A New Direction - The Longevity Formula

IF Insider No. 57

In our last issue (IF Insider No. 56) we looked at a simple but powerful way to use walking to increase your health and wellbeing. This issue will be a bit different as we want to introduce you to our new direction as we expand into the topic of longevity.

Longevity has, of course, been a long-time tangential interest as you can see if you look back at any of our previous IF Insider issues. So today, we’re going to explain how this new focus will benefit you. Don’t worry. Information about intermittent fasting is certainly not going to go away, but our primary focus with this and all other topics will be their contribution to longevity and wellbeing.

For our premium subscribers, in this week’s Research Spotlight, we will look at a promising new study that explains how to use a simple, unexpected, easy-to-implement technique to bring your blood sugar down after a meal.

Our paid subscribers also get one of Ellen’s recipes each month. Last month, we brought a delicious way to stay cool with her Chocolate Olive Oil Plant-Based Ice Cream recipe. This month, we’ll bring you Ellen’s Homemade Granola (think toasted pecans, oats, fragrant vanilla, coconut flakes, and more!) that is deliciously eaten with yogurt and blueberries or simply out of hand.

The monthly live Q&A call with Ellen and Denise for our paid subscribers is being retired, and we look forward to bringing our paid subscribers some exciting new options soon. Stay tuned!

Looking for a supportive group that “gets” your interest in IF and other cutting-edge health information? Our free intermittent fasting Facebook group, with over 1800 members, is a wealth of info, in addition to our new Longevity Experience membership.

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Photo by Katarzyna Grabowska on Unsplash

The Longevity Formula

The “longevity formula” is likely not what you think. No, it’s not some secret mix of nutrition, supplements, and exercise that will suddenly allow you to live until you’re 100. Make no mistake, though, as of course, what you eat, taking certain supplements, and engaging in the right kind of exercise, plus a handful of other factors will certainly increase your chances of living longer.

When Denise and I talk about this, we are referring to a simple formula of sorts that defines very clearly what we mean by true longevity:

LS = HS

where LS = Lifespan and HS = Healthspan

In other words, you want to get to a place in your health and wellbeing journey where ideally, your health span is going to equal your lifespan. This means that you want to be healthy for just as long as you possibly can and have the shortest amount of time possible in any sort of physical/cognitive decline or ill health before you leave this planet.

Worldwide, people are living longer than ever before, with the United Nations calling lifespan increase “…one of the most significant social transformations of the 21st century.”

But are we living better?

If you look at some publicly available numbers, it sure doesn’t seem that way. For example, chronic diseases associated with aging…heart disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease, and others are rising. Today 450 million people live with diabetes globally, which is projected to rise to an alarming half a billion people by the year 2040. The numbers for other diseases are as equally depressing.

Having worked in the medical profession for over two decades, I have seen firsthand what the average person’s so-called “Golden Years” look like, and the picture is not exactly pretty. Denise has her own story, including a family history of Alzheimer’s, plus dealing with the emotional pain of witnessing her mother’s progressive cognitive decline.

That’s why we are both so passionate about our definition of longevity…living a healthy, vibrant life…physically, cognitively, and spiritually for the longest time possible for you. A life where your healthspan meets your lifespan.

And this is also why we are changing our focus. We will build on the foundation of your IF practice but with a clear focus on longevity.

So what does this mean for you, our readers?

The main way this shift will impact you is that we will be bringing you information in each issue specifically focused on some aspect of longevity. I’m going to continue to use my ability to translate complex scientific/medical/psychological information into language you can easily understand.

For our paid subscribers, our research articles will look at cutting-edge scientific findings from this area that can impact your life. Our monthly recipes will also have more of a focus on longevity as well.

The Longevity Experience

The other major announcement we want you all to be aware of is the launch of our new one-year paid membership program, The Longevity Experience. For the last several years, Denise and I have co-led an amazing group of people on a journey deep into the heart of what it means to be truly healthy.

We based this initial group on a foundation of daily intermittent fasting and other research-backed health practices members could choose to “stack” on top of this foundation to make their practice exponentially more effective. After months and months of experimentation, research into the scientific literature, and listening to where our members want to go next, it’s time to evolve into longevity…

And we want to invite YOU, our IF Insider readers, to join us!

The official start date is Aug 15, 2022, and our first meeting will be on Aug 18, 2022. To get more information on The Longevity Experience, just go here. We would love to have you join us.

Why It Matters

“Only 20 percent of our longevity is genetically determined. The rest is what we do, how we live our lives and increasingly the molecules that we take. It's not the loss of our DNA that causes aging, it's the problems in reading the information, the epigenetic noise.”

~ David Andrew Sinclair (b. 1969) - Australian biologist Dr. David Sinclair is a professor of genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School.

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What We Are Reading 📚

Denise - In a recent podcast interview with Rich Roll, Dr. Peter Attia asks a striking question:

What do you want cognitively, physically, and emotionally in the last decade of your life?

That’s a question I’m contemplating to figure out what I need to do now, at 63, to be what Dr. Attia describes as “the most badass 90-year-old!”

The 2.5 hour interview covers a lot of ground, and the central theme is how to live a long, HEALTHY life.

Ellen - Like most people, I’ve been impressed with the idea that bees have a sort of “hive” intelligence, and together, they act sort of like a giant mind. But now, German zoologist, ethologist, and ecologist Lars Chittka argues in his new book, The Mind Of A Bee, that individual bees are remarkable in their own right.

Bees are smart, have distinct personalities, recognize flowers and human faces, use simple tools, solve problems, and more. And most intriguing of all, Dr. Chittka also postulates that bees may possess consciousness. A detailed and fascinating look into another world!

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