Liz Earle: How to Age Backwards (Light, Water, and Mitochondria for Women in Midlife) opens a useful window into environmental basics for women in midlife. The conversation is not a shortcut or a spectacle. It is a reminder that healthspan is built through signals the body can understand and repeat.
You look at least 20 years younger than your age. What are you doing differently in your 60s that most women miss? It's sky [music] before screen. Don't look at your phone until you've looked outside and seen some daylight. We will look back at this time and our lack of sun exposure as being [music] as damaging to our health as smoking. If we're wearing sunscreen, can we still synthesize [music] vitamin D? There's a long answer to that question. One of the things you speak about is water. Tap water is a bit like ultra-processed food. I put electrolytes in my water, rock resin from the Himalayas. Do you put it in coffee? I do. Yeah. When you put minerals in your water, feel [music] like it really wakes up your brain. Yeah, definitely. You can feel that sort of electrical charge. We are electrical beings. Drink a bit [music] more water, maybe with a pinch of salt. It really is that simple and is fundamentally going to change how you age. Liz, we had breakfast a couple of weeks ago for your book launch. And the thing that really struck me is you look at least 20 years younger than your age. Your [laughter] Your biological age is also over 20 years younger. What are you doing differently in your 60s that most women miss? Oh, my gosh. Well, thank you for saying. Um, I think really for me it was understanding my biology better and really unraveling things that I'd never heard before. You know, I've been writing about wellness for nearly 40 years. And when I discovered things like circadian rhythm and my relationship with daylight, it that just kind of made all the difference. And I think it's, you know, you talk about mitochondria and how our cells are working and and, you know, when we understand that, our biology just follows suit. It kind of becomes almost automatic. I think because my earlier book, A Better Second Half, was this kind of manifesto for midlife women and that covered off a lot of the basics, things that we all know about. You know, we all know that we need to be eating more protein as we age. It's really good to lift some weights, do some resistance training, to prioritize our sleep, you know, sort out our hormone health. you know, those are all kind of the pillars that are non-negotiable.
that are non-negotiable. But I think what really moved the dial for me was understanding the relationship with circadian rhythm and and daylight, which is so simple, isn't it? But I'd never heard it before. It is so simple, but yet there's so many kind of facets to it as well with artificial lighting that we're going to um dive into. When you talk about circadian rhythm, this is like at this time of year, I don't know about you, but I just feel really upbeat because we're coming into, you know, summer's ahead of us. It's getting lighter and lighter. But in the UK, it's actually quite difficult, isn't it? Because if I was going to follow my circadian rhythm in the UK, I'd be up at 8: 00 a. m. in sort of December and then 4: 00 a. m. in July. How do you master this across the year? Well, I think it's about being balanced and and kind of doing the best you you can without being obsessive. So, but that you know, you're right. That is one of the reasons why we have high rates of seasonal affective disorder in the winter because we don't get that daylight. We don't get that early morning shot of uh of near infrared and and the kind of the the real wavelengths that we need to to produce all our happy chemicals, our dopamine for example. So, I think you have to do what you can. I'm not an early bird. I'm not looking forward to the summer months when the sun is up at like 4: 30. I really struggle with that. I mean, I'm if I'm really honest with you, I struggle with kind of 6: 30, let alone 4: 30. So, I don't think you have to be up with the sun. If you want to are an early bird and you're able to, then that's great. You're absolutely winning. But for me, it's about getting up as early as I can, as early as works with my schedule, and the first thing seeing daylight. So, that is the most important thing. Within the first well, ideally within the first of 10, 15 minutes of waking up, seeing some daylight. Now, if you can get outside, that's brilliant. If you can't, just open a window. You You I have a window in my bathroom and and I brush my teeth in front of an open window, whatever the weather, whatever the the time of year, because it is those early morning light signals going into our eyes, going into
signals going into our eyes, going into the retinal cells in our eyes, that start to trigger all sorts of inflammatory chemicals, the hormone cascade, the production of cortisol, and later chemicals like dopamine, for example, and setting up melatonin for later in the day. So, it's that early morning, and I think just try and do it within your routine, but but do get some daylight. You know, make sure I have the saying at home, it's sky before screen. Too many of us wake up with our phones, don't we? And I I you know, I say in the book, please don't do that. Just get an old-fashioned alarm clock, or little digital alarm clock that doesn't tick, so it doesn't keep you awake, and wake up with that, if you need an alarm, because otherwise we get drawn in, we get drawn into that blue light on the screen, and before we know it, we're answering emails, we're checking messages, we're scrolling news feeds, before we've even had a chance to wake up properly and think about the day. So, if you just remember, don't look at your phone until you've looked outside and seen some daylight. I love that. It's such a simple thing to do in your morning. What's special about the light around sunrise and sunset, if we can see it? Well, light is not one thing. It changes. So, for a start, it has so many different wavelengths. You've got lots and lots of different colors that are all invisible that we can't see. You've got the visible spectrum, then you've got the invisible spectrum, and we all know enough a little bit about red LED light, cuz we've seen it in face masks, and and the effect that that can have on the skin, because it's penetrating the skin and having a biological effect on our cells. So, there are all sorts of other wavelengths as well, along with the red wavelength, you've got blue, cyan, purple, yellow, green, orange, and they're all having different signals, different messaging to ourselves. And in addition to the near infrared, you've also got the mid infrared and the far infrared. So, you've got all these different light waves. And then of course you've got UV. Then you've got UVA and UVB. You know, most people I
UVA and UVB. You know, most people I think when they think about sunlight, they're just told, "Oh, it's UVA which is aging and UVB which is burning. End of story." Well, oh my gosh, it is so much more complex than that. You know, I've I've interviewed a lot of photobiologists and neuroscientists who are specifically working on light and really understanding that we are creatures of light. We we evolved under sunlight. You know, the sun is the giver of all life for everything on this planet including us. And we wouldn't be here if we hadn't had the action of sunlight on our mitochondria when we were early man just kind of beginning beginning to walk the earth. So, it is fundamental for us. We are programmed to respond to light. We're programmed essentially to get up with daylight and go to bed when it gets dark. That is the circadian rhythm. That is that 24 hour that we were designed to follow. So, very first thing before the sun even comes up over the horizon and you get that kind of pre-dawn glow, that's when we're getting these near infrared and far infrared light signals. There's no UV. So, that's why I say don't wear sunscreen first thing. There wasn't any UV to protect us from. So, I think that's you know, a lot of people don't really understand that. They don't really understand the full complexity of of light. So, first thing in the morning you've got these early near infrared signals that are talking to our the mitochondria in our eyeballs that are programming our cells to do all sorts of things. First thing it does is it spikes a little bit of cortisol. Cortisol gets a bad rap as a stress hormone, but we need a little bit. We need a bit to get us out of bed. Otherwise, we just kind of lie there and in a stupor. So, you need a little bit of that stress hormone. And then all the other hormones start to to cascade from that. So then a little bit later on, then we get UVA. That That's the first UV to to appear. And UVA, interestingly, has been found to have, believe it or not, benefits for the skin. Who knew? So again, you'd think, "Well,
Who knew? So again, you'd think, "Well, why why do we get UVA if it's so bad for us?" Well, it's there for a reason. And there's a really interesting scientist called Professor Richard Weller, and he is the chair of clinical dermatology in Edinburgh Edinburgh University. And you'd think that kind of a a medical dermatologist would not be advocating going out and exposing yourself to UVA, but that's exactly what his research team and he are talking about. Obviously measured, you're not going to damage the skin, but what he discovered was that UVA triggers the production of nitric oxide through the skin. And nitric oxide is very potent. It's very helpful for helping to prevent cardiovascular disease. It helps with the flexibility and pliability of our arteries. And you people take it as a supplement. You know, they go and buy nitric oxide. Well, actually, if you go out in the morning, you're going to get nitric oxide free. And so that's UVA. Then later on, you get UVB. We don't get UVB till later in the day. So again, there's no reason to screen for UVB cuz it's not there. We tend to get it around, depends on the time of year, but it might be 10, 11, something like that. And it's not there in the winter. Now, UVB is really important because it makes vitamin D. And there's this real kind of uh acknowledgement that we are in the UK very deficient of vitamin D. And the reason for that is we're deprived of UVB sunlight. So UVB is synthesized through the skin. And UVB is really important for that. Vitamin D is not actually a real vitamin. It acts more like a hormone. It has many many biological impacts and uses. And it's involved in our immune system, it's involved in um metabolism, insulin regulation. It's been linked with bone health and brain health. I mean, you name it, vitamin D is is really crucial. And I hope everybody listening is supplementing with it because that's really important. But of course, we get it free from UVB. So, these UV wave wavelengths are around sort of in the middle of the day, and then they tail
middle of the day, and then they tail off. So, you talk about sunset. So, that again is a key time to get outside because by the time the sun is going down, we've lost the UVA, we've lost the UVB, and what is left are these mid, near, far infrared wavelengths, again, which talk to the skin, which talk to our cells, and they are setting up melatonin so that we sleep better in the evening. That's our lovely sleep hormone. They're calming the body, they're reducing stress, and they're preparing us for a good night's sleep. So, at the very least, if you can get a little bit of daylight beginning and the end of the day, either outside or open a window, you know, when the sun is setting, try and get outside. That's your cue to actually go out and and get some of the benefit of these lights, which we can get for free. I mean, that's the amazing thing. It's free and it's easy. Yeah, we don't have to go and buy red light panels to do it. It's interesting what you say there because when I started focusing on light, and I really thought, you know, in the winter months when it's very short light exposure, if I could get outside and go out with my dogs, you know, just for a short walk couple of times a day. So, even going out before the school run at 3: 30, 4: 00 as the sun starting to set in November, even just little things like that, I felt markedly better during the winter. Um you were talking there about the um vitamin D. If we're wearing sunscreen, can we still synthesize vitamin D? That there's a long answer to that question. The short answer is no. Uh the long answer is much more nuanced. It depends. If you are wearing your sunscreen properly, which very few of us do, bear in mind that it needs to be applied very thickly, and it needs to be applied absolutely to totally cover the skin. Now, most of us don't do that. Most of us, if we're using it, we'll put it on a thin layer, we'll miss bits. So, when people say, "Yes, you get vitamin D from the sun when you're using sunscreen." Yeah, because you're not using your sunscreen properly. You're actually allowing some of that that UVB to come through the
of that that UVB to come through the skin. But, when you look at the clinical tests in the labs where they're applying it properly, then no, because it's designed to block it. And And if it If it's not blocking it, then it's not working. So, you know, for me, it's And I I talk a lot in the book about safe sun exposure. You know, I have a beauty background. I am very interested and highly invested as a woman with fair skin, aging, not to age and damage my skin. Okay, that is absolutely priority. But, I think in the whole public health messaging, we we've taken it too far and too extreme, and we've lost sight of actually the goodness of sunshine and daylight. And we've become too frightened of it, and and it's we've become the messaging is is far too broad. So, for example, I talk about a public health campaign on the London Underground, and there's a a clinical dermatologist actually who I've I spoke to at length for the book, and she writes papers on skin cancer. She's a a serious expert, very highly published. And she really took issue with this campaign because it was run on London Underground in the winter, and it was talking about the importance of wearing SPF 50. And she was saying, "It's ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous because people leave home before the sun comes up. They're traveling underground, cuz that's where these posters are. They're They're then walking into their office. They're indoors, cuz it's cold, and they're going to stay indoors for most of the day. And then they walk back to the tube, and they go home again, and it's dark cuz obviously in the winter time it's dark by about 4: 00. Tell me why you'd need to block your skin with a sunscreen. There is no sun. So, I think we need to be much cleverer about where we use sunscreen. It's judicious use of it. Obviously, if you're fair-skinned and you're out in the middle of the day with strong sun exposure, you do not want to burn your skin, and you need to protect it. For me personally, I prefer to cover my skin. I prefer to cover it with clothing, with a hat, sit in the shade, or whatever. Um
hat, sit in the shade, or whatever. Um but that's my personal choice. Other people might want to use a sunscreen. I think we also have to understand that there are hidden consequences that are only just being discovered now about some of the synthetic sunscreens. For example, there's this connection between the skin's microbiome and our immune cell modulating. They talk to each other that the skin cell um the skin's microbiome has a direct relationship of communication with the rest of the body. The skin is actually an organ of light reception. This is what we're just beginning to understand that the skin has light receptors on it for reasons. They're signaling. It's not just blocking and keeping our insides intact. The skin is actually doing something active in the light. And if we disrupt those signals, there is potential to disrupt how our immune system might function. This is something that the scientists are looking at. There's also the issue of skin sensitivity and the dermatologists seeing increasing numbers of rosacea, psoriasis, inflammatory skin conditions, perioral dermatitis, for example, because of overloading the skin with unnecessary ingredients. So, I'm not anti-SPF at all. I'm just saying be careful and mindful of the type that you use and when you use it. Mhm. Yeah, for sure. And also, I suppose like some them contain toxins, right? And things that you don't want absorbed into your skin as well. You talk about preparing the skin, which is kind of a new area as well of science in terms of going out in the morning light, which I guess we would have done ancestrally, right? We would have been awake around sunrise. What can we do to kind of prepare our skin, especially now we're sort of recording this in May in anticipation of summer? Well, the the people who work with quantum biology and circadian biology and who are very much in favor of getting a lot of sunlight also do not want anybody to be damaging their skin. So, it's about adapting the skin. And, you know, the worst thing that we can do is stay indoors all year and then rush
is stay indoors all year and then rush out for 2-week summer beach holiday and fry ourselves on the beach and we wonder why we go red and we burn. That's because our skin has not got used to the sunlight. We haven't adapted to it. So, this is a a good time of year if you want to get some gentle adaptation by going out early in the day when the UV is low and the UV index generally is lower at this time of year. And just getting 5, 10 minutes, just building up gradually that sun exposure. And then your skin does become acclimatized. It does thicken slightly, which is good. That's what you want it to do. That's what things like retinols do. Makes the skin stronger. It's producing more collagen. And interestingly, some of those early morning light signals are also talking to fibroblasts in the skin. Fibroblasts are the cells that are making collagen and elastin. So, I don't know if you take collagen supplements, I do, but actually by going out in early morning light, I'm telling my body to make more collagen. So, it's preparing the skin. And you're right, you know, when we look historically we were getting up with the dawn and we were going out and working in the fields or hunting and gathering or whatever. And so, our skin was being primed for what we knew would come later in the day, which is stronger sunlight. So, it stands to reason that we the skin starts to make those anti-inflammatory protective chemicals. It starts to produce nitric oxide. It starts to create the fibroblast setting up for more collagen and elastin because the nerve we know that we're going to need it later on in the day. Now, if we miss that early signaling and we go out straight later in the day, our skin has not been prepared for that. It's not ready to receive the stronger wavelengths of light. And actually, when you look at things like pigmentation, that really comes from the disruption of melanin forming into clumps and clusters because the skin hasn't adapted properly. So, if you can adapt your skin properly, then you're going to see far less sign of damage. If you're getting value from this show, the single best thing you can
this show, the single best thing you can do to help us keep bringing you the highest caliber guest is to subscribe or follow wherever you listen or watch. It takes 10 seconds, but it genuinely makes a difference to the quality of the guest we bring you week after week. Super interesting. So, just by kind of timing this effectively, we can enhance, as you say, things like collagen and elastin production. Uh we can protect our skin effectively. We can optimize for vitamin D. We can optimize our sleep and wake cycle. Uh it's just amazing the effects on light. Isn't it? I mean, who knew this? You know, that I mean, this is going to become commonplace. You know, that this this book, I have to say, is, you know, it might may seem a bit out there right now, but I think a lot of things do seem weird and extraordinary until they become mainstream. And then it's just like, "Oh, yeah. No, we know. Of course we need some sunlight. Of course we know, you know, we mustn't go and smother ourselves in in sun cream first thing in the morning before we've actually had the chance to to get some of the goodness." You know, that it is going to become a just a a commonplace everyday acceptance. And again, quoting Richard Weller, that this professor, he says that he thinks that we will look back at this time and our lack of sun exposure as being as damaging to our health as smoking. I mean that is a pretty bold statement for for a clinician for a medical clinician to say. So and again it's about balance, isn't it? It's just and and I think it's a very nuanced discussion and I'm really keen for people to read about this and understand it and there's there's huge sections actually in the book about this cuz I knew that it would be such a hot topic and I thought I'm not just going to glance over this because it's important to fully understand it and and the book is fully referenced. The the back section is packed with clinical studies and references and quoting medics who who support this because I really want it to be taken seriously cuz it's so valuable. It's free and it's valuable. It is. I love the way you've backed it all up with science. It's kind of like a return to nature, isn't it? That we inherently knew. We I mean the sun has
inherently knew. We I mean the sun has to be good for us in a way otherwise why do we have it? And it gives so much energy to plants, to everything, every life form. Can't survive without it. No, exactly. have to respect it. You know, the sun is in a way it's neither friend nor foe. It's it's a superpower and and you know, it's it's very careful use of it. But in the old days they used to use heliotherapy. They used to have hospitals were built with sun terraces and and patients were wheeled out on these you know, cast iron beds with wheels to get sunlight because they knew that it speeded up their recovery time. What if nine blood markers could predict how fast you're aging and you could change it? Research shows for [music] every extra year of biological age mortality risk increases 9%. Stride [music] tests the exact biomarkers that predict longevity plus your DNA and microbiome [music] so you know what to change through diet, movement and sleep. I'm testing [music] myself and my family. Get 10% off at getstride. com / Angela or check the link in the description below. Yeah, for sure. I remember seeing like photos of that actually. Or I don't know if they're photos or drawings but they came up on my social media account of these kind of, yeah, sort of terraces with lots of hospital beds on them. [snorts] Yeah. And then again, you know, you have to say, well, because all light outdoors um can be very beneficial, what happens when we come indoors? Cuz the light then is very different. Yes, which I wanted to move to next cuz [laughter] I was hoping you would. some lights here as we're recording, as you do. But I'm very aware that, you know, I remember when all the lights started being changed, right, for LED. And actually just feels incredibly harsh than a full spectrum light bulb. I think you have [clears throat] changed a lot of things in your home since this. Tell Tell us what we need to know about indoor lighting. So, indoor lighting, I'm afraid, is the kind of the junk food equivalent uh of what we're absorbing. And it is a single especially LED um that that it's a short wave blue
LED um that that it's a short wave blue light. And when we think about our mitochondria, these little organelles in our cells that give us our energy, our mitochondria love broad spectrum light. They they are super happy. They are gleeful when we're outdoors and they receive all this broad spectrum input. When we come indoors, we're only feeding them with a short wave blue light and they really don't like it. They go into massive decline. And potentially, that's why some people feel so much worse when they're working indoors all the time because they're sitting under LED lights. Now, there is a bit of good news. You don't have to redo all your lighting and I was pleased to discover this cuz my kitchen is just full of LED downlighters like like most people, I guess. There's a guy called Professor Glenn Jeffrey and he's a professor of neuroscience and ophthalmology. [clears throat] He's based at UCL and also at Moorfields and he works a lot with the eyes and with light. And what he discovered is that, yes, short wave blue LED lighting is damaging to our mitochondria. It has a significant health impact. He'd like to see it taken out of hospitals, for example, for sure, schools, all of those care homes, all those facilities where people need especially to grow and develop and be well. But he discovered that if you just put one or two of the old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs into your home, you can help your mitochondria. So, you are going to give your mitochondria, you're going to feed your mitochondria with a little bit of that that broad spectrum light that they love so much. So, for example, I'm sitting here. I have a desk lamp with an old-fashioned light bulb. I just bought it online and you know, it was like £ 1. 50. It's not expensive. And uh and I have that sitting on my desk and it balances the blue light that I'm getting from my screens and my overhead lighting. And you can do that in your kitchen. You can have a um you know, you can have a couple of lamps that you just plug in and you use those in the evening instead of your bright downlighters. You can put one beside the bed. You can have one even if you work in an office that's brightly lit, you can take in a light.
brightly lit, you can take in a light. And I was funny, I I did um a radio interview with Jo Good in BBC London and I was in the studios and she was really beginning to panic. She said, "I I spend most of my day in the studio. I can't get out. There's no daylight. I can't open a window cuz that's obviously the other option that you can let in a bit of broad spectrum light by opening a window." But many of these offices you know, are sort of hermetically sealed and we can't do that. So, I said, "Listen, Jo, just bring in a lamp and and plug it in." And she said, "Ooh, you know, BBC health and safety they're not going to like it." And I said, "Well, just maybe have a really small one that nobody can see and you can just plug it in, you know, and just benefit from that." And if you really can't do that, take daylight breaks. You know, go go and get a little bit of daylight whenever you can. You know, if you're going to nip to the loo, just kind of pop your head outside at the same time. Or if you take your tea break, you know, take a cup and and just have it outside whenever you can. And if you're lucky enough to be in near a window, presumably opening the window will also balance some of the LED. Yeah. and this is something that I learned actually also is that light isn't linear, you know, it won't just come in a straight line through that crack. It will come in and it will bounce around wherever you are. And also something that I do when I'm driving and if I'm driving long distances is I just crack open the window a little bit or if I'm traveling in a car, I just say, you know, do you mind if I just open the window fraction? Because I know that that light will come in and it will bounce around and it will benefit my cells. So, you know, tiny like this can make a massive difference to how you feel. I'm really interested Angela that you say that, you know, when you were dog walking in the winter even just that kind of little bit of light snacking, if you like, is going to make you feel better. It's going to lift your mood and it's going to help strengthen your immune system as well. Yeah, hugely. I noticed a big difference and like you were saying opening the window in the car. Yeah. If my kids allow me, when they do, right? I'm like I have the window open because they need their morning light. Oh my gosh, they really do and I say that to my boys now, you know, please, you know, get out sky before
please, you know, get out sky before screens. Yes, I know you're going to want to start scrolling the minute you wake up, but please just open the window or step foot outside before you do that. Even if you can just give me 5 minutes, I know that I'm going to help you feel better for the rest of the day. I think that's what you do so well in in this book is to make it easy. Like I love that sky before screens and having a lamp on your desk or just cracking open the window. Yeah. In your car. Yeah, just rather than sort of sitting and worrying about it and thinking I haven't got it perfectly right. None of us do, you know, none of us, you know, and I actually am a great believer in the 80 / 20 rule. 80% of the time I'm I'm pretty good, you know, with my routines and what I'm eating and my sleep and all the rest of it. 20% of the time I mean, it's tequila and cake, you know, that's that's kind of how you got to live in balance, haven't you? Life is for living. You can't be a puritanical about everything. 100%. One of the things that you speak about and light comes into this as well is water. The the section on water is really fascinating to me. Um, I think if we start simply, let's talk about uh filtering and then move through because some of the things that you included about water and just the way it affects our energy are just really really interesting. So, water again it it is a superpower. If you look back ancestrally to what we evolved with, light and water were two of the key inputs. But, our water back then was very different. It was you some people describe it as living water. You know, it was bubbling up from aquifers underground. It was running. It was free flowing through streams and rivers. And it was being purified by rocks that it was coming up from underground and it was collecting lots of trace minerals and being really really vital for us. And if you compare that to the tap water that we get today, again, just like indoor lighting is like the junk food of the lighting world, actually tap water is a bit like ultra-processed food. It it has been ultra-processed. It's passed through human beings many times cuz it goes back into the sewage system. It gets purified and it gets, you know, sent back out there. And it needs to be
sent back out there. And it needs to be cleaned, obviously, to keep it safe. We're very fortunate we in the Western world we have access to clean safe water, but that means it's chlorinated. It's often fluoridated. Um, it will have lost a lot of the minerals that it came up with when it came up from underground naturally. And it's likely to contain traces of pesticides and pharmaceutical residues, hormones for example. You know, so many people on SSRIs, you know, you're going to have traces of all kinds of pharmaceuticals that will end up in the water supply. So, I think firstly you can check. You can go on to your local water company's website and you can check and they have all their reports. But, I think just a simple water filter is is a helpful measure. Actually take makes water taste nice as well. I don't really like the taste of chlorinated water. So, I think having it as And I go I look at all the different types, you know, you can have things from a really simple jug filter. If you can, go for a glass jug filter, cuz of course then you've got the issue of microplastics that we need to talk about, cuz microplastics are ever prevalent in the water supply. We don't know quite what the impact is. You know, they say now that we've got Is it about a teaspoon's worth of microplastics in the brain at the moment? So, it's you know, we've got to look at ways of uh of getting rid of that and minimizing our impact. So, filter your water, but just be careful about how you filter it. And then take it to the next stage, think about remineralizing it. Think about what water had naturally, you know, if if we were lucky enough to drink bottled mineral water, for example, bottled at source. Well, why do people buy it? Well, they buy it because it tastes great, and it's also got a really interesting mineral content. So, I put electrolytes in my water first thing. I don't do it all throughout the day, but my first glass of water in the morning in the bathroom, I have my tub of electrolytes, and that's potassium, magnesium, sodium, maybe a little bit of calcium. And that's replenishing the minerals that I will have lost overnight through dehydration. And it provides cells with a little electrical charge, which is what they
electrical charge, which is what they need to function properly. We are energetic beings. Our our cells run on electric current, if you like. So, putting those minerals back into our um hydration, I think is very helpful. Even just a pinch of sea salt, for example, can can help with that mineral balance. So, those are kind of the basics, and and those I think are probably fairly well understood by most people who are looking at health. And I should just say, fundamentally, women especially need to drink more water. And as we age, we lose the thirst signal. So, we're often not aware that we've become dehydrated. We know we lose so many signals, don't we, when we get older? We lose our capacity for lots of things, and and recognizing thirst is one of them. So, making sure that we stay well hydrated is really important. But then we get into living water and what that means and is it a real thing? And structured water, which some people may have heard up heard of structured or easy water. And easy water is is interesting. It's actually spelled EZ, but because it's American and they pronounce their Zs as a Z, it it relate it translates as EZ water. So, it's become known as easy water. It actually stands for exclusion zone water. So, structured water or exclusion zone water is a newly discovered phenomenon. It's the fourth phase of water. It's discovered by a guy called Professor Gerald in over in Washington University in the Labs. You can go and look him up. He's a fascinating guy. And he discovered that our cells run on structured water. And do you know what makes structured water? Our mitochondria. Mitochondria very involved in structured water processing and what enables them to do that is sunlight. So, you kind of you're coming back 360. You're you're doing the full circle. It's to one of the reasons why we need to get sunlight and daylight is it supports our mitochondria and one of the activities that the mitochondria are doing is helping to structure the water within our cells and the water within
within our cells and the water within our cells is helping us have more energy and more give us more vivacity and and strength. And our mitochondria obviously do things like provide energy. They help with our DNA repair. So, they're going to be better to do that. So, I think we're going to be hearing more about structured water in the future and and it's coming out of the kind of woo-woo territory of living water and into the world of of recognized science. For years, the gold standard for muscle performance has been protein and creatine. But there's a piece most high performing women are still missing and it sits deeper than anything in your current stack. [music] Every workout, every long day, every demand on your body runs on cellular energy. At the [music] center of that system are your mitochondria. And from your mid-330s onwards, accelerated by the hormonal shifts [music] of perimenopause and postmenopause, mitochondrial function naturally declines. Energy production becomes less efficient. Strength, recovery, and resilience starts to compound in the wrong direction. Mitopure [music] by Timeline contains Urolithin A, which supports mitophagy, your cells' process for clearing out damaged mitochondria, [music] and restoring more efficient energy production. 18 years of research and 25 human clinical trials back this. [music] One study showed a 12% improvement in muscle strength in 4 months with no change [music] in exercise. Performance starts at the cellular level. When your mitochondria are working efficiently, everything above that, your training, [music] your focus, your recovery, operates at a higher level. I've been taking Mitopure every day for over a year. I've seen real improvements in my strength [music] in the gym, my power output on the bike, and my energy throughout the day. But the moment that convinced me the most was when I stopped it for 6 [music] weeks, my energy dropped noticeably. That told me more than any improvement [music] stat could. If you want to support your cellular foundation and get more from every workout, every demanding day, and every year ahead, use [music] code Angela at
year ahead, use [music] code Angela at timeline. com / angela for 20% off your order. That's timeline. com / angela and code Angela [music] for 20% off your order. It's fascinating. I remember reading about this a few years ago and just being really struck by how we could access it as well in nature, in certain foods, right? So, it's like that gel-like substance, isn't it? Like when chia goes into water and you create it or you you were actually mentioning in the book, which I thought was a really great hack, was um putting water into sunlight for 30 minutes or so before you drink it and then drinking it reasonably quickly afterwards with structure the water. That certainly has been shown when you look at water under, you know, various magnification methods, you can see the structure of water. You can see the cells, well, they're not cells, but you can see that elements of the water become more structured, become more aligned and that's why it's called structured because unstructured water is kind of looks very jaggedy and rough and and then it becomes more ordered and structured when it has been changed and and, you know, there are ways that you can change it. Putting water in sunlight can actually have an impact. Vortexing it, so swirling it, can also change the structure of water. I think the big question is what happens then when we drink it. Does it stay structured or does it just sort of dissipate and and then we have to restructure it? You know, that the science is still kind of emerging on that. There have been some studies done by companies who claim to be able to structure water and they have looked at the production of ATP, for example, so that that energy source that we run on and you can measure it and and they've measured before and after and they they claim good results with it. So, I think it's it's likely to have a beneficial effect and again, it's something that is is emerging and I I wanted to include it because it's emerging science and I wanted this book to be kind of as forward thinking as possible. Which is also why I've looked at things like
also why I've looked at things like deuterium depleted water, which is, you know, yet again, another another stage of water that we're going to be hearing about in the future. Yes, yeah, I think we should touch on that because you talk about hydrogen water and deuterium water. So, hydrogen water I think is really becoming more mainstream. You may have started to see tins of hydrogen water appearing in kind of high-end health spas and longevity clinics and it's basically water that has uh extra hydrogen. So, it's just H2 rather than H2O. And it's a selective antioxidant. So, we know about antioxidants. You know, they're good, they knock out free radicals, they help protect the cells from oxidative stress, etc. However, we need a little bit of that. You know, we need It's like you need a little bit of inflammation to help with wound healing. You know, you don't want everything to be anti-inflammatory cuz you need a little bit. So, knocking out all your oxidative damage or oxidative reactions may not be the best option. And you've got, you know, broad-spectrum knocker-outers, if you like, like vitamin C, which comes in and, you know, clears away all the or a lot of the excess free radicals. What hydrogen does and what hydrogen water is so um good at and I think why it's so interesting is it's a selective antioxidant. So, it knows to go for the bad guys. It It knows to go for the most toxic forms of free radicals. And it takes them out, and it leaves alone the um the potential for free radicals to actually get on with what they're supposed to be doing. After all, it's the excess of free radicals that's damaging, not free radicals per se. Very clever. I have a yeah, hydrogen water making machine. Do you? Yeah, I have a little flask. I'll have that yeah, once a day. And also the minerals, what you were mentioning there in the morning, I think people underestimate. Just We think of caffeine as waking us up, but when you put minerals in your water, I feel like
put minerals in your water, I feel like it really wakes up your brain. Yeah, definitely. You can feel that sort of electrical charge cuz we are electrical beings, so Yes. Um Completely. Just a little bit of of salt. And I actually like Celtic sea salt. You can get lots of different brands, and it comes from salt plains in in northern France, the coastal region, and it's very pure. It's unpolluted, but it contains high levels of different trace minerals. It's slightly damp when you buy it, it's kind of weird, and it's slightly grayish in color. I used to use a pink Himalayan rock salt, but they there were some concerns and some studies looking at high levels of heavy metals. So, I I think, you know, that's something that needs to be considered, you know, quite carefully. But, the other thing that I do really like, I don't know whether you've you've you're into this at all, is shilajit. I So, I tried one form of it. Mhm. And yeah, I didn't particularly I don't know, I didn't get on with it that well, but then I have since tried fulvic and humic minerals. Yes, great. Another form which I definitely yeah, have enjoyed and seen benefits with. So fulvic minerals I I think are great, and I have a reverse osmosis water purifier at home. And it's it's great cuz it takes out everything, you know, it takes out all traces of pharmaceuticals, fluoride, chlorine, the whole thing. It takes out microplastics, you know, it really is very, very pure. But, the problem with that is it takes out all the minerals. So, if you're going to drink, you know, like drinking distilled water or reverse osmosis water, you need to remineralize remineralize it, otherwise you're likely to be missing out. So, then I have little mineral dropper that that I put just a few drops in a jug. So, I think fulvic minerals are really interesting. They are again coming from from rock sources. They contain traces of many, many micro minerals that that we need in just the tiniest, tiniest bit. But, actually even that tiniest bit is helpful for the body. And shilajit I actually really like. It's this sort of
actually really like. It's this sort of black gooey like rock resin from the Himalayas. Has a very strong earthy taste, and when you first taste it, you think, "Oh my gosh, this is just rank. I can't have this." But, for me, I'm addicted. Now, if I don't put a little dot of shilajit in my morning coffee, my body is like going, "Hello. Where is it? We really need it." You put it in coffee? I do. Yeah. I How does that alter the taste or not so much? It It does alter. I mean, you're only using a tiny bit. It's highly concentrated and you need to be careful to buy it from a really reputable source, cuz it's quite expensive and there is a whole market, unfortunately, in the kind of adulteration of of shilajit and what people are selling you. But it's a a tiny dot and I just I love it, you know, Angela. I've got really used to that It kind of as you It's almost like sort of like muddy soil taste. That sounds really disgusting, doesn't it? But yeah, my body is calling out for it. selling me to [laughter] still selling me on it. I'm going to try it because [gasps] if you tell me that your body now sort of craves it in coffee, that tells me that there's something, right? That yeah, it feels that it needs. I might try it again, cuz so far my latest thing is putting creatine into my coffee. Great. I do that, too. [clears throat] Yeah. but I Do you know with creatine, it's interesting, isn't it? Because I've been running some experiments with creatine, cuz everyone talks about the bloating and then I was finding from the research that if you put it in something warm, it dissolves so much better and as long as you're well hydrated, you won't get that. But then on and off, I kind of do and I think it's also cuz I'm sometimes a bit low in potassium. So then I'll do these experiments where I'll be like, okay, I'm not going to have creatine for 2 weeks. And in the beginning, I'm sort of like, oh, I don't notice any difference now. I'm absolutely fine about it. And then after about 2 or 3 weeks, I realize, no, I feel so much better with creatine. I feel better with it. I think there is potential to look at the different types of creatine. I think the bloating often comes with creatine monohydrate.
comes with creatine monohydrate. Uh and there's another form. I think it's called HCL. Yeah, HCL. Are you using that? Yeah, and that that has less bloating. [clears throat] So I would say I would certainly, you know, if you're going to do your experiments. I love the fact that, you know, you're experimenting on yourself cuz that's exactly what I do. You know, I think it's it's important to look at the research, but I always say look at the me search as well because how how does it affect you? You know, this is what I'm thinking, how's it going to affect me? What what's going on in my body? Cuz you know, we are genetically different and what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for somebody else in the same way cuz we all have different genetic pathways and and genetic berry variations are snips of of are different. And we can't just say it's it's a blanket take this dose of that for everybody and it's going to work cuz of course it's not. You know, you you need to adjust dose and type and and find out really what your body is responding to. But there are certain fundamentals that our body does love like daylight, like hydration. You know, those are I I think that that's a really safe ground I think for everybody to to be really investing in. I agree. Um mitochondria is a real theme in the book uh because it's linked to energy. It's also linked to estrogen and for women in midlife that's really important that bidirectional relationship with um mitochondria. What are the other things that you do Liz for protecting and taking care of your mitochondria? So, the three principles I the first section of the book is based on the three pillars if you like. One is light, one is water, and the other is energy. I call it energy cuz I didn't want it to sound too woo-woo cuz it's really what we're talking about is vibrational energy and magnetism. And we're looking at the Earth's energetic current. And the Earth has a resonance. It's actually called the Schumann resonance and it's a slight hum. We can't hear it, but it's there. And we have lost ancestrally that connection with it. We used to walk around barefoot. You know, we used to spend all our time outdoors
spend all our time outdoors and we would benefit from that's basically the the principle of grounding or earthing. You know, when when we have that direct connection with the body. And obviously we're now indoors, all our soles of our shoes are are plastic, leather, you know, with synthetic glues and things that separate us. So, if you can buy grounding shoes or grounding trainers and and walk around in those outside, I think that's a benefit. But again, you know, getting out and having that natural connection first thing. So, when you're outside looking at the daylight, just make sure that you've got your shoes and socks off and connect. You don't have to be on grass. You know, you can ground even on concrete. You can ground on stone. You can ground on soil, uh earth, rock, beach, you know, sand. If you're wild swimming, that's a great great way of grounding the body as well, cuz that that um that gives you that same energetic connection. And I think it's again, it's it's about really recognizing what the bene - what the benefits are to the body and what the mitochondria respond to. And the studies have been small, but they do exist showing that if you are grounding, you can lower your cholesterol not your cholesterol, sorry. If you are doing your grounding, you can lower your cortisol level and you can lower inflammation. And and the body does just become calmer. And then other things that I love that vibration and I love things like sound baths and gongs and I looked at the whole vibrational resonance of what happens to our cells when we hear certain frequencies. And I've downloaded lots of solfeggio frequencies, which you can just get on any of the music providers, you know, the Spotify, Apple, all of that. They all have free downloads that you can listen to and there are different frequencies that tune into different wavelengths in the body. Some are designed for healing, some are designed for energy and mental clarity, some are designed for sleep and for calm. So, it's yeah, the I think the whole area of of vibration is and vibrational healing is is fascinating and it's something that our mitochondria do respond to. Mhm. It's amazing and I
respond to. Mhm. It's amazing and I think just so much more as you say, is going to come out in relation to this, because we know when we go to a sound bath just how lovely that feel. Like, you feel it vibrating through your body. It's just beautiful. As As I'm listening to you now, I'm thinking about a lot of the things that you speak about here. If I observe my Labrador, he just naturally does them. He wakes as soon as it, you know, he'll wake up as soon as the sun rises if I go down early. There was one thing that was really fascinating me, was he always will go and lick the tops of long grass early in the morning. And I was like, "What is it about that?" Now, I'm I'm I hope I remember this correctly, cuz I researched it last summer, and I believe it's because of the morning light. There is easy water resting Oh my gosh. Do you know that makes perfect sense? That makes perfect sense that the dew would have easy water in it, because it's been exposed to that early morning red light. How very fascinating. We should all be dew gatherers. We should be. [laughter] I love it. what to do. But, in the book, you also go into all these healing frequencies. There's so much more in there that I would just love everyone to go and pick up a copy of this. It's a brilliant book. Thank you. How to age. And I think it is the type of book, Liz, that I can just go back to, you know, chapter by chapter and just pick off little things. I think that's what I love about it, is it's so practical. I tried to do it that There's a lot of science in there, and there are bits that you can skip, you know, I put the science in because I wanted the naysayers and the medics who might be skeptical to to go, "Oh, actually, you know, that science is robust." And I can look up the studies that you've put at the back. So, it is fully referenced, but at the end of each section, there's a really simple checklist. Like, this is the things that you can do every day. That So, you know, if you want to skip all the sciencey bit, no problem. But, you know, just make sure that you're doing these little bits, you know, get a couple of incandescent light bulbs, and drink a bit more water, maybe with a pinch of salt. You know, it is It really is that simple, and it is fundamentally going to change how you age. Yeah. And well, you are the proof in the pudding for that. It's just amazing. Um where can people find out more about you? The book is available everywhere now. It's already
available everywhere now. It's already best seller. Yes. Absolutely incredible. [clears throat] It's just been so fun watching you launch the book as well. bless you for saying. I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate the sisterhood. You know, women supporting other women and and getting these strong messages across. It's just so helpful. So, thank you. Um, so my website is Liz Earle Wellbeing, lizearlewellbeing. com. And I have a podcast like you. So, my podcast is called Age Better. And uh, yeah, I love it. I mean, it's my life's work is to communicate and to talk about these things. And I'm just going to continue doing it. So, thank you for supporting me. Amazing. Thank you so much and for coming back on the show to talk about your second book. We also link to the previous interview that we did on a better second half as well. So, thanks so much, Liz. Thank you.
Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
Light exposure helps coordinate sleep, hormones, mood, and energy. For women in midlife, that rhythm can become especially important as the body navigates change.
Water quality, minerals, and electrolyte balance influence how hydration feels. The goal is not complication. It is giving cells the basic conditions they need to produce energy.
Cellular energy depends on ordinary inputs repeated well: light, minerals, movement, sleep, and food. When those signals align, the body has a quieter path back to vitality.
"The body changes when the signal is clear, repeated, and followed by recovery."
Start the day with outdoor light before leaning on screens.
Support hydration with minerals when appropriate for your body and climate.
Use simple environmental cues before adding complex protocols.
The strongest idea running through this conversation is restraint. Longevity is not built by chasing every new lever. It is built by understanding which signals matter, applying them deliberately, and allowing the body enough calm to adapt.
