Dave Asprey’s book Super Human is the kind of book that gives people hope. At least that is my take on it. He is the rich guy that has said he is going to live until he is 180. Maybe it was only 150 years. That is a long time.
Right now it costs a lot of money to take the supplements, get the procedures done and buy the equipment and devices necessary to prolong your life. For example, recently Ben Greenfield, who also reports on longevity, did a solo podcast where he told everyone exactly what supplements he took every day. One of the listeners added it up and it would cost you over $800 a month. Now Ben doesn’t pay that much because companies send him the product for free or he uses his own supplement company. And Ben probably takes less than Dave Asprey.
So I suppose it depends on your station in life. If you have the money you can do it and it is only going to get better as new things are developed. There are also many things Dave recommends that do not cost a thing.
So let’s dig into Dave’s book and see what you can use now, even if you are poor, to extend your life.
The Four Killers
This is the title of his first chapter. In it, he discusses heart disease, diabetes Alzheimers and Cancer. In his discussion of heart disease, he links mold exposure to it and inflammation. With diabetes, he says, “High blood sugar also causes dangerous nerve damage by injuring the walls of the capillaries the bring blood and nutrients to your nerves. This is called peripheral artery disease and it is especially common in the legs and feet which is why you may have heard of people suffering from diabetes needing foot or leg amputations.” He says that “The risk of diabetes was reduced by 32% in this with even moderate muscle strength.” That is certainly worth considering. Do some lifting and it doesn’t cost a thing.
Dave discusses Alzheimer’s and how inflammation is once again a culprit. He says the earlier you attack this the less likely you will have this disease as you age.
With Cancer, he says it is a “double-edged sword when it comes to anti-aging. Any time you do something that makes your cells grow faster and get younger, you are inherently increasing your cancer risk because cancer cells can potentially grow and rejuvenate along with the healthy ones. Then you end up with this weird dichotomy. You can grow old “normally” with a roughly 40% chance of getting cancer, or you can get younger and maybe as a result slightly increase your risk.” He goes on to discuss the benefits of autophagy. Fasting promotes autophagy and during this process, your body scans for damaged cells and eliminates them. The process also reduces inflammation. Autophagy is why I fast.
What More You Can Do
There is far more here than I can tell you so be sure to buy the book, but here are a few things. Work at lengthening your Telomeres. They get shorter as you age. There is a synthetic peptide called Epitalon. It increases mice’s lives by 13% Dave says. You will discover that a lot of these things work very well on mice. Keep in mind you are not a mouse. Another one Dave mentions is TA-65.
Food is a big topic for Dave. You especially shouldn’t eat the combination of protein and sugar. Not too much meat and be sure the meat you do eat is good quality. However, if you are old like me keep in mind that the risks of over-consuming protein decrease after age 65. That is because old people like me do not absorb it as well. I have read elsewhere you should take in more protein when you are older, not less.
Fasting
I mentioned this above but Dave gets into it a couple of times. He says, ..in 2019 scientists at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology discovered that just fifty-eight hours of fasting dramatically increases levels of forty-four different metabolites, including thirty that were previously unrecognized.”
I have fasted for as long as three days, but typically 15 or 16 hours a day. I think it is worth it and I do feel a lot better afterward. Especially after I eat!
Sleep
Dave has a whole chapter on sleep. He talks about his Aura ring that measures his sleep. I use a Whoop which does even more. Dave says teens need 1.7 to 2 hours of deep sleep per night and if over 18 need 1.5 to 1.8 hours. Oh, before he tells you all this he tells you that if you don’t get enough sleep it will kill you. He makes some cheaper sleep tracking recommendations too. Read the book!
The Brain
Dave says that none of us should experience impaired cognition as we age, but it happens and Dave says, “…we jokingly refer to instances of forgetfulness as “senior moments’ instead of calling them out for what they are – symptoms of dysfunction that are also precursors of Alzheimer’s disease and senile dementia.” So do you remember what you just read in the first paragraph of this post?
Dave suggests Neurofeedback for improving your brain, light therapy and avoiding certain foods. He quotes a doctor Bredsen as saying, “the biggest risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease are chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and exposure to toxins.”
“Lights that blink forty timesecome Super Human a second can break up amyloid tangles in the brain.” Maybe at some point you will be able to get something like this. Right now there are those working to get them in nursing homes.
Dave says that if you stop eating sugar you will reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s dramatically. He says to take 400 to 1000 mcg of chromium picolinate daily with 25 to 100 mg of vanadyl sulfate at the time you eat carbohydrates.
Like I said there is so much more in this book. Read it!
