SHAWN STEVENSON: Today we're gonna be diving into five specific things that are proven to extend your lifespan. Some of these five are probably going to shock you, while others will reaffirm things that you already know that you need to put more intention into. This was from a recent interview that was one of the top 20 most downloaded podcast episodes in the United States, and it was an interview that I did on a show called The Genius Life with Max Lugavere. Max invited me on the show to talk about longevity and it went crazy on the internet streets. So I'm so grateful to be able to share this with you today. I think that you're in for a real treat. And speaking of treats, some folks feel that their cup of coffee in the morning is their personal treat to start the day.

Now, can a cup of coffee in your morning routine deliver some benefits when it comes to longevity? Well, a recent meta-analysis of 40 studies published in the European Journal of Epidemiology revealed that regularly drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and all cause mortality. Now, just to be clear, this is a notable association, but the researchers did an amazing job adjusting for a variety of confounding factors like obesity, age, alcohol consumption, and much more. And drinking coffee stood out significantly as a strong element against premature death. It is a powerful force against all cause mortality.

And one of the potential reasons why was affirmed by researchers at Stanford University who recently deduced that compounds and coffee are able to defend our bodies against age related inflammation. Now, if you take that and you add in dual extracted or organic medicinal mushrooms like Chaga, now you've got something exceedingly powerful when it comes to longevity. Studies indicate that Chaga significantly increases the activity and effectiveness of our natural killer cells, really helping to train our immune system. And Chaga is also one of the richest sources of antioxidants utilized by humans. It's been shown to increase the levels of superoxide dismutase in our bodies, and this is a natural antioxidant enzyme produced within our bodies that plays a significant role as a free radical scavenger. It essentially acts as a bodyguard that protects your DNA from damage and helps to reduce the workload. Placed on our immune system. 

Number one, if you're utilizing coffee, you want to make sure that that coffee is organic because we see the opposite with longevity when it comes to exposure to pesticides and other additives, other chemicals. So organic Coffee plus organic Wildcrafted Chaga, that's what you get in the Amazing Think Blend from Four Sigmatic. In addition, they also have dual extracted Lion's Mane Medicinal Mushroom, which has been affirmed by the University of Malaya to be neuroprotective as well. And right now you can get up to 20% off of their phenomenal Think Blend when you go to foursigmatic.com/model and take advantage of their special offer.

That's F-O-U-R-S-I-G-M-A-T-I c.com/model to take advantage of this right now. They've got a half calf blend that is infused with a variety of adaptogens, things like ashwagandha. So lots of good stuff to check out, and if you're not a fan of coffee, that's okay. They've got some wonderful elixirs as well utilizing these dual extracted medicinal mushrooms, but they're really doing this the best. This medicinal mushroom plus coffee blend explosion that's taking place right now was originated by the originators, Four Sigmatic. Again, head over to foursigmatic.com/model. And now let's dive into the Spotify review of the week. 

SPOTIFY REVIEW: Another Spotify review from Rashela ANZE. I love your podcast. You spoke at our National Optum house calls conference. Been a devotes listener, aligns with my doctoral work in sarcopenia. You and your guests are uber informative, evidence-based information I incorporate into my wellness visits with my patients. Bravo. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that over on Spotify. That's right. You can actually comment on the episodes on Spotify. You can also rate the show on Spotify now as well. And of course, if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, you can leave a review and rate the show there as well. It really does mean a lot. Please share your voice, and I love this one so much because I remember this speaking event. And also, again, it's just so many wonderful ways to connect and we need more of that today, more than ever, is again, attending live events and getting out and connecting with other people.

And it's really about what we're investing our energy and our time into. You know, it's that ROI and in particular with relationships that ROR return on relationships. And yes, these virtual relationships can be uber valuable, but where can we attend even online events as well, you know, but also getting out and getting to events in person, connecting with community, and sparking relationships from there. So just a really important reminder, and again, I really do appreciate you leaving that review for me on Spotify. And without further ado, let's get to this very special interview that I did on the Genius Life Podcast with New York Times bestselling author Max Lugavere, he invited me on and we talked about the five mind blowing things that are proven to increase your lifespan. Enjoy. 

MAX LUGAVERE: It always lights up my day when I get to hang with you, text with you, interact with you in any way. You are stood a light in the industry, one of my close friends, confidants. And your book, your book forever. It's such a great book. Eat Smarter, the Family Cookbook is always adorning our set. That's how much I value you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Oh, man.

MAX LUGAVERE: And, and the insight that you bring. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: That means a lot. Really. I, I appreciate that. And just, you know, seeing this color scheme, by the way, with a lot of our friends and then seeing this really jumping out is just, it means a lot. I, I truly appreciate that, man. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Of course. Well, it's been a minute since we've connected. Things are moving fast in the wellness world.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You don't say.

MAX LUGAVERE: Very fast.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

MAX LUGAVERE: Well, I figured a good place to start today for this conversation is, I guess, an overview of sorts with regards to the landscape of longevity. So you are always deep in the weeds, the scientific literature, always talking to experts on your show, the Model Health show, which is amazing. But let's, yeah, let's dive right in. What would you say today? You know, we're in, what month is it? I don't even know. April 2025, what would you say are five mind blowing things that are proven to extend lifespan? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes, let's do this. Yes. So one of the things that's really getting a big spotlight shown on it, thankfully, is the microbiome. Alright, so now we've got a ton of data on this. One of the most recent studies on this was published in 2019 and it was published in the Journal Gut Microbes. As you know, there's journals dedicated to just about anything you can imagine, but they were looking at the microbiome makeup of people who have achieved longevity, right? So they were looking at a big subset of individuals who are over 90 years old and they found something really interesting people who had this. Who had achieved this longevity had far greater diversity in their microbiome, more than people who are in the control group, who are decades younger. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: All right, so there's something about this. Now, this isn't causality, of course, but there's this really powerful connection with the diversity of our bacteria, our gut bacteria. And how long we live now, what the researchers, and they looked at other confounding factors, but they really drilled down and found that these individuals who had more diversity in their gut microbiome had far lower markers for inflammation. And that's another one of these big catch words today. Thankfully, we're talking about inflammation being a culprit behind so many chronic conditions. And so we're seeing there's this powerful regulatory force within our gut that's helping to keep inflammation in check. And so what we wanna strive for, if we're looking at longevity and having that as one of our tenets, our intentions, is making sure that we have a diverse microbiome.

Right. Diversity was the hallmark found in the study. Now, of course, we've identified, and you've talked with Dr. William Lee's really good friend of mine as well, and we've identified some specific strains, but this is gonna just depend on where you live and all these different things. All right? Akkermansia is one of them, but more so than specific strains, it's the diversity and having more of the "friendly or gut buddies". You know, that our, our, our other mutual friend Dr. Gundry calls him other friendly flora. And so how do we ensure that we're making sure that we're getting enough microbiome diversity? That's the question. 

MAX LUGAVERE: That is the question. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so I talked about this in the Eat Smarter Family Cookbook, but also in particular, eat Smarter, which came out around 2020, showed a ton of studies on this. The number one way to increase your microbiome diversity is increasing the amount of diverse food inputs. It's pretty simple. All right, so in our culture today, we might go to the grocery store and it looks like all this stuff. But it's really, the majority of the food there that's stacking up on the grocery store shelves is made from the same like five or six foods like wheat, corn, soy, rice, various forms of sugar.

And we are lacking so severely, the diversity of inputs, our ancestors would get somewhere in the ballpark of 3000 different inputs from different foods over the course of, you know, say a couple of years. Today the average person is lucky to get it, maybe like 50, right? And so our microbiome is starving to death, essentially. And if we're not feeding those microbes, the foods that they're looking for, they just, they can't thrive. They can't diversi, diversify and flourish. And so one of the clearest studies that we have has affirmed that. And it's not. Here's the, here's a big, this is a big takeaway for everybody. When you're eating a food, you're not just eating that food, you're eating that food to microbiome as well.

We talked about this a little bit before, but I want to emphasize this. When you eat a blueberry, it isn't just this little, oh, it's got antioxidants. It's kind of, you know, it's got some vitamins and minerals. It has its own microbiome. It has its own bacteria profile. That we're eating along with that berry, same with an avocado. You're eating that avocados, microbiome, you're eating those peanuts, microbiome, you're eating, the list goes on and on the sweet potato microbiome. And so getting, you're basically taking on that data and it's interacting with your data. This isn't like a one-to-one thing where we eat that blueberries, diversity, you know, their microbiome, and suddenly, you know, we're taking on that blueberry data.

It's interacting with our microbiome. And so, as you know, we have trillions, trillions of different bacteria that are in and on our bodies. But the gut microbiome is just one of these areas. And we'll talk more about this as we go on, because now we're looking at, you know, our skin has a microbiome. Our lungs have a microbiome. Now there's more and more data emerging about the microbiome with the brain as well. And so, what we wanna do is target diversity in our diets. Even if we are health, health minded, we can get stuck in a rut. And I've been guilty of this, you know, where, you know somebody's, maybe they're trying to build some muscle, so they got like the chicken, rice, vegetable, you know, chicken, sweet potato, vegetable, whatever, and they're just eating the same things over and over again.

MAX LUGAVERE: It's the bodybuilder diet. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: The bodybuilder diet. And it works to a degree, but the bodybuilding isn't necessarily associated with longevity because our conversation is about longevity there. There is a big component of that, which we'll get to later on with bodybuilding, but we wanna be mindful. Yes, you can be very simplistic. And those inputs, but make sure you're getting in something somehow where you're getting a bunch of different things in once. That can be in a shake. You know, like you've got your protein shake over there that, that you're drinking on. You can add another, you know, five, six things to that. And you, you've done this before, experimenting, blending a bunch of stuff up, but getting those different plant inputs in particular, and this has been controversial.

We both have talked about this. You know, we've got friends who are hardcore carnivore, carnivore diet, hardcore vegan diet. And the reality is humans evolved eating as an omnivore, eating a diversity of these inputs. And so there are a lot more different plant inputs that we have access to. Even the average American, of course, isn't eating a diversity of different animals as well. You know, like my wife is from Kenya, so they eat goat. Yama Choma. And for me it's just, her aunt made it one time. I was just like, can't, I can't do it. I was just pitching the baby goat, goat yoga. I was just like, I can't, I couldn't get into it. You know what I mean? And so, but maybe striving to again, like if you, you know, maybe try a different type of fish when you go out to a restaurant.

Like just taking those opportunities to get in more diversity in your diet. Be consistent in it. You know, we have some colleagues who are like, like urging people to get in 30 different plant inputs a day or different nutrition inputs. I think that's a, a bit much, I don't, I don't think we should try to strive that far. I think we should do something that's a little bit closer or easier on-ramp for people, which is 10 to 20. Right? Because the average person, again, is getting like five to 10. Right? So just upping the diversity of those inputs is gonna help to diversify your microbiome, which is going to correlate with a longer lifespan.

MAX LUGAVERE: You're so right. I mean, today the standard American diet, it present, I feel like it the you only, there's the the illusion of variety, but really most of the foods that Americans today are consuming, I mean, they fall within the category of ultra processed foods. Which are just permutations of the same handful of crops that are mono crops today that ha, that are really high in their caloric density. Typically pretty low in nutrient density, right? Yeah. Like weed, corn, rice. You mentioned some of these and they don't often contain many of the phytochemicals that we're starting to understand now. Powerfully associated with good health. So I think this is fantastic advice. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You just open the door to another part of that, which is protecting the microbes. We have, you know, if you're eating all of these highly refined, ultra processed foods, they're coming along with the conglomeration of things that are toxic to our gut. Not to mention the pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, all these things that are designed to kill small organisms can wreak havoc on our gut. And so, you know, being mindful of that, and also you mentioned this illusion, this an illusion of diversity. You know, if you go down a serial aisle, there's so many options. There's so many kinds, all right. We didn't have much money, so we got the off-brand stuff, but it was so many, we didn't have fruit loops.

We had like fruit rings and there's like, you know, instead of Captain Crunch, it was like king vitamin or some shit. But it still looked like there's all these options and, but it's really all made from the same stuff. And so just taking back control of our thinking and being more intentional, especially when we're going into the produce section. And here's another big tip for everybody, and this is something that I've been very adamant about recently, like the last couple of years. There's great websites as well. Maybe you could throw one in the show notes where you can look up season seasonal produce in your area. Right? You could just put the city, that city that you're in, and you could see what's growing in your environment.

And that's probably just based on evolution. Nature's providing inputs that could help you to adapt. Right? We got this category of like adaptogens, but really all food in our environment is like providing, it's in our environment and we are a part of our environment. And that's what we forget. And so looking up some seasonal produce, like more recently, so this was maybe like two months ago was the last time I looked. It was like persimmons, you know, like stuff that I normally wouldn't get and don't necessarily like. But I just grabbed a couple persimmons. There's a certain type of grain grapefruit. It was like a big, it was like green. It was a massive type of grapefruit. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Is that a pomelo? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Is that what that is?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes. It's a pomelo. Yeah.

MAX LUGAVERE: Wow. I just impressed myself being able to ident. I've never, I don't think I've ever had a pomelo, but I've seen it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yep.

MAX LUGAVERE: I'm like, what the hell is that? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: It was in season, so I just grabbed some palmettos and sliced it up. Had it, you know, just getting indies. And it's because of having that insight and the intention and then it brings a level of fun. And also at some point you're gonna find stuff that you really resonate with too, that you might find your new favorite food. I think everybody listening or watching you have, you have yet to have your best meal. You've yet to have the greatest meal that brings the most pleasure and joy to your life. That's still to come, you know. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Still to come. Yeah, I love that. Gut bacterial diversity. Super, super important. Lower levels of inflammation you mentioned. I mean, that's major. A lot of people are struggling with inflammatory conditions today, and inflammation has been linked recently to, you know, even the non-obvious conditions that nobody wants. Depression has been connected to inflammation. There's the, you know, the inflammatory cytokine model of depression. So your food could actually be making, could, could actually be impairing your mood, which is a crazy concept. I love this. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And we know that depression, you know, we have an epidemic to say the least of mental health conditions, but depression is now the number one disability in the United States, number one cause of disability. And it's, you know, wreaking havoc on our society and we know that it is counter to longevity as well. So it's, it's, we don't wanna just live a long time and be unhappy. You know what I mean? We want to keep our faculties, we want to have great cognitive function, good mental health, feel good, be happy, and all these things feed into the, to each other.

And we'll talk more about this. But number one again, is diversity of your microbiome. We know this. We've got tons of studies on this. I just mentioned just a couple at this point, but to move on to the next one, this really kind of piggybacks on that sentiment, which is again, keeping in mind that we are part of nature as well. We need a lot of diversity with our microbiome. A diverse community. We need the same thing for us as well as human beings. So number two, for longevity, one of the biggest bodies of evidence that we have, we talked about this before, but I'm gonna reiterate this point. Brigham Young University meta-analysis over 148 studies.

Okay? 148 different studies. And they checked out all these different confounding factors and they found that having healthy social bonds, the quality of our relationships, people who have healthy social bonds have a 50% reduction in all cause mortality compared to other people. Alright? 50% reduction in death, essentially from all causes. Now again, they looked at beating obesity, they looked at exercise, they looked at all these other things that matter, but the equality of our relationships mattered more. It was the number one thing, but we don't, we don't talk about this. We're looking for the next biohack. You know, we're trying to red light our nuts. You know what I mean? But instead of like focusing on the thing that matters most. All right. If you're gonna red light your nuts, do it with friends. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Do it with friends. You heard it here first. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: So keeping this in mind, and also, you know, um, one of the people who's been a, been a big influence on me is Dr. Waldinger. He's the director out of the longest running longitudinal study at Harvard of Human Longevity, really. But it was happened by accident, how it all happened, but again, he's reiterating that point and he didn't believe it. I tend to, I have a strong skepticism bone, which I think is very healthy today, more than ever. And so, so did he. So when he was getting past the baton in this longevity study, he was skeptical that relationships mattered so much. So he went and reviewed the data. He went and checked with other top institutions, and he found like, I can't deny it. Having warm, as he called it, warm social bonds or warm social relationships was the number one factor determining how long you're gonna live. Now with this being said, how many of us are actually educated on how to have healthy relationships? 

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. I didn't take that class in school. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know?

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Like, and today, more than ever, we are so, we are so disconnected in a way, you know, like we can just look on an app to find a significant other, or, you know what I mean? It's just, I, I, this was prior to me, you know, like I met my wife prior to this innovation. You know, not to say not to negate the benefits that can, there are tons of great relationships that work out with apps and things like that, but there is so much disconnection like. And we're more isolated than we've ever been, right? We're spending more time. My point being we're spending more time on our devices and it's dividing us. And so we're not spending more time, which in the real world, you're getting feedback immediately whether or not you're connecting with somebody. And we also, and this is just to get a little bit more into the metaphysics, quantum physics.

I've been studying a lot of the weird stuff with quantum science. It's just so weird and amazing. But HeartMath Institute, they were looking at some of the energy fields that the body, human body emits. And so we've been, we've known about this stuff for, for a long, long time. And so like, just a great example is like a heart monitor. You know, you could see the electrical output of the human heart. Like we are a electrical bio like, electrical bio magnetic entity. Right? And so the research that HeartMath found that the human body, specifically from the human heart, it has an electromagnetic field that expands from your body.

It's a, it can be as far as eight feet from you. All right? And so it's this energy field. And so when you're close to other people, your energy field is interacting. We know that we're exchanging microbial data, right? We're exchanging data for our microbiome. We know that people who have pets or have different people that they're around have more diversity of their microbiome, and they tend to have a longer lifespan. Right? I can go on and on. We're exchanging things that we can't even see when we're with other people. And so all that gets muted when you're on your phone by yourself, in your room all the time watching Netflix and all this stuff, which I, there's some great stuff out there. Okay? Let's just be honest.

But we've gotta be more proactive than ever, than ever before. AI is here. All right. My, my youngest son, he's 13. He was just some commercial came on about ai and he was like, dad, people are acting like they didn't see the matrix. And I was like, bro, you're 13. How did you know that? Like, that's amazing. And so it's here, but I think our, our greatest job or blessing potentially in this, because it's, it's here. Like we might as well just understand that how do we evolve and adapt investing more in our relationships and being in the real world with other people? AI might, if you're using it effectively free up your time. Right. It could do the jobs of a lot of other people giving you more time to invest in humanity and, you know, in the real world, so. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. I mean, and not to, not to discount what you're saying, but I, I, I am optimistic that AI is going to provide a solution for people for whom iRL Social connection is difficult. You know, maybe disabled people, elderly people like ai. AI just passed the Turing test, if I recall correctly, from what I saw on, on X, which is amazing. Like sooner, sooner or later we're gonna have AI companions. And I, you know, obviously we have no idea how that's gonna unfold in terms of the human psyche, but I mean, you brought up Robert Waldinger. I had him on my show in the past, and I mean, he's likened l loneliness, loneliness to a toxin on par with consuming alcohol or smoking cigarettes. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, I'm, I'm optimistic that, that AI will at least do something for the epidemic of loneliness. At least that's side, that's my hope. Could be, I could be naive. Hey, I could turn around and just like start executing us on a teaching style. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: I mean, I mean, you know, it's, yeah, it's, it's one of those things, man. 

MAX LUGAVERE: That's why I'm always very polite with chat GPT. I'm like, please and thank you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

MAX LUGAVERE: Because you never know. The day it becomes Sens.

SHAWN STEVENSON:  Chat GPT is listening right now and taking notes, like, who got respect, who's putting respect on my name? You know?

MAX LUGAVERE: Exactly.

SHAWN STEVENSON: So it's like, I think it was, was it Billy Madison where like some guy at the end like assassinated somebody and Billy Madison, like, I'm glad I apologized. They got me to that guy, you know. But let's look at some of the factors underneath why this matters. So I mentioned how we're sharing microbial data, how we're interacting with each other, you know, the energy field. And that's again, getting a little bit outside of the parameters of conventional science, but also being around other people, especially people that you feel safe with dramatically increases your production and mobilization of what we refer to as these kind of anti-aging health, affirmative hormones and neurotransmitters.

Things like oxytocin, for example, which is really getting a moment as well. But oxytocin we've been doing, all we're doing with modern science is identifying stuff that our ancestors knew forever. Like being with somebody that you love. Hugging feels good, all right.

Oxytocin is getting this nickname of like the love hormone, the cuddle hormone. There's so many others. So many others, many we've not even identified yet. You know, there's anandamide, there's, you know, prolactin has some roles in this, like there's so many others. So to just make it like that is the love hormone. It's not, it's not like that. But what we do know is that it is one of the most remarkable hormones.

That is able to counteract the activity of cortisol. All right. So we know that Mo most of us are just cortisol addicts today. Just stress on tap and cortisol is awesome. It has its role, but the amounts that we're producing 'cause of our chronic low grade stress all the time and the times that we're producing it is a problem as well. You know, circadian med medicine, maybe you heard it here first. I've talked about it a little bit in my books, but that is, from my perspective, it's what's to come is circadian medicine, circadian nutrition, all that stuff. It's already here, but that's gonna be a big topic of conversation coming up. And so, oxy, oxytocin, cortisol, we was talking about cortisol.

Cortisol produced high levels at night, very disruptive sleep quality. If you're watching Netflix, if you're watching severance, you know right before bed, your cortisol is gonna be a little el elevated. All right. And you might have your blue light blocking glasses on. I helped the popularized. Okay. 12 years ago, sleep Smarter came out. All right, so I get it, and it does help, but there's a stimulation when we're on our devices, right? And so oxytocin spending some time, what if you unplug for a little bit, hang out with your family, hang out with your significant other, hang out with your puppy whatever, just spend a little time downregulate.

All right? We mentioned a little bit of the, the microbiome exchange. That's also immune system data, right? So a big part of longevity is not dying. All right? A big part of longevity is not dying. What are the main things taking us out, right? Heart disease, we, we'll talk more about that in a little bit. But in particular, which with the next one I'm gonna share, but also all manner of immune system dysfunction. Whether it's related to cancer, whether it's related to infectious diseases, we've gotta make sure that our immune system is strong and resilient and intelligent. Right. And so the ability to have immunomodulation is one of those things that is improved when you are around other people and having healthy social bonds.

MAX LUGAVERE: And it goes back to the microbiome too. 'cause you're sharing microbes, you're cohabitating with people who are out in the world doing things, bringing various benign microbes back into the house. I mean, it's one of the reasons why having a dog seems to be so consistently related with better immune function and longevity. Yep. Not so for cats, not so much for cats, which is kind of a bummer for me. But.

SHAWN STEVENSON: How many cats do you have?

MAX LUGAVERE: I just got one. I just got one.

SHAWN STEVENSON: One cat. Okay.

MAX LUGAVERE: Just one. But she's an indoor cat. So it's, she's not, it's not like she's like out in the world bringing strange bugs back into the house which is I think, the mechanism by which dogs are, you know, 'cause they're just out sniffing things and tracking stuff in, super interesting stuff. Okay, so social connection. So gut bacterial diversity. We've got social connection, which is super, super important. What's number three? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Number three, this is, we're just gonna keep piggybacking and this one with that social connection. Number three with some sound data on longevity is sex. All right. So I'm gonna share this study specifically. So this was..

MAX LUGAVERE: You just made a lot of people either really happy or really depressed.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Well, we're okay. We're gonna dive in. We're gonna dive in, no pun intended. This was a 16 year study and this was published in the American Journal of Cardiology. All right. So again, this is a journal dedicated to the heart and cardiovascular system, the number one cause of death in the United States still is the champion, is heart disease. And this was conducted with over 1000 male participants. And we're gonna talk about women as well, by the way. But this was over 1000 male participants, aged 40 to 70, and it found that men who had sex at least twice a week were almost 50% less likely to die from heart disease than men who had sex once a month or less.

MAX LUGAVERE: Hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: There's a connection there that is such a huge like 50% is, 5% is remarkable, but 50% is mind blowing. It should make us stop in our tracks, like, what's going on here? Now again, we can't talk about causation with this because it probably goes both ways, no pun intended. Is that gonna keep happening? So looking at the ability to have sex and have a healthy sexual relationship means you have good circulation, right? You have good blood flow. And one of my, really good friends is Dr. Daniel a Amen. And he, him and I have had multiple conversations about this and understanding that, that circulation, that blood flow, so this could be a chicken or egg scenario, but they help each other. They help each other. And with that being said, having that healthy social connection, it isn't a relationship intimate connection in particular.

It isn't just preventative of heart disease, but also it is remarkable 'cause he's a brain expert. He has the largest database of specked imaging. So he's scanned everybody's brain from Muhammad Ali to Justin Bieber.

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: You know what I mean? And his data was used for the big NFL study. The list goes on on, he's a, he's a genius, absolute brilliant guy, but the sweetest guy as well. And his work was also mirrored by researchers at the University of Maryland who found that regular sexual activity was able to actually stimulate neurogenesis. All right. And when you hear that, there's another study coupled with that one that came out in 2010 that found, of course, it was a hippocampus, the memory center of the brain, glorified memory center of the brain. But this stimulates growth and development, new brain cells. There's something about sex that is just like, it pushes that button that turns on. Another pun, turns on that, that brain activity and one of the things that he shared with me was that our largest sexual organ is the brain, you know, cont again, contrary to, you know, what the guy might say.

But, you know, it's just keeping that in mind that, you know, this is, it's great and nourishing for your brain, for your cardiovascular system. And there's, there's studies in particular on orgasm with women and studying brain activity and seeing how remarkable it is with creating positive changes in the female brain. So helping to reduce stress, obviously, but making the brain much more resilient, more healthy blood flow and circulation in parts of the brain associated with better cognitive function disease prevention. The list goes on and on. So we know that sex and orgasm, but they don't necessarily go together or have to go together, but that intimacy. In particular, again, seeking that out, being more intentional about that, we're in a society that tends to pull that away. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Right. So a big part, even, even without the sexual intercourse part, just the proximity, being close to the person that you care about or that cares about you and for those who aren't currently, maybe not, doesn't have direct access to smashing. Alright. Right now it's totally okay. Of course, you know, you could have your eyes on that, but just being around, do whatever you can do to be around people that care about you. There's so much benefit that comes from that. We're just talking about going, you know, all the way, like what does the data say now to get into some of the tactical things here.

That study noted that twice a week, twice a week created a 50% reduction in heart disease versus once a month. Alright. Knowing this data is probably not a good idea. Well, you maybe wanna send your significant other, this podcast maybe. All right. But just being like, honey, you know, I two, this has only been once this week. It's, I need, you know, like tapping.

MAX LUGAVERE: We're coming up to watch coming up on Friday.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. So it's not like that. It's the other things that, that, that are involved in the process of sex and having a healthy sexual relationship that help to support our longevity and our, and our health, which is intimacy, which is being intentional, which is being compassionate and understanding and listening or whatever. Whatever quality needs to emerge from you to have that sexual health that you want to have. It isn't just this tactical thing, like, I need to bust a Okay. 'cause it's like this time of, you know, of the week. Right? 

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, I think if you're, if you're able to, as a man, if you're able to, and also fema, 'cause fe women have erectile tissue, analogous to the penis. If you're able to, to achieve and sustain a healthy erection, I mean, that, that's a good sign for your cardiovascular health. That's one of the first things to go. You know, a lot of people with preclinical cardiovascular disease, I'm sure, you know, like they, they develop erectile dysfunction. So I think that's, yeah.

Even if you don't have a significant other, I mean, I would wager that, you know, if you're masturbating, you know, you pre and, and you're able to achieve healthy erections that way, like that's a good sign. It's also good for the prostate, prostate health. I was reading something, you know, recently, I didn't do too, too rigorous a dive, but, it's good for men, for the, for prostate health to, to ejaculate more, more frequently. I also think that mouth genital contact on particularly performed on women, a lot of women in the audience probably gonna be really happy to hear this. It, it's my per, my hypothesis that that's very good for, at the very least, the male's microbiome 'cause there's some good lactobacilli down there, the vaginal mi, healthy vaginal mi microbiome. You wanna share that? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. The, this, we should put the title of this episode. Eat the kitty, all right. Eat the, it's gonna have multiple meanings, you know, but this is one of those things where, you know, again, we, in our culture today, things are slightly different, but the culture that I grew up in. Yeah, this was such a foreign concept, right? We're, again, we're not taught about this stuff. We're just kind of thrust into last one. That's my last pun. We are thrust into a sexual relationship without understanding the other person. We just had that awkward class in school, if you get that right. Most of the time it's like middle school and so little attention is paid to the female, the female body, you know, and really understanding, you know, the role of the clitoris and, you know, how pleasure is.

It can be different. It's not just about this thing that you're, you're thinking about as a guy for your own pleasure, but being more intentional in that and learning about it. Read a book, you know, listen to some of these experts when you mention the prostate health. It thought about, I thought about my friend, Dr. Rena Malik, and she's shared, she's a expert in sexual health for men and women. And, you know, she talks about stimulation also, Dr. Jolene Brighton is another person and sexual pleasure for women. And so just getting some education and as Max just threw on here for the, for the science bros also, you know, you're gonna be helping your own microbiome. You know, it's a, it's a win-win. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. Kal Lingus is the new kombucha. No, but actually, did you, there was a viral, do you remember this? There was a viral headline a couple years ago. A woman cultured the bacteria from her own vagina. And used it to make yogurt. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Well, damn. I mean, you can make yogurt outta anything.

MAX LUGAVERE: That was a thing. Case point. Yeah. And we know, we all know yogurt's. Good for you.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Damn. Coconut yogurt lit. Yeah.

MAX LUGAVERE: That's crazy. Dairy free. We've got lots of options. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. Lots of optionality there. Got a quick break coming up. We'll be right back.

There's one beverage that rules them all when it comes to longevity. In fact, a study published just last year in The Lancet found that people who regularly drink tea age slower than people who do not. Now, there are so many varieties of tea that come teaming with health benefits and flavor profiles from green tea to ginger tea and more. And speaking of anti-aging and anti-obesity effects, a study published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging took 59 overweight or mildly obese subjects to see if the renowned tea called puer makes a notable difference in weight loss.

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SHAWN STEVENSON: Next up, so we covered microbiome diversity. We covered the importance of healthy social bonds. We covered sex, and the impact that that can have on longevity tons of data and more is emerging on that as well. Number four, and this really ties into a lot of these other things and, and makes it possible to do these other things. Number four is building and maintaining your muscle mass. All right. I'm so grateful. So many of my friends and colleagues are just championing this message right now. I've text with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon. She's one of the sweetest people, man. She's always checking in on me, making sure I'm making sure I'm good.

She's amazing. But she's a muscle centric physician and this, this, it is really a revolution in understanding because it was kind of relegated the idea of building muscle to the bodybuilding community or athletes and the personification, like how we identified. That domain oftentimes was associated with a shorter lifespan, ironically, or, you know, not as smart, not as good cognitive health or whatever the case might be. You know, a dumb jock, right? Kind of stereotype. And when in reality, in reality, muscle is very likely of all of our different organs and organ systems, we could make a strong argument that it is the organ of longevity. Now, I'm, I'm gonna give some reasons why. Now, this, of course, the brain is huge in this.

Obviously it's controlling all this stuff. The microbiome huge, but our muscle tissue is one of the biggest factors for our survivability, right? So, being resilient, again, a big part of longevity is not dying. A big part of longevity is not dying, making us more resilient against whether it's cancer. We know that cancer, cancer trials, diagnoses, going through cancer treatment. People who have more muscle mass survive. All right. And whether this is, let, let's actually, let's, let's check off some boxes here. So when it comes to muscle, muscle is our body's primary source for glucose disposal, right? So we know that abnormal glucose regulation, insulin resistance, all these things are epidemics leading to higher rates of heart disease, dementia, cancer. The list goes on and on. We can make argument that, you know, the majority of the 10 leading causes of death are directly connected to insulin resistance. And poor glucose management muscle is the number one reservoir for absorbing and clearing the blood of glucose. If you have muscle, your body just does it way better.

MAX LUGAVERE: Hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Alright, so it's like an insurance policy against pre-diabetes and insulin resistance, all manner of blood sugar abnormalities, right? So that's number one. So again, helping you to not die. Number two, muscle is in a very interesting, interesting way. It's kind of like, it's like a reservoir. It's like a, it's like a container that, that holds onto and contains a lot of anti-aging compounds, hormones, that over time, and this is why, you know, people who have a healthy amount of muscle, if they get injured, for example, even an older age, they tend to recover, right? They might break something, but they, they, they, they, they're not wheelchair bound for the rest of their lives. Muscle has like a reservoir that's able to pump these things into your system to help you to bounce back, alright? So it's very protective. It's like a reservoir for anti-aging hormones. And another aspect is the myokines, right?

So we know that the emerging signs with these myokines. That our muscles produce, when we contract them, when we're at, when we're using our muscles, they're producing these mykines that have powerful impacts on keeping your brain healthy and protective. They're neuroprotective. They're also very powerful at helping to regulate and support your immune system. Again, helping you to not die. All of this is going on with muscle. I can go on and on and on, but the most obvious one is just the pure functionality muscle. What is its purpose like just superficially is to help you to do stuff, to move around, to be able to do life stuff, right? So whether we're talking about being with your community, right, being able to walk or to play a sport or whatever the case might be, muscle is what is enabling you to do that.

MAX LUGAVERE: What about to, I mean. I have a very savvy audience, so I don't know how many, you know, listeners right now are thinking this, but just in the odd chance that, that there are some females listening that are like, well, I don't want to be too bulky. You know, I don't want to pack on muscle like a bodybuilder become GI Jane, Demi Moore, you know, from GI Jane back in the day. How would you debunk that myth? 'cause it is a myth, right? That, that weight training makes women appear bulkier. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: My man, like, I've been talking about this for almost 20 years. For over 20 years actually. And now I'm hearing a lot of things that I've shared, like being echoed by really influential people. And one of them that I had said like 20 years ago was just a dis, just again, very superficially, very obvious. Men, we do a lot of stuff to try to put muscle on. We do a lot. We are trying to, we're trying to get in all these macros. We're doing protein shakes. We're, we're working our ass off to try to build muscle. It's hard, it's hard to do. All right. And we have the hormonal cascade, the testosterone advantage to be able to do it way better than women. It's so difficult for us to do it. And yet women are afraid, like they're gonna get bulky. Most men are struggling their ass off to try to get bulky. All right.

So you could just put that to bed. It is not, this is not one of those things that, to put on a sizable, noticeable, intimidating, scary amount of muscle takes. So it's like a full-time job. And then the will of, you know, uh, I almost said Will Smith, but I don't know if that's, if it's too soon, but like the will of, you know, somebody who is mentally like driven, right? And so please, just even from that alone, just look at like, most guys are trying to get big and they can't, they're at the gym all the time. They just, they're just not putting on muscle like that. Now there is of course, strategy behind doing stuff and being able to, you know, see some progress for, for women.

And thankfully this conversation has changed dramatically in the last few years. A lot of women are just like, no, I'm done. I'm done with that. Like, that whole belief is it, what I'm, what's coming up for me is like my, my wife being from Kenya and having a physical culture, right? And so being much more active and understanding that women throughout history have been very active in doing a lot of like heavy lifting in particular, lifting kids hunt, you know, helping with gathering and things like that. I almost said hunting. I just watched this movie Prey with, it's like a predator movie.

MAX LUGAVERE: Oh, interesting. Yeah, I've heard of it.

SHAWN STEVENSON: But, you know, she's wants, she wants to be a hunter. That's the whole thing. But anyways, but just being able to help out and to do a lot of things that require muscle, that require a very physical culture, we had a much more physically literate culture where muscle was required. But today, all of that has been muted. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Hmm. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so there's been also this paradigm of the kind of demure or demure, like very petite and soft and like, you know, just hidden, tucked away. Very delicate. W woman. There is a place for that, obviously. Absolutely. But also there is something your genes are expecting. Your genes expect you to be strong because it's about survivability, right. And your version of what muscle and what strength is gonna look like is very different from a bulky guy. All right. For you to actually put on muscle that you feel like I'm, you know, I'm like, whatever. You're probably gonna have to take some, some, some, you know, some anabolic steroids and things like that and you know, you just can't do that. Eating good food and lifting weights, you know, it's just, you gotta just, just put that whole idea to bed. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. Almost every Jack person that you see, male or female on social media, they're all augmented. I mean, the vast majority of them, even those that, that will claim that they're naty. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MAX LUGAVERE: They're not.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. 

MAX LUGAVERE: And also for women, like lifting heavy things is the best way to, to fortify bone strength. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes. That part. That part and that that signal your bone also. Stem cells, all these different data, aspects of like immune system function, cognitive function. There are things that are great for protecting and regenerating your brain tissue that are embedded in your bones. And when you use your bones, when you put late, weight bearing exercise onto your bones, it helps your brain. And this circles back to, and I remember it was a conversation I had with Andrew Huberman about that, and this comes back to how muscle and cognitive function actually go hand in hand as well.

We know that cardiovascular exercise is great for the brain. We know that's tons of studies on that, but there's less data now about lifting weights and cognitive function. But we do have some pretty remarkable sets of data on this. In particular, lifting legs, strong quad muscles, strong leg muscles, and having a better long-term memory and better problem solving ability and less anxiety, more stress, resilience when people have stronger legs and they're, and they're working their legs on a regular basis. So getting stronger legs if you're gonna work any muscles, don't skip leg day. All right. That paradigm is over as well. 

MAX LUGAVERE: I feel like a lot of fellows need to hear that.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah.

MAX LUGAVERE: You know, fell we're, we're, I tend to be, if I'm gonna skip any day, it's gonna be leg day. And I feel like for women, it's probably the opposite.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Of course.

MAX LUGAVERE: Right. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, there's a, we have the, there's a paradigm of, you know, the, the, it's all about the booty right now, you know, so leg day and, you know, that whole thing. And then for guys, it's still just like trying to get the, the big arms and the chest and that kind of thing, and the big V taper. 

MAX LUGAVERE: And I get it. Like, who doesn't like a nice butt? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. You know, I know, like this goes back to the one we talked about earlier. Yeah. You know, so, you know, just keeping all this in mind, um, this is for all of us. Our genes expect us to be strong. Our genes expect us to walk. Our genes expect us to lift heavy things. Our genes expect us to be able to move quickly. These are all external environmental inputs that are telling our genes that I'm fit to be alive. All right? And so giving your body these inputs on a regular basis are just going to, again, it's going to lean towards you living longer.

It's very logical. We're just talking about basic logic and then we get into the minutia. And so, yeah. So we talked about the Myokines, we talked about anti-aging reservoir, we talked about glucose disposal. But the main obvious thing is just pure functionality. Being able to move and do stuff in the world, having more muscle is telling the environment, these environmental inputs, I'm qualified to live. I'm strong enough to hold my own in this world. And so my recommendation for everybody listening is to make this, especially, especially when you hit 40, 40 and over, your number one priority should be building muscle. Number one priority. The cool thing is there's, there's a lot of data, and this has been, but from really unhealthy populations to be honest, but on just how you, how much muscle you lose each decade as you get older.

Right, sarcopenia kicking in eventually. Now we know that it doesn't have to happen. It doesn't have to happen. You can build and maintain your muscles at 80. You could still build muscle and you could still protect and maintain that muscle. Is it harder? Yeah, it's harder. All right, so now is the time to bank the muscle Bank It, bank it, and you can kind of coast on that for decades if you just maintain the muscle mass that you build. But you know, there's issues with protein metabolism as you get older. It is a thing and it's, it's more difficult, just even the energy and all the different things. So is it possible later on? Absolutely. But we want to get a jumpstart on it right now. Especially again, once you hit 40, it should be your number one fitness priority. Build muscle. Amen. Everything else is, is is cool. Build muscle first. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Amen. Yeah, I love how you described it as an insurance policy. I had a, an exercise scientist on the show recently, bill Campbell, who, I mean, he cited some really interesting research showing that even people in their eighties, like are still totally capable of building muscle. Like it's really, it truly is never too late. Obviously there's higher risk of injury. You wanna make sure that you're doing it safely if you've never worked out before. Like my dad, my dad's never been in a gym in his life. You wanna work with a professional so that you don't hurt yourself. But yeah. Super good advice. And then nutritionally before moving on, like how do you support that? Because protein, you, you kind of touched on protein metabolism, but I would assume that, that there are certain nutritional recommendations that can help support those efforts. Absolutely. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: And some of this stuff, again, it's captain obvious, but because of the diet wars we can create this kind of, we can have blinders on in our minds and misses. And so when I started in this field, and I've been, it is 22 years now, I've been working in health and fitness starting off in my university gym, working as a personal trainer to opening my clinical practice, working as a nutritionist for years. When I had my nutritional science class in college, we were taught about the food pyramid, you know, and we had this low fat paradigm.

It was heavy, right? The teacher was talking about the studies on how fat, you know, leads to cardiovascular disease and da da, da, right? And the thing was, at the time, I wasn't as well versed in reading the research myself. Neither was my professor. 'cause if they actually read something, you know, it's more so like this is handed out. Like this is the, you know, the one sheet on what to talk about when it comes to this subject. So, fat was shamed. Carbs have more recently have been shamed, right? Low carb, low carb movement, low carb for life. And, you know, all the while with these, and by the way, there's value in each of these. It just depends on you.

That's really where I got. When working with people, thankfully, and this was years ago, was doing what was best for the person and not based on what my beliefs were. Right? And so some people had more fat in their diet, some people had more carbs in their diet, right? But what was left outta the conversation, these diet wars, is protein. Protein was shamed big time. Because it's supposed to be like, this is the thing that shortens your lifespans. Too much protein. Too much protein. And some of the most well conducted studies that have analyzed the data on protein intake, it's far, it's far from the, like, actually looking at not some isolated part of an animal food or like a casein molecule, but like looking at protein intake, it's far from, you know, this dogma that we've been taught.

And so all that to be said, protein has been here as a pillar this whole time. It's the most valuable things that our ancestors were, were looking for. All right. Throughout human, this human experience, hundreds of thousands of years. Protein, you can get your hands on an animal, you're, you're gonna be all right. All right. And there are, again, thousands, we're not diminishing the value of plants and plant inputs because we get into a camp of that, you know, where it's just like plants are trying to kill you, and then animals are trying, like, what do you eat then? Right? We are omnivores, we are very intelligent at being able to find, and our ancestors figured out which foods we could eat and eat healthfully and safe and safely, because there's a, a limit to just about anything as well.

Like too much protein is bad too. You can eat too many. Like, you know, some of these plants, there's a toxic tolerance, right? You can hit a threshold where it is hurting you, but getting a little bit of it can actually help your immune system and your gut diversity and give you all these other benefits. It's kind of like, you know, and, you know, uh, we talked with Dr. Sharon Bergquist about this as well.

MAX LUGAVERE: Oh yeah.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And those, and those plant inputs actually being one of those keys to longevity's that "healthy stressor". But for some of our colleagues, they're like, we don't want any of that stress because it's killing you. Right. That spinach is definitely, it's murdering you. Right. And the reality is a little bit different. A lot different actually. So, but again, we don't wanna go full in. We're not trying to have a, a massive spinach smoothie every day necessarily either. Right? And so getting specifically to building muscle, muscle is made from amino acids, it's made from proteins.

This is just like, if you don't provide your body with the raw materials to make it, if you don't eat, if you don't eat protein, you don't grow, you don't build muscle, period. That is just that simple. Now, carbohydrates, of course, like our muscles can, you know, we we're talking about like glyco glycogen stores really fill you out. Right. So, if I remember correctly, it's like one, one gram of carbohydrate could help you carbohydrate, listen to the name, hydrate can hold on to four grams of water. Right? So one gram of carbohydrate, four grams of water. Maybe I'm flipping it a little bit. 

MAX LUGAVERE: No, you're right. That's why when people initiate like low carb diets, they'll suddenly lose a lot of weight. But most of that weight in the initial phase of the, of the diet is just, it's like water weight. Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah, and it's cool, like, it's cool that you can manipulate your body and do stuff like that, but we, holding onto hydration is another important tenet for survival, right? Your brain is also ho holding onto to heart hydration as well, right? You don't want to dry up. You could literally, you lose brain volume if you don't have the compounds that help your brain, and also like electrolytes, sodium, things like that. But carbohydrates play a role in helping you to maintain a healthy water weight. Now, of course, most people eating way too many, of course, and garbage carbohydrates, but sweet potatoes, you know, rice, you know, some, there's a ton of, of really viable, healthy carbohydrates.

Humans have been eating a long time. So primarily, if we're talking about building muscle, you need carbs. All right? I'm just, again, keto, like I know the guys, these are some of my good friends. All right? There's a place for that. But even with the keto paradigm, there's still room for carbohydrates. And so, you know, it just depends on your goals on how much carbohydrates you're bringing in, but there's so much value that can be found in carbohydrate rich food. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. You know, so. Amen. I think that, especially, especially for older adults, like, like optimizing for protein's super important. I don't, I, I don't think there's any downside. I mean, look, when we're talking about like you're slamming protein shakes and all you're doing is eating lean protein, that can get problematic. But I think if you're prioritizing protein in your diet, there's a lot more good to be gained from even slightly over consuming protein, which. In and of itself is really difficult to do because it's so satiating than under consuming it 'cause you under consume protein, you're gonna be hungrier for carbs and fat. Right. It's like the protein leverage hypothesis. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Exactly. Yeah. And I, we talked about this on a previous episode, but a study was ducted conducted at St. Louis University. You know, I'm from St. Louis, so.

MAX LUGAVERE: Shout out.

SHAWN STEVENSON: Shout out to everybody in the lu. But they took test subjects and, you know, they put them on a weight loss protocol, right? So there was a calorie reduction, but they had, their first meal of the day was the only difference between the two study groups. One group received a carbohydrate dominant food, which was a bagel for breakfast, but the other group received eggs, which is rich in protein and fat, same amount of calories.

After the conclusion of the study, and this was like an eight or 12 week study, and I, again, I shared the details in, in each smarter, and also we talked about this previously, but at the conclusion of the studies, I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was over 50% more weight loss in the group who had the protein breakfast, the high protein and fat breakfast. They lost significantly more belly fat. They, they lost more with their BMI. Everything was better. They outperformed same amount of calories, but having more protein and those healthy fats that come along with those eggs did something positive for their metabolism that helped them to shed the excess they were carrying.

It's just, it's just how it is. You know? And that's okay. Nobo, you can, if you wanna have the bagel, you can have the bagel, alright. But you probably wanna put a couple of eggs with that too. You know what I mean? Make sure that you're getting your protein and protein just makes everything work better. We're not, I'm not advocating for a high protein diet per se, but you need to make sure you're getting the right amount of protein for you, which is, it's not always easy because it's so satiating too. Right. If you're trying to build muscle, that's what makes it so difficult, right? For a lot of guys in particular is like, you gotta get in a lot of protein to, to build muscle to, especially if you're trying to do it quickly.

And so what is that recommended amount? Well, according to the most proficient people in the space, you mentioned Dr. Bill Campbell, you know, he's a friend as well. It's somewhere around 0.8 grams to one gram of protein per ideal body weight per per ideal pounds of body weight. So if you, if you're 135 pounds and you wanna be 120, you're gonna target somewhere around a hundred to 120 grams of protein in a day.

Right. And so this is why a lot of our longevity expert friends are changing their tune on intermittent fasting a little bit because so many people were not getting in the amount of protein it was creating negative effects with their muscle mass, which again, it was, this is being touted as the organ of longevity and so being able to get enough protein doesn't mean you can't intermittent fast, but you gotta be more intentional. Right. And so, yeah. 

MAX LUGAVERE: That's like 33 meals a deal. That's, that's like 35 grams of protein per meal. Easy peasy. Not that difficult. Yeah. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: But just being intentional about it, right. Taking that opportunity when you're having that food to get that protein in.

MAX LUGAVERE: Yeah. Yeah. Amen. Alright, so what is the last secret hidden way to achieve longevity? We've got one left, right? 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Got one left. Yeah. So, and I, I, I actually brought these with me to, to make sure that I, to share this clearly because it's so remarkable. Two studies. Number one, this was published in the Journal of Chronic Diseases, and they were taken into consideration a variety of confounding factors, a variety of risk factors, and they found that the lack of satisfaction in the work that we do is a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease.

The number one thing that's killing us. Coupled with that, a massive meta-analysis. This was published in occupational environmental medicine. This was almost 500 studies that were analyzed for this. All right? This is, this is rare. And they found that job satisfaction is one of the strongest influences on our mental and physical health. Alright, so number five here is doing me meaningful work. And there's a couple of things here and if you, if you hate your job right now, I got good news for you. All right? I just, we'll get to that, but it's, there cannot be enough said about wanting to live. Because you have a reason to live having a purpose.

I remember one of my mentors, Bob Proctor, sharing with me that he couldn't even, he couldn't even fathom the idea of retiring. You know, he loved what he did so much. He wanted to work until, and he, to his, to his last day, he was so full of vitality. He was so full of vi vitality and he was just one of the sharpest, smartest people I've ever met. It's just like, it's incredible. And having that sense of purpose, having something that dedicate your life to something that helps you to quote, get up out of bed in the morning, whether that's your family, you know, like being there as a grandparent or great grandparent 'cause you wanna see, you know, your, your grandkids thrive or you wanna be there at your grandkid's wedding.

Whether that is, you know, the work that you're doing. Maybe there's a Phil, uh, philanthropic. Thing that you're invested in, you know, the community that you are involved in and you're trying to uplift and, and support, or of course the, the tactical quote work that you do. Right? And so for you, you know that, I know this because we're very similar in this. It's like the work that we do matters and we feel it and we know that it, it's making an impact. And we know that we have a gift in this to be able to share and kind of, it, it would be selfish to withhold it. Mm. And so it's like it motivates us to share what we know, to share our, our wisdom, and also to highlight the wisdom of other people and to uplift and help to change, create a positive change in our lifetime here in a environment that is not doing well.

Right now, you know? And so meaningful work is, is critical. Now what if you don't? Have that meaningful work right now. This is not just relegated to the quote job that you have. Again, this could be having meaning in your family, right? Many people that are doing jobs that they don't necessarily enjoy are doing it because they wanna take care of their family. Lean into that. Love it, and bring more love to what you're doing because you love your family. It's just all going up on up here in your mind. It's how you are framing it, right? And now this is coming from a guy that did a lot of stuff. All right? So when I was in college, you know, my first job, of course was the obligatory McDonald's fast food, right?

MAX LUGAVERE: You worked at McDonald's?

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yes. 15 and a half. You know, I think it was like, I was like four. I'm not kidding. $4 and something per hour. Minimum wage. Like this was like what? 1990. Five or something like that. But this was like back in the day, right?

MAX LUGAVERE: So funny.

SHAWN STEVENSON: And so I'm back there, which was, it sucked, man. I did come up with my own burger, you know, I've like messed around with some stuff. But, then from there I worked at Target, I worked at the, being from St. Louis, I worked at the Keel Center, which is where the hockey stadium was. And so, which was one of the funnest jobs ever. But I found value, I found meaning at Target, for example. And just like I always had this personality, which I didn't realize until later in life, until I stopped having all these jobs, my personality was to be the boss, right?

So I'm like 16 working at Target, but I found a way to like move up and to have to be able to pass out so we can get stuff done. I just wanted to get stuff done right so that we can get on to whatever else we wanted to do. And so, but working at the hockey stadium was, was, was dope. Wayne Gretzky was on the team for a brief moment in St. Louis on the Blues, which was. Electric. All right. But from there, I got jobs when I was in college working in casinos at Wow. In St. Louis. They were like some of the quote, good jobs, and it was hard, man. We're talking about manual labor, wearing a jumpsuit. I'm locked in a room. We were, I was in the hard count department, so we had to count every coin in the casino every day, empty all the machines, count all the money, right?

So it's a lot of heavy lifting, which I enjoyed. I ended up getting, I, I was, su when I was 19, I became the supervisor, right? And so I got people who were like 40, 50, 60. 

Like, there's this old guy named Marshall, for example. It was just like, I don't know, I don't know how he was showing up, but he kept showing up like he's, he chain smoked on his breaks. But like in his sixties, some of them were not happy about that. Of course, like having this young kid being the boss. But like I, there's these personality traits that I found over time, and my mindset even then was, I'm doing this to get a job done. Like I found value in accomplishing this thing every day, right?

We couldn't leave until the job was done, which was really good for my personality type. And so it made me more efficient, it made me more creative, right? So I found the value in a job that in many ways kind of sucks. Like I'm breathing in coin dust all day, and like locked in this room. We couldn't get out unless security comes and wands us, right? And sometimes security's just being as les and they take a long time or whatever, you know? And it's like this whole like, it's like a prisoner guard type of energy to it, you know? But I found value in it and it kept per persevering. So just reframing in your mind, whatever job you're doing. I've had the great gift of noticing people that really love doing what they're doing and they're doing the same job, or hate what they're doing, doing the same job.

Right. So we had an air conditioned guy come recently. This guy, he was a magician, a young guy. He's probably in his, he seemed like early twenties, but I'm going to say maybe late twenties. He was so thoughtful, so kind the way he communicated, you know, just like he, even, he, he looked me in my eyes and like, he was very present. He had to come back a few days later with a part, and even, you know, he came around, we'll say 8:00 AM and he was just like, you know, very kind of like knocking lightly, like, Hey, is, is everybody up? You know, I don't want to, don't awake anybody up if they're not, you know, he's like, just thoughtful, right? I was like, man, that's amazing.

And also if we seen air conditioned folks who are just like, you know, just like Dr dredging through the day, you know? And so it's just about the internal mechanism. And finding a way to find joy and find love in the thing that you are doing. And it might be something outside of the job itself that it's for. So it might be about, again, taking care of your family, you know, finding some value in that. So doing meaningful work and or finding meaning in what you're doing. And last piece here is this, this very powerful sentiment that I live by, that I teach my sons all the time. How you do anything is how you do everything.

How you do anything is how you do everything. If you're gonna be excellent at basketball, you better be excellent at washing these dishes. All right? You don't want to eat off of dishes that have like grime and all this stuff on it. Do you want, do you want that? Do you want your mom to eat off of that? Right? Do a good job, show up and do the best job you can in the thing that you are faced with, because it's a habit. Excellence is a habit, right? Purpose being strong. Being insightful. All these things are habits, right? So building those muscles in everything that we do, right? I'm not coming here to, you know, to, to, to be less than. I'm not coming here to be a subpar version of myself. I'm, if I'm gonna show up, I'm gonna be the best I could possibly be and strive for even better. 

MAX LUGAVERE: Hmm. So, it's so good. Take pride in what you do, no matter what it is. I think that's so valuable. I'm a control freak. I tell, I mean, I, everything that I put out, everything that I, for as long as I can remember, I've always took men's pride in my, in my work. You know, it's not to say that I'm perfect in all areas of my work, nor in life, but I think it's really important to, yeah, to take stock of what it is that you're doing. Yeah. And to put your whole self into it. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Yeah. The people that are, that are listening and, and watching, just to reiterate this about you. Max is one of the most hands-on people with his education. He really cares about how things are getting communicated and shared. And so it, for some people would see it as a, a detriment or it's like something that might slow you down, but you are very intentional about how you do things, you know? And so it's because you care.

Hmm. And that's like a superpower. That's how I see it. You know, at first when you told me, I was like, you're doing that too. Like, somebody else could do that part. You know, even for me, 'cause I'm, I'm very similar though. I'm very similar. I care. I don't wanna just do any random thing. Right. It it, there's an intention behind it and you want to connect and you want to help and you wanna do what you can and make sure that what you're quote putting out there is making the maximum impact. And you take that very seriously. 

MAX LUGAVERE: So thank you. Yeah. Thank you brother for noticing. Yeah, man. Well, this was so fun. This was so great. What a, what an empowering deep dive. And for those who are just listening, I mean, you've got your notes there. You bring the science, which I think is super cool. Everything you put out too, brother, it's like so important. And, and I love the courage with which you imbue all your work. Yeah. It's just so great being, getting to call myself among your colleagues. It's awesome. 

SHAWN STEVENSON: Thank you, man. I received that. I appreciate that, bro. Thank you. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today. I hope that you got a lot of value out of this. If you did, please share it out with somebody that you care about. Of course you could share this on social media. You know what to do. Take a screenshot of the episode, tag me, I'm at Shawn Model and share it out on Instagram, Facebook. I'm at the Model Health Show on Facebook, and IX, it's X now, so if you wanna share it on X as well.

And at Shawn model on X, there's so many different social media platforms, but the most important thing is just sharing your heart. Share your voice. The best way to share is by modeling what you learn. It truly is infectious. You know, there's a lot of infectious negative things, but. Health, good health, wellness and empowerment can be infectious as well. And so modeling is the most important thing. So taking what you learn today, applying it in your life and demonstrating it by being the person that you are, we've got some amazing masterclasses and world class guests coming your way very, very soon. So make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day and I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after the show, make sure to head over to the model health show.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes. You can find transcriptions videos for each episode. And if you've got a comment, you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome and I appreciate that so much and take care, I promise, to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.