This Delicious Food Regenerates Stem Cells For Longevity | Dr. William Li

dark chocolate. Oh, you're speaking my language now. Okay, so dark. Yeah. Can you eat too much dark chocolate? That's the question. You know, I have never seen anything about an overdose of cacao, but I will tell you that cacao has been shown to actually double the number of stem cells flowing in your bloodstream just by having two cups of hot chocolate made with 80% high flavanol chocolate. Come on. Yeah, it's been done in people 60 year olds with heart disease. So wait, what happens when you when you drink or you you eat this dark chocolate? Okay, happens? Yeah, the poly phenols in this dark chocolate, that we know what they are. They're called pro anthocyanidin. So I'm a scientist. So my job is to actually know what are what the inside chemicals actually are. These are natural chemicals. All right. Most people don't need to know that. But you drink it and taste good. That's all you need to know. But But I'll tell you these, these natural chemicals found in cacao actually trigger a reaction in your body so that they call out the stem cells. So it is literally like bees flying out of a hive can double the number of stem cells. And what's the what's the practical impact? Well, there was a study done at UCSF in San Francisco, that looked at 60 year old men with heart disease. So these are people whose blood vessels were already not doing so well. And their blood flow wasn't going so well either. And their blood vessels were kind of sick. That's kind of the definition of heart disease. By having the stem cells coming out, they were able to actually double the resiliency, the function of their blood vessels. So they got better rebound, the better agility, their their blood vessels are in better shape, because their stem cells are regenerating their circulation. So this is human studies, right? Like most, most of the time you hear about scientists talking about rats or mice or cells. I'm talking about human studies. And that's kind of where we are with food is medicine. It's not the kind of like the guesswork like we can do serious research to get down to exactly what's actually happening at the human level. So that's the second health defense systems. Okay, third one. Third one is our gut microbiome. Now, people have been talking about gut health and microbiome. It's almost like a buzzword these days. And people are saying, well, we can actually scoop your poop and we can actually measure your microbiome. And we can tell you what you need to eat and what you don't need to eat. Again, I'm a scientist. So I tell you that there are 39 trillion bacteria in our in the typical body. That's more stars than in a night sky. All right. So we barely understand the gut bacteria. But what we do know is that this gut bacteria actually controls our metabolism, communicates with our brain, actually can help us heal from the inside out. And very importantly, our gut bacteria basically lives. If you think of your gut like a garden hose, it's a tube. And you were to cut a garden hose in half and you look inside it. There's a lining. Okay. The bacteria is inside the hose, but inside the wall of the garden hose. That's where your immune system 70% of our immune system lives inside our gut. So our gut bacteria. So yeah. So if you're feeding your gut a lot of bad foods, it's poison. You're poisoning your immune system. You're preventing your gut bacteria. Now, I'll tell you what's interesting about the gut bacteria. Your gut bacteria talks to the immune system right through the walls of the of your gut immune systems in there. 70% like a jelly roll, like a like a jelly in a jelly roll. The gut bacteria is inside. So think about like a college student in a freshman dorm. They are talking to their roommate by pounding on the wall, right? What do you want? What kind of pizza do you want? All right. And they can answer you. And that's basically what our gut bacteria says to our immune system. So we got to keep that gut healthy. By the way, interestingly, and I've done research on this, certain gut bacteria can actually signal to your brain. It's a gut brain axis and cause your brain to release social hormones. Wow. Okay. And can affect your mood. So, you know, when you've got a crappy gut, and you feel crummy in your gut, I guarantee you, like, it's not just because you're irritated. It's affecting your brain as well. So yeah, we had a we had Dr. Emron Mayer on who has got the gut, the gut, brain connection or the gut immune connection or something like that. So he's, he's got a lot of great research on that. Yeah. So well, the key thing though, is that foods can actually help right size your gut health. Think about like an ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef. So certain foods can support the ecology, the ecosystem, the Great Barrier Reef, and certain ones actually kill the coral. All right. And so our continuously want to keep it in good shape all the way through our lives. And by the way, even conditions like autism, Alzheimer's, and schizophrenia are all now seemingly connected to our gut bacteria. Really? Yeah. Now, is there a way if someone has those, are they pretty easy to reverse though? Or is that hard? We're well, listen, we're just figuring this out. Because right now, medically, we prescribe medications to try to treat those things. And a lot of times those medications just blunt the symptoms. Okay, they cover up the symptoms, they don't get at the underlying cause. Now, we don't know exactly how the gut bacteria communicates with the brain completely yet. But there's one giant nerve called the vagus nerve. It's like a giant shoe. It's about the thickness of a shoelace. And it hangs from our brain all the way down into our gut. Okay, goes right near wraps around our esophagus on the way down. And we think the gut bacteria basically sends text messages up to the brain through this big nerve. Okay. So the key though, is that foods can actually influence our gut bacteria, either good bacteria or bad bacteria. So that's important. So that's a third health defense system. Okay. Okay. So with the first angiogenesis, number one, yes. Stem cells, number two cells, gut microbiome, number three. Okay. The fourth one, number four, our DNA. Now, if you watch CSI, DNA is just sort of like a genetic fingerprint, a code that you can find on a crime scene. Or if you're actually trying to do ancestry, look for your ancestors, you figure out how much of you is Neanderthal, right? I think I was 1% Neanderthal when I did it. Yes. So the key though, is it's, DNA is a lot more than our genetic code. It actually protects us from the environment. Now, what am I, what do I mean by that? Well, you know how, if we are exposed to, we get sunburn, ultraviolet light, it damage your DNA. And what happens? Cancer, skin cancer, right? If you inhale lots of fumes from a chemical plant, it's going to actually damage your DNA in your lungs. You get lung cancer, right? But think about it. If you are in Los Angeles and you're driving on the I-10, or if you're actually just walking on a beach, you are actually getting ultraviolet radiation. So how come we don't get skin cancer all the time? Because our DNA is hardwired to fix itself from damage. And so the DNA is a protective mechanism from the environment. I always tell people when you're pumping gas, if you still drive a gas vehicle, as opposed to an EV, I always ask people, do you stand upwind or downwind? What do you do? Are you upwind or downwind? Do you know? Well, upwind, right? So you're not getting the fumes in. Is that what you mean? Right, right, right. Well, if you're standing downwind, you can smell the fumes, right? And if you're smelling the fumes, you are poisoning the DNA in your lung. So how come we don't develop lung cancer after pumping gas? Because our DNA is hardwired to fix itself. And so our DNA is sort of like a self-defense mechanism against the environment, radon from your basement, okay? Off-gassing from the new car you just got, or the Uber that you're riding in, or the furniture that you got, right? So this is this incredible defense mechanism against our environment. And foods can actually speed up the repair, help fix holes that are in our DNA. And then the other kind of piece de resistance for our DNA's defense is that there's something called a telomere. I don't know if you've ever had anybody on your show talk about telomeres. Telomeres? Yeah. Yes. You can actually see if you're the longer the telomere, the longer you can live or something. Right. Well, I'll tell you, basically, to remind your listeners and viewers, basically, if your DNA is like a shoelace, the telomere is like the little plastic cap at the end of the shoelace. And over time, that little cap kind of wears down, just like in a shoelace. When that cap is gone, man, your shoelace just falls apart. And that's what happens to our DNA. So we need that cap. That's called a telomere. And it burns down like a life fuse. So like Mission Impossible, like the fuse, right? So this thing is burning down. And when it burns down, that's it. Your cell's done. So what you want to do is to slow down your cellular aging and harsh things that you do to your body, smoking cigarettes, being in a couch potato, being exposed to damaging oxidative stress, actually just being stressed out like we are now with this frigging pandemic. Those things all shorten our telomere. They burn the fuse faster. Stress. Yeah. But foods can slow it down. And some foods can reverse it and lengthen the telomere, which is really cool from an aging perspective. What are those top three foods that help lengthen the telomeres? Green tea is one of them. Coffee. Really? Yeah. Amazing. I still live in Italy, and I just got into this habit of drinking espresso. So I got a little cup here. Amazingly, coffee actually lengthens your telomere. Come on. I kid you not. It's quite amazing. And leafy greens, some of the polyphenols in leafy greens can also slow down. And some of them look like they can lengthen the telomeres as well. So the key thing is that we are not just hapless pawns of aging. We can actually do something about it. And we can also fight against our environment because, look, the tax that we pay for being on planet Earth is we're exposed to stuff all the time, and we count on our body's health defenses to fix it. That's a fourth defense. And our fifth defense is our immune system, which after two years, over the last two years, we all know how important our immune system is. But what if I told you that your immune system is so powerful that when it's in its best shape, even when you're 80 years old, it is strong enough to fight cancer. In fact, it can even wipe out metastatic cancer that's spread all over your body. That's how strong your immune system is if you give it the chance. And so here's what the immune system does. It's like an army of super soldiers, so rangers, seals, marines, special forces. These are all parts of the immune system, all cells of the immune system. And like the special forces, they've got their own weapons, their own training, their own tactics, but they all work together for the collective good. And what happens is that when you've got good strong defenses, you can fight off invaders from the outside, bacteria and viruses, for example. But it's not just outside invaders. You've got inside invaders as well. And those little microscopic cancers are inside invaders. And so our immune system patrols our body, okay? Cops on a beat. And they're looking for things that don't look right. And you see that microscopic cancer that can't grow because it doesn't have a blood vessel, but blood vessels feeding it, angiogenesis. Basically, the immune system goes there and takes them right out, okay? And takes a sniper shot and it's gone. And so that's why we've got to protect our immune system. And there are lots of foods that can actually boost our immunity as well. What would be those top three that boost the immune system? Blueberries are a food that definitely boosts the immune system. It's in young people as well as older people. They boost the natural killer cells, which is really cool. Broccoli sprouts can boost our immune system. Now, these are the three-day-old sprouts, right? Okay. I mean, okay. Here's something most people don't know. The big broccoli that... When we eat broccoli, we really... Our moms told us to eat the treetops, right? They're all the same. You go to the freezer section of a grocery store and you buy some frozen broccoli and they all look the same. They're all the same size. That's not really what broccoli looks like. If you go to the farmer's market and you see a real broccoli, it's this gigantic stem with a little bit of treetop, okay? So what's in a broccoli? It's called sulforaphane. So that's what gives broccoli that unique taste of broccoli. It's a little sulfurous, okay? So you got to put a little olive oil, a little bit of garlic, and you can saute it up. Okay, so the sulforaphanes. We've done research now looking at what's in the treetops, and it turns out that these sulforaphanes can starve cancer, anti-angiogenic, help your body cut off the blood supply to cancer. Broccoli treetops have it, but guess what? The stalk of the broccoli has twice as much of the good stuff than the treetops. Eat the stalks. Eat the stalks. So man, if you don't want to saute the stalks, like a lot of cultures will just cut the stalks and saute them. Stick it in a blender. You can make it into a smoothie or make a soup out of it, you know? And so there's a lot of good things you can do. Put a little broccoli stem, a little oregano powder. You can light it right up with a little turmeric. It'll be a really good smoothie or a soup. However, here's the thing. So imagine this adult broccoli having these sulforaphanes. Well, it turns out that these big broccoli plants used to be sprouts, and the sprouts pretty much were born or sprouted from the seed with all the sulforaphanes it's ever going to have. All right? So when it gets bigger, it just gets distributed with the stalk closer to the ground having more of it, of course, but the broccoli sprouts have 100 times more of the sulforaphanes, the good stuff, as a grown-up broccoli. So sprouts, broccoli sprouts. Now, studies have been done to show that if you give people a flu shot, people in the winter should get a flu shot so you don't get the flu. All right? Just go to your drugstore to get one. It turns out that if you, people, they did a study looking at people getting the flu shot, and they gave half the people a little shake made with broccoli sprouts, and the other group just got a placebo. And the people who got the broccoli sprout shake and the flu shot, their beneficial response of their immune system is 22 times higher. Like, it totally rocked if they actually had a broccoli sprout shake. So that's not food versus medicine. That is food and medicine, which is really cool. Right? Interesting. So we never want to throw out, we don't want to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We want to figure out how to make everything go, work even better. Absolutely.