Younger You: Reduce Your Bio Age and Live Longer, Better

I discovered this book after listening to Dr. David Perlmutter's Empowering Neurologist episode with Dr. Mark Hyman in early 2023. They mentioned Dr. Fitzgerald's groundbreaking study, which she turned into a book. I was curious so I checked out the audio book from the library, and bought this one week later.I experience tremendous brain fog following health issues in 2020. Now age 43 and starting to notice aches, memory challenges, and other subtle signs of aging, I committed to the 8 week intensive plan in this book and AM SO GLAD I DID! I've tried other functional medicine food plans (ex. Wahl Protocol) but NONE were as easy to follow as this, and as healthful and productive. Within 1 week, I lost 4 lbs (likely inflammation?) and found a fountain of energy within. I made my own checklist/tracker to help me stick to the requirements of the plan. Every day, I would track my food, water, sleep, and lifestyle requirements from the Plan. Then, at the end of the week, I'd weigh myself and I gave myself a "grade" for how many of the things I followed each week, with the goal of hitting 80% or more of the targets. This helped me not give up if I couldn't get to all the things each day, like meditation or exercise or eating a beet each day!8 weeks later, I'm shifting to the Everyday plan, but frankly, the Intensive is actually quite do-able everyday. That is, if you are already open to living a low-sugar, low processed food diet. I have been mostly sugar and processed food free for a few years, so although I miss those foods, I know I feel incredibly better without them.I'm so glad that I found this book! Thank you to the functional medicine doctors who celebrate each other, promote one another, and put global health above individual profits. I put Dr. Hyman and Dr. Fitzgerald in the same tier of incredible doctors, and frankly, they could be considered 'competitors' in their fields. I love Dr. Perlmutter's podcast because he introduces me to what's BEST in health right now!I can't recommend this book enough. It took me a few chapters to start understanding DNA methylation's importance, but now, I can't un-see it. So much more meaningful to me than counting calories or macros, which I did for a long time and NEVER achieved the sense of wellness I feel now. That's just me and where I'm at in my health journey.

This is the most groundbreaking book I have every read and one I recommend to all my patients. It is based on a rigorous clinical trial that shaved three years of a subject’s age in just eight weeks. The basis for this decrease in biological age is understanding how DNA methylation optimizes the epigenetic expression primarily through the foods we eat. She explains how methylation is the addition and removal of methyl groups from one molecule to another. This elemental biochemical process happens throughout the body. DNA methylation refers specifically to addition and removal of methyl groups to and from strands of DNA.Her lifestyle program which mostly involved simply a healthy diet showed how we can actually get younger and healthier by focusing on eating the superfoods we all know are good for us.Dr Fitzgerald has been using this program with her patients for many years and decided to put the study together to prove the superior results she has been having. I was particularly interested in seeing what foods she found so good. She uses the foods that have been shown to give a positive impact on DNA methylation.I am convinced the key to beat any disease or health issue can be solved with diet, lifestyle, and supplements. This book gets right to the crux of the matter. We need to organize our life so that we can prioritize for health the foods we eat and drink.Dr. Fitzgerald has put together the best program I have ever seen. She first starts out with the nutrient superstars of DNA methylation: Folate, Vitamin B12, Betaine, Choline, EGCG, Curcumin, Rosmarinic Acid, Quercetin, and the foods that contain them: liver, chickpeas, beans, fish, beets, spinach, quinoa, egg yolks, lentils green tea, turmeric, rosemary, apples onions, berries, broccoli, and capers. Then she provides guidelines on how to get these foods in our diet each day. She then gives us a 2-week meal plan on how to incorporate this into our life.I have found the biggest barrier for people to want to learn a new diet is that change is exceedingly difficult for some, they do not want to change a typical American meat and potatoes diet. If they would just try something new, they could find that it tastes just as good or better. The book has some exceptionally good recipes to help with this habit change.This is the basic version of the Younger You Intensive: Each day two cups dark leafy greens Each day two cups cruciferous vegetables Each day three cups additional colorful vegetables Each day 1-2 medium beets Each day ¼ cup pumpkin seeds and ¼ cup sunflower seeds Each day two plus servings of DNA methylation adaptogens Each day 3-ounce servings of clean animal protein; if vegetarian then beans Each day five tablespoons of healthy fats Each day one serving of fermented foods Each day half your body weight in fluid ounces of water, tea, or seltzer Each week three servings of liver Each week 5-10 eggs, free range, organicShe also has the Younger You everyday plan which may slow down the rate of aging down, but not necessarily reverse it. This plan is the same but five cups of veggies instead of the seven cups of the Younger You Intensive.If you sign up for her program, you can experience the same program as the people in the study including the genetic tests to see if you get younger too. It includes the supplements that are in the program too which are probiotics and a green powder. I enjoy the green powder so much I put it in my water bottle twice a day.Besides diet the other lifestyle components she recommended were regular exercise, getting at least 7 hours of sleep and eating within a period of 12 hours. The best recommendation was eating from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. She recommends stopping eating a couple of hours before you go to sleep. Dr. Fitzgerald also talks about the negative influences on DNA Methylation: toxins, not enough exercise, too much exercise, certain medications, alcohol which stops methylation, excess stress, high blood sugar, and bad gut bugs.There have been many books tooting the various diets. This is the first with a proven study. In the past the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle has shown to be the ultimate and now it is refined with this program. Dr. Fitzgerald deserves a Noble Prize for this project which shows us not only a younger bio age but also the health and vitality that comes with it.

Read a review of this book in the newspaper and found the ideas very interesting. The book is an easy read, but quite lengthy and chatty.

Most of the ideas in that book have been around for a several years but putting this information to test with a group of people is what we need now. Kara Fitzgerald did just that and the results are spectacular. Better than I would have expected for sure. Incredible transformation in just 8 weeks. I also appreciate the warning about over supplementing - something rarely acknowledged. She supports getting most of your nutrients from real whole foods. Bravo!One little mistake in the book though (but it has nothing to do with her program!). On page 27 she mentions the twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly and says that we can remember Scott as the astronaut singing "Major Tom' in space. In fact it was Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield who did this beautiful rendition of Bowie's chef d'oeuvre.

I enjoyed reading the book. However, I found it difficult to understand Methylation. Makes sense after thinking about the points Dr. Fitzgerald gave us as far as why we should eat certain foods etc. Also lifestyle is important to decrease our biological age!