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Up One cuts through the noise of health and wellness trends. Hosted by Sawyer Stone and longevity scientist Dr. Bill Andrews, each episode unpacks peer-reviewed research on supplements, therapies, and diagnostics - no fluff, just facts. If you're serious about the science of aging and human performance, it's time to take it Up One.
Dr. Amy Killen: [00:00:00] Here's the fun fact. We didn't know what the full, the full, the full anatomy of the clitoris was not. Discovered until 2005.
Sawyer Stone: Oh gosh, I'm in pain that hurts.
Dr. Amy Killen: 2005 was the first time it was published.
Sawyer Stone: Welcome to Up one, the podcast where we take a deep dive into the science behind supplements. Therapies and diagnostics. I'm Sawyer Stone, your Guide through the Maze of Health Claims. Here to ask the big questions.
Dr. Bill Andrews: And I'm Dr. Bill Andrews. With decades of experience in medical research, I've dedicated my career to uncovering the real science behind disease, aging, and human health.
On this podcast, we don't just skin the surface of scientific studies, we conduct a critical meta-analysis. Separating credible research from misleading conclusions.
Sawyer Stone: There's a lot of noise out there, conflicting [00:01:00] studies, bold claims and endless marketing up. One is here to cut through it all and bring you science backed insights that you can actually trust.
Dr. Bill Andrews: We're talking prevention, diagnostics, treatments, and the big question is shaping the future of health.
Sawyer Stone: If you're serious about understanding the science of health and longevity without the fluff. Let's take it up one.
Okay. Hey, Dr. Bill, and we have a guest today. We'll introduce her in a moment. We're gonna talk about our decline in sexual health and why it's a major concern for many men and women as they get older. How do we prevent it and how do we restore it? You have recommended Dr. Amy Killen to be a guest on today's episode of UP One because she is the world's leading authority on the subject.
As a very well-respected speaker and educator at medical conferences attended by. Physicians wishing to be way more helpful to their patients than they can on their own.
Dr. Bill Andrews: This is a very special episode for [00:02:00] me because I've always been amazed at the remarkable power of mutual intimacy to correlate with people being biologically younger as they become longer lived.
And it's regardless if they're woman with man, man with woman, or woman with woman. And I wanna point out, we're not talking about just sex. We're even hugging and kissing provides benefits that. Improve health. And I also wanna say it's not just about reproduction, since most of the audiences that I see at conferences on sexual health are people that are beyond their reproductive years, I'm, I'm actually quite honored to have Dr.
Amy Killen, who I consider to be the world's leading expert on the field of sexual health as a guest on our podcast today. So I'm looking forward to this.
Dr. Amy Killen: Well, thank you. I'm, I'm happy to be here as well. I've known, I've known Bill for a few years, uh, through conferences. I think we were talking, it's probably been five or seven or eight years.
10. 10, more than 10 years ago. Met a long time.
Dr. Bill Andrews: Yes.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. Well, thank [00:03:00] you for joining us today, Dr. Killen. Well, bill, before we get going, are you saying to me that there is a tie between. Y sexual intimacy or intimacy in general? Physical intimacy in general and living longer in longevity.
Dr. Bill Andrews: Yes, and I think Amy can address that better than I can, but there's, there, there's a lot of correlations, but there's also changes that occur that are actually decrease the rate of aging and stuff like that.
And I'll, I'll let Amy. Fascinating because I've learned mostly listening talk.
Dr. Amy Killen: Wow. I'm so excited. There's it. It's inter, it's very interesting. It's not talked about a lot, but there have been some big studies. There was a study in 2020, which was 15,000 plus, uh, US men and women, and they looked at the correlation between sexual activity in that case and longevity and they found that couples that had people that had sex at least once a week had a 50% lower all cause mortality rate compared to people who were not.
Sexually active. [00:04:00] And so during the course of the study, they, you know, they were 50% less likely to die during that seven or eight years of the study than other people. And this mirror mirrors findings from other studies out of Wales and, and libido studies out of Japan. Um, so we know that there's like, like he said, a very strong correlation.
It doesn't necessarily prove causation, but we know that sexual health kind of sits at the middle of all different other types of health, like physical, mental, emotional, you know, social partner, spiritual, environmental. All of those things influence sexual health, and so we know it's a good biomarker of health and it also probably contributes to overall health as well.
Sawyer Stone: Awesome. Well, I'm excited. I'm excited to talk about this. So, well, the first thing we should probably talk about is why is talking about sexual health so important to talk about? Why does it need to be part of our vernacular? Why is it important to talk about at all ages, and why is it even more important to talk about as we continue to grow older?
Yeah,
Dr. Amy Killen: I, no, I think that to me, sexual health, it doesn't even require that you have a partner [00:05:00] to me, sexual health is not about them. It's about you. It's about the health of your hormones, the blood flow, getting down to all the different nooks and crannies. It's about, you know, your nervous system being healthy and being able to get into the parasympathetic.
It's about the health of the pelvic floor organs. So, to me, it's not even necessarily about having a partner, although certainly there are benefits to the intimacy part that we can, that we, we know as well. But sexual health doesn't even require a partner. If you ask me. It's still important for people to think about.
Sawyer Stone: So solo stuff still making you live longer?
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, I mean, we don't know for sure. We think, we think that there, we think that, you know, any sexual activity, orgasm, all of those things are, have some of the same benefits, if not all of the same benefits as partnered sex. Probably not all the same benefits, but we still get a lot of the same neurotransmitters released of the same hormones.
Um, and certainly. Just making sure that you're staying healthy enough to, to want that and to enjoy it. That's all also very beneficial. [00:06:00]
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, so I guess, I guess in a way then you're saying that the emotional portion of being with a partner in that way is beneficial to longevity, not just the action or the exercise of the sexual act itself.
Dr. Amy Killen: I think there are two things, two different things happening, certainly. And like, like Bill said, holding hands, dancing, cuddling, you know, we get a great oxytocin boost from just those things. And we know that oxytocin is directly sort of opposing cortisol in the body and it's helping to protect the brain from cortisol.
Um, and so that alone probably has a lot of longevity benefits. So I think that the intimacy part, whether that's with friends, whether that's dancing, whether that's just sitting on the couch and watching Netflix, but like touching each other like that has benefits. Also, but then sex and sexual health in a different capacity also has benefits we think.
Dr. Bill Andrews: Awesome. Let me ask, I mean, just reducing the intimacy reduces stress and we know that stress accelerates aging. Also, the, uh, Amy just mentioned, [00:07:00] uh, or Dr. Kill. I'm gonna call you Amy. You can call me
Dr. Amy Killen: Amy. Amy's totally fine,
Dr. Bill Andrews: but Amy mention that the cortisol levels, uh, decrease and cortisol is a, an indicator of inflammation.
And we know that inflammation causes aging. Uh, most people think cortisol is a bad thing, but actually it's there to fight inflammation, so,
Sawyer Stone: yeah.
Hmm. Okay. Well, can y'all tell me why sexual health declines in men and women as they age?
Dr. Amy Killen: Well, I mean, it doesn't have to decline, but the reason that it most commonly declines for women, I, the thing I see most often is that when women, women go into menopause, their, you know, their ovaries which are producing their estrogen and progesterone, uh, are, are gonna be, you know, kind of fading out and that you lose those hormones, which is.
Which is really important. Testosterone is also going down in men and women starting at about age 25. And that's very important for sexual health. So the hormonal piece is a big driver. And then, you know, I think other things too, as you get older and you get medical problems, you get illnesses, [00:08:00] you know, like other things kind of prevent you from being interested or even able to be sexually active.
'cause if your your knees hurt too bad or your back hurts too bad, you know, it, it makes things not quite as sexy.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Okay. We just had a episode we recorded on menopause and that was very fascinating to find out all of the little intricate details that go along with that. And my peer group is going through menopause right now.
I'm not, I'm a bit quite a bit younger than them, but it is so fascinating to hear them talk about like in their marriages what's going on with their sex lives and all of it being affected by hormones. It's so fascinating to watch that. We all know it's happening, but it still feels like it's brand spanking new and it happens to somebody, you know, and it happens to you, and it's like, it's so
Dr. Amy Killen: fascinating.
Yeah. Even when you know it's coming, like even if you know what's, what's happening out there, like when it happens to you, you're like, wait a second, this is not supposed to happen. Yeah,
Sawyer Stone: yeah. Wait. It's like, aren't I supposed to be like the exception? Am I supposed to enjoy freedom [00:09:00] yet? From all of these issues for sure.
Well, are there any like lifestyle or dietary choices that men and women can make that might help them maintain their sexual health? Is, you know, exercising in a more like traditional way more common with people that have sexual health longevity, or, tell us about it.
Dr. Amy Killen: I mean, when I, I, I think that I'll step back a little bit.
When I think about sexual health, I think of kind of like. Four, the four pillars of sexual health for, and I think about the mind, and of course that's gonna be mental, emotional, you know, past trauma, spiritual, like anything that's kind of like appeared. Of course your brain is your largest sex organ and it's, it's probably the most important.
That's a big piece. So anything that's good for mental emotional health is gonna be good. And I think about the hormones, which we kind of touched on a little bit. And I think about blood flow because you need good blood flow to the, to the sexual organs in order to have normal responses. So anything that improves blood flow, which is gonna.
Anything that improves cardiovascular health, uh, is gonna improve sexual health. And then the last pi, uh, last pillar is the actual pelvic, you know, kind of [00:10:00] support and pelvic organs themselves. So if you kind of think about it that way, I mean, certainly anything that's gonna improve your cardiovascular health is gonna help sexual health.
So, like, you know, for instance, eating nitrate rich foods, green leafy vegetables and kale and arugula and things like that are gonna be good for blood flow because we know. That, that's a mechanism for improving vasodilation. Um, certainly exercising. Both, both, both heavy lifting and aerobic. Exercising is good for cardiovascular health, so it's good for sexual health.
So you can kind of extrapolate a little bit like anything that's good for your heart and your brain is also good for your sexual organs.
Sawyer Stone: Hmm, that makes sense. I was gonna ask you, because you said that the brain was the largest sexual organ organ and you know, I think that might be the first time that I've heard that.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah. I mean, the brain is where like desire and arousal and orgasm all kind of start, and that's all. Yeah. That's where all those things go to die too. Like if you're having a lot of stress, if you're, you know, if you don't like your partner this day, if they didn't do the dishes, like this is all, you know, this all comes from the brain.[00:11:00]
Um, it's not so much the rest of the body that's in charge here.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, that's just fascinating. That caught me. I was like, whoa, I've never thought about it like that. It totally makes sense. Well, Dr. Bill, do you have anything that you wanna add on the dietary portion of things and like what might be able to get, I mean, just because they say there's so much cliche about like oysters and what el, whatever else they call a food aphrodisiac.
I mean, is it even true? Is it helping? Is it just a myth? Is it per person?
Dr. Bill Andrews: Well, the, just the increase in nitric oxide synthase functions and, uh, like nitrate and like arginine, arginine is something that, uh, is often, uh, touted by cardiovascular doctors as a way to keep your blood flow for cardiovascular disease and stuff like that.
But it also helps with, uh, uh, sexual abilities and things like that too.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, fascinating. Like arginine el Citruline, which is in watermelon. These things [00:12:00] can be helpful in, especially in younger people, they're not quite as helpful in older people because you still have, you have to have, um, you still have to have intact blood vessels.
You know, healthy blood vessels to make some of this. And then you also have to have healthy bacteria in your mouth and healthy stomach acid. It's, there's a whole lot of things involved. But yeah, certainly I don't think that in general foods are going like oysters. I don't think there's really good evidence that they're gonna like, make you super, you know, I don't know, sexual, but I think that having a healthy diet in general is gonna be better than not having a healthy diet in general.
Sawyer Stone: That makes sense to me. Okay. Well, alright, so if someone you know has a loss of sexual health, is there a medical treatment that might be available to restore that sexual health? Are there different medical treatments for men and for women or all other folks on the spectrum? Like what do we have that might able to help in that situation?
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, I mean, first of all, obviously figuring out what the, what the cause is, is gonna be important, so, you know, dialing in where it's coming [00:13:00] from. Um, but the specific things that target, like the pelvic floor, for instance, one of my favorite therapies is low intensity shock wave therapy, which is a, it's a device.
It's been used for decades. Uh, it's been. Primarily used for like improving, like musculoskeletal healing, like rotator cuff injuries or, you know, fasciitis in your ankle. But it was discovered about 10 years ago that it's this, this is a machine, like doctors hold it in their hands and, um, it's really effective for improving men's erectile dysfunction.
And so we have a lot of studies now and a lot of urologists are finally doing it. I've been using it for eight or nine years, but that this is. Helpful for actually kind of turning back the, the clock a little bit and helping, helping to improve the health of the smooth vessel cells and the blood vessels in the penis.
So it's mostly research in men, although there is some research in, in women, uh, it's not as, it's not as much. And you know, in general, women don't get research as much in the sexual field space. Um. Which is unfortunate, but, but I think that it applies to both and I think that we can use it, you know, for [00:14:00] everyone to help, you know, that are people who are having blood flow problems or, um, pain problems can, can benefit from this.
Sawyer Stone: Okay. Well, and I know just because I have this peer group that the pelvic floor therapy is like, I mean, not only a game changer for their sexual health, but a game changer like across the board and like, maybe, possibly we should be doing it. From like a very young age throughout our whole life, and it just, it's not as, uh, I think it's like a, maybe a new idea or maybe it's just new to me.
Yeah.
I don't know. Yeah.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah. It's so interesting. I think a lot of, and I, this, this talked about more in, in women than men, but it certainly, it's important for everyone. But you know, just understanding the way that the pelvic floor muscles, which are kinda this bowl of muscles, you know, that they actually, they interact directly with all the rest of your core markers, your abs, your obliques, your.
Back and then they also interact with your diaphragm. So everything from how you breathe to how you sit up to whether you hold your stomach in, if you're, you know, at a party for many hours on in, you know, all of these [00:15:00] things can affect your pelvic floor health and whether those muscles are too tight and dysfunctional or they're too loose and dysfunctional.
And so, I absolutely agree. I mean, having. Physical therapist, like a pelvic floor physical therapist that can kind of help diagnose problems and then giving, giving you things to do at home, uh, can be a game changer for people who have any kind of pelvic floor problem, which there's a lot of people.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, that's fascinating.
Could, now, you said earlier that, that it was unfortunate that there's not as much research done for women, and we know that like across the board, that is the theme in not just sexual health.
Yes.
Is there. Do you know of, just in the sexual health arena, is there a reason why there isn't more research done on women?
Or is it just like the same thing across the board? There just isn't any.
Dr. Amy Killen: I think it's both. I think that it's that women, you know, women in general weren't even included in research, in research until the early 1990s, you know, in, in, by the NIH. So we were left behind, uh, quite a bit. Yeah. Here's the fun fact.
We didn't know what the full, the full, the full [00:16:00] anatomy of the clitoris was not. Discovered until 2005.
Sawyer Stone: Oh gosh, I'm in pain. That hurts. What?
Dr. Amy Killen: 2005 was the first time it was published. Like not just that it's a little nubbin, but there's like a whole like thing back there. So we've been left behind. But also I do think it's also more difficult to study women because we don't see, you know, men and women have erections, but we don't see women's erections 'cause they're mostly inside.
Right. And so it's harder to, it's harder to measure those, it's harder to say if something is working or not. Like we, you know, we can do ultrasounds, but you have to go to the doctor like you, you know, a woman doesn't necessarily know if she's got good blood flow or not, whereas a man does. And so I think that that makes it a little more complicated as well.
Sawyer Stone: Hmm. Back up. I can't believe that.
Dr. Bill Andrews: We talked about medical interventions a little earlier, and I was thinking you were gonna mention something about stem cells. What, what do you think about going on with stem cells nowadays?
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, I mean, I do, I like stem cells as well. Stem cells and regenerative [00:17:00] therapies, you know, cellular vesicles, exosomes for sexual health, for men and women.
We have more research on men as, as well. This, this goes back to that question, uh, in terms of being able to improve sexual function, I, I think the combination of shockwave therapy and regenerative. Actions, like, you know, injecting into the penis, injecting into the clitoris, the vaginal wall. These things in combination with shockwave are, can be very effective.
But we don't, we don't have a a, a lot of research in, um, in women at this point Still.
Sawyer Stone: Man.
Disappointing.
Dr. Amy Killen: Okay. I know, I know.
Sawyer Stone: Well, to go back a little bit to what we can do, diet and lifestyle wise, are there supplements that can be taken to help either maintain or restore sexual health?
Dr. Amy Killen: My favorite supplements are, are the, like the nitric oxide boosters.
Like there are a couple of brands that have done the research, like Dr. Nathan Bryan, who speaks at a lot of events that we speak at, has, um, a couple, like, he has a couple of different, uh, nitric oxide boosting supplements with, with [00:18:00] some good clinical studies behind them for reducing blood pressure and then improving blood flow.
Uh, and he's also looked at sexual health as well, and I think in men is what he looked at. But, so I thought I like those for, for supplements. And then I think just. Generally keeping your hormone pathways healthy. You know your basics, your vitamin D, your making sure you got zinc and selenium, and some of the basic things that are needed to make hormones like testosterone and your other sex hormones is important.
Most people have enough of those, but not everybody.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm finding, I'm on this journey personally for myself with, um, PMD, which is premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and I'm just finding that it is, the, the out of whack hormone thing is truly insane and like. If it dips even just a little bit, like you feel like a different person that like your body is not familiar with.
And it is crazy to me that I just, I mean, I don't know, maybe there's just not a lot of discourse surrounding it in my life, but it feels like nobody's talking about it. It [00:19:00] feels very important. Uh, Dr.
Dr. Amy Killen: Jolene Brighton's writing a book right now, I think, and I think she's talking a lot about PMDD. She's, she's, uh, does, has had great books, but, um, it is true.
I think that, you know, one of the things that I tell, tell women is that like. There's so much information that we can get from just your cycle. Like is it normal? Is it painful? Is it irregular? Does it cause you to have headaches? Like there's so many things that, that I think women are just told, oh, you know, if this is, you're fine, suck it up.
But you know, that's kind of like the story of our lives, but I think that we should probably listen to these symptoms and maybe chase them down.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. Yeah. I'm finding that I'm a much better person inside and out finding out more things about PD than I am just leaving it be. Yeah. Okay. Alright, so Dr.
Bell, maybe, maybe you can help us out with this one from a longevity perspective. How does mitochondrial function directly affect libido and stamina as we age? And then my second question to tag onto to that would be is can certain supplements [00:20:00] boost the cellular energy for a better performance or does that, has that already been answered, Byron Nitrix oxide supplements?
Dr. Bill Andrews: Well, let me, lemme address the first one first. Um, now there's a question about the definition of libido. Now I've always considered libido to be more mental. Okay. Not the physical part. And so I don't know how mitochondria would play a role in the mental aspects of, uh, li Beetle. Uh, but um, I see, but in terms of like the fact that mitochondria are providing energy, that's energy is needed for, um, most of the sexual responses, um, including just regular intimacy.
Um,
Sawyer Stone: yeah.
Dr. Bill Andrews: But, uh, uh, like Uli a is a, a really good thing for helping boost mitochondria. Uh. Uh, nicotinamide, riboside, um, a bunch of other things. Um, but of course I'd, I'd be interested in hearing what Amy has to say on the, on the subject of mitochondria. Yeah, and I
Dr. Amy Killen: think you what think it might, so I think [00:21:00] is a libido is kind of desire that is more brain, but then an arousal is the actual blood flow.
That's the, that's the, the blood flow and the kind of physical response to that. Um, as, as a more arousal. But, you know, I think about mitochondria. As being really important for the, like the, the pro the making of hormones for the, you know, we know the ovaries, for instance, are the most, one of the most mitochondrial dense organs in the body, and they make, you know, they make estrogen and progesterone.
Certainly your other, other glands are gonna have mitochondria. So, I mean. If we think about libido is highly tied to org, to, um, to testosterone and to estrogen in women, testosterone in both. And so we need to make sure that we're making those hormones and MIT healthy mitochondria can help with that. But, and I think, you know, just in general across the board, you know, obviously all of your organs have mitochondria in them.
So when you think about all the other things that are required for arousal, for blood flow, for healthy blood vessels, like mitochondria is like at the root of, of, of aging. It's one of the major. Hallmarks of aging is having healthy [00:22:00] mitochondria.
Sawyer Stone: Okay, great. Alright, well then let's talk a little bit about hormones Again, just go back a little bit to that.
We talk about testosterone and estrogen in, in the way that we talk about it for lifespan and longevity in general. But how did these sex hormones, which is what they would technically be, even at low, healthier levels, continue to regulate in vascular health and neuro sensitivity that are crucial to a sex life.
So I know we talked about that sort of a little bit. Maybe y'all could dive a little bit deeper into that.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, I mean the, certainly they all affect the brain. They're all, all estrogen, progesterone, testosterone in women are all going to drive or affect, you know, uh, libido and arousal and orgasm.
Testosterone more in men, but, and then we also know estrogen and, and men and women, and testosterone in men are directly responsible for a lot of the blood vessel effects. So you have vasodilation, you know, estrogen in combination with nitric oxide, opens the blood vessels up so you can get blood flow to the right area.
Men. Testosterone also has a role in getting [00:23:00] blood flow to the penis. So it's not just the mental, emotional kind of brain effects, but actually systemic effects. And those hormones also help keep the sexual organs healthy. So, for instance, in men, testosterone is needed to keep the cells in the penis. Like elastic and stretchy and like, not, not having them turn into scar tissue or fat.
You have to have testosterone for that. And in fact, men who have like low testosterone over time, the, the, the, their penis, instead of having these smooth muscle cells that are stretchy and normal, they'll get. Fat or they'll get scar tissue in there, which is gonna help, is gonna cause aile dysfunction.
And in women, if you don't have estrogen, the same kinds of things happen. You essentially get, you know, shrinking, dehydration, um, you know, bad microbes growing. Like these hormones keep the structural, the structural health of the, of the sex organs as well.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah.
Dr. Bill Andrews: And there, there's also the hormones that are a result of intimacy, like, uh, oxytocin and HGH.
And I don't know if, if Amy's got [00:24:00] any comments about those. 'cause they're, they're, yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, we have, we get, we get, do we get dopamine, we get serotonin, we get endorphins, which are gonna be the, kinda like your runners, runner's high. We get oxytocin. Um, we get all of these things from, just, from like a normal sexual kind of response.
Um, and with, you know, I tell, I tell people, in order to get kind of the same, um, cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters, you'd have to, you know. Put strap like a puppy to your chest and go for a long run while popping Prozac and, and snorting cocaine. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That's the compound that,
Sawyer Stone: okay.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah.
And by the way, I don't
Sawyer Stone: recommend that, but yeah, it doesn't sound good for the puppy's health to be jostled like that. That's hilarious. Okay. H that's quite a cocktail actually
Dr. Bill Andrews: helps with skin. Okay, so skin elasticity and just appearance in general. So. There's also those benefits.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna tell my [00:25:00] partner like, this is gonna make us both younger.
We just need to stay committed to this. Yeah. Good. Good to know. Just suck it up. Just suck it up. I know. It's so hard to do. Okay. Well, is there any emerging research that connects health and the balance of the gut? 'cause you just mentioned this, Dr. Kalen microbiome to hormonal balance or overall sexual vitality.
Dr. Amy Killen: You know, I don't, I know that there is some emerging research with a vaginal microbiome. Um, there's some companies out there like ev, which is um, which is Naveen Jane's daughter. Priyanka has that company and, and they're doing a lot of really interesting research on the vaginal microbiome and its connection to.
You know, all different things in the longevity space as well as just the, um, just the general health space, you know, looking at connection to polycystic ovarian syndrome or preterm birth or infertility or probably PMDD and all of these things. And that's one of those areas of, of medicine that like we've just really not looked at.
But it turns out that the bugs that are growing in your vagina are [00:26:00] actually just as important as the ones growing in your gut. Yeah. That's so fascinating. As gross as that sounds.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. No, but it is. It is definitely that. It's just funny that it is bugs. That's funny. Okay, well, okay, so if we think about, you know, a healthy body, we think about a body that doesn't have a lot of inflammation, and so my assumption is that the inflammation directly affects sexual issues, just like it directly affects other health issues and it can lead to issues.
Or maybe does it lead to issues like pain or erectile dysfunction, um, in both persons and what is the strongest anti-inflammatory? Supplements that target that area specifically for sexual health, not like something like temic that might target joint inflammation.
Dr. Amy Killen: You know, I don't know if there's a specific anti-inflammatory agent that I've seen at least studied for sexual health.
I think anything that reduces inflammation system-wide is going to potentially, you know, improve sexual health [00:27:00] by both, by improving blood flow and cardiovascular health as well as potentially the, you know, actual organ, organ health. Um, but. I don't know if there's something specific and maybe you, maybe you know, bill, but I don't know any specific sexual health.
Dr. Bill Andrews: I, I've never heard of anything, but you know, I, I just can say that inflammation is major car cause of cardiovascular disease, which, uh, causes um, uh, sexual performance issues.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, for sure.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. Okay. If a couple is focused on extending their health span together, are there specific foundational supplements beyond just like a multivitamin that both men and women should prioritize to support a mutual fulfilling sexual health in their later years?
I,
Dr. Amy Killen: I think there's not necessarily one thing, but certainly, you know, by supporting the health of all the rest of your body, then you're gonna be supporting your sexual health because we know there's so many aspects that go into that. So it's not necessarily, I don't think there's a, a single component, but it's, you know, supporting cardiovascular health maybe [00:28:00] with your Omega-3 fatty acids and you're, you know, making sure you're getting your micro micronutrients, your vitamin D and magnesium and, you know, selenium and things like that, uh, are gonna support your, uh, your.
Your hormone production. So you know, your B vitamins is, is gonna be important for hormones as well. So there's a lot of things that are important for just general health, but I don't think there's necessarily one or two things that are just good for sexual health.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, it sounds like as long as you're maintaining.
Every aspect of your body and trying to keep every aspect of your body, both mentally and physically healthy, then you're gonna attain sexual health and wellness as well. Yeah, it doesn't sound like it's really specific. That's usually, unless
Dr. Amy Killen: you have like trauma or something to the pelvic floor, you know, unless you have like specific things that have caused issues.
That's, that's the whole thing is that sexual health is kind of a portal for us to be able to look and help you optimize all the rest of your health and your body just by kind of looking at in through sexual health.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. That's fascinating. Okay. Well some of the conversations that are between se, [00:29:00] that are about sexual health between patients and providers is, uh, taboo or hard to talk about, or folks have some shame or folks have embarrassment.
Is there a way, Dr. Killen, that you have found that might be able to help us make that less? Taboo or less embarrassing or less shameful, like how do we not normalize, but how do we add it to this vernacular that we talk about regularly so it doesn't have all of these aspects of not fun to it.
Dr. Amy Killen: I mean, for me it's just, it's just continuing to talk about it.
Um, and not, you know, and not make it a big deal. Like if I'm talking to a patient, I'm gonna ask them about their, you know, are they having chest pain? Any, any issues with, you know, brain fog and migraine? Like, I'm gonna ask about their elbows and their knees and their joints. And, I mean, I should also be asking about sexual health.
So, to me, it's just one more system that is part of the body that is important. And if we, if we name things properly, if we don't make it a big deal, like, you know, my kids [00:30:00] that I've, I've been talking about sexual health to my kids since they were young. Like not in a creepy way, just in a like. This is what's happening in your body way.
Yeah. So we can do the same thing to adults, I think.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's a good comparison to be like, if you can chat about it with kids, then most certainly you can chat about it with adults. 'cause you know, everything in life with kids seems to be a bit censored. Okay.
Dr. Bill Andrews: No, we haven't, we haven't talked about telomeres yet.
My favorite subject, uh, yes. Why don't you talk about telomeres, bill. I, I thought maybe everybody's waiting for me to bring it up, but, uh, 'cause earlier in the, uh, podcast we were talking about the causes of sexual decline and things. Uh, and I believe that telomeres probably do play a major role in like, the fact that our serotonin and our endorphins and our, uh.
Um, oh, what's the other one? Um, uh, dopamine there, we, those decrease with, with age and it's probably very likely that there's the [00:31:00] role that telomere play in the epigenetics of gene expressions, stuff like that throughout the body that's playing a role in there. And so I think that lengthening telomere is gonna be something that's gonna be a major help with, um, uh, sexual performance and intimacy and things like that.
Not only, I mean, so, uh, I don't know Amy, if you're familiar with Elisa epo? Uh, she's a good friend of mine who's, uh, at UCSF, um, works on telomeres and psychology mostly, and she's, she's published a study. I wanna say like five, six years ago or something like that, maybe eight years ago, 10 years ago, on the fact that when she looked at telomere length in, uh, especially women that were, uh, intimate more, you know, more intimate, they were the longer their telomeres were.
Yeah, I think I saw that study. I remember that study wasn't lengthening telomeres, but there was definitely a correlation between the fact that not only can telomeres, lung telomeres help with, [00:32:00] uh, sexual performance, but also. Sexual performance can help with telomeres, keeping telomeres long, and then most likely that's all due to reduce stress.
Okay. Uh uh, yeah, in intimate reduces stress and stress causes accelerated telomere shortening.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah, that makes sense. We know that there is a strong correlation between, you know, people who are, you know, in healthier sex, sex, uh, lives. They have healthier sex. They, they tend to have certainly lower blood pressure, less stress, less depression, less anxiety, better self-image.
There's a relationship between sexual health even, and an immune health. Um, and then, and telomeres as well. So I think that the stress piece of it probably is a, like, like you said, it's a big contributor. To mo both, you know, improving mental health and emotional health. Um, as well we also know that couples who stay sexually active tend to have less cognitive decline as they get older.
So they actually tend to have less, uh, shrinking of their hippocampus in their brain and, and less kind of memory problems. So there's a lot of these benefits. We don't [00:33:00] necessarily know how they happen or why, but I think it's pretty fascinating.
Dr. Bill Andrews: There's benefits to the immune system too, and, and nobody knows why.
Dr. Amy Killen: Yeah.
Sawyer Stone: That's so fascinating that it connects to all of these aspects of your life, but we're like, we're not quite sure why that's so fascinating that it like, uh, like helps you maintain great immune health. That is so interesting. I mean, you know, the
Dr. Amy Killen: immune system makes sense though too. If we look at it just through the lens of.
Of stress because we know that if we can reduce stress and cortisol, then that's gonna be helpful for the immune system. That's, you know, that's that. We know that stress is a major driver of all of every disease. So if we can reduce stress, then that's gonna be beneficial probably to most areas of our body.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, man, that's awesome. Okay. Well, are there any common myths concerning sexual health that y'all have come across that you wanna come on here and myth bust?
Dr. Amy Killen: I think one big common myth is that you [00:34:00] have to, that sexual health has to decline with age. That you're you, that you're supposed to just kind of.
Stop being interested. Stop having sex. Stop, stop having intimacy as you get older. I don't think that that is, you know, certainly that's your choice. That's your choice. But I don't think it's something that has to happen. We have many ways that we can help prevent that now. Um, I also think that it's a myth, like I said before, that you should only care about sexual health if you have a partner or plan to have a partner soon.
'cause it's really, it's not about them, it's about you. And then I think the third myth is that. If you have a sexual problem or, or you know, lack of sex drive or whatever, that you don't have any recourse that, that there's nothing out there that you could do that you're stuck too bad because that's totally not true.
We have many, many tools at this point.
Dr. Bill Andrews: That's the main thing that I wanted to talk about in myths is that the, and when I, when I go to conferences and talk with people that are like over 50 and things like that, they believe there's absolutely nothing they can do about it. And I, I say. You should go listen to Dr.
Amy Killen talk. [00:35:00] Okay? And because you, it's amazing. What, what? You don't have to go through all this when you, when you listen to the things that she has to offer.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah. Dr. Killen, do you have anything that you definitely wanna talk about or to that, something like a soapbox you usually have a chat about?
Dr. Amy Killen: You know, I think the main thing is just to, to let people know how much power they have. Like, you know, you have so much power to create health, certainly to avoid disease, and that health includes sexual health, so. You know, the doctors, we can help, we can, we can do fancy tests, we can kind of put you on medications if you need it, but really, most of the, the control is in your own hands, and it's just learning about what you can do on your own.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah.
Okay. Dr. Bill, anything that you wanna add, anything you wanna talk about or discuss?
Dr. Bill Andrews: As I said, I, I think this is a very special episode that I think, I hope people listen to this because I think that. The, uh, lack of intimacy [00:36:00] when you get older actually accelerates your aging. Yeah, and a lot of people like social isolation is a terrible thing for, uh, uh, people when they get older, it, it really cause decline in their health and things like that.
And so if more people would be listening to podcasts like this, I think the world would be a happier and healthier place. I like it. Agree.
Sawyer Stone: Yeah, I like it too. Yeah, it's definitely something I see in my peer groups and when like folks are going through specific things in their relationships and like they've got like a sexual health or a sexual intimacy drop off or whatever it is, and then I see 'em a few months later and they've got it back in their life.
It's like, it's like they've spent like a week at the beach and they're like sunny and bright and their skin sparkly and it was, it's crazy to me. So important in that. I'm so happy to hear that. Like it wasn't just a myth I had. Yeah, it was a very important part of aging. Well, Dr. Killen, thank you so much for joining us on Up One today.
If our listeners and [00:37:00] viewers wanna find you or have some more information about what you're doing regarding sexual health, where can they find you?
Dr. Amy Killen: So I'm very active on social media, especially Instagram, Dr. Amy b Killen. And then I also have a website, dr amy killen.com. And um, I also do a lot of writing on substack and I have articles that come out every week that are kind of deep dives into a lot of, a lot of women's health, especially women's longevity sexual health.
So find me on substack as well. Oh, that's
Sawyer Stone: awesome. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for joining us on Up one. If you found today's conversation valuable, be sure to subscribe and share this episode with someone who's curious about the real science behind help.
Dr. Bill Andrews: Have a topic you want us to break down. Send us your questions. We're here to help you separate fact from fiction.
Sawyer Stone: Until next time.
Stay curious, stay informed, and let's keep taking it up [00:38:00] one.