6 Keys to Living Healthy in Your 40’s (Secrets to Anti-Aging)

Hey everyone, welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe Show. I am your host, Dr. Axe, and each and every week on the show, we dive deep into the science and principles and how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. On today's episode, I'm going to be sharing the top things you need to do in order to maximize health in your 40s and promote longevity.

And we'll be talking about things like the exact nutrients you need in your 40s for men and women, and there's some differences there as well. I'll be talking about The proper mindset and spirit for thriving in your 40s as well. And I can tell you from being in my 40s right now that there are some shifts that happen when you're in your 40s, mentally, spiritually, physically.

There are some things that start to change that I've noticed in my own body, even like, you know, joints being a little stiffer or those old injuries from high school sports starting to creep up on me. And so I'll be sharing how to also heal your body as well. Before I dive into the content though, hey, do me a favor. Subscribe to this podcast.

Every time you subscribe, I'm able to bring on bigger, better guests. People like I've had in the past, like Carrie Underwood, Dave Ramsey. You know, we've got people coming up in the future like Dr. Mark Hyman. We've had so many amazing doctors, uh, health experts, and leaders in the world, uh, that have been part of the podcast. So anytime you subscribe, you help the show grow.

And also, thank you, all of you who have been sharing this show on a regular basis. And I constantly have people tell me, hey, Dr. Axe, I I had a friend share your podcast with me, and because of it, I had this breakthrough in my relationship, in my health, in some areas. So just know by sharing this, you're also helping, uh, people heal, helping people become their best.

And so thanks so much for being on mission with me. I love that we can be on this mission together of teaching people how to use food as medicine, lifestyle medicine, mindset medicine, uh, all of those things. Okay. So here's one of the big things that happens when people are in their 40s.

According to studies, most people hit their midlife crisis between the ages of 40 and 60 years old, but typically it's in their 40s is the most common sort of decade when people start to feel this strong desire to change something in their life. I think what happens in your 40s is you start to realize that you're getting older.

You know, even when I was in my 30s, I still felt like I was in my 20s, and I almost felt like I had actually still just gotten done with high school. However, in 40s, I think you start, many people start to have kids or have kids that are growing up and you start to just realize as well, maybe there's some things you've dreamed of doing you haven't done yet. Maybe you're starting to feel older.

And so you, so you start to feel this crisis in life of realizing that, you know what, I've had 40-some years already done and I, how many years do you have left? I mean, you might have double that, you might have more, but you might have less. And so you start to number your days and realize how precious life is.

And so you wanna start to maximize your life, do the most you can with your life, and you realize you're not invincible. You maybe had some hardships in life you had to overcome. Those things happen in your 40s. And I want to share with you the biggest signs that you're feeling that midlife crisis in your life according to medical studies, that you are in the midst of a midlife crisis.

One is anxiety. If you're feeling a sense of anxiousness that you need to do something with your life in order to feel successful. Abrupt career or lifestyle changes such as quitting your job or moving homes or feeling like you need to move to a new city. This is a sign that you're having a midlife crisis.

By the way, I wanna mention the word crisis here doesn't necessarily mean have to be negative. Crisis could mean an opportunity to change. I think, again, more than anything, it's a midlife realization that you're done with part of your life and you need to maximize the second part of your life or, or, or, or something along those lines.

Some other signs you're in a midlife opportunity or crisis is you start to change your behavior. Sometimes you become antisocial. You know, that, that can happen. I mean, how many people, I mean, there's these memes that go around and the internet of, you know, that are, I think, hilarious. Because I really— Chelsea and I both share these with each other, and we tend to laugh about them.

Because we used to say when we were in our 20s and 30s, especially our 20s, we were up for doing anything. Let's go out, let's party, let's do whatever. And today in our 40s, we're like, ah, I'd just rather stay at home, you know, watch a movie, you know, eat a good meal and go to bed early, right? And so, your behavior changes.

Also, sometimes when you have these midlife crises, you have You start to reminisce and reflect about your past, really focusing on maybe youthful memories, past relationships, past adventures, or having fewer responsibilities during a previous life stage. One of the things Chelsea and I still love to do is reminisce on our trips we've done, trips to Europe.

I mean, we were the other day, we have this album and we like to share, you know, pictures. Well, we like to go through this album of this trip, these 2 trips we've done to Europe. And actually we're doing another one this summer, which we are So excited for being able to do that. But we do that. We also text each other pictures that we have on Facebook.

We have these memories that pop up and memories of maybe our past dog or a trip we did or paddleboarding together or something like that. You know, recently we had this trip to Sonoma Valley we were at. It was exactly, you know, 10 years ago. We're like, how was that 10 years? But we start to reminisce on those things more, reflect on those more.

Other signs of midlife crisis can be more things like depression or major mood changes, realizing that, I mean, what happens is sometimes people start to feel like their best days are behind them. By the way, that's a really toxic thought. You don't want to go there.

I think that can be related to not having a divine or supernatural belief system, not having strong enough religious or spiritual beliefs, because you believe that, hey, the best part of your life has come and gone. Versus saying, you know what, the best part of my life is ahead of me. I've got heaven ahead of me. I've got— Mentoring and raising up my kids and grandkids.

I've got, you know, I'm more wise now, even though maybe I can't do as much physically, I can do more spiritually and mentally and in adding value to others. And so much of this is about your perspective. So if you wanna optimize the second part of your life, or when you're in the midst of a midlife crisis, you need to change your perspective.

But depression or major mood changes can come about if you don't have the right perspective about your life. Moving forward. Um, here's another big sign of midlife crisis: dishonor to romantic relationships. Avoidance, cheating, marital infidelity, filing for divorce— these are some things that tend to happen in midlife crises.

And so, and again, I think a lot of this comes down to is, uh, and, and a lot of this is you're turning internal and becoming more selfish. That can happen because you start to think about, well, my first half of my life didn't didn't go the way that I wanted to. So I'm gonna think more about me and make sure the second half does.

The reality is though, both scientifically and if we're pulling the Bible into this, that will not fulfill you. That will not make your second part of your life better. It won't make up for mistakes you made in the first part of your life. It will only lead to ruin. Instead, you wanna focus on how can I renew our, my marriage and my relationships to back when we were dating?

How can I better pursue my wife? How can I make the second part of their life come true, their dreams come true? That will help you better navigate and flourish in this next part of your life, in this midlife crisis. And then dramatic changes in appearance, behavior, and self-care can be warning signs. Excessive indecisiveness.

You just don't feel like you can make a decision cuz you wanna make sure you make right decisions for your future. Feelings of anger, boredom, emptiness, loss of purpose, nostalgia, resentment, sadness, or just feeling unfulfilled are signs of a midlife crisis. Financial irrationality, like excessive spending. Hypochondria.

You start to just exaggerate and obsess about your health concerns, ruminating over past mistakes and failures and living in the past. Sleep pattern disruption and weight gain or loss. These are all signs of midlife crisis.

And these are— the good news is there's things that you can do to optimize the second half or second two-thirds of your life if you plan to be a centurion like I do once you hit your 40s. And we're going to go through a lot of these things here today. But one of the first things you need to do, step 1, I'm going to go through several steps here.

To maximize life in your 40s is to prioritize what matters most and, and make sure you have the right aim in life. Make sure that you really have your purpose defined and know what it is you want, that what will fulfill you. Maybe one of the big reasons why you feel like you didn't optimize the first 40 to 50 years of your life is you didn't have a plan and you didn't prioritize properly.

And so making sure that you are clear in Knowing what will fulfill you. I mean, when I think about the people, when I read books and meditate on the people that live the best lives possible, these people, here's something they all had in common. They had great relationships. They had really close friends or family. They had really these deep, meaningful relationships. That's one thing.

They also really contributed to the world in a meaningful way. They used their gifts and talents to the absolute max. So it's about relationships. It's about optimizing your gifts and skills, and it's about becoming a greater person, more wise, more loving, more caring, more courageous, more self-disciplined, more compassionate. If you do those things, you will be successful.

So I would reframe and think about your life in terms of, okay, how is, what do I want my faith life to look like now? And in the future, and my family, and my fitness, and my finances, and my free time. And write down a vision statement of what your ideal future looks like. And then lay out a plan in order to make that a reality.

And, and part of the, part, part of the big thing here is, is then you know what to say no to. You know, what's more important than what you say yes to is what you say no to. Because what happens is oftentimes the good things in life start to crowd out the great things in life.

When I think about the best moments Chelsea and I have had, oftentimes And a lot of times, it was where we weren't trying to accomplish something. We were just being, and we were trying to be connected to one another. Again, I brought up those trips to Europe. I mean, Chels and I still talk about, hey, remember when we went to Tuscany and did that wine tasting?

Remember when we did that cooking class where we learned how to make gnocchi and biscotti and this lasagna we did? We got this cooking certificate. We loved doing that. Remember that time we did that New York trip with our 2 good friends, Sean and Andrew, and we did every great restaurant in the city. And so, we talk about those times.

I think about growing up, we used to always go boating at this called Norris Lake or Lake Cumberland there in the South, in Tennessee and Kentucky, and absolutely amazing memories. But those are the best times of my life were when I wasn't trying to accomplish something. I wasn't trying to get ahead. I was just having meaningful connection time, conversation, having fun with my my family.

I also think about my faith. Some of the most meaningful things I've done, mission trips. I've gone on mission trips to Jamaica, to Africa, to China, to the inner cities in Dayton, Ohio. And I think about those times and what I was able to contribute and how it changed me as a person. And so, you know, make sure you are spending time on what matters most.

Most of us spend 5 hours at least a day on social media and TV together. And that, that doesn't also include, include other screen time versus what if you could take some of those hours and do, you know, something that matters? More time with family, more times with friends, more time developing your gifts and contributing in this world.

And so, step number 1 to maximize life in your 40s is prioritize. And plan, create that plan that's going to lead you to having a truly successful life in the future. Uh, I wrote a book, by the way, that I think would help you do this. It's called Think This, Not That. If you just go to Amazon and search Josh Axe, Think This, Not That, this book goes through exactly how to do this with your life.

Step number 2 to maximize life in your 40s is build a divine identity. Focus on your divine nature in growing spiritually, building meaning and significance in your life. If you think that this life is all there is, and you're halfway done and then life is done, then that's depressing. I would be depressed. I would be anxious if that was the reality.

But knowing that I will live for eternity and that heaven will be even more joyous than this life here, beyond what we can even imagine. I mean, from— I remember C.S. Lewis gave this analogy. He said, you know, when we were in the womb, you don't really remember much. Okay? I don't remember anything. But when I was in the womb, I never would've thought about Chocolate and roller coaster rides.

And for me, we'll love water skiing and, you know, and the taste of chicken Parmesan and dark chocolate fudge cake. Like, I never even imagined those things. They never even— that's what heaven's going to be like, is when we're there, it's going to be beyond anything we could have thought or imagined in this life. Knowing that that's the future and knowing it's an even better future.

If you maximize your life now, because there are eternal rewards in heaven. So all that being said, building your divine identity and not storing up treasures here on earth, doing it in heaven. Okay? So really focusing on contributing and adding value to everyone you come across, knowing that life success is not based upon you getting ahead in life or making a certain amount of money.

It's based on how much you bless others, giving financially, Giving a compliment, acting in character with someone with patience and loving kindness, giving a compliment, helping someone else reach their goals, leading someone else to grow spiritually or connect with God. So building your divine identity, knowing you're an eternal being. Again, I mentioned this earlier, growing in your gifts.

And in, in, in this stage when you're in your 40s is really when you should be discipling and mentoring, uh, mentoring other people. If you are in your 40s right now, In not discipling and mentoring other people, I think you're really missing one of your greatest callings in life. By the way, you don't need to be 10 years or 20 years or 10 steps ahead of someone else to mentor or disciple them.

You need to be one step ahead of them. You know, when I was in college, I mentored kids. I discipled kids in high school. When I was in in practice, functional medicine practice, I had a certain size clinic and success, and I was really you know mentoring even people one year ahead of me or one year behind me. I mean, in terms. Of where they were in their practice and their life.

And so again, I think one of the greatest things you can do, and by the way, you all, we all do this with kids. If you have kids, this is why being a parent is the most important profession job in the entire world. It's the most important thing you can do is mentoring, discipling, and parenting your kids.

But in addition, if you have opportunities to lead a growth group at your church, if you have an opportunity to have someone else and mentor them in your career and job, do something to Basically, help others model what you're doing as you try and grow in your character towards the good of the world. That's going to be really powerful for you.

But build a divine identity, learn more about who God is, and that will help define more who you are. That's a step you can do in your 40s. Now, I want to talk more about nutrition now and the needs of people in their 40s as you start to change, especially hormonally. Things really start to shift in the body. Of course, we know in the late 40s, around 48 years old, That can be the average.

But of course, through the 50s as well, women can start to hit menopause. So there are big changes there with women starting to have estrogen and progesterone start to decline within their body. Men really can start to see testosterone fall off a cliff if they're not careful.

These are big, big issues today, not to mention high insulin and cortisol levels and how that leads to weight gain and poor nutrient absorption. And even thyroid hormone issues within the body. So when you get into your 40s, there's no doubt there starts to be some issues nutritionally and hormonally.

And so I want to go through some of the most common nutritional deficiencies of people in their 40s according to clinical research and nutrients you want to be aware of. The first one is vitamin D. It's by far the nutrient people are most deficient in. Vitamin D is responsible for hormone production in the body.

So if you want to have enough testosterone, you have to have vitamin D at optimal levels.

Women, if you also want to have proper testosterone and estrogen, and that also means thyroid hormones, then you also have to have vitamin D. Vitamin D is also responsible for calcium absorption, which is of course important for bone density, uh, and the thickness of your hair, uh, muscle and nerve function, immune system health.

Vitamin D is very, very important for immune health and for fighting cancer and reversing autoimmune disease. So all of these are important, uh, but again, vitamin D is connected to all of those. Here are some ways to boost your vitamin D. Number 1, spend more time outside.

Spending time outside, going for a walk, a hike, a bike ride, or just stepping outside for 5 minutes to breathe in some good air, that will your vitamin D levels. And I'm going to show a chart here, if you're watching on YouTube, that basically displays how many minutes per day based on the typical season in certain areas of the body.

But basically, here's the rule: you want to go outside and get sun, but not burn your skin. Burning your skin increases your risk of melanoma and skin cancer. So you do not want to get your skin even pink. You can get just, you know, again, a little bit of color. Yeah. And then that's it. Okay, so in the summer months, you might get 20 minutes of sun. That's enough.

Then cover up or put on some natural sunscreen, but you don't want to get burnt. By the way, people that are of African-American descent with black skin, people that are of Mediterranean descent with more, again, more of that, you know, bronze-colored skin, here's the rule. The darker your skin is, the more time you need to spend outside for vitamin D creation and absorption. Okay.

So, so if you have darker skin, you need to spend more time outside even than people with lighter colored skin in order to have optimal levels of vitamin D. Now, you also can eat foods that are rich in vitamin D. Wild-caught fish, especially salmon, sardines, and tuna. Raw organic cheeses like sheep's milk cheese, egg yolks. Those are going to have vitamin D that you can absorb.

And then taking a vitamin D supplement, most people need to be taking, adults, 5,000 IUs of vitamin D daily. By the way, in order to properly absorb vitamin D, you want to take it with magnesium and vitamin K2. So when you take a vitamin D supplement, it should at least have vitamin K2 in it. And then maybe you're getting magnesium via your diet or a multivitamin or as a standalone supplement.

But remember, in order to absorb vitamin D, you also need vitamin K2 and magnesium. Now, here's the reality with vitamin D levels. Uh, and by the way, there's— the studies are all over the place. And so I'm going to give you 2 studies in particular, 2 or 3, that sort of define and give you how prevalent vitamin D deficiency is.

I can tell you this, dietarily, 94% of people are not getting enough vitamin D in their diet. 94%. So starting off, almost everybody is to some level vitamin D deficient. I would say probably closer to that 92%. Now, according to some studies, around 50% of Americans and 70% of Europeans are vitamin D deficient.

Uh, there's another study though showing that it might be 41.6%, according to one study. That is for people that are Caucasian. 82% Of people that are— have black skin followed by Hispanics at 69.2%. So around 70% there for Hispanics.

Now, if you have a medical condition like a weakened immune system right now, you notice you have autoimmune disease, you've had cancer, you get sick with a cold or flu more often than you think you should, it's almost guaranteed that you have vitamin D deficiency. Listen, during COVID there was a study out of Spain. By the way, Spain, people are outdoors more. Okay. Spain, the sun is out a lot.

But over 80% of the patients tested that had COVID-19 that were in the hospital had a vitamin D deficiency, according to a medical journal called the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

So again, if you're sick with COVID or the flu or, or, or, or a cold, you want to be supplementing with vitamin D. And this tends to happen in winter, but about 80% of those people with COVID were vitamin D deficient during the testing. Now, To be deficient, you typically need to be below what's called 30 ng/mL. Okay, below 30.

Insufficient though, so this means that, okay, you're not severely deficient to be able to help, you know, your bone, you know, something that's going to lead you to osteoporosis immediately or other issues, but you're still insufficient. Your body doesn't have enough is anything below 50 ng/mL. Optimal is 50 to 70. Almost everybody should be between that range of 50 to 70.

If you've ever had a vitamin D test, you want to be above 50. And if you want to do something that's very therapeutic for somebody with cancer or heart disease, sometimes you want to be doing even levels of 70, 80, 90, up to 100. Now, if you are over 100 ng/mL, you are— Toxic. You have too much vitamin D, which is incredibly rare, but it can happen in very rare cases.

But again, and I encourage you, if you're in your 40s, get a vitamin D test. It's so easy. You can get one at home. Do it, and you have your results back in a week or so. And you want to really thrive for that 50+ range or that 50 to 70 range of vitamin D levels. And if you don't have it, you typically want to supplement again with that 5,000 I use daily.

And Again, eat the foods we talked about, the organ meats, the egg yolks, things like cod liver oil, mushrooms like shiitake, maitake. Those things can all help optimize. Of course, the wild-caught fish as well, like salmon and sardines, will help that as well. Um, optimize your vitamin D levels again for your hormones. Men, low testosterone. Women, estrogen, progesterone.

You want to make sure you optimize vitamin D. The next set of nutrients that The 2 minerals that most people in their 40s tend to be deficient in are magnesium and calcium. Of course, bones start getting weaker according to studies after the age of 35. Okay, so once you hit 35 years old, your bones start getting weaker.

And magnesium is responsible for over 300 cellular and organ functions, including certain types of methylation and cellular health, which is important for longevity. So if you want to live a long time and your 35 trillion cells to be functioning properly. You need magnesium. Magnesium is also responsible for relaxation, healthy bowel movements.

You'll notice a lot of times people in their 40s start to have more constipation and irregular bowel movements. Magnesium helps, typically 300 to 600 milligrams daily. I like a chelate the best, or a food-based magnesium bound with spirulina. I also like glycinate, um, and of course citrate can be good for bowel movements, and threonate be good more for more brain function.

But I like one that has multiple amino acids called a chelate. Or if not, I like that glycinate probably the best. You can get calcium from your food. That's the good news. Cheese, yogurt, kefir, sardines, leafy green vegetables, salmon with the skin on. But those green leafy vegetables, wild fish, and dairy, that's where you're getting your calcium.

And then magnesium from green leafy vegetables as well. So just know if you want to build magnesium and calcium together, Spinach, especially steamed, or kale or chard where you're steaming these green leafies. Watercress is another good one. Eating those, that's where you're going to get the highest levels of magnesium, calcium. In addition, yogurt. So yogurt is going to have both.

Beans, nuts, and seeds like walnuts, wild fish, figs, avocados, and dark chocolate for optimal levels of magnesium. This is also, of course, magnesium is incredibly important for heart health. Incredibly important. Um, the next is potassium. Potassium plays an important role in regulating blood pressure as it reduces the blood pressure-raising effects of sodium.

And potassium and magnesium together really help bring— really help level out your blood pressure and heart health. Potassium is also responsible for cellular detoxification. If you just feel lethargic, you're holding on to excess less fluids in terms of weight gain, it's a potassium deficiency in most cases.

So you want to start consuming more potassium-rich foods like acorn squash, really any type of squash. Butternut squash is great as well, but acorn's extremely high. Spaghetti squash, uh, white potatoes, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, lentils, beans, spinach, and watermelon, and coconut water, bananas. Those tend to be the most potassium-rich foods that you can eat.

And so those can also— so you need— so you really need to focus on minerals and vitamin D. Vitamin K is also important. You're going to get that in green leafy vegetables. Again, broccoli, asparagus, raw organic dairy products, pomegranate, and cabbage is going to help as well. And again, vitamin K is really important for vitamin D absorption and calcium. Folate.

So getting B vitamins also, a lot of people in their 40s tend to be deficient in, and folate in particular. Nearly half of the population has this genetic factor that's affecting methylation. And so basically their ability to convert their food-based folate or their vitamin-based folate into a usable form like methylfolate.

So it's just not happening readily within your body, and that's going to affect your cellular function. In fact, it can affect fertility in women, it can affect energy in men, it can negatively affect your cellular longevity and healing your body in order for it to create ATP and energy.

So if you're tired and lethargic all the time, the issue might be that you're not getting enough B vitamins, might be you're not absorbing enough B vitamins, and that can be related to not having enough good bacteria like probiotics in your gut or having the overgrowth of bad like Candida.

And it can be connected to you're not methylating properly, which in order to do that, you can take a probiotic and a methylated B vitamin supplement. And consume organ meats like liver, spinach. So green leafy vegetables, black-eyed peas, asparagus, Brussels sprouts.

But you'll see here a lot of these nutrients I mentioned— green leafy vegetables, organ meats, wild-caught fish, and probiotic foods— are the foods I mentioned most. So if you're in your 40s, here's what you need to eat: organ meats. Okay, now you can take those as a supplement. Green leafy vegetables. Wild-caught fish and fermented foods like sauerkraut, coconut yogurt, raw goat's milk kefir.

Those are the things you need to eat if you're in your 40s, typically to optimize your nutrients. Collagen. Once you reach the age of 25, your collagen production goes every year. And most people in their 40s are when they start to notice the wrinkles, the fine lines, the aging skin.

Getting 20 to 40 grams of collagen a day, by the way, collagen Collagen is also what makes up your joints and connective tissue. So if your joints start to ache in your 40s, you want to get collagen. By the way, my favorite way to get collagen is via a bone broth protein supplement.

One scoop of a bone broth or getting a product that has bone broth in it, a protein powder and organ meats and some of those things. But that's what you want to get. You want to get 20 to 40 grams of collagen a day. This is going to support your skin, your hair, your nails, your joints. Your gut, your immune system, and your joints.

Pretty much all those areas you start to notice aging in, collagen is the cure. By the way, here's something that's amazing. You have more collagen in your bones than calcium. You have more collagen in your bones than calcium. And so you need to make sure that you're getting plenty of collagen in your diet. Another thing that people tend to be deficient in their 40s are omega-3 fatty acids.

This is again why your joints start to age. Taking 1,000 to 2,000 milligrams of something like a cod liver oil or an omega-3 supplement. And then in terms of herbals that I love for people as they age and get into their 40s, taking adaptogenic herbs. You know, it tends to be in your 40s is that stress has started to build up.

Stress of kids, stress of financial things, stress from the past emotionally, stress of just your body starting to break down a little bit. You can start to lower that stress by taking adaptogenic herbs. For women, I really like ashwagandha, schisandra, and dong quai. Ashwagandha has been shown to help with any thyroid issue. Schisandra, your thyroid and immune issues.

And dong quai, again, thyroid and building your blood and a number of those issues. For men, I like ashwagandha, rhodiola, and cordyceps. Those are all going to Naturally and in a gentle way, boost your testosterone levels while reducing stress, while improving your sleep. So ashwagandha, rhodiola, cordyceps mushrooms for men, all going to be fantastic.

I want to mention between men and women as well, from a nutrient standpoint, women tend to need iron or ferritin. You need something to build your blood. And men tend to need zinc. Okay, those are those 2 nutrients that tend to be different men and women. Women, you need to build your blood. I mean, this is really important, especially if you've had kids or having kids.

So, so iron will help you do that. This is why doing a liver supplement or an easily digested iron or getting beetroot juice or doing something to build your blood as a supplement can help. And men, zinc is critical for sperm production, for fertility, and for testosterone production. So taking zinc is important for that. Now, a few more here, steps to maximize your 40s.

Step number 4 is movement as medicine. Oftentimes in our 40s, we start to notice those aches, those pains, those signs of aging in our skin and joints. One thing I want to mention here in your 40s, now ideally you would have done this earlier, but avoid injury. Get out there and work out, but do things that are easier on your joints.

Going out there and still doing CrossFit workouts and marathon training and doing things where you're just in— that you're prone to injury, don't do it. You're much better off doing what's called functional movement. Go and get a trainer that teaches you functional movement on how to do a proper squat, how to do a proper lunge.

You know, doing things— you want to put on muscle mass as well because you start to lose it in your 40s. And so weight training 3 days a week, or at least 2, can be ideal, or lifting 2 to 5 days a week. But getting and doing some weight training, even if it's just 30 minutes a few days a week, will make a big difference.

In addition, walking, going out there and walking 2+ miles a day, taking 10,000 steps a day will help you maximize your 40s. In studies, walking has been shown to be one of the top things you can do to promote longevity and increase your lifespan. And then doing 1 to 2 cardio sessions a week. That's right, you don't need to do cardio 5, 7 days a week.

But if you can do 1 to 2 more intense sessions, like a 20-minute Peloton, HIIT training, that sort of exercise routine, That will help. You want to increase something called your VO2 max, and that's going to be where you're maybe going to go really hard for 2 minutes, then easy, or take a minute for a break for an entire, you know, 1 to 2 minutes, and then hard again.

So that's sort of what you want to do there. You want to do things to increase your VO2 max. That helps your longevity, helps you live longer and stay fit longer as well. But again, to stay fit in your 40s, spend time in a pool. Swim. That's fantastic. Spend time on a bicycle, you know, going out there and biking outdoors.

Do things like swimming and biking, not running ideally, or if you can, you know, again, do it on a track, something that's very easy on your joints. Go out and walk, go out and do weight training and functional movement for longevity. That's going to help you live longer and optimize life in your 40s.

So step number 5 here is more preventative healthcare measures to to promote longevity and doing testing. Now, the testing I'm talking about is not mammograms and colonoscopies. It's things that actually are beneficial, that help you get healthier, that tell you what you actually need to do. Here are my 5 favorite tests to promote longevity and build your health. Number 1 is micronutrient testing.

Micronutrient tests will test for deficiencies in nutrients like magnesium, zinc, iron, vitamin D. So being able to test for any nutrients you're deficient in will tell you so much about the foods you need to eat, the supplements you need to take. Consider getting a micronutrient test, also known as an organic acids test.

Number 2, test your fatty acid profile, specifically your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. If those ratios are off, you have too much omega-6, not enough omega-3, it's going to cause inflammation inflammation or cause something called inflammaging, where you age too quickly. So get a fatty acid profile. Number 3, do a genetic test for methylation.

Look to see if you have the genetics to where you're not methylating properly and you're not converting nutrients like folate and other B vitamins into their ideal forms that your body can actually utilize.

Number 4, get a GI map that tests the health of your gut microbiome to see the ratios of good bacteria like probiotics and bad bacteria, yeast, fungus, parasites that might be overgrowing within your system. That will tell you a lot about even the amount of probiotics you should be taking and the amount of, you know, dietary changes you need to make. And number 5 is a hormone panel.

Get your testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, thyroid hormones, DHEA— get these hormones tested so you know what you need to do to optimize them with herbs, with nutrients, uh, with lifestyle practices, uh, with peptides to optimize your hormone levels. If you can do those 5, it's going to help promote longevity and optimize life in your 40s.

And last here, work hard in your 40s, but also play hard. Really focus on creating meaningful moments and great family traditions. Cherish time with your kids, And family, and you'll listen, you'll never get these years back. I saw this video that was done by Jordan Peterson where he talked about, listen, your kids are only, you know, 0 to 5 years old for that 5 years.

And then something changes after the years of 5. Now listen, I think having kids at every age is an amazing blessing, but I mean, I'll tell you right now, my daughter, she's 4 and she's not saying words, you know, exact, her pronunciations aren't exactly correct. And I love it, right?

I mean, you know this, when kids are talking when they're 2 years old and 3 years old, I mean, it is such a fun time, such a precious time right now because we have this, you know, our 5-month-old Chelsea and I, Chelsea's, you know, sleeping with her a lot of nights and our daughter, we're about to stop doing this. But my 4-year-old right now, I've been, we've been doing some co-sleeping with her.

And so I've been sleeping with her in bed and it's just so special. You know, I read books to her in bed before we go to bed, you know, tell her stories. And, you know, there's extra cuddles and just those meaningful moments.

And so, this is something that, again, I think that we just really need to be aware of how short life is and how precious these moments are and maximizing our days, doing everything we can to create meaningful moments with family and friends and doing great family traditions.

I mean, Chelsea and I now are really aware of the things we want to do around Christmas, around Thanksgiving, around New Year's. Around the 4th of July, around Easter, around birthdays, doing things. And not just those, but around family dinners. Like we do family dinners. You can't watch TV, you can't be on your phone, connecting and talking about life over dinner.

So create those meaningful moments, time to pray over your kids, pray during dinnertime, do things that matter. So go out there and work hard in your 40s. Use your gifts and skills to change the world.

But also play hard, love hard, have great, you know, create time for your family to really have great moments where you're not on your phone, where you're not working, where you're just there present, connecting, loving your family members. If you can do that, you're gonna maximize life in your 40s, 50s, and beyond. Hey, I hope you've enjoyed this episode.

You know, I think for myself being in my 40s now, I'm very aware of how precious life is. I mean, I can't believe how my now 4-year-old went from 0 to 4. I mean, I feel like she was just born yesterday. I mean, the time flies so fast. We want to maximize our time, but part of the way we do that is optimizing our diet, our nutrition, our spiritual growth, and just generally our growth in life.

And I hope that my show, this podcast, is helping you do that. I want to say thanks so much for tuning into my show here, the Dr. Josh Axe Show. Thank you. So remember, every week you're going to be learning new things on how to grow in body, mind, spirit, and take your health and your life to the next level. If you're not subscribed, you're missing out. Don't forget to subscribe here.

I've got some unbelievable guests coming up and some great solo episodes, a lot diving into advanced nutrition principles, cellular health, and mindset, and so much more. So don't forget to subscribe, like, and share this with someone in their 40s. Maybe tag it. Share it somewhere.

You know, if you post this on Instagram or somewhere, you know, or Facebook, say, hey, you got to listen to this episode on how to maximize your 40s. Thanks so much for sharing this and being on mission with me. I'll see you on the next episode.