The 6 rules you need for a long, healthy life and how to cut your risk of dementia, heart disease and cancer | Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Welcome to ZOE Science and Nutrition, where world leading scientists explain how their research can improve your health.
In the modern world, staying healthy can feel less like living the good life and more like a full-time job. Go to the gym, take the right supplements, get to bed at the exact same time every day. Wear sunscreen, definitely don't drink alcohol. All of this fueled by a constant stream of people selling the seductive idea. If we buy the right products and follow the perfect routine, we can live healthily to 135 But what if none of this works? Or even worse, what if our obsession with optimizing our lives is making us feel more anxious, more isolated, and more confused about health than ever? Our guest today believes we've got it all wrong, that much of this is toxic. Instead, he's come up with six rules for good health, and today we're going to discuss them all. Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel is one of the world's leading oncologists and bioethicists, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of more than 300 scientific papers. His latest book is an attack on what he calls the wellness industrial complex. He argues that the science shows a long healthy life is not built by extreme optimization, but by following key fundamentals that are grounded in what it is to be a human being. By the end of this fascinating and entertaining episode, you'll have learned his six rules for good health, and discovered that not one of them is complicated or expensive.
Zeke, thank you so much for joining me today.

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (1:48)
My great pleasure and honor.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:50)
So we have a tradition here at ZOE where we always start with a quick fire round of questions.

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (1:55)
Great.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:56)
We have some very strict rules. You can give us a yes or a no, or if you have to, a one sentence answer.

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:03)
Okay.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:04)
Is loneliness worse for your health than smoking tobacco?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:08)
Yes.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:09)
Is being President of the United States more dangerous than climbing Everest?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:14)
It's definitely a more schmucky move.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:18)
Do books written by wellness influencers usually give good advice?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:22)
It's mixed.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:25)
Is the wellness industry overall doing more harm than good?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:29)
Hard to know.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:32)
Do you have six rules to help us live longer, healthier lives?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:35)
Absolutely.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:37)
And finally, what's the biggest thing that the wellness industry gets wrong?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (2:42)
Social relations. They're the most important thing you can do for your wellness, longevity, and happiness.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:51)
Most of the people listening to this podcast, myself included, are sort of overwhelmed by a tidal wave of wellness information that we get on podcasts, social media, from our friends, from the traditional media. And we're bombarded with ads, therefore, for supplements and red light therapy and coffee enemas and superfoods. And the list goes on and on. And I feel like every week somebody tells me about this brand new thing that you can do. So I think it's no surprise that we all feel very confused about what we should actually do. So Ezekiel, I'm delighted to have you with us today to hopefully help make sense of it all.
And your new book outlines six simple rules for a long healthy life. And so I was curious what inspired you to write this book?

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (3:35)
Anger.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:37)
Anger.

**Ezekiel Emanuel** (3:37)
So in December 2023, I had finished teaching in the United States, but finals and grades weren't due in. And Peter Atiyah's Outlive arrived at my house. Now I certainly didn't order it because I didn't even know it existed.
I thought my brother sent it to me, but he denies it. He said he's never even seen the book. So I just sat down and read it.
It's 415 or so pages. And it just made me more and more furious as I got to the end. And I literally finished the book in a short flash and sat down in the next three weeks and wrote 35,000 words. And that was the first draft of this book. And what really made me mad is his obsession about exercise, a little bit about food, a little bit about sleep. But he left out the most important thing about wellness, which we just talked about, which is social relationships. He has a two page afterward. And in the afterward, he says, well, you can be in great shape. You can be able to, you know, bench press 250 pounds.