Health is based on three pillars: sleep, nutrition and fitness. I chat with some of the most interesting people I know to discover more about their Health Stacks: the behaviors and products they use to stay healthy and fit.
For many people, Covid-19 was the catalyst for a renewed focus on health and wellness, in all aspects of life. As vaccine distribution accelerates across the United States and a new normal crests the horizon, we thought it would be a good time to check in with Molly Maloof, MD, about how to build sustainable, holistic wellness practices that incorporate the body as well as the mind.
A Stanford lecturer, prolific startup consultant, and expert on biohacking, longevity, and futurism, Maloof is the person you go to when you have a question about cutting-edge, effective ways to lead a healthier, longer life. Read on to learn all about Maloof’s daily routines, the products she uses, and why she believes good sleep and a strong social network are integral for increasing longevity.
Highlights
- Molly starts every day with an elixir of adaptogens, a blend of tea and mushrooms
- A big believer in knowing your metrics, she gets her labs done regularly and wears a continuous glucose monitor every other month.
- Molly views relationships as one of the most important determinants of health and longevity: ‘Your network is literally your net worth, and your net worth will determine your longevity.’
- Stem cells and regenerative medicine are trendy, but Molly believes lifestyle and environment are the biggest drivers of longevity.
- Molly has worked with over 45 startups on health and wellness products, including the Peter Thiel-funded MetaMed.
- One of her mantras: ‘If you don’t sleep well, you’re screwed.’
- Molly starts her day with a 30-minute period of lucid dreaming or meditation.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What does health mean to you?
There’s a discrepancy in the way people see health. There’s the World Health Organization’s definition, which is “health is the complete absence of disease or infirmary.” That’s not realistic. Everybody gets sick occasionally and that doesn’t mean you’re not healthy. I found this research in the Netherlands [from] this one woman who defined health as, “the ability to adapt and self-manage in the face of diversity.” That phrase has been stuck in my head ever since. It’s a really great reflection of what health really is about. It’s about not being perfect, it’s about getting hit with something hard and being able to bounce back. It’s about being able to not break down and fall completely apart when you get hit by a health threat.
What should regular people be focusing on when it comes to improving their health and increasing their longevity?
First and foremost, sleep, exercise and proper nutrition is really important. If you don’t sleep well, you’re screwed. If you don’t exercise, you don’t charge your batteries. If you don’t eat right you’re not going to have the right fuel to run the molecular mechanisms.
But stress is a big, big driver of disease and decay. I would argue that while everybody knows that sleep, movement, and metabolism are important, not enough people recognize the role of stress, specifically its constituent parts.
For example, there’s psychosocial stress from our relationships—our relationships literally determine the quality of our life. If people have poor relationships or poor social connections, they’re not going to live as long. Hands down, that’s just the truth. And that’s also largely because your ability to be resourced in the midst of chaos and disaster is likely dependent on your social networks and your ties. Your network is literally your net worth, and your net worth will determine your longevity.
There are also a lot of low-level stressors in the environment that people don’t recognize. Just the baseline levels of stress of being outside in noise pollution are going to drain your energy throughout the day. Feeling unsafe in any way is a huge drain of your energy—the generalized unsafety theory of stress basically describes how there are a bunch of different reasons why humans feel unsafe, and our brains won’t turn off the stress response system unless we are given signals that we are safe.
The more you can do to establish safety and security in your environment, the longer you’re going to live. Your body is designed for survival and reproduction. Your body’s main priority is, ‘I need to keep you alive and I need to make sure you reproduce.’ It doesn’t actually care about anything else.
There are all these people who are so obsessed with stem cells and regenerative medicine. Don’t get me wrong, I think that’s important, but the reality is your lifestyle and environment form the basis of your health.
What specific strategies do you incorporate into your routine to live a healthier, and hopefully longer, life?
I sleep a lot. I sleep way more than most people think I sleep, probably because I get so much done. I look at sleep as the ultimate biohack. If you’re going to biohack anything and your sleep sucks, start with that. I actually biohacked my sleep before I did anything else and it was game-changing.
I look at sleep as a space for productivity. A lot of people think of sleep as this thing that you have to do. And it’s like, no, when you go to sleep there’s all this work that’s being done inside your body. You’re literally removing the garbage in the cells in your brain, and you’re consolidating all of your memories.
I get a lot of REM sleep. I dream a ton, and I remember my dreams almost every single day, which is crazy. It’s taken a lot of practice. I look at my dreams as a window into my life. When my dreams are interesting and good, that means my life is interesting and good. If my dreams are scary and there’s fear involved, that means there’s something going on in my daytime that I need to address.
What time do you usually go to bed and what time do you wake up?
I go to bed at 9:30 pm or 10pm. I started doing early bedtimes this year after getting really burned out. I turn work off at 5pm or 6pm or so, and then I eat dinner and wind down. By the time 9:30pm or 10pm rolls around, I’m totally tired. I’m a big believer in circadian rhythm alignment, which means you need to align your body with light cycles. I try to get up in the morning around 6am or 6:30am. I’m sleeping about eight to nine hours right now on average and I feel really good.
What other behaviors do you practice regularly, and how do you keep yourself accountable?
I set health goals at the beginning of every year, and I check in on these goals every quarter. I set intentions every two weeks. For a lot of people, they adopt something and then they lose it because they’re not consistent. Consistency is pretty much the most important thing when it comes to any health change.
I’m also a huge believer in not eating sugar. Years ago I eliminated sugar from my diet. I eat a tiny bit here and there, but really breaking a sugar addiction is important because it’s so damaging to blood vessels. It sets you up for diabetes and heart disease.
Outside of that, I wear a continuous glucose monitor every other month or so. I used to wear it every day but I’ve stopped doing that because I think it’s important to use it as a test, implement changes, and then put it back on. It’s a really great reflection of your lifestyle and your overall nutrition
I’m a big believer in knowing your metrics. I get my labs done pretty regularly. I’m getting my labs done for the third time this year because I’ve noticed that given the amount of stress I’ve been under, my labs have changed a bit this year. And so keeping tabs on your