Longevity Secrets of the Oldest Living People in the World!

Today's video is part two of the longevity secrets of the oldest living people on the planet. Hello and welcome to Total Health with Dr. Nick. My purpose is to inspire, empower, and motivate you to live longer, healthier, and more abundant lives. And today, once again, is part two of a two-part series. So if you didn't see the first part, I definitely recommend you going back and seeing that when we talked about the blue zones. And for some of you who are unaware of what the blue zones are, these are very specific parts of the world where people tend to live the longest. They have the largest amounts of population of people over 100 years old. So check it out because I went over the 13 tips that they do to keep them living longer, healthier, and more abundant lives. And really, when it comes to living longer, you want to live longer and healthier. I mean, who wants to live longer if you can't do the things you want to enjoy? I hear that all the time. I remember the time my father said that to me. He goes, oh, I don't want to live that long. I'm thinking, why wouldn't you want to live a long, healthy, vibrant life? But it really came down to not wanting to be suffering, not wanting to be in pain. But if you can live like these people do, like I said, go watch the video I did on the blue zones. It was fantastic, if I do say so myself. But now we're going to dive into some of the other regions of the world and what they do for their longevity tips. And guys, if you like what we're talking about, make sure you like, share, comment, and subscribe. Make sure you click that little bell notification so you get notified anytime I do a video. And if you're looking for more information about the ketogenic diet and don't know where to begin, let me take all the guesswork out of it for you and help you. Check out my keto course. The link is down below. Also to have a keto cookbook. And if you'd like more personalized coaching with me, there's also a link down below with that too. So anyway, let's go ahead and get started with longevity secrets of the oldest living people on planet earth. Well, guys, first of all, we talked a lot about nutrition in the previous video. We talked about, you know, eating more plant-based. We talked about reducing your overall amount of calories and food that you eat. We talked about reducing sugars. Of course, we talked about a lot of different things. Like I said, I don't want to give it all away because I want you to see the video, but in this one really gets into a little bit more of the lifestyle aspects of it. So number one is really family focus. You know, I see this time and time again, as we get further along, we're really starting to get to a point where we don't cherish and honor the ones who came before us. We don't cherish and honor our ancestors. And I'm not talking about the ones that are long gone. I'm talking about the ones you still have living right now. In many Asian cultures, they honor their elderly population. They live with them. In many parts of the United States, it's almost like they're a burden. I'm sorry to say that, but that's what happens. And it's terrible because when you honor the family unit, everybody does better. So when my family was growing up, many times you had people living on different levels. You might have a two or three level townhome kind of thing, or almost not quite an apartment kind of home, but yet it was three different levels where you had maybe the younger population on the lower parts and the grandparents on different levels and the parents on other levels. And everybody just got along and everybody lived together. And if they didn't do that, they at least lived a block away. Now people, you know, you move away, you move away to other states, you move away to other countries. And I understand the world has gotten a lot smaller because of the internet and social media, but I'm starting to think social media is really not that social at all. In fact, it's a way to kind of not have to talk to people, but you want to honor the family unit, honor the whole family, and really love and cherish each other. And that's really what it comes down to. When you do that, it's like saying there's studies out there that show that people are married will live longer than people who are single. And I'm sorry if you're single, I don't mean to upset you about that, but the studies show that, that you live longer if you're married because you have that bond. We are social people. We are social creatures. We strive for that family unit and it's very, very important. And of course that then goes into your social circle. Same thing. We are designed to be social creatures when we're not. When we're sitting at a computer just going, oh, I don't need to go to my high school reunion because I see everybody on Facebook. I don't need to go see anybody. I know what they're all doing. That's not the same. It's funny. I see a comedian named Sebastian do jokes about this. When I was growing up as a kid, you know, you would have coffee and cake. So people came by. It was like, hey, there's somebody at the door. Let's go see who it is. Oh, it's Connie. It's Sal. Come on in. Have some coffee and cake with us. You'd get out the crumb cake and all right. And Sebastian does a great skit on this. Now it's almost like, hey, somebody knocked at the door. Duck. Hide. Oh my gosh. I think they saw us. Get down. Get down. Get down. Crawl on the floor. Turn the lights out. I think they saw you. Are you crazy? You're going to get us discovered, you know. And all this funny stuff about the fact that we're not social anymore. We used to sit on our porch and just talk to people as they walk by. Now it's almost like you're hiding from your neighbors. And I hate to say it, but it's true because everybody's just gotten so busy. So we've totally taken this social circle out and just made it our social group on Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat or whatever. But researchers report that maintaining healthy social networks can help you live up to 50 percent longer. Well, why is that? Once again, we're designed to be social. How many times do you see people live longer because now they have a pet? They had a dog. My dad was like that. My dad really didn't like to be around people a lot. I hate to say it, but he wasn't very, very social. But yet he had his dog. And as long as he had his dog, he had comfort. And it's sad, but that's it for a lot of people, because we have to have that social aspect in our lives. Having just three social ties may decrease your risk of early death by more than 200 percent. That's right, 200 percent, just because you have at least three friends in your circle. So it doesn't even take a lot. You don't have to look at it and say, well, I don't have, you know, the social circle of a Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger or whoever, you know, like that or some celebrity, you know, they've got hundreds of friends. You only need two or three. You don't need very many, just your close friends. Now, you could have acquaintances, but your close friends, you might have a group of five. That may be it. Studies also link social healthy networks to positive changes in the heart and the brain, hormonal and immune system function. That's right. So you can actually boost your immune system. And we're all worried about getting sick right now. Boost your immune system by being social, having more friends. And that's the problem. When we become isolated and we don't see our friends, our immune systems go down. I see people talking about this all the time now when they're not seeing their friends and they're isolated. They don't have the same immune response. They're getting sicker. They're getting depressed and so on. And you see it, too. Next. And this is one of the biggest things I love. This one alone is probably one of my favorite ones is having a strong sense of purpose. I always say without a rudder, you're just a ship going in circles. You're just going all over the place, just mindless. But when you have a rudder and you have a direction and you have a purpose, and I believe that God created all of us to have a sole purpose. We all have a sole purpose. We all have that passion. We all have that thing that lights us up on the inside whenever we think about it. I love doing things like this. I love educating people. I love communicating with people. I love doing things that bring health and wellness to people and increase their longevity and increase their quality of life and their lifespan. So I do whatever I can for that in my office and outside my office and now around the world with the virtual practice that I'm going to be starting up where I'm doing a lot more functional medicine. But that's my purpose. And people will say to me, you're always doing stuff. You're always doing more things. You're always, you know, I like that about you, but when are you going to stop? When's enough going to be enough? I don't know. All I know is I like expanding. I like to continually do more, to be more, to serve more. So having this purpose and contributing to a greater good, that's huge. Something bigger than yourself. When you see people win at the Olympics and they point up in the sky when they're standing on the podium or they say, how did you do this in an interview? And they say, well, I did it because of my grandfather who took me to my swim practices. I did this because my mom or my dad, they inspired me. They worked three jobs so that I could do this. They're always doing it for something bigger than themselves. If you're doing things for yourself, you don't really live very long doing that. I could tell you, and this is a very sad story for me. I had neighbors I grew up with. I loved these neighbors. They were older. They were my grandparents' age, but I loved them. They were hardworking Italians and farmers. We had an Italian neighborhood and all. I'll never forget, he always called me George. Obviously, he knew my name because when he wanted to say it, he would call me Nicky. But everybody was George. That way it kept it easy. George, hey George, hey Georgina. He'd call everybody George and Georgina. That way it just kept it easy for him. He didn't have to know anybody's names, but he did. He was very smart. I remember I went back home about 30 years of being away. Went back home and visited him. I just drove through the neighborhood. I wanted to see if they were home, if there was a white truck, a pickup parked outside. Sure enough, there was. I said to my wife, let's go knock. Let's see if they're still there. Sure enough, they were there. They remembered me. They welcomed me in for coffee and cake, of course. We had coffee and cake. We sat down at their table, at their kitchen table. We're sitting there talking and so on. They're telling us about what's going on in their life. Of course, he took me around his garden like he always would. Here's the basil, Nicky. Here's the tomatoes. He could barely walk, but he was going around. He's like 94 at this point. He's walking around showing me everything. Here's the peppers, and here's the tomatoes, and the beans, and all this stuff. I'm just taking it all in because my grandparents were gone at this point. They were very close with my grandparents, all these Italians. I remember him saying that his family was going to force them to sell their house, and they were going to put them in an assisted living home. I said, Sal, what are you going to do about your farm? He goes, well, I'll have a little patch, a little patch, meaning a small little square, maybe four by four. I left there that day, and I said to my wife as we're pulling away in the car, I said, they're not going to make it. They're not going to make it. They're done. Sure enough, I want to say within six months, he had passed away because he didn't have his purpose. His purpose was his garden. He loved to garden. He loved to sell to local stores. This was before that kitchen to table ever happened. He was doing it back in the 70s, in the 60s, when he would make the stuff for local restaurants, and they would get the fresh produce and everything. His purpose was gone, and he passed away. Meanwhile, when I saw him, he was as vibrant as anything, but he lost the will. Anyway, strong purpose, strong purpose, and making sure you're contributing to a greater good, greater than yourself. Next is prioritize happiness. That's important. A lot of us, you know, I woke up today, and one thing went wrong, and another thing went wrong, and I'm thinking, oh, this is crazy, and I was getting angry, and I'm trying to drive my daughter to school, and I had to take her somewhere else first, and then I took her to school, and I'm thinking, oh, great, we're going to get in the line and all this stuff, and I literally looked at her, and I said, Ariana, I need to get out of this mood fast, because otherwise, my whole day is going to be shot, and I did. I did what I could to get out of that mood fast and realize, okay, what's the good things that I've got going on, and you know, this is just going to pass, and whatever was happening, but prioritize happiness. Make it a point to be happy. Some people just want to go through life grumpy. I'd have to say that was my dad. My dad was like that. My kids used to call him grandpa, you know, because he was always grumpy. It's like he didn't prioritize the happiness. He didn't look for the good. There was always something to pick on, always something to be negative about. There was never anything good, you know. It was always something to complain about. Happy individuals had a 3.7% reduction in early death over a five-year study period, a study of over 180 Catholic nuns. Those who felt the happiest at 22 years of age were two and a half times more likely to still be alive six decades later, so basically, they almost took a poll and said, okay, on your way in when you're 22 years old and you're becoming a nun, how happy are you? And the ones who are the happiest were the ones that were still alive six decades later, you know. You want to live a long, healthy life. Take that stress off. Feel the love. Feel the happiness. Don't feel angst. Don't feel regret. Don't feel anxiety. A review of 35 studies, that's basically what we call a meta-analysis. When you look at studies, a study reviews studies, show that happy people live up to 18% longer than their less happy counterparts. So once again, do what you can to be happy. Look for things to be grateful for. When you start your day and something goes wrong, another thing goes wrong, just say, you know what, I better get out of this cycle fast and start to look for things to be grateful about. You can be unhappy about a lot of things, but if you start to look and say, okay, I understand the world is, you know, maybe having issues right now, but at the same time, what's good? What's good? Okay, I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for this. Start thinking of all the things you're grateful for, and it will get you out of that mood fast. Next is, like I said, reduce stress and anxiety. The people who have the most stress and anxiety are the ones who are going to live the shortest lifespans. It's a fact. Women suffering from stress or anxiety are reportedly up to two times more likely to die from heart disease, stroke, or lung cancer. Similarly, the risk of premature death is up to three times higher for anxious or stressed men compared to the more relaxed counterparts. So do what you can to reduce the anxiety, increase the happiness, whether you go for a walk. Now, I'm not talking about taking antidepressants and different drugs. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about exercise. Exercise can get you out of that. Go for a walk. Once again, look for things you could be grateful about. That's the kind of things that will get you out of a depression. Studies show that pessimistic individuals, unfortunately, like I said, like my dad, have a 42% higher risk of early death than more optimistic people. Now, my dad passed away at about 82 years old. I'm wondering how long could he have lived if he had been happier, maybe 92? He could have outlived everybody in his family because everybody in his family died around that age. His parents actually died a little earlier. So you want to be as happy and as optimistic because when you're pessimistic, stressed, and anxious, you live a shorter lifespan. Another thing is stay physically active. That's a big part because, once again, that reduces the cortisol levels, but exercising too long can increase them. So you got to find that happy medium. It's almost like boiling water. You're going, okay, if I give it so much heat, I'll get it to boil, but is extra heat really going to make it boil hotter? No. It might boil faster. It'll get to that boiling point, but then after that, it's that point of no return, diminishing returns. You don't get any better after that. So you have to make sure that you do things in moderation. You don't exercise way too much to where it breaks your body down too much. So stay physically active. As few as 15 minutes of exercise per day may help you achieve benefits, which can include an additional three years of life, a 22% lower risk of early death than individuals who exercised, even though they worked out less than the recommended 150 minutes per week. So even if you don't work out the whole recommended amount, you're still going to get benefits. It's like saying, okay, I didn't have the eight-ounce glasses of water a day. I only had six. That's still a benefit though. Do something. Some of you feel, and I used to work with an iron man, and the problem with him was that now he had gotten overweight, and I started working with him, and I said, Roger, the problem is you think that just because you're used to doing eight-hour workouts a day that that's the only thing you can do, or that's the only way you'll benefit. Just work out 20 minutes. You got 20 minutes. You got 15. Or just say, you know what? I'll give it 10. 10 minutes of walking, 10 minutes of pushups, 10 minutes of jumping jack, whatever it is. 10 minutes. Everybody's got 10 minutes. And then you know what? You'll go, hey, I could go 15. You know what? Maybe I'll stretch it to 20. But you really don't need to go that much. You don't need to go. My workouts are 35, 40 minutes. That's it. I don't go longer than that. I see people all the time at the gym. They're there an hour, hour and a half, two hours. I'm like, you're just wasting time at that point, or you're talking too much. You're training these muscles, you know, not these muscles. So you don't need to work out that much, but do something because even if you're not doing the full 150 minutes per week, you're still going to get benefits. People who hit the 150-minute recommendation were 28% less likely to die early though. So if you do hit the recommendation amount or recommended amount, you're going to get even greater benefits, but you still will get benefits if you work out less. And that number was 35% for those who exceeded beyond this point or these recommendations. So if you go a little higher, you get even better results. But once again, you have to be careful. As we get older, we don't heal as much. One of my upcoming videos is going to be on about essential amino acids. I want to do some, start doing some more videos on on supplementation and things that you could do to biohack your body. So if you like that, if you like the idea of some biohacks and some videos on that, let me know. Let me know in the comments section and I'll do more videos on biohacks, which I think is going to be beneficial anyway, because it will help you to live longer, healthier, and more abundant lives. Next is limit your alcohol. Don't hit me. I know you're probably thinking, well, Dr. Nick, but alcohol, I need alcohol. That's my medicine for the day. And I've talked about this many times in videos, but just have alcohol moderation. In fact, if best yet have red wine, not so much of the clear stuff or the other stuff, not so much of the spirits, but have a little bit less alcohol, you know, have it in moderation and moderation does help, but when in excess, you know, it's going to cause harm. So heavy alcohol consumption is linked to liver, heart, and pancreatic disease, as well as overall decrease in health and also increased risk of early death. However, moderate consumption is associated with the reduced likelihood of several diseases, as well as a 17 to 18% decreased risk of premature death. So just having a little bit of moderate alcohol is a good thing. Okay. It's a good thing. So don't kill the messenger. Okay. You can have some alcohol, just have it in moderation. Of course, wine is considered particularly beneficial. Okay. I talked about that earlier due to its high concentration of the polyphenol and antioxidants resveratrol results from a 29 year study showed that men who preferred wine were 34% less likely to die early than those who preferred beer or spirits. So once again, guys, if you can drink more wine than you do beer and you do spirits, you're, you're, you know, you know what those are, the, the clear drinks or the, the vodka, the gin, things like that, the scotch, the bourbons and so on, you're going to be a whole lot better off. So more wine is always going to be better than this. Okay. I love when I see those memes that says, oh, it's wine o'clock. No time to have my wine. It's wine o'clock. Good sleep patterns. Okay. That's really, really important. Why? Because that's when your body's repairing and healing. Sleep is vitally important. I used to not get as much of it that I do now, but fortunately now I get at least six to seven hours. Not everybody needs eight, nine, 10 hours. That's not the case, but sleep is a crucial part in regulating cell function and helping your body heal. It helps with the circadian rhythm that we have. A recent study reports that longevity is likely linked to regular sleeping patterns, such as going to bed and waking up around the same time each day. For instance, sleeping less than five to seven hours per night is linked to a 12% greater risk of early death while sleeping more than eight to nine hours per night could also decrease your lifespan by up to 38%. So like I said, you start to go too low and you increase your risk of early death, but also too, if you go too high, you're increasing your risk. So you got to find that happy medium. For me, it's about six hours. That's where I do best. If I get seven hours of sleep, I start to wake up a little more tired and sore, but six o'clock seems to be my sweet spot. And when I checked my genetics, sure enough, that's what my genetic snips or what do you call my single nucleotide polymorphism show. My genetic snips show that I do best on about six hours of sleep a night. Too little sleep may also promote inflammation. Once again, this is your time your body is using to heal and repair. Also too, your brain's neurotransmitters have been going all day long, kind of like if you did a thousand curls a day and now you have all that lactic acid built up, your brain's neurotransmitters need to start to come down. Okay. Need to start to clear out. Otherwise you start to get a little, as we say, a little gagoots in the brain there. Okay. That's slang Italian. It increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. These are all linked to shortened lifespan. So too little sleep. On the other hand, an excessive sleep could be linked to depression, low physical activity, which makes sense. You're sleeping all day. You wake up tired. You just want to go back to sleep again. And undiagnosed health conditions, all of which may negatively affect your lifespan. So once again, guys, too little sleep or too much sleep, not good, optimal right in the middle. I would say between say six to nine. Okay. I wouldn't go more than that. Next is turmeric. Now why is turmeric so important? Well, you've all seen your shoelaces. Your shoelaces have these little tips at the end called anglets. I should have done a little trivia quiz on that one, but anyway. So they are there to keep the end of your shoelace from unraveling. It's just that simple. Well, your body has the same thing called telomeres. Telomeres are the tips of your chromosomes and they keep your chromosomes healthy and from unraveling. It really keeps the chromosomes from becoming damaged. So the longer your telomeres, we can actually measure and there's tests we can do for this. We can measure it. So part of my functional medicine program is measuring telomere length. That way we know your longevity. We know how long you possibly could live. At the same time, we can also do things to help you increase your telomere length. Okay. So there's things to do for that. So due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, curcumin, which is the active ingredient in turmeric, is thought to help maintain brain, heart, and lung function, as well as protect against cancers and age-related diseases. So once again, you want to increase your longevity. You really need to work on your telomeres. Okay. Telomeres are crucially important. The shorter your telomeres get, shorter lifespan. It's proven. Scientifically proven. It's a fact. Studies indicate that the longevity-protecting effects of curcumin may be particularly due to protective effects of telomerase expression. Now, telomerase is the enzyme that helps with your telomeres. So you have to make sure that your telomeres are protected for longevity. So once again, guys, I hope you liked the information. If you did, please make sure you share this with other people. Make sure you comment and subscribe to our channel. Also, too, make sure, if you'd like more information, contact our office. If you'd like information about our ketogenic diet, once again, the links are down below. So guys, I love and appreciate you. Thanks for watching the video. At the same time, make sure you go back and watch the previous one. We had a lot of great tips on that, too, from the Blue Zones. But also, too, watch and check out my other videos over here. I bet you'll like those also. Anyway, guys, I love and appreciate you again. Thanks so much. Have a blessed day. This is Dr. Nick. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.