Eric Topol (Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity) is a cardiologist, researcher, and author. Eric returns to the Armchair Expert to discuss being Monica’s epilepsy consultant after their early interview, recent findings suggesting that AI aids doctors in providing better care, and an intense gag order suppressing getting a detrimental drug taken off the market. Eric and Dax talk about hospital beds that can monitor people as they sleep, no one having yet done a healthy aging study of genomics, and the true anecdote that inspired him to write his new book. Eric explains creating a segue to effectively prevent diseases we never could before, how Viagra was initially a failed blood pressure medication, and why despite troubling trends in diseases he remains optimistic about the future of aging.Follow Armchair Expert on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch new content on YouTube or listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free by joining Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/armchair-expert-with-dax-shepard/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What insights does Eric Topol share about longevity?
Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Armchair Expert early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts, or you can listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome, welcome, welcome to Armchair Expert, experts on expert. I'm Mike Shepard and I'm joined by Lily Padman. Hi. Hi. Returning guest from the early, from the bygone era.
That's right.
And this is, there have been a few guests that have really captured our heart.
It's true.
We fall in love with their spirit.
We do.
And Eric Topol's like at the top of that list. We think he is the cutest person alive.
And smart as all heck.
Outrageously smart. He is a cardiologist, a scientist, an author, and the director and founder of Scripps Research Institute. His books include Deep Medicine, The Patient, We'll See You Now. That's what we had him on for last time. And now his new book, which is out, Super Agers, An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity. This was a blast.
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Chapter 2: How is AI changing the future of healthcare?
The heart attack study, to me, was the most compelling of all. And then the recent study about a spoonful of plastics in your brain and how that was associated with a much higher risk of dementia, that didn't feel good either.
I don't know how someone is two standard deviations above or below the plastic consumption. It comes in your can that is aluminum, but it's got a plastic line. Like how on earth is anyone taking in more or less?
So your point is a really important one is at the individual level, how much can you do? Because it's so pervasive. You can do some, but we also need to take this seriously because there are some solutions in sight. There are ways to combat this that have been published, some really elegant science work. We're just not implementing it. It's like we're just ignoring it all.
There's so much happening. You get fatigued on all the problems we have. The fires thing happened, right? Big panic in my house. And I'm like, it's going to cut however many years off our life, but it's going to cut that many years off of every single person we know. In some weird way, I go like, yeah, but we won't be uniquely punished for this. It's everyone. It's everything.
And an illusion that you can escape it. So maybe I've surrendered everything.
Despite the fact that we've been talking about some worrisome things, I have overwhelming optimism. And the reason I say that is because, okay, we've got these things that are in the way, but we have a new path to preventing the big three age-related diseases. And if we can do that and start to get serious about the burdens that we are facing environmentally, then we win it all.
Yeah, okay, so we nailed the lifestyle portion. We skipped exercise, but I talk enough about that. Social isolation, we've also had Vivek on a couple times talk about that. That's really relevant. But let's talk about cells and what's coming our way and what's going to help us.
A perfect example, since you've had an autoimmune condition, no one would have predicted to have lupus, systemic sclerosis. You could give them a way to ablate their B cells on their body, and then they regenerate. and they forget that they ever attacked you. The autoimmune is cured. Who would ever guess that?
Yeah, you think it's destroyed, and you even say there's damage within these organs, and you would think that would be permanent.
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