Aging Well For Life Jim Jensen: Author of The 10 Most Powerful Health Habits

In episode 60, I have a fascinating conversation with Victoria Hahn, MS, RDN, about prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet ®
Victoria is the Nutrition Science Liaison for L-Nutra, the leaders in the field of nutrition related to longevity and health-span.
L-Nutra develops nutri-technologies that mimic the effects of fasting, to enhance the body’s natural ability to rejuvenate itself and promote longevity.
Victoria is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Science Liaison with a Master of Science in Nutrition, Health-span, and Longevity from the University of Southern California.
She also functions as an inpatient clinical dietitian and has a background in nutrition research covering a wide range of topics including nutritional sufficiency in specific populations and the ketogenic diet. She has a passion for research and evidence-based practice.
Fasting has become a popular lifestyle-hack that has been proven to provide some impressive physical changes that have a direct impact on extending health span as well as a lot of promise when it comes to the future treatment of many of the diseases that we associate with aging.
Valter Longo PhD
I’ve been fascinated with the concept of prolonged fasting ever since I first heard doctor Valter Longo PhD interviewed on Rhonda Patricks foundmyfitness podcast way back in august of 2018.
If you’ve never heard of Dr. Longo, trust me, you will. He is one of, if not the, foremost researchers on anti-aging in the world.
He has focused many years of research on prolonged fasting. Dr. Longo’s research, along with many other’s, has shown that prolonged fasting instigates rejuvenating changes that can affect every cell in your body.
Dr. Longo developed the Fasting Mimicking Diet ® as a means to make the many benefits of prolonged fasting accessible to most everybody. IN THIS IN-DEPTH PODCAST, VICTORIA HAHN MS, RDN ANSWERS THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE FASTING MIMICKING DIET ® : • What is prolonged fasting and how is it different than time-restricted eating?
• Who is Valter Longo, PhD and how has he been involved with prolonged fasting research?
• Why did he develop the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Is prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet® safe for everybody?
• What is in the ProLon Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• What happens to your body when you fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Does my body go into ketogenesis on the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Are there any potential problems with trying to create your own Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• How does one prepare for a fast using the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Can I exercise while on the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Can I resume eating normally when the fast is over®?
• Can I continue to take my usual supplements during the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• What should I do if I am still hungry during the fast?
• What kind of support does L-Nutra provide for people fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Do you have any tips to help improve the Fasting Mimicking Diet® fasting experience?
• Where can people find out more about prolonged fasting with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?
• Do you have any final words you’d like to share for people who are considering doing a 5-day fast with the Fasting Mimicking Diet®?

Hello and welcome to health bites! HEALTH BITES is a short podcast meant to provide you with some basic understanding of the often-times complex concepts that are central to the many biological processes responsible for extending our health span.
Today, I want to share with you the awe and mystery of autophagy.
Autophagy plays a leading role in many of the life-hacks that have a major impact on your health-span. We touched a bit on it back when I talked about zombie cells.
Mechanism of cellular authophagy, illustration for Nobel Prize Award in Medicine 2016. 3D illustration showing fusion of lysosome with autophagosome containing microbes and molecules
Autophagy literally means self-eating and that is exactly what happens to cells when they are in the state of autophagy. They literally consume all the junk protein by-products from everyday metabolism along with other pieces of cellular components that accumulate within the cells. Your body then breaks it down and re-uses the basic components for other cellular processes.
This process is related to apoptosis, where cells commit suicide and die. In the great scheme of things autophagy is a cells 1st line of defense when it is damaged and becoming non-functional. If autophagy fails to get the cell back to functionality, then they throw in the towel and commit hari-cari, through the process of apoptosis. That’s a good thing because it triggers your body to produce new cells to replace them.
There are several types of autophagy. The differences are in the type of cell that the autophagy occurs and what triggers it within those cells. For those of us interested in health-span we are more interested in two forms of autophagy.

One is mitophagy. This occurs when your mitochondria, the little engines of our cells, go through the process of autophagy. This results in our mitochondria becoming more efficient, much like a tune-up for your car. It enables our metabolism to run more efficiently without causing oxidative stress on our bodies. Mitophagy also causes our body to create new mitochondria so it’s like throwing a new engine into that car of yours. That’s a good thing. If mitophagy is diminished by age or other processes than it could lead to chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s’ disease and kidney disease.
The other prominent anti-aging autophagy is called Xenophagy. This is how the cells of your immune system remembers threats from foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses.
Autophagy is a vital function for maintaining our health. So how do we help our bodies to increase our level of autophagy? Autophagy is typically triggered when our bodies are in stress. This can often come from external stresses such as changes in our environment such as the heat stress produced by sitting in a hot sauna or from exercise.

Exercise has been shown to effectively trigger autophagy in the brain, and with the liver, pancreas, adipose tissues and muscles. This is one of the reasons why exercise is so effective at increasing health-span as well as helping to protect us against chronic diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and neuro-degenerative diseases.  

Fasting also triggers autophagy in our entire body. Particularly with prolonged fasting of 3 days or more.  Dr. Valter Longo, out of USC, has found that prolonged fasting with the fasting mimicking diet, will substantially increase autophagy throughout your entire body.
The beauty of the fasting mimicking diet is that it provides the health and anti-aging benefits of a traditional 5 -day water fast while it prevents the extreme hunger cravings, along with other potential health risks.  
Incorporating exercise and periodic prolonged fasting into your lifestyle can have very powerful anti-aging affects on your life. Come join me on my very first prolonged fast! Join me on my first prolonged fast in July 2019! Click on the button below for more information on 
jo

What if I told you that there has been a scientific breakthrough for a new medication that has been proven to protect you from cancer, heart disease, diabetes, colds and the flu? And… that this medication has a powerful healing effect on every system and cell in your body… And, this amazing medication can also enhance your learning ability, memory, and creativity, all, while making you happier, looking younger, thinner, and even improves your sex life? Plus, this new medication has no negative side effects and is completely free. Would this be of interest to you? If so, then I have some very good news for you. This miracle cure-all does exist and is yours for the taking. It’s called quality sleep. In episode 59 I’m going to be sharing with you what I believe to be the most important and timely podcast that I have ever produced over the last 5 years or so. Good, quality sleep is so much more than a luxury for us boomers. It is an absolute, vital necessity to our very lives. This podcast is a major update to episode #36 on sleep that I did years ago, prior to all of the latest research that has emerged.
My eyes were opened to the importance of sleep from listening to the audio book, Why We Sleep, written by Matthew Walker PhD. Dr. Walker is a sleep researcher out of UC Berkeley. He’s been doing sleep research for over 20 years so he knows what he’s talking about. I highly recommend that you read his book. It should be required reading for everybody in high school and beyond.
I also encourage you to listen to interviews of Dr. Walker by Rhonda Patrick PhD on her FoundMyFitness podcast and with Joe Rogan on his podcast. They are both excellent and will provide you with much more valuable information than I can talk about here.
I urge you to listen to all of this podcast. I know it’s a bit long but it’s very important and relevant to you, no matter what stage of life you’re in.
You may already think you know all there is to know about sleep but trust me, most likely you don’t.
And please share this with your younger friends and family. I wish that I had known this way back when I could have had a head start on preserving this precious gift that is free for the taking.
If nothing else, I encourage you to download my free 20-page companion PDF – 20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night. Get your free companion PDF
20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to 
Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night

It’s packed with the latest science-based tips that can go a long way to help you get those full 8 hours of quality sleep that we, as boomers, need as much as we need oxygen. 
This PDF also contains some great resources to help you to get those zzzz’s that you need.
 
Get your FREE Companion PDF! 20 Solid Tips to Enable Baby Boomers to 
Get a Great Night Sleep Every Night YES! Send me the PDF!
 
I recommend that you read this PDF while connected to the internet because there are many links to information and resources that will help you to get that quality sleep that you’re looking for.

In this 2nd edition of Health Bites, Jim Jensen talks about how our cells can become zombies and what to do about it if they do.

In episode 57, I share a lifestyle hack that can provide very quick benefits to your present health, as well as adding many healthy years to your life.
This important lifestyle hack is the drastic reduction of refined sugar from your life. Get your free companion PDF
13 Sure-Fire Tips to Eliminate Refined Sugar
From Your Life Click on the button below to download your PDF
Send me the PDF!


Most people are aware that too much sugar can cause health issues like diabetes, childhood obesity, tooth decay and hyper-active kids and that sugary soft drinks are becoming a target for law-makers and TV talk shows trying to curb the proliferation of these serious health issues.
But many people are unaware of the pervasive and hidden nature of processed sugar, how it gets into our food, and how damaging it is to our health. This danger is amplified as we enter our middle age and senior years because we become more vulnerable to the many serious diseases of aging such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and more.
Now I’m not demonizing all sugar. Every cell in our body needs sugar. I’m focusing here on the processed sugar that you’ll find in sodas and food sweeteners like sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup .
We’re also looking at fruit and some vegetable juices. This type of sugar is often added to other processed foods like cookies, cereal, pasta sauce, peanut butter and yogurt. These sugars are causing many health issues for many people. And sadly, many people don’t even realize that it’s in their food.
We now know that this kind of sugar can create a strong addiction that works by the same process as does a heroin addiction. It’s that insidious. That’s why it’s so hard for many people to cut down or eliminate sugar from life. The cravings can be very strong.
And withdrawing from sugar can cause some pretty nasty symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, insomnia, sweating, fatigue, muscle aches, nausea and vomiting. And the addiction can be so overwhelming that it may require medical intervention. It can take up to 3 months to wean yourself off sugar. So, it’s really no joke.
So why is processed sugar so addicting? Chowing down on refined sugar causes your body to release dopamine, your body’s natural feel-good hormone, which is the same rewards pathway as the addiction to heroin, cocaine, and nicotine uses. Over time you can become very dependent on refined sugar.
And as if that isn’t bad enough, refined sugar makes you crave more sugar.
And fructose is the culprit here.
It turns out that refined sugar (sucrose), and high-fructose corn syrup,  contain both fructose and glucose. Sucrose, or table sugar, is made from sugar cane or beets and is about a 50/50 combination of fructose and glucose.
High-fructose corn syrup contains about 55% fructose and 45% glucose.
Glucose isn’t really the bad guy here. It is broken down by every cell in your body and causes your body to release insulin, to break it down and remove it from the bloodstream. This process also release leptin, a protein that helps to make you feel full, thus curbing your hunger.
But fructose, does not trigger your body to send the insulin and the leptin. Instead, fructose is broken down inside the liver. The problem is that without the leptin, you still feel hungry, and thus the sugar cravings. Fructose also elevates your triglyceride levels thus elevating your risk for heart attack and stroke.
But fructose is derived from fruit. Does that mean that fruit is unhealthy? Not at all. The fructose in fruit is bound up in what they call the food matrix.
This means that it’s enmeshed with cellular material and fiber. This causes it to be broken down slower and thus doesn’t cause the big spikes in your blood sugar. Also, the fiber makes you feel full.
But fruit and veggie juices are a different story. You remove the food matrix and are left with mostly fructose, which then becomes the bad guy again adding to your sugar addiction

In this premier Health Bites podcast, Jim Jensen, founder of The Essential Boomer, talks about Hormesis and why it is such an important concept to the process of extending your healthy years while avoiding those terrible chronic conditions typically associated with aging. Boomers! Check it out!