271 Can Plasma Exchange Slow Aging? What the Circulate Trial Reveals with Dr. Brad Younggren
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
Release Date: 06/08/2026
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
What happens when a medical tradition thousands of years old meets 21st-century wearable technology? In this solo episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch explores that question through her personal experience with the Watch2Care smartwatch, a wearable that tracks contemporary physiological data while presenting its findings through a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) framework. As a Western-trained physician and medical biochemist, Dr. Gillian was intrigued—but also skeptical—when her watch displayed unfamiliar scores associated with the TCM concepts of...
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Welcome to Season 5 of Growing Older Living Younger, and a new way of exploring what it means to grow older while continuing to live younger. In this solo episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch introduces a new themed format designed to move beyond individual topics and create a clearer pathway from information to action. Season 5 will explore healthy aging through three interconnected themes: Ageless Brain, Ageless Body and Ageless Living. Each series will look more deeply at one major dimension of healthy aging, bringing together different experts, perspectives and areas of science while asking...
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oes an increase in forgetfulness or increasing "senior moments" imply developing dementia? One of the greatest fears associated with growing older is losing memory, cognitive ability and ultimately independence. But dementia is not a single disease, and not every change in memory or thinking represents irreversible neurodegeneration. In this episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch welcomes Dr. Brad Montagne, a functional medicine practitioner, educator, author and host of the podcast Your Health Reclaimed. Brad begins by describing a personal...
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Is it possible to eat nourishing whole foods without letting grocery costs overwhelm your budget? Grocery industry insider and author Carol Ann Kates joins Dr. Gillian Lockitch to share practical ways to plan meals, shop sales, select produce, understand labels, and store food so less goes to waste. Their conversation offers useful ideas for smaller households as well as families. Rising prices and confusing product claims can make a healthy grocery trip feel expensive and complicated. A thoughtful plan can help you bring home only food you will enjoy and use. For people who want to stay...
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What if ingredients that can enrich a healthy lifestyle are already growing in your garden, waiting at the farmers’ market, or sitting in your spice cupboard? Too often, eating for longevity is framed as a list of restrictions, a mindset that can drain pleasure from food and make healthy choices feel difficult to sustain. or healthy longevity, nourishment must be practical enough for daily life and enjoyable enough to continue. Fresh ingredients, seasonal variety, herbs, plants, and mindful attention to what works for your own body can help make the kitchen a place of creativity...
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Could difficulty hearing conversations today affect your brain health, independence and quality of life in the years ahead? Hearing loss is often treated as a minor inconvenience of growing older, yet it can affect communication, relationships, social connection, confidence and independence. In this episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch speaks with hearing-health advocate and author Robert “Bob” Keefer, MD, about the association between hearing loss and cognitive decline, why so many people delay seeking help for hearing deficits and what questions to ask before choosing a hearing-care provider....
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Health care professionals emphasize optimizing cholesterol, blood sugar and hormone levels and from that assessing biological age. These measurements can provide useful information, but do they tell us whether the body is still resilient, adaptable and capable of recovering from illness, injury or stress? In this episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch and Dr. Sean Fletch explore the difference between moving a laboratory number into the desired range, and addressing the upstream conditions that caused it to change. Dr. Fletch reframes healthspan as more than the number of years lived...
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What does a physician-scientist actually do each day to support her own healthy aging? This is a question Dr. Gillian Lockitch hears often. Her answer is not a prescription, a shopping list or a collection of fashionable biohacks. Healthy longevity is personal: our genetics, health histories, medications, priorities and goals differ, so the most useful routine is one designed for the individual. In this solo episode, Dr. Gillian organizes her approach around the seven pillars of healthy longevity described in her book, Growing Older, Living Younger. She explains how epigenetics offers a more...
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Could retirement actually become the beginning of your most meaningful work? In this personal solo episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch shares how spinal surgery, ballroom dancing, entrepreneurship and podcasting transformed her understanding of healthy longevity. You’ll discover why curiosity, consistency and a renewed sense of purpose can help you remain mentally sharp, physically engaged and excited about the future at any age. For most of her professional life, Dr. Gillian Lockitch was a physician, medical biochemist, researcher, university professor and department head. She expected...
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What helps people stay active, strong, and independent as they age—luck, genetics, or habits built years earlier? In this episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch speaks with Carl Daikeler, co-founder and CEO of BODi, about why healthy longevity is rooted in consistency: regular movement, supportive nutrition, and the discipline to care for your body before a health crisis forces the issue. Carl shares his personal story of discovering a congenital heart block at age 59, receiving a pacemaker, and using that experience to deepen his commitment to healthspan...
info_outlineWhat if aging is not only driven by what happens inside our cells, but also by factors circulating in our blood? In this thought-provoking episode, Dr. Gillian Lockitch talks with Brad Younggren to explore the emerging science behind therapeutic plasma exchange and its potential to influence inflammation, biological aging, and chronic disease. Drawing on human clinical trial data, including the Circulate Trial, he explains how removing pro-aging factors from plasma may impact biomarkers, biological age, and overall healthspan. This conversation offers a fascinating glimpse into the future of longevity medicine while reinforcing the importance of foundational lifestyle strategies for aging youthfully.
Dr. Brad Younggren is the CEO and co-founder of Circulate Health, a company focused on advancing human healthspan through innovative therapies. He is a board-certified emergency physician and former U.S. Army combat physician, where he was awarded the Bronze Star and Combat Medical Badge. Dr. Younggren has held multiple leadership roles at the forefront of healthcare innovation, including President and Chief Medical Officer at 98.6, where he helped develop AI-powered primary care solutions. His career spans digital health, medical devices, and global healthcare delivery. Today, he leads research into therapeutic plasma exchange and its potential role in longevity science and chronic disease.
Episode Timeline:
00:00 – Welcome and introduction
02:30 – Aging beyond the cell: circulating factors in the bloodstream and their role in inflammation and disease
05:00 – Dr. Younggren’s journey from emergency medicine to healthcare innovation and longevity science
09:00 – The evolution of digital health and smartphone-based diagnostics
12:00 – What is therapeutic plasma exchange and how it has been used in medicine for decades
15:45 – The Circulate Trial explained: study design, treatment groups, and control methodology
18:30 – Measuring outcomes: biomarkers, cognitive testing, grip strength, and biological clocks
21:00 – Key findings: biological age reduction and changes in proteomic markers
24:30 – Translating complex science into practical biomarkers patients can track
26:30 – Applications beyond longevity: chronic disease, Alzheimer’s research, and long COVID
30:30 – Microplastics and plasma exchange: emerging research and early findings
33:00 – Evaluating longevity therapies: why human data matters
35:30 – Foundational health habits versus advanced interventions
36:50 – Wrap-up and key takeaways
Connect with Dr. Brad Younggren
Circulate Health: https://www.circulate.health
Circulate Trial publication (Aging Cell journal)
Information on plasma exchange and ongoing research initiatives
Call to Action:
Find Growing Older Living Younger: The Science of Aging Gracefully and the Art of Retiring Comfortably (North America) or on Kindle
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Connect with Dr. Gillian Lockitch
at https://www.askdrgill.com/ or email: [email protected]
Download Guide to Nature's Colorful Antioxidants. 2026