Rhonda Patrick: Training to Age Better

There's been all sorts of all-cause mortality studies looking at vitamin D levels ... Between... 40 and 60 ng/mL are associated with the lowest all-cause mortality.

These types of stress, the psychosocial stress, actually affects the release of endotoxin from our gut ... When the bacteria are killed—in this case, in our gut, by our immune cells—they release endotoxin into our bloodstream, and this activates inflammatory pathways. And so, you end up getting... this causation between stress, inflammation, and then depression.

Micronutrients are around 40 or so essential vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids that you have to get from your diet; your body cannot make them.

22% of all the enzymes, which are proteins that are doing work inside of our cells, require a micronutrient as a cofactor.

People that use saunas 4-7 times a week versus 2-3 times a week have the most robust protective effect on all these mortalities. So, for example, cardiovascular related mortality is 50% lower in men that use the sauna 4-7 times a week vs. 1 time a week.

I was looking specifically at the sequence of those elements and how a gene in the brain that converts tryptophan into serotonin—it's called tryptophan hydroxylase 2—is activated by vitamin D ... They have experimentally shown vitamin D does activate the tryptophan hydroxylase 2 gene, and that can affect serotonin.