Who: Sarah Glicken
Living in: Los Angeles (Culver City), CA
Working on: Restoring energy
Found Base through: Dave Asprey’s Bulletproof podcast (listen to the episode here)
What does “healthy” mean to you?
I have a strong belief that everybody deserves to live in a healthy body. I am also a real advocate for pro-aging. Instead of fear, how about the power of knowledge so that you can affect change in your life and make a choice so that painful aging does not have to be your path?
I grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. So I was like a hippie kid, eating organic before that was like a buzzword. I watched both my parents have cancer journeys, and that was the next level of call: I’m not willing to just accept that things have to be a certain way. Genetics play a big role, but epigenetics is also super important. (Epigenetics is the study of how behaviors and your environment can affect the way genes work.) The way we can affect our lives based on lifestyle and choices is really what’s most important.
Why were you excited to try Base?
I own an integrative wellness center on the west side of Los Angeles, called OsteoStrong, and mycommunity looks to me for information about cutting-edge technologies, so I like to try a lot of things out. We have a technology that strengthens bones, joints, and muscles, as well as many other modalities for health optimizing.
The idea of being able to accurately test specific things for such a good price is super-intriguing, especially for people who are not yet super knowledgeable about their hormone and vitamin levels. It’s a great way to get started and do what’s right for you. What sets someone else up to be comfortable and active at 70 is maybe not what would be right for someone else.
I think most people in the US think that after age 40, we’re meant to be in some kind of pain or discomfort regularly, not optimal health. I don’t believe that needs to be true. I do know that there are a lot of things that we can do that do not involve pharmaceuticals to help us achieve our health goals.
What symptoms were bothering you?
My energy was much lower than normal. About a year ago, I found out that I had lead toxicity. This affected my thyroid which showed up in my energy levels. I went from being like the Energizer Bunny to not popping out of bed in the morning like normal. I noticed it was getting hard to build lean muscle. I know my body well enough that I knew that something was off.
What have you learned?
It’s emphasizing that behaviors and environment have a major and sometimes immediate effect on our bodies. Our mindset, too, can be powerful enough to shift things.
I’m reading this book called Lifespan by David Sinclair. The full title is Why We Age — and Why We Don’t Have To. Essentially he’s writing that we should be treating aging as a disease. If we stay ahead of the game, slowing the shortening of telomere length for example, we would be less likely to have to treat these secondary illnesses like cancers.
What are your hacks/specific strategies for physical and mental health?
When I’m in a good headspace, I’m making an effort to do anything I can. We have tons of influence over our bodies.
Sleep is the most basic of all hacks, yet Americans don’t sleep. So I’d start there.
Breathwork has been a revelation. I have a tendency toward anxiety, so I’ve been using the Wim Hof app. I wish I had discovered it earlier or done an in-person program with them directly.
I do cold showers every morning for about 30 seconds. I actually want to put a cold plunge pool in my backyard. With that cold plunge, our mind snaps into action of wanting to keep us safe. When we tell ourselves, no, we’re safe, we’re fine, we train our brains to more calmly move through stress.
I’m doing a gratitude practice right now where I have to think of 10 new things that I’m grateful for. I try to do that while I’m in the cold water.
What apps would be your “starter pack”?
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