Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Hi, and welcome to season two of does this make me look old, a podcast about aging as gracefully as possible when you're just not ready.
Speaker 2 00:00:14 Middle aged friends, uh, one middle-aged friend and one friend who seems to be diluted about her age, Who wants to discuss topics around aging as they're starting to become more relevant to us, whether one wants to admit that to themselves or not.
Speaker 1 00:00:29 Yes. Well, I'm Sam an anthropologist at heart Dory from finding Nemo and spirit, and basically never going to be the type to ever admit to being.
Speaker 2 00:00:39 And I'm sure a physician interested in the science and medicine around aging, but also interested in how society and the media look at aging. And if that means that I have to take the hit by reading gossip, blogs to find out I will do so
Speaker 1 00:00:51 This season, we channel our love for pop culture and talk about shows, books, people, everything, all through the lens of getting older.
Speaker 2 00:01:00 We'll be covering topics such as how sexuality changes as you age aging as a disease, and even how sex and the city approaches aging. Now that Carrie is in her fifties
Speaker 1 00:01:09 And throughout it all, we chat Lance and laugh, but our own adult illness.
Speaker 2 00:01:14 So join us as we navigate our second quarter-life crisis.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of does this make me look old? I'm SIM and shim is here as well today.
Speaker 3 00:01:27 Hey, how are you?
Speaker 1 00:01:29 Good. How are you?
Speaker 3 00:01:31 Thanks, Harry. Well, I just asked how are you?
Speaker 1 00:01:34 Okay. One of those weeks.
Speaker 3 00:01:35 Yeah, I just came back from a vacation I'm clearly like mentally not there.
Speaker 1 00:01:44 That's actually a sign of a really good vacation.
Speaker 3 00:01:47 Yeah. Let's hope so. So, so otherwise, yeah, I know anyway,
Speaker 1 00:01:55 Chance to relax
Speaker 3 00:01:58 Some worse, like I should stop doing this, but like I always ended up doing work on vacations. And so I ended up working partly on my vacation and feeling very resentful about it, but, but then, uh, but towards the end, like, you know, I got somewhere relaxing and so it's good.
Speaker 1 00:02:17 And, um, it was St Patty's day. Did you celebrate St Patty's day at all?
Speaker 3 00:02:23 No. No. Yeah. Yeah. This, so this St Patrick's day, basically I went on a hike, so very
Speaker 1 00:02:32 Healthy,
Speaker 3 00:02:33 Very healthy. It's like every not and St. Patrick's day.
Speaker 1 00:02:37 Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 00:02:38 So yeah, I know. I actually in like, yeah, like, I mean, I was in BC and
Speaker 1 00:02:45 That's why you went through a hike.
Speaker 3 00:02:47 Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 00:02:51 BC lifestyle.
Speaker 3 00:02:54 Exactly. So, you know, yeah. I mean, I saw a lot of green on the trees, but that was basically it. How was your St Patrick's day?
Speaker 1 00:03:06 Oh, it was all right. I, I was, I was not on vacation and, uh, I was working so fun.
Speaker 3 00:03:17 Goodness.
Speaker 1 00:03:18 Yeah. So fun. No, it's, it's, it's really funny. Like back in the day, I feel like, you know, uh, St Patty's day was like, Ooh, like we have to go out and have fun. Everybody's Irish for the day, um, was not Irish for this student this
Speaker 3 00:03:36 Year.
Speaker 1 00:03:38 We were in lockdown anyway, anyway, right last year or The year before as well. So
Speaker 3 00:03:45 I feel
Speaker 1 00:03:45 Like I get, maybe that's why I don't remember what St Patty's day is like.
Speaker 3 00:03:49 Yeah, no, I think, I think that because of COVID both, yeah. There were two, there were lockdowns during St. Patrick's day. So I think for two years people couldn't celebrate it. I mean, people would kind of go really crazy for St. Patrick's day this year, but like, I can't, well, I mean, I guess it's hard to know whether or not they did because I was not there. So
Speaker 1 00:04:13 I don't actually know. Um, I feel very uncool shift.
Speaker 3 00:04:19 Well, I was never cool. So it doesn't really change anything
Speaker 1 00:04:24 Mid, neither was. I was never cool.
Speaker 3 00:04:28 I know, although, yeah. I mean, although like, yeah, friends of ours did go out and it sounds like they, they did it up. Right. They made it made up for all the last time. They made up for the loss for the St. Patrick's days gone and lost. So yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, I dunno, I, I was never really very, I was never really into St. Patrick's day. Very much so.
Speaker 1 00:04:56 Yeah. No, I, I mean, for me, I think, I mean, I used to always participate, I guess, just go out for fun and stuff like that, but I was never a huge, like, oh my gosh, it's St. Patty's day. We have to drink till Dawn kind of a thing. But anyway, no, not that it would do much good anyway these days. Cause I feel like my drinking power and capacity have gone down over the, over the years,
Speaker 3 00:05:23 Uh, the trials and tribulations of an aging liver.
Speaker 1 00:05:28 Is that what it is like, has this happened to you at all? Like, okay, let's talk about this. Um, like have you ever, like, has your drinking pattern or style changed over the years?
Speaker 3 00:05:40 Um, not really. Cause I never did drink all that much. Like when we went out, I would never really like, I wasn't one of those people that were like, we're going to drink until I pass out or I'm going to drink to get super drunk. It was mainly like, like I would drink socially, but it would be like one or two drinks. And mainly because I like, like the taste of whatever I was drinking, not like to get drunk. So nothing's really changed. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have, I have had like, I've had like some heavy drinking outings, but like, but so few of them that, like, I don't think that my drinking patterns have really changed all that much.
Speaker 1 00:06:22 Okay. Now not just the volume though. What about like tastes like things you would drink?
Speaker 3 00:06:28 Yeah. So, I mean, I guess I have more of an appreciation of wine and scotch now, so, oh yeah. Okay. So that's the thing. So like when I was young, like when I was really young and like we could only like, like drink at 18 or whatever, like I wouldn't go for Yeah. Cause I was from, cause in Manitoba that the drinking Got illegally.
Speaker 1 00:06:55 And why did I not know this? I think I'm still Ontario centric.
Speaker 3 00:07:01 Yeah. I think in most places it's 18 actually again, I think there's very, like, I'd be got to raise what are the few ones with like a higher drinking.
Speaker 1 00:07:10 Great. So I missed out a whole year of drinking is what you're telling me. God
Speaker 3 00:07:15 Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. So when I was younger, I wouldn't really, I drink mainly like mixed drinks and like nothing like nothing. Yeah. Like obviously like not super hard liquor or anything like that. But then I, um, when I was in med school, one of the, one of my co like one of my coworkers, like the other resident, he was super into scotch. He was older. Who's, he's a bit older than me. Like he, he like, he'd gone to graduate school and stuff like that. So he's like at least several years older than me. And he was like really into scotch. And so then he was like, oh, I've got to try scotch. And so I was like, okay. Yeah. So then in my mid twenties is when I started drinking scotch. And then that's when I like developed like a taste for scotch. Um,
Speaker 1 00:08:01 Yeah, he drank like a 40 year old man. When you were in your mid twenties?
Speaker 3 00:08:05 Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:08:11 Actually tasted like tasted, tasted scotch until maybe I was in my thirties early thirties. Maybe. I don't remember like, you know, I think I'm in my twenties. Um, I, I think I was a much more the classic pattern of the fruity cocktails when I was younger, you know, peach knobs and
Speaker 3 00:08:35 Ever, I have never had peach shops
Speaker 1 00:08:38 Really
Speaker 3 00:08:39 Never had
Speaker 1 00:08:41 Tastes
Speaker 3 00:08:41 Like at all.
Speaker 1 00:08:42 And then long island iced teas and Dunes and purple haze, you know, like martinis. So I think I was more into, um, I didn't start drinking beer until much later until until business school. And I think wine was, I don't, I think wine was in my thirties. Like I think I started developing the appreciation for wine in my thirties. So in terms of drinking, like what I drank, like I do see, uh, like a shift right. In, in, in what I prefer and how I prefer. And the taste has sort of, I don't, I don't know if the evolve is the right word, but probably is,
Speaker 3 00:09:31 Which has changed that it's like necessarily. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:09:36 I guess.
Speaker 3 00:09:37 Yeah. But I still like those sugary drinks. Like I don't, like, I've never not liked them. You know what I mean? Like some people are like, oh, I don't know. I could never drink a chocolate martini. And I'm like, I still like them. They're pretty good. I don't know what you're talking about. So yeah. I, yeah. I don't know. I mean, I guess, yeah. Like I think I just, I think I probably, it was probably the same for me. I just ended up yeah. It's just because of my, my re my resident friend who was like start drinking scotch now. And actually, because I, we lived in that because we lived in Montreal, they'd always have wine with everything. Right. Yeah. So I started drinking like an old person in my mid twenties,
Speaker 1 00:10:29 Um, scotch and whiskey.
Speaker 3 00:10:32 Oh, so yeah. So they're there. It's the same. It's the same. Yes and no. So scotch is whiskey. Only certain whiskeys can be named scotch because scotch is made is from
Speaker 1 00:10:43 Scotland and it
Speaker 3 00:10:45 Has to be, it can't be like, it can't be blended. It's like a single, it's like a single, uh, sink. Like it's, it's, it's like a, like, it's a one distillation basically. Yeah. That's okay.
Speaker 1 00:10:58 Yeah. So are you enough of an expert to be able to tell?
Speaker 3 00:11:02 Um, no. I, I highly doubt. I could tell if it was blended versus not, but I can tell certain regions from one in Miller. Yeah. I mean, like Barry, they're like in very broad strokes, I can probably do it. And then, um, yeah, but I'm like, I'm not so good as to be like, oh, this is like an all contortion, like 10 year old or like, you know where this is like a hard bag. Like I can't do that, but like, yeah. But I can probably, I can probably kind of have like a very general idea of like parts of Scotland. It might've come from, but like I, yeah, like not, um, I'm not, I'm not that I'm not that much of an expert at all. I just don't really like, I guess that, uh, yeah. I mean, I, I know that as get older, you can't drink as much, but I don't know. I don't know if that'll affect me and I don't know. Cause it's not like a drink called up. So we'll see. I don't think my liver's too happy about it. That was, that's the only thing. Yeah. But I haven't feel like that's just because I'm just like unhealthy in general.
Speaker 1 00:12:12 No, you're not. I do remember that we were actually all surprised when, um, was it a couple of years ago, right before COVID where you were like, oh, I'm not going to drink this. Like, I'm not going to drink on Sundays because it wreaks havoc on
Speaker 3 00:12:29 I'm asleep. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, now that, that always happens. So like, I just find that, like, I know a lot of people are like, oh, alcohol helps you sleep. But it really doesn't like, I think it helps you maybe fall asleep. So it might help with like sleep initiation, but it doesn't actually help you sleep. Cause it like really messes up with like with REM sleep. And I think it doesn't really help you get very restful sleep. So I always find that like if I drink then during the night, I'm, I'm waking up way more often than I would if I was not drinking. So yeah. So I tend not to drink on, I try not to drink before I try not to drink on Sundays for sure. Because then I won't be able to sleep properly and Mondays are rough. So yeah, these are rough in general, but then like, yeah, if you had alcohol, that makes it 16.
Speaker 1 00:13:20 So, so say miss scientist, tell me, um, alcohol, so, okay. So, but is it true that as you age you're, you are not able to, I don't know, process alcohol
Speaker 3 00:13:39 As well. I mean, I think
Speaker 1 00:13:42 Like does age impact your drinking ability? I guess?
Speaker 3 00:13:48 Yeah. I mean, I think that my in broad strokes, yes. So like, I think like an 80 year old is not able to metabolize alcohol in the same way that like a 20 year old can, you know, I guess according to different degrees of weather, like how functional your liver is, because if you were like a huge drinker in your twenties and suddenly in your forties or liver function, isn't that good then? Yeah. I'm sorry. You won't be able to metabolize it as well either. But like, I think that, I don't know that like a 10 year age difference is really going to make all that much. Like it's going to really affect it all that much. Like, you know, like if you're 22 versus 32, but I don't know, as you're getting older, like 52 versus 32 or like 62 versus 32, that probably will make a difference mainly because, Hey, mainly because your like body mass is different.
Speaker 3 00:14:37 Yeah. And like, and, and just like your liver function is different too, right? Like as you age and as your body's been metabolizing things over time, like it just won't be able to metabolize alcohol in the same way as it did in your twenties. When you have like a perfectly lovely functional liver that hadn't been abused over the years, like they have, like, they have done research that does show that older people do metabolize alcohol differently. But like, I can't, I can't see that, like, if you were in your like mid thirties, that it's really all that different from when you were like in your whole, at least thirties, you know, so, but, but like maybe like in your mid thirties and forties, it is slightly different from when you were in your twenties.
Speaker 1 00:15:28 Yeah. I mean, I don't know, like, so I actually don't know if it's a physiological thing or a psychological thing, but I find that, I don't know, like maybe it's the fact that I don't now that I'm in my forties, I'm not, I don't enjoy the feeling of waking up with a hangover. Um, you know, and maybe it just feels like it takes, um, longer the next day to sort of recover, you know? And, and I don't know if before I just pushed through and just, didn't just didn't deal with it. You know, Now, I mean, I probably don't get to that point in the first place. And so it's always just a social drink. Um, you know, having a half a glass of wine or something like, you know, with, with dinner, um, once in a while kind of a thing. But so, but I don't know if it's a psychological thing where I'm like, well, I don't want to deal with the impact.
Speaker 3 00:16:20 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:16:21 And so I'm just going to stick to, you know, just a moderate amount or if it's because I just don't mix and match. Whereas I think when I was younger, I didn't really know not to, so a case of like, Hey, have a sh you know, have a beer sure. Have a glass of wine. Sure. Have a shot. Sure. You know, and kind of did all sorts of stupid things before Or in the early two thousands. I don't know if you ever did that trend of vodka and red bull.
Speaker 3 00:16:57 Oh yeah. I think I had that,
Speaker 1 00:16:59 This thing I'm like, what the heck was that once a sleep initiator as you put it. Right. And then the other one's like supposed to keep you up Would push and pull. So, so, yeah. So I don't know, like, I feel like, you know, maybe now, nowadays as I'm older, like I just don't do it. And, but I don't know if it's a physiological thing that stops me from doing it where I'm like, oh, I don't want to deal with this because my body wouldn't be able to handle it or it's more the, oh, you know, I just don't feel the need to drink as much.
Speaker 3 00:17:35 Yeah, exactly why, I guess. Yeah. I am sure. I'm sure that there is a physiological reason for that. Like, I think that, I mean, I, I think it just really depends on like how well your is functioning, right? Like, I mean, yeah. Like, is your, is your liver like, is your liver function as good as it was in your twenties? You know, like, like, cause I remove all the toxins from, from like your bloodstream as you're metabolizing the alcohol in order to help prevent the hangovers. You know what I mean? But, and the other thing is, is that like, I mean, alcohol does have an effect on the brain. And so when you're younger, you just have a lot of reserve to kind of work with, but then like, as you're older, you don't have as much reserve. Right. So like, I think in a couple of it does affect like I think, yeah. Like I think when you're hung over, like it probably is having an effect on your neurons. You're just, you know,
Speaker 1 00:18:36 What does liver function sort of slow down?
Speaker 3 00:18:41 Yeah. Like your liver. Like I, yeah. Like I, well, I mean now for sure, like my, my liver isn't working as well as it used to, like, I actually do have high liver enzymes. Right. So like that's what, that's another thing I always have to keep in mind is just like, wow, this drink is actually going to damage your liver more. So do you really want this or not? Right. So, yeah. It just depends on your overall health. Like if you like, yeah. Basically it depends on whether or not your liver function is working up to snuff. And if it isn't, then it'll just have that much, it'll have that much of a harder time clearing those toxins. And the other thing is, is like alcohol is damaging to your liver in general. Right. So, so that's the other thing. So, um, and as you get older, you just like have like less and less in terms of reserves. Right. So, so that's depressing.
Speaker 4 00:19:40 Okay.
Speaker 1 00:19:42 Why are we so depressed?
Speaker 4 00:19:48 What's going on? Chip talk to me.
Speaker 3 00:19:50 Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I mean like, yeah. I just find that, like, I just bought a, like the aging, I find a lot of aging articles that I'm, I'm, I'm being sent or like, it's just all about how different aspects of your life, or just, just accelerating aging, like, you know, inflammation, accelerates aging, lack of sleep, accelerates like cognitive decline. Like there's just like, there's so many things that you do in your life and it's just hard to keep up with all of it. Right. So it's just, uh, yeah. And then you can't even enjoy like a glass of wine because like, oh yeah, there was that study too. I dunno if you read about this, but like, there was a recent study that was done in the UK. And then, um, it was basically done in like a middle aged population in the, in the United Kingdom.
Speaker 3 00:20:38 And they said that basically if average alcohol consumption, what like increased daily by like one pint of beer, that was the equivalent of two years of aging in the brain. And so if you went from like two to three years, it was the equivalent of like aging, the brain by three and a half. So then, so the most, the most extreme, like difference was like people who didn't drink at all versus 50 year olds who averaged four units of alcohol daily, which is quite a lot like granted that's like, yeah, like, like, I don't know how many people are drinking that much, but like, it's basically two glasses of two pints of beer or two glasses of wine. Daily had brains more than a decade older than people who didn't drink at all. So it's just like, you can't even drink. Like,
Speaker 4 00:21:28 There's nothing
Speaker 3 00:21:29 You can do everything basically like destroys your brain or like destroys or your, I dunno, your liver or your
Speaker 4 00:21:40 Life,
Speaker 1 00:21:41 Um, um, a moderate amount. Like, is there like, you know, a little bit of chocolate, a little bit of alcohol, a little bit of everything. Isn't that something like red wine is supposed to be good for your heart. No.
Speaker 3 00:21:54 So, yeah, but like the thing is, is like, but then it has, but then you have to like counteract that with like, do you want to have the red wine for your heart? Or do you want to save your brain? You know, which do you want to do value more? So anyway,
Speaker 1 00:22:10 By being dumped, I think We have plenty of proof of that.
Speaker 3 00:22:17 I don't know. I don't know. I'd rather not. I'd rather not be, I'd rather maintain as much of my, of my, Yeah. Anyway, so it's just like, it's just very, like, it's basically like, I don't know. I I'm just getting the, I'm just getting, and I think it's just because of the algorithm that I'm on, where I'm just like looking at, um, looking at different aging articles, but it's just like, life will basically kill you. So what I'm wondering,
Speaker 4 00:22:50 Um,
Speaker 1 00:22:51 Yeah, but you, but look at it this way. We've moved. We were getting ready for death the day we're born.
Speaker 3 00:22:57 Right? Yeah. That's true.
Speaker 1 00:22:59 Like there's like you were born, you actually have no other option, but to die someday.
Speaker 3 00:23:06 Yeah. Yeah. I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 4 00:23:15 I mean,
Speaker 1 00:23:16 Yes, unless you're Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or something who can like fund some kind of miracle poet, Porsche potion, you know, and probably have scientists discovered the, the, you know, potion of youth or immortality and like all the rest of us are going to die.
Speaker 3 00:23:39 Yeah. I mean, I guess the question the county, it's not even a question of death, like the death, isn't the issue. It's more like quality of life dirt, like until you get to that point. And so I know, I think, I think that's the problem. It's just like, okay, like I'm, I'm perfectly, it's weird. I'm perfectly fine with the death portion of it is just like, what's my health going to look like at that point though. So, and like, and it's just the stress of having to do all these things in order to make sure that your quality of life is like good until that point, you know? Like it's just, I don't know. It's just a lot to deal with. It's just a lot to deal with.
Speaker 1 00:24:18 No, I'll send you a virtual hug right now. Yeah. But maybe the quality of life will improve. The more sleep you get and maybe eating more meals on time. So, you know, like those little kinds of things that shift, I hate to tell you this buddy, but you don't do them. You barely sleep. You barely eat on time. You go four hours without eating. I don't know how you do it, but you do. And then you sleep like two hours a day, every three days.
Speaker 2 00:24:59 Yeah. I know. I think he's just like, it's just, it's just so overwhelming all the stuff that you need to do in order to keep like healthy anyway.
Speaker 1 00:25:07 Yeah. I know. I know I've been feeling the same recently, but, um, but yeah, it's, I don't even know where to start
Speaker 2 00:25:18 To be honest.
Speaker 2 00:25:20 Oh, I know. I know. I'm just hoping that, uh, I'm just hoping that eventually they will come up with some sort of like, well, they're, they're working on it. I know that Altos is already working on all of these, like get re like not get rich quick, although I'm sure they will get rich quick from it. But like, but all, all of these like fountain of youth slash in mortality factors, uh, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Cause like, I, I, why don't you? Yeah. Like, it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see. Cause like everybody thinks the aging or at least in the scientific community that are starting to look at aging as a disease rather than like an, a natural, like a natural fact of life. Um, which is kind of, I mean, which brings up a whole bunch of ethical issues around, But
Speaker 1 00:26:18 Some of it, I guess, but if it's a disease and that means you can cure it.
Speaker 2 00:26:23 Yeah. And that's what they're trying to do. So basically like there, there's like, there's all sorts of like research labs out there who are treating it as a, um, as a condition that can be cured. So,
Speaker 2 00:26:37 Um, yeah. I mean, I don't know what that means necessarily for people are our age or people who are getting get older until they find these things. Like, I mean, what does that mean? Are we just going to be like second class citizens? Because we've already like passed the point of no return. You know what I mean? It's like, oh, where? Cause now, like, I don't know, like, is there going to be this new faction of people who are like in their twenties and thirties that are just going to remain at that age forever until they choose until they so choose to like move on and pass on?
Speaker 1 00:27:16 Can we get them? It's the gen Z that'll look like they're 20 forever.
Speaker 2 00:27:21 No, but that's what I'm seeing. Right. Like I think that once these things are developed, like what a little mean is that there's just going to be like this group of people that are just going to be perpetually in their, like in their young adulthood. Right. But then what does that mean for people who have like past that point or are we considered like subprime citizens then? Like, I don't know.
Speaker 1 00:27:47 I don't know. I guess we have to get there to figure it out. Find out.
Speaker 2 00:27:53 Yeah. I mean, anyway, I mean, and that's a topic for another podcast, I guess it's, it's, it's, it's interesting all of the different things that are coming out now, but yeah, I mean, and I saw this that, well, I'm actually this one I'll hop. We'll probably have to talk about it at a later podcast too, but like using, using AI and computers in order to achieve a more immortality, like that's also like, uh, that's also another avenue of research interests, so I know we're coming up, we're coming on to a new age. It's kinda, it'll be curious to see what come, what happens.
Speaker 1 00:28:32 Yeah, definitely. But on that note, we should probably call an episode. I called this an episode and, and read up on all of this. There's so much out there. I feel like I'm behind. I have to catch up.
Speaker 2 00:28:49 Um, yeah. Anyway, I think that, well, I mean, we probably will. I, I mean, I'm, I'm interested in some of these topics and so we'll probably do a, uh, like a more, more sort of holistic or, and more like, yeah, like just a more nuanced dive into what some of these topics will be. But anyway, until then join us on our journey in aging Next week. On another episode of does this make me look old, um, follow something, follow us on social on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can find those social handles on our website at, does this make me mccoll.com and feel free to email us at, does this mean all that? You know, so I guess until next week,
Speaker 0 00:29:33 Hi,
