#541 Ageless Aging for Longer Healthspans and Brainspans
with Maddy Dychtwald
Maddy Dychtwald
Having a positive attitude about your own aging can add up to 7.5 years to your lifespan. Now, think about that. What control that gives you just by changing the narrative that you give yourself in your brain. There are so many different ways that you can to help yourself live better, longer. Let’s see what you can do with your life. Because I bet you can do a lot. We women are incredibly powerful.
Dr. Wendy Myers
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Maddie, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Maddy Dychtwald
Thanks, Wendy. It’s a pleasure to be here with you.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into the health space?
Maddy Dychtwald
Sure. I’ve been on this beat of aging, longevity, and retirement for close to 40 years. So, I’ve grown up in this space. When I first started, my husband and I co-founded a company called Age Wave. We had a very specific mission at the time; back in the 1980s, The age 50 was considered over the hill. We wanted to take out our megaphone and let the world know, particularly through the keynote speeches we were giving, the articles we were writing, and the research we were doing, that in fact, 50 was not over the hill at all, nor was 60 or even 70, and that chronology itself may not even be the best way to measure how old you really look, feel, and are, really, on the inside as well as the outside. We decided that we would go out there and we were lucky to catch the attention of over half of the Fortune 500 companies that we did consulting and research work for, along with a lot of keynotes. And that’s how I got started. But in the process, I grew up too. I went from being in my 30s to being in my 70s and along the way, I’ve had the great, really amazing opportunity to interact with other leaders—scientists, researchers, academicians, who are at the cutting edge of longevity and aging. I would always ask them, “What’s your tips? What’s the insider scoop on this? I want to know, and I want to try it on myself.” And so I did. Then, during COVID, I recognized the fact that I wanted to take all this information that is so desperately needed because there are tens of millions of women in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond who are dealing with the aches and pains of getting a little bit older, maybe a chronic disease of some sort, or maybe they’re just feeling a little lost and want to make the most of the next years of their lives. And I wanted to help them to live better, longer. It wasn’t really that complicated.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, that’s it. That’s what I want to do, too. I love that you’re on this mission. And I also want to look like you when I’m in my 70s. Absolutely. You look fantastic; obviously, what you’re doing is working; you’re putting it into action. So, tell us, what are some of the number one things that people can do to reverse the aging process? What have you found in your research?
Maddy Dychtwald
I would say that it’s not just about one thing. And I think that is the key to my message. From the research that I was involved in, I began to see very clearly that sleep, exercise, and what you put in your mouth in terms of food—these are all basics and not sexy, but super important. But there’s a whole host of other ingredients that work together. They’re not in silos, all separate; they all work together to create a more healthy, vibrant, joyful life. And so I really began to explore them. I began to see that even finances, who would think of finances as being part of your health plan, but they are in fact! because if you don’t have your finances together, it’s going to create some stress in your life. And that stress can begin to appear as heart disease and headaches, and chronic stress is really bad for you and can create such health problems. And if you don’t have the financial wherewithal to pay for those issues, you’re going to be in really big trouble. By the way, from the studies that we’ve done at Age Wave, health concerns, particularly as you get older and the costs involved with them, is a huge concern of women in particular because, as you probably know already, women, we’ve won the longevity lottery. We live on average six years longer than men.
Dr Wendy Myers
Yeah, I know my grandmother lived to 98; Grandma Hannah, and my mom’s in her 70s and not on any medication. She is gardening every day and living her best life, so she’s going to live a long time as well. And women, we are on the forefront of this longevity revolution. So, can you tell us why that is exactly?
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, again, women have won this longevity lottery by living six years longer. So, you would think we’re the pioneers of this longevity revolution, but there is a dark side to this. Let me try to put it into context. Decades ago, we assumed that the genetic package we were given was pretty much our destiny in terms of our health and being. There wasn’t much we could do about it, but recent science and research, even from Google’s Calico Labs, tells us that up to 90% of our health and longevity is within our control. To me, that’s empowering. Okay, so that’s good news. However, when it comes to healthspan, the number of healthy years that a woman lives, our healthspans do not match our lifespans. In fact, we’re doing worse than men, even when you correct for longevity. The average woman can spend up to 12 to 14 years in a cascade of poor health. And who wants to do that? That sounds absolutely horrible to me, but the good news is, as I just pointed out, it’s within our control. We have agency over it, so we can take steps in our own lives to live better longer.
And that’s the message that I really want to put out there. I want to not only put out the message but clear up the confusion. Get the knowledge out there clear and easy to understand and provide women with some action steps that they can take right here and now, some of which don’t have to cost anything.
Dr Wendy Myers
Yeah, and I think that’s so important because I think women do tend to suffer a lot more stress than men. At this age, we are working, taking care of the kids, managing the house and the food. And a lot of men want women in those traditional roles and taking care of them, but we also want to make our own money as well. So, we have independence, but I think women end up finding themselves very overwhelmed and stressed and not sleeping. And it’s taking a toll on her health. So, tell us, what are some of the really important ways that you’ve come up with to create a better quality, longer life that you’ve especially designed for women?
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, there are so many pieces to this puzzle, and I think that’s the good news because there’s a lot of different levers that we can pull to really feel better, look better, and have a better sense of purpose in our lives. As I mentioned earlier, the obvious, you want to get rid of the ultra-processed foods from your life. You want to get rid of toxic sugar as much as you can and, unfortunately, even just drinking wine has been shown to be toxic. It actually kills brain cells, and women’s biggest health fear is getting Alzheimer’s disease or cognitive decline. And I know it runs in my family, so it scares me to death. So I do everything I can to avoid having cognitive decline, eliminating alcohol as much as possible. Now, sure, having a celebratory drink once in a while, but not getting crazy drunk, that’s not going to be good for your health and wellbeing. It may alleviate some stress temporarily. So, of course, there’s food. Then, the silver bullet, if there were to be one, is exercise. Exercise has a phenomenal impact on our health, both physically and cognitively, and that’s such good news. You can actually grow synapses in your brain from exercising. And by the way, most of us usually like to do one kind of exercise, like maybe it’s cardio, maybe it’s yoga, maybe it’s taking a walk. As you get older, you really need to combine a variety of different kinds of exercise. Let’s be honest about it. As early as age 30, we start to lose muscle mass and we don’t want to lose muscle mass. That really makes us more potentially fragile and potentially we could fall. Break a hip or even worse and create a cascade of poor health. So some strengthening exercises are really important, balance is super important, stretching—all these things work together, cardio, of course. So yeah, taking a holistic view of exercise is super important. And by the way, the MacArthur studies on successful aging said, if you were to do one thing, just walking 30 minutes a day, can help you bring your youth with you into your later years. So that’s awesome news. Sleep, you mentioned sleep. Oh my God. It’s not my superpower, but from the research I did I have gotten better at it. So, there are things we can do, we can take steps to improve even our sleep, and as you said, us women, we really are not great when it comes to sleep because we’re juggling a lot of things with our kids, with our parents, with our work, with our home life. It’s a lot. We are powerful beings and we’ve got to utilize all of the powers at our disposal. What else is there? Having a sense of purpose, believe it or not, can add up to 10 years to your lifespan and can make you happier. And what’s wrong with being happier? The same thing with social connections. We know that loneliness is the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Now, my God, that’s crazy. You can take a walk with friends out in nature and suddenly you’re stacking your various ingredients to have a healthier, longer life. Another one that I think is really important is hormones. So misunderstood, now we’re beginning to breathe a little air into the space of menopause, which is so important because there’s been so much misinformation and even gynecologists who are very well-meaning, don’t get me wrong, I get it, they often base their prescriptions and what they tell their patients on a study that was done reported back in 2002. That was a flawed study that used synthetic hormones rather than bioidentical hormones. And I don’t want to go into the details going back down into the depths of it. But in my book, I do talk about it. The point is, talk to a menopause specialist about your hormone situation because there are things you can do, and it’s not just about the symptoms. It’s also about your health because it can affect your heart health and your brain health, and you don’t want that to happen. What else? There are so many different ingredients. One thing that I love that’s so easy to do is having a positive attitude about your own aging.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I think that’s so key because so many people tell themselves, “Oh, I’m getting older,” or “I’m old,” or “I’m losing my memory,” or “I don’t have any energy,” and they tell themselves these things every single day—and they’re right. When you tell yourself that, you really have to flip that script and change your mindset about what you want. What do you want today? Not what negative thoughts people can naturally start having as they age.
Maddy Dychtwald
That’s right. And Wendy, studies have been done, like longitudinal studies, that show that having a positive attitude about your own aging can add up to 7.5 years to your lifespan. Now, think about that. What control that gives you just by changing the narrative that you give yourself in your brain. Meditation, it’s just, you know, another really useful tool. The key is that there are so many different ways that you can help yourself to live better longer, and that’s the message in Ageless Aging. We want to live better longer, and has the information, has some action steps. Let’s see what you can do with your life, because I bet you can do a lot. We women are incredibly powerful
Dr. Wendy Myers
Those people, there are people in their late 50s or early 60s that seem really old. And yes, there are, and it’s because of their mindset. Like my father, he died at 68 and he seemed like an older person in his late fifties. It was just his mindset and things like that. But there are lots of people I’ve known, like a friend of mine who’s an attorney; he’s in his 90s.He’s still working as an attorney an d playing tennis, which is super neuroprotective. All that hand-eye coordination with playing paddle sports is fantastic. That’s why the popularity of pickleball is so great. These paddle sports are super fun and neuroprotective because they use so many different areas of your brain.
Maddy Dychtwald
Absolutely. You’re 100% right. Yeah, that’s really super cool. The thing is that women and men, we’re not the same, let’s be honest about that. We wish we were, but no, we’re not. And there aren’t that many resources that are really focused for women, which is why I wanted to go into the hormone thing. Even intermittent fasting, which is so popular now, and I love that it’s popular because it really is a great hack for your health. And I had the great pleasure—I’m actually a super fan—of Dr. Walter Longo, the pioneer behind intermittent fasting. And he’s Italian and has this great Italian accent, so it’s really fun to talk to him. But he was telling me that intermittent fasting has really been misunderstood by the biohackers at the cutting edge who are going 16 and 18 hours and showing how old they are in some ways. And I guess that is cool, but he was saying that he thought it was potentially dangerous to your health. He wanted people to recognize the fact that intermittent fasting was about going 12 to 13 hours without eating. So that’s pretty easy; you go to sleep, let’s say you stop eating dinner at eight o’clock, and you don’t eat breakfast until eight. That’s a pretty simple thing to do, but he did have two caveats to that. He said, you don’t want to go to sleep until at least three hours after you’ve eaten, so you’re not digesting your food while you’re trying to sleep, which impacts your sleep negatively. So that makes a lot of sense. He also told me something that my grandmother used to tell me, and that is that breakfast is, in fact, the most important meal.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes, I hate eating breakfast. I don’t know why. I love food. So yes, I love eating breakfast and I know it’s good for me. But I just end up getting like an extra meal that my body doesn’t need and then I am gaining weight if I eat breakfast. But yeah, it’s important. Everyone’s different. You have to listen to your body.
Maddy Dychtwald
That’s just a really important point. We’re all individuals. Yeah, personalized medicine, which we’re beginning to see in the early stages of right now, is going to really take that notion and bring it forward because it’s so true. By the way, I don’t like eating breakfast either. I force myself to eat something, just something so that I, especially protein because we women need more protein than men. So I might even do some of this. I have a particular collagen protein powder that I like, and I’ll just add that to a little coconut yogurt and throw in some blueberries, and voila, I just take a couple of bites because it’s good for me, not because I want to.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, and that’s very simple. It’s a very simple, light breakfast. I force myself to have a cup of coffee, but I love coffee. I have heavy cream in it, so it has some calories and whatnot. But yeah, I think it’s good. Everyone is different and, what they need.
Maddy Dychtwald
Coffee is caffeine. Caffeine is a nootropic. Good for your brain.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes, my brain has figured that out for sure. But, yeah, you want to listen to your body when you’re hungry and whatnot, but If I eat late. I’ve learned not to do that, but occasionally it does happen. And I always have a horrible sleep when you’re sitting there digesting this huge meal. Of course, all your resources need to go to regeneration when you’re sleeping, not digestion. It’s like the worst combo.
Maddy Dychtwald
Brain. One of the great things about sleep is that’s when your brain, in the simplest terms, takes out the trash. You want to get rid of all those dead cells, zombie cells from your brain, microglia. That’s no longer functioning needs to get out of there, and sleep, which doesn’t cost anything, is the only way to do that.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes, and that’s what I spend a lot of my health time doing that I’ve allotted for my health during the day: What do I need to do today to optimize sleep? And that’s what I think about a lot because it is so important, and getting that early morning sun, going for a walk in the morning, setting that circadian rhythm up, and not eating too late, just doing things at the same time every day. It’s boring, that routine, but it pays dividends.
Maddy Dychtwald
It does pay dividends. And I love the fact that you’re talking about something that’s so important, and that is getting our circadian rhythms to help us. What we do in the daytime is as important as what we do before we go to sleep. From the research I did, I found out that it’s the time you wake up every morning that you want to be pretty similar every day, rather than worrying too much about what time you go to sleep.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes, yes. And getting off that phone. Do not look at that phone before bed. It’s so hard. I know.
Maddy Dychtwald
I like to hide mine in another room.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I know. Because when you can see, if you have an Oura ring, you can see your sleep latency—when you go to sleep ends up being longer. If you’re on your phone, it takes you longer to go to sleep, and you get a worse quality of sleep. You can see it. If you have an Oura ring on your cellphone, just test yourself doing different behaviors.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, no, I think that’s true for most of us. That’s really great. I love the fact that I’ve been able to increase my deep sleep by using an Oura ring, but I’ve heard friends tell me, “Oh my God, that drives me crazy. It stresses me out.” So, if it’s going to stress you out, I would not start measuring my sleep. Use it as a tool that can inform you, but if you’re going to get crazy about it, maybe not.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I know. I have to admit, sometimes when I have a bad sleep score, I do feel bad about myself. Like the same way we get on the scale, the number is not very good, but it’s just data to help you improve. It can light a fire under you to get you to sleep better. Figure out different things that work for you to get better sleep and improve that sleep score. But yeah, I love that guy…
Maddy Dychtwald
I agree. It’s all about the data. And I think the more data that you can have, including our weight, nobody loves the scale, but it’s data.
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Dr. Wendy Myers
I get on the scale, and it changes my behavior when it’s still a bit too high for my liking. It changes my eating and my exercise habits and it lights a fire under me. It’s not the healthiest thing to weigh yourself every day, but for me, if I get away from that, I just go crazy with eating with abandon because I’m not monitoring it, you know what I’m saying? So that’s what works for me. For other people, I just don’t use your scale because it’s probably not that. You just go by how your clothes fit or whatever your gauge is. You were talking about intermittent fasting, and I like that you are talking about that from the expert, from the horse’s mouth, the guy who brought this into popularity. And I think for women, it’s very different. The things that we need to adopt for our health versus a lot of male health influencers. They talk about how amazing it is for them. They have very different health statuses, body compositions, hormones, etc. And I think for our very complex hormonal system, we’re much more complex hormonally than men. Intermittent fasting and fasting itself can be problematic for us.
Maddy Dychtwald
That’s right. It can cause gallbladder problems; it has some very particular issues. It needs to be a protocol that you watch carefully and, again, that’s why Dr. Longo and I, based on what he said, say, “yeah, 12 to 13 hours, that’s not hard” as far as regular fasting. I personally am not being paid by anybody to advocate for products. I don’t really do that, but the fast-mimicking products that allow you to eat a little something while you still get the benefits of fasting, I think that’s a great way to detox your system, but I wouldn’t do it for too long. Two to three days for a woman is perfect. some people do it, I know, just water for two weeks. To me, that seems more extreme than what our hormonal systems can take.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I can barely do a day. So, I can’t even imagine. I’m just not a big fasting person or advocate. My body is just like, please no, please don’t do that. But I agree with you. I think like a fasting mimicking diet, you can mimic the fasting mimicking diet without buying it. That’s exactly right. It’s literally just olives, tea, and some fiber packets or something like that. You can literally just copy it.
Maddy Dychtwald
Some bone broth would be good.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, you can just copy it at home. You don’t have to pay $500 or something for that thing.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, no, it’s really pricey. And you’re 100% right. Buy some olives.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. Mimic the fasting mimicking diet.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah. It’s a great idea!
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes. And so you coined the term “Ageless Aging.” When I saw the name of that book, I thought, “Oh my God, I love that.” So, your PR people contacted me to be on the podcast. I love that. I love the name of that. So, what exactly do you mean with that term, the name of your book?
Maddy Dychtwald
Two decades ago, I was speaking at the Golden Door Spa, which is in the San Diego area. I don’t know if you’re familiar with it. Anyway, I was speaking to a group of executive women who were there. I’m friendly with the owners and they asked me if I’d come in and talk, so I did. These women, we were just really trying to brainstorm because they were mostly women in their fifties and really coping with this whole idea of aging and aging in the workforce, which is far more difficult for women than men. We have more ageism coming towards us than men, but that’s a whole other story. Anyway, we brainstormed and we came up with this phrase “ageless aging.” So the chronology, the number of birthdays that we have, doesn’t define us. I then went home and looked it up in the dictionary—I guess now I would just do it online—and what I saw was that the first word that came up next to ageless was timeless. Now, and I loved that. I thought, “Oh yeah, I can relate to being timeless.” Now we can’t hold back the hands of time. No way we can do that. But what we can do is we can prevent or delay, at the very worst, some of the aches and pains and diseases, which is probably more important, and physical ailments that come as we get older. I love that idea that we can prevent the decline and we can take advantage of the great things that happen as we get older because no one’s talking about the great things that happen as you get older, but there are some things we actually can gain as we live longer and isn’t that a good thing?
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, especially for women. I read this amazing book by Gail Sheehy, and then she did this study, called “The Decades of a Woman’s Life.” There’s another book, “The Decades of a Man’s Life,” and men actually are worse off as they get older unless they’re married. They do great when they’re married, but women actually improve, and this gave me so much hope and it gave me a positive outlook about getting older, where I think before that I just thought, “Oh, it’s just downhill from here.” But it gave me this positive outlook that women get happier and happier as they get older. Part of it’s that community that we build, part of it is we’re healthier on average than men. And, sadly, I guess I think the happiest cohort of women are women that are single, and the happiest cohort of men are the ones that are married because they’re taken care of.
Maddy Dychtwald
That is true from our research. And it is a funny thing, but yeah, you mentioned a few really important things. There was a study done at Stanford, and we actually did some research also at Age Wave, that showed there’s a U-curve of happiness. And in fact, when you’re a kid, you’re super happy—not everyone, but most people. And then you hit midlife, you’re in the middle of raising kids, building a career, the hassles of life, and your happiness actually drops. But then you start moving towards your 50s and 60s and happiness actually rises. But what’s fantastic is not only does happiness rise, so does our resilience, so does our sense of emotional intelligence. And I love that we get more empathy as we get older and maybe a little kinder, which, by the way, can add to our health spans, which is a great thing, just being a little kinder, which is cool. But also, our anxiety levels seem to decrease. I love all these things. There’s one other thing that I think is specific to women and you really alluded to it: you said that men do worse, women do better. If you were to break that down a little bit, women actually gain confidence as they get older, which is a super cool thing. And understandable. I know that I’ve gained confidence as I get older, so I can’t wait to get even older still.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I wouldn’t trade my mindset now for when I was in my thirties or twenties. No way, because I just tortured myself. But yeah, I’m definitely so much happier and so much more patient, and all those things—all of the above and more. And I think people also maybe get more in touch with God and their spirituality.
Maddy Dychtwald
100% true.
Dr. Wendy Myers
It helps tremendously as well and there’s just so many pluses.
Maddy Dychtwald
You’re right, and whatever your spiritual connection is, having a spiritual connection is a really important tool as one gets older. It’s terrific.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, essential, absolutely essential. And it can take some people some time. Like for me, it took me some time to go from the scientific mindset, or having some negative experiences, to having some more positive experiences that finally helped break down those barriers, helped me surrender to that. So I advise people to–
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, even meditation can help bring you there. It’s, I think, a fantastic tool to plug into your own spirituality.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. So it does not have to be within a religious context or church or mosque or whatever. It can be just your own relationship with your— that’s exactly right.
Maddy Dychtwald
And if you’re in a community and that really floats your boat, that’s very powerful also because creating community is such a vital aspect of living longer better.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes. And so, in your book, you talk about a lot of action tips and things people can do to increase their healthspans, brainspans, and lifespans. So, can you share a few of those practical tips?
Maddy Dychtwald
Sure, I alluded to intermittent fasting, I think it really does help. When it comes to what you eat, I also mentioned this: getting rid of the bad is as important as putting in the good. Ultra-processed foods, just say no, clean out your pantry, get rid of the chips, get rid of the crap, because if it’s there, you’re going to eat it. So, get rid of it. Seed oils, another simple way—get rid of those, get lots of the great olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil that are actually good for your health. And as you’re using them, you start to feel better. It’s really great. And then, I love what Michael Pollan said about food: eat real food, not too much, mostly plants. It’s just so simple, and I love simple. I personally believe that inflammation is associated with all diseases in some way, shape, or form, and it’s one of the hallmarks of aging. We know that. So, if you can stamp out most of the inflammation in your body, that’s a good thing. So, how do you do that? There are a few simple ways you can do it. One is by eliminating and eating an anti-inflammatory diet. Now, I personally think it’s not that hard to do. I’ve been doing it. I started doing it because I had terrible hip pain. I was actually bone on bone in both my hips and needed to get surgery, but couldn’t get it for a few months.
So I did some research. I spoke to some of the experts like Andrew Weil and Mark Hyman, and they said, “try an anti-inflammatory diet. So I did. And that’s when I eliminated dairy, most sugar—it’s impossible to eliminate it all—and I eliminated gluten. And it’s not necessarily the gluten itself but the manufacturing process that puts in a lot of other things besides gluten that, for instance, when I have bread when I’m in Paris, or any place in Europe, I don’t have a negative effect. Weird, right?
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I don’t either. It’s like glyphosate and nasty, glyphosate.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, I don’t either. Oh my God. 100% right. That’s what it is. Same thing with oats. Oat milk and oatmeal.
Dr. Wendy Myers
I don’t even touch those. I don’t touch oats. I know. I never liked it anyway.
Maddy Dychtwald
You’re lucky. I like them, but I have eliminated them. So, anyway, just to finish that story, within six weeks, all the pain in my hips went away. And of course, we know that exercise is an anti-inflammatory thing to do. There are so many things we can do that really fight inflammation, but the anti-inflammatory diet is a speed ramp to get there. And I love having a speed ramp to get there. Yes, I think oral health is a huge issue that nobody’s paying attention to. So go out, buy a tongue scraper and, after you brush your teeth and floss, which you definitely want to do, you want to scrape that tongue and you will see some gunk come off and it will encourage you to keep doing it. By the way, the thing that really encouraged me to get on that track was that I saw some of the research that bacteria in our mouths can actually travel up to our brain and can actually contribute to amyloid plaque developing in our brain, which is basically what is the beginning of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline. So that really motivated me to take out that tongue scraper and get religious about my– everybody brushes their teeth, but even flossing. it’s, I think it’s really essential. if you’re looking for a shortcut, which I’m always looking for shortcuts, to stay on track and create new habits. Glucosamine is a great tool just getting some, NAC is a precursor to glucosamine. It’s a supplement you can buy, but, as well, you got to be careful when you’re buying supplements, because some of them are manufactured, and, in a very wonderful process and clinically tested and totally bioavailable, whereas others, not so much.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. Definitely. There’s a huge range of product quality supplement quality out there, but I wanted to go back to dental care and I want to let people know a little bit about my dental care routine. I don’t really talk about that.
Maddy Dychtwald
Let’s hear it. I’d love to hear it.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. So what I do, because mouth bacteria is such a huge problem, but we need our good bacteria also, we need to have a healthy microbiome. And for years and years, I use Listerine. Which is a great way to destroy all of your nitric oxide that you need every morning to be healthy so what I do is, I brush my teeth and then I floss my teeth and not every night but I do the tongue scraping thing as well. And then I use a product called health tonic. It’s an amazing natural oregano-based product. I swish that through all of my mouth and get it in between my teeth, etc. And then I use a product called BioGaia, and that is a probiotic for your mouth. And I started giving this to my daughter too, because they have research that shows if you take this, you don’t get cavities. If you have this healthy bacteria, that is these probiotics in the BioGaia and just, you just take it after you brush your teeth. My daughter, Wynter, has not had any cavities. At all, and I was at the freaking dentist every six months with a new cavity. I mean my whole mouth they’re just a fortune. There’s a whole Bitcoin in my mouth right now because I wish I had the Bitcoin But yeah, my it just like just destroying my teeth at the conventional dentist, getting all these fillings and whatnot. So it’s such an easy way to prevent cavities and to promote your oral health.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yes. Send me the, afterwards, send me the link to these because I think they’re great. I use a, yeah, the, antibacterial conventional mouthwashes that are out there. If you take them, for instance, before you go to exercise or afterwards, it destroys all of the benefits that you just got from exercising. You’re right. It’s just, it’s very destructive. What you’re suggesting is a great idea. I love it.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes. Yeah. It’s and it’s so easy to do. It’s like eating like a little candy or like a little mint, after you brush your teeth. That’s fantastic.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah. The other thing, there’s one other one I want to tell you too, not about yours, by the way, I think that the oral hygiene issue is really going to come into its own very shortly. One of the experts that I spoke to on a neurodegenerative disease was telling me that the only supplement that she takes is a probiotic because she is so convinced that the gut-brain connection is very real and really impacts the collection of amyloid and tau in your brain, which is the root cause of any cognitive decline.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I agree. I have all kinds of fermented foods. I have fermented hot carrots and jalapenos and fermented seaweeds and fermented kimchi and just all kinds of stuff. I put up just a little bit with each meal, you know Depending on what–
Maddy Dychtwald
I love fermented foods. I think that is like a good hack Also, but sauerkraut on things, I read it recipe once from a famous chef, whose name eludes me at the moment, that he made eggs in the morning, scrambled eggs, and he threw some sauerkraut on top of it, which of course is a fermented food or kimchi and, I’ve been doing that since then, every once in a while, and I love it.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. Yeah. They have fermented salsas you can get and just all kinds of stuff. That’s all, I just wanted to move from Mexico and I was able to go to Whole Foods shopping. Yes. For the first time. And I was like, Oh my God, there’s like all this stuff here that I just, I couldn’t get in Mexico, like fermented foods. They had one little health store there that had applied all common where I was living, but here they have a whole section of all kinds of things. I just went nuts. yeah, it’s, yeah, it’s something that I for sure I’m adding to, not every single meal, but a lot of meals that I’m eating at least once a day.
Maddy Dychtwald
I think that it’s really an easy way to get your gut health at its optimal place. And I am strongly a believer, especially for women who have so many gut health issues that getting our microbiome into its best possible shape is a really good hack to health. And
Dr. Wendy Myers
It’s really easy to destroy your gut health because there are so many things working against our gut on so many things and it’s difficult to build it back up. I’ve heard of women doing stuff for a couple of years. really trying to get back their gut, their immunity digestion on track, and it can take a long time. I think with bioenergetics, you can fast track things a lot, but just going the physical route, just trying to do physical things, supplements, food, you It can be challenging when, we look at our gut, there’s so many things working against it to the food, the, water people are drinking, the shower water they’re ingesting through their skin, the, foods, the, aspirin, the NSAIDs. Tylenols and Advil that a lot of people take sometimes on a daily basis, like grenades to your gut lining.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah. It’s not really good at all. if you have to take them once in a while, totally do that because it can control pain, but if they’re not good for you.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. And I, I just to correct myself, I meant just the NSAIDs. Those are not the Tylenol so much, but the Tylenol destroys your liver, but the NSAIDs are really problematic for your gut lining. Even gluten can really be problematic for your gut lining as well. Yeah. And even natural antibiotics too. Natural ones are really problematic if they’re abused, can kill off that gut bacteria, damage the gut lining.
Maddy Dychtwald
Oh my God. Yeah. You mean the ones that you get prescribed from the doctor?
Dr. Wendy Myers
Or, no, even just the natural ones that people take as an alternative to that.
Maddy Dychtwald
Now you’re teaching me something.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. if they’re abused, like there’s some people they take silver every day or they’re taking or they’re just eating too much. It’s too much of a good thing. it can be, if anything that kills your good gut bacteria is going to be problematic,
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah. You, it’s hard to grow that good bacteria, which is why when you detox, it’s really good to do some. To use the more natural ways, cilantro, for instance. I actually had very high mercury levels at one point. And besides stopping eating sashimi, which was probably the root cause of it. I started just eating more cilantro and taking chlorella. And within a matter of months, I was able to get rid of all the bad at least from my bloodstream. I’m not sure anywhere else, but in my bloodstream.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Nice. Yes. And what are some other tips that you can give us?
So maybe, we went over a lot of simple strategies and things like that. What are some Like next level things that people can do for like more advanced things people can do to promote longevity
Maddy Dychtwald
Okay, so for one thing it’s I don’t think it’s very advanced at all But it’s really helpful and that is to exercise the first thing in the morning Instead of later in the day exercising later in the day as long as you, it’s better than not exercising at all for sure, but you get much better results when you do it in the morning. And if you do it before you eat anything, including your coffee, it’s even more effective. So I think, great, simple hack. I love that one. I think using Hormones is a really effective way for women to manage, forget the symptoms, although obviously you want to manage the symptoms, but using bioidentical hormones, is, the way to go and using it in patch form for the estrogen instead of, in a pill form makes a huge difference. And making sure that progesterone is bio identical and not synthetic. We want to avoid the synthetic. the synthetic premarin, it actually comes from a horse’s urine and that’s gross when you think about it. So I think that the key to that is if you’re in menopause and your gynecologist is not. It’s more OB than gyne, you may want to find a menopause specialist.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah. There’s a lot of anti-aging clinics now and people doing, like specializing in bioidentical hormones, definitely better go to a specialist for sure.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah. I think that it’s a good idea. There’s a new study that just came out that, From the menopause society, I believe it is, that was advocating for just this, you want to use the bioidentical, you want to use the patch, you want to avoid any kind of synthetics, because, that’s not good for you, whereas doing it the right way is, can be phenomenally healthy for you.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, with taking progesterone, just that alone, most women over, every woman over 35 is going to need progesterone, you just are. You forget, like, all the other hormones, you’re going to need progesterone. And that helps to make GABA. It’s going to relax you, reduce stress, and help with sleep tremendously.Makes a huge difference in sleep. It changed my sleep dramatically.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Huge. just life changing. And I just wish I had clued into this earlier. I was taking like little creams. I didn’t start thinking about any kind of replacement. I’m not going to be able to do any kind of hormone replacement until I went to menopause. And you need it before menopause. A lot of women are low in their hormones because of stress, toxins and other things. So it’s good to start thinking about this before, and especially given that when you hit menopause within five years. You lose 30% of the collagen in your skin. And if you take estrogen, you could conceivably preserve that.
Maddy Dychtwald
It’s a very important point. and estrogen actually works in our cardiovascular system as well. it has a lot of different functions in our body. We just assume that it’s all about reproduction. It’s not at all. And, we are holistic beings. we, each and every one of our organs impact the other. And we need to consider that when we’re considering what we’re doing in our bodies and to our bodies. Another–I know this may sound crazy, but one of the great hacks that I learned from the research that I did for this book was to volunteer at least one hour a week. Volunteer your time. By giving back, it actually has such a positive impact on our bodies and on our minds. It’s crazy.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, no, I, yeah, I’ve been doing that myself. I volunteer my time on social media. I like giving free advice to people, I do give a lot of free advice to people. You can find me on Instagram. That’s where I’m, living at the moment. but yeah, but I do that and do a lot, I’ve worked, for many years for free, to help people get healthy. But, yeah, I agree with you. I think, going somewhere and volunteering can help you build community and make friends and give you a feeling of purpose.
Maddy Dychtwald
It’s a great hack. When you talked about, what Gail Sheehy, who’s no longer alive, but she was an amazing person, said about, women as they get older, gaining confidence, gaining happiness, yadda, which is all true, especially for single women, but there’s a big if connected with that. And that’s if they can create community. I think single women have got to work harder to create community because without it, as they live longer, it gets more and more difficult. If something were to happen to you, who’s going to take care of you? You have to be independent financially because women spend on average in retirement about $194,000 on healthcare above and beyond Medicare, more than men. That’s a lot of money. We need to really, if we are a single woman, put our house in order a little bit more consciously.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, and I think it’s wonderful. There are so many communities that have been created around the world where there are aging communities. There’s a big community in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico where there are older Americans, and there’s a nice community there. There are all kinds of 55-plus communities that aren’t old-age homes but places where you can be around your cohort. I’d like to see more of those that are holistic communities. That aren’t serving conventional food and aren’t doing conventional medicine. Yes, I’m sure they’re astronomically expensive, but I’ve seen, you know, I have thought about that a lot—wanting to see more communities that are holistic.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, and you know what? You can create your own too. As crazy as that sounds. Remember the show “The Golden Girls”? Those women in that show, they were like in their late 40s and early 50s. It’s crazy; it’s just amazing. That’s like in the 80s. There’s a funny thing about “Seinfeld” too, that the bald guy on “Seinfeld,” George, was like 38 on that show. But now on television, people look much younger than their age.
Maddy Dychtwald
Yeah, it’s crazy. But anyway, they created their own little community, lived together, cooked together, and supported each other. There have been a lot of stories about different communities. Just one example, a bunch of Harvard retired professors and their families lived in Brookline, and they lived very close to one another. So they decided that they were going to hire a handyman who could work for all of them and hire a gardener who could work for all of them. Then they started having communal meals once a week and rotating whose house it would be at. These things really improved their quality of life. So I think there are things we can do. Many people want to age in place, and it can be a really terrific thing to do, but you need to create a bit of a community around you. You need to have the pieces in place to make your life work, and you have to do it very proactively.
Dr. Wendy Myers
One of the good things that came out of the pandemic is that people started to think about where they can go to live in a self-sustained community. I even bought property in Indonesia in a self-sustained community. There are places where people go to Bulgaria and other countries where there are a lot more opportunities, much cheaper to live and where there’s a sustained community. People are growing food and contributing.
Maddy Dychtwald
I love that. And I know there’s a big thing with buying homes in Portugal, and there are certain cities in Italy that are trying to reinvent themselves, and they’re inviting people to come take a house and fix it up.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, like in Sicily, my friend just bought some property in Taormina, Sicily, and she’s saying you can buy them for one euro, but you have to put 30,000 into it to fix it up. There are lots of interesting opportunities there.
Maddy Dychtwald
I think getting creative is really a good part of it. Learning a new language is so incredibly good for your brain, especially as you get older. We know, for instance, for your brain, there are all these brain games and things that you can play that people say, “Oh yeah, I’m going to play Scrabble or something, and it’s going to really help my brain.” I don’t think so. Those things create patterns in your brain that are easy to replicate, but you really need to learn something new to actually create more brain synapses. You are learning to speak fluent Spanish and your daughter is learning to speak it? Fantastic.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I wish I was fluent, but I learned a lot in Mexico. It’s really tough. It’s definitely a brain exercise for sure. A very frustrating one, but a very good challenge every single day. But I found myself getting better and better every single day if I practiced. Now I’m definitely falling off the wagon for sure, being back in the U.S. But I’m really happy my daughter is pretty much fluent.
Maddy Dychtwald
Incredible.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, but I agree with you. I need to start getting back on my Spanish for sure. Such a good exercise.
Maddy Dychtwald
Two things you could do: maybe do some volunteer work in a Spanish-speaking community in the Houston area and really develop your skills at the same time.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yeah, I’m going to work on my Spanish and join a pickleball team. So that’s my little recipe, or buy a ping pong table or something.
Maddy Dychtwald
I like pickleball because then you’re also socially connecting.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Yes, I joined a gym that has 13 pickleball courts, and they have little tournaments. I have my daughter joining too. I have this fantasy of us playing pickleball all the time. Yes. So why don’t you tell us more about your work, your website, where people can learn more about you, and also get your book, “Ageless Aging.”
Dr. Wendy Myers
Okay. Yeah, the book is available May 14th, which is the beginning of National Women’s Health Week. Which is fantastic. I love the idea that there’s a week devoted to women’s health. Actually, I think every week should be devoted to it. But they can go to my website, https://maddydychtwald.com/, or wherever books are sold, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores. If you do go to my website, we are offering some free gifts to go along with the book, which I think might hold a lot of appeal to people because, for both brain and the Health-Wealth Connection, I’ve created these checklists to help make it easier for you to stay on track and know what are the hacks and action steps that you really ought to be taking. Also, as I said, I interviewed almost a hundred experts for “Ageless Aging,” and I created interviews that I didn’t end up using a lot of. You can only use so much content in the book. So I took some of the critical pieces from the interviews and put them into conversations with the experts. Those are available on my website.
Dr. Wendy Myers
Hey, fantastic. Maddy, thank you so much for coming on the show. That was such a fun conversation. I just love talking about aging and aging hacks because it’s really a big passion of mine and something that I really want to share with the audience as well.
So thanks for coming on. And everyone, I’m Dr. Wendy Myers. Thanks so much for tuning in every week to the Myers Detox Podcast. I was so thrilled to learn we have over 6 million downloads of the show. I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now and just have so much gratitude and am so thankful for you guys that have been tuning in and continuing to join us and join me on this journey. We’re going to be moving more into anti-aging. I already talk a lot about heavy metal detoxification and bioenergetics and cutting-edge things that you can do for your health, things that you don’t hear on other shows. We’ll continue that conversation, but we’ll be focusing more and more on anti-aging. So thanks for tuning in. Lots more to come.
Maddy Dychtwald
Thank you, Wendy. It’s been a pleasure.
Disclaimer
The Myers Detox Podcast is created and hosted by Wendy Myers. This podcast is for information purposes only statements and views expressed on this podcast are not medical advice. This podcast including Wendy Myers and the producers disclaim responsibility for any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein opinions of guests are their own and this podcast does not endorse or accept responsibility for statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guests qualifications or credibility. Individuals on this podcast may have direct or indirect financial interest and products or services referred to herein. If you think you have a medical problem consult a licensed physician.
