Stress, Fasting, And Aging Backwards (David Sinclair + Joe Rogan)

David Sinclair is a biologist and a professor of genetics. Joe Rogan recently had a fascinating conversation with him. In this memo, find out the disconnect between what we evolved for and our modern lives, the importance of stress, and more.

Our ancestors vs Us. We have better technology, but our ancestors had a better survival skill set. They could fight wild animals but modern humans won’t survive a day in the wild.

Comfort has made us complacent. The human body needs challenges to become resilient. But today people get very little of the exertion, and adversity their ancestors got daily. Complacency leads to disease; up to 50% of all disease is avoidable with regularly stressing the body.

Fasting as a useful stressor - Being fully fed all day keeps the body in a state of permanent relaxation. This takes away the body’s incentive to build defences and burn energy more efficiently. Fasting brings these incentives back.

Fasting helps slow down aging, fight diseases, and increase metabolism. Humans are designed to respond to adversity, and hunger promotes it. People who fast have good mental acuity and show higher levels of focus, says David.

Molecules like NMN i.e.Nicotinamide mononucleotide can mimic fasting. Experiments show older mice could run 50% farther after taking NMN for 3 weeks. It resulted in better oxygenation, blood flow and energy. 

The role of NAD. NAD is a nucleotide found in living cells and decreases sharply as we age. This leads to many neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic diseases. Supplementing with NAD might slow down - or possibly reverse - our biological age.

Don’t walk, run. A 10-minute run is better than an hour-long walk. Giving yourself a hypoxic rush increases lifespan. In an experiment, rats who engaged in hypoxic exercise saw their lifespans increase by more than 16%.

Bottom line. Our modern life is too comfortable for our own good. Reintroducing some discomfort in the form of fasting and intense exercise will help us thrive and possibly increase our lifespan. Some chemical interventions might also slow down - or reverse - aging.