ZOE’s best health tips of 2025 - Part 2
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to ZOE Science and Nutrition, where world-leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
How much should we experiment with our own health?
Welcome back to part two of our 2025 highlights, the moments that changed how we think about our health and give us practical tools to feel better every day. Today, you'll hear what happened when I put my own breakfast under the microscope, how arthritis symptoms were reversed in a groundbreaking trial, and we finally get a scientific answer to the question, does cheese really cause nightmares?
Can a 47-year-old really be healthier than a teenager?
But first, a person who has arguably pushed the boundaries more than anyone, Brian Johnson. Brian has dedicated his life and his body to testing cutting-edge health interventions to slow down aging. His meticulous approach to sleep, diet, and exercise has sparked global debate and raises a question that matters for all of us. How much should we experiment with our own health? I began by asking him how he developed his unique way of living.
We wanted to approach this question scientifically. And so I hired 30 medical professionals.
Why is sleep essential for better health?
And we went through this process where we evaluated all the scientific literature on healthspan, lifespan. We tried to grade the evidence that we could identify. Do we think, for example, a given therapy, let's say it slows down the speed of aging or reverses aging damage to a certain degree, do we believe the evidence? And then we stacked ranked all the evidence and said, okay, we have our list and let's just start with number one and let's do that therapy or that measurement.
Does cheese before bed really cause nightmares?
And so we, we had a firm principle that we would do everything based upon measurement and scientific evidence.
Are oats actually good for you?
And so I became the most measured person in human history.
What is the link between oats and lower disease risk?
There's more data on my body than anyone before me. That's amazing. And we've just gone through this process of measurement, uh, application of the science and again and again, uh, And I think it's possible that they have the best comprehensive health markers of anybody in the world. you know, take 50 different markers from my sleep quality to my inflammation levels, to uric acid, to muscle, to fat, to take any marker. We're going to share this actually in the next coming days, but it's really a contemplation of like, what does health look like? And comprehensively from how you sleep to what your microbiome looks like to your biological age, your methylation patterns. So we really have tried to just do this by the data and numbers and with as little storytelling as possible.
And Brian, when you say the best possible markers, do you mean the best possible markers for someone of your age? Or are you saying that they're better than my 16-year-old son?
And so in every biological age marker, there's typically a ideal age. So for example, like in grip strength, as you grow older, you increase in grip strength capacity.
How can lifestyle changes improve arthritis symptoms?
Then you hit a certain age, you decline in grip capacity. And that is true for a lot of things. That's your cardiovascular fitness. It peaks at age 18 and then declines from there. And so we've tried to identify the peak age health level of every category of every marker. And we try to peg that. So we say, what is peak cardiovascular fitness for an 18-year-old? And then how do I achieve that? So for example, my cardiovascular fitness is equal to top 1.5% of 18-year-olds as measured by VO2max. We completed a test today looking at oxygenation of muscles. And so that's also a marker of age. So my oxygenation of my muscle is in the top 5% of 18-year-olds, elite swimmers. And so we try to find peak levels and then peg my markers to that as best we can.
If I understand right, you are saying that, yes, you are better than my 16-year-old son, basically, on all of these markers.
Yes. I mean, if you basically said, a conventional wisdom would say, a 47-year-old could never be as healthy as a 16-year-old. Now, in certain regards, that's You're probably true, right? They have the anatomy of a 16-year-old. I have anatomy of a 47-year-old. And there's just some things our technologies can't do today.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:13
2
How much should we experiment with our own health?
0:13–0:39
3
Can a 47-year-old really be healthier than a teenager?
0:39–1:15
4
Why is sleep essential for better health?
1:15–1:40
5
Does cheese before bed really cause nightmares?
1:40–1:47
6
Are oats actually good for you?
1:47–1:50
7
What is the link between oats and lower disease risk?
1:50–3:01
8
How can lifestyle changes improve arthritis symptoms?
3:01–47:23
Speakers
8 identifiedMore from ZOE Science & Nutrition
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The 5 best food swaps to lower cholesterol, protect your heart and to live longer | Dr. Alice Lichtenstein
Most replayed moment: Can you really boost your immune system? | Professor Daniel Davis