From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Ancient philosophy almost hasn't been bettered as a kind of therapeutic toolbox in 2400 years, and have a certain aesthetic to them which makes you feel part of a long tradition... You're part of a three millennia old tradition of wisdom that thousands and thousands of people have read the same book that you're reading, and found it therapeutic in very dark times.
If we consider the United States, where potentially 40 million people could discover through brain imaging or blood tests that they have amyloid in their brains, the question arises: how can healthcare systems afford to provide a $100,000 per year therapy to so many people? It's simply not feasible.
We have become the only species with chronically crooked teeth. Consequently, a smaller mouth leads to a smaller airway and various obstruction issues. We have become dysfunctional breathers due to our environment.
Lack of sleep is like a broken water pipe in your home, it leaks water into every nook and cranny, and erodes the fabric of your DNA nucleic alphabet that spells out your daily health narrative.
The scale and scope of this threat is extraordinary. It amounts to US$320 billion per annum or, to put it another way, half a percent of global GDP. That is just the economic cost of drug trafficking. As far as the social and health risks are concerned, we believe that around 250,000 people each and every year die because of drugs.
Most of the time, this isn't the case. Physiology is, in fact, largely malleable. While genetics indeed play a role in our overall health and capabilities, the impact of lifestyle factors and habits often outweighs genetic predispositions, primarily because we have control over these factors while we can't alter our genetics.
When you close your eyes and imagine the person you're going to be in 10 years, this area of your brain is totally deactivated – it's treating the person you are going to become as a stranger. This is why people have such a hard time getting prostate exams, staying on a diet, quitting smoking, because the person who is going to benefit the most from these things is literally not you.
You need clarity of vision and purpose. You need to know the reason you're there at that surgical table with a knife in your hand. You have to be clear that you are using these sophisticated tools (tools which can cause a lot of harm) to fundamentally and primarily help that entity, that child in front of you. That mindset provides the energy and focus needed to carry out the task.
In 2012, I was put to the forefront of people's eyes during the Olympics. It was the first time I'd been on the cover of a magazine- and it wasn't about being a size-zero or really-skinny, it was about being strong and promoting what healthy looks like.
In our low moments, music is our therapy, it helps us to cry, to breathe, or gives us the encouragement we need… it's our therapy. In our moments of happiness, music is our celebration… it's extraordinary.
We are a dark-deprived society in this modern era, and we need darkness for the release of melatonin for healthy sleep. Without melatonin, we will not sleep sufficiently.
That's the future of medicine… being able to see a doctor before something happens, not after… seeing a doctor when you need to, not on some random annual check-up day once a year. Data can create a real story for how the body is evolving and what's happening right at this very moment.