Longevity, Antiaging, and Nutrigenetics with Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith

A Personal Note From Orion

Welcome to another episode of the Stellar Life podcast. I am thrilled to introduce our incredible guest, Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith, a leading Functional Medicine MD, international speaker, and a true expert in longevity, antiaging, and nutrigenetics.

Dr. Rajka has devoted her career to helping high-performing executives, entrepreneurs, and even celebrities regain their energy and performance, enabling them to profoundly impact their lives. Known as the Go-To Doctor for other doctors, she runs her clinic, the Simply Health Institute, just outside Chicago.

In this enlightening conversation, Dr. Rajka shares invaluable insights on maximizing and reclaiming our energy by addressing the root causes of our health challenges. She provides practical steps and methods to empower us to overcome burnout, combat fatigue, and manage chronic illness. Through her expertise and extensive experience, Dr. Rajka guides us on a journey toward holistic well-being and renewed vitality.

Get ready to embark on a path of self-transformation and take proactive steps toward a vibrant and fulfilling existence. Without further ado, onto the show!

In This Episode

[01:11] – Orion introduces Dr. Rajka, a longevity, anti-aging, and nutrigenetics expert. Dr. Rajka shares her passion for learning and her origin story.
[09:10] – Dr. Rajka talks about the importance of hormones and the role of peptides in anti-aging.
[12:46] – What are the impacts of our lifestyle and mindset on anti-aging?
[25:18] – Dr. Rajka’s advice for living a long, healthy life. She also discusses the use of peptides in supporting natural hormone production.
[30:32] – Dr. Rajka emphasizes the importance of individualized protocols in functional medicine.
[34:27] – What is autophagy and its role in aging?
[35:56] – Dr. Rajka’s top three tips for living a stellar life.

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hello, Dr. Rajka. Welcome to Stellar Life Podcast. I am so happy you’re here because you are phenomenal, from the little I know about you. We will learn so much about anti-aging, peptides, and everything cutting-edge regarding anti-aging. I’m mega thrilled. Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Orion, for having me. I love other women who spread the word so that the more we can educate, the more we can empower women as we advance so they can live their best lives.

You’re doing things that other doctors don’t do. You keep expanding and educating yourself. You described yourself as someone that learned from anyone under the sun. Tell me briefly about your origin story, how you found your passion, and why you seek it so much. You have this natural curiosity to learn more and to piece different information together. You don’t go with your blinders on, but you’re very open to learn.

Absolutely. When I was a little girl, I had three dreams. To be a doctor, have my own family, and cure everyone and anyone. These dreams were almost not actualized because, like many of us in the functional medicine field, we have our health journeys.

In my 20s, I was just so undeniably fatigued. The story I always hear with patients—I became one of those people—”I felt so bad. My numbers were normal.” Many people listening to this have been told, “Nothing’s wrong. It’s a normal part of aging,” or worse, “You’ve been getting antidepressants.” I thought, “I’m not going to go to the doctor. What are they going to say? I have the knowledge that I have.”

Starting in adolescence, estrogen dominance is a disproportionate balance between estrogen and progesterone. Click To Tweet

Within practice, I just realized I’m not curing anyone. In my first practice, I did deliveries and cared for the infant when it was born. The baby did the exam, even if they entered the special care nursery. I did that as an adult in the office—so many procedures like ultrasound biopsies and colon cancer screening. We were doing it all. But seemingly, I thought that I was not curing anyone. I was out north of Seattle, Washington. This beautiful city I was living in that overlooked Puget Sound.

This woman left the appointment, and her friend asked her, “What’s wrong with you?” She’s like, “That darn doctor doesn’t know.” I was shocked, but then I didn’t want to be that darn doctor who doesn’t want to know. I want to know.

I realized that something was missing here. That would have been in 1997 when I first came out, and then I didn’t find functional medicine until 2012. That’s quite a long journey. I had looked at doing integrative medicine training.

Andrew Weil launched his first program right about the time I finished. There are huge issues because you either went there and were paid a meager salary, which would not have even covered my medical school loans, or you paid them $15,000 yearly. You can’t squeeze water out of a rock when, I’m just coming out of residency and break and with no funds. I kept putting it off, but it’s okay because I found functional medicine at the end of it.

To make a long story short, I developed all these from the foundation of fatigue: all these symptoms and diagnoses: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, infertility, endometriosis, and PMS. I lost my vision with the first-ever migraine I had. I thought I had a stroke. I was pregnant at the time, living in Qatar, Middle East.

They had this saying, haram. hey wouldn’t image you because they don’t want to do you harm. This is back in the day. Their medical system has advanced. They’ve worked hard and brought in some top-notch people to learn from. I can’t comment today, but they weren’t taking pregnant people back then because I practiced there.

My husband was recruited for a specific job there. We went on an adventure. He’s a nomad by birth, a native New Zealander. He promised me we’d live abroad, and it was very fruitful. It was a lovely experience to have, very enriching.

I met so many people from all over the world. But anywhere, they took pregnant women off asthma medications because they thought it would cause harm. They had just a different approach. I thought, “What am I going to do? What if I have a stroke? I can’t even get an image here.”

I have friends all over the world. I called up a neurosurgeon friend, and he said, “This was a light-induced migraine. Don’t worry. I had it happen to me.” Then I started doing research.

They diagnosed Hashimoto thyroiditis. I found an endocrinologist who kind of thought outside of the box. I was put on medication, but that was like a bandaid because what should have been explored was the root cause. It took me a decade. I went along, and there’s nothing more than heartbreaking. I’m falling asleep, standing up, joking and saying, “Can you imagine my love life? How many guys want to go out with you and fall asleep on the first date?” I went on to marry someone because I stayed awake for two days. I know it’s funny.

It was heartbreaking that I was delivering babies myself while I felt infertility. I always try to keep my chin up. There was this defining moment when a woman came in and was pregnant for the eighth time. Six of her seven kids were taken away because she had a drug addiction. She didn’t clean up by herself. I said, “Why can’t I get pregnant while this woman is now pregnant for the eighth time?”

I was heartbroken about it. I started studying. We got pregnant twice naturally after many failed attempts. But the ultimate defining moment was we were on a celebratory trip after being in the Middle East for eight years. It’s funny to say we went to Sri Lanka for spring break. It was a four-hour flight, so it wasn’t like it’d be forever in a day from here. Beautiful country, by the way.

Our kids were jumping in and out of the pool. They’re four and eight. At the time, my liver was failing. I thought it was how it would end. “I’m going to leave these kids behind that I fought so hard to have. I learned medicine where I can help people.”

It took a long time to figure out what led to that. They were entertaining a second, third, or fourth autoimmune disease because I had asthma, allergies, eczema, infertility, and endometriosis. Hashimoto’s has this origin in being autoimmune.

You’ve been through a lot.

I found functional medicine right when my liver enzymes were five times normal. I did feel that bad. Just with the basic approach, we didn’t do anything fancy. A practitioner led me through a traditional approach and normalized my liver enzymes. I never ended up with that diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis.

If someone ends up with autoimmune hepatitis and they do not take steroid medications daily, the risk of dying at three to five years is 50%. It’s a pretty high mortality rate. It was really eye-opening.

I want to prevent needless suffering, and now I’m proud to say what was at the crux of that. Some genetic variations were an issue, but hormonal imbalances, too, were never uncovered. There were so many different imbalances. I joke and say I had every other problem leading up until perimenopause. Now I’ve sailed not only through perimenopause but menopause; now, I can lead other women and prevent it.

Whatever’s happening in you, you’ll see in your daughter, too, unless you’re addressing it in both of you. The same thing that led to all my symptoms, probably if we didn’t live healthily, would lead to similar things in my daughter.

What do we need to do to prevent it in our daughters? How do we catch it right away?

Even from adolescence, the typical imbalance you see is a disproportionate balance between estrogen and progesterone. We call that estrogen dominance, manifested by painful periods, PMS, and mood swings. It can be heavy bleeding, uterine fibroids. Young ladies are taken to the doctor, who gives them oral contraceptives. But oral contraception gives you estrogen and progesterone. It regulates it, but it’s a bandaid. It’s not treating the underlying cause.

From a digestive standpoint, an imbalance in bacteria can produce an enzyme that does not allow us to break down estrogen.

I talk about removing the eight triggers for inflammation and doing it in the right order. I have a 3D protocol, but it’s more than 3D. It’s multi-dimensional. There are three S and three M. From a dietary standpoint, eating things that will balance hormones, such as incorporating more cruciferous vegetables and drinking green tea unless they’re young and you don’t want them to get that caffeine.

From a digestive standpoint, if you have an imbalance in bacteria, bacteria can produce an enzyme that does not allow us to break down estrogen. Instead of when we make it, we break it down. Suppose you don’t excrete it out of the body like sweating, peeing, or eliminating it by having a bowel movement, the bacteria can cause that. In that case, you have a higher level of estrogen.

The other way we see it in young girls is all these beauty products with components or chemicals that act like estrogen. We call those xenoestrogens. That just further tips the scale. We walk them through that from a dietary standpoint, supporting the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. If you want to support progesterone, you can use supplements. Not even using full-blown hormones to help it because, unfortunately, the oral contraceptive pill depletes B vitamins, further increasing mood swings. We’re trying to add fuel to the fire.

How good are vitamins and supplements for our body? Do we need to be very discerning with what we take?

Everyone should be on core four or five because regardless of whether you’re eating a healthy diet and hitting all the parameters, we’ve long known that the soil is depleted of nutrients here in the United States. In the 30s or 40s, the US Senate warned Americans to supplement with multivitamins or address soil depletion.

If you don’t rotate crops, you can get these depletions. There are certain areas where zinc is really low. They say, “No zinc, no think.” Of course, it’s important for immune function and preventing infections like colds.

I always test, and you can do it through a basic blood panel at your local lab, or you can do a more specific blood panel where they look at a three-month average of vitamins and minerals or your nutrients. When you’re testing, I used to see three to five vitamin and mineral deficiencies in most adults.

The oral contraceptive pill depletes B vitamins, further increasing mood swings. It’s like adding fuel to the fire.

Now it’s jumped five to seven in adults, sometimes higher, and people under 20 get fifteen to twenty vitamin and mineral deficiencies because they’re not eating. They’re eating the brown diet. The carbs, like pasta, are not gluten-free. The chicken nuggets and pizzas, there’s no variety there. They’re not getting their nutrients from their foods, and it’s amazing what happens when you give someone the vitamins and minerals they need, and you replete them.

They say, “Wow, all kinds of things start happening.” Their symptoms go away, and their energy goes up. Maybe they’re sleeping better. Remember, vitamins and minerals govern all the chemical pathways in our body. By these, we call them cofactors.

The core four, in case you were wondering, I always say a multivitamin-mineral, some vitamin D, typically in kids 1 to 2000 IU and in adults, 5000–10,000 IU. You want to measure levels. A good probiotic. Then fish oil, omega-3 fatty acids. I measure omega-3 indexes, and the value you should have is eight, and I’m seeing adults come in at 2.40.

The significance is it supports immune function. It supports the DHA for brain health. They have your brain functioning. A study showed that a level of 8.0 or higher reduced our risk of death and dying from any cause of heart attack, stroke, or cancer. There’s all this incentive. Let’s be up at eight.

Almost no one that I’ve measured has achieved it with diet alone. I haven’t seen it. Only a few people have come in with that level, and usually, they are supplementing. I say both.

What about magnesium? That’s usually big.

That’s the fifth. Magnesium is up there, and other common ones I’m seeing. Those are your core four. The fifth would be magnesium. Most need magnesium. The other ones that crop up are zinc, B12, and then B9, which is folate. Those are other common ones.

I measured all the nutrients that are important for thyroid function. A perfect example was when a mother came in with her son and said, “Hey, I don’t want my son to develop Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.” The kid was nine. He looked like he had subtle hypothyroidism.

What do you mean to look like? How do you see that?

Lab values. They don’t see it on their face. We measured zinc levels, and he was deficient. If it’s deficient, zinc can affect and lower thyroid function by 75%.

So we replaced his zinc. Remember, for immune function and Hashimotos, it’s an autoimmune condition, and we reversed all those numbers. He had a low level of antibodies present. It’s more than just zinc. We talk about what makes a healthy microbiome. That’s my second D in digestion. How do we naturally detoxify? What do we do to support detox?

Unfortunately, the longer we’ve been around, the more we’re exposed to and accumulate them. We call that the exposed zone. It’s the total burden we’ve been told to and then now is stored in our tissues.

You said anyone living for over two decades needs to detox because we are exposed to many things that we shouldn’t have been exposed to, chemicals, even the sprays in the sky, everything. We are bombarded. What kind of detox is good, and what type of detoxes do you do?

Peptides have shown promising results in improving recovery, libido, sleep, and overall well-being. They're a valuable tool in the anti-aging toolbox. Click To Tweet

That’s a good question. I’ll tell you what I don’t do. Someone who’s not healthy, juice cleanses can make someone very sick. When you detoxify, break it down from the toxin into a more toxic metabolite or breakdown product, and you must make that a water-loving molecule so you can sweat it out, pee it out, or eliminate it through a bowel movement.

When you don’t have protein or more, you can’t do that second step, so it gets stuck in the body. People get sick because of this. You can do it the healthier you are. I’ve done two, three, and four-day juice cleanses. I feel amazing. But I’ve been at this for a decade. I’ve been living a healthy life and know the parameters.

Before that, I thought I was healthy living, but remember, in the 1990s, the low-fat diet was all the craze, the worst diet on the planet. We start with the basics: hydrating, ensuring you have a bowel movement once daily, dry brushing, and exercising to get to sweat.

Unfortunately, people who are sick and exposed to various toxins may not sweat in the early days. In the early days, I was always cost-conscious for my patients, and I have progressed to if I’m given a choice, there are so many ways to test for environmental toxins, mold, and heavy metals. I’ll test if a patient is up to.

Support hormonal balance by eating nutrient-rich foods, focusing on cruciferous vegetables, and avoiding xenoestrogens in beauty products.

Here’s what I’ve found. People live healthily, filter their water, and eat all organic. You’d be shocked at what comes up, and that way, you know how to avoid and what to eliminate. I’ll use humic and folic acid products that eliminate many environmental toxins.

Things that come up commonly that people don’t know about is a gasoline byproduct, in most water supplies, not all, but most, called MTBE, that crops up even if someone’s using a filter. Those Berkey filters are not good enough, and not Brita. That’s not going to filter it out.

I have a lifespring water right now. It’s from a spring in Alabama. It’s being delivered to Miami in glass bottles and tested weekly. It’s high-quality water, and it’s important to invest in reversing osmosis or something really good, even though I know you have to remineralize reverse osmosis and add some minerals to the water because we are more or less 75% water. Whatever is in the water is who we are. Cheers.

Cheers. I have glass-bottled Hinckley Springs water in this little Yeti mug, so we’re in the same vein.

Yeah, that is awesome.

We have data. So far, there’s a website that is filtered, which creates pictures and under-sink filters.

Eliminate the big kinds of inflammatory foods, such as gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, and caffeine.

That’s good to know.

When I researched it, it said they removed 99% of MTBE and the other toxins. I have yet to split-test it, but we have a picture at home. We have a picture at work, so we’re double filtering it. I want to grab a sample and send it off. I haven’t had a chance to do that to confirm because that’s one of the fun things we get to do as practitioners. I try things out on myself before I subject patients to say, “Hey, is it worth it? Would I do this?” If it is, then we incorporate it into our protocols.

If not juice fasting, what kind of detoxes are out there or the ones that are your favorite? Of course, everyone needs to test.

A couple of different things is they have these detoxes in the box. There are a couple of companies that make them. You eat food, real food, but it’s clean food. You’re eliminating the big 5–10 kinds of inflammatory foods: gluten, dairy, sugar, soy, and caffeine.

I’m not a stickler on caffeine unless you’re making non-organic coffee because the coffee can be moldy.

Then they supply you with protein shakes and detox packs. Think of amino acids and various liver support supplements, like acetylcysteine and milk thistles. Those little kits work fabulously. That’s great when you want to do more.

Everyone should do one once or twice a year, but the best is doing what you do daily to detox—eating healthy, supplementing, and measuring your vitamin and mineral levels.

Autophagy is important in aging because it is a natural way to practice internal house-cleaning.

Believe it or not, just toxic people, so we got to think about that, including toxic relationships, toxic work environments, and what you want to strive for. Sometimes you can’t change the situation but you can change your perception.

Sometimes you don’t want to completely cut people out of your life but be prepared when you’re near them and have minimal interactions. People are still good people, even though sometimes their behavior is toxic. But you train people to treat you a certain way. When you take responsibility, and you put boundaries and limit exposure, it can be beneficial because if I would eliminate all the people with behavioral issues I don’t love in my life, I would be left with no one. That’s a fine line.

I’m chuckling. That’s an excellent strategy. You can control and set boundaries and limits. One of the things I do is I’m trained in high-performance coaching, and they talk about how you have to teach people how to act, and you model the way, and we have really lovely relationships with all of our patients because we teach them how to get their needs met and what works and what doesn’t.

Cofactors are vitamins and minerals that govern all the chemical pathways in our body. Click To Tweet

Periodically I’ve had to have hard conversations and say, “Hey, I’d love to work with you.” But remember, in the beginning, I said, “This only works if it’s a mutually respectful, collaborative relationship.” We say that on our very first visit. These are the criteria that have to be met. You have to want this type of change in medicine and approach.

Once in a great while, you get someone who comes in and say, “Yes. I want functional medicine,” and like two to three visits in, they’re like, “Well, what’s my diagnosis?” I’m like, “You missed the whole point. I’m not going to give the diagnosis.”

Sometimes, it is important to know if they have cancer, but we’re looking at removing the triggers for inflammation. Those are your causes of those symptoms that end up as a disease process to restore balance more than we’re looking at throwing a label at something.

We’re detoxing because inflammation is the biggest factor for disease.

Yeah, then toxins are just one of the eight triggers for inflammation.

Okay, and then you’re very good with peptides. What are peptides? What is peptide therapy?

The best way to explain it so everyone knows what protein is is that’s what we eat. Peptides are a breakdown product of protein amino acids. Still, they’re short sequences, so 50 or fewer amino acids are in a series for all intensive purposes, whereas a protein you eat is 150. Our body naturally creates over 7000 peptides, and the one that everyone knows is insulin. Insulin is a peptide.

Peptides are a breakdown product of protein amino acids.

As we age, the number decreases with everything. You can support it. Now some are even FDA-approved for conditions and symptoms. I like to liken it to their messengers. They’re communicating to get better function out of your cells.

A little caveat, you can’t say all the good things that are treating people. You can’t say that they are treating people. Isn’t it?

Yeah, that conundrum because they don’t want you to make claims. We’ve had some incredible reversals of diseases. That’s the best way to word it. Then the minute you tell someone not in functional medicine, they’re almost screaming liars. You ignore it. Like, “That’s okay. You don’t have to agree with me, but the proof is in the results.”

My job is to educate, advise, go over pro-risk versus benefits, and of course, they say first, do no harm. Here are some things we’ve seen with peptides: improved recovery from surgery, an acute injury, and recovery from exercise.

As we age, sometimes we don’t recover as quickly as we did in our 20s.

As we age, sometimes we don’t recover as quickly as we did in our 20s—improved libido, a little bit better sleep, and they’re not the end all. However, I am intrigued and feel that they are. This is an opinion. They’re going to change the way we age. It is just one tool in my toolbox, but it’s important. Some of them are oral, nasal sprays, and injectable.

That’s very futuristic.

The beauty of it is that you can turn them on and off. You can use them. Hormone therapy is a discussion, and I think women should be aware of it. I feel that when that study came back when I first came out into private practice, the Women’s Health Initiative did a huge disservice to women. We just stripped all these women off hormones. No questions asked.

They only studied synthetic hormones. Straight-out estrogen didn’t cause breast cancer. It was a combination of synthetic estrogen and synthetic progesterone. In my world, we use bioidenticals. You need to be consulted on risk versus benefits.

When they do IVF, do they use synthetic or bioidentical?

I believe that’s synthetic for progesterone.

I had IVF. I’m sure I got injected with a lot of synthetic hormones.

A lot of times, they induce a mini menopause, and then they jumpstart you to ovulate, and then they support progesterone. I know progesterone is definitely synthetic, but say that someone didn’t want to do hormones. Peptides are a way to help support natural production even into menopause. It can boost those levels. The results we’re getting are just nothing shy of amazing.

I’ve had some people with a peptide called body protection compound 157. The interesting story is that Pavlov discovered the propeptide to that. We remember Pavlov, who experimented on dogs. He was studying their digestive tracts.

After a decade in functional medicine and over two and a half decades in traditional medicine, I’ve developed this proprietary process to get results.

I’ve had some people develop refractory reflux and couldn’t get them better. It takes a little while. For that one, when it’s your esophagus, we have to open it up, and they put it in water and drink it down, and it targets that area. We’ve got a full resolution in one patient and significant improvement in the others who couldn’t even go out to eat. He was just not intolerant of stuff.

Sadly, his reflux was all induced by a prescription-strength anti-inflammatory. It loosens or lowers the lower esophageal tone, and you get reflux. He couldn’t get that to stop. They’d do a scope and say you got mild esophagitis. It doesn’t explain the symptoms, and he’s told it would go away, and that’s terrible. It’s a terrible way to live because he was quite young.

It really has helped. I’m now utilizing pre and post-operatively, and I’ll keep you posted. I haven’t had enough data, but it just exploded being able to support people. Again, it’s not for everyone. People are going to say, “What is this about?” But some of the data is looking very promising.

That’s amazing. My husband got me a supplement. That peptide is supposed to help me, and I have to take it. Someone will need to come to you and do the lab tests, and then you’ll determine what they need.

I always tell people the protocols are individualized for everyone. After a decade in functional medicine and over two and a half decades in traditional medicine, I’ve developed this proprietary process to get results. I can name it and describe the journey they’re going to take to ensure we do the right steps correctly.

Even the healthiest person must see at least a full set of labs twice a year.

If you do the right order, we’ve seen multiple practitioners, and the best-case scenario is they didn’t get better. The worst is they were made to feel worse. Remember when I said if you’re detoxing someone who isn’t even nourished and doesn’t have amino acids, vitamins, or minerals, they can feel terrible and sicker. If you don’t do it in the right order, you really can tank someone. It’s identifying what their triggers are. It will differ, taking them through the right steps and supporting them along the way.

The key piece that I think we’re targeting and supporting even further is that we’ve recovered a lot of people, and we’ve told them when they need to follow up, and they’re not seen, and then what we see is they come in five years later, worse than ever. I always tell people, “Can you imagine not going to the dentist after a few times? What would happen if you didn’t visit your dentist for five years? Best case scenario, you have a couple of cavities, but worse, what if that was just a setup.”

Even the healthiest person must see at least a full set of labs twice a year. Then to be advised on what’s new and emerging and up and coming because what I did ten years ago differs from what I did today.

Do you work remotely? You’re in Chicago, right?

I’m right outside of Chicago. Pretty close to O’Hare Airport. We have plenty of people that travel. As an MD, they require us to see everyone in person once. I’m hopeful that will change. We see them once, and then we can follow them virtually, which is super beneficial.

Right after the pandemic, I had people flying in from Puerto Rico and all across the US, which was incredible. I’m like, “Wow. I’m humbled, but I’m also grateful to meet people from all over the globe.” Because we lived as expats, I’ll have expats that come home for the summer, and the flyers see me, and then they return because they like our approach, and you can follow them.

Gentle detoxification involves supporting your body's natural processes through nutrition and hydration. Click To Tweet

With Zoom now, I’m hopeful these laws will change. I have multi-state licenses, but I’ve limited myself to Illinois, and then everyone else comes in, but we have one virtual program. It’s exclusive to women and a complete reset for women called the She Reset.

We do that one, and it is the path of least resistance. It gets them the most bang for the buck within six weeks with no fully supported labs. Teaches them how to eat for life.

One of my strengths is neurogenetics. We have training videos on reintroduction, and the health coach supports them. My health coach runs the whole program now, but we’ve launched that in a group format, which is super powerful. More are coming. In the fall, more things will come that don’t require me to see a patient.

That’s awesome. What is autophagy? Why do we need to know about it?

What you need to know is that I always tell people that aging starts the minute you’re conceived, and sadly most people should have screening labs in their twenties. If we’re going to do anything to support healthy aging, I always tell people you want their health span to equal your lifespan so when they’re 80, they can get up off the floor.

We have a test called the Get Up and Go Test. You measure how quickly a senior can stand up, walk so many feet, and walk back. It can impact the quality of life.

We have a test called the Get Up and Go Test. You measure how quickly a senior can stand up, walk so many feet, and walk back. It can impact the quality of life. Autophagy is important in aging because it is a natural phenomenon of house cleaning for ourselves. Think about cleaning your home periodically; if you don’t, it gets cluttered. You might trip over things, and things don’t function as efficiently. You can’t find anything, et cetera.

It’ll naturally occur, and as we age, remember everyone’s 40 is different. If you live a healthier life, it might be 42 or 45. If you live unhealthily, it may happen sooner. When that stops decreasing, there are things we can do from a lifestyle standpoint to support that, and people should know that those cells that aren’t having cellular cleaning happen can become what we call sleeper cells.

Sleeper cells are also called senescent cells, which release inflammatory chemicals and remember all symptoms and diseases are due to inflammation at the start. Then they are also referred to as zombie cells, so they recruit healthy cells. They have no issues becoming more sleeper cells. When I think of aging, you’re constantly thinking if you want to support autophagy and do something to kill off those senescent cells.

Awesome. I have a lot to discuss, but our time is ending. Before we say goodbye for now, what are your top tips for living a stellar life, and where can people find you?

If you want a healthy age at minimum, start at 40 and be tested so you can test how quickly and how poorly someone’s aging. Talk to a practitioner about natural ways to support autophagy and senescence that you could use because there are so many of them that really, everything from diet to lifestyle, number one.

Most people, especially women, are not getting enough protein.

Number two is nutrition is always at the start of everything. It’s my first D. Most people, especially women, what we’re getting wrong is not enough protein. The top three within nutrition are not enough protein. I’m telling people one gram per pound of ideal body weight of protein per day. That’s much more than most people are getting to maintain muscle mass.

Two is diversity. If we don’t have diverse diets, it’ll affect our immune system and mental health because diversity allows the bacteria in our bodies to chomp on these foods and release something called short-chain fatty acids that fuel us.

Then the last one is a test, don’t guess. At a minimum, do a nutrient panel, and look at the toxins because you’d be surprised at the deficiencies or abnormalities you will find even when you feel well. I’ve proven this time and time again, for people who think well, the most common thing we get, everything from health optimization to very sick people, is that we will work with them, find their deficiencies, and remove the triggers. They’ll say, “Wow, I didn’t realize they could feel this. They had no complaints on arrival.”

Awesome. Where can people find you and work with you?

Test, don’t guess.

My website’s drrajka.com. We invite people considering working with us to fill out an application. It’s got to be a mutual great fit. We proceed, and we welcome you on board. On social media, I’m on Instagram and Facebook. Both are Dr. Rajka. I’m happy to provide those links, and your doc is even doing reels these days so that you can teach them all new tricks.

That’s amazing. Dr. Rajka, thank you so much. You’re pretty awesome. You’re very awesome. I am happy we had this conversation, and I hope to see you again on the show.

I’d be delighted to come back.

Thank you, and thank you, listeners. Remember that nutrition is key. You need to eat enough protein and have a diverse diet. And test, don’t guess this is Orion. Until next time, have a stellar life.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓}Address the root cause of your health problems and avoid settling on surface-level treatments. Do not hesitate to ask your physician questions. Actively seek solutions.

{✓}Embrace a personalized health protocol according to your needs. Remember, functional medicine is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

{✓}Regularly submit yourself for laboratory tests. Testing for specific deficiencies can help tailor your supplement routine.

{✓}Focus on maintaining your overall health and lifespan. Keep your body in top shape and embrace the power of nutrition in anti-aging.

{✓}Prioritize balancing hormones through proper nutrition, incorporating cruciferous vegetables, and avoiding xenoestrogens in beauty products.

{✓}Consider core supplements, including multivitamins, minerals, vitamin D, probiotics, and omega-3 fatty acids. Modern lifestyles and depleted soil can lead to nutrient deficiencies.

{✓}Avoid drastic juice cleanses when you have compromised health. Instead, support your body’s natural detoxification through proper nutrition and hydration. Detoxification is essential, given our exposure to various toxins.

{✓}Set boundaries and limitations for toxic relationships and working environments. Remember, you give people permission to continue to treat you in specific ways.

{✓}Engage in a mutually respectful and collaborative relationship with your physician. This approach ensures the best outcomes in functional medicine.

{✓}Visit Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith’s website to get answers, address the root cause of your health issues, and reclaim your energy. You can also visit her Facebook and Instagram for more tips and tricks.

About Rajka Milanovic Galbraith

Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith is a leading Functional Medicine MD, an international speaker, a mentor to practitioners, and an expert in longevity, antiaging and nutrigenetics. She has helped thousands of high-performing executives, entrepreneurs and celebrities recover their energy and performance so they can have the biggest impact in their lives. She is known as the Go-To Doctor for other doctors. She sees patients 1:1 in the clinic she founded: Simply Health Institute, outside of Chicago.