#086 How Micronutrients & Exercise Ameliorate Aging | Dr. Rhonda Patrick

If you could pill up what you can do with vigorous exercise, then I think that is, right now, the best longevity drug we have for delaying the aging process and improving healthspan and improving lifespan.

What was really interesting about this study was that being in that low 25% group, they're in the bottom 25% for VO2 max, that was comparable to a either same risk or greater risk for mortality, early mortality, as type 2 diabetes, as smoking, and as having heart disease.

There was one study that found for every 100 mg of magnesium intake, there was a 24% decrease in pancreatic cancer risk; and also another study that found that people that had the highest levels of magnesium, they were in the top quintile, had a 40% lower all-cause mortality compared to people in the lowest, and then they had a 50% decrease in cancer mortality compared to people in the lowest.

If you're athletic, if you're sweating, if you're physically active a lot, use the sauna, you actually can require anywhere between 10-20% above the RDA because you do lose magnesium through sweat. So if half the US population isn't meeting even that RDA, then you can imagine the physically active people are probably, you know, faring even worse because their requirements are even higher.

There's been an analysis of 24 different randomized controlled trials found that 6 weeks of a pretty, you know, moderate to vigorous-intensity exercise, 20 to 60 minutes of that 3 to 4 days a week, had almost drug-size effects at reducing blood pressure.

People that have genetically low vitamin D levels, independent of what their lifestyle is, they have a much higher all-cause mortality, they have a higher cancer-related mortality, and they have a higher respiratory disease mortality...

It seems as though the sweet spot for vitamin D is between 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter ... It seems like 40 to 60 is a really good sweet spot for the lowest all-cause mortality with vitamin D.

People with a high omega-3 index, which is defined as 8%, at least 8%, had a 90% reduced risk of sudden cardiac death compared to people with a low omega-3 index of 4%. The standard in the US, the omega-3 index, most people, it's about, it's less than 5%...

Over 5% of the protein-encoding human genome is regulated by vitamin D, which is quite a lot. And so, you know, you can imagine, if you're running a car and your pistons are firing out of sync with each other. I mean, that's kind of what's happening when you don't have adequate levels of vitamin D—your genes aren't being regulated in the way they're supposed to be, so things aren't being activated when they're supposed to be or repressed when they're supposed to be.

These were African-American individuals that were also overweight. They were very vitamin D deficient. They were given a vitamin D supplement with 4000 IU of vitamin D a day, and it decreased their epigenetic age by almost 2 years.

There's a study out of Harvard that was published, gosh, it was like 2009, and this study identified the top 6 preventable causes of death ... Well, omega-3, not getting enough omega-3 from seafood, so this was a marine source of omega-3, EPA and DHA, was in that top 6.

A 70-year-old makes about, I think it's 4x less vitamin D3 in their skin than their former 20-year-old self.

In general, 1000 IU's of vitamin D generally raises people's blood levels by about 5 nanograms per mil.

About half the US population has inadequate levels of magnesium.

People, again, with an 8% omega-3 index had a 5-year increased life expectancy compared to people with a 4% omega-3 index.

On average, for every unit increase in VO2 max, it's associated with a 45-day increase in life expectancy.