Longevity is trending.
But most people are still overlooking what actually drives it.
At the same time, GLP-1s and peptides are on the rise. Powerful tools, but often used without the structure or understanding required to make them effective.
In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Sebastian Pedersen to break down what actually works.
We cover the fundamentals of longevity, where GLP-1s fit, and what you need to have in place if you’re thinking about using them.
Because this is not just about weight loss.
It’s about long-term health, performance, and staying at the top
In this episode Dr Sebastian shares:
- The key drivers of longevity and healthspan
- Why VO2 max and strength matter more than most people realise
- What peptides and GLP-1s are and how they work
- Who GLP-1s are actually for and where they are being overused
- The risk of muscle and bone loss with weight-focused approaches
- Why behaviour change still underpins everything
- What an effective exit strategy looks like
Key Quotes
“GLP-1s are a tool. Not the solution.”
“If you are not protecting muscle and bone, you are trading short-term outcomes for long-term problems.”
“This is not about a replacement for sleep because nothing replaces sleep, but it is a possible support tool when you are under more load than usual.”
Episode Resources
Dr Sebastian’s Website – www.longev.com.au
Podcast: The Longev Lens Podcast
Jessica Spendlove Website – www.jessicaspendlove.com
Jessica Spendlove Keynotes – JessicaspendloveKeynotes – Jessica Spendlove
The High-Performance Profile Quiz https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/
Jess Spendlove Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=en
Jess Spendlove LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/
About Dr Sebastian
Dr Sebastian Pedersen is a specialist physician focused on redesigning healthcare around the individual. His passion for personalised medicine began early, after facing unexplained health challenges as a competitive youth soccer player and later being diagnosed with two autoimmune conditions. That experience showed him the limits of mainstream medicine, where care often centres on symptom management rather than understanding the whole person. It sparked a lifelong commitment to building a more proactive, personalised approach to health.
He holds a Bachelor of Science from Griffith University, a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Deakin University, and a Fellowship in Rehabilitation Medicine from the Royal Australian College of Physicians. His work sits at the intersection of medicine and technology, with a focus on prevention, long-term health optimisation, and meaningful behaviour change.
Dr Pedersen is the co-founder of Longev, a personalised health service, and the founder of Freia, the operating system and infrastructure for personalised medicine. Together, they are helping make medicine truly personal and turn data into measurable, life-changing health outcomes.
About Your Host
Jessica Spendlove | Wellbeing Speaker & High Performance Strategist
Jess Spendlove is an international wellbeing and high performance speaker, coach, and advisor. With over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership, elite sport and the military she is known for helping ambitious leaders and teams optimise energy, build resilience, and sustain peak performance.
As one of Australia’s leading performance dietitians and a trusted voice in executive wellbeing, Jess delivers science-backed strategies that empower individuals, teams and organisations to thrive under pressure and achieve long-term success.
Episode Transcript
The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy
Jess Spendlove (00:04.854)
Everyone wants longevity, but not everyone is willing to do what is actually required to drive it. And so instead, it can be tempting to look for shortcuts. At the same time, peptides and GLP-1s are exploding in popularity and use. And while these can be powerful tools, they are increasingly being used without the structure, support, or understanding required to make them safe and effective.
In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Sebastian Peterson, co-founder of Longgev Personalised Health Services.
We start with what actually drives longevity. The pillars that matter if you want to perform now and age well for the long run. Then we go deeper. GLP ones and peptides, who they are for, what most people are getting wrong, what you need to have in place if you are going to use them properly.
how to monitor success and have you considered an exit plan? Because without that you are not just going to lose weight. You are putting muscle, bone health and long-term health and performance at risk and that could be costly.
Jess Spendlove (00:13.518)
Dr. Sebastian Peterson, welcome to Stay at the Top.
Sebastian Pedersen (00:17.445)
Thank you, Jess. Appreciate it. Thank you for the invite.
Jess Spendlove (00:19.874)
Thank you for your time. I’m really keen to dive straight into it. From a specialty perspective, you’re a rehabilitation specialist, but you’re also a health tech founder of Freya, which is an integration system around the infrastructure of personalized medicine.
And you’re the co-founder of Longgev, which is a personalized health service, which is all about optimizing health span. And so this is really not just the years that you live, but the quality of those years. And I know that your venture into this space is a particularly personal one. And I guess to start off, so the listeners can get to know you, given your personal and professional interest in this space, what are your
non-negotiables or what is your daily protocol for not just teaching this work but living this work.
Sebastian Pedersen (01:18.021)
Yep, I thought about that. think the main one for me is always making sure I’m in an environment where I set myself up for success. Once I’ve sorted that, then making sure I get up early in the morning, exercise, have almost the same breakfast every morning, and then the day goes from there.
Jess Spendlove (01:38.478)
So these kind of standardized springboard setting the conditions up to, you know, I don’t necessarily love the phrase win the morning, but it really is, you know, like you said, setting yourself up for success. You’ve identified what you need. And the thing I like about the morning is for most people, regardless of what happens for the rest of the day, it’s often that only really controllable time before maybe the family wakes up before the day starts, before the client or the patients or whatever it is before that all kicks off.
and so you really can control those conditions. Talking a little bit, guess, you know, your history in into this space, longevity is hot right now and, know,
Sebastian Pedersen (02:12.203)
Exactly.
Jess Spendlove (02:24.942)
for maybe some people that’s catching the wave, but for you, this has been a space you’ve really been living and learning and then becoming a specialist in this space from something that really happened 20 years ago. So can you just share a little bit about all of that?
Sebastian Pedersen (02:43.514)
Yep. Yeah, it’s funny you mentioned that everyone thinks that I just jumped on the bandwagon now with longevity, but exactly. So it’s been two decades. Yeah. 20 years I’ve been living this. was quite a good soccer player growing up and I was performing very well. And then I was playing in a professional club in Denmark as a trial. I got into the team there and the goal was to be a professional soccer player. I came back from my Christmas holiday in 2000 and
It’s five, 2006. And then just drastically from one day to the other, just started getting sick. A lot of loose stools, just a lot of other things going on with blood and things like that. So not a good situation then. A couple of months of just feeling like…
crap really and then couldn’t get out of bed and then my parents like now there’s something going on the doctors weren’t really sure I thought maybe it was a virus during the travel and then sort of two or three months later found out I got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and then
which just pretty much turned my life a complete 180 from being a peak athlete to having trouble to attend school, much as so tired and sick. So that sort of change really rocked my world completely. I guess it took my identity from me, because at that point in time, being a 15 year old kid, and you have one dream, you’re sort of tied up to that identity of being an athlete.
And then after having a lot of interactions with the healthcare system, not being very happy with how things were going, and then luckily I had a mother who didn’t really just take one recommendation from one clinician, which is open to all other avenues, and decided to take a bit of responsibility on ourselves, and what can we do to actually…
Sebastian Pedersen (04:35.277)
Yes, we have this lifelong condition and there’s no treatments to actually really manage it well or to cure it, but what can we do to manage my health span? Because obviously I’ve got this, I don’t want to be on steroids for the rest of my life and have all the consequences associated with ulcerative colitis. So was very much that and then was, couple of years later, I got a second condition related to my liver or biliary duct system.
which sorta really cemented what I wanted to do with my life, which was trying to, first of all, be very preventative in how we view health. Secondly, be very personalized rather than having a cookie cutter approach where I felt like at that point in time, there was not much, I guess not a lot of therapies that were super.
effective for me and I’ve never really been in remission from an ulcerative colitis perspective. But having something that was a bit more personalized rather than just seeing a doctor and then being prescribed medication, something like, okay, well, yes, we’re going to do one avenue of your therapy is going to be medications, but then we’re going to focus on your sleep, what you’re eating, stress management, all the other triggers that has a large impact on quality of life. So that was sort of…
an eye-opening experience for me to be like, this is good, and then I pursued medicine more out of an interest of actually trying to help myself. It wasn’t altruistic at that point in time, it was purely selfish, what can I do to improve myself? What knowledge do I need to learn to make this a better situation? And then as I was going through my medical studies and then became a doctor, my specialist training, I was very early on, I was like, this isn’t just me. There’s so many other people with the same questions that I have.
And then I was trying to…
Sebastian Pedersen (06:24.259)
throughout all of my specialist training was really going deep into the literature about what can we do to prevent things in the first place, but to improve people’s health span, which it often just came back to first principles of improving people’s lifestyle, but then actually making sure that everything we provide for the patient who we’re providing care for is personalized to them. So it’s a bit of a long story, but I guess the way I think about it is I’ll always be a patient for longer than I’ll be a doctor. And that’s I sort of draw a lot of inspiration.
from, but what can I improve both for myself but everyone else in the same similar situation as I am?
Jess Spendlove (06:59.997)
And what I’m hearing there, I mean a few things, this idea of not abdicating responsibility, and I think that’s really important. we’re obviously fast forward 20 years in the accessibility to information, the age of AI, all the rest of it.
probably a good thing and maybe a not so good thing in certain ways, but we are in an era coupled with the longevity movement where we can get a little bit further ahead. And obviously there is a place for reactive medicine when there is conditions. But I think thinking about this preventative space, this taking back ownership.
Sebastian Pedersen (07:27.385)
Yep. absolutely.
Jess Spendlove (07:39.24)
not abdicating responsibility, but also kind of breaking it down. Like where do people, where should they start? When it comes to longevity, know, do people think it’s a luxury? And then I guess bringing that back into the daily, you know, needle movers or the behaviors, what are the two or three things where people should really focus their attention on a daily strategy behavior change basis?
Sebastian Pedersen (07:41.499)
100%.
Sebastian Pedersen (07:47.823)
Yep.
Sebastian Pedersen (08:04.985)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think you’re right. It’s definitely marketed to high net worth individuals or people with a lot of resources. But if you break it down, it is very simple science or very simple behaviors done very well over a long period of time.
whether it be from making sure you’re getting the right quality and quantity of sleep, whether it making sure you’re not having any toxins, whether it be alcohol, drugs, substances, anything else, making sure you’re eating the right stuff for you, not just think you’re eating the right stuff in general, and also making sure you take care of your emotional health and your exercising. I mean, really, you’re getting a lot of bang for your buck just to do that, and those things are accessible to everyone.
Jess Spendlove (08:46.293)
Yeah, and it’s, you know, I always say like, let’s start with what we’re already doing. Like everybody is eating, sleeping, breathing, and we should be exercising. So let’s put that in there. Narrowing that even further, if you had a favorite lever or two, maybe from the lens of either the easiest to improve or the most under focused, would there be one or two that stand out there for you?
Sebastian Pedersen (08:58.235)
Exactly right.
Sebastian Pedersen (09:14.043)
I think it depends on the person. I think I have a lot of people who are really good just based on they were growing up, they played sports and they always very active, very food focused and then got into executive roles and then they completely forgot about their mental health. And then you have the people who are I guess a little bit more balanced in terms of how they approach life but aren’t necessarily…
committed to doing any exercise or getting the right sleep, they’re a bit more of a spontaneous sort of personality. So I guess it depends on what that person is really struggling with. Because really just making sure that all those three or those main lifestyle pillars are balanced is where you’re to get a lot of improvement very early on.
Jess Spendlove (10:01.751)
Yeah. And I think in terms of then the literature, maybe then reversing that, what does the data or what does the literature tell us on, you know, the one or two key factors or areas that really do determine quality of our life or cause mortality and, you know, overall longevity?
Sebastian Pedersen (10:24.537)
Yep. So I mean, with those and we use, obviously you can say, you know, do this exercise, but with that, it’s all about being data driven for us. So if you want to use a good example is VO2 max and strength.
easy objective markers you can get, which are probably the strongest predictors of where you’re to end up in the future. So using that and then that’s what we do rather than just saying to someone go exercise. We know that doesn’t work. If that works, everyone will be exercising. So for us, it’s okay based on this person based on their previous history, their time availability, let’s get the data, see what their current VO2 maxes or their strength or any other major physical testing that we do.
And then we customize a training program for them that’s based on what they need based on data. So we’re not just doing something blindly, we’re actually getting a baseline and then providing an intervention. And then we want to retest them to make sure they actually get the outcome or the improvements we want them to get.
Jess Spendlove (11:22.891)
Yeah, great. And just for anyone who might not be aware of VO2 max, can you just touch on that and with your strength testing, what type of strength testing you’re looking at.
Sebastian Pedersen (11:27.897)
Yep, yep, Yep, yep, So VO2 max being the maximal amount of oxygen you can consume or use during exercise.
The more oxygen you can use during exercise, the better your outcome is going to be in terms of longevity, so how long you’re going to live, how well you’re going to live, but also it reduces your risk of disease, especially the major diseases like cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease.
And then from a strength perspective, it’s right now we’re actually just tweaking our strength protocol a little bit because we’re just based, so we’re based on the Gold Coast and we got a lot of people coming to us. So we’re very focused on quality of movement. So Corey leads that here in our clinic, does the actual physical testing and we’re using a lot of functional movement. what is something that…
We can test now that will predict when someone’s old or we’re able to live independently walk up and downstairs play with their grandchildren carry groceries So those sorts of movements so but that we focus on being able to go from a sitting position to a standing position Which is usually a squat or a deadlift? We how much they feel we could have fall if they can quickly grew and grip on something so grip strength Power so if they can quickly move their body against gravity if they’re about to fall So really just trying to break down rather than just doing
testing for the sake of testing, it’s all targeted based on making sure that someone is independent and functional at 80 years and beyond.
Jess Spendlove (13:02.167)
Yeah, great. Thank you for that. I feel like you can’t have a conversation these days in the longevity space without peptides quickly coming up and depending on podcasts people listen to or social media channels, people may or may not have an understanding. So maybe high level, like what are peptides? And then I’m definitely keen to kind of drill down into some of them a little bit further.
Sebastian Pedersen (13:10.169)
Yep. Yes.
Sebastian Pedersen (13:26.745)
Yes, So peptides themselves are just a chain of amino acids with a biological function. So our body makes heaps of peptides and now using exogenous or injecting or consuming your own peptides have become very topical. As you said as well earlier, I’m getting heaps of questions about peptides. And before…
we go to details about the specific peptides in terms of how I approach peptides at the moment. I don’t prescribe any of the non-regulated peptides if you would say that. Reason being there’s a couple of personal decisions but also ethical decisions. For me, everything I do, I’m not testing on my clients. I want to give people clarity and direction.
And the point of that giving people clarity and direction is that a peptide right now, I can’t personalize a dose to a person. Some peptides are very hard to determine or to retest to make sure you’re getting the outcome of interest. And the reason why is some people come to me and say they’re feeling tired, they’ve got brain fog and a lot of subjective signs. But for me, unless there’s an objective measure of knowing your baseline.
Yes, potentially trying an intervention like a peptide and then doing a follow up test to make sure that’s actually improved. It’s very gray with that area. So I’m not actually sure did the peptide work or the placebo. And then my ethical consideration is right now to prescribe things knowing that peptides aren’t TGA or FDA approved, or a lot a lot of the more longevity peptides used in longevity care.
because they’re not approved, which I don’t know where they’re getting them from. Is it a pharmacist? You know, is it international? So if something happens, then it goes back on me because I recommended that. So will I be prescribing more peptides as they become more evidence based? It’s going to be more literature, more quality control? Absolutely. But right now that’s sort of where I’m at at the moment in terms of the longevity peptides, if you want to call them that.
Jess Spendlove (15:35.285)
Yeah. And can you maybe mention maybe one or two that people have probably heard of?
Sebastian Pedersen (15:40.048)
Yeah, mean, BPC 157 and TB 500 are probably the most common two I’m getting asked about at the moment and people use it for, what are they use it for? BPC for things like healing, wound healing, I mean, for those sorts of stuff.
Jess Spendlove (15:44.544)
Mm.
Sebastian Pedersen (15:55.406)
it’s unless you’ve got a specific wound you’re using it for, it’s very hard like for recovery, like people use it for recovery, it’s very hard to is it actually getting better? What scan are we doing to see that it’s actually getting better? And then the TB is I’m just trying to remember what that actually on top of my head what that one’s used for.
Jess Spendlove (16:11.309)
you know, the BPCs definitely, the Wolverine, I think that’s what they call it. And even I feel like a lot of people talking about these, that specific one, and we will get into GLP ones because they are a type of peptide. And I think that fits with some of the body composition and the strength and the resistance. There’s just such a big conversation to be had about that. But I feel like a lot of people who are talking about peptides are not in Australia. We have a very different landscape when it comes to our TGA.
Sebastian Pedersen (16:22.969)
Yeah, yes, yes.
Sebastian Pedersen (16:29.573)
Well, absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
Sebastian Pedersen (16:39.269)
Yeah, yeah, very true.
Jess Spendlove (16:41.263)
and regulations. So I think a lot of this is conversations happening overseas, which doesn’t mean the evidence is any different, but maybe the access is.
Sebastian Pedersen (16:51.449)
Yeah, correct. And the meta health care system is definitely set up differently. And that we are getting more and more vertically integrated clinics here, whether it be telehealth or things that prescribe peptides. I mean, there’s pros and cons to that, of course, but it’s definitely very, very different in Australia, in a good way. Obviously, I’ve never practiced overseas, I can’t comment. But I do find that what’s
Jess Spendlove (16:55.745)
Mm.
Sebastian Pedersen (17:18.683)
I mean, in that sort of sense, what’s available in Australia, there’s definitely a lot of quality control. If something is approved, going to be very, very safe, I guess is a safe thing to say.
Jess Spendlove (17:27.873)
Yeah. You raise a great point there around telehealth and access. And I did have a bit of a question around that more in relation to GLP ones. And so maybe just to start, can we just explain so everyone is very clear what we’re talking about when we do talk about these that they are a peptide. And then even that point, the telehealth access and what you think or some of the companies that are set up where
Sebastian Pedersen (17:43.429)
Yeah. Yes.
Jess Spendlove (17:56.812)
due diligence is the word, but that’s not necessarily what I mean, but it’s just, it’s a different access point. You’re going to see someone like yourself.
Sebastian Pedersen (18:01.583)
Yeah, I mean, if you get the issue with telehealth platforms is it can be very good if you’ve got the right clinician, but there’s not exactly standardized pathways. A lot of the telehealth platforms that I know of, they’re not necessarily pushing doctors to prescribe.
but there is an incentive to do single therapy. I mean, just, you know, go to them, this is the therapy and off you go. And that has its pros and cons, but in the GLP-1 sense, so GLP-1’s being…
an agonist or what it pretty much does. all, our bodies make GLP-1, our GLP glycogen like peptides. And then what the pharmaceutical companies have done now is they then extracted that. And then what you do is you inject yourself with what’s actually already in your body with the goal of reducing hunger, improving satiety or fullness, improving glucose control. And it’s not a new medication. Like when I was an intern 10, 12 years ago, we were using GLP-1s for
diabetes management is as part of the toolkit for diabetes management. Now you’ve got the evidence to say that there’s all these weight loss benefits. And then now people are focusing on purely weight loss. Okay, GOP one, it’s going to have significantly like double digit percentage loss in terms of weight. But my concern is with the GOP ones, it’s that
it’s very focused on one condition. So it’s not looking at the person as a whole. It’s very focused on do you have a problem? The problem is the weight, I’ll give you the GLP-1, you’re gonna lose weight. But the problem with then going back to the telehealth platform now, the concern with that is it’s not the supportive care that’s required, which is where the system is, I think is failing right now in regards to GLP-1 care.
Sebastian Pedersen (19:49.84)
because I believe you should be much more focused on body composition rather than just pure weight or pure fat mass. And then relatively, if you just focus on pure fat mass, you go on a GLP-1, you’re gonna reduce weight, the glucose is gonna drop, your cholesterol is gonna drop. But the problem with that is all the studies show that, I think the longest study that I’ve looked at is about a five year or maybe even a seven year follow up.
which means it’s optimizing for short term outcomes. When I see a patient and that’s a bit different to lot of what usual standard medicine I guess do is when I see someone now, if I see a client, I’m looking at them and the rest of their life. So usually that’s a 40 year outcome.
timeframe I’m focused on, not just a short five year timeframe. And if you’re not optimizing for bone density loss, or muscle mass loss or function over the longer term, you’re going to achieve short term gain, but you’re going to end up in significant issues thereafter.
Jess Spendlove (20:49.951)
I’m glad you’ve kind of called that out because I definitely wanted to dive into that on a few levels. One from, I guess, the category of people who need and would benefit from a GLP. When they’re obese, when they’re at risk or there is metabolic conditions and whether they already have chronic disease or what we know will happen. I guess there’s that category. Then there’s the maybe, I don’t know whether we want to call it the in-between category where maybe they might benefit from a
Sebastian Pedersen (20:59.707)
Yeah, yes, absolutely.
Sebastian Pedersen (21:10.757)
Yeah.
Jess Spendlove (21:19.855)
little bit of weight loss. But like you said, and whether this is male and female, and I’d love to know if you have concerns or nuance between the two. And then
Sebastian Pedersen (21:25.571)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jess Spendlove (21:32.598)
Yeah, as you’ve mentioned, the behavioral aspect or potentially the lack there of education around the behavioral aspect to really drive the desired long-term outcomes because I sit here as someone, I don’t really ever talk about it, but when I started as a dietitian, I did three years in a hospital and towards the end of that, I worked in a rehabilitation clinic and one of the main roles was in a publicly funded bariatric program.
And the results in that program were actually quite phenomenal, but to be eligible to have bariatric surgery, and for anyone not aware, is weight loss surgery, either with a band or a sleeve, or very rarely, but still happens, a ruin-wide bypass. Basically all forms of reducing appetite and stomach volume. But I had this experience where it was a two-year program, there was an endocrinologist leading it, there was a psychologist who was, in my opinion, the most important.
Sebastian Pedersen (22:14.725)
Good.
Jess Spendlove (22:29.879)
person involved in that care, coupled with exercise physiologist and doing three sessions a week, plus seeing a dietitian. So a very holistic two-year minimum program before potentially getting that surgery. And then privately, as I started to transition out of…
Sebastian Pedersen (22:35.077)
Yes.
Sebastian Pedersen (22:41.488)
Yup.
Jess Spendlove (22:47.787)
the hospital into professional sport and I had gaps in my week. I worked in the private sector with gastroenterologists doing these surgeries. Very different pathway, met criteria in you went basically nothing really from a psychology or a dietetic until after and the outcomes very, very different. So I look at that in terms of obesity or weight loss disruption and this really feels like the next iteration.
Sebastian Pedersen (22:58.075)
Hmm.
Sebastian Pedersen (23:05.019)
Yeah.
Sebastian Pedersen (23:14.875)
Yes.
Jess Spendlove (23:17.911)
But yeah, I think that’s a long way to kind of get back to the people who need it, the people who maybe don’t, and then the nuances between males and females and the behavioral aspects.
Sebastian Pedersen (23:26.447)
Yeah, Yeah, yeah. I mean, any, any GOP one really, even if it’s for people with chronic disease needs to go, it’s a tool and toolkit, not the solution, which means the GOP one goes with, as you mentioned, the exercise, the dietetic, the psychology, everything else, and then GOP one just adds that. And then for most people, especially as they get older, unless GOP one is going to be something you’re on for the rest of your life.
then you always need an exit strategy because as soon as you stop it, there’s a rebound weight gain, which almost go back to where you were within a couple of months, like it’s significant. So it doesn’t solve the core problem of why is there this weight gain there in the first place, it’s just masking it for a period of time.
So I guess how would I split that up into the categories? Yes, if people have failed in all other therapies for obesity, diabetes, then definitely adds a lot of benefit if you’re targeting in on just that condition, obesity, diabetes, elevated cholesterol. But then knowing what we know now about.
body composition, you can’t just prescribe the GLP-1 without now having the follow up care to make sure that doing the right strength training, eating the right things to make sure that they’re still having the outcomes, desired outcomes in terms of the metabolic risk, but all the functional long term outcomes you’re optimizing for or assessing at regular intervals as well.
And that’s, as you said, that’s very difficult, but requires a lot of care. The GOP1 medications is one of the therapies where if you start it, it actually requires a lot of resources to make sure that long term our patients don’t have any poor outcomes. So it’s that’s where we need to do better as a system to providing that long term follow up as you imagined, as you mentioned earlier.
Sebastian Pedersen (25:14.181)
The with that is it’s very consumer driven, very social media driven right now. So people are, the use of GOP1s for people who don’t have chronic disease is probably ahead of where the evidence is, especially for the people who are microdosing, et cetera, et cetera, just to try to manage a little bit of, you know, bit of fat mass here and there on their body.
Jess Spendlove (25:37.451)
Yeah. And then, yeah, I guess what are you seeing with that in, you know, from a gender split as well? Like the micro, like is that kind of 50, 50 male and female? Are you seeing it more heavily skewed to one area?
Sebastian Pedersen (25:44.794)
Yep, yep.
Sebastian Pedersen (25:51.492)
I’d say yeah, I mean, I think if I try to split that, would probably say that it would be.
they’re pretty equal. There’s a slight difference though in terms of the rationale. Males is usually to have a certain physique, I would say. I would say females are more driven by health concerns, whether it be like a lot of the some, like last year there’s evidence coming out regarding brain health and GLP-1. So it’s the rationale that gets the motivations are slightly different, but there’s a lot of both, both sexes are definitely very focused.
on.
on trying it within that bracket of who don’t necessarily have a medical condition. Where I’m a bit more cautious, especially in women postmenopausal is so we know body composition is going to change naturally, increased fat mass reduction in muscle mass. And then if you superimpose that with a GLP-1 to exacerbate that problem, you have to really be sure that you make if you are prescribing this for this person, if they have a need that the follow up care and the support around them is optimized. Otherwise, I’m very worried.
for their bones and their functional outcomes or their physical capacity over the next couple of decades.
Jess Spendlove (27:06.399)
Yeah, I have that concern as well. It’s, you when I think about
women and women, mean, women in particular at that midpoint and the rapid decline in muscle and bone and what is actually required to combat that already and knowing and just this is more from, you know, seeing it in practice, seeing it in groups, approaching that point of life for myself and I guess being around women navigating this.
Sebastian Pedersen (27:32.792)
Mmm. Yeah.
Jess Spendlove (27:37.814)
very, very few, without being very intentional. It requires very intentional, it requires the knowledge and it requires very intentional execution and being consistent. And I really don’t know many people who do that, let alone then layer in something which really suppresses your appetite. I would love to know maybe the conditions or when you do recommend it, like when do you consider it? When do you think it is a great tool?
Sebastian Pedersen (27:44.507)
Yeah.
Sebastian Pedersen (28:02.223)
Yep, yep, yep.
Jess Spendlove (28:06.177)
And then I’d also really love to know like the ideal conditions if someone is going on it, if you had a magic wand and people could do the scans or the testing and work with the, all the modalities, like what is the ideal conditions for someone to undertake it with?
Sebastian Pedersen (28:14.681)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yep. Yep. So I guess, I mean, for GOP1, it’s a medication. So it has risks, whether that be gastrointestinal risks, thyroid, pancreas, it’s not harm less medication. But in terms of who are the right people for it, yes, definitely the people with chronic disease, but even the people who, so I’m in a fortunate position where I have time with my clients, it’s not 15 minute consults, you know, it’s two hour consults, multiple times a year. And then plus they have access to me when they need it. So they can call me, text me,
Etc. So that’s a very privileged I want to say that very but I have a biased opinion. But after I’ve had say spent six months plus with a person with intensive lifestyle modification, without any real outcomes. That’s when we have to consider Okay, well, what other levers do we need to pull so that we can achieve it? That said, most people who come to me are pretty
I guess have very in as very self driven so that you people usually think it’s starting GLP one is a failure almost and they can’t do it themselves. But if they already had like pre diabetes or elevated cholesterol and other therapies haven’t worked lifestyle modification has worked to an extent.
I’m still looking at, well, what trajectory is this person on and do we need to do something now? So that’s that point in time if you’ve failed standard therapy, failed behavioral change to a degree or we haven’t quite gotten to the haven’t quite got the improvements after six months of behavioral change, then that’s when I would consider it. And then you start your low dose regular follow up. But again, it’s you start the conversation. This is not supposed to be a lifelong therapy, we’re going to keep working at the behavioral change, all the other pillars, sleep, nutrition,
Sebastian Pedersen (30:08.445)
exercise and then whilst we’re getting some improvements from the GOP1 short term we’re working on everything else in the background with still an exit plan and say 12 plus minus months so that when they get off it they can sustain that weight which is the goal situation is reduction of fat mass but whilst they’re on the GOP1 maintaining their muscle mass.
Jess Spendlove (30:31.093)
And is that, I’m glad you brought up the exit plan, because I did want to kind of dive into that a bit more. Is that a titration down as well as really dialing into those behavioral components, you know, around the protein and the fiber, which obviously we’re wanting anyway, but those really, you know, strong satiety mechanisms as, and obviously the resistance training.
Sebastian Pedersen (30:47.609)
Right.
Sebastian Pedersen (30:53.744)
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I see myself as sort of the top of the pyramid. So when people like the, you know, the clients I was explaining before have those issues, that’s when I would send them to, you yourself for all that extra dietetic support. So I know where I fit in, but if someone really needs a lot of intensive support, it’s, you know, yourself from a dietetic nutritional perspective. It’s a dedicated exercise physiologist. We’re with them each psych as well. So make sure that it’s not just me, you have the other professionals who are better in that area than I am.
in that specific field. So that’s when the team or the collaborative approach is the most important, I think, rather than just a sole clinician approach.
Jess Spendlove (31:36.555)
And when someone comes off it, how instantaneously does their appetite return?
Sebastian Pedersen (31:41.668)
It’s pretty quick. usually, I don’t for the clients there, it wouldn’t be high dosing or be still relatively low dosing when you’re comparing it to people with morbid obesity, etc. But it does come back a couple of weeks, and you start to see it come back sometimes sooner. After you stop it. So it’s, it’s pretty quick, which makes sense what it will regain so much mass after they stop it.
Jess Spendlove (31:59.918)
Mm.
Jess Spendlove (32:04.789)
And I guess as you mentioned, you know, it may be around that kind of 12 months plus or minus just obviously depending on the person, all of these individual factors. Thinking then about the ideal conditions, which again, I guess you’re very fortunate in the way that you’ve set up your, that this personalized service that you can recommend this. But just for anyone listening, I do feel that, and this is a little bit of a tangent, but
I do think there is a bit of a…
binary or a polarization with how people do feel about GLP ones. think there’s, know, for some people it’s been life-changing and it’s been needed and it’s very positive. I do feel for others there’s maybe some shame, there’s maybe some misconceptions in society and so I do feel that we’re kind of navigating that but I do think it is worth calling out that if someone is thinking about it, they have access, they know somebody and they’re not in such a highly personalized
Sebastian Pedersen (32:46.137)
Yeah, exactly right.
Sebastian Pedersen (32:51.236)
Yeah.
Jess Spendlove (33:07.119)
service like yours which is fantastic. What are these kind of ideal conditions they should be aiming for to really make sure that you know they’re thinking about their future self as well.
Sebastian Pedersen (33:19.205)
Yeah, yeah. mean for me, especially depending on the age, targeting that middle-aged person who was thinking about GOP1s and I mean a GP, a good GP providing you…
willing to pay for some tests out of pocket can be a very good resource. Reason being get a body composition scan, bone density, basic blood work, some physical testing upfront, start the the GOP one if you have an indication for it, and then test those variables, whether it be three monthly, six monthly, whatever it is, so that you can then because the problem, not the problem is just not
we’re not taught as clinicians to think about everything, anything outside of our training programs. So when you see a doctor, know, very rarely you’re to see a traditional doctor and they’re going to render a strength test or VO2 max, which means
the clinic and consumers or clients or patients have to take on a little bit of responsibility to do the extra testing. And then that said, though, once they have the data points, all the doctors are taught to interpret it and make it actionable. So as long as you present them with that data, you know, this is my body composition. These are my other markers of that beyond the GLP one I’ve retested go back to the clinician Bay, what do you think and then they can sort of look at the trend pattern match, and then still get the best outcome for you. But it does require some extra testing rather than just
you know, one blood test and then looking at the waist circumference for example, which is very commonly used and then just treating it based on that and then not looking at anything else. So it can be done without necessarily using a service like I have, but just requires a little bit of homework.
Jess Spendlove (34:58.455)
But also, you know, it’s someone who and you know, we do collaborate and I do see some of your clients which, you know, absolutely love the types of clients that I get to work with and we obviously, well.
not obviously, because the audience wouldn’t know, but we first met at a CEO retreat where we were presenting in our different modalities. And there was just a lot of alignment on philosophy and approach and, you know, switching from
reactive to proactive and that can be as big or as small as I talk about it from the lens of like the daily habits, you know, not waiting until you’ve got a gap in your diary or you’re hungry, but set your rhythm and stick to that and be proactive. you know, then the knock on of that is all the way up to how you look at your health and, you know, your longevity. Zooming out of the kind of the GLP one specific conversation, but staying with the testing that you were kind of
Sebastian Pedersen (36:00.4)
Yep, yep, yep.
Jess Spendlove (36:00.512)
talking about, when should people start looking at this, you know, the extra kind of baseline level testing in your opinion, and then what kind of frequency is, you know, a good ballpark to kind of continue with that?
Sebastian Pedersen (36:14.949)
Hmm, yeah, good question. I think it’s a big question, depends on how detailed you want me to get. But I mean, for me, once you get about what, know, late teens, early twenties, getting an idea of what your baselines are, whether it be blood work, whether it be VO2 strength, body composition.
Jess Spendlove (36:19.021)
you
Sebastian Pedersen (36:37.787)
Genetics is very important, especially for people with family history or first degree relatives with cancers, young onset heart attacks, things like that, to know if you’re at risk for anything. Because again, we’re not routinely testing genetics. It’s something we can’t change.
But if something shows up, then we know that we’re going to be looking for something we’re going to assess it or address it or screen for it at regular intervals, especially when I think it’s 10 % of the Australian population have a genetic abnormality, which is not significant, but it’s pretty high if know that one in 10 has something that they need to know about to make sure they don’t have any poorer health outcomes. So for me, that’s a baseline. And then as you get older, all the cancer screening, you know, looking at heart disease, a bit of a more principled approach is when I see
clients for the first time, without necessarily them having done much in the past. Usually people come to me after a couple of decades of a lot of effort, whether it be business or other endeavors, which means their health is sort of taking the back foot for quite a while. So when people haven’t had any medical interventions or medical experience,
My goal is always to look at short term risks first, whether it be cancers, heart disease, things that’s going to kill you or impact you in the near future. Once we have that peace of mind, then we can start focusing on longer term things like dementia or metabolic disease or functional impairment or things like that. Just to sort of, because a lot of the stuff is out of pocket, like fee paying, which means you just have to sort of have a principled approach into, well, how am I going to…
What am I doing for this person right now and how do I want to set them up for so that they can achieve their version of what their longevity journey needs to be like.
Jess Spendlove (38:31.767)
And I mean, this is probably another big question and one I’m just throwing off the cuff, but do you ever think we’ll get to a point where that will shift in Australia?
Sebastian Pedersen (38:42.371)
Well, I don’t. I actually I don’t know what’s the whole point with with long Jave and the same with like Kevin and Zara, who are my co founders, the goal of long Jave for me personally is a service that’s parallel with Medicare or parallel with the reactive health service because statistically about one third of all conditions.
are going to be preventable. So all the morbidity and mortality in Australia, so all the conditions that causes death or disability, you can prevent about a third of them. So there’s still a huge need for the reactive health care system and reactive health services. But if we’re leaving a whole third,
Jess Spendlove (39:20.685)
Mm.
Sebastian Pedersen (39:21.119)
undermanaged like underappreciated, we’re just waiting for people to have these poor health outcomes when they could have been prevented in the first place. For me, it’s just a parallel system that people opt into if they want it. Medicare is going to perform the safety net, you know, the bare minimum is going to give you access to a GP to a hospital if you get sick. But you want something more than that, then you have to invest in your own life, invest in your own health.
And do I think that’s wrong? Probably not. Like I think we’re pretty, we’ve been very privileged in Australia, and we have a good foundational health service. But we’ve probably been taking it for granted that we thought that Medicare was going to solve our problems. Now that lifestyle diseases is the biggest cause of death in the world, in Australia.
We need to have the approach that if you want to have a long fulfilled life, we have to invest in our health. we, from an early age, we invest in our retirement and we invest in education. We need to think about health as one of those buckets we need to invest into so that we can really maximise our one life that we have.
Jess Spendlove (40:31.147)
Yeah, I have a lot of clients who often say I don’t want to be the richest man or woman in the graveyard. it is it’s I feel like, but I do think people are starting to think about this earlier on in life. And I know that you’ve become a father in the last few years, and I’ve become a mother. And I don’t know, for me, personally, I found that transition has really caught to the front of my mind more and I’ve always you know, health is my number one value, as I’m sure it is for you, given the career paths that we’ve chosen. But this
Sebastian Pedersen (40:46.597)
Yes.
Sebastian Pedersen (40:52.559)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jess Spendlove (41:01.131)
brought a whole new level of insight.
Sebastian Pedersen (41:04.853)
Absolutely, I agree. And I think, as you mentioned it earlier, actually, for me, like even when I have clients now who I do a lot for, like I still feel that people still need to take responsibility and ownership over their health. I think too often when someone sees a health professional, they think that they delegate that.
But I think from a mindset perspective, it’s important that you delegate the execution, not the responsibility. So someone’s helping you achieve an outcome, but the ultimate responsibility and ownership still stays with you. So you actually have to do something about it. have to be active about your own health rather than just passive.
Jess Spendlove (41:41.164)
Yeah, like here’s the personalized roadmap to do it, but yeah, the doing comes down to you. And this is actually one of my lines in a lot of my keynotes where it’s like, know, AI, we’re moving at the speed of light and you can outsource, delegate or automate most things in life. But the one thing you will always be responsible for is your health.
Sebastian Pedersen (42:03.323)
That’s exactly right.
Jess Spendlove (42:04.801)
brings us to, I think, a great ending. And I do ask all of my guests a personal question to wrap up. And that is what three things, non-negotiables, behaviors, whatever you want to call them, help you stay at the top.
Sebastian Pedersen (42:22.666)
I would I’ll have to bucket my second one. I think by my first one would be Putting myself in an environment for success, you know if I want to be an athlete I go to a professional club if I want to be Whatever my endeavors is make sure I put myself in an environment for that to be more likely
Second one would make sure that I get the foundations right. So exercise, sleep, nutrition, those three. And then my last one would have to be purpose. Having purpose in my life so that even though I’m doing everything else, something’s still pushing me forward or driving me forward every single day.
Jess Spendlove (43:02.315)
Yeah, great. I think that’s a great place to finish up. Dr. Sebastian Peterson, thank you for joining. Stay at the top. I’ll have all of your links and things in the show notes, but is there anywhere that is your preferred place for people to connect or find out on what you’re up to?
Sebastian Pedersen (43:19.771)
I know my email is usually pretty, think it goes on the website, but my email is usually best. So, sebastianatlongjev.com.au. More than happy to answer questions or concerns from people. Awesome.
Jess Spendlove (43:30.155)
Yeah, perfect.
Thank you for joining. Thank you for your insights. It’s a really interesting space and I hope the conversation, you know, getting a little bit deeper into some of the pros, some of the cons, some of the considerations. And even though we did focus a lot on GLP ones, there’s a lot of gold in that conversation, not just specific to that, but just overall behavior change when it comes to, you know, optimizing or prioritizing whatever you want to call it, your health now, but also considering
how that shows up for the long run or for your longevity. Thanks for your time. On that note, I will be back again next week with a solo episode, not only helping you all reach the top, but sustainably stay there. I’ll see you all then.