Are you interested in extending your life span and improving the quality of your later years?
Today’s guest has spent his entire adult life researching and discovering the tools to help us live that kind of life. We don’t have to wait until we reach old age. Instead, we can change our current lifestyles to support our old age.
Today, my guest is Dr. David Sinclair, a professor in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School who is best known for his understanding of why we age and how to slow the effects of aging. He’s also launched his podcast, Lifespan, which I’m a big fan of.
In this episode, you will learn how to understand reverse aging, how to live longer, how to live younger, and so much more! Let’s get started!
Who Is Dr. David Sinclair?
David A. Sinclair, Ph.D., A.O. is a Professor in the Department of Genetics and co-Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, in 1995. Today, he is best known for his understanding of why we age and how to slow its effects.
Dr. Sinclair worked as a postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T. with Dr. Leonard Guarente. He co-discovered a cause of aging for yeast and the role of Sir2 in epigenetic changes driven by genome instability. In 1999, he was recruited to Harvard Medical School, where he has been teaching aging biology and translational medicine for aging for the past 16 years.
Dr. Sinclair is co-founder of several biotechnology companies (Sirtris, Ovascience, Genocea, Cohbar, MetroBiotech, ArcBio, Liberty Biosecurity) and is on the boards of several others. He is also co-founder and co-chief editor of the journal Aging.
When Dr. Sinclair was younger, he was a precocious little kid. Thankfully, Dr. Sinclair’s grandmother played a major role in developing his character. When she was just 15 and still in high school, she fell pregnant with Dr. Sinclair’s dad. Because she was so young, the baby was taken away from her, and so she was determined to be there for Dr. David in his formative years.
His grandmother was a philosopher and an artist, and she poured her energy into him and instilled positive things from an early age like making every day count and constantly telling him, “You CAN do it.” David believes positive feedback played a significant role in his success. Not only did David do things he wasn’t good at, but he believed he could change the world.
Daily Tips to Reverse Aging
Death is a part of life, but it’s a big fear for most of us. It doesn’t have to be that way, though, and we can choose how we meet death in our future. Dr. Sinclair has seen death firsthand, and it’s part of what drives him in his work. After years of research, he has developed daily practical tips to age gracefully.
“If there’s one thing that I could say to everybody, it would be to eat less often. I used to say, ‘eat this or that,’ but I believe that when you eat is just as important as what you eat — perhaps even more so. Exercise is important, and thirdly eat more plants, but plants in particular that have been stressed out.” – Dr. David Sinclair
There’s a theory behind picking vegetables after they’ve faced adversity, things like not enough light, water, or even nutrients. Plants need to survive just like we do, and when the plants experience adversity, they produce extra resveratrol.
“Let’s take red wine. Before you pick the grape, you dry out the vines or hope there’s not enough rain. The grapevine gets stressed out — it’s fearful that it could die [and] starts making what are called polyphenols.” – Dr. David Sinclair
These polyphenols produce resveratrol, which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to protect you against diseases like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s found in the skin of red grapes, so there are health benefits with red wine in moderation, but it’s also available as a supplement.
Dr. Sinclair suggests buying plants full of color and having plants of various colors, but let’s hear more about the benefits of how often you eat.
Benefits of Time Restricted Eating
Dr. David believes the same things happen in our bodies as plants when we create adversity by eating fewer times daily.
“It creates benefits by tricking your body to think it could die in a week. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. You become resilient; otherwise, if you’re always having an abundance of amino acids, your body says, ‘Hey, it is great — I don’t need to do anything but build, build, build.’ It’s like burning the candle at both ends, [thinking,] ‘I got so much food, screw it, I don’t need to worry about protecting my body. I will have kids for the next five years, [to] replace myself, and then I can [die].’ Whereas [with] my mode of [eating less often] my body [thinks,] ‘If I have kids right now, they might die — I need to stick around until food comes back.’” – Dr. David Sinclair
By using time-restricted eating and tricking your body, you can increase your longevity on average for a couple of decades. Doctors tell us five key components that support time-restricted eating:
“Don’t smoke, don’t drink [alcohol], eat good food [like the] Mediterranean diet, sleep well, … don’t stress out, and have friends. Those things are enough to give you an average of 14 years [extra].” – Dr. David Sinclair
Considering the average life expectancy in the USA is in the late seventies (it did dip a little bit due to COVID), those five things could add an extra five, 10, or 14 healthy years.
