How much of aging is under our control?

I came across a clip on social media of a recent on-air interview between 70-year-old Howard Stern and 76-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger. The chemistry between these two used to be entertaining — like 25 years ago. Stern once asked Schwarzenegger if Schwarzenegger suffered from any of the well-known side effects of long-term steroid use. Schwarzeneggar replied: “There is nothing small on Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Today, Stern and Schwarzenegger are angry old men, curmudgeons who unmasked themselves during the COVID hysteria and disqualified themselves as serious public figures. In 2021, Howard Stern asked his audience on air, “When are we gonna stop putting up with the idiots in this country and just say it’s mandatory to get vaccinated? Fuck ’em. Fuck their freedom.” Around the same time, Schwarzenegger also started advocating for forced medical experimentation, telling vaccine skeptics: “screw your freedoms.”

Schwarzenegger, in his latest appearance on The Stern Show, was at least able to speak credibly on the topic at hand. Stern quizzed him on how he feels watching his body grow old, especially coming from the pinnacle of muscularity.

Much of Schwarzenegger’s decline has been outside his control. Beyond his advancing years, he had surgery around age 50 to fix a congenital heart defect. Doctors have advised him ever since to lower his gym intensity.

On the other hand, some of Schwarzenegger’s frailty is a conscious choice.

A meat-free lifestyle

For starters, Arnold advocates for a meat-free lifestyle, and claims to be 99% vegan. What happens when a person fills his plate with only vegetables and grains?

• You consume oxalate, a compound found in plants, that binds with minerals and interferes with their absorption;
• You eat lectins, a type of protein found in beans, lentils, peas, grains, and nuts that reduces nutrient absorption, causes digestive issues, and triggers inflammation;
• You ingest phytic acid, which binds to minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc to form phytates, a substance which is poorly absorbed by the digestive system; and
• You get sulforaphane, which inhibits the uptake of iodine by the thyroid gland, potentially leading to thyroid dysfunction or thyroid autoimmune disease.

Grains (“complex carbs”) also have dramatic effect on blood glucose, since they have already been split into glucose molecules by the time they arrive in the small intestine. As a result, grains have the same effect on the body as simple sugar — with all the related metabolic damage.

A fan of Big Pharma

Arnold has also made clear that he’s thrown in with Big Pharma. He has received who knows how many COVID jabs and payloads of the pro-aging spike protein. Just one example of how the vaccine is pro-aging is the way it causes bone loss, compounding the problem of osteoporosis in the elderly.

From the perspective of muscle loss, Arnold hasn’t disclosed whether he’s on cholesterol-lowering statins. But he does seem like a guy who would take whatever doctors put in front of him. Cholesterol is a precursor to testosterone, the hormone critical to the development and maintenance of muscle mass. A recent report also shows that statins directly disrupt the development, growth, and division of skeletal muscle cells.

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Schwarzenegger’s COVID outbursts stem from the way statins affect cognitive function. The brain contains about 25% of the body’s cholesterol. Lowering cholesterol impairs the way the brain forms neural circuits and produces certain neurotransmitters.

We should all be so lucky like Schwarzenegger to make it to 76 and beyond. But of all people, he ought to be setting the example for what’s achievable in old age.