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An Antiaging Case Study (Me)

Matt
February 22, 2022

What is antiaging and longevity?

Antiaging and longevity refers to “Quality of Life” rather than time machines and immortality.

Chronological age is just a number used as a point of reference. “You look good for your age”, “I’m too old for that”, “When I was young, I could…”, “old dogs can’t learn new tricks” etc.

There are a lot of statistics showing we peak in our early adult life, and it is all downhill from there. Stats regarding hormones, muscle mass, bone mass etc. peaking and then declining. Leaving us feeling as though we missed our chance and ruined our life. Please understand statistics come from gathering adequate sets of data from populations to find a trend or average. If you don’t fit in with the average, you are often excluded from the statistics as an anomaly. We are left believing that a trend in statistics is all that is possible.

However, you are more than that. You have free will, you learn new tricks, you can remove burden, you can find your missing link. You CAN remove the handbrake and push the throttle. You are a human being; you can be a human being awesome or a human being sick and tired.  

At ANY age we can improve.

A case study:

35 years old to 45 years old.

  • More energy and vitality
  • More muscle and less fat
  • Less pain and increased mobility
  • Good gut health and digestion
  • Resilient and efficient immune defence
  • Healthy brain function
  • Good recovery 

This fat miserable 35-year-old is me. At this point I had been a naturopath for over a decade and studying wellness for 17 years after I started studying naturopathy at 18 straight after high school. Naturopathy study includes diets, nutritional biochemistry, herbal medicine, mineral therapy, sports injury managements, massage etc. So much information acquired, I could explain my excuses for my lack of health as mind blowing biochemical traps with an intricate system of supplementation and protocols and specific diets to rectify. If only I had the time and motivation to follow my own advice.

By 40 I was an owner of a supplement company and co-hosting a podcast discussing health, happiness, fat loss, gut function with industry experts and working with elite athletes. I was inventing new tools and concepts and changing lives. Researching constantly and discovering new protocols and ingredients that would change lives. I created a company moto of “results not excuses” that I would use in my business and a code of ethics “first do no harm” but I wasn’t living it. Every day I would receive testimonials of how my information and products were helping people achieve their goals. Yet here I am still fat, even more miserable, and now starting to suffer with crazy amounts of pain, gut dysfunction and stress leading into dark places of depression. My knowledge had improved so much that I could explain my worsening health in even more elaborate and pathetic ways. I had become so disconnected from my own body, nature and I lost control of the holistic system that I lived in. I was stuck in survive mode and not capable of initiating thrive mode. I had all the finances, resources and connections to achieve ridiculous results. I just didn’t have time to commit to me. If only I can push harder at work I can retire early and then I will heave time to heal.

By 45 I acquired some wisdom. Knowledge is useless unless applied. I have only one life. I am a husband and father, and I am human being; being unhealthy. I was compiling excuses for my lack of results. I had convinced myself that my sacrifice was to the benefit of all around me. My family and work came first, and I was killing myself to serve others and then looking for cheap thrills, quick highs and instant gratification to “reward” or validate my existence followed by periods of self-punishment for my lack of discipline. How could I have ever expected my family and work colleagues and friends to love and support me when I was tired, angry, and resentful? How could people look at me with respect and why would anyone take my health advice or be inspired by me when I was so sick and miserable? All my sacrifice to help other people live healthy and happy lives at the expense of my own did a total backflip and suddenly, because I was so unhealthy and unhappy, I was no longer capable of helping others no matter how hard I tried. I had failed in so many ways. I was now old and grey and so sick and not sure if I could go on. I hated this imposter and so did a lot of other people that once loved me. Everything was falling apart. I was in a mad rush against time to achieve my goals so I could finally get my time to heal. Then everything broke. My whole life fell apart. I didn’t make it. I broke just before my finish line.

Then I had nothing but time. Time to start again. Time to heal. Time to reconnect with nature. Time to stop and quieten my mind and listen to my body and see what my body can do. Time to look around me and assess my environment for avoidable stress and toxins. Time to do some testing and create new protocols and products for me. Time to self-reflect and learn to love me again and be proud. With this new holistic perspective, I have time to create the best version of me yet. I am genuinely excited for this opportunity to get back to my life mission of helping others to live a healthy and happy life.

Some priorities for antiaging:

  • We each have a unique holistic system with different triggers and challenges to identify and manage.
  • We are the sum of our consistent actions and as we age, we can create vicious biochemical cycles involving multiple systems dragged out of balance. It is essential to identify and break these cycles to get results.
  • Your microbiome can influence everything from digestion and detoxification to moods, hormones, and metabolism as well as immune defense and inflammation. You have spent your whole life building your unique microbiome. Do you know what is living inside you?
  • You have acquired survival techniques over the years that respond instantly to stress. It is important to protect yourself from your own defense mechanisms and break these cycles if necessary.
  • Balance survive mode and thrive mode to heal, repair and grow stronger. Stress activates survive mode to help you manage acute stress to survive the moment or day.
  • Your body cannot afford to wait to see what your stress trigger is before it reacts; memories, posture, pain, inflammation, microbiome, or immune challenges may all be adding to your stress induced survive mode and compromising your ability to heal in thrive mode.  

I am back in the clinic and taking consultations, creating useful content for podcasts, books, and seminars, creating new products and protocols so we can all get the results we deserve for our hard work and investment.

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