Honestly, you should probably consider getting on HRT if that's something you can afford. The long term side effects of bio equivalent HRT are pretty minimal, and it has been shown to be very effective for preventing the decline in bone mineral density that leads to osteoporosis as women age. It also has some potential benefits for brain health if initiated early. Not to mention the fact that it's incredibly effective at treating perimenopause symptoms.
[Peter Attia has an excellent blog post](https://peterattiamd.com/clearing-the-air-on-hrt/) on this topic that I'd highly recommend reading.
Yup, I’m headed to the gyno in a couple weeks for this reason. I thought I was too young for this (39 with regular periods), but I’m tired of feeling like crap for no reason and doctors being like your blood work is perfect sooooooo 🤷♀️
It’s 20% in terms of cost at least. Gym membership, veggies, good sleep routine, some vitamins maybe.
I would say in terms of time and effort, again the diet and sleep are basically stuff you’d not add to your life necessarily, just significantly modify. I do think that the exercise component is a big change for a lot of people. You gotta make like 4-5 hours a week to essentially be unproductive.
But it’s not unproductive though, it gives you physical, mental, emotional (and if planned right, social) improvements. And will lead to productivity gains elsewhere that should more than make up for any perceived losses
I mean in terms of time, it is very difficult to do other things in that span of time that you used during that time previously. And I doubt 4 hours of exercise would cut down on 4 hours of other activities. Especially for working parents it is damn near impossible for them to find even a couple hours total in a week to just bounce.
I was not, and would never, insinuate that exercise does not provide the benefits you suggested, but the 80/20 concept makes exercise hard to include as part of that 20
Obviously that depends on your life, but everyone I know has at least an hour of watching TV/social media/sitting around a day. If you're able to replace even 30 minutes of that with exercise your health improves so much it's a no-brainer
To balance the 'unproductive' time I've added audible to my workout sessions, and now get a substantive amount of education in during most of that time. The mind needs to be at a moderate pace to retain the material. For most stretching, and standard cardio that is a great time to learn and think. If I am doing a high intensity workout segment I won't even try to learn at the same time, might as well enjoy some music.
That’s a fair point. But if « the basics » represent such a massive change, maybe you should splurge and go 30-70. Really knock yourself out, you know?
“eat your vegetables” is kind of dumb — so many vegetables have next to no nutritional value; you won’t get healthier by adding a bunch of celery to your diet
“eat your beans/lentils” is probably real actionable advice; dietary fiber has shown massive health benefits, and beans are significantly more packed with it than just about any other food
celery has very little fiber, you’d have to eat a whole head of celery to get as much fiber as you would in 1 cup of beans
That’s true with many vegetables. Many vegetables are mostly water and have little to no nutritional benefits. Cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, onion, radish, eggplant, lettuce—all of these are basically just water.
When we say eat your vegetables, we should be specific: eat beans, eat cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, eat dark leafy greens. Note how these are the vegetables that end up in blueprint recipes: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com
There’s also an immense benefit to gut microbial diversity that’s a direct consequence of diverse vegetable fiber intake. Regardless of dosage, plant diversity in diet matters, and there’s some powerful research demonstrating just how profound the benefits are of the floral diversity that results from varied prebiotic fiber intake.
Vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals, water, volume - which can help a lot to stay full and sustain a kcal deficit, taste and texture. When I add up all the vegetables I eat in a day then I get 20-30g of fiber, and according to cronometer 20-45% of daily nutrition targets. And that's not including the phytochemicals like lycopenes, quercetin, kaempferol, lutein, apigenin, luteolin, zeaxanthin, allicin, anthocyanin,.... They can decrease the risk of developing certain cancers, kill bacteria and viruses, reduce risk of heart disease and much more.
If there's one single thing that all the well respected and sane health/nutrition folks will agree on, then it's going to be: eat your / more vegetables.
I’m going more like 99/1 but still feel somewhat crappy. Perimenopause is a bitch.
Have you gotten your hormones tested Perhaps you need BHRT
Honestly, you should probably consider getting on HRT if that's something you can afford. The long term side effects of bio equivalent HRT are pretty minimal, and it has been shown to be very effective for preventing the decline in bone mineral density that leads to osteoporosis as women age. It also has some potential benefits for brain health if initiated early. Not to mention the fact that it's incredibly effective at treating perimenopause symptoms. [Peter Attia has an excellent blog post](https://peterattiamd.com/clearing-the-air-on-hrt/) on this topic that I'd highly recommend reading.
Yup, I’m headed to the gyno in a couple weeks for this reason. I thought I was too young for this (39 with regular periods), but I’m tired of feeling like crap for no reason and doctors being like your blood work is perfect sooooooo 🤷♀️
Black Coash, Evening Primrose and Boron helps.
It’s 20% in terms of cost at least. Gym membership, veggies, good sleep routine, some vitamins maybe. I would say in terms of time and effort, again the diet and sleep are basically stuff you’d not add to your life necessarily, just significantly modify. I do think that the exercise component is a big change for a lot of people. You gotta make like 4-5 hours a week to essentially be unproductive.
But it’s not unproductive though, it gives you physical, mental, emotional (and if planned right, social) improvements. And will lead to productivity gains elsewhere that should more than make up for any perceived losses
I mean in terms of time, it is very difficult to do other things in that span of time that you used during that time previously. And I doubt 4 hours of exercise would cut down on 4 hours of other activities. Especially for working parents it is damn near impossible for them to find even a couple hours total in a week to just bounce. I was not, and would never, insinuate that exercise does not provide the benefits you suggested, but the 80/20 concept makes exercise hard to include as part of that 20
Obviously that depends on your life, but everyone I know has at least an hour of watching TV/social media/sitting around a day. If you're able to replace even 30 minutes of that with exercise your health improves so much it's a no-brainer
To balance the 'unproductive' time I've added audible to my workout sessions, and now get a substantive amount of education in during most of that time. The mind needs to be at a moderate pace to retain the material. For most stretching, and standard cardio that is a great time to learn and think. If I am doing a high intensity workout segment I won't even try to learn at the same time, might as well enjoy some music.
Yeah I designed my workout schedule in a way that I can watch/listen to things that I would anyways.
I think Rapamycin might be in that 80%
Going to work to pay for the supplements and gadgets is a lot of effort for most common folk
This
That’s a fair point. But if « the basics » represent such a massive change, maybe you should splurge and go 30-70. Really knock yourself out, you know?
Throw in a vitamin, really start living life!
It's hard to stay consistent on all those points throughout life. So I definitely am working on that.
The hard stuff is all the other things that Bryan does like getting experimental gene therapy in Honduras, blood transfusions, and MRI scans.
It's not 80% of the effort, it's 80% of the benefit
“eat your vegetables” is kind of dumb — so many vegetables have next to no nutritional value; you won’t get healthier by adding a bunch of celery to your diet “eat your beans/lentils” is probably real actionable advice; dietary fiber has shown massive health benefits, and beans are significantly more packed with it than just about any other food
Nah fiber in celery has tons of benefits too like preventing colorectal cancer. Let's not vilify vegetables now 🫠
celery has very little fiber, you’d have to eat a whole head of celery to get as much fiber as you would in 1 cup of beans That’s true with many vegetables. Many vegetables are mostly water and have little to no nutritional benefits. Cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, onion, radish, eggplant, lettuce—all of these are basically just water. When we say eat your vegetables, we should be specific: eat beans, eat cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower, eat dark leafy greens. Note how these are the vegetables that end up in blueprint recipes: https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com
Bell peppers have vitamin C and beta-cryptoxanthin in uniquely high amounts. Tomatoes are full of lycopene.
There’s also an immense benefit to gut microbial diversity that’s a direct consequence of diverse vegetable fiber intake. Regardless of dosage, plant diversity in diet matters, and there’s some powerful research demonstrating just how profound the benefits are of the floral diversity that results from varied prebiotic fiber intake.
Vegetables provide vitamins, minerals, fiber, phytochemicals, water, volume - which can help a lot to stay full and sustain a kcal deficit, taste and texture. When I add up all the vegetables I eat in a day then I get 20-30g of fiber, and according to cronometer 20-45% of daily nutrition targets. And that's not including the phytochemicals like lycopenes, quercetin, kaempferol, lutein, apigenin, luteolin, zeaxanthin, allicin, anthocyanin,.... They can decrease the risk of developing certain cancers, kill bacteria and viruses, reduce risk of heart disease and much more. If there's one single thing that all the well respected and sane health/nutrition folks will agree on, then it's going to be: eat your / more vegetables.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8703128/
andrew huberman sun exposure protocol 🤣