Dr. Florence Comite on Living Longer -- and Better
[0:00]Welcome to Totally Booked.
[0:02]I'm Zibi Owens.
[0:04]I've interviewed more than 2,000 authors on this show
[0:07]and learned endless amounts about storytelling,
[0:10]reinvention, and life itself.
[0:11]Because when you talk about books,
[0:13]you're really talking about life.
[0:15]So get ready to hear from today's best authors,
[0:18]the best-selling and the not yet discovered.
[0:20]Come find your next great read and that the story behind it.
[0:24]Enjoy.
[0:25]Florence Comite, MD is the author of Invincible,
[0:30]to find your genetic destiny to live better longer.
[0:33]I spotted Dr. Comite from afar at an event
[0:38]that I went to over the summer hosted by Pervy Padilla,
[0:42]who is an amazing interior designer
[0:44]and has a line of fabulous home goods and everything.
[0:47]You should check her out, Pervy Padilla.
[0:49]But anyway, at the event, Dr. Comite was there.
[0:53]I couldn't stay for lunch but did get a copy of the book
[0:55]and was taken immediately.
[0:57]You will find out why when you hear all of her amazing tips
[1:00]on living life to the fullest.
[1:02]And by the way, I think I might go see her in New York
[1:05]because I think I need her.
[1:06]Anyway, New York Times bestselling author,
[1:08]Florence Comite, MD is a clinician scientist,
[1:11]a transformative force and precision medicine
[1:14]and the world's leading expert in healthy longevity.
[1:17]Dr. Comite is a graduate of Yale School of Medicine,
[1:20]where she was a faculty member for 25 years
[1:22]with a triple appointment in endocrinology
[1:24]and reproductive endocrinology.
[1:26]And she founded Women's Health at Yale,
[1:28]the nation's first women-only clinic.
[1:30]Dr. Comite trained as a clinical investigator
[1:32]at the National Institute of Health.
[1:35]In addition to her best-selling books,
[1:37]keep it up the power of precision medicine
[1:39]to conquer low tea and revitalize your life
[1:41]and invincible, defy your genetic destiny
[1:44]to live better longer.
[1:46]Dr. Comite has published original research
[1:48]and articles in numerous clinical journals.
[1:51]She is a sought-after speaker podcaster
[1:53]and broadcast guest around the world.
[1:56]Welcome, Dr. Comite.
[1:58]Thank you so much for coming on totally booked
[2:00]to talk about your very important work,
[2:02]invincible, defy your genetic destiny
[2:05]to live better, longer, congratulations.
[2:07]Thank you.
[2:09]So you want the rest of us to live longer.
[2:11]How come?
[2:12]Well, the issue is we are living longer.
[2:15]And so that is the hot topic of, you know,
[2:17]today's world longevity,
[2:19]but what I really started out doing
[2:20]and it's still central to my work is health.
[2:24]I believe we don't live in good health.
[2:25]So the great generation had this amazing experiment
[2:28]and they're living to triple digits.
[2:30]It's not enough time to wish them all happy birthday,
[2:32]which they used to do on NBC anymore.
[2:35]But they're not in good shape.
[2:36]They don't just have one chronic disease.
[2:38]They usually have several.
[2:40]And I think we can prevent that
[2:41]if we start looking decades before people expect to get sick
[2:45]because it's already brewing under the surface.
[2:48]And we try to keep biological age
[2:51]as close to 25 to 30 as possible.
[2:53]That would be lovely.
[2:54]I'd love to feel it.
[2:57]Think of the fact you can burn candles at both ends.
[2:59]I remember hearing on one of you,
[3:01]you showed us the today's,
[3:02]you know, was it good morning America
[3:04]were you interviewed about your own life
[3:06]and you had four kids, right?
[3:08]And thinking about that, you know,
[3:10]you need a lot of energy.
[3:11]So that's 25 to 40 to 35.
[3:15]And then after that, we really start
[3:17]declining and it's very evident under the surface.
[3:21]So you start the book from a personal perspective.
[3:24]You decide to become a doctor.
[3:26]Your dad takes you aside and wonders, you know,
[3:29]how he can live healthily, live longer and all that.
[3:33]And you were like, well,
[3:35]I don't think I'm even learning that.
[3:37]Like that's not even what we do.
[3:39]No, I knew I wasn't learning it.
[3:41]No medicine teaches how to react to disease.
[3:43]You present with a chief complaint.
[3:45]That's actually the story you get.
[3:47]unless you go in for an annual exam,
[3:49]most men don't and women are used to gynecologists
[3:51]because of pap smears every year, right?
[3:53]And so when my dad said,
[3:55]he was a health nut and he taught me a lot.
[3:58]He was an athlete.
[4:00]He really loving admire him and wish he was still around.
[4:04]I miss him still.
[4:05]And he's like, well, okay, now tell me how to stay healthy.
[4:09]And I'm like, what?
[4:10]You know, no, we learned about disease.
[4:12]What do you mean health?
[4:14]And it occurred to me then.
[4:15]And later on as I learned and did more and more
[4:18]in my residency and training.
[4:20]And you don't have to look very far nowadays.
[4:22]You can watch Pit and you can see the reality
[4:24]of what health care is today.
[4:26]Cause that's where it starts.
[4:27]So interestingly, you are an identical twin,
[4:30]which I find fascinating because when you're concerned
[4:35]with health effects of so many things,
[4:37]there's a whole nature and nurture discussion
[4:40]on so much of it.
[4:41]And here you have like the perfect science experiment
[4:43]in your own life.
[4:44]That's amazing.
[4:45]I know.
[4:46]And now it's part of it.
[4:47]So I had several epiphanies.
[4:49]Having a twin made me realize an identical twin
[4:52]cause fraternal or they come from different,
[4:54]different egginsperm combination.
[4:56]And they can look alike, but more like sibs.
[5:00]taught me that genetics wasn't the only answer like our DNA to me is a draft
[5:06]can make decisions. We can make small changes like atomic habits for longevity
[5:12]about atomic habits in quotes because it comes from James Clear and we can
[5:18]our future health trajectory. We actually all know this. In fact, just this
[5:23]somebody who said, you know, I know my right eye is a little smaller than my
[5:28]told her is what happens is you can draw a line down your face, your right
[5:32]doesn't match your left side and plus exertions know this because it's the
[5:37]That's why we see people who might have one green eye and one blue eye because
[5:42]expressing this gene that is in them but it's the switches and the way they
[5:47]field called epigenetics which overlies the DNA that means makes you who you
[5:55]I knew that I needed to know more because for example she's an amazing
[6:01]I love fish so my mercury was sky high at one point. I was pretty proud of it
[6:06]I've ever seen and I got it low again but she doesn't have any mercury and
[6:11]testosterone for close to 30 years since I started women's health at Yale once
[6:17]was for osteoporosis and collapsing my spine as I age which would affect your
[6:23]on both sides of my family. My mothers checked my father's Polish. They were
[6:28]and both of them you know we stayed close with the family and unfortunately
[6:35]my name. So I went on testosterone because women mostly don't know this and
[6:39]but testosterone is far more effective at managing bone and maintaining bone
[6:45]Estrogen plays a role but testosterone. So my sister hasn't been on it as long
[6:50]early osteoporosis. I don't. So I can reverse it that's your experiment.
[6:56]Think of that as the end of one. So basically medicine is practiced when
[7:01]and you're in school as one size fits all. They do studies on a chazillion
[7:06]it was mostly men because women change every week right in our reproductive
[7:12]gets average. I mean we call it regression to the mean but one size never fits
[7:18]at average there's a mountain there's averages at the peak but then there's
[7:22]deviations before it three standard deviations beyond it and those people can
[7:29]So I created what I created and it's in the book talking about each unique
[7:34]And you go through and you give us I think seven main categories of rules and
[7:40]you have quizzes in the back and like this is a very user-friendly guide for
[7:47]there are things in the book which yes we know like yes it's important to
[7:55]there are things that like logically we know but somehow when you spell it out
[8:01]science behind it and position it in a new way it can lead to different
[8:07]this is part of the motivation is to encourage different outcomes to some of
[8:14]options that we have for living these days. Here but those same options and
[8:19]and I hope people don't get go on TikTok to learn those options because it's
[8:24]biased by lack of medical knowledge because we're very incredibly complicated
[8:29]And so those typical that knowledge globally we have out there eat right get
[8:35]exercise is kind of meaningless when you drill down and it can be the opposite
[8:40]for example I haven't eaten yet today but my sugar maintains a good level and
[8:45]It's not on purpose I just ran out of time I have a shake with protein in it
[8:51]but I don't have time so but some people can't do that and it's dangerous for
[8:56]And so what I did in the book was pick out what the most critical elements
[9:03]invest in because I believe in baby steps not in a major work do over because
[9:10]stop me and say I'm raising my kids I'm working full-time I'm trying to
[9:14]relationship you know what do I do first and it's like pick one thing where
[9:20]maybe you're not sleeping enough maybe you don't get a quality sleep maybe you
[9:25]with protein pick these simple ways of changing a little bit and those changes
[9:32]and so that's what I did in the book it's based on research so here's what's
[9:36]about this than all the other books in the field of longevity many of which I
[9:41]but they kind of dig deep into a usually one specific area I've looked at the
[9:47]and I look through the lens of N of one being a twin also having this so-
[9:53]I didn't think of it that way but the Silicon Valley people labeled it where
[9:57]all the numbers you may get in a place
[10:00]test. All these biomarkers now that everybody's crazy about and I do hundreds
[10:06]And most of the patients don't have to use insurance. So that's why I wanted
[10:09]I wanted for everybody. I believe health should be owned by each of us. And I
[10:14]your system. I know what diseases are going to show up in you. It's like a
[10:19]And that's why I saw how important it was in our 30s. And so I wanted people
[10:25]and be able to make these small changes that will compound over time. Like a
[10:31]we put a little bit of money in it every month and hope and pray and also
[10:37]So that when we do decide to, we leave daily working life, we have a way to
[10:43]with financial security. Well, I believe health security is even more
[10:48]times you can have all the money in the world and it's not going to keep you
[10:53]an invested in yourself. So that's where I think if people could look at it
[11:00]and understand each of us is not our best friend, even our twin, certainly not
[11:06]exactly. We can pick and choose what will make it the most difference in our
[11:10]So if you have this crystal ball and you can tell, based on, I know you
[11:16]the different tests that we should all get and that they could be quite
[11:20]how aligned do you typically find the physical presentation of a patient with
[11:27]Like, are you often shocked by what you find or do you feel like it usually
[11:33]Well, you ask really critical questions and that's a very good point.
[11:39]It is being, I'm not shocked any longer because I can tell by the story. So
[11:44]it is instead of a chief complaint, the reason I started down this path over
[11:49]because I started women's health at Yale. And I'm not saying that to boast, I
[11:54]believe it took more than 30 years to come to the forefront because I was
[11:59]And what happened was, is that I would see people who look fantastic. They
[12:05]50s, 70s, and they could be pin-ups for GQ. I have a couple I'm even thinking
[12:12]And yet, underneath, the numbers tell a different story. So it's looking at
[12:17]and being able to say to them, as I started with women's health, tell me about
[12:21]I would have a woman who's, I did a lot of research in endometriosis,
[12:25]I help bring peptides to the market for young children with early puberty to
[12:31]It's standard of care now. It's called precocious puberty and in women with
[12:36]and all sorts of reasons and men too. And I would say to them, when they came
[12:41]going through the process, they came back to me for other issues at Yale. They
[12:47]well, tell me how not to get a heart attack. My mother had a heart attack in
[12:51]and the doctor gave a volume because he said it was panic attacks and empty
[12:57]I know she had heart disease and my father lived till his 80s because he had
[13:02]40 something you're always about to have her own babies. And my immediate
[13:06]you know, I really need to know more about you. I can't, I need to know how
[13:11]The choices you make because that feeds the whole essence of who you are and
[13:16]So the answer, the short answer to your question, which I went on and on
[13:22]we have to see the whole picture, but there are specific ways I can now tell
[13:28]to someone like if I asked you a few questions, I could pretty much tell you
[13:33]concerned about and what the numbers would show. And most of the time it's
[13:39]your life tells me the story of how your genes are going to act. And a lot of
[13:45]on family history. But you don't even have to know your family, luckily most
[13:51]can get some kernels of information. But if you don't know your biological
[13:57]very small family, the way you're put together and the way your health story
[14:04]match with the numbers or biomarkers can actually project the path you're on.
[14:11]right? It sounds amazing. I'm already like, how can I get an appointment with
[14:17]could she be my doctor? Well, as I, it's a good question and you may or may
[14:23]this in here, but I have thought about that a lot and how you get the word out
[14:27]an influencer. And I started my own podcast a few years ago right now, it's on
[14:32]actually we have one coming out maybe called healthy longevity. But I mostly
[14:38]and create an entrepreneur because this field of medicine, everyone laughed at
[14:43]and when I presented it as a journal club at Yale to all the departments of
[14:47]gynecology, andrology, and men, adult and children because I had appointments
[14:53]departments and we met every Friday and we discussed it and you bring up new
[14:58]the literature after I was recognized.
[15:00]these trends, a lot of my father being a twin, genetics was coming to bear,
[15:05]and I said, why aren't we starting decades earlier? So I've decided that if I
[15:11]opportunity to work with people in media and people who want to get the word
[15:17]So we can talk about that if you'd like, because I can look at even the
[15:22]gone through and the testing you may have had with your gynecologist or
[15:27]decided to test yourself because so much is out there now. You can do it. I
[15:31]wear an aura or an apple watch or a whoop or do any of that. But it would
[15:37]to me. We could talk about a strategy for that. Oh, fun. Do you wear all those
[15:43]more, like to sleep alone, and I'm a great sleeper. So really wasn't for me
[15:48]My partner isn't. He, we looked for at everything. Neither is one of my two
[15:54]So I go through this with family and friends as well. And I test everything on
[16:00]my training as a clinical investigator at NIH, which followed Yale Medical
[16:06]there, led me to understand that I want to think about things from the inside
[16:13]the first one in my own practice to take a GLP1 21 years ago, by the way. So
[16:18]with celebrities. It was called Bayeta. You took it before you ate. It came to
[16:24]and they would always call on me as an endocrinologist. And because I was open
[16:28]most doctors don't practice new medicine. They stick with what they know when
[16:34]And I realized that I would take it. You had to take it right before a meal,
[16:38]to a great restaurant, and I love lava cake. And I didn't want it. I didn't
[16:43]and I didn't want it in my stomach. It was like, what is this? So I ended up
[16:49]out again because I wanted because it wore off pretty quickly. It wasn't. But
[16:55]I test on a number of people. And I think it's very valuable to understand
[17:01]happen and what is the spectrum of that. And then I get the benefit of working
[17:06]people. So I can extrapolate from that and determine where actually people
[17:12]about all of that stuff if you like. You have a whole chapter, actually, for
[17:18]which I am on, by the way. I'm very open about it and feel it has been life-
[17:23]But I found it life-changing, like what, in what way?
[17:26]Oh my gosh, just like what you were saying about the lava cake, just the
[17:31]food noise has cleared up so much more space in my mind for all the important
[17:35]which they were all crammed in there before, but now they can breathe a little
[17:39]And just like the lack of the swings that come with all of the blood sugar and
[17:47]like the cravings and oh my gosh, I'm just much more stable. I feel much more
[17:53]So this ties back to one of your former questions. But I've even seen
[17:59]food hunger. So all of that that Oprah talked about, like right after, she's
[18:04]And doctors have a hard time believing sometimes what a patient is living, how
[18:10]their own body. I go beyond it because I do believe I just want to pick it
[18:16]satially curious. That's what I love reading to. In fact, books are my go-to
[18:22]enough, I feel like I know I'm working too hard. I have to know. I love books.
[18:27]a big admirer of what you do. And the problem is that it's actually associated
[18:35]than just feeling this food noise. And I wrote an op-ed piece for that in the
[18:40]in November, where I talk about the fact that our cravings and sugar and what
[18:46]technique that we all needed. Our ancestors needed it to survive the Holocaust
[18:53]in order to be have the genes we have. It had to survive in a population in a
[18:58]wasn't enough food. So if somebody couldn't put down food during good times,
[19:04]during. So we don't have those genes. We have genes that make us cray food.
[19:09]We're not sleeping enough. All of those combine and converge to make it
[19:17]especially as hormones decline in our 30s, particularly testosterone,
[19:22]because we have so little of it, but no one recognizes it. It's actually off
[19:26]prescribe it 30 years after I started taking it. And so it's that factor that
[19:33]of that population can handle the food noise and has food noise. It's a
[19:39]But dealing with it means that thankfully these GLP ones have made a huge
[19:44]They're, to me, like the antibiotics of the 21st of the 20th century. And
[19:50]us alive longer, by the way, is antibiotics that made a difference in
[19:56]can't answer this because it's not a one-size-fits-all.
[20:00]thing and everybody needs to do.
[20:01]It's right for their body.
[20:02]But if there was one thing,
[20:05]let's say lots of different people
[20:06]with different health profiles listening,
[20:09]is there one thing that you would say,
[20:11]this is gonna be good for everybody?
[20:14]Is it get more sleep, drink more water?
[20:16]Like what is like,
[20:17]Oh, let me start with the top thing,
[20:19]but I'll give you three things.
[20:20]And the reason I'll give you three things
[20:21]is it isn't one size fits all
[20:23]and everybody should see themselves reflected that way.
[20:26]And that's the way the book was written.
[20:27]And you can pick chapters that are meaningful to you.
[20:31]So first to sleep, sleep is the non-negotiable.
[20:33]I'll use myself again as an example.
[20:36]So I went through something called TPE,
[20:38]which is therapeutic plasma exchange.
[20:40]And it washes your plasma of senescent cells,
[20:44]which are called zombie cells,
[20:45]because they damage other cells.
[20:46]And I look for that in people by measuring,
[20:49]we all know everyone is COVID,
[20:51]so it's almost everyone has it by now
[20:53]or had the vaccine,
[20:55]which has the positive spikes and damages us.
[20:57]Side and Miguel virus, Epstein bar, mono.
[21:01]All of that creates these cells
[21:02]that bother our meeting system
[21:04]and we have to get rid of them.
[21:05]I did that for a six month period every month.
[21:08]The first three months,
[21:09]I was getting my usual six to eight hours
[21:11]and then on the weekends,
[21:12]I would sleep more, luckily sleep for me.
[21:14]I can do it, I love it.
[21:16]I slept through a hurricane once as an intern
[21:18]and it didn't wake me up.
[21:20]And people were evacuating.
[21:21]But I felt great.
[21:23]And after three months,
[21:24]my biological age reversed by 15 years.
[21:27]And then I went the next three months.
[21:29]And this was back in 2021.
[21:31]So the next, and it was the end of the year.
[21:33]So it was like June to December.
[21:35]The next three months, I slept three to four hours a night.
[21:37]And because I get good deep sleep,
[21:40]I default to deep sleep,
[21:41]even if I only sleep four hours,
[21:42]I'll get an hour or more deep sleep.
[21:45]It rebounded to being even higher than it was before.
[21:49]Despite the therapeutic plasma exchange treatment.
[21:52]So it wasn't the first reason I put sleep
[21:55]at the top of the list.
[21:57]It used to be actually exercise, food, sleep,
[22:00]but I completely flipped it.
[22:02]And so getting quality sleep is number one
[22:05]and making sure it's not just quantity
[22:07]because you can sleep 14 hours is one of my sons.
[22:11]But he gets very little deep sleep
[22:12]and he doesn't feel good.
[22:13]I can tell his mood based on how much he slept.
[22:16]Like I'll say to him,
[22:16]he was nice to me a couple of weeks ago.
[22:19]I'm so nice.
[22:20]Niceer than usual at a baseball game.
[22:22]And I said usually he's a little grumpy.
[22:24]Usually I'm not naming you what's done.
[22:26]I'll heal now though.
[22:27]And I said he must have gotten a lot of deep sleep last night.
[22:30]He said I didn't look
[22:31]because I don't want to look at the numbers
[22:32]because we all talk about it in the fountain
[22:34]because everybody uses it now
[22:35]and they all come in here.
[22:37]And he looked at it today afterwards.
[22:39]He said, I got like an hour and a half.
[22:41]You were right.
[22:42]I said, yeah, I know you were really nice to me.
[22:44]So he was like, he felt a little bad.
[22:46]So it's true for everybody.
[22:47]So it's quality sleep.
[22:48]And some of us kind of divert to deep sleep,
[22:53]but many others divert to REM sleep.
[22:56]And REM sleep is that rapid eye movement creative,
[22:58]which is really important too.
[23:00]So you don't want to lose that.
[23:01]And quality sleep means you're getting the right kind
[23:05]of makeup in your sleep.
[23:06]Because we wash our brains as we sleep.
[23:09]There's a glymphatic system that washes periodically
[23:12]and gets rid of metabolic waste
[23:13]and actually reduces your risk of all chronic diseases
[23:16]of aging.
[23:17]But for those folks, where sleep is fine
[23:19]and non-negotiable, protein before they eat, any meal.
[23:24]Because it releases sugar and insulin in the right combination
[23:28]if you start with protein.
[23:29]A banana and a brand muffin is pure carbs.
[23:32]Your sugar is going to crash within an hour or so.
[23:35]Your insulin is going to be high
[23:36]and you're going to feel jittery and need that donut
[23:38]and coffee, not good, right, at 10 o'clock.
[23:41]And the last thing is exercise.
[23:42]And if you're going to exercise, trying to do resistance,
[23:46]exercise, strength, training gets more and more important
[23:49]because you want to sustain muscle.
[23:51]Those are all things people can do by themselves.
[23:54]There's help that's needed
[23:55]because if you need hormones, which I believe most people do,
[24:00]then testosterone is key
[24:02]because that will help you put on muscle.
[24:04]And I know that's a very long answer, so I apologize.
[24:06]I loved it.
[24:07]That was great.
[24:08]No, this is fabulous.
[24:09]I'm learning so much.
[24:10]It's really great.
[24:12]It's like you can read a million articles
[24:14]but once you land on a book with a lot of great information
[24:19]it just changes the way you think about everything.
[24:21]And I just wanted to follow up
[24:23]on what you were saying about reading.
[24:24]What do you love to read?
[24:26]Like, are you a fiction reader?
[24:27]Do you read nonfiction?
[24:27]I love almost everything.
[24:30]Like, nonfiction, I love fictionalized history.
[24:33]I like magical and mystical books
[24:36]because I feel like I enter a new dimension
[24:38]because I always feel like I've lived in the future.
[24:41]I prefer the Jetsons, for example,
[24:43]more than the Flintstones, so I'll read just about anything.
[24:47]And sometimes I want to read in the areas
[24:50]that don't even have no relationship to the life I live
[24:55]but it gives me ideas about what I could do.
[24:58]What I could do differently and how I could...
[25:00]and books are magical to me because you disappear in them
[25:04]and you're in a whole new space.
[25:05]I give, if you ask me what my favorite thing
[25:07]and I'm an athlete, I do work out, I do sports,
[25:10]I grew up with my father who loved all of that
[25:13]and taught us from pool to basketball,
[25:15]to skiing, to ice skating.
[25:17]But I'll pick a book every time and sit on a couch.
[25:20]A lot of people are surprised
[25:21]because they think I'm extroverted.
[25:23]I'm actually not that extroverted.
[25:24]I've had to be in this business
[25:27]because I have to teach what I do
[25:28]for the first 20 years.
[25:29]Nobody ever heard about longevity, precision medicine
[25:33]and how you can be healthy proactively
[25:35]instead of waiting for disease to strike.
[25:37]So I had to always explain to people what it meant.
[25:40]And it was hard because there was no like,
[25:43]I didn't have to mark it because the results spoke for itself.
[25:46]So I got referrals all the time.
[25:49]And that's not a good thing.
[25:49]I wish I had learned how to market.
[25:51]I think it's a trait you want to have
[25:53]but I didn't, I was hit in a way and lucky.
[25:56]I'm grateful for everything I was able
[25:58]to learn in my life and that comes from books.
[26:01]Wow, love that.
[26:02]Well, Dr. Comite, thank you so much
[26:04]for sharing all of your wisdom
[26:06]and for using your limited time to help other people
[26:11]in addition to your medical practice
[26:13]and everything else that you do.
[26:14]So no small feat, congratulations.
[26:16]Thank you so much.
[26:17]And I hope to see you in here.
[26:18]And we can talk more about whether it's GOP ones
[26:22]or what is in your future and see what's possible.
[26:25]Sounds good.
[26:26]Thank you.
[26:27]Great rest of the day.
[26:28]Okay, you do, though, like.
[26:29]Thank you for listening to totally booked with Zibi
[26:32]formerly momstone have time to read books.
[26:34]If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review,
[26:38]follow me on Instagram at Zibi Owens
[26:40]and spread the word.
[26:42]Thanks so much.
[26:43]Oh, and buy the books.