The Dr. Hyman Show - Diet And Lifestyle Hacks To Prevent Rapid Aging

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and AG1. One key area of focus on your health you may not have thought to pay attention to is the dangers of advanced glycation end products. In fact, you may not have even been aware of their existence at all. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs for short) are compounds that can form when you cook food at high temperatures. Depending on your diet and overall health, they can start to build up in your body, which can be a big problem since they've been linked to a range of health problems from diabetes to cardiovascular disease. In today’s episode of my series I’m calling Health Bites, I dive into the science behind AGEs and what you can do to protect yourself from their deleterious effects. This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and AG1. Rupa Health is a place where Functional Medicine practitioners can access more than 3,000 specialty lab tests from over 35 labs like DUTCH, Vibrant America, Genova, and Great Plains. You can check out a free, live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com. AG1 contains 75 high-quality vitamins, minerals, whole-food sourced superfoods, probiotics, and adaptogens to support your entire body. Right now, AG1 is offering 10 FREE travel packs with your first purchase by visiting drinkAG1.com/HYMAN. Here are more details from our interview (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): What are advanced glycation end products? (3:57 / 1:38) Where do AGEs come from? (5:59 / 2:56)  Why AGEs are so bad (8:40 / 6:17) Reducing your AGE intake (9:19 / 6:56) Mentioned in this episode The 10-Day Detox

Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. If you grill your food, if it's fried food, if it's toasted to a high heat, it can lead to these advanced glycation end products. Microwaving, disaster, don't cook in the microwave. Hi everyone, it's Dr. Mark. As a functional medicine doctor looking at hormones, organic acids, nutrient levels, inflammatory factors, gut bacteria, and so many other internal variables, it helps me find the most effective path to health and healing for my patients. But such extensive testing can be very complicated and time-consuming for both the

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formulations driven by the latest in nutrition science. So if you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Get 10 free AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Go to drinkag1.com forward slash hymen. That's DrinkAG1, the number one,.com forward slash Hyman. Check it out. And now, let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy. Welcome to The Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman. That's pharmacy with F, a place for conversations that matter.

And if you're interested in how to stay healthy for a long time, how to be young forever, today we're going to talk about an important component of that strategy, which is to address one of the key hallmarks of aging known as proteostasis. That's a big, mouthful word, but basically it means damaged proteins. So as we age, the proteins, which are used for structural processes in our body, for building things, for communication, basically it's the information superhighway of our body. And when our proteins don't work, we don't work. They have to be formed properly. They have to be the right three-dimensional structure, the right number of amino acids. They have to not be

oxidized or damaged or twisted or funky. And what happens as we get older, we get more funky proteins. So the question is what causes them and how do we deal with them? And today we're just going to go deep on one of these aspects of the hallmarks of aging called proteostasis, which is damaged protein. So probably listening to me, you've been pretty aware about my focus on longevity and healthy aging, but I haven't really talked that much about this phenomenon of proteostasis and why you need to be aware of something that is called AGES, A-G-E-S, which is a great acronym because these things age you. And the medical term for them, this A-G-E-S or ages, is advanced glycation and products. And we're going to talk all about them, what they're worth. You've probably never heard of them, but they're really important and they're screwing you up big time, even if you never heard of it. So these are compounds that form in our body under all sorts of conditions from poor diet to stress to various insults and toxins.

And they also can come from our food, depending on how we cook our food, that we can actually consume them. And what's interesting, they bind to receptors that are called RAGES, R-A-G-E-S, Receptors for Advanced Collocation End Products. So these funny acronyms, right? So aging or ages cause raging, right? And that leads to inflammation throughout the body. So these advanced glycation end products drive inflammation, which is also one of the key hallmarks of aging or inflammation. And they've been linked to everything from heart disease to diabetes to all sorts of health issues. So let's talk about the science of ages and what you can do to protect yourself. So what are they? Well, there are problems that happen when we are consuming a particular amount of sugar and processed food.

And we have other things in our environment that cause oxidation like toxins. It causes the formation of proteins and sugars to combine in the body. So you've got sugars and carbohydrates and proteins in all your cells, and then they kind of combine in ways that cause damage. So it's a non-enzymatic reaction that basically happens when groups of amino acids and proteins and sugars sort of connect together. Now, you probably are familiar with this because it's what happens when you get a crust on a loaf of bread, or you get the crispy skin on a chicken, or you get that little crispy crust on the creme brulee, where they basically cause damage to the proteins and the sugars and it forms this crispy crust from the sugars and the proteins in the

creme brulee. And so you get this, you know, yummy stuff to eat, but that actually causes a lot of problem in the body. So when basically proteins and our sugars combine together. They create this process called glycation. And if you grill your food, if it's fried food, if it's toasted to a high heat, it can lead to these advanced glycation end products. Microwaving disaster, don't cook in the microwave, causes a lot of these advanced glycation end products. Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark. I'm so excited to share that I have a brand new protein powder called Super Simple Grass-Fed Protein. If you follow my work, you know how critical protein is for building muscle, for optimal weight, and overall longevity. I like to get a good

amount of protein in every meal, and sometimes that's hard with a busy schedule. That's why I make a protein-rich smoothie every morning featuring my super simple protein made with really clean ingredients and also minimal ingredients from grass-fed beef protein. Right now, I'm offering the doctor's pharmacy listeners 10% off. All you have to do is go to drhyman.com forward slash protein and use the code protein10. That's drhyman.com forward slash protein and use the code protein 10. That's one and a zero. Even if you think you're eating healthy, if you're actually eating a lot of the crispy stuff or overcooked stuff or burnt stuff, that's really bad. So what happens is when you have a high blood sugar, this is the most common reason you have a high blood sugar, which by the way, 93% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy,

meaning they have some form of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. They have imbalance in their blood sugar. When you have that, that excess blood sugar binds to proteins. Now, the one we are familiar with that you've all probably heard about is hemoglobin A1c. Hemoglobin A1c essentially means glycated hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is, you know, in your cells, in your red cells, it is involved in carrying oxygen. And then if it's too much blood sugar, it gloms onto those and forms these advanced glycation end products. And we measure that in the blood as hemoglobin A1c. And the higher hemoglobin A1c, the worse your diabetes is, right? It's sort of an indirect measure of your average blood sugar. So we've known about this for a long time,

but, you know, we can also have, even if we don't have high blood sugar and if we don't have, you know, a high A1C, we can actually still get advanced glycation end products from cooking and things in the wrong way. So, you know, whether you have, you know, grilling or crispy cooking or frying or things like that, all that browning stuff is a sign of advanced glycation end products. Also, processed food has a lot of them. So you want to stay away from processed food. So why are they so bad? Well, they basically create this vicious cycle of inflammation, which increases more advanced glycation end products and creates a vicious cycle. Now, they also found not only to be correlated with inflammation, but also linked to real

serious diseases like diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's. They're basically toxic molecules, and then they create more oxidative stress or reactive oxygen species. They kill cells. They cause organ damage. They damage your mitochondria, which you need for optimal functioning and health. Basically, they're the worst things for your longevity and for your health span. So now doctors are starting to pay attention to this. there's some really simple things you can do from a lifestyle perspective to reduce your advanced glycation end product formation in your body and also your exposure from your diet. First is, not surprising, cut down sugar and starch. I know you get sick of me saying this,

but it is the central thing that's driving most diseases. People eat a lot of sugar and starch. They tend to have higher blood sugar. They have a higher A1C. So your A1C should be probably between five and five and a half. If it starts to go over five and a half, it's a sign you're getting into trouble. And some people say even lower is better, like five or 5.2. I like mine around five, 5.1, 2. I don't like it higher than that. Now, balancing your blood sugar is key. And I've written a lot about this. The 10-Day Detox Diet is a great roadmap for how to do that. We'll link to that in the show notes. But it's basically a sugar detox book.

It's basically how do you deal with the sugar addiction? How do you reset your palate? How do you reset your hormones? How do you reset your brain chemistry and your biology so you actually don't want as much sugar and starch and you can actually eat in a more balanced way and not be consuming these foods? So really important. Get lots of natural antioxidants. So things that are in food, all the phytochemicals, curcumin, green tea, quercetin from things like onions and garlic,

Himalayan tartary buckwheat, all that helps to reduce the ages and their problems. So lots of colorful fruits and vegetables, lots of herbs and spices, really important. Also, olive oil is important. Olive leaf extract is a great source of antioxidants that inhibits ages. It's also atherogenic prevention, prevents heart attacks and plaque. It's anti-inflammatory. It's anti-cancer, protects your brain. And so I always use a ton of olive oil. You can actually take extract ton of olive oil you can actually take extracts of olive oil alluropene is a powerful longevity compound that's why a lot of the blue zones they all need a lot of olive oil um and it can help the microbiome as well i i love it because it's also a polyphenol that the gut bacteria love and can reduce inflammation that way and

can slow down ages um don't eat the deep fried foods. Don't have foods, you know, coat in sugar like barbecue sauce. Don't have heavily grilled foods, charred foods. Get away from all that stuff. And that will help reduce your intake of ages. So, you know, if you want to have once in a while, fine, but try more slow, low, slow, moist cooking methods. Also being able to actually use marinades can help offset that. So if you're having grilled meat, for example, marinate it in things with vinegar or lemon or things that are acidic and spices, which will reduce the effect of that. Also exercise is amazing. Studies show that regular movement exercise also helps to reduce ages. And lastly, any steps you would take to reduce inflammation and overall health will be helpful.

So all the things we talked about, getting healthy diet, exercise, adequate sleep, stress reduction, the right supplements all help you to actually reduce overall inflammation and live an anti-inflammatory lifestyle, which we've talked a lot about on the podcast. And that will help reduce your ages as well. So make sure if you don't want to age, don't activate your ages, which will cause raging in your body of inflammation, and that is not good. So this has hopefully been helpful to you. It's a little deep science-y stuff, but I think it's important to understand why we need to do the things we do, like why we need to not eat so much sugar and starch,

why we should be avoiding all the crispy fried stuff that we might like but doesn't like us. And as a friend of mine said, you want to eat food that you love and that loves you back. So make sure you do that. On a final note, please know that, you know, going to the occasional bar or beer isn't going to be, you know, the worst thing in the world for you,

but don't make it a habit, right? Basically, predominantly eat right and then occasionally cheat. It's fine. But make sure you are not doing this on a regular basis. So that's it for today's Health Byte. I hope you've enjoyed it. Let us know how you can learn to turn down your inflammation. We'd love to hear from you.

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. And we'll see you next week on The Doctor's Pharmacy. Hey, everybody. It's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into The Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do and introducing you all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. And I want to tell you about something else I'm doing, which is called Mark's Picks. It's my weekly newsletter. And in it, I share my favorite stuff from foods to supplements to gadgets to tools to enhance your health. It's all the cool stuff that I use and that my team uses to optimize and enhance our health. And I'd love you to sign up for the weekly newsletter. I'll only send it to you once a week on Fridays. Nothing else, I promise.

And all you do is go to drhyman.com forward slash pics to sign up. That's drhyman.com forward slash pics, P-I-C-K-S, and sign up for the newsletter, and I'll share with you my favorite stuff that I use to enhance my health and get healthier and better and live younger longer. Hi, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that

it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner. If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search their find a practitioner database. It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.