Just As Well, The Women's Health Podcast - The Longevity Expert: Autoimmunity, Inflammation & Health Span — What Actually Helps

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

What does “health span” really mean — beyond the buzzword? In this episode, we dive into autoimmunity, chronic inflammation and the everyday habits that can support long-term health in the real world. . We explore how inflammation shows up in ways many of us don’t recognise — from joint pain and fatigue to stress responses, sleep disruption and visceral fat. There’s a deep dive into the difference between acute and chronic stress, how stress can impact blood sugar (even without food), and why so many women may need to rethink how they approach fasting. . We also discuss: The lifestyle shifts that can support autoimmune conditions Fasting for women — and when it may not be appropriate Why muscle is critical for longevity, metabolic health and resilience Overtraining vs recovery Supplements — and why testing matters before adding anything new HRT, hormones and ageing Foods that may support long-term health (including some underrated staples) Plus, we look at emerging longevity tools, how biological age testing works, and why progress — not perfection — is a more sustainable approach to wellbeing. . This episode is for information and education only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your health or medication. . Hosts:  https://www.instagram.com/glouiseatkinson/  https://www.instagram.com/clairesanderson/  Director of photography : https://www.instagram.com/edmundcurtiscine/   Wellness video producer: https://www.instagram.com/chelia.batkin/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to another episode of Just as well. I'm Claire Sanderson and I'm here to introduce a very special episode. Gemma and I hosted a live recording of Just as well at House of Hearst, Women's Health Headquarters. Our guest was world-renowned longevity expert Leslie Kenny. We came away with a shopping list of actions that we are going to implement to live a longer, healthier life. Spermene. It's not what you think it is. It's a supplement we all. should be taken for so many benefits. And I also learned about blood flow restrictive training. Leslie bought along a device, much like a blood pressure monitor, but narrower when I put on each

bicep and my biceps look visibly bigger afterwards. How did it work? You'll have to listen to this episode to find out. I hope you enjoy. Today on Just As Well, our podcast, we're talking about auto immunity. We're talking about aging and what health span actually means, but not in like a gimmicky way in the real world, real life, you know, mess that we all deal with. And our guest is the wonderful Leslie Kenney, founder and CEO of the Oxford Health Span and co-founder of the Oxford Longevity Project. So Leslie was diagnosed in her 30s with leopis, rheumatoid arthritis, and Hashimoto's thyroiditis, said it correctly, yes. And she was told she wouldn't have children

and have limited good health. But she's since major life changes and she is now autoimmune disease free. She conceived naturally at 43 and has reduced her biological age from 61 to... 60. 201.

There's only 60, Claire. Oh, sorry, you're 61 in June. We have a very similar birthday. sorry, 60 still, Blumenek, 2.21. So a quick note before we start this episode, it's for information and education rather than medical advice. And obviously, seek advice from a doctor before you make any changes to your health

or take any different medication. So let's start, Leslie. First of all, thank you for joining us. We know you're so busy and manic. I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Can you take us back to the start with your diagnosis? So what was happening in your body in your 30s?

What was going on? Well, everything started around age 39, and I had been trying to conceive a baby with my husband for a number of years at that point. And I had already gone through four rounds of IVF, unsuccessfully, three rounds of IUI, and was getting ready for my fifth round of IVF. And the doctor had told me you have to use donor eggs because you're now too old. And I was really thinking about that.

But I noticed that I had pain in my hands when I tried to turn doorknobs, when I tried to turn faucets, even typing emails, I could feel joint pain. And it was not sort of, oh, repetitive strain, it'll go away, and it does leave. It was really searing, sharp pain. And I knew it wasn't right. I think we women are much more likely than men to go to a doctor.

I did. And just thought, well, it feels like what I think arthritis would be, but I'm far too young to have arthritis at 39. So it must be something else. Much to my surprise, after I did my blood test, I got a call from the doctor's office. But instead of it being the nurse to say that my blood panels were normal, it was actually the doctor. And she said, your test results are in. Can you come in so we can discuss them? And I think every patient who's ever been in this situation has thought, okay, not good, right?

and, you know, when I went to see her, in addition to the pain in my hands, I had been experiencing brain fog, not necessarily skin issues. I know most people with lupus tend to have a telltale sign on their skin around their nose, but I didn't have that. So much to my surprise, when she told me first I had rheumatoid arthritis. I thought, okay, that's good. I was right. Swati, you know, A-star child here thought that was at least good. She told me what medications I'd have to take. I'd have to inject myself with anti-inflammatories, immune suppressants, was what they were. But then she told me I had lupus, which I'd never heard of. And I said, okay, what's the cure? for that. And that's when she said, unfortunately, we don't have any cure for that or any drug to manage it.

So today we do, but this is back in 2004. You know, back then we didn't even have a cure for hepatitis C. And I was, you know, I was sort of thinking, wait a second, I'm in the middle of my fifth round of IVF. I need to have a baby. I'm still thinking, baby, baby, baby. And just thinking, all these drugs, what are they going to do to me? What about this illness? Is it going to impact me? And so I just looked at her and said, you have to fix this, you know? I'm the client. You're the doctor. America, it's different from the NHS here. So I was like, I'm the customer. You're the expert. I'm paying you. You have to fix me. And this is where I think a lot of patients get it wrong because we want to outsource our illness to the doctor. We have been raised to believe that the doctor always has an answer.

And unfortunately, it's simply not true. And she just looked at me and shook her head slowly and said, I wouldn't do the IVF if I were you. You've only got a good five-year. years left. Conversation stopping? As in left. As in left. The implication is, even if you manage to have a baby, you're going to leave this child motherless. What's the point? Why would you put your body through this, right? And I didn't have a comeback. I didn't know what to say because, again, I'm very fix it. I was very fixed on having a baby. You don't go through three IUIs and five rounds of IV.

and around with donor eggs, unless you're very focused on this, right? So I left the office, just bewildered. And luckily, the voice of my long-deceased grandmother, who was a can-do Midwestern, impractical American woman named Dorothy, her voice came to me, and she just said, let's throw the kitchen sink at it. And in that particular moment, I decided I would be the best patient

that I could possibly be. That I would sleep better, eat better, move better, and I just thought it only stood to reason that a patient who wasn't drinking, wasn't smoking, wasn't stressed, who was taking care of themselves, ought to do better than a patient that was abusing their body.

So why couldn't I be the optimal patient and maybe meet my doctor halfway so that they could hopefully find a cure? And that was my goal. And imagine my surprise when I go back several months later after making massive changes to my lifestyle, learning on patient bulletin boards about a groundbreaking therapy out of Germany called intravenous immunoglobulin doing two rounds.

I come back to the doctor for a routine checkup. She comes in. She's obviously not consulted my file beforehand. She opens my file and she says, well, look at that. You don't have lupus or rheumatoid arthritis anymore. In a matter of months. In a matter of months. This was less than six months.

I can't quite recall how many months it was, but it was less than six months. So what really break down the changes you made in that six months? Well, one of the things I did, I relied on a book called the anti-aging, it was anti-inflammatory or anti-aging zone by Dr. Berry-Series. It was a popular book. It came out in, I think, 2005. And he argued that autoimmune patients, he said, were premature. aging and that they had runaway inflammation and at that time there was an Italian

scientist who'd coined the word inflamaging so chronic inflammation to the point that you were aging your tissues and organs early and Barry Sears said you need to get rid of any triggers to your immune system effectively remove the kryptonite from your life and then add in the things that are anti-inflammatory. And these would be things like omega-3 fatty acids, olive oil. But also plants are very good for us as well. Oily fish, things like this.

And so I went and I tested for any kind of allergies. And the things that came back, unfortunately, were the things I loved that were allergenic. So this was dairy, gluten, and eggs. You know, I could eat those. every day multiple times. And maybe that was what was causing the problem. You know, your mother and your grandmother

always say all things in moderation. I was not moderate with those things. So I removed those things from my diet. I added in all the anti-inflammatory things. I was doing guided visualization based on the work of a professor at Columbia University. I was moving and doing yoga, which I knew would be good, to de-stress.

I also quit my job. you know, because that was a source of stress. We were talking earlier about someone who was very stressed on the job just by a single person and they could see it measured on their aura ring. So sometimes, you know, these have, these outside influences have an outsized impact on our health, and we really need to take heed of them. I'm trying to think of other things. The two rounds of intravenous immunoglobulin, I really do credit with pressing reset on my immune system.

and it acts as an immune system modulator. So intravenous immunoglobulin was created initially for patients who couldn't create their own antibodies. But they noticed that when they gave it to autoimmune patients like me, that it actually stopped an overreactive immune system from attacking and destroying organs and tissues. And I did two rounds. my doctor wouldn't actually prescribe them for me. I had to find a doctor. I was living in Boulder, Colorado at the time,

and I had to find a doctor in San Francisco who would prescribe it for me. They were each $12,000 U.S. dollars. I had exceptional insurance at the time, but please bear in mind that the drugs, the injections, just to suppress my immune system for the rheumatoid arthritis, those cost $5,000 U.S. dollars a month.

and this was 20 years ago. So for a $24,000 investment by United Healthcare, my insurer at the time, I essentially got rid of over a million, I've calculated now. If I stayed on those drugs, it would have been $1.2 million US dollars. My insurer would have paid,

and that was keeping the cost of the immune suppressants at $5,000, US dollars. We know inflation and healthcare has gone crazy since then. inflammation is endemic for us, regardless of whether we have an autoimmune disease. I lost my mother two years ago to Alzheimer's, and I put on a lot of weight very quickly, and I could see it all. The inflammation, the grief triggered inflammation in my body and just caused me to hold on to everything. Stress causes inflammation. Allergies in our diet causes information. What are the signs that people in this audience

and listen, might be inflamed and not realize it? Well, in my case, it was joint pain, but I think a lot of women might notice the famous muffin top where you're carrying a little bit of visceral fat above the belly, and that is visceral fat is very bad for us, but it's very inflammatory stress. If you wear a continuous glucose monitor and you haven't eaten any food,

but you have an argument with someone, or you feel stressed, you can see an insulin spike, even though you haven't had any food. I think that surprises people. So that is the power of stress on our bodies. Imagine that. No food. And it manifests in so many different ways.

It can affect your sleep, your skin, even like your mood, like you get snappy. And it all just could be because we're fueling with the complete wrong foods. Well, all the systems in our body are kind of. So what happens when we are stressed? Our hunter-gatherer ancestors would be running from, say, an elephant or a tiger, and the body wants us to run faster and outlive that event. So it spikes adrenaline.

And adrenaline goes to our muscles, and it allows us to run away. But afterwards, the body's got to do something with that because that's stressful. So if the stress goes away, we turn it into hydrogen peroxide. and if we are healthy, our liver will produce glutathione and antioxidant and will neutralize the hydrogen peroxide. If we don't neutralize it, we get gray hair, which is hydrogen peroxide dyeing our hair from the inside out. Now, if we have chronic stress all the way through, that becomes chronic inflammation. And a quick jolt of stress, we talked about this earlier, Jemma, a quick jolt of stress, we talked about this earlier, Jemma, a quick jolt of stress. starts a repair cascade in your body.

But if you have chronic stress, the body says, whoa, okay, this I don't know what to do about. There's nothing to exactly repair. It's actually everywhere. There's too much to repair, and it kind of puts tools down. So it's very damaging to organs and tissues to have that massive inflammatory response, and that can be the start of an overactive immune system.

And you mentioned a visceral system. You mentioned visceral fat there as well. I was reading a book, and it said one of the quickest ways to rid yourself for visceral fat is to do some intermittent fasting. Now, I know you spoke about fasting before. For anyone who's considering maybe trying it, what advice would you have? And does it actually work for the visceral fat? So, fasting is, you know, I always defer to my colleague, Dr. Mindy Peltz on this for women.

men can generally fast a lot easier than women can. Of course they can. Right? Yeah, of course they can. Close the bloody can. And sometimes you may talk to a couple and they're doing the fasting together and the guy's just losing weight.

It's so easy. It's just falling off of him. And the wife is like, I'm gaining weight, right? So we do have to work with our menstrual cycles. We have been put here to reproduce. and when the body senses there is no food, it can say, whoa, it's a famine. Let's just shut reproduction down. As a matter of fact, let's upregulate a hormone called reverse T3 and turn metabolism down.

So we gain weight because it's a famine, right? And so that's why sometimes women fast and they gain weight. But this is why it's important to work with your menstrual. cycle. Now, if you're very skinny, like my mother, who is 86 years old and weighs about 85 pounds, she's tiny. She told me, Leslie, I really want to try fasting. And I just said, you can't possibly fast, because if you fast, the first thing that's going to go is your muscle, right? Because unless she's ketogenic, you know, fat adapted, her body is going to take protein, and that's in your muscles. And she's so skinny.

Anyway, now, as we get older, we need to have more muscle to prevent frailty, right? How many of us have heard about an elderly great uncle who fell, broke his hip, and that was the end, right? So you must maintain muscle. So if you're if you're sarcopenic, if you're really skinny, don't do it. If you're hypothyroid, be cautious. I am hypothyroid. I don't like to overfast. I'm not doing a five-day water fast, which a lot of, you know,

Jimbrose love to do, right? And if you're trying to get pregnant, I would caution you as well, because you can lose your menstrual cycle. And sometimes some women find it difficult to get their cycle back again in the same rhythm they had. If you're breastfeeding, I wouldn't fast, right? So there are certain times when it's really not advised. Now, what about the other situation?

What if we're carrying a little bit more weight, and we want to get rid of it, well, if you want to start, you know, put your, dip your toe in, why not start with some circadian fasting where you're eating only when it's sunny outside? This is based on the work of Dr. Satchin Panda, the Sock Institute in La Jolla, California. Or what about doing eating for in a 12-hour window? Because one of the problems we have in modern society is that we're kind of over-nourished, right? There are snacks everywhere. Even our children.

I remember my kids. They had a, you know, a 10 o'clock snack. I didn't get a 10 o'clock snack when I was in school, you know, 50 years ago. But we are constantly bombarded with opportunities to overeat. And to, you know, not Netflix and chill, you know, not sex. But, you know, Netflix and chill with Ben and Jerry's, right? We're invited to do that. And so a lot of people will eat from, say,

seven all the way until 11 when they go to bed. And that is really stressful for the body. So if you want to start, try with just a 12-hour fast. If you're a woman, I highly recommend Dr. Mindy Pelses' book, Fast Like a Girl. I was just going to ask what your typical diet is in a day. Like, I know it'll vary from, because you travel and things. Yeah. You said, do you eat any sugar, like, processed foods at all?

Or if you have a day when you slip, how do you get back on track? I do love dark chocolate And dark chocolate and nuts are great So it's kind of kind of a treat 70% dark It's not 100% dark Because that's just too bitter She has 100% dark

Oh do you have 100% Okay She really winds me up Yeah Trying to give us on a day with knots She told me to have off She's like, no Well dark chocolate

And I do add rock cacao To my coffee in the morning and I love it, but it is bitter. Now, there was an herbalist, an American herbalist named Paul Pitchford, and he said, eat bitter for sweet life. And so, you know, I've always taken that to heart. I try, if I'm having a treat, then I'll do the 70 or 80%

if I'm going to Hotel Chocolot with my daughters, I'll have the 80% hot chocolate. So we can't be orthorexic. We can't try to over-control things. we shouldn't be too perfectionist. I always say progress, not perfection. I think it took me three years to wean myself of sugar. I just didn't realize all the places that it was. It's in balsamic vinegar. It's in ketchup. There's so many places that it's in. But luckily today, you know, even Hines has ketchup that is low sugar. So there are ways that you can get rid of it. A typical day for me

usually begins with a cup of tea or coffee. I'll have some almond milk. If it's a tea, if it's coffee, I'll add some collagen powder. I'll add some medium chain triglycerides from coconut. And then I'll add in some raw cacao. I will, at different times of the year, add in a Chinese herb called Hushawo, which is a kind of traditional anti-Asian herb, but not very much because it's super bitter. and then I like to eat a proper breakfast.

So I will have eggs because protein is a great way to start your day. So I'll have some eggs. I might have some gluten-free toast. And with grass-fed butter on top, like Kerry Gold, I might have an avocado. Avocados are great. They're one of the most perfect foods because they're very sateen. You can cut them up and then put, sprinkle some sesame seeds on.

There's something called, it's a Japanese seasoning called Furikaze. black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, a little seaweed, a little plum leaf in there. It tastes great, and it's super quick. And you can also put, you know, sprinkle some nuts there. I love nuts. And I will take nuts, I will put them in a jar. We have to be careful with how we store nuts

because they can go rancid very quickly. So if you can, store your nuts in the fridge, so they don't go off. You know, there's nothing worse than at Christmas, cracking a nut open, and you taste it. and you taste it, and you're like, oh, that's horrible. You know when it's gone off. And the reason we have that reaction is,

if we eat those rancid oils in those nuts, they become the outside of our cell. Imagine the outside of our cell as having, like, a lot of turnstiles, letting toxins out and letting nutrients in. If those toxins get, if the turnstiles get gunked up with oxidized oil, they don't work anymore. So another reason why we, we should take care out with quality of our food.

So you mentioned supplements there. You have a supplement brand, and you had taken me through them upstairs. And one of the key ingredients is spermidine, not what you think it might is. This is a longevity compound. Tell us what it is. Okay, so first of all, for those who've never heard of this compound before,

it's nothing to be afraid of every single one of us in this room. is making it or has made it and has probably eaten some today. Why? When we're very young, we all make it in our tissues. As we get older, we should if we have a healthy gut, continue to manufacture it in our gut biome, and it is in all plants. Its unfortunate name comes from the 16th century Dutch microbiologist who was casting about his lab for something to put under his newly discovered microscope and decided to put his own semen there. So very sad. I know it's terrible, distasteful. Can I just say that if it had been discovered by a woman, we'd have a better name because it is in copious quantities in breast milk. So what is it there for? It's there in breast

milk to promote cell growth in the baby. It helps the baby grow faster. And it is, yes, an anti-inflammatory, but at that stage it's really helping the young infant grow quickly, and it's sealing up the nascent lining of the gut, and it is signaling to the immune cells that line our gut how to have an appropriate response to solid food once it's weaned from breast milk. Now, the reason why I am a big fan of it is I live in Oxford, a university town here, and a venture capitalist who knew about my rheumatoid arthritis and lupus said, I should speak to some scientists in rheumatology about a compound they were using

that was having promising results. And I went to talk to these scientists, Professor Kachis-Simon and Dr. Gada-Al-Salay, now a professor herself. And the research was so compelling because it's not just there to grow, baby quickly or to seal up the lining of the gut. It's there to renew ourselves. And it gives us the same result that you get from fasting, which is a process called autophagy.

Autophagy just means self-feeding, and it was the subject of the 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, won by a Japanese scientist, who I have the privilege of working with. And when I saw that, I thought, cells are at the base of every part of our body, right? Every organ, every tissue, our hair, skin, nails, cells make up everything. If we can make new versions of them, that's kind of the holy grail.

So when I look more at the science, I could see that scientists were saying there were 12 discrete pathways down which we got older. There are things that you've all heard of, like inflammation, gut dysbiosis, impaired autophagy, dysfunctional mitochondrial. shortened telomeres, things like this. And spermidine was inhibiting nine out of 12 of these. That was based on research from UCL here in London. And when I saw the chart, and I saw that this compound was outclassing

every other compound except for rapamycin, which is a serious immune suppressor, I thought, people need to get more of this into their diet. Now, you can get it from mushrooms, Shataki, and oyster moister. mushrooms are a great source. You can get it from cheddar cheese. Shout out to the cheddar valley. You can get it in all plants, but especially high in green things. So yes, broccoli will have some as well. Legumes are an especially rich source, and it's very interesting that the longevity blue zones around the world do incorporate beans in their diet. So great source there. And that's an an expensive source, right? So you can get it there. But the problem is so many people are eating

processed food and they're not getting enough spermating in their diets. So that's why I decided to work with these scientists at Oxford and get a food-derived product out there. I really wanted it from my mom in the United States to be, you know, truth be told, was what I was hoping to do. I'm sold on that. I'm going to be all over that. I wish I'd have saved more breast milk now. Yeah. They don't need to keep it in the freezer for a long time. I should have done.

Well, what's interesting, you know, bodybuilders, they like to have human breast milk because they want to grow their muscles bigger. I know it's very distasteful, but they do this, you know? And when we give it away, one of the things that shows we've given it away is we women, we lose hair. And a lot of women after they deliver or after they've been breastfeeding, they say,

do you know, my hair is falling out and I don't know why. And one of the reasons, one of the other things that spermene does is it keeps the hair follicles in the antigen or growth phase of the hair life cycle. So that's the only time when pigment is produced. And so if you can keep these hair follicles in the growth phase of the hair life cycle, you will have more pigment. You will get longer hair that grows past your shoulders, even if you're sick. 60 like me. And maybe you don't have to dye your hair, like I don't have to dye my hair.

And those of you on the front can see I've got some gray hair here. So I'm not lying about this, but that is, you know, a side effect. Get some. Yeah. I'll take it. Sold. What advice would you give to anyone? We're going to talk about this as well in a minute because this little machine, me and Claire, have just been using upstairs. But for anyone who's wanting to make lifestyle changes as of today, like from leaving here, what's the first thing they should do? That's in layman's terms, like sleep, hydration. What's the main thing?

That's kind of the problem. You know, there are these major pillars, sleep, movement, diet, social connections, which bring us joy. And de-stressing techniques, those five are just so key. Before you start with a supplement, please work on those. And before you start with, say, a spermodym supplement, please work to get the food version in your life. I always say if you want to focus on your longevity, please go to a doctor and get a full set of test to get a baseline picture of where you're at. It's kind of like with a car, right?

We go into, rather than saying, oh, you should re-apulster the seeds or you should top up the oil, we wouldn't do that if we wanted to, you know, fix our car and make sure it was in good shape, we would go to the garage and we would say, please do some diagnostics, right? Let's figure out what the tire pressure is, where the oil is, where the gases, what's going on with the lights or the brakes, right? We have to do the same with ourselves. It's possible that many of us know more about how to fix our cars than we do how to maintain our own bodies. So it's very important to just get a baseline. And young women, I always say when you're young, get your hormone panels done. Because you want to look back when you're my age at 60 and say,

where was I when I felt amazing, when I knew I could bring it at any given moment. Because at my age, you actually can feel that way. But you need to have a reference range to go back to. And we haven't talked about hormone replacement therapy, but for women of my age, I think it is the most. most impactful thing that you can do for longevity. We have lots of guests who speak about the HRT. We had a guest earlier today, actually, who was speaking about the fear around HRT.

That is still there, it's lessening, and it's diminishing because of the work, the brands like Women's Health and Devinan McCall and talking about, I've taken HRT since I was 41, I'm nearly 48. And I wouldn't say it makes me feel amazing or brilliant, but it just makes me feel steady. Yeah, yeah. That's good enough. You know, I don't have the, the hormone. own ell ups and downs and the hot flashes,

etc. But there is, there is sort of fear amongering around taking HRT. There is. And look at you. You're the editor-in-chief of women's health and men's health. You are bringing it every day, every hour. Oh, stop it, Leslie. And you're a mother, right? No, but it's true. The HRT has been

badly demonized. Those earlier studies were blown out of proportion and they were using massively high doses and they were using synthetic versions or they were using, you know, pregnant urine of pregnant mares. What we have today, the bioidenticals are so much better. And the evidence seems very clear that this is neural protective, cardio protective, osteo-bone protective, and very good for your mood.

Now, if you have the BRCA one or two gene variant, you do need to speak with your doctor. If you have an active breast cancer, you cannot do this. If you have already had breast cancer, then I would advise, you know, what I've heard, the evidence I've seen, and again, I'm not a doctor, so please do talk to your doctor. But there are fermented soy isoflavins that you can buy that will help with these symptoms of hot flashes, low energy, unstable mood. And I just want all women in this country and in the United States to have the conversation with their doctor to explore this. And here in Great Britain, 15% of women who are eligible for HRT are on it.

You know, in the United States, in around 2000, when HRT had been introduced, almost 30% of women who were eligible for HRT were on it. Do you know what that percentage is today? Actually, I'll ask the audience, can you guess what percentage of American women eligible for HRT are on it today? If 15% in Great Britain and Japan are on it, how many are on it in America? 10. Okay, I've heard 10. Any other numbers? Any other bidders?

Five. Yeah, five is closer. It's actually 4%. Imagine all those families. I went through, you know, I remember my mother when she went through menopause. I couldn't do anything right. And it's not that she didn't love me. She just, you know, it's the loss of those hormones.

And it's a shame for women especially. You mentioned your mother had Alzheimer's. Women are at twice the risk of Alzheimer's than men. And there's a professor at the University of Zurich, a gynecologist named Christian Breiman, and he was showing statistics of women who did not take HRT. You could see they had twice the risk for Alzheimer's than men. women given HRT, their risk came down almost identical to that of men.

My mother didn't take HRT. So it's one of the reasons why I, well, I've been on it longer than when she was diagnosed and sadly she has passed away, but it's one of the reasons why I'm going to continue taking it. That makes sense. So we want to talk about this now, don't we? So this device is not a form of torture. Leslie just pulled it out of her handbag.

like it was the norm. And we're like, what the heck is this? Do you want to explain what it is, Leslie? Sure. This is, you know, I have the privilege of working with some scientists from Japan. And actually, you probably remember, because we did try this earlier, how to put it on. This is a blood flow moderation device. So it's basically like a blood pressure cuff.

And it is going to, you put it at the base of a limb, so at top of your arms or your legs. And then a pump is going to go on, and it's going to constrict the blood flow at the top of the limb. The name of this is Ka-A-A-A-T-S-U. So K-A-A-T-S-U. A-T-S-U just means pressure. Ka just means more pressure. It's not chicken cats, so it's, you know, ka-A-A-U. And here, let me go ahead and turn this on.

Oh, let's put this one up a little bit higher, if you can, higher up the limb. and there's a lot of great research on this from the University of Tokyo, which is their equivalent of Oxford, Cambridge, or Harvard. And basically, when you put these on and you restrict blood flow, she's going to have a lot of blood collecting in her arms just for maybe 30 seconds. I'm supposed to do this. Yeah, do this. It's very simple, not weight loading or anything.

They use this with stroke patients, cardiac patients. cardiac patients in Japan. I was saying that if you come out of open heart surgery where they've cut into bone, muscle, and the heart, you come out of the operating theater at the University of Tokyo. They put these bands on, and the nurse, while you're still under anesthetic,

the nurses, they're pumping your arm. Why? Because it sends a message to your pituitary gland that you have lifted heavy and that you've got to produce growth hormone and send that growth hormone to the same side of injury. Now, if we had measured her arm, the girth of her arms before, and then we measured after, you would see that they would grow about a centimeter. Maybe half a century. They could see,

they could see the pump on, you know, the girls who did makeup and hair. We all did it. Yeah. Gema's just went by, didn't they? Yeah, Gemma looked like this very strong, beautiful ballerina. Just I felt like I've done a helicum session. Yeah, you look wonderful too. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So why would we want to raise growth hormone? Well, we do lose hormones as we get older. We lose, obviously, estrogen, progester, testosterone.

We lose thyroid hormone. That's also something I feel passionately about, but we also lose growth hormone. And this is true of both men and women. And replacing growth hormone allows us to build muscle. Now, if you wanted to inject synthetic growth hormone, you could do that, but it would cost you $1,000 and you'd have to go to a fancy doctor to get it, and I'm not sure that it would be the right thing, because if you have too much growth hormone, you can grow cancer.

Now, if something like this, the body has its own, you know, breaks. It will say, oh, no, we're not going to produce too much because that's not good for us. But in this case, it's all made by yourself. So that's why I'm a big fan of this. If anybody wants to fill my muscles afterwards, I don't have a gym membership. I just walk around town in Oxford carrying my groceries, you know, doing farmer carries with, I don't know, almond milk, you know, and rice. And I do this. But it takes literally six minutes and you could do it while you're, you know, doing your emails or on a call or something.

I'm a great one for doing things at the same time as doing something else, right? I'm a multitasker like most women. And I'm sure all the women here are fantastic at multitasking. So that's what that does. And Dr. Sato, who invented this in Japan, he was basically their Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he came up with this. It's a very elegant way to build muscle easily for any body. who's a little bit lazy like me, but who also wants to do things smart, not hard,

that's what this is. Just one of the hacks. And you were saying it's used in rehab as well. It's used for stroke, a lot of stroke patients. So what's the problem? If you've had a stroke, you lose ability to control your muscles. So this can be done quite passively. And, you know, say you've had a bone break, it's very easy.

Or you're in hospital. If you're in hospital as an older person, I think my colleague's Muir Gray, who was chief knowledge officer of the NHS, he said we lose 8% muscle every week that we're in hospital bedridden. So we don't want that. This is an easy way to, you know, to maintain muscle, build muscle. They even have case studies of individuals who are over 100. So I think there is, on YouTube, I think there is a woman who is 104, and you can actually physically see how her posture improves from the beginning to six months later when she finishes doing this. It's really profound. And so I do want to emphasize muscle. Ladies, we must maintain

our muscle. Muscle is not just there to keep us from falling over or looking, you know, lovely like these two ladies in our clothes. It also produces an anti-inflammatory. They're called myokines. And you might not have heard of them, but I've already talked about how chronic inflammation is terrible. Well, if you've got more muscle, you have greater ability to deal with that inflammation because you're making those anti-inflammatory myokines. It's very, very interesting. Claire's like pumping away. I'm going to show you my biceps after this comes off, so I'll keep on. Thank you for joining us. We have got, before you go, we've got some quick, rapid questions for you. And then we're going to open it up.

So if you've got any questions for Leslie as well, she's happy to answer. The first question, Leslie, is one habit that matters more than people think. What would it be? Getting outside and getting sunlight. Because in Great Britain, we spend, the average person spends 90% of their time indoors. And we have photoreceptors in the eyes that actually help with circadian rhythm and sleep. and if you've gone past menopause, guess what? They don't work as well.

So you need to spend more time outdoors. And the time you need to do it is from the time you wake up till noon. So we need to go for a walk tomorrow in the morning. We'll walk for a coffee instead of getting deliveries. Yeah, and we went out for lunch today. Yeah, we did. What's one wellness train that you'd happily been? Over training.

Yeah. And a lot of cardio as well. Too much cardio. I see it all the time. Yeah. which will cause too much inflammation. Too much inflammation. Reactive oxygen species.

Ages you faster. Where's out your joints? Again, let's work smart, not hard. And muscle I think is better. Obviously, the heart is important. But, you know, there are better ways to get that cardio strength than doing a marathon all the time. If you heard that beep, she's now done.

I'm now done. Do you want to see my muscles? Let's have a go. You've done an upper body session, aren't you? Look at those, I know. You know, when you go into a black tie dinner and you want like shapely arms, just do this,

rather than doing tricep dips, which is what I've been known to do. Those help too, but yeah, this is the easy way to do it while you're doing your work emails. It's definitely like a pump going on there. So, yeah, that's incredible, isn't it? Right, wash your most underrated food.

Probably mushrooms. Mushrooms have vitamin D. They have loads of spermidine. And they also have a compound called ergothyanine, which we ourselves cannot make. And ergothyanine helps against something called old person smell. It's something the Japanese have studied. It's a terrible name.

But essentially, it's, you know, when we're young, we're teenagers, we have sebum. That has a smell. But when we get older, we have kind of the reverse sebum, where this oil gets trapped in the layers. of our skin and it begins to oxidize. That's old person's smell. Mushrooms, the ergothyanine and mushrooms

will get rid of it. Oyster mushrooms best. What's your rule for supplements? I said before everybody should get the pillars right first before you lay on the supplements. So good diet, good sleep,

de-stress, social connections, movement. These are really important. Then layer them on. And with supplements, what works for Gemma or works for Claire might not work for me. You each have a unique biology, and you need to get it tested to see what you specifically are deficient in. And unfortunately, you might have to do that maybe once a year.

I do it every six months because of my autoimmune history. But for instance, my doctor recently told me, I have too much vitamin B6. and I couldn't figure out where because I don't take vitamin B6 specifically, but it turns out for supplement manufacturers to make claims, they put B6 in a lot of things. And I looked and I could see I was getting like 2,000% of what I needed every day.

So do test and get what's right for your unique biology. Well, we're going to wrap it up with me and Gemma asking questions because I'm sure you guys have plenty that you want to ask Leslie. So please put your hands up and, yeah, Leslie's ready to answer any questions you have. Hi, thanks for that chat. It was very insightful. I just wanted to ask what your opinion is if you've got any experience on the use of peptides for anti-inflammatory and reverse aging. peptides are really interesting. We all know, of course, about collagen peptides.

Maybe many of us already take those. And, of course, GLP-1s are famous peptide. But there are others such as BPC 157, which is great for injuries. There's something called a Wolverine stack, which I have taken before. I find effective. There are other copper peptides. You probably are familiar in your skin cream. These things do work, but the quality varies dramatically from lab to lab.

So finding a good source is then an issue. And there are different delivery mechanisms. Sometimes people inject them, just like a GLP1. Other times you can get them as a lozenge. It's like trying to think what it would be like. It's something you can just put on your tongue and allow it to dissolve. Others are in supplement capsule form. I would advise, because it's a bit of the Wild West out there right now,

working with a practitioner whom you trust, and making sure the source is good and pure. And there have been some labs that were very popular, and they've been shut down for regulatory reasons. There should be more out on peptides and changes to their use in the United States. It usually happens in the U.S. first and then cascades to other countries, So I do think we're going to see a lot more use of these peptides for anti-aging. They're great.

Yeah. Thank you. That was some really helpful information. I had a quick question. When you started, you talked about your biological age being 21. Yes. How is that determined? So I used a glycan age test, and that is looking at something called glycins.

These are inflammatory markers. And to be honest, and I did mention this to both of you ahead of time, I go to a lot of longevity conferences around the world. I've heard Steve Horvath, who is the father of the methylation clock, and I've heard Gordon Lauch, who's the inventor of the glycan clock talk, and I've heard a lot of clinicians talk about these tests. I think they're not quite ready for prime time yet. I think I would, I take this biological age with a grain of salt, but for me, the reason the glycan age test is especially interesting is because it was looking at markers of inflammation. And as an autoimmune patient, I really want to make sure I am not overly

inflamed because that might mean I'm going to go out of remission. And that's something I don't want. Hello. Amazing talk. Really interesting points. I just wanted to ask actually something very specific that you were talking about over training. I'm doing the London Marathon in April. Obviously, that comes with a lot of running. And I think I'm paranoid. about over-training or what that might look like. So do you have any tips? Recovery. Recovery is really important. And obviously, you know, replenishing things like electrolytes.

But I think that especially when we're younger, we all want to be superwoman or superman. And we get a lot of kudos from doing marathons. I know people who've done 30 marathons. Actually, one of my colleagues on Longevity Project did 10 marathons. in 10 days at age 73. Talk about a reactive oxygen species, you know, cascade. So I don't recommend that.

So I see some people who are sort of obsessed doing that, and I think that's terrible for your joints, for your tissues. I see older guys who are running a lot, and they get all this white hair. It's all the oxidative stress, you know. So I would just stress recovery. And some athletes have even said that they train less before they go for a big race. I mean, I'd look into some of these types of training where you, you know, when I was very young, I used to run.

I had an Olympic marathon runner who lived across the street and his wife trained me. And she would have me run around the block. And then the next day, I could only run half of the block. and I really wanted to do more. But she said, no, you have to recover. And she also wanted me to really want to run more. So just, you know, take it back a little bit. And it's a wonderful achievement, and you're running most likely to raise money for an excellent cause.

So I applaud you for that. But take care of your body and just remember to rest and recover. If you have an aura ring like I do, it will tell you whether or not your body is ready for that. training and listen to it because it's also taking a lot of data points from around your body to see what your resilience is like. But good luck. Yeah, good luck, yes. Some good quality magnesium before bed as well. That will help. Claire did the marathon, didn't you? I'd take my heart off to you, genuine. I struggle with a 10K. So anyone who does any more than that, like, I've just, yeah, you'll be fab. Well done. That was a great talk. Thank you. You mentioned that HRT is the

impactful thing that women can take to can do for longevity but for any women that can't take HRT like you mentioned what's the next most impactful thing that you could do it would be those fermented soy isoflavans and this isn't my recommendation it's the recommendation of Professor Johannes Huber who is a professor of endocrinology and gynecology at the University of Vienna and I just saw him speak in Zurich a few days ago and he was presenting all the data. So this will reduce the symptoms, hot flashes, brain fog. It's very helpful for these women. But for the Alzheimer's fear that you mentioned that. Oh, it helps with,

it helps with Alzheimer's. It helps prevent. There's so many different theories around Alzheimer's. So the data I have seen, and that was from Christian Breiman, who's a professor of gynecology at the University of Zurich showed neural protection from HRT. And Dr. Dale Bredesen, who used to teach pharmacology at UCLA and wrote the New York Times bestselling book, The End of Alzheimer's, he also recommends HRT as well for neural protection, as well as all the other benefits. So it is very clear that it helps, it seems to reduce our risk of Alzheimer's. I'm not saying it's the only thing. There's some excellent research out of the University of Oxford by Dr. Ruth Itzaki showing that the herpes simplex virus, which about 95% of us probably carry,

in APOE4 gene carriers, these are carriers of a gene that really predisposes to Alzheimer's. If they also have herpes simplex, then they have a much higher likelihood of getting Alzheimer's. So I've just been talking to some academics about can we make an HSV vaccine, a herpes simplex vaccine, because that could be protective. And also the shingles vaccine, there's good research also out of the University of Oxford by Professor John Todd showing that taking the shingles vaccine is protective against Alzheimer's too. I think it's going to be multiple things that will help prevent Alzheimer's. Would creatine not prevent it?

But there's lots out about, I mean, I've taken it for years. Creatine is great. Oh, that explains the excellent. muscles too, yeah. So there are studies out on creatine, very helpful for brain health in women and in men. And if you have a terrible night of sleep and you can't really think, take some creatine. For women, the dose is lower. It's around three to five milligrams. The Canadians have done studies where they're using 20 milligrams and showing great results for brain health and in individuals who have, you know, neurological issues. So yeah, it's definitely a good thing. Thanks again for a lovely talk.

You said you conceived your daughters naturally, which is so inspiring, one daughter, which is so inspiring, especially after reversing your autoimmune disease in a few months. So tell me, how were your fertility markers then after recovering, and how quickly did you conceive your daughter? Well, what's interesting is that my initial diagnosis was just rheumatoid arthritis and lupus because I complained about joint pain. So I got sent to a rheumatologist.

And that's age 39 by 40. You know, I'm free of this. I was sick of fertility treatments of injecting myself. I didn't want any. more of it. I was too emotional. I just wanted to know there was going to be a baby at the end of this journey. So my husband and I went through the adoption route. And we adopted a little girl from China at the age of one. And I began to notice that although I had no joint pain, I was exhausted. I could see these mothers with three children, an allotment, a part-time job, running scout

troops walking the dog and I thought how can they do it I have a nanny at home I don't ever have to walk the dog the nanny does it and I am exhausted and I went to see a doctor here in the UK named Dr. Barry Petefield Durant this was after seeing an NHS doctor and a private doctor in Harley Street because I suspected I had a thyroid problem NHS said you're normal private doctor said you're normal dr. Barry Petefield Durant said wow you have almost no cortisol in the morning. I don't know how you're standing. Your blood pressure is so low, which explained all the blackouts and fainting and dizziness. And my hands were freezing cold. And he said, you know, you don't have enough thyroid hormone, but your adrenals are shot as well.

So he treated my adrenals. He treated my thyroid. And he warmed me. If you're so tired, you can't take care of this baby. Be careful because you're going to be hyperfirm. fertile as soon as you take the thyroid hormone, which is a type that's not available in the UK. It's called Armour or Urfa thyroid. It's from pig's thyroid. Hillary Clinton takes it, for instance. Anyway, I got this about two, three weeks later. I was pregnant. I couldn't believe it. I actually thought I should name my daughter, my second daughter, after Barry, but then I thought I don't, should I name her Barbara, Barbie? I don't know. I don't think so. But I was truly grateful.

And when they did an ultrasound of my thyroid, I have about an eighth of a thyroid left. And why did this happen? Why did they not catch the fact that the autoimmune conditions had actually destroyed my thyroid too? It's because that's for an endocrinologist to diagnose. And people, these doctors do not swim outside of their lane. They are told, if you were a rheumatologist just look for the rheumatology symptoms. If you're an endocrinologist, only look at endocrinology psychiatrists, the same. So that's how I got pregnant. And I got pregnant at age 42. I delivered age 43. I breastfed for two years. I had a wonderful pregnancy and, well, I say it was wonderful. I did have placentaprivia, but it was still, it was magical. And I'm so grateful for that.

now you've got two lovely daughters well on that such positive note thank you so much for coming in tonight to speak to us I think we'd all agree that was fascinating thank you and thank you this episode will go out as a regular

podcast episode because I'm sure many of you wish that you were taking notes then so listen to it again with a pen and paper but we've loved that haven't we? Yeah thank you for joining us and thank you all for coming along as well it's it's been lovely thank you all very much for coming out

Thank you.