So if the three of us have a glass of wine, is there differences in the way the three
of us might experience that glass of wine? And then how would we find that out?
So absolutely. All of us are genetically different. And actually, interestingly now, there is
a way of measuring it. And we actually have a test called an epigenetics test. And what
epigenetics is, is actually measuring the impact on you based on your genes. So if three
of us were to have alcohol, it's going to have sort of different impact on us. If I
give you sort of my own example, where I had this test done recently, it said that I declare
that I drink about eight units of alcohol a week. And the test showed me that that's
equivalent to one unit of alcohol.
Oh, see!
You're a part of me!
I've got the green light! You go and drink!
Hey hey and welcome to the Forties Formula, your go-to place for insightful discussions
on navigating the forties and thriving in this transformative decade.
We are your hosts, Jasmine and Amanda, two women that are passionate about exploring
the challenges and adventures that come with turning 40 and what lies ahead.
Dr. Xin-Yuan Feng is a family physician and chief medical officer of Osler Health International,
which she co-founded in 2020. Her vision was to deliver bespoke health care at the highest
level, both in the realm of medical knowledge and service standards. Dr. Feng is an active
clinician who also manages the medical and business aspects of the medical practice.
Passionate about both women's health and providing an ethical approach to health care,
Dr. Feng was instrumental in the creation of Osler's Giving Back program, which provides
free cervical cancer tests for helpers.
As a founding member of the Singaporean Lifestyle Medicine Society, Dr. Feng is a proponent
of lifestyle medicine practices which not only benefit health today, but protect against
chronic disease tomorrow.
Our main topic for today has been the elephant in the room for a few episodes here on the
Forties Formula, but today we're attacking it head on, the role of alcohol in our forties
on our health, on our longevity, and on our mental health. And we are honored to have
Dr. Feng, the director and chief medical officer for Osler Health with us today, to give us
the straight talk that we probably all need to hear. So welcome, Dr. Feng.
Thank you for having me in such a delight. Good to see you again, Jasmine and Amanda.
Well I think that we got to just rip the bandaid off, right? Just tear it off here and now.
Is there a medical consensus around a safe or even a smart level of alcohol for women
in their forties?
Why don't I start off quoting you, and I'm sure you've got all the data out there, but
what is considered safe? And then we can go on after that. So in Singapore, the safe number
of units or the guidelines from Singapore is, I've got to refer here, 14 units per
week for men and 7 units for women. In Australia, it's 10 units for men and women per week,
and in the UK, it's 14 units for both men and women per week, spread over three days.
So you can see it's fairly similar.
Similar, but I didn't realize there were different. I'd always heard 14 and 7. I never even knew
there were like regional differences.
Yeah, so there's slight regional differences there, but interestingly in Singapore, they
say women should drink less, and I think I probably will agree with that for various
reasons. So that is probably the consensus out there with the number of units that is
safe.
Yeah, but how about smart, right? Like so, you know, us health-seeking, wellness-seeking
optimized wellness people, what's the right answer? Is there one?
I think the right answer is what's right for you. And maybe we can expand on that later.
Yeah, let's.
Yeah, because, you know, getting to that limit of 14, is that safe? Is that right for you
and me? I think it depends on so many other factors. So many other factors about your
health, you know, your relationship with alcohol, etc.
I can tell you right now, if I had 14 drinks in a week, I would be deceased. Because again,
if I'm drinking 14 drinks and taking care of two toddlers and a newborn, it's not happening.
Can I say something about the 14 units? So actually, what is probably something to be
aware of is 14 units spread across several days. So when we talk about 14 units, it's
not about having a big binge weekend, having 14 units on a Saturday night and go, right,
that's my 14 for the week. And that's okay.
And check.
14 units, I'm fine. So actually, in the UK, they actually say 14 units over three days.
And I think that's quite interesting.
Okay, over three days.
Over three days. So in other words, you know, three days has to add up to 14.
That's still a three day bender for me.
Yeah, that's more than four per day. Holy moly, I'd be dead.
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Well, so this actually brings up a question that I wanted to ask you, which is alcohol
one of those situations where the dose makes the poison, right? So the more you drink in
a sitting, the worse it is or, you know, kind of what's the relationship of time with alcohol?
Yep. So actually one drink takes about two hours to break down and then two drinks actually
will take four hours to break down. So on and so forth. So six drinks will take three
drinks will take about six hours. It takes longer. So, yes, so if you have one, you know,
it breaks down after two hours and that that's and there's an accumulative effect. I think
that's what we're referring to. So actually on that note, that's the advice we give, you
know, people who have women who are breastfeeding.
Thank you. Yes. So actually, can we drink when we're breastfeeding? Well, the answer
is no alcohol is safe for babies. Right. However, everyone's having that odd drinks like, yes,
I can finally go out and see my girlfriends. I'm going to have one drink. That's fine.
If she waits at least two hours before feeding or pumping or maybe even pump and dump the
first one, as we normally say, because just based on that. But there's an accumulative
effect. So if they're having one drink, I'll say, please go out and have a good night.
But to be aware that actually wondering takes about two units to break two hours to break
down. OK. What about if somebody is rehydrating? So can you sort of dilute the effects of alcohol
by drinking loads of water? Does that help?
I think we wouldn't say that's necessarily diluting the effects of alcohol, but absolutely
pacing that. So have a drink and then maybe water in between before having the next drink.
So it allows your body to rehydrate to take the next drink, because alcohol, when we look
at how it actually works, can dehydrate you. Right. So we don't need to go into that sort
of science about it, but it does dehydrate. As we know, it makes us pee more. So if we
rehydrate, we get us back to that sort of that state where we're able to sort of process
that. So I think rehydrating would help. So rehydrating helps, obviously, two hours per
unit of alcohol per drink. Then is there any way you're talking about this off air? You
know, I say I always feel better if I drink earlier in the day. So let's say I have a
glass of champagne at a brunch. I'll feel better the next day than if I have a glass of champagne
at dinner. Is there anything to that? Or is that just my weird?
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You're right, Amanda. Thank you. One vote for day drinking.
Because it takes a couple of hours for the alcohol to break down. And we know that impact
alcohol has on sleep. So that is why drinking during the day, you don't feel as bad the
next day. Yeah, it's broken down, it's gotten out of the system. We've peed, you know, it's
excreted, we go to sleep. It's not impacting our sleep as much as if we drank later at
night. So absolutely. So what is the impact on sleep? You know, we always hear that, right?
Alcohol is an impact on your sleep. Like what exactly is happening that is not, you know,
that is it making our sleep the worst quality? Yeah, it affects your sleep quality. As you
know, with sleep, we've got to, you know, there's a comp, there's a proportion of deep
sleep, light sleep, REM sleep, and alcohol actually changes that changes that that pattern
that we're looking for. You know, it affects your heart rate variability. It really affects
the the deep sort of resting sleep. So you actually have more disturbed sleep. And if
you don't have enough deep sleep, and you're just relying on light and REM sleep, you're
not going to get deep sleep, good sleep quality. So Jasmine, I don't know about you. But lately,
I've been struggling to keep up with the grocery shopping between work and the kids and everything
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recipes, updates and special offers. Right now let's go back to the chat. We went out
for dinner and I had half a glass of wine, couldn't finish it, gave it to my husband.
And then I noticed that my sleep was really shitty and it was about five o'clock. So it
wasn't super late, but it wasn't, you know, early in the day. It wasn't, it wasn't, yeah.
But my sleep was affected by half a glass. And my husband was like, well, you barely
drank. Can half a glass have that impact on people or is this like an individual thing
based on, you know, the way my body works? No, there's, there could have been other reasons
why that half a glass affected you that day. Cause you may have found at other times that
half a glass didn't affect you at all. It's maybe the type of alcohol you're drinking
at that point, right? So different types of alcohol can have different effects on someone.
Maybe, you know, you, you, what you ate that day, you know, it was an Indian and I did
go and do a spitting glass right before. Or, you know, the state of our gut health, what
is our gut health like? And so it affects the absorption of alcohol. So there could
have been many reasons. But if you consistently find that that half a glass of alcohol is
affecting you, then that probably shows you that, you know, alcohol has quite a big impact
on you. But occasionally, you know, then it's probably so many other factors that's caused
that. Is there a way to find out how, like you just said, what alcohol's impact is on
you? Like, so if the three of us have a glass of wine, is there differences in the way the
three of us might experience that glass of wine? And then how would we find that out?
So absolutely. All of us are genetically different. So we know the process, we know the science,
we know this is what happens when we have alcohol, this is how it's broken down. But
we all know that genetics all play a part. Okay. And actually, interestingly, now there
is a way of measuring it. And we have, we actually have a test called an epigenetics
test. And what epigenetics is, is actually measuring the impact on you based on your
genes. So if three of us would have alcohol, it's going to have sort of different impact
on us. If I give you sort of my own example, where I had this test done recently, it said
that I declare that I drink about eight units of alcohol a week. And the test showed me
that that's equivalent to one unit of alcohol. Oh, see. I thought that was really interesting
to actually, you know, to show me the impact of alcohol on me. So there is now a way of
measuring that. And it's really important to know that, you know, this impact is quite
individualized. Yeah, I mean, I'm German-Polish, so I'm pretty sure I have the highest tolerance
of all time. Well, I'm just going to jump in and apparently wave it to the victory guess
box. But I bet again, my real life does not reflect that. So, anywho. Well, and you mentioned
earlier about like, we all know kind of the process of metabolizing alcohol. I actually
don't think we all know. Like, I would say that there's like a lot of confusion about,
you know, we take that first sip of alcohol to the point where it's out of our body. What
is happening in between? How does alcohol get out of our body? Right? We know it's a
toxin, but how? Yeah. So when we consume alcohol, it actually goes down into our intestine and
into our gut, absorbed into the bloodstream, and it's then dispersed throughout the body.
And we know, we always talk about alcohol in the liver. I think a lot of people know
that. And that's actually because there are two main enzymes that's found in the liver
that actually goes to break down alcohol, alcohol dehydrogenase. Jasmine, there is so
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40s on akizziwellness.com. That's akizzi wellness, A-K-E-S-I wellness dot com. And now back to
the show. So incidentally, there's genetic variation with the amount of alcohol dehydrogenase
enzyme that each person makes as well. So being Chinese, we tend to have less alcohol
dehydrogenase and that accounts for why you notice that we flush more when we drink alcohol.
So that's the reason. So alcohol is broken down in the liver primarily, but it's also
processed in other parts of the body. So alcohol, you know, has to then in the bloodstream,
it gets carried around the body. So it goes off to the kidneys, for example, and needs
to be excreted. That's where we pee. And in a more complex way, we know that alcohol dehydrates
us because there's another process that's going on in the kidneys that makes us pee
more as a result. Alcohol is also excreted in the breath, which is why, you know, when
we've drunk alcohol, you can actually say, Oh, I know you've drunk alcohol. That's where
it's excreted as well. It's also excreted in sweat. So these are the ways that alcohol
gets excreted. Actually, I just want to go back right at the beginning to say, and I
said right at the beginning, alcohol gets into our small intestine. That's actually
a really important point because our gut health has a big impact on how alcohol is absorbed.
So whether it's optimizing your gut health, it may reduce the absorption of alcohol. So
maybe that is allows alcohol doesn't impact our body as much or it's very well absorbed,
in which case it gets around the system. So our gut health actually impacts how alcohol
affects us as well. On the flip side of that, though, if say, let's say we have a healthy
gut and then we start drinking more and more, can we actually kind of harm our gut health
with alcohol? We can because too much alcohol is probably going to disrupt the balance in
your gut health. I mean, gut health, as we know a lot about it now, it's about having
the diversity. If you just give one thing to it, it's not giving the diversity, is
it? And it's probably more of a disruptor if you have too much. But diversity, so a
little bit of everything.
Yeah, a little bit of it. Even alcohol. And it's funny that you say that because it makes
me think of like, you know, when I say more and more, right, I do think a lot of women
in their 40s are kind of like, I would say women in their 20s are drinking a lot, you
know, and maybe less. So I feel like the Gen Z's don't drink as much.
I agree. I agree.
Great job, Gen Z's. Please undo the damage of the millennials. But so they're not drinking
as much. Let's say we did in our 20s. Then come along the 30s. A lot of women have kids,
go through pregnancies, are trying to be fertile. So there's maybe a little bit of a dip there.
And then come the 40s and people got small kids, they're taking care of elderly parents.
Maybe their social life is picking up because their kids are growing up and they have more
time again. And then they're like, find themselves drinking more. Right? For women who think
they need alcohol, they want more alcohol. How do you encourage them to think about the
role of alcohol in their lives? How do you help them create boundaries that are, you
know, healthier around alcohol?
I think first of all, the thing about alcohol is alcohol is not bad. I don't want to vilify
alcohol. Right? So there are many reasons. And I think there are also positive reasons
why women are in their 40s, you know, busy life, young children, sandwich generation,
lots of responsibilities, work, et cetera, et cetera, have alcohol. I think there are,
there is a social impact. Okay. Let's, you know, hanging out with our friends, right?
That actually has a positive impact for our psyche and our mental health. Actually, at
this point, I'm going to actually bring in the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, because
that's actually how we re we like to talk about our health and approach our health.
So that is exercise, nutrition, sleep, mental wellness, positive social connections. That's
the key that we want to bring in here. And of course, no smoking. We know that and minimize
alcohol, which is what we're talking about today. So if you look at these six pillars
in totality, we're not just talking about for our health, what we're doing with alcohol,
we need to look at the positive social impact that our life needs to have a balanced approach
to health. We need to look at social connections as well. So, and we need to need to look at
mental wellness. So for women is that because alcohol gives them that, that pleasure, does
it allow them to go out and hang out with their friends? Does it give them that, you
know, on a Friday night, we go, right, it's Friday now, it's the weekend, I'm going to
have a drink that may signify the start to a weekend, which allows them to relax. That's
actually a positive thing. So let's look at, you know, women, let's let's look at what's
my relationship with alcohol? What does that do to me? How does that make me feel? And
some of that positive effect actually shouldn't be, you know, underrated.
And looking at sort of the six pillars of lifestyle medicine, we tend to get people
coming in who see us because they'd like to lose some weight. And then one of the first
things I find they say is, can we still drink alcohol? What would you say? Can they still
drink alcohol if they're in a process of trying to lose weight and make better? I think better
lifestyle changes and choices?
I think certainly we know that alcohol can impact one's weight. Okay, so if the focus
at this point is weight loss, I wouldn't say no alcohol, but look at how much you know,
let's let's start with looking at how much you're drinking. If you are drinking 14 units,
then definitely if our focus is weight loss, we do want to look at cutting down. But if
the you're only drinking a unit a week, and because that's your Friday night of giving
you that balance to your week, then that's not going to have the hugest impact cutting
out that Friday night wine if you're trying to lose weight. So but yes, alcohol can impact
weight, it does actually, you know, can make you gain weight if you drink too much alcohol
depending on what you drink as well. Right. So if the focus at this point for your health
is weight loss, then yes, we should actually be looking at how much alcohol I also find
that sometimes when you drink a little bit of alcohol, your inhibitions come down, you're
like, Oh, I'll just have those chips. Maybe I'll have that dessert today. Or maybe you
black out and forget that. So that it just comes back to I guess your relationship with
alcohol and how it makes you, I guess, make decisions post that drink. Yeah, yeah. No,
and absolutely. I think if if that's happening, occasionally, I think I wouldn't be too hard
on yourself is that's happening once a week. And you know, this happens regularly, then
then maybe let's we'll take a step back and go, Okay, yeah, it's it's making me happy
and relaxed and all of that. But what else can I do? That's going to give me that same
joy. And I'm not saying cutting it out completely. But what else can we replace it? There are
some people who go it's all or nothing. Right. So we're gonna have to cut it out completely
because I just can't can't do the can't do the let's moderate that. And maybe that's
what they need to do for a little while to just reset things. And maybe go back to it
again, or maybe not. However, you know, it's it's what's your relationship with alcohol?
What is it doing to you? What does it you know, how does it make you feel? Yeah, I've
got a client who finds that every weekend, it goes downhill. And every Monday, it's a
restart. And it's stuck in this loop of restarting again on a Monday, restarting again on a Monday.
And it's and it usually coincides with having a drink on a Friday because and then it all
kind of goes a bit downhill. So there seems to be some kind of, I guess, it not issue
with the relationship, but there's there's more to it. You know, like, the alcohol is
is almost like the starting point, which leads to an all or nothing approach. I think for
that person is right, let's try it. Can we it's every Friday. But if we can actually
have one front every other Friday, and actually that odd Friday, you go, actually, I'm fine
not doing that. Yeah, then that's okay. But if you find you're getting to that next friend,
you go, I must do that. And I'm going to do that. So that's when we need to start to look
at why what is it? What else can we do? I am listening to a podcast yesterday. It was
actually modern wisdom, Chris Williamson. And he was basically saying, when you are
doing something which is bad for your not bad for your health, but you know, which may
be, you know, becoming a habit, try not to do it two days in a row. So you know, you
have to then think about if I'm having it today, I won't have it tomorrow. But will
I need it the next day? Or I'm going to need it on Friday. So maybe what I should do is
not have it today and tomorrow so that I can have it on Friday. And I guess that's a really
good way of looking at it. Yeah, that is a wonderful frame. And I think that's an adaptation
of the James Clear idea from atomic habits, which is you can miss a day, but you miss
that second day. And now you're making a vote in the wrong direction. Right? It's like you
can everyone gets a pass, but too many passes and now you're developing the wrong habit.
Absolutely. Habit, habit, you know, how we know to get someone to do the right thing,
habit, let's get into, you know, the habit of exercise, we need to do that repeatedly.
So it's the same thing. So if you can actually make that conscious decision not to have alcohol,
then I think you've got a fairly healthy relationship with alcohol. Talking about that sort of long
weekend as well. But if you're having that same weekend, you get to Monday and you're
feeling guilty about it. That's also not healthy. Right? So that should be your first clue.
Yeah. So even if it's one weekend, but if you get to that Monday and you're feeling
guilty about it, that's often a clue that actually there's more to that. Perhaps the
psyche behind that. And let's see why. Let's talk about it. Let's, let's, yeah.
Well let's kind of, you know, turn that person into a different case, which is she can't
stop. So let's say, you know, it's every weekend and she actually can't pull back.
How do you know when alcohol crosses the line and becomes something that's a little bit
more dangerous in your life?
Yeah, but I think, um, certainly we talked about the person who has to keep going back
to that because alcohol is, it can impact, it does impact our brain as well. And, um,
it gives you, what it does is it actually gives you that pleasure. Okay. And, uh, because
we've got that reward and that pleasure, we want to go back again and again and again.
So there are actually a couple of questions that you need to ask yourself if, um, if we're
looking at, um, if, if someone's actually addicted to them. So let me see if I can remember
them. Um, so if you have, if you have a, well, CAG, if you have a concern that you're drinking
too much, and if you even think about that, then that's probably one of the first signs.
If you get annoyed, A, if you get annoyed that someone's going, oh, you know, having
another drink again. All right. That may be a throwaway statement, but it may be someone
just trying to give you a little bit of hint. That's another, um, that's another sort of
clue as to, you know, whether you're drinking too much or not. Um, just trying to think
what G is. I'm loving this acronym so far. I'll find out what G is. I've just got a
mind blank. This is me in my forties now and E is called an eye opener. And that's the
real one. If what we mean by eye opener is if you actually need that alcohol every time
you open your eyes or, you know, if you've had a big morning, anything actually after
the next day, I need the alcohol again to get going. Then that's not a good sign at
all. Okay. And again, I think, you know, like you said, the, the first little sign of I'm
concerned, I think we've all felt that in not necessarily alcohol, but you know, it
could be whatever aspect of our life that we realize we need to change. When you start
to have that little glimmer of concern about your own habits, that's, that's the absolutely.
And if you do just, you know, just, just say it loud, talk to someone about it, you know,
sounded out with somebody. And if you have concerns about that, absolutely. Just, just
talk to someone about it. We were actually saying yesterday that even talking to yourself
out loud, then you can hear yourself saying it. When the thoughts go through your mind.
Absolutely. Well, and related note, right? Like you were mentioning, examine the role
of alcohol in your life, see if it's giving you concern. We were given this statistic
on our very first episode of the forties formula that women in their forties are the most depressed,
meaning this is the most depressed men in terms of, you know, depression prevalence
decade for women. Do you think alcohol interplays with our mental wellness? Is this something
that is contributing to us being in the most depressed decade of our lives? And do you
think that drinking has longterm repercussions on our mental health?
Let's start with how alcohol works. And I mentioned it a little earlier. It does work.
It does actually give you pleasure, released dopamine makes us feel happy. And that's not
a bad thing. We need dopamine. All right, we need dopamine. We need dopamine, our happy
pot, as I call it. So alcohol can do that. But it's also a reward. So if we're in that,
if we've got that relationship with alcohol where it becomes a reward, then that could
actually have that could actually be not as good a thing. We also know that alcohol can
actually have blunt our emotions. So if that's too much alcohol, so if it's blunting our
emotions, then we're not actually being real about how we're actually, you know, feeling
about things, we may have something that's difficult, and we really don't want to face
that. So we're going to use alcohol to try to blunt how we feel about that, then that
relationship with alcohol is not good. So that's where it can impact our mental health
and mental wellness, because we're not actually addressing, you know, how it's making us feel.
We may feel anxious about something, we don't want to face that we don't like that feeling
because it's an uncomfortable feeling, but we're going to use alcohol because it blunts
our emotions. So yes, it can impact our mental health and our mental wellness in that way.
But that's usually, you know, probably drinking too much alcohol. But if we don't have the
capability to say, or the, you know, the ability to say, right, this is how it's making me
feel, I'm going to do something about it, then that's probably when it gets too much.
I used to find that as a 20 year old who when I drank too much, I would actually be a bit
too emotional.
Were you a weeby drunk?
I was a weeby drunk.
Oh my God. Yeah, I've definitely, I think everyone has their drunk persona, you know,
which is different from the regular persona. You were the weeby one. I was the one who
everyone assumed I was sober, but I was like, oh, Amanda, you're the responsible one. I
was like, am I? Because I am so hammered right now. How did this fall on me? But again, these
were in our 20s, these days have gone. Well, you know, thinking about the role of alcohol
in mental health, the role of alcohol in healthy aging. Now we were just reading yesterday
about the role of alcohol with menopause. And Jasmine had come across a statistic that
women who are low to moderate drinkers actually are associated with having later menopause,
which I thought was very interesting, right? Because you'd think, oh, no alcohol, right?
That would be the healthiest way to go. What do you, what's the effect of alcohol on perimenopause
symptoms generally, right? Or is there one? And then are there specific symptoms that
are exacerbated or made better or worse with alcohol?
I think certainly I'm sure alcohol has an impact because it has an impact on, well,
firstly, as we know, perimenopause, it affects our hormones, it affects our metabolism. So
alcohol almost certainly will have some impact in that stage of life. We know one of the
main, one of the most common symptoms of menopause, perimenopause is hot flushes. And we know
alcohol can make us feel hot and flushed, you know, because of the mechanisms of it.
So almost certainly that would have perhaps more of an impact. Although I tried to sort
of look up specifically to find out if there were any more symptoms or not. And if I can
read these small words here, you know, it can have so much impact. But what I wanted
to say is it can, you know, I'll just read some quotes if I can read here. It triggers
their symptoms while others find that it relieves their symptoms.
Oh, that's helpful.
What do we do with that?
Another quote, some menopausal women find that they're happier after one drink and
others found that they were more decrepit. Basically, the point I'm trying to make here
is there are a lot of studies out there and we know that the whole myriad of symptoms
in perimenopause and menopause is so different for so many women. If you look at the number
of symptoms, it's up to about 30 or 50 the last time.
I think Dr. Tash said 70.
70. It's a big number. It's not just five. So the impact it has on different people is
very different, as you can see, and these are studies. But, you know, it's the impact
it has on women is so different. But I think suffice to say, it is going to have some impact.
But one universal impact that's said on here, it affects your sleep. I think we talked about
earlier that almost certainly is the truth.
Yeah. And I think that's a huge takeaway for all of us because we all got to sleep.
Very useful. Well, Dr. Fung, we're coming to the end of our time for this amazing discussion
on alcohol, but I would love to know and I would love for our listeners to hear from
you as a doctor, right? What is your 40s formula? What do you think that women in their 40s
truly need to lead healthy, satisfying lives?
First of all, I want to say actually, I love my 40s. And I think and it's a really busy
season, right? We all know it's a really busy season. But actually, I think my takeaway
and what I want to say is actually prioritize you and your health. And I'll do that by
using the six pillars again of lifestyle medicine. Because here we're talking about healthy health
span and healthy longevity. And that's the aim we all want in our lifetime. Okay. So
healthy longevity, health span is living as many good years in good health.
Yeah. Right. So I say, you know, prioritize you, prioritize your health and talk, look
at your health using those six pillars. So it's not just about how much alcohol I drink,
you know, what my blood test shows, but actually look at you, look at exercise, nutrition,
keep your mental health, who, where your positive social connections come from, and enjoy your
health journey.
I love that. Health is wealth. All right. Thank you so much, Dr. Pham for being with
us today and having this engaging alcohol conversation.
No, thanks for having me.
Thank you.
So talking to our amazing guests all day in studio, we need a good drink to refocus. And
let's be honest, we could use a dash more energy too.
Oh, I totally feel that. There's so many energy drinks out there packed with sugar and so
much caffeine that you end up crashing hard.
That's actually why I switched over to Flojo, Asia's first productivity drink. It hits the
sweet spot for me between eating a little bit of a boost, but not wanting to chug a
bunch of caffeine. And Flojo actually has 80% less caffeine than your average coffee
with no added sugar.
I also love that Flojo is a functional health drink. It has seven organic nootropics and
adaptions, things like racial mushroom for a stronger immune system and rhodiola for
mental resilience. But the fruit and tea flavors are still light and fresh, not weird.
Flojo actually helps me stay calm and in control. So when I get home after work, I can just
be immediately present with my family, not all jacked up and jittery like I might feel
after a later day coffee.
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This is Paul, our editor. He's a 25 year old unmarried Singaporean guy listening to
the ramblings of 12 older women on everything from menopause to weightlifting to sex.
So Paul, what's your thoughts on today's conversation?
Hey guys, what's up? Paul here. So for this episode with Dr. Fong, I kind of learned
quite a number of new things like the 14 units of alcohol per week for men and I have to
admit as a drinker myself, of course I do know the health implications that are associated
with drinking but from the point of flesh and dopamine, for me it's sort of like a way
to just chill and enjoy life like a little bit. And in my context as a 26 year old guy,
I kind of don't care about it. Well, so sorry for you guys in your 40s but please do stay
healthy and you know, drink in moderation if you do. See ya.
Guys, you know how much we love coffee? And if you want to show us some love, you know,
you can get us one. Just visit buymeacoffee.com slash the 40s formula. Cheers.
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and we'll be back next week for more empowering conversations with inspiring guests. Bye.
Thank you so much. That was great. I can't do the sciencey bit. And again, we can always,
you know, cut in and out of, you know, if there's, if there's just like the papers
or whatever, just take that out. That was fun. Thanks. Well, thank you for joining us.
I'd like to get a photo of us in blue. Yeah. Initially you said blue and black as well.
I did. I did.