This week’s conversation is with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, a functional medicine physician and the founder of the Institute for Muscle-Centric Medicine.

Gabrielle received her doctorate in osteopathic medicine from the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine and is board-certified in family medicine. She earned her undergraduate degree in Human Nutrition where specialized in vitamin and mineral metabolism.

Now, in her private medical practice, Gabrielle leverages evidence-based medicine with emerging cutting-edge science to restore metabolism, balance hormones, and optimize body composition with the goal of lifelong vitality.

Her patients include world-class athletes, as well as elite military operators such as Navy SEALS, Green Berets, Army Rangers and US & Canadian Special Forces.

In a world where vegetarianism and veganism have seemingly become the “gold standard” for health, Gabrielle has quite a different perspective, and it was fascinating to learn about some of Gabrielle’s unique approaches to health and longevity. We discuss nutrition, lifestyle, the importance of protein, and how – from her perspective – muscle health is the ultimate key to optimal aging.

“We must shift from a fat-focused perspective to a muscle-centric one when we think about empowerment… Muscle is the organ of longevity. Your trajectory of capacity is all based on muscle.”

In This Episode:

An overview of her mission

Really there’s two major avenues that I would say I am approaching. Number one is, for everybody listening, everything that they thought they knew about obesity and longevity is wrong. And I am on a mission to course correct that. And the other part of what I do is I have a concierge medical practice in which I take care of real change makers. Individuals like Kerri Walsh Jennings. And a portion of my practice is dedicated to special operations in the military.

Shifting from fat-focused messaging to a muscle-centric perspective

We were doing a weight loss study and this was an amazing woman and she was a mother of three in her late 40s, early 50s. And she always struggled with 10, 15 pounds. And I went to image her brain and this struggle of not just obesity, but really the fact that she had very little muscle. I imaged her brain and her brain looked like an Alzheimer’s brain. And I realized at this moment that here this woman had tried all of these things, had put a tremendous amount of effort and we as a community, as a medical society had failed her. And probably the failure wasn’t just us, but it was overtly this messaging. And it was at that moment that this concept of muscle centric medicine was born. And this idea that we must shift from a fat focused perspective to muscle centric when we think about empowerment. And that goes far beyond athletics. It really ends up being the foundation for health and wellness that arguably is completely misinterpreted and totally missed.

The importance of muscle training

It’s a non-negotiable. And when you think about general recommendations for everybody, I want to set the framework for what actually happens to that tissue if it is not very much focused on and managed. Over time, skeletal muscle becomes what we call anabolicly resistant. And I’m going to lay the framework and the foundation for understanding so that the recommendations I give make a ton of sense to everybody and they can get off this podcast or YouTube and immediately implement something that will help them with longevity and aging and wellness. And that can start at any age. One thing that happens that we know skeletal muscle, that tissue changes over time. Now, cognitively and visually, we see that. We see older individuals get sarcopenic. We even see elite athletes change in their structure. Their muscles get smaller. I’m sure you deal with that all the time. And certainly as they transition from say a peak of a physical career, there’s a slow decline. Skeletal muscle … Are you ready for this? Is actually a nutrient sensing organ. Its capacity to sense, and its efficiency, decreases the older we get.

Insulin resistance

We’ve all heard about carbohydrates and or many people have heard carbohydrates in insulin is a peptide hormone that is released from the pancreas and moves glucose out. So glucose in general is cytotoxic. It’s a toxic molecule to tissues. We need it, but it needs to be out of the bloodstream. It needs to be utilized. The way in which your body utilizes it is it can be moved through exercise, movement and insulin. So insulin is what moves glucose out of the bloodstream. One of the major defects, one of the major issues that we are seeing is insulin resistance. Meaning the body is overproducing insulin because it is no longer as sensitive to it. And we’re really overworking the body. Our levels of glucose are much too high. And we’re aging much earlier and we’re becoming frail much earlier. And we’re dealing with diseases like heart disease, which kills a tremendous amount of people, Alzheimer’s, again, cardio … All of these diseases of aging, many of them can be linked back to skeletal muscle health.

Recommendations for women in pre/post menopausal stages

Skeletal muscle is key here. I work with a ton of women in and around these age groups. And when you think about what skeletal muscle does, it’s the primary site for glucose disposal. So you were talking earlier about complex carbs muscle is the primary site for that disposal. When women are going through hormonal changes, they are primed to lose skeletal muscle mass at that time. Hormones dip. Whether it’s estrogen, testosterone, these hormones dip. Their spontaneous activity decreases. When women are going through menopause, we see a redistribution of body weight centrally. And this actually can be avoided. And I’m going to give you a couple tips as to how that happens. Number one, really getting a good sense of what the calories are that you are ingesting. And people will argue that calories don’t matter as long as it’s coming from high quality food. That is absolutely not true. At the end of the day, you have to understand how many calories that you’re ingesting. So number one. Based on that, you have to prioritize dietary protein. Here’s why. And I’ll give you my recommendation. One gram per pound ideal body weight. This is extremely important for women who are going through menopause, perimenopause, or even trying to lose that extra baby weight. Really, really important information. One gram per pound ideal body weight.

The problem with protein restriction

What’s happening right now is that we have these conversations about longevity and the driver of longevity that people are talking about is protein restriction. Now with everything that we are talking about, can you see where that is doing a tremendous amount of harm to the people in the middle? The way and the time that you protect your muscle is now. 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Doesn’t get easier. Listen, it’s not easier to get jacked and tan. It becomes more difficult. So if the message midlife is we are doing these practices for longevity, then those practices need to be about optimizing skeletal muscle. Not living six months longer frail in a nursing home.

Quality of protein is vitally important

There is this huge push between the anti animal narrative and animal based proteins that you have to understand, that never existed. This was not a conversation. Quality of protein. These are hard, fast biological values. Nobody argued about this. And the reason I started being so vocal is because I was so taken aback by the scapegoat of animal based proteins when I’m a trained geriatrician, which means I’m trained in taking care of individuals later on in life. And I was just looking at all this information that is being fed to our youth, that is being fed to the people in the middle trying to do the right thing about how they should restrict protein and go plant based. And I felt like it was really that there are unintended consequences for this advice. So in my family, if you have the capacity to change something or you have the ability to do it, it’s your responsibility. I mean, frankly, I would love to be doing other things. Maybe you want to, who knows, talk about something else. But again, I feel very much a responsibility to humanity to at least open the eyes to the conversation.

A non-animal diet is not wrong, it’s just more difficult

You could eat plant based proteins. But again, if we’re talking about whole foods, which I believe in a whole food diet, I think it becomes very difficult to eat enough tofu to meet your protein needs. Can you do it? Totally. Do I think that’s probably the best strategy? If we’re talking about whole foods, I think you’re going to have a really hard time getting iron, think you’re going to have a really hard time getting creatine for muscle health, taurine and serine. I think that things are going to be difficult.

What about vegetarianism or veganism for reasons of compassion?

If someone feels that way, then they are absolutely entitled to feel that way and that should be respected. First and foremost. And for those philosophical reasons, it’s now about how do we navigate a nutrition plan that provides you with everything that you need? As opposed to someone saying animal based products are not good for me, they’re not good for the planet, all these other things, which perhaps I don’t agree with. But for someone who is having these philosophical experiences, I would supplement you with creatine.

What has she learned from working with high performers so closely?

Number one, there is a focus and commitment unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I take care of CEOs and people that are really moving the needle in the world and there is a commitment and focus and self-reflection that I’ve never seen. I mean, it’s tremendous. Number one. Number two. Actually, I’ll give you three things. Their capacity for suffering is very, very, very high, yet not internalized as suffering. And then the third thing is they’re all incredibly aware of their weaknesses.

Key takeaways from this conversation

Muscle is the organ of longevity. And we can move the needle in a positive manner by having a muscle centric approach – which is really having a capable approach to all domains of life. Number one. We talked about resistance training. We talk about physical activity. We talk about dietary protein. Regardless of whatever camp you are into, whether it’s animal based or whether it is plant based, the concept of protein should not be divisive. So that is the muscle centric approach. The second part is that if you care about your business, your health, and your family, you must be aware of your weaknesses. The most successful people that I take care of, which they are incredible, are all aware of their weaknesses. They leverage those weaknesses to become strengths.