Dr. Courtney Peterson runs one of the world's largest labs studying intermittent fasting in humans at Harvard, and her research shows most people are fasting at the wrong time of day. Here's what the clinical data actually says.

Chris Wharton sits down with Dr. Peterson — Harvard researcher and member of the international scientific committee that formally defined intermittent fasting — to break down what rigorous clinical trial data actually says about fasting, meal timing, blood sugar, and weight loss. Not what the headlines say, but what the science says.

In this episode, you'll discover:

→ Why fasting doesn't work by burning more calories — and what it's actually doing inside your body instead

→ The single most important variable in your fasting protocol — and why most people are getting it completely wrong

→ Why the timing of your eating window matters more than the window itself — and how shifting it can dramatically improve blood sugar and blood pressure

→ What 27 out of 28 clinical diabetes studies showed about intermittent fasting — and why this finding changes everything

→ The weight loss results you can realistically expect — what the data shows for both short-term and long-term outcomes

→ How fasting affects hunger hormones — and why people who do it right stop feeling deprived → The specific populations who benefit most from time-restricted eating — and the ones who should not fast at all

→ How to make fasting sustainable long-term — practical strategies backed by clinical research, not wellness trends

→ Why intermittent fasting may support women’s metabolic health and healthy aging — and why extreme fasting is not one-size-fits-all.

Dr. Peterson has spent years running controlled clinical trials on intermittent fasting. This episode isn't wellness hype, it’s the science.

Courtney Peterson, PhD | Harvard University

Dr. Courtney Peterson is Associate Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with appointments in the Department of Nutrition and the Department of Molecular Metabolism. Her research examines how meal timing, intermittent fasting, and circadian rhythms shape metabolic health, with the goal of developing dietary strategies to prevent and reverse type 2 diabetes and obesity. She led the first human clinical trial of early time-restricted eating, an approach that aligns the daily eating window with the body's internal clock, and her work has helped establish meal timing as a distinct variable in metabolic health, alongside diet composition and total caloric intake. Dr. Peterson holds a PhD in physics from Harvard, where she studied the early universe before turning to nutrition science, along with master's degrees from Tulane in clinical research, Imperial College London in science communication, and the University of Cambridge in applied mathematics and theoretical physics. She previously served on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Can your environment cause more disease than your genes? Columbia University exposome researcher Gary Miller, PhD, has spent his career answering exactly that — and his findings will change how you live your daily life…

As founder of the first exposome center in the United States, Dr. Miller studies how toxins, air quality, plastics, food, and stress silently accumulate in the body over a lifetime — and how they're driving diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's in ways that genetics alone can't explain.

In this episode, he breaks down what the science actually says about the exposome, and cuts through the fear and wellness noise to tell you where you should genuinely be concerned — and what you can do about it.

You'll learn:

• Why your environment may matter more than your DNA
• Which hidden daily exposures could be affecting your health right now
• The real science on microplastics, pesticides, tap water, and indoor air quality
• Why most supplements are doing less than you think
• Simple, low-effort changes that can meaningfully reduce your risk at home
• How to make smarter health decisions without falling for hype or headlines

If you've ever felt paralyzed by conflicting health advice, this conversation gives you a clearer, evidence-based framework — from one of the most credible voices in environmental health research.

Gary Miller, PhD | Columbia University

Gary Miller, PhD, founded the first exposome center in the US and studies the role of environmental factors in neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. At Columbia University, he serves as Vice Dean for Research Strategy and Innovation and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health, and Professor of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics in the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Miller is a member of the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program Advisory Panel and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Advisory Council. He is also the founding editor of the journal Exposome, published by Oxford University Press.

Website: https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/profile/gary-w-miller-phd
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-w-miller-2609309/

Most people focus on living longer. Stanford geriatrician Deborah Kado says that’s the wrong goal — the real goal is living well for longer by protecting strength, mobility, and independence, and the research helps explain why.

Deborah Kado is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, co-director of the Stanford Longevity Center, and board-certified geriatrician, specializing in bone health, osteoporosis, and aging-related syndromes. In this episode of The LIVING Room Podcast, she shares what decades of research in geriatrics and epidemiology reveal about what actually shapes quality of life as we age — bone health, hip fracture risk, muscle, posture, strength vs power, and why the difference between lifespan and healthspan is everything.

What we cover in this conversation:

• Why hip fractures are deadlier than most people realize
• Whether bone density loss is actually reversible
• The difference between living longer and living well
• Why power matters more than strength as you age
• What Deborah wishes people in their 30s and 40s understood about aging now
• Why NAD supplements may be overrated
• What geriatricians actually do (and why there aren't enough of them)

For evidence-based insight on building lasting strength, mobility, and independence — free from the noise of longevity hype — this episode delivers.