EP : 108 Redefining Aging: Unpacking Longevity

Ever feel buried under longevity headlines that promise everything and deliver little? We invited author and anthropologist Siim Land to unpack what actually extends healthspan and what just drains your wallet. From a military start and early bodybuilding to a decade of research and content creation, Siim brings a calm, data-led voice that favors flexible routines over fragile perfection.

We get specific about where to start: reduce visceral fat, then use targeted bloodwork to direct your effort. Siim outlines the biomarkers that matter most for risk—glucose and insulin sensitivity, inflammation, lipids and lipoproteins, liver and kidney health, and CBC—then explains why your tape measure might be the best first test. We probe weight loss drugs like GLP‑1s, balancing benefits against unknowns, and explore NAD strategies, iron and calcium pitfalls, and when delivery method (oral vs injection) truly changes outcomes.


If you want a practical roadmap to live longer and feel better—without chasing every shiny pill—this is your field guide. Listen, take notes, and if it helps, share it with a friend who’s drowning in health hype. Subscribe for more grounded conversations, and leave a quick review to tell us the one change you’ll make this week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Welcome back to another episode of the Detached Podcast. Today we're going to go through an episode to try to miss some of the things that you see in the longevity industry, as we know it's so noisy. So welcome on the podcast. I'd love for you to introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Yeah, thank you. I'm Seem Lund. I'm an anthropologist and uh author. I've been writing books about health for the last 10 years. And uh I have a YouTube channel where I make content about different topics on topics of health. And um yeah, you could also consider me, I guess, uh enthusiast in itself uh in longevity, who uh yeah, tries to optimize their own health and uh get good results with it.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

So you said 10 years. When I was like looking back and doing a bit of research on you, I noticed the passion really started for 12 years, you're researching, right?

Early Influences And Motivation

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Yeah, I uh started um my blog I think uh around 10 years ago, but um I got into health as a you know thing that I do for myself around yeah 12 years ago, maybe a bit earlier even than that, maybe 14-15 years ago. But um yeah, the initial interest started around that time when I was in the military in Estonia, the mandatory service of military. I was interested in fitness, so I did uh you know exercise a lot and uh started to pay attention to nutrition and uh diet. And uh yeah, during my university when I was studying anthropology, I started my blog where I initially just wrote about whatever I wanted to write about, different uh topics of you know what I'm doing for myself and uh different experiments I did. And then over the course of uh time it evolved into a YouTube channel, which I've now done for the YouTube itself has been I've been doing that for eight years, I think, or maybe even nine years, not exactly sure, but uh yeah, I've uh moved from just general health optimization um towards um I guess longevity science nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

So, what kind of household did you grow up in to kind of manifest into this passion of research and longevity? Was there any link to that?

SPEAKER_03 2:29

Well, I grew up in this small uh island in Estonia and um you know grew up in the countryside with uh just spending time outside with uh different animals than dogs. And um, you know, I I our household wasn't particularly like health conscious, it was just a very uh regular household. My mother was an English teacher and uh my father was a policeman, so a very like humble background in that sense. The only thing that I do think contributed to my interest in longevity was my grandfather. Uh my mother's uh father who died to colon cancer when he was 36, so I never met him, and uh I did want to you know take my health more seriously. Around this university time, I had this realization that you know I might not have good genes, so I'll um have to be more careful with my health. Uh you know, I'm 31 right now, so 36 is uh pretty uh close. Obviously, I'm a lot healthier than my grandfather who smoked, and that increases the risk of colon cancer.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

But did he die when he was 36? Oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Yeah, so you know I just wanted to uh be more preventive with my health, and that's why I got interested in more in more than just fitness. So I was doing I guess some some like not professional bodybuilding, but uh I I did some comp competitions as well in Estonia and this uh junior bodybuilding uh league. Uh so that was like the fitness side of things I was interested, but then were you natural or nutty? No, no, I mean uh I wasn't obviously natural, so it was just uh yeah, I was mostly in the fitness side of things, so like muscle and strength training, and then I wanted to get into more um preventive health and longevity as after this uh realization.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Wow. So at that period of time when you first started researching and kind of trying to optimize your health, was there anybody around you at that time that questioned your choices to follow this health journey?

SPEAKER_03 4:39

Well, my mother was I mean, she's uh you know, just a regular person. She's not uh particularly interested in health that much. She obviously still tries to pay attention to what she eats nowadays and uh things like that. But uh, you know, things that I did back then might have been weird for her, you know, when I was uh into the fitness, uh counting the calories and macros and things of that, she's just you know, it looks weird for a regular person, and uh it looks like some eating disorder or something like that, but you know, as a fitness you know, competitor or fitness uh enthusiast, you're just doing it because uh you love the the sport, so um yeah, those things might look weird. And uh I was also doing intermittent fasting, which can also, for some people, look like eating disorder, but uh it's just you know, you skip breakfast and then you have like lunch and dinner. I ate twice as much food in those in those meals, so I wasn't like starving myself, but it's just the idea of you know skipping a meal for the average person looks very weird. Nowadays she's like super used to it, she's knows this just what I do. But uh yeah, initially in my early 20s, it it looks weird for the for the parent.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Did you ever feel like you had to over-explain yourself when you were younger?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

I I mean I did explain why I was doing it, so I think uh she eventually got the message that it wasn't uh something uh neurotic or anything.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

What would you say to someone who's in a similar situation that has serious health protocols and they feel like their family is questioning their actions? What kind of advice would you give them?

Explaining Unusual Health Habits

SPEAKER_03 6:35

Well, I think um you need to actually be sure that it's not uh some sort of a disorder that uh you know I I I guess like for people who have actual disorders, for them it's not a disorder. So I think you need to be sure that it's not actually something that is harming your health and uh is isn't causing you problems physically or mentally. So, you know, things like are you normal body weight? Are you getting too skinny, or are you you know the opposite side of gaining too much weight if you're some bulking bodybuilder, for example, there's two ends of the spectrum. Are you yeah, super neurotic about your diet and are you know afraid of any ex food that is off the menu for you? You know, those can uh easily be you know moving into the I guess you can call them like a disordered territory where you know I I personally have right now like no restrictions about that, like um, but I guess for some people there might be some allergies or some food sensitivities, so for them they need to avoid certain foods. But I yeah, I think if you explain to the people why you're doing it, what's the you know, research about it or something, uh then uh it can sound a lot more convincing and reasonable. So, yeah, I think a lot a lot of things in health can be unreasonable for the average person. So you shouldn't always listen to what your parents say about your health, like uh going for a run or doing some exercise might sound unreasonable and might sound neurotic for the average person, but I think you know those are just the baseline fundamentals that everyone should actually do. You know, not putting sugar in your coffee or something, you know. For me, it sounds like logical that you what you would do, but for um, you know, my grandma, maybe it might sound that I'm you know starving myself if I don't put sugar in my coffee.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Absolutely. You just mentioned there about being flexible from a psychological perspective. How important is it to be flexible when it comes to you know looking after your health?

SPEAKER_03 8:48

I think it's uh super important. So um, you know, it's important to realize that with like let's say diet, there's no evidence that having this a hundred percent perfect diet, a hundred percent organic food, a hundred percent whole food, uh no added sugar, no seed oil, no some preservatives that that didn't that would make you live longer than kind of this average mediocre diet with you know semi-healthy foods. And it also matters on the broader context of what else are you doing. So if you eat a perfect diet but you don't exercise and you don't sleep enough or you drink alcohol, you know, that's worse for you than having a slightly worse diet, but having everything else optimized as well. So the every the diet is only a means to achieve perfect health, and um a small, you know, let's say uh hiccup or um slightly suboptimal diet isn't necessarily gonna get in the way of optimal health. You can have perfect blood markers, you can have perfect sleep and perfect body composition with kind of this 80-20 rule type of uh diet that uh you eat healthy the vast majority of time, but you still are allowed to have some um you know suboptimal foods, or you know, you can have some days where you're not following your diet, etc. What matters is the broader scheme of things, so it's important to realize that. And a lot of the you know, uh restrictions or neuroticism about having a perfect diet or being super strict with your routines comes from you know not realizing that, or second of all, just being afraid that um if I fall off the way, if I stop doing my routine, then I'm not able to get back onto it, and therefore I need to maintain this strict routine so that I wouldn't uh develop bad habits. But you know, that's um control problem. Yeah, that's a control problem, and uh actually it's the root of the problem that if you actually if you were to be a little bit more you know flexible with your diet, then over the course of time you will just be very um carefree and flexible about it because you know that you'll be able to get back on track uh whenever you want to.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

So the word longevity is thrown around on a daily basis and it's so mainstream at the moment. What does longevity mean to you and what does it look like?

SPEAKER_03 11:20

Yeah, longevity just in of itself means living longer, but I think um living healthier is also an important component to that. So uh it's a combination of both. So uh if you are healthier for longer, you will also live longer. Healthier people tend to live longer on average. Of course, there are some um cases where some genetic conditions or some bad luck can make a person live shorter as well. But generally speaking, uh, healthier people tend to live longer, and um longevity comes down, you know, you can't really know what is your genetic potential of how long you can live, whether or not you have good genes or bad genes. You you know, even if you do a DNA test, you don't have like a roadmap of okay, this is my time of death. Uh, like we know we none of us know when we will die. So on a Would you like to know? Uh well, not really. I think it's uh better to ignore splits. Not necessarily know that, but uh you know, it is important to focus on the day-to-day activities of trying to be healthier because in the process you're uh extending that window. So you know, each day goes by, technically speaking, it's gonna be harder to get healthier because we get older, and as we get older, our bodies get um they see a decline in function and uh aging process. It uh makes it harder for us to stay healthier or maintain where we were before 10 years ago, for example. So every day is harder for us to stay healthier, but if we keep pushing that boulder up a hill, so to say, then uh we are extending this uh health health span window. So we're staying healthier for longer. And the longer we do it, then uh the longer our lifespan can also be. If we stop following the healthy lifestyle, then we start to decline faster. So the boulder is pushing us back down the hill and we'll uh die sooner as well. So if you don't push the boulder up the hill of following the healthy routines, then uh we will uh age faster and die sooner.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

So trying to optimize your health, right? Where do you begin when you want to understand what kind of ingredients you're working with? Where do you start? Is it blood panels? What's your your go-to approach for this?

SPEAKER_03 13:46

Yeah, I mean, uh most people will just do fine with a generally Whole Foods diet. So, you know, there's uh situations where some people are gluten intolerant, lactose intolerant, uh, they can't tolerate eggs or even tomatoes or cucumbers, whatever the case is. So those are those are gonna be more fringe cases. They're not uh gonna represent the majority of people. Most people will do fine with a diet that focuses on uh fruits, vegetables, uh leaner proteins, uh dairy products, eggs, fish, uh nut seeds, tubers, uh those kind of whole foods, minimally processed foods. And then you can try to figure out if you have some sensitivities towards certain ingredients like uh like uh dairy or gluten or yeah, these uh lectins or certain fibers. Some people are gonna have a harder time tolerating them, but uh I don't think that should be the you know the presumption going into it.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

I let me reframe that question. Maybe I was a little bit too Irish when I said that. So I mean like what kind of tests would you do or would you um suggest to someone to do to understand what's on the inside to optimize their health? I I I used ingredients as like what's on the inside your current ingredients, you know.

Bloodwork That Actually Matters

SPEAKER_03 15:08

Yeah, so doing blood tests can certainly give you uh a direct representation of your inner health and blood work is a good way to assess your future disease risk and your health status. You know, I wouldn't put it as the first thing to do, the first thing is uh body composition, so because that you can visibly see, and uh that's also something that uh matters the most, because if you're you know, let's say overweight and obese, then uh that's your biggest priority, is to try to overcome that. Because we know obesity it promotes pretty much all of the chronic diseases, increases risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, uh shortens lifespan, etc. So you know it's one of the biggest problems in a modern society is uh excess body fat and obesity. And it's also one of the easiest to solve because uh you know weight loss is is not uh rocket science in in the sense of uh the pure physics of the problem. It's uh psychologically hard, so people have a hard time to lose weight, but uh physically it's a simple problem uh to solve. So uh, and pretty much everyone knows what to do to achieve that. You know, they deep down know what to do, that they need to follow a healthier lifestyle, they need to better eat a better diet, you know, just uh walk more and those kind of things. So if you don't do any blood tests but you lose weight and you achieve a normal body composition, uh then uh you can be pretty sure that all the blood markers will also improve in the process. So if someone hasn't done the blood work, then uh they can start with just trying to lose weight. And uh a good way to you know estimate how much body fat do I have, or if I have too much, is to measure your weight circumference. So uh if you store more fat around the belly, so this uh beer belly, then uh that's a sign your body is accumulating more fat around the organs, which is called a visceral fat. And this visceral fat is particularly bad because uh it uh inhibits organ function, it secretes inflammatory cytokines, and uh just is associated with a much higher risk of diabetes and heart disease compared to fat around under the skin, which is subcutaneous fat. So measuring a waist circumference, you can see if you have too much visceral fat, and the waist circumference should always be narrower than your hip circumference. So for both both men and women. So the hips are naturally wider, and the waist should uh be smaller than the hip circumference. Then uh blood marker-wise, you know, there's uh hundreds of blood markers you could measure. Generally speaking, uh, the most important ones that directly relate to the risk of future diseases are things like your your blood sugar, your insulin sensitivity markers, your inflammation status, your uh kidney markers, liver markers, lipids like cholesterol and lipoproteins, and um complete blood cell count. And uh, you know, there's hundreds of markers you could measure, but just looking at the major biomarkers related to chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes and kidney disease, you can see if um you're either you know heading in the wrong direction or you're in the optimal uh range.

GLP‑1s: Benefits And Limits

SPEAKER_00 18:41

So when we talk about fat loss, all right, obviously you can see GLP1 like GIP retitrutide is so popular right now. I would love to hear your opinion on weight loss drugs.

SPEAKER_03 18:56

Well, I think um it's uh you know better for your health to use the GLP1 and uh not be obese than to stay obese. So some people have some uh natural aversion of uh pharmaceuticals just for the sake that they're pharmaceuticals, but you know, it's much based on the current evidence, there doesn't appear to be any significant health concerns from uh these GLP1 drugs that can't be avoided with some adjustment to diet and uh other lifestyle factors. So, you know, it's certainly much worse for someone to be overweight than to use these uh these uh pharmaceuticals. And I do think that there might be some additional health benefits as well beyond just weight loss.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Have you found anything during your research?

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Uh I mean there's uh you know certainly benefits for cardiovascular risk factors and uh neurodegeneration risk factors, so just improving the overall metabolic health, you will uh see also you know lower risk of heart disease and Alzheimer's because these these different systems of the body are so uh connected. Now there's no hard evidence that they would actually make you live longer or reduce your risk of future heart disease if you're otherwise healthy and non-diabetic. But um but I do think that people will be starting to use them in like microdose uh amounts. I'm not uh planning to do it myself right now, but uh there's potential there. We just need some more uh research about that.

High‑Dose Melatonin Findings

SPEAKER_00 20:37

There was I know you like to try and test many different products out there, which is super interesting for me because I think uh you know when you want to talk about something, I think you have to kind of walk the path that you're talking about. So there was one in particular which was melatonin, which I found fascinating. So um can you just tell me a little bit about your melatonin experience that you had? Because I know you didn't sleep for longer periods, but you were more refreshed.

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Yeah, I think you're referring to me taking a hundred milligrams of melatonin, which is uh a hundred times more than what usually people take. And um, you know, I've been taking melatonin for many years, not like every night, but I've um experimented with it. Was it because you had poor sleep or what what was No, I mean I I think melatonin is uh very underrated and it's uh one of the most powerful antioxidants in the body. People say that glutathione is the master antioxidant in the body, but glutathione is also regulated by melatonin, and uh melatonin appears to be specifically powerful antioxidant for the mitochondria, which uh produce energy in your body. So uh yeah, people take larger doses of melatonin oftentimes to gain. More like longevity benefits. And there's some interesting studies about 100 milligrams melatonin, which shows that it's generally safe, the little to no side effects. And you know, I decided to uh try it out. I slept shorter than usually, which is interesting. I don't know if it was specifically because of the melatonin, but it was a consistent effect throughout the nights when I was taking it. I um, you know, from some other studies, 10 milligrams of melatonin also lowers things like inflammation and uh cholesterol levels. You know, I didn't do like a placebo control trial on myself, but I have seen that uh there is some reduction in my cholesterol at least over the last few years. One of the things I have tried was uh this is a larger dose melatonin, but I'm not doing it every night. So it's hard to say if it's because of that or other things. So um, yeah, I do think melatonin is more than uh for sleep. It's uh shown to improve sleep in smaller doses, such as 0.1 to 3 milligrams. That's a typical dose, but uh slightly larger doses, 10 milligrams, it improves inflammation and uh lipids, and there's uh some studies as well on uh these very large doses, 100 milligrams, 300 milligrams of melatonin showing uh some benefits as well, but they're done on more like um clinically diseased populations, so it's hard to say if uh otherwise healthy people would benefit from very large dose melatonin, but I just did it to try it out.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

On the topic of sleep, is there any other kind of remedies that you would suggest, or any sort of whether it's natural or whether it's something synthetic? Uh, what would you recommend in terms of trying to optimize sleep?

Sleep Aids: Glycine And Theanine

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Uh, glycine is a good supplement for sleep, so it's an amino acid found in uh collagenous proteins, and uh glycine lowers uh body temperature, which helps with the onset of melatonin production. Glycine lowers blood sugar, which uh can help with blood sugar stabilization in the nighttime. It uh increases GABA, which is this relaxation neurotransmitter, and um and it has been shown to improve sleep in uh humans, in human studies. So something like three grams of glycine before bed uh is what I take on most nights, and I I take it for other reasons, but uh the sleep is one of the benefits. And the glycine also reduces uh nighttime urination, so that's another thing people might suffer with.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

No way. So, what other things, yeah, is is it because of this reason? Why maybe you take it? As what other reasons?

SPEAKER_03 24:50

Uh, the uh other reasons are that uh glycine helps collagen synthesis, so that's uh for joints and skin health, and uh glutathione synthesis, so that's um the antioxidant. So glycine is a very common amino acid used in the body, and we're not really getting that much of it in our diet. So uh you get glycine from things like tendon meat, skins, uh, ligaments, and those bones. So the modern diet is very low in those uh food groups, so we're getting large amounts of muscle meat and um eggs, dairy, fish. Those are high in methionine, which is another amino acid, and uh excess methionine in animals at least has been seen to uh shorten lifespan because of uh leading to methionine toxicity and increasing homocysteine levels, which might increase the risk of uh heart disease. Whereas glycine counterbalances the methionine, so uh it lowers the balance between these two amino acids, so uh that has shown to extend lifespan in animals. So that's that's the reason I take it. Uh main reason I take it is uh potentially have uh lifespan benefits. So I'm trying to eat a bit less methionine and increase my glycine intake. Uh but uh the additional benefits are there, the collagen synthesis for skin and tendons, uh the glutathione for immunity and um antioxidant defense, uh, blood sugar regulation, so uh glycine inhibits the formation of these advanced glycation and products, which uh cause skin aging, and uh glycine also helps with uh sleep. So there's a lot of reasons I take it, but it's the main idea, I guess it's uh for longevity.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

When you mentioned um body temperature, what's the ideal body temperature or room temperature to go to sleep to enhance your your RAM sleep?

SPEAKER_03 26:53

I think it probably is very individual, and uh chances are it also fluctuates between or like inter-individual, that uh on some nights you probably want a bit warmer and other nights a bit cooler, depending on what your you know baseline temperature at that moment and the season and uh things like that. So if you have a fever or you're feeling a bit sick, you probably want a bit warmer. If you're feeling uh super hot, you want a bit cooler. So that depends a lot on the situation, and uh but generally speaking, uh too high body temperature inhibits uh sleep, reduces uh sleep quality. So you want to get it a little bit cooler, you don't want to feel super uh hot in the in in the bedtime. So uh glycine is one that lowers the body temperature, but uh things like a warm shower actually might also do it, it can uh lower the core uh body temperature.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

So we just talked on uh supplements. What's your thoughts on injecting over oral supplements? Do you see are you a supplement guy? Are you an injecting guy, or do you have a happy medium between both and what's the difference?

Oral Vs Injections: What Works

SPEAKER_03 28:06

Well, I think most supplements can be taken orally. So you you wanna, whenever you're taking something, you want to you know mimic or replicate the way it was done in the studies so that you know that you would get the same effects. So if there is um you know studies that uh oral carnitine doesn't really do much, then why would you take the oral carnitine? And uh, but there is studies that injectable carnitine you need to inject it to get the benefits on on fat loss, for example, uh, and energy exercise performance. So uh in that case, you know, you wouldn't take the oral carnitine because the studies show that it doesn't really do much. Uh whereas with other supplements like oral supplements like aczanthin or um glycine, for example, there is studies that uh does work orally, so you know you can stick to that uh format. You know, most supplements can't be taken uh injectably either. So I haven't seen injectable glycine or something like that. Um so most of the supplements will be coming uh orally. Maybe there's some liposomal form formulations and uh you know different uh mediums of transfer uh for certain compounds, like there's liposomal vitamin C and liposomal B vitamins, etc., liposomal glutathione. So those can be a slightly higher bioavailability than uh regular oral supplements. Uh so those are a few examples that exist. Uh but you know, peptides and things like that, then um most peptides need to be injected for bioavailability. BPC uh does have oral bioavailability as well. But uh yeah, it depends, you know, what is uh the evidence and what what is uh what you're trying to do. If you're trying to get the same effects as you saw in the studies, then you need to follow the same procedure as well in the study.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

So, what is some of the most overrated supplements that you think people should save their money and not buy?

Overrated Supplements Exposed

SPEAKER_03 30:14

Well, um right now one of the more popular supplements is uh it's not like super popular, but in at least in the Saabnish of health, in the longevity subnish, uh, there's uh mitopure, which um is uh urolitin A. And uh it has a very good marketing, it's very aesthetic marketing, it looks very good, it has a lot of ton of these uh famous doctors, social media influencers, uh for the listener.

SPEAKER_00 30:44

What does this do?

SPEAKER_03 30:46

So the mitopure is uh essentially supposed to increase mitophagy, which is a process of clearing out old mitochondria and uh you know healthy aging, that you clean out mitochondria, and that they have done clinical trials showing that the mito pure, or they claim that it increases endurance, muscle strength, supports immunity, and uh and increases mitophagy markers in humans, for example. But uh you know, I've I've dug deep into those studies, and they're not really high-quality research, at least in my opinion, and other researchers in the field as well, um, it's not just me talking about it. There's uh some you know very renowned and uh respected mitochondria scientists uh who also raised concerns about how these studies are done, that for example, you know, they don't actually show statistical significance in things like VO2 max and uh endurance. But if you kind of uh you know muddy the waters a little bit, then you can show some effects. Um and uh yeah, the you know the there's a problem with uh reporting certain results and not reporting other results.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

So if to make a bias review, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

So uh you can uh so if you initially create a clinical trial, you need to write out what is your main goal and what are you researching. So what's the primary outcome? So in some of these studies, they write the primary outcome is this, but if the study data didn't find an effect on this particular thing that they were looking for, then uh they might shift the goalpost, they might not mention it, they might mention some of the other outcome that wasn't even considered in the initial uh um drafting. So then uh it makes it seem that Might API did something, but their initial research uh goal was not covered because the results weren't there. So you know it might sound like nitpicking, but you know, it's important to be aware of that because it's a form of uh reporting bias and it just raises questions about what else are they uh trying to move around. And you know, it's a very expensive supplement, it's$120 a month. Um and uh you know it just sounds very convincing because of the marketing and the sleek uh branding, but uh the effects are you know, it's not that it's a bad supplement, it's just that the effects are grossly over-exaggerated, and uh you know, for that money, you can probably you could spend like the same money on five to eight different supplements that work, like creatine, aczanthin, omega-3s, uh glycine, uh even vitamin C or something else like that. Those uh supplements have plenty of research that it does more things than the this particular supplement for the same amount of money.

SPEAKER_00 33:47

Do you have anything else that's overrated? I want the full list.

SPEAKER_03 33:51

Um well, I think reservatrol is probably uh also a bit overrated. Um reservatrol uh is this uh like uh stilbenoid, and uh it's found in certain uh plant foods and red wine. So initially it was thought that it extends uh lifespan in mice, but um the research since then hasn't found it to be the case if uh you control for things uh like uh genetics and uh the way you deliver the reservator. So sometimes it's some of the other ingredients in what was given that actually have an effect, and uh in humans reservator might have some negative side effects as well, that it can um reduce ER2 max, it can have some negative effects on hormonal health and um body composition as well. So it's not uh I guess again, it's not particularly you know that it's harming your health, it's more that the price to benefit ratio might be a bit off and overrated, and uh it hasn't been shown to have significant lifespan benefits in humans uh as well as animals either.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

Is there any other supplements that are out there that you make you feel uneasy at how much hype they're currently getting?

SPEAKER_03 35:16

I well I guess uh maybe these NMN and NR, you know, I think they are legitimate supplements that the studies uh haven't been as you know uh shocking or promising uh as people thought initially, but they do have still some uh benefits based on the research, uh mostly anti-inflammatory and some um metabolic health benefits slightly. But uh initially they were expected to be some you know dramatic lifespan uh longevity molecules, so they have missed the mark on that, but you know, they're still slightly above average in terms of the results.

NAD, Iron, Calcium: Context Counts

SPEAKER_00 36:08

What's your thoughts on NAD drips?

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Well, the you know, the same rationale that um NED has some role, it's an important role, but uh getting uh intravenous NED for most people is probably not a wise move because um high NAD levels are also implicated in uh cancer. So just getting an NED IV if you already have otherwise normal NED is not probably something you want to do. Now, there's no evidence that NED IVs would increase cancer, but uh it's just uh you know you need to wager your uh wager your bets, or what is it said, that uh you need to think about the risk to reward uh ratio. So there's no linear relationship between higher NED and uh longevity, if that makes sense. And NAD doesn't decline linearly either in every individual.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

I know cancer has been like a massive impact on you and your research. Has there been any other supplements that you have felt like there's a a fine line in between risk and you know, like progress in cancer, or is there anything that's out there that we should be aware of that hasn't kind of gone mainstream yet?

SPEAKER_03 37:24

Uh with cancer, I don't recall anything specific, but with uh heart disease at least uh iron uh might be problematic for atherosclerosis, at least in people with uh high iron levels. So iron is an essential mineral, but excess iron, high iron levels um seem to uh be implicated in atherosclerosis. So high iron increases oxidative stress and can cause blood vessel damage. So if people and people with high iron levels um seem to get heart disease as well at a higher rate than normal iron levels. So adding an extra iron supplement for people who already have either normal or high iron levels uh can be definitely uh harmful in my opinion. But uh, you know, the same applies to low iron levels. If you have anemia and very low iron levels, that's also associated with increased uh mortality and uh heart disease. So uh yeah, it's a it's a matter of uh context and uh what's the person's iron status. Calcium, as well. I think the benefit of calcium for most people is uh limited, at least if they are you know consuming dairy on a regular basis, then there's much less for them to gain. Calcium can be useful for people with low bone density or pre-menopausal or post-menopausal women, but uh yeah, for the otherwise person, otherwise healthy person to take a calcium supplement is not really uh I think wise for the same reason that it can increase the risk of um heart disease.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Have you ever been oversupplemented? Like as in, have you ever gotten your blood done and you thought, oh geez, I need to like pull things back?

SPEAKER_03 39:11

Well, I mean, uh every once in a while when I'm taking vitamin D, then uh the blood vitamin D can be a bit high, but uh nothing else that that much.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

You haven't had any risky trials and your some of your YouTube videos, you know, has anything ever gone wrong?

SPEAKER_03 39:30

Uh not really. I don't think I've done anything like super extreme with uh supplements. So uh yeah, so far hasn't hasn't been any problems.

SPEAKER_00 39:40

What has been the most current research that you've done on a supplement that hasn't really been exposed to the public yet? Like is there anything that you can think of?

Caffeine, Coffee, And Sleep

SPEAKER_03 39:52

Uh I guess maybe theanine is one I was researching uh recently, and uh theanine is an amino acid found in tea leaves, especially green tea. And uh you know there's it's it's very known, at least in the like notropic spaces, that uh theanine plus caffeine is useful for uh focus and uh just cognition. And yeah, there is uh research that it uh does do that. If you combine caffeine with theanine, you get better results than either alone. So there's some synergistic effects from theanine that you know, usually the caffeine is the this this kind of arousal and a very uh alert kind of uh stimulator, and the theanine is a bit more calmer or more relaxing, so it just balances it out. But there's also some interesting studies that um you know, because of that reason, the theanine can also help with the sleep. So um, there was one study where people drank coffee 10 minutes before bed, and uh when they drank just the coffee, they stayed up significantly longer and they woke up significantly more frequently compared to when they also took theanine with the caffeine. So uh theanine can help with sleep, especially if you might have had too much caffeine too late in the day. And uh yeah, it balances the arousing uh effect of uh caffeine.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

What's your take on caffeine? As in, do you have like a cut-off point within the day then to stop caffeine intake? Does it impact your sleep? Or yeah, what's your for me?

SPEAKER_03 41:39

For me personally, I don't uh have problems with sleep when drinking caffeine. Um so there's a genetic component. Yeah, some people are very fast metabolizers of caffeine, others are slow. I could you know drink coffee for dinner and I can still fall asleep just fine. Some people you know need to stop drinking caffeine in the morning to get good sleep. So um, yes, caffeine can be bad for sleep, but caffeine is also with other benefits, maybe not per se caffeine, but uh coffee where you usually get caffeine from. So the research about coffee shows that uh it's associated with reduced mortality, less heart disease, less uh cancer, less um Alzheimer's, as well as uh it might also slow down uh photoaging, skin aging. So uh coffee itself is based on the research at least uh very beneficial. Caffeine may be I think there is some like direct effects from caffeine as well on like energy metabolism, so that indirectly improves your metabolic health. But most of the benefits come from the polyphenols and other compounds in in coffee.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

So, just for the listener, how do they understand how much caffeine they can metabolize?

SPEAKER_03 43:02

Well, like with caffeine, there's a tolerance effect that if you keep increasing the dose, then uh you'll uh habituate to it. So if you drink one cup and uh slowly increase it over time, then you'll able to get this you or you you need a little bit more to get the same effect that you did in the beginning. And interestingly, that applies to blood pressure as well. So coffee and caffeine intake is associated with lower risk of hyper hypertension, and uh in the short term, caffeine raises blood pressure, but if you get used to it over time, then it doesn't. So uh if you you know keep drinking coffee regularly, then it stops raising your blood pressure, at least not so much as uh in the beginning. So uh it's better for you to continue drinking coffee on a regular basis than to drink coffee like on and off. So if you just drink coffee once a week, then that's worse for your blood pressure than drinking it anyway. Day, for example. Um, but yeah, with regards to caffeine, then uh yeah, it depends on um whether or not it affects your sleep and uh when do you consume it. So the half-life of caffeine is six hours. So to clear your bloodstream from 50% of the caffeine, it takes uh six hours. So if you drink caffeine like 2 p.m., then you'll still have like small amounts of caffeine in your system when you're going to bed. Now you can still fall asleep with some amounts of caffeine in your bloodstream, you can still fall asleep with probably even with like 100 milligrams of caffeine in your system, but uh it does reduce the quality of a sleep a little bit. So people just need to see what is the cutoff point that uh I need to stop drinking caffeine and how much can I tolerate. Generally speaking, you know, based on the studies, uh around two to three cups of coffee is the sweet spot for lowest mortality risk, and most of the other associations as well with heart disease and cancer and things kind of uh drop at the like the two to three cups a day. So that's something like 200 milligrams of caffeine. And um I think some people might get away with 400 even, but I would you know much rather keep it a bit lower to not uh see a disruption in sleep. So you know, let's say two to three cups of coffee at most, and when do you stop drinking? It depends on uh how it's affecting your sleep. So um, yeah, kind of I recommend to start off with uh cutting off caffeine at like 2 p.m. at the latest. And uh if you are a fast metabolizer, then you could probably even push it a bit later than that, 4 or 5, 6 p.m. Uh, but an early metabolizer needs to stop much earlier and keep the caffeine also uh lower than the total amount.

Alcohol, Fitness, And Recovery

SPEAKER_00 46:01

So when we talk about caffeine, I can see there's a movement of coffee raves and people now, especially Gen Z, they're less likely drinking alcohol. What's your take on alcohol? And do you actually drink? Because I can imagine you optimizing your health so much. I don't even feel like this will come into your radar.

SPEAKER_03 46:19

Well, I haven't drank yeah, like 10 years, and um I I I do think that you can get away with small amounts of alcohol for health, so it's not uh you know binary. You know, you can maybe drink, let's say, one to one to two drinks per week and uh be completely fine. Above that, I think it starts to um accumulate some negative effect on the liver and uh triglycerides. So um, yeah, you know, zero probably is better than one to two drinks, but they're very close together. So I would yeah, recommend to keep it at that amount. Um interestingly, there was a recent study where they looked at uh okay, alcohol intake status and uh fitness status over the course of up to uh 16 years, and they saw that um you know people who who had the best survival over the course of that time frame were the ones who never drank, and they also had good uh fitness, so high VR2 max and high cardiovaspetary fitness. The people who um went from not drinking to drinking, but they also had a good fitness status, those people were the second people who had no drinking, but they saw either a decline in their fitness, or you know, it was not changing, those those people had a worse survival than people who had good fitness but they were drinking some small amount of alcohol. So it shows that you know, whatever the negative effect of alcohol is, uh being unfit and having poor cardiorespiratory fitness is worse for you than uh the drinking small amounts. So uh the bigger priority would be to um have good cardiorespirtory fitness than to you know be either completely abstaining from alcohol or or having a small amount of alcohol. High amounts of alcohol will for sure be more detrimental. So how much is high? You know, that depends a lot on uh potentially genetics and other factors as well. But um, I think in that study there was something along the lines of uh over four drinks per week, if I'm not mistaken, but I might be wrong.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

It's okay. It's um it's interesting that you say that. Do you think people can out train like you know their drinking habits then like from your own take?

SPEAKER_03 48:50

No, I don't not not necessarily. You could you know theoretically out exercise a bad diet, but I don't think you can out-exercise uh alcohol, at least above the moderate intake. So um, because even if you are lean, you eat a perfect diet, but you drink alcohol, it will, especially above the moderate limit, it will show up in your blood work as uh elevated liver enzymes and uh higher triglycerides. So those are the biggest two things showing that you're probably drinking too much alcohol, the higher liver enzymes and higher triglycerides, even if you're otherwise lean and uh otherwise exercising and otherwise eating like a perfect diet.

SPEAKER_00 49:32

So, what's your thoughts now in the future of health? Do you think there's gonna be a massive shift when it comes to alcoholism? Will people slowly die off, or what's your forecast for that? What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 49:43

Well, I think I don't think uh people will stop uh drinking alcohol is uh too much of a like a part of culture in most places. I think people will probably cut it down a little bit. I think they'll just uh maybe have like a glass of I think getting drunk will probably be phased out a little bit, but uh drinking uh no. So people will still have like a glass of wine for dinner or a beer for dinner or something like that, but they probably won't get like drunk that that often. You know, the for some celebrations they'll probably do it, but um you know they probably won't be going to bars and um places like that uh to get drunk.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

So I I read some studies now. This is a long time ago when it came to alcohol, where uh protein synthesis would take a hindrance when you drank alcohol, even if it was just one glass of wine. Uh I don't know if you've found any kind of recent studies, or um, is that true still, or is there any kind of update on that? Because if someone's going to the gym, right, and they're having that one glass every single night of the week, how is that impact? And should they do it in just one day in the week?

SPEAKER_03 50:58

Yeah, well, it it's like with anything as well. It um alcohol, yes, can inhibit protein synthesis, it can increase fat storage, but it doesn't mean that you know you drink a glass of wine and you eat a lettuce, that you're gonna gain fat from the lettuce. It uh matters uh the entire you know energy balance and um other factors as well. So you know there's also uh evidence that uh cold exposure after training can inhibit muscle growth because of lowering the inflammation, but you know, it doesn't mean that if you take a cold shower that you're not gonna build any muscle at all. So it uh is a it's kind of you know the body is a very complex system, and and yes, if you drink regularly, then probably you will build less muscle if you didn't drink and everything else was the same. So it does probably inhibit some of the results. It's the same with sleep if you lift weights, but you sleep like six hours, five hours, even let's take like a four-hour, five-hour sleep, you will still build muscle, but you will probably build less muscle if you slept seven to eight hours and were fully recovered. So it does inhibit the results a little bit, but it doesn't completely negate it. And uh the same with fat loss, you will lose more fat if you didn't drink alcohol, but uh if you drink alcohol but you're in a calor deficit, you will still lose fat.

SPEAKER_00 52:25

So on the topic of stress, right? Because even whether you're in Dubai or you're somewhere else in the world, we're overwhelmed with you know, marketing, social media, advertisements all the time, we're so hooked on dopamine, um, where our stress levels are increasing massively, workloads are getting higher. What are the things that someone can do from a natural perspective on supplements to obviously replenish their um let's say calmness inside their body, or how do they maintain to stay calm and de-stress?

Stress, Resilience, And Recovery

SPEAKER_03 53:06

Yeah, so stress you know can be because of various reasons, it can be like under recovery, so you're not sleeping enough, or you're just not having enough downtime, which leads to um imbalance in your nervous system. It can be too much of things that stress out, so it can be too much exercise, it can be too much work, it can be too much uh whatever thing that is stressing you out. It can be certain micronutrient deficiencies, like if you're deficient in magnesium, you can reach the stressed-out state a bit faster, and it's harder for you to uh come down from that. It can be um like lack of resilience, so stress is what stresses you out depends on where is your threshold for that. So, you know, how big is your bucket and how much stress can you handle? And stress resilience is uh is uh trainable both physically and psychologically. You can psychologically become more resilient for against stress as well as physically, that if you keep doing the same thing, uh at least in moderation, then over time you will build tolerance uh to that particular stimulus, like cold or or exercise or heat. You can get used to it over time. So for most people, it's probably too much work stress. You know, there's a lot of things that are constellated around the work stress, mostly like financial stress and uh different responsibilities, family responsibilities. So it's just yeah, like I guess survival mode. Most of the stress is probably related to survival mode, and then there's um you know the additional things people do on top of that. They start to do too much exercise or they're not sleeping enough, so you need to make sure that the recovery is adequate to the stress that you're dealing with. So if you are exercising, especially a high-intensity exercise, then you also need a bit more sleep. If you have a lot of work stress, then uh you know it's it's fine to have it, but uh you need to have an adequate amount of um downtime as well to cope with that. And uh in some some situations, uh this balance can be you know more towards the stress-down state if you're deficient in magnesium or deficient in vitamin B1 or deficient in uh sunlight, or like infrared light, you know, there's certain nutrient deficiencies as well that can keep your nervous system on the edge if you if you have no re reason why.

SPEAKER_00 55:39

What stage do you think you are with mental resilience? Do you think you've built up a huge tolerance? Well, um because you seem quite calm.

SPEAKER_03 55:49

Well, I think I I I do think that I have uh good mental resilience and physical resilience. You know, there's probably still some things that will stress me out, you know. Um it's just that in my everyday life, you know, uh they're not that common oftentimes. So, you know, it's a yeah, it's a matter of the type of stimulus and um and the response if you've been able to train for that. So I don't know. If someone is uh never done public speaking, then they're probably gonna get pretty stressed out by doing that if they are, unless they are a particular person who just doesn't get stressed out about those kind of things. But if you practice the public speaking, then um over time it won't stress you out that much. And uh, you know, there is some carryover as well to other areas. If you overcome the stress of public speaking, you can over also overcome the stress of similar domains like like uh camera frightness or those kind of things as well. But you probably won't be able to overcome the fear of you know fighting someone in a in a cage or running from a lion, right? So those are different types of stressors, and uh you probably won't be overcoming that type of fear with overcoming the fear of uh public speaking.

SPEAKER_00 57:12

Is there anything that you do for your mental health to be able to have that resilience as well?

SPEAKER_03 57:17

I uh I have practiced like stoicism in the in the past, which is a form of philosophy where you're focusing on the things that you can control rather than uh the things you can't, and uh trying to look at things from from a like a logical uh perspective. So uh yeah, I I just think about uh what can I do instead of what's uh wrong, and I focus on and and I'm not you know gonna get tressed stressed out or anxious if you know I can't do anything about it. It's uh just because there's nothing you can do about it. So uh there's no reason to really get that stressed out about it.

SPEAKER_00 58:05

So then we've we've obviously talked about the whole mental resilience for physical resilience. What are some of the things that the listener could do to build up?

SPEAKER_03 58:13

Yeah, well, the biggest thing for that is uh exercise. So if you are exercising regularly, then uh your body is more resilient. And uh by getting, you know, doing exercise, you have this increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, and uh, at least in a good exercise program, you're also forced to control your stress response in some way. If you're doing, let's say, aerobic exercise, you can um you can monitor your breathing, you can control your breathing, and that forces your body, you that forces you to become more mindful about your body in a stressed-out uh situation, and uh in the real world, uh then you will also have this mindfulness or ability to take control of your stress response by doing that. With uh heat exposure saunas, it increases your heat tolerance, so you're able to tolerate the heat more. But similarly, it you know, you're sitting in this uh hot uh box uh and uh it's in the beginning it can be uncomfortable, but if you you know push through it a little bit, then you know that's another form of um overcoming adversity and uh controlling your stress response. Although the sauna isn't you know that stressful as exercise and not as stressful as as uh work, but uh just the skill of you know being a bit more patient as well and waiting for the 20 minutes to go by that that you know is another skill set, but it that carries over to uh stress resilience as well.

Sauna, Heat, And Male Fertility

SPEAKER_00 59:49

And you just mentioned the sauna there, I'm sure you know about like a lot of research in terms of how it impacts men down below. I don't know if you've seen that where men are using ice packs in uh saunas. What's your thoughts on this?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:06

Uh well, yeah, it's uh very established that heat on the testicles uh lowers sperm count. So uh yeah, the sauna because it uh overheats the testicles' entire body, then it can uh lower sperm count, and uh cooling them down with ice packs or ice cubes uh can mitigate that or avoid that effect. Now I think you know it's uh so I guess I guess uh men care a lot about certain uh metrics that are related to uh their biological sex, like testosterone and sperm count and sperm volume. And you know, I'm sure there is some association between higher sperm count and uh longevity that healthier men have higher sperm count and they live longer. But you know, in this particular example, it's uh you know it's important to know why the sperm count is low. So in this observational studies, unhealthy men who eat bad diets and they're obese they have lower sperm counts, which is the why they live shorter. But if a healthy man, you know, if outside of Finland and the Scandinavia and Estonia and Russia, you know, people who take the saunas are just health conscious. In Finland, everyone takes the sauna, but in outside of that, there's gonna be only health conscious people mostly taking the sauna regularly. So these people already are healthy and they have already higher sperm count to begin with. So even though they might see a drop in their sperm count in the sauna, it doesn't mean that they're getting unhealthier, it's just that men care about those metrics for reasons. Um, so and you know, it reverses back to normal once you stop taking the sauna for a few weeks. So, yes, I mean it's it's nothing harmful to use the ice packs, and you know, yes, it maintains higher sperm count in the sauna, but it I guess it's uh over exaggerated why you would need to do that. Unless you're planning to get children in the short term, then yes, you would probably want to do that. But um, you know, as an otherwise health-conscious uh man, you don't necessarily need to use the ice packs. Men care about their testosterone and they care about their sperm count and you know other metrics related to the envelope metrics.

Final Reflection On Routines

SPEAKER_00 1:02:17

Thank you for that. As it's called the Detach Podcast, I have a traditional question where I ask my guests, what would you detach yourself away from that's limiting you today?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:29

Um hard to say detach away, what's limiting me or holding me back? Um Well, I guess uh I guess I'm a more yeah like a person in routines and I like to do my routines. So broadening uh the skill set as a entrepreneur or uh yeah, broadening the skill set in my career probably will be doing good. So I like to do things in a routine manner and uh do the same things uh oftentimes. So you know sometimes I need to focus on other things that I'm doing less or require a bit more prioritization.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:13

Thank you so much. You've been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for being on the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

Thank you.