Fasting can reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and improve cholesterol levels.
Welcome to the Younger Longer 28-Day Healthy Heart Challenge, a transformative podcast series designed to help you take control of your heart health and live a longer, healthier life. Over the next 28 days, we’ll guide you through a comprehensive journey covering key aspects of cardiovascular wellness—nutrition, exercise, stress management, medical awareness, and lifestyle choices.
Each daily episode is packed with expert insights from Dr. Warrick Bishop, best-selling author and cardiologist dedicated to preventing heart disease before it becomes a life-threatening issue. Using the latest science and practical strategies, this series empowers you to make heart-healthy choices and build habits that will support your well-being for years to come.
What You’ll Learn in the 28 Days:
✔ Understanding Your Heart – How it functions and why proactive care is essential.
✔ Heart-Healthy Nutrition – The best foods to fuel your cardiovascular system.
✔ Exercise & Movement – The role of physical activity in strengthening your heart.
✔ Stress & Mental Well-being – Managing stress and anxiety for a healthier heart.
✔ The Power of Sleep – How sleep quality impacts cardiovascular function.
✔ The Impact of Smoking & Alcohol – Making informed lifestyle changes.
✔ Supplements & Medical Insights – Understanding key nutrients and medical checkups.
✔ Advanced Heart Testing & Risk Factors – Going beyond traditional risk assessments.
✔ Sustaining Long-Term Heart Health Habits – Turning knowledge into action for lifelong benefits.
Why Listen?
- Get practical tips and science-backed advice you can apply immediately.
- Learn from real-world examples and medical expertise.
- Gain daily challenges to help you stay engaged and track progress.
- Take charge of your heart health in a simple, effective, and engaging way.
Your heart is your most vital organ, and the steps you take today will shape your future health. Whether you’re looking to prevent heart disease, manage risk factors, or simply improve your overall well-being, this 28-day challenge is your roadmap to a healthier, longer life.
Subscribe and start your journey today—because every heartbeat counts!
Transcript
Hi, and welcome to day 18. We're going to be talking about fasting, basically, and why are we doing it and why do we bother? Well, for some people, it's potentially a way to try and drop a bit of weight, but for others of us, and I include myself, because I'm a bit of a faster, we may do it for other reasons. And when we look at fasting, if we look at cultures, we see that certain cultures that practice fasting, Lent and Ramadan and the like, these cultures with fasting as part of their cultural practices seem to show some benefit in terms of lifespan and wellbeing.
So what could be happening?
Well, it turns out that after several hours without food, your body starts to clean up the debris within the body. We call that autophagy, eating up the cells that are not doing the right job. It happens relatively soon within a fasting process, but sometimes going a little bit longer gives the body a better chance to really engage in that autophagy, that process of getting rid of the dead cells or the cells that are due for programmed cell death.
This is useful because it can reduce those cells, which as they get older can be drivers for inflammation. So getting rid of them is not a bad thing. Certainly fasting in almost all its forms improves insulin sensitivity. So someone who's carrying a bit too much weight, who reduces, who stops eating will see an improvement in the way their body responds to carbohydrate, i.e. better insulin response. With that blood pressure may improve as well.
So that's worth thinking about. And there can also be some hormonal change.
My understanding is that testosterone levels for men can pick up a little during times of fasting. Well, there are different ways to restrict food. You can use time restricted eating. That's sort of what I do. I tend to eat between the hours of about six o'clock, five thirty, six o'clock at night through till eight, eight thirty at night.
So I eat in probably a, maybe a three or four hour window. That would be referred to as four slash 20 eating. I eat in a four hour window, have 20 hours when I don't eat. For me, I find it really beneficial for my hands. I get arthritis in my thumbs. And if I break that routine, perhaps if we go skiing with friends or we're traveling and the routine gets shifted around, I find the arthritis comes back.
You could eat alternate days. You can do a 5-2 diet. You can do basically whatever works for you, or you can even follow the cultural norms within the society or community in which you live. It is interesting to see what benefit fasting can have. My own experience has been fairly positive. It's different for different people. You need to be aware that if you're looking at fasting for an extended period of time, you still need to be able to get the right amount of protein in. That's particularly important.
For me, I find it helps me maintain my weight, but really importantly, I find that it gives me quite a lot of mental clarity in the afternoons because I'm not consuming food, which often has carbohydrate in it. And then I'm not subject to that fluctuation of sugar levels, which can leave you, well, a little bit tired and yawning in the afternoon.
So fasting, very interesting. Check it out. May or may not be for you. Look at the resources we've pulled together on this one, because it is interesting.
And for now, I'm going to wind it up. I'm going to wish you the very best. I do hope you live as well as possible for as long as possible. Take care. Bye for now. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow, or at least hearing you tomorrow. Bye.
Are You at Risk of a Sudden Heart Attack? How Healthy is Your Heart? Really?
Heart disease is the #1 killer in the Western World. In Australia, someone dies every 28 minutes from heart disease. That’s 51 people a day. In the US, someone has a heart attack every 40 SECONDS! Fortunately, many heart attacks are preventable. However, regular exercise and eating healthy are no guarantee you won’t succumb to this silent killer.
- 94% of Australians have at least One Risk Factor for heart disease.
- 59% of Australians have been Touched by heart disease.
- Yet only 3% of Australians have had a Full Heart-Health Assessment in the past 12 months.
Do the free heart check today at www.virtualheartcheck.com.au
Join the Healthy Heart Network and become part of our growing community!
Do You Want to Improve Your Heart’s Health and Reduce Your Risk of Suffering a Heart Attack? Join The Healthy Heart Network For Only $5 Lifetime Access (Valued at over $55)!
The Healthy Heart Network is designed to help members:
- understand the present state of their heart’s health
- recognise their current level of risk of suffering a heart attack
- Learn the positive steps they can take to improve their situation
Visit https://healthyheartnetwork.com/ and click on the JOIN THE FAMILY BUTTON
