of studies showing what a powerful
difference changes in diet and lifestyle
can make you know simple changes a Whole
Foods plant-based diet that’s naturally
low in fat and sugar various stress
management techniques including
meditation and yoga moderate exercise
and what we call psychosocial support or
reduce it even further to eat well move
more stress less love more that’s it and
it’s it’s creating a field called
lifestyle medicine which is using
lifestyle changes not only to help
prevent disease but actually to treat it
and often even reverse it and so we’ve
used for the last 40 years these very
high-tech expensive state-of-the-art
scientific measures to prove how
powerful these very ancient and and and
and and powerful approaches these can be
you know the more diseases that we’ve
studied in the more underlying
biological mechanisms we look at the
more reasons we have to explain why
these changes are so powerful and how
quickly they can occur and I think these
findings are giving literally millions
of people new hope and new choices but
what I want to focus on today is what I
consider the most important epidemic
which is the epidemic of loneliness and
isolation and depression you know 50
years ago there’s no no I mean it’s been
a radical transformation in our society
50 years ago people most people had an
extended family they saw regularly they
had a job that felt secure that they’d
been out for ten years or more and so
had their colleagues so they got to know
each other they had two or three
generations of people living in a
neighborhood they had a church or
synagogue they went to regulate and most
people today don’t have any of those and
part of the value of research is it can
raise awareness and awareness to me is
always the first step in healing and
part of what we’re learning from these
studies is that study after study are
showing that people who are lonely and
depressed and isolated are three to ten
times more likely to get sick and die
prematurely from pretty much all causes
when compared to those who have a sense
of love and connection in the community
and I don’t know anything in medicine
that has that powerful an impact and so
one of the reasons why growing up in a
family or with two or three generations
of people is that people actually know
you they don’t just know your facebook
profile or your biosketch they know when
you messed up you know they saw you
whatever it was they know your demons
they know your problems and
you know that they know and they know
that you know that they know and there’s
something very primal about being seen
in that way it’s kind of like in James
Cameron’s movie Avatar you know I see
you you know it’s sort which is really
from an African proverb just being seen
in all of who you are or warts and all
is incredibly powerful and so it’s not
enough we’ve learned you know I’m doing
these studies I’ve asked people you know
why do you smoke and why do you overeat
and drink too much and work too hard and
abuse substances these behaviors seem
some maladaptive and they look at me
they go you don’t get it you don’t have
a clue these behaviors are maladaptive
they’re very adaptive because they help
us deal with our loneliness our
depression or isolation they’ll say
things like you know I I’ve got 20
friends in this pack of cigarettes and
they’re always there for me and nobody
else is you’re gonna take away my 20
friends what are you gonna give me you
know or food fills that void or fat
coats my nerves and numbs the pain or
alcohol or other drugs numb the pain
that’s why we have an opioid epidemic
it’s just part of a larger issue or
video games numb the pain or more
socially acceptable way is working all
the time numbs the pain we’ve all done
that and so we can’t just give people
information we can’t just you know focus
on the behavior we have to focus on
these deeper issues because ultimately
that’s what makes them sustainable and I
first got interested in this in my own
life when I was a freshman in college at
Rice University in Houston and became
suicide depressed and came about as
close to killing myself as you can
without actually doing it it wasn’t in
the course catalog but it turned out I
later found out that the highest suicide
rate per capita of any school in the
country and I became suicidal because
not only did I feel like I was stupid
but I felt like I could take all the
meaning out of everything you know so
what big deal
who cares nothing matters why bother you
know all the usual things like that and
it became a you know depression severe
depression is a real reality distortion
field as Steve Jobs used to talk about
in other words you think you’re seeing
things clearly for the first time things
are bad they’ll always be bad they’ve
always been bad and anytime you thought
otherwise you were just fooling yourself
and that’s where the the hallmark of
depression which is the helplessness and
hopelessness comes from is that belief
that things are always going to be bad
and so there’s an old saying that when
the student is ready the teacher appears
and for me what really saved
was an ecumenical spiritual teacher
named Swami Satchidananda and he taught
me that I was looking in the wrong place
for my health and my well-being he he
liked to make puns people would say what
are you a Hindu he’d say no I’m an undo
you know and and he helped me learn
where do peace and health really come
from and that’s really the central focus
of what I want to talk about today
because our whole culture the whole
advertising industry teaches is it comes
from outside ourselves just yet
more stuff more accomplished more more
money more whatever then you’ll be happy
and the problem is that the you know
once you buy into that view of the world
until you however it turns out you feel
bad if only I had more whatever then I’d
be happy until you get it you’re unhappy
by definition if someone else gets it
and you don’t then you’re really unhappy
and makes you feel like we live in this
zero sum game dog-eat-dog world the more
you get the lesser is for me if you
never get it your bed and if you get it
it’s seductive in the moment it’s like I
got it it’s mine but it doesn’t usually
last it’s usually followed either by now
what you know one patient told me I
can’t even enjoy the view from the
mountain I’ve climbed the MARTA looking
over the next one or so what big deal it
doesn’t really provide that lasting
meaning that I thought it would and
another you know patients said you know
the the the letdown that comes from
accomplishing the goal is so great I
always make sure I have a dozen projects
going at the same time but what I
learned from the Swami and really it’s
part of all spiritual traditions is that
the peace and health are there already
it’s not something you have to get it’s
something that we have already and that
the goal of all these different
practices meditation and yoga and prayer
and whatever it is that you happen to do
is not that they bring you a sense of
peace and well-being but rather they
help us quiet down our mind and body to
experience what’s already there and and
and that’s may sound like you know
parsing words and semantics but it’s all
the difference in the world because if
you have to get that from outside of
yourself like when I was in medical
school I I got depressed because I
thought I was never gonna get in the
medical school and you know be all alone
and but but the problem is is that if if
you think it comes from outside you
everyone who has what you think you need
has power over you whereas if it’s if
I’m starting to feel anxious or worried
or upset I can say what am i doing
that’s disturbing what’s already there
and that is very empowering
I can do something about that otherwise
everybody has power over me and so when
we quiet down our minded bodies we can
experience even if it’s only momentarily
if you’ve meditated or you do whatever
you do to quiet down your mind and
you’re feeling more peaceful remind
yourself remind yourself that that
feeling didn’t come from the meditation
it was already there what you did is at
least temporarily he removed what was
disturbing that and the other thing that
happens is that when you quiet down your
mind you begin to hear your own inner
teacher your own inner guru your own
inner wisdom the still small voice
within whatever name you give to that
it’s that voice that wakes us up at 3:00
in the morning and says hey Dean listen
up pay attention you’re not doing
something that’s in your best interest
or here’s something that you might want
to think about that’s really creative
you know all the studies that I’ve done
really came from that place and then
kind of reverse engineering to see if I
could prove that they were that those
insights were really true and when you
learn to recognize that voice you can
tie into that you can tap into that even
in the in the busiest times of your day
if you just take a moment and stop and
listen and the other thing that happens
when you quiet when we quiet down our
mind enough is that we experience what
it means to be in a transcendent state
and by that it means that on one level
you know obviously we’re separate you’re
you and I mean but on another level or a
part of something larger that connects
us all together whatever name you give
to that even to give it a name is to
limit what’s essentially an ineffable a
limitless infinite experience this
interconnectedness this oneness and all
the what Aldous Huxley call the
perennial philosophy what you find in
all the different religions once people
stop killing themselves over the
differences in rituals and so on the
love compassion altruism and empathy and
forgiveness really come from that place
of transcendence it’s a direct
experience that when you see a people as
you in another form then naturally
compassion flows from that but you know
you know it’s it’s not that you have to
get that we disturb our own inner sense
of ease and we become diseased or you
know the the ancient Swami’s and rabbis
and priests and monks and nuns didn’t
discover these approaches just to unclog
their arteries or lower their blood
pressure cholesterol they can do all
those things but these are really
powerful tools for transformation they
free us from our suffering right here
and right now
and I first learned this when I was
doing my very first study 40 years ago
and I was a second year medical student
and I had ten men and women who had
really bad heart disease and I put him
in a hotel for a month and one of the
guys was an older dentist who was
homophobic and of course one of the
younger guys was gay and so the older
guys had some really awful stuff to the
younger guy the Eiger said some equally
awful stuff back they started yelling at
each other at the top of their lungs one
just clutched his chest and an Djimon
took a nitroglycerin the other clutched
his chest took a Demerol slammed the
door slammed the door I thought wow
they’re both going to die and this is
going to be the end of my very short
research career so I talked to them I
said look you’re giving the power to
give you chest pain and maybe even a
heart attack and die to the guy that you
hate the most that’s not really smart
even from your own self-interest
especially from your own self-interest
and so they became more loving and
compassionate didn’t have any more
participating so the suffering can be a
doorway for transforming our lives you
know when Nelson Mandela was released
from prison after 16 years and had his
long walk to freedom people said are you
do you are you angry with your jailers
and he said well you know they took away
the best years of my life but if I’m
still if I still hate them that I’m
still in prison in my heart and so
anything that really brings us together
is healing you know and that intimacy to
me is the root of healing even the word
healing comes from the root to make
whole yoga from the Sanskrit to yoke to
unite Union these are really old ideas
that we’re rediscovering you know versus
the other you know if you see people is
different and only different then that
leads to those Mexican rapists and those
Muslim terrorists and all those horrible
things that come from that basic
misunderstanding of what the way things
really are whereas when we can be
grounded in that transcendent state
compassion and love and caring all
really flow naturally from that and so
it’s a kind of a double vision that on
one level were separate on another level
were not and so my teacher built a
temple out on the James River outside of
Charlottesville and it has a beam of
light coming up and then it hits a beam
splitter and it illuminates the altars
of all the different religions with the
idea that truth is one you know paths
are many and it helps us get past a lot
of these false choices you know I’ve
been doing research for a long time
people say oh you know you know am I
going to live longer is there just going
to seem longer if I change my diet and
lifestyle you know is it fun for me or
is it good for me you know
the only way that you get to live to be
a hundred is by not doing all the things
that make you want to live to be a
hundred you know variations on those
themes but actually this is what allows
us to leave the most juicy life that the
spiritual teachers that I’m attracted to
the Dalai Lama and the Swami and others
are the ones that live a joyful life
they just being around them you make it
makes you feel good and if it’s
meaningful then it’s sustainable and if
it’s pleasurable then it’s sustainable
and one of the things I learned when I
was in college as I mentioned is I could
take all the meaning out of everything
but I also learned that I could imbue
choices with meaning and one of the ways
of doing that is by just by choosing not
to do certain things that you otherwise
could do imbues those choices with
meaning so when I talk to someone and
say you know if you’d a plant-based diet
you can reverse heart disease and
diabetes and prostate cancer and change
your gene expression and lengthen your
telomeres and reverse aging in a
cellular level and the more diseases we
study and the more mechanisms we look at
the more evidence we have for that but
when people say gosh you know I mean I
can’t have everything I want you say
well you can do anything you want you’re
free but you know all spiritual
traditions have dietary guidelines and
they’re often different from each other
in one religion you can eat this but not
that or certain days of the week or
certain times a day and you know is it
all right it’s God confused I don’t know
but whatever intrinsic benefit there is
in making certain diet and lifestyle
choices just the act of choosing not to
eat something that you otherwise could
do imbues those cases with meaning and
if it’s meaningful than it’s sustainable
and because these underlying biological
mechanisms are so dynamic most people
feel so much better so quickly it
reframes the reason for making these
changes from fear of dying to joy of
living and joy of and pleasure and
feeling good are really what are
sustainable and even in relationships
you know there was a South Indian say in
100 years ago named Ramakrishna and he
said you can dig a lot of shallow wells
and never reach reach water or you can
dig one deep one and reach the
wellspring and so for example my my wife
and I have been together for 20 years
and before that I used to date other
people which was really fun but we
decided to be in a committed monogamous
relationship now again is that the ball
and chain well it certainly can be or is
it a way of creating a sacred space and
a sense of safety because you know you
can only be intimate to the degree you
can open your
hard and be vulnerable and you can only
do that to the degree you feel safe and
so we feel more and more safe over the
years as we are we you know we continue
to trust each other and it’s like layers
of an onion you know the more you can
open the more incident becomes and the
more intimate comes the more erotic it
becomes which I never knew before and so
it’s it’s instead of having the same
kind of experience with different people
it’s these profoundly different
experiences with the same person and and
that and the more intimate it becomes
the more fun it becomes and so you know
when we have a day together we’re not
trying to create recreate an experience
that we might have had before however
wonderful that might have been we’re
where we have what’s called beginner’s
mind you know we’re open to all
possibilities all degrees of freedom
we’re not trying to create something
we’re just trying to be open to whatever
flows from that because if we’re just
trying to create something recreate
something it won’t be fresh and so we
trust each other enough to be open to
whatever happens and most of the time
it’s like the most intensely erotic
wonderful experience that either one of
us has ever had and not just by a little
but by a lot even after many years
together and so you know with because it
allows us to go so much deeper which
makes it more intimate which makes it
more erotic and so it’s not a moral
issue it’s it’s just like okay what
brings you the most pleasure and the
most fun just like yeah you if you eat a
plant-based diet you’re helping the
world you know you you know there’s less
global warming and all that but more
importantly you you think more clearly
you have more energy you need less sleep
your sexual function improves you you
know you’re you you can grow some of the
new brain neurons you’re breaking
immeasurably bigger and so what we gain
is so much more than what we give up and
to make great art great science great
love making great anything is that
ability to see with without
preconceptions so that you can be open
to all possibilities and all degrees of
freedom it’s a difference between
imitation and innovation and so if it’s
pleasurable it’s sustainable and what we
gain is is so much more than what we
give up and so it’s not just how long we
live it’s how well we live and I’m
learning that these ancient spiritual
truths actually give us the great amount
of pleasure which is what makes them so
sustainable and so thank you for the
chance to share that with you today I really appreciated