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Summary
On episode 580 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Rand McClain, who was accepted into medical school at age 37, earned his medical degree at Western University, and now works with elite athletes, celebrities, and CEOs on optimizing health and longevity.
They talk about his book, Cheating Death: The New Science of Living Longer and Better, and the idea of healthspan: not just living longer, but staying close to your personal best for as much of that time as possible.
The conversation covers NAD and autophagy, why sleep may be the single most underrated driver of healthspan, the real difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise for fat loss and muscle, the value of flexibility, and where stem cell and muse cell therapy are headed.
Links
- https://psrmed.com
Key Takeaways
- Healthspan matters more than lifespan alone. The goal is not just to live longer, but to stay close to your personal best physical capacity for as long as possible, rather than living an extended but declining final stretch.
- Exercise is the best way to generate NAD, which drives cellular cleanup (autophagy). NAD activates a repair process that fixes damaged DNA and clears out worn out, “senesced” cells; exercise produces more of it than supplements, and fasting is another strong trigger.
- Insufficient sleep can cut insulin sensitivity by half in less than a week. Citing sleep researcher Matthew Walker, Dr. McClain calls sleep the “great equalizer” and notes that just five nights of short sleep can meaningfully worsen how the body handles blood sugar.
- Deep, non-REM sleep is when the body does its most important repair work. Skipping the later stages of a full night’s sleep short-changes both cellular cleanup and, in athletes, the actual muscle repair that follows a workout.
- Chronic under-recovery drives cortisol up, which redistributes fat to the midsection. People who are not sleeping or recovering enough can lose fat on their arms and legs while gaining it around the abdomen, a pattern driven by ongoing stress hormone release rather than diet alone.
- Anaerobic exercise burns calories far less efficiently than aerobic exercise, which is the point. Anaerobic training yields roughly 2 to 4 units of energy per calorie versus 36 to 38 for aerobic work, so building muscle through strength training raises the total calories burned around the clock, not just during the workout.
- Flexibility is the piece most people, including Dr. McClain, wish they had prioritized earlier. Functional movement and fascia health depend on it, and neglecting it while young leads to stiffness and dysfunction that catches up later.
- Muse cells are a newer, more versatile alternative to traditional stem cells. Unlike most stem cells, muse cells can cross the blood brain barrier and do not require a genetic match to the recipient, though research on them is still early and mostly published in Japanese.
- Dr. McClain’s three strategies to get and stay well: proper nutrition, the proper amount of exercise, and the proper amount of sleep, roughly 7 to 9 hours for most people, with everything else being fine-tuning on top of those basics.
“If you take care of yourself, you’re going to live longer and better.”
Coach Allan
Another Episode You May Enjoy
Episode 587 – How to live to enjoy your retirement nest egg with Thomas Hine
Episode Notes
Podcast: 40+ Fitness
Episode: 580
Published: 2023-03-07
Host: Allan Misner (aka Coach Allan), author of The Wellness Roadmap
Guest(s): Dr. Rand McClain, our co host, Coach Rachel, Cheating Death the New Science of Living Longer and Better
Listen & Subscribe: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube (audio only)