How to feel younger
The Rejuvenation Blueprint
Why Should You Follow The Blueprint I’m Going to Show You In this Article?
Well, without going into my entire life story, I want to tell you that I do a couple of key things…
First, I'm a prolific researcher in the area of health.
Second, I’m a huge customer advocate. What do I mean by that? Well, I've been aware of the natural health world all my life.
My dad was one of the first people in the UK to have an organic food store back in the early 1980s. He grew organic vegetables and gardened. My mother always had loads of vitamins and supplements all over the house throughout my childhood.
So growing up, I was always surrounded by that kind of stuff.
Unfortunately, both of my parents had pretty terrible health problems, especially my mother. That's why they were into that kind of stuff.
I ended up having my own health problems fairly early on, and I made a lot of progress with that. And as a result of that, around 13 or 14 years ago I started sharing what I’d learned about health with other people. I wrote a book, released a bunch of different programs on health - one on energy, one on detox, and one on the Taoist philosophy.
The Taolist Philosophy is the East Asian System of Health and Healing along with a bunch of other stuff as well.
And then in my mid to late 30’s I developed another set of health issues - and most of what I’d learned previously didn’t work…
Which sent me on a whole other journey of trying to work out what was going on and what I could do about it. And during that process of discovery and research, I read hundreds of books on different aspects of health, went through thousands of articles and scientific papers…
And in the last decade I’ve spent around $750,000 on natural health “stuff” for me, and some of the people closest to me - including supplements, courses, live events, retreats, sessions with different practitioners and more.
I Spent a Lot of Money in The Area of Health…
I am primarily a customer myself. I see myself as one. And honestly most of that $750,000 spent on “health” - supplements, practitioners, retreats and so on - was a waste of money.
I mean, it wasn’t a total waste - because I learned from it all. But what I mean is if I could go back in time and just focus on what worked, I could have saved the vast majority of that money.
The other thing that I would say is that this experience - of trying so many different things - gives me a bit more insight than the average researcher… because I've been in the health world for so long that I've met, and spoken “behind the scenes” with many health experts, health gurus, people who've written best selling books, done speaking tours and so on.
I have a pretty comprehensive view of this whole world. And honestly, what I’ve realized is that I’m nowhere near as much of an expert on any one thing as many of them are, but what I've tended to find is that people - and I was definitely one of these people earlier on in my career when I was first writing those books and doing courses - tend to develop something which I sometimes call “expert-itis.”
“Expert-itis” is basically where they’ve created something new and they can’t see past it…
They've created a new protocol…
A new medicine...
A new system
A new strategy…
A new version or modality of an existing one…
Whatever the case - they’ve legitimately created something NEW
But then they tend to get so focused on their system and how amazing it is that they can't see anything other than that.
Then anyone who uses this expert's “thing” and gets good results with them validates the idea that their thing is the thing.
But these experts always ignore the people who don’t get good results using their things. Or, they blame the person who didn’t get good results…
“You’re not doing it right”
“You didn’t stick to my diet/exercise regime 100%, otherwise it would have worked for you”
They become very dogmatic.
It Takes a Very Strong Character to Be Open Minded…
Especially to be open minded enough to realize and admit that a lot of what you’ve spent 10 or 20 years learning and teaching - and having people pay you for - is actually WRONG…
That’s way too difficult for most people to accept.
Of course it's especially difficult to admit you’ve been wrong if you've been successful, right? If you've made a lot of money, if you have a lot of clients who you really have helped, if you have a lot of fame and reputation for what you've done or what you've proven.
If you're more of a scientist researcher type then it's very difficult to admit. What's being taught now in science is often not really science. When they say “trust the science” or “believe the science,” that's not science.
You know, the true spirit of science is curiosity, it’s inquiry. And whenever you have a hypothesis - a proposition as to what may be the case - you should be putting all your effort into trying to disprove it and finding exceptions, not prove it. Yet that's not what the vast majority of people are doing.
I'd say it's human nature to want to stick with what has worked for you up until now, especially if it's led you to being successful and loved and appreciated and all the rest of it.
And it takes a particular kind of mind, like mine - some people have accused me of being mildly Asperger's - to be obsessed with the truth. To the point where, if I find an exception, I'll then spend most of my time thinking about the exception. Like the 1 out of 10 people that it didn't work for, because I want to know why it didn’t work.
Most people think in fairly black and white terms, I think because it’s just easier to think that way. In contrast, I tend to think more in terms of probabilities. And I tend to think in terms of context…
For instance, if one “expert” says to me that a vegan diet is absolutely everything that you need…
That it's going to make you healthy and everything you want to be.
But then another “expert” comes to me and says a carnivore diet is everything that you need…
It's going to make you healthy and everything you want to be.
Well, those two pieces of advice are polar opposite, right? There's literally no overlap. What one person recommends, the other person says is poison and vice versa.
Now, the reality is that most people would be looking for who's right and who's wrong. But when I look at that, I go, okay, well, there are some people who are doing this vegan thing that seem to be doing very well. There are some people who are doing this carnivore thing that seem to be doing very well.
So rather than working out who's right and who's wrong, or who's a liar and who's telling the truth, I'm trying to work out under what set of conditions or under what context is this person right? And under what context or certain conditions is this exact opposite thing right?
Then I can understand more the underpinnings of the whole system.
The Other Big Issue with “Expert-itis”...
If you don't fit into their system, then they often don't really want to help you anyway. Maybe they even want to blame you.
The other issue is they're kind of blind to everything else that there is, right?
So those people who talk about the importance of mindset are blind to the fact that nutrition is still a thing that matters, right?
Like you can believe all you want, but if you eat toxic food and smoke cigarettes all day, it's going to limit your ability to be healthy.
But then there are the people who are so focused on nutrition that they ignore mindset. And that's just two examples.
I don't want to give the whole game away, but we’ve got 7 whole areas that we're going to look at in The Rejuvenation Blueprint.
The truth is you're only strong as your weakest link.
We talked about this in a podcast where we talked about the different things that age you a lot. But I would say it's also true for these steps.
As we go through the 7 steps, the steps that you're like:
“Huh, I haven't really done much with that” - those are probably your weakest link(s).
Of course, maybe you've done nothing with that step because you don't need to. That is possible, but if you're still struggling - or even if you're doing better than most people, but you're still not getting the results you want - then that area that you are least aware of, that you spent least time in may well be the area that you have the most success with, if you focus on it.
I see very few people in the health world who have a broad and deep understanding of health. There are always those few good people within any profession who really do have a very broad understanding and may well be familiar with all 7 steps of the Rejuvenation Blueprint. But the vast majority do not. And even if they're familiar with them, they usually don't really appreciate the importance of them
What Exactly is The Purpose of The Rejuvenation Blueprint?
The Rejuvenation Blueprint is not intended to take the place of any kind of practitioners.
Rather, it’s to help you to see why you may go to a specific practitioner and see that they have “blind spots” in their approach. And if you call them out on it, if you say, “well, what about this thing?” And if they just look at you, like, “I don't know what you're talking about,” then you may want find another practitioner.
The Rejuvenation Blueprint is for both practitioners of all kinds and the lay person.
But it's primarily aimed at a non practitioner.
The Rejuvenation Blueprint is NOT for the kind of people who think they’ve already found everything they need on their health journey…
It’s not for the person who is NOT open minded, and isn’t open to hearing about anything new or different or even complimentary.
If you’re extremely new to the world of health, The Rejuvenation Blueprint can still be for you, but it may be difficult for you to use. Because although I’ll try to explain things from first principles, there is going to be some assumed knowledge here.
Sure, we may touch on a little bit of the more basic stuff like how you shouldn't eat junk food and you shouldn't smoke and stuff like that. But we're really going to be talking more to the person who already knows all of that.
If you are new to health, I’m not making fun of you.
Until my late-20’s I used to wake up and drink Diet Coke and Smoke Cigs all day!
In fact, I lived a very delinquent lifestyle in the early part of my life.
Overall, the person likely to get the most value out of The Rejuvenation Blueprint is that person who is very health conscious…
Has done a lot of self education…
Has visited practitioners, and so on…
And feels like:
“I’ve tried everything”
Yet they’re still not where they want to be, health wise. That's really the sweet spot of the person who's probably going to get the most value out of this.
What Does “The Rejuvenation Blueprint” Mean?
I think most people know what rejuvenation means, right?
But basically juve comes from a similar root as juvenile. So it means YOUTH.
And rejuve means to make young again.
So rejuvenation means to make young again and blueprint means, well, we probably all know what blueprint means, right?
It's a step-by-step plan in order to feel young again, and be young again.
That's the focus.
Again, I'm not claiming this is going to give you everything that you could ever want to know because that's infinite, right? It never ends.
There's so many things you might want to know, and I don't know your unique situation. We're not going to make those ridiculous over-the-top claims here, but what we are going to get is a blueprint to understand every other health system that's out there.
There is nothing out there that will help you with your health and help you to feel younger, that will help you to slow down or minimize your rate of aging that is not contained within one of these 7 steps.
Instead, this is like a meta system, a system of systems.
Every other system fits into this.
And the value of that is not to say we're bigger than everyone else.
The value of it is best explained with an example…
Say you’re going through the system and you say:
“I'm already doing that, and it's a really good system. And because I’m doing that system, it’s covering steps 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7. I mean, that's a great system, but now I can actually see that I’m missing steps 3 and 5.”
Now you can see where your weakest links may be. And once you identify those weakest links, and fix them, you should then be able to unlock a new level of health and well-being.
Ultimately, the big goal of The Rejuvenation Blueprint is to help you understand every other system that you may have tried.
It’s For People Who Are Willing to Take Personal Responsibility for Their Health…
The Rejuvenation Blueprint is for people who are willing to take personal responsibility for their own lives and their own health.
That doesn't mean that you go all alone.
Although I know some of our readers and listeners will. In fact, one of my best friends is like that. He will not go and see a practitioner, no matter how many times I suggest he should. He absolutely refuses to do it.
Personally, I've nothing against seeing practitioners.
As I said, I've seen many of them.
You just have to understand the limitations of the practitioner. And one limitation is that no one will ever know your mind, your body, and your health challenges quite the way you do!
Plus, no one is going to care as much as you do!
So even though a practitioner may have all these degrees and qualifications, and they may have helped countless other people, they’re still not going to care as much as YOU do about sorting out your health challenges.
And when it comes to RESULTS, the fact that you CARE more than anyone else gives you an advantage - because there’s more in it for you to really dig deep, figure out what’s going on, and have that relentless determination to not give up until you get the results you want.
For me, one of the biggest challenges, health wise, has been that no one really understood what was going on in my body, so I had to work it out for myself, although I had a lot of help along the way.
Also, no one really cared as much as I did - and why would they?
A lot of people have the attitude that if you just do this and this, it'll be a bit better and that's good enough.
But I’m like “No, it's not good enough.”
So when I say “no one cares as much as you do” I'm not impugning the level of caring of any of these practitioners out there. A lot of them are very empathic people who care greatly.
What I mean is no one's going to have the standards that you do. Maybe that's a better way of looking at it, right? For them, maybe “able to function-ish” or “not in as much pain” is okay.
But that’s hardly optimal, is it?
I realized some people do have lower standards themselves.
So, The Rejuvenation Blueprint is also for people who have high standards for themselves.
It’s not for people who are like: “Oh, I’m doing better than my neighbor, so that’s good enough.”
This is for people who are like: “No, I want to do better than most people.”
Not because of any ego or superiority complex, but because presumably you're putting a lot more effort into being healthier than the average person, if you are reading this article. So don't you deserve to feel a lot healthier than the average person, if you're putting so much effort in?
“This Is Just How it’s Going to Be For The Rest of Your Life”…
This is something you hear more and more as you get older, right?
If you have a problem when you're 20, they're all ears.
If you have it when you're, say, 40, they’re less optimistic.
And if you have a problem when you’re 60, they kind of write you off and say “deal with it.”
I don’t find that attitude acceptable.
Even if you only plan to live to “average age” - say 80 - who wants to live their last 20 years beat up and decrepit with a quality of life that diminishes with every year?
What Are The 7 Steps of The Rejuvenation Blueprint?
Step 1: Building Blocks
Building blocks are the nutrients that your body is made out of… vitamins, minerals, proteins, amino acids, essential fats, water and oxygen.
These are the essential building blocks that are required for your body to function. Having an optimal amount of all the building blocks is required for your body to be optimal by definition.
Now that all sounds fairly obvious.
But the thing that's interesting about building blocks is that there are what I call essential building blocks and conditionally essential building blocks and non-essential building blocks.
The only difference between essential and non-essential, is that a non-essential building block is something that your body's made out of, but your body can make it itself.
And then there are some things that your body can make itself, but struggles to make enough of, or sometimes can't depending on the situation. These are called “conditionally essential building blocks.”
What is of most interest, at least to start with, are the essential building blocks because if you do not have enough of any one of them in your body, then everything else is going to suffer through lack of just that one building block. And that could be something as basic and elemental as water, or it could be something as little-known as meligimum (which is an element - a central mineral).
If you’re missing just one building block, then everything grinds to a halt.
Even essential building blocks that you only need in small quantities - if you don’t have enough you're going to have a disease.
So that's a real medical classified deficiency.
But anything that you have even a sub optimal amount of is going to cause a problem.
It goes back to the concept that you're only as strong as the weakest link in the chain.
These building blocks are like all the links in your chain. If you don't have enough of one of them, everything else stops working.
For instance, there's a bunch of nutrients that you need to produce energy. Your mitochondria, which are your little energy factories inside of your cells that produce ATP, which is what science calls energy. If you don't have an optimal amount of any one of those nutrients that produces energy, then you're not going to have an optimal amount of energy. If your cells don't have an optimal amount of energy, then everything else could suffer and quite often does.
And what suffers depends on all kinds of other factors. Including steps we're going to go into. Like for instance, what your genetics are, but the fact that they will suffer is inevitable.
The reason I start with building blocks is because fixing a nutritional deficiency is really, really easy in most cases. Best case scenario, you can just eat more of a different food, worst case scenario you might have to inject some kind of nutrient because your body's really bad at absorbing it. That's like the worst case scenario, but that's very rarely necessary. Vitamin B12 is one that's often injected, but it's not that common.
If all your problems could be resolved by finding one nutrient you’re lacking, and then to solve that deficiency all you need is more of a certain food, or a supplement, well, I consider that a pretty optimal scenario, right?
You might have all kinds of health issues or you might have all kinds of signs of aging that you're not happy with, none of which would be classified as “health issues,” but all of which you're not happy with…
You're not sleeping as well, you're more tired, you're feeling more stiff, the potential list goes on.
Imagine if you could find that one thing that is rate limiting, that is your weakest link in the chain and just eat a food or take a supplement to fix it. That's an ideal scenario because it's so easy to do compared to, say, changing your genetics.
Of course, changing your genetics is impossible right now, but there is currently technology being worked on that might change that. Maybe they'll figure it out at some point, but it's extremely difficult in this day and age, in most cases.
Even changing your lifestyle for most people is extremely difficult. If I said that the answer to all your issues is to exercise an hour a day, five days a week. For most people, it's going to be like, "Just?"
That's a massive shift for them.
And that may be very difficult for all kinds of reasons, I'm not making anyone wrong here.
Maybe they're in pain, maybe their immune system breaks down if they exercise too much, maybe all kinds of painful emotions come up. There's all kinds of reasons why people don't exercise. But it's very easy to take a pill or eat a certain food. And so that's why I would just start with essential building blocks.
Because it is potentially a “quick fix.” A Magic Bullet.
And even if it's not the thing - and this is the other reason why I recommend starting with it - if you have the luxury of time, then by optimizing this step, by optimizing your building blocks, especially your essential building blocks, it's going to make everything else easier.
Say, for instance, that your real issue is you've got some kind of chronic infection, like a sinus infection, SIBO, heavy metal toxicity or a hormone deficiency. In any of these cases, optimizing a level of all of those building blocks will only help - it’ll make those other issues probably at least somewhat easier to deal with.
Step 2: Chemical Toxicities
So building blocks are like the good stuff that we take in.
Step 2 in The Rejuvenation Blueprint is what I call toxicities… specifically chemical toxicities. (We'll talk about living organisms and the toxicities that they create in another section).
In this step we’re talking chemicals - non-living toxicities.
The first thing to address regarding toxicities is that there are some that you can control the intake of, and some you can’t.
I know a lot of people worry about chemtrails, for instance. That's something that you can't control (and of course it’s still debated as to whether or not it’s a real thing).
But let's say chemtrails are a real thing, it's still not something you can do a lot about.
I once got into a conversation with a guy who was smoking a cigarette, and he was telling me about how worried he was about chemtrails!
You have to focus on the things you CAN control, otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy mentally, and do yourself no favors physically.
But, yeah, that’s the 1st point about chemicals - it’s only worth worrying, or trying to do something about, the ones you can actually control.
Actually there are 3 classes of chemical toxicities:
- Ones we take in voluntarily (for instance: smoking)
- Ones we take in without even realizing it (or instance: EMF)
- Those we create within ourselves
Regarding the 3rd category - the ones we create within ourselves:
This one creates a lot of objections from mainstream science and medicine.
But the idea is that we create all kinds of highly poisonous toxins within our own body. For instance:
When your body breaks down alcohol, it turns that alcohol into something called aldehyde, which is similar to formaldehyde (which is actually way more toxic than the alcohol itself).
Then your enzymes cause certain chemical processes in your body to work (and so long as they’re working correctly) it won’t stay in that highly toxic form for long. It'll be converted to another substance.
However, for various reasons, sometimes aldehyde builds up and that's when people can have real problems.
Another example:
A lot of people have heard of free radicals.
Free radicals are these little spare or lost oxygen electrons.
And even though oxygen is an essential nutrient - it's essential as part of the air you breathe, and it's essential as part of water.
However, when it's in a loose form, then it causes all kinds of havoc and all kinds of damage, including all kinds of microorganisms.
So your body actually creates hydrogen peroxide (a type of bleach) in order to kill microorganisms that it doesn't want.
So if you've got an infection, that's one of the many things that your immune system will do - it’ll create more of a toxin - in this case hydrogen peroxide - in order to kill an organism.
Now, as I said earlier, the ones I focus more on are, first of all, the ones that you take in voluntarily. And remember, there's a few different ways to take in toxins, the obvious being - things you eat and drink. Smoking. That’s the obvious stuff.
One easy way to ensure you’re not taking in toxic chemicals is to check ingredients labels if there is one.
Obviously if you're just buying a whole food, a steak or celery or whatever, it's not going to have ingredients labels, it's just celery.
But anything with an ingredients label, even if you buy cured meat or smoked fish from a counter, ask what's in it.
I highly recommend looking at ingredients labels and if you don't know what an ingredient is inside something you're about to take in your body, then my standard advice is don’t buy it, or do a little research before you do buy it.
You could Google “dangers of INGREDIENT NAME.”
That way you should be able to quickly figure out whether it’s toxic or not.
Now you could say, "Oh, there's something wrong with everything these days."
And it is possible to over analyze things.
But you do need to be aware of what you're taking in.
Of course, the stress of worrying about what you're taking in can be worse for you than the thing itself. So I'm not encouraging worrying, but I am encouraging awareness.
Another area to pay attention to is skin products. Most of them are a source of toxic chemicals, and I think they make you uglier, not better looking in the long-run.
A simple way to avoid chemical toxicity with skin products is to only put things on your skin that you would actually put in your mouth and swallow (because ultimately, what you rub on your skin will be absorbed into your body).
Of course, I’m not advising you to EAT your skincare products! I’m just saying you want to buy natural ones that you could eat without needing to call the doctor afterwards!
You should also be aware that food standards are much stricter than skincare products. Meaning: there’s way more harmful chemicals in skincare products than there is in food, generally speaking.
Many “experts” will tell you that what goes onto your skin doesn’t get into your bloodstream. However, if that were true, Nicotine Patches wouldn’t be a thing (nobody would buy them).
Women especially are in a bad situation with all these “skincare” problems - there’s so much advertising persuading women that they’ll look younger if they use them. But, in the long run, if you want to look your best, you really should only put things on your skin that are 100% safe and natural.
Another thing to talk about would be the air you breathe…
Depending where you are, it is possible that most of the toxins you take in are actually in the air that you breathe. So that's something to be aware of because again, people tend to overemphasize food and underemphasize other factors.
I've known plenty of people who cleaned up their diet, but did not feel better, then finally got a really high-quality air purifier and felt a lot better. And because they lived in a very toxic environment - maybe because of mold, or mycotoxins, maybe because of the air quality outside because they live on nearby roads, whatever…
The bottom line is - for all kinds of reasons if you purify your air you can feel much better.
Another option is to move to the countryside. If you live in a town or city, that might sound dramatic - but it could significantly improve your health, because the air quality is so much better (and in a bunch of other ways too).
The final major thing to say about chemical toxicity is…
One thing you should do is minimize the toxins you take in. But another thing you should do is support your body in processing those toxins and supporting your body in removing those toxins. Removing them is particularly key.
Ultimately, if you're reducing how much goes in… if you're improving how well your body can deal with what does go in inevitably… and what is created within it inevitably… and you are improving how your body gets it out then you've mastered the subject of chemical toxicity.
Step 3: Look At Your Genetics
The next thing I advise people to look at is genetics.
A lot of people think they’re entire health is based on genetics. You’ll hear them say things like:
"Well, my grandfather had heart disease, my father had heart disease, my mother had heart disease, so I'm bound to get heart disease, right?”
Until recently, this was a fairly common perspective on genetics.
But fairly recently epigenetics has become a lot more well researched and popular.
Epigenetics is like the opposite of genetics… people who are into it would say:
"Ah, no. Only 5% of your health outcomes are inevitable, 95% you can change”... with your lifestyle, with your environment, with your diet, with everything that we are talking about in this program.
And I was definitely in... before I really investigated the topic, I would've probably been in that second camp. I would've believed, "no, it's not inevitable."
The main thing I'm a big believer in is that you are the master of your own destiny. I'm a big believer in personal responsibility, I'm a big believer in freedom of choice. So I was much more on the camp of, "No, you can change all that.”
However, having really looked into genes over the last year or so - and as a result, really improving my own health - I'm now kind of in the middle...
I would say that things are not inevitable just because they're in our genes, but genes are a significant factor.
What's really interesting to look at, are these things called SNPs - which stands for single nucleotide polymorphisms. And SNPs don't change.
If you get a genetic saliva sample from you when you're 1 year old or when you're 91 years old, they're going to be the same. These SNPs are not something that are influenced by epigenetics.
However, SNPs can be influenced by epigenetics.
The bottom line is that if I ended up taking my Genetic Insights Reports and gave them to myself and my parents, when I was, say, 2 years old… then I wouldn't have had any of those health challenges because I could have prevented them, because they weren't set in stone, they’re just tendencies.
And so the SNPs cannot just predict...
They're not like, "Yes, you are likely to have a problem with this or no, they're not."
They'll even tell you... Genetic Insights (my company that produces Genetic Reports) will even tell you the percentage chance that you have of having something.
So if you have an average chance of having a problem with something, then that's fine. But if you have a very heightened chance of having something, then you know that's something you have to be aware of, and then you can do something to try and address that issue, to prevent it from actually happening.
It’s like a pre-emptive strike against ill health and disease.
It allows you to minimize the chance of it happening if it hasn't shown up yet, and resolve it as quickly and easily as you can, if it has already shown up.
Here’s an example:
I got one particular report that seemed to suggest completely the opposite of my experience. I had these food intolerances for a long, long time. There were many foods I couldn't eat, otherwise I'd get all these digestive issues, and sometimes sinus issues as well.
So my diet became very restrictive, but I learned to live with it. As a result, I assumed I had all these food tolerances. But then I got my report from Genetic Insights and it comes back as, "You don't really have a tendency to have food intolerances."
Now, just because you don't have a genetic tendency for something doesn't mean you necessarily don't have it, it can manifest anyway (in spite of your genetics). But it did get me thinking, and questioning a lot of things that I believed to be true (about myself and food tolerances).
So I went away and actually did 3 food intolerance tests, with 3 different companies (because I don’t fully trust the results from any of these companies).
I did all 3 tests on the same day, so they couldn't claim any differences were due to different time periods or anything like that.
And the tests basically showed I had some food intolerances, but not many. Hardly any to be honest.
This was confusing, because the reality was:
“I definitely do react to that food. So maybe the test is wrong."
But then I looked at another report in genetic insights and it was about irritable bowel syndrome. And it said, I was in the top 2% of people most likely to have this issue…
So then it made sense. I don’t really have food intolerances, but I do have a tendency towards irritable bowel syndrome.
Irritable bowel syndrome, in a nutshell, is where if you have gas built up in your system, it creates a lot more problems than it would for somebody who doesn't have it. That's the simple explanation.
And it's interesting because irritable bowel syndrome isn't even a real medical diagnosis. A lot of people say irritable bowel syndrome isn’t even a real diagnosis. And they're kind of right, it's not. Basically, it’s when doctors and gastroenterologists try and work out what's wrong with your digestion, do a bunch of tests but can’t find anything wrong…
Then they tell you it’s “Irritable Bowel Syndrome”
It's a diagnosis of elimination basically.
They don't really understand what it is, what causes it, the mechanism by which it manifests. But, they can still predict that you're going to have it, looking at these genetic SNPs.
This really helped me. Because then I was able to ask, what helps with Irritable Bowel Syndrome?
And of course Genetic Insights doesn't just tell you what chances you have of suffering with different health issues - it also tells you the recommendations for avoiding or fixing these issues, based on your SNPs.
Because there's many, many different SNPs that could lead to an increased chance of any of these issues, including irritable bowel syndrome.
I also looked at general advice. What helps with it generally? And there's been a lot of improvement.
So yeah, understanding the genetics can be really, really helpful. I know I just went into quite a bit of detail there, but there are actually many more stories I could tell you about how it's profoundly helped me understand myself… and not just with health problems, but with all kinds of other people and understand everyone around me, at least those who have been happy to do a genetic test.
Step 4: Chemical Cell Signaling Instructions
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Step 5: Lifestyle and Environmental Cell Signaling Instructions
There are a lot of things other than nutrients or building blocks and toxins that affect the function of your cells and ultimately your genes.
There are chemicals that will affect the function of your cells and your DNA, and then other factors. And the other factors could be the biggest step of all.
Let’s talk about chemicals first…
These can be broken down into hormones and neurotransmitters (or neurochemicals), peptides and herbs. 3 of those 4 things are actually things that your body does make itself, but I would not really class them as building blocks, because they're made out of building blocks.
Peptides are the simplest to explain…
A peptide is a string of amino acids in a specific sequence, which gives a specific biochemical instruction. Even though I'd call them cell signaling agents, a lot of the time it actually does come down to the genes, and it comes down to enzymes. So one of the things that will impact how well a gene, enzyme or cell works, is if it has enough of the building blocks that it needs to function optimally.
One of the other things that will affect how well it works is if it has toxic chemicals getting in the way.
Another thing that will govern how well that cell gene or enzyme works is what you're born with, your genetics.
Other than those things, there's still a lot you can do to change how that cell works with either chemicals and also lifestyle factors.
We already talked about chemicals - hormones, neurotransmitters, peptides and herbs.
In terms of lifestyle environment instructions, that could be things like the amount of sunlight that you take in, what time you go to bed, what time you wake up, how many hours you sleep, how much you exercise, whether you exercise, what you do, how much stress you have, and so on.
Not only can hormones, peptides, neurochemicals and herbs signal the cells, enzymes, and genes in your body to turn something off, they can also signal the cells to turn something on, or make something work differently.
And so do all those lifestyle things…
Getting more or less bright light in the morning, getting more or less darkness at night, getting more or less movement at particular times of the day. And of course, with food, we talked about building blocks, what you eat, how often you eat, when you eat, when you drink and so forth.
All of those kinds of things, which are more in the “lifestyle category” also give signals to your genes, enzymes, and cells.
And so the reason why I start with Step 1, 2 and 3 is because... Well, we start with Step 1 because they're easy, I already explained that. Step 2, I start with, because if you have a major toxicity getting in the way, this can be one of the reasons why nothing else works. You may have already made loads of lifestyle changes or at least tried to make them and they haven't worked. You may have already tried lots of herbs and stuff like that and it hasn't worked.
When I say lifestyle and environment it’s also things like your posture, your relationships, your attitude, your level of social activity. It's endless. It's literally every aspect of your life.
Let's talk about chemical instructions…
Hormones are a key one and something that people are becoming more and more aware of. The key ones that are related to rejuvenation are thyroid and growth hormone. These are both things related to metabolism and our ability to repair our cells, how much energy our cells burn, and how well the mitochondria work. These are foundational things which tend to get worse with age.
Then there's the sex hormones. Testosterone, especially for men. And progesterone, especially for women. These sex hormones can start getting low from 30 onwards. Sometimes even earlier, if there's other major issues going on. Low sex hormones can really ruin your quality of life.
Then there's the adrenal hormones, specifically cortisol. Chronically high levels of cortisol can cause major problems and chronically low levels can also cause different problems which are less well known but equally important to understand.
When I say “high” and “low” I'm not talking about Addison's disease and Graves disease. I'm not talking about medical conditions - although certainly it will create major problems. Really though, I just mean less than optimal or more than optimal - enough to be causing issues.
Another hormone is insulin. This affects our ability to utilize carbohydrates, our ability to take up sugar. Insulin has a huge impact on our energy in different ways to the thyroid, but equally as important.
Then there's the pineal and the pituitary glands producing their own hormones, which are more regulatory. Meaning; they usually tell the body to create more of a specific type of hormone.
Next we're talking about the brain - and our neurotransmitters.
We say one of the things about feeling healthy and youthful is that you have joy and enthusiasm and motivation and energy and the ability to focus. Well, that's largely governed by the neurotransmitter dopamine.
Another aspect of feeling healthy and youthful is that you're able to relax and also feel confident. To feel these ways you need healthy levels of a neurotransmitter called serotonin.
Let’s also talk about herbs….
When you mention herbs, people often say:
“Oh, where does acupuncture fit into this?"
I put acupuncture into lifestyle or environmental instructions.
Acupuncture is obviously not something that you ingest, so it’s in the Lifestyle and Environmental Instructions category.
If the main reason you're taking a herb is because it contains a nutrient that you need, then I guess it'll be a building block, but usually herbs are taken as cell signaling instructions. And that’s why they’re in Step 4.
Step 6: Microorganisms
This is the one the medical system is the most focused on. And because of that, a lot of the alternative systems are as well. These are the living types of toxicities…
Specifically anything that's pathogenic or hostile to the body, including a bacteria, virus, fungus, mold, yeast, protozoa, or virus. Those are the main categories. These microorganisms cause harm, damage and stress to the body.
Microorganisms also create something called biofilm. The type that we can probably all relate to is plaque on our teeth. That's the type of biofilm that bacteria basically used to hide behind.
But you can actually have biofilm anywhere. When it’s on your teeth it’s technically outside the body, but it can also be inside the body - for example: in your whole digestive tract, your urethra, your sinuses or your lungs.
If it's an area that’s outside the body, you will often have some degree of those organisms. And if it's a manageable level, then it’s not an issue. However, if it becomes too much, then they start making themselves a home, and they create their biofilm.
Then these microorganisms also excrete waste, known as endotoxins. Endotoxins are a type of toxin that your body finds it really difficult to deal with.
Again, when I gave the order of steps in The Rejuvenation Blueprint - Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 and so on - this is the order I recommend most people use to approach their health, but if you have any kind of acute infection, the order changes…
If you have any kind of acute infection, go to a doctor as soon as possible - even if you just suspect it. If a doctor isn't able to help, then you may consider some kind of alternative practitioner who focuses on these things and they may give you something to kill the organisms, like a herb or something else.
There are some bacteria - probiotics being one example - that is sometimes actually used to help battle infections.
The other reason why I put “dealing with microorganisms” as Step 6 is again, because unless you have an active acute infection - or even if you have a chronic infection, such as chronic sinusitis, chronic SIBO, chronic UTI, or whatever, if you can take something to clear it up, by all means do so because so long as you've got chronic infection in most cases it's going to stop your immune system from functioning properly. It's going to over ramp your immune system. It's much more likely to lead to maybe mild or maybe even serious autoimmunity over time.
It's no joke. It's inflammation, it's all kinds of issues.
If dealing with microorganisms is a solution that will work for you, great. But the reason why I don't put sooner in the system is because it’s likely the first thing a regular Doctor - or even a Functional Medical Practitioner - will focus on.
They look at the gut, and try to figure out what's going on. Is there dysbiosis? Is there leaky gut? That kind of thing.
That's not necessarily a bad place to look at first, but the challenge is then “what can I take to kill that microorganism?”
Then that leads to a conversation about what the real problem is? Is the problem the person’s internal biological terrain, or is the problem the thing that's invaded the terrain? It gets complicated trying to get to the part that matters most.
And to make it even more complicated there’s no hard and fast rules. If you're talking about Ebola, you'd have to have an exceptionally pristine terrain to not have it be life threatening. There are some infectious agents that are really terrible, almost no matter who you are. Thankfully, those are relatively unusual, especially in this day and age.
What's much more common is what we’ve seen in the recent pandemic. A virus that, although it could affect anyone and everyone, only badly affects those who have terrain issues. Those people who are already quite a long way from being optimally healthy.
Let me quickly elaborate on this idea of “terrain”...
An analogy that I heard many years ago always stuck with me:
Let's say you live in a big city and there is a strike by the garbage workers and they refuse to pick up the garbage. That garbage starts piling up everywhere on the streets because in cities, people often leave their garbage out on the street for the garbage people to collect.
Eventually that garbage attracts rats and you have rats running around, and then maybe even foxes and other unwanted creatures as well. And they're going to be making noise, they’re going to leave their mess everywhere, they’re going to attack your pets and so on.
They’re going to generally bring the whole vibe of the place down - making it noisier, dirtier and less safe.
The question is...
“Should we poison and exterminate all these rats and foxes and so on?"
That’d solve the problem, right?
Well, sure, for a short while it probably will. If you put down poison and traps it’d get rid of them for a while. But they're probably going to come back at some point.
Why?
Because you haven't resolved the actual problem.
What is the actual problem?
The actual problem is the garbage piling up in the streets.
So that's an analogy for what often goes on inside a human being, especially with chronic infections that don't necessarily infect everyone.
The “Terrain” is really what's going on internally in your own internal ecosystem. What's building up in there, what toxicities are present, what has your body been able to process and get rid of, and what has it held onto?
We’re all exposed to something called pathogenic organisms - also referred to as opportunistic organisms.
I think the most pathogens are of that class. And most of the time most of them are actually fine. They’re not going to cause you any harm.
I've talked to microbiome experts about this, who do a stool test and look at all of the different bacterias that are inside someone. There's a very small percentage that are just troublemakers, no matter what.
And there's also a very small percentage that are good, no matter what. However, the vast majority are indifferent organisms that only become a problem if the terrain shifts in too much of an unhealthy way - if there is too much waste being built up, if there's not enough waste being removed in a timely enough manner… then that creates an environment where they proliferate and cause problems. They create too many endotoxins (and this worsens your ability to deal with other issues).
So that's why I recommend focusing on the other stuff first, if you have the luxury of doing so, because often that's the real issue.
But the other thing is the function of the immune system…
Why is the immune system unable to deal with those organisms in a timely, harmless and minimally inflammatory manner?
Why is an infection chronic or why is it an acute infection recurring?
Honestly, there's all kinds of reasons why the immune system may not be functioning properly. I won't go into it here because I'm sure it'll probably be at least one big episode on the podcast, maybe many episodes. But again, that's another key aspect that needs to be looked at.
We could use the immune system as in the previous analogy…
We could say that the immune system is like an army of garbage collectors, even though we usually think of it as an army to fight away the invading hordes. In reality, a big part of the immune system is there to clear away our own dead cells.
One of the things the immune system does is called apoptosis. It’ll take a cell that's not functioning as well as it should and it’ll basically kill it and recycle it.
And if the immune system doesn't do that well enough, it leads to the dreaded “C word” that we are probably not allowed to say on a public platform. But that's just a scientific fact and that's why a lot of the treatments for that dreaded disease often focus on the immune system.
Step 7: The Real Root Cause of Ill Health and Aging…
I'll touch this as lightly as I possibly can because I’m going to explain it in great detail elsewhere.
But this one is the real root cause of ill health and aging.
And it’s related to your feelings.
Our feelings have a huge impact on, obviously, how we feel when it comes to feeling younger or not. Honestly though, our feelings affect every aspect of our health.
If you use high cortisol as an example - that’s related to underlying anxiety and worry. Underlying anxiety and worry create high cortisol.
If you have high levels of cortisol for a long time, it often leads to weight gain, blood sugar dysregulation and all kinds of other health issues.
But it’s not just a chemical thing. Your feelings are crucial.
And then the other way that it can manifest is indirectly through the way that your feelings affect your choices.
I’ll go through that in great detail when we talk about step 7, because this is such a crucial topic, but a simple example might be...
We all know that eating junk food is bad for us and we all know that never exercising is bad for us, but so many of us do it.
Why?
In the case of eating junk food, even though we know it’s bad for us, I would say those who are eating junk food are not doing it because we already feel extremely centered and balanced and fulfilled.
Usually, they’re doing it to try and feel better because they feel bad. Other times we eat junk food even when we feel intensely positive, because the emotion is so strong we don’t know how to deal with it.
We try to bring ourselves UP with junk food, and we sometimes try to kind of bring ourselves DOWN with junk food if we’re experiencing too many unusually positive feelings.
So food is a way of modulating how we feel.
It turns out almost every factor that would make us healthy or less healthy, whether we do it or not is down to how we feel.
The other thing that it's down to is lack of information. So we touched upon this earlier, like maybe using skincare products, which you think are great because they’ve got the words “natural” and “organic” on the packaging, but you didn't check the label and find that the same product actually contains a bunch of toxins. In that case, that's not your feelings, that's a lack of information or awareness.
But in the vast majority of cases, in my experience, we actually know what's bad for us or we know what's good for us and we do the bad thing anyway. And so feelings are really the root of that. And we'll really hopefully give a great practical guide to that in Step 7.
How I Came Up with The Steps In The Rejuvenation Blueprint…
Well, I would say I was forced into it by the universe. Other people might call it God, or some sort of higher power, something like that.
I don’t think I'm any more special than any other person or any other life form, but the plan for me seemed to be that I would learn all this.
I touched upon this earlier, that when I first started, I was one of those dogmatic "experts.” I'd found something that had worked for me, it worked for a bunch of other people and I thought I knew it all.
And it was only when, well, the cracks started to show because there was always that minority of people who would show up who it hadn't worked for. And I was always rather than defensive. I believed I was always very open, curious, and trying to work it out, but this really hit me like a sledgehammer when it happened to me. All of the advice that had worked for me up until then and all the advice that had worked for others, it wasn't working for me anymore.
I went to so many different practitioners, mainstream medical doctors, private doctors, the NHS and so on. I won't say I've seen them all, but I certainly have seen many, many different types of practitioners.
I tried a lot of things.
And as I said earlier, I had a bigger budget than probably the average person had. I had more time than the average person had because I could fit it around my work because I own my own businesses. I was in a great position compared to most people and yet it was still incredibly difficult.
So many times I thought I had it all figured out, but then I’d realize that was only part of it. And I'm sure I will tell that story, but I don’t want to make this too long. So I won't do it here.
But, in the nutshell, I discovered all of this and created The Rejuvenation Blueprint because I had to work out what was going on with me and what I could do about it.
And then when I saw it working, for me and others, and tried to start sharing it - with practitioners, doctors and other “experts” - most of them would just be like:
“Oh yeah, whatever.”
I guess they just wanted to carry on believing that their “one thing” or their “one system” was the answer for everyone.
Eventually I did find some really good practitioners. But they often weren't able to help me. Or they weren't able to help much - but I could see they were still good people… they were open minded, caring, most importantly, they genuinely wanted to help.
And some of them kept saying…
‘’This is very interesting. I think you should share it."
So I went from sharing stuff to not sharing stuff. Initially, not because I had any issue, but just because I was working for another business behind the scenes, rather than doing anything publicly.
And then my thought was:
"Well, I'm not sharing anything anymore partly because I'm working behind the scenes. But also partly because I'm not going to share anything about health when I still have some health issues, and I'm not going to share anything about feeling younger when I feel older than I ever have before.”
But then I thought about it and I figured:
"I'm not perfect, and I don't claim to be perfect."
But when I got to the benchmark of not only feeling better again, but actually feeling in most ways better than I ever had… because I’d actually had health problems my whole life.
When I started to feel better than ever and looked better than ever, and getting that feedback and all the rest of it, I was like:
"Well, I need to start sharing it again.”
And then I had to figure out how to codify it into a step-by-step blueprint - which has ultimately become:
The Rejuvenation Blueprint that you’re reading about right here, right now!
The Rejuvenation Blueprint is a Meta System…
I’ll explain what that means using a few examples…
There are a lot of different health systems out there and I'll just list off a few of them. I'll give you examples of how some of these systems address some stuff, but also miss a lot.
Dr. Gundry has become very popular in recent times. He focuses on lectins. Lectins are a specific type of toxicity - a type of protein found in many common foods that contain protein, including grains.
Now, of course, cutting out lectins - cutting out grains - may help you greatly. However, it’s only focusing on avoiding one class of toxicity. The entire system is basically only dealing with part of ONE of the 7 steps in The Rejuvenation Blueprint.
Next, we’ve got all manner of different diets out there: the alkalizing diet, the paleo diet, vegan and more.
The Alkalizing Diet focuses on getting in more of a specific type of building block, some of which are really good. It focuses on getting alkaline minerals into your system, including magnesium. calcium, potassium, and more. That's good.
Then the alkalizing diet is often also focused on detoxifying as well - getting acids out of your body.
So again, we don't have to talk about whether it's a valid system or not. We can just say it is a system that focuses on step one and Step 2 in The Rejuvenation Blueprint. That's basically it.
Keto is popular right now. Let’s take a look at that…
Keto focuses on taking in certain building blocks and avoiding carbohydrates, because again, they treat carbohydrate as if it's a toxin, which is a very contentious view.
But given that eating carbohydrates increases insulin and increased insulin is one of the predictors for accelerated aging, it's not meritless. It has some merit.
I don't personally do it, but I would say I'm low carb.
So I'm on the way, although I don't actually aim to get into ketosis. So yeah, that's that. But again, it doesn't matter what my opinion of it is. It's a Step 1 and Step 2 system. That's what it's focused on. Again though, it means it misses FIVE steps of The Rejuvenation Blueprint - so it may well help some people, but it’s going to leave others with a lot of questions that still need answering, and problems that need fixing.
How about Veganism?
Well, veganism tends to be focused on again, Step 1 and Step 2. Vegans treat animal foods as toxic and often with some justification, right? A lot of animal foods do have high levels of toxicity in them because nutrients and toxins tend to concentrate the higher up the food chain you go.
So, there's some merit to that, but then the carnivore system treats plant foods as toxins because of things like lectins and cyanide type components, sulfur type components and so on.
Carnivores say that plants are creating certain toxins because they don't want to be eaten.
But of course, animals don't want to be eaten!
And the truth is - plants and animals create different toxins…
The animal defense mechanism is that it can run away or attack you, whereas the plant's only defense mechanism is creating a chemical to stop you eating too much of it. That's the carnivore argument.
I'm vegetarian at the moment, by the way. So I'm not defending carnivores because I am one (I’m clearly not).. I'm just saying. That's the system.
Then there’s The Mucus Free diet, and that's not even focused on building blocks. That's really focused on avoiding toxicity - Step 2 of The Rejuvenation Blueprint. But it's also a Step 6 System. Because mucus is part of that biofilm process we discussed earlier. So The Mucus Free Diet is really focused on both types of toxicity, the chemical type and the microorganism type.
Another reasonably popular diet is the AIP diet. The Autoimmune diet.
So again, I like that diet, but again, it's basically just a Step 2 system - it's avoiding things that are toxic to you.
There's The Hulda Clark System, which I relate to the naturopathic system. This is really focusing primarily on Step 6. Practitioners look at parasites and other toxins. Sometimes there are systems out there that focus on parasites. There are systems out there that focus on mold.
Of course, you’ve also got things like doing the liver, gallbladder flush, and these are part of The Hulda Clark System too. It’s a combination of Step 2 and Step 6. It’s about getting the living microorganisms that create the toxicity out of you, and then getting rid of the chemical toxicities.
How about Ayurveda?
Ayurveda is a fairly broad system. So they do focus on building blocks. They do focus on detoxification. So that’s definitely Step 1 and 2.
Obviously genetics is a relatively new field, but they do focus on the different body types. So you could say they touch on genetics in their own way, and they certainly have herbs. So they have a bit of Step 4 in there.
They focus on lifestyle. So they have a bit of Step 5 and they even focus on feelings. So they have a bit of Step 7.
Their only challenge I would say, is on a practical level. What they're really getting you to do most of the time is a restrictive diet, massages of various kinds and yoga. And I don't mean to minimize such an amazing system. However, they're often focused on building blocks. But then they're not really focusing on specific nutrients? They're more thinking in terms of the energy of different foods.
But they’re a broad system. And it’s clearly helped a lot of people over the years.
How about Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)?
TCM is another very broad system.
You could say it touches on a lot of this, but in practicality, it's usually herbs and acupuncture.
How about Herbalism?
Herbs are all in the area of instructions, right?
It’s chemical instructions in the form of herbs and then more environmental instructions in the form of needles. They're not usually asking how you're feeling, they’re not usually helping you manage your feelings better or encouraging you to detoxify stuff like that. They're just focused on Step 4 and 5 in The Rejuvenation Blueprint..
Let’s Talk About Functional Medicine…
Functional medicine tends to be pretty broad.
They start by looking at 6 toxicities, they look at your gut health, they will look at building blocks. They will usually look at chemical instructions, and, depending on the practitioner, they will quite often focus on lifestyle factors and even feelings as well.
So I'd say the only thing that is not an essential part of the system, although I've certainly seen many individual practitioners who do also do it, is the genetics component. But again, it's a fairly broad system.
The only thing I don’t love about Functional Medicine is more in the area of the classic order that they have everything in. But I'd say a good Functional Medicine Practitioner is probably going to be more helpful to you than most other practitioners.
What about Western Medicine?
Western medicine is really focused primarily on Step 6 - microorganism toxicities.
Of course, if you have a very high level of a chemical toxin like pesticide poisoning or mercury poisoning or something, they will also be able to address it, but they're not looking for it.
And it has to be really bad before they'll consider addressing it. So I wouldn't really say they're a Step 2 system. They almost completely ignore building blocks because the only thing they look at is B12, Folate and Iron in relation to anemia.
So they're focusing on 3 of the 50 or so building blocks. So yeah, I couldn't really say that they cover that.
The other big category that they cover is chemical instructions, right?
What do they do?
They give you drugs. That's the most fundamental thing.
And then, I guess we put acupuncture in the area of environmental instruction. So I guess you could say surgery's the same, right?
If they're cutting something out because it's creating a negative impact, like a tumor, then yeah, that would be Step 4, Step 5 and Step 6.
Western Medicine is usually very unconcerned with how you feel, so it’s definitely not a Step 7 system.
The more cutting edge area of medicine is actually focused a lot on genetics. That is a lot of the future of medicine. It’s really the holy grail of medicine for a lot of doctors.
But yeah, I'd say the least focused areas in Western Medicine are Steps 1, 2 and 7.
How about Chiropractic?
Chiropractic really works from the structure. So it’s a Step 5 system.
It tries to deal with the structure of your body.
Of course, a good chiropractor may well recommend certain supplements to you. They may well even recommend maybe some kind of detox or some kind of herbs, but chiropractic itself is purely a Step 5 system.
Why do Most People Focus so Much On Food and Not The Other Areas of The Rejuvenation Blueprint?
My theory is that it’s because most of the aspects of being healthy were taken care of until relatively recently.
What do I mean by that?
Well, while we always had issues with toxicity in the past, there usually wasn't a lot we could do about it.
For instance, if our water was contaminated. There’d have been nothing we could have done about that.
So generally, that's not something that was easy for us to control.
Before antibiotics, our genetics usually played a huge role in how long we would live. If you had weak genes, you would die.
If you had weak genes, you wouldn't reproduce.
So, it was not as crucial because it wasn't as crucial to understand about genetics. And by the way, I’m not doing anyone with weaker genetics down here. I am exactly one of those people who would've likely died without those breakthroughs in modern medicine.
I'm not someone with strong genetics, I’m just someone who is embracing reality.
In terms of lifestyle, in the past, up until relatively recently, we would get fresh air most of the time, right?
We would get sunlight most of the time, right?
We would also get darkness when we needed it, at night, right?
We would get exercise because we had to, right? In fact, it wouldn’t be “exercise” per se - it was more like movement was a way of life. If we weren’t active, we’d die.
We would be close to the earth because we had to be, right? We didn’t have skyscrapers or airplanes back then!
We would be unlikely to develop a lot of the postural issues that come from being hunched over because that's not something we would have done much of (because we didn’t have desk jobs and we didn’t spend hours of every day in cars, buses, trains and so on).
So, I'd say a lot of the lifestyle factors that lead to health were just part of being alive in the past, but the one thing that wasn't guaranteed was in the area of food.
Think about it…
A few hundred years ago, a lot of people would die of infectious diseases. But today, at least in the western world, antibiotics have pretty much dealt with that.
Throughout most of our evolution, one of the main things that would kill us was starvation. And one of the other main things that would’ve killed us might have been eating things that were poisonous.
So I believe that this obsession with the idea that food and diet are the key to health, goes back to the fact that for millions of years we knew that our very survival depended on eating enough and eating the right things.
A lot of other stuff was taken care of. “Healthy lifestyle” was already taken care of compared to now.
Even dealing with your feelings was taken care of…
You likely had a whole support structure. You had a tribe.
You weren't bombarded with social media and the endlessly negative mainstream media.
Of course, life was simpler. We were rightly obsessed with food and getting enough food. That was the primary focus of most days.
Now of course, most of our diseases in the so-called developed world are through too much food and too much of the wrong food, right? But we're still obsessed with food.
Of course food does matter. I want to acknowledge this. I just feel like people are way too obsessed with food when it comes to health, but I will say this...
It is true that even if you do everything else right, if you also eat a large amount of very unhealthy food you're going to struggle healthwise sooner or later, and it will lead to premature aging.
So in that sense you could say that a focus on diet is important, but the other thing that I'll say is that you can eat a perfect diet and still have major health issues…
And this could be due to genetic reasons that you can't control, but it could also be for a lot of this other stuff that we've just talked about - it could be because you’re not addressing some of the other steps in The Rejuvenation Blueprint.
You might have an unhealthy lifestyle, you might live or work in an unhealthy environment, you might be exposed to too many toxins, you might not be getting enough building blocks into your system, despite eating well.
So yeah, it's not as simple as “just eat well” and you’ll be healthy, happy, and strong. I wish it was.
And the other problem is, because “diet is the answer” is what people want to believe, any good marketer doesn’t try to change people's minds like I'm trying to do here. It’s much easier to just sell people what they already want - so that’s what they do. The people want more diets - so they create more diets!
Ultimately, I believe that “diet is the answer” is what people deep down genetically believe and it's what they want to hear.
Therefore, it's what a lot of people - “experts” - tell them because people generally tell people what they want to hear. And I'm not criticizing those people because you could say it's the easiest way to help a lot of people, because they're not going to listen to anything they don't want to hear.
So I think it's a feedback loop. It's what we are pre-programmed to believe is the most important. It's what, again, in the medical world, they tell us is irrelevant, but then in the alternative health world I feel like they've overcompensated in the other direction and said, "Food is all that matters.” When, in reality, it’s one of many important factors.
If You Like The Sound of The Rejuvenation Blueprint Here’s What to Do Next…
The first thing to do is to listen to the rest of the steps, at least in this series, so that you understand them in more detail.
On the Feel Younger Podcast we'll try and give you a decent broad overview, that will give you enough of an understanding so that then you can either do your own research and find out more, or do your own testing to find out more, to see whether a certain step is important for you.
Closing Thoughts…
I think life is amazing. It's not simple though.
It can be simple to get healthy, but it's not necessarily simple, and there's a lot of people out there telling you it is simple.
They say:
"Just do my system."
"Just follow this step."
"Just take this supplement."
"Just do this diet."
"Just go through my program."
"Go through whatever and everything will be well."
Right?
And again, sometimes that's true.
As I said, from my point of view, an ideal scenario is to find out that all your problems are just down to lacking one essential building block. Then all you have to do is make sure you get enough of that essential building block.
Then everything's great.
I mean that's an ideal scenario and it happens, but sometimes it doesn’t. Life is complex. I wish there were people out there who really understood all of the steps in The Rejuvenation Blueprint.
Ultimately, you can't outsource or delegate the quality of your own life.
Should you be trying to do it all on your own like a lone wolf? No, you want coaching, you want counseling, you want support, you want guidance, you want all of that stuff.
But in the end, it's down to you to...
And this is something I learned because I'm not really a lone wolf.
If health and feeling younger is as simple as fixing a simple nutrient deficiency by taking the appropriate building block(s) - and it fixes you for the rest of your life, and you feel great, then that’s fantastic.
But in the end, you're in charge of your own health as much as you're in charge of your own destiny. You can't outsource it, you can't delegate it, but you should get as much help and support and guidance as you possibly can. And I guess the other thing that's really been driven deep for me the last few years is, there's nothing more important than health and specifically how good you feel.
I mean, lots of people claim to be healthy, but they’re constantly visiting the doctor, they take drugs and they feel like crap. So how healthy can they really be? They’re just kidding themselves.
However, how you feel is much simpler to define than health.
If you have a smile on your face, if you have genuine enthusiasm for life, if you experience joy every day, if you sleep well at night, and wake up full of energy - then you can genuinely say you feel great most of the time.
If neither your body or mind prevents you from doing the things you want to do, then you’ll likely feel great.
And honestly, feeling great the vast majority of the time is a fairly decent barometer of health. After all, a wise spiritual teacher once said:
“A healthy person has a thousand wishes, but an unhealthy person has just one.”
So that person who claims to be a picture of health, but needs 7 different medications just to get through the day is really kidding themselves.
Of course, health is important, but it’s so complex to define.
But you know if you feel great or not. And that should be the goal - to feel great every single day.