In this week's episode, I get to sit down with engineer, entrepreneur, and Vital Health creator, Mehdi Yacoubi. This episode is all about optimizing personal health, the future of health monitoring, and longevity. We also get a glimpse into what Mehdi is currently working on, and his advice for healthy living. In this episode some topics we cover...
- How to increase personal longevity
- Health optimization
- Future of tech
- The over population argument
- Productivity
TIME STAMPS
[01:25] Productivity
[03:05] Time management
[03:32] Vital Health app
[07:17] Working remotely
[08:41] Importance of optimizing glucose levels
[12:25] How to incentivize prevention
[14:54] How to increase personal longevity
[22:30] Nutrition and personalized health
[29:32] Personalized exercise
[31:06] Biological age test
[32:32] Advice for health optimization
[36:19] What motivates Mehdi
[38:55] Longevity
[40:55] Over population
[45:00] Positive outlook for the future of tech
Shownotes
Where you can support Mehdi Yacoubi
Personal Website
Vital Health - sign up for early access to the private beta!
The Long Game Podcast
Sign up for his newsletter!
Personal Twitter
Vital Health Twitter
References throughout the episode
Strava
Turkish get ups
Peter Attia: The Centenarian Olympics
Biological Age Test
Biohacking
The Precipice - Toby Ord
Transcript
A lot of people are still getting type two diabetes, which is, uh, you know, a chronic disease, very problematic disease. Uh, you know, people we touch diabetes and lose on average 10 years. Uh, in terms of, of, of average lifespan, did they lose because of this condition? And I actually. We started working on what we're working right now, because we believe that there is no one size fits all.
So the answer will be for sure that there's no one size fits all. Like you, you can see it already in the, in the research papers like, yeah. Um, man, I am, I have so much to talk about so many questions. Um, Let's see, let, let me maybe start with this, uh, with this one question and feel free to, you know, feel free to interrupt, feel free to like, you know, jump in.
[01:25] Productivity
I get really excited, uh, as well, you know myself, so it's, it's fine. Um, no, but I was reading how, um, a couple of months ago you said that, um, with productivity, um, you like to do the smallest, easiest thing first. And I read this in your newsletter. And I started doing this too, and it's, I don't know it's been working really well for me.
Um, so I basically counter-intuitively, I don't do my deep work first thing, but I do like all the shitty stuff. Yeah. And then I get so much momentum, you know? Yeah. So look, my, my take on productivity, uh, is, is, is paradoxical because I both think that, um, people are, are, are talking about it too much, but I still love to talk about it.
So it's weird. Like my take is that. So much of the, the general advice is, is bullshit because you just need to find what works for you. And just productivity. Porn is so attractive. Like you see this perfect, to-do this perfect system to get getting things done. And so on. Some people have great success with that, but for me, I, it never worked to take something that was already pre-made.
So I tested a lot of things and yeah, I must admit that I don't like starting the day with, um, you know, like this, this gigantic thing that I need to do. I like to. Start gradually, you know, just, uh, get the momentum going, like do this, do some small things. Um, maybe do some, some emails, things like that. I, I have very, very little success if I, if I try to do the biggest thing immediately.
And usually I have more in the day. Where I feel that I can do the biggest thing and then I do it, but I don't plan so much. Like I have general like general idea of the thing that needs to be done, the meetings that need to be done. But on top of that, I also follow how I feel during the day. And for me, it works like that.
[03:05] Time management
I know that some other people need to have this very rigid, um, day, but, uh, it's not for me. Yeah. Yeah. And like it works. I worked like a charm because I used to do this thing called a time boxing, where basically you say whatever from, from nine to, you know, lunch, uh, lunchtime for, I dunno, four hours, you do your one big thing and you know, you put your phone away.
Um, but yeah, your approach works, works really well for me. So I'm going to stick with that. Yeah. Um, so. We were talking about, um, you know, traveling and, and nomadism and all of that, um, with your, with your startup that you're building, maybe, maybe talk to us about first of all, what it is you're building and why you're building it.
[03:32] Vital Health app
And then, um, how easy or difficult it is to do this remotely. Yeah. Great question. So, yeah, basically. Um, so at lifetimes there, I mean, we're going to change names very soon. So, um, it was going to be vital health, uh, new branding coming soon, stay tuned. But yeah, what we're building is basically, um, if, if you really want to have like the, the, the, the real product that we're going after is that we're building the Strava for health.
I don't know if you're using Strava for running and cycling, but it's basically the central app for, um, for, for your physical activities. And in our case, we're building Strava for health optimization. So everything related to, uh, to your health, uh, in an optimized and preventative approach, however, So we are starting with a blood glucose levels integration.
So we help people, um, you know, get the blood glucose levels and optimize their metabolism. That's what we're doing right now. And we are in closed beta. So, you know, if people want to, uh, to try it, they can sign up for early access. And, and yeah, so the, the reason why, why we started working on that with the, my co-founder AUB is that, you know, we have been super into health optimization for a long time, and we tried every single wearable, uh, try every single diet.
Um, we were training together, reading the papers, uh, got interested in longevity and we knew we wanted to build a company together. It was very clear. Initially, we started working on a digital therapy for pre-diabetes. Something similar to what, you know, Omada health or live on go, but for the European market.
But as we were working on that, I couldn't stop thinking. Why are so many people, uh, getting here in the first place? Like, why aren't we asking the question of, okay, now we're trying to help people reverse pre-diabetes, but why are so many people getting there in the first place? So, you know, I was talking with a lot of people with diabetes and a lot of them were worrying continuous glucose monitors.
So I started to get interested in, in, in the device. And I, I, I basically came to the conclusion that if more people had access to this device, we could, we could prevent a lot of people from getting, uh, pre-diabetes or diabetes. And this was obviously not my own idea. I mean, a lot of, uh, a lot of people in the space were saying that for already a long time, But, you know, it started to make sense for me.
So I went and bought some, uh, some Cision for myself and I was absolutely shocked because I discovered that I myself was on the verge or pre-diabetes like, Almost at, at, at pre-diabetes level. So really it was a wake-up call for me. Um, you know, I started to see that what I believe to be a very healthy nutrition, nutrition and diet was actually really not a good for my, uh, blood glucose levels.
You know, giving me huge blood glucose spikes on a daily basis. So at that point we decided with the, with my co-founder to, um, to, to pivot and really address the problem in a, in a preventative way. And empower people with the data and the biofeedback from their body, so they can make the right choices and avoid getting any type of, uh, condition, um, at all.
[07:17] Working remotely
So that's basically how we got to, uh, to be working on that. And then you asked in terms of, uh, how hard it is to build a remotely. Personally, I think that it is not hard at all. Um, you know, we always wanted to build a company, uh, remotely with, um, with my co-founder even before coronavirus, because we liked the freedom.
Um, we're not necessarily neither him nor I. Uh, you know, based in, in, in one city and want to stay in one city. So we kind of wanted to have the Liberty freedom to, uh, to go wherever. So that's what we did. And right now, obviously everyone is doing that, but, but on our side, I think that it's it's, um, it's, it's going great.
Like, I, I, of course I would like to, uh, you know, see people, the people that we're working with sometimes, like, you know, it's, it's, there is you, you, you miss something that's for sure. But then the, the, the upsides are also real. So to be honest right now, it's, it's, uh, it's not really a problem. Okay. So I have, I have two questions, uh, follow up questions to this one is, um, so just to clarify, this is what you're building is all software you're using other people's hardware devices, right?
Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We are a software company and we will stay a software company. Okay. And then the other question is because, um, I am a health freak myself, but I know a lot of people in the audience are probably thinking this right now. Uh, why is it important to optimize glucose levels and why should I care?
[08:41] Importance of optimizing glucose levels
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Great question. So, you know, uh, a lot of reasons, so obviously the, the, the first one, um, is that, um, you know, A lot of people are still getting type two diabetes, which is, uh, you know, chronic disease, very problematic disease, uh, you know, people with type two diabetes and lose on average 10 years, uh, in terms of, of, of average.
Lifespan did they lose because of this condition, but not only, you know, like once you start getting insulin resistance, prediabetes, or type two diabetes, like a, a metabolism that's not a properly functioning, you basically increase your chance of getting a whole lot of other diseases. This is like cancer.
Kendall. So many cancers are right now linked to, uh, to metabolism, but also, you know, disease like Alzheimer's, which is increasingly called type three diabetes. Um, so basically really the pillar of your health and longevity is maintaining a good metabolism, maintain me maintaining healthy, uh, blood glucose levels.
So you really need to pay attention to that. Um, right now, just to give you a rough estimate, you have 88% of, uh, American people, uh, that have an unhealthy metabolism. So just to give you a rough idea of, of the extent of the problem. So that's, that's the reason why we're starting with this, uh, vertical.
Okay. Okay. And, um, that's, that's crazy actually. I mean that, it's not just, uh, Conditions, uh, problems that are very physical in nature. It's also mental health and problems with the brain that can be linked back to glucose, uh, to glucose levels. Um, and I think it's something you really need to let that sink in for a second because, um, the glucose is such a foundational, um, basic thing yet.
Uh, yeah, most people certainly eat mostly carbs and, uh, and sugar. So, yeah, no, I agree with you that, that, that's pretty crazy. Um, the, the, the, the crazy thing to me is that, uh, you know, we, we have the technology to really help people, um, you know, understand the impact of what they're eating and their, their, the lifestyle in general, on their body and their health.
And we need to use it because if, if you, if you maintain a very long, uh, feedback loop, It's it's really not going to be a, to be optimal. You need to have short feedback loop. You need to do something and understand, is it good? Is it bad? If it's bad, you need to course correct. That's that's the way to go.
Obviously, the problem is not only knowing the problem is also, um, psychological and behavioral. No one believes that eating donuts is healthy. I mean, not a lot of people believe that, but still. People, uh, people, people eat that on a daily basis. So I believe that the, the, the, the, the perfect and the optimal solution will be a mix of both.
Uh, so a mix of, um, you know, technology science, so to get really the, the data and the understanding, but also it has to have, um, a behavioral and a psychological component, because you would fool yourself to think that, uh, if you just give the information to a person, then the person will comply.
[12:25] How to incentivize prevention
Everything shows you that, that, that, that it doesn't happen like that. Are you, what, what's your take on, um, insurers? I know there's a couple of up and coming insurers that want to, um, penalize people that are unhealthy think that's so, so yeah, I mean, um, there is a huge question around how do you incentivize, um, prevention.
The answer to this question differs from whether you have a single pair system or a multiple pair system. So in countries like France, um, and, uh, for example, Canada, you have a single payer system in country, like the U S you have multiple payer system. So the answer is a little bit different from, from, from one system to the other.
But for example, in the us, the problem is that insurances are not incentivized to push people. For prevention, because on average people stay with an insurance insurer for just a few years. So all of the, so suppose, uh, you know, uh, financial gains that the insurance would make, if the person is super healthy.
So, you know, the, these, this would be gained like. 2030, 40 years from now, they will not see that they will not see that because the person will be on a different, uh, insurance plan. So that's basically the problem in the U S. But obviously, um, you know, we need to find a way because prevention is, is, is obviously the, the way to go, but it's not clear right now how this will, uh, go.
Uh, you know, I believe that it needs to come from the, from the consumers and from the people requiring for, uh, more preventative measures and you start to see it, you know, especially right now in the coronavirus, um, era, you start to see that coming. Hm. And, um, I don't know. It's like the problem I'm seeing with healthcare, obviously there's tons of problems, but one problem is that, um, most people only act when it's too late.
[14:54] How to increase personal longevity
Um, and, uh, yeah, it's difficult to incentivize them a head of time. Um, but yeah, another question I have for you is, um, your personal, uh, health and fitness sort of longevity regime to switch gears a little bit, um, because, uh, we both want to be, uh, you know, hundreds of years old. And for that we have to hopefully, you know, do certain things, um, that are maybe a bit weird to, to most people, to the general public.
Um, maybe you can talk to us about some of the things that you're doing to increase health span. Yeah. So to be honest right now, uh, I am not doing a lot, uh, especially right now because you know, you always have, you know, trade-offs sometimes, you know, you're, you're, you're, you only have a certain amount of energy and time in a day.
So, you know, I also believe in, in, in, in some periods, I feel like you might have a different types of priorities, but yeah, of course, I still try to do, you know, the things that I can do. But so in terms of nutrition, I obviously try to maintain, uh, you know, optimal, uh, blood glucose levels. It's not so easy for me.
Uh, I mean, my metabolism is, is, is not so great. Um, but I do, I do what I can to really prevent having too high of a, of a blood glucose, um, on, on a daily level. Um, you know, I don't think that there is not that I don't think there is no one size fits all. So, you know, people need to, uh, to try and see what works for them.
But for me, I'm basically tasked to, uh, to be pretty low in terms of carbs. Um, I know some people do well with carbs. So, I'm not saying no one should, should have carbs, but, uh, should definitely see how you do with, with, with, uh, with them. So for me, it's, it's, uh, it's mainly, uh, you know, fish, uh, meat. Weed, uh, you know, vegetable most of the time.
Uh I'm okay with, with eating pretty much the same thing every day. So, so for me, that's a, that that works. And then in terms of, uh, exercising, uh, right now I really got into zone two training. So basically, uh, you know, cards you off. With a low intensity for, for a prolonged time zone two is basically the, the, the zone at which you can still talk with someone.
So it's really low intensity and it's, uh, you know, it's, it's very good for, uh, for longevity. I, I, I was not doing a lot of cardio before, so now I start to, uh, to invest more time on it. Do you do a fast walking or slow running? What do you do? Cycling. I do slow running. Yeah. I do slow running. Uh, I really enjoy to it, to be honest, it's, it's kind of also a meditative moment, uh, for me, um, going for a long slow run.
Um, and I feel that it's also great for every, you know, for, for the joints. Um, like it it's very low impact. Um, I also do a lot of jump rope. Um, so yeah, I spent more time. Doing what I'm not good at. I was doing a lot of weight training before. Right now. It depends on me. Anyway, the most gyms were closed, but basically spent the last, you know, seven to 10 years doing a lot of weight training and neglecting, uh, everything from stability, mobility, and cardio.
And right now I really start to think in a different way, or I start to think you need to be hitting all of the pillars. Of, uh, physical fitness, you know, you need to have adequate strength, but for me, it's, it's okay. Uh, but you also need to have stability. You need to have aerobic efficiency, you need to have an aerobic fitness.
So all of these things are very important and a lot of people you'll see that they're good at one or two of them, but they're not good at the two others. And most people would benefit from investing more time on the ones that are not good at like the iron man guy. Should maybe try to do some more weight training and the power lifter should try to go for 10 Ks and 15 Ks to just make sure that the heart is to working well.
So that's my approach right now for, in terms of, of, uh, of fitness. Uh, you know, I'm also big on, uh, you know, cold exposure. Um, you know, I've been, I've been doing, um, a lot of cold showers, uh, Wim Hof breathing also really like it helps with, uh, it helps me a lot with, with anxiety and stress. Um, and, and I just enjoy the experience.
Like I, I find it very, uh, very enjoyable. Like it's, it's for me a very nice moment. And fortunately, I don't have a sauna. Um, I never, I never had a sauna. So, uh, as soon as I can I go, but it's not so often, um, to be honest, And, um, and yeah, I, so th these are the kind of practices that I do on a daily, weekly basis.
And then there are some other stuff. Um, I haven't been very diligent recently. But, uh, you know, I believe that, uh, you know, having frequent blood testing to make sure both on the disease prevention and, uh, you know, keeping sure that you keep the, the, the nutrients and, uh, testosterone and hormones optimized is also very important.
You know right now, I think that people start to understand those, those ideas, but the solutions that that people have are still very, very bad. Like when you do a blood test, you don't understand the results. The, the lab test ranges are. Not necessarily telling you what is optimal and what is just, okay.
So there is a lot to be done there. Um, I know that there are some social and doing some, some cool stuff. Um, but still there are, there are a lot of opportunities for people building things in, in the space. So that's pretty much what I'm doing right now. Not so much, to be honest. Um, But, but yeah, just trying to keep it light right now, because you know, when you build a company it's it's, uh, and whatever you're doing, sometimes you just have to, uh, um, be very focused on one thing.
I don't necessarily believe in a balance, like in terms of, I don't see that you need to be balanced all the time and do everything all the time. Sometimes I see. Life more as periods, like, okay, I'll have, for example, a year where I really go all in on one thing and then maybe I'll take some time off. I mean, I don't think that I'll take time off from the company, but maybe, uh, you know, put up a little bit more time for health practices or team like that later.
But that's how, what I do right now. Okay, nice. And just to clarify, the only exercise you're doing is the, is the running. So you're not doing any body weight. No, no, no, no, no. I'm, I'm doing no, no, I'm doing, uh, sorry. I forgot to mention, I am doing, um, uh, weight training. I mean, body weight right now here. The, the gyms here in, in, uh, in Mancini Gras are still closed, unfortunately, but I am doing, uh, body weight training.
[22:30] Nutrition and personalized health
Uh, you know, chill. I like to go till failures on, uh, you know, the, the classic exercises that you can find in know industry to work out barks. Um, I'll let you do that. Yeah, because I, it's still, it's still very important to, uh, to maintain the muscle mass. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, one thing on the, on the nutrition before I forget, um, There's also a fair amount of discussion as far as like, you know, high carb, low carb, uh, high protein, low protein, as far as the blue zones, you know, that I'm sure you're familiar with.
So, yeah, it's a, it's a very good question. Um, because right now, the way I see nutrition is is, is more as a religious debate rather. Than it is a scientific debate. That's really unfortunate then that's, I believe right now the limits of human cognition that we just don't see the facts and we more see like our tribe will like these types of people.
So then I don't know, my friends are vegans or whatever, I'll think vegan or I'm into whatever Joe Rogan and so on. I like meat and veggies, you know? So it's kind of to sum it up the way I see that. I mean, I believe the solution is simple. Which is, it's not so simple, but let me explain what I believe is the solution to agree or have a good consensus on what are good biomarkers.
Like what is a good blood? What does a good blood test look like? What does a good, uh, you know, bio age or biological age test look like what's a good level of testosterone. Do we agree on that? Yes. No. Okay. And then just really read the biofeedback, like try diets, look at your glucose. Look at your testosterone.
Look at basically the, the response of your body. And then you'll have the answer. Like if a person tells me, okay, uh, I'm big on, on vegan diet. I eat. 300 to 400 grams of carbs every day. And that's perfectly healthy. If the person shows me that they have good glucose and good testosterone and so on, I'll be very happy.
I'd be very happy. And I, and I actually, we started working on what we're working right now because we believe that there is no one size fits all. So. The answer will be for sure that there's no one size fits all. Like you, you can see it already in the, in the research papers. Like you can see that some people have a very bad glucose response to, um, for example, a banana and another person have the opposite response, like a very good versus a very bad.
And then you, you change the food, then you have the opposite. So it just shows you that there's a huge interpersonal variability. And, you know, now we have the tools for people to do self experimentations and we are entering a new era. The era of let's not look at the study that tells you this is good for 80% of people.
Let's just take within the, the, the food that are generally good and see how it applies to myself. I believe this is the future where people start to, okay, here, here are the, the, the, the, the kind of hundred type of food that I can choose from. And then I can see, first of all, I can take from those, the ones that I like in terms of tastes, because it's still good, it's still important to have good taste.
And then, you know, you see how the body responds and that's it, you know, that's it, the problem is that food is emotional, you know, It's like, you know, you have, you have your tribe, you have your connections around food. So I believe right now that's, that's a huge part of the problem, but we need to remove that if we really want to find what's what's optimal in terms of, of health.
And I think actually to, to, to go off of that, um, as far as exercise with the different pillars, Um, the same holds true for exercise with the pillars, because you know, like yoga and Pilates for instance, are seen as very like feminine, you know, workouts for instance. And, um, you know, maybe the bodybuilder, you know, won't necessarily do it because of that.
Um, yeah, I mean, I started, you see more and more, uh, very impressive people that are extremely, uh, you know, extremely strong, extremely flexible as well. And that's amazing to see like, uh, there is this guy who is, um, um, who is fighting in the Asian UFC. I forgot the exact name of the championship, but. Yeah, his name is Alan and Galilee and he's the biggest guy you'll ever see.
Like he's like a bodybuilder like you Lisa's, or, or semen and Panda or whatever like that. But he, he can also, uh, you know, do the slates even more than the splits. And he's just the most flexible guy that you will ever find. So he's, you know, you never find that, you know, does that bodybuilder physique, but more flexible than.
Anyone and that that's crazy. And I believe we will start to see more and more of that because first of all, people think that it's super cool. And you know, usually if people think that it's cool, they will start to try to, to, to achieve that. But also people understand that. I mean bodybuilding, the way that, uh, the pro are doing it is the least healthy thing that you can do.
It's like, it's, this is not healthy. I mean, we're talking performance enhancing drug. And so on of course, this, this has nothing of a health practice, but also just working only one aspect of, of the, the, the, your physicality. This is not the way to age in a, in a great way. You're not going to age in a great way.
If you cannot touch your, your, your feet, you know, stay. Or if you cannot climb stairs without being out of breath. Yeah. This is odd. The other day I was thinking about this. Um, uh, when you, um, basically getting up from the floor, that's something, um, there's this exercise called Turkish get-ups I, you can look it up online, which is something that is so important.
And, uh, we don't, you know, we don't practice getting up from the floor. However old people can't really do it. Exactly. Exactly. That's um, you know, Peter chia has this concept of the centenarian Olympic, and it's a very good concept because it's, it takes, uh, a reverse engineer approach. Like he says, how do I want to be when I'm a hundred years old?
I want you to be able to do this, to do that, to, uh, you know, pick up the groceries, climb the stairs, play with migrant Gran children. Uh, so, okay. This is the type of things that I want to be able to do then how can I train to be able to do these things? And then you say, okay, so if I want to. Feed, there are 200 then where do I need to be at 90 then?
Where do I need to be at H and so on till your present age, and then you train like that. So you make sure that, that you maintain enough muscle, you maintain the proper heart and so on. And I, and I believe that this approach should be, uh, vastly, uh, popularized so people can, uh, you know, age in a great way.
[29:32] Personalized exercise
Do you think. Um, I was just thinking in the same way that there's, um, you know, personalized nutrition, you know, maybe you do do too, you know, well, on higher carbs, I maybe don't do as well with high carbs, whatever it may be. Do you think the same holds true maybe for, for exercise in the sense that, um, a certain person is healthier with a more, uh, a thinner built and another person maybe is better with the bulkier built.
Yeah. Yes. I believe that, uh, no matter the topic, you will not find one size fits all. It's, it's just the wrong way of thinking, uh, whatever, the, whatever we're going to be talking about. So, yes, uh, I truly believe that, uh, some people might be made for. Uh, long distance running. You see, you know, very often you see that the, the, the pros in, in each, uh, in each type of, of, uh, of exercise are usually built for that type of thing.
So I believe that it's, it's, um, it's, it's obvious that they're going to be, they're going to do very well with, with this type of exercise if they practice it a lot, but still. I still believe that they should also try to do, uh, some of the other aspects, but you know, usually the professional that they do, it like that, like even the marathon runner, you see them in the gym and they try to maintain some type of muscle mass.
[31:06] Biological age test
Um, But definitely like, uh, you, you see that people are doing great, uh, in some activities and other are doing great at some other activities. And also, you know, one thing that I think we will use a lot in the future is the, the biological age test. So. It's an additional biofeedback where we can just basically understand whether you're going the right direction.
It gives you a biological age. So are the practices that you're doing, your nutrition, your exercise, helping you age slower than your chronological age. So, you know, the, the, the test will not apply again. If, if the test is really, uh, you know, validation on our side on a scientific basis, which is increasingly the case, you can understand.
So if you are 40 years old and the test gives you, I don't know, 38 and one year later, Uh, you take another test and you find that you age less than one year. So for example, 38 and a half, you know that you're doing a great job and I believe that we will start using that more and more, and it will guide how people eat and sleep and exercise.
I'm very, I'm very excited for, for this, uh, perspective for sure. And I'm really excited for what you're building with. Uh, what was the new name? The rebrand again, vital health. Vital health. Yeah. I was like, I'm not going to say the old name because, you know, we published it like, you know, probably six, six weeks or something.
[32:32] Advice for health optimization
Um, what would you say to the, uh, basically out of shape, overweight, unhealthy unflexible, metabolically, unhealthy person that really wants to get healthy now. Yeah. So, first of all, I'll say this person that, you know, take it easy. It's all good. You know, like no need to stress over it because once you start obsessing or stressing, you're losing.
Okay, so take it is D you can do it. The first thing that I would say is that you can do it, you will do it. Um, just one thing, start small, start very small and develop habits, like a very healthy habit. Then I would say usually the one that I think works well for people is walking. Just try walking, try walking one hour in the morning.
And one hour in the evening, it's already a lot, you know, for, for, for people that are out of shape and not exercising, you get, you know, 10, 10, 15 K steps per day. You're already, you know, on a very good path. So just like that, the person could lose significant amount of weight. Try to, uh, you know, reduce obviously a little bit of what you're eating.
Try to increase the volume of what you're eating. So increased, for example, the amount of veggies, one gigantic bag of veggies, the 200, a hundred calories. So, you know, be big on that. Yeah. And, you know, put the gigantic bag of veggies you get, you're going to feel full. Then take whatever you want on the side.
So something that, that still makes you a little bit happier that you're not going to be depressed over and just start like that, do not be overly optimistic, do not be overly ambitious. Don't think that you're going to lose it all before summer. This is the wrong way of doing it. You're going to start yo-yoing you're going to start worsening your condition.
I always like long-term approaches take. Two years to do it, or one year and a half, you don't build up some good habits, enjoy the ride. Um, you know, try to, um, you know, make sure that, um, th th the thing that's most important is that you need to build a good momentum. You need to build a, uh, a virtuous cycle, because it's easy to say, Oh my God, you have pre-diabetes, you're obese, or you're not exercising.
You need to fix it all. You will not fix it all. In in, in, in, uh, in, in one month or something like that. So it's really about focusing on the bigger picture first, you know, losing some weight. Normally the person will lose some weight. Very often their glucose levels get better just, but by this practice.
And then when you lost the weight, Uh, you know, you feel much better in your body, then you can start focusing on the rest. You know, you can start really trying to optimize your glucose level. You can start working a lot on flexibility. You can start, you know, really, uh, for example, going after, uh, building some more muscle, but I see that the mistake people are doing is that they get a burst of motivation to begin with.
But they don't understand that this motivation will not last for a year and a half that it's going to take for them. So what's important is to, is to build a, you know, the right system that will enable them to really get the long-term results. And I believe in that, I think this is the right advice to give to people.
But once again, I don't think that once one advice would work for, for, for people. So maybe just the meta advice let's say is just to, uh, Try to understand your psychology, you know, try to understand what works for you. This is in the end, the best advice. Hmm. What's driving you Medi you're so passionate and intense about health and about longevity.
[36:19] What motivates Mehdi
Uh, yeah, what's driving you. Yeah, that's a, that's a good question. Um, I mean, in terms of health, I have always been super into, uh, you know, optimizing my health. Like I remember when I was super young, uh, it was not clear to me why we're going to deduct just when we have problems. Like it never, I never understood this concept.
Like I was like, okay, so now I'm not sick, but why can't I go to. Improve or make sure that I will not get sick later on because, you know, I, I was always depressed when I was getting a flu or something like that. And I really wanted to make sure that I will not get it again the next year. So, you know, I, I grew up with this idea and, uh, you know, Obviously then I discovered everything related to health optimization and by hacking.
So it was really something that, that, um, made a lot of sense for me, but really, you know, once I understood, um, that, you know, some people are working for example, in longevity and they're doing some great stuff and that, you know, we could reverse aging. So once they understand the extent that these things.
Could mean for humanity. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Like, can you imagine like living for hundreds of years and just right now, when you imagine the current world we'll live in, imagine showing that 2%, 500 years ago, they wouldn't understand anything. And so to me, I really embrace the future and I'm a very.
Very, uh, optical. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, long-term optimist. So on the short term, I understand that we have a lot of challenges, but in terms of humanity, I believe in us, you know, I believe that we will, at some point live for, you know, thousands of years, we know that that's some of the things that I believe, maybe not right now, but you know, when you see that, um, the potential of.
What's going to happen in, in the, in the next 10, 15, 20 years. I just want to, uh, to make it happen faster. That's a, that's, what's really a huge motivation for me, which is to really push progress and, um, you know, really try to embark everyone in this better future that, that we can build. Amen. Uh, what, what will you say to, because I'm obviously in the same kind of, you know, longevity, tech bubble, uh, what will you say to people that are like, well, longevity, you know, that's for, you know, white tech bros or that's for rich guys.
[38:55] Longevity
I don't care about that. Why would I care about that? No, no, no. This is a, this is a wrong way of thinking, like, um, You know right now, pretty much everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people around the world have access to antibiotics, you know, um, you know, uh, a lot of people have access to, uh, what's what was unbelievable 50 years ago.
So really like the innovation that happened on the French then get passed on, on, on other people. And you need to understand that, you know, aging is the mother of all diseases. So literally. The planet would benefit from us having a better understanding of the underlying condition. So it's, it's really, doesn't make sense to me, people that say, why are we doing that?
Like, you know, when you have a cancer or if you have Alzheimer's, you would like a cure, you know, you would like something to, uh, to, to, to not have this condition anymore. And what people are doing on longevity. They're working exactly on that. They're working on. The meta disease that aging is, and they're trying to, uh, help us reverse it, potentially completely remove it.
[40:55] Over population
But I don't understand what, why people wouldn't like, like, uh, some people like to suffer, but on my side, I think that it th that, that it's, um, you know, a little bit of suffering my, my big for some, for some purposes. But other than that, it's really the understanding that. Everyone will benefit. At some point, you need to have people innovating on the fringe before the innovation is being passed down and passed to, to, to everyone else.
And on top of that, you know, the fight against aging is really a fight against, uh, suffering. What about overpopulation though? Cause people are going to, you know, yeah. Many, many responses to that. First of all right, now we have a problem that is that, uh, you know, in most Western countries we do not have enough people.
Fertility rates are dropping sharply. It's it's it's right down the huge problem. We don't have a problem of overpopulation, but let's say that's, we get people to leave challenge in a 5,200 or whatever. Then you need to imagine that, you know, first of all, Um, earth is not so densely populated as people believe like, um, you know, for example, getting 1 billion people in the U S would give approximately the density of France.
It's not, you know, France is not like, uh, it's not so densely populated, you know? So people have a misconception about the th the space we have. And, uh, and yeah, I think that this is, this is the first answer to the, to the, to the question, but then you need to imagine that once we, once we start entering the era of Saifai tech, then we have the stars.
We have the cosmos to report, you know, we obviously will become at some point a multi-planetary species if we don't blow ourselves up before, because existential risk is also a very important topic right now. Um, you know, it's. Toby or the author of a depressive piece. Um, Plans that we basically have one in six chance of blowing ourselves up during the century because basically our technology evolved exponentially, but our wisdom did not.
So right now we're still, uh, you know, our on, on a, on, on a very dangerous path. So we need to pay a lot of attention to that. You know, everything related to nuclear weapons, uh, pandemics, uh, with viruses that could be much more problematic than the corner virus. But anyway, let's. Stay optimistic. And imagine that, that we make it, you know, spacing position.
We'll, we'll, we'll have to become, uh, a very important part of the solution there. So yeah, to sum it up is that right now we have a problem that people are not having enough babies in, in, in a, in a lot of developed countries and in, in the West. Countries are less populated than people believe. And we have a lot of space left and then space exploration.
So I think that, uh, it should not be a huge problem not to mention that people will, uh, work much longer and they will create much more value, which means everyone will have much more money. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Totally. Like all of these problems. They, they will have solutions, but, uh, we're not going to just keep on living 80 or 85 years.
If we leave, if we can live much longer. Just so we don't have to face these problems. These problems will w w we'll have solutions like, uh, finding food. We will find other ways to, to, to create food. And, and so on, of course, the complete that, um, the, the stuff becomes complicated when you have innovation that, that happened.
[45:00] Positive outlook for the future of tech
Um, no. W w like too, uh, too fast, you know, if stuff happens to fad, then other fields do not have enough time to adapt, and that might be a problem. But, uh, you know, I believe in our inability to, uh, to solve the problem that that we'll have, but I also would love that, you know, young people. Start working on those big problems, you know, climate, uh, space, longevity, uh, those big, uh, energy, you know, energy production, all of these things are super important and I see more and more young people, very interested in those topics.
So it gives me hope. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And this is really like why I started the podcast. Initially it was to explore and just talk to cool people, frankly, but now it's more and more going toward. I want to make, you know, white mirror, uh, you know, media, I want to, you know, have, you know, tech positive storytelling in the world.
Um, I want to, you know, make people excited about the future, think positively about the future. So then they go out and build the future. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Beautiful message. Beautiful message. This is definitely the type of idea that that motivates my, my, my work and, and my life in general. And I think that, uh, yeah, we need to, uh, you know, all of these people need to unite forces and, uh, we need to be actively working on, on, on building a better future and addressing all of the problems that they are currently in, in society and not just closing our eyes.
Like a lot of, of, uh, you know, the problems that we have right now, they need to be, to be fixed, you know, and P some people need to be working on that. And, you know, money needs to be, uh, invested on, on those people that are going after those problems. And that's the way we, we, we make it, that's really the way, a hundred percent man, a hundred percent.
I want to be respectful of your time, Medi any parting words. And of course we want to plug. Vital health. Yeah, for sure. Well, um, if, uh, people want to take care of their health, optimize their health. Uh, so right now we are starting with. Glucose levels, blood glucose levels. So you can sign up for early access, uh, at, uh, so right now the, the website will be, uh, will be in the, in the, I guess, in the, in the show, in the show notes, but at, or.io.
Um, other than that, yeah, I have, um, weekly newsletter about all of these type of topics called the long game. Uh, so yeah, if you're interested, you can check it out. And then yeah, let's, uh, let's all build a better future for sure, man. And we'll link it all below. Of course. Thanks so much, so much for listening.
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