Longevity with Criteria

José María Castillejo

Do you feel that the harder you look after yourself, the worse you feel? This podcast explains how your body really works, from biophysics, physiology and common sense, so that you live more years and, above all, better. No fads, no fear, no excess. Your body is, first of all, an electrical system: cells with voltage, membranes with polarity, and a network of connections that needs well-structured water, sunlight and the minerals of unrefined salt to hold its charge and its balance. When that connectivity is lost, fatigue, inflammation and premature ageing appear; when it is cared for, the body repairs itself every single day. In each episode, José María Castillejo takes apart a health belief that sounds logical but wears you down, and replaces it with the right dose you can apply from tomorrow morning: water, sun, salt, temperature, movement, the plate, rest and emotion. New episodes every week.

Episodes

  1. 1d ago

    TELOMERES: Your mind decides how you age (Nobel Prize)

    In 2009, Elizabeth Blackburn won the Nobel Prize for discovering the mechanism that determines how fast you age on the inside. It is not a cream or a pill; it is hidden at the ends of your DNA, and the most surprising part is what controls it: your mind. At the tip of every chromosome, there is a protective cap called a telomere. Every time a cell divides, that cap gets a little shorter. When it wears down completely, the cell stops repairing itself and begins to age. For decades, we believed this wear and tear was inevitable. Blackburn discovered it isn't: there is an enzyme, telomerase, capable of rebuilding them. We all have it, but almost none of us have it turned on. And here is what changes everything. Blackburn and psychologist Elissa Epel showed that what turns telomerase off isn't age or genetics—it's chronic stress. It acts like an invisible acid melting your telomeres from within. That is why in Sardinia, Okinawa, or Nicoya, there are people who live past a hundred with sharp minds without knowing anything about biology: they have built cultures where chronic stress barely exists. In this episode, I explain what a telomere is and why it matters, what turns telomerase on and off, and three practical steps you can use today: learning to forgive, practicing compassion, and reconnecting with movement that brings you peace. I also walk you through mental telomerase: four simple practices that take just seconds and change the environment your cells live in. Because aging isn't a one-way street. It is an ongoing conversation between your mind and your cells. The first episode in a four-part series. 00:00 What if aging weren't a one-way street? 00:19 2009: Elizabeth Blackburn's Nobel Prize 01:08 Sardinia, Okinawa, and Nicoya: living past one hundred 02:28 What a telomere is: the cap that protects your DNA 03:42 Telomerase: the enzyme that rebuilds them 04:19 If we all have it, why do we still age? 04:49 Blackburn and Elissa Epel: chronic stress shortens telomeres 06:17 What Blue Zones get right: purpose, connection, and pace 09:36 Your internal dialogue: the biology of what you tell yourself 13:07 Key 1 · Forgiveness: disconnecting from past harm 15:08 Key 2 · Compassion and the oxytocin that turns off the alarm 16:28 Key 3 · Movement that brings peace, not fat burning 19:32 Your mental telomerase: four quick practices in seconds 21:05 Two questions and the truth behind the Nobel Prize 23:40 What's next: values as an anti-inflammatory

  2. 3d ago

    YOUR LONGEVITY: here is the real SECRET

    Do you feel that the harder you look after yourself, the worse you feel? A five-hundred-year-old lesson explains why excessive zeal wears your body down, and what the right dose is to keep it strong and lucid for many years. Inflamed knees after joining the gym full of enthusiasm, heavy digestion after eating "healthy" food in disproportionate amounts, chronic fatigue despite ten supplements every morning. If you look after yourself more than ever and feel worse than ever, you are not alone: it is the direct consequence of an idea planted in our heads that seems logical but is tremendously dangerous. The idea that, in health, more is always better. In this video we dismantle that belief with a lesson formulated in the heart of the Renaissance by Paracelsus, the rebel physician who burned the medical books in the square of Basel and who discovered, by observing miners, that the same substance that kills at the bottom of a mine can save a life at the apothecary. Your body is not a candle burning down with the years: it is a living system that responds to the stimuli of its environment and repairs itself every day. Science calls that capacity hormesis: small, well-measured doses of discomfort (moderate cold, effort at cruising speed, overnight fasting windows, natural morning light) switch on the mechanisms of cellular cleaning and regeneration, activate circulation and vasodilation, put the immune defenses on alert, and grease the joints without wearing down the cartilage. Overdosing breaks the parts; underdosing shuts the machinery down for lack of use. Real longevity lives at the midpoint of that dose-response curve. From there come the four everyday doses you will take away from this video: the dose of temperature and movement, the dose of the plate and digestion, the dose of light and shade, and the emotional dose. Four simple areas where we tend to overdo it or fall short, and where finding the right measure, starting tomorrow morning, makes the difference between wearing out and regenerating. 🎯 Why "more" is never better when it comes to your body 🎯 Paracelsus, the Basel bonfire and the sentence that changed medicine: the dose makes the poison 🎯 The salt, the flower pot and the classic car: three images to understand the right measure 🎯 Hormesis: how the body grows stronger with small, well-measured challenges 🎯 The four everyday doses: temperature and movement, plate and digestion, light and shade, emotion 🎯 The 80% rule at the table and the 10–12 hours of digestive rest 🎯 Longevity properly understood: the art of proportion, without punishment or obsession Key concepts: hormesis, dose-response curve, cellular regeneration, digestive rest, circadian rhythm, vasodilation, chronic stress Scientific evidence consulted: Hormesis: The Dose-Response Revolution — Calabrese EJ, Baldwin LA — https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pharmtox.43.100901.140223 Hormesis defined — Mattson MP — https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2007.08.007 VIDEO INDEX: 00:00 The harder you look after yourself, the worse you feel? 02:06 Gym, diet and water: when care turns into aggression 03:55 Paracelsus: the physician who burned the books to read nature 08:51 The dose makes the poison: the sentence that changed medicine 10:02 The salt, the flower pot and the classic car: the right measure explained 13:36 Your body is not a candle: hormesis and how it repairs itself every day 16:31 Dose 1 · Moderate cold and a brisk walk 18:07 Dose 2 · Eating to 80% and the 12 hours of digestive rest 19:47 Dose 3 · Morning light and darkness at night 21:13 Dose 4 · Simple joy against the stress that rusts

About

Do you feel that the harder you look after yourself, the worse you feel? This podcast explains how your body really works, from biophysics, physiology and common sense, so that you live more years and, above all, better. No fads, no fear, no excess. Your body is, first of all, an electrical system: cells with voltage, membranes with polarity, and a network of connections that needs well-structured water, sunlight and the minerals of unrefined salt to hold its charge and its balance. When that connectivity is lost, fatigue, inflammation and premature ageing appear; when it is cared for, the body repairs itself every single day. In each episode, José María Castillejo takes apart a health belief that sounds logical but wears you down, and replaces it with the right dose you can apply from tomorrow morning: water, sun, salt, temperature, movement, the plate, rest and emotion. New episodes every week.