The Longevity Show with Dr. Hillary Lin

My cousin died of cancer before the study results came back. Researchers were testing drugs against his tumor cells in mice. They later found a promising result, but we never got to learn whether it would have helped him.

When standard treatments stop working, who gets to decide what you can try?

Attorney Ian Huyett joins me to discuss experimental treatments, expanded access, and state Right to Try laws. He makes the case for broader access. I ask what protects patients and how we learn whether a treatment helped or harmed them.

We discuss:

• Why a treatment can be scientifically possible yet hard to obtain
• What New Hampshire, Florida, and Montana are trying to change
• Why patients seek care abroad and companies develop treatments overseas
• What patient protection and outcome reporting should look like

What evidence would you want before trying an experimental treatment? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Chapters:

01:18 Why Expanded Access Falls Short

03:58 What Right to Try Laws Allow

08:16 The Challenge of Personalized Therapies

13:01 The Cost of Drug Development

15:04 Balancing Access and Patient Protection

19:37 Who Decides What Counts as a Drug?

27:07 Rethinking FDA Oversight

31:16 How Montana’s Model Works

33:25 Why Outcome Reporting Matters

Guest: Ian Huyett, New Hampshire attorney and advocate for access to experimental therapies.

Ian: https://ianhuyett.com/
Granite Bio Innovation: https://granitebio.org/

The Longevity Show with Hillary Lin, MD.

Sources and further reading

FDA — expanded access
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/investigational-new-drug-application-ind/ind-applications-clinical-treatment-expanded-access-overview

FDA — federal Right to Try
https://www.fda.gov/patients/learn-about-expanded-access-and-other-treatment-options/right-try

FDA — clinical-trial phases
https://www.fda.gov/patients/drug-development-process/step-3-clinical-research

FDA — charging for investigational drugs (2024)
https://www.fda.gov/media/176308/download

Montana — experimental treatment center licensing law
https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0500/chapter_0050/part_0020/section_0500/0500-0050-0020-0500.html

A simple cough can cause a fracture when osteoporosis has made bones fragile. What would it take to rebuild them?

I’m joined by Dr. Robert Sackstein, a bone-marrow transplant physician and pioneer of translational glycobiology. He discovered HCELL and developed GPS, a method for changing sugars on living cells to help them enter tissue.

We follow that work from a question his mentor could not answer to animal experiments and a first study in ten women with advanced osteoporosis. Robert also shares the story of his mother, the concert pianist whose fractures made the search for better care deeply personal.

In this conversation: how bone renews itself, why getting cells into tissue matters, what the early human study observed, and what a controlled trial still needs to establish.

This is an exciting question about bone repair, with important work still ahead.

Chapters:

00:00 Why Fragile Bones Need Better Answers

01:08 What Stem Cells Do in Bone Repair

05:20 How Cells Find Their Way Into Tissue

07:51 The Discovery Behind the “GPS” Method

16:46 The Personal Story Behind the Research

20:16 What the First Human Study Found

28:26 Cell Aging, Stem Cell Storage & Other Applications

33:14 From Early Results to the Next Trials

Study: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.08.017

Trial record: https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02566655

Dr. Sackstein's discovery account: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4847618/

This Phase 1 study included ten women, had no control group, and continued osteoporosis care. It does not establish a cure, the size of a treatment benefit, or rare-event safety. Educational discussion, not personal medical advice. Discuss treatment with your clinician; do not stop prescribed medication because of this interview.

Can you trust ChatGPT with medical advice? Dr. Michael Turken and I explain how to check AI health answers, verify their sources, spot missing context, and decide what to do when AI and your doctor disagree.

Dr. Michael Turken, MD, MPH, is a practicing internist at UCSF and the founder and CEO of My Doctor Friend, an AI health assistant for patients and caregivers navigating complex care. He previously worked in health technology at Google, Forward Health, and Omada Health. Michael and I trained together in internal medicine at Stanford and have been friends ever since.

Chapters:
00:00 Can You Trust AI With Your Health?

01:49 From Dr. Google to AI

03:32 Why Patients End Up Managing Their Own Care

05:16 Three Ways AI Can Get It Wrong

06:31 Confabulation and Hallucinations: When AI Makes Things Up

10:01 AI Memory and Context Limits

13:08 Sycophancy: When AI Tells You What You Want to Hear

15:52 AI, Medical Triage, and Real-World Risks

19:35 Building a Harness Around AI

22:15 Using AI to Navigate Healthcare

27:10 Practical Ways to Get Better AI Answers

MICHAEL TURKEN, MD, MPH + MY DOCTOR FRIEND

My Doctor Friend: https://mydoctorfriend.ai/r/lin

Offer: Use the referral link or code “lin” for one month of premium access, with no redemption deadline. After that, continue with the free plan (10 messages per month) or choose a paid plan.

Learn more about My Doctor Friend: https://about.mydoctorfriend.ai

Disclosure: This channel may receive compensation if you make a paid purchase through the My Doctor Friend link or code, at no added cost to you.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrMichaelTurken

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelturken/

Sovereign Care: https://michaelturken.substack.com/

WE DISCUSS

• AI hallucinations and real citations attached to wrong answers
• What AI remembers about your medical history and what it misses
• Sycophancy: when a chatbot agrees with you too readily
• What to check when AI and your doctor disagree
• Why patients managing complex care need better tools

THREE PROMPTS FROM THE CONVERSATION

“Why could you be wrong?”

“What do you know about me?”

“Don't guess. Look it up.”

Compare an AI-generated health summary with your current records and open the sources yourself. Agreement between models doesn't prove an answer is right.

Subscribe for more conversations about health, AI and longevity.

More from Dr. Hillary Lin: https://hillarylinmd.com/

My patient hiked, lifted weights, and watched what he ate. He still needed a heart stent.

High Lp(a) was a big risk factor. So when pelacarsen's HORIZON trial lowered Lp(a) but still “failed”, I wanted to know what that meant for someone like him.

In this episode, I explain what the trial actually tested, what we still don't know, and why the timing of prevention matters. I also look at the FDA's approval of an oral PCSK9 pill to lower LDL, the limits of biological-age scores, and what I'd still do with a high Lp(a) result today.

Could starting earlier change the answer? Maybe. It doesn't let us assume a drug works. The full results, including harms, still matter.

Chapters:

00:00 A Fit Patient Who Still Needed a Stent
00:45 What HORIZON's Result Means
03:26 Why Lp(a) Still Matters
05:17 How Much Lowering, and When?
07:54 Earlier Prevention and Lifetime Risk
10:45 FOURIER: When LDL Lowering Did Reduce Events
15:13 What a Big Trial Can Leave Unanswered
18:37 Why the LDL Pill Got Approved
20:44 Biological Age: Prediction vs. Intervention
21:19 What I'd Do With High Lp(a)
25:32 Statins, Niacin, and the Limits of Marker Lowering
26:37 Current Treatment and the Next Trials

Get The Longevity Letter and the heart-test guide: https://hillarylinmd.com/heart-tests

I'm Hillary Lin,MD, a physician focused on longevity and preventive care. Longevity is about choice. Subscribe for clear explanations of science and medicine to help you make informed health choices today and keep choosing how you live as you age.

More years. More choices.

This video is for education, not personal medical advice.

I’ve heard plenty of big promises about peptides. What I’m seeing in practice is a lot less dramatic, with an important exception: GLP-1s.

In this conversation with Dr. Mayoni Gooneratne, we talk about what the evidence can tell us, why the source of an injectable matters, and how GLP-1s fit into conversations about women’s health, nutrition and muscle.

We also get into the difference between off-label prescribing, compounded medicines and products sold for research use, and why a promising idea is only one part of the decision.

Original conversation hosted by Dr. Mayoni Gooneratne and shared with permission. Learn more about Dr. Mayoni: https://drmhumanhealth.co.uk/dr-mayoni

Chapters

00:00 Peptides Beyond GLP-1s

00:25 Off-Label Prescribing & FDA Approval

01:37 Compounding Pharmacies vs. "Research Use" Labs

04:36 Sourcing Safety & Why Batch Testing Matters

06:38 What Can Go Wrong? (ICU Case)

07:34 Beyond Compounds: Lifestyle Medicine First

09:02 Women’s Health, Perimenopause & GLP-1s

11:05 Sustainable Weight Loss & Muscle Preservation

13:48 Final Advice: Beating the Peptide FOMO

References:
FDA: off-label use — https://www.fda.gov/patients/learn-about-expanded-access-and-other-treatment-options/understanding-unapproved-use-approved-drugs-label
FDA: compounding — https://www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/compounding-and-fda-questions-and-answers
FDA: BPC-157 briefing — https://www.fda.gov/media/193343/download

This conversation is for education, not personal treatment advice. Discuss medication changes with your clinician.

Your inflammation test is high. Before you try to lower the number, find out what it actually measured.

I explain why ESR, CRP, hsCRP and ferritin can tell different stories, what newer tests such as GlycA can add, and why a treatment that lowers a marker still has to prove that people do better.

We’ll look at a frightening CRP result that settled on repeat testing, a ferritin result that prompted a closer look, and the heart-disease trials that separate a better lab number from a better outcome.

Read the full guide:
https://hillarylinmd.com/guides/inflammation-markers-crp-esr-ferritin

Clinical examples combine and change details to protect privacy. This is education, not personal medical advice. Interpret your results with your symptoms, history, other tests and clinician.

Chapters:

00:00 What a High Inflammation Result Means

00:24 ESR: What the Falling Blood Cells Tell Us

04:41 CRP: Why a High Result Can Disappear

08:42 hsCRP and Cardiovascular Risk

09:23 Ferritin: Iron Stores and Misleading Results

14:02 What hsCRP Predicted, and What JUPITER Tested

18:30 GlycA, Glycan Age and the Limits of Newer Tests

23:03 Do Lower Markers Mean Better Health?

Patients already get health advice from their feeds. What happens when the “doctor” on screen isn't a person?

In this Ultralight conversation, Sunita Mohanty and I talk about why real clinicians need a public voice, and how to start when posting feels unnatural and clinic already takes everything you've got.

We cover the three layers of a physician's online presence, choosing a platform that fits how you think, using AI for research without handing over your judgment, and why you should make your first videos before paying an agency to make them for you.

The point is to build trust with people you can help. Start with why you're posting, learn what works, and keep an audience you can reach beyond an algorithm.

Read the companion playbook:

https://hillarylinmd.com/guides/social-media-for-physicians

For clinicians and health builders, join The CareCore Stack:

https://stack.carecore.io/subscribe

Chapters

00:00 Fake Doctors And Trust Online
03:49 Why Doctors Hesitate To Post
05:11 The Three Layers Of Clinician Content
08:39 Find Your Why And Choose A Platform
13:28 Why Healthcare Needs More Than Viral Content
15:49 Clinicians As Educators And Storytellers
17:30 Getting Started With AI Research And Stories
24:04 Develop Your Taste Before Hiring An Agency
26:32 Build An Audience Beyond Social Platforms

Featuring Hillary Lin, MD, in conversation with Sunita Mohanty of Ultralight.

My LDL was 192 even though I felt healthy. That result sent me into the story of PCSK9—a protein discovered outside cholesterol research that became the target of injections, RNA silencing, the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor, and now one-time gene-editing experiments.

This episode follows the human genetics, LDL-receptor biology, and three engineering problems behind Lipfendra/enlicitide. The pill has proven potent LDL and ApoB lowering; its dedicated cardiovascular-outcomes trial is still ongoing.

𝘋𝘐𝘚𝘊𝘓𝘈𝘐𝘔𝘌𝘙:

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦. 𝘈𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘴.

Chapters:
00:00 The Inherited Risk: My LDL Was 192 and the First Oral PCSK9 Is Here
02:36 Nature’s Human Experiment: The Dallas Heart Study & The 88% Risk Drop
05:40 The Zero-PCSK9 Human: What Living with an LDL of 14 Proves
07:10 The Disposal Tag: How PCSK9 Destroys Your Artery Clearance
08:42 The Evolution of PCSK9 Inhibitors: From Antibodies to RNA
12:02 Evolution in a Test Tube: Engineering the First Oral PCSK9 Pill
16:04 The Practical Inversion: Why a Daily Pill Can Be Harder Than an Injection
18:04 One Injection for Life: The Promise and Risk of Permanent Gene Editing
21:12 What This Means for You: Managing Family History, Risk, and Daily Reality

A corrected version of this episode is here: https://youtu.be/SG1aq_6vkFI

What happens when you run deep, whole-body imaging and genetic sequencing on 10,000 people who feel completely healthy? Dr. Wei-Wu He, Chairman and CEO of Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), joins Dr. Hillary Lin to break down the realities of precision medicine and the hidden risks lurking in asymptomatic patients.

They discuss why standard population medicine might miss your individual risk, how polygenic risk scores are changing cardiovascular prevention, and his vision for democratizing these life-saving screenings for everyone.

About the Guest: 

Dr. Wei-Wu He is the Chairman and CEO of Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), bringing over 40 years of experience in molecular biology and biotechnology to the forefront of proactive healthcare. A seasoned biotech entrepreneur and investor, his career has been dedicated to advancing genomics and precision medicine. Under his leadership, HLI is combining whole-genome sequencing, advanced imaging, and artificial intelligence to democratize data-driven, preventative medicine and extend the human healthspan.

Disclaimer: The patient outcomes and case studies discussed in this episode are company-reported observational findings by Human Longevity, Inc., not independently verified clinical trials. Screening data should always be interpreted by a qualified clinician. A test earns its place when it changes a medical decision and includes a responsible follow-up plan.

Chapters:

00:00 What Happens When Healthy People Get Screened?

00:21 The Silent Risks: Aneurysms, Tumors, and Arterial Plaque

03:04 The Compound Effect of "Rare" Diseases

05:09 Lifespan Heritability: Is 50% of Your Life Predetermined?

05:48 Monogenic vs. Polygenic Risk Scores (PRS)

06:49 Predicting Heart Attack Risk 12 Years in Advance

10:52 Family History vs. Your Actual Genome

12:46 Inside HLI: The CEO's Vision for Data Collection

14:13 Case Study: Stool-DNA, Colonoscopy, and Appendiceal Cancer

17:04 Population Medicine vs. Individual Risk

• Dr. Lin's Longevity Tips & Newsletter: hillarylinmd.com/go/yt
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/hillarylinmd
• About Dr. Hillary Lin: hillarylinmd.com
• Explore CareCore: carecore.io
• Human Longevity, Inc (HLI): https://www.humanlongevity.com/

Your annual blood work looks perfect—but what happens when you hit a physical stressor, catch a virus, or simply start aging? Most standard labs are designed to detect disease, but they completely miss your physiologic reserve.

In this episode, Dr. Hillary Lin sits down with Brooks Leitner to discuss why VO₂ max should be treated as a clinical vital sign. Using VO Health’s early-stage blood-based proteomics as a fascinating case study, we dive into how the body actually delivers oxygen under stress, why wearable estimates aren't the whole truth, and how you can actually build a "bad-day buffer" for your long-term health.

🔍 What We’ll Cover

• The "Normal Labs" Trap: Why perfect blood work can hide dangerously low physical reserve.
• Your "Bad-Day Buffer": How to build resilience for unexpected physical stress like illness or surgery.
• The Missing Vital Sign: Why fitness should be checked right alongside your blood pressure.
• Oxygen Under Stress: What VO₂ max actually measures across your entire cellular engine.
• The Mortality Signal: The data linking higher fitness to a longer life, and what the studies really mean.
• VO₂ Max Blind Spots: Why cardio alone isn't enough to build true physical resilience.
• Data vs. Reality: Why mismatches between your smartwatch and your actual performance are valuable signals.
• Where to Start: A practical, zero-equipment method to start building your reserve today.
  
  Chapters
  00:00 Why Normal Labs Miss The Mark
  00:47 What Routine Blood Work Gets Wrong About Health
  02:03 Defining True Resilience And Hormesis
  04:34 The Shocking Decline In Population Fitness
  06:32 Cardiorespiratory Fitness: The Missing Vital Sign
  10:29 The Oxygen Cascade: How VO2 Max Actually Works
  12:55 The Surprising Data Linking VO2 Max To Mortality
  15:50 Improving VO2 Max: Is It Possible?
  17:55 Weight Loss, Muscle Mass, And Gaming Your VO2 Max
  23:54 Heart Rate Training Zones And The Problem With METs
  29:21 Why Endurance Training Won't Maximize Your VO2 Max
  32:00 What VO2 Max Completely Misses (Strength And Grip)
  35:20 Sauna, Altitude, And Drugs For VO2 Max
  42:08 Proteomics: Estimating Your VO2 Max From A Blood Test
  49:00 Wearables and Their Accuracy in Measuring Fitness
  51:53 The Ultimate Zero-Equipment Hack To Build VO2 Max
  
  Get Dr. Hillary Lin’s free longevity tips and newsletter: https://hillarylinmd.com/go/yt
  Learn more about the podcast: https://hillarylinmd.com/podcast
  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillarylinmd/
  Learn more about Dr. Hillary Lin: https://www.hillarylinmd.com/
  Explore CareCore: https://carecore.io
  VO Health: https://vohealth.co/