The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
The Concierge Doc Podcast is hosted by Dr Jason Littleton, M.D., where he features medical content to make smart lifestyle choices for optimal health, wellness, energy, youthfulness, longevity, balance, and happiness.
The Concierge Doc Podcast with Dr. Jason Littleton, M.D.
Gary Brecka: The Man Who Predicted Death — and Learned How to Extend Life
Gary Brecka is a renowned human biologist, longevity expert, and one of the leading voices in data-driven health optimization. With more than two decades of experience analyzing human biomarkers, Gary has built a reputation for translating complex science into clear, actionable insights that help people live better, fuller lives.
Before launching his work in public health and media, Gary served as a leading mortality researcher in the life insurance industry, where he helped predict health outcomes using comprehensive medical and lifestyle data. That experience gave him a rare, behind-the-scenes understanding of how health risks are measured, priced, and predicted at the highest levels.
But Gary’s mission was never about predicting how long people live — it was about changing how well they live.
As the founder of The Ultimate Human, Gary has helped shape the modern conversation around longevity, healthspan, and personalized wellness. His work emphasizes prevention, measurable outcomes, and empowering individuals with the knowledge to take control of their health before problems arise.
Now, Gary Brecka brings that perspective to The Concierge Doc Podcast, joining Dr. Jason Littleton for a powerful conversation on health, fulfillment, and what it truly means to live a longer, more meaningful life. Together, they explore how data, proactive medicine, and personalized care can give people access to their lives — not just more years on the clock.
This is a conversation about longevity with purpose — and why health is the foundation of everything that matters.
Visit Dr Jason Littleton's website: https://www.jasonmd.com/
Follow Dr Jason Littleton on Instagram and Facebook: https://www.instagram.com/therealdoctorjason/
Watch Dr Jason Littleton on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealdoctorjason3340
Disclaimer:
Access to the Information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics (the “Information”). Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The Information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The Information should not be considered complete and not exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor.
I wanna I wanna start by just asking, you know, before the research, before the public work, was there a moment where you saw something in the data or in a patient that made you think this changes everything? What's the secret to your success in what you're doing? My friend, Gary Breca.
Gary Brecka :Well, so I read medical records for a living for almost 20 years. And I took those medical records, I put them into a uh what was called a probabilistic model to predict mortality to the month. And I would take and download the patient's history, um, 10 years of their medical records, 10 years of their demographic data, and we would essentially predict life expectancy to the month. And then based on that prediction, if insurance companies and other big investment funds would make very, very large bets on how long that a person had to live. If you get a life insurance policy and they're putting 10 million or 20 million dollars worth of risk on your life, they really don't care where you are on an actuarial curve. They want to know your specific mortality. And to get specific mortality, you need that portion's data. And we would take their data and we would put it into this database. And if you look, if you want to know how um good life insurance companies are at predicting death, just look at what happened during the 2008-2009 financial services crisis. We had 364 banks fail. Not a single life insurance company failed. So life insurance companies, annuity companies are very, very good at predicting mortality. And if I was to boil my entire career down to just a sentence or two, it would be that the reason why the vast majority of human beings are not living longer, healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives are for what we call. We know Alzheimer's, for example, is now type three diabetes, right? It is insulin resistance in the brain. And the fallacy about Alzheimer's is that people are losing their memory. That's actually not true. They are losing access to their memory. Wow. And access can be restored.
Dr Jason Littleton:And so that's huge.
Gary Brecka :Yes. Yeah, we never talk about restoring access. We talk about trying to regain memory. Once you accept that the memory is lost, you assume it's no longer recoverable.
Intro:The views, opinions, and statements expressed by our guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Dr. Jason Littleton or the Concierge Doc Podcast. We do not endorse or take responsibility for any statements, claims, or perspectives shared in this content. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and form their own conclusions.
Speaker 2:Access to the information and materials contained in this podcast is at your own risk. The information contained is presented for the purpose of educating the consumer on a variety of wellness and health care topics, the information. Nothing contained is intended to be instructional for medical diagnosis or treatment. The information contained is compiled from a variety of sources. The information should not be considered complete and exhaustive and should not be in place of a visit or consultation with your own primary care doctor. Welcome to the Concierge Doc Podcast. I'm your host, CEO and founder of Littleton Concierge Medicine, Dr. Jason Littleton. Welcome to the podcast. Now, today's guest, I'm really excited about. I met this guest through my business mentor, Dr. Stasia Pierce. Dr. Stasia is the one who got me in the game of concierge medicine and introduced me to the very next guest. I would not know him without her. Thank you, Dr. Statia. Here's the red carpet. This gentleman is the visionary founder of the Ultimate Human. He's a renowned human biologist, biohacker, and longevity expert with over two decades of experience in analyzing human biomarkers. His unique approach combines the precision of science with the personal touch of individual wellness. Before creating the ultimate human, he served as a leading mortality researcher for the life insurance industry, where he honed his expertise in predicting health outcomes based on comprehensive data analysis. However, his passion lies not in forecasting lifespans, but actually in extending them, enhancing the quality and vitality of every life. The Ultimate Human is consistently ranked among the top five health and wellness podcasts, reaching and impacting thousands of lives through its powerful media platform. Through the Ultimate Human, he shares his deep knowledge and innovative strategies to help individuals navigate their health journeys. His work is driven by a profound belief in the power of informed, personalized health interventions to transform lives. With his guidance, the Ultimate Human continues to inspire and equip people to become the best versions of themselves. Inside now. Let me roll out the red carpet. I want to introduce to you my friend and world-renowned longevity expert, Gary Breca.
Gary Brecka :How are you doing, Dr. Littleton? Great to see you. I mean, it's just such an honor to be on here because you're doing great things in this world too. And you know, before the podcast started, I said, you know, there's more people that need uh our service than there are people to serve them. So I'm really excited to run this with you today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Thank you. Listen, um, it's an honor to have you on. I know a lot of my patients and community want to know some of these questions. They want to hear from you. I mean, they see you doing huge things. They see you, you know, in your Instagram, on social media, on TV, and just to have this personal encounter, I think goes a long way. So thank you for that. I want to I want to start by just asking you, you know, before the research, before the public work, was there a moment where you saw something in the data or in a patient that made you think this changes everything that set you on this path? I mean, like, what's the secret to your success in what you're doing?
Gary Brecka :Well, so I read medical records for a living for almost 20 years. And I took those medical records, I put them into a uh what was called a probabilistic model to predict mortality to the month. And I would take and download the patient's history, um, 10 years of their medical records, 10 years of their demographic data, and we would essentially predict life expectancy to the month. And then based on that prediction, uh life insurance companies and other big investment funds would make very, very large bets on how long that a person had to live. If you get a life insurance policy and and they're putting 10 million or $20 million worth of risk on your life, they really don't care where you are on an actuarial curve. They want to know your specific mortality. And to get specific mortality, you need that person's data. And we would take their data and we would put it into this database. And if you look, if you want to know how um good life insurance companies are at predicting death, just look at what happened during the 2008-2009 financial services crisis. We had 364 banks fail. Not a single life insurance company failed. So life insurance companies, annuities, uh, annuity companies are very, very good at predicting mortality. And if I was to boil my entire career down to just a sentence or two, it would be that the reason why the vast majority of human beings are not living longer, healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives are for what we called modifiable risk factors. Modifiable risk factors are dietary and lifestyle changes, nutrient deficiencies, things that within their control that if they knew how to change them, they were completely in their control to change them. And if you look at the status of healthcare in America, uh, you know, I also uh co-chair the Maha action.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :I love that. If you look at the status of healthcare in America, you know, we spend almost $5 trillion a year on healthcare. And what do we lead the world in? We lead the world in morbid obesity, type 2 diabetes, multiple chronic diseases in a single biome, infant mortality, maternal mortality. So we know that spending doesn't equate to outcomes. Right. So what is it that truly extends life? And the truth is, you can look at the big data, you can look at blue zone studies. What extends life are uh diet absent whole uh uh absent processed foods. Sorry, sorry for that. I don't know why it keeps doing these little memes. I can't shut them off. Like sometimes parts go up, sometimes balloons. It's so embarrassing. Like, you know, like sometimes I'm on really important meetings and now we're having fun here.
Speaker 2:No, I love it. I can't do it on command and fireworks go off. Hey, this is what this is about. We're having fireworks today. So it's got to be.
Gary Brecka :So one of your um listeners has some technical expertise. Please tell me how to shut this off.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :If I do these little things, look at that. I love it. So uh I don't know why how it works that way, but um, you know, it's it's a diet absent uh absent processed foods. It's a whole food diet. Um, it's not dogmatic dieting. There's no evidence that carnivore, keto, paleo, pescatarian, vegan, vegetarian, raw food extend life. Yeah. What extends life is the absence of processed foods. What extends life is quality sleep over a prolonged period of time. And what extends life is making uh mobility non-negotiable, uh, making exercise non-negotiable. Those are the things that extend life. And we can talk about specific biomarkers and things like that. I'm happy to do that. Uh, but I just knew that humanity needed this information. Yeah. And so I I abruptly left that career uh about 10 years ago. Um, I started a functional wellness clinic in Naples, Florida. Um, that just exploded. Uh, we exited that clinic in January. And a few years ago, I started a media platform to just message to the masses.
Speaker 2:Oh, awesome. Awesome. Yeah, and I'm a subscriber to that. I mean, I think everyone should subscribe to that. I mean, it's huge. It's changing lives.
Gary Brecka :I think, you know, yeah, I'll give your listeners uh a 50% discount code. Oh, we'll just call it the discount can be Jason.
Speaker 2:All right, we'll take it.
Gary Brecka :And when we get off this call, I'll tell my my uh staff to give everyone 50% off that. Well dude, thank you.
Speaker 2:That's so gracious of you. Thank you. Of course. You know, I think I I love what you said. I think when um it comes people, look, people's access to health care is a big issue. And what I do as a concierge doctor, I give people access and they have access to me. Um, but most people don't have that. And a lot of times they're running into conventional doctors that are just giving them rudimentary, you know, advice, and people want more than that. And so people want to know. I mean, now they can go get their own labs. There are places where people can get their own labs. They don't even need a doctor to do them. When we talk about biomarkers, what should people be looking for that can help them with their longevity journey?
Gary Brecka :Well, most um labs are gonna have like a basic panel, CBC, comprehensive, you know, complete blood count, comprehensive metabolic panel, a lipid profile. They're gonna have some basics in a lab. I I think the three areas that are non-negotiable are the following. Um, one is glycemic control. And what I mean by that is um, what is your blood sugar and insulin profile look like? Um, insulin resistance is one of the first dominoes to fall in a whole series of metabolic disorders. And it is absolutely reversible and preventable, and it prevents a whole cascade of events. You know, in human beings, rarely, if ever, do multiple systems fail at the same time. Rarely does somebody have a mental um disorder, gut dysbiosis, a cardiovascular issue, an autoimmune disease, multiple chronic conditions. What happened? At some point, one domino fell, and then everything else followed. It's not like the spoke of a wheel where everything just goes out from the center of the wheel and goes wrong all at once. It might feel like that, but that's not what happens. One thing goes wrong that causes everything. So glucose, hemoglobin A1C, the three-month average of your blood sugar, and your insulin level. That's a must-have on the lab. The second is your hormone profile. Um, so to be very specific for men, this would be glutenizing hormone, follicle stimulating hormone, testosterone-free testosterone, um, the precursors for testosterone, which is DHEA, which is a nutrient dihydroepindrosterone. Um, and then a uh a protein called SHBG, sex hormone binding globule. Yeah. That's often overlooked. And what will make someone look like they qualify for hormone therapy when really they need to get this protein out of their blood that is reducing their body's capacity to produce this hormone or convert this hormone. Uh, so those would be uh, you know, um basics. And then the final one is nutrient deficiencies. Um there is a nonspecific marker of inflammation called C reactive protein, right? CRP. I'm a huge fan of uh CRP, it is sometimes called high sensitivity C reactive protein, HS-CRP. Um I'm a big fan of that. I'm also an enormous fan of looking at nutrient deficiencies. The vast majority of people are clinically deficient in vitamin D3, um, which is 25 D hydroxy on a lab. Uh, they're clinically deficient in vitamin D3, they're deficient in DHEA, which throws off their entire hormone profile.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :Um, they have excess SHBG, um, which is throw also throwing off their hormone profile. And they look like their hormones are out of whack when the truth is they're nutrient deficient. Um, if you have elevated SHBG, you can take a mineral called boron. Um if you uh have low DHEA, you can supplement with DHEA. If you have low vitamin D3, you can take cola calciferol with vitamin K2. Um, so very often I'm I'm a bigger fan of giving the body the raw material it needs to do its job rather than replacing the body's function. By all means, if you have primary hypogonadism and you cannot produce testosterone, then hormone replacement therapy can be life-changing. Yeah. Right. There's a 2018 uh peer-reviewed study that was published in the um Journal of American Urology, the American Journal of Urology. Uh, you can look up the 2018 study. If you go to that study, read down to line 13 and read from 13 to 20. All of the myths about hormone therapy have been dispelled, um, that it increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. It actually is the opposite. It decreases it, that it increases the risk of prostate cancer. That's patently false. It decreases it. Similar things have happened in female hormone therapy. There was a study called the Women's Health Initiative, um, which was entirely bastardized and misquoted to the public, which resulted in tens of millions of women missing out on hormone therapy that could have been life-changing for them. Um, you know, the FDA just removed the black box warnings from female hormone therapy about two and a half, three weeks ago. So I like to see this shift happening at the level of our governmental elites, CDC, FDA, Health and Human Services, National Institute of Health. Um, but specifically to your uh to your point, those would be the biomarkers that I just mentioned that I would, at a minimum, look at. The other thing that I would do once in your lifetime is I would do a genetic methylation test. Love that. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. The reason why I would do this, yeah. The reason why I would do this test is that the vast majority of your listeners right now, they are supplementing for the sake of supplementing. Right. They are not supplementing for deficiency unless they've seen somebody like you, right? They've gotten on Google or they've been watching Instagram or TikTok and they could convince that Ashwaganda or St. John's Ward or CoQ10 or Restferatrol or um Corcumin or Turmeric, all of which are amazing, NAD, nicotine, riboside, all of these supplements are amazing. Question is what does your body need? I love that. And we believe this in plant physiology. You know, if if if if you had a leaf rotting in one of these trees back here, or a leaf rotting in your palm tree in your yard, and you called a true arborist, a true botanist out to look at that leaf, yeah, they wouldn't even touch the leaf, right? They would core test the soil.
Speaker 4:Right.
Gary Brecka :And they would say, you know what, Jason, there's no nitrogen in this soil. And they would add nitrogen to the soil and the leaf would heal. Love that. Human beings are no different. Love that. When we become nutrient deficient, you get the expression of disease.
Speaker 2:So, like patients should start off with taking the methylation test. That's probably a good approach because I believe in getting a lot of baselines, and that would probably be a great practice for physicians to start doing. And I think that's something that I'm going to also promote in my practice to make sure that they always take this test before we recommend any type of supplements.
Gary Brecka :And what did you do this test once in your lifetime? It's your genes, they'll never change. You never repeat the test, and you will never guess again for the balance of your entire lifetime on what you need to supplement with, right? Because your body um takes in all kinds of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, all kinds of compounds. Not a single one of those is used by your body in the form that you take it in, without a single exception. Every nutrient, vitamin, mineral, amino acids, every single one of them gets converted by the body into the usable form. So think about how we pull crude oil out of the ground. Yeah. Right? You can't put crude oil into your gas tank because the car doesn't understand that fuel source. Right. So crude oil has to be refined into gasoline, then the car can run. It's very same in in human beings. You put all kinds of nutrients. For example, the most prevalent nutrient in the human body is uh folic acid. That's the most prevalent nutrient in the human diet. Um, it's also an entirely synthetic man-made chemical. So we put folic acid into our body. Folic acid is absolutely useless until the body converts it into something called ethylfolate. If you can't make this conversion, you have a deficiency. So the question is, what does that deficiency cause? Anxiousness, anxiety, poor gut motility. So now you have gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritability, cramping. You're told you have irritable bowel syndrome. You go to sleep at night, and as your environment quiets, your mind wakes up, so you ruminate at night. Wow. You brain fog, you get a great idea in the bedroom, you walk to the kitchen, you kind of wonder what the heck you're doing in the kitchen. And and you just live with these consequences sometimes for decades until you find the missing raw material. That's when magic happens in human beings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a lot of people really are missing out, really are missing out. And I'm gonna be a huge advocate, you know, of my patients taking this methylation test because I think that's gonna really cause them to hit the ground running and put them on a whole new platform. And now it's not guesswork in terms of let's get let's take this supplement, let's take that supplement. We will know what supplements you need to take so that you can be in optimal health. And I I I love that. I love how you said that. You know, a lot of the things that I see that my patients or just patients in general might have and deal with is insulin resistance, not being able to break that cycle, and then elevated cholesterol, not wanting to take statins and really wanting through diet and exercise. But sometimes I think there can be a frustration where people are like, you know, um, I'm exercising, I'm trying to eat right, but I'm not having that breakthrough. What would you say to them?
Gary Brecka :Um, what I would say is get data, right? Um, so let's let's give a couple of examples. Um, you know, this is I saw this thousands and thousands of times. You have a couple, they start intermittent fasting together, um, husband and wife. And husband's killing it, sleeping like a bear, getting getting ripped, losing weight, gaining muscle. He feels amazing. Um, the wife's barely eating, and she's putting on weight. She's waking up in the morning, she has a cup of black coffee, she goes to Orange Theory, goes hammered down for 55 minutes, five days a week. She's done that for three months. Not only hasn't lost a single pound, she's gained six. Um, so what the data will tell you is that um her hormones may be out of whack and she's become estrogen dominant. And when you become estrogen dominant, you begin to retain water. And retained water looks like fat. It's not fat, it's water retention. And when you bring hormones back into balance, the body sheds the water and you go back to your normal weight. Um, also just understand that diet and exercise is not a one size fits all. Some of the worst endocrine disasters I have ever seen in my entire career were young menstruating women that ate in too narrow of a feeding window. Wow. So when you get data, one of the things you're gonna get is is hemoglobin A1C. You're gonna see the three-month average of your blood sugar. If the three-month average of your blood sugar is 5.3 or less, you're not really a candidate for intermittent fasting. And why not? Because when you narrow that feeding window, your pituitary, which is the master puppeteer in the body, it's regulating metabolism, it's regulating your body temperature, it's regulating a female's hormone cycle, it's regulating the production of hormones, testosterone in a man. It's doing so many things. Um the pituitary is going to perceive that as starvation. Wow. And it's gonna start to throttle back to your metabolism. So now all of a sudden, you see women that start these really aggressive um intermittent fasting programs. Something called thyroid stimulating hormone drops. The pituitary starts to slow down the metabolism, their T4 and their T3 tank, they start to get sluggish, they lose their motivation, um, they get cold more frequently. They and they're like, what is going on? Like, um, you know, I'm barely even eating, right? Wow. So um, some of these women, you know, I've seen women with hemoglobin A1C of 4.8, 4.7 start an intermittent fasting program and it's a disaster. So um, so really um knowing your body now, if you're insulin resistant, your hemoglobin A1C is above 5.5, 5.6, you're getting into the pre-diabetic range of 5.7. Intermittent fasting can literally change or even save your life. Wow. Um, right? So this is what I mean about data. You know, I think you're on the same page. You know, we need to get data, or else we're just sort of guessing. You know, we're like, well, what worked for my cousin and my sister and my husband and my in-law or my wife may not actually work for you. The biggest fallacy in all of modern medicine is that what goes into your body and my body and your listener's body is all treated the same way. Nothing can be further from the truth. So you see this with vaccine outcomes. Well, why didn't everybody that vaccine die of myocarditis? Well, because some people eliminate spike protein better than others. Wow. Why isn't everybody have heavy metal toxicity? Well, because some people methylate heavy metals better than others. I could take your entire audience who's listening to this podcast right now, and let's say that we've we fed them all the same amount of mercury-laden tuna fish for 90 days. At the end of that 90 days, say we took 100 people, third of those people are gonna have deadly mercury poisoning. A third of those people are gonna have mercury levels that are causing some complications, brain fog, water retention, weight gain, confusion, yeah, poor focus and concentration. A third of those people are gonna have no trace of heavy metal in their bodies at all. Wow. So, how is it that they all got the same dose and they had different results? Because our body methylates, it processes things differently. It's really yeah, yeah. It's it's really important to understand that we are all individuals. And so once you have that piece of data, now you're really armed with what works for you and what doesn't. Right. And um, there are there are a lot of men and women I've told to eat more and widen their feeding window.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :And there are a lot of people that I've said, if you like to exercise fasted, you need to take all nine of the essential amino acids. You need to start the morning with mineral salt. Um, you know, so many of us are mineral deficient, right? I take a mineral salt every morning. I just add it to my drinking water. Um, and uh, and I take an amino acid supplement, all nine essential amino acids. And the reason why I do that is because, you know, amino acids are not proteins, right? They are the building blocks of proteins. Yeah. And there's a fallacy out there that we can target direct protein in the body. You can't. We don't eat our nails to grow our nails. So you don't eat your hair to grow your hair. But you think you can eat collagen to grow collagen. That's actually not true. All protein, regardless of its form or its origin, whether it's an egg, fish, chicken, meat, vegan protein, a hemp seed, all protein is going to become the same thing in the human body. It's going to become amino acids. And then those amino acids are going to go build all of these structures: collagen, elastin, fibrin, muscles, natural killer cells. So if you become an amino acid deficient, um, all the collagen in the world is not going to save you. Right. So um, taking essential amino acids, in my opinion, is is is necessary. Mineral, mineral salts are very easy, like a Celtic sea salt. I take one call a Baja gold sea salt. I mean, this is like a like a $15 bag of this will last you five years. Yeah, my cheapest biohack. And um, you know, I spoke uh recently at a at a uh a conference on on bone density, osteopenia osteoporosis. I was still shocked at how many physicians think that bones are calcium, right? Our bones are not calcium. Our bones are calcium combined with something called phosphorus. These two join to make something called hydroxyapatite. Yep. Our bones are hydroxyapatite. In order for phosphorus and calcium to form hydroxyapatite, you need 12 minerals. If you're missing any of those 12 minerals, you will have end up with osteopenia or osteoporosis. And if you look at cystic care living facilities all over the country, you'll find elderly men and women all over the country that would that have osteopenia and osteoporosis that have been on calcium supplements for 20 years. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right.
Gary Brecka :Calcium is not the answer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, maybe also hip fractures, all sorts of fractures. And I mean, we're ladies and gentlemen, we're not going to be able to do the hip fracture the triad of death.
Gary Brecka :Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly.
Gary Brecka :Yeah. And the big big misnomer about hip fractures, by the way, just to touch on it for a second, is that you know, elderly people frequently fall and break their hips. Yeah. That that's actually not true. Um, what happens is their hip breaks and then they fall. Wow. It's a very important distinction there between the fracture causing the fall versus the fall causing the fracture. What happens is grandma is standing at the sink, maybe she's washing dishes or something, and crack, her femoral neck in the top of her femur, her leg bone breaks and she falls. And they go, Oh my gosh, grandma fell and broke her hip. No, she didn't. Her hip broke and then she fell. Wow. And this is years of mineral deficiency leading to the loss of bone density to the point where the skeletal system can no longer support its own weight. That's why it's a triad of death. There's no correlation just between a hip fracture and early death. There is a correlation between a fracture that causes a fall and early death.
Speaker 2:That's major. That's major. I mean, I mean, this is but take a mineral salt. Oh, yeah. What what what is the supplement that you recommend instead of just taking calcium and vitamin D for osteoporosis, osteopenia?
Gary Brecka :Yeah, I would first of all, I wouldn't take calcium. I would take um vitamin D3 with a uh vitamin called K2. Make sure that it has vitamin K2 because vitamin D3 is a calcium transport molecule, amongst other things. If you want the calcium to go into the bone and not the arterial wall, you add vitamin K2. Um, and then you want to take a mineral salt. Um, I take one called Baja Gold, B-A-J-A gold. Um, has all 91 trace minerals in it, comes in in like a liquid form. You just take a dropper, squeeze it into water. Um, I add the amino acids to that. I add something called uh a hydrogen water tablet. I drop a hydrogen tablet in there. When it effervesces into hydrogen, I drink that back. Knock down inflammation, give your body all the essential amino acids and give it all 91 trace minerals and hydrate. I mean, you're just starting your morning off right if you just do that.
Speaker 2:And you like hydrogen water, I believe. I've seen that. Huge fan. Huge fan. When we talk about the amino acids, you love the perfect amino. I just picked some of the out of sprouts and um so started that with adding that to my workout. I mean, tremendous. I um, you know, I've gotta, you know, ask you this question. What are what's the biggest mistake you see people make when they try to biohack themselves?
Gary Brecka :Um, they skip the basics.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Gary Brecka :Right? They jump over the absolute foundational basics, and here they are. Um, so nothing else matters until you have um mastered your sleep, you eat a whole food diet, and you make mobility non-negotiable. So if you're not engaging in those minimal acts of self-care, you cannot sleep your way around a poor diet, you can't diet your way around not exercising, and you cannot exercise your way around either. Wow. Right. So there are three foundational basics that will cost you nothing that you need to master. One is sleep. Sleep is our human superpower. And most people sort of know that. They would probably agree with me, but they don't really know why. Yeah. And the reason why is this. Um, so two incredible things happen when we sleep. One during REM sleep, our body is assembling memory. So anything learned memory. So let's say you're a listener's, you know, listening to this podcast or they're watching this podcast and they and and and they took in this new information. Tonight, when they go to sleep, that prefrontal cortex and that hippocampus will connect and it will become a learned memory. So we're actually assembling memory at night, right? So good sleep leads to good memory, right? It also leads to healthy focus, concentration, and great short-term recall. During deep phases of sleep, something called the lymphatic system activates. Now, in our body, we have something called lymph nodes or the lymphatic system. And the lymphatic system, I'm not explaining this to you, but I know you know this. But the lymphatic system is what eliminates waste from our body. And by waste, I don't mean stool or urine. I mean cellular waste, inflammatory compounds. All of the heavy metals get eliminated through there, mold, mycotoxin, um parasites, and viruses. So this is why um your lymph nodes swell when you get a sore throat. So we have a lymphatic system in the body and it drains um by muscular activity. This is why walking is probably the most underrated exercise in the world. People that live the longest walk the most. Wow. Um, that is an absolute uh true statement. And uh, but in the brain, it's called the glymphatic system. During deep phases of sleep, this gymphatic system, these channels open and they eliminate waste from the brain. They eliminate all of the inflammatory proteins, cytokines, histamines from the brain. This is why after you get a good night's sleep, you wake up really refreshed. When you build waste in the brain, or you become insulin resistant in the brain, you're setting yourself up for early onset cognitive decline. We know Alzheimer's, for example, is now type three diabetes, right? Wow. It is insulin resistance in the brain. And the fallacy about Alzheimer's is that people are losing their memory. That's actually not true. They are losing access to their memory. Wow. And access can be restored, right? So it, you know, sadly, if you've ever had the misfortune, and I have, of having an Alzheimer's um person in your in your family, you know that they they're they do this thing called sputtering, yeah, where for weeks, sometimes even months, they might not recognize their own child, or they might confuse you for another child or an aunt or an uncle. And then one day you walk into the room and you go, you know what, Jason, do you remember that time we took the boat out and Lily caught that fish and you were wearing the green vest and you slipped off the back of the boat, and like and like with incredible accuracy, they have this moment of recall. That's proof that the memory is still there. They just lost access to it.
Dr Jason Littleton:And so I've never thought about it that way. That's huge.
Gary Brecka :Yes, yeah. We never talk about restoring access, we talk about trying to regain memory. Once you accept that the memory is lost, you assume it's no longer recoverable. That's not true. So um, you know, you asked about big you know, fallacies. So, where do people start their journey? You start with sleep, exercise, and a whole food diet. Those are the three things that you should focus on. Stop bullying sleep around in your schedule. Six years ago, I sat my entire staff down and I said, from this day forward, we schedule all of our meetings and travel around sleep and exercise. If I wish I don't have my phone sitting on the desk or I would actually show you my calendar, I can you could just tell me a date, April 15th, and I'll pull up April 15th next year. Sleep and exercise are scheduled on my calendar. Um, if I take a speaking engagement, I don't speak early in the morning. If I speak late at night, I don't take a red eye. Um, so you know, just those small fundamental changes. After that, this is what I think a perfect longevity journey looks like. You do a genetic methylation test, you begin to supplement for deficiency. You do a basic blood panel and you cast the net out into the water and you pull it up and you see what's under the surface. Am I insulin resistant? Do am I have hormone imbalance? What are my nutrient deficiencies? These are easy, low-hanging fruit, and they will move the ball 85 yards down the field. All right. I mean, you only have 15 yards to cover after that. After that, you begin to get specific. I have an autoimmune condition, I have gut dysbiosis, I have anxiousness, I have anxiety, I have ADD, ADHD. Um, and you start to address those with targeted supplementation. Sleep, whole food diet, exercise, genetic methylation test, basic blood pattern, fix the deficiencies, then get specific. Now, after that, if you want to start adding things like red light therapy, sauna, cold plunging, those are amazing. Yeah. Um, and a lot of these don't cost us a lot of money. Yeah. Um, you know, if you if you have a tub at your house, you can you can put Tupperware containers in your freezer, freeze blocks of ice, yeah, put those blocks of ice into your tub and you'll have a cold plunge for three days. Um, you know, um, by the way, studies looking at hot bathing versus hot sauna are nearly identical. Wow. Right. In terms of the amount of waste you eliminate into the water is similar to the waste you eliminate in sweat. So if you don't have the resources to buy a sauna, but you have a tub, pick a warm bath and sweat into that tub at night. Um, all of us have the resources to walk. Yeah. Right. Right. Unless you have a physical impairment. But um, but all of us have the resources to walk. But yet we don't make walking non-negotiable. We don't make exercise non-negotiable. Sleep and exercise are the two most bullied things in our schedule. We will, you know.
Speaker 2:Incredible. Incredible. And you you you answered the question I was going to ask you about my meds protocol, move, eat, drink, sleep. And I love that. And one of the things I wanted to ask you in particular is how many hours do you sleep? What is your sleep number?
Gary Brecka :So I usually sleep between seven and eight and a half. Um, and I post my sleep scores to Instagram all the time. You know, I just recently did with my wife, we did 14 cities in 18 days. Wow. Um, and mostly we circumnavigated the globe. We went Miami to Dallas, Dallas, and speaking events in each location, Dallas to LA, LA to Sydney, Australia, Sydney to Melbourne, Melbourne to Dubai, Dubai to London, uh, London to Bucharest, Romania. And uh every morning in my time zone, I would post the sleep score. And my average sleep score was 88%. And the reason for that was I really have trained myself to sleep, sort of mastered sleep. Um and so a couple of my favorite tricks, which again won't cost you anything, is if you are somebody that's a road warrior, you travel frequently to other time zones. Do not eat during your normal sleeping window. Wow. So preserve your sleeping window. And let me explain that. Okay. So I'm on the East Coast, I'm in Miami, and this is where I live. Um, so I'm normally sleeping between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. So my body is not used to eating between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern time. Yeah. So when I travel around the world, I never eat, I never feed myself between between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern time. Wow. So what does that mean if I go to London, for example? London's five hours ahead. 6 a.m. East Coast is 11 a.m. London. I will not put solid food into my mouth before 11 a.m. It's not that hard. Um, I I also use fasting as a superpower. Um, you know, I take people through three-day water fasts all the time. You want to talk about a full cellular metabolic reset.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :Um, and and and I don't care who you are, you can do a three-day water fast.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :You know, bone broths on day one, mineral salts and and three liters of fluid minimum for the next two days, bone broths coming out. It is an absolute game-changing breakthrough for most people. Cruise their insulin sensitivity. It it people have lost six, eight pounds in that time frame. Most of that is inflammation. Um, a lot of that is fat metabolism. You you're in a state of ketosis. It's very safe to be in ketosis. Um, your growth hormone uh secretion goes up by tenfold without taking growth hormone. I mean, if body builders could get a tenfold increase in growth hormone, yeah, they would do it every day. Um and uh it gives your digestion a break, gives your gut a chance to heal and seal. You know, there's only a single cell layer in your gut, protecting your inside environment from your outside environment. It's very easy for that layer to get disrupted, which is called leaky gut. And if I we'd have to do 10 more podcasts to talk about the number of consequences that come from leaky gut, you know.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love that answer. I've learned so much, so much. So when we talk about how you move, eat, drink, sleep, you know, what's your um number one exercise you like to do as far as movement? I just want to list it for my uh audience. I ask everyone on the podcast how they move, eat, drink, sleep. What would be your number one uh thing in terms of movement?
Gary Brecka :Walking, weighted walking, weighted walking, weighted walking. Yeah. So I wear something called an ion vest, A-I-O-N. I put a weighted vest on, I zip it up. Um, I'll do conference calls. I'll uh, you know, if I walk with my wife, I don't take my phone. Okay. Um, but when I walk by myself in in the morning, and sometimes I'll go out and do a 5K with it on. If you add weight and compression to the same walk, you'll get 40% more out of that same time frame. So I'm always looking for ways to like biohack the same thing that I'm already doing. Um, you know, uh, like I use a hyperbaric from time to time. I put cameras in the hyperbaric so that I could do Zoom calls and Microsoft meetings. And uh there was a chance that you and I were going to do this from my hyperbaric today.
Speaker 2:Oh wow. Um I just I just put a hyperbaric in my office. We have one too. Did you really? Yes, we have that. Two two ATA or a soft chamber? No, actually it's a it's a hard chamber.
Gary Brecka :Okay, great. Yeah, because two atmospheres is great for that phenomenal. I mean, what that will do for cognitive function, neurodegenerative conditions, healing and wound repair, um, athletic recovery, they're they're they're amazing. Um so weight of walking would be my go-to. I travel with a weighted vest. When I travel, I actually wear a weighted vest. It looks like a vest, but it's actually 12 pounds. Wow. Um, and by putting that extra weight on your body, you boost your metabolism, you fight something called sarcopenia, which is age-related muscle wasting. If you compress the body and add weight, you really skyrocket the results. Um and so if you're somebody that can walk, you're not in your gym, or you don't have a gym or don't have the resources to get a gym membership, get a weighted vest, zip it up, and go out for a 30-minute walk first thing in the morning. Your body morphic image will shift so quickly, it'll be astounding.
Speaker 2:What's your favorite snack as far as the eating thing?
Gary Brecka :Um raw, um, raw yogurt, raw whole whole fat, whole fat yogurt. So I'll take raw uh whole fat yogurt that I get. I get it from a market here called Southwest Ranches. Um, I think it's made by the Amish. Um, it's really clean. It's raw yogurt. Um, I'll put green-free granola in that, a fistful of berries. Sometimes I'll put a uh two teaspoons of honey in there. That's my Ben and Jerry's. Um, you know, it's it's it's amazing and it's very nutrient-dense. So that's one of my favorite uh snacks. Um I'll I'll snack on on raw yogurt. I'll also snack on nuts. Um when I travel, I'll take um grass-fed ribis, dried grass-fed ribeys, uh um, and nuts, you know, so that I'm I don't eat airplane food or I fast on airplanes unless it's a long uh an international flight.
Speaker 2:And and and I think you already said this, but your the D part or meds, what's your favorite drink? Is it is it hydrogen water or is there something hydrogen water by if there are two types of people.
Gary Brecka :There are people that don't know the science and they're unaware of the benefits of hydrogen, and there are people that know the science from on hydrogen water. This isn't my discovery. Um for the last few years, I've been deep, deep down the rabbit hole of hydrogen and its effect in the human body. It is the smallest, lightest element in the universe. 10% of your body weight is hydrogen. Um and it's the most prevalent element in the universe. It's harmless to human beings. But hydrogen is a selective antioxidant. Now, why that's so important is that vitamin C is an antioxidant, blueberries are antioxidants. There are lots of things that are antioxidants, they reduce oxidative stress. The problem is you can oversuppress oxidative stress, but taking too many antioxidants is just as bad as not taking them at all. Wow. Um the body needs a balance between oxidation and what they call reduction. So, for example, if you didn't have inflammation and you worked out in the morning, your body would never heal. If you twisted your ankle stepping off a curb, your ligament would never heal without inflammation. Inflammation isn't all bad. Oxidation and free radicals are not all bad. In fact, almost every free radical in the body, with the exception of the hydroxyl free radical, almost every free radical in the body, hydrogen peroxide, an oxygen singlet, um uh superoxide, has a benefit until there's too much.
Speaker 3:Right?
Gary Brecka :So taking it down too low can be very dangerous, just like allowing them to get too high. Hydrogen is the only antioxidant that we are aware of that restores balance. It restores something called redox homeostasis, which is perfect neutrality between oxidation and reduction. And so every morning I take two elemental magnesium tablets times three, I throw them in water, take a scuba perfect aminos, I take Baja Gold salt, I mix that up, I let that elemental magnesium effervesce into pure hydrogen gas, and I drink it back. And you will feel the lights come on. And that's the drop in inflammation. And I take one called H2 tab, um, also less than a dollar a day. I used to use these really expensive hydrogen water bottles, but they break down a lot. They're really expensive. Um, I don't use those anymore. I use a elemental magnesium tablet, which is magnesium in its elemental form.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Gary Brecka :Efferves is into pure hydrogen gas, game changer.
Speaker 2:Incredible, incredible. And you know, for I I and you talked to us about sleep already. So I just, you know, my very last question, because I want to be very um appreciative of your time, is you know, um, you've worked with elite performers, athletes, CEOs, high achievers. What do you prioritize? What do they prioritize about their health that the average patient completely underestimates? And you probably already said it, but I just wanted to ask that directly.
Gary Brecka :Yeah. So in all of those cases, self-care is non-negotiable. Okay. Right. So the reason why 82% of all all autoimmune disease is found in women, um, autoimmune disease 82% of the time is in females. Um, and why is that? Autoimmune disease is not selective by sex. Um, autoimmune disease is selective by weakness. And what makes you susceptible to autoimmune conditions? A compromised immune system. All right. So the greatest leading theory in aging right now is the theory of immuno fatigue, a slow progressive overwhelming of the immune system. There's nothing better than the God-given immune system to protect us and extend our life. Right. So the question is, what are the things that feed the immune system? What are the things that build a healthy immune system? They're habits like exercise, sleep, and whole food diet. So I will tell you, I don't work with a high-performing overachiever, um, at least not after they work with me, who did not make self-care non-negotiable. There is some portion of the day that belongs only to them. So for me, it's the first 90 minutes of every day. It doesn't belong to my wife or my kids or my career or my um my podcast team, belongs only to me. And then after that 90 minutes, I give the rest of my day away. Wow. Women have a tendency to develop something called caregiver syndrome. Yeah. Whereas they they just innately, because they're meant to bear children, um, will put the needs of other people before the needs of themselves. So their spouse, their kids, their career, their girlfriends, their coworkers all come before them. And what happens is they slowly just keep putting themselves in the backseat until something dramatic happens. So I think that high performers and overachievers realize that sleep is our human superpower, mobility is non-negotiable, and self-care is something that just needs to be scheduled.
Speaker 2:Love it. Gary, I just want to I want to thank you so much. You know, I this I feel like I went back to medical school today. I mean really I mean, I I love everything that you said. It's been so helpful. I mean, you have you you've really opened up how things are seen in regards to dimension, regards to insulin resistance, so many aha moments in this. And I think my listeners, everyone listening to this podcast, they're gonna listen to this and be like, okay, I need to reset. I need to do the methylation test, I need to do these biomarkers, I need to prioritize my health and make it non-negotiable. I really need to get on hydrogen water. I need to do these things that change my life. I think what you said has been life-changing. And one of the things I really wanted to do in this interview was come on, talk with you so that people could take this podcast and feel like their life has changed. And I know you've done that today. And I just want to thank you so much for coming on. I thank you for being my honored guest. Thank you for coming on the Concierge Dog Podcast.
Gary Brecka :You're welcome, Dr. Littleton. I'll I hope to do it again in the future sometime.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely, thousand percent. Listen, you guys follow me on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook. Make sure you subscribe to the Concierge Dog Podcast. And look, everyone knows you. Where can they find you and make sure that they get into touch with get in touch with like all the things you recommend, your programs, what do they need to do to get in touch with you to follow how you lead?
Gary Brecka :Yeah, so they can go over to theultimatehuman.com. Um, if they sign up to become a VIP member of mine, which is $97 a month, I'm gonna give you a 50% discount. You uh as soon as I get off this call, I'll tell my team to create a discount code under Jason for Dr. Jason Littleton. And uh you can follow me on Instagram, it's just my first and last name at Gary Breca. Uh just my first and last name. And the podcast is the ultimate human podcast.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much. And again, thank you for doing that.
Gary Brecka :15 minutes of your audience enjoyed it.
