The Dr. Hyman Show
Reverse Aging Now: The Latest Longevity Breakthroughs | Dr. Eric Verdin
Wed, 04 Dec 2024
What if aging wasn’t inevitable, but something you could slow—or even reverse? In this episode of “The Dr. Hyman Show,” Dr. Eric Verdin, the president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, and I dive deep into the science of longevity. Discover how lifestyle choices, mitochondrial health, and cutting-edge research are transforming our understanding of aging. From fasting and nutrient sensing to emerging therapies like CD38 inhibitors, this episode reveals actionable insights to help you live a longer, healthier life. In this episode, we discuss: The Role of Mitochondria in Aging The Critical Role of NAD Levels and Aging Lifestyle Interventions for Longevity Gene Therapy The Importance of CD38 and Enzyme Inhibition View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health, BIOptimizers, LMNT, and Fatty 15. Streamline your lab orders with Rupa Health. Access more than 3,500 specialty lab tests and register for a FREE live demo at RupaHealth.com. Don’t let stress take over your holidays. Try Magnesium Breakthrough from BiOptimizers. Head to Bioptimizers.com/Hyman and use code HYMAN10 to save 10%. LMNT is giving listeners a FREE eight-count sample pack of their vital electrolyte drink mix with any purchase. Just visit DrinkLMNT.com/Hyman today. Fatty15 contains pure, award-winning C15:0 in a bioavailable form. Get an exclusive 15% off a 90-day starter kit subscription. Just visit Fatty15.com and use code DRHYMAN10 to get started.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Coming up on this episode.
Chapter 2: What drives the aging process?
So aging is the accumulation of disorder. And that disorder is caused by a whole series of external forces over which we have essentially no control. Think about gravity. Think about the gamma rays coming from interstellar radiation. Think about UV. Think about oxygen stress. All of these forces are there and they're always going to be with us.
And we know that they are the driving forces of the aging process.
Before we jump into today's episode, I'd like to note that while I wish I could help everyone by my personal practice, there's simply not enough time for me to do this at this scale. And that's why I've been busy building several passion projects to help you better understand, well, you. If you're looking for data about your biology, check out Function Health for real-time lab insights.
If you're in need of deepening your knowledge around your health journey, check out my membership community, hymenhive.com. And if you're looking for curated and trusted supplements and health products for your routine, visit my website, Supplement Store, for a summary of my favorite and tested products. Welcome to The Doctor's Pharmacy. I'm Dr. Mark Hyman.
That's pharmacy with an F, a place for conversations that matter. And today's conversation matters because it affects all of us. And it's about how we age and perhaps how we may be able to slow down that process. And we're talking with one of the world's experts on aging, Dr. Eric Burden, who's the president and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.
a pioneering biomedical research institute dedicated to aging and age-related disease. He's a native of Belgium. He received his MD degree there from the University of Liège and then completed his clinical research training at Harvard Medical School. And he's published over 280 scientific papers in aging and metabolism. He's the guy. who knows more about aging than most people on the planet.
He's worked on the molecular mechanisms of aging, mitochondrial function, inflammation, caloric restriction. He's a pioneer in so many ways. And as a very interesting, great guy, we had a deep conversation today about some really key elements that you probably heard about in the news like mitochondria or The role of our own healing and repair system and activating longevity pathways.
We talked about how do we diagnose, in a sense, the rate of aging. How do we look at our biological age as opposed to our chronological age? We talked about some of the exciting new developments in therapies from things like NMN, NR, which help increase NAD in the body, to some of the key molecules that are being researched on cancer. reversing aging like quercetin and fisetin.
We get deep into so many topics. We literally could have talked for hours and hours. I had to cut it after a while, but I think we're going to have back for a round two of the podcast because we didn't get to cover all the things I want to cover. And you know, I'm very interested in this topic. So go ahead and fasten your seatbelts. This is going to be a very interesting and deep conversation.
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Chapter 3: How can lifestyle choices impact longevity?
Great, okay, so now we have these clocks. Let's say we can measure these changes that happen as a result of interventions. Let's talk about some of the most exciting work at the Buck Institute, looking at the sort of underlying things that really regulate aging around what we call cellular senescence, which is zombie cells and cells that kind of spew out inflammation throughout the body.
Looking at our metabolism and how our nutrient sensing pathways work, which I think I want to get into fairly deeply. stem cell and stem cell biology and protein function? And then how do we sort of make sense of it all through bioinformatics and systems biology? And I know you've recently partnered with Leroy Hood, who's just a brilliant scientist.
So I'm curious about like how you start to think about where are the most leverage points that you're seeing in the data that you're looking at in the research you're doing at the Buck Institute about what's working in all these different areas?
So maybe I'll just take it one step backwards and just to alert your audience to the fact that there will be no magic pill. Aging is an incredibly complex mechanism. And you alluded to earlier in our discussion to these hallmarks of aging, which is think about it as a catalog of all of these abnormalities that happen during aging.
And that includes epigenetic dysregulation, senescent cells, failed nutrient sensing, defective stem cells, defect in mitochondrial biogenesis. There's all kinds of problems that happens during aging. By the way, they're all connected to each other. And when we think about aging and solving it, I think if you study it, you will realize how complicated the process is.
And that, you know, we at the Buck Institute, we have about 300 people working on aging. We don't take sides in a way that I cannot predict what's going to be more important. So we study pretty much every one of the hallmarks of aging. We obviously have a big emphasis on senescence because it was mostly discovered through the work of Jeanne Campisi at the back.
So many of us are still working on senescence, but we have people working on mitochondria. We have people working on stem cells with people working on metabolism and so on. So I think one of the things that is really emerging right now is the complexity.
I think that's so important that you point that out.
It's important because, you know, frankly, I have... I've sometimes been called the grumpy man of longevity research because I refuse the hype or work. I think there's a lot of really exciting things happening in aging research, but I'm not deluding myself. I don't tell people I'm going to live to 150 or 170 like some of my colleagues do.
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Chapter 4: What are the roles of mitochondria in aging?
we do not have and will not have for the next 20 years an anti-aging medicine or supplement that is better than physical activity. And mark my words, for 20 years, in 20 years, we will still not have something that works as well as physical activity.
It's kind of a miracle drug.
It is a miracle drug. And so if you are sort of not paying attention to that one, well, you can sort of put a Band-Aid on some issues, but never to get to the core problems. Now, thinking about the rest... First for me is blood draw. Are you balanced in terms of vitamin D, vitamin B12? This would be the first big ones.
And I'm surprised how many people tell me, friends and colleagues, no, I don't know what my vitamin D is. So that's number one.
Number two, there are some- By the way, that's why I started Function Health, which was to give people access to their own data, including all the things we've talked about, inflammatory markers, the inflammation markers that we talked about, as well as vitamin D and methylmalonic acid and homocysteine, all the things that we want to know, right?
Exactly. Also, I don't know if you're measuring this, but your omega fatty acid levels.
We're measuring omega-3 fats, 100%. We're measuring omega-3 fats, insulin, lipid fractionation, all the things that you should be measuring to see what your metabolic health is and your mitochondrial health is.
Critical. So, you know, there are a few supplements that have documented efficacy. One of them is omega fatty acids. And especially if you are like most people in the Western world and you don't have access to enough of them. So omega fatty acid would be one of the top ones for me, for everyone to take every morning and every night.
If you're exercising, carnitine is really one of the well-recognized supplements that people take. Now, we talked about a whole variety of flavonoids, quercetin, curcumin, fitzetin, all of those. The problem with many of those is bioavailability. So much of what has been shown about their efficacy is based on studies where the chemicals are added directly to cell.
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Chapter 5: How can fasting affect our biological age?
Chapter 6: What are the latest breakthroughs in longevity research?
Chapter 7: What is the significance of CD38 and enzyme inhibition?
Most bottles have like 250 milligrams.
Exactly.
But you're saying you need more like...
We used two to three grams.
2.5 grams.
Exactly. Wow. Of the precursors. Yes. We used a lot more. And those of us who take NMN or NR typically take a lot more than the 200 milligrams a day.
What would you say? Take two grams or one gram?
Well, I take a gram most of the time. Now, the obviously what we need is more clinical data in humans and uh a lot of noise has been made about a couple of initial studies that failed and you know and and that's you know that's true peter ti is highly skeptical and and there are you know there are really good reasons to be skeptical about some of the claims that have been made for nmn and nr
But I think my argument is let's not throw the baby with the bathwater. And there is enough compelling evidence in model systems that NMN and NR actually are having interesting effect to pursue the studies and to conduct the clinical trials. Now, one of the biggest problems I have is
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