279 The Aging Immune System: Vaccines, Healthy Longevity and What We Can Learn from Covid with Michael T. Myers JR MD
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
Release Date: 08/03/2026
290 Traditional Chinese Medicine meets AI: What My Smartwatch is Really Tracking with Dr. Gillian Lockitch MBChB,MD,FRCPC
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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289 Ageless Brain, Ageless Body, Ageless Living: Introducing The New Ageless Series with Dr. Gillian Lockitch MBChB,MD, FRCPC
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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288 Rethinking Memory Loss-Hidden Factors that May Affect Cognitive Health with Brad Montagne
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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287 Cut Grocery Costs and Food Waste While Eating Well with Carol Ann Kates
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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286 Cook, Eat and Age Well: How Herbs and Plants Support Healthy, Joyful Longevity with Natasha MacAller
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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285 Hearing Loss and Brain Health - Why Better Hearing May Aid in Supporting Healthy Longevity with Robert C Keefer PhD
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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284 Light, Sleep and Movement: Upstream Signals That Shape Healthy Aging with Dr. Sean Fletch
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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283 Seven Pillars for Healthy Longevity. How I Built my Healthspan Routine and How You can Build Your Own
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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282 From Employee to First-time Entrepreneur at 70: Challenging Life After Retirement with Dr. Gillian Lockitch
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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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281 Healthy Longevity Starts Now. Fitness, Nutrition, and Aging Well with Carl Daikeler
Growing Older Living Younger: About longevity, wellness, healthspan,
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_outlineHow does our immune system change as we age, and what role can vaccines play in supporting healthy longevity? In this informative episode of Growing Older Living Younger, Dr. Gillian Lockitch welcomes physician, healthcare executive, and medical writer Dr. Michael Myers for a thoughtful, evidence-based discussion about immunosenescence—the age-related decline of immune function—and its implications for healthy aging. Together they explore how vaccines work, why vaccine recommendations evolve throughout life, and the importance of understanding both the science and the uncertainties surrounding public health recommendations. Listeners will gain practical insights into immune health, healthspan optimization, brain health and aging, and informed healthcare decision-making.
Dr. Michael Myers is a physician, healthcare executive, medical writer, and educator with more than 35 years of experience in clinical medicine, healthcare leadership, and public health. He trained at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Medical School before pursuing a career in primary care medicine and physician leadership.He most recently served as Chief of Primary Care and Chief of Pediatrics for one of New Jersey's largest medical group practices. His work focuses on preventive medicine, vaccine education, public health communication, and helping patients understand complex medical science. He is the author of The Vaccine Bible: A Comprehensive, Commonsense Guide to What Keeps Us Safe from the Flu, Hepatitis Measles and More. In the Guide he explains how vaccines are developed, how they work, their safety, effectiveness, and the diseases they help prevent.
Episode Timeline
00:00 – Welcome and why vaccines matter to healthy longevity
04:15 – Dr. Michael Myers' medical career and what inspired The Vaccine Bible
09:45 – Understanding the immune system: innate immunity, adaptive immunity, and immune memory
17:45 – Immunosenescence: how the immune system changes with age
23:30 – Individualizing vaccine recommendations throughout adulthood
30:25 – Vaccines most relevant for older adults, including influenza, pneumococcal disease, RSV, COVID-19, and shingles
32:30 – Emerging research linking shingles vaccination with reduced dementia risk
34:00 – COVID-19, children, public health messaging, and lessons learned from the pandemic
42:55 – Vaccine confidence, public trust, and addressing misinformation
52:20 – Autism research, vaccine myths, and current scientific understanding
55:35 – Dr. Myers' key message on vaccines, prevention, and healthy aging
Connect with Dr. Michael Myers
The Vaccine Bible—Bookshop.org
Connect with your host, Dr, Gillian Lockitch
email: [email protected] For a personalized one on one conversation about health aging strategies
Website: www.askdrgill.com
https://www.facebook.com/gillian.lockitch/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gillianlockitch/