it.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

The holistic route, right?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

They don't teach you that in med school.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Not the one I went to. I went to a traditional medical school and you know, I'm a medical doctor, so we didn't get too much of that.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I hope they start offering it though, in classes. That'd be really cool to see.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

We're seeing more lifestyle medicine being offered. You know, it's still not enough, but, but there's a lot that there is not taught. You know, they don't talk about hormones that much outside of just basic endocrinology, which is super important as you get older. I focus a lot on hormones in my practice. There's a lot of things that they don't teach that you have to just learn on your own as you get going.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. What problems are you seeing with hormones right now with your patients?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So I treat a lot of men and women in there like 35 to 55 year range. So in women I, you know, perimenopause, menopause and men. Andropause, which is, you know, testosterone declining. So we see a lot of just all the things that go along with those hormonal changes that can be, can be fixed or at least changed with lifestyle supplements and medications.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I'm at a 572 testosterone. You think that's good for my age?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah. The main question is what's your free testosterone?

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I'd have to look it up.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So free testosterone is the active form testosterone and it's, it's not bound to protein, meaning that it's, it can be active in your body. So you could have, you know, you're kind of middle range for your total testosterone. So it definitely could be higher. But what I would look at more closely is if free testosterone is, you know, in the upper end of the range or in the lower end and you really want that to be in the upper end of the range.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Got it. So that one's more important Than it's.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

More important because telling you what's actually active in your body.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Okay, Yeah, I need to look at that one then. Yeah. I just got a blood test, which. Those are kind of controversial. I'm a fan of them. I get them every year. Yeah, some people say what you eat, like, affects it. I don't know.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Now I like blood tests. I think blood tests are great for. And they're, they're good tests for hormones. It's, you know, it doesn't tell you everything, but it tells you a lot. And it's a good way to know, you know, from year to year or every six months or whatever how you're doing. And if you, you can see big changes, then, you know, you got to make a change yourself.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. What do you, what do you think about people injecting hormones?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I think that there's some good. I mean, testosterone, it can be, is injected. It's great. You know, men do it traditionally, but women can do it as well at a lower dose. Women usually get about a tenth of the dose that men get for testosterone. And there's no FDA approved testosterone for women. Well, even though women have more testosterone in their bodies than they do estrogen, there's still no FDA approved testosterone for women. So we have to basically steal, you know, men's testosterone and use it in women at lower doses.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I wonder why that has impacted, passed yet. That's weird.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I don't know. It's a good. I don't know. There's a lot of questions about why it hasn't passed yet. But, you know, we're able to prescribe it as doctored, but we just have to know how to, how to dose. You know, the testosterone's already out there.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. So I know testosterone's dropping as men. Are women having issues with estrogen levels right now?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Estrogen levels aren't so much changing, but we do see, I mean, there are some changes in like, you know, when, when girls start their periods has changed a little bit. We're certainly seeing exogenous estrogens out in the world that are affecting other hormones. I don't know that anyone's looked at. You know, things like are the actual levels, you know, during perimenopause and before that changing as much as are people having symptoms from other things in the environment?

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. Because I know microplastics are affecting the testosterone, right?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, they're affecting everything.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

You probably saw the study where they found them in the, in the, in the atherosclerotic plaque in the Arteries now.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

And the testicles and the test.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, and the testes that just came out. They're everywhere.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

In the heart, too. Yeah, Heart surgery.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

My brother is a hydrologist, so he works at the U.S. geological Survey. He's a hydrologist, and he. For like a decade, he's been doing these water samples all over the world, you know, all over the place. Especially, like, in, like, very remote creeks and rivers and things. And he's been telling me for, like, 10 years, Amy, there's all this plastic in our rivers, you know, in, like, remote parts of Wyoming and Montana and places where it really shouldn't be. And so he. He's been forever, you know, been an advocate of being very careful in filtering water and not using all these products. But I. It's. It's taking a little while for everybody else to.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

You probably thought he was crazy. 20 years ago I did.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I was like, that's fine. And now I'm like, oh, wait, you're right.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. I wonder if there's a fix or if we're just in too deep.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I. I don't know. I think that we're in pretty deep.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. Actually, you got to be really careful what water you drink these days, actually can really impact your health.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Scary stuff. What about exosomes? What are those?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So exosomes are. I call them, like, little messenger bubbles that are the way that stem cells communicate with other cells. So, you know, with stem cell therapies, what we're doing is we're taking stem cells either from someone else or from yourself and putting them somewhere else in your body. And we're trying to get your own cells to become more active and to, like, act like more youthful cells. That's kind of how stem cell therapies work. And so the exosomes are one of the ways stem cells communicate with other cells. They're like these little bubbles of information. So we can actually just use exosomes instead of actual cells in some cases to have the same benefits of stem cells, but without having to. To actually give you someone else's cells or DNA.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Got it. Got it. That would interest me more because I'm pretty spiritual. I don't know if I want someone else's DNA in my body.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, you know, I mean, you'd still be getting their messenger RNA and still be getting their, you know, like, their growth factors and cytokines and things like that. But the exosomes are interesting because they can. They have. They're very, very small, and they can cross the blood brain barrier. So you can give exosomes in your, you know, iv in your vein, and they actually can get into your brain without having to do anything special.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

They can, they can get through the skin, so you can actually give them topically as like a lotion and they can eventually, after like 20 hours, get in through your skin barriers. So they have some benefits over stem cells and that. They're just much more versatile and they're much smaller. And I think eventually we'll see a lot more these sort of over the counter exosome products available to consumers at a lower cost than stem cells.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I wonder if stem cells would help with brain injuries because I just got a brain scan at Amen clinics and I had a tbi.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yes, exosomes is what I recommend. Yeah, yeah. And I'm not a brain specialist, but there's a lot of research looking at giving exosomes IV after concussions or any kind of tbi. They've done, you know, research in spinal cord injuries and all kinds of things. And, and again, because they cross the blood brain barrier, you don't have to do anything fancy. You just have to give them in your iv. And when you have an injury, the injury sends out like this response in your body that's like, kind of like a homing response. Like it's like alert that tells the stem cells or exosomes to come to that area.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And so it's very interesting. But so, so essentially I would write, you know, if I had a head injury, I would absolutely get exosomes afterwards.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I need to look into that. Yeah, that is cool. I didn't know the body was that smart where it could just direct it wherever it needs to go.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Super smart. Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Now, you said you socialize on the sexual health side, right?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I do a lot of sexual health, yes.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

So how do stem cells help with the sex life?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So I inject stem cells and exosomes directly into the penis and into the clitoris and the anterior top part of the vaginal wall. And so in both men and women, I use them.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

And what does that do exactly?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So they do the same things as they do anywhere else. You're increasing blood flow, so increasing blood vessel formations and you're increasing. You're decreasing inflammation, you're increasing repair of the tissue itself. So if you need more collagen, if you need more, you know, more elastic, smooth muscle cells, kind of whatever has happened throughout aging or injury could potentially be repaired with stem cells and exosomes. So for men, for instance, we see improvement in quality erections, ability to get erections. We see improvement in sensitivity and the same kinds of things with women, just more pleasure, ability to, you know, to reach orgasm easier, things like that.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

So you could fix erectile dysfunction?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Well, I mean sometimes, not always, unfortunately. But like I use stem cells in combination with something like. Shockwave therapy in men is amazing. It's a, it's a device that just supplies high intensity pressure waves or sound waves to the penis. And it is incredible at increasing and improving erectile dysfunction if it's not too bad. So we use that in combination. Yeah, because that and that is like you can do it as an out. You know, you just walk in and walk out. It's a 30 minute thing. You go to a clinic, it's, it's super easy and it's extremely low risk. So when you combine things like optimizing testosterone, shockwave therapy, stem cells or exosomes, healthy lifestyle, you know, all of that together then we, we can do a lot of good.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Interesting. Is shockwave therapy the same thing as pmf?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

No.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Okay. Because I got that done the other day on my back.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah. Now that's a pulse electromagnetic magnetic field therapy. That's a different, different technology. Shockwave therapy is similar to lithotripsy which they used to, which we still use to break up kid, but it's like a, it's a less powerful version of that and it's been around for decades.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Got it.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, it's really great.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I didn't know you could break up kidney stones in the body.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

You can, I mean you, you can't, but you're a doctor can do it. I wouldn't do it either, but a doctor can.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I always thought you had to pee it out or something.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, if they're really big then they'll, they'll break them up with, with like a laser or you know, it's a lithotripsy from the outside so that you can actually pee them out.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow, that's cool. Yeah, I remember my friend. Oh, I'm not even going to tell that story. I never had one. Knock on wood, right?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

They're very painful.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, I bet. Geez. Any other like holistic things you do like light therapy or anything?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, I do a lot of red light therapy. You know, for full body red light therapy. I also like for women, for instance, I use intravaginal red light therapy for sexual health inside. Yeah. Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I didn't know you could do that.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Some home devices that are great, they're wellness devices. Like there's one called VFit plus that you can just buy over the counter. And it's, it's increasing the same kind of thing. It's increasing mitochondrial energy production. It can help with lubrication and sensation and all kinds of things. And so there's tricks like that that are kind of fun ways to combine, you know, wellness things with actual medicine.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, that is cool. I didn't know you could get in there and heal everything from inside. That's some next level stuff though, because red light is very healing.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It is.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I do it like three times a week.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Feel great.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And I just did. I just did a post about this out. There was a study recently with red light that if you just do a 15 minute red light session on your back, like a 670 nanometer red light for 15 minutes and then you do a glucose tolerance test later, like an hour later where you drink glucose and then you check your blood sugar. Yeah, every. Every little bit. There was a 27 reduction in blood sugar. Seen the people who did the red light versus the placebo group.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Holy crap.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Just from doing red light for 15 minutes. So it's, there's some crazy things about it that we're just learning.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That's exciting. And my glucose was a little high on my blood test, so I'm gonna do more red light now that you said that.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Interesting. So I know you got three companies. I'd love to go through these. One of them is called hop.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, hop. Hop stands for Human Optimization Project. We just call it hop. And that is my longevity supplement company that we have a box called Hop Box. It's kind of like your longevity stack in a pack. So it's like everything you need in a pack that you just take, you know, once or twice a day. And it makes it super easy to. To take the things that you want to take to help kind of combat the drivers of aging.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I'll check that out. So right now I'm on Brian Johnson's, but I'm disappointed with one ingredient. If you're watching this. Oh, you use natural flavors. Oh, you know, I don't know how bad that is. There's probably worse ingredients.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

But do you know what the natural flavors are?

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

So it's a powdered drink that has a bunch of longevity stuff in it and it's orange flavored or something. So I guess it's that. Okay, well, I was disappointed. Brian Johnson. I mean that. That dude does his research. He's using natural flavors.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

He's got, he's got a lot of stuff. I haven't used his products yet. But I think he's an interesting guy.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I bought his olive oil. It's really good.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, you should try that.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Okay.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

But you feel really full after because I don't know what he does to it.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Olive oil. And I was on. When I was getting ready for my wedding years ago, I decided to go. There's a diet called the Shangri La Diet. I don't know, I read a book about it, and I'm not recommending it necessarily, but the idea was you drink a tablespoon of olive oil three times a day. Not with food and not with a drink, just with water, and that's it. And you can't have any other food around it for like an hour. And I did that. It was horrible. But I lost tons of weight.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Really?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yes.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

From olive oil.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I think you're just not hungry the rest of the time because it fills you up. There's other benefits to it as well. But. Yeah, I was surprised. I was like, this will never work. And then it did.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow. You don't look like you need to lose weight right now, though.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Well, thank you. This is a while back. I was a little bit heavier.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

You had a chubby face.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I was a little chubby after college. Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. I never had one. I'm blessed. My thyroid is like the opposite issue of most people.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I process so quick.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

That's good. Good.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

It's good and bad.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

That'll serve you well when you get older, though.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. Yeah, hopefully. Second company, Humanot Health.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, Humanot is a longevity clinic that we're going to be opening in. The first one's gonna be in Austin this summer, and we have plans to go two more cities in Texas by the end of the year. And then, I mean, ultimately, the goal is to have 100 locations in two years.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Wow, that's fast.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah. So I'm the co founder. I'm a chief medical officer for that. So figuring out all the protocols and how do we use hormones and peptides and stem cells and, you know, functional medicine, as well as traditional diagnostics and advanced diagnostics, and how do we put it together and then how do we scale that to 100 clinics? That's. That's the goal.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I love that. I can't wait to see it. I'll be in Austin this year, so.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Okay.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Stop by for sure.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I think longevity centers are going to be really popular as more people are getting into their health.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, there's a lot of people working in this field to make this, you know, using. Using technology, using. Of Course AI and other tools to start to be able to think about not doing this just for a few people they can, you know, people who could afford to spend a hundred thousand dollars a year, but, like, can we do this for the rest of the people who deserve it but can't afford to spend that much?

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, no, I love them. I go to one out here, and I'd rather support a local business than like a huge hospital chain.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

They don't care about you.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah. I mean, unfortunately, hospital chains just don't have the tools to. To do some of the things that we want to do, too. You know, it's. They're. They're slow to progress. You know, they say in medicine that it takes 17 years before something is. Is, you know, proven to be true, before it's adopted as a standard of care. So before, you know, it takes 17 years, long before we say, hey, this therapy is effective, or this protocol is effective, or whatever it is, before all doctors are like, oh, yes, that's effective, and let's do it. So it's a very slow. It's like the Titanic. It's a very slow ship and not nimble at all.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. Why do you think it's so long?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I think part of it is just the education process, and I think that. I think it's getting faster. But in the past, the way doctors were trained is you learned from the doctors who trained you, and you learned during residency, which is three to five years, and then after that, you still sort of learn, but, like, you don't really learn as much, you know, after residency.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Right.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And so I think that's part of the problem. And then also, hospitals, you know, are there a lot of politics? It's very bureaucratic. It's very difficult to, you know, adapt new things and. And be nimble and quick. So I think that that's another problem as well.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. I hope one day they can integrate more holistic Eastern stuff. I don't know if we'll ever get to that point, though, because pharmaceutical money is insane.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It is. And certainly the studies on, you know, on the less pharmaceutical options, you know, supplements and things like that, there just aren't as good as studies because there's not as much money to do the studies. And so I think that's definitely a hurdle to the holistic or the less pharmaceutical world.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. Did you see they just turned down the MDMA study yesterday?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I did.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I was disappointed with that now.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Me too. And they just changed the guidelines for vitamin D testing that, you know, they used to Say you should. Everyone should get their levels checked because vitamin D is really important, as you know. And now they're saying that you shouldn't check those levels unless you're like over age 75, I think, or pregnant. Like, they completely changed the guidelines and so insurance will probably not cover that anymore.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Oh, my God.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Which is ridiculous because vitamin D is both a hormone and a vitamin and it's involved in, you know, hundreds or thousands of reactions in your body.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

It's one of the most important ones, if not the most.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It's one of the most important ones. And most people are deficient in vitamin D despite having, you know, the sun, where we always protect ourselves and we stay inside in our cubicles and we don't get outside. And so it's really disappointing that that's, that that's happening.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That was a wake up call for me because I'm in Vegas. There's a lot of sun here. I eat very healthy and I was deficient, so I'd imag. A lot of people are deficient.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yes, yes.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

And every blood test I've had, I've been deficient, actually.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Really? Yeah. You gotta take some vitamin D. I might have to.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

How much do you actually absorb that, you think, though?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It's usually pretty well absorbed. Yeah, there's all different ways to take it, but it's. It's an easy one to take and you can check your levels and see if it's working or not.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Okay. Yeah. I try to eat naturally, but now the food's losing nutritional value every year. Like, I remember when I was a kid, strawberries and vegetables tasted so good.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Now it doesn't hit the same game.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yep.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

It's crazy.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

It is.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I don't know what's happening with the soil or whatever, but a lot of bad stuff. Yeah, it sucks. Third company you got going on is Reputable.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

Yeah, Reputable is a fun one for all your, your business owner of people out there. We, we are a B2B business. I'm a co founder and we're a tech platform for people in the, like, health and wellness space who want to run almost like pseudo clinical studies or experiments with, with, with, you know, people using all of their wearable data and getting quantified information about how their, you know, supplement or device or whatever it is is affecting people. And so you can essentially run these very inexpensive studies but get very specific, quantifiable information from them.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

That's great because there's certain supplements I want to buy, but I don't know, like, how effective they are. But if I saw like a study on like a thousand people, a hundred people, that'd be really good.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

And you can pin you and the people, the businesses that want to do it. You know, you essentially say, I want to do a study that's this big, big. And you're, you pay a much smaller amount than you would if you're going to like a university and doing it. It's not the same kind of study, but we essentially get real people, real world data. You get other wearables in sync and you can look at things like, you know, HRV and their sleep studies and their, you know, all the different things that you can find from wearables. You can, you can target all of those things and then use AI to interpret what all that means.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah. Are you using any wearables or AI right now for your health?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

I use oura ring, sort of. I don't always look at it, but sometimes I look at it whenever I feel like I need to tell me something good. But I don't always agree with it. So really, sometimes it tells me like, you slept really well last night. I'm like, no, I didn't. I was up all night. Or vice versa. But yeah, I use Aura a lot. I think that's the only wearable right now that I'm using.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Okay. The future of AI and health is fascinating. How it can detect cancer super early and all that. I just read Tony Robbins book on that life force.

[Dr. Amy Killen]

There's so many uses for it. And you know, and like with humanot, this clinic that I'm building where, you know, we're trying to train all these, these eventually these medical providers, these nurse practitioners and doctors and all these with these protocols that we're, that we've been working on for six months. And you know, how do you train someone in a couple of weeks or a couple of months and you know, AI will come in, come in handy because we can start to build these protocols into algorithms and flows and things that can help our staff and also help patients down the line.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

I love that Dr. Amy, it's been, been great. Where can people find you?

[Dr. Amy Killen]

So I'm@doctor amykillen.com that's my website. I'm very active on Instagram, Dr. Amybkillen and then hotbox, hopbox.com and humanot health astronaut with humans. Human health.com is that one. And then Reputable Health. I have a lot of websites.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Yeah, you do. We'll try to link them all below. Thanks for coming on.

[Sponsor Representative]

Thanks for watching, guys.

[Dr. Sean O'Mara]

Check out the sites. See you next time.