Claudia von Boeselager: Welcome to the Longevity & Lifestyle Podcast, Molly, it's such a pleasure to have you on today. 

Molly Maloof: Thanks for having me. 

Claudia von Boeselager: Really, really great. 

So Molly, I'd love to kick off with letting my audience know what a revolutionizing and pioneering doctor you are, that has moved from traditional medicine into the longevity and health optimization space. So could you talk a little bit about that journey and what drove you to where you are today? 

Molly Maloof: Yeah. I was always interested in optimizing my performance since I was young, like eighth grade.

And I started using supplements in eighth grade. I started, I mean, I definitely had plenty of periods of burnout in my life from just overworking myself. And so medical school came along and I remember just being, like, really unhappy and not doing super well and getting, like, average grades. And everything really was just a result of not really taking care of myself. I was just working incredibly hard and not really doing much for my health. 

And so I started studying evidence-based lifestyle medicine, and it just became very clear that I was, like, building so much more energy into my body and I was able to perform at much higher levels. And I was getting better grades. And I was just, like, getting more done in less time. And I was, like, what is this craziness. And so, ended up doing really well on my second board exam, after I changed my lifestyle, and all of my peers were like, how did you do it? How did you go from like an average on your step one to at 99th percentile? 

And I go, look, I was just changing my lifestyle. And I started doing all these different things and they're like, oh my God, tell us everything you know. So I started a course and I got really interested in education and I just built a course for my peers. Ended up winning a bunch of humanitarian awards for it and then get to my residency, find myself really unhappy, and just, like, in a system that frankly was just miserable. And doctors were unhappy and sick around me. And I was just, like, this system is not for health. 

So I decided to carve out my own career on my own and started my own medical practice. Got my license. Started working with startups. And really saw that wave of innovation happening in startups and in technology.

And basically was, like, I'm going to be a part of that world because that world is going to change medicine. And so I just happened to have been very intuitive and aware of, like, what was coming. Always been a bit of a futurist. And I've always been able to see a few years ahead of everybody else. That was actually really cool, and enabled me to, like, build a reputation as somebody who was an innovator.

And a lot of things that I was doing young were, like, very much looked down upon by people. They were, like, oh, why would - you know, I was wearing a pedometer in medical school and my attendings were, like, nobody pays for behavioral health. And I was wearing a CGM in 2014 and everybody was like, you don't need to wear a CGM unless you have diabetes.

And then, like, I was using continuous heart rate variability monitoring on my clients, in, like, 2017, and like, everybody's like, well, stress is just part of life. What are you going to do about it? 

And I just really never listened to people, for the most part, when they told me not to do things. I was very fortunate to spend time with people who are in this rationalist community. And, honestly, being in the Bay Area, I got exposed to all sorts of thinkers, but initially one of the things that really helped me become an independent thinker was just being around people who are really interested in first principles thinking. 

And then I also spent quite a lot of time with hippies. And so I realized that there was a major role of relationships and health. You know, I was hanging out with the people at Esalen Institute that opened my eyes to, you know, really pursuing things that were completely out of the box, like, stuff that you couldn't even talk about in mainstream society. 

And so I got this really interesting balanced, kind of, worldview from these two worlds. And, you know, in the process just built a life for myself that I'm really happy with and proud of and all of my career is finally starting to really blossom after, like, 10 years of just being, like, I know what I'm doing is right but everybody thinks that I'm crazy. And so now everyone's like, oh yeah, you totally, everything you were doing was totally, totally legitimate.

And you know, I've been doing lots and lots of data collection on my clients. I've been doing lots of supplementation and lots of nootropics and all sorts of stuff that was, like, very fringe. You know, doing, like, tons of data gathering of people was never really considered normal. Now there's like lots and lots of companies that are like coming out with these systems of taking labs and analyzing them and providing personalized recommendations.

So I'm just happy that the world is waking up to all this - 

Claudia von Boeselager: They're catching up with you, Molly. That's what's happening. 

Molly Maloof: Catching up. It's great. I mean, like I'm fully, want my brain would be replaced by software eventually. So, like, you know, I still am a private doctor. I still teach at Stanford. I'm now a CEO of a biotech company. I started I'm about to go into fundraising and I'm just like really passionate about education and the frontier of what medicine can look like.

And in creating medicine that people actually want to buy. Instead of medicine, that's like, oh, shoot my money on this crap that I don't feel like I'm getting anything from like, I'm spending 500 bucks a month on insurance. And I don't even use this system that I'm paying into. And it sucks because you're like, It would be great if the system actually gave you something for your money and cared about your health and really wanted you to live a long time, but they only really care if you get sick and are broken and that's what it's designed for.

And so we really do need to see a new system emerge. That's about building health. Creating resilience and enhancing connection. And I'm hopefully gonna be a part of that. It would be so exciting. I mean, 

Claudia von Boeselager: that's also part of my mission as well. Right. And getting away from that reactive to proactiveness, I mean, what an exciting phase it would be if it's not about, I mean, my parents, right.

They're older and it's all about which medical visits they have and test that they need to do. What, if you can go away to a system where you're free of all of that, and you're actually just living your true purpose and doing really cool things in the world, and congratulations on all your exciting projects.

Are you okay to share the biotech company? What you're doing? 

Molly Maloof: Yeah. I can talk a little bit about it. It's pretty stealth right now, but I am going into fundraising, so I'm happy to chat a little bit about it, but essentially one of the biggest discoveries I made in my teaching at Stanford was like reading all this literature on longevity and realizing.

Relationship quality has a larger role in long-term health and happiness than any other factor. And social disconnection is actually worse for health than smoking then obesity and sedentary behavior. And so. Oh, my God. I've been so focused on metabolism for so long and don't get me wrong. Like I'm fully, still committed to teaching people that metabolism.

And I'm coming out with an online course this year. And so it's really in-depth tool for like teaching people that metabolism. But once I figured it out, how to hack metabolism, I got kind of bored with it because I was. Everybody else knows this stuff. And there's already a bunch of companies trying to do what I was trying to do for like six years.

And I should've started a CGM company a long time ago, but I'm on the advisory board of levels. And there's still a lot of work that needs to be done for CGM to really make it to the masses. But if you want it bad enough, you can get a CGM from your doctor. And it's not within a few years where everyone's going to have these.

So I was just like, okay, well, why do people make such bad decisions with. Why, why do they cope with discomfort with food? Right? Like everybody can know the principles of mastering a healthy metabolism, but the vast majority of people won't do the things they need to do for optimal health. And the real question is, and I kept on asking why, why, why?

And always just asking, okay. So why do people make these bad decisions? And it always came down to their social conditioning and their way they were raised by their parents and the way that their parents raised them around food and the way that they had unresolved. And the way that people naturally, as a stress response, respond to fear with trying to gather calories.

And it was like, oh, so what if we could actually just feel safer and what would make us feel safer as a society? And like what would make us live longer? And it was really just relationships at the end of the day. And I was like, why are we not doing more to optimize relationships? And why are relationships so hard for people?
And it really, I got interested in attachment and love. Yeah, I would like, okay. So like, love is clearly this unbelievable force. It's a motivational force that basically gets us to spend more time together. Right? Like, love is what brings us together. And I believe that we know very little about love and we're just starting to like really dig into the neurobiology of love.

So I got interested in specifically the neurobiology of romantic love and why we would have advanced. This motivational force, like, what was it from, you know, what does this divine spark of life come from? You know, like why do people come together and make children? And it really comes down to survival and reproduction, right?

Like the biological imperative is to get us to survive and to pass on our genes. And so love is almost this reward system that's been created to get us, to spend more time together in order to actually enhance our ability to live as long as possible. So there's this great paper called Levin Lawndale.

And it's all about that oxytocin hypothesis, which is like, we are like wired to connect and disconnection and loneliness are the consequence of a society, frankly, that like hasn't prioritized social connection by society. This prioritize individual, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and succeeding by a meritocracy.

And really what I believe is necessary for true longevity and really creating a life that's really meaningful and purposeful is our. So I was like, well, why can't we actually enhance our relationships? Right? Like in my social community, in the bay area, psychedelics were normal. It was very much normalized.

Just like marijuana has been normalized. Now, psychedelics are going to be very normalized in the next 10 years. And we'll see an entire industry around psilocybin, just like you see it around. Now my company is specifically a biotechnology company, because what we're doing is we're essentially commercializing a pharmaceutical off ocean.

I mean, the substance creates a deep bond between people and I believe that there's this concept of neuro enhancement of relationships. And there's actually a couple of ethicists who wrote a book called love drugs, the chemical future of relationships. And we already have drugs that actually change the way that we connect like hormones.

For example, change the way we interact sexually and SSRI is actually changed our sexual function. So if we already have things that are already altering relationships, then why can't we live in a world where we can actually improve. Relationship quality and help really heal trauma, which is actually underneath a lot of relationship dysfunction.

And so that's the first aim of the company is to figure out, can we help people who've experienced sexual trauma heal from the sexual dysfunction as a consequence of this drama and largely it's because sexual trauma causes changes in the brain that actually changed the way that you respond to the.

And you're in a state of hyper arousal and not in a good way. It's actually the kind of cause causes sympathetic nervous system overdrive. And so I'm really passionate about helping people. Who've experienced sexual trauma. I'm really passionate about stopping pediatric sexual trauma, because it looks like that might be one of the more damaging facets of human existence, especially when it comes to future relationships.

And then I'm also just interested in the neuro enhancement of love. Like, can we create longer lasting relationships through giving people medicine that creates deeper bonds and could that. You know, resentment from building, could that prevent people from getting into Horace? Could that actually reignite gray marriages that are just passionless with very little intimacy and that are just commitments leftover, right?

Like, can we take these marriages and can we revive them? It's very frontier, right. It's very bold. And it's extremely, I mean, it's very exciting, but it's also. I've talked to a lot of people about this, and there's a lot of ways to do this ethically. And there's also a lot of ethical questions that could come up.

Right. So I think the purpose of this company is really to be a pioneer in this space of human relationships and enhancement of human relationships. And hopefully I would like to see an entire category of drugs for a variety of different relationships, right? Like, imagine if you could actually enhance your work relationships. Imagine if you could enhance your friend relationships. Imagine if you could enhance your family relationships. And what would the world look like if we actually had these deeper bonds. And maybe this would actually get us to live longer. Because it looks like that people who have strong relationship bonds last about 10 years longer than people who don't.

So I really think that this is something that needs to exist. If I didn't do this, somebody else will do this. So I know I need to do it because somebody needs to do this from a very ethical place. And from a place of love at the end of the day. So that's really at the story of the company. Yeah. 

Claudia von Boeselager: So beautiful and so exciting, Molly. Thank you so much for sharing that as well. And obviously, you know, very well, and for my listeners listening as well, the longest ever study from 1938 from Harvard, the key to longevity is relationships, right? And if you look at the Blue Zones, Sicily and Japan, the relationship, the community-building, the sense of connection and belonging. Yeah. That completely makes a 100% sense.

You know, what a beautiful place, if you get rid of the trauma, which so many people have, help people to deal with it and then move on to be free to love as well. So, so beautiful. And would love to, when you get a bit farther with that, get you on for part two. Really exciting. 

Molly Maloof: Yeah. 

Claudia von Boeselager: I'd love to jump over to skin health and longevity. 

Molly Maloof: Sure.

Claudia von Boeselager: What is your take on, obviously it's a more outside thing, we've been talking about love from the inside, right? 

Molly Maloof: Yeah. 

Claudia von Boeselager: But you were thinking around skin health, longevity, and where are we going with that? 

Molly Maloof: One of the most interesting things that has happened to me in the last, you know, eight years or so is, as I've really worked on insulin resistance that I was dealing with when I was younger, I have, like, seen my skin age in reverse. I really don't think that enough people realize that they're insulin resistant. And there's, like, literally many, many, many, many millions of people who have no idea they have pre-diabetes. And I was right on the line of pre-diabetes, right? I was right below. And this is 2014.

So I was younger. And I actually had worst skin. I actually had more acne. And I actually had more wrinkles than I do now. And it's, like, really a big testament to improving my blood sugar metabolism. Because when you improve your blood sugar metabolism, you reduce advanced glycation end products in the skin. And you also reduce mitochondrial dysfunction, which actually creates more skin autofluorescence, so you actually have more light that comes out of your skin. 

So it's funny because this company comes along to me and I'm friends with the founders. And they were, like, we really want you to be the spokesperson of our company. And I was like, look, I do not have time to be a spokesperson. But I'm flattered. You guys are great. And they're like, let's just send you a bottle of the supplement. And I'm like, fine, but my skin's really pretty good. I don't really need a supplement for skin. 

Now, I gave the supplement to my sister and I noticed her skin developed this beautiful rosy glow. And I was like, okay, now we did change her lifestyle, but it was also pretty obvious that like her hair was growing stronger and her nails were growing stronger, and I was like, okay, what's in this stuff? And so they kept on, kind of, hammering, they were like Molly, we really want you to be the spokesperson. 

So I had been living in Austin. And I didn't have a kitchen 'cause I was living at a hotel for a little while and trying to try out Austin as a place to live. And I wasn't getting enough produce. And so when they gave me the supplement, I was probably like the least amount of produce I'd normally eat. And I found myself taking it and I was like, oh my gosh, within a month I stopped wearing about half as much makeup. And I was like, guys, this stuff is really great. Like, what is in the supplement? It's Qualia Skin by Neurohacker.

And it's an optimized aging supplement. And it's really aimed at hydration, elasticity and firmness, but really what I think they should put on is, like, gives you a rosy glow because the thing that it's got that's so great is the carotinoids. So it has tons of different carotinoids in it. And there's actually evidence that people who have higher amounts of carotenoids in their skin, they actually smell more attractive to the opposite sex and they look more attractive to the opposite sex.

So I was like, what's the mechanism behind all this? And it turns out that carotenoids are just really great for optimizing skin health because a lot of people are deficient in them. And then there's also just the fact that carotenoids are great anti-oxidants. They're great for gut health. And we know that there's this gut- skin relationship.

I actually had a little bit of SIBO at one point last year. And I definitely started getting more acne. And it wasn't until I fixed my SIBO, that my skin improved, You know, a lot of people ended up with SIBO eating way too much at the wrong times during the pandemic. But I have to say that, like, people don't realize it, like - if you have problems with your skin, it's almost always from the inside. And there's something going on inside that's problem. And it's typically a hormone dysfunction. It could be nutritional deficiency. It could be gut dysfunction. It could be just stress-related, right? Which we know contributes to gut dysfunction.

So vitamin A, you know, I'm very careful to get my nutrients measured, making sure I get proper amounts of vitamin A in my diet. And you can get vitamin A from plants and from animals. So, like, organ meats or red vegetables, red fruits. 

And so this supplement is vegan and it gets it's carotinoids and vitamin A from plants, but it also has things like aloe vera, which is great for hydration, and also gut health. And then also has things like a soy germ extract with is great for hormones, in hormone balancing. And then it has bamboo stem and leaf, which is great for skin and nails. And ornithine, which is great for collagen. And then it's got a bunch of different minerals, of which chromium is really important for blood sugar metabolism.

So I love this thing. I'm going to be taking it consistently. And it's funny 'cause, like, I don't think enough people even know their phytonutrient intake. So I actually give my clients a phytonutrient questionnaire and it's a way for people to actually see, like, how many servings of fruits and vegetables you're actually eating?

Claudia von Boeselager: Yeah. 

Molly Maloof: And most people are not getting five a day. And oftentimes, if they are getting vegetables, it's green vegetables. So you have to really remember to eat the rainbow. And that's something that I actually really have to remind all my clients. It's like, I know that there's this whole world of people who are like, oh, carnivore people do not need plants. And I'm like, look, if your gut is so dysfunctional that you can only eat meat to function, then the problem is your gut dysfunction. And it's not that meat is the only answer. 

Although meat's a very nutritious food. All the evidence, at least in animal models, suggest that omnivores live the longest. So I'm a full-on omnivore.

I don't really buy into the whole carnivore or the vegan movement. The most obvious nutrition is omnivore diets. 

Claudia von Boeselager: Yeah. Molly, before we dive into a few more questions, I'd love to throw a few rapid-fire questions at you. 

Molly Maloof: Sure. 

Claudia von Boeselager: What is your morning routine that you do? I'm sure you have one to set yourself up for success.

Molly Maloof: I definitely have a morning and evening routine, for sure. Morning, I wake up and I lay in bed and do some meditation and body scanning. And just, like, sometimes I'll just like purposely go back into my dream state for lucid dreaming. But most of the time I'm like laying there doing a body scan. 

I wake up usually around 6.30. And 7 I'll make either, like, a half-caff coffee, or a matcha, or a MUD\WTR, I've been really into lately. And read the Wall Street Journal. I really love reading the Wall Street Journal because it's just, like, so interesting to see what's going on in the world. 

And then I'll go and ride my bike to the gym and lift weights. And I do lift weights about four days a week, these days. And I'm biking, right now, every day. And I just have noticed such a difference in my energy levels by cycling. I've really fallen in love with it in the last couple months. 

So those are like, sort of, non-negotiables. And then I'll take my supplements when I get back from working out. If I'm lifting, I'll definitely get protein-rich breakfasts in, and if I'm not lifting and I'm just cycling, I might delay breakfast an hour or so, but generally speaking, I'll eat breakfast around 9-ish. 

And then I used to do a lot more fasting, but because I'm doing so much exercise, I'm doing a little bit less fasting, but I still fast at least 12 hours a night. Sometimes longer. Sometimes 14. I'll take my supplements after breakfast and I will shower and start my day. 

Claudia von Boeselager: Do you do cold showers? 

Molly Maloof: Sometimes I'll do a cold shower.

Yeah. I did that a lot in the summertime last year, I would end with a cold. It really depends on if my shower can get cold enough, you know. But it's been pretty cold outside just to go biking. And so I do feel like I'm getting a bit of cold exposure just by cycling outside in, like, pretty cold weather. 

But, yeah, I'm really big believer in sunlight in the morning and, you know, try not to be too much on your phone. I try to get work started around 9ish or so. Like, 9.30. And then I will work, I mean, for hours and hours and hours and hours. And I'll try to split up my day with, like, phone calls, right? So at least a few phone calls I like to spend walking, if I can. Unless it's an absolutely necessary Zoom call, I try to not be in front of my computer all day long.

I do know you would lose a lot of information by not being face to face, but I just like to get my steps in. I try to get at least 10,000 steps in, or minimum 7,500 steps a day. And just getting your body outside is just nicer than being indoors all day long. We spend, like, way too much of our day indoors. 

And so, if you're lucky and you live in a nice neighborhood, being outside is great. And even when I lived in downtown Austin, I was still walking around by the water. So I'm just a big believer of trying to walk as much as you can. 

And then just breaking up your day with, like - I will eat something for lunch. If I'm like on my own, I'll definitely be eating my biggest meal today as lunch. And then my smaller meal would be, like, a chia bowl for dinner. Most of my meals are going to be, like, protein, vegetables based, and/or, like, chia and fruit, and maybe a teaspoon of honey, with some salt. And I like nuts and gojis. 

I love basil seeds too. There's a company called Zen Basil. So I'm doing a lot of chia or basil bowls these days. And then evening, like, there are some days where I do work, you know, twelve hour days. And, like, some days I'll work nine hour days. Some days I'll work, very rarely, longer than twelve hour days. 

But I do try to get some stretching in if I can. And I do like to have, like, a devotional practice at night. Like, it's just a habit now. I do pray and I'm not religious, but I do find prayer to be, like, really just soothing, you know? And I do practice gratitude every day. I think it's really important to practice gratitude for things that you don't think are necessarily, like, big deals. Like, I'm grateful for that dinner that I just had. You know, I'm grateful for getting to spend all this extra time with my parents and getting my mom into better shape physically. 

I also have a practice of, like, yesterday was a full moon, so I set my intentions. And I set intentions every full moon and new moon. And then I review my intentions for the previous one. And I'm always astonished to how many have come true. And it's, like, whoa. 

So I do have a connection to the rhythms of life and nature for sure. And I might journal, I did journal yesterday as well. So journaling is also a practice of mine. 
Yeah. It's weird. I actually worked all weekend this weekend. I worked, like, Saturday and Sunday when I don't normally recommend that, but I surprisingly woke up today with, like, really good HRV.

And so, I really try to follow my heart rate variable. As a tool for whether or not I need more recovery. If I'm feeling really energized, then I'll sometimes work two weeks in a row. And if I'm not feeling really energized, and I will notice when my body starts to wear down, and I'll start to add in two days off.

But most of the time I'll work six days a week. And that's just because I'm in a very busy time in my life where I'm finishing a book and a course, and I'm teaching at Stanford, and I'm about to start fundraising for my company. And I'm still seeing clients as a doctor. 

Claudia von Boeselager: You're one person. 

Molly Maloof: Yeah. I do have help now, which is great. I have a few assistants that are helping me, which is awesome.

And I'm really going to start handing off more and more work to people this year. But it's really a testament to, if you build capacitance in your cells, which is literally, like, you cells have batteries and capacitors in the mitochondria. And everything I've been doing for my health for the last few years has been completely focused on mitochondrial optimization.

It is 100% true that if you build more capacitance in your cells, you actually will have more capacity. And you will have more energy. You will feel like you can get more done. You'll just have more ability to do work.

And so, like, the one thing that I really started adding in is the cardio. So I hadn't been doing a lot of cardio for the last few months and then in December I really started upping the cardio. And I was like, oh my God, I cannot believe I have so much more energy than I do. And I really feel like I recovered from, like, an intense year. 2021 was an intense year of work and accomplishment. And I have to say that, like, I worked pretty damn hard the last month of this year, but I did sleep a lot. I'd have to say, like, sleep is a non-negotiable for me. I do not sacrifice sleep for performance ever. I would say maybe a few days of the year, I will have to do a late night because of a project deadline, but for the most part, I just would rather work a few hours on a weekend than sacrifice sleep during the week.

So I'm really a big believer of going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time. And I think your body really likes it when you get consistent meal times as well. So I just believe if you can get your circadian rhythms in balance, if you can get your morning and evening routine dialed, and if you can get your fitness dialed, and your nutrition dialed, then like everything is easier. 

And you just got to pay attention to your biomarkers. You gotta pay attention to your blood sugar, to your stress, to your sleep, to your movement, to your intensity of your movement. Making sure you get proper amounts of intense exercise in. And if you can do all those things, these are the basics. 

Claudia von Boeselager: But many people don't do them., Right? 

Molly Maloof: Most people don't even do the basics. Most people are just trying to supplement their way to better health. And don't get me wrong, I have a very significant supplement regimen. I mean, I am always optimizing with supplements. I'm currently using zembrin and saffron for nootropics, as well as CBD. And I'm, like, super convinced that these things have made a big difference in my brain.

Also a big believer in getting your vitamin D, magnesium, your B vitamins and your omega-3s covered. 

Claudia von Boeselager: Yep. 

Molly Maloof: Everybody needs those. There's probably not a single person who doesn't need those. Unless somebody eats a lot of fish. And so, yeah, I just am a believer that you gotta keep track of the very minimum nutrients. And if you're a woman, and a man, you should be looking at your ferritin levels and making sure that you're not too high or too low. Women are most often too low. Men are most often too high. Women need to supplement. Men need to actually donate blood. And cut their ferritin levels. Because a lot of men are actually too - their oxygen, they're just - it's oxidatively stressful to have too much iron in your body. Those are the big secrets of longevity. 

Claudia von Boeselager: So amazing. And thank you for sharing that as well. How often would you, or do you recommend to your patients to be tested and to test? 

Molly Maloof: It's all dependent on what they can afford. And what their time will allow.

I at least try to get my blood drawn - it really depends on the year, but like, during the pandemic I started testing a lot more frequently because I had a concussion and it caused a bunch of hormone dysfunction. And so I had to fix a bunch of problems and it was like, it was kind of like when your car breaks and you have to take it in. Well, instead of my car working, it was, my body had broken and I had to fix it. And I had to, like, do a bunch of upgrades. And so I was testing it every quarter. 

Now I'm testing it probably every four months or so. And I would say that, like, most people do not necessarily pay attention to the labs like I do, but most people aren't high-performance race cars. And/or most people don't care enough. Like, most people just don't care about their bodies and they just fill them with garbage. So why would they measure their blood markers if they don't care what they put in their mouth? You know, like, most of my clients are extremely high performers and they're not normal people. And so, because of that, they're expecting a lot more out of their bodies. And they expect their bodies to function really well. 

I do think that, in the future, there will be opportunity for more people to get cheaper labs. But right now they aren't cheap. Like I'm spending 400 bucks to do a full panel. And, at the same time, I also just love data. And I love knowing about what's going on, you know?

Claudia von Boeselager: I think that's really helpful as well for people that are really trying to get into peak performance, how important the bloods are in tracking that as well. Because any bloods will just be a snapshot in time. And it's actually doing that regular consistency and comparing that you know what's actually going on and where the trends are going as well.

I'm wary of time, Molly, and would love to do a part two with you, but I just wondered, before we close, what are some of the most exciting developments that are happening in the longevity and healthspan space that gets you most excited? 

Molly Maloof: Oh gosh. What's the most exciting? I mean, the fact that CGM is going to be available to people very easily, very quickly, and just the data we're going to be able to get from that is going to be amazing. 

I personally know how to use CGM to optimize lifestyle. And sooner than later, people will be able to actually, like, learn all about how to use biomarkers to actually change behavior. 

There's company called Hanu Health. And they're going to be coming out with, like, a really next generation heart rate variability monitor. And they're gonna be able to give you personalized recommendations. And, like, just by listening to my friend who runs the company's recommendations for optimizing my HRV, I literally raised it about 42 points. 44 points, actually. And that was like high peak stress to now. And that was about two months. 

And so the fact that I was able to, like, raise my HRV that quickly. 

Claudia von Boeselager: Yeah. 

Molly Maloof: It was like, I mean, first of all, it was social connection. Lots of sleep. Lots of recovery. Lots of meditation. Lots of exercise. And lots of breath, just learning to breathe more slowly. But I was amazed by how quickly I could do that. And HRV is a major market for longevity. And so you really got to keep track of your stress levels if you want to live a long time. 

You know, personalized supplements are only gonna get better and better. And cheaper and cheaper. And more accessible by people. So I'm excited about that coming to the market. I'm not a huge fan of any of the companies yet, but I am excited that there's ones that are coming. 

Food is something, I really am obviously a huge fan of food, but the fact that, like, there's now so many companies that are making it easy for people to get food delivery, that's actually really produce-rich foods. There's, like, Daily Harvest and there's all these just great food delivery companies that are nutrient dense. I'm excited about the fact that, like, that will someday be medicine for people, you know? Like, it's going to be easier for people to prescribe these things as medicine.
 
And then, I mean, I'm excited about psychedelics, you know, I'm excited about the idea that, like, we might be able to reprogram minds from trauma, you know? That we might be able to actually change - like, if I can heal from trauma, then anybody can, ,you know? Like, it's possible to actually change your brain. And it's possible to actually potentially change your attachment style. 

And I think, like, attachment science - it's almost like the world of medicine, kind of, separates itself from the world of psychology and psychiatry a lot. But there's definitely a lot of research in just energy. And how energy flows in a coherent or chaotic or rigid manner in different brains.

And I just love Dan Siegel's work on attachment because he really created a language around the mind that feels very scientific and it feels a lot less abstract. Like, I really think that his beliefs around, like, attachment in couples, I'm taking a course on this and I'm just like so fascinated by it. How people interact and how, we think our mind is our own, and we think our mind is bound by our body, but our mind is beyond our body actually. I mean, it's energy and information flow. And so when we are connecting with someone there's energy and information flow exchanged, and there's like a collective mind created. 

Being able to measure our interactions of the mind of two people interacting and the biometrics that are coming from two different bodies, and being able to help people find more coherence to their relationships. If we could fix attachment and trauma and relationships, we would have far less disease. And far less mental illness. And far better quality of life. So this is a big part of medicine that I want to be a part of. And I want to dedicate the rest of my life to it. 

Claudia von Boeselager: So exciting, Molly. I think on that note, where can people follow you, what you're up to all these exciting projects they're working on? Maybe social media - 

Molly Maloof: Yeah! 

Claudia von Boeselager: Website. 

Molly Maloof: Best spot to find me is Instagram stories. Drmolly.co, D-R-M-O-L-L-Y.co. I definitely post pretty consistently on my stories. And then I'm also on Twitter, @MollymaloofMD. I'm on LinkedIn. So you can friend me on LinkedIn. And those are the best places to find me. Yeah. 

Claudia von Boeselager: Do you have any final ask recommendation or parting message for my audience, Molly? 

Molly Maloof: The pandemic has forced people into believing that disconnection is normalized. And disconnection is not a normal part of existence. We are totally meant to live in community and in tribes. So take every single opportunity you can to connect with people.

Claudia von Boeselager: Love that. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Molly, for coming on today. It's been such a pleasure.