Bhat's Notes

Excerpts from leadership session by Dr. Marcus Ranney of Human Edge at Novotel by TiE Hyderabad on 24th April 2024

Speaker: Dr. Marcus Ranney

Moderator: Jayesh Sanghvi

Jayesh: Dr. is a polymath. Studied medicine and did expeditions to mountain. Marcus loves the life and preaches what he practices. Marcus brings scientific approach to healthcare and health span.

Marcus: I have always been a student of biology.

We celebrate when a person comes off the medication.

There has been a 19 years increase in life expectancy but half of those years are more in sickness. World’s largest democracy, India, is the disease capital.

I am not here to outdo death but live as healthy as possible for the life you have.

Optimising sleep for better performance:

Nature’s freely available drug for health is sleep. We spend a third of our life in sleep. Sleep recharges our body from everyday wear and tear. I spend lots of time with high performance athletes as well (IPL Rajasthan) and a bunch of Olympians. Extending sleep to 10 hours increases the productivity by 9%. I wear a ring to measure sleep objectively.

Average sleep is 7 to 13 hours. We shall measure sleep efficiency ratio. My wearable gives my sleep efficiency ratio is 90%. There is deep sleep where the physical body is preparing. Bones are undergoing osteogenesis and cardio is taking its own. REM sleep is where the brain is dreaming and it happens in distinct phases. There is pattern between deep sleep and REM sleep. After the majority of deep sleep starts the REM sleep. Deep sleep is where the physical body prepares to repair and hence it is done first. Only after this comes the brain and dreams. I am concerned about the IPL players overnight deep sleep for the physical recovery to happen. For corporate executives I look for REM sleep that helps active decision making activity. Waking up irritable, cranky and frustrated, no one wants. These sleep phases help fix us.

Data points allows us to look at quantum of different sleep phases. Keep room temperature 15-19 Celsius at night. Cold room helps you sleep deeper and longer. Temperature is powerful way of deepening sleep. We can have thermal contrast where you get exposed to sauna before you go and sleep in a cold room. It helps.

Soil has been magnesium deficient since 1970s and it has a role to play in human recovery, Magnesium helps with muscle contraction and relaxation. Magnesium is not like melatonin but is natural and lesser toxic one.

Cholesterol Management

Lipid markers require monitoring: LPa and ApoB give an idea of how aggressive you need to be about cholesterol. Myth is that eating any kind of fats lead to cholesterol challenge. Consumption of carbohydrates gets converted to fatty acids such as triglycerides. This is the problem.

Flackseed oil or Onega-3 has anti inflammatory and anti cholesterol properties.

Body

Persons aerobic capacity (VO2 max) is most predictive measurement for individual’s longevity score. The second score is muscle mass. The best time to start investing in health is aerobic health and muscular health from yesterday.

Indulge in Zone 2 exercise regularly and zone 5 once a week. If x is my age, 220-x is my maximum heart rate I shall target. Brisk walk or jogging or swim a couple of times a week and one high intensity workout a week such as stairs and racquet sports. Don’t do just one thing all week. Expose the body to many different things. As you push heart rate, make sure you have a doctor to guide you.

Apple ecosystem started allowing you to do different zones. When I do a marathon, I run for 5 minutes at high speed and next few minutes slow speed. Bring that high low variability.

Activate BDNF by tracking 8000 steps each day. After 12-15 minutes of exercise brain releases BDNF and is helpful for mental, emotional and physical aspects.

Stress: Tapping into the power of breathwalk

Heart rate variability (HRV) tells us equilibrium point between flight and fight and rest and digest. HRV is relativistic. HRV drops huge when there is an injury or stress or illness. Breathing is good controller of HRV. Box breathing is where you breath in from nose four counts, you hold for four counts, you exhale four counts and you hold four counts. You make you physically slow your system of heart and blood down. This is a powerful way of de-stressin in the moment and after moment.

Jayesh: You have another name as mitochondria. Talk about it?

Marcus: Mitochondria is power house of the cell. I was studying the effect of high altitude low oxygen effects while I was doing high mountain climbing in 2012. This is when we figured it was mitochondria adaptation that has a role to play in high performance.

We were able to infer rate limiting steps in which type of athletes and form of workout based on study of Mitochondria.

Jayesh: Glucose, insulin and correlations? What shall be the benchmark at different ages?

Marcus: We have 100 million in pre-diabetes. Because of evolutionary background we are more diabetic. Food apps deliver within ten minutes. There are tiny patches that continuously monitor the glucose in real time. My dad is diabetic and these patches are helpful instead of annoying finger pricks. In a healthy individual, what happens to your graph as we change the drink, rice type and all. This is helpful educational tool to give insights even for healthy people. We train the athletes in the off season too. Fuel to the body and all can be managed well with these patches

Jayesh: Good versus fasting?

Marcus: Both are important. Bodies are evolved to be for caloric deficit as hunter gatherers. Intermittent fasting is sexy wrapper to what we have always been doing across spiritual practices. An individual studied different types of eating techniques and it has been found that 25% deficit in what we consume in a day helps.

Jayesh: Protein?

Marcus: We have a south Asian vegetarian diet. We don’t get enough protein. A bowl of dal is 10-12% efficient as a protein source. It has carbs too. We need to prioritise protein and reduce carbs. Dopamine is addicted to carbs as like the drugs. We need to have a crab monitor because of the metabolic dysfunction we have.

Micro nutrients are important. We celebrate when patient comes off medication. Our food has become pathetic as soil is depleted with some micro nutrients. If it is not in soil, not there in plants and hence not there in our food but body needs them. Have a great parcel of land with sustainable practices and nutrients. If not, we shall take PET and Magnesium and Omega-3 as supplements. I don’t want people to have stigma as bodies do require.

Jayesh: What is the role of Joy and happiness?

Marcus: See “Living to 100” series on Netflix. We want to find communities that live 100+. He found five such zones. The most powerful reason why people are living longer is “social tribes and having deep sense of purpose in their lives”. Read “man’s search for meaning” book. We have a capacity to build a sense of purpose in calamity and grave living condition. Probability of higher longevity has to do with sense of joy and ability to connect with people around you. This is so much more than metrics of health but social tribe. 90+ year old are farming happily in Nagaland. In Ladakh, same story. Spend time with small villages and learn joy of life from them.

I started as clinical venture. There are few clinicians like us who devices a protocol. Do wearables, diagnostics in real time and give people a blueprint on lifestyle practices. Sleep, nutrients, movements, gut health and all. This is what we have been doing. “Ever” is our brand. We spend 30 days with a person and get them going

Q) Good source of protein?

Marcus: Lentils, mushrooms, quinoa, paneer

Q) Role of water

Marcus: We are 70% water. Survival in Sahara desert study we did. 1% drop in hydrated state reduces our performance by 12%. We feel thirsty at 3% drop! Some drinks are diuretic and it means we pee those drinks out. I prefer to extend fasting windows. Some people metabolic condition may resist extended fasting.

Q) There are two types of Magnesium

Marcus: There are eight types. All of them have differing effects on body: gut health, sleep and more.

Q) Disease capital

Disease pathology is different in India from Caucasians. Coronary calcium score of zero in an Indian doesn’t mean it is not there. Thread mill stress test may come healthy. Yet we have to design protocols for Indians different from western techniques. If we look at glycemic profile, honey or jaggery or sugar, end outcomes of glucose load remain the same. Jaggery may be less inflammatory in nature but the side effects remain the same.