11 Tips on How to Stay Young

The obvious one. Sleep washes fluids through your brain, erasing inflammation, and in general reduces inflammation all through the body. Sleep eight hours seems to be what everyone suggests and what I mostly do.

I find that if I go 2-3 days with less than six hours than my performance in whatever I am doing is seriously degraded.

Some people have trouble sleeping. Melatonin is a natural hormone to help with sleep. I haven’t tried this approach yet but Dr. Oz suggested tart cherry juice, high in melatonin, mixed with sparkling water.

I don’t know the science behind any of this. But the basics are: food is fuel for the body. You can use your calories for fuel or they can be wasted and just cause inflammation in the body. Beets and protein, etc are fuel. And sugar is a total waste. So you get no energy, you get cravings for food as fuel, so you gain weight.

Many people speak about processed carbs. The flip side is that every culture, every "blue zone" has some carbs in their diet. So I don't know. But reduction and no processed seems best.

Peter Thiel, on my podcast, when I asked him about diet says, "everybody seems to agree on one thing. Sugar is bad."

@randomroger has written a lot about the benefits of this.

I don’t really exercise in a gym. I get bored in a gym. But I try to walk whenever I can (as opposed to elevator or cabs) and I try to exercise every morning, even if a little.

And I like to play. I’m not good at anything. But tennis, ping pong, etc, I love to do just to get the body moving.

I forget which podcast guest told me this: but 30 minutes a day of brisk walking is the best exercise for pure anti-aging. Is this true? I have no idea. But I do it.

I listen to comedy every day.

There’s evidence from Dr. Norman Cousins that laughter reduces chances of cancer, Alzheimer’s etc.

If I ever got cancer, I would quit everything and make sure I watched one funny movie a day and spend rest of time trying to get other people to laugh.

Stress spikes the cortisol levels. In other words, it’s as if you are in the jungle and a lion is chasing you. Within seconds, cortisol will trigger “fight or flight” and you’ll know right away whether you escape or die.

But in modern society, we (I) tend to feel chronic stress all day long. Worries about jobs, career, family, love. It’s like a lion is chasing us constantly.

The body is not made for a lion to be chasing us constantly. Stress is this evil demon that brings us down, quickly reduces our energy levels, the cortisol creates inflammation in the body which can lead to heart attacks, strokes, dementia, cancer, etc.

Some people say meditation reduces stress. Done right, I agree with this but “done right” is often not done.

Other ways to reduce stress: friendship, laughter, gratitude, finding the silver lining in every negative situation, prayer, creativity, improvement. honesty.

Another thing: don’t say “yes” when you want to say “no”.

When I see my friends, I have fun. I forget my worries. I talk about interesting topics that keeps my brain happy.

I love games. I love playing poker, chess, backgammon, any game with my friends. I never age when I’m playing a game. I know this. I’m a kid again in the middle of a game.

Humans survive best in a tribe.

So all the hormones and chemicals in our body reward us when we are with our friends (tribe). When we don’t cultivate our friendships, our chemicals think we have been pushed out of the tribe. This creates all the bad stuff mentioned above with inflammation.

Sometimes I do something creative and it takes hours and I forget where I was and how long it took. And then I’m happy for more hours as I look at my creativity and wonder at the magic of it all.

Where did this come from? Did I improve? Why is it beautiful? (or not). This takes hours to think about.

During those hours I KNOW I don’t age. If anything, I travel backwards in time.

When you lie, your life splits in half. There’s the half that is real and there is the new body that was created out of the lie.

It’s hard enough to keep one body alive, let alone two.

There’s a reason the Bible (and many religious texts that have survived for thousands of years) start off, “In the Beginning was the Word”

Make your every Word truth and watch the power that emanates from that.

I was going to end with Honesty. But I was never hugged as a child. I’m not complaining. I think this happens in many families. A hug is awkward.

Even now, sometimes people greet each other with a hug. I feel weird about it. Like if someone much taller than me hugs me when I thought we were just shaking hands. Sometimes I realize too late and so I switch to the hug and if they are taller than me I feel like I’m awkwardly kissing their shoulder.

Ewwww.

But, I love to be touched by people I love.

I always believe in: make a list of habits and try to do them. But if you can't, do at least one thing a day. That's better than nothing.

Alcohol, Cigarettes, eating too. much, any addiction, etc.