Enjoy this weeks episode of the Human Longevity Podcast with Dr. Melissa Petersen as she sits down with Dr. Efrati to explore this longevity outlier.
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Speaker 1:Â
Welcome to the Human Longevity Podcast. I’m your host, dr Melissa Peterson. Together, we’re about to explore the science and solutions that will help you live better, longer. Hi everyone, and welcome to today’s show. I’m so honored to be sitting here with Dr Shai Afrati. If you haven’t met him yet, you are going to love today’s conversation.
Speaker 1:Â
He’s a philosopher of aging and has dedicated his career to researching the biology of aging and helping people live fuller and more fulfilled lives. He’s the chair of Aviv’s Medical Advisory Board, the founder and director of the world’s leading Seagal Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research, shamir Medical Center, where he also serves as the director of research and development, and the head of nephrology. Dr Afredi’s research focuses on novel aspects of hyperbaric medicine and brain rehabilitation. He sits at the Segal School of Neuroscience in Tel Aviv University and since 2008, he has served as the chairman of the Israel Society for Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, and while I’m sure we will, no pun intended, dive into all things hyperbaric, really what we’re going to discuss today is the regenerative or enhancement approach to medicine to improve both our biology, our performance and our well-being. Dr Afradi is here today to share with us what he’s learned on how the power of purpose can help you to live better longer, beginning the day this is going to be a great conversation, Dr Efrati.
Speaker 2:Â
Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you very much for the intro and for the invitation.
Speaker 1:Â
It’s just so wonderful to have you. You know your work is really fascinating because you started if I’m understanding my history and timeline correctly you kind of had some really interesting ahas around the power of regeneration that led you into hyperbaric medicine. And I want to unpack, because we are going to talk about purpose and your work has just been long and esteemed and so I want to kind of build that arc for our listener. How did you go from the research side and looking at what’s going to regenerate and create, you know, new stem cells, all the way into really connecting with the power of purpose, so kind of from the Petri dish out into everyday life? There’s a lot of ground to cover. So where do you want to start?
Speaker 2:Â
That’s. I will start by saying that what we are really dealing with is performance Okay, I think that’s the word. And when we are speaking about performance, performance includes the biology, includes our knowledge, our ability to process the things that happen around us and our ability to execute the things that we want to do. This is performance okay. This is performance okay. And generally speaking about performance, there is always a bottleneck to the performance, to everything. Okay, there is a bottleneck to everything, and this bottleneck determines what the final results will be. For example, if I’m coming to the supermarkets, it can be a huge supermarket, but you have one cashier, so it doesn’t matter how big the supermarket is. At the end of the day, this is the bottleneck and that determines the performance of the supermarket.
Speaker 1:Â
Yes.
Speaker 2:Â
So, if we are speaking about our physiology, on our body, or ourself, about performance, there are three main periods of life there is childhood, there is adulthood, when we are still in the reproductive period, meaning we are bringing kids to the world and we have the post-reproductive period.
Speaker 2:Â
Along this journey that we have here on this planet, when we are young, we have an amazing biology. Everything is building up. We have a huge amount of stem cells, we have blood vessels that are very potent, so the performance is sky-high. However, the bottleneck is the knowledge and the life experience that we have. That’s the bottleneck to the performance and a long life. What’s happened? We are gaining more and more in knowledge, more and more know-how, and then the biology become the limiting factor, become the bottleneck. So that’s easy, because if we will open that bottleneck, we are actually generating a new species.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, for example, when I’m looking about myself, I’m, I’m 53 now. When I was 18 years old, I was, I was quite stupid. Okay, I don’t, I don’t want to be 18 again. Okay, I made such huge mistakes. Okay, I needed to deal with things that I don’t need to deal now. I know so much today.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, so I want to be 18 with regard to biology, but not with regard to the knowledge of the life experience. So that’s what we need to open. So, once you’re saying that, you’re saying, okay, great, great. So all I have to do is to open the bottleneck. So what, the biology bottlenecks are okay. What is the major things that change from childhood to the age we are? Once we are bypassing the age of 45, okay, to the age we are, once we are bypassing the age of 45. So if we are looking at ourselves, let’s look before about other species in nature, all species in nature, once they are bypassing the reproductive period, meaning when they are not able anymore to bring the next generation to this world, they are either being killed or eaten. That’s what happened.
Speaker 1:Â
They’re obsolete, they’re not needed anymore.
Speaker 2:Â
They’re not needed, so they are disposable. With regard to nature, however, we Homo sapiens we continue to live a significant period of life after the reproductive period, so there must be an added value for that, because otherwise we wouldn’t become the champions of this world. Actually, we are controlling everything that happens on this planet. So there’s an added value for that. And is the added value? The added value is that there is a lot of importance to the knowledge and the life experience that we gain for the young generation, and that’s why nature wants to keep us. For example, take a tribe that lives in the jungle. They have a huge hurricane. They don’t know what to do. What they will do. They will go to the oldest and they will ask them oh, what should I do? And then the oldest will tell them you know, 20 years ago we had something like this. We did that. It didn’t succeed. Don’t do the same that we did. Or we did that and it worked, so do that. Et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Â
If I may, this is actually a really important point. So, in essence, the elders matter, of course. You and I know that, and there is a reason, right, there is a reason to keep our elders. Well, if we look at the stats, knowing that, as we are living longer, not better, and the population is decreasing on the front end, right, so we’re going to have more 65-year-olds than 18-year-olds in just another six years, as the numbers are going kind of globally. And so, before we even go into the biology and I’m with you we have a bottleneck, right, and I love what you’re saying and I want to come back to that. But I just want to know your thoughts, especially because you have a global perspective. You live in other places around the world. How do we truly, first and foremost, bring back the honoring of our elders, so that our elders want to stick around too, right, but so that this, this conversation of saying, hey, we want to keep this knowledge, yeah, but are we even? Are we even reaching out and making use of it right now?
Speaker 2:Â
so, you’re touching the base, and this is the most important thing. The important thing is make yourself needable.
Speaker 1:Â
That is a quotable moment.
Speaker 2:Â
Make yourself needable, because if you are not needable, you are disposable. If you are needable, the biology will do whatever it can in order to preserve you. And I will give you an example the number one risk factor for all age-related disease is retirement. That’s the number one risk for all age-related disease. So what we should do is not retire, as simple as that, and not retire, not because of the economic perspective, because usually people think wait, I have the right to retire now, to get my pension because I worked all my life. How stupid can you be? Okay, how can? It’s the opposite, it’s the vice versa. Say I don’t want to retire, I want to still be in the game, I want to still be needable. Okay. And I will give you an example from my world. Okay, for example, a couple of years ago I had, I had to be in charge also in the nephrology unit. Okay, I love biology and biology. If you take nephrology, you take the kidney as out. This is an amazing opportunity to play with all the biology. You take full control of the body. I enjoyed so much, it’s great. Say, oh, my God, everything is so complicated. I said, eric, this is great, everything is complicated, let’s enjoy it, okay. So so, for example, the, the head of the department, who is, you know, I love him so much and there is a point when he needed to retire. He reached the age of 67. And then you come into somebody who is fully active, okay, fully needable, wake up early in the morning, stay until late at night. His phone is always ringing and then suddenly the day after, he’s nothing, he’s nothing, nobody calls him, nobody asks him nothing And’s nothing. Nobody calls him, nobody asks him Nothing. And you know what they do they call the cellular company and ask him. You know my cellular doesn’t work why? Because it doesn’t ring all day. So what did I do? I came to him. And I came to him a month before and I told him my dear professor, I need you, I need you. You cannot retire. I need you, I need you, you cannot retire. I need you. The residents need you. We need you to teach. I don’t know, I need your help. I still need your help. I understand that now it’s your time to retire, but I need you, I need you. I want you to help me. Okay, I want you to come. I want you to teach the resident. I want you to sit with me in the round table in the morning so we can bring up questions and some quizzes that we have. I need you, I need you. And you know what happened to him. He had tears from his eyes. He was so happy and when he’s coming, I said I need you and this is the most important thing.
Speaker 2:Â
And people think about retirement. It’s my right to retire. I need my pension now. I don’t need to work anymore. Now I can get, I get money for that. And people look at retirement from economic perspective. Can we afford it? Not afford it. And I’m saying the call for changing the retirement age should come from the Ministry of Health, not the Ministry of Economy. And if you’re looking at the blue zone a different area around the world and you look at the people who have a fruitful, enjoyable aging life, those are the ones that are needable. Those are the ones that are needable. And people who don’t understand how it affects the biology. I give them an example. Think about yourself going in a dark street and then you have a corner and everything is dark. What will happen to you when you are coming to the corner? Heart rate will go up. Okay, you’re tuned up, everything is ready because you are being prepared to the next turn.
Speaker 2:Â
The same over here, the same over here. Okay, you have to be needable, and then the biology will do whatever it can in order to help. I will give you an example, another example there are some guys, for example in Israel, who had the privilege to do an exit. Okay, meaning they have built up a company, they earn a lot of money, they don’t need to work anymore. And then they are coming to me and they are saying Shai, I want you to be my physician, I want you to deal with me. I want to say.
Speaker 2:Â
And then I asked them okay, tell me about your daily routine. Saying you know I don’t have to walk. I said okay, so what do you do? And he said I’m waking up in the morning, I’m going down to the beach and then going back home, and you know I’m hanging around and asking okay, so, so what do you do? On Monday, he said you know, I’m waking up in the morning whenever I want, I want to go to the beach. And I said and then I’m telling them I cannot treat you, I cannot help you. And he asked why? Because you are disposable. Said but I will pay you. I will pay you, I will make a donation, I will do whatever you said. No, no, no, no, no. The first thing is we need to find a mission, a purpose. Okay, you need to be needable and you know what is. The next question is okay, I can do that, but how can I know that I’m needable?
Speaker 2:Â
There is a simple answer for that. If you are waking up in the morning and you are not going out of bed, then somebody will call you and tell you hey, we are waiting for you, we need you. Okay, if that doesn’t happen, there’s something wrong that needs to be fixed. Okay, and being needable is not, you know, it’s not that you are saving the world or generating world peace, no, no, no, it’s not that. Being needable is very simple stuff. I will give you an example from a study that was done. Okay, nursing home.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, they are coming to the nursing home, splitting the people into two groups. For one group, they are telling them you know, you are needed to take care of the garden. The other group nothing. And then they’re saying you know when you need to take care of the garden. You need to take care of this plan, of that plants. You need to make sure that everything is right and report to us what you have done and how you do it, and we will check you. You know what happened in these two groups.
Speaker 2:Â
The amount of diseases, the amount of complaints, the amount of degeneration is declining dramatically. And again, it’s not world peace. They are needable for a certain thing, even a small thing. But you have. But you have a purpose. If we are looking at the blue zones around the world, we are not leaving the elderly aside. No, they are still part of the community. You can look about somebody at the age of 80 and they’re saying you know, I decided that I need to change my career Really. I did that until now and I think that it’s time for me to change the career. For doing something like that, they will never say I’m retiring, never retire, never, ever retire, never ever be disposable, be needed for something. It doesn’t have to be full day, it can be two hours per day, it can be three hours per day, it can be one hour per day. Something.
Speaker 1:Â
First of all, that’s going to be your next book Be Needable, that is the title. Or your next TED Talk. That is so fantastic. So I’m curious, let’s take, let’s connect dots, you know, in the story arc. Do you, by any chance, in your research, in your intake process, is there a way right now that you are subjectively quantifying if somebody, if somebody perceives that they’re needable, if they are answering, if they feel that they have a purpose, if they’re answering a few of those kind of subjective questions, just to give you a little peek into their mental, you know framework before? Because I’m just really curious what are you seeing in the data if they say they do versus don’t and they’re going into these different treatments? We know that the treatments are highly effective, yet are you assessing it and then are you seeing a difference in results on the other side of it, with that bottleneck?
Speaker 2:Â
Yeah. So the first process is knowing you know people say client. I never, never say client, it’s a new friend that you gain. Okay, everybody who’s coming into my office is like I’m, I have the privilege to have a new friend. Okay, it’s a friendship relationship. So so I ask him tell me about yourself. And then they’re shocked, especially in the us, because in the us, what do you mean tell me about myself? Okay, I’m used to question like how are you today? Okay, but when you’re saying in the US, how are you today, it’s not that you mean really to get to know the person. I did it a couple of times in the US. When I’m walking around you say how are you today, then say you know, now that you ask, I must tell you I have a terrible day. And then they look at you know, now that you ask I must tell you I have a terrible day, and then they look at you how come you share your?
Speaker 1:Â
life with me, right yeah? How dare you actually answer the question?
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, so you need to sit and know the new friendship that you are generating at the moment and you look at it as a friendship. Okay, and when you’re looking at it in that way, you need to understand the other person’s perspective okay, not your perspective Really listen, really understand who is in front of you, and once you’re doing that, you should understand the environment, what he’s doing in the daily routine, and then, after that, speak about a goal okay, what? What is your purpose? Now some of the people will come in front of you.
Speaker 2:Â
I had, I had the privilege I will not say the name to sit in front of somebody who is above the age of 18, 80, 8-0,. Okay, is very successful in life, in real estate, that and that, but but what I’m planning on doing now is I’m thinking about how can I build infrastructure on the moon when we’re going to settle up the moon? Okay, it’s 80, okay, so, so that’s that’s another issue. By the way, how do you define the old? Okay, correct, okay? So, looking at this, for example, when you’re speaking to an old man, he will, will always tell you I used to do that Before. I did that I did that, and he will speak only about the past. And when you’re speaking to a young guy, he will tell you I’m intending on doing that After. I will do that. I will do that. I’m learning that in order to do that. I’m doing that in order to do that.
Speaker 2:Â
Now, this 80-year year old person who is planning on how to settle the moon okay, he’s young, yeah, he’s totally young. He has all his future in front of him. I will help you with the biology. It’s not a problem, that’s easy. I can build his stem cells. I can walk in his biology. That’s easy because he has a purpose and we will reach there. Okay. But if somebody always tell you about the past, I’m asking okay, so what are your plans? What do you intend to do? Okay, and then you can take it forward from them. We have a VIV center in the US, in a place called the Villages which is quite unique and when I came to the US at the beginning, we had different unique.
Speaker 2:Â
And when I came to the US at the beginning, we had different options. Where do you want to put the first center? I didn’t know anything about the villages zero, I never heard about it. But I have a good friend, dr Elliot Sussman, who established the medical network over there, who asked me to come. He said, shai, I want you to come, I don’t want to speak, I just ask me to come. He said, shai, I want you to come, I don’t want to speak, I just ask you to come. And he’s a friend. I said, okay, I will come. And I came over there. The Villages is the largest retired community worldwide, but they are not retired, they are above the age of 55. Every evening, everybody goes out, drinking, hanging around, playing around. Okay, it’s probably the number one area in the US for sexually transmitted disease. Excuse me for saying that okay.
Speaker 2:Â
So that’s amazing. That’s amazing People. They’re not doing work, but everybody’s working. Everybody’s the club, everybody’s hanging around. They are planning what they’re going to do next. Okay, what will be their next journey, their next lab, their next mission? Okay, they are all hanging around. They are working not for living. They are working because they need to work for the community. Amazing place. And I said this is amazing place. Okay, that will be the first place in the? U? Amazing place. And I said, ooh, this is amazing place. Okay, that will be the first place in the US. I love it.
Speaker 1:Â
I hope you’re enjoying today’s show and listen. I wanted to give you the quick inside scoop. If you head over to human longevity institutecom forward slash podcast, there, you’ll be able to enjoy special discounts, gifts and even free age defying resources to truly help you live better longer, starting today. A special thanks to all of our partners and sponsors to make today’s show possible. Go to human longevity institute com forward slash podcast and get your gifts today.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, so it’s not a retired community, it’s a second-career community, and it’s a good career because you don’t have small children anymore. You don’t need to change diapers.
Speaker 1:Â
Yes, my dad says he and his friends are just like you know. What’s great is that it’s just like being in college, but we’re not broke. Yeah, and there is something to it, and I want to break a few things down because I think that we can all agree yes, when you have a need, you are needed places to go, people that are waiting for you, looking for you, excited to talk to you, responsibilities, thinking, centenarian consciousness Any centenarian holds this exact same component within how they think they’re always looking forward. They’re looking forward what’s next, what’s next? So, exactly what you’re saying, and I love it because, yes, that makes total common sense and it also steeps out in the literature of how the biology belief 100%. I love this and I, we are going to come back to it. But here’s the thing I just want to bring up, because I believe that sometimes you know, after over almost 30 years myself and thousands of patients, so many people, clients, friends I love it, I, I love that. I love that everybody coming in as a friend, it’s a relationship.
Speaker 1:Â
People, they need their diagnosis because that’s the only way they know that they find meaning in the problem. And I’m not in judgment. We cannot see our own blind spots sometimes. So I want to talk to you because I love it. You and I could sit here and just chat with you all day and I love lifting people up to the positive side of life.
Speaker 1:Â
But I do want to just take a moment and honor, especially here in the U? S and I know that where you’re living, you know there’s there’s just there. There is a lot, there’s a lot of pain and anguish around the world. There are a lot of people that are that don’t identify with having a sense of purpose. I actually do ask that on my intake and I asked I have a whole wellbeing section and I was surprised how many people would tell me and also then in that, admit to themselves that they’re not supported, they don’t feel needed, they don’t feel that they have a sense of purpose, and they then and then and I can only speak to what it’s like here in the US Then the people because purpose is such a big, important conversation topic people all of a sudden feel like, well, now I’m even more messed up because I don’t have a purpose.
Speaker 1:Â
And now what is my purpose? And they do think that they’re supposed to go solve world hunger or that it’s something big, and so I love that you’re saying let’s keep it simple. Just where can you be of need? Right, but when somebody is really feeling purposeless, let’s say they don’t have a social network, they don’t even know that, they don’t feel needed, they just know that life is a little gray.
Speaker 2:Â
I will tell you something. You’re saying social network. It sounds big. Okay, when I was in the first grade, my grandfather who was amazing, okay, he is an inspiring person Okay, he came to me and he asked me Shai, how many friends do you have? I was in first grade. Keep in mind, I still remember them and I start counting and I say the name. It was one, two, three, four, five when I reached 20, you know what he said stop. I said why I have more. He said you don’t know what a friend is. Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, okay. So so when you are saying social network, we don’t need network, we need one or two friends. Okay, that’s, that’s, that’s really what we need.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, and and needable again, can be needable for a dog, can be needable for your can, be needable for a dog, can be needable for your cat, can be needable for your son, and if you are not needable for the son, you need to get close to him. Okay, because he needs you. Okay, it’s only too shame to ask for your help. Okay, so Microsoft, needable for something? And again, it’s not world peace, it’s not flying to the moon, it’s not that at all. It’s not that at all. You need a companion to go with.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, if you have breakfast with somebody every morning, or if you are playing bridge with somebody every second day and then suddenly you are not coming, he’s the one who will ask you what going on? What? Why did it come? I waited for you. So you’re only the ball. That’s, that’s it. That’s it. Small stuff, not a big deal in the blue zones. If, if you look at the blue zones, you go to greece okay, to certain area, they are not saving up the the. They even hardly know how to read. Okay, but they are needable for the guy next to them who needs next to them because they’re supposed to hang up and play cards together in the next day. That’s it. That’s it. You don’t need more than that.
Speaker 1:Â
Well, I think you’ve just solved it, doc. I mean, like this is, you know, this is, this is the most straightforward and I’m not minimizing it, I love it. I love it, so it is, and, like you just said, need be needable for your cat, for your dog, for your garden, for your family, right For for the friend that you’re going to play cards with, like there’s so many. So what I’m hearing is let’s not overcomplicate it, let’s keep it super, super simple. You know that, in fact, there was a really great study in a nursing home, similar to what you were referring to, how one group was given a plant to take care of something as simple as the caregivers gave the you know, the residents plants versus those that didn’t.
Speaker 1:Â
And, again, true to form, what did it do? Lowered lower, exactly like the same type of stats you were referring to, lowered their incidence of symptomatology medications you know problems. Basically, they were experiencing improved health and it also showed an increase in their counterparts over just their lifespan. So if we keep it simple and we realize let’s be needed and needable, then that’s a beautiful place to start. So I’m curious you have a lot of places that you’re needed. On the idea of purpose, how would you define your purpose?
Speaker 2:Â
You know it’s a moving target. I appreciate that. To tell you the truth, that’s a moving target. You don’t know what will happen. The most important thing is to be open. Okay, like an empty can You’re coming. If you are an empty can every day and you are ready to be open, okay, like an empty can, you’re coming if you have an empty can every day and you’re ready to be filled up so you can enjoy it. But if you are coming all full up, okay, then you have no space for anything. So it’s a moving target. Every time you have something.
Speaker 2:Â
I believe that if, for example, I was living, let’s say, two decades ago, I would probably be focusing on infectious disease to develop the next antibiotic, because that was the number one killer worldwide. And if I was living a decade ago, probably I was thinking how young women can bring children to the world in a safety manner, because that was the number one killer of young ladies. So today, the biggest challenge that our Western society has is age-related diseases or, if you want to call it, age-related malfunctioning. Yeah, okay, this is worse. I’m not speaking about longevity. I’m speaking about healthspan, about being productive, okay.
Speaker 2:Â
At the end of the day, we are all coming to this world for a journey. Okay, as long as you can enjoy the view, as long as you can feel the wind on your face, it’s a wonderful journey. But if you are sitting in the car, everything is dark, closed, you don’t feel anything. Who wants? Who wants to be in that journey? At least not me. Okay, so, so, so you’re. It’s a moving target. So so that’s.
Speaker 2:Â
That’s the purpose that I have at the moment, because I think that this is the biggest challenge that our Western society is facing. So people can come and say to me, a very influential guy who’s doing a lot of science, they’re saying you are dealing with the cream of the cream. Okay, because in Africa, the number one killer of the society is still dehydration because of diarrhea. So you are dealing with the cream of the cream and you should deal with that. I was born in a Western society. This is my problem. Ok, so I’m dealing with my problem.
Speaker 2:Â
I assume that if I was born in another place place, then probably I was dealing with other stuff. Okay, but, but this is, this is my neighborhood. This is not the cream of the cream. These are the things that I see on the daily routine. This is my parents, this is me. I don’t want, I don’t want to go back to diaper, okay, I have been there once. I don’t want to be there again, right, okay? So so this is, this is me, this is my perspective, and every day you are dealing with something you’re doing. Now, when you’re doing research, the best research is if you have failures. You’re trying something, you fail. It’s a privilege to fail because you understand that your paradigm was wrong and then you’re moving to a completely different scenario and be open. So my goal, my biggest wish, will be to generate, you can say, a dementia-free society or Alzheimer-free society. Okay, because my perspective is if we cannot understand what’s going on around, then who cares?
Speaker 2:Â
okay, doesn’t matter anymore, but this is my perspective, so let’s go there.
Speaker 1:Â
Let’s go there for with some of the time that we have left today, because this is really important for us. Like, how do we begin to decrease the likelihood and the expression of age related decline, decline and disease, with one of the largest problems that we are facing globally is all around cognitive decline, right, in multiple different forms? So when we think from that lens and it’s really interesting because purpose actually has a place in preventing cognitive decline when we are needable, when we have a sense of purpose, a reason to get up and get out of bed from big to small each and every day it does correlate in the literature that it actually preserves our cognitive function. We typically have healthier exhibit, healthier behaviors. We do engage with social connection right, we are up and out in the world and our overall sense of well-being is enhanced. So that’s a good thing.
Speaker 1:Â
Yet what are you working on? Because you do so much in the field of regenerative and hyperbaric medicine? So what are you seeing that is working now, as well as what’s coming down the pike, even especially, so much has changed, even in the past year with AI. So let’s talk about how we really start to change the face of cognitive decline, age related disease, so that we can have a healthier brain, collectively and individually around the world. What are you seeing? Where do we start?
Speaker 2:Â
So we should start by saying a simple statement the brain is a tissue. Surprise, surprise. Okay, the brain is a tissue, like any tissue that we have in the body, like the muscles, like the skin, like any other tissue. It’s a tissue. We used to speak about the brain in a mystic fashion. We we are saying cognition, personality, we are doing CT, mri, high tech, but the brain is a tissue and the only difference between the brain and the other tissue is that the brain is not accessible for us.
Speaker 2:Â
Okay, you do not see it. It’s been well hidden. So, like any other tissue in the body, whatever caused damage to other tissues, surprise, surprise, the tissue of the brain will be also damaged. If you are eating crap, this crop will go into that tissue also. Okay, this crop, like damaging other tissues in the body, will damage also the brain tissue. If you are smoking, you’re taking some toxic inside you. This toxin will accumulate also in this important tissue that we put to our body, because it doesn’t go only to your leg or to your, let’s say, butt or belly or whatever it is. It’s stuck also here. You just don’t see it. Okay, so take this out. And when you’re improving your cardiovascular and when you’re improving your vascular bed. Surprise, surprise, we have a vascular bed in our brain also. Okay, on top of this we can add some triggers that can induce more stem cells to replicate generation of more blood vessels. That’s on top of this. But start by taking the things that takes you down. Take it out of the table. Once you’re taking it out, now let’s see how we can build up.
Speaker 2:Â
So, with regard to the brain, today we understand that the brain tissue is changing all the time, unlike what I was taught in medical school. When I was in medical school, the concept was I was taught in medical school. When I was in medical school, the concept was this is the neurons that you have. That’s it. From that point on, you are only losing. You are not gaining anything. But the brain is a tissue and it happens to be that also in the brain we have stem cells, high concentration in the hippocampus. These stem cells can replicate and migrate and actually this brain that speak with you now, the tissue was not in medical school. It’s all fresh tissue, just like the skin, that is changing all the time. These tissue change all the time also Slower, more complex process. Everything is good, but it’s still changing. So that’s when you come to think about it that it’s changing all the time. That gives you also the privilege to be flexible with yourself Okay, don’t stick. Okay, the tissue is changing. So we have stem cells. It happens to be that after a certain age, the replication of these stem cells is slowing down because so we need to push it. So how we can trigger these stem cells to start to replicate, but stimulating them.
Speaker 2:Â
What is the most powerful trigger for stimulating stem cells proliferation? Hypoxia, lack of oxygen. Historically, if I have a damage to a certain area, let’s say to the hand what will happen because of this damage? There will be lack of oxygen supply. So when the body signal lack of oxygen supply, it knows that there is a problem, saying, oh my god, there is a problem. I feel in hypoxia, okay, it doesn’t matter. Now how it happened at the cellular level say, okay, we have a problem, hou, we have a problem, houston, we have a problem. Let’s start the stem cells to replicate.
Speaker 2:Â
So stem cells are replicating, new blood vessels are generating, all the regenerative system is being activated. So, thinking about that, you can take a person, hold his breath, stop his heartbeat. You won’t have oxygen and the stem cells and the regenerative will start to work. There is only one problem with regard to that you will really need it, okay, because you will have an injury. So we were saying what the body actually senses. Does the body sense absolute values or does the body sense the delta, the fluctuation? There is no absolute in life with regard to anything. You will feel rich or poor, not based on the absolute that you have, based on what your neighbor has. If you have more than him, you’re privileged. If you have less, you say I have. But look what happened over there the same in the body.
Speaker 2:Â
So then we generate a certain protocol and it has to be this specific protocol. It took us more than 10 years to optimize it. That you take a person, you put him in a suite this is the chamber, okay, you compress the chamber with air and then put the mask of oxygen on. But doing in this protocol, we are increasing the blood oxygenation from 100 mercuries to 1600. This is one thing, but then this is the trick we ask the people to take the mask off. What happens when they are taking the mask off? The oxygen is declining from very high back to the normal. This decline from very high back to the normal is being interpreted at the cellular level as hypoxia, as lack of oxygen. There is no lack of oxygen, but that’s what’s been since. And then the body activates all the things that happen during hypoxia.
Speaker 2:Â
In well-oxygenized condition, stem cells start to replicate, new blood vessels, start to generate. It takes time, it’s not a magic. You have to repeat it. Okay, if you want to generate new blood vessels, new neurons in the brain, it has. It has to be 60 60 session.
Speaker 2:Â
It has to be this specific protocol, not not the crap that people are going into a tube and they are saying I’m giving a fratty protocol, etc. Etc. I see my names on different locations. This is not it. It has to be a place going inside this certain protocol. You can can look at Aviv’s website and see how a real chamber looks like, how our study was done. Okay, so this is what we call the hyperoxic-epoxic paradox. We are inducing stem cells and, for the first time in humans, we can see a generation of new neurons in the brain. We can see a generation of new blood vessels in the brain. In the brain, we can see generation of new blood vessels. In the brain, we can see reversals of the basic cellular things that are related to aging. We can see elongation of telomere. We can see the senescence go down.
Speaker 2:Â
This is a whole new discussion that we should have and that’s exciting. But even though I’m saying all of this, this is not coming in extent to what we said. This is not replacement to what we said before. This is on top of what we said before. And when you come to think about it, it’s amazing. And I had an interview two days ago and after the interview, the guy who interviewed me asked me, shai, where the world is going. It seems now he was expecting me to say, wow, it’s amazing, it’s great. And you know what was my replies? It’s horrifying. It’s horrifying why it’s horrifying?
Speaker 2:Â
If you will look at the life expectancy in the US, it’s going down. It’s going down Even though you are investing a lot of money in medical care. Okay, huge, but it’s going down. And what we are doing with the cohort who is coming to get our, it’s not hyperbaric, it’s having the full protocol, starting with having a purpose, etc. Etc. What we have just discussed now, in addition to triggering the biology with the certain protocol of hyperbaric, we are generating actually a new species, and this species have life experience, have knowledge, no limitation with the biology. Okay, as your father, they are not broken. Okay, they have the privilege not to think about how they are bringing the bread to the table on the next days and these people can take this amazing performance that they have to whenever they want.
Speaker 2:Â
And on the other side, you can see the people who are around the age of 50, already suffering from diabetes, from obesity, from obesity, from cognitive decline, from functional decline. This and this are two different species, and the gap is becoming wider. Why? Because, as physicians, we are trained to give anti-diabetic medication. We are trained to give anti-diabetic medication. We are trying to give anti-hypertensive medication.
Speaker 2:Â
You are trying to see a patient coming into your room and think how you can take him out in the five minutes that you have, and during that five minutes, you have to push something on your computer, so you will have the DRG or whatever things. That the system is working and we are losing it. Instead of speaking with the person, you know this is what you need to eat, buy a treadmill, start with that. You say, oh, it will take me a lot of time, so, easier, take this drug. Bye, see you in a month or two, okay, so this gap is widening. This gap is widening. This gap is widening and the most powerful things that we can have for our health and performance are free, just like the best things in life are free.
Speaker 2:Â
Yes, okay, the best thing for our performance are free, and if you are part of the cream and you can allow yourself, so take the added value that we have. But the best thing for life and performance are free, use it. They are all accessible. Okay, train yourself, be a performance. You have two choices in life. I always tell the people my friends okay, you have two choices in life. I always tell my the people who my friends, okay, you have two choices to manage a disease or to manage your health. If you decide to manage your health, you need to manage it. It’s not coming up from the sky, okay, you need to manage it, just like you’re managing disease. Because, because, when you have disease, you have all the time, all the resources, all the money to treat that disease. Have the same three elements to manage your health.
Speaker 1:Â
I love that. And it really does come down to choice. It always does, because even not doing something is a choice, right. So to take an action, to not take an action, it’s all a choice. It always does, because even not doing something is a choice, right. So to take an action, to not take an action, it’s all a choice. And sometimes it can be hard to turn the mirror on thyself.
Speaker 1:Â
And this isn’t a place of judgment, but it really is a place to say that we are all born with the most amazing innate potential and capacity to truly go out and thrive. That’s how our DNA is designed to help us evolve and thrive forward into new states of health and flourishing. And potential exists within us, but it doesn’t just activate by us sitting on the couch eating a bag of Doritos and managing a disease or a problem. What activates this full expression I love you’ve broken it down into such really simple yet profound and powerful language, doc is, you know, first of all, make yourself needable, stay open, realize you have a choice. And if we want to prevent, to slow down, to even stop the diseases of aging, is to first and foremost realize that the biology, what’s happening inside of the body, the body is tissue right, it’s going to respond to what’s going on out here. So the inside is influenced and informed by the outside, the choices we make, the choices we don’t make. So let us not overcomplicate. Let us realize that the best things in life are free, as you have so eloquently said today. There’s so much I want to get to talk to you about. I mean, I think we’re going to have to have another conversation because to me, I want to pick your brain on inverting that gap.
Speaker 1:Â
The earlier and earlier we start this should not be a conversation that’s relegated to 50 and above.
Speaker 1:Â
Of course, once we’re 50 and above, we start to really notice the declines and we say, wait, I don’t want to lose my performance we start to try to claw back up to the top to get it back. Yet we can radically, like you said, you’re kind of breeding this new human, so to speak, in your clinics and the places with your work. But if we now look, I believe that the trajectory of human evolution can radically change, not just today living better today for a longer tomorrow but how we show up today. We can start to have multi-generational effects. If we look and say multi-generational effects, if we look and say let’s go earlier and earlier, and earlier. And how do we start to reimagine what it means to be human, how to show up every day, how to live, how to parent openly, how to be needed as a kid, how to be needed as an elder, right and everywhere in between. So you’ve helped us dream a little bigger today, doc. How can people find out more about you and your ongoing work and impact that you’re making in the world?
Speaker 2:Â
So you know, I work in Israel, at Tel Aviv University, in one of the medical centers, but I’m writing now a book because everybody asked me you need to write a book, you need to write a book, you need to write a book. I said, ok, I will write a book. Ok, so I’m writing, write a book. You need to say, okay, I will write a book. Okay, so I’m writing now a book the name will probably be abnormal about the basic concept of enhanced medicine, okay, and since our center in Israel has become huge, we are treating now more than 350 patients per day, and I call it enhanced medicine. It’s not only hyperbaric, it’s how you can enhance your biology based on your biology, okay, and based on your environment, based on who you are. So this, this, what I call enhanced medicine. So, in order to replicate what we are doing now, we have centers that that have been established around the world. We have one, one already established, the Aviv Center in Florida, so people can go there and, by the way, they can go there only for evaluation.
Speaker 2:Â
We spoke about the brain as a very important issue. When was the last time you did your brain check? Okay, people are doing blood check. People are doing exercise tests, cardiac evaluation, colonoscopy, chest, breast evaluation, the most important organ, the brain. First of all, become aware of what’s going on in your brain, even if you are not doing anything. Evaluate it, see his current status and then evaluate it a year later or two years later. It’s, it’s important organ, okay, it’s important tissue, okay.
Speaker 1:Â
So just do your checkups.
Speaker 2:Â
So so for example, people can just go and do a checkups, do cognitive evaluation fully computerized, it’s called. They can look at the brain in a certain protocol of MRI, not a standard. Okay, don’t do anything, just just look. If two years later you see a decline, you will say, oh my God, oh, I need to take care of that. I’m going down and then you can see the perspective. Okay, then you can do something. And then you can see that you’re rising up and you say okay.
Speaker 2:Â
I have a feedback, so it’s important to have a feedback so people can reach me through Aviv. Hopefully the book will be ready. I’m not writing it for medical professionals, even though they will read it. It’s intended for the intelligent layman. Okay, so people can understand, because the world is changing, also with regard to that. People have access to data. People can have access to data. They can look, they can take control of themselves.
Speaker 2:Â
Don’t count on the physician who just smoked and got into the office to speak with you about what’s important to you. Choose your guidance. Choose your guidance from somebody that you respect, not in the way that he speaks, the way he behaves. Who is practicing what he’s preaching to? Who is practicing what he’s preaching to? If somebody preaches you to stop smoking, but then you smoke, you need to change the physician. Okay, he’s missing the point. Okay, so you need to look for somebody who can lead you through example, that you will look at him and say, oh, I need to do that. Okay.
Speaker 2:Â
So take control of your health. Manage your health. Monitor objectively the things that are important to you. If the brain is important, monitor the brain. If the brain is not important, monitor whatever you think is important. Okay, look at it and, in a clear fashion, see what you’re doing.
Speaker 2:Â
If you’re doing intervention, re-evaluate, get a bit of feedback, okay, and then handle yourself. For that, be active, take control, listen, learn, listen to me, listen to other people. You can say you know this, dr Efrati, I don’t believe in what he’s saying, I think he’s full of shit. Okay, listen to somebody else, understand somebody else, or you can say the vice versa. But be active. Okay, be active. Like you are buying a cellular phone. You just don’t go to an Apple store and ask him what will be the best cellular for me, because he will recommend iPhone. Surprise, surprise. Okay, you need to look at the data, choose, see the difference between Samsung to iPhone, see the difference between this approach to this approach. Choose the approach that is suitable for me, okay, and move forward with that. And if you’re making a mistake, correct it, re-evaluate, but be active. Don’t take the age-related functional decline for granted. It doesn’t have to be that way.
Speaker 1:Â
I love it. That’s right. It does not have to be that way. You always have the opportunity and the choice. And my gosh, I just want to keep talking. I just have to say this gang, in case you’re still you know you’re here watching listen if you can go check out the Aviv centers, if you have that luxury, you have that ability down in the villages. That’s an amazing.
Speaker 1:Â
To be able to get that full workup right, to really get that full, in-depth evaluation, is phenomenal. If, for any reason, you’re unable to do that at this time, a couple of just free, simple tools that you can start with. I’ll make sure we put in the links below, just even doing a subjective cognitive decline assessments. Couple simple questions. It’s a clinical form. You can kind of get a sense of where am I at? Is this showing that I might have some potential cognitive decline or or could that be there in the future? It’s something you can go back and answer. Again, a simple marker.
Speaker 1:Â
You know you’ve been hearing Dr Afrati speak about biomarkers. So one of the things and you talked about this, doc how in the brain, the hippocampus right is the area that’s going to make the largest amount of stem cells. So if we want that regenerative effect in the brain. Another way we can kind of indirectly measure hippocampal activity is even just by on any of your smartwatches, looking at your heart rate variability HRV you got a low. Hrv you got a lot of stress to the system. The more stress you got a low HRV you got a lot of stress to the system. The more stress, the smaller the hippocampus. And this is all validated in a ton of research. So again, it’s not going into the functional MRI.
Speaker 1:Â
If you can do that, please get there, go see them. They are the leaders. But if you’re trying to figure out what are some things I can do today be needable, take some action. It doesn’t have to be rocket science, you can start simply. You can get curious, you can answer a few questions. You can really look and say, do I want to measure and manage my health or sickness? Because if you start measuring and managing your health today, you’re only going to reduce your rate and your risk and your probability of managing sickness and disease tomorrow. So let’s go ahead and take action, because we’ve gotten all the high notes today. Dr Shia Frati, thank you so much. It has been a true honor, a pleasure and a joy, and we’re going to have to have you back when the book’s ready.
Speaker 2:Â
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Â
All right, all right everybody. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time, continue to thrive by design.
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