How to Stop Aging with Dr. Kris Verburgh

george grombacher 0:00
Come on boom lepo This is George G. And the time is right welcome. Today’s guest is trying to file for Dr. crisper booth. Chris, are you ready to do this?

Unknown Speaker 0:20
Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. So thank you for having me on your podcast, excited to

george grombacher 0:24
have you on. Dr. Chris is the co founder of novice. They’re an organization developing science based nutraceuticals to slow down aging. He’s a researcher, and the author of the longevity code secrets for living well for longer from the frontlines of science. Dr. Chris, tell us a little about your personal life more about your work and why you do what you do.

Unknown Speaker 0:48
Now, well, since a young age, I’ve been fascinated by why we each and essentially have to die. So the reason why we die is of course, the aging process. And as a medical doctor, I was also interested in what’s the best way to keep people healthy for the longest time possible. And I quickly realized that the best way to achieve that is by going at the root cause of most diseases that people sooner or later will get, like heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoporosis, and so on and going at the root cause of those diseases, which is aging itself. So since I’m HIV, fascinated by the big questions in life, what is life? Why do we have to die? Where did the universe come from? Is there a boundary of the universe? So I’ve heard a lot about science since a very young age of book actually when I was 16 years old. And so I’ve always been fascinated by by discretion. So and I think the reason why we age and have to die is one of the biggest questions we can ask ourselves. So why does aging exist? It’s actually very weird, though. Sure. And biologists have been thinking for 150 years or longer about. Because if you think about aging is a bit weird. And it’s better to have organisms that can live for a very, very long time so that they can reproduce longer than having organisms that were out sometimes very quickly. I like mice can age in two years. And humans, it’s about 80 years and for some other species is 200 years. But it’s very weird that actually aging exists. So when I’ve been fascinated about this question says young age, and also about health, it’s like I said, the best way to keep people healthy is by addressing aging itself. So these are some of the reasons why I’m so fascinated by aging, and enzymes in general.

george grombacher 2:37
I appreciate that. How do you think about aging? Is it something that we accept and we try to live with? Is it a problem that you’re trying to solve? Is it possible to live forever?

Unknown Speaker 2:50
That is a great question. Um, we do see nature, there are organisms that don’t really seem to he is called negligence. negligible. In essence, we even see some species that we are seem to age backwards. So actually, they become younger, like three tops is Dornie. It says a specific jellyfish. And when it’s stressed, it can become younger again, which is very interesting, because if we get stressed, we age faster, we get gray hair and whatever. But these organisms and your stress they can refer to younger states. And there are also species that do age better lives much, much longer than us. There are like specific sharks that can live up to 400 500 years, there are males like bald head to build that can live at least for two centuries. And but it’s very interesting is that these only species, they don’t get cancer or heart disease or Alzheimer’s disease, when they are 80 years old, or 90 years old, like we do, they get all these aging related diseases much much later when they are 200 years old, or 300 years old. So this shows that if you postpone aging, and extend lifespan, you will also tremendously reduce the risk of aging related diseases. And that’s something I’ve been very interested in. To answer your question, can we postpone aging? Well, if we see in to sell into the future, look into the research that has been conducted in the last few years, we have seen listing paradigm shifts actually and demonstrating and it’s possible to not just slow down but even the reverse partially reversed. So that means a lot of studies have appeared recently and have old organisms and you can make them younger again. So for example, old mice with gray fur and bald spots. They after a treatment like epigenetically programming. These old mice, they look young again so the gray fair is shiny black again, the bolts pulsing, have disappeared. It that osteoporosis is much better than organs can regenerate much better. They’re cognitively much stronger and can perform much better. So these things show that it’s possible to partially reverse aging. And we see a huge influx of interesting interest and investment in this area actually. So recently, the outhouse is completed received 3 billion in funding to address aging and partially reverse aging through epigenetic reprogramming. Google created a sister company called Alphabet a few years ago, I saw he sees a company called Calico a few years ago, so alphabet created that company, to the billions in funding also to address aging. So yeah, it’s no longer science fiction. Actually, we see more and more companies are trying to look into the question, How can we not just slow down but actually reverse aging, if that would be possible. And I think it’s likely given the research and the data, we’ve seen that it’s likely we go to a future where people live much longer, like become 150 200 years old, while still looking young. So the whole goal is not to just live much longer, and be much healthier at the same time, which is very important. But also to look young as the goal would be to become 150 or 200 years old, and still look as if you’re 30 years old.

george grombacher 6:29
Fascinating. So I’m excited to learn about the environmental effects the food or lifestyles, is there a psychological part to it?

Unknown Speaker 6:43
Yes, definitely. There are many ways to live longer. And psychology is an important aspect. Of course, we see often if you have more optimistic mindset, and look at the bright side. Yeah, that’s also correlated with longer lifespan. So interestingly, if you look at interviews with centenarians, these are people who are at least 100 year old, what often is very striking is that they have a very positive pre predisposition, so they can tell about the things they experienced during the Second World War and, and talk about a lot of terrible setbacks in their life. Like immediately after that they Yeah, they are, they still look try to look at avatar to always see a silver lining. And it’s very striking, so that these people have a very positive mindset. And even if they experience hardship, they really try to make the best of it. And also, they often have a little bit of humor, they don’t take themselves and everything too seriously. I think that’s also very healthy and goes a long way. So psychology is definitely very important. Also stress reduction, we do see a lot of studies that stress accelerates aging. If you put my zener conditions where they are stressed, they get cancer much faster, they get metabolic dysregulation, and they have Alzheimer’s, or cognitive decline, which forms and so on. So stress reduction, positive thinking and happiness are very important to sleep, which is also a bit a part of sight, too. If you don’t sleep well, you’ll feel grumpy the next day. And like I am today I have I’m still jetlag though, just just back from the US. But yeah, sleep is also very important for for our activity. But of course, there are many other important aspects, nutrition, exercise, and so on. And if you would ask me to pick the most important one, it would be without a doubt nutrition and nutrition is probably the strongest, let’s say factor that we can impact to for longevity, and then on the second page of exercise, psychology, sleep optimization, and so on.

george grombacher 8:57
Nice, I appreciate that. So as I it, there’s so much information out there, Chris, obviously what you’re aware of and it’s hard for, for folks who are not diving into this or working in the field full time to really understand but has has the food that we eat, has it become less nutritious? And has that increased the need to supplement?

Unknown Speaker 9:22
Yes, definitely. So we’ve seen a lot of studies that the way we conduct agriculture now the nutrient density of a lot of foods has declined considerably. So a lot of foods contain less vitamin E less a copper, lead, zinc, less selenium, and so on. It also depends on the area where you live. So like in some areas, there is less selenium in the soil and so on. But in general, we definitely see significant reduction of a lot of vitamins and minerals in the vegetables and legumes and fruits and other foods we cultivate. One of the reasons is because we use a soil a lot, so We grow many times per year or we recycle crop road a lot, so the soil gets exhausted. And yeah, also some foods are genetically modified. So to grow faster and to yield more return, but sometimes at the expense of vital micronutrients, and so on. So this this, definitely a problem. However, other people worry about, yeah, about these things, but, and they, they ignore the most important aspects of healthy nutrition. And that’s just trying to eat less, less meat. And if you do eat meat, less red meat, more white meat, and less fatty fish, so a lot of people are deficient in fatty fish and omega three fatty acids. But other people don’t even eat a lot of vegetables, and legumes and mushrooms and so on. So they worry about should my food be biological? And does it contain vitamins and so on? But yeah, they just don’t eat like four times per week, fatty efficiency, ideally should do. They don’t eat merely vegetables instead of potatoes, pasta and rice. And they don’t eat a lot of, let’s say white meat instead of red meat. So I think those things are most important to address. And then, and then of course, you can think yeah, should I buy more biologically grown food or organic grown food, and so on. But yeah, even getting the basics, right, like consuming more healthy fats more, let’s say healthy carbs, and more healthy sources of protein. And that’s also something a lot of people are not doing yet. So yeah, in my opinion, that’s the first thing we have to look. And then of course, yeah, making sure that our food contains enough micronutrients, and so on. But I must say, the study is conducted in humans, where we see if people eat more fatty fish, or eat more vegetables, they have much less reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, or heart disease that is done with the current foods. And so the current foods that are depleted in nutrients, but nonetheless, we do see if you eat a lot of vegetables and fatty fish or white meat. Despite these foods, having less nutrients, we do see a significant decline in aging related disease and, and the risk of getting those

george grombacher 12:20
nice. What are you most excited about? Or most intrigued by in, in, in your research?

Unknown Speaker 12:29
Yeah, well, I mean, a lot of things. So I will answer this in two ways. First things I find fascinating about biotechnology to live longer, and then about things about lifestyle to live longer. Um, so thinking the bio technological field, the most fascinating thing is something I already alluded to in this interview, is the notion that it’s possible to parser reverse aging. That’s mainly done through epigenetic reprogramming. So we have seen that if you expose mice to key Yamanaka factors, so these are three proteins, that if you upregulate those proteins in cells in a cyclical way, that these cells get rejuvenated, and that the mice also get rejuvenated. So they live longer, and they have much better regeneration, again of the tissues, and the improve in all kinds of biomarkers like cognition and activity and so on. So, so that’s a great finding that aging is not a one way street or one way direction. What we see in these studies is that it’s the aging is a plastic process, and that inflammation to stay young or to be young again is still there in our in our cells, only it needs to be reactivated. And this reactivation can happen in multiple ways, through epigenetic reprogramming via Yamanaka factors, as I mentioned, but also for example, by exposing old mice to a younger environment again, I mean, a cellular environment. So Andhra have been done studies where if you expose old mice to young blood, so you give them young blood, that is old, my city juveniles, and that their organs can regenerate better and so on. We even see that if you just replace a part of the old blood in mice with just plasma and some albumin that these old mice rejuvenate also, somewhat and recently, we also see in human trials, that if you replenish a part of of old blood in old people, you can significantly decline. The rate of cognitive impairment in people are at higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease. So these studies are very interesting and they show that aging is something plastic and that that it’s partially reversible and we will likely go towards future Both these developments will come into trance translate into real treatments to rejuvenate us. So that’s great. I think a second aspect I’m very excited about is more lifestyle related is it’s the fact that we now have so much knowledge and insights and scientific data to make better assessments, the best diet, and what are the best supplements and so on to take for longevity. I think nonetheless, despite all this data available, there are still a lot of misunderstandings. So there are hundreds of different diets you can follow. A lot of diets are actually unhealthy and actually accelerate aging. In the long term. In the short term, most diets do work, you lose weight, you improve insulin levels, and you improve cholesterol and so on. But in the long term, a lot of these diets are not healthy, actually. But, um, like I said, two, we have a lot of insights now. And yeah, I think the power of nutrition, currently, the best technology we have to live longer is nutrition is the diet, and to forming a healthy longevity diet, and fasting now, and then I’m taking the right supplements, we can significantly slow down aging. And that’s great because it helps us to achieve longevity escape velocity, which means we need to stay trying to stay alive as long as possible. So we can profit from these new bio technologies that will come about in the next decades. So um, so yeah, I think these lifestyle interventions are very important and even more than ever.

george grombacher 16:39
It’s got a hold on. Dr. Chris. Yes. Nice, fascinating, fascinating. How much sleep do you get? Or how much sleep do you endeavor to get?

Unknown Speaker 16:51
Yeah, well, I tried to strive to eight hours of sleep, I find sleep very important, of course, and we see a lot of studies, if people are sleep deprived, their immune system declines with 50%, even they have a higher risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease, type two diabetes and being overweight. So sleep is very important. Even when you sleep you have like this glymphatic system, which flushes out the proteins that accumulate during the day in our brain and outside of brain cells. And you have this creation of all kinds of repetitive factors of production of all kinds of repetitive factors, including melatonin, which also extends lifespan by the day, to, to repair in your body. So sleep is tremendously important. So like I said, I strive for eight hours, most people are okay with seven to nine hours of sleep. So, but yeah, some people sleeping less than seven hours, it’s perhaps not healthy. And there are all kinds of ways to improve your sleep actually, on our website, or nose labs.com. And that website wants to be by the way, a platform for longevity, however, you can find all kinds of information to live longer. On that website, we have a whole section with more than 15 tips to sleep better. And this, there’s also a lot of things I do to improve my sleep. I like wearing blue light blocking glasses in the evening. So you when you put on those glasses, you bought the blue light, which otherwise would suppress melatonin production. And really, after a half an hour of wearing these glasses, I really started to feel tired. And it works much better than a blue light filter on your smartphone or computer screen. Because the blue, the blue light blocking glasses, block ave the blue light entirely also from lamps. And they’re not just from your screens. They’re also all kinds of supplements to improve sleep and that have been associated also with longer lifespan like glycine, which we actually also use in some of our supplements. Melatonin Melatonin is a bit complicated discussion. Ideally, we’ll take a low dose melatonin an extended release, not a forced release. The melatonin you’ll combine in stores is often way too high dose so you get a very high melatonin peak in the blood, which goes down also very quickly, which is also not good for actually for a long term sleep. So but I would advise take maximum one milligram of melatonin and extended release. But anyway, then there are many other interesting substances that improve sleep like magnesium and calcium and so on. And then there are also all kinds of interesting sleep devices that can also help you to call or and to fall asleep. So there there are definitely many ways to improve your sleep, which is of course a very important component of a healthy long life.

george grombacher 19:44
Yeah, that makes sense. Well, Chris, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage with you

Unknown Speaker 19:51
know, the they can they can find me on Instagram. So it’s Christopher Burke. They’re also for upside peace. Rimberg builds calm. And if you want to find more about longevity and health, they can go to normal slabs.com. That’s our website. And like I said, this site wants to be a platform for longevity, where you can find science based information and insights to live longer, healthier lives.

george grombacher 20:18
Excellent. Have you enjoyed this much as I did show Dr. cushy appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas, find Chris on Instagram. And that’s k r i s VRBURGH. And then find novice labs at novos la bs.com. And check out all the great resources and all the work that Chris is doing, helping us to live longer and healthy and happier and younger lives. Thanks. Good, Chris.

Unknown Speaker 20:48
My pleasure. Thank you.

george grombacher 20:50
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai