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physician I focus on nutritional medicine functional medicine for 30 years on real patients and I've used foodist medicine and I'm just blown away and humbled by how our human body's work and how we need to personalize our nutritional approach but there are a few Universal principles that can guide you to the right diet and I think there aren't too many people who are on either Spectrum

I mean maybe the extreme carnivore might disagree with something someone to say but most people whether you're paleo or vegan or keto or whatever it is agree most people whether they're paleo or vegan or keto or whatever agree on these principles one we should get rid of ultra processed food we need to dramatically lower our intake of refined starches and sugars and processed foods that are

killing us two we should be eating food that's the highest quality we possibly can and ideally we need to personalize our diet and we need to think of food as medicine which is the guiding principle for all we're eating I don't I don't think there'd be anybody in the nutrition space who would disagree with any of those four ideas and so when you personalize your diet

should be based on your genetics your metabolism your preferences obviously but these are really simple principles so with it within that there's a lot of room for what you can eat personally I think a a balanced view that's not too extreme is what I call the Pagan diet and it was sort of poking fun at the extremes of diet right of paleo and vegan uh but

we now know that these principles are and I've written a book about it called the Pagan diet which lays out principles for eating in a nutritionally confusing world and how do we optimize our health by focusing on quality focusing on food is medicine and personalization so first thing we should be understanding food is the single biggest bioregulator that we are interacting with it's the single biggest

thing that modifies our biochemical physiological hormonal neurotransmitter pretty much every function microbiome everything is going on your body your gene expression is controlled by what you eat in real time so you want to eat high quality food as best you can lots of colorful fruits and vegetables not a ton of sugary fruits but lots of good fruits can be fine is if you're metabolically healthy lots

of good fats avocados olive oil nuts and seeds really important also people eat more nuts and seeds have more longevity and Better Health animal foods are are definitely a big question mark for people but I think without going into too much detail here because we're trying to cover all the five things I think the date on meat I've discussed deeply in food what the heck should

I eat and the Pagan diet and also in young forever I talked about protein and the need for certain kinds of protein as we age so having good meat is important I recently visited a ranch out here in Texas where I'm staying and it was called Rome Ranch and they provide incredible um care to these bison that really regenerated the soil and increased the water tables

and increased biodiversity bald eagles were coming back Creeks were coming back that had been dead for Generations plants that have been dormant for 100 years were coming back because of the Bison poop fertilizing them was quite amazing and they produce really healthy or generally raised meat and there's a company called force of nature where you can get animal that are you know it's just sort of

raised in a way that's in their natural habitat and their natural species uh as they as they have for centuries and provide really high quality meat that's full of phytochemicals and protein and vitamins and minerals and things that are really essential for us I think eggs also pasteurized eggs are great they had duck eggs on the farm which I got which are really great uh if

you're gonna eat fish make sure it's low in mercury and toxins what I call the smash fish sardines mackerel Herring anchovies um and salmon a small salmon ideally if you're going to eat grains and make sure you eat more heirloom grains you eat whole grains not whole grain flowers or some can be fine like Himalayan Curry buckwheat completely minimally processed flowers if they're if they're in

the original heirloom state they're higher in protein lower in glycemic triggering starches they have higher levels of nutrients vitamins and minerals I love him all in Target but I I definitely would would not be eating flour for most sources and I would being avoiding gluten mostly especially from the American dwarf wheat some ancient forms of grain can be fine if you're not Gluten Sensitive beans are

great um you know and and I think they can be a great part of a healthy diet obviously you know you can't get you can't get as much protein from Beans and Grains as you would from like four or six ounces of chicken or meat you can get 30 grams of protein you'd need six cups of brown rice and two cups of beans or two cups

of beans to get that same amount so it's a little harder as we get older sugar obviously the processed food sugar that's that's just a problem Ultra processed food should have zero part of your diet like zero additives chemicals pesticides herbicides hormones antibiotics all should be completely eliminated if you're gonna have sugar that's okay but just think of it as a recreational drug small amounts occasionally

can be fine but not as ideally stable and need real sugar and maple syrup have honey I mean have sugar but don't eat all those artificial weird things refined oils can be a problem I think there are speller pressed oils or higher Lake oils there are oh they have good mixtures of Omega-3s and sixes so I think the sort of narrative it's all signals are bad

or none of those are bad I think it's problematic but we have to be more more specific and it's a little nuanced but I talked about what that is in my book uh and dairy can be great if it's from sheep or goat and if you're not allergic but most traditional Cow Dairy is pretty bad for you um not because you know because of all the

hormones in it because of the A2 A1 casein was just super inflammatory where as the casein which is the protein in milk that's in sheep or goat is much less inflammatory so that's sort of the uh high level on diet and if you follow these principles you can eat lots of different ways but they're just really core principles of what you should be eating next is

sleep sleep is so important and we don't prioritize sleep in this culture uh we think we can cheat sleep and still do well we can't uh we need to practice good sleep hygiene so what does that look like and again you know people say I have insomnia I can't sleep well they often don't practice good sleep hygiene so go to bed and wake up at the

same time every day as best possible use your bed for sleep and romance or sex not TV or work um create a nice environment in your bedroom like really limit all the Clutter and distractions keep it Serene muted colors get rid of all that crap make sure you have blackout Shades or at least on eye mask uh you know light plays a huge role and even

if our eyes are closed and it's bright out light will get in and it can affect our melatonin levels and affect our ability to sleep now keep it quiet you know if you're if you're living a noisy area use earplugs get grounded I think one of the things we don't realize is the electromagnetic frequencies can be a factor and they're actually grounding sheets and grounding tents

in New York City you know I had a geiger counter which the measures like basically not a guy around but like basically like a EMF detector and essentially it measures the ambient EMF or electromatic frequencies and it basically says danger danger get out of our apartment because because of all the Wi-Fi and every you know there's like all these buildings and all these people they're on

Wi-Fi there's like 100 you know Wi-Fi things going on and so I we put a kind of like a basic like a faraday cage which is a it blocks all the emfs and you couldn't make a phone call inside the tent over your bed so I encourage you to either shut off your Wi-Fi at night to get a kind of Faraday tent for your bed or

something like that and and try to keep all the electrical stuff away from your bed and don't check your devices and just just get your device out of bed also get rid of blue light exposure at night you can use red light bulbs at home at night you can use blue blocker glasses you want to avoid computers smartphones tablets at least two hours before bed uh

um really use the blue black glass after Sunset it can be great caffeine can be fine for people but if you're a slow metabolizer you can have a cup in the morning and that can affect your sleep at night so it can really interfere with sleep if you're really struggling I would encourage you to get off caffeine alcohol I occasionally like to drink but it is

a super uh bad sleep disrupter and I can tell when I wear my aura ring or when I'm you know you tracking my sleep when I drink something at night my sleep is always much worse and I and I actually feel worse the next day so I've pretty much given up mostly drinking occasionally I'll have a shot of tequila but not not on a regular basis

also make sure in the morning you you get light exposure getting 20 minutes of bright light exposure in the morning uh it activates the light receptors in your eyes it affects your brain your penal gland and sets uh Rising cortisol levels and lower melatonin and kind of helps you actually reset your system so you can get a deeper sleep at night also don't eat three hours

before bed so give yourself three hours before your last meal in bed I can't always do that but having a heavy meal going to bed it's going to screw up your sleep um I went to a dinner party last night and I'm like I'm sure the guy will I see at six o'clock and we didn't eat till nine o'clock at night I came home and I

went to bed at you know 11 30. it was still by the time I finished dinner was 10 you know got into bed 11 30. uh it wasn't enough time and I and I definitely could feel the effects today of not having as good asleep so don't work out at night exercising at night will stimulate you and interrupt your sleep also get the crap out of

your head that's spinning so write down your worries uh maybe an hour before bed do a little journaling right then what causes you anxiety get stuff off your head that you're with your to-do list what your plans are just free up your mind a little bit one of my favorite hacks is a hot bath I use epsom salt and lavender oil to lower cortisol and hot

water helps to raise your body temperature which helps you fall asleep faster and uh magnesium is absorbed through the skin which helps you relax and uh it's great so you get the cortisol lowering effects of lavender and it's just a great fun way to kind of wind down at night also if you can stretch at night do a little yoga stretching if you're lucky get a

massage some of the best things I've ever had where when I got a massage at night and then go to bed it's like I just go into a whole different State uh also heating pads can be great forming your your middle uh heating pad and water water bottle a warm body helps don't take medications that mess up sleep sedatives antihistamines stimulants cold medications steroids often headache

medication that takes caffeine in them be careful of those those can screw up your sleep try some herbs passion flower valerian root Magnolia um a lot of these things can be very helpful for Sleep magnesium is one of my favorites to take magnesium before bed two to 400 milligrams you can take magnesium citrate if you tend to be constipated glycinate if you're more likely to you

know just have normal bowels sometimes melatonin half familiarogram to two milligrams can be helpful for some people um other things amino acids like Gaba theanine 5-HTP really helpful try guided meditation sometimes I'll listen to binaural beats at night which is uh you can listen to them online and get a headphone and it really helps to really reset your brain Yoga Nidra guided relaxation whatever whatever you

like but I would encourage you to try that uh and try my sleep Master Class you can go to Dr hyman.com forward slash sleep so sleep is important and exercise also important obviously if there was a longevity pill it would be exercise certain types of exercise are far more effective for optimizing your health or metabolism or lifespan um aerobic conditioning strength keeping your muscle mass being

flexible being agile super important for staying healthy you want to be able to uh you know do what I call the centenarian Olympics basically um Peter Tia talks about the Centurion I know decathlon which is like what do you do get up off the floor play with your grandkids tie your shoes you know like but that requires you to be fit and agile and flexible and

build muscle so really important um it has really impowerful effects it's like a stress and it's this hormesis strategy which is a stress that doesn't kill you that makes you stronger and uh and what is it what are the main ways we need to do this one is by boosting your VO2 max your VO2 max is basically how much oxygen you can burn a minute and

and that is an indirect measurement of your Fitness level and also your mitochondrial function and your metabolism so the higher it is the longer you'll live and the way to to get it up is by high intensity interval training and like Sprints also muscle super important maximizing muscle is key so uh strength training 30 minutes three times a week minimum and having adequate protein after uh

getting flexible yoga classes stretching key to keeping your body supple you know the stiff old man syndrome is a real thing so make sure you keep your muscles attendance ligaments pliable flexible it'll help with your Mobility agility balance looking pain-free yoga is really great so I encourage you to pick up some yoga you can use online classes easy to do what do I do well I

do four to six days of cardio with digital training I do Road mountain biking tennis is my favorite because I don't even know I'm exercising um hiking sometimes we do classes swimming 30 to 60 Minutes session I do strength training I use tb12 Sports resistance bands sometimes I use weights I'll do that 30 minutes four or five times a week and yoga I love yoga so

hot yoga yoga a couple of times a week stretching a little bit every day but I definitely get into the yoga I wish I could do that every day actually also um the next instead of the last uh one of the last major things is building community and a sense of purpose um you know a lot of us you know don't have a deep community and

loneliness and isolation are are big risk factors for for disease and early deaths so uh also your mind you know what happens between your ears determines so much about your health so develop a growth mindset learn about the world explore and be curious about yourself in the world um figure out what's not working and then in your life and take action to fix it create a

vision statement for yourself like what matters to you what are your goals what are your dreams uh do good things for other people altruism is actually a medicine literally it affects us in a positive way in our biology our brain circuits get rewarded with dopamine like they do with heroin and cocaine with altruism and it's much safer and much healthier so find something that matters to

you um be part of making the world a better place I was a well-known Indian Guru named neem curly Baba who said um you know you could reach Awakening with simple A Simple Plan love everyone serve everyone any added feed everyone so that's pretty simple uh rules for living volunteer give yours give back to your Community Practice kindness to those around you um also there's a

way to take your struggles and your pain and transform them into a purpose many of us have had you know traumas in our lives we've experienced hard things and we can use those things to help others and uh I certainly you know that I got very sick when I was in my 30s I had chronic fatigue and that led me to understand the body in a

different way and discover functional medicine and and I and I see I saw how many people were suffering that don't need to with solutions that are available to them um also find out what makes you happy what lights you up what you're passionate about and do those things um I love to play tennis I love to be in nature I love to hang out with my

friends I love to listen to music so I I find those things that give me joy and I and I go do them find out what you care about and what your dreams are and follow those dreams uh you can reinvent your life at any age so just make sure you take the time to explore your life and make those changes that you need to actually

bring more passion and joy to your life and and make sure you're connected to community because that's so powerful it's a part of our medicine is this community is medicine it's and many of us are as I mentioned socially isolated and it doesn't matter what it is it could be a book club it could be bowling buddy it can be anything but the more connected you

are to people the healthier you are the more your relationships are solid in your life the better your health is going to be and the longer you're going to live um also find out and see people who inspire you you know you're only as healthiest The Five People You spend the most time with so if all your friends are you know you know eat at McDonald's

and drinking soda all day I'm going to call it diabetes water then you know that's probably what's going to happen to you but if all your friends are are watching uh and watching Netflix and binging on junk food you're probably going to be in trouble if your friends are drinking green juices and doing yoga you know probably and they're focused on growth and development you're probably

going to be healthier too also be nice to yourself uh most of us are pretty hard on ourself and if we actually talk to our friends the way we talk to ourselves with our inner dialogue uh we probably wouldn't have any friends talks about this idea of non-judgmental loving self-awareness how do we recognize our negative inner dialogue and how do we how do we overcome that

also prioritize your own self-care it's not selfish to take care of yourself uh you know the more you take care of yourself the better you can be in your life for others so um you're going to become a source of energy and light for yourself and for others and I think you know focusing on productivity is not the answer it's on filling up our hearts and

our souls so do those simple things that bring you back to yourself and support your health and I know it's for me it's super important so after this I'm gonna go for a walk with a friend and then I'm gonna go play tennis League this afternoon and I invited uh some family members over for dinner tonight so I try to do this on a daily basis

to add those things that bring value also learn how to manage your stress response we can't stop stress it's happening all the time but what we can manage it and we have to learn those techniques it can be breathing techniques meditation yoga guided meditation Forest bathing we just call it taking a walk in the woods writing down your feelings journaling super helpful you know gratitude Journal

super important and actually data on this it's not just some goofy idea it's actually something that where there's real data on practicing gratitude as a method for healing your body and healing yourself Martin Seligman talks about this in his book flourish where he unpacks the science of gratitude and it's how it affects your health and happiness so focus on what's right and good not on what's

wrong and bad a lot of us are you know focusing what's wrong instead of what's right and I think we just shift our focus and we'll often be much happier uh so build your friend Network you know take time to invest in your friends whether it's you know Gatherings you have weekly it could be a breakfast club it could be on Zoom Gathering you have with

your friends all over the country or world just make sure you invest in that um massage is great if you can do it it helps breathing out stress my one of my favorite techniques you can trade massage with a friend with a partner you can get a professional College if you can afford it exercise also a great way to reduce stress so there's so many things

the five different things you can do uh that are so important what you eat exercise your um your sleep your your meaning purpose and learning how to manage stress all super important for living a long and healthy life if you loved that last video You're Gonna Love the next one check it out here remember I've been doing this for 40 years I've been learning and incorporating

different things and I've sort of come up with what works for me but I'm going to share with you what the sign and what and these are science backed interventions that I focused on so the first is you know what do I