Chapter 8: The Aging Cascade - When My Body Crashed and How I Rebuilt It

Chapter 8: The Aging Cascade - When My Body

Crashed and How I Rebuilt It

The Collision Course

I never imagined that I'd feel seventeen again at seventy-seven years old. But to understand how I arrived at this remarkable youthful vitality, you need to understand the crash that preceded it.

The human body doesn't simply age in a smooth, linear progression. Instead, it often reaches a tipping point – what I've come to call the "aging cascade" – where multiple systems begin failing simultaneously, each breakdown triggering the next in a devastating chain reaction. My cascade started innocently enough, with what I believed were enlightened choices.

For thirty years, I adhered strictly to a vegan lifestyle, convinced I was giving my body optimal nutrition while making ethical choices for the planet. I rose each morning to prepare elaborate plant-based meals – carefully combining legumes, grains, and vegetables to ensure I wasn't missing any essential nutrients. I carried recipe books when traveling and interrogated restaurant servers about hidden dairy. I was, in every sense, a model vegan.

I didn't realize I had unwittingly placed my body on a collision course with disaster.

The first warning signs weren't physical but mental. The panic attacks began subtly – a racing heart before presentations, sweaty palms during meetings, and eventually, full-blown episodes that left me huddled in bathroom stalls, gasping for air. By my late forties, I was dependent on psychotropic medications just to function in social settings. My doctors never questioned whether my diet might be contributing to my deteriorating mental health. Neither did I.

"It's just anxiety," they said. "It happens to high-achievers like you."

But anxiety was just the beginning of my cascade.

The Wreckage

By the mid-sixties, the health paradigm I'd built my life around was crumbling. Despite my "perfect" plant-based diet, my weight had ballooned to nearly 270 pounds on my 5'11" frame. My joints ached constantly. Brain fog had become my constant companion, interfering with work and relationships. My skin had developed a yellowish hue – the result, I later learned, of carotenoid accumulation from excessive vegetable consumption coupled with poor conversion to vitamin A.

The most alarming symptom was my growing forgetfulness. Names, appointments, and familiar streets became mysteries. I'd find myself standing in rooms without remembering why I'd entered. Was this early-onset dementia? At 67, I feared the remaining years of my life would be spent in cognitive decline.

My bloodwork revealed the biochemical wreckage: skyrocketing inflammation markers, plummeting testosterone levels, vitamin D deficiency despite supplements, and concerning blood sugar patterns. My doctor suggested statins, blood pressure medication, and antidepressants – a pharmaceutical bandage for a hemorrhaging system.

"This is just part of getting older," he said with the casual dismissiveness that I've since learned characterizes too much of geriatric care. "We'll manage the symptoms as best we can."

But managing symptoms wasn't enough. The car crash that was my body required more than cosmetic repairs – it needed to be rebuilt from the chassis up.

Turning the Wheel: The Atkins Intervention

My first step away from the collision course came in 2009, though I didn't recognize it as such at the time. A colleague's dramatic transformation through the Atkins diet piqued my curiosity. Despite my vegan convictions, desperation drove me to experiment.

Breaking my three-decade vegan commitment wasn't easy. My first bite of eggs prompted an almost religious guilt. But as weeks passed, something unexpected happened – my panic attacks began subsiding. The connection wasn't clear to me then, but it was my first hint that my "ethical" diet had been slowly poisoning my brain.

The weight loss was dramatic—65 pounds melted away. My joints hurt less, and my mind seemed more straightforward. Yet I still clung to aspects of my plant-based ideology, incorporating whole grains and fruits while avoiding red meat. I was turning the wheel, but not enough to entirely avert the cascade.

The Keto Correction

By 2014, some of my symptoms had returned, though less severely. A younger doctor suggested I try the ketogenic diet, which was gaining traction in metabolic health circles. This required another mental paradigm shift – embracing fat as medicine rather than poison.

"Your brain is sixty percent fat," she explained. "You've been starving it for decades."

Keto brought another 35-pound weight loss and further mental clarity. My panic attacks vanished utterly, allowing me to discontinue medications I'd been told would be lifelong necessities. Blood markers improved across the board. For the first time, I began questioning everything I thought I knew about nutrition and aging.

I was making progress but still encountering roadblocks. Though healthier, I still didn't feel genuinely vibrant. Her memory issues persisted. Joint pain, while reduced, remained a daily companion. I was better but not whole.

The Supplement Highway

My following detour came in 2020 with the discovery of NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) and other longevity supplements. After reading David Sinclair's research on NAD+ precursors and their potential to combat age-related decline, I began a daily regimen of NMN, resveratrol, quercetin, and fisetin.

The effects were subtle but meaningful. My energy levels improved. Naps became optional rather than necessary. My skin developed a healthier glow. Blood tests showed improvements in markers associated with biological aging.

Yet, I still sensed a critical piece of the puzzle missing. The supplements were helping, but they felt like premium fuel poured into an engine that needed significant repairs. Something fundamental remained broken.

The Blueprint Detour

In early 2024, I briefly veered onto what proved to be a dead-end street. Bryan Johnson's "Don't Die" Blueprint promised a scientifically optimized approach to longevity with its meticulously measured vegan meals and exhaustive supplement protocol. The data-driven methodology appealed to my analytical mind, and Johnson's biomarkers seemed impressive.

But three months in, my own biomarkers told a different story. Inflammation markers rose. Energy plummeted. The brain fog I'd worked so hard to dispel returned with a vengeance. My body was sending clear signals that this plant-based approach, however scientifically packaged, wasn't my path to renewal.

This detour, though disappointing, proved invaluable. It confirmed what my body had told me for years: my biochemistry and plant-based nutrition were fundamentally incompatible.

The Carnivore Reconstruction

The final turn in my journey came in mid-2023 when I embraced what many would consider the most extreme dietary approach: the carnivore diet. After decades of plant-based eating, limiting myself to animal products exclusively seemed like nutritional heresy.

The transition was challenging. Social meals became complicated. Friends from my vegan days expressed concern or disapproval. But the results silenced all objections.

Within weeks, the joint pain I'd experienced for decades disappeared entirely. My remaining excess weight – 35 pounds – vanished despite eating to satiety. Most remarkably, my cognitive function sharpened dramatically. Memories from early childhood resurfaced with vivid clarity. I could recall conversations verbatim. Books I read once stayed with me in perfect detail.

The science behind this transformation became apparent as I researched. The carnivore diet eliminates all plant antinutrients—oxalates, lectins, phytates, and other compounds that can trigger inflammation and autoimmune responses in susceptible individuals. For someone like me, who had spent decades consuming these in abundance, their removal was like lifting a biochemical embargo on my cells.

Moreover, animal products provided nutrients in their most bioavailable forms: heme iron instead of plant iron, retinol instead of carotenoids, DHA and EPA instead of ALA, and complete proteins with all amino acids in ideal ratios. My body was finally receiving the precise building blocks it needed for repair.

Perhaps most significantly, the carnivore approach addresses what many longevity researchers now recognize as a primary aging driver: chronic inflammation. By eliminating the foods that had triggered my immune system's constant alert status, I allowed my body to allocate resources to repair and regeneration rather than defense.

The Integrated Approach

Today, my approach combines the metabolic benefits of carnivore eating with strategic supplementation. My daily protocol includes:

A diet centered on grass-fed ruminant meat, wild-caught fish, and pasture-raised eggs
1000mg of NMN, taken with resveratrol for synergistic activation of sirtuin pathways
Targeted supplements, including K2, magnesium glycinate, and taurine
Regular cold exposure through morning ice baths
Zone 2 cardio exercise three times weekly
Strength training twice weekly, focused on maintaining muscle mass.
Seven to eight hours of quality sleep in a completely dark room

This integrated approach addresses the multifaceted nature of aging far more effectively than any single intervention could. The diet provides optimal nutrition while minimizing inflammatory triggers. The supplements support cellular energy production and DNA repair mechanisms. The lifestyle components ensure proper stress, recovery, and growth signals.

The Results: 17 at 77

The outcomes of this journey have exceeded my wildest expectations. At seventy-seven, I now:

Maintain the same weight I had at thirty (175 pounds)
Have the blood pressure readings of an athlete (110/70)
Exhibit insulin sensitivity of someone decades younger
Possess the testosterone levels of a man in his forties.
Experience no joint pain whatsoever.
Need only six hours of sleep to feel refreshed entirely.
Remember with perfect clarity events from age two onward.
Engage in physical activities that challenge men half my age

Most meaningful, however, is the subjective experience of living in this rebuilt body. There's a lightness, an ease of movement and thought I hadn't experienced since youth. Colors seem brighter. Music more moving. Relationships were more rewarding.

I don't merely feel "good for my age" – I think objectively reasonable, period. The aging cascade has not only halted but reversed.

The Lessons Learned

My journey from wreck to renewal has taught me several crucial lessons about aging and health:

First, conventional wisdom about nutrition and aging is often dangerously wrong. What's presented as "settled science" is frequently based on observational studies, epidemiology with weak correlations, or short-term interventions that fail to capture the complex long-term effects of dietary choices.

Second, biochemical individuality is real and significant. What constitutes optimal nutrition varies dramatically between individuals based on genetics, microbiome composition, immune system programming, and lifetime exposures. One person's medicine can be another's poison.

Third, when given the right inputs, the body possesses remarkable regenerative capacity at any age. Much of what we attribute to "inevitable aging" is accumulated damage from inappropriate nutrition and lifestyle – damage that can often be repaired.

Fourth, mental and physical health are inseparable. My panic attacks weren't merely psychological – they were my brain's response to inadequate nutrition and inflammation. Likewise, my cognitive rejuvenation wasn't just about brain health but whole-body biochemical optimization.

Finally, perhaps most importantly, it's never too late to change course. At sixty-seven, I feared dementia was my destiny. At seventy-seven, I possess mental clarity that surpasses what I had in middle age.

The Road Ahead

As remarkable as my journey has been, it represents the beginning of what's possible in age reversal. Emerging research in cellular reprogramming, senolytic therapies, and personalized medicine promises even more dramatic results in the coming decade.

But we needn't wait for these cutting-edge technologies to become available. The most powerful tools for combating the aging cascade are accessible to nearly everyone: appropriate nutrition that respects individual biochemistry, strategic supplementation, optimal physical activity, quality sleep, and meaningful social connection.

In the next chapter, we'll delve deeper into the cognitive renaissance I've experienced on the carnivore diet. We'll explore how specific nutrients found abundantly in animal foods – including choline, creatine, carnosine, and DHA – support brain function and protect against neurodegeneration. We'll also examine how eliminating certain plant compounds can reduce neuroinflammation and enhance cognitive performance at any age.

The car wreck that was my aging body has been not merely repaired but rebuilt into a vehicle capable of carrying me much further – and with far more joy – than I ever imagined possible. By sharing this journey, I hope I can help others avoid the collision course I traveled for decades and find their own path to renewal.

The aging cascade is not inevitable. It can be slowed, stopped, and even reversed. At seventy-seven, I'm not merely surviving – I'm thriving. And the road ahead looks brighter than ever.