Feb 26, 20204 min read

Dr. Tommy Wood on How to Maintain a Healthy Brain and Body Into Old Age & Crush Life in the Present

Updated: Feb 26, 2020

Dr. Tommy Wood MD, PhD - Peak Human Podcast

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Holy smokes we're coming in strong with season 6. This one with Dr. Tommy Wood is pretty special. We also have the legendary Allan Savory next week. Get ready now by watching his world-famous TED talk on YouTube.

Dr. Tommy Wood is a full-time research assistant professor at the University of Washington in the Department of Pediatrics. The majority of his academic work has focused on developing therapies for brain injury in newborn infants. His current research interests include the physiological and metabolic responses to brain injury, as well as developing easily-accessible methods with which to track human health, performance, and longevity. He does this work through academic positions at the University of Washington and the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Tommy received a bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences and Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge before studying medicine at the University of Oxford. He worked as a junior doctor in central London for two years after medical school and then moved to Norway to complete a Ph.D. in physiology and neuroscience at the University of Oslo.

Tommy is the former President of the Physicians for Ancestral Health society and has also coached and competed in multiple sports including rowing, CrossFit, powerlifting, and ultra-endurance racing.

He’s got a strong foundation in many areas of health and I think his views are really valuable. Some people get hyper-focused on one or two things - which can be super beneficial and can lead to amazing discoveries. But it could also sometimes cause people to only look at things from one viewpoint or miss the forest for the trees. I love looking at all sides of nutrition and keep trying to evolve my views based on the almost 150 people I’ve talked to so far.

It seems some people just take something that a super smart doctor like Paul Saladino says (who’s a good friend of mine, and I mean no disrespect) and take it as the end all, be all. That’s not going to work well in something as complicated as nutrition. I’ll take his well-informed interpretation of the body of evidence and then go listen to another super smart and experienced doctor who believes in more plant-heavy approaches. And then try to make sense of it all. But I don’t have it all figured out either! I’m just confirming my own biases and gravitating towards ideas that fit my views no matter how hard I try not to. The best I’ve come up with through all this is the Sapien diet. It will be ever-evolving as new information comes to light.

Anyway, just listen to this whole episode, even though it’s long. I think it’s really valuable and Tommy is up there on my Mount Rushmore of people who I am totally in line with like Dr. Ted Naiman.

Before we jump in I want to make sure everyone knows about http://NoseToTail.org where we ship 100% grass-finished beef and buffalo, and high omega-3 pork and chicken to your door. This is all raised beyond organic in Texas. Our primal ground beef with liver, heart, kidney, and spleen is flying out the door these days. Get it while you can, we only process animals every 2 weeks. There are so many nutrients in this tasty ground beef that are hard to get otherwise. You can make a custom box at http://nosetotail.org and get free shipping if it’s 20lbs or more.

You can also support this podcast and everything else I do at http://patreon.com/peakhuman I’ve been able to scrape by without taking on any advertisers or outside money for any of my ventures so far and really want to keep it that way. The Food Lies film, the Food Lies youtube channel, and all my social media is powered all by the community. I have yet to take a cent from another company. That’s http://patreon.com/peakhuman or click through http://sapien.org where you can find out about all the projects I’m working on including the heath technology. We’re still looking for doctors, healthcare providers, and health coaches to work with us. You can add yourself to the waiting list at http://sapien.org

Thanks for sharing this podcast and reviewing it on iTunes and the Apple podcast app! Really appreciate all of you and all the inspiring messages of positive health journeys! Now let’s hear some more great information from another brilliant mind, Dr. Tommy Wood.

BUY THE MEAT NosetoTail.org

Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman

Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

SHOW NOTES

[9:13] The Terry Wahls protocol.
[14:35] Humans are able to thrive on a wide variety of diets.
[19:20] The importance of having metabolic flexibility for your physical and mental health.
[28:00] The vast majority of plants are probably close to neutral for your health.
[33:08] Processing food leads to dissociate the hormonal/metabolic/satiety response to food from the macronutrient profile.
[36:32] If you put your body in the environment it expects and understands, your body will be able to function in its optimal state.
[42:00] Tommy Wood’s work with Formula 1 drivers.
[45:35] Blood work testing and metabolic health panels.
[55:10] The importance of subjective quality of life.
[58:55] Dr. Wood’s opinion on DNA testing.
[1:03:04] ApoE4 is probably the one single gene that has the largest effect of penetrance on a disease.
[1:14:10] Dr. Wood explains his current research.
[1:17:25] What causes premature birth?
[1:19:30] What can we do to keep our brain healthy?
[1:23:25] How movement and exercise is going to be able to keep your brain healthy.
[1:30:38] Can you do a ketogenic diet and perform with full potential?
[1:33:25] Is Uric acid bad and how it relates to gout.
[1:36:35] Should you be afraid of fructose in your diet?