The $150 Per Month Longevity Protocol That Keeps You Young (Budget Biohacking & Supplementation Tips)

  |   EP185   |   70 mins.

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Episode Highlights

Longevity doesn’t require expensive therapies, just healthier, simpler choices Share on XMaintaining insulin sensitivity is key for overall health, not just weight loss Share on XBefore diving into research, clarify your “why,” your intentions, & your available resources Share on XRevisit your goals periodically, as they evolve over time Share on XStaying clear on your purpose helps manage stress, avoid overwhelm, & prevent unnecessary expenses Share on X

About Julie Gibson Clark

Julie Gibson Clark, a former structural engineer turned recruiter, is a Phoenix-based single mom who excels in budget-friendly biohacking. Once ranked 2nd on the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard, she achieves impressive longevity results on a budget under $150 per month.

Her simple yet effective routine includes a positive mindset, regular exercise, sauna use, a vegetable-rich diet, & affordable supplements. A recent DNA methylation test revealed she ages just 65 days for every 100, proving significant longevity gains are possible without high costs. Julie is passionate about sharing accessible strategies for staying strong, healthy, & vibrant for life.

Julie Gibson Clark

Top Things You’ll Learn From Julie Gibson Clark

  • [7:27] Minimalist Approach to Wellness & Longevity
    • The most controversial idea around longevity
    • The $150 a month longevity protocol that works
    • Why you need to simplify your routine
    • What is the biohacker “econostyle”
    • How to prevent unnecessary stress & expenditures from biohacking practices
    • What are “blue zones” are determining if you are in one
    • How the cheapest longevity routine was developed
  • [18:48] Signs of Aging, Importance of Mindset & Natural Nutrition
    • The pace of aging
    • What are Telomeres & the clear definition of aging
    • Factors affecting your biological age test results
    • The importance of mindset for longevity
    • Your north star in longevity
    • Impact of stress & fear on the body
    • Dealing with trauma for better longevity results
    • Benefits of a positive mindset
    • Why gym workouts are the most cost efficient activities
    • Natural sources of nutrients that work synergistically
  • [31:18] Budgeted Approach to Supplements & Therapies
    • Drawbacks of polypharmacy & taking too many supplements
    • Whole foods vs supplements for nutrition
    • The budget longevity diet daily goals:
      • 1/2lb of leafy greens
      • 1/2lb of other color vegetables
      • 100g protein
    • The best way to measure & track your longevity & biological age
    • Problems with using CGMs (Continuous Glucose Monitoring)
    • Budget-friendly daily supplement stack:
      • Magnesium
      • Vitamin D3
      • Vitamin K2
      • Novos
    • Patience in self experimentation
    • Why you should get a biological age test
    • Gut health importance & long term impact on longevity
  • [51:21] Other Budget-Friendly Protocols, Activities, & Biohacks
    • How to filter through information in curating your longevity routine
    • Budget biohacks:
      • Red light therapy
      • Sauna
      • Cold showers
      • Grounding
      • Exercise & movement
      • Meditation & spirituality
      • Reduction of seafood consumption (avoid heavy metals)
    • More supplementation suggestions:
      • DHA/EPA fish oil
      • L-theanine
      • Valeran
      • Inositol
      • Melatonin
      • Liver supplements
      • Senolytics
      • Adaptogens

Resources Mentioned

  • More Resources: Julie’s Website
  • Email Challenge: Longevity Challenge (Code LAUNCH for 60% Off)
  • Article: Best Biohacking Deals Black Friday & Holiday Specials
  • Supplement: NOVOS Labs (code URBAN5 for $5 discount)
  • Biological Age Test: TruDiagnostic Test (code URBAN saves 10%)
  • Monitoring Gear: UltraHuman Ring (code URBAN10 for 10% off)
  • Page: Supplement Resources
  • Article: Top Red Light Phototherapy (RLT) Benefits: Ultimate Guide
  • Leaderboard: Rejuvenation Olympics
  • Teacher: Valter Longo
  • Teacher: Dietrich Klinghardt MD PhD

Episode Transcript

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Nick Urban [00:00:00]:
Longevity is a notoriously inaccessible and expensive field. One prominent biohacker spends $2,000,000 per year on his fully optimized routine, but does it have to be? What if I told you that our guest this week spends a tiny fraction of that and gets better results? In fact, she spends about $200 per month on her supplement stack and does get better results, at least according to her biological age testing, which is widely considered the gold standard to see if your longevity and antiaging interventions are improving your health span. In this discussion, we cover topics such as the neglected factors that go into longevity, simple, minimal effective routines, her current protocol, the things that she’s experimented with, the food she eats, the supplements she uses, the other lifestyle practices, what she avoids, the technologies she does use, and perhaps most importantly, how you can find the bio individual routine and protocol that’s nonexpensive and will work best for your body. Our guest this week is Julie Gibson Clark. She’s a formal structural engineer turned recruiter, and she spent over a year holding the 2nd ranking spot on the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard, bio optimizing all on a budget of less than $150 per month. What are the results of her simple routine? Well, according to her most recent DNA methylation biological age test, she’s aging at a pace of about 65 days for every 100 days For all of the access, all of the resources we cover in this episode, you can find those in the show notes at mindbodypeak.com/thenumber186. If this kind of thing is interesting to you, check out my longevity challenge mini course. In it, I discuss a lot of the biohacks and protocols that fly under the radar but are the absolute most important.

Nick Urban [00:02:13]:
These are the things you don’t hear on other podcasts, you rarely see in YouTube videos, the experts don’t really discuss, but they make the biggest difference. They are the principles and strategies used not only in the longevity hot spots like the blue zones. These are the protocols and practices used in the blue zones and other longevity hot spots around the world. My whole goal with it is to make optimizing your life span and the quality of those years, your health span, as simple as possible without breaking the bank. If that sounds interesting to you, go to outlier.com, outlier.com/ longevity dash challenge. And for a limited time, the code launch will save you 60% on your order. You don’t need to remember this though because it will all be in the show notes for this episode. Okay.

Nick Urban [00:03:07]:
Sit back, relax, and enjoy this conversation with Julie. Julie, welcome to the podcast.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:03:12]:
Hi. Thank you for having me, Nick, and thank you to all your listeners out there. I’m looking forward to to speaking with you.

Nick Urban [00:03:19]:
So I told you this a while back when we first connected, but back when the rejuvenation Olympics first came out and I saw you on the leaderboard, I scoured social media looking for any trace of Julie Gibson Clark. I looked all over, looked for news articles, just some kind of trace online. Couldn’t find anything, so I ended up messaging you on Goodreads. And that was way back before you had a public profile. So I’m excited to dive into the world of health and and wellness with you and specifically longevity because that’s where you’ve been making headlines for good reason.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:03:56]:
Thank you. Yeah. I’m looking forward to talking with you and it was so cool. Like, I mean, Goodreads is I’m an avid reader. So, anybody who wants to reach out to me there. It may take me a little while to get back to you but, but I do get on there frequently and look through that. So it’s kinda fun you can see all the crazy books I read. Well, Julie, what have you

Nick Urban [00:04:17]:
done so far today? Any unusual non negotiables for your health, your performance, and your bioharmony?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:04:24]:
Well, today, actually, it was really, really nice because, I had it’s finally gotten cold here in Arizona or cold. It’s 80 degrees right now, but at night, it’s, like, 50 degrees and so my house is kinda cold. And so I finally made this greens latte that I only really crave in the winter because it’s a hot drink. And so, anyway, I got to have it for the first time today and then I’ll be drinking it, like, throughout the winter. So that was my one of my nonnegotiables. I made the the bone broth a few days ago and just makes the house smell like Christmas. It’s lovely. So I’m looking forward to that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:05:01]:
Let’s see. I had a morning meeting too, and so I had to skip my normal I would normally have done, like, my full body weight workout today. And just, like, mixing it up is, like, okay, well, I can’t do it today. So today, I went on a walk after that meeting and then, you know, tomorrow I’ll do my full body weight workout so people can kinda hear how, you know, things don’t have to be super rigid. But it is a nonnegotiable that I get that in this week.

Nick Urban [00:05:27]:
Do you vary your nutrition or workout routine or lifestyle in any way with the seasons?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:05:36]:
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don’t intentionally do it, but, I just find that I mean, I’m an 80, 20 person anyway, so I just I’m always trying like, the only metrics I’m trying to get every day are, you know, a pound of vegetables and a 100 grams of protein, and that can be done in a multitude of ways. And, like, with the seasons as it gets colder, I tend not to want, like, a cold bowl of vegetables. Like, I’ll saute things up or I just I end up cooking things more often. And it’s just naturally kind of what I crave. I go by that versus, like, just trying to force things down or I don’t know overthinking it too much as well, like, I think your body kinda knows what it wants. So, and then as far as working out, I don’t do a lot of sauna in the summer.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:06:23]:
It’s one of the things I learned from my doctor. My sodium was really, really low. Mhmm. And, I’m out walking in the heat here and sweating a lot as well. So I was just I kinda took it down to 2 saunas a week in the summer, and I’ll do that again next summer. I think that that really helped. So but now I’m cranking it back up.

Nick Urban [00:06:42]:
Yeah. You you have a lot of variation in your routines, whether you intentionally did that based on some study or just based on intuition and what feels right.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:06:50]:
Yeah. Yeah. And the weekends are totally, like, relaxed. Like, I’m very, disciplined during the week and the weekends are just more relaxed. I mean, I tend to have, you know, a lot of these things are habits or, like, if I didn’t get my 2 full body weight workouts, I’ll do that on a Saturday. But, you know, I just try to, like, I I need that, like, I call it, like, mental lollygagging or, like, I love to have a a routine sometimes just so that I can, like, break it. But also just, you know, it’s like just to have that time off. Like, there’s something about that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:07:25]:
It it’s like a reset button. So yeah.

Nick Urban [00:07:27]:
Yeah. Well, so for background for listeners, you made headlines because you had a very expensive inexpensive longevity routine, and you were outperforming a lot of the other people on the top list of longevity leaderboards, people who are aging biological aging the very slowest. And it’s refreshing to hear that despite that, despite being way up there in the leaderboards, you still were following the 80 20 principle, and you are not obsessing every over every single detail every single day as your entire lifestyle. But you do have, obviously, a wellness oriented love lifestyle.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:08:05]:
Yeah. Which has been in, you know, in play for, I don’t know, 20 I’m trying to think, like, probably 25 years now approximately. I mean, you know, I’ve had things setbacks along the way, but for the most part, you know, I’ve been concerned about this. It’s not like I was just eating pizza and then, you know, a few years ago decided to enter this, although I did have pizza last night. So, yeah, I know that that’s been going on since my thirties and, yeah. I mean, I I don’t know if you wanna if you want me to go through my whole story or how we wanna Yeah.

Nick Urban [00:08:42]:
Let’s let’s

Julie Gibson Clark [00:08:43]:
do that.

Nick Urban [00:08:43]:
Let’s definitely go through your story.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:08:45]:
Okay. Okay. So, 30 years old, and we can even go all the way back to when I was 8. I was a swimmer. My dad would give me Snickers bars before races, not not the whole bar but, you

Nick Urban [00:08:56]:
know,

Julie Gibson Clark [00:08:56]:
it’s like, okay, 30 minutes from your race, we’re gonna get you a glycogen load and he would give me half of snickers or a little few bites and and I sure enough I would swim, like, stronger in those races and I won a lot because I practiced a lot. I just was bored and that’s what I did. So anyway, I noticed, like, from a very young age, like, what we eat affects our performance. So that has just kind of been an always operating belief that I’ve grown up under and, lived my life under. When I was in my thirties, I went through a pretty significant amount of changes, you know, marriage, divorce, I moved four times, I was told I had 2 lumps on my left breast, and then I had a man try to kidnap me at knife point. And that’s all happened in a 36 month window, you know, and also turned 30 in there. You know, it just it was, like, a lot. And, I was I had seen the doctor for depression because of everything that was going on with the marriage and all that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:09:58]:
So, and I was taking an antidepressant. And then, I went back to see her for, acid reflux because, of course, everything’s stressing me out, and I didn’t know about that connection about stress and acid reflux. I just do had acid reflux. And she goes, well, here’s another pill, you know, and it was, like, kinda like, you’re gonna take you’re just gonna have to take these things the rest of your life. And I just kinda like something in me, my intuition just said, unlike with the antidepressant, like, with the acid reflux pill, whatever that is, antiacid, thank you, that, like, if if I have acid reflux, shouldn’t it be something I’m eating? Like, why do I need a pill for it? Shouldn’t we kinda dial in, like and so, I have friends that were seeing a naturopath, a naturopathic college of medicine was there. That was kind of becoming a more well known practice of medicine. This is, like, 19, like, 1997, 98, 99, around there. And, she I I did go see with somebody and she just said, you know, why don’t you get off all wheat and dairy and see if that makes a difference and gave me some tummy healing teas and a few things and sure enough, it was, like, within 2 weeks, it was all gone.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:11:11]:
I felt, like, so good and I was, like, naturally just losing all this weight. I had gained so much weight and, so I went back to her, you know, to kinda check-in say this is, you know, this worked. And she said, well, you know, if you wanna try to get off the antidepressant, we can try that too. You know, there’s a nutraceutical protocol we can put you on. And sure enough, like, it totally worked. I mean, it was just, like, I got immediately I mean, I was only on the antidepressant for, like, a year, maybe a year and a half or so, so it wasn’t like, you know, long term use. So maybe that’s what made it easy, but the nutraceutical protocol was really helpful and everything in my life was in a better place at that point too. So anything that predicated needing that was, you know, I’m not anti those I just want to make sure because people in my family that have very much needed those and benefit from those and I have to so at any rate.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:12:06]:
So that’s thirties. And so I start working out and, you know, consider myself a very healthy person. I’m, you know, going to the gym. I’m on and off with wheat and dairy but, you know, really kind of tuned into, like, oh, I need to eat more vegetables, and I need, you know, just really trying to, keep my diet, quote unquote, healthy. And so now I’m in my forties. I’m trying this, like, vegan diet, and my hair is falling out. And, I had been through some stressors at that point too. My brother had died, like, maybe a year or 2 before that, and, my son was, like, 3 years old.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:12:43]:
He wouldn’t sleep through the night. So, you know, part of me was, like, okay, my hair is falling out. Maybe that’s just, like, stress, but then it just, like, really started falling out. And, my friend said, you know, why don’t you go get checked for heavy metals? And sure enough, I had heavy metal poisoning. Yeah. It was crazy. Like, I just the the amount of metals, the, you know, it was, like, tungsten, antimony, aluminum, of course, mercury, lead. That’s the other one, cadmium.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:13:16]:
There’s just so many and, you know, there’s just so many different places I’m sure I could have picked them up. You know, I’ve lived all over the world by then. And so it was just I went to the doctor helped me with chelation therapy and that chelation therapy, really opened my eyes to, like, how big of a role detoxification plays because after, like, the 6th round of chelation therapy just, you know, you, like, you go in the one day and they give you a chelator which will bind to not only the metals in your body but, like, all minerals, like, even, you know, the ones that you need. I mean, it’s not the obviously, it’s not taking all of them out, but anything that’s kind of circulating in the blood and it could have attached to you and then you pee and and poop it out. Right? So, you’re depleting your natural so like magnesium, calcium, all kinds of different things. So, you go back the next day and they give you like the essential nutrients and minerals that you need. So, anyway, so I’m like coming on from the 6th round of that and I just was like woah. Like, my world, like, my peripheral vision, like, actually opened up, like, real I mean, I just to this day I can remember what it felt like I was just, like, like, a horse with blinders on and I felt like I had this fog that was, like, lifted and I’ve never since then ever felt any bouts of depression.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:14:43]:
I mean, I’ve and I’ve had some very serious, stressors that I’ve gone through since then. And it’s not that life doesn’t throw me curve balls or anything like that but I definitely without all that toxins I have the resilience to deal with what life throws at me a lot more easily. So, at any rate that was, like, a big, moment for me. And so anyways, after 12 rounds of chelation, the doctor just says, you know, listen, like, it’s just hard on the body. You can’t be doing this and your metals are all, like, the whole time we’re doing it, she’s measuring, you know, what’s happening with the metals and my minerals and my vitamin levels. And she’s saying, you know, we no longer, you know, need to do this, but you, you know, you really need to focus on keeping those detox pathways open because you have a genetics, have the MTHFR gene, have some other things that she’s like, you know, you’re gonna have to really focus on that and, you know, here’s a few strategies but I just became obsessed with like I wanna feel this good, like, all the time, like, what else? Because I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Like, I I had no idea that I could feel like this. It was just like, wow.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:15:58]:
This is amazing. So, I mean, you know, mind you, like, things hadn’t changed. My brother was still suffering from grief from my brother dying. My son was still not sleeping through the night. You know, I was just very, but I felt like a $1,000,000. And so I just started obsessing over research and thank God, like, now the Internet’s something. So I’m researching through the Internet, like, you know, doctor Rhonda Patrick. I was very into, at the time, Richard Klinger.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:16:25]:
He’s like somebody who talks about detoxification. He’s up in Washington. You know, of course, Mercola. My dad used to always be into Russell Blalock. I was kinda into Russell Blaylock. And then I just started, you know, that little rabbit hole that, you know, it’s like Mercola will have some guests on. So then you kinda, like, look at what they’re talking about or, you know, and then somehow at some point somebody said, oh, you should, you know, do, Find My Fitness with Rhonda Patrick. And anyway, so I just kind of wormholed around that until, 2017 when I was I was I was experimenting with fasting and, for detoxification and then I read about Walter Longo when he was talking about fasting in terms of longevity.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:17:09]:
And I was like, longevity? What is that? Like, oh, this could help me, like, live healthier longer. I it never occurred to me. I just kind of wanted to be healthy now. I didn’t think about, like, my lifespan and my health span. And then I kind of just started obsessing over longevity. I found my way to Senolytics and then when Senolytics they were talking about detoxing zombie cells. I’m like, yes, I need that. I need that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:17:34]:
So I kinda got into that and then so I found, fisetin was one of them. There was a few other things off of hemoglutarate And when I was researching those, that’s when Novos came up. And I, like, looked at it, and I was, like, looking into all the ingredients. I’m, like, oh my god. This is really cool. Contacted them, and when I went to order them, they asked me to be part of a study. Anyway, I researched Novos, and they were talking about all these different, you know, glycine and which I knew was really good for detoxing, glyphosate. And anyway, so, they asked me to be part of a study, and I thought, yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:18:08]:
Sure. That that sounds great. I’ll, you know, take their product. I took a a test, a pace of aging test at, month 0. Now I had only heard of it as, like, something that would test your biological age. I actually didn’t know much about pace of aging even at that point. Yeah. So I was like, oh, this is so cool.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:18:24]:
Like, I’ll get to know my pace of aging. I’ll get to take this product. You know, we can see if it actually works. Is it worth my investment? You know, that kind of thing. And so we took a test at 0 and then, you know, so before I started it and then I took it for 6 months. We took a test, and I took it for another 6 months. And at 12 months, we took another test. So at 0, I was at 0.7 is it 0.76? Which always pretty good.

Nick Urban [00:18:48]:
Can you explain what that means to people who I mean, I’ve now interviewed Ryan Smith on the podcast, the cofounder of CRU Diagnostic twice, and Hannah Wendt once. So it’s a topic that I’ve covered a number of times. But just to clarify, can you explain what pace of aging is?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:19:03]:
Well, I can’t I mean, it’s above my pay grade to tell you the science of the whole thing. That’s for sure. But we’re just saying, like, you know, I’m if I if my pace of aging is 0.78, I’d just say it says I’m aging 78% slower than, like, kind of the average perfect human being, you know. So I suppose if you’re eating McDonald’s and have an unhealthy lifestyle, you might be, you know, aging faster, so you’d be over 1, you know, maybe 1.1, 1.2. But if you’re, you know, it’s like a marker of maybe how healthy you’re living. I’m not so sure, you know, we’ll find out, time will tell, whether it’s predictive of a longer life or not. But, at any rate, so that’s what 0.7, I think it was 0.7 6. I’m gonna get this, I’m gonna get these all.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:19:52]:
Yeah, it was 0.76 was my first pace of aging test and without having taken Novo. So I think that’s a testament to like, hey, I was doing pretty well, you know, and by that time that was, you know, 15 years of eating healthy and such and exercising. And then, I took Novos for 6 months and proceeded to have probably the 6 most stressful months of my entire life. Oh, wow. Due to some family issues here and, you know, things that involve other people’s stories. I really can’t go into detail, but just another it was just the impact on me is I was not sleeping many nights. You know, I’ve gone night after night not sleeping, just, you know, worried all night long. We’re just making sure that somebody’s safe and then, you know, not really eating or eating haphazardly.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:20:42]:
I mean, luckily, I had a few things in place as far as, like, healthy eating strategies. It just they weren’t always being implemented. I mean, there was a lot of nights where I was going to In N Out and just grabbing a burger and fries. I mean, mind you without the bun, I don’t really like the bun anymore, but anyway, but still. So there was just a lot of a lot of unhealthy, things happening. I certainly wasn’t consistently working out. I definitely was not going into the sauna. I didn’t have the gym membership then.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:21:11]:
I was just kind of working out in my office and in my garage if I, you know, had time or could do it. Everything was very haphazard. And, so when they called me to say, you know, we gotta take your your test, I just I was I was just like, oh, I’m so sorry. Like, you know, these these are these results are not gonna be good. And I just I’m really sorry. You sure you don’t want me to just, like, you know because, like, I had some things some solutions in place. So my at the point that they called me, I was, like, literally coming home from a a trip that I knew, like, okay, you know, the next year is gonna be, like, about me and kind of getting myself in order. Mhmm.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:21:47]:
So, you know, maybe maybe we put this off for a few months. They’re like, no, no, we need real results. And I’m like, okay. So I came home and I’m like, just give me one week to sleep. Like, let me just sleep for, like, a week. I mean, not the whole week, but you know what I mean? Because it’s silly. So so I did. And the that pace of aging was at 0.68.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:22:06]:
So I had lowered my pace of aging by 8%. And again, I make I make 0, you know, I have nothing vested in telling you this. It’s like this is just the this is the fact, you know, that that product Novus was the only consistent thing I was doing because I was I felt beholden to them, you know, like, I was part of their study and, like, I wanted their company to succeed and, like, let me, you know, oh gosh. Anyway, so it’s a testament to to how well that product works. And then that second 6 months, like I said, I came home, I started, I joined the gym, I started working out, they had a sauna there which is the main reason I joined it. I thought, oh, this would be kinda nice, I’ll just go to the sauna every day. And then I thought, oh, I might as well do my workout here, you know. And then so I just kind of like started slowly building and I heard Sarah Godfrey talk about like a pound of vegetables a day and I was like, yeah, sounds like a good metric.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:22:58]:
Let’s let’s do that, you know. And then, another doctor I had followed for a long time, Doctor. Anna Kabayka talked about the importance of greens in menopause and and I had tried a few of her diets and sure enough like it really helps you manage your weight. I’m not really understanding she talks about the acidity and alkalinity and how that works. I again, that’s just, like, above me, but I just go on to try it, and I tried it, and it was like, boom, I lost, like, £7. I was like, woah. Like, this this really works. So I really work hard to keep those greens.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:23:32]:
Like, even if some days I don’t make the the pound of vegetables, I still make sure I have, like, that half a pound of greens, every day. It’s really, really, important to me. So, and what else did I add? Well, of course, I was sleeping. Yeah. Working out. That was it. And then so then at the next 6 months, I took yet another test, and it slowed down to 65%. So another 3%.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:23:56]:
And they they say, like, anything over 3% is statistically relevant. Now I’m supposed to take that that was, like, my last test was over a year ago, so I was planning on taking them every year. But, this year in the middle of that, I’m going through healing a fibroid and my hormones are kind of all over the place and my sleep is all over the place and I was like, oh, I don’t want to take this test and have it be a bad result. So I’m about to take one here like any day now I will. So, yeah. So I don’t know what my current pace is, but I’m hoping it’s still better. I did get a telomere test back and that that came back, like, really, really good.

Nick Urban [00:24:34]:
So I

Julie Gibson Clark [00:24:34]:
was very, very happy for that. The company called Beyond Genomics out of Switzerland did a, telomeres test on me, and it looks like everything is, you know, optimal, but maybe not it’s not like, not killing it. But it’s, like, more than, like, it’s above average or above, you know, so that was very nice to hear.

Nick Urban [00:24:57]:
Okay. And for people listening in, telomeres are another biomarker of longevity that are they were Yeah. They were popular before biological, like, I guess, epigenetic methylation testing and they’ve fallen out of favor a bit more compared to epigenetic testing but they’re still there and they’re still one of the one of the hallmarks of aging.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:25:17]:
Yeah. And I think people need to think about like this. We just we still don’t have any one clear measurement of aging and

Nick Urban [00:25:21]:
I think, you know, until we have

Julie Gibson Clark [00:25:21]:
one clear measurement, of aging, and I think, you know, until we have one clear measurement, we’re gonna like, I don’t think we’re I guess in my opinion, I I don’t the little science that I do understand, you know, about this, it just doesn’t seem to me that we’ll ever have any one clear definition that there’s, you know, a multitude of definitions, and then maybe we just need to have a multitude of clocks and then sort of come up with some average, like, oh, you’re doing, you know, poorly on this clock, but you’re killing it on this one, and you’re killing it over here and your average over here. Like there’s probably some way to, you know, rank those things. I don’t know, that would be my non science brain’s way of thinking about it. So, you know, to the extent that I like, one of the there’s Glycan age out there, which I haven’t taken yet. I like to do that one. There’s another one I learned about and now I’m gonna forget its name. At any rate, there’s gonna be, you know, a few new clocks coming out. And I I just think, like, you know, like, anybody who’s familiar with Dale Bredesen’s work in in Alzheimer’s and Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:26:26]:
How, you know, in looking at Alzheimer’s, there’s just it’s not caused by any one thing. You know, he kinda talks about, I think, it’s 9 different things. And so you have to have, like, 9 different strategies. And I think aging, it’s just it’s a multitude of things, and we’re gonna have to have a multitude of strategies.

Nick Urban [00:26:44]:
Yeah. I always say that there was once 3 hallmarks of aging, and then it went up to 7, then 9, and now 12. And I’m sure it’s just gonna keep growing because aging is more complex than a simple single digit or even probably double digit number of factors. There’s a lot going on there, and I think there’s certain hallmarks that are more explainative, more impactful, and more important to work on than others because you work on these ones up here, and then the downstream, hallmarks improve as well.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:27:11]:
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think the pace of aging is a great one, especially if you’re, you know, it’s like the test itself, like, any one measurement, okay, is interesting, but really it’s having, you know, a series of measurements on that to see, like, okay, you know, like Dave Pascoe is really good about, like, I well I did, you know, I went to Europe and then I tested out to Europe and it’s like, whoops, you know, not so good. So you can see, like, how your activities, you know, impact that. I I just I think that’s a very interesting way of looking at it. So I like to continually take that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:27:48]:
I don’t do, you know, I’m not gonna do it more than once a year right now just because I don’t really vary my protocol that much, but yeah. Mhmm. So.

Nick Urban [00:27:56]:
Yeah. I get it. It’s also complicated because if you travel, the resulting inflammation and dehydration occur right afterward can throw off your your score by quite a bit. And when I did my first true diagnostic epigenetic age test back in 2022, I tested, I think, like, a point 8 speed of aging pace of aging, but it was the week after I was sick and I didn’t realize how how what that was gonna do. It was if I was to do it over again, I’d wait, like, a month at least after getting sick before taking it. So I don’t really know what my actual result would be because certain like lifestyle factors really can throw off or improve the score quite dramatically pretty quickly.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:28:35]:
Yeah. Yeah. See and and that’s what I’ve heard. So that’s how I’m like, well, you know, I’m changing up my hormone therapy and I’m changing, you know, it’s like let me get it because you know I have to change it a lot and then we’ll kind of like settle into something new. So it’s like I’m kind of going through a mini menopause again and it’s like I don’t think that’s gonna produce the best results so let me just wait. And now of course like you know, like, my score is gonna be on there, so I don’t know. People are watching.

Nick Urban [00:28:59]:
Yeah. But what you mentioned earlier about taking your first test and then, like, neglecting a lot of the lifestyle factors that are assumed to be the fundamentals, the core of health and wellness and longevity. Yet taking Novos, I interviewed Chris Mirabile a couple episodes back. But that was the big change you made, and you let some of that lifestyle habits slip, yet your score still improved.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:29:24]:
Yeah. Yeah. So again, I think because I’ve never taken any of those compounds, you know, any of those molecules, they’ve never been a part of my protocol. So, know, I mean, till then I was just taking, like, magnesium, b complex, fish oil, a few, you know, vitamin d three k two, that’s probably about it, you know. And so these other things that were in Novos, I had never had not experimented with a single senolytic. I think I had taken nicotinamide riboside and that’s actually, like, the first thing I experimented with and I was like, woah, like, this works. Like, it was really amazing, and it was, you know, I think what helped me get through that 6 months with a little bit of resilience was I switched when I started taking their product, they wanted me to take their, NMN. So I switched to NMN, because they have Novos Boost.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:30:17]:
So I switched to that and, you know, between the core and the boost that was just like I think the thing that gave me a lot of resilience like on the sleepless nights, you know, and it’s like the way I explain it to people it’s not like I walk around with like oh I’ve just had like 10 cups of coffee, I have so much energy or, you know, like it’s like it just raises the floor so if I didn’t sleep the night before I wasn’t walking around like dragging or just in, you know, a horrible mood it just I could feel normal on, you know, 4 hours of sleep or, you know, I mean, maybe not night after night after night, but, you know, I would go 2, 3 nights without sleeping and then I, you know, get a good night sleep and it just yeah. It was very erratic. But yes, to lower my pace of aging in that, I just, I think to me it just is a testament to whatever’s in there. I mean, I don’t wanna say whatever. I know what’s in there but, you know, and and it’s combination. I mean, the thing that a lot of people are talking about now and I’m really sort of interested in is polypharmacy, you know, like, well

Nick Urban [00:31:18]:
Yes.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:31:18]:
If you’re taking, you know, like, 20 different things, a 100 different things, like, are they canceling each other out? Are they actually negatively impacting you? You know, all of those things. So, it makes me happy that I’m not, you know, I don’t take too many supplements and I do try to get things naturally because of that. I mean, I think on a gut level, I wasn’t thinking so much poly pharmacy as much as just if you’re getting your nutrients like if everyone’s saying, oh, I don’t know, Let’s see. Vitamin c is good for you and you can get it in x, y, and z. It’s like, well, why not just get it in that? Because now, like, if you’re gonna get it from an apple, right, like, that’s gonna have fiber, that’s gonna have quercetin, that’s gonna have, like, all these other things that they must work synergistically together. Yeah. I just I’m convinced that they do. That we just because we don’t have a way of measuring it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:32:08]:
So

Nick Urban [00:32:09]:
Yeah. Absolutely. And we look at the dosage dosages of fisetin and blue or not blueberries and strawberries, quercetin and apples and a lot of different foods and spices and everything. We look at the dosages and say, oh, these are too small to be therapeutic. But I think there’s a lot that we don’t understand yet about these and the synergies they have when they’re together and the bioavailability difference between that and a synthetic supplement made in the lab that, like, even though it’s a much lower dosage, you’re still getting a lot of the benefits. And plus there’s polyphenols that we still haven’t discovered in these and other bioactives. So I’m a big fan of that also. Yeah.

Nick Urban [00:32:41]:
At the same time, there’s the issue of our foods being more nutrient depleted these days because of acid rain, because of our soil depletion, because of a lot of other factors.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:32:52]:
Yeah. Yeah. I know. But, like, hopefully, someday they’ll come up with a way to, like, test your food at home. Like, okay, does it actually have any glyphosate on it? Does it have, you know, because, like, they even say, like, the organic sometimes has glyphosate on it and, you know, and does it have those nutrients? But then again, it’s like, then are we just, like, overly obsessing? You know, I it’s like Do

Nick Urban [00:33:11]:
what you can. Do you know

Julie Gibson Clark [00:33:12]:
what I mean? I mean, yeah. Because this is something that people I’m trying to introduce more into the conversation is, like, mindset. Like, I just I can’t ignore how important mindset is and, like, I mean, I think everybody out there has had that experience of, like, maybe they’ve fallen in love and just, like, I mean, it’s, like, you’re just walking on air, you know, and there’s I’d imagine if you had some, like, health metrics at that time, they certainly would be better than a time when you’re really depressed. And it’s, like, I just so I just feel like mindset’s almost, like, introducing that kind of, you know, effect on you. And so if you’re walking around stressing over, oh my god, I’m, like, don’t have this or this might have that and this might have that. It’s, like, yeah, that that might all be true. Like, that that can be true and maybe, like, stressing out over it might also be worse, you know. So, I just try to, like, I can’t control that, you know.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:34:12]:
I can’t control all, like, I can do the best I can with buying, you know, the highest quality vegetables and meats that I can, but, like, then I gotta let it go because if I yeah. I mean, that I can’t micromanage all that stuff. There’s no way.

Nick Urban [00:34:25]:
Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:34:26]:
That’s that would be more detrimental to me than even everything I went through in those stressful 6 months, which were totally out of my control too. But, anyway

Nick Urban [00:34:33]:
I’m glad you brought that up because that is one thing that’s totally missing from this entire conversation. I like to call it, are you going towards the carrot? Is your mind taking you in a positive way that’s bringing you up, or are you running away from the stick? Like, are you doing it out of, like, fear? Because, like, those you can just, like, picture it. You can just imagine what it’s doing. And, of course, there’ll be, like, the stress hormone differences, the nervous system state, the brain, like, neurochemicals, the heart brain coherence, the heart gut coherence. Like, all these different, like, bodily systems react very differently to that. And it’s so palpable that you can walk into a room of someone who’s afraid and running from something versus someone who’s going towards something. You can feel it.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:35:11]:
You can totally feel it. And and it does impact your telomeres, speaking of which, you know, that was another like, that’s a very clear, like, years years of stress like that can really impact. I love that. I like that analogy. I just try to always, like, think of and this is a weird way of thinking of it. It’s, like, well, what’s the worst case scenario? Mhmm. Like, what’s the worst? Like, what’s the worst thing that could happen if I, you know, go out to eat and there’s seed oils there? Like, what’s the worst? Like, okay. You know what? Like, I think my body is pretty intelligent.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:35:41]:
And as long as I don’t do this every day, you know, it’s certainly not more than 20% of my diet. I’m pretty sure that it’s gonna get rid of the impact. Now, the dose makes the poison. Right? So if I do that every day, that

Nick Urban [00:35:54]:
Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:35:54]:
Obviously is not the case. But, you know, or if you I don’t know. Like, anybody who’s had food poisoning knows, like, only a little bit. It only takes a very little bit to make a a very bad night.

Nick Urban [00:36:06]:
Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:36:06]:
But anyway, yeah, the dose makes the poison. So

Nick Urban [00:36:09]:
Are there any other things you do for your, like, longevity mindset, I wanna call it? Because whenever I work with someone, one of the first things, whether it’s trying to perform at a higher level or it’s to get so healthy that they their diseases and conditions disappear, having a mindset, a north star why you’re doing something, plays a huge role. Do you have anything in particular that you like to think of or

Julie Gibson Clark [00:36:31]:
remember? Yeah. So I have a formula. It’s like, you know, what’s your why? What’s your, what’s your intention? And what are your resources? And I I just, like, have those in my back pocket at all times. And my why, you know, to me that’s the biggest thing is, like, you know, why why would you do any of this? And it’s, you know, I’m a single mom. I’ve got one son and, I just I just wanna be here for him. My brother died when he was, like I said, he was 3. My brother was hit by a car. It was very tragic, you know, death.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:37:03]:
It was, like, December 29th, I saw him on 25th for Christmas. And then by 29th, I’ve got the police busting out my door, like, you know, your brother’s in the hospital. And it was it was an awful, awful time. And it caused a lot of anxiety, for me in the sense of I just kept thinking, like, no day is promised. Like, that just became very real to me. And I raising my son on my own, I mean, yes, he has a dad who loves him, but his, you know, he’d never really spent, like, every day with his father, and he has, you know, family that love him. And it just I just knew it would be such an a horrible impact for him if for some reason something happened to me. And so, you know, gone were the thoughts of like, I’m gonna go out and train for a triathlon.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:37:45]:
I didn’t wanna be on a bike. You know, like I started getting very careful about all the different activities I would do, you know. It’s like, oh, I’m not gonna ride motorcycles. Yeah. I’m a bit of a thrill seeker and like I kinda put that away. So, at any rate, I, just that’s my why. Like, I wanna be here for him. And then as he’s gotten older, he’s 18 now, he’s, I think, joining the military, you know, he’s clearly more than capable of taking care of himself, and he doesn’t necessarily need me as that type of mom.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:38:12]:
But I just feel like it’s still important to, like, be there to bear witness to his life and and be there for him, you know. I mean, I’ve I’ve needed my parents. I still, like, need my parents, and that’s the other half of my why’s. My I’m watching my mom and my and my dad. My dad has a little bit of dementia. He’s 86, so, you know, hey. Like, he’s doing pretty well. But my mom has Parkinson’s, and it’s just progressively getting worse.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:38:38]:
And it’s just, awe. There’s no way to cry. It’s, like, it’s just heart wrenching because she’s just, you know like, I I could imagine if she knew that she could prevent it at my age, she would she would have done whatever. And she just says, like, this is awful. I you know, this is no way to go. You know, so she’s just slowly degrading, and I do not want that for my future. And I certainly don’t want my son to ever have to, like, see me like that. I don’t I don’t know.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:39:06]:
It’s just, like, a weird I don’t know if that’s, like, just some weird thing, and maybe I should get over it. But I just always want to be strong and capable and, for as long as I can.

Nick Urban [00:39:15]:
Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:39:16]:
Yeah.

Nick Urban [00:39:17]:
So So

Julie Gibson Clark [00:39:17]:
that’s my why.

Nick Urban [00:39:18]:
Okay. Since we’re on the topic of, like, the lesser discussed aspects of longevity, you mentioned doctor Klinghardt earlier. And I’ve seen some of his work where he injected, I wanna say, DMPS or another detox agent, chelating agent like that. And then he did trauma work on people, like helping them resolve their unresolved traumas. And then he compared what they were able to excrete then versus not doing it. And it was through the roof after he had done that trauma work with him. Have you done anything? Because you’ve experienced it sounds like a lot of different things going on in your life and, like, the unprocessed stuff is the stuff that that mocks up our cellular machinery in ways we can’t even necessarily detect. What what’s your approach been to dealing with

Julie Gibson Clark [00:40:08]:
that? Yeah. Luckily, I’ve had a, gosh. I wanna say, like, a series, just a group of coaches I’ve worked with, you know, so, since I was 30 when I started when I was 30 and I was going through everything when when I was married and then I was going through the divorce. I immediately went to, you know, what I thought were like, they were therapists, but they were, like, therapists, coaches. Like, they it was, like, this group of people, and, they just had such an they were nurses. They had such an amazing and, again, this is, like, 1990 this is 2000. You know, it’s, like, it’s, like, I think it would have been 1998. Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:40:44]:

  1. And it was just, like, such an interesting way to, like, look at the body holistically. You know, I was just so interested. And at any rate, I continued that coaching work. I mean, I still contact one of my coaches. And that has really helped me, you know, with the mindset, like, same thing, like, the day that that guy got in my car, luckily, I had already I I was already working with them. So this guy got in my car, pulled a knife on me, you know, he’s like, I think you better start the car and start driving. And I, you know, I got out and I, ran into this building and anyways, you know, this it all worked out really well and and, like, that night they were like, come, you know, come in, like, come in now.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:41:24]:
So and process, like, let’s process this now. And we just we shifted it all around to a story of total empowerment. And to this day, it’s like like, I still feel that empowerment. Like, I know who I am in that kind of emergency. I know that I am a flight person. I know that, like, how my brain is gonna work. I know that it’s gonna click. Like, I mean, I couldn’t even believe the millisecond decisions that were happening in my brain, you know, because I was like, okay, that’s a knife, not a gun.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:41:51]:
I’ve got I don’t need my beautiful new purse that I just bought from Germany. It was, like, sitting on the passenger side. I’m like, well, I don’t need that. And then I was like, oh, and I have my tennis shoes on today. This is great. You know? I can get out and run-in this building, you know. It’s like he won’t he there’s no way he bubbled in my car. He won’t, like, be able to get me.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:42:08]:
I mean, that all happened in a millisecond, you know. And it’s just that was a story of empowerment, you know. Now the story of, like, my brother dying, that just that just took a time that took you know, is it trauma? No. I I wouldn’t say that. It just maybe my son might because I get a little bit worried. I’m always a little bit worried about it. Like, no. No day is promised.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:42:29]:
You can’t you can’t go doing that kind of stuff. But that that just took that took, like it literally took a decade. What happened was, like, every from Thanksgiving to essentially, like, New Year’s, I would just have this, like, pain in my throat and, like, burning, and it just took time to process. I mean, I you know, like I said, said, I had coaches I was working with and it just took its time. But now, you know, I love my I love my brother, honor my brother, and I try to live every day. He was a doctor, and so, like, sometimes I feel like like, I remember when I found Peter Attia and I was like I felt like that was like a direct, like, you need to hear because this is what I would say, like, this is who you need to listen to because he is, like, you know, my brother’s a triathlete, he’s very precise like Attia, like, you know, yeah, it’s very interesting. But, yeah, that those are the main things. Other than that, I’ve had coaches that have helped me with any other limiting beliefs or however you wanna look at that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:43:26]:
Yeah.

Nick Urban [00:43:27]:
Yeah. And oftentimes, the difference between post traumatic stress and post traumatic growth is the story that we build around it. So it’s awesome to hear that you were able to find a resource immediately afterwards so you’re able to shape that story that you build that because, like, you still remember to this day, obviously, and there’s no charge or no negative charge around the incident with the guy with the knife.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:43:51]:
Yeah. You know, one of the things that and this might be helpful for people out there. One of the things that I learned from that, because I would kinda go into, like, oh my god, you know, I could be this could have happened, that could have happened. She’s, like, nope. No. That didn’t happen. Here’s what happened. Like, and and just nip that off, like, immediately because that didn’t happen.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:44:13]:
That’s not what, you know, that’s not the reality. And so I find myself doing that in my life as well when other things, you know, that could have gone wrong. I just won’t allow myself any mental space for that, you know, except for, like, oh, okay, you know, lesson learned or, you know, something like that. But I don’t know what you call that. Like, I don’t I don’t know if that’s doom scrolling or, like, catastrophizing, like, I just I won’t do it. I don’t allow my mind to do that and I think that’s part of the something not being traumatic and, you know, flipping it to empowerment. Alright.

Nick Urban [00:44:49]:
Well, Julie, I’m sure we get a bunch of questions on some of the more common topics that people wanna hear about, such as you mentioned already that you consume a pound of greens and vegetables, and you consume a 100 100 grams of protein per day. What else are you consuming in your diet? Because I mean, a pound of vegetables is a lot in itself but I assume you’re eating other things as well.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:45:11]:
Yeah. And it’s not that much honestly because, like 8 ounces of its greens and when anybody who’s cooked greens, you know, you cook those things down it’s like 4 ounces turns into, like, 3 bites, you know. It’s like it’s nothing. So, you know, boom, there that’s done. And then, usually like a bowl of vegetables. And, yeah, the protein is from a whole bunch of different sources. And then the rest is just kinda like whatever, you know? Like, I mean, I had, I had a really nice pizza last night and I just I’m I have a CGM. I bought myself a CGM for my birthday for, like, 2 weeks or whatever.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:45:46]:
But, and I was really hoping that when I ate pizza it would show me that like, you know, oh, I get these really bad results, you know, and then therefore you shouldn’t eat it anymore. I find like some reason like not to eat this because I don’t think it’s super healthy for you, you know? I don’t think it’s like horrible. But anyway, according to the CGM, there was, like, 0 issues. I’m like, darn it. It’s no big deal. So and, you know, so I still cook, like, real food and I I don’t wanna say real food, but, you know, I might have a 18 18 year old son. Oh, my god. He’s 18.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:46:17]:
You know, and he’s he’s working out now. He’s up at 4:30 in the morning, going to the gym. It’s really brilliant. I love it. Like, so he needs to eat, you know? So we make, what do we have the other night? We had fish and vegetables and I don’t remember if I made rice or not. I think I made some rice, but, yeah. I just, no. That’s right.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:46:37]:
We had potatoes. Sorry. We had potatoes. And and, yeah, nothing happened on the CGM. I’m like, oh, okay. But, yeah, that’s it. I don’t really, like, worry about the carbs. I let them kinda worry about themselves.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:46:49]:
My body will just kinda tell me, you know, like, oh, that was too much, you know. And that’s what I’m using the CGM for, to see. And so far, things have been pretty steady. The only thing that, I do this green drink every morning or I might kind of eliminate it. I don’t know. I’m working on it. But with the CGM, I could see it was, like, spiking my glucose. The only sugar in there was, like, the juice of a lemon.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:47:14]:
And so I was like, what? I don’t that doesn’t seem like enough, but, maybe it’s because I haven’t had anything to eat already. And I I really don’t know, but I’m gonna play around with it. So

Nick Urban [00:47:25]:
Yeah. Have you tried just skipping it and see what happens? Because cortisone naturally causes a blood sugar spike in the mornings regardless of whether you eat or not. And same with caffeine. I don’t know if you’re using caffeine or not.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:47:34]:
Yeah. So I’m watching this is like, so what happens, I wake up, I have green tea every morning, and I see a little bump and I was not much, you know. And then I go work out and it’s like the other Monday I did my VO2 max and it was like I mean, my blood sugar just was like well, I was like, woah. I mean, that was the biggest spike that I had seen on the CGM since I got it. And that was, but then it came, you know, got to the sauna and it was like boom, came way back down, like way back down. And then I came home and I had the greens drink and it went up again. And I was like, oh, you know, like like the sharp spike up. And that is interesting to me.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:48:11]:
I don’t know. But,

Nick Urban [00:48:13]:
It could also in indicate an intolerance with one of the ingredients in there because that sometimes will happen even if it’s like a healthy ingredient, and it should be low glycemic. If you have a sensitivity, not not an allergy, but a sensitivity to one of the foods or ingredients, then you might see a little spike.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:48:28]:
Oh, I’m gonna I’m gonna experiment with that. Thank you. I like that idea. I was wondering. I was like because there’s mock. I put maca in there. I put, what else do I put in there? Just like this. There’s, like, it’s some Mercola’s fermented greens with some extra chlorella for detoxification, and then I do moringa.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:48:44]:
I do moringa in there too. And so that’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna I’m gonna try that. I’m gonna try tomorrow, like, keeping the maca out and see if that makes a difference and, like, that’s a great idea. Thank you. Appreciate

Nick Urban [00:48:55]:
that. That’s the cool part about CGMs. They let you understand your response to certain things that you wouldn’t expect to spike your blood sugar. At one point, I was getting a sugar free form of chocolate, and it had I think it was mannitol or one of the alternative sweeteners in it. And it’s supposed to be low glycemic, and then I looked it up, and it turns out some people have a a decent blood sugar spike in response. Like, well, might as well be using real sugar from me to get this kind of spike anyway.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:49:21]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it coincidentally, the Novos doesn’t spike my blood sugar nor does I just I had that greens latte today and I was like oh god please don’t let this be spiking my blood sugar because like I can’t live without this thing like I love the taste of this thing I’m so addicted And sure enough, it was, like, nice and even. I was, like, oh, thank god. Yes. I

Nick Urban [00:49:41]:
also think one of the problems with CGM technology in general is that it it overoptimizes you for glucose specifically, and it doesn’t check insulin or other things going on in your body because it’s normal to have somewhat of a spike after meals. It obviously, the height of the spike and the duration will determine how healthy or unhealthy that is to begin with. But, like, humans have historically always had some kind of spike after meals. Because, like, if your ancestors were going to the wild, all they could find was berries or starchy carbohydrates. They would certainly consume those and not think twice about it.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:50:16]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And also, it’s like like you said, it doesn’t like, after I eat the pizza, like, okay, my blood sugar might stay nice and stable, but is that because, like, so much insulin is coming to the rescue, you know? And it’s like maybe, like, I love the, if anybody ever has read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. That was a long time ago, book. But, he was talking about 1 woman in there who was prescribed insulin and, you know, just she said I just kept getting fatter and fatter and, you know, and so I just always think like, oh, you don’t really wanna, you know, make your body produce too much insulin if you’re trying to lose weight.

Nick Urban [00:50:54]:
Yeah. You wanna stay as sensitive as possible to insulin. Yeah. For overall health too. Not just not just for weight loss, but overall health.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:51:01]:
Yeah. So I do I do, I don’t do too many multi day fasts anymore, but every so often, I’ll just do, like, a full day. Like, I’m I’m gonna go to Hawaii here in a few days. It’s like, oh, you know, it’s kinda, like, a little bit better in the bikini. So, you know, I was like, at least might have a, you know, a one day fast.

Nick Urban [00:51:21]:
What other protocols and activities and biohacks do you use? Anything in particular?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:51:28]:
Let’s say I pray. I go I, I I think spirituality is really important. So I pray in the morning and then, not that I don’t think this is spiritual, but I meditate in the afternoons. I think that’s a huge huge part of it. I do think the spirituality helps you with mindset and kind of, you know, seeing your place in sort of the grander scheme of things. And I practice Catholicism. I, by no means, think that that’s, you know, what’s right for everybody, but I do think it’s important to, you know, whatever it is that you understand, like, even if you’re totally atheist, but just to, like, think of the awe of the universe, you know, just like how weird is these little pieces of pepper in this huge thing. And, like, wow, like, that’s I don’t know that to me that kind of puts all my problems in perspective.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:52:18]:
Yeah. Oh, okay. I got this. I’m good. You know, we’ll figure this out. So, there’s that. There’s meditation in the afternoon. That’s, like, a absolute non negotiable, even more so on the weekends.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:52:31]:
I might skip on, like, a Sunday or something like that, but for the most part, I get that every day. Saturdays Sundays, I don’t always hit the vegetable markers. Pretty much always hit the protein markers here, you know. I might I might be 80 grams instead of a 100, but I get pretty close because I’m just sort of used to, like, doing certain things. Let’s see. What else?

Nick Urban [00:52:52]:
Did you say you’re getting most of your protein from fish, or are you also eating meat or using protein powders or what?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:52:58]:
Meat. Yeah. A whole combination. Yeah. Protein between collagen, like a vegan protein. I have a goat milk whey protein powder. I have, a farmer that I love who, you know, sends me emails of, like, these are the girls out on the pasture. You know, I’ve already ordered my top turkey, and I can, like, see a film of them.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:53:18]:
So, like, you know, super healthy meats. I prioritize that. And I eat I do eat fish. I don’t eat as much because I do get concerned about the heavy metals in there. I do think that that was something that really contributed to my heavy metals. I was eating a lot of I was living in the Middle East and I was leaving eating a lot of tuna, a lot of shark, a lot of, kind of the bigger I didn’t know I missed the memo on the heavy metals and fish and, you know, that yeah. So, when I got on the FDA’s website about like how much tuna you should eat in a week, I was like, okay, I’m blowing way past that, like way past that. So, at any rate, I don’t so I don’t, you know, I do eat some but I just don’t eat a lot, you know.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:53:57]:
And, I I love fish. I think it’s, like, the best. I I could easily be a pescatarian, but for the the heavy metals.

Nick Urban [00:54:04]:
And then other supplements you’re using, you’ve mentioned a couple super foods. Those are, like, in between supplements and in foods. But are you using any other ingredients, whether they’re a whole food based or are there other supplements?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:54:18]:
Yeah. So, my supplements are, d 3 k 2, magnesium. I take a lot of magnesium. I am, like, for whatever reason, chronically deficient in magnesium. Still trying to figure that out, like, just after taking, like, you know, I was taking, like, 6 to 900 milligrams a day. I’m still deficient. So, you know, my doctor’s like, well, if you can fit in 2,000 milligrams, go for it. Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:54:41]:
It’s like, that’s a lot of magnesium.

Nick Urban [00:54:43]:
Do you know how your doctor was testing your magnesium levels? I’m guessing it’s not blood serum. It was like a hair mineral analysis or was it

Julie Gibson Clark [00:54:50]:
Oh, we’re doing multiple things, but we’re Okay. We’re looking at, like, the blood, like, so what’s circulating in the blood, but then what’s in the blood cell? RBC. Into the bloods. Yeah. RBC. And then, I think we did a we were doing urine and salivary, but I can’t remember. I don’t think the magnesium was in the saliva at any rate. Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:55:09]:
So that’s Right now, I’m trying to work out the hormone issue and then that was the next thing. I was like, okay, let’s figure out. And we’re also doing some gut healing, there was some dysbiosis in my gut, so hopefully healing that is gonna help as well with, you know, some absorption issues. Let’s see. That’s right. So I take a fish oil every day, like, 2,000 milligrams a day, of DHA, EPA mix. Mhmm. And then, magnesium it’s all on my website.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:55:37]:
So if I’m forgetting anything, people can see that there. But at night, if I am whipped up and I can’t sleep, which is happening a lot right now because of my, like, reducing my, estrogen and testosterone in my pharma therapy. It’s like it just kinda messes with your sleep. So, like, I’ll take Valerian at night. That’s, really nice. I’ll take Inositol. I just kinda like, those things, I just kinda like, oh, I Yeah. I’ll take that today.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:56:03]:
I don’t really do that, like, every night, you know. So I take a melatonin sometimes, L Theanine. But, yeah. So nothing nothing I don’t try to, like, like, supplements are not I don’t wanna be having a 100 pills a day. I am experimenting. I will say this is which is a supplement, but it’s food is, taking liver pills every day. So I was really trying to, like, put liver in my diet and I just I could not find, like, liver and brains. I like trying, like, different ways to, like, make that happen.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:56:35]:
And I just can’t get over the texture. And I’m not like, I’m a total foodie. I was like trying, like, trying all these things. And I’m like, unless it’s pate and then it’s just full of, like, cream and, you know, the butter or whatever. So, anyway, I just thought, well, let me just try the supplement and see if it helps with anything. So yeah. Mhmm.

Nick Urban [00:56:55]:
It’s nice and simple. You mentioned Senalytics earlier. Are you doing any, like, Senalytics protocols? Do you do that, like, once a month, or do you take something every day, the hit and run protocol?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:57:05]:
Yeah. So that’s I just depend on the Novos for that. And so I’ll just do, you know, the Novos. And, you know, don’t tell Chris, but I don’t take it every day. I take it, like, I mean, I did. I took it faithfully for, like, a year every single day. And then now, I’m kinda like, oh, you know what? I was gonna, like, take the weekends off, you know? And because of the because they are Synalytics, right? So it’s like kinda Yeah. Up and down.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:57:27]:
I mean, there are other things in there be besides Synalytics. And then they just, start they just started, another, like, what is it called? Vital, and it’s for your or the health of your organs. And so I’ve been taking that as well. And I’ve I’ve only gone through, like, 1 month of it, but it’s part of it is, like, gut healing, and that’s why I wanted to take it because it’s, you know, for my gut. And it sure enough has been very, very helpful in, kind of evening all that gut stuff out. So yeah.

Nick Urban [00:57:58]:
Interesting. Have you played around at all with adaptogens like rhodiola or ashwagandha or ginseng or peptides or bioregulators, any of these types of things?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:58:07]:
So, rhodiola is in Novos, and then in the past, I’ve taken ashwagandha and I like it very, very much. And in fact, my doctor wants me to take it again to just kinda calm myself down, like, the cortisol, you know, based on what we were gonna see on the CGM.

Nick Urban [00:58:26]:
It was, you know,

Julie Gibson Clark [00:58:26]:
then she’s like, I might have you take ashwagandha again. I don’t like to take anything, like, for, like, any long, long period of time, you know. It’s like, I just feel like, might be good to take some time off this. That’s why I’m, like, with the I’m just not doing Novus on the weekends. It’s like, oh, you know, let my body kinda

Nick Urban [00:58:42]:
Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:58:42]:
Have a little holiday from those things. So, but no no peptides. I would love to try some of those. BPC 157, although that apparently was just off the market because when I heard I had gut issues, I was like, oh, like, hey, if I could heal it quickly with a a peptide, that’d be kinda cool. But, no. I did a little bit of HBOT, you know, like 2, 3 sessions. You know, red light therapy, I’ve never done, but I actually was just a company out of Switzerland that I met at this conference wants me to try one of their products. So that’s, like, kind of red light therapy, so I’m gonna be trying that.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:59:19]:
I think that’s it. I don’t I don’t really do any of the other stuff. I just quite honestly can’t afford it either. I don’t have the time. Like, HBOT would be lovely, but I just don’t have the time. And then, yeah. The other things are even the peptides. It’s just out of the budget right now.

Julie Gibson Clark [00:59:34]:
We got a kid that’s gonna go to school. Although, if he joins the military, I don’t know if

Nick Urban [00:59:37]:
he knows. Anyway Yeah. It all it all can get expensive in terms of, like, monetary costs and then also time cost. And, like, you have all these things and, like, okay, when do you fit them in? Do you do 10 things at once and try and stack them all together? Or do you just, like, dedicate half your day to doing these protocols and biohacks and everything?

Julie Gibson Clark [00:59:56]:
Well, and also, like, going back to mindset, it’s, like, I can’t I just I don’t want any of this stuff to get crazy or out of control. Like, I have to live my life and to me, that’s the most important part, you know. It’s it’s, like, okay, you can eat a healthy meal over the sink or you can eat a not so healthy meal but with a table full of friends. I’ll take the table full of friends and the unhealthy meal over Yeah. Any day, you know? So

Nick Urban [01:00:18]:
yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And then we were also talking previously about the ways you go about evaluating research and new things you’re considering implementing into your routine. What would you say, like, how do you filter through information to make sure that you’re doing what makes the most sense for you specifically?

Julie Gibson Clark [01:00:37]:
Yeah. So that’s where, like, you know, so we’ve got our why figured out but now you’ve got your intention and your resources. And so, you know, my intention is to just make sure that my health span matches my lifespan. And if I can increase that lifespan, all the better. You know, I mean, you know, my parents my dad lived a very healthy life and his, all his relatives probably died in their seventies latest and now he’s, like, 86. So he’s done really well given his genetics. My mom’s genetics, like, her dad smoked his whole life and I think he died at, like, 86. So, you you know, she’s 85, and hasn’t done much for health.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:01:14]:
So I just keep thinking, okay, well, if I take those genetics and I add health to it, I’m pretty sure that I could live to a 100 at least, you know. And can I have all those years be strong and vital? So that’s my intention is just, you know, to have that vitality through all those years. You know, different people have different intentions. Brian Johnson’s intention is to live forever so it makes sense that he’s gonna wanna try, like, all of the, like, all the things, you know, like, I’m gonna do all the things. Whereas, like, I’m just gonna try to live, you know, a little longer and and a lot healthier for about longer. So my that’s gonna filter the information coming at me. So I, you know, it’s like, okay. Yeah.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:01:53]:
Peptides are cool, but I’m not gonna go too far in that rabbit hole because 1, I can’t afford them and 2, like, I’m not sure that they’re really appropriate, you know, given my goals. Mhmm. And then resources. So again, so my financial resources as well. See, my financial resources and my time resources and, you know, having those two things as the information is coming at me allows me to just kind of, like, okay, I’m not gonna give any head space to that. I’m not, you know, like, oh, maybe I should be doing this and maybe I should do, like, just I just try to keep the mental noise down, you know, and just, like, I know, you know, I know I need to be in the gym. I know I need to eat healthy. You know, I know I probably need a few supplements because, like, as you said, the soils are depleted.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:02:33]:
And those are those are, like, the knowns. And until yeah, I’ll go and try it. You know, like I said, I tried nicotinamide riboside, which I’m on again, you know. If if I feel better and it’s, like, that’s something that’s pretty affordable to try, it’s not very expensive, then I’m gonna I’m gonna do that, you know. But, so, yeah. So I use those two things in combination to filter the rest of it.

Nick Urban [01:02:55]:
Yeah. And then if something trendy comes out, say, follistatin gene therapy, I’m guessing you just look it up very quickly and figure out which of the like, where does this fit in your hierarchy? And if even if it’s super promising, if it doesn’t meet your meet your criteria, then there’s no point of considering it further and researching all the potentials of it and the drawbacks and all that stuff.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:03:16]:
Oh, yeah. No. Yeah. No. No. No. No. No.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:03:18]:
I mean, it’s like, you know, sometimes I’m blown away. Like like, I’m very curious at all hyperbaric. I I don’t know what it would do for, health span, but at the same time, like, I met a a guy at this conference recently and I was just shocked to find out. I think he was like 90 something. It’s like, woah. You know, I’m like, what are you doing? Oh, he has a hyper he owns a hyperbaric place in, I think, in Israel. And, you know, so he’s in the hype he’s in the chamber every day, and he just said it’s been amazing for his mental health. And, you know, it’s like, okay, like, that sounds kinda cool, but again, now I have to go to my resources.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:03:53]:
Well, you know, that’s gonna be 2 hours out of my day and Yeah. Before I even get to, like, how much it would cost me. So, you know, so I went, yeah, I don’t really have 2 hours every day. So, yeah. Anyway, so the other things I wanna try and there’s a hierarchy of of things. Like I said, I wanna try this, this red light therapy and and see. We’re gonna do some testing and we’re gonna see if it makes an impact. So, yeah.

Nick Urban [01:04:19]:
Nice. Well, I’ll be following along to see what impact it has on you.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:04:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick Urban [01:04:25]:
Julie, what’s your what would you say your most controversial idea or belief around longevity is?

Julie Gibson Clark [01:04:34]:
Probably that. I keep it pretty simple. I think that’s like the controversial thing is that I don’t do all the things and, keep it keep it really low budge or econo style. So, like, I was I was a punk rocker and I had the a fortune of working for a record a punk rock record company called SST Records. And one point I went out on tour with one of these bands. Maybe people know that Minutemen, but they Minutemen, unfortunately, DeepMoon had died and so they had reformed it and it’s called Firehose. And the main guy there, Mike Watt, he always used to talk about, like, because we were out on, like, tour with the BC boys and, you know, they’re, like, in their fancy tour bus and he’s, like, we’re rocking it econo style, you know, and, like, we’d stay in, like, little, I don’t know, Motel 6, Red Roof Inn, that’s what he liked. And it was just, like, I don’t know, it got stuck with me all the time.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:05:24]:
Like like, okay. Yeah. You could do things, like, high budget, but, like, let’s just keep it low budget. Like, let’s just like, what can you do with, like, a low budget, and can you be successful at it? I mean, sometimes you do need to throw more money at things, but, like, sometimes, probably a lot of times, we can do it econo style. So I was saying, like, I’m rocking econo style.

Nick Urban [01:05:42]:
Yeah. I like it. And that comes back to the applying the 80 20 to the basics of health and wellness. If you’re still having issues, then perhaps throw money at it. But I think it’s everyone wants the the the magic pill, the quick fix, but a lot of times it’s just something econo.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:05:56]:
Yeah. It’s econo and it’s time. You know, it’s like, okay, like, the gym doesn’t cost me very much, but, boy, that’s a huge gain. I mean, it’s like, you know, they say if you could bottle the impact of Yeah. Exercise, you know, so it’s like so I will wormhole out on, like, what is the best workout, you know, the same thing with food. Like, I love to cook. So if I’m gonna cook and I’m gonna spend my time in the kitchen, I want it to be, like, as healthy as possible. So what is the healthiest thing to eat, you know? So I will wormhole and spend a lot of time researching those things.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:06:25]:
So yeah.

Nick Urban [01:06:26]:
Julie, when I first came across you, I don’t think you had a website yet. That was more than 10 months ago. Maybe maybe longer. If people want to follow your work to see what you’re up to, your protocols, your supplement stack, all that stuff, how do they find you?

Julie Gibson Clark [01:06:41]:
Juliegibsonclark.com. That’s there. And then I’m on Instagram at juliegibsonclark. So pretty much those are the two places. And I will, if people have been reaching out to me and I do get back to everybody, it just it’s gonna take me a little bit of time. I kinda had a bit of a overwhelming response as I’m sure I will to this, and it’s like, so I will get back to people because I do feel very, strongly about that. So, anyway, it may take me a while. Like, it took me a while to get back to you, but we did finally connect.

Nick Urban [01:07:09]:
So Yes.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:07:10]:
So yeah.

Nick Urban [01:07:11]:
I’m glad we did. If people or if people made this far, do you have any final thoughts, any concluding wisdom you’d like to leave them here with?

Julie Gibson Clark [01:07:19]:
Keep it simple. Keep it really simple. You’re gonna be tempted. I think you’re gonna be very, very tempted to do all the latest and greatest and you’re gonna go down a lot of different avenues but just kind of really sit down before you even start researching, you know, and if you if you’re already down the this path, but just, you know, go back. What’s your why? What are your, you know, what’s your intention? What are your resources? And really get solid on those. Not to say that they can’t change, you know, I’m sure my intention will change a little as my son grows, but, you know, that’s the key to to the rest of keeping the monkey mind and all the stresses at bay because otherwise, this can get very stressful and, and expensive quickly.

Nick Urban [01:07:56]:
I am with you on that. I love to go down the rabbit holes of all the different substances and therapies and everything. So I could take a a page out of your book and simplify it a bit. I mean, I do I try and do the basics pretty well and consistently too, but sometimes it’s just like living life and accepting the fact that the food you’re eating out at a restaurant might not be as high quality as it would be if you’re at home and you had sourced it yourself and prepared it at the right temperature, the right heat, the right oils, all these things. But the fact that you’re in good company and you’re enjoying yourself, you’re feeling lighthearted, and you’re just living will outdo any of the temporary effects as long as that’s the the 20% and not the 80% of your routine.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:08:40]:
Yeah. I mean, just go back to the blue zones. Nobody in the blue zones is going to a hyperbaric therapy or taking peptides or, you know, any of that stuff and they’re living long, you know, healthy lives. So, you know, we kinda have to be a little bit more realistic.

Nick Urban [01:08:54]:
Well, Julie, thank you so much for joining on the podcast. It’s been a pleasure hosting you today.

Julie Gibson Clark [01:08:58]:
Thank you so much, Nick. I really, really this has been fun.

Connect with Julie Gibson Clark

This Podcast Is Brought to You By

Nick Urban is a Biohacker, Data Scientist, Athlete, Founder of Outliyr, and the Host of the Mind Body Peak Performance Podcast. He is a Certified CHEK Practitioner, a Personal Trainer, and a Performance Health Coach. Nick is driven by curiosity which has led him to study ancient medical systems (Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hermetic Principles, German New Medicine, etc), and modern science.

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Music by Luke Hall

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