mTOR: My Notes from “The CEO of Aging” video

Oct 12, 2021

Last night I watched an 82 minute video about The CEO of Aging, with Dr Ron Rosedale. I’ve known about the mTOR pathway for a few years (from Dr. Mercola’s articles), but I’ve never really understood what it is all about. So I was excited to see this video, tho I was a bit disappointed at the high speed of the conversation between Dr Ron and Stefan Apostolov (host,) which made it hard to keep up while taking notes.

mTOR stands for “mammalian Target of Rapamycin;” it is a protein that controls cell growth and metabolism in response to nutrients, growth factors, cellular energy, and stress. The mTOR gene provides the instructions to make the mTOR protein.

“The mTOR pathway is a central regulator of mammalian metabolism and physiology.”

• See also: 1. Diet and Health Menu;
• Other sites: 1. Wikipedia (1); 2. About mTOR: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19100909/; 3. For its effects on aging, see mTOR in aging, metabolism, and cancer; 4. Replay link for the CEO of Aging video: zonia.com/masterclass-replay  

The CEO of Aging: mTOR

Cat’s note, 10/12/21: These are my notes from the 90 min-video; however both speakers spoke fast and didn’t rest between statements, so it was hard for me to write down everything they said. In the text below, you will see some “sorry…” text in red. I will try to catch the missed info when I watch the video again…

1. Aging is not primarily controlled by genetics
2. Metabolic Health: The younger we start aging, the earlier we die. Replicating cells too frequently leads to disease.
   1. Hormones: Leptin and Insulin:
   2. Leptin – hunger hormone; feeling of hunger and how we burn energy
3. Insulin – stores excess sugar for when needed. Insulin resistance leads to type-2 diabetes.
4. Cellular Repair: how does our ability to repair cells decrease over time?
5. Chronic diseases of aging:
   1. Weakeing of immune system
   2. Gut bacteria (microbiome of the gut) changes
6. 5 Biggest Myths:
   1. Confusing symptoms with disease [many doctors prescribe meds that treat the symptoms rather than the disease; this can cause the disease to go deeper in the body and get worse].
   2. Cholesterol causes heart disease [sorry, I wasn’t able to get the actual cause because he moved on to the next item too quickly].
   3. Diabetes is a disease of blood sugar [Rather, Type-1 diabetes is a disease of the pancreas, causing it to not produce enough or any insulin; Type-2 diabetes is caused by insulin receptors not responding to insulin]
   4. Osteoporosis is due to lack of calcium [Rather, there’s a connection between calcium and _?_; sorry, I wan’t able to get the rest of that because he moved on to the next item too quickly]
   5. Obesity results from too much dietary fat [Rather, it’s more important to be able to burn fat – the cells need that energy. That is, the proportion of fat vs sugar to burn is most important.]
7. Neurogenerative Illness:
   1. Alzheimer’s disease = type 3 diabetes
   2. Autophagy: damaged molecules are detected and recycled
8. Slow down aging – by what we eat. (more later).
9. 3 Biggest Breakthroughs
   1. Calorie restriction – fasting
   2. _ gene mutation extends life; keep insulin levels low.   sorry, I didn’t get the name of the gene – I couldn’t keep up with how fast he went through these topics.
   3. mTOR (mammalian Target of Rapamycin) is the CEO of Aging; it is a metabolic switch. It decides what to do: replicate cells or repair cells. [Repair is more important]. mTOR decides when to regenerate vs repair to extend life-span.
   4. Best to keep leptin, insulin and mTOR levels low, to extend lifetime.
10. More about mTOR
    1. Protein intake is important for mTOR
11.  How to measure level of mTOR in body?  – yes – maybe
    1. Increase in TOR induces fatty liver and insulin resistance
    2. sorry, didn’t get this one
    3. Increase in TOR negatively affects pancreas cells
    4. Look mTOR reduces inflammation of cardio-vascular tissues
    5. You WANT LOW mTOR
12. mTOR and Cancer: many cancers respond to lowering mTOR
13. Building blocks to keep mTOR low: the ketogenic diet:
    1. Low carb intake
    2. Moderat protein intake
    3. Higher fat intake
14. Health depends on burning fat – seeking ketogenesis.
15. How much protein does your body need per day to keep mTOR low? [he didn’t discuss this but referred his audience to later in the video]
16. No matter your age/health, you can always repair and rebuild health [if you keep mTOR low].
17. You can buy his “Aging Gracefully Course” led by Ddr. Ron. It contains 4 modules; you follow 1 per day for 4 days.
18. Lessons also available in pdf format modules:
    1. #1: Get Started Guide
    2. #2: Inhibit mTOR and hormonal… [didn’t get missing word] and more; including brain issues [like Alzheimer’s]
    3. #3: What causes cellular regeneration vs degeneration
    4. #4: Control the brakes for aging: foods, supplements, etc. And calculate amount of protein needed for your body.
    5. #5: Lifestyle pillars of aging.
    6. #6: Implementation – habits
19. Aging Gracefully course: cost #497 but get 50% off if buy now ($247)
20. 5 Tips:
    1. Fats and oils do not raise mTOR (so if you want to keep mTOR low, eat primarily foods that contain good fats line Omega 3, Coconut oil, MCT oil, etc..
    2. Restrict protein, and eat only good sources. Plant-based protein is best, such as nuts and sprouted beans, etc.. Keep animal-based protein amounts low
    3. Limit intake of sugar and starches (in various forms). Also limit high-sugary fruit like dates and watermelon.
    4. Minimize stress
    5. Take care of gut microbiota: feed them prebiotics.

References:

1. Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTOR