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The Health Edge: translating the science of self-careAuthor: Mark Pettus MD and John Bagnulo PhD, MPH
Its not what we dont know that gets us into trouble. Its what we know that aint so. Will RogersWe believe the explosion of life science research from many disciplines had catapulted ahead of our capacity to process, integrate, understand, and apply. We are interested in translating all that is out there as news to use. A fundamentally different understanding of human biology has emerged. The implications from the perspective of self-care are profound. We are rapidly moving away from the debate of nature versus nurture toward an understanding that life emerges from a dynamic landscape of nature via nurture. We are passionate about the science. We are passionate about the implications. We believe in the capacity and possibility made possible by being alive here and now! We are beautifully designed to be on the African Savannah, living fully integrated with our planet, and in the context of social relationship. Our modern environment is not well designed to promote human health and the capacity to thrive. Many are struggling to maintain balance and traction in lives that often feel overwhelming and frightening.The challenge is to better leverage our superb ancestral adaptation for a different and radically challenging modern environment. Everything that touches us today has the potential be be very familiar or totally foreign. The less aware one is of the day to day distance between what we are biologically , as a species, familiar with and what we actually encounter, the fewer the possibilities for more effective alignment. Leaving ones health trajectory to chance in our modern environment is a very risky proposition. We are interested in holding the science to the light with an open and humbled mindset. Like you, We are intrepid explorers interested in how we emerge in the midst of our relationship with the environmental inputs of our liveshow we eat, how we move, how we sleep, how we navigate the mind fields of conflict in our lives, how socially conn Language: en Genres: Alternative Health, Health & Fitness, Medicine Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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How Positive Age Beliefs Improve Cognitive Function And Fitness in Seniors
Episode 7
Wednesday, 18 March, 2026
Send a textIf you’ve ever caught yourself thinking that aging automatically means pain, weakness, or losing your independence, this conversation is a reset. We dig into a Yale study published in *Geriatrics* showing that beliefs about aging are not just “nice ideas” but measurable predictors of how well we think and move as the years pass. When you treat mindset as part of health science, the story of getting older starts to look far more hopeful and far more actionable. We walk through the research design using the Health and Retirement Study (over 11,000 adults age 65+ followed for years), including how researchers measured attitudes toward aging, tested cognitive function, and used walking speed as a practical marker of physical function. The headline finding stopped us in our tracks: roughly 45% of participants improved in cognitive and or physical performance over time. Even more striking, more positive age beliefs strongly correlated with a higher likelihood of improvement, including for people who started below average. From there, we connect the dots to health span and compression of morbidity, the idea that we can live more years with high quality of life and fewer years of disability. We also talk epigenetics and why “don’t be a prisoner of your DNA” is more than a slogan, plus the everyday levers that make the biology real: movement, sleep, stress response, community, purpose, and setting new goals later in life. If this shifts your perspective, please subscribe, share with someone who needs hope about aging, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.For the video, reference study and slides go to www.thehealthedgepodcast.com
