Speaker 1 (00:08):
Can these foods help you age backwards? Well, traveling back in time is currently impossible, but healthy food can help support a long, healthy life. So what’s happening to our body as we age? Well, first of all, we know that we have remarkably a perhaps endless supply of stem cells. You’ve heard about stem cell technology is getting a big push. We think about stem cells as these premordial pleuropotent cells that are undifferentiated. They haven’t decided what they wanna be. Uh, they haven’t decided whether they wanna be a cartilage in your nose or a piece of your heart muscle or a neuron in your brain. They’re just kinda standing around waiting for instructions. And it turns out that we always have stem cells in our body. Uh, some of you may have had your stem cells harvested from your fat and injected in a joint or a shoulder.

(01:37):
Uh, you may have had them injected in your heart muscle. Some of you have probably traveled to Mexico to get placental s- stem cells or embryo stem cells, but that’s another subject. The point is, we have stem cells available to us, but they just sit there and twiddle their thumbs until they’re called into action. So what we wanna do as we advance in years is to continuously call these stem cells into action. And the more we’re learning about what stem cells do, the more exciting our options become. First of all, there are foods that support stem cell growth. Interestingly enough, greens and particularly chlorophyll and spirulina actually have been shown to keep stem cells healthy. If you really wanna know more about this, visit our episode number 165 with the founder of energy bits, which are both chlorella and, uh, spirulina bits that you can chew.

(02:52):
And there’s a lot of exciting news on this front. Perhaps one of the most really exciting news is we know that the wall of our gut is probably the most important determinant for how well we age and for how long we live. And as I showed in the Longevity Paradox book, there’s very strong evidence that as long as the wall of your gut, which is the same surface area as a tennis court, is intact, then you will continue to be healthy and not wear out. So w- why talk about stem cells? Well, it turns out one of the biggest set of stem cells is in the wall of our gut. The wall of our gut is constantly replenished. We constantly slough off these cells and replace them with new cells. And the stem cells are what do this. Now, I’ve shown in my research that vitamin D is essential to make those stem cells actually turn into new intestinal cells.

(04:15):
And in my research, the higher your vitamin D level, the more you encourage those intestinal stem cells to do their thing. The second exciting news is that we now know that polyphenols, those wonderful, bright rainbow colors in fruits and vegetables, and that you can also take as supplements and powders are used by bacteria to not only live, but to produce compounds that further enhance stem cell proliferation in the wall of our gut. Third exciting finding is that the more you practice time-restricted eating, the more you compress your eating window to preferably about six to eight hours a day. What does that look like? It means break fast at 11:00 and finish dinner at 7:00 or break fast at noon and finish dinner at six or combinations. The more you do that, the more you allow for repair of your gut wall, and the more you stimulate stem cell differentiation in the rest of your body.

(05:46):
Now, why does that happen? Well, it turns out there’s new zombie cells that have been discovered recently that are so named because they are cells that are no longer functioning properly in our body, but have not decided to die. And they’re called senescent cells, and there’s a ton of them in our body. Sadly, the more senescent cells that we have, the more inflammation that they produce, and the more they occupy spaces where normal healthy cells could be. Now, cells die in one of two ways, and how they die is critically important. If these senescent cells eventually die, they literally die by exploding, and it’s got a name called apoptosis. It literally explodes and spews cellular debris around. Our immune system, our white blood cells go, “Oh my gosh, you know, there’s been an explosion, there’s been a disaster, and we’re gonna be called to the scene, and it actually produces more inflammation.” On the other hand, by intermittent fasting, by time restricted eating, what happens is that these cells, rather than exploding, undergo what’s called autophagy.

(07:21):
Autophagy means self-eat. And simplistically, what happens is the cell literally reprocesses all the components within the cell, basically takes the cell down to the studs and rebuilds it, recycling the components. And so we can actually tell cells to not explode, but to reprocess themselves and start all over again. So autophagy is what you want. It rebuilds cells without the damage, without explosion. How do you do that? Time restricted eating. How do you get stem cells to differentiate? Time restricted eating. How do you get stem cells in the wall of your gut to do their thing, vitamin D and time restricted eating? All sorts of great techniques. Now, if you remember in my last book, Unlocking the Keto Code, I stressed another way to enhance stem cell function, and that’s mitochondrial uncoupling. We now know that mitochondrial uncoupling, that is having mitochondria not work as hard as they need to.

(08:46):
Simultaneously stimulating more mitochondria to be born called mitogenesis is hallmark to having a healthy body well into our <laugh> later years. Mitochondrial uncoupling is promoted by ketosis, by eating polyphenols, by practicing intermittent fasting. So you can see how all of these techniques that have stood the test of time, excuse the pun, all produce what we’re looking for, and that is fresh, new, healthy cells, regardless of our age. And the exciting thing that I’ve seen in my practice and other people have documented is about every three months, we throw out a cell and build a new one, so that if you’re using quality materials, if you’re stimulating autophagy, you can actually get a whole new you every three months with good material. And that’s why you see such healthy agers in their late 90s, early 100s who do not look old, who do not act old, and that’s because they’ve been practicing this throughout your life.

(10:11):
Finally, mushrooms. Mushrooms are an unbelievable food for supporting mitochondrial uncoupling. I don’t care which kind of mushroom you get, but eat a host of different mushrooms. Get mushroom supplements. Uh, but most grocery stores now are carrying multiple kinds of mushrooms. If you have a choice between the white button mushroom and the darker ones, get the darker ones. Okay, that’s how to live to a ripe old age and die young.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry Podcast. If you did, please share this with family and friends. You never know how one of these health tips can completely transform someone’s life when you take the time to share it with them. There’s also the Dr. Gundry Podcast YouTube channel, where we have tens of thousands of free health insights that can help you and your loved ones live a long, vital life. Let’s do this together.