Reaching the Ages Like a Fine Wine: A Chat withDUNEDINpioneer Julie Clark

Unless you have been living under a rock, the desire to live longer and stronger is a prevalent desire in society today. People go to extreme lengths to achieve this goal, from intense fitness routines to extreme diets and more. One of the leading tests that has been developed to gauge an individual's biological age is the DunedinPACE test, developed by researchers who followed subjects for years and years and developed a singular blood test that could measure biological age accurately via a regression question analysis. This test became the foundation for the Rejuvenation Olympics leaderboard, which inspires people to submit their results to see where they stack up against others. Ben Greenfield, host of the Ben Greenfield Life podcast, interviews guests about this leaderboard and their results on the show frequently.

In this episode, Ben interviews Julie Clark, who submitted her results to the leaderboard and found herself among the top rankings. Julie is a 55-year-old single mother making under $100,000 annually, which makes her results relatable to many individuals who desire the same results but cannot afford the extravagant measures taken by others on the leaderboard. Her ranking of 0.665 aging rate means she only ages for 66 of the 100 days.

Julie's interest in nutrition and performance began at a young age, as she was a competitive swimmer from the age of 8 or 9. Her father, an astronaut, would give her candy before her races to load up on glycogen, which she would use as fuel for the race. This taught her at a young age about the relationship between nutrition and performance. Her father also introduced her to the idea of nutraceuticals and functional medicine, which led her to take her health seriously at the age of 30.

At 36 years old, Julie was going through a stressful period in her life and was diagnosed with acid reflux, two lumps in her left breast, and was attacked at knifepoint by a man. She chose to seek help from a naturopath instead of relying on her general doctor, who prescribed her medication. The naturopath helped her heal her acid reflux through eliminating wheat and dairy from her diet and weaning her off her anti-depressants. Through this experience, she learned the impact nutrition could have on mental and physical health. She later underwent chelation therapy to detox from heavy metals in her system, which led her to explore natural chelators and other methods of detoxification.

Julie credits her father's astronaut career as inspiration for her health journey, as he was part of the first civilian space mission, Skylab Mission. Today, Julie is an advocate for functional medicine and holistic health, and hopes to share her knowledge with others through her podcast, wellness courses, and Instagram page.