Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Cee McDermott on How to Transform Your Wellness Holistically EP 290

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Gone are the days when we were resigned to our genetic fate. Thanks to advances in science, we now know that our health is largely under our control. This episode provides the tools to optimize your well-being based on your DNA and lifestyle habits. With simple and practical information, Cee McDermott, PH.D., explains how you can now regulate the expression of your genes and unlock the key to your wellness destiny. Cee McDermott Joins Me to Discuss How to Transform Your Wellness Holistically Cee McDermott joins me on Passion Struck to discuss how to achieve a longer and healthier life. Her insights on conscious choices and epigenetics provide a holistic approach to optimal wellness. McDermott believes that people can take control of their health and life destiny by becoming experts in their own bodies, understanding the importance of nutrition, sleep, and physical activity, and embracing small actionable steps to solidify healthy habits. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/cee-mcdermott-transform-your-wellness/  Brought to you by Fabric. Go to Apply today in just 10 minutes at https://meetfabric.com/passion. Brought to you by Hello Fresh. Use code passion16 to get 16 free meals, plus free shipping!” Brought to you by Indeed. Head to https://www.indeed.com/passionstruck, where you can receive a $75 credit to attract, interview, and hire in one place. --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/2E33Ihs4z-4  --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles  Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Catch my interview with Lori Gottlieb on the importance of embracing self-compassion: https://passionstruck.com/lori-gottlieb-on-embracing-self-compassion/  Watch the solo episode I did on the topic of Chronic Loneliness: https://youtu.be/aFDRk0kcM40  Want to hear my best interviews from 2022? Check out episode 233 on intentional greatness and episode 234 on intentional behavior change. ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m  Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/  Passion Struck is now on the AMFM247 broadcasting network every Monday and Friday from 5–6 PM. Step 1: Go to TuneIn, Apple Music (or any other app, mobile or computer) Step 2: Search for “AMFM247” Network

Coming up next, I'm PassionStrock. Let's start a health revolution. Let's start a wellness revolution. Because in my mind, average is a standard that includes chronic disease, which I don't think anybody wants that to be average. I don't think anybody's happy with that average. And I think anybody with a chronic disease,

which is up to 65% of the population and a quarter of children, if you're in that situation, you certainly can't say that's a perfect place to be currently. Welcome to PassionStrock. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays.

We have long-form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to episode 290 of PassionStruck, ranked by Apple as one of the top 20 health podcasts. And thank you to each and every one of you who comes back weekly.

Philis and I learned how to live better, be better, and impact the world. PassionStruck is also now on syndicated radio on the AM FM 247 National Broadcast, Catchus on Monday and Friday from 5 to 6 pm on Tune in Apple Music or wherever you listen. Links will be in the show notes. If you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here.

Or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or family member. We now have episode starder packs, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes, that we organize in the convenient topics to give any new listener a great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show. Either go to Spotify or PassionStruck.com slash starter packs to get started. And in case you missed it earlier in the week, I interviewed Perry Cole who's a psychotherapist globally recognized relationship and empowerment expert and author of the bestselling book Foundry

Boss, The Essential Guide to True talk, be seen, and finally live free. I also interviewed Dacker Keltner, one of the leading experts on the biology of human emotions. We discuss Dacker's new book, A, the new science of everyday wonder, and how it can transform your life. And if you liked any of those episodes or today's, we would so appreciate it if you would give us a five-star rating and a review. I know I say it all the time, but those ratings go such a long way in helping us improve our popularity,

but more importantly, bringing more people into the passion of our community, where we can teach them how to live a limitless life by giving them hope, connection, meaning, and inspiration. And I know our guests love to hear from you as well. Now let's talk about today's episode. It's a common experience to seek, to optimize, upgrade, and advance to the next stage of opportunity. Our modern lifestyle provides convenience, safety, and comfort, which may result in fewer feelings of accomplishment, and more thoughts of missed opportunities,

all while spending more time staring at screens. To break free from this someday mindset, and the what ifs, it's necessary to have the energy and drive and pursue your goals. You must be spiritually, mentally, and physically healthy in order to pursue your true calling, which some refer to as divine purpose or soul alignment. Consider the possibility that you are meant for so much more than just going through the daily motions of life. What if you could find your rhythm and achieve a state of flow in everyday life?

According to my guest today, Dr. C. McDermott, our lifespan and health span should not be viewed as an inevitable fate, but rather as something that we can intentionally influence through the human genome. Our discussion is aimed with the goal of raising people's awareness of what wellness means from a holistic perspective. While mental health cancer and general health awareness are often discussed, the overall concept of wellness awareness is often overlooked. It's true that people could benefit from losing weight, getting more exercise and adjusting their diet, but see believes that we need to take a more comprehensive approach to wellness. Instead of simply focusing on individual elements, we need to look at the whole picture.

This means considering all aspects of wellness, including mental, physical, and social well-being. By adopting more of a holistic approach, we can improve our overall quality of life and achieve true wellness. C. McDermott is a precision wellness practitioner. She holds a doctorate of philosophy in integrative nutrition. C focuses on preventing disease and optimizing lifestyle through nutrition, behavioral change, mindset, and stress management. C. is a cognitive health specialist, a behavioral change expert, a certified personal trainer, a certified genomics coach,

who in Delina Yoga teacher, the founder of C. McDermott Genomics, and the author of the International, best-selling book, Your DNA, Your Life. Thank you for choosing PassionStruck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey grading an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am so excited to welcome C. McDDermott to Passion Stark Welcome C.

Thanks for having me. Well I wanted to congratulate you on your book which released in October your DNA, your life, recalibrate your DNA to move through life with grace, ease and joy. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Well we're going to get to that in a couple of minutes, but I understand you started your career working for the US government.

And I wanted to ask, how did working in a public facing but dangerous position for 15 years allow you to study human behavior? Well, in many facets, really. But I went through the academy to become a federal agent. And that's always an interesting exercise about six months of your time interacting with folks. I went in very young, I think I was 23 years old, so I think it's changed a lot since then. I went in with rose color

glasses and I got into the field and really hit boots on the ground and I took on a lot of case work right away. I was on a Title III, so wiretap in my first, I think six months on the job. So we were really given a wide breadth of investigative activity back then. So it's a little more nuanced now, but I really was able to enter into the world of undercover work within the first three years. And I did do undercover full time for about 18 months, which was interesting because I was running a business that was illegal. And I had customers essentially. So I created bonds with these people. And I think one of the main takeaways from that experience in particular was that each person that you meet really does have a side of them that really wants to thrive in life

and sometimes they just have the wrong background or kind of maybe just an unusual background that their sense of thriving may be different than others. So it really gave me a lot of compassion for people and it made me realize we're all just doing our best. And it was interesting because I met people, for instance, if they had just been caught by doing something or been a long investigation many years going into it and they're seeing their life crumble around them. They're really probably having the worst day of their life and just having a lot of revelations about a few come to Jesus moments, if you will. And really just being there to, I think originally, see you as the bad guy, because you are there to enforce the laws and the rules, but really being there for them and putting yourselves in their shoes.

I think it gives you compassion in everyday life and really being able to see, hey, we're all one step away from a bad decision that can spiral to a series of bad decisions. Or can we find the way to make a good decision that spirals into a really beautiful life and a life well-lived. So yeah, I mean, there were just takeaways on a daily basis that I was able to really just hone my people skills at such a young age and then be able to just meet thousands of people through travel. I did a lot of overseas trainings and taught people in 3D languages at once. It was a incredible experience to really start out my professional career that way. And after 15 years of it, I feel like I really did learn so much, so many lives lived in that short window. Yes, well, at 15 years, you were pretty far into that career. What ended up causing you to switch directions and start doing what you're doing now? Yes, so I was interested in personal training. I was a personal trainer in college and I continued teaching as classes and as I moved through, oh, I'm just a personal trainer and then I was teaching classes at a local studio.

It was a lovely community. It was so wonderful. I found that most people just couldn't make whole life changes. So I was always a physical person myself. I used to run a lot of marathons. And then I found that it was more about maybe a nutrition. But then as I explored nutrition, maybe that wasn't just it. And they need to focus on sleep. And as I started to integrate these other things into my own life and my clients lives, I found epigenetics, which really is pretty

more, much more or less the study of how everything that goes in and around your body and environment affects how your genes are regulated. I have a family history of some lousy outcomes really with the opposite of longevity. I had many uncles that didn't survive past 60 and I wanted when I had children to be able to see exactly what changes could I make in my lifestyle that was already pretty optimized but where could I make those changes to make sure that my children had the best outcomes, the physically, mentally and longevity wise. Yeah, and I understand one of the changes that you made is getting into a spiritual practice of

is getting into a spiritual practice of Kundalini yoga. And I practice yoga myself, but for those who might not be familiar with that particular type, how is it similar and different from other forms of yoga? Yes. So Kundalini is a very interesting yoga. I like to say that everyone can do it, but it's not for everyone because it is slightly unusual. But I've been doing it for several years now. I've been in a teacher for several years.

It's a really fast way to motivate your mind and body. So some of the moves are very challenging. There's a lot of repetition, a lot of mantra, a lot of hand placement, which would be like the mousras that we use, and a lot of working with your breath. So through this kind of we call it to Kundalini technology, I have a morning practice every day, I wake up around four and practice this and actually also practice with my husband. I feel makes

our relationship so much stronger but also makes us better parents and really it just has your brain focus on what you need to really regulate, nervous system and the breath and everything comes together to really, to me, it just makes life make sense. I don't know how the whatever way to describe it, but it's Kundalini really incorporates all of the facets of yoga instead of just maybe the asanas that you would see in like a yoga you would practice in like a gym setting. That's one of my favorite parts about it, but yeah, only yoga for me really just makes life make sense. Yeah, so I did a stonga for a number of years, is Kunalini similar to that and that you've got a number of set positions that were movements that you're getting into? It's not. There's thousands of krias and they're actually set. So the way that it was taught is essentially

they're all in specific order and specific sets, but there's thousands to choose from. So if you if you wanted to regulate the nervous system, if you want to work in a digestive system, there's different krias, and then it generally is the setup where you move the body in preparation for meditation and kind of the meditations, the juicy part of the end, and there's always a lot of gong, which is nice because it's relaxing and the gong at the end. But yeah, really a deep focus on meditation, more so than other yogas, and a lot of it is seated. So you definitely still need to stretch the body in other ways as well. Okay. And just before we get more into the book, I also wanted to ask you about Raky. And if a listener isn't familiar with that, could you explain what it is and what does it mean to be a master at performing it?

I'm also an herbalist, so I believe in combining many modalities of energy, healing, and actual Western medicine as well as herbal medicine, because we can take all of these things, human Chinese medicine, and bring it all in to really have a greater toolbox to work from in really just dealing with everything that life throws at us these days. When I took my training locally with Raky, I was really just interested in making sure that the energy was flowing through the body. I did a lot of acupuncture when I was younger. I was very interested in pursuing acupuncture as a career, but it just wasn't feasible. I had very small children at the time. So I thought maybe I would explore the world of freaky and yeah energy work. So really just moving the energy through the body, we talk a lot about chakras in Kundalini, but also in most yoga. And now we find that the chakras might actually be a real thing. Energy wise, we can actually chart these on the body. And rakey really just helps to regulate the energy and move it through the body, much like in Chinese medicine where we talk by the Qi or flow, where when you have stagnant energy in a certain part of the body and emotions can stay there and it can manifest and it can create a creakiness in the body,

it can create just a holding pattern that makes the body unwell. Okay, well thank you for being a regular listener of the podcast and as you're aware, the primary purpose of the show is to educate the listeners on how to live intentionally to their fullest, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, which you really dive into in the book. And I often talk on the show about the power of choice. In fact, every behavioral scientist that I bring on and most functional medicine doctors also talk about how our microchoisis determine our overall tsunami of greatness or the opposite. I wanted to ask you,

why do you believe every decision or lack thereof affects who we are as a person? I think the ability to make the decisions quickly and succinctly is really what makes a difference. We can sit around and wonder what other people might think of our decision, but only you know what is best for you at any given time. And whether that's even just I'm gonna fold my laundry now because it's gonna make my life easier later. Or if it's something bigger, like now I need to take that leap,

I'm gonna leave a career that I find less fulfilling and take on a new job. All of these little choices are what make us not only confident in our decisions overall, but each little choice to wake up in the morning and feel a sense of wonder, find a sense of all each day. Or choose which lunch

are you going to eat? Are you going to eat something that is new to your body and nourishing, or are you going to eat something that's faster and easier and maybe not helpful to the body? So if you are able to make those decisions really succinctly and purposefully, each and every day, it becomes a habit that then builds in itself, right? People always ask me, well, you're awfully efficient with things, but I have a mode of efficiency that I find if I just do this 30 second item, it makes it very simple and then two weeks later, it's a three minute item that I do that's very simple. And as it turns out, you do that throughout your day, time and time again, those small decisions allow you more choices. Now I have more time in my day.

What is the choice I want to make? Maybe I get some time for meditation. Maybe I get more time with my family. Those little choices add up to building confidence in the way that you think and in your own mind and body to make decisions that really end up where you have a life while lived. Yeah, well, I started out talking about yoga and rakey because I think they're both practices of helping us to operate on a conscious level. And I believe so many of us and I'm as guilty as any one of this during periods of my life spent time on autopilot or would I consider

to be unconscious living, because we get into these routines where we find comfort or we get into the habit of doing our regular pattern of things. And a lot of that doesn't happen at the conscious level. And what I wanted to ask you is, why is it so important for us to try to reach this conscious level, and how do we affect real change when we're in that conscious level? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really great question. I think the idea that we are on autopilot becomes the standard by which we're really expected to live. But again, like those

unconscious decisions, it's unconsciously maybe eating a meal on your way to work while you're driving and also mind elsewhere, if it's your kids are in the car and you have music on, you're not consciously aware, you're not consciously spending time with your children, but then your kids may unconsciously go to school and not be aware of their surroundings and then maybe not treat a stranger with kindness, it just has a downstream effect from the smallest point. But then making those conscious decisions each day instead to treat each other well and to consciously go to work and consciously contribute to whatever your passion project is, whatever your job is, to consciously do it is actually one of the reasons that I did leave the federal government, because I found myself on autopilot, and I found myself falling into what can be in workplaces, sometimes a toxic environment, or a environment of finding yourself in that complaining loop. But then when you're more aware and you're more conscious of it,

you do end up saying, well, there has to be a better way to do this. Let's find the underlying purpose. And then let's go into more like complex systems thinking. Where can we make the change that we can prevent this from happening, instead of just being reactive all the time? Right? So something as simple as trying to be a patient person in your work. If you're constantly an autopilot,

you're really just doing your work mindlessly, you're not engaging with your employees as you should, but instead, if you take the time to have the conversations and ask someone how they're doing, but actually mean it, what a difference it might make in their world and that just has total long lasting effects downstream every which way. Yeah, I recently interviewed Dr. Cynthia Lee, not sure if you caught her episode or not,

but she practices functional medicine. And she gave me this analogy that I think describes what you were just talking about. She said so much of the world today is about looking at symptoms or protocols or a part instead of the whole. And she gave the analogy of a tree. And that what a lot of us do is we see symptoms in the form of the leaves or the branches that are occurring, but we're not looking at the actual tree as a whole system. And so she was her self going through all kinds of inflammatory diseases and had chronic pain and other things. And she worked her way out of it by starting to practice shegong and really getting into more of a mindfulness practice

tuning into her intuition more, but more importantly, finding balance that allowed her to keep her overall systems regulated. And I think keeping our epigenetics on track is about balance. And I was hoping you could touch on that a little bit. Yes, absolutely. So a lot about our current medical system

is based in specialization. I believe the last time I heard it's 82 specializations in the body, your doctor that's concerned about your heart might not be concerned about your liver and the downshrooms effects of what you're doing with your heart. So the same can apply to overall life. Our whole life is a system, right? Whether it's the stresses that are good or bad on our body,

or the medications we take, or the relationships we have, if those are not all in alignment, it's going to affect the whole body system because the heart doesn't work in isolation, right? It does everything for so many parts of the body, but something as simple as we look at inflammation and say, there's inflammation, and then we treat that symptom. But what's the underlying reason?

And not necessarily really the root cause, because when it comes down to root cause, there could be really even systematic reasons for that. What is the root cause of this inflammation? Maybe it's this effect on the body, but simply where is that coming from? Maybe that's actually something in the environment. And it goes even deeper than that.

So that complex system's thinking, driving you crazy life, figuring out where it starts and where it ends, but it really has nobody getting a no end, right? It's all part of that complex system. So when we talk about epigenetics, we wanna make sure that we're looking at all aspects. So treating one part of the body, we may have downstream effects that we may not anticipate.

For instance, when I was a personal trainer, I would be like, let's train this way. I have an injury, so we'll train, but we'll be careful of this injury. Back then, I was looking people's sleep. I wasn't seeing what their relationships were like, or what the other stresses in their life were. And then, those all have an effect on how they're able to train. So each day, you couldn't possibly train really hard, because you're only focusing on one aspect of your life, of dozens of things that need to go into that training. So epigenetics, we have underlying predispositions for how we should recover from exercise. Do we need more joint and ligament support? And that support can be found through rast, through nutrition, and through maybe supplementation if necessary,

depending on the individuals genes. And then we can actually use the data that we have with our DNA and say, okay, I need more cartilage support. So these are the exercises I should do. I'm actually more prone to lower bone density because of this lack of mineral secretion in my body, so I can supplement with this. So there's so many ways to be able to add to our lifestyles without removing things as well, because I know a lot of people will say, well, I can't have this. I can't eat that. And instead, let's bring in what we can and really think of it more of an abundance way. Okay. And I know that everything in our body is regulated by chemical reactions that switch genes offer on within our DNA.

But how can these genes be activated, suppressed, and modified by epigenetic effects? It comes down to methylation and the folding of proteins without getting too deep into the cyan because it just gets a little nuanced. But essentially, the way that the DNA expresses itself in those chemical reactions is affected by what, for instance, nutrition or exercise or lack thereof, when we have these certain things in our life, for instance, meditation can change the upper down regulation of almost 1,600 genes. So we're looking at 1,600 different mechanisms in meditation. And as we get deeper into research, and even in just the last, say, decade, we know

so much more that I know in 20 years, we're probably going to just be inundated with this data, which can feel overwhelming, but also just having the information where you'll find the greater impact in your life. For instance, people talk about the APOE 4G. I know this has been big in the news with Chris Hemsworth finding out that he had APOE 4. So a lot of people have come to me and said, I had the APOE 4G and what do I do? But with empowered with this information, you actually could even find yourself preventing cognitive decline in a greater way than the average person would have the ability to because there's not all bad things

about APOE4. It just has a bad rap right now. But using that information, we now know, okay, maybe saturated fats are not the good fats for this individual. However, we can focus on monouns, saturated fats. We can focus on exercise. And then we can actually really be able to bring down the chances of cognitive decline in a much greater way so that you and future generations won't have that cognitive decline. So it actually even affects the next several generations as well.

It can feel overwhelming for people because a lot of times you'll go direct to consumer with your data and it can say, okay, these are your risks, but what do I do now? And that's actually what I do with individuals is what do I do now? How do I implement it? Because information is widely available now.

We can all Google everything, but implementation is where we really need to focus and then allow people to really thrive. As you point out in the book, many people believe that their health is dictated by genes. However, this has really been debunked, especially over the past decade. And I wanted to ask you,

what are things that can profoundly damage the epigenome and throw off genetic expression? Trauma during pregnancy can actually even has been shown, pregnancy, excuse me, trauma to the mother in pregnancy has been shown to activate a gene that results in a sensitivity to gluten. Seems like there would be no a half to that, but that is in fact what's it's showing. So this is still being

researched pretty heavily, but we now know that pre-conception is very important. So appearance, age and appearance in general lifestyle habits before even having children, but then certainly during pregnancy and early childhood has a huge difference in outcomes. But then even if you could live your whole life not knowing you have a sensitivity to something, but I think a lot of people will find when they reach a certain age where hormonal changes

take place in both men and women around 40, 45 is when I generally see people and they say, well, I was doing all of the things. My exercise, I eat pretty well, I rarely drink, but suddenly I'm feeling a little more tired, a little less myself. I'm thriving a little bit less because over time, the body really can no longer take this toxic load that is just out of the genetic range of what this person can handle. So then by focusing in, let's see what we need to bring in nutritionally remove

from the environment that will then really upregulate the proper genes. So it's super specific to each individual, which is what makes it a very exciting science, but also a very nuanced science, where there's a continual education going on and continual research, so we're always continually educating ourselves as well. Yeah, and I didn't know if you could go into the ex-posome and why it's key to unlocking health and longevity. So when we have all of these outside factors, we're really looking at how can we make our life not only longer, but how can we make it longer in health? I don't know if you've seen Brian Johnson is famously reversing his age and he's spending millions of dollars to do so. That's probably out of reach for the average person, but he does have a few things that are actually pretty easy to do, but he's trying to basically be an experiment

for the rest of us because he has the resources to do. So it's the things that are a little harder. It's the things outside of our daily lives. And there is no pill that will improve this outer lifestyle. Really, it comes down to exercise and nutrition. And for the average person that maybe wants to lose weight, there's a way to do that. But when you get into the more deeper nuanced version where you're really looking at your DNA and people are really taking it from enhanced to optimized and really living a little bit more specifically within their guidelines, that's when you find the real, I mean, just all inspiring outcomes in physical and mental ability. We're just learning what we're capable of, right?

As humans, because we finally have a little more information, a little more technology to back what we've probably known for centuries, but now we finally have the science to back it. So there's a little more dedication to it. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that example up because you've got a lot of people who know of Davidson Claire who's trying to use Resvesist Hall or Metformin or NMN supplements to reverse aging. You have Tony Robbins who just came out with his book who's using stem cells, HBOT and many technologies that people just don't have access to unless they have the money that

Tony does. But there have also been a couple good books that have come out recently, one being younger you by Carife Its Gerald, another one by Mark Heimann, that talk about some of the same things that you bring up in your book that are readily available to anyone just by switching your habits. I say all this because you start out the book by talking about grace, ease, and joy. And I wanted to ask you why did you use those three words specifically? Because your definition of grace is a little bit different than what most of us would typically consider it to be. Inspiration for grace was that someone had,

I admired as a child, was described as moving with grace. And it wasn't your, it was, not a famous person, it was just someone that I admired that really was in service to others most of the time, but also had itself awareness. And that's how I described Grace is treating, yeah, really treating other people and being in service while also having self awareness and taking care of oneself as well. And then I chose the word ease because I think there was a time in my life where I felt like I was constantly going against the grain and being in federal service is a very challenging position, but there's also a lot of, there's like fighting against the force of what society is pointing to. It's a challenging field to feel like

you're going against what most culture is pointing towards, right? So in finding my own really optimal living through epigenetics, I found so much more ease in life where I felt I was no longer going against the grain. I was really just going my own path. And it didn't matter what anybody else was contributing to their path, as long as everybody was treating each other with respecting kindness, but also all towards the common goal of making the world a better place. So that ease I found, I clipped the switch for me and I felt like instead of fighting to wake up and get through the day, it felt more like I get to wake up and move

through my day with that ease. And then of course, joy is really different than really happiness. And I think we often think of joy as like a higher level of happiness, but joy is really just feeling any of your emotions at a higher state. So it's almost like this elation, but really just having the ability to feel all of your emotions. So there will be disappointment in life. You're not going to just bypass that. There will be disappointments. But that's what allows you to see the difference between the disappointment and the very high moments. You creating something amazing, having a creative moment. That's where you feel joy. Maybe you feel joy doing a breath work session or running a marathon or staring at your loved one.

or staring at your loved one. These are the places that we find joy, but we're in that auto pilot and we're dysregulated and we're not feeling our best and those epigenetics are not working in our favor. It's really hard to find that and those moments become fewer and fewer. So I like to make sure that people know that they can have joy in their life because I talked to so many people that almost really like forget that joy from childhood or when they were younger or when they felt at their prime, when they felt really physically and mentally well. Yeah, well, thank you for going through those. And when I think of how you're describing ease, I think of flow and wanting to get into the proper flow in our lives. And I think we know it when we're in it,

but oftentimes it's hard to stay within that optimal, got called zone of flow, but through epigenetics and living this balanced life, you actually can sustain it for much longer periods of time. And that leads me to go into the difference between health span and life span, because I think when you think of grace, ease, and joy, you're really thinking about living your life at the most abundant, healthy aspect that it could be. And I think people think of their lifespan, but they often don't think of their health span

along with it. And you gave a good analogy in the book because you said that we should think of our wellness or liken that to our health span as a bank account. And I was hoping that you could explain that analogy to the audience because I think after hearing it, to me it made a lot more sense. Yeah, so I believe you're referencing in the book where I say that your health is like a bank account

and they're able to put into savings so that you accumulate this compounding interest and it essentially allows you longer health in that life spans. If you end up with a very low balance at the end of life, you're really not able to enjoy all of the bounty of life. So if you continue to contribute good habits throughout life, just like you do in a savings account,

you're really going to have not only those good habits compounding into good health, but good physical health, good mental health, good relationships, and really just this fear of remaining and really what one of my clients always refers to is the virtuous loop. So the virtuous loop, you find yourself living this life that is you almost want to tell other people, hey, did you know that you could have such great things happening later in life, the second half of life or even seeing it in younger people's lives. If you don't have all of those little pieces in place and really contributing to that like health bank account throughout the years, you might find yourself at say 70 years old and then suddenly maybe you retire and you realize now I I'm gonna start working on my health. And of course, well, it's never too late. The earlier you start the better and more

that you work on that compounding interest, then you have this way to utilize the world around you. Yeah, I think it's an important way to think about it. And that's why I started by talking about our intentional choices because I often don't think, I certainly didn't think when I was my son's age at 24 that I was thinking about my health span. You're making decisions like most 24 year olds do and it hasn't been until I got into really my 40s that I've really been paying much more attention to this and then looking back and thinking, wow, how much better would I be feeling even now had I been making some of these changes sooner.

And the reason I bring all this up is the World Health Organization came out with a figure that we spent 20% of our life and gradually decline with increased illness and chronic disease. And the majority of that is the final decades of our life when most of us are retired and we want to enjoy it the most. If you look at functional medicine today and where a lot of this is going and you describe in your book, that aspect is actually not normal, it's abnormal. If you do the things that we're gonna talk about doing,

you can actually increase that health span to match any elongate, your lifespan. And a number of the things that you talk about that we're gonna get into involve sleep, nutrition, be stressing, cognitive functioning, et cetera. But what I wanted to go with this is that scientists have mapped out 10 hallmarks of aging and I'll just list them off here.

It's genomic instability, telemore attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondria dysfunction, cellulars, senescence, stem cell exhaustion, gut health, and altered intercellular communication. And I wanted to ask you if you look at all 10 of those, which one do you think is the most important hallmark? 10 of those. Which one do you think is the most important hallmark? Oh, that's tough to answer her systems thinking perspective. I'd say my decontrial function is something that we should really be focusing on if we're really taking

our longevity and health span really seriously. And in fact, I think we've recently extended it to the 12 hallmarks of aging, although I'm not sure which ones off the top of my head have been added since then, I don't have it in front of me. But I'm actually writing a new longevity panel right now just to look at the snips and incorporating the 12 hallmarks of aging in that. But my to-contrial function is probably just really the basis of where we need to. And I know you've spoken to Cara if it's jailed before, and I think she focuses on this as well, really the powerhouse of ourselves, right?

To be able to make sure that we are replicating ourselves in the proper way and that continues to take place throughout our lifespan in the most optimal way possible. Well, coming out of that, do you think if we can address the upstream causes of these chronic conditions and illnesses, we could cure them all by putting these things into practice much earlier in our lives? Absolutely, I think it does take a really cultural wide approach. I don't want to get into deep into the food system

issue, but you do have a food system that's not equally available to everyone. If you want to achieve optimal health and wellness, even just from a nutrition perspective to start looking at your food, yeah, honestly, it takes real grit. You have to really go against the grain, you have to fight to make sure that you're providing your body with what you need and with the cultural impact of advertising and all of the various systems in place, whether that's like your school lunch system or your where your office is located as far as proximity to food or where your home is located. That alone is a really challenging system that really probably needs a bit of an upheaval. And then of course our healthcare system, which individuals like myself are really trying to make those changes so that we can have insurance cover preventative

care, not just once you meet your deductible. That's not something that the average person say a 25 year old just starting out is like you mentioned, 24 year olds probably not thinking about their longevity, but if they did, how much money would that save us that we could then put into a stronger food system or into a stronger well-care system? Preventative care, most of the time in our current insurance system is really only available

once you've been deductible. How many 24 year olds have met? They're deductible, probably not too many. And then that's not a priority necessarily. So do we start with education at a younger age? Do we start with the food system? Do we start with the whale care system? Or do we just all at once implement these changes little by little? And I think there's some big figures out there. Peter D. Amandas and Tony Robbins come to mind. Some of it because I can see their book over on my shelf. And I know life force, they're talking a lot about the changes

that are the very high level changes, the stem cell, research and everything. These are all pretty unattainable for the average person. However, there's a lot to be gleaned from that and information that we can take from that and bring to the masses over the course of time. And really it's joke on my Instagram, it's a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I'm like let's start a health revolution, let's start a wellness

revolution, because in my mind average is a standard that includes chronic disease. I don't think anybody wants that to be average. I don't think anybody's happy with that average. And I think anybody with a chronic disease, which is up to 65% of the population and a quarter of children, I think if you're in that situation, certainly can't say that's a perfect place to be currently. Yeah, well, I remember growing up as a kid, my grandfather worked for craft foods for over 40 years, and his training was all in chemistry. In fact, before working for craft, he worked at Fort Detrick doing all kinds of testing and research around Jerm warfare. And so, as I got older, I started asking him questions about the type of work that he

would do, and it wasn't necessarily coming up with new flavors of mayonnaise. Most of the work that he and our Indeed Department were focused on were preservatives and how do you keep this food on the shelf longer? And I remember he was very influential in creating butter buds and the preservatives that you see now in most ice creams that allow them to stay on the shelves. But I think back upon that, and now especially in the American diet, 60% of our diet

consist of ultra-processed food, which has so many downstream implications. And it's interesting because I read it in your book, but I also read it in Dr. Heimens book, Dr. Fitzgerald's book, and others that our diet is becoming the number one issue that is causing our health span to decline at such a rapid point. And I was hoping that since nutrition is a major component of the book, you could talk about some steps

that the listener could take to initially start turning this around and then if they could become an expert at it, what would that mean? Yeah, so I think really small action will step to very helpful because not everybody's going to become a home stutter and start ancestral living. There's a lot of both. They're going that route, which I think is great. But really starting to really prepare your own food at home, I have a regenerative farm that I reference in the book. I actually have two very close to me, and I'm in rural New Jersey, which is incredible when you think about that, even though we have

10 grocery stores within 20 miles, we also have this farm that I can get food from where I can actually just prepare real food. I don't need necessarily to purchase food pre-made or have to worry about getting food from a factory source. It may be starting out once a week, bringing your lunch to your workplace or preparing your own meal or being sure that Monday is like meal prep day. And I often have clients really just tell me what day does meal prep day take place because it must. Because again, like you have to get to, it takes grit to really have that nutritional foundation where you are making your own food. And it just comes down to knowing what's going in your food and making that

one habit, that one first step, your number one going to feel the effects. So you're going to feel really good eating real foods and not being sluggish or weighed down by food that maybe your body doesn't even recognize as food. And you don't necessarily need to know your DNA to know that eating vegetables for the majority of the population is probably a really good idea. So if you begin with just maybe one meal a week and then make it three meals a week and then make it Monday through Friday we make all of our own food, but we still go after pizza on Saturday. Great. What a great shift that is. And then if you really wanted to dive a little bit deeper and become more of an expert in really

what is your genetic blueprint? Like your bodies. We now have a science to know. This is where my body is telling me normally we would look at our body and say, how do I feel when I eat something again in that mindful way, but we've lost connection with the body because we do rely on a pill to fix it or the healthcare system to tell us what's good or bad or right or wrong, but tuning into the body and knowing this is a food that makes me feel really good. This is a food that makes me feel less good. And that's going to be different for every person. It's just as unique as your DNA, just as unique as you as an individual. So really becoming the expert in your own body, looking at your DNA and seeing what types of fats should you eat, will you reach that health longevity,

that healthy longevity, with a greater amount of dairy and your diet or not at all? It would depend on your environment that you grow up in is where most people get, that's where you get your habits, right? So if you grew up in an environment like my children are growing up in an environment where I make all of our own bread and I make sourdough bread because we do eat gluten in my house but it's generally sourdough because it's a little bit better for you. But I still have to allow them to go to birthday parties and eat cake and pizza. So it's a balance, even when you've become an

expert in your own body. But I think teaching that younger generation, like bringing this more to the college kids that know what's right or wrong, this younger generation is so much more in tune with their bodies. They're more aware, but they also grew up with more information. So maybe that's overwhelming to people. So really bringing in exactly the information that they need and nothing more, really where they can apply that to their lives

and then they can become an expert in their own body and their own nutrition. Okay, and then I'm gonna keep going down the list here. How does sleep impact our overall wellness and what are some of your tips there? Yeah, so sleeping within your circadian rhythm is actually one of the things in genetics that we really have to live within the protocol that the supercrasb and nucleus is part of your body. That's what regulates your circadian rhythm. So I am I self-all use an example. I'm a very early riser, which works well for my lifestyle currently. When I have teenagers, I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but right now I go to a very early, laughably early, and then I wake up before, but that's actually super in line with my genetics. I'm very lucky that my partner has the same genetics, but there are people that are more nightouts

and they should go to bed a little bit later and sleep a little bit later. So living in that window is perfect. Now there's a recent study and it's the biggest study done yet and there really is a bell shaped curve to how much sleep you need. So too little, you're definitely gonna experience a more health issue maybe as you get older or just a little more

cognitive decline perhaps. Grader all cause mortality for sure and then too much sleep as well. If you go past the eight and a half, nine hour mark, it depends but or then you have decline in your longevity as well. However, staying in that sweet spot in the middle specifically for your genetics really makes a difference. But I mean, into the book, I get it more into the glumphatic system and how the brain is cleaned out during sleep, which is much like the heart pumps blood through the body.

The brain doesn't have a pump per se, so it's the glumphatic system. That's more recently discovered. This is only in the last decade that we're more aware of this, but sleep is when this, really, this cleansing process takes place. So those with disruptive sleep don't get that cleansing process quite as well

of the brain, and then they might feel a little more sluggish. That's why when you have a real bad night's sleep or you're traveling and you're jet lagged, you're gonna feel it because mentally, you're a little slow or you're not quite as quick with your reactions. So sleep really is so foundational, and I know there's a lot of sleep remedies and sleep

experts out there, but really I think it's pretty common now to know, hey, no screens before bed, turn down the lights, like some vitamin D, sunlight in the eyes in the morning to produce the melatonin. So there's all sorts of small things that are free, you know, just being outside in the morning, things that you can try to incorporate into your day to make sleep a little bit better. Yeah, well, I just want to highlight the lymphatic system just for a sec. I had Dr. J. Lombard on a while back who is actually also a New Jersey.

And he's one of the leading neurologists. And we were talking about why there's such an uptick in Alzheimer's, dementia, MS, other things. And a lot of it comes down to the fact that we're not sleeping as well. And those amaloids get stuck and they end up not getting flushed. And over time, there's a build up. And this also happening to people who have CTE

is all this stuff does not get flushed and gets built up. And that's where you start developing more and more the brain fog. So it's absolutely critical to your lifespan and your mental cognition to get these seven to nine hours of sleep a night. And then another huge area, and we started out the episode talking about yoga, which is really a movement.

But there's so much coming out now on how being in nature, going on just short walks several times a day. I think the number that I've heard is if you can incorporate getting 30 minutes outdoors and even doing simple things like just walking, it has such a huge impact. But how is our sedentary lifestyle that so many of us find ourselves in impact our genes and biology and why is this movement so important? I mean, yeah, every aspect of our life currently is based on convenience, right?

But we've convenienced out movement. So you can order food from your couch, you could search for housing from your couch, you could search for housing from your couch, you can find a mate from your couch on your phone, right? You can almost meet all of your needs, but the time that we spend out of doors, no one could argue that humans traditionally spent more time outside, we're not necessarily meant to live inside boxes and certainly not meant to spend all of our days in them. So time outside, I know in Japan, they call it forest bathing. I don't know if we need to get so, it's very,

it's a very beautiful way of putting it, but really just time outside, even if you're in suburbia. There's an enormous difference. Even there's been studies where people in cities are just exposed to trees in a park, and it does make a bit of difference. But of course, we know that urban environments are more stressful to the body.

So really, any time in nature, in any environment that you're in, it does have a grounding effect. I feel like people get a little turned off by the idea that the earth has electric magnetic field that you need your body to kind of ground, but it's true. And we're grounding sandals that have a little piece of copper on the bottom that each day I'm able to then,

instead of wearing rubber-sold shoes, you can ground your body to the earth, but even just time in nature to really observe around you, it's hard to be in nature and not be mindful. So really we know mindfulness and I personally don't even know if I need to know the science between my office, right? You can feel the difference. So I go on a hike and I see a bird and I feel the undulations in the trail on my feet and maybe I've been here another person talking but I hear the river, the Brook Babelay next to me. All of these things bring in different parts of our cognition but even the awareness that maybe there is a threat somewhere but that's what builds the cognitive mind to really be able to react in a way that is more in line

with what our brains were meant to do. Our brains, we could argue, not meant to react to an email ding, right? But we are meant to react to, oh, a bird in the sky or a fox down the trail. So really that time is just really not only are you finding mindfulness, but you're finding a little bit of cognitive help. I tell clients and my own mother, don't walk in a tremble, walk outside because even the undulations make the brain work more of it,

the stimuler system is getting a bit of a workout. So that's like your balance and balance does begin to decline in our current population around 40 or 50. And that's like your balance and balance does begin to decline in our current population around 40 or 50. And that's because of that sedentary lifestyle. So to get outside working that vestibular assist, my mother-in-law is 83 years old. Although she probably wouldn't want me to tell people that she walks six miles a day and she's always has. So really just getting out there and it keeps her sharp as a whip, You're able to then, my own mother goes for walks and is able to, I mean, she maintains this very active lifestyle and her genetics are those that I mentioned, they, I have many family members that didn't make it to 60 years old and she's thriving and without any of this supposed family history that would hold her back simply because she's

really made all the changes in her life and she's able to live that optimal lifestyle that allows her to avoid diabetes and heart disease and all the things that come with a sedentary lifestyle. Yeah, and I released an episode recently on the importance of unleashing our creativity and I know a lot of people myself included don't think that we're creative, but I have come to the belief that we all have creative aptitudes. We just have to find the ones that are best suited to us. Being creative, expressing your creativity,

can have such an impact on your overall cognitive health as well. We've gotten this far in the interview. I'm sure the listener would love to hear what does a day in the life of C. McDermott look like. Yeah, I actually, it's funny. I recently said, I don't know if people want to hear anyone's morning routine anymore. I feel like it's how we used to think about hearing someone's dream. Everyone has a morning routine, but yeah, I start my day early. I do make Kundalini practice. I do have coffee in the morning,

but I do like to wait that 90 minutes to make sure that I'm not overloading the quarters all. Yeah, and I've actually recently come on as COO of a piranginomics. So I've been busy with that, very busy building that company up. They're the company that I do all of my genetics through with my clients. And we train coaches, clinicians, and practitioners

to be able to really learn the epigenetics and the genetics portion of longevity and wellness. And then they're able to apply that in their practices. It's a great environment. And I really love it because we have a really amazing, really dynamic group of coaches from all different backgrounds all across the world. So I spend most of my day doing that then and really preparing food or less. I'd see because I have two children and then yeah, I spend my evenings with my children who had to have a pretty reduced screen time. So we do a lot of reading. And lately my husband and I are real into a scrabble tournament

that seems to be going on. And I'm pretty sure I'm winning so. We do feel bad for the kids today. I remember growing up and I'm sure it was similar for you. I remember getting out of school. And my mom would just say, be back when it's dusk. And we spent so much time outside, just hanging out with friends, doing sports,

doing activities, exploring. And I see so many kids today who they come home and they come out of this environment at school to just sit there for hours on end in front of a screen. And I think that is really changing our mental cognition and how these kids are gonna grow up and they're starting at a sedatory lifestyle so much more than we were.

So I think this is something that all parents need to really be aware of. I did wanna ask you, what would you say is the most exciting, innovating, or promising new therapy that has the most potential to help with long-term flourishing? Ooh, well, there's so many I've been taking

a deeper look at peptides lately, and I know a lot of people that have been looking at stem cells, but actually actually I think it's just good old fashioned relationships that make you a better person and let you thrive. And I think really it comes down to the basics. We can bring in all of the technology. We can bring in all of the research which I love and I find so exciting, but I think the most exciting thing is to get your own grace in your life and then being able to really just optimize that and the best way possible within context of your lifestyle

and really in the context of your life because it's going to look very different for everyone, but just that mindful living, the mindful relationships and mindfulness in all aspects of your life and being aware of what you're doing and being more purposeful about life I think that's actually even though it's not a technology It's the simplest of technologies, which is just using our brains to just live more a life well-lived Yeah, and a great book if the audience hasn't read it or if they want to check out a podcast I did with Bob Waldinger who's the current director of the Harvard study of adult development. That whole study shows that relationships are the key to happiness.

So I think that's a great way to look at that. And I always like to end on this question. If there was one thing that you wanted a listener or reader of your book to take away from what would it be? Your longevity, your health, and your life destiny are really in your hands. It's well within your control, no matter where you come from or who you are or what your genetics look like, or even your current situation, you have the ability to make those changes and it's really empowering to know that you have that ability.

Great, well see, thank you so much for coming on the show and thank you so much for being a regular listener as well. It means a ton to me. Yeah, thank you so much, it was great. I thoroughly enjoyed that interview with C. McDermott and I wanted to thank C for the honor and privilege of coming on the show. Links to all things C will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com.

Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature on the show. Links to all things C will be in the show notes at PassionStruct.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books from the guests that we feature on the show all proceeds go to supporting the show. As I mentioned at the beginning of the episode we are now on the AM FM 247 National Syndicated Radio Broadcast. Links are in the show notes. Everties or deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at PassionStruct.com slash deals. Videos are on YouTube at both John R. Miles and passion struck clips. I'm on LinkedIn where you can go and subscribe to my weekly newsletter or you can also find me at John R. Miles on both Instagram and Twitter where I post daily. You're about to hear a preview the passion

struck podcast I did with Tunday Sabaheen and Sam Sidel and we discuss their brand new book Creative Hustle which offers many lessons on how to make a living, doing what matters to you, through the experiences of people who have successfully combined their values and passions with their professional aspirations. One of the things we found is that folks who seem to reach these levels of putting their creative work

into action in the world have strongly held values, strongly held principles that guide them. Why do we think that that is the case? I think it's partially the case because there's infinite possibilities out there. And if I don't have that clear framework for deciding, I'm going to go this way and not this way, then I'm just doing everything, which means I'm doing nothing. Remember, we rise by lifting others. So share this show with those that you love and care about.

And if you found today's episode useful with Seamick Dermat, then please share, in the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. And until next time, live life, Ash and Strath. you