← The Psychology of your 20s
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- [00:00]
Dr. Mark Hyman
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Gemma
ChatGPT plus is free for college students now through May. That means you have no limits on how many ways you can prompt ChatGPT to help you through the worst parts.
- [00:16]
Unknown Host
Of the school year.
- [00:17]
Gemma
I remember when I was studying at university, I had a lecturer tell me the best way to prep for an exam was to explain the concept as if you were teaching it to yourself. And with ChatGPT you can upload your class notes and have ChatGPT quiz you just like that. And honestly, it would have been a game changer for me when I was back at college. So chatgpt plus free for college students through May Restrictions apply. Have you ever felt that uneasy anxiety when the 4pm hour strikes? Like the creeping meal related distress that happens when you don't quite feel prepared? You know the dinner dread? Let's get rid of that unpleasant feeling forever with one word. Stouffer's. No matter what happens, you'll have a dinner plan that everyone loves with Stouffers, some chicken enchiladas, or a cheesy chicken and broccoli pasta. Bake is always welcome, whether it's Plan A or Plan Delicious. When the clock strikes dinner, think Stouffer's. Shop now for family favorites. I truly don't think I have ever had as many events as I do right now and Nair's shower cream has been not just a lifesaver but a time saver as well. Because I I don't know about you, I just can't be bothered with shaving anymore, especially as I've been trying to move house and do a million other things. N is the number one hair removal brand and their body and shower creams. Firstly they actually smell delicious. Whilst working so well to get rid of all of my hair when I'm tight on time, I use the shower cream infused with coconut oil and it's also so gentle on my skin. I feel so silky afterwards and it's free of dyes, parabens, phthalates and sulfates. So get ready for summer buy now at all major retailers. You might not be thinking much about insurance right now, but let's get real for a second. Life can be unpredictable and that's why having the right insurance coverage matters. Aflac understands this. If you're sick or injured, Aflac can pay cash to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover, whether that be co pays, deductibles, even non medical expenses like groceries or rent. Think of it as a financial safety net that's there to help when you need it most so that you can focus more on getting back to living your best life.
- [02:29]
Unknown Host
Life.
- [02:30]
Gemma
To learn more, visit aflac.com today. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world, it is so great to have you here back for another episode. As we, of course break down the psychology of our 20s, today's episode has a little bit less to do with psychology and more so to do with the 20s component. Our health in our 20s is kind of a little bit of a black box. We have a general understanding of how to be healthy and how to be well, but there is kind of a mystical nature to exactly what we should be doing, what we should be eating, what we should be consuming, how much exercise we should be doing. What is the right balance to strike between having fun and taking care of ourselves? And there's a lot of lingering health questions. How are the behaviors that I am performing now going to show up in my health in 20 years? Is that something I should even care about? Simple answer is yes. But if you have ever wanted to just sit down with a doctor and say, tell me what to do. Tell me where to start. Tell me where to go, Today is that perfect opportunity. I had the absolute pleasure of getting to interview and talk to a leading medical professional, a leading doctor, Dr. Mark Hyman, on all of the best health tips he would personally recommend for people in their 20s.
- [03:58]
Unknown Host
Without further ado, Dr. Mark Hyman, it's so nice to meet you. Can you introduce yourself to the audience?
- [04:04]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. Hi, everybody, it's Dr. Mark Hyman. I'm a physician. I'm a practicing doctor, sort of advocate and practitioner of functional medicine. I'm an author, written 15 New York Times bestselling books and basically focused on addressing the root causes of disease rather than just treating symptoms. I spent my whole career helping people optimize their health through food is medicine, lifestyle changes, cutting edge science. And my goal is really to help people live longer, healthier, more vibrant lives and understand how their bodies work and give them the basic manual for their body, which they didn't get when they were born, and understand when you understand how it functions, hence functional medicine, you can make it function better. And that's really the whole goal here.
- [04:44]
Unknown Host
I love that they didn't get. They didn't get the guidebook when they were born, Certainly didn't get it in school. I feel like people are still kind of scrambling for how to look after their bodies, and that's why we all get Pulled in different directions by different information. But some things are definitely certain about what's good for our health. Can you give us like a little list of what is like approved, like exercise, sunlight.
- [05:09]
Dr. Mark Hyman
I mean, you know, it's, it's. I always joke that I get paid a lot of money to tell people do the most obvious, simple things that work. And I, and I, I don't know why we don't realize like we, we spend millions and actually maybe billions of dollars on pet food that just the perfect food for our dogs or cats. And we understand that we shouldn't feed them McDonald's and a big fries and a Coke, but we feed them to our kids. And so we knew they knew exercise. We take their dogs to the park if you have a pet. And, and so we have this intuitive sense of what's good. Except somehow we think because we're humans, we're exempt from the laws of biology and we're not, you know, our bodies are biological organisms. We need to treat them with respect. And when you give them the right food, the right kind and quality of exercise, get enough rest and that's relaxation of the nervous system. When you get enough sleep, because they're different things, one is sort of a nervous system reset and one's actual sleep, which is basically medicine in itself, and you get some basic support from nutrients which are lacking in our diet or in our, in our food, then that provides the foundation for most of what you need. And the other piece, piece I would say that often isn't included in these sort of basic lifestyle concepts around health is the power of community, the power of connection and belonging and meaning and purpose, which are more kind of squishy. You can't just go, I'm going to go do a five mile meaning and purpose run and just snap your fingers and have instant connection and community. I mean, you know, a large percent of the population is very lonely. And the Surgeon General of the United States recently actually wrote a report on the epidemic of loneliness. It's like smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. So that is a really important component of longevity and health. And the blue zones has talked about this. So it's really, it's an important piece of, of the puzzle. And the problem is most people just don't even know what the pieces of the puzzle are or how to apply them. And they hear so much confusing, conflicting information. They don't know what's going on in their body. They don't know how to assess it. The doctors don't know how to do anything. About optimizing health. If you go to your doctor, say I want you to help me create health, they're going to be very confused. You know, come back when you have symptoms. You had a disease, I don't know, your tests are fine, you're you. I can't find anything on your exam, so you must be crazy. Here's some Prozac. And come back when there's something really wrong with you and they're missing something. You know, there's a whole syndrome, what I call FLC syndrome. That's when you feel like crap and most people walk around without knowing they have these subtle imbalances or dysfunctions that we're seeing. Actually with my new company I co founded called Function Health, where we actually can see the level of, of deficiencies and nutrients. I'm today. She, she had low vitamin D. I was talking to her like 20, which is very low. And I, you know, I was just saying, you know, it can make you tired, have brain fog, seasonal depression, can cause muscle aches, can cause even things like increased susceptibility, cold, infections. And she's like shaking her head like, yep, yep, that's what I got. And, and here she was walking around as a 30 something year old thinking she was great and healthy, living in, trying to live a healthy lifestyle. It was a health reporter actually, but just had no clue that.
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Unknown Host
She's so funny.
- [08:19]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah, but they just, you just don't know unless you test. You know, you can't guess. You have to test. And so I think it's really important for people to understand that, that they need to know what's happening with their bodies. They need to know how it works. And, and basically, you know, at any point in life you can hit the reset button and get yourself back to health if you know what to do.
- [08:35]
Unknown Host
This really listening to you say that is just a incredibly powerful b. I love that you talk about community because obviously this is a podcast for people in their 20s and we talk about it a lot. But see, you can't just start focusing on your health the moment you're diagnosed with cancer or the moment you're diagnosed with some life threatening thing. And I remember like having something similar kind of happen where I had this huge health scare and I was like.
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Gemma
Why is it only a priority now.
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Unknown Host
When I could have done so many things that were preventative.
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Dr. Mark Hyman
Exactly.
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Unknown Host
That could have stopped me from getting here.
- [09:13]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. And the truth is, you know that the Gemma, the, the disease starts early on, even in childhood. So you, whether it's bone loss or cardiovascular disease or dementia or diabetes, which now unfortunately is one in four teenagers have pre diabetes or type 2 diabetes. Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty scary. We used to call adult onset diabetes when I was in medical school and they changed the name to juvenile diabetes and from juvenile diabetes and adult onset to type one and two, which, you know, basically because type two is occurring in little children as long as two years. So, you know, these things start early and, and, and there are dysfunctions that then don't become, let's say, a disease until later. Let's say you're low in vitamin D your whole life, you might have a little low energy, you might be a little depressed, you might have a little muscle soreness, you might have, you know, it's just some cognitive issues, brain fog, but it's nothing you think would be like a disease. But then at some point, you know, if you go long enough with low vitamin D like that, you end up with osteoporosis and you break a hip. And that's, you know, a serious problem because half the people who break a hip when they're older don't make it out the rest of the year. The mortality rate's about 50%. It's worse than cancer. So this is something you could have prevented if you knew when you were 20, but if you wait till you're, you know, 50 or 60, it's a problem. We're even seeing, you know, cancers in the young people now. We're seeing 30 year olds and even 20 year olds are getting colon cancer and things that we never saw before because the change in our diet and the antibiotic use and toxins in our environment and it changes our microbiome. So, you know, it's never too early to start paying attention to your health because when you're 20, you feel like you're invincible, you know, and you can just do whatever you want, you can eat whatever you want, you can stay up all night and party, you can drink, you can smoke, you can vape, you can take drugs, and, and a certain degree, you have some resilience when you're younger, but you're basically borrowing off your future self. And at some point your bank account's going to be empty. So, you know, like if you just have a certain amount of money in the bank and you keep spending it, eventually you'll run out. As opposed to keep making deposits in your health bank account on a regular basis. You'll have plenty of health equity left in there, you know.
- [11:19]
Unknown Host
You know what the perfect example of this I always think about is my parents. And my parents are like the, my mom's like 60 and the woman still has a six pack. Like she is so fit. My dad just said a PB on his, on his marathon time, also like 60. And I look at them and I'm like, how? And I think I compare them to, you know, other people in that age and all the things that I, that my parents have now that make me not have to worry about them started when they were in their 20s and they implemented such a holistic lifestyle. And back then that was really difficult, like to eat organically 30, 40 years ago. Really hard to avoid alcohol. And they're from Australia. You know, everyone's drinking down here, everyone's smoking. Like it was really difficult. But it is such a long term payoff and it's such a perfect segue into this huge question I want to ask, which is during a period where a lot of us take our health for granted, and I used to be someone that was included in that. What do you think is one thing that people in their 20s really need to start doing early to see the most, you know, successful long term results?
- [12:34]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, I think one, I think, you know, all the behaviors around what you eat, exercise, sleep, stress management are critical. I think one of the things that people do when they're younger is they tend to cut back on sleep. They want to party, they want to stay up all night, they want to, you know, just not sleep because they can get more done or they're more functional or can be more productive. But at the end of the day, they're borrowing off their future self. And that causes low grade inflammation and immune dysregulation can increase your risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancers and memory loss. So I would say don't skimp on sleep. You'll be more productive, you'll be happier, you'll be healthier, you'll less likely crave carbs and sugar or alcohol and have addiction issues. So really important to make sure you get plenty of good quality sleep. And you know, you don't have to sleep 10 hours a night, but you can sleep seven to eight as opposed to like sometimes people going as a badge of honor, oh, I'm only sleeping four hours a night. And that's like a, a value proposition for them somehow. But unfortunately it's not. The other thing is, you know, understand the harm of sugar and starch. These are just two things that unfortunately are just ubiquitous in our society. Whether you're in Australia, in America, or any western developed Nation. Even developing nations are now more and more exposed to the American food supply. And what's happened is that, you know, that's led to an epidemic of obesity. Globally, there's over 2 billion people who are overweight. It's more than. More than twice as many people who are hungry every night. Yeah, I mean, think about it. There's more than twice as many people who go to bed obese or overweight than who go to bed hungry every night, which is still a lot. It's like 800 million people. But, yeah, it's like, you know, it's.
- [14:16]
Unknown Host
Like, what, we got the math wrong in that. Like, yeah, we could have dispersed that a little bit, but. Yes, I'm sorry, continue.
- [14:23]
Dr. Mark Hyman
No, it's true. And so I think. I think just understanding that your, Your health is like your bank account and if you want to, for example, have plenty of money when you're older. And I did this for my kids when they were little. I put. I put money in a retirement account for them when they were, like, you know, babies and, you know, in elementary school and junior high school and high school, and even stopping when they left home. Even then, it's grown to an astounding amount of money just by the power of compounding interest and investment over time. And so, you know, you. You put little deposits in early and you get big dividends on the back end. And so I'm. I'm 65. And, you know, when I was young, I. I don't know exactly why. Maybe because my sister was in college and I looked up to her, and she took me to the veggie room in Amherst College in Massachusetts. And they had peanut butter, crunchy peanut butter, and holy bread and honey. And I'm like, oh, this is good. I'm going to be a health nut, you know, I guess. So I. I think I. I basically started eating healthier. I started eating whole. More whole foods. Although my mother did do a lot of that because she missed the 50s in America. She lived in Europe for the whole time. And so she didn't really get the whole ultra processed food thing that got happening in America. And garden. We had a garden and fruit trees in our backyard in the suburbs when I grew up, literally in the suburbs.
- [15:40]
Gemma
Wow.
- [15:41]
Dr. Mark Hyman
And. And so I kind of grew up with that. But then, you know, I started running, I did yoga. I made sure I didn't abuse my body with excess alcohol or drugs. And so I ended up, you know, having, you know, those. Those investments when I was young pay off. Now, in terms of the Level of my health, the lack of any chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, diabe, you know, I mean, most people my age are on like, two, three, four medications and have, you know, 40% have more than two chronic diseases over, probably more over 65. That's the average in the population. So I think it's like 83% of people who are on Medicare have some type of chronic disease. You know, that's a lot of people who have these issues, and I don't because I just put in these health deposits.
- [16:32]
Unknown Host
I think it's so valuable because when you are at that age, you know, we're in our 20s now, assuming most.
- [16:39]
Gemma
People listening to this, you're in your.
- [16:40]
Unknown Host
20S, of course you're gonna feel most of us, a baseline level of, like, stamina and an ability to bounce back and all the good things. And then when you're 60, you're still, like, you're going to be very present at that age, wishing that you had done things earlier. And it's this weird thing I do sometimes in my head where I'm like.
- [17:02]
Gemma
Would I rather have fun for long.
- [17:05]
Unknown Host
Or have really intense fun times now that might not even feel that great, you know, like abusing alcohol? Like, really, how. How fun is it to be blackout drunk? You know, how fun is it actually to feel disgusting the next morning? Like, it's actually not that fun. And I want to talk about alcohol consumption because obviously it's such a huge drug. And I have to remind people of this, like, alcohol is a drug, and I still drink. I love a little glass of wine.
- [17:32]
Gemma
I love a martini.
- [17:33]
Unknown Host
But. But what. What should we be wary about in terms of alcohol consumption in our 20s?
- [17:38]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Well, you know, it's. It's one of those things that we thought was fine and maybe it prevented heart issues and was good for your heart health. And we had a little story about it, but that was based on population data. But when you start really looking at the science, and there's been reviews of the science, and again, the surgeon general, the kind of head doctor of America. But I report on the linkage between alcohol and cancer, which is increasingly clear that there is some link among many common cancers. I mean, just for women alone, if you have one glass of wine a day, which is not excessive, just one glass of wine a day increases your risk of getting breast cancer 40%. And I can't tell you how many young women can breath. I mean, in my practice in Massachusetts, in Lenox, Massachusetts, you know, the doctor who I've been working with there for 25 years. She's my medical director. She was 30 years old and she got breast cancer. You know, so this happens and younger and younger women. And I'm not saying she was a heavy drinker, I'm just saying, you know, it happens because the environmental toxins with the sugar in her diet or microbiome, because of the level of, of alcohols consumed. And when you, when you consume alcohol, if you're a woman, you're going to increase your estrogen, you're going to create more stimulation of your breast tissue and overall estrogen issues. You might affect your periods, it might affect fertility issues. Certainly it affects fertility for men and women. So if you're younger and you're drinking, you want to have kids, you know, just be aware that it can affect, certainly affect fertility and, and you know, obviously aside from all the normal issues of like, you know, driving and drinking and things like that, which people tend to do when they have poor judgment, I mean, there's a reason you can't rent a car until you're 25. The, the insurance companies know that you're not mentally adult till you're 25 years old and you're going to make poor judgment and have poor decision making, which is going to increase your risk of having a car accident. So they don't want to have that.
- [19:28]
Unknown Host
Yeah, it's so absolutely true. And I always like to tell people about this study. So I'm sure you remember back in the day when they were like one glass of wine, the antioxidants, it actually makes people healthier. And they talked about this. Yeah, and they talked about this study of like, we compared 10, 000 people who don't drink and 10, 000 people who do drink. And the people who do drink, they're healthier, they're happier, they're living longer. You should drink alcohol. Firstly, that study was funded by an alcohol lobbying body, so let's get that out of the way. And secondly, the other huge thing to note, the people in the non drinking category have, have a thought, have a, just a quick ponder why people would.
- [20:14]
Gemma
Not be drinking at all.
- [20:16]
Unknown Host
Either they don't like alcohol, they're abstinent, maybe for religious reasons, or they've previously really abused alcohol and now they have to go back to zero. And so they didn't actually limit their sample to remove these individuals. So they were basically, I don't want to say spoiling, but yeah, let's just use, for lack of a better word, spoiling that. Second, that first group and pulling down the average health of the first group. So it looked like the non drinkers were, were less healthy, but it was actually because some of the people in that group had been abusing alcohol for so long.
- [20:52]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Right, right.
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Unknown Host
It's such a, it's this study that is like huge. You know, you hear it even referenced in pop culture. Like there's an episode of the Office where they talk about it. There's an episode of Parks and Recreation. It's one of those studies, you know, how every now and again a study will just like enter the psychobabble and like enter our collective dialogue. And we've been like, oh, have you heard about this? But I think when I really started looking at that study, I was like, oh, so alcohol is this like huge thing that no one's telling me about. And it's so funny because it links so much with community. Oftentimes out it's like social. Right, Social drinking. What advice would you have there, you know, for 20 somethings? So much of our socializing revolves around booze.
- [21:39]
Dr. Mark Hyman
It's interesting you say that because, you know, you know, I think there's a, there's a growing movement and I don't know if it's occurring in Australia, but it's certainly United States of a psychedelic renaissance, which is drugs that have very low toxicity or no toxicity. You know, like you, you basically can't kill yourself on them. Although, you know, a friend of mine literally just sadly told me that his wife, his ex wife, well, soon to be his ex wife, just drank herself to death. Literally just poisoned herself with alcohol. You can't do that with psychedelics. Whether it's LSD or psilocybin or, or mdma, there's a lot of renaissance in terms of both research and the application of these compounds, both in a therapeutic setting, but also in a social setting. I'm seeing more and more people who are moving away from alcohol and more towards these substances which are entheogens. They're connecting drugs. They're not things that are. You kind of get into a depressive stupor. I mean, alcohol is a depressant. You become stupid and you become depressed. As opposed to these other categories of drugs which, which are fun and you can enjoy a great time and you can also use them for therapeutic reasons for post traumatic stress disorder, depression. I mean, psilocybin. Major papers published in major journals like the New England Journal or the Journal of the American Medical association, other key journals, showing that this is a, is a better therapy for resistant treatment problems like PTSD or depression than any drug ever discovered or studied. And by. By orders of magnitude, not just by like 10%, but like two or three times better. You know, when we see a big effect, oh, it's a 20 improvement of this or a 20 risk of that, that's fine. But like, when you talk about a 2 or 300% increase benefit, then that's something real. So I think. I think we have to sort of rethink how to have fun. And alcohol is. I mean, I. I was lucky because when I was 18, I went out west in Canada to work on an oil rig kind of exploration company. And in, you know, I was young, I was 18, and I never really drank much at all and had a few times in high school, but. And these guys were sort of egging me on a bar in the middle of nowhere in the bloody reservation in. In Alberta, and they were egging me on to just drink more and more beer. And there was some kind of stupid game they were playing, and I just did it. And I got so ill that I was vomiting blood. I was vomiting all night. I had the worst hangover the next day. And I literally didn't drink a single thing from 18 to in my mid-30s when I, you know, had to start having a little wine because I just was like, I don't. That was like the most powerful deterrent. So I think, you know, I think everybody has to sort of find what that sweet spot is for them. Yeah, occasionally, if you want to have a drink and you're otherwise healthy, if you have a tequila or glass of red wine, you know, every few weeks, I don't think it's an issue. It's the consistent steady use over time that's the problem.
- [24:48]
Unknown Host
And you feel it. Like when I was in college, I felt it. Like I feel healthier now than I did at 18 because I don't drink as much. I just think there are other ways, healthier ways of achieving that. Even like nootropics, like, as well. Also amazing. Even just a. Like, this is gonna sound. Just have a Diet Coke. I know we don't want all that processed junk, but a Diet Coke versus binge drinking, or like a Coke versus binge drinking, if you want to pick your evils, you know, and you still want to feel.
- [25:22]
Dr. Mark Hyman
I wouldn't do that too often either.
- [25:24]
Unknown Host
But yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe, you know.
- [25:29]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Is an issue. I mean, you know, I think the advent of the wearables and things like your aura ring, I think it helps people see how alcohol harms their sleep. And I Think from my friends and colleagues, it's something I've heard a lot. It's like, oh, I noticed that when I got my wearable, it really affected the quality of my sleep, my deep sleep, my REM sleep, my. My heart variability, my nervous system was adversely affected by this. And then, you know, when you, when you do that over and over again, you end up with really damaged sleep architecture. And that lack of sleep leads to, you know, things like cancer and dementia and heart disease and diabetes and, and, and just is bad for your brain.
- [26:08]
Unknown Host
Yeah.
- [26:09]
Dr. Mark Hyman
I think it accelerates aging. When you drink, it can increase risk of liver disease, gut damage, the microbiome gets affected. So it's not, it's not something. I encourage people to do much of it. Explore some of these other things. They're not. Some of them are legal, some of them are not. But I'm not going to recommend anybody doing illegal. But I think people. People can sort of choose what they want. And, and that's, that's really important to understand that there's a renaissance happening.
- [26:35]
Unknown Host
Yeah. And I love that people can choose what they want. Like, it is still at the end of the day, your body, your. Your health, your choices.
- [26:42]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Just know what you're doing.
- [26:43]
Unknown Host
Yeah. Know what you're doing.
- [26:45]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Do I have ice cream sometimes? Sure. Do I know it's like, got a lot of sugar and stuff. Yeah. Am I willing to do that? Because life without ice cream just seems so sad. Yeah, of course. But do I have ice cream every night? No. I mean, do I have it maybe once a month or every couple of months or twice a year? Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't really worry about it if it's in the context of overall healthy Life.
- [27:06]
Unknown Host
Yeah. The 8020 rule. We're gonna take a short break here, but we will be back very shortly with Dr. Mark Hyman.
- [27:17]
Gemma
My life has been chaotic recently, to say the least. And with so many events going on at the moment, my friends, weddings, my book tour, I'm also moving house. The last thing I have time for is shaving. That is where Nair's shower cream comes in because it saves me so much time. And bonus, it also smells delicious. Nair is the number one hair removal brand, so, you know, their stuff works. And their hair removal shower cream uses natural extracts for its scents. So things like coconut oil, almond oil, lavender, they smell delicious. It's fast. Like the length of your shower fast, maybe even quicker.
- [27:59]
Unknown Host
And it's super easy to use as well.
- [28:02]
Gemma
It's also, and this is a big thing for me. Free of dyes, parabens, phthalates, sulfates and dermatologist tested, which is probably why it leaves my skin feeling so insanely silky. Here's the other reason I've been really over shaving. I hate when I end up like cutting or nicking my skin and I also feel like I end up missing.
- [28:25]
Unknown Host
Spots anyways, so I'm kind of like.
- [28:27]
Gemma
What'S the whole point of this? But with Nair's shower cream I have never had that problem. I just need you to try it out for yourself.
- [28:34]
Unknown Host
My friends were actually over the other.
- [28:36]
Gemma
Day and I had some in my shower and they were like what is this? And they tried it out almost as a joke, but I'm fairly sure all of them left with that on their.
- [28:45]
Unknown Host
Shopping list because that stuff works.
- [28:48]
Gemma
Nairs Hair Removal Shower Cream get ready for summer. You can buy it now at all major retailers. Everybody has been here. Traffic was a nightmare. You get home late and your dinner plans are out the window. When you hear the inevitable tiny voice saying I'm hungry. That's when dinner dread sets in. What are you going to make tonight? How can such a simple question be so hard to answer? Well, it doesn't have to be because a delicious baby family pleasing meal from Stouffer's is only a ding away. So if your dinner plans are derailed, don't worry. Just turn to a delicious solution from Stouffer's, A meal that will always leave everyone happy. Especially you. Maybe some chicken enchiladas? Spaghetti with meat sauce is obviously always a winner. Or how about some cheesy chicken and broccoli pasta bake?
- [29:43]
Unknown Host
Yes please.
- [29:45]
Gemma
When the clock strikes dinner, think Stouffers Shop now for family favorites. ChatGPT plus is free for college students now through May. That means you have no limits on how many ways you can prompt ChatGPT.
- [30:01]
Unknown Host
To help you through some of the.
- [30:02]
Gemma
Worst parts of the school year.
- [30:04]
Unknown Host
There are so many ways that you.
- [30:06]
Gemma
Can use ChatGPT that are innovative and useful, like asking ChatGPT to quiz you for an upcoming exam based on your notes. Turning complicated terms and theories into simple dot points to help you remember them by even coming up with interview questions. If you are preparing to apply for some graduate roles or full time work, it could even help you create images to elevate your notes or just simply to have fun. Honestly, I wish I had had this back when I was studying. It would have been an absolute game changer for me. ChatGPT plus it's free for college students through May Restrictions apply. Let's talk about something that most people in their 20s overlook or just straight up are confused by health insurance. Many people don't realize that health insurance wasn't designed to cover everything, which can leave gaps that you end up having to pay out of pocket. This brings me to Aflac. You know, the company with the very cute duck. We should all know by now that illness and injuries can hit at any time and dealing with them can be stressful enough without the added worry of additional expenses. That's where Aflac comes in. They pay cash to help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover, like co pays deductibles, even non medical expenses like rent or groceries. Whether it's a sudden illness, an injury, or even an unexpected hospital stay, Aflac can help provide a financial safety net so that you can worry less about how to cover those unexpected expenses, especially if you're having to miss work as a result. It's added peace of mind in a very busy world. To learn more, visit aflac.com so the.
- [31:55]
Unknown Host
Question everyone always asks me when it comes to their health in their 20s is about nicotine. We've talked about alcohol. Let's talk about vaping. Now. This might be like, let's just get your general thoughts on vaping because I know at least in Australia it was kind of promoted as this way to stop smoking.
- [32:18]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah, I mean, I mean it's not a cigarette, so it doesn't have some of the harmful things that are in, in, in the burning of tobacco. And it's marketed sort of as a healthy alternative smoking, but it's not safe at all. The chemicals and vapes cause all sorts of issues. Lung, lung damage, you get serious pneumonitis and people have ended up in the hospital and you know, had severe permanent lung damage from this. It leads to systemic inflammation in your body, cardiovascular risk. Plus nicotine itself is highly addictive. It disrupts your brain chemistry, it leads to more anxiety and dependencies. You become addicted to it and you only feel good when you're taking it. You know, like a friend said he had a nicotine spray or nicotine packet he put in his mouth for, you know, being alert for something he had to do. That's fine once in a while, but, but vaping is not safe. And it also gives us quick dopamine spike in the brain which creates a cycle of craving and reward. And they're kind of easy, they're socially acceptable, they be constantly throughout the day. It actually makes you probably smoke, quote, smoke more, which makes the addiction Worse. And so it's. It's pretty. It's a pretty toxic habit. And the key is really, you know, looking at how to. How do you get over that. How do you kind of stop a vaping addiction or even use a vaping. Well, you got to support your brain chemistry. You know, you've got to get the. Break the habit. So get rid of the triggers. If, if your vape is in your pocket, you're going to reach for it, don't leave it there. You know, you can replace the habit with other habits, right? Things like deep breathing or going for a run or chewing gum. And then also you want to make sure you support your brain chemistry. You can take things like tyrosine, which is an amino acid. You can, you know, you support your brain chemistry with healthy fats, amino acids from protein, B vitamins, often very helpful in repleting. A lot of things that get damaged during. During use of nicotine. Sometimes behavioral therapy helps, or nicotine replacements like patches can help you sort of transition off. Those aren't permanent, though. You don't want to keep doing that. But. But it's definitely not safe. It's definitely not safe. And it's not. I just, I would say it's not even not safe. It's harmful. It's very harmful. And I've seen many people and patients with serious issues as a consequence of vaping on a regular basis.
- [34:36]
Unknown Host
And that's the things that you don't really see as much in the media, right? It's. It's scary, but it's not something that's like, coming to the surface. I was speaking to someone the other day who was also an md, also a doctor. And I asked him, I was like, oh, you know, what do you think is going to be the thing that we look back and go, that was such a terrible idea. The same way that we look at Smokey. And he was like, well, it's. It's vaping. And I have, I have a. I have friends who are so addicted to it. I had one friend and she has now quit. But she was telling me this compelling story, compelling slash scary. However you see it, of how she would wake up in the morning and the first thought she would have was to find her vape. And the first breath of air she would have in the morning was. And she would fall asleep and the same thing. So she. And she was just like, it was just every. Every single day. I was so addicted to it. And to the point where she even said when she knew she needed to quit was she would wake up in the middle of the night sweating and feeling like I craving nicotine because her body literally couldn't even do the seven.
- [35:44]
Gemma
Eight hour withdrawal of sleep.
- [35:48]
Unknown Host
And that's just the thing. It's so addictive and it, like, it tastes great. They smell delicious, it's fruity, it's like, what's not to love?
- [35:59]
Dr. Mark Hyman
And it's not like a smelly old cigarette, an ashtray. Right.
- [36:02]
Unknown Host
It's like, yeah, yeah. And I've even seen this, this strange trend of people going back to smoking to get rid of their vaping addictions.
- [36:15]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Not sure that's a good idea.
- [36:17]
Unknown Host
I know. So Dr. Mark Hyman's advice, I'm gonna paraphrase you, is stop with the vapes. There's no. They're not a healthier, they're not a, they're not a healthy option, full stop.
- [36:29]
Dr. Mark Hyman
They're not like a healthy version of smoking. They're an unhealthy version. It's just creating even different issues. You know, I think, you know, long term we don't know, but for sure in the short term, you know, usually people have to smoke for decades to get permanent lung damage. With vaping, it can happen very quickly, and it causes this inflammatory response in the lungs that puts people in the ICU on ventilators. So you don't hear that, but I hear that because I'm a doctor. But it, it's, it's white. It's quite a concerning habit. And I would recommend if you're at all care about your health and well being, there's lots of ways to have fun. There's lots of ways to get dopamine. You know, personally, my favorite dopamine addiction is exercise. You know, it's like I love to be outside riding my bike, playing tennis, working hard, sweating. I mean, that just makes me, like, feel great. And, you know, you can get high without having to do a bunch of drugs.
- [37:27]
Unknown Host
Yeah.
- [37:28]
Gemma
Fantastic.
- [37:29]
Unknown Host
Advice or breath work, even breath. Oh, breath work is breath work. Let me just say this. Breath work, the first time you do it in particular will. Will make you feel high, drunk, whatever. Like, it actually so insane. I remember the first time I did it, and now it's quite a regular part of my routine. I was at this yoga event and they brought in this practitioner who does it, and I remember coming out of it and being like, oh, I actually feel so, like, weird. Yeah. And so alive. And I was like, wow. Like this. Look at my skin, look at my hands. I was like, when was the last time I Intentionally breathed. And it's so funny. You're saying you get paid a lot of money to just tell people really simple things. And what is more simple to being a human than breath? I want to take a quick pivot.
- [38:18]
Dr. Mark Hyman
First thing we do, and it's the last thing we do. Take a breath.
- [38:22]
Unknown Host
There we go. That's going to be the quote of the day, I think. Quick pivot. Let's talk about mental health for a second. How do you think our mental health and our physical health intersect in our 20s? What's important about that relationship?
- [38:37]
Dr. Mark Hyman
It's so huge. You know, I think there's so many people that struggle with mental illness, whether it's depression, anxiety, ptsd, bipolar disorder, ocd. I mean, the list goes on. Eating disorders. And, you know, our understanding of mental health has really changed. And I just maybe take a minute to dive in here because I think it's such an important topic. But, you know, classically in psychiatry, we diagnose people based on their symptoms, not the causes. So if you're sad and hopeless and helpless and have no interest in normal activities and can't sleep and don't have sex and don't want to eat or you eat too much or whatever, we go, I know what's wrong with you. You have depression. But depression is not the cause of those symptoms. It's the name we give to groups of people who share those symptoms. And the cause of depression can be many things. It can be because your mother just died, because your boyfriend, you know, left you, or because something horrible happened. We. We kind of taken a completely twisted view of mental health over the last, you know, 100 years. And now it needs to change to. To not sort of blame the person. I mean, if you, if you have a. Inflammation of your joint, we see of arthritis, we don't. It's not some kind of moral stain on you. But if we say you're mentally ill, it's. There's a stigma to it. There's sort of a moral or sort of, you know, judgmental view of this. It's something wrong with you. Right. But as opposed to, wow, this is something that, yeah, there's something wrong, but it's not in your head. It might be in your body.
- [40:09]
Unknown Host
Yeah.
- [40:10]
Dr. Mark Hyman
That more and more we can start to enter, tease out these things through lab testing and through medical history. And that's really why I love. Hormones play a big role. I mean, you can have. I mean, women know this if they're going through their menstrual cycles. Some women have premenstrual syndrome, you know, it's not you. What is it, right? It's, you know, you get depressed, you get anxious, you can't sleep, you're irritable. I mean, and then, you know, you have your period and everything goes back to normal. Well, clearly there's a link between your biology and your psychology, right?
- [40:41]
Unknown Host
Yeah.
- [40:41]
Dr. Mark Hyman
And we've missed is that link. And then that's what I spent a lot of my, my work doing is helping to advance both, I know, treatments of the physical body, but also the brain and mental health by really addressing these underlying root causes. So your gut health, your diet, sleep, exercise is so important in any inflammation from any source, whether it's environmental toxin. And sometimes it's not your fault. Sometimes it's like, you know, you just, you know, you're living in a place where there's no sun, you don't get vitamin D or you're, you're. Some doctor recommended you take an acid, you have locking drug because you have heartburn. And then you don't have vitamin B12 or you don't like fish and you love omega 3s or maybe you love fish and eat tuna all the time and you have mercury poisoning. All those things cause depression, right? And so you kind of have to individualize treatment based on the root cause. And that's really what we do at Function Health. It's what I do been doing for 30 years with my patients with functional medicine. So it's a really important moment where our whole psychiatric shift has happened and just completely flipped people upside down. I mean, you know, right now at Stanford University, it's a whole department of metabolic Psychiatry. Chris Farmer at Harvard has, you know, done a lot of work on this, wrote a book called Brain Energy, very much similar to the book that I wrote Ultramind Solution years ago, but that was a little bit more in depth around all the various factors to not just metabolic or mitochondrial health. And so, you know, the, the, there's a real understanding now at these major academic centers that there's a problem with our psychiatric paradigm and that we need to challenge it. Mayo Clinic just got $3.3 million as a donation to study the effect of ketogenic diets on mental health include including things like schizophrenia and bipolar disease and even, you know, more, more mild, I would say called mild. They're not mild if you haven't. But like, you know, not as serious mental health issues like just depression. So the, the, the body has this amazing way of repairing and healing if you allow it to. And I think, unfortunately we get in the way with drugs. And Chris Palmer actually did a. You know, tells a story about how he had a patient with schizophrenia who we think is one of the most intractable, you know, problems we see. And there's no cure for it and nobody really quite understands it. And yet, and yet we, we really have this incredible understanding that, that the brain is a metabolic organ. And that when he, when he said to this patient of who was schizophrenic, who took drugs that make them get diabetic and obese, he, the patient was like, I want to lose weight. I don't like being fat. And he's like, well, just, I don't. And he wasn't going to see anybody else. He wasn't a nutritionist. Another doctor, he wouldn't go anywhere and he'd only see this one doctor who was a psychiatrist. I don't really know, but I've kind of heard that, you know, his ketogenics ice might be helpful. And he recommended him for weight loss. And then, you know, it was like the, the guy came back and all his voices were gone. His head, all his schizophrenia symptoms were gone. Yeah, it was pretty, it was pretty remarkable.
- [43:58]
Unknown Host
I feel like that's going to be the new wave of, of psychology and mental health. But I'm conscious. We are. We only have a few more minutes. I want to ask you two final questions. Yeah, one's a big one. Ah, you can keep it short and simple or you can elaborate.
- [44:12]
Dr. Mark Hyman
That's my favorite flavor of ice cream.
- [44:14]
Unknown Host
Yeah, well, actually, yeah, we'll leave it at the end. Mine's boysenberry. What do you think is the biggest risk to our health currently as a population, but specifically for 20 somethings? Specifically for a younger age demographic.
- [44:36]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. So I think, you know, we've come to sort of accept our food supply as safe as something that, you know, has been approved by the government as something that we shouldn't really worry too much about. But the truth is, the biggest threat to our species, aside from the changing climate and nuclear war, is the obesity and diabetes epidemic. That's a result of the amount of ultra processed food that is in the market now in America. It's 60% of Americans diet, it's 67% of kids diet. And essentially think of ultra processed food as a bucket of food that you wouldn't make in your kitchen. Right. You wouldn't make a pop Tart or a Lunchable or you wouldn't make Doritos or.
- [45:25]
Unknown Host
Yes, yes.
- [45:26]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Or Coca Cola Gummy bears. Yeah. I mean, maybe I don't know if you can make them. Yeah, I think if you can. Listen, my view is like, make french fries. Make them at home, you know, like, if you want to eat something like that. And so we basically have a food system that is designed to create very cheap calories because they're subsidized both on the front end with subsidization of the agriculture and on the back end by paying for the consequences of people eating that food with healthcare dollars. But ultra processed food essentially is a vehicle for massive amounts of refined sugar and refined starch, and it's also the repository of inflammatory oils, also the repository of additives and chemicals. Things like emulsifiers we shouldn't even think about that are almost all processes that basically make food a little bit like, you know, kind of creamy and that thickness that they'll put in. Even things like almond milk, you go, that's healthy. But if you look at the label and there's emulsifiers like gum, squar gum, and, you know, carrageenan, and these. These things that seem like they even come from natural products, they're harmful, they cause leaky gut, they damage your microbiome, they cause inflammation in the body, they lead to prediabetes, they spike insulin, they make you hungry, they cause depression, they cause inflammation. And so you think, oh, it doesn't matter if I'm eating junk food. Whatever. I'm just. My weight's okay. It doesn't matter. It does matter, you know, like, you know, a lot of times it'll cause you to gain weight and create obesity, but for some people, it won't. But it in and of itself is probably one of the biggest threats to humanity.
- [47:00]
Unknown Host
I love that answer. Thank you so much.
- [47:02]
Dr. Mark Hyman
And when you. And when you. And when you eat, when you're 20s, you think, I can eat anything. Like, it doesn't matter.
- [47:05]
Unknown Host
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:06]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Like, I would have grape nuts and ice cream for breakfast in college.
- [47:09]
Unknown Host
You know, I don't even know what.
- [47:10]
Gemma
A grape nut is.
- [47:11]
Dr. Mark Hyman
It's the kind of. It's kind of like a healthy ish cereal. It's like. But it's kind of like a, you know, it's a refined grain, essentially.
- [47:17]
Unknown Host
Yeah, yeah.
- [47:18]
Dr. Mark Hyman
And. And so I think. I think we need to understand that we're setting the ground for our future selves. And you don't want your future self to regret your. What happened in the past. You want to set up yourself for success, and that means success at every level. Because if you feel like crap hard to be successful in school, it's hard to be successful at work and pay attention and focus. There's something called presenteeism, which is being at the job and not on the job. It's hard to have good quality relationships.
- [47:47]
Unknown Host
Because you're dysregulated, feel gross all the time.
- [47:49]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. So there's an immediate dividend. It's not like you're just doing this for your 60 or 70 year old self. You're doing it it for yourself now. So you can feel good now and not walk around with what I call FLC syndrome. That's when you feel like crap. Or a more serious version. It's called fls. That's when you feel like so, you know, very dangerous. And those are real things. And I think it's important for people to sort of try and you know, we created a the 10 day detox diet, which is really great. And you can go to 10daydetox.com just the number 10 Day Detox. And it guides you through a program that is just remarkable. Just read the testimonials. I've done this with tens of thousands of people over 20 years and essentially takes out all the bad stuff, puts in all the good stuff, and then you see, like, how do you set your body back to its original factory settings? Do you have rashes all over your body? Do you have migraine headaches? You have irritable bowel syndrome, you can't sleep, you're depressed. Whatever the symptom is, there's been a 70% reduction in all symptoms from all diseases when people do this for 10 days now. Sometimes people don't get all the way better because, you know, they might have more serious, like they might have Lyme disease or they might have mold, or they might have mercury in their system or some more significant thing they need to treat. But for most people it's like, boom, hit the factory, reset. And. And when your computer's not working, you just restart it. And it works, right?
- [49:07]
Unknown Host
Yeah.
- [49:07]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Or an appliance isn't working, you unplug it and plug it back in. And so it's sort of like that. And. And then you can decide, oh, this is how I could feel. I could feel really great. I could cure my FLC syndrome or FLS syndrome. And you know, I really like ice cream, so I'm gonna meet some of them. I've noticed that dairy causes me to have issues, but I don't really care because if I get pimples and a sunny nose and my stomach's upset, it's worth the trade. Off for a once or twice a month or something. So then you can be educated about how this stuff's affecting because most people have no idea the connection between what they eat and how they feel. And I think it's so important for people to make that connection. So that's why I recommend that. And I also recommend for people to start to learn about their bodies early on and track it over time.
- [49:54]
Unknown Host
We've got one more question. This is a question I ask all of my guests. What is your biggest piece of advice for people in their 20s that has nothing to do with what we talked about today? So nothing to do with physical health, just advice in general.
- [50:08]
Dr. Mark Hyman
You know, in my house today, my, my best friend came and we met on top of a mountain when we were 18 years old and been my best friend for almost 50 years. And we invest in our friendship, we invest in time together, we stay current. And I do this with many people because I think our social relationships and connections are so important. And I don't mean like on social media or by text, I mean in person. Deeply connected experiences where you put your phones away and you show up and you're present in the moment with people and get the true experience of what it is to be in connection and community, because that's medicine. And, and I worry that the younger generation is just like stuck on their phone like this or on Tick Tock or Instagram or, you know, chatting with their friends and don't even know how to pick up the phone to make a phone call. I mean, you can FaceTime someone. That's okay, that's better than, you know, not. But actually in person, time that you invest in is, is going to pay off so much in the future. And I, and I see so much loneliness, so much isolation. So many people have prioritized their careers and their work over their friends and their family. And at the end of the day, the, you know, on your deathbed, you're like, you're not going to go, well, I'm glad I emptied out my inbox or, you know, I'm glad I did that extra whatever it was at work. You're going to remember those special moments with people and, and you know, I think life is really about creating happy memories and so invest in creating those memories with your friends and your community.
- [51:43]
Unknown Host
Oh, I'm in 100 agreement. I've got to ask, what's your favorite ice cream flavor for the people who made it this far?
- [51:50]
Dr. Mark Hyman
It depends. It depends. I, I had one and now I got a new one. So My previous one was Chunky Monkey. Ben and Jerry's. I love Chunky Monkey because I love the banana and that's my favorite chocolate. I love Chunky Monkey.
- [52:03]
Unknown Host
Yeah.
- [52:03]
Dr. Mark Hyman
But this is version of ice cream in here in America called Van Leeuwens and it's kind of a premium ice cream, but they have a Sicilian pistachio, which I really like, so that's so bougie. Those are my guilty pleasures.
- [52:16]
Unknown Host
I'll have to try that next time in the. I'm in the US But Chunky Monkey is my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor. And it's not the same as Banoffee Pie. It's not the same like flavor. Well, if you made it that. If you've made it this far, drop a comment of an ice cream emoji below so that we know that you know the fun fact of the day. And I just want to thank you again, Dr. Mark Hyman women, for coming on the show and for giving us such invaluable advice for free, which is just crazy.
- [52:42]
Dr. Mark Hyman
My pleasure, my pleasure.
- [52:43]
Unknown Host
I'll link everything below your podcast and I really would recommend following Dr. Mark on Instagram if you just want some like really great facts on your feed for how to take better care of yourself. It's remarkable. And health hacks, are you still doing.
- [53:01]
Gemma
Health hacks or is it.
- [53:03]
Dr. Mark Hyman
The Dr. Hyman Show? And we, we now created the Hyman Hive, which is a community where people can actually support each other and change their behavior together and learn together. And so it's called the Hyman Hive.
- [53:14]
Unknown Host
Yeah, there's something for everyone. I honestly, I promise you that. But I'll make sure that's all down below. And lovely listeners, make sure that you.
- [53:20]
Gemma
Leave a five star review.
- [53:21]
Unknown Host
Follow along, follow us on Instagram at that psychology podcast. And until next time, stay safe, be kind, be gentle with yourself, and we will talk very, very soon.
- [53:36]
Gemma
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- [54:38]
Unknown Host
Quiz you just like that.
- [54:39]
Gemma
And honestly, it would have been a.
- [54:41]
Unknown Host
Game changer for me when I was back at college.
- [54:43]
Gemma
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- [56:02]
Dr. Mark Hyman
Listening to an I Heart Pod.