Dr. Jeffrey Bland, 80, draws a sharp line between being elderly and being an elder: one has lost function and become dependent, the other stays wise, capable, and still contributing to the people around them. In this conversation, Dr. Bland explains why he's built his current company, Big Bold Health, around the immune system, since it's the one system embedded in every tissue in the body and central to how we age at the cellular level. The researcher credited with coining the term functional medicine back in 1990 shares results from an 800-person clinical trial on Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat. An ancient Chinese grain his team stumbled into almost by accident, this superfood improved cognitive performance by 27 percent in just 90 days by reprogramming the epigenetic markers on immune cells. Listeners will come away with a clearer picture of how diet, environment, and daily habits can switch specific genes on or off, and why the goal of longevity isn't just more years, but more years spent as the version of yourself still capable of contributing.
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Key Moments
"Nature will give over her secrets."
"Elders are individuals that are wise, that are still functional, still making contributions, still being part of the productive society."
"We make over one million new immune cells every second."
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