Pearl Lam (林明珠): Hello, this is Pearl Lam Podcast. I am here in LA and today we are doing something different. I’ve invited Dr. Eva Cwynar and we love Fountain of Youth, so I cannot resist not to invite Dr. Eva Cwynar. Eva, can you just give briefly to the audience about what you do?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Thank you. Thank you for having me here, Pearl. I am an endocrinologist and metabolic specialist, which means I study hormones and I test for hormones and I replace hormones and peptides and I evaluate vitamins and proteins and amino acids and testosterone, oestrogen, progesterone. That’s my passion, that’s my life.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I mean, okay, so today, I think whenever we sit somewhere, we go to a supermarket, we read magazine, everybody’s talking about anti ageing. What does anti ageing mean?
Dr Eva Cwynar: It means slowing down and in some certain says, reversing your DNA, the way it is functioning, the way it’s breaking, and just keeping you as strong and healthy as possible.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Because, you know, I think in my mother’s generation, or even a few decades ago, people are always talking about longevity, right. Today we swap the word from longevity to anti ageing, but longevity, actually, I personally don’t want a long life. Because if you have a long life and if your mind is not, you know, it’s not sound and physically you’re not moving, Right. Who wants a long life? Right.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Well, I think that’s where the anti-ageing comes in.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Because we’re in quality of life, right?
Dr Eva Cwynar: And that is, it’s the quality of ageing is really what is reflected in anti ageing. Right. It’s not, for me so much about getting Botox and filler and facelift. It’s what can you do on a cellular level to keep yourself healthy. Because unfortunately, as we age, we do get a smaller brain. We do get.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Do we get a smaller brain?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Really? The brain can actually get a little bit smaller? Yeah.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yeah. Okay, so you can get the osteoporosis. So your body shrinks. I mean, how many of us have had grandparents or even parents that used to be tall and wide and strappy and all of a sudden, you know, you’re looking down at them instead of looking up at them. It’s not that you’ve grown necessarily, it’s that they’ve shrunken. So anti-ageing is a preservation of your body.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So are you saying that because of anti-ageing your body doesn’t shrink?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I am saying that. I am saying that. I’m saying that if you do the appropriate exercises, if you’re taking the right peptides, if you’re eating right, if you’re continuously replacing your hormones. Right. Because when we age, we lose. It goes down whether you’re a man and you lose testosterone or a woman and her oestrogen and progesterone. Once that starts slipping, your whole body remodels itself. And that’s where the changes happen. So again, it’s living healthy wisely and longer.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Okay, you know, everybody now, now is talking about peptides. What is peptide? I mean, I mean, even yesterday, and my friend said to me, she just talked to an expert and then he told me about certain peptides. And then you told me that, oh, this and this lost weight injection is also a peptide. So what is peptide?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Well, the weight loss medicine you’re talking about is the Mounjaro, which is the peptide name for it is a tirzepatide.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah, tirzepatide. Right.
Dr Eva Cwynar: And just like ozempic and wegovy semiglutides, it’s a peptide. Right, that’s what we know it as.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I thought these names is a generic name?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yes, but in the community they are some of the peptides that people refer to. Right. So the definition of a peptide is really accumulation of amino acids. So it’s a protein. There are various proteins. And peptides are something that we naturally produce in our bodies, but again, as we age, we have less of them. And so people are taking them just like you would take, oh, I’m low on vitamin D or vitamin C, they’re low on these things. And they are taking them usually by injectable, you know, very little needle into the belly to assimilate it into your own natural chemistry.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So is this something new? Because it is. Oh, that is why everybody’s talking about it. Because even if I buy a collagen protein, they would say collagen protein, peptide.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Because it’s got the amino acids in it.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Ah, that is why. So it’s not just. So the peptide is amino acid.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yes.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So what has changed? Because it seems that the last decade, everything about bioscience and all that, it has been evolving and people is talking so much about anti-ageing. First of course there’s a people talking about energy level. I’m ADHD, so I don’t have this problem. I just want to slow down.
Dr Eva Cwynar: No, you have the most energy I’ve known anybody to have and I’ve known you for almost 20 years.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So can you imagine when I was young, oh my God, people cannot keep up with me. I drove people nuts. So now this is my, my mellow period.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Nothing mellow about you, Pearl.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So, you know, and I understand a lot of people are talking about energy. Right. So are you. Is it the last 10 years? Because the bioscience…
Dr Eva Cwynar: Gene mapping as well. You know, we’re really. The science has skyrocketed in what we can and it’s going to continue to do so. You know, we can identify cancers before they become cancers. You know, we identify disease before it actually becomes a disease. So some of these peptides help, but that’s just a small fraction of what we do for cellular preservation. You know, when you talk about energy for last year I think that everybody was doing the NAD, right?
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes. NAD, yeah.
Dr Eva Cwynar: And then there’s BPC 157, which is my favourite peptide because BPC, yeah, it is amazing anti inflammatory that also helps with gut health. But I take it because I go to the gym. I try to go to the gym seven days a week.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Wow, seven days a week?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I do, I do, I do. I want, I’m behind a desk, I’m behind a computer, I want to move. And so it’s about discipline as well. You know, I have an accountability buddy. I have another friend who’s a woman and we just, we motivate each other. I think it’s hard when she takes a vacation. I don’t go to the gym as frequently, you know, so. Yeah, yeah. I think it’s that responsibility to another person as well, not only to yourself because I think sometimes we can cheat on ourselves. Right. But when you have to show up for somebody else, you do it. So yeah, seven days a week. So I come back and I’m sore and I need that muscle recovery. So that’s why I say my favourite peptide is BPC157.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Okay. Later on. Can you write it down for me?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yes, of course. You can also take that one orally. They make it in a tablet that also works very well.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But I can’t take pills anymore and.
Dr Eva Cwynar: I don’t either, which is why I do the little tiny. Like you don’t feel it, it’s as big as a hair. But the template of all of that for me is hormone replacement. So, you know, women and men. And I’m seeing a lot more. Cause I’ve been in practise for like four decades. I’ve seen a lot more young men struggle with low testosterone. And I think that’s because we have pesticides in our food and just the stress of what happens to our lives. And more and more men are becoming infertile at a younger age. It used to be just a fear for women, but now it’s men. So again, it all encompasses that anti ageing.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So when does this word anti ageing or anti ageing started to be such a, such a big word? Because, you know, sit down, I talk to my ladies friend, talk to my men friends who love to have this longevity and energy. They start talking so much about anti ageing. And it’s something that is really. Because I mean, all these things before were quite private.
Dr Eva Cwynar: I don’t think we had options before, you know, and then we also were misrepresented. For instance, oestrogen causes cancer. Well, it doesn’t, you know, if you’re doing it properly and you have a good history and all that. I think the reason I became an endocrinologist, first of all, all the most brilliant people in medicine that I came across were endocrinologists. So I think that that pulled me towards it. But I remember thinking, I’m the generation right behind the baby boomers, right? And those people were making more money and becoming more successful. So what can you have when you’re older, right, Your own body? People want to be strong. They want to be able to still hike and ski and run and bike and just be happy when they wake up in the morning because their body isn’t struggling. And I thought that’s what I want to do. And I saw from a biochemistry point of view the really escalation of science that was happening. And it’s not about, oh, our parents weren’t interested in it. I think that there was no option and now we have those options. So now we’re doing it.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I mean, when did these options came out, like 10 years ago to 15 years ago?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Well, like we had for instance, growth hormone. I mean, I trained at NYT right. And that was like the biggest growth hormone centre in the United States at that time. And we had growth hormone, but it was limited. Right. The FDA was just paying Medicare. And so who gets it? Who doesn’t get it? And so, you know, I think that we had it, but it wasn’t out in the media.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So now if we are talking the way you are expressing that means that you your lifespan will be much longer. Because I was told, I was actually told that, that every generation you are increasing by 20 years. So this generation.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Well, I don’t think it’s 20 years every generation now.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I mean, you will. An average death should be like a hundred.
Dr Eva Cwynar: I mean, my dad’s in his 90s and that’s my dad.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes, I just saw your dad. Your dad is energetic. Your dad is energetic.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Right. But I have done anti-ageing with him.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Wow. So when did he start? When did he started to do anti-ageing?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Probably he moved to be closer to me about 10 years ago and. Yeah, about 10 years ago.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): And then you start giving him supplements.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Supplements, injections, hormones. Yeah, and he hikes. I mean, we just spend a month hiking about 10 to 15 miles a day in Slovenia. He walks every day. He’s. Yeah, that’s really important. You do. I don’t think it’s a 20 year per generation. I think that we can now detect cancers before we actually get them. There’s a wonderful blood test called the gallery. Have you heard of the Galleri?
Pearl Lam (林明珠): No, no, no.
Dr Eva Cwynar: So the Galleri can actually test for 50 different kinds of cancers by checking methylation, which is a carbon hydrogen group on a cell, and detect when a cell starts changing, starts mutating before it actually becomes a mass, which is that cancer. So yeah, yeah, so that’s great, but it’s not. Oh, what are you genetically predisposed to or predetermined to? It is what’s going on in your body right now.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Very cool. Tell me more about your Panama Project.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Oh, my Panama Project? So a number of years ago, and you know how much I travel, I’ve travelled.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): You love travelling.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yeah.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): You love exploring, you love going visiting countries that you’ve never been.
Dr Eva Cwynar: And somebody said to me after, like my fourth trip to this one area of Panama, why do you go there so much? You know, and it’s like Because I never go to a country twice unless it’s somewhere in Europe for business. And I’ve been to obscure countries, right? And this is paradise for me. It’s a town along the Caribbean of Panama called Bocas del Toro.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So do you think that environment helps anti-ageing?
Dr Eva Cwynar: 100%.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Really?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I do. 100%. And you have these blue zones all over the world that are kind of proving that that’s.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But that means that when we live in a concrete jungle like I live in Hong Kong.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Then we have to take care of ourselves more, right? We have to have time to decompress. That stress can really, really destroy your adrenal glands.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But I thrive from stress. I actually thrive on stress.
Dr Eva Cwynar: But you actually are a unique person. You are. You are.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): No, no, I think, you know, I actually use stress stress to deal with my ADHD because only when I stress, then I can focus.
Dr Eva Cwynar: I have no explanation for that. I have no explanation.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I refuse to take pills. This is.
Dr Eva Cwynar: You are a unicorn. From now on, when you call, I’m gonna go, oh, the unicorn’s on the line. Now you.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Because you know when. So everything I do is the last minute. So why. Because I stress so much.
Dr Eva Cwynar: But you’re very organised.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So I focus.
Dr Eva Cwynar: But no but you’re organised. You’re stressed, but somehow you stay organised during that stress. ADHD, sometimes you’re not so organised, right? But. But you do.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But I do. I think I know how to control my stress. Not just I let stress to take.
Dr Eva Cwynar: I think you enjoy life and that’s also part of the ageing, right? It’s when you enjoy life, when you’re happy, you release certain neurotransmitters in your brain and that gives you also the biofeedback, right? Which is very important. That promotes other organs and end organs and epinephrine, norepinephrine. So that’s where you work.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): You know when people say that, oh, I don’t want. Actually, if I don’t have stress, I don’t know what to do. I know when I come to see you, you say stress is bad, but.
Dr Eva Cwynar: No, I mean every time. And you know, I have to see you medically every six months. I. I don’t know what to do because I’m like, how are you? You’re like, fine. I’m like, okay, well, we’ll continue doing what we’re doing, right? So. Yeah, yeah, but you’re a unicorn.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But with you, Eva, now you have. I mean, the other day when we were on having dinner together, you actually know my whole table of friends and every. I mean, the people that has come to you and asking and with you helping them. Do you have a satisfaction when you see your.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Oh, 100%. I mean, 100%. I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing this because it’s so rewarding.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Excuse me, you are. I think you’re trying to stop doing it because I told you. Oh, this. I said I don’t want to have new client, I just want to have my old clients. I want to travel.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Well, but. But I do travel. So even when I’m in Panama, because again, of AI, of computers, of just being able to communicate all over the world, I still work remotely. I still take care of my patients. Everybody knows how to get in touch with me. I know that when I climbed Kilimanjaro, I had no reception, but I literally bumped into people I knew at the top of that mountain. It was crazy. Yes.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Really?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yeah, yeah. Like literally bump into people. The patient was getting altitude sickness and so I had the meds with me. I always travel with meds. But yeah, so. But usually if they can. If people can’t reach me within 24 hours, they can reach me within 72. So I never shut off. I mean, I am always a doctor. I’m always a doctor. I love it. I will never stop doing this.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So are you. I mean, activities are very important. Right. What do you think about is anti-ageing, vain? Is it about vanity?
Dr Eva Cwynar: No. You know what it is for me, what I treat myself for is if I don’t do this, I find that it would be selfish of me to not be around for my children and my children’s children. So I try to preserve myself, my mind, my body really, for the people that I love because I want to be around. Not because I just enjoy them, but I want them to have a mother. That’s my role.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): That’s beautiful.
Dr Eva Cwynar: But it’s me.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah. Because I think. I mean, I don’t even think that vanity is a bad thing. I mean, in my personal view. So how are you seeing the next 10 years? How do you see the science is going to be developing?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I mean, there’s so much.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yeah, I know. There’s so much things coming on now. Every day there’s something new.
Dr Eva Cwynar: You know, I think that there’s going to be escalations in biochemistry and in science, but I also see that there’s a problem in reaching the people that need it most. And the commercial availability, because again, we’re talking about these peptides and just like Vitamins, peptides, are not covered by insurance. And I find that the people that need it the most, just like Mounjaro, you know, are not having access to it. That’s. So we’re talking about. Yes. All these wonderful things that are happening, and the message is out there, but it’s not reaching who it needs to be reached the most.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Wow. So does this.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Well, hopefully your podcast will reach some people.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I wish that. But, you know, this is about government policy. Because if government policy is not willing to. To give, to provide peptides or supplement to people, then?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I mean, more recently, a drug like Zepbound, which is the weight loss version of the Mounjaro. Right. They’re very, very close. Or Tirzepatite, if you will call it. If you’re overweight and you’re 40 years old, you can get it covered by insurance.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Oh, okay.
Dr Eva Cwynar: But if you’re over the age of 65 and you’re Medicare, you can’t. They won’t cover it. Which to me is. Well, that’s politics. And we’re not here to talk about politics. But a lot of. When you’re saying.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But today 65 is good old days 40 years old.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yes, but even if you’re 75. Okay. And you have a heart risk and you have just a stroke or if you have liver disease or if you have something. I think it’s even more important.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Yes, exactly.
Dr Eva Cwynar: To have a slender body, or at least not an obese body, and yet insurance doesn’t cover it.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Wow.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Yeah.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Wow. So in general, do you believe that? Because. Because now we look at each of the country, many of the developed countries, the population is shrinking. Right. And even though we have.
Dr Eva Cwynar: Part of it is the low sperm count. Yes, let’s talk about that. You know, but.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): But you did say that low sperm count is. Is.
Dr Eva Cwynar: They’ve. They’ve. Yes. I mean, it’s. It’s our diet, our stress, our lifestyle. Yes.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): So do you. Do you actually think that the world is getting smaller, a developing, developed country, population become even smaller?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I mean, I think that certain countries. Yes, we know that. That. That we’re not procreating as much. We’re not having as much. But I mean, you can’t just say. But you can’t just say, oh, because we’re more tired or there’s a lot of finances that go into that.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Of course, of course.
Dr Eva Cwynar: You know, so that’s a very complicated answer.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): It is, it is.
Dr Eva Cwynar: It’s like a domino effect there.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): No, because when you see that you know, with your science, with your bioscience, biochemistry is advancing every day. However, our population is shrinking every day.
Dr Eva Cwynar: It’s not reaching.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): What? It’s not reaching, as you said. So what is your plan in the next 10 years?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I’m going to write another book. [Another book.] Because again, medicine is so revolutionary right now that we have to keep up. Right? Like today is yesterday’s news, that kind of tomorrow is who knows? But I do want to do more retreats so that I can reach more people in other countries, you know, not just in the United States, because right now, I mean, we have a big international clientele, again, thankfully, because of the Internet. Not because they find me on the Internet, but because I can communicate with people, I can email people, I can zoom. Yeah, it’s just so that’s a nice thing. But I want to. And I love indigenous places. So again, where I’m going, where I do most of my retreats now, it’s in an indigenous part of Panama and I love that. So I’m able to help the people there, but also be in a situation, a glamorous situation for other people to come in.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): My last question for you. Do you have any tips that you would like to give to many people who wants to to follow the anti ageing?
Dr Eva Cwynar: I think it depends on where you are in your life. I think that if you’re in your 40s, you absolutely have to start following. If you’re a woman, your oestrogen, progesterone, we haven’t even talked about thyroid.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Oh, yeah, thyroid.
Dr Eva Cwynar: And if you’re a man, the testosterone for sure. I think that a lot of thyroid is underrepresented. I think that we don’t have to test it under the age of 65. That’s like if you go into an HMO, it’s not part of a normal. And I think that if you’re a borderline, if your physician’s like, no, this is right, but the thyroid stimulating hormone is in a certain interval between two and four, you actually have an 80% chance when you age for that number to actually be worse. And then you’ve lost all those years of not being treated right. And I see that happening in my 30 and my 40 years old. So that’s something really important for I’m hoping your audience to see and to get all the levels of a thyroid checked.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Historically and in centuries after centuries, we are running after Fountain of Youth. We even have Dorian Gray who sells his soul to the devil for the Fountain of Youth. So, Eva, are you our goddess or fountain of youth. Are you going to give us that youth?
Dr Eva Cwynar: Maybe in my youth, I was the goddess of youth, but, you know, to give us that fountain. No, I believe in just being the best that you’ve ever been. You know, I. I know that when I work with people who is one woman who is like, well, so how do you like the new you? I said to her, and she’s like, no, this isn’t the new me. This is the old me. I finally got myself back.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): I love that. Thank you.
Dr Eva Cwynar: You’re welcome.
Pearl Lam (林明珠): Thank you.
