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rt316
  • 8 months ago
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00:00My grandfather was a tough guy.
00:02He had all these aches and pains,
00:04refused to go see the doctor.
00:05What was the pain?
00:06Cancer.
00:07It had metastasized to a point where there was just no going back.
00:10Dwayne Johnson.
00:12The Rock.
00:13DJ.
00:14He's here.
00:15And he's getting personal about his health.
00:17I got this gut issue, and he was like, what's going on?
00:20I said, I've seen doctors, and I can't quite nail it.
00:22I can't quite fix it.
00:23It's in my digestion.
00:24Even someone like you, who eats really healthy,
00:26who takes care of himself,
00:27you had a lot of nutritional deficiency.
00:29Basically, things that are super easy to fix.
00:31The noise comes in many forms.
00:33You're doing it wrong.
00:34There's gurus.
00:35There's influencers.
00:36Here's what's not noise, is data.
00:38And the data that, for example, a function health can provide.
00:41Like, that's not noise.
00:42That is real.
00:43It's data.
00:44It's factual.
00:45And you take that, that will inform how you move forward.
00:47You said your health is a gift to your kids, right?
00:49That's right.
00:50It's the best gift that we can give.
00:54Well, DJ, it's so good to have you on the podcast, man.
00:56Welcome.
00:57Good to see you, Mark.
00:58Thank you, man.
00:58Good to see you too.
00:59Yeah.
01:00It's been a long time coming.
01:01You've been someone who's been focused on your health and wellbeing,
01:03but you also struggled with the healthcare system and getting the answers you needed
01:07and figuring out what's going on.
01:08And maybe you could share like how we got connected and how this all started with us.
01:12And, and, and, and I just, as transparency, like I'm your doctor.
01:15Of course.
01:16So this is like a, you know, intimate conversation, everybody.
01:18And you just hope he will share a lot about, you know, what he learned and what he's found
01:21about himself.
01:22But how did you kind of end up in my lap?
01:24Yeah.
01:25So to speak.
01:26Right.
01:27Like, like Santa.
01:28That's right.
01:29Santa Hyman.
01:30To start where, where we started was so probably going on a couple of years now.
01:36And I was having some gut issues.
01:38And at that time you and I didn't know, we know each other and we have a common friend.
01:42We have a lot of common friends come to find out, but we have a common friend in Ari Emanuel.
01:47And I was talking to Ari at the end of 2023.
01:52Yeah.
01:53And we were just talking, we're talking about our stuff.
01:55He's been a long time business partner of mine.
01:56He's been my lead agent as well for years and years, decades.
01:59And I was talking to him about my gut.
02:02And I said, man, I got this gut issue.
02:03And he's like, what's going on?
02:04I said, I've seen doctors.
02:06And I can't quite nail it.
02:08I can't quite fix it.
02:09It's in my digestion.
02:11I feel great.
02:12And that's the odd thing, but I just can't crack it.
02:16And he said, I'm going to introduce you to a friend of mine.
02:19His name is Dr. Mark Hyman, and I'm going to connect you.
02:22And as you know, as you know, Ari, and anyone out there who knows Ari, these conversations
02:29last 30 seconds.
02:3030 seconds, right?
02:31So this was a five minute call that I had with him, which is a long time.
02:34Yeah.
02:35And so he connected you and I via text, and then you and I spoke.
02:40And I'll never forget when I talked to you, it was a Zoom.
02:45And you had said, hey, just curious, are you familiar with who I am and what I do?
02:51And I said, not one bit.
02:54I have no idea.
02:56And you said, do you know anything about functional medicine?
02:59I said, well, I've heard about it a little bit.
03:00And I said, tell me a little bit about it.
03:02And he goes, well, this is my specialty and this is what I do.
03:05Yeah.
03:06And you had said very succinctly, you had said, I'm not going to treat your symptoms.
03:11I'm going to go deeper than that.
03:12And I'm going to treat the root cause of what's going on.
03:16Yeah.
03:17And I said, I love that.
03:18And that speaks to some of the challenges that I've had with my own health journey in the
03:23past with some of the doctors and not indicting any doctors now, but because it's how they
03:28operate and it's what they do.
03:30Yeah.
03:31It's how they're trained.
03:32Well, they're trained.
03:33Yes, exactly.
03:34But I found, you know, I was so challenged with them to try and get to the root cause of this
03:37problem and a few others in the past.
03:39And I remember asking you, I said, you know, this sounds fantastic.
03:42I said, but can I ask you, how about my gut?
03:47Like, and you said, well, that's what I specialize in.
03:49Yeah.
03:50And then you went on to tell me.
03:51You used to call me Dr. C every poop.
03:53Well, that's what, by the way, you brought that up.
03:56You said, Hey, we're going to do a deep dive with your blood panel and we're going to do a stool
03:59test and we're going to do all these tests.
04:00We're going to find out what's going on.
04:02And that was at the beginning of 2024.
04:05And I was just getting ready to launch into what would, what would become a nine month work
04:12for me, workload for me of nonstop work.
04:14And it was all in front of me.
04:16And I was thinking, holy shit, how am I going to get through this with my gut issues?
04:20I'm not digesting, digesting properly.
04:23And I would say probably six to eight weeks later.
04:27Yeah.
04:28Uh, you had me on the right track and things started to come around and, and, and recalibrate.
04:33It's so, it's so true.
04:34You know, I think a lot of people, when they go to the doctor there, they're usually getting
04:37symptomatic treatment and not the root cause.
04:39Yes.
04:40And, and what we found was rather than just sort of like giving you symptomatic treatment,
04:45we dug into the why.
04:46And we found out that you had taken an antibiotic or something you had.
04:49Two.
04:50I remember that two rounds of antibiotics.
04:51Yes.
04:52That's right.
04:53And then your gut changed, but regular doctors don't pay much attention to that.
04:57And through the detective work of taking your history and finding out, oh, that's what
05:01was the moment when things changed.
05:02Yes.
05:03We were able to go, well, that means you probably killed off the good guys in your gut.
05:06That's right.
05:07And so we then were able to rebuild and we found when we did the stool test.
05:10Wasn't there a lining that was missing?
05:11Yeah.
05:12There's a very important bacteria that can easily kill when you take an antibiotic called
05:15acromantia, which is basically coating the lining of your intestine.
05:19It protects you from having food and proteins and bacteria leaking in and causing inflammation
05:24in your body.
05:25And when you have gut issues, it can, you know, it can spread.
05:27It can lead to your whole body being out of balance.
05:29Yes.
05:30And so basically by doing kind of a program where we basically rehabbed your gut, actually
05:34gave you probiotics, gave you various plant chemicals like pomegranate and green tea and
05:40cranberry.
05:41It basically helped to rebuild this bacteria in your gut and resolve your symptoms.
05:46It was this amazing gut health shake that had about, I don't think, 10 ingredients, maybe
05:51more that we put together for me and some other things as well.
05:55But, you know, you bring up a great point.
05:56I feel like that's the microcosm of a larger issue here, right?
06:00Which is just this idea that it was finally through you understanding the power of, wait,
06:06let's hold on.
06:07We know what the symptoms are.
06:08Let's not treat the symptoms.
06:09Yeah.
06:10Let's go deeper and look under the hood and find out what the root cause is.
06:15Because what happened prior to me meeting you, I was seeing my doctors and it was, well,
06:21it feels like it's this.
06:22It's probably this.
06:23Let's take some of this.
06:24Let's take a little bit of that.
06:25Yeah.
06:26And then four weeks later, nope, nothing's changed.
06:28And I got to tell you, one of the things that I realized that once you and I got together
06:34and once you and I really became close and I started to understand function health and
06:40really deep diving is just this idea of doctors really not only writing a prescription for
06:51what they're sensing and what our symptoms are, but also I think just having the aperture
06:57to go, well, let's take a look and go deeper.
07:00And the challenging thing for me was their very consistent declaration of this is what
07:07you have.
07:08Yeah.
07:09And you realize, and as someone who-
07:10And you're stuck with it.
07:11And you're stuck with it.
07:12But then if you don't know, like I didn't know at that time, I would think, oh, this
07:17is what I have then.
07:18And I'm going to get treated by this particular pill or two.
07:21But, you know, it's that declaration that I realized after you and I got together that
07:26that's the declaration that's one of the challenges out there.
07:29Yeah.
07:30That when you declare things like this without doing a deeper dive on the blood panel, without
07:33doing a stool test, you realize how antiquated at times that system and that kind of training
07:40can be.
07:41Yeah, it's true.
07:42And, you know, we're not trained to be proactive.
07:44We're not trained to be preventive.
07:45We're not trained to look at the cause.
07:47And that's where medicine is changing.
07:48And you mentioned function health.
07:49That's where you can get the deep dive on your body that really it's hard to find other
07:53places.
07:54And we did that for you.
07:55And, you know, one of the things you called me about later was your heart.
07:58And you got a bit of a scare.
08:00You want to talk about what that was and how we ended up figuring out what was going on?
08:03Because I think it speaks to the importance of actually looking at your risk factors in
08:07a deep way that we did with you with function health panel.
08:10And we were able to find so many things that kind of gave us a sense of relief rather
08:14than being on a lifelong medication.
08:15Well, a huge sense of relief, by the way.
08:17Yeah.
08:18And I just, I was never a medication guy.
08:19Like I wasn't taking any kind of medications or anything like that.
08:22And even now, as it relates to my heart, you know, all of a sudden you're rolling along
08:26in life and things are good.
08:27And then you reach your fifth level of life and you realize that, oh, you're of age.
08:31Yeah.
08:32You're 53 now.
08:33And when you become 53.
08:35And then so when you become of age, that's when all the tests start to happen, right?
08:40Okay.
08:41Where's the colonoscopy line?
08:42Let's do that.
08:43All right.
08:44Hey, here's the cardiovascular workup.
08:45Yeah.
08:46And let's look at the heart and let's look at all the valves and things like that.
08:49So when I was looking at the valves, and this was a little bit before you and I met.
08:54Yeah.
08:55But just as we met.
08:56Yeah.
08:57And I was looking at the valves and I had a complete cardiovascular workup and everything
09:00looked great.
09:01Thank God, knock on wood.
09:02And then there was what looked to be, what looked to be some, what looked to be some
09:11stuff inside there.
09:12Like a buildup of what they thought was plaque.
09:13Like a buildup of what they thought was plaque in the circumflex valve.
09:16In the artery, yeah.
09:17In the artery, right?
09:18And I didn't even know what that, I had never even heard of that.
09:22That sounds cool.
09:23It goes around the back of your heart.
09:24It goes in the back.
09:25Now I know that, right?
09:26I always hear the main two.
09:27Yeah.
09:28That's what you hear.
09:29And for those listening, like me, I was unaware that we also have a really important
09:33one that goes around the back, the circumflex.
09:36There was some buildup or so they thought.
09:39And then when we looked at that on the old school, traditional MRI and the scans, it looked
09:44like I had buildup.
09:45And then immediately the call to action was, all right, well, let's get you on this medication.
09:51It's a multi-month medication and here we go.
09:54We got to get on it right away.
09:56And I thought, God.
09:57And I was so hesitant because I wasn't taking a medication.
10:00So then I called you.
10:01Yeah.
10:02And I said, Doc, listen, here's what I got.
10:04I'm not indicting anybody.
10:05I'm not throwing anybody under the bus, but what do you think?
10:10Yeah.
10:11And here's what their suggestion is.
10:13And again, I'll never forget on that Zoom, you went, okay, hold on.
10:16Hold on.
10:17I jumped to conclusions.
10:18Let's not jump to conclusions.
10:19I don't want you getting on that right now.
10:21Don't get on the medication.
10:23There's a couple of steps here, I think, that we can do that could be invaluable.
10:28For example, let's get a scan done, but let's get an AI scan done.
10:32Yeah.
10:33That is incredible.
10:34And I said, okay, we got the scan done.
10:36You sent it to your guy, and then it came back.
10:40And it was almost like when you hear a song for the first time and you're like, holy fuck,
10:45I love that song.
10:46That song sounds great.
10:47Yeah.
10:48So I remember when you told me, you said, hey, look, here's the report from our head cardiologist,
10:53who's a very good friend of yours.
10:55Yeah.
10:56And he said, it looks great.
10:58It is just an anatomical thing that's happening back there.
11:01It's not built up at all.
11:02Yeah.
11:03Those valves look great.
11:04Come back in three years.
11:05And what was amazing was, you know, your cholesterol was actually pretty good.
11:09I mean, you had low HDL genetically, which is the whole good cholesterol.
11:14It's a little oversimplification.
11:15But, you know, we did a deeper panel of your cardiovascular risk factors.
11:20Yes.
11:21And we looked at things like ApoB, which is now being declared as this sort of the best biomarker
11:25for your heart, which again, most doctors don't do.
11:27They don't do that, right?
11:28No.
11:29But your, you know, insulin metabolic health, you know, blood sugar and insulin, which nobody
11:33really looks at in your insulin resistance score, which was perfect.
11:36You didn't really have any of the risk factors.
11:38Your inflammation level was super low.
11:40So here you are about to start a drug for a problem that you, you know, maybe had or maybe
11:45didn't have that they were concerned about, that you would have had to take for the rest
11:48of your life that you didn't need.
11:50And can I ask you, I just want to go back on something that I found really interesting,
11:53which is the ApoB, which I didn't know about until you and I started talking and you
11:57started educating me.
11:59Why is that so important?
12:01That's a great question.
12:02So, I mean, that's a great question.
12:04The problem with America is that we're all metabolic and healthy, meaning we eat too much
12:09starch and sugar that turns our metabolism into a system that doesn't work like it was
12:14designed.
12:15And so we have kind of busted metabolism and we end up in this spectrum.
12:19Metabolically, as a country, we're not optimizing.
12:22No, like 93% of us have some degree of insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes,
12:27like it's in that spectrum.
12:29And what kills people is that.
12:33That's what's killing people from heart disease and cancer and dementia and even things
12:38like depression are all related to this phenomenon of poor metabolic health.
12:42What's amazing was now with the ApoB test and with the other kind of even more sophisticated
12:47test that we did, which looks at the size and the number of your cholesterol particles,
12:50we can tell what's happening with your metabolic health.
12:53Because all the bad cholesterol particles tend to be the result of eating too much starch and
12:59sugar, not necessarily fat.
13:00Like that's kind of a myth we had for a long time.
13:02Maybe we should eat a low fat diet, that we should have margarine and all this stuff,
13:06but that was a bad idea.
13:08Yeah.
13:09And it turns out of this sugar and starch that's driving it.
13:10So ApoB is basically an indicator of all the dangerous cholesterol particles in your blood.
13:16Let me ask you this again, who's someone who's not an expert, but just as someone who cares,
13:20is ApoB.
13:22Why is an ApoB in your opinion, part of the old school traditional testing that just-
13:28Why is it not?
13:29Why is it not rather?
13:30Yes.
13:31You know, it's like, it sounds kind of stupid, but like it just, doctors get their order forms,
13:36and they order their panel of tests, and they probably establish that order form when they
13:39started practice in whatever year they started, and they don't change.
13:43And it's very hard for doctors to change their practice, to change the workflow, to change their
13:48mind, to be influenced by new ideas.
13:50And it's unfortunate because, you know, the amount of change that is happening is so rapid
13:57in medicine and science.
13:58And even if you are wanting to change and adapt, it's hard to keep up.
14:03Even if you're a doctor who wants to change.
14:05Even if you want to, it's hard.
14:06The science is advancing so fast.
14:07Like, you know, you have a family history of dementia.
14:10I imagine it's scary, right?
14:11Yes.
14:12And it's one of those diseases you just don't know what I can.
14:15It's like the C word or the A word, you know?
14:17Right, right.
14:18And we were able to…
14:19What was that biomarker that connects to dementia that you had looked at and you said,
14:25so that actually looks pretty good.
14:26Oh, so there's a test that you can do.
14:27What is that?
14:28Can you talk a little bit about that?
14:29Yeah, it's ApoE testing, which is a kind of…
14:32ApoE.
14:33It's called ApoE.
14:34We don't want to go on with all means.
14:36But basically, there's different varieties.
14:37There's a two, a three, and a four.
14:39And if you have a four and a four, that's the high risk.
14:42But there's a lot you can do to actually prevent it.
14:45Now we know that Alzheimer's is preventable.
14:47That by an intensive lifestyle therapy, you can even slow it down or even reverse it.
14:52And we can actually now look at that ApoE in everybody and we want it to know for you
14:57because we're like, well, are you at risk?
14:58And what do we have to do something different proactively so you don't end up getting
15:02dementia when you're 70 and your kids are still relatively young and you can't remember
15:07their names, right?
15:08That's not fun.
15:09So we now actually have even blood tests that are blood biomarkers.
15:12One's called P-Tau217, which looks at some of the proteins that get released when you
15:17have Alzheimer's in your blood.
15:18That's right.
15:19And you can…
15:20That's what I took, right?
15:21Yes.
15:22You can do that.
15:23And if you don't have that, you're clean.
15:24And you can combine that with the ApoE testing and the brain imaging.
15:28And so you get a 360 view of what's going on.
15:31We have all the conditions that really can become things that we don't die from anymore,
15:36that we can pick up early, that we can then change the trajectory of.
15:40And so we found out you actually had what we call the jackpot gene, which is the opposite.
15:45You had like the ApoE2, which is a gene that means you kind of live a long time.
15:49You know, the people who like smoke and drink and live forever.
15:51Yeah.
15:52You're kind of one of those.
15:53All you have…
15:54You don't have the 2-2, which is the true jackpot.
15:55Wait a second.
15:56So if I'm understanding this…
15:57You have a 2-3?
15:58You have a 2-3?
15:59You have a 2-3?
16:00No amount of tequila…
16:01Well, I don't know about that.
16:02There is an amount of tequila that can override your genes.
16:06That's for sure.
16:07There's a limit that exceeds your genetic capacity.
16:10Okay, got it, got it, got it.
16:11A little bit of what's wrong.
16:12That's why you're on speed dial for me.
16:14I'm like, is this okay?
16:15I'm going to open up my second bottle.
16:16The second bottle of the night?
16:19Of the year?
16:20Or…
16:21Yeah.
16:22But it's…
16:23That's what's so exciting now with these…
16:24It's very exciting.
16:25Let me ask you something, Doc.
16:27Then when it comes to like ApoB and inflammation and things like that…
16:30So really, even if I didn't get the AI scan…
16:33Yeah.
16:34…the detailed AI scan, just by looking at that, right?
16:37Yeah.
16:38Looking at all those other markers that are the deep dive would have helped indicate,
16:41hey, here's how we should move forward.
16:43Because everything else looks so good…
16:45Yeah.
16:46…this doesn't make sense.
16:47Yeah, right.
16:48And I've seen this, you know, where you can do the opposite.
16:50You can find someone who's got great labs, but their heart scan looks bad.
16:53Or you can have someone with their bad labs and a heart scan looks perfect.
16:56Yeah.
16:57So I think, you know, people just need to know their data.
16:59And I imagine sometimes, you know, it's scary for people.
17:01And I think, you know, we talked about it.
17:03Yeah.
17:04You know, you being a little…
17:06Diving into this was a little scary in a way because you're like, what am I going
17:09to find?
17:10And it's going to be bad.
17:11And like…
17:12Yes.
17:13…there's always that like kind of bury your head in the sand kind of move, which
17:15guys do, you know.
17:16Yes.
17:17We have a tendency…
17:18Yeah.
17:19…to do that.
17:20And I know that I was like that too as well.
17:21And I remember the first couple of times we sat down…
17:23Yeah.
17:24…and we went over.
17:25You were so nice enough to come over.
17:26Yeah.
17:27…it's like we're sitting side by side and I'm going over everything with you and
17:31you're going everything with me.
17:32And I'm like, Jesus, half of this I don't understand.
17:36And I kept asking you, okay, so I'm good.
17:39Am I good right here?
17:40You're like, you're really good.
17:41You're really good.
17:42It's funny because you could feel good and you feel like, hey, I look good and I'm
17:47rolling along in life and I feel like I'm making all the right moves here.
17:50Yeah.
17:51But then when it comes time, like, hey, let's take a deeper dive underneath this hood,
17:54you never know.
17:55And that's the scary part, I think, for a lot of guys.
17:57Yeah.
17:58And I know I was hesitant, you know, with you.
18:00I'm like, okay…
18:01How far do I go?
18:02How far do we need to go?
18:03We started slow.
18:04We started looking at a few things.
18:05I was like, why don't we do a little bit deeper?
18:07You're like, okay, okay.
18:08I trust you now.
18:09You fixed my tummy.
18:10That's right.
18:11Now my poops are good.
18:12Like, let's…
18:13I trust you with the rest of my body.
18:15You fixed my tummy.
18:16That's the name of my next book, right?
18:18We'll co-author.
18:19You fixed my tummy.
18:20But you're right.
18:22Why do you think dudes in general are like that?
18:26I have a thought too, but let me hear the words.
18:28You know, we see this as pretty classic in medicine.
18:31You know, women always are more proactive about their health.
18:33They go to the doctor better.
18:34Maybe they start earlier.
18:35They, you know, gynecological exams are used to it.
18:37Men just are scared of doctors.
18:39They're scared of what they're going to find.
18:40Yeah.
18:41They know.
18:42They just don't want to know.
18:43And I think it also has to do with this sort of…
18:45You think that's a vulnerability aspect?
18:46Yeah.
18:47The guys don't want to be vulnerable.
18:48They don't want to be weak.
18:49They don't want to be seen as, you know, fragile.
18:51And I think there's a sort of a macho thing of like, well, I'm just going to tough through it.
18:55And I'm going to…
18:56I have these symptoms, but like, I'm not going to go to the doctor, which is often what happens.
18:59And then by the time you end up having to go, it's often too late.
19:02Yeah.
19:03My grandfather was a prime example of that, of just toughing through it.
19:07And he was a tough guy.
19:08He was a Samoan…
19:09He was one of the first Samoan professional wrestlers.
19:11Wow.
19:12And his name was…
19:13So you've come by this naturally.
19:14Well, yeah.
19:15He kind of toughed through it and he had all these aches and pains, refused to go see the doctor.
19:20And one of his guys, one of his fellow wrestlers, we used to have him come over every day.
19:25And this was in Hawaii.
19:26And he goes, I need you to pound on my back.
19:28Oh, wow.
19:29And he would just pound on his back, just constantly thinking like just that old school, probably
19:36barbaric head in the sand.
19:37Yeah.
19:38Kind of mentality.
19:39He was 45 when he died.
19:41What was the pain?
19:42Was it something…
19:43Cancer.
19:44Cancer.
19:45Wow.
19:46Yeah.
19:47And he refused it for months and months and months.
19:48And then it had metastasized to a point where there was just no going back.
19:51Yeah.
19:52And that was it by the time they caught it.
19:53It reached a point where I got to go see a doctor and see what's happening.
19:57Yeah.
19:58That's really heartbreaking.
19:59And that, you know, we're at a point in medicine where those stories can be a part
20:04of history.
20:05That's right.
20:06And that really for the first time, I think in history, we can actually do comprehensive
20:09blood screening.
20:10We can do liquid biopsies for cancer and we can do whole body MRIs.
20:14By the way, let's talk about that really, really quickly.
20:16I'm so sorry, because that's amazing news.
20:18So it's, so the full body scans, which I have not had one yet.
20:22I got to say that.
20:23We're going to get you one.
20:24We're going to get you one.
20:25Yes.
20:26I'll get you in the big dump.
20:27That are usually an hour.
20:28Yeah.
20:29So this new technology that you guys acquired brings it down from an hour to 22 minutes.
20:3222 minutes.
20:33And we use very sophisticated AI to make the interpretation much more accurate, much higher
20:38resolution and get huge amounts of data.
20:40And it's such a low cost that you can do it annually.
20:43But the cost of these are generally like a couple of grand, right?
20:452,500 bucks.
20:462,500 bucks.
20:47Yeah.
20:48How much is the function?
20:49499.
20:50So for 499, you can get your comprehensive lab testing and comprehensive imaging and be
20:54able to actually make cancer a thing of the past.
20:56Dying from cancer.
20:57We can't get rid of cancer because it's going to come because we live in such a toxic world.
21:01Yeah.
21:02But imagine a world where everybody gets screened every year.
21:04Like imagine if your grandfather was screened, you know, he would still maybe be here.
21:09I don't know.
21:10You never know, man.
21:11Yes, you never know.
21:12And, you know, he certainly didn't have to die at 45.
21:14If you have a stage one or two cancer, the five-year survival rate is like in the 90%.
21:19So basically, if you catch it early in early stages, you can cure it.
21:23Cancer is curable.
21:24And you can basically cut it out.
21:26Yes.
21:27But if you catch it late, you know, it's only a matter of time, actually.
21:30Right.
21:31You know, it's only a matter of time.
21:32Of course, yeah.
21:33Like my grandpa.
21:34And so having like this available is really revolutionary.
21:36Yes.
21:37And, you know, when you hear those stories, like my father also, he died of cancer, of lung cancer.
21:41He was a smoker when he was younger.
21:42He quit.
21:43But it caught up with him.
21:44And he ended up dying of lung cancer.
21:45Oh, man.
21:46With the scanning, my father wouldn't have had to die.
21:48When he did, he would have lived, he'd still be alive.
21:50He's a very stubborn guy.
21:51Man.
21:52He would have died.
21:53And my sister died of bile duct cancer or something again.
21:56Oh, I'm sorry.
21:57It picked up very late.
21:58And this kind of screening would have picked it up early.
22:00The amount of lives we can save, the amount of suffering we can end is just incredible.
22:04Before, it was sort of only really for wealthy or elite.
22:07And I think that's changing.
22:09You know, now we're able to democratize healthcare.
22:12We're providing solutions outside the healthcare system because it's still very ossified and takes a long time for medicine to change.
22:18But when you start to think about what this unlocks for people, being able to get their data on a longitudinal basis, being able to get their imaging data, their lab data, follow it regularly over time for basically a couple of bucks a day.
22:30Mm-hmm .
22:31It's a game changer.
22:32Really, it's for everybody.
22:33Yeah.
22:34How important that is.
22:35And this is the thing that you and I have talked about, which is what I advocate for in my own little way, however I can help, is you want to take agency of your own life.
22:45You want to take accountability of your own health.
22:47There's so much noise out there in social media and just out there in the world as it relates to health.
22:52The noise comes in many forms.
22:54You're doing it wrong.
22:55Right.
22:56Do it better.
22:57There's gurus.
22:58There's experts.
22:59There's influencers.
23:00But here's what's not noise is data and the data that, for example, a function health can provide.
23:05Yeah.
23:06Like that's not noise.
23:07That is real.
23:08It's data.
23:09It's factual.
23:10And you take that and you can inform yourself and that will inform how you move forward.
23:14That's right.
23:15With your own life.
23:16You want to take control of your life.
23:17Yeah, it's true.
23:18I think, you know, that's, that's when the area where I think where people are sort of getting that medicine's a little bit antiquated and that things are, like you said, held back from them.
23:26There are doctors either not knowing about it as innovations or taking decades for things to get into practice.
23:32And so the beautiful thing about function is it's literally able to take all the world's scientific literature using, you know, technology and AI machine learning to inform what it means and to tell you what to do about your results.
23:45That, with knowledge experts, with, you know, tens of thousands of pages of training we've created, provides a model where it actually tells you this is what it means for you.
23:54This is why it's important.
23:55This is how it relates to everything else.
23:56These are the things that, you know, you might be headed towards.
23:58And these are the things you can do to take agency over your health now without necessarily medical care.
24:03Like we may, you may need medical care, but you may not.
24:06And in fact, 80% of health happens outside the doctor's office.
24:09It's where you live.
24:10It's where you eat.
24:11It's where you play.
24:12You pray.
24:13It's like, that's where health happens.
24:14Not in the, not in the clinic or the hospital.
24:16Yeah.
24:17That's for disease treatment.
24:18Yeah.
24:19But health, you know, what you eat, your lifestyle, exercise, how you sleep, how you manage stress, optimizing your nutritional status or sometimes supplements, which are important because they're diet so deficient.
24:29And it's all sort of critical parts of optimizing your health and your function, which is the whole point of function is to help you function better, right?
24:37Yeah.
24:38So you can do your life.
24:39It's like not about being healthy for healthy sake.
24:40It's so you can engage in the work you love.
24:42So you can be with your family and be present with your kids and show up for your friends and, you know, be available to actually fully engage and not feel like crap all the time.
24:52Yes.
24:53Yes.
24:54You know, and even someone like you who like eats really healthy, who takes care of himself, you had a lot of nutritional deficiencies.
24:59You had low vitamin D.
25:00Yeah.
25:01Low, some of the omega-3s that were low.
25:03You had low magnesium.
25:04You had low folate and basically things that are super simple and easy to fix.
25:10Yeah.
25:11And we're able to get these insights from doing your diagnostic labs and doctors don't check nutrition levels.
25:15They don't check your toxin levels.
25:17They don't check for what's going on with your gut or all the things that we check for for your insulin and metabolic health.
25:23So it's like this, there's this really incredible moment now where we've got this movement in America where people are starting to wake up about their health.
25:30We have people, you know, realizing that, you know, the emperor has no clothes in some ways that healthcare is necessarily providing all the answers that they want.
25:37Yeah.
25:38And I can't see everybody.
25:39Like I wish I could see millions of patients, but I can't.
25:42Yeah.
25:43You know, but this can scale to billions of people.
25:45Yes.
25:46And really help unlock a lot of agency and ownership of people's health where they don't have to suffer from things needlessly.
25:53Because for me, that's what's driven me.
25:55You know, there's so many millions of people that suffer needlessly from problems they don't have to deal with if they knew what to do.
26:00And so much of that, I feel like the connective tissue goes back to, you said, nutrition.
26:06Yeah.
26:07Right.
26:08And supplements.
26:09And that's one of the things that I was really amazed at when you and I started working together and we started talking about my gut and gut health and how to fix it.
26:15And you were like, hey, let's look at what you're eating.
26:18And I said, you're going to laugh at what I'm eating because I eat the same thing every day for years.
26:24It's like complex carbohydrates, protein, and fat.
26:27That's it.
26:28This podcast is special because it's coming around Father's Day and a lot of guys totally neglect their health.
26:35Yeah.
26:36And miss the boat when it comes to picking up things that affect their quality of life or affect even them being alive.
26:42You know, like half of the time when guys find out they have heart disease, it's sudden death.
26:48It's too late, man.
26:49Like boom.
26:50Yes.
26:51Because there's a lot just as dudes too as well.
26:52Yeah.
26:53There's a lot of stuff that we take control of.
26:55The car we drive, the job we have, you know, if we see a beautiful girl, you want to talk to her, whatever the thing may be.
27:02But then when it comes to health stuff and this idea of sometimes looking into the hood can make you feel vulnerable, maybe a little bit weak.
27:09You don't want to do that.
27:10We shy away from that.
27:11We put our head in the sand, as you say.
27:13Yeah.
27:14That I thought, oh, well, what an opportunity this is with Function Health to give dudes and guys like, hey, permission.
27:20Yeah.
27:21Like go after it.
27:22But by the way, speaking of Father's Day, like we have one of my favorite country artists is a good buddy of mine, Sturgill Simpson.
27:27There's a great line in one of his songs, after life is over, the afterlife goes on.
27:34So we're all going to get there one day.
27:37So I feel like the space between right now, you and I talking and people watching and listening to when we're walking in the clouds, we can really take accountability of that space in there.
27:49And why not?
27:50Yeah.
27:51And why not get as much data and information as possible and make the right decisions so we can be around for a lot more Father's Days.
27:58And we can be around to raise our kids and be there for the graduations and the weddings and all the other stuff.
28:04And I always like to say, if wellness was a wagon, I'll fall off it every once in a while.
28:09Like tonight, I'll open the bottle of tequila and I'll have a cookie or two.
28:13Yeah.
28:14But anyway, that's why it was so important to me.
28:16And I felt like it was really personalized to me to share that with everybody who was listening.
28:20Yeah, it's beautiful because, you know, it sometimes can be scary, right?
28:24Yeah.
28:25And you said it was a little scary for you.
28:26And I think, what would you say to people who are maybe scared to look under the hood?
28:31I get it.
28:32I get it.
28:33It's scary to look under the hood, especially, you know, if you're not an expert, I'm not an expert.
28:37I'm just somebody who cares.
28:39All the guys who I know, with the exception of yourself, we're not experts.
28:43We just care.
28:45I get that it can be scary.
28:47I get that you don't want to be vulnerable.
28:48I get that, you know, there's a good buddy of mine who, you know, you reach a fifth level in life and you become of age.
28:55Yeah.
28:56And he was getting all of his blood work done and his tests and his stool tests and everything.
28:59And just, and he goes, I got to get all my cardiovascular work up done.
29:03And he was really scared.
29:04Yeah.
29:05And he was like, I'm praying every day.
29:07I'm like, I get it, brother.
29:08I'll pray with you, but we got to get it done.
29:10Yeah.
29:11So I would say, I get it, but you can take control of this and you have an opportunity to take control of this.
29:17So why not?
29:18Yeah.
29:19Why not?
29:20And if you can extend your life by a day or two or years or decades, you never know.
29:25Yeah.
29:26I lived it.
29:27I lived it with my grandfather where he kind of just refused to.
29:30Hound on my back.
29:31Hound on my back.
29:32Hound on my back.
29:33Yeah.
29:34It's the name of my next book I'm going to write.
29:35And for fathers, I think, you know, particularly, you know, you're, I was at your house.
29:39I met your kids.
29:40I mean, they were pretty young, you know, so you're an older dad.
29:43Yeah.
29:44And so you, you think you're like, if you're a dad, you want to be around when your kids are young.
29:48You want to be able to do stuff with them.
29:50You want to be able to be there and see your grandkids.
29:52Right.
29:53And in order to do that, you can't just wait around and hope nothing happens to you.
29:56You have to be proactive.
29:57That is.
29:58And for a lot of people watching and listening right now, especially us dads and fathers,
30:01whether you're younger dads or older dads, there's the why.
30:05Yeah.
30:06The why is the little ones who are running around and keeping you up at night and driving
30:11you crazy and making a mess of things.
30:14And that's the reason why to do this.
30:16And that's the reason why to take accountability and responsibility for your health.
30:20And again, there's so much other stuff out there that we will chase as guys and we'll
30:26go after.
30:27We'll chase this thing and that thing and we'll chase a lot of stuff that we shouldn't
30:31be chasing.
30:32But the one thing we should, which is our health.
30:35Yeah.
30:36And you said, you know, your health is a gift to your kids, right?
30:39That's right.
30:40It's the best gift that we can give.
30:42Yeah.
30:43Because we want to be around and we want to, not only do we want to be around, but also
30:46we want to be the example for them.
30:49And Hey, listen, this is what daddy's doing and this, but this is why I'm doing it.
30:52Yeah.
30:53By the way, when you left that day and you left the house and you're like, daddy, who
30:56is that guy?
30:57Yeah.
30:58He's taller than you.
30:59Who's that guy?
31:00He's taller, but not wider.
31:03And I told him, I said, well, that's my doctor.
31:06I've been with him for a couple of years now and here's what we do.
31:08And you know, whenever I get the function health blood panel done, they're right there.
31:13Yeah.
31:14They're watching the blood panel getting done.
31:16It's pretty cool for them too, as well.
31:17Yeah.
31:18It's awesome.
31:19And you're actually modeling for them.
31:21Yes, exactly.
31:22Leaning into your health.
31:23To show them, leaning into the health.
31:24And so we have a pretty healthy household with the exception of one day out of the week
31:29when I had my cheat day, you know, they're right there.
31:32You know, you sort of, I think, leaned into a lot of this in a way that I was surprised
31:40because, you know, you could be doing anything with your time and energy and effort and that
31:43you care so much about this, says a lot about you.
31:45And you said, this isn't just a message, it's a mindset for you.
31:49What does it look like to kind of own your own health for you?
31:52And also, you know, what would it look like for more people to do that?
31:55Well, for me, what it looks like to own my own health is just to make the move.
31:59It could be scary.
32:00It could be uncertain, especially the uncertain stuff.
32:02And you and I experienced that.
32:04And I got vulnerable with you, Doc.
32:07I don't know.
32:08Like, I don't know what I got to find.
32:10You know, it might look fine on the outside aesthetically, but you never know.
32:14And took the dive.
32:16And I'm glad I did it, by the way.
32:18And, you know, it had not been for the grace of God and the universe.
32:21And I'm knocking on wood again.
32:23You never know how those things go.
32:24And that's okay.
32:25But the fact that I did do it, modeling not only for my kids, showing them that this is what we need to do.
32:30I want to be around for you.
32:31Also, it's very empowering when you take control that way and you do it.
32:38And again, just as guys and women too, but I'm going to speak on behalf of dudes.
32:43Like, we take accountability over a lot of things.
32:47And we go after a lot of things that are important.
32:49Success is important in making it.
32:51What it looked like for me was taking the step and taking action.
32:55You know, in the universe, I feel like that all meets you halfway when you take those steps.
33:00And so for other people out there who are considering this, and I have talked to so many guys who I know who are in my inner circle, who are kind of on my inner outer circle.
33:10And then just people who I see out in the gym or whatever, wherever, if they get a quick minute with me, I usually get a couple of questions from them within a couple of minutes.
33:19If we have a couple of minutes, it's, hey, do you got any keys to success?
33:22They say, well, here, I can share this with you.
33:26This is my experience.
33:27And how about on the health side?
33:29Like I get versions of health, wellness, mental hellness, mental wellness, that kind of thing.
33:35Mental hellness is what a lot of people have.
33:37Mental hellness is what we have.
33:39In order to get to the mental wellness, you got to go through the mental hellness.
33:42But I get a lot of that.
33:43And I would say for people out there, take the step.
33:46Yeah.
33:47Take the step because the alternative is you don't.
33:50And we know what the pathology is to that.
33:53And we know where that road, eventually for all of us where it ends.
33:56Yeah.
33:57But if you can, I think in my opinion, I feel like if you can get in there and you can get as much information and data, it's hard data.
34:05It's like, as you told me when we first met, hey, think of this.
34:09Hold the mirror up to your biology and see what that looks like.
34:13And are you willing to do that?
34:14And once you are, then man, I can help you.
34:16Yeah.
34:17And we can help you.
34:18And functional health can help you.
34:19And then let's go.
34:20Yeah.
34:21Test, don't guess.
34:22That's right.
34:23Test, don't guess.
34:24You know, everybody thinks of you like as the rock, right?
34:26You're the rock, which is invincible.
34:28Yeah.
34:29Sexist man alive.
34:30I got a lot of.
34:31Sexist man alive.
34:32I mean, I thought I was a sexist man alive.
34:34You are.
34:35Sexist doctor.
34:36Look.
34:37People think of you as sort of invincible.
34:39And even your name, like the rock is sort of emblematic of that.
34:42The pressure of that, Doc.
34:43The pressure right now.
34:44We've got to talk about that.
34:45Jesus Christ.
34:46All right.
34:47But you've been really vulnerable here.
34:48You've shared your medical story.
34:50You've shared what's going on.
34:51You've shared some of the fears you've had, some of the stuff in your family.
34:53What do you hope people take away from seeing you sharing your own vulnerability around this?
34:57Oh, I can do it too.
34:58I mean, that's it.
34:59It feels like that's the stripped down takeaway of this.
35:02Yeah.
35:03So if my guy DJ can do it, I can do it.
35:06And if you want to be vulnerable, great.
35:08I'm an advocate for that.
35:09And I get it.
35:10It's not the easiest thing for guys.
35:12It's not the easiest thing for anybody to do, but especially guys, just how we're wired.
35:19It's how we are.
35:20We don't want to be vulnerable.
35:21We don't want to be weak.
35:22We want to have all the answers.
35:23We want to be tough.
35:24We want to be strong in the face of our kids, our girlfriends, wives, whatever it is.
35:28We don't want to show all this stuff.
35:30And whether you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, whatever age you are and whatever level of life you are, it's all the same.
35:43It doesn't change.
35:44There's one person who controls it.
35:47For me, when I think about this and I think about people out there watching and listening and people who I talk to, go for it.
35:53It's going to be scary.
35:55You never know what you're going to find, but you're going to want to find it as opposed to not.
36:00And then all of a sudden, you're in a situation that you don't want to be in.
36:03Yeah.
36:04Well, I just want to thank you for being so courageous, for leaning in your own house, for actually using your voice to raise awareness about this.
36:13Because a lot of people don't know that they can know.
36:17Well, my pleasure.
36:18And you're doing tremendous work, by the way.
36:20I know how busy you are and with everyone who you're seeing, who you sit down with, you talk to in a podcast and interview, everyone.
36:28But also, just all the work you're doing, period.
36:30It's really commendable, man.
36:32It's great.
36:33History always looks back.
36:35One day, when you and I are walking in the clouds, they'll look back on all the work that you're doing here.
36:39And you're going, that's our guy.
36:40That's the guy.
36:41Seeing the gym up in the sky.
36:42Yeah.
36:43Thanks for being on the podcast.
36:45This conversation.
36:46Thank you for all your help.
36:47I appreciate it.
36:48On the tequila, you can text me if you need it.
36:50Thank you.
36:51I'm on my third bottle.
36:53Is this good?
36:54You're like on the night?
36:56The night, no.
36:57So this conversation has really been all about empowerment and taking care of your health
37:01and making informed and proactive choices.
37:03So I want to show that we're really excited to invite everybody on this mission with us.
37:08And we believe everybody deserves to access their own health data.
37:11And we believe in affordability.
37:13It shouldn't be a barrier.
37:15And that's why we really are offering, as part of this podcast, a special $100 credit
37:20toward your Function Health membership for the first 1,000 people who sign up.
37:23All you have to do is enter the promo code TAKECONTROL100 at checkout
37:27and take the first step toward owning your health today.
37:30All right.
37:31Thanks, DJ, for being here.
37:32Thank you, brother.
37:33A pleasure.
37:34If you loved that last video, you're going to love the next one.
37:36Check it out here.
37:37Bye.
37:38Bye.
37:39Bye.
37:40Bye.
37:41Bye.
37:42Bye.
37:43Bye.
37:44Bye.
37:45Bye.
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