← The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
Your Body Has an Anti-Aging Switch (Here’s How to Turn It On) : 1356
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Every time you reach for a healthy snack, you could be sabotaging your energy, focus and long term health. That's because even if you think it's healthy, it probably contains seed oils which make up 20% of the average person's daily calories. And recent studies show seed oils can cause metabolic issues and inflammation in your body. Masa decided to do something about it. They created a delicious tortilla chip with just three three organic nixtamalized corn, sea salt and 100% grass fed beef tallow and no seed oils. This is one of the few times I'll eat corn because this corn is nixtamalized, which is a process that removes mycotoxins and anti nutrients. Masa chips don't only avoid all the bad stuff, they taste incredible too. Snacking on Masa chips is nothing like eating regular chips. They're crunchier, tastier and sturdier than other chips, so they won't break in your guac. With Masa, you feel satisfied, light and energetic with no crash, bloat or gross sluggishness afterwards. And an added bonus is that the beef tallow makes the chips much more satiating, so you won't find yourself uncontrollably binging and still feeling hungry afterwards. Ready to give Masa a try? Go to masachips.com daveasprey and use code daveasprey for 25% off your first order. That's M A S A chips.com daveasprey AND use code daveasprey.
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You're gonna love these chips.
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Time, then people the same age would all feel the same. But you and I know that's not true. Some 50 year olds run marathons, some which is bad for them. And others can barely get out of bed. And the difference isn't genetics. It's not even expensive treatments or some kind of miracle supplements. Although there are expensive treatments and miracle supplements. I'm talking about a switch already built into your body and it restores energy and reverses the real drivers of aging. And I know about this because I used it to turn back my own biological clock by two decades. In my 20s, I had most of the diseases of aging, like arthritis, I had cognitive problems, I had obesity, pre diabetes, the whole list, way older than my actual age. And today, my energy, my focus, my recovery are way better than they were when I was 25. And it's lab verified. Today I'll show you exactly how you can turn on your body's anti aging switch. And first, you need to understand how aging actually works. See, the problem starts with how the FDA and big pharma have conditioned all of us because we think aging is mostly about genetics, like we're helpless. And maybe it's about how many birthdays you've had. But that's not right. They made you believe that fatigue, slower energy, brain fog, wrinkles, and eventually a year in a hospital are just a part of getting older. And that's why so much of this anti aging advice focuses on surface level fixes. Things like creams and supplements and cosmetic procedures, because they're easy to sell. And frankly, some of them do work, but they're expensive. It turns out we can measure how aging actually works. And scientists measure something called biological age. It's a number based on how well your body's functioning. Inside, lab tests can measure something called DNA methylation and telomere length and other cellular markers of aging. And the results of those lab tests predict how fast you can recover, how sharp you can keep your mind, and how strong your immune system is going to be. And ultimately, these predict very accurately how long you live, sometimes within a 24 month period. We couldn't do this 10 years ago. This is radical. It means you can measure how you're doing now and what it's going to do for you in the future. That's why some people in their 50s and have the cellular health of someone in their 30s. And other people who are like me, in their 20s feel really old. And if you measure their biology, it is not that of a 20 year old. So the real driver of aging isn't the passage of time, it's cellular dysfunction. So here's what happens over decades, your cells build up, waste, they get misfolded Proteins, they get damaged mitochondria, and that clogs up your energy production and you get inflammation everywhere. And slowly your body's ability to detox itself slows down. It's like driving your car for years and you don't bother changing the oil. The engine isn't going to stop because it's old on the calendar. It stops because it's filled with sludge and you didn't maintain it properly. Even healthy habits like clean eating, if you can even figure out what that is for your biology or things like exercise, which is good for you, they're not going to fix it, because the wrong exercise actually makes you old. Oh, my gosh. It's complex. It comes down to, though, if your mitochondria are weak or over taxed by stress, by toxins, even by excess exercise, that's going to make you old. I mean, let's face it, those microscopic little power plants inside your cells, they're making the energy that your body uses to live. And when they're strong, they do a good job of turning air and food into electricity, heat and chemicals. Then you feel vibrant and powerful and focused and resilient. But if they're damaged, you're going to feel slow, inflamed, and old and unmotivated. And it doesn't matter if you're eating healthy, if they're not working, they won't turn that healthy food into energy. That's why if you want to turn on your body's natural anti aging switch, first you fix your mitochondria. This is the foundation of everything else. Everything you do, think, feels, feel, it's mitochondria. If you want better sleep, you want better hormones, you want better memory, or maybe just to live a lot longer, you start here. There are three ways you can upgrade your mitochondria, starting with number three, which is rehit. It's one of the most efficient ways I found to trigger mitochondrial biogenesis. It's a process of creating new and stronger mitochondria. A rehit session takes five minutes. Here's how you do it on an exercise bike. You cycle slowly, really slowly, like boring slow, without your heart rate going up. No resistance for two minutes, it's boring. And then your first sprint, you want a bike that's going to let you instantly turn up resistance. Make it really hard, you can barely do it. And you sprint at maximum effort for all of 20 seconds. And then as fast as you can, have that resistance, turn back down and go really slow for two more minutes, then do it again. For 20 seconds for your second sprint and then cool down. You can just get off the bike or you can pedal really slowly for another two minutes. That's all you've got to do. Except knowing how hard to push during that 20 seconds can be hard to do if you're near an upgrade. Labs one of our locations across the US and Canada. You can do this on our AI bike, which gives you a precise workout using rehit tailored to your fitness levels using AI and a heart rate monitor. That'll give you the maximum benefits. But you can do this kind of thing at home. The number two way to improve your mitochondria, the things that support your cellular energy so you can think and feel good, is to do it with fuel. That means eating a diet that your mitochondria like. And mitochondria thrive on clean fuel with lots of energy in it. Because wait, don't calories measure energy? They do. So the best fuel for your mitochondria is healthy fat. Because fat has more calories per gram than carbohydrates. When your mitochondria can metabolize fat, they get more electrons, which means you get more energy. It doesn't mean you eat only fat, it means you eat good quality fats that are construction materials for healthy mitochondria that can also be used for energy. Grass fed butter, MCT oil, which is an extract of coconut. Avocados and wild caught fish are great sources and so is grass fed beef. The fatty cuts. These are going to provide clean burning fats which give your brain and your muscles stable energy and they don't generate tons of metabolic waste. So now you're getting enough good fat, you're getting some protein and you've done some rehab. But there is one secret way to upgrade your mitochondria that's more effective than even those. And it's already hidden inside your body. When you trigger this, your cells start recycling their broken parts. The things that are broken down, they can be either sitting there and causing inflammation, or they can be recycled into useful new body parts. And your body starts cleaning away misfolded proteins, dysfunctional mitochondria, and even pre cancerous cells that could become a problem. If you can turn the sun on your body, it'll handle those things. You get young energy now and no problems down the road. I mean, this process literally rejuvenates your tissues from the inside out. It sharpens your brain, it can clear out plaque like buildup inside your cells, it can improve muscle recovery, can enhance your immune function and Even your systemic inflammation, the stuff I dealt with for years, it just goes away. And studies show that when you trigger this thing regularly, especially starting in your 20s or 30s and continuing to do it for life, your biological age markers improve dramatically. It works any time of your life, but the earlier you do it, the longer you keep the benefits. And problem is, modern life shuts this switch off when you're young. Most of us, while we're constantly snacking, we're eating ultra processed foods because they're convenient, and we're scrolling Instagram till midnight. And unfortunately, all these things for different reasons, keep your insulin levels high and high. Insulin is a metabolic disaster for aging. It signals your body to store energy, not to clean up and add on top of that poor quality sleep, chronic stress, and your entire body basically shuts down. Says, I gotta survive through the day today, who cares about tomorrow? So it just doesn't maintain things. So if you truly want to heal your body and reverse your age or maybe just have tons of energy right now, you need to trigger the switch regularly. And the switch I'm talking about, it's called autophagy, and it's a word that means self eating. Now, if self eating sounds kind of scary, it is, but don't worry, you don't have to actually chew it. It's one of the most powerful biological processes that you can activate in yourself, and it's not going to cost you anything. When you turn on autophagy, your cells switch into a deep cleaning and recycling mode. They break down old, damaged parts, things like worn out mitochondria and even some pathogens. And then they reuse those materials to build stronger, healthier cells. And that process makes your cells more efficient. Every day there's 30 pounds of air and whatever you eat, and they get combined. And your body can be bad at the process, which means you get old and you're tired and weak. Or it can be good at the process, which means you're full of energy, you stay younger, and that protects you from disease, from illness, and just from feeling like crap. And if you turn on this process, it targets precancerous and cancerous cells. Now, cells that grow abnormally usually have damaged parts, and they have dysfunctional mitochondria, which is a hallmark of cancer. Autophagy identifies those faulty components and it breaks them down before tumors start. And the most powerful way to do this, that actually saves you money is fasting. Because not eating anything is cheaper than eating anything. There are several styles of fasting, and each has its own unique benefits. And I'm not just recording this because I'm an influencer. I wrote the first major book that introduced intermittent fasting to the world, sold almost a million copies. And more recently I wrote Fast this Way, another major best selling book on the benefits and details around fasting. So this is kind of a little mini summary of two large New York Times books. The easiest way to start is called time restricted eating. And it's really easy even if you've never done any biohacking before. It's a daily 14 to 16 hour fast. You just eat all your meals in an eight to ten hour window. And if you're going that sounds scary to fast for 14 hours. Remember, you sleep for eight hours a day, so really eight. And then you add two hours before bed and two hours after you wake up and you just did a 14 hour fast. So it's not that scary. We're talking about four waking hours without food. And when you do that, 12, ideally 14 hours. It gives your body enough time without food and that helps you shift into this cellular cleanup mode. But you've got to do that for multiple days. If it's a short fast, the next level that is really a big deal is a 24 hour fast once or even twice a week, and that amplifies autophagy. And then there's something called the 5:2 method, which is something I highly recommend if you're dealing with extreme fatigue or you're dealing with aging. And this is when you eat normally for five days, but you restrict your calories to five to 600 for two days. So five days of normal, two days of don't eat very much. And for extreme cases, there are even 30 day fasting experiments with medically supervised nutrient broths or sometimes even just water. Don't do that at home. Those can dramatically increase autophagy. But there are some risks if you're doing a multi day fast. Some people do three days at home. I like to do that actually. And they're not for everyone. So you want to be reasonably healthy to do it. Bottom line though is a brief period of time, whether it's a daily practice, relatively short time, or a focused practice with a longer window of fasting can turn on autophagy, which is this really, really powerful and free thing that your body can do that sharpens your brain and just makes you get your vibe back. So I highly recommend it. I wish someone had taught this to me when I was in my 20s and my brain wouldn't work. I was really fat and nothing would work. Dieting didn't work, exercise didn't work, nothing. Fasting would have worked if only I knew about it. I'm sharing this with you because it just shows how powerful the switch is when you push it. If you'd like to increase your autophagy even further, you could combine fasting with the rehit workout. And that tells your body, clean up this old junk and you might as well build some new power plants. And think about it. Your body breaks down old junk and it says, what am I going to make next? Well, if you're doing rehit, it says, I guess I need new mitochondria. So it's be ready to build something. Get a signal that says build something. And we're not talking about a lot of time. So you didn't eat for a little while and then you spent five minutes doing reheat. I don't want you to spend two hours a day or millions of dollars on your longevity practice unless you want to. And you have the money, but a lot of us don't. And a lot of the most powerful biohacks and longevity techniques don't take any money. And one of those that's most important is getting high quality sleep. Most deep autophagy happens not when you're awake or exercising, but during deep non fragmented sleep. So one simple trick to turn on your autophagy is, and just to feel better all the time anyway, is to cut off food at least three hours before bedtime and eat slightly less carbs at dinner. And the longer between when you eat and when you go to sleep, the better your deep sleep is going to be. And the earlier your sleep is, the better your deep sleep is going to be. Eating fewer carbs at night? Not necessarily no carbs, just moderate. Keeps insulin levels low, which is something that's necessary for your body to fully shift into repair mode when you're asleep. And when you do this, you're literally recycling your cells. You're clearing out the damaged stuff and you're building something younger, stronger and more powerful. And even if you upgrade your mitochondria and you activate your autophagy, some people still don't see the results they expect. I would have been one of those people when I was young and fat. You fast, you work out, maybe even fix your sleep, but your biological age just doesn't move. It's not because the science is wrong. It's because there's a hidden factor that's silently overriding all the hard work. And that factor keeps your body in that breakdown mode even when you think you're doing everything right. And for some people, the single issue is the difference between feeling 10 years younger or maybe more than that, and feeling permanently stuck in accelerated aging where nothing goes right and you don't have control of your own body.
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Body.
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And what's frustrating, you can't always see it or feel it. And this thing doesn't show up on a quick blood test. It doesn't hurt like an injury. It doesn't show up as a rash. Instead, it's just quietly rewriting how your body uses its energy and it messes with your sleep. And all of a sudden, your body can burn fat and it changes how your body repairs its damaged cells. So you think you're doing everything right. But that one factor keeps you older than your actual age. I know that because I used to have it. There were times when I was fasting, hitting my workouts, sleeping in a cold, dark room, putting on a mask, taping my mouth, doing all this stuff. But I wasn't getting the results I wanted. When I figured out what that was, it changed everything. And by the way, I spent two and a half million dollars over 20 years doing this stuff. So I was working really hard on it, and I succeeded. But one of the things I had to deal with, the hidden factor, was stress. And I'm not talking about the kind of stress you feel in the moment when a troll comes after you online or someone says something mean or your boss does something you don't like. It's not that kind of stress. It's deep, chronic stress. The stuff that keeps your body on high alert all the time. Your brain and your cells think you're in constant danger, even if you're just sitting at a desk. So it's not about willpower. It's not about being a good person. It's that your body thinks there's stress, even if your mind knows there isn't. When that happens, your cortisol levels stay up. And that's really good if you're running away from a bear or fighting an infection. Problem is, it's devastating when cortisol stays on all day long. So you want cortisol. You just want a little bit at the right times. And chronic stress, that raises cortisol all the time. It is catabolic. It literally breaks your body down. And it's not going to let you recycle it. When you break it down, it's just going to become energy. When you're stressed, cortisol levels go up high. Cortisol directly blocks autophagy it also stops your body from fixing mitochondria. And it even makes your telomeres shorter. And these are the protective caps on your DNA that are one marker of how fast your cells are aging. So you need some cortisol. But too much cortisol from chronic stress completely breaks the benefits of fasting and exercise. And that's why people under constant stress, like triathletes who train every single day, often look and feel older than they are. And people in highly stressful jobs, like air traffic controllers, they're up all night, stressful job, they look and they feel older than they are. It's because their bodies are locked in fight or flight mode. And it means even if their brain is saying, I want to recover right now, the body's like, you can't because it's not safe right now because there's too much stress in the world around you. And this can happen when you're young. It happened to me when I was young. And when you're chronically stressed, your sleep quality goes down, so your inflammation goes up and your body says, I'm just going to use this muscle for fuel. And if you're caught in this, it doesn't matter if you followed my advice on fasting or if you decide you're going to go to the gym six days a week, 90 minutes a day for 18 months straight, the way I did when I was fat and I never lost a pound and I still had a 46 inch waist. After all that work, it's cuz my cortisol was chronically elevated, my body was in breakdown mode. It's not about effort, it's about knowing what to do. And the fix here is to master your body's ability to regulate stress. And I said your body, not you, because you can decide you want to regulate stress. But if the body's not listening, it doesn't matter. You've got to get a signal into the body that it will listen to. And that signal is the world around you. So you start with something like morning sunlight exposure. 10 minutes, 20 minutes outside, within the first hour of waking, without sunglasses on, it'll help to reset your circadian rhythm. And when that happens, your cortisol goes down naturally. That's all you have to do. Maybe it's all you have to do, but it's one of the big switches on top of it. Add in some breath work, add in maybe some meditation, five minutes of slow, deliberate breathing can shift your body into parasympathetic mode. So if you're Like, I'm in go mode. I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm gonna put butter in my danger coffee. I'm gonna do all the things. But you don't take that five minutes to tell the body, hey, it's a good time to go in and perform autophagy to build some muscle. It's not gonna do it. And you want that state where your body focuses on healing, focus on digestion instead of just surviving or powering through the day or even building a company or finding a date, whatever the thing you're working on right now is. You might try building daily decompression windows. 10 minutes, 15 minutes of actual silence or just time in nature. Doesn't have to be big nature. Go sit in a park some time without screens or interruptions. Just let your mind do whatever it's going to do. It helps your nervous system reset. It can break a cycle of constant stimulation and it doesn't count even if you're listening to my podcast during that time. That's not silence. Just sit there in like sun, grass, I wonder what's happening. You'd be amazed. And it's something that I actually do. And if you want even more power to handle your stress so that when you fast, you'll get autophagy, there are things you can do to biohack stress directly. Things like red light therapy that reduce inflammation, or earthing or grounding. You're gonna go outside for 20 minutes in the morning and look at the sun, take off your shoes, stand barefoot on grass or earth. Or you can sit, doesn't really matter. It's going to calm electrical stress in the body, according to studies that I've been talking about on my blog for, wow, 15 years now. So when you master stress regulation, when you master fasting, you learn how to upgrade your mitochondria. Well, all those things work exponentially better. Your body turns from the stressed out survival machine into something that's just finely tuned and it repairs itself. And then you do things like having crazy abs without having to work out more than 20 minutes a week, where your brain just works and you wake up without an alarm, which I could never do until I was in my early 40s. And all of this is from mitochondria, managing stress and turning on autophagy. And I want you to learn how to do that. None of this is expensive and all of it is absolutely profoundly life changing.
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A human Upgrade, formerly Bulletproof Radio was created and is hosted by Dave Asprey. The information contained in this podcast is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended for the purposes of diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing any disease. Before using any products referenced on the podcast, consult with your healthcare provider carefully, read all labels and heed all directions and cautions that accompany the products. Information found or received through the podcast should not be used in place of a consultation or advice from a healthcare provider. If you suspect you have a medical problem or should you have any healthcare questions, please promptly call or see your healthcare provider. This podcast, including Dave Asprey and the producers, disclaim responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guest qualifications or credibility. This podcast may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to herein. This podcast is owned by Bulletproof Media.