How to Diversify Your Crypto Investment

Plus, want to extend your life? All you need is this

Ric Edelman: It's Tuesday, December 17th. Got a question from Joseph. He's in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Here's his question.

Joseph: Hi Ric, on your December 3rd podcast, you said that you would let your crypto investment ride and not rebalance it with your diversified portfolio. Were you speaking of just your bitcoin investment or your other crypto investments also?

Ric Edelman: No, Joseph, bitcoin is part of crypto. Crypto is not part of bitcoin. You know, it's kind of like all dogs are animals, but not all animals are dogs. So, when I said I have not been rebalancing my crypto, that meant my entire crypto portfolio, which is not just bitcoin, but a diversified array of crypto assets.

And not just coins and tokens, but investments in crypto companies and crypto funds and crypto ETFs, picks and shovels ETFs, on and on and on, just in a desperate effort to provide diversification in what is admittedly an asset class that is far from diversified. So, I hope that answers your question.

Let’s talk about something else today. Cancer. Cancer deaths are down. That's the good news. But the number of cancer cases is rising. In other words, more people are getting cancer even though fewer people are dying of it. This is from a new report from the American Association for Cancer Research.

Adults under 50. We are seeing more cases of breast cancer and colorectal cancer than ever. And here's the thing, 40% of all cancer cases can be prevented by our behavior. We don't need surgery. We don't need drugs. Just our behavior can reduce and in fact, prevent incidences of cancer.

I'm talking about no tobacco, quit smoking, no vaping, a healthy diet, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising, avoiding ultraviolet radiation, and minimizing exposure to pollutants. Nothing new with anything that I just said. You know all this, but I'm gonna add one thing that is new.

What this new research is telling us, in addition to no tobacco and no bad fatty foods, etc., now they're also saying no alcohol. Yeah, this is the first time alcohol has been associated and linked so closely with cancer. In fact, just last month, a British study found that those who drank a little had more cancer deaths than people who drank not at all. And excessive alcohol consumption increases the risk for esophagus, head, neck, breast, colorectal, liver, and stomach cancers.

In fact, 1 in 20 cancers are now directly attributed to alcohol. That's 5%. And the number of people who are under 50 who are getting cancer, that number is rising, and it's because of their behaviors. Alcohol, you see, harms the microbiome. That alters the bacteria in your gut, and that lets cancer grow and spread.

Some are stopping the booze as a result of this, which is great, And some are starting rapamycin. This is a drug that people are prescribed when they get an organ transplant, like a new kidney or a new lung, because rapamycin suppresses your immune system. It stops your body from rejecting the new organ.

But now people are starting to take rapamycin to increase their healthspan. It doesn’t allow you to live longer but allows you to live healthier during the years you're alive. And a lot of scientists and people who are focusing on longevity are touting this drug are saying that it lets you live longer and healthier.

But, in fact, in 2006, one study said that rapamycin extended the lifespan of yeast. In 2009, a study said that mice who were given the drug lived 12% longer than normal. For you and me, that'd be an extra 10 years. to our life. They did studies in worms and flies, found the same thing.

A new study is underway right now with marmosets, and that's starting to show good results too. But gotta tell ya, I'm not taking rapamycin, at least not yet anyway. In my view, and I'm not a doctor or scientist by any stretch, I think I can spell the word scientist, there's not enough research yet. All the studies that have been done so far on non-humans, and with very few subjects.

In the marmoset study, we're talking about a dozen animals, not hundreds or thousands of them. Some studies that have been done haven't replicated the same results of other studies, and we don't yet know the long-term side effects. The most common side effects that we know about are nausea and mouth sores.

One study of a hundred people for a year found there were no physical benefits, also no negative side effects. So, you'll have to talk to your own doctor about whether, if you want to try to extend your lifeline, whether rapamycin might be something you want to to look at.

Bottom line is this, how old might you get? I've been telling you that scientists are routinely saying we're all going to live, if we live to 2030, we're going to live to age 100, barring accidents and injuries. But scientists are now looking at what's the upper maximum limit. The, the oldest human on record died at age 122, not long ago. And so doctors are saying they think they can make 110, 120 normal, but we might not be able to get a whole lot of people to 140 or 150.

A new study looking at life expectancy since 1990, looks at where people have lived the longest. You know, there's half a dozen or so countries where people live longer than everywhere else, Australia, France, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. This is where people live the longest. We're not on that list here in the United States. We're way down the list. It's crazy. We spend more money on healthcare than anybody in the world. And yet we don't live as long as other people in the world. Go figure.

Anyway, in this study over the past 35 years, we've seen big increases in longevity, but the rate of increase is slowing down. It suggests that now that we have somebody who lived to age one 122, it's kind of getting hard for somebody to live to 125. Now, of course, new innovations might take us up a notch.

And it raises the new question, relatedly, do you want to live that long? If so, you need to change the way you think about getting old. And guess what has a huge impact on our health and longevity?

Studies show that our attitude has a huge impact on our health and our longevity. People with PMA, a positive mental attitude. People with PMA live seven and a half years longer than people who have negative attitudes, and this is even true in these studies when the researchers controlled for age, gender, socioeconomic status, loneliness, and health.

The difference between one person and another is their attitude. Back in 1968, they asked young people if they associated aging with decline. Those who said yes, decades later were more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke than the people who said no. Negative thinking increases stress, and we know that stress can harm your nervous system, which of course regulates the heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, respiration.

There have been 422 papers from 45 countries over the years that have measured all of this. 96% of those papers, almost all of them, reach the same conclusion. Negative views about aging are associated with worse health among older people. The paper has also found, here's the good news, that you can change your viewpoint about aging.

So, the sooner you change your view about aging from a negative one to a positive one, it can help you live longer and healthier. That is worth doing.

It's hard to believe that it's been 35 years on the air. I've done more than 1500 radio broadcasts over the last three decades, more than 500 podcasts in the last three years alone. And my podcasts are winding down. My last one, as I've told you is December 27. I'm so glad you've been with me all these years. If you want to stay connected with me, be sure to join my distribution list.

Just click on the link in the show notes. I'll make sure you continue to get the latest that I offer on exponential technologies, crypto, Alzheimer's, longevity, investing, all the topics that matter most to us all. Thank you for being with me all these years. I'm looking forward to many more with you.

Please subscribe today so we can stay connected.

I'll see you tomorrow.

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Links from today’s show:  

1/15 Webinar - Your Crypto Questions Answered: https://dacfp.com/events/your-crypto-questions-answered

12/10 Webinar Replay - The Retirement Revolution: ETF Solutions for Modern Retirement Planning: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/the-retirement-revolution-etf-solutions-for-modern-retirement-planning

12/9 Webinar Replay - What the Election Results Mean for Crypto:  https://dacfp.com/events/what-the-election-results-mean-for-crypto

2/24-2/26 Wealth Management Convergence-2025: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/convergence

11/13 Webinar Replay - An Innovative Way to Generate Income in a World of Declining Rates: https://www.thetayf.com/pages/november-13-2024-an-innovative-way-to-generate-income

10/9 Webinar Replay - Crypto for RIAs: Yield, Staking, Lending and Custody. What’s beyond the ETFs? https://dacfp.com/events/crypto-for-rias-yield-staking-lending-and-custody-whats-beyond-the-etfs/

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