Plaque biofilm that your toothbrush cannot reach hardens into tartar, and that step turns bleeding gums into periodontal disease, an infection that can destroy the bone holding your teeth in place.

• What to do: Clean between your teeth every day with floss, floss picks, interdental brushes or a water flosser. The method matters less than doing it.
• Why it matters: Gum disease is linked with heart disease, diabetes and chronic kidney disease. Diabetes and gum disease affect each other in both directions, so poor gums can make blood sugar harder to control.
• How to apply it: If you have not flossed consistently, start today, because there is always a point in starting. If your gums bleed, keep cleaning gently. Bleeding is usually a sign they need more consistent cleaning, not less.
• Metrics: The progression runs from plaque to gingivitis (red, swollen, tender, bleeding gums) to tartar, then to periodontal disease and, in advanced cases, tooth loss.
• Tools: String floss, floss picks, interdental brushes and water flossers all disrupt the biofilm between teeth.
• Risks: Tartar is hardened plaque attached to the tooth, and neither brushing nor flossing removes it. Only a dental professional can.
• Exceptions: Persistent bleeding can have other causes, so talk to your dental provider. If you have not had a professional cleaning in a while, book one, then restart your routine.

A family physician with 22 years of practice says a keto carnivore diet, which they call a proper human diet, can heal down to the mitochondrial level and in many cases put severe mental health disorders into complete remission, based on patient stories rather than trials.

• What to do: If you live with anxiety, depression or brain fog, talk to your doctor and consider a time-limited trial of a keto carnivore diet built on meat, eggs and animal fat.
• Why it matters: The physician has seen patients on a handful of medications with side effects such as lost sexual desire, and reports hope returning once they changed how they ate.
• How to apply it: Eat the meat without buying supplements or products, note your mood, anxiety and mental clarity week by week, and do not change psychiatric medication without professional supervision.
• Metrics: Stories in the video include Todd, who describes symptoms gone in three weeks, and a person with schizophrenia discharged within a month or two after decades in an institution.
• Risks: These are testimonies, not controlled studies, so stopping prescribed medication on your own could be harmful.
• Exceptions: The approach is not only a weight loss diet, and people without a formal diagnosis but with constant fog and fatigue are also part of the picture.

An average American spends about 12.5 of their final years sick, disabled or in a nursing home, and this video blames chronic inflammation and chronic disease rather than age, which ten habits can push back.

• What to do: Pick one to three of the ten habits and start tonight: get labs, eat fat and animal protein first, cut sugar, grains and seed oils, lift something heavy two or three times a week and sleep at least 7 hours.
• Why it matters: Visceral fat is the most dangerous fat, and in a British Medical Journal study the weakest grip carried about one and two thirds the risk of death of the strongest grip.
• How to apply it: Measure your waist and height with a tape, take private photos every one to three months, fast 12 to 14 hours before blood tests, skip snacks, stand up and sit down every 10 to 15 minutes and raise the head of your bed.
• Metrics: Hemoglobin A1C, fasting insulin, triglycerides, HDL, hs-CRP, vitamin D 25, sex hormones, waist-to-height ratio, five timed floor rises and 10 seconds on each leg.
• Tools: A tailor's tape, light dumbbells, red bricks or 2 by 4 blocks under the bed legs and the Proper Human Diet community for accountability.
• Risks: Snacks of any kind, seed oils, alcohol and sugary breakfasts keep insulin and inflammation high.
• Exceptions: Some people do fine on 6.5 hours of sleep, and a first step can be as small as walking to the mailbox.

Almost everyone wakes between 1 and 3 a.m. because core body temperature starts rising again after dropping overnight, which moves you into lighter sleep, and what you do in the next few minutes decides whether you drift off or spiral.

• What to do: Skip the bathroom trip unless you truly need it (roll onto your back and count to 20 first), do not check the clock or phone, and start 4 7 8 breathing for 20 cycles.
• Why it matters: Falling asleep needs lower anxiety, temperature and heart rate. Standing up, doing clock math and forcing sleep raises all three, and a heart rate above about 60 makes unconsciousness hard.
• How to apply it: Breathe in for 4, hold for 7 and push out for 8, keeping the exhale longer than the hold. Track cycles by raising a finger each round. Build up with 4 5 6, then 4 6 7, over about a week. If you still cannot sleep, read a boring book in a set chair and return to bed when your eyes feel heavy.
• Metrics: Wake at the same time 7 days a week, because morning light sets melatonin to turn on roughly 14 hours later. Use the 3 2 1 rule: stop food and fluids 3 hours before bed, work 2 hours before, screens 1 hour before.
• Tools: LMNT electrolytes in the morning and an Oura ring to follow weekly trends, not nightly numbers. Counting backward from 300 by threes can also quiet a racing mind.
• Risks: Mouth taping can mask undiagnosed sleep apnea, especially after alcohol. Constantly checking trackers can cause orthosomnia, which is anxiety about sleep data.
• Exceptions: If you truly need to pee, go. If you feel electricity in your body like jet lag, that may be a body clock issue rather than a racing mind.

Yes, you can be insulin resistant with normal blood sugar, because glucose is the last marker to rise while fasting insulin climbs first, and a fasting insulin under 5 is the target almost nobody tests.

• What to do: Ask for fasting insulin, hemoglobin A1C and fasting glucose, then check your waist to hip ratio and body composition instead of trusting glucose alone.
• Why it matters: One patient had glucose under 110 after two colas worth of sugar yet an insulin near 300, and doctors who test only glucose miss many cases.
• How to apply it: Cut starch and sugar, eat protein, fat and 30 grams of fiber, walk 10 to 20 minutes after meals, lift weights, sleep well and fast 12 to 14 hours overnight.
• Metrics: Fasting glucose 70 to 90, fasting insulin under 5, A1C about 5.0 to 5.2, post meal glucose under 110 to 120, waist to hip ratio under 0.8 for men and 0.9 for women.
• Tools: Function Health tests with an insulin resistance score from 0 to 100, a continuous glucose monitor for a few weeks and a tape measure.
• Risks: Statins, sleep apnea, chronic stress and artificial sweeteners can worsen insulin resistance or cravings.
• Exceptions: A glucose spike after eating is normal, and thin people can still carry hidden fat, so body composition matters more than weight.

You can keep doing hard things by switching between several drivers instead of relying on one, as ultra endurance swimmer Ross Edgley did over a 157 day swim around Great Britain, a 56 hour Yukon swim and 30 marathons in 30 days.

• What to do: Name your spokes before a hard task: because I said I would, fear of letting people down, love, anger, doing it for others, gratitude for what you can do and the absurd hero mindset.
• Why it matters: The anterior mid-cingulate cortex reportedly grows when you do hard things and shrinks when you avoid them, and one driver alone tends to fail during long, painful efforts.
• How to apply it: Focus on the next stroke or step instead of the clock, lower the stakes in your head when pressure builds, protect deep sleep and switch spokes when one fades.
• Metrics: Edgley swam almost 2,000 miles in about 157 days, 317 miles of the Yukon in 56 hours went 70 hours without sleep on the Yukon expedition and uses his pull-up one rep max as a strength reserve.
• Tools: Electrolytes, a glucose wearable, a temperature regulating mattress cover and a protein snack are mentioned as sponsor products, not as part of the model.
• Risks: Motives such as anger or ego can fuel you, but Edgley found records alone felt shallow and sleep loss can drain dopamine and serotonin.
• Exceptions: In ultra endurance an imperfect stroke is fine, while high stakes in precision tasks can overload the motor system and hurt performance.

Bone mineral density predicts only about 70% of fracture risk because a two-dimensional DEXA misses bone shape, and lifting challenging loads can thicken the femoral neck cortex even when hip density barely changes.

• What to do: Do two strength sessions a week built on a squat, hinge, push, pull and carry, add balance moves and keep up daily activity such as walking, dancing or shoveling.
• Why it matters: Bone mass peaks in your 20s and about 5% of the skeleton is remodeled every year, so the goal after 65 is to hold on to bone and prevent falls.
• How to apply it: Use 8 to 12 repetitions, pick difficulty rather than maximum weight, try walking lunges and step-ups, and add a few sets of 10 to 12 small hops if your joints allow.
• Metrics: BMD explains about 70% of fracture risk, FRAX estimates 10 year fracture probability, and CTX and P1NP track bone resorption and formation.
• Tools: DEXA with 3D hip analysis, FRAX, a machine circuit for beginners, Function Health tests, Prolon and Momentous creatine appear in the episode.
• Risks: Calling an X-ray bone on bone can scare people away from exercise, and heavy loads with poor form raise injury risk for beginners.
• Exceptions: For someone using a walker with severe arthritis, the goal is function and fall prevention, not bone density.

A controlled trial where all food was provided showed that a high protein, low carbohydrate diet cut liver fat by 67 percent, about three times more than two other diets, yet ketones were only 0.5 mmol per liter, so protein and carbohydrate restriction, not ketosis, did the work.

• What to do: Raise protein to about 35 grams per meal, pick chicken, fish, tofu and legumes, and keep carbohydrate portions small.
• Why it matters: About one in three adults has fatty liver, and ApoB fell on all three diets once participants lost about 10 percent of their weight.
• How to apply it: Cook with olive, sunflower or rapeseed oil, eat about 25 grams of nuts and 30 grams of fiber daily, and add vegetables to every meal.
• Metrics: 67 percent less liver fat, 23 percent of energy from saturated fat, 0.5 mmol per liter of ketones, apoB, HbA1c and fasting glucose.
• Tools: Eight Sleep Pod 6 for sleep temperature, Function Health lab panels, IM8 multinutrient, Momentous creatine.
• Risks: Saturated fat from butter, cream or coconut oil has no nutritional upside and can raise LDL once weight stabilizes.
• Exceptions: The trial could not isolate saturated fat, did not report vascular function and did not find different glucose tolerance across diets.

Fasting feeds Akkermansia, a gut bacterium that eats the intestinal mucus layer, and with no fiber or polyphenols competing for its attention it can overgrow and thin that lining, which fits a Swedish study of about 4,200 people linking high Akkermansia on a low fiber diet to higher type 2 diabetes odds.

• What to do: Stay in the Goldilocks zone. Pair fasting with polyphenol and resistant starch foods such as berries, apple peel and crucifers, and vary your foods instead of repeating the same ones every day.
• Why it matters: Biology follows a U shaped curve, so even a good thing like fasting can drift out of balance over time through accumulation, degradation, attenuation and compensation. Akkermansia is good in balance and harmful when it has only the gut lining to eat.
• How to apply it: Eat foraging style foods the day before a fast (berries, resistant starch, crucifers, lower protein), keep fasts shorter, and treat a small handful of berries during a fast as acceptable. Do not take probiotics daily as a rule. Consider a few weeks only after antibiotics.
• Metrics: About 20 types of mucin are produced in the body. Apple peel carries very long procyanidin chains of roughly 30,000 units. Count calories weekly if at all, not daily.
• Tools: Element 500 mg sodium cans, with 100 mg potassium and 30 mg magnesium, no sugar and no caffeine, sipped through a fast. A CGM and ketone monitor can show how small foods affect you.
• Risks: Repeated long fasts can trigger hyperphagia, a binge urge that grows with a big meal. Daily antioxidants may blunt useful signaling after exercise, and carnivore style diets can raise Akkermansia without fiber to balance it.
• Exceptions: Akkermansia works best when your levels are low. Older adults tend to have more Akkermansia but fewer Bifidobacteria, which can strain the immune system.

Brain scans of people who were overweight or obese looked about 8 years older, and low estrogen, testosterone or thyroid hormone also sped up brain aging, so fixing metabolism, hormones and nutrition can visibly restore brain structure.

• What to do: Treat the brain through the body. Track cardiometabolic health, hormones and nutrients, and add a brain MRI with quantitative analysis plus Alzheimer's blood markers when family history or age 50 to 60 makes them relevant.
• Why it matters: Brain changes can show up about 30 years before Alzheimer's, and around 60% of people diagnosed with dementia have cardiometabolic problems. Scans show recovery after nutrition is restored, as in anorexia, where the brain improved most.
• How to apply it: Get a broad blood panel that includes vitamin D, iron, omega 3, heavy metals, insulin, thyroid, sex hormones, homocysteine and methylmalonic acid, then retest after changes to see your trend.
• Metrics: Alzheimer's incidence doubles every 5 years after age 70, from about 5% at 70 to 10% at 75 and 20% at 80. One APOE4 copy roughly triples risk, and two copies (about 6% of people) raise it 9 to 10 times. Key markers include p tau 217, amyloid beta 42/40, neurofilament light and GFAP.
• Tools: Functional MRI, PET, NeuroQuant brain age and brain charts, plus the Function Health panel. Sponsors named in the episode: Bon Charge red light mask, Paleovalley bars, Timeline Mitopure, Seed DS 01, BiOptimizers magnesium and Fatty15.
• Risks: A single marker or a normal structural MRI can miss the problem, because many psychiatric conditions show up in function, not structure. Imaging is more controversial than blood work.
• Exceptions: Only about 2% of Alzheimer's cases are directly genetic. APOE4 tilts risk but is not destiny, and its effect varies by ancestry.