What it takes to be “Young Forever!” | Mark Hyman : 1385
The Human Upgrade: Biohacking for Longevity & Performance
Dave Asprey
4.6 • 7.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Most conversations about longevity focus on tactics. This episode breaks down the biology underneath them. You’ll hear a systems level analysis of how insulin signaling, mTOR, mitochondrial function, inflammation, and nutrient sensing interact to determine biological age, disease risk, and long term human performance. This is not surface level biohacking. It is a deep dive into the mechanisms that actually control aging, metabolism, muscle preservation, and brain optimization, and why most anti aging strategies fail when they ignore these foundations.
This all-time classic episode from 2024, has host Dave Asprey joined by Mark Hyman, a practicing physician and one of the most respected leaders in functional medicine. Dr. Hyman is the founder and senior advisor of The UltraWellnessCenter, the founder and former head of strategy and innovation at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, and a long time advocate for treating root causes instead of managing disease. With over 30 years of clinical experience, his work focuses on restoring mitochondrial health, optimizing metabolism, reversing chronic disease, and slowing biological aging using science backed interventions.
Together, Dave and Mark dismantle common myths around protein, carnivore diets, ketosis, fasting, supplements, and longevity drugs. They explain why sugar accelerates aging faster than protein, how mTOR must cycle instead of staying suppressed, and why muscle, mitochondria, and metabolic flexibility matter more than calorie restriction. The conversation also covers nootropics, sleep optimization, neuroplasticity, AI driven diagnostics, and how functional medicine reframes aging as a reversible biological process rather than an inevitable decline.
You’ll learn:
• How insulin and nutrient sensing control aging speed
• Why mitochondria sit at the center of longevity and disease
• The truth about mTOR, fasting, and protein intake
• How ketosis and metabolic flexibility protect long term health
• Where supplements and nootropics actually fit in brain optimization
• Why functional medicine outperforms symptom based care
• How AI and advanced testing are reshaping modern medicine
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Dave Asprey is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, founder of Bulletproof Coffee, and the father of biohacking. With over 1,000 interviews and 1 million monthly listeners, The Human Upgrade brings you the knowledge to take control of your biology, extend your longevity, and optimize every system in your body and mind. Each episode delivers cutting-edge insights in health, performance, neuroscience, supplements, nutrition, biohacking, emotional intelligence, and conscious living.
New episodes are released every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday (BONUS). Dave asks the questions no one else will and gives you real tools to become stronger, smarter, and more resilient.
Keywords: longevity biohacking, functional medicine longevity, biological age reversal, mitochondria and aging, mTOR pathway aging, insulin resistance and aging, metabolic flexibility, fasting and longevity, ketosis and metabolism, protein intake and mTOR, muscle and longevity, inflammaging, chronic inflammation aging, mitochondrial dysfunction, nutrient sensing pathways, rapamycin longevity, metformin longevity debate, carnivore diet longevity, sugar and aging, brain optimization longevity, neuroplasticity and aging, sleep optimization biohacking, supplements for longevity, anti aging metabolism, human performance optimization, Dave Asprey longevity, Mark Hyman longevity
Resources:
• Mark’s Website: https://drhyman.com/
• Dave Asprey's Latest News | Go to https://daveasprey.com/ to join Inside Track today.
• Danger Coffee: https://dangercoffee.com/discount/dave15
• My Daily Supplements: SuppGrade Labs (15% Off)
• Favorite Blue Light Blocking Glasses: TrueDark (15% Off)
• Dave Asprey’s BEYOND Conference: https://beyondconference.com
• Dave Asprey’s New Book – Heavily Meditated: https://daveasprey.com/heavily-meditated
• Upgrade Collective: https://www.ourupgradecollective.com
• Upgrade Labs: https://upgradelabs.com
• 40 Years of Zen: https://40yearsofzen.com
Timestamps:
0:00 - Trailer
0:45 - Introduction
4:49 - Aging as a Treatable Disease
7:50 - The Hallmarks of Aging
14:23 - Nutrient Sensing and Longevity Switches
17:37 - Time Restricted Eating and Autophagy
20:44 - The Four Longevity Pathways
21:49 - Metformin Debate
25:30 - Ozempic and Weight Loss
28:42 - Rapamycin and mTOR
36:23 - Meat, Protein, and Aging
39:46 - Protein Quality and Muscle Synthesis
45:50 - Protein Timing for Muscle Building
48:08 - Metabolic Flexibility
51:32 - Inflammaging
55:26 - Zombie Cells and Senescence
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Meat is definitely bad because meat causes mTOR to turn on and that's really bad. |
| 0:05.0 | So we should never eat any meat. |
| 0:06.0 | I mean, if you're restricting animal protein because cancer and you're having any sugar at all, |
| 0:11.0 | you're doing it wrong because sugar is way stronger than animal protein at raising mTOR. |
| 0:15.0 | The hallmarks are the cause of all these diseases. |
| 0:18.0 | What is the cause of the hallmarks? |
| 0:20.0 | Do you really see people who eat only meat and fat do healthy in the long term? |
| 0:24.9 | The Plains Indians at the turn of the century had the largest amount of centenarians. |
| 0:28.3 | People live to be 100 years old, and they basically survived on bison. |
| 0:31.2 | If you put on your 10 years from now hat, how many causes of aging are we going to have? |
| 0:38.2 | You're listening to The Human Upgrade with Dave Asprey. |
| 0:45.7 | Every time you reach for a healthy snack, you could be sabotaging your energy, focus, and long-term health. |
| 0:52.2 | That's because even if you think it's healthy, it probably |
| 0:54.9 | contains seed oils, which make up 20% of the average person's daily calories. And recent |
| 1:01.0 | studies show seed oils can cause metabolic issues and inflammation in your body. Masa decided to |
| 1:06.7 | do something about it. They created a delicious tortilla chip with just three ingredients. |
| 1:11.6 | Organic, nxtamilized corn, sea salt, and 100% grass-fed beef tallow. And no seed oils. |
| 1:18.6 | This is one of the few times I'll eat corn because this corn is nxtamalized, which is a process that removes mycotoxins and anti-nutrients. |
| 1:26.6 | Masa chips don't only avoid all the bad |
| 1:29.0 | stuff. They taste incredible, too. Snacking on Masa chips is nothing like eating regular chips. |
| 1:34.2 | They're crunchier, tastier, and sturdier than other chips, so they won't break in your guac. |
| 1:38.9 | With Masa, you feel satisfied, light, and energetic, with no crash, bloat, or gross sluggishness afterwards. |
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