Want to perform better tomorrow at anything you do? Then get a good night's sleep tonight. "Sleep plays a critical role in restoration for humans; it is the housekeeping process for our physiology that allows us to restore and start the next day," says sleep expert Sahil Chopra, MD, today's guest on Healthy Longevity with Florence Comite MD.

Dr. Chopra is co-founder and chief medical officer for Empower Sleep, a virtual sleep care program that makes personalized multi-night sleep analysis and treatment accessible from home.

Nearly 40% of adults report falling asleep during the day without meaning to at least once a month. Also, an estimated 50 to 70 million Americans have chronic, or ongoing, sleep disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"If people don't sleep well, the likelihood of having cardiovascular disease … is higher, the possibility of cancer is six-fold higher," says Chopra. "Growth hormone levels are lower; cortisol dysregulation is higher. Circadian rhythms, if they are misaligned, result in a compromised metabolic state. REM sleep plays a critical role in emotional stability."

If you're suffering from brain fog or nodding off at your desk after lunch, you'll want to tune in to discover how to dramatically improve your health and health trajectory by improving your sleep habits.

You'll learn:

* Sleep debt builds slowly, so you may not recognize what it's doing to you.

* Why a one-night sleep study is not an effective way to diagnose a sleep disorder.

* Sleep trackers like Empower Sleep's medical-grade ring and consumer models like the Oura Ring provide patients with real-time analysis of their sleep quality in their own bed without spending a restless night in a sleep lab wired to a machine.

* Poor sleep is a gut punch, affecting the gut microbiome by disrupting the GI tract's normal nightly slow-down, which allows its epithelial lining to repair and recover.

* Lack of sleep compromises the immune system. Studies show that sleep-deprived people (getting four to six hours of sleep) don't respond to vaccines as well as people who get adequate sleep (seven to eight hours).

* During deep sleep stages, blood flow to the brain peaks through the glymphatic system, which clears the beta amyloid and tau proteins that are believed to play a role in Alzheimer's dementia.

* What to do an hour before bedtime and within 15 minutes of waking to reset a healthy circadian rhythm.

* Remedies for restless leg syndrome, including new technology that stimulates nerves in the legs to make the brain think that your lower limbs are moving.

* And much more!

About Florence Comite, MD

Dr. Comite began her medical journey at Yale University School of Medicine and continued at Yale with a residency in medicine. She completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology (multidisciplinary training incorporating pediatrics, gynecology, and andrology) at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She remained at the National Institutes of Health as a senior clinical research associate before joining the Yale faculty as an associate professor in endocrinology. During her 25-year faculty tenure, Dr. Comite founded and directed Women's Health at Yale.

In 2005, she launched her bespoke medical practice, Comite Center for Precision Medicine & Healthy Longevity, in New York City and subsequently expanded offices to Palo Alto and Miami Beach.

Through her medical practice and decades of clinical research, Dr. Comite recognized that all humans have inherited a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism (a glucose disorder leading toward diabetes), which is accelerated by aging and the natural decline of the hormones testosterone and estrogen, which begins around age 30.

Dr. Comite's podcast delivers the truth about your health—that age-related disease begins early in life at the cellular level. By slowing and even reversing the biological aging process, we can stay active and in great health for life. She interviews renowned physicians, researchers, and thought leaders offering surprising insights and practical tips that listeners can use to improve their own health trajectory.

Longevity isn't just a roll of the genetic dice; it's something you can actively shape. By building a plan to expand your healthspan, you're investing in your future self, ensuring that as you age, you continue to feel strong, keep your brain sharp, and live life to the fullest. Being proactive is the point of longevity medicine, which takes the best parts of conventional healthcare and wellness and helps you play an active role in your health like never before, says Delphine Le Grand, an entrepreneur in the booming longevity space. Delphine is a bridge builder, fostering partnerships with early-stage companies and longevity physicians to bring personalized, preventative care models to market. Join my conversation with Delphine as we explore this "cultural moment" that longevity medicine is currently enjoying and how it will impact you.

You'll learn:

· The longevity medicine ecosystem is still in its infancy, but hang on for an explosion of technology, bioscience breakthrough, and more that will make living well beyond 100 years common.

· The first step in building a plan to lengthen your healthspan to match your lifespan is to know your body and understand what it's telling you at the cellular level.

· Bio data is important but knowing what to do with that information to improve your health is essential. And that's the piece of the puzzle that's missing—unless you know where to look.

· The biggest breakthrough in reducing chronic cardiometabolic disease will come from reversing the carbohydrate metabolism disorder that affects 99 percent of human beings.

· To improve your health tomorrow, discover what's holding you back from living in optimal health today. Is it poor sleep, unhealthy eating, insufficient exercise, or stress? Identify your nemesis and overcome it.

About Florence Comite, MD

Dr. Comite began her medical journey at Yale University School of Medicine and continued her training there with a residency in medicine. She completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology (multidisciplinary training incorporating pediatrics, gynecology, and andrology) at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She remained at the National Institutes of Health as a senior clinical research associate before joining the Yale faculty as an associate professor in endocrinology. During her 25-year faculty tenure, Dr. Comite founded and directed Women's Health at Yale.

In 2005, she launched her bespoke medical practice, Comite Center for Precision Medicine & Healthy Longevity, in New York City and, subsequently expanded offices to Palo Alto and Miami Beach.

Through her medical practice and decades of clinical research, Dr. Comite recognized that all humans have inherited a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism (a glucose disorder leading toward diabetes), which is accelerated by aging and the natural decline of the hormones testosterone and estrogen, which begins around age 30.

Dr. Comite's podcast delivers the truth about your health—that age-related disease begins early in life at the cellular level. By slowing and even reversing the biological aging process, we can stay active and in great health for life. She interviews renowned physicians, researchers, and thought leaders, offering surprising insights and practical tips that listeners can use to improve their own health trajectory.

Next on Healthy Longevity with Florence Comite

Aug. 19: Dean Ornish, MD, world-renowned pioneer of lifestyle medicine, on practical steps to reverse chronic disease.

Trouble with arousal or orgasm? Low (or no) libido? Dryness and painful intercourse? Nearly half of all women will experience sexual dysfunction or intimacy issues like these at some point in their lives. Men suffer from some of these problems, too. But it doesn't have to be that way. Advances in sexual health medicine offer exciting new solutions for these common obstacles to a healthy (and hot) sex life. Today's Healthy Longevity guest is Carolyn DeLucia, MD, a former OBGYN, who's now helping thousands of women and men rekindle their sexuality at her practice, The Secret Orchid, in Hillsborough, NJ. Dr. DeLucia uses non-surgical techniques such as laser and sound-wave therapy, platelet-rich plasma (PRP), and hormone optimization to jumpstart libido, increase vaginal lubrication, achieve more intense orgasms, and improve overall self-confidence and satisfaction. Join me as we explore the new medicine of sexual pleasure.

You'll learn:

· Today, women are much more open about their sexual health, thanks to social media, but there's far too much misinformation online (some of it dangerous, most of it useless). Get your advice from experts who understand the science and recognize that every human is unique.

· Sexual health problems are more common than you might think. Sixty percent of women experience vaginal atrophy. A third of women suffer from urinary incontinence and 45 percent of them refrain from intimacy due to the shame.

· Instead of doing thousands of Kegels every day, laser therapy and electromagnetic stimulation of the pelvic floor strengthen the muscles surrounding the bladder and improve urinary control.

· In addition to boosting a woman's libido, testosterone cream applied to the back of the knee helps women put on lean muscle and lose fat. (An oral testosterone pill is currently being tested.)

· Os and Ahhs: A PRP therapy called the "O-Shot," improves blood flow and lubrication, increases sex drive, heightens arousal, and makes orgasms more intense. The O-Shot involves taking a small amount of blood from the arm and processing it to concentrate platelet-rich plasma, which is injected into the numbed clitoris, labia, and G-spot. The result: improved blood flow and lubrication, increased sex drive, heightened arousal, and more intense orgasms. A similar PRP therapy, the "P-Shot," is available for male sexual dysfunction.

· Part of helping women remain active and willing participants in their intimate lives is keeping their partner active, too.

· An active sex life is terrific for building self-esteem and overall health.

About Florence Comite, MD

Dr. Comite began her medical journey at Yale University School of Medicine and continued with at Yale with a residency in medicine. She completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology (multidisciplinary training incorporating pediatrics, gynecology, and andrology) at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She remained at the National Institutes of Health as a senior clinical research associate before joining the Yale faculty as an associate professor in endocrinology. During her 25-year faculty tenure, Dr. Comite founded and directed Women's Health at Yale.

In 2005, she launched her bespoke medical practice, Comite Center for Precision Medicine & Healthy Longevity, in New York City and, subsequently expanded offices to Palo Alto and Miami Beach.

Through her medical practice and decades of clinical research, Dr. Comite recognized that all humans have inherited a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism (a glucose disorder leading toward diabetes), which is accelerated by aging and the natural decline of the hormones testosterone and estrogen, which begins around age 30.

Dr. Comite's podcast delivers the truth about your health—that age-related disease begins early in life at the cellular level. By slowing and even reversing the biological aging process, we can stay active and in great health for life. She interviews renowned physicians, researchers, and thought leaders offering surprising insights and practical tips that listeners can use to improve their own health trajectory.

A decade ago, the idea of a drug that could tackle obesity, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease sounded like pure science fiction. Today, thanks to peptides like Ozempic and Zepbound, it's a reality and a lifeline to the more than 90 percent of Americans who have metabolic disease. In this episode, Dr. Comite discusses GLP-1s and other "booster shots to preventive medicine" with Rudy Eberwein, MD, founder of A New You Wellness in Miami, who specializes in weight loss, hormone optimization, and longevity. This episode answers many of the questions you may have about improving your healthspan to match your lifespan.

You'll learn…

· * That Eberwein believes only 7 percent of the U.S. population is metabolically healthy and Dr. Comite has "never seen a completely healthy human being."

· * Why doctors Comite and Eberwein believe GLP-1 medications are to healthcare in the 21st century as antibiotics were to saving lives in the 20th century.

· * That obesity is not a result of a lack of willpower.

· * About the medication combo that represents the "best one-two punch" against metabolic disease.

· * About the "exposome," and how it negatively impacts health.

· * Why Dr. Comite calls muscle "the organ of longevity."

· * The fears of getting prostate cancer on testosterone therapy are unfounded.

· * About "iron overload" and the "sweet spot" for iron and ferritin levels.

Upcoming: July 1: Carolyn DeLucia, MD, a board-certified gynecologist specializing in women's intimacy on non-surgical techniques for improving sexual health.

July 15 Brad Jacobs, MD, owner of BlueWave Medicine on wearables, meditation, and psychedelic-assisted therapies.

About Florence Comite, MD

Dr. Comite began her medical journey at Yale University School of Medicine and continued at Yale with a residency in medicine. She completed a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology (multidisciplinary training incorporating pediatrics, gynecology, and andrology) at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She remained at the National Institutes of Health as a senior clinical research associate before joining the Yale faculty as an associate professor in endocrinology. During her 25-year faculty tenure, Dr. Comite founded and directed Women's Health at Yale.

In 2005, she launched her bespoke medical practice, Comite Center for Precision Medicine & Healthy Longevity, in New York City and subsequently expanded offices to Palo Alto and Miami Beach.

Through her medical practice and decades of clinical research, Dr. Comite recognized that all humans have inherited a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism (a glucose disorder leading toward diabetes), which is accelerated by aging and the natural decline of the hormones testosterone and estrogen, which begins around age 30.

Dr. Comite's podcast delivers the truth about your health—that age-related disease begins early in life at the cellular level. By slowing and even reversing the biological aging process, we can stay active and in great health for life. She interviews renowned physicians, researchers, and thought leaders, offering surprising insights and practical tips that listeners can use to improve their health trajectory.

Not unlike your skin, your gums, the periodontal support tissues for your teeth, act as a frontline defense against bacteria and pathogens trying to enter your body. "If your gums are not healthy, you are not healthy," says biologic dentist and periodontal surgeon Alexander Volchonok, DMD, co-founder of TetraHealth Dentistry in New York City. In this episode of Healthy Longevity with Florence Comite, MD, you'll learn that the mouth is the window into the health of your entire body. Bleeding gums, a hallmark of periodontal disease, warn of dysbiosis of the mouth's microbiome and have many downstream effects that can negatively impact the endocrine system, heart health, and even the brain. Open wide and join us on a fascinating exploration of biologic dentistry, an approach that focuses on the interconnectedness of oral health with the rest of the body.

You'll learn…

· Biologic dentistry uses high-tech diagnostic modalities to test saliva for markers of inflammation and to analyze the DNA of the oral microbiome.

· High-definition scans can peer below the surface of the gum to the bone, uncovering hidden infections, that may be completely asymptomatic, early enough to prevent advanced disease.

· Declining oral health is not inevitable with age; you can have a healthy mouth and gums for the rest of your life.

· Plaques in the heart and blood vessels contain oral bacteria, which traveled there through the bloodstream from "leaky" gums.

· Oral bacteria can upregulate inflammatory cytokines like interleukin-1 and interleukin-6, which can cross the blood-brain barrier and may play a role in Alzheimer's dementia.

· Everyone should have a thorough oral screening and consider advanced screening and testing options.

· The best way to take care of your teeth and gums, according to Volchonok: use an electric toothbrush and a water flosser (like the classic Waterpik).

Would you want to know if cancer is in your health future? In many cases, detecting cancers early before they metastasize and when they are more easily treated is the key to survival and return to good health. Unfortunately, many aggressive cancers are identified in the later stages of progression, making treatment difficult and sometimes ineffective. Today, however, biomedical companies are racing to develop cancer screening technologies that may ultimately change the trajectory of cancer mortality. Leading that effort is GRAIL with its first-to-market Galleri multi-cancer early detection test, which is awaiting FDA approval. In this episode of Healthy Longevity, Dr. Comite discusses this pioneering test with Eric A. Klein, MD, a distinguished scientist at GRAIL and a long-time urologist and surgical oncologist.

You'll learn…

· Currently, we can screen for only cervical, breast, colon, lung, and prostate cancers.

· Standard screening tests only detect 14 percent of cancers. More than 80 percent of people who die of cancer succumb to cancers for which there is no screening.

· While those current tests reduce mortality, we still lose more than 600,000 patients yearly in the U.S. to cancer.

· Multi-cancer screening tests like Galleri fill an unmet need for finding the deadliest cancers before they become symptomatic.

· Cancers growing in the body shed DNA into the bloodstream. These DNA fragments act like a fingerprint of cancer that the Galleri blood test can detect.

· When a cancer fingerprint is found, the test can predict the type of organ or tissue it is linked to, which can help doctors home in on the most effective treatment.

· 1 in 200 people who take the Galleri test receive a false positive. More than 90 percent of those determined to have cancer will benefit by learning the origin of the cancer.

As research lead for the nutrition and metabolic health company Health Via Modern Nutrition (HVMA), Latt Mansor knows more than most people about what it takes to stay fit and healthy. Still, he struggled to lose fat pounds and worried about his heart health. So, Dr. Comite invited him to come to Comite Center for a blood draw, evaluation, and recommendations for interventions based on her analysis. In this episode, Dr. Mansor returns to the center to review the results of his year-long experience as a precision medicine patient and learn how he reversed the risks that were leading him toward the cardiovascular trouble that killed his father.

You'll learn…

• What is "reactive hypoglycemia" and why having high insulin is dangerous even if your HbA1C number is low.

• Why insulin, the fat-storage hormone, makes it so difficult to shed fat mass.

• The dietary supplements that helped Mansor lower his cholesterol risk ratio number, improve his HDL "good" cholesterol, and drop his high 200 LDL "bad" cholesterol to 110.

• The reason Dr. Comite advises patients like Mansor to take vitamin K2 along with vitamin D for bone and heart health.

• Why consistency in using testosterone or human chorionic gonadotropin is critical for maintaining muscle mass and losing weight.

• The change in Mansor's exercise routine that led to a dramatic improvement in his VO

  2"> 22 max and potential for longevity, reducing his risk of cardiovascular death by nearly 25 percent over the next decade.

• How Mansor lost 22 pounds and dropped his body fat percentage from nearly 27 percent to 16.3 percent while maintaining muscle mass.

As a hospitalist at Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn's largest and busies safety-net hospital, Dr. Maryam Baqir, treated some of sickest patients imaginable at the worst of times imaginable—during the COVID-19 pandemic. Seeing such pain and suffering every day left her with the profound realization that so much can be prevented; we don't have to wait to be sick," she says. In this episode, Dr. Comite interviews Dr. Baqir about her recent move from conventional medicine's reactive approach to a proactive, preventive method of care, a shift Dr. Comite made more than 20 years ago when began practicing precision medicine.

You'll learn…

• Most conventional medicine is excellent at saving lives and treating disease but does a poor to fair job of preventing illness from emerging.

• As a front-line physician during COVID, Dr. Baqir became very skilled at taking care of very sick people but realized her greatest desire was to help them stay out of the hospital.

• A diabetes diagnosis is not inevitable. You can escape a genetic predisposition through lifestyle changes and medication.

• Strokes don't have devastate lives; 80 percent can be prevented.

• Why both doctors say spending more time with patients is essential to getting at the root causes of illness and disease.

• When she starts patients on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro, Dr. Baqir says they often embrace eating healthier and exercising regularly.

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with cancer, the hour you spend listening to this podcast will be life-changing and, possibly, lifesaving. In this episode, Dr. Comite talks with breast cancer survivor Joelle Kaufman, author of the book Crushing the Cancer Curveball. Kaufman was a cancer caregiver (to her mother and sister) before she was a breast cancer patient herself. "The BRACA1 gene was woven into our DNA fabric like an unwanted heirloom," she says. Kaufman and Lauren Esserman, MD, director of the Breast Care Center at University of California, San Franciso School of Medicine and the surgeon who performed her double mastectomy take Dr. Comite through Kaufman's journey and share eye-opening insights and advice for newly diagnosed cancer patients and their family and friends.

You'll learn…

• You must know your body, touch your body. Become a phenomenal body scout.

• Remember to do a monthly breast self-exam at the first of the month, a week after your period, or whenever you remember. Get to know what your breasts feel like because the most important thing is change.

• If you have a family history of cancer, bring that up every time you see a clinician.

• When meeting with an oncologist, always ask "can I record this," or have a friend take notes.

• Cancer is not an emergency You have time, and it takes time to understand the biology to have the proper care tailored to the type of tumor you have.

• Everyone's cancer can be unique. Avoid accepting lots of advice from people who don't know the nuances of your cancer.

• Give yourself permission to rage. It's OK to feel all the emotions you're feeling. If you resist, it persists.

• Consider "cold cap" therapy, which can potentially reduce hair loss by limiting the amount of chemotherapy reaching the hair follicles.

• You need community. Start a caring bridge that let friends know what help you need.

• Love with abandon; the love will come back to you.

Many women who can benefit from hormones are still sitting on the sidelines because of long-held misconceptions about health risks of hormone therapy. "We need to move on from that crazy debate that hormones are bad," says gynecologist and integrative medicine physician Felice Gersh MD, author of PCOS SOS and Menopause: 50 Things You Need to Know. "Estradiol is the elixir of life!" In this episode, Dr. Comite interviews Dr. Gersh about how insufficient hormones dramatically impact a woman's current and future health.

You'll learn…

· Not only can hormone therapy ease hot flashes, sleep disturbance, and other symptoms of menopause, it reduces insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease risk in menopausal women, optimizes production of growth factors in the brain and supports bone health.

· Breast cancer is more common after menopause when estrogen levels drop.

· The close connection between PCOS and Menopause.

· Chronic inflammation upregulates aromatase and changes estrogen into an unhealthy form called "estrone."

· 50% of women with PCOS have a first-degree relative who has PCOS.

· While excess testosterone is blamed for PCOS, polycystic ovary syndrome is primarily a condition caused by not enough estradiol.

· "You can't heal without hormones, but until you're healed, you won't make the hormones," says Dr. Gersh.

· Why you should take estradiol in cream or patch form, not orally.