Go Un-Pro with Dr. Brent W. Laartz, MD FIDSA: Living an Unprocessed Life for Longevity and Healthspan Have you ever known that something is SO good for you that you just can't wait, but life gets in front of you and prevents you from doing it? The inaction and procrastination could occur for a variety of reasons, and we will delve into my motivations and affirmations of a healthy life from this day forward. I am starting this series of videos and articles so that I can be accountable to myself regarding the changes in my diet that I REALLY NEED to survive into my 90s without heart disease, dementia, and arthritis. And hopefully, as you follow along, you can make your own improvements that will extend your life and prevent the horrible illnesses that are heart disease, dementia, and arthritis. Can I introduce myself? I'm Dr Brent W. Laartz, and I am an Infectious Diseases physician with a Master's in Neuroscience, author, creator, and entrepreneur. I've been involved with medical education for almost all my life and have been sharing my knowledge, teaching students, patients, and other doctors as faculty of a medical school, in hospitals, and clinics around the world. I'm ashamed to admit that I have lived a life of processed foods despite knowing the facts that are stacked against me if I continue living this way. My most recent research into longevity and its connection to our diet, exercise, sleep, and mental health, all with help from our microbiome, the bacteria living in our body, has me wanting to shout this information to the masses from the rooftops! This is so important that I am going to communicate what I have learned in every forum possible. Simply put, I am not going to do it anymore, and I am going to stay accountable to myself so that I follow through with it this time. Hence, the launch of this podcast, which I have been wanting to do for quite some time now. In addition, I am also launching publicly available Master courses that will delve incredibly deeply into the science behind diet and other interventions that will help me live well into my '90s and 100s, but not just live, but REALLY live! This is the concept of Healthspan. I know there are a lot of billionaires who are prominent in the media, trying to live forever, spending millions of dollars, but I am here to prove you can do it without spending a lot of money. The interventions I am doing will cost a little more money, but my budget is to only increase expenditures by a few $100 a month. The thing is, we are so accustomed to our artificial products that we deep down believe they are good for us. Don't accept this BS from your food, expect better. Most physicians I know are not living a healthy life, and until the past 6 months, that generalization included me. If you think otherwise, let me paint the picture of a typical doctor's lounge in the hospital or the home kitchen of your local physician. Hospital kitchens use the cheapest oils, fried foods, and beef, butters with mashed potatoes, pre-manufactured eggs, mass-produced bacon, candy, and ice cream sandwiches. This is what I was eating day in and day out, working 26 days per month. My cholesterol was skyrocketing, and my weight had peaked at 165 pounds on a 5-foot-7-inch frame. Then I took stock of my life. And it was just in time, too, for my kids were graduating from high school. At least I didn't have the excuse of cleaning my kids' plates anymore. I suspect that if you are listening to this podcast, reading this article, or taking this course, you are interested in living a more unprocessed life. If you are like me, you have reached a point in your life where you realize your health could be at a tipping point. I was lulled into thinking I was living a healthy life because I exercised and ate right some of the time. But that delusion could not have been further from the truth. I was drinking alcohol at least a few days per week, drank sodas at least a few days a week, and ate eggs, bacon, buffalo wings, cheeseburgers, candy half the week. As a physician, I should have known better. If you grew up similarly to me at the beginning of the downfall of America into the ultra-processed society, then your mother initially cooked dinners that contained whole foods most of the time. However, she also fell into the trap of the simpler life of the American family, spending less time cooking and more time eating macaroni and cheese, canned beef stew, box cereals with added sugar, and chocolate candy bars for dessert. I found myself a few years ago at age 55. Double nickel! At 5'7", I was down from my peak height of probably 5'8" tall and 165 lb at the heaviest, and about 157 lb at the lightest. Calculate that. It is a BMI of 26 - barely, but in the overweight category. While I generally pictured myself as being relatively healthy and eating relatively healthy foods, I started to look at my pictures with a critical eye, and ooking at my friends was like looking in a mirror in both appearance and behavior. My girlfriend was a fantastic cook, but created delicious meals with heavy cream, the wrong types of oils, and sweet, sweet sugar. Ten years previously. I loved to run and could run 6 miles easily and went to the gym periodically. I gradually decreased exercise and ate more, diminishing my ability to run as well. Essentially processed foods were making an increasing appearance in my household. Sure. I still had real maple syrup, organic bacon, organic eggs, beef, chicken, and was shopping at organic grocery stores, but I was tricked into thinking organic meant unequivocally healthy. This journal documents the transformation of a wholeheartedly devoted consumer of processed products and the world that creates them to a more mindful utilization of organic, whole-food prebiotic and probiotic fruits and vegetables. There is no shortage of data showing that eating processed foods leads to diabetes, cardiac disease, and dementia. The possible culprits in these foods include sweeteners, preservatives, plastics, and processed cooking oils, such as canola oil. What do all these things have in common? Industrial manufacturing of products with long shelf lives in plastic bags that could be minimally cooked prior to eating. They contained preservatives, food colors, and high salt content. In 1976, the food industry invented the concept of high fructose corn syrup which provided a cheaper sweetener for products than sugar which was subject to price variation and the sugar industry. In the meantime, Americans have become more obese and diabetes is now an epidemic where 20% of Americans have full-blown diabetes, defined by a Hemoglobin A1c level (a measure of the average blood sugar over 3 months) greater than or equal to 6.0, many of whom do not even know that they have it. Fully 38% of Americans have either diabetes or prediabetes, defined by a Hemoglobin A1c level above 5.6 to 5.9, which in itself is a metabolic syndrome with major consequences. If we lower the Hemoglobin A1c level that qualifies as pre-diabetes from 5.6 to 5.4. approximately 80% of Americans now have prediabetes or diabetes. Our medical system is rewarded by over medicating Americans when the real problem is the food we are eating. Doctors are also being rewarded for glossing over the real state of patients' health, telling them their heart disease or diabetes is under control when they clearly are not. Nutritional cohort studies have linked the modern processed diet to increasing rates of dementia, cardiovascular disease, cancer, mental illness, diabetes, and a whole host of other major medical problems that we as a society are spending billions of dollars with plastic bandages covering up the damage. Some of you might think, I'm already in my 50s, it's too late! There is longevity research suggesting that diet and lifestyle changes that occur in middle age are almost as effective as if you begin at a younger age. The reality is, if you do it right, these modifications can be hearty, filling, tasty, and fun! Think of your lifestyle as an investment account. The sooner you start the better, but it is never too late to add to your IRA - your Individual Reinvigoration Account. Yet, you don't have to strictly adhere to a particular diet to live longer. There is a term for persons who abnormally adhere to a particular diet. It is called orthorexia. Behavioral research would suggest that most people do not have the discipline to adhere strictly to a single diet. It is not practical with modern society, going out to eat, work schedules, and other obstacles that would get in the way. I have found that the best way to begin a diet is gradually. Have you ever made a major New Year's resolution to change your whole life, but after a month of small failures in that revolutionary change, you just gave up? Instead, a program that has small easily attainable goals spread out over time is a much better method for behavioral change. According to studies, the best path to high-stakes success is to split the process into smaller goals that are easier to achieve. I am here to tell you that it is going to take a year for you completely master these small goals on a weekly basis. Over just 6 months I have lost 20 lb and am in the best shape that I've been since I turned 30 years old. Nobody is a robot, however, and I need a treat every once in a while, so I like to reward myself for my progress. If you reward yourself for every step you attain, the rewards become too commonplace to be effective. Random rewards are more effective, so I flip a coin and reward myself only if I win the toss. This unpredictable accolade then becomes a more powerful motivating tool. Another potent method of success is accountability. However, don't go out and shout out to the world the goal you have. Studies reveal that telling others your plan prematurely gives you a reward too early when they congratulate you on your start, which can inhibit your success. So keep a journal, write down your plan, and tell a select few about your plan. Another secret? Having a partner who is also motivated toward the same goal helps both prosper. I'm hoping you can be my partner, and I can become yours, or grab yourself a partner you can trust. We may not have exactly thesame plan, but we will do it together. Another point? This is not going to be a miracle cure. If you were like me, you spent 50 years being relatively healthy, but mired in the Western process diet. Some of you may not even be as lucky as me with some of the genetic and environmental advantages that I have benefitted from. Some of you may be obese or morbidly obese, some of you may have already had health scares with diabetes and other illnesses. This diet will not be able to reverse some of the damage that has already been done. However, if you don't start now, think of the decades you will lose where you could be actively living your life to the fullest. The sooner you start, the better. There are four major determinants that will allow you to live a healthy life into your 90s and 100s. These are the four horsemen, the four pillars of health. They are diet, movement, sleep, and the mind. All four of these are such broad concepts on purpose, especially the mind. Longevity requires that you take care of your mental health. This includes such constructs as creativity, social connections, a sense of purpose, and an overall feeling of quality of life. Where does one begin? The absolutely most difficult obstacle to overcome in such a momentous undertaking is the start. I made it so easy to start and made small, incremental changes that were easy to accomplish so there was no way I could fail. Have I had small failures halfway through this journey? Yes. But the key here is that those small failures were not such that it caused me to give up. Here is where my motivation and persistence will pay dividends long-term in my life. I had to want it, and you have to want it, too. You have to comprehend the consequences of not continuing on this journey. Every step of the way I'm going to share my motivations and my methods to overcome the obstacles that are a daily impediment to your future you being able to share your life with your loved ones in a meaningful way well into your 90s. I am going to share daily affirmations as to why you and I both deserve to be healthy. So right now think of three reasons why you want to be active at age 90 and not be lying in a hospital bed. We all have different starting points as far as health, as far as motivation, as far as mental health. We all have different social and economic reasons for living and the opposite reasons as obstacles to living. You may be starting as a younger person, wondering why you should start today. You may be a middle-aged obese person with kids in school. Or maybe you already have grandkids. But we all want to experience the lives of our family and our friends in a healthy manner. Think of everyday you succeed in advancing your health toward age 100 as a deposit into that IRA. Every day of success adds to your retirement Healthspan savings. As a matter of fact, we are going to call this an HSA, not a health savings account, but a healthspan savings account. The very first thing we are going to do in the next week is download an accountability app. There are many to choose from and I will give you a couple that have worked for me. At a glance you can look back at the last month in four or five categories and see how well you've been doing. Then you can compare in a year when your HSA is having more deposits than withdrawals. You will be able to see your progress compared to a year ago. We are also going to learn more about manifesting your health. This is about thinking positively about your ability to will yourself to a better health. It will take a daily concentration on your sleep, your mental health, your diet, and your movement. The four pillars, the four legs of the table without all of which the table will not stand. The four horsemen that need to all be together and work together in sync to keep you healthy, keep you away from the doctor, keep you out of the hospital, keep you walking and traveling for the rest of your life on a daily basis. Every day counts. Success will save you money because the small amount of money you put into improving the four pillars will save you so much healthcare cost in older age. You won't need to pay as many copays or out-of-pocket costs for healthcare because you will be healthier. Your stress at age 70 will be less because you won't be worrying as much about being unhealthy, instead focusing on your health. All four of these pillars fees of the other, creating a never-ending cycle of longevity and healthspan. Better sleep will decrease cortisol levels, which will improve mental health and cardiovascular health, which will cause less binge eating, which will improve your microbiome, which will decrease cancer and cardiovascular risk, which will improve exercise tolerability, which will improve sleep and mental health, which will result in a long, healthy life. I will be presenting 52 weeks (and beyond) of recipes, methods, videos, and support for those who wish to follow or witness this transformation for total health. Go Un-pro - live the unprocessed life for longevity. A weekly YouTube video, Podcasts, Master Courses and Articles will help you follow along and perhaps you can change your own life. Maybe a book at the end of it all, who knows! Follow the links for the YouTube channel, Spotify, Apple, and YouTube Music Podcasts, and here for the written word on GoUnPro.com! Stay tuned for Week 1, where I will begin the transformation - gradually, with the entire process split up into smaller goals that will take shape weekly. At the end of it all, I will become mostly vegan, mostly raw, and almost 100% un-processed man with a mindful outlook on life with a sleep profile that will also promote longevity.