Testosterone, nutrition, and health myths we get wrong with Allie Donnell, PA-C

Most people need to supplement vitamin D, unless you could stand outside naked at lunchtime for an hour every day.

Vitamin D, you need it for testosterone production.

I'm passionate because from the time you put food in your mouth as, like, I don't know, a teenager,

your liver starts to become fatty, your liver can regenerate itself.

Welcome to Dealer Out of Office. We're your hosts. I'm Frank Zambo.

I'm Jake Burkle, and we are here to talk to you about dealer's interests outside of the office.

Now watch this drive.

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to Dealer Out of Office.

I am Jake Burkle, alongside my good buddy, Frank Zambo, and happy new year, buddy.

Happy to be here again.

We got a cool one today. We all know that the start of the new year, the big thing is health,

and we quite literally bled for this company.

We gave our blood for this company.

Allie Donnell is the guest today, who is going to read through our blood panels.

I went in there, I don't know about you, but I was shocked at how much blood was actually taken out of my arm.

It was like nine or 10 of those, like, pretty good-sized vials.

So we are going to dive into this. Allie, thank you for being here with us.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited.

Now really quickly, you're in Texas.

Yes.

Explain to us kind of your background, how you got into this, and then we'll kind of take it from there.

Yeah, we'll take it to birth now.

I grew up in a really, actually, on a ranch in a really, really small town in South Texas.

My graduating class had 14 people.

So I, and I said the other day, I'm like, I don't think anyone ever from my town became a doctor or really anything.

Oh, all that impressive.

And so I think graduating high school, I went to A&M, Texas A&M.

Why don't you hate us or you love us?

But going there, I had no idea what I wanted to do.

Most people didn't go to college.

You know, it was just kind of, oh, my sister went to college.

I'll just do what she did.

Thought I wanted to be in sports broadcasting.

So worked for the football department, did all that.

And then I'm like, I can't just sit around and talk about communication all day.

That's just not, like, I need something more.

So figured what do I like to do?

I like to work out.

So I switched my major to physiology with a plan to just get my PhD and do some kind of sports research, work in a lab.

I ended up working in a lab at A&M for the athletes.

So the non-football players, they'd come in and do a treadmill stress test, VO2 testing, EKGs.

We did some stuff with the police and then the fire department in college station.

Anyway, all that kind of led me down a path of I don't want to do research all day and be stuck here and make very, very little money.

No shame against that.

It's just really hard work.

It taught me a lot of interesting things.

And then I got to senior year.

I talked with my professor who had his PhD and he was my boss at the time in the lab.

And I asked him, okay, I don't know what I want to do.

Do I want to get my PhD?

And he was like, just go to PA school.

I would go to PA school.

So ended up in PA school.

Again, wasn't really sure.

I thought I wanted to do orthopedic surgery.

I was convinced I'm just going to do surgery.

I don't care about medicine.

I don't care about anything else.

And then I ended up getting into school and realizing, oh man, I really, I need to know everything.

I need to know how medications work.

I need to know how everybody systems related.

I can't just look at a bone and say, I'm just going to fix his bone and ignore everything else that's going on.

Coming, I take it back to growing up in a really small town.

I lived 45 minutes from the nearest hospital that was not even a good hospital.

And if I really wanted to go to doctor is an hour, half away.

And so, you know, we would play doctor at home.

I'd cut my finger with a pocket knife and we'd bandage it or my dad would be draining whatever abscess and giving me, I'm sure, cow.

Antibiotics like who knows what I ended up with.

But because of that, I mean, like there's so many people who just they're just such a disconnect with.

Populations of people and understanding medicine.

And so part of which is like, I just want to do this for myself and for my family and those who don't have access to medicine.

Ended up working in hospital medicine doing internal medicine at Baylor, Scott and white in Dallas.

So one of the biggest hospitals in Texas.

I work night shift.

So we helped run codes do rapid responses.

There were three of us for 500 patients overnight.

Anything that happened with all 500 patients.

We were the people that they came to and it was, it was a lot of work.

And because of that, my health took a hit.

And so I ended up researching on my off time and functional medicine and looking at holistic and root causes and finding how body systems are related just to personally help myself.

And then I figured, okay, if I'm going to spend all my time researching this, why don't I just make a career out of this?

And at that time, functional medicine or that type of medicine, which just starting to get popular.

I do think COVID and tick tock, honestly, really helped kind of make people realize Western medicine is an all it's cracked up to be.

And that a lot of these studies are flawed and we've been lied to and there's misinformation.

And I was there for all the COVID waves.

There's a lot of COVID naysayers, but by the time they got to us, I mean, they were, they were so sick because it probably was mismanaged early on in the disease.

So all of that really just shifted me into functional medicine.

I ended up getting a, I'm doing a fellowship in functional medicine.

And so it's where I am today.

I helped open a clinic in Houston.

And so same just root cause medicine, looking at gut health, hormone health.

We do dexa testing, resumé metabolic rate test, cancer screens, all types of things.

So that's where I am today is a long, long wind to talk.

But just to say, this is my passion.

So needless to say, you're qualified.

I think I'm qualified.

I don't know.

We'll see.

You tell me, are you the person that everyone goes to now?

Cause like I got to have a doctor in the family and I cheated.

I called her last night.

I did kind of go through a little bit of this and asking, Hey, what does this mean?

What does this mean?

Yeah.

You from a small town is at you.

Are you like the go to for, you know, everything?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

On my lunch break, my mom's like, Hey, you're a cousin.

Second cousin is something's going on, but they can't afford to see you.

Can you just go over their blood work with them or whatever it is?

Yeah.

That's, I'm not person.

So Wendy, Wendy was my, my patient too.

So.

And the thing I like to, is everyone, I was also a health fitness.

Can you seeology made in college and everything was very dated in

what cholesterol was and now I feel like there's more studies coming

out and it's just not by the book of what's been taught for 30

years and these studies, I feel like are not, they're relatively new in

how long like humans have been around.

Like we've only been really studying this for, I'm just throwing

out my 50, 60 years, whatever it is.

Yeah.

Like it's relatively new of what we're learning still about the human

body, whereas it seems like you're taking more of a more modern approach.

And again, I don't know that much about what we're going to talk

about in the next 45 minutes or whatnot, but it seems like we're

taking more of a modern approach instead of just what everyone's been

telling you the food pyramid, you know, meats, bad bread is good.

Like that maybe needs to be flipped around nowadays.

Yeah.

So I'm excited to learn more about that.

And obviously you're a very credible source for talking about this and

that's what I'm excited about.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of, I will preface and say you're right.

A lot of those studies are dated and it's like, there is some

good stuff there that now, you know, the bad stuff just ends up

being what's out there more because that's more interesting, right?

That's more click baby is pointing out all the, all the bad

and all the flawed things.

So there's some stuff that existed that was like, okay,

this is good, but now we've had all this misinformation and

now it's got misconstrued.

But at the end of the day, I'm just like, it's just, it's still

going to be the basics, right?

It's, it's the basic things.

Are you sleeping?

Are you eating whole foods?

Are you moving your body?

Like we've now, there was a point in time where I'm like,

everything's killing us.

We can't do anything.

And, and then it almost gets you to a point where you're

stressed about health that stress about health is, is stress

in and of itself and that's not good for you.

So it can be like too much on one side and too much on the

other. At some point, I was like, screw it all.

It's all broken, fix everything.

And then I had to take a step back and was like, well, now

I'm stressed about breathing oxygen from the air outside.

Yeah.

So, and for, for us, me and Jake are middle-aged Americans

average, I'm a little younger.

You know, quite middle-aged.

A lot of our listeners are of that based on, and you're

now in Houston, big city.

What are, what are folks our age is coming in to see you

about mostly?

Yeah.

And I, I, I do feel like I'm at least in the field of

medicine, you know, we're cash pay prior, I took insurance

and did all that, but we're cash pay.

So people, most of the time who are coming in, they're

either coming in because they're like the, both of

you, they're proactive and they want to be the best

they can be going in understanding that what they're

doing in their twenties and thirties impacts them

significantly in their sixties and seventies.

So coming in early to try and stay ahead.

But then a lot of people are coming in because they've

gone other places and they didn't really get the answers

they needed.

So whether it be, you know, gut issues and being

total, you have ideas or migraines.

I feel like those are big ones.

Acid reflux is a big one, but gut health is a big

trigger on obviously for men, I think people are

just coming in more because they want to know

what their testosterone levels are and what they

can, what they can do to help them feel their

best or it's aches and pains that have been

keeping them from being able to work out to their

full capacity or whatever it may be.

In a lot of modern medicine, too, when you have

a problem, it's all right, I got a drug for this

to band aid.

Yeah, it's a drug for this, a drug for this.

And again, I don't know if necessarily that's

approach.

And then I wonder to myself, too, I'm being

approached with this drug.

Is that person prescribing me the drug?

Are they getting some sort of like kickback?

Like I'm in sales.

Is that is that sales rip for that?

For that pharmaceutical?

Is he, you know, taking that guy out to a

Red Wings game?

Like, why is he giving me that?

You know what I mean?

So like, and that's just what they've always done.

You give it a, you put a bandaid on it, but like

I like the approach of being proactive and getting

ahead of it before you have to get to that point

or maybe there is a different strategy than

Well, I think that goes for both of us, right?

Like I don't take that many supplements.

I know you ask kind of what we take.

Yeah, I believe in whole foods.

I believe like I bought a cow, right?

Like I know where my, where my protein

comes from vegetables, this and the other.

So like supplement supplementation isn't that big

for me and my family, you know, other than like a

creatine and a protein powder after work.

And I think you're kind of, you know, fish oils.

You don't take a ton either.

So, you know, both, you know, obviously I was never

a NFL football player, but a decent athlete in

my own, right?

And to your point, like, yeah, we want to make

sure that, you know, we set the good foundation

for our 50s, 60s, 70s, hopefully, you know,

into the 80s.

That's what's the average, what's the average

lifespan now, 75?

I want to say, yeah, I think for women, I mean,

women, it's higher than men, but I wanted to say

it's like 76.

I could just be talking out.

Yeah, so if even that, I wouldn't be surprised

if we're not, and it's definitely racial, but

I'm pretty sure it's upper 60s, low 70s.

But what people aren't looking for anymore is

they don't care about your lifespan is one thing.

But do you really want to live your health span?

Yeah.

And you won't want to live those last 10 years

of your life.

So that's why this being proactive that Peter

Tia method of getting ahead of things so you

can live, you know, live a better life longer

and not just live a long life in a nursing home,

you know, whatever.

And then you brought up two of like supplements.

Like I want to clear the air right now.

Yes.

So I played nine years in the NFL.

Everyone's always, you know, how would you get

so big and so how'd you get so big so fast?

Like guys in my kids, worst drug art creatine

that's and sometimes I blow up on it too.

Like I'd get and I would get off of it,

but like it was just protein discipline.

And then obviously you're, you're paid to work out.

So it was very like I come here to work in the morning.

Like I was paid to just go to the gym for a couple

hours.

Like, yeah, it was awesome, right?

Like that was every day.

So it's very easy if you and then they gave you

food, good food, quality food and quality protein

and all that stuff.

So you combine those three things protein,

the right vitamins, working out every day and

staying active for a job.

Like it's pretty easy to get big and your body fat.

Yeah.

And we talked this in the pre show, right?

I think the big trigger was in, you know,

we can get into this as we go through it and

how that kind of correlates back.

But like, I think a big trigger right now is ozempic.

Everyone wants that quick fix.

How do you get healthy?

How do you lose weight?

When truthfully I, I don't think health and fitness

comes in a bottle doesn't come in a pill.

It's a lifestyle of how and I think what you've

yeah, what you practice your, your whole career.

So I am curious on your take on ozempic

and the, what's the other one?

We can, we can get right into that.

Everyone wants to talk about peptides.

So I'll just keep kind of the overarching when

I think about peptides.

There's so many out there.

There's a great book.

I think it's the peptide handbook.

It's by James Laval.

L-A-V-A-L-L-E.

If you ever want to read it.

It's great.

It tells you everything you need to know about

every peptide.

I don't read.

Is it a audio book?

Can I listen to it?

Yeah.

It's, it's gonna play.

You're not getting, no.

I was just asking about appearing in Michigan,

but we don't read good.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, no, it's okay.

I'm from, I'm from public school, Texas.

We're not great either.

But skip over the science and just like go to like,

this is what it's for.

This is the dosage.

Um, if you're really, really want to get into it,

but when I think about peptides,

there's kind of categories.

So GLP ones, that's its category.

That's the Ozympics.

That's the branded product.

The generic is Simiglutide or there's Terzepotide

or RETA is the new one that everyone's,

everyone's talking about RETA to try,

or RETA True Tide.

Um, that's kind of one category.

And then you have kind of repair peptides,

which I think those are the ones that's getting

all the hype, um, the Wolverine pack or the glow pack.

That's the BPC TB 500.

Well, we'll get into those.

So it's BPC, I love.

And then there's kind of that category.

That's the growth hormone analog.

So that's Tessa Morellen, CJC, Epimorellen,

Sermorellen.

Those, those are kind of the more popular ones there.

There's some immune boosting ones,

Simus and Alpha,

Thymus and Beta and that's the TB 500.

So those are kind of my four categories.

If you have a weight, you have repair,

you have immune and then kind of the growth hormone

analog one, uh, GLP ones, like I hate it.

I hate them and I love them, right?

Because there are a lot of people who do it

ignorantly, right?

And they're just taking it without rhyme or reason,

getting it from whatever website.

To me, for me to prescribe you a GLP one,

you have to earn the right to take it.

You have to have proved to me,

I have done XYZ with my exercise,

with my lifestyle, with my diet.

And I'm still struggling with insulin resistance

or I'm still struggling with really elevated cholesterol

or an autoimmune condition.

And then at that point I'm like, cool,

you've done the homework.

I believe that you, you have put in the effort

that I needed to see to where now,

okay, you've, you've earned yourself a GLP one.

Most men, I mean, in 30s, 40s, you're right.

If you are metabolically flexible,

meaning you don't have high insulin levels,

you don't have a high A1C or pre-diabetes,

you can probably in your testosterone is great

and you're, don't need tons of supplementation,

you're right, you can probably achieve weight loss.

I mean, like he said, through diet exercise,

just being really strict about it.

The people who, who I think do need the GLP ones

who struggle more, definitely more female heavy,

PCOS is a big one, women with insulin resistance,

pre-diabetes, some autoimmune conditions,

GLP ones are being used at a very, very low dose,

not at a dose that would produce weight loss,

but at a dose that just calms inflammation down.

So that is kind of what that quote-unquote micro dosing,

that's kind of the times I use it,

but for most men, I'm like, honestly, you're,

you're probably fine.

You're probably good to just do the work.

And then if something pops up where you now have

some metabolic condition where,

man, we just can't overcome these blood sugars or my insulin,

then at that point, adding in on, I think is beneficial.

But there's hot debate just because people don't know how to use it

and you can tell, like, you can look at a girl and be like,

yeah, and you've lost a lot of weight.

And then she turns around and I'm like, and where's the butt?

Yep, your butt went along with it too.

So it's just, I mean, there are a lot of ways to chop and screw

the GLP ones.

I'm not against it.

I use them all the time, but you can't just expect to get

on one and just not eat and not lift weights and not eat

protein and think that it's going to go well for you.

Question for you.

How, now, so my schedule kind of goes like,

I usually eat really poorly November, December holidays,

right?

And then January comes around and I can like lock it in.

Usually you'll lock it in for like four months until

golf season comes around.

Then you're drinking a little bit more.

Your, your workouts might not be as regimented and then

kind of gradually sustain a little bit up until you get

back to November and December, and then it's just

kind of a binge.

That's where I'm at right now.

I'm at like the worst I was going to be all year.

Now, I don't, again, we've gone over what I've taken.

Would it help someone like me that I can maybe

jump on a few pep, like, you know, my blood work.

It's all pretty, pretty good.

Now, would it help for the next three months?

If I jumped on some of these peptides and just maybe

a little bit of an aid, maybe it's a little easier for

me to tone down or get bigger.

Yeah.

I mean, and I'll say, and I'll say in all honesty, I'm

not ever going to prescribe something that I'm like, oh,

I haven't taken a shot of or haven't tried two weeks

for it so I can tell you the side effects or I can

tell you, you know, I'm not ever going to do

something without being like, yeah, I tried it or

my mom tried it or someone I know, you know, I've tried

it before I've told you to take it.

And I reserve peptides.

I say like, if you're a seventh grade B team patient,

you're not going to get a, you're not going to be

on varsity.

You're not going to get a varsity peptide.

You haven't earned that.

So again, someone like you who I look at your blood

work and I'm like, yeah, this looks pretty good.

You're optimized most for the most part.

Then yes, you could really, really benefit from

like IGF one is a marker that we'll use.

That's real looking at like kind of a reflection of

growth hormone status.

And that's what CJC, Someril and Tessa Morelin, those

target growth hormone.

Those are not good to do long term, but if you

want to do it for a cycle, yeah, you would, you

would definitely have some gains for sure.

Say no more.

Yeah.

No, you're not anymore.

Now, someone like me up in Michigan, am I able

to order that through you directly in Texas and Houston

and you can mail that or how does that work?

Yeah, there, there's certain, there are certain

specifics.

So for us, I technically would have to have, you

would have to have come in person to like check our

boxes to say that, but there are a lot of companies

and I am, I'll preface, I'm very suspicious.

There's a lot of places we can get peptides online.

If you are getting a peptide online and it's

coming as a powder and you have to reconstitute

it with bad bacteria static water.

Don't mess with that.

Find like a reputable local compounding pharmacy

because the FDA has to, for them to be an FDA approved

503A or 503B pharmacy compounding pharmacy, the FDA

has to go in and be like, okay, this looks good,

but they recently went into a compounding pharmacy

and there were rats in there.

The rats had infiltrated into like where their

sterile room was where they're actually making

the peptides.

So what state was that in?

I think it was in Texas.

And we have big rats.

Everything's bigger, huge rats.

No.

So just being mindful of that.

That's why I tell people, I'm like, it's probably

best to go with, you know, something local that

you know, like if there was an issue, someone

has been to that.

Like I try and physically have seen the compounding

pharmacies I use.

So then I'm not just saying like, oh, it's

some warehouse in a room that they're making

this stuff.

So when you say like it might not be beneficial

long term, right?

Like a quick, like how, how, what does that time

frame look like?

Is it a month?

Is it?

Yeah, do I have to be on it the rest of my life or

like a TRT, right?

Like that's like, cause we have a, we have a, we

are testosterone here.

Now if I start to take it, is that like, now

will I have to take it forever?

Is it my body going to stop producing it naturally?

So, so if you, yeah, no, if, so we'll talk

about TRT if y'all want to.

So testosterone replacement, there's a million

different forms.

But if you are giving exogenous meaning something

your body's not producing and introducing it to

your body and then your body's like, man, we got

all the testosterone in the world.

We don't need to make any more and it kind of

shuts off the signal from your brain to your

testes.

We don't need to make it.

You can actually check LH or luteinizing hormone

is a marker.

So I could tell like, if y'all were on TRT,

your T levels, right, they look great.

But if I saw an LH of zero or really, really

low, then I would have known, hey, they're

actually on testosterone replacement.

Is there a question to see if we're liars?

I already, I could tell, I could tell.

My friends didn't even believe me.

I, one of my guy friends is obsessed with this stuff.

He's, I mean, a Rogan guy that weighs too well,

you know, that's where everyone, everyone seems

to go.

But he's like, no, those guys are definitely on

TRT.

There's, there's no way.

I'm like, their LH was good.

They're not.

Just after all your sons, I've never taken.

Well, obviously she can see it on our marker

that we've been.

Yeah.

I was seven.

So if, if you start testosterone, the question

is like, I've definitely started on people who

want to have kids, but it does suppress

testicular function.

So there are some thoughts that you can add

on peptides, something like Kispeptin,

gonaderelin, clomiphene and clomiphene, those

types of things.

There is a thought that it keeps the signals

kind of from your brain still going.

I honestly haven't had super good luck with

that.

I'll typically put people on Kispeptin while

I'm starting TRT just to hopefully help preserve

some testicular function, but most men after

stopping testosterone replacement, their sperm

production comes back most of the time within

six months.

So I'm like, if you want to have kids in six

months, stop now.

To me, it's kind of, it's kind of one of those

things where I'm like, I wouldn't mess with

it.

I'm not a guy though.

So I got a question for you quick.

Yeah.

Jake and I have both put out boys.

I have four boys.

He's got two boys.

That's it.

Six, six.

Wow.

And it didn't take me many tries.

I'm pretty too.

Does that have anything to do with our high just

natural testosterone?

You know, I don't think so.

I think has a lot to do with like timing of

ovulation, but also genetics.

I think there's some, I don't know.

Maybe you're like, I have so much testosterone

to give that.

Maybe now tell yourself that.

It's your turn to tell my wife.

Yeah.

In any event.

And so we talk about TRT.

And I think that's a big, that's a big hot button

for, for most men in, in, you know, our age range.

Now you said like, you're kind of locked in.

What is something that you would recommend?

Like what's the most natural way to, to get

that back?

Is it diet exercise?

Is it, you know, what, what, what would you

recommend?

Cause again, I'm, I'm anti, like I'm, I'm

not holistic, but I'm like anti.

Let's take pills.

Yeah.

There's a, there's a time and a place.

Yeah.

I mean, again, too, like looking at blood work,

it's good doing something like this to say,

like vitamin D is a pro hormone and it helps

make your testosterone zinc helps.

And we'll get into the labs a little bit more

and kind of I'll piece out important things

to look for if you do get labs via sleep.

They did studies on like sleep deprivation.

I'm sure y'all seen that where I don't

even know what country it is.

But yeah, they, they sleep deprived people

for like a week and then their testosterone

levels dropped by like 20%.

So that's probably the biggest thing I see is

just sleep, sleep, vitamin D, nutrition,

fish oils can be helpful.

I mean, there are certain supplementations

we'll talk about that, that can be helpful

with testosterone.

I in clomaphen or clomaphen, CMC really popular

right now cause everyone's like, oh, it's a pill

you can take to increase your testosterone

and it's not going to shut off.

Testicular function, but the only problem

with that is it really, really aggressively

lowers estrogen and men and you need estrogen

to keep your eyes and your brain healthy

and also to keep you from getting

visceral or belly fat.

So like that's why sometimes when you see guys

who are like on steroids or TRT and they have

like the big, hard belly and the big muscles,

it's because they've taken stuff to drive

their estrogen down so low that now

they're getting more visceral fat.

That's the deep fat surrounding your organs

that just suffocates your organs and makes

them not work.

So clomaphen is fine temporarily.

Like if you really, really had low testosterone

and you were a young guy who wanted to preserve

Testicular function, cool.

I wouldn't do it more than, more than a few months.

Did we have our estrogen tested on this as well?

Yes, you did have estrogen tested.

They're kind of all out of order.

Instant disrespect.

Disrespect.

I don't understand them.

I just taken it.

She's making fun of us.

I don't see.

We can go on the same.

Yeah, let's dive into it.

Let's go.

Who do we go at a time or do you go together

and just kind of go go through them?

We can kind of go.

I mean, however you want to do it,

I can kind of compare you side by side

and we can make it a competition.

That's all we do in this office.

Well, Jakes were like really, really good.

I don't know if I want to make it a competition.

But you'll both have your stuff.

I mean, overall, great, great, wonderful.

I'm not going to complain, but I don't want to talk

about either as you had a conference on cholesterol.

So maybe once we get to cholesterol, you can talk.

We'll get to cholesterol.

Yeah, yeah, that'll be a good,

that'll be a good one to get into.

So you're, I'll say normally when you go to the doctor,

so people are going to tell you,

hey, I'm going to do a comprehensive panel.

If you go to your PCP that takes insurance,

you're going to get a CBC, CMP, maybe an A1C,

maybe a lipid panel.

It's not going to go much deeper than that.

So these went a lot deeper.

And I can kind of talk.

Yelmin' deep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done, yeah, a lot.

Your, okay, CBC, this is the standard blood panel

where we're looking for infection, anemia,

size of your red blood cells,

looking at all kinds of white blood cells.

For the most part, y'all look good.

Jake, you may see your RDWs low.

That's your red blood cell distribution with.

That just means you have uniform size red blood cells.

I would be more worried if that was a high number.

So we're good.

We're good there.

Your platelets were slightly low.

A lot of times in certain blood draws,

it can make your blood clump.

You may have talked to your doctor friend about this.

I'm not super worried about a platelet of 140.

It's what helps clot your blood.

A lot of times it's, it could be a lab error.

If you were someone that you're like,

I have liver disease.

I have, you know, some immune disease.

Maybe that could mean something else,

but that number in and of itself

would probably just recommend repeating it in three months.

And if it's still low.

It's like, I got consistent like nosebleeds

and stuff, which I never have.

I never really.

You have a cut your finger.

Does it take you a long time?

Yeah.

Clot up quick.

No, it doesn't.

So yeah, you're.

It does clot up.

It does.

Yeah.

Like less than a hundred.

I'm like, hmm.

Okay.

If something's going on less than 50.

If you bumped your head,

you could bleed out less than 20.

You're going to spontaneously bleed.

So you're not even close to any of that.

I think it's probably just,

I think it's probably just from the blood draw.

We'll keep an eye on it.

And then Frank, all good here.

I do want to point out one other thing.

MCV is a really important marker.

That's your mean for postular volume,

just the size of your red blood cells.

When that starts getting close to 100.

It usually means one,

you're drinking too much alcohol.

You have a thyroid issue or you are really deficient and be vitamins.

So that's one thing that that can kind of tell us there.

But for the most part,

CVC and most normal people pretty good.

Mine was at 89.

What was yours?

94.

Yeah, Jake, you're a little,

you're a little closer to 94,

but we'll talk about it.

It's usually more so.

I see it with like the vitamins.

Yeah, but maybe I need to.

Your CMP.

So that's another really common thing that we check.

It looks at kidney function,

liver function,

electrolytes,

both of your blood sugar.

So these were fasting blood draws.

You're going to hear me like,

blood sugar is a really important thing that I think men neglect.

Like women,

I think we're a little more conscious of it,

but men really, really neglect blood sugar.

Ideally,

your fasting blood sugar in the morning should be less than 80.

So you can see yours are 93 and 91.

That doesn't mean you have diabetes.

That doesn't mean any major red flag for me.

It just means,

hey,

maybe we get a better look,

better blood sugar control.

Interesting thing about blood sugars,

it's more than just what you are eating, right?

Stress increases your blood sugar.

Good stress or bad stress, right?

Exercise increases your blood sugar.

Poor sleep is a big one that increases blood sugar.

Something to keep an eye on.

We're going to talk more about blood sugar though,

and a little bit.

Creatinine is another one.

That's what we look at for kidney function.

Y'all are almost creatinine twins.

Sometimes guys who are super fit will get really,

really high creatinines.

That's not a bad thing.

It just means you have more muscle mass

and it's kind of like little women have low creatinine,

big men have high creatinine.

I say that with a grain of salt

because high creatinine could also mean

your kidneys aren't working.

So, something to trim.

That's gotta be good.

So, this creatinine sounds like creatine, right?

It kind of, people, creatine got a bad rap

for it affecting kidneys.

If you had kidney disease and your kidneys didn't work

and I gave you a bunch of creatine,

your kidneys would have a hard time processing it,

but if you were an average normal person,

five grams of creatine a day, you're going to be fine.

Why do I feel like I'll take creatine in my weight,

just my body weight and I don't, whatever,

just it starts to go, like I can see it in my scale.

I jump on it, it's like I gained like five pounds pretty quick.

Yeah, I didn't start, I never wanted to start creatine

because of that reason

and like you're told in high school, like lifting weights

or like girls don't take creatine

and I felt like the first day I took it,

I woke up and I'm like, my face is so puffy,

but it's because you're increasing hydration to the muscle

and that's how muscle grows.

So, it's not a bad thing.

Like if you got on an in-body scale

or a seca scale and looked at your water composition,

you would probably just have a little bit more water retention.

But again, and I'm like, I'm an in-of-one,

I do a lot of studies on myself

but I would consistent with creatine for seven weeks

and got on, we have a seca machine

and I had ended up gaining four pounds of muscle

and lost two pounds of fat.

Again, in-of-one, but that was just me doing creatine

for seven weeks without really changing much else.

But it is really just the water retention in the muscle

and that's why like I tell people like cycle on and off,

right? If it's your wedding day,

maybe you don't want to be puffy, don't take it.

Right. Do it seven weeks before you can gain some...

Yeah. That's a cheat. That's a cheat.

It's cheap and it has to be,

I think the studies,

it has to be at least like six weeks,

six to eight weeks for it to show benefit

and being consistent with it every day.

It can't just be like, I took it once a week for six weeks.

Right. Yeah.

Okay, so your kidneys look good.

I want to skip down.

Most people's sodium potassium is fine.

I want to skip to the liver.

The AST and ALT.

Those are your liver numbers.

This is where I'm very passionate about it,

especially in men.

So I like these in the teens and twenties.

One of you was in the twenties.

One of you was in the thirties.

ALT. ALT.

AST, ALT.

Those are your liver markers.

I'm super picky because I like these to be like teens,

twenties.

I say that because I'm sure you've heard a fatty liver,

right?

That's a big thing in men.

Fatty liver is on the rise.

It used to be from alcohol.

That's really was like the main way you got fatty liver.

But now there's something called non-alcoholic fatty

liver disease and that's just from our lifestyle

and our diet.

I have a dealer buddy who has this,

who listens to our podcast.

I'm not going to say his name.

You better listen to this.

Yeah.

It's actually GLP-1's helpful in fatty liver.

So like those impicks and the two other sides

actually really helpful in fatty liver.

But I'm passionate because from the time you put food

in your mouth is like, I don't know, a teenager,

your liver starts to become fatty.

Your liver can regenerate itself, right?

That's the cool thing about the liver.

It's like a starfish.

But it can only do that so much.

There's only so much insult to injury before it's like,

hey, we're scar tissue and our liver doesn't work anymore.

So I started looking at that really, really early.

And I say that to like a lot of supplements.

And you talked about this.

Supplements are good, but supplements either have

to be processed through your liver or your kidneys.

And I've seen a lot of guys who are taking like random

supplements and too many of one ingredient that they end

up having a liver injury because their liver is so irritated

from the supplements they're taking.

So being really like aware of your liver numbers,

there's one called glutathione.

If you've heard of that, it's like a master antioxidant,

but it's really, really helpful at liver healing.

And most people, if they have higher liver numbers,

I'll tell them to do like a glutathione IV push

for a few weeks.

But I'm not, I'm good with, I'm good with the 31 and the 32.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mind what 28-22.

Yeah, so those, those look good.

And that'd be something that if I see them trending up,

I'd probably get an ultrasound of the liver just

because fatty liver is happening early in earlier in men.

I bet it's good to get this done.

It's a baseline, right?

So now you have a baseline.

Exactly.

You know something's probably wrong with you, right?

Same with the creatinine, that kidney marker.

So if something ever happens with your kidneys,

if that number is trending up, then we know,

hey, it's probably the kidneys where it's delivered.

How often do you recommend someone get their labs done?

Yeah, great question.

Yeah, I think most like healthy men every six months,

if there's something we're trying to acutely target,

if there's some issues with, you know,

you're, we're monitoring testosterone

or you're monitoring cholesterol every three months.

But for the most part,

I think twice a year is pretty good.

I mean, think about, a lot of stuff can happen in a year

and then you don't get blood work.

And then you're like, I don't know.

Yeah, like I'm not going to get my blood work after the

boys trip up North.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I always tell people that too.

I'm like, be mindful of what you're doing like the week

before you get your blood work because it can,

it can show up a little bit.

Yeah, my best buddy, you know him.

He had his annual physical the day after our four day

men's up North golf trip.

They basically said he was dying.

Yeah, yeah.

Come back in a week and we'll do this again.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

I'm how that happened through a system.

Yeah.

All right.

Back on track.

Sorry.

All right.

That was your liver.

Yeah.

If you ever have any questions or that numbers up,

I mean, definitely push with your doctor

to get an ultrasound of the liver.

I can tell you fatty liver and I'd rather know

sooner than, sooner than later for sure.

Okay.

Your lipid panel.

So we made it to your lipid panel.

All the questions.

So I checked a standard lip lipid panel.

That's your total cholesterol triglycerides HDL very

low density lipoprotein and LDL.

I also checked an APOB and in LP little a on y'all.

Those are towards the end.

Let's see.

Yeah.

So that's page for Jake.

You have hit the genetic lottery.

Your LP little a is super duper low.

Yeah.

And then Frank yours is, you know, I'm, I'm good with yours.

It could be, you know, if there's something where you're

like, man, everyone in my family has had a heart attack.

You could push for it to be below 30 but below 50.

I'm, I'm good with the LP little a so that's interesting

because both of my grandfathers passed from, from heart

issues.

Yeah.

So I'll kind of try and make this and there's an APOB.

Let's talk about APOB real quick and then I'll talk about

how these all come together.

So y'all the APOB Jake yours was 43 Frank yours was 92.

I like to see this less than 80.

Okay.

We'll talk about kind of how it all fits together.

So I did have blood work done like six months ago,

six months prior to this one.

The APOB was I think like 85.

Okay.

So and it did go, you know, like I said, I was now in

November, December, the last few months drinking every

once in a while, the A, the A1, I think was about the

same APOB, a little a.

So that one is my cholesterol was a little lower.

It was like 205 and my LDL was like 113.

So they, they've definitely gone up in those dissent,

you know, I just done mid December.

But yes.

And I mean, it makes sense.

So I always give the talk because you're right.

There's so much confusion about cholesterol.

We talked about this earlier that there's just so much

stuff about it to where even as a provider, it's like

confusing to me and like, I don't know y'all.

It's too much.

But I always tell people I'm not the cholesterol police.

We all have cholesterol.

It's good.

It makes our hormones, our brain, 20% of our brain

right or 20% of cholesterol is utilized in our brain.

Like we need cholesterol, but to what extent, what

is your body doing with the cholesterol?

That's what I always ask people.

So looking at your cholesterol panel, you know, this looks fine.

You're right.

You're Frank, your LDL did go up a little bit.

You know, if you had, like you said, a really strong family

history or personal history would be super, super aggressive.

Probably trying to target that LDL more.

But what's even more important is looking at that APOB.

So all of your atherogenic cholesterol molecules have

an APOB on it.

So APOB is looking at like a summary of all the bad cholesterol

in your body.

So APOB is like really when you're looking for risk factor

than markers for cardiovascular disease, APOB is what

we're looking at.

LP little a that's your inherited genetic risk.

So there's not much that can change LP little a.

There is a drug called Rapapha.

It's a PCSK9 inhibitor.

If you're someone who, yeah, yeah, right.

I know I don't, I'm pretty sure I said that wrong.

But if you're someone who's family, like strong family

history and you're like, man, I'm I've had a heart attack.

I've had a stroke or everyone in my family said a heart

attack and a stroke and my LP little a is really, really

high.

That drug is really, really effective at helping or helping

lower that APOB and to an extent LP little a.

There are more drugs that are being researched for LP

little a, but for the most part, there's not a lot

you can do for your LP little a.

That's 90% genetic.

Your APOB we can do a lot with it.

But I always say I look at inflammation because think

about cholesterol is traveling through your bloodstream.

If you have an injury to the blood vessel, whether it be

from high blood sugar, inflammation, high blood

pressure, you get kind of these sheer forces on

your blood vessel wall and that cholesterol will

start to stick to the wall and that's what over

time builds up plaque and can cause a heart attack.

So think about like a smooth pipe versus a velvety

pipe, right?

The velvet is going to get lots of stuff stuck in

it. So and they did a lot of studies on people with

normal cholesterol and high inflammation and people

who had high cholesterol, low inflammation, the people

who had normal cholesterol and high inflammation had

worse cardiovascular outcomes than people with

low inflammation.

What would you say I have based on mine?

Do I have because I'll tell you this, I didn't bring

this up to you is based on Peter at his book.

They also he said that you do a CT calcium scan.

Yes, on my heart.

So I did that.

It was 150 bucks.

$150 in my last blood work was better than this one

even a little bit lower.

So I had nothing in like the high range, right?

Like I think it was like two or three or whatever is

my total cholesterol.

But then I do the CT scan and I'm thinking I've

never had any issue pop up.

No, no, no, no.

I look at my deal and it pops up with a 21 in

my right coronary artery.

Whoa.

Exactly.

So I saw a cardiologist in November.

Um, he basically was like, Hey, I wouldn't worry

about any of this.

Now you have a baseline.

This score is out of 5,000 or 500, you know, whatever

it is a large number, very minor.

You're probably going to hurt yourself more now

with the stress of knowing you have something.

Yeah.

You know, whatever, but he suggested a statin.

I have it in my cabinet.

I have yet to take it and it's been a month and a half

because I would like to just naturally bring my

cholesterol, whatever it is.

But now do I want to bring my cholesterol?

I did very different studies of cholesterol, you know,

high cholesterol is good.

So what is the situation?

What would how would you?

So I'll say I like I went through a phase.

I'm like, okay, I gave tons of statins in the hospital.

Then I went through a phase and I was like statins

are the devil.

Like I'm done with the statin and now I'm kind of coming

back to like there's a time and a place, right?

Like if there's a need, there's a need, but you're

right.

There's so many other things that affect cholesterol more

than that.

I do want to say and I don't want to forget this point.

So calcium score is great.

It only looks for the hard plaque in your arteries.

So most people have a low score like my dad did his

and he had a score of two, right?

No big deal.

But there's something called a clearly scan.

It is unfortunately you pay out of pocket for it

anywhere from like 800 to 1200 bucks.

But what it tells you is hard plaque and soft plaque.

So hard plaque is the plaque that builds over time.

Soft plaque is the plaque that like in a young person,

it breaks off at ruptures.

It travels to a distal artery and blocks your heart

and gives you a heart attack.

I would do like if your doctor is like, hey, do a calcium

score.

You're right.

It's a great baseline.

But if you have the money or just the passion, go and

get a clearly scan because it'll tell you hard and

soft plaque and it actually gives you like a 3d image

of your heart and it takes your vessels and straighten

your vessels out and shows exactly where there's plaque

built up.

So then that's even that's something even deeper.

You can do to where it's not just like, oh, I have

a cal a low calcium score piece of mind kind of thing.

That's not called again.

Clearly.

Clearly C L E E R L Y.

So clearly spelled with two E's.

Yeah.

But that was my spiel in that but for your cholesterol

and you're right.

Like is there genetic components?

Yes.

Could it have been inflammation?

I mean, honestly over exercising that's inflammation

is all that kind of contributing to it.

The statin thing.

So part of that conference I went to is they broke down

pretty much every medication you could prescribe

for cholesterol and every supplement you could prescribe

for cholesterol or give for cholesterol and kind of talking

about what's beneficial.

What's not beneficial?

There is a supplement called cardio lipid.

It's by biotics, but it has berberine red yeast rice.

I think garlic, but it's almost just almost as effective

as a statin.

If not more effective and statins, right?

That whole issue of statins is a lot of people

who can't tolerate it because you get muscle aches

and then there's the thought that, hey, if we lower our

cholesterol too much, we'll lower our testosterone, right?

Because testosterone is made from cholesterol.

I mean really like there's not issues unless you're driving

your LDL super low like less than 40 truly with with

the cholesterol, but I'm still not going to say start

with a statin.

There's so many other places to start.

Another thing I want to point out too is I got really

sick from mold.

I was, I got a house.

I got really sick from mold.

My LDL went to 180.

My LDL jumped insanely high and anyone I'm like what like

this doesn't make any sense.

Like I don't drink.

I don't know how I could be healthier.

So toxins is a big thing.

Heavy metals, mercury, lead, mold, environmental toxins

that can, that can make your cholesterol go up too.

So to me, again, it's root cause is like, why is

your cholesterol high?

Are you really just eating blocks of cheese?

I mean, well, that's another thing too is my diet did

swap.

I would say my body reacts better to red meats.

Yeah, bacon, sausage, hamburger.

I don't eat a lot of bread.

I don't eat a lot of sugar.

You know, again, November, December is a fruit for all.

Yeah, but my and I noticed it like when I, as soon

as I eat some type of grain or something, I get

a stuffy nose.

Yeah, my but I done like a food reactive.

You've done food sensitivity.

Yeah.

Yes.

Food sensitivity test and everything for me was like

red meat.

I don't like fish, but like fish was really good for me.

Chicken wasn't great for me.

But the beef was like amazing venison.

So that's where my diet is based.

I would say majority around.

And that's happens a lot with and I've had people

who like their LDL drop super low being more

like plant forward.

Some people that doesn't change it at all like

right.

Everyone's different, but I do say like we miss fiber.

We do not have enough fiber.

And that's to another reason why like colon cancers

are on the rise like meat's great and all, but

there's something called age, A G E and it's pretty

much in in product.

It's a big word.

We're not going to I'm not going to fall down with

it, but it's just saying whenever you like burn bacon

or whenever you overcook meat and you consume it,

they'll check your inflammatory markers before

and inflammation is through the roof after you

have like some kind of smoked meat, barbequed meat.

I'm not against it, but when you pair it with

something like avocado or fiber, those inflammatory

markers come down a lot.

So that's everything I eat is with an avocado.

Like burger, avocado, eggs, avocado.

Like that's kind of like my healthy fat and I love

it.

It tastes good.

Yeah.

I also don't like a bun.

Like if I eat a burger, I really don't like the

taste of a bun on a burger.

Yeah, it takes away.

It's just something to hold if I could put

a lettuce thing on both sides or a fork.

Perfect.

I like that better anyway.

Now you said I just want to make sure I heard this

right.

Yep.

If you overcook it, it throws your inflammation through

the roof.

So I overcooked bacon.

It's too crispy, not as good as when you kind of

leave it a little.

Yeah, and same mistakes medium, medium, medium, but I

just, yeah, but I just want to try on the outside.

I like the cross on the outside.

That's the problem.

I like why you get I like the cross on the outside.

Not to have the cross.

All right, but we're all agreements.

Yeah.

Yeah, gotta have the cross.

But we're going to add in something and some inflammatory

like berries, olive oil, you know, some nuts, avocado,

all that to kind of help lower the inflammation.

But again, I make that point of like, man, we have

really meat for a diet.

I have a very meat for a diet.

I grew up on a ranch like we love meat, but fibers

are really, really like missing thing in all of our diet.

Is it a good way to get fiber right now?

Is it like salad?

Is it fruit, vegetables?

Like what is it?

Honestly, we should probably get 30 grams of fiber

through our diet.

And like, I've, I've tried, I'm not really graded it.

I do supplement with fiber powders.

I mean, they're not ideal, but it gives me like that extra

60, 80 ones not know like a, like a thick, nasty

gelatinous fiber or they make soluble fibers.

Um, there's lots of different ones that like sun powder

or something, but fibers kind of another missing link

and fiber kind of helps bind to your cholesterol

and it can help improve cholesterol actually.

So and it combined to toxins, but yeah, that's

another kind of thing is if you have really, really

high cholesterol and you live a pretty healthy life,

maybe start going down like, should I do some heavy

metal testing or mold testing and see if that

could be contributing?

Could be genetic for me too.

My dad's always had that a little bit.

Um, blood pressure's always been like people.

I'll get it like I'm always been like that higher

and like 125 over 78, you know, like that.

Um, now do you think based on what you're

seeing here, do I need to get my cholesterol below

200? Is that a huge thing for me right now?

I need to get my total cholesterol below 200.

I'm not so worried about that as I am about the ApoB.

Yeah, ApoB getting that under 80.

Under 80 is my new goal.

Cause that's really the one that we're like looking at

to see, yes, we know the cardiovascular risk.

There's something called a Cleveland heart panel

where there's some other labs like it that actually

look at the particle size of the LDL because LDL

just like it's whatever, but you can have a large

LDL that aren't as problematic or you can

have these little tiny LDL that are sticking

to the blood vessel.

So if you are someone that's like, I mean, probably

in your case, I would go do that Cleveland heart

panel and it breaks down cholesterol even more and

tells us like, man, do we need to be really worried

that VLDL that's on here though, that very low

density lipoprotein.

That would be the one that would be more worrisome

and that looks pretty good.

That looks good.

Yeah, mine's a 10.

Okay.

So I wouldn't, what should you go statin route?

I probably wouldn't yet.

I would probably try that supplement that cardiolipid

and then maybe some fiber and then fish oil two grams.

Okay.

I look at that.

I love that I this is a podcast that I can look back

through.

I don't have to take notes.

It's funny to when my cardiologist did prescribe

it, he goes, Frank, I wouldn't, you don't necessarily

need this.

He's like, if you're a purist, it's, you know, it seems

like you're into fitness.

If you really want it lower, here's a statin

prescription.

It wasn't like, Hey, you need to take this.

He wasn't pushing it.

It was kind of like you left it up to me like

if you really want to get this below 200 or your

LDL lower to 100, whatever it was.

Here you go.

But yeah, that's, yeah.

And again, I'm like, I'm not the cholesterol police.

Like don't be inflamed.

Do exercise and make sure you're heart's healthy.

I mean, there's so many other things that tie into it,

but Peter and Tia will scare you.

I think if you listen to him, you're like, oh, I'm

going to die.

I can't, it's just stressing me out.

But his whole deal was being preventive, right?

And that's medicine 3.0 for him is getting ahead

of things.

If I didn't read his book, I wouldn't have got a CT scan.

I wouldn't know I had 21 in my right coronary artery

and I wouldn't be thinking about this stuff.

But that's the point of his methods is don't wait

till I have a heart attack or a stroke.

You know, like let's try to get ahead of this stuff.

And that's what we're trying to do with all of what

we're talking about today, literally what we're doing.

Yeah.

Okay, we'll keep moving.

So we checked your B12 and your folate.

I'll say take this with a grain of salt.

So I recommend people do a micronutrient test.

It's probably about the same amount of blood y'all did.

But it looks at all your B vitamins, all your vitamin D.

It looks at omega acid.

So your omega 3, omega 6, it looks at your amino acids.

But the whole point of why that's more important is so like

when we just check your blood, this is just what you've

consumed in the last, say, 72 hours.

When we check the cellular level, your red blood cells

live 120 days.

White blood cells live like six to eight weeks.

So if you check cellular levels of stuff, which that micronutrient

test does, it gives you a way better picture of how you're

doing just me looking here at both your B12 that that looks

okay.

I like it closer to a thousand and then your folate.

This is one I'm really, really passionate about.

I needed at least 12 folate.

We get from leafy greens.

So it's not a surprise that we're 0.9 8.6 it's not a

surprise that that's an issue.

I like salad, but it's it's like the like you probably have

to have like two cups of spinach, like nasty leafy greens,

Swiss chard, that kind of stuff.

I do like like if I eat salad, I got like spinach.

Like that's like my go-to.

Yeah, I like the greenier.

I don't like iceberg as much as I like the other green.

Good for you.

I don't I don't like salads, but fully it's important

because there's a marker called homocysteine and Jake

will look at yours is a little on the higher end.

So homocysteine is another marker for inflammation.

It's what makes your cholesterol more sticky predisposes you

to stroke, etc.

If you there's a I mean, a big thing right now is MTHFR.

If you've heard of that, it's the genetic mutation that makes

it essentially it's hard for your body to use B vitamins,

especially folate and put it in a usable form for your

body.

So I usually I can't say this is like a blanket statement,

but for most people, if you're going to do a B vitamin,

I would do a methylated B vitamin, which I'm sure you've

all heard on every podcast, but the methylated B vitamin for

both of you probably most multivitamins.

They're great, but they usually don't have enough, right?

They have a little bit of everything, but not enough

of everything.

Okay, we're going to move into the testosterone now.

So total testosterone, I mean, it looks pretty good.

Honestly, most people that were coming in all the age

that I was seeing in clinic.

I mean, I saw it as low as like 250, but like most

average is like 500, 600 and even that was like, it's pretty

good.

There is total testosterone.

That's like what you have stored away in the bank, right?

So that's what you have tucked away free testosterone that

number below it.

That's what's in your back pocket ready for you to use

day to day.

So while your total testosterone looks good, your free testosterone

what you have available on a day to day basis is not

optimal and it is affected by something called SHBG or

sex hormone binding globulin or sex hormone binding protein.

So this made by your liver and it'll bind up your testosterone

so that it leaves what circulating to be low.

Y'all just on the higher end healthy people typically have

higher and leaner people typically have higher SHBG.

It just means, hey, we have to figure out how to compensate

for that high SHBG to get more free testosterone available.

So again, women, if women are listening, that's why

they say birth control lowers your testosterone because

it increases your SHBG birth control does and then it

leaves your free testosterone to be like zero in women.

We'll talk supplementation not for testosterone.

So visual, big one, magnesium, big one for me.

It's kind of my non-negotiable with everyone needs magnesium.

I love magnesium.

Before you go to bed, the dreams you have after taking

magnesium is like unreal.

It's like, all right, I'm going on a quest.

Here we go.

And you take magnesium and go to sleep.

I want to go to bed.

Magnesium and magnesium three and eight is a good one that

crosses the blood brain barrier and can help you with mental

focus.

So I like glycinate before bed and then I'll take three and

eight in the daytime for mental focus also helps to be

the family history of dementia.

The magnesium zinc vitamin D will look y'all's vitamin D,

but this is where I'm sure you'll have heard of tongue

cat alley.

Maybe feel like that's one that's popular right now.

So there are some studies that theoretically it could

increase testosterone.

Shilajee is one that is really good at lowering SHBG.

So increases free testosterone, but those.

Why?

So the SHBG mind's high.

Yeah.

And my free testosterone is like 15.

So that so because that SHBG is high, that's why my

free testosterone is a little lower.

Yeah, we want the free testosterone higher.

So it's not so good to have a sex hormone binding.

Yeah.

There's there's some correlation with a high SHBG being like

a sign of health to an extent.

I mean, you all in case it probably is that you're active

and lean, but now we have to say, well, how are we going

to overcome a high SHBG?

That's the zinc.

That's the magnesium.

The Shilajee is really good, but those are ones that like

and we'll talk supplements.

If you're going to get supplementation, make sure

their third party tested because a lot of supplements

have heavy metals.

They don't contain the amount of ingredients they

have and then people start taking these supplements and

that's when their liver numbers will get jacked up.

We're going to get I'll get more into the testosterone

lecture in a little bit.

We'll keep rolling through.

So all in all, you'll look pretty good.

But sleep is going to be for me like sleep, basic

nutrition, not raw dogging a white monster in the morning.

Because we have our friend and Lundy is like four

hour guy, but and I what's your take seven hours,

eight hours, like what's the best one?

Yeah, seven to nine.

There's actually studies showing above nine hours is

actually not good, but it's it's not so much how long

you're sleeping, but it's a quality of sleep.

Right.

So like maybe you're from sleeping four hours, but

he's getting two hours of rim and two hours of deep

sleep.

I doubt it, but maybe he's really efficient at sleeping

to where he doesn't have to sleep as long and then

someone could be there for eight hours and they could

get 30 minutes of rim and 30 minutes of deep sleep.

So I've been I've been monitoring my sleeping

out for the last year at this last year.

When I drink alcohol, my sleep score score plummets and

I noticed what I'm kind of in and out of sleep all night.

My deep sleep screw it bad.

If I eat very close to bed, don't sleep as well.

But yeah, I think a lot of what you're doing throughout

the day is going to dictate then your quality of

sleep, not just the amount of sleep yet.

So kind of your diet and head with that as well.

Yeah.

And two, because those people are like, well, I don't

want to share my sleep every night, but then and then

they're too immense.

Sleep apnea is a big deal.

Sleep apnea is not just snoring.

If you're snoring, that's a red flag for sleep apnea

because that that can affect your heart health.

That can make you more prone to risk and stroke and

blood clot because it thickens your blood to try

and get more oxygen through your body.

So sleep apnea for men.

That's like a big thing to look out for and that's

why it's helpful to track sleep to see, you know,

am I having wake ups?

Am I having low oxygen at night?

So, yep.

Okay.

You're thyroid.

So most men thyroid is like pretty good, right?

Women.

That's kind of where women have more of an issue.

Franco is going to ask you.

So you said you were doing a 36 hour fast.

So I got to I got to 48 hours I ate last night.

Okay, tempting to do and again, I started thinking

the same thing I got to the end of yesterday.

Then I started stress.

I wasn't really that hungry.

I started getting really cold.

But I was like kind of bored and I felt like, you know,

I was working from home.

I'm like, and then I started stressing out about food.

Then I worked out those last two days.

So I was like, I need, I need the protein like in my head.

I'm like, I need the protein to grow.

Did I just waste my last two workouts?

So I was like six eggs and an avocado and that was what

I ate yesterday.

So, yeah.

So you asked.

So like I said, most men thyroid is pretty good,

but thyroid is kind of your master hormone.

It regulates every pretty much every organ in your body

as a thyroid receptor.

Ideally free T3 that's your active form of thyroid.

I like that to be at least three.

So Jacob, Jake, you're there Frank.

You're almost there.

I was going to say people who fast you will see a dip

in T3 if you're coming off a facet in the last few weeks.

So T3 again, that active form of thyroid.

We need to keep our metabolism to keep our brain.

It's really helpful with heart health.

That makes sense because J2 is one of those guys.

I feel like he's always got like every two hours.

You've got like a healthy meal in front of you.

Well, so I'm always, yeah, I'm always eating,

but that brings me to a point like shout out to my good

buddy, Nick Smith.

I know he listens to this talking about autophagy, right?

So like a 70 hour fast.

Like, is there actual signs behind that?

Cause come Thursday, like he's holding me a combo.

I'm holding him a combo.

We're, you know, Thursday at noon is our last meal

till Sunday at noon.

I see what happens.

Is there anything I'm kind of like you.

I'm a guinea pig.

I want to, I don't know.

I don't know whether it's good or bad,

but we're going to find out.

Yeah.

What is your, personally, I try and do a dinner and a dinner

at 24 hour fast once a month.

Women again, it's a little trickier cause hormones.

So I'm not going to say like women don't go out there

willy-nilly and fast.

That's that's probably not good.

Men, a lot of the studies that mean at least has to

be that like 24 hour mark.

But again, if you're not sleeping,

you're not healthy otherwise.

Now we're just adding, you know,

hormesis is like our body's response to stress.

Now we've just added stress on and if you're already

have stress, adrenal, then you're living a crappy life.

Have fun with your 24 hour, 36 hour fast.

It's probably not going to do that much for you.

If you're someone that you do have high blood sugar

or high cholesterol or insulin resistance.

Yes.

Fast are really, really good.

The autophagy, the die off of the cells.

Again, a lot of mostly studies are rat studies, right?

So yeah, they, there is some evidence for it.

It's not going to hurt anything.

Would I fast often?

No.

Could you do this once a month?

Yes.

Would I do it more than once a month?

No.

Cause then your T3, your thyroid will take a hit.

It stresses out your adrenals a little bit,

but it is helpful for, you know,

kind of especially brain health too with focus

and inflammation, lowering inflammation.

So I'm not against it.

It's just being careful.

What amount of time would you suggest?

I think, I know a lot of studies say like at least

24 hours.

I probably wouldn't go more than 48.

Like people who did that week long.

I'm like, that's just a miserable week.

Like, yeah.

Have fun.

Perfect.

I did it right then.

Well, it's like 70.

The one that he is planned is 72.

Yeah.

He's done it once.

And I mean, he, he planned it all out like with how

you, you, and then breaking it slowly with,

you know, bone broth stuff like that.

Not just like going on.

Yeah.

Being mindful of what you're breaking the fast with.

Then there's two, there's like the fasting mimicking diet

that likes me like Prolon.

Those can be good.

Like if you're somebody listening, like, man,

I have heart disease.

I'm pre-diabetic.

Do one of the, do that Prolon, that fasting mimicking diet

for, do it for five days once a month for three months.

And they did a lot of studies on like looking at monkeys

and looking at rats.

And they either gave them a 12.5% caloric restriction

plus an increase in energy expenditure from exercise

by 12.5% and the difference of like the way the mouse

looks and the monkey looks like they're night

and day different.

So there's a lot of thought to caloric restriction too

with, you know, in addition to fasting.

Really quick.

And I know we're getting the time from producer,

from producer realistic.

So is there anything else like that?

I know we, I mean, we could probably go another hour

with, with how much stuff we had done.

Is there anything very specific that you want to go

over and then of course I want to finish off with

like, you know, what is the best practice overall

for, you know, male, female, the 25 to 50 is range

that we're kind of talking to right now.

Cortisol's got to be one too, I would think.

Yeah.

So for, for y'all, I want to point out DHEA.

DHEA is a, is made by your original glands.

It's a precursor to make your hormones.

I, it's something that declines with age.

I would expect you to DHEA probably to be closer to 300.

Your brain has receptors for DHEA.

Replacing DHEA, yeah, could theoretically help with testosterone

production.

I'll probably take some DHEA if I was y'all.

Well, I'll give y'all list of supplements.

Our brains aren't functioning.

That's what's wrong with y'all.

Yeah.

That's another one men to look out for.

Yeah.

Your CTE, your Cortisol.

Cortisol's a big one.

So this is just a snapshot in time.

Like, is it super high?

Is it super low?

For the most part, I'm not worried about y'alls.

If it was like high twenties or if it was like five, six,

seven, eight in the morning, it would trigger me to think,

okay, there might be a problem.

I like it like teens 12 to teens for a morning Cortisol.

Cortisol should be highest when you wake up, falls off

in the afternoon, rises again while you sleep between

three and four a.m.

So Cortisol's a big one to look at.

If you want to know more about your Cortisol,

there's something called a Dutch test or a hormone

zoomer from the vibrant.

You pee in a test tube and spit in a cup four times a day

just for a day and it'll check your total Cortisol and

see are you producing too much Cortisol or your adrenals

tired and you're not producing enough, but you're right.

Cortisol is a big one.

That's why sleep impacts testosterone production so much.

Um, let's see your vitamin D.

You both need more vitamin D.

So, ideally.

Yeah.

Right.

And we just sit, we just sit inside all day.

So yeah, most people need to supplement vitamin D unless

you could stand outside naked at lunchtime for an hour every

day, but we can't.

You could maybe you could.

Um, I vitamin D like at least 80.

There.

I heard something.

I don't know.

Paranials on your butt, your butt and your and your nuts.

Yeah.

Is that a thing?

I mean, I don't know that again, if you could do it

technically do it, do a little study.

Come back.

Yeah.

Most people vitamin D you need it for testosterone production.

You need it for energy.

Vitamin D is like, honestly, my favorite a level at least 60

even better of 80.

Most people can safely take vitamin D 5000.

I use you have to take it with food because it's fast

valuable.

But yeah, you both need vitamin D.

Most multivitamins don't have enough.

And then you brought up earlier too.

Yeah.

Magnesium and then I wanted to point out CRP.

So Jake, your CRP.

This is an inflammatory marker was a little elevated.

Um, 1.1 I'm not panicked about like when we start getting

above three, that's when it's kind of send some red flags

off for me less than one's normal.

You're just slightly elevated.

It could be if you were sick recently, um, if you

had an injury, if you had this children.

So yeah, yeah, all kinds of food sensitivity, all that

kind of stuff, but that's another one to look at going

back to the cholesterol.

If you have a high CRP and high cholesterol, that's like,

that's, that's going to cause some trouble for a party

of acid disease.

Um, turmeric is really good anti inflammatory, you

know, curcumin turmeric.

That's a good one.

Um, and then if it stays persistently elevated,

investigate it like is there food sensitivity is what's

going on.

Um, magnesium, we looked at insulin.

We looked at so insulin is a I'll make this as

quick as I can.

So A1C is what we'd normally check to see if you have

diabetes, your doctor's like, you don't have diabetes,

move on, you're fine.

Fasting insulin is a better look at to see your long-term

risk of diabetes.

Is your pancreas having to produce more insulin to

keep up with blood sugar?

I'm extra picky.

I like this less than six.

So Frank, yours is 6.4.

I'm not going to panic about it above 10.

Again, that's kind of where my panic is.

Um, but I recommend most people just once in

their life, try a continuous glucose monitor.

Like the little thing on the back of your arm is the

craziest thing you'll ever do.

Cause there's a lot of stuff you're like, man, I'm

so healthy.

This was such a healthy snack.

And then yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's the lingo's.

Lingo's my favorite.

Um, but yeah, just cause it tells you way more than

that A1C tells you and then ferritin always

checked ferritin.

It's a reflection of iron stores, but a lot of guys

with a lot of inflammation or alcohol use ferritin

will start to get really high and iron can start

to deposit in your organs.

So y'all ferritin looks good.

Love that.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, I love this.

This was I needed this could be another hour.

Easily.

Well, Allie, I might be, I might be calling this

could go another.

Yeah.

It's not on the air.

No, I'll send you a little email, but I think

like to summarize, if I had to say what most

men could safely take if they're like, dude, I'm

not going to go donate nine vials of blood.

I'm just not going to do it.

Magnesium like 200 to 500 milligrams at night.

I like glycinate for sleep, three and eight.

If you need mental focus, malates good for muscles.

A vitamin D with K 5000 daily, a fish oil, a good

quality fish oil is the key.

I like a brand microbiome labs.

Mega marine link below.

Yeah, two grams per day and then, um, but also

a methylated B vitamin.

Most people, you can take that pretty safely.

Most guys, I'm going to say it.

You probably need a fiber powder.

Even if you're like, well, my bowler good, um, fiber

powder, feel like there's probably some other other

stuff I'm missing, but those are pretty much like

my main non-negotiables that I have that like most

people need.

I've checked blood work all the time and those

are all needs that people have.

So you throw a cheat sheet in this right here

and come up on my Amazon storefront.

So there we go.

Look at that.

And then I also too.

I want to try to, I want to talk to you about getting

some, I want to try some peptide.

I mean, I want to take it.

Yeah, you can be my lab rat, buddy.

I'll try.

Yeah, I've never done anything more than creating a

swear, but I kind of, you're out of the league.

You can do whatever you want.

I want to try it.

So is it legal for players to do peptides?

There's some that are on a bandplist.

I don't know exactly.

I'm pretty sure.

So BPC is my favorite.

We haven't talked about that body protective compound.

That one is like, if you're dealing with rotator cough

or like bicep tendonitis, it's an injection, a daily

injection with like a tiny, tiny needle in the sight

of injury, like into the fat.

It works wonders for people's injuries.

I want just right in the middle of the bicep.

How do I grow?

Yeah, you could.

Yeah, just yeah, grow it.

No, I want to grow that.

What peptides are they just allow that to get bigger?

We'll work on that.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, Allie, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for thank you.

You're all explaining it to two knuckle draggers

such as Frank and I.

And again, I'm going to have some research to do myself

and figure this one out because yeah, good is the enemy

of great and I don't plan on dying any, any, any day

soon.

Yeah.

Well, I will send you a little list of all the

things that I think you all should do.

We appreciate it.

I mean, I could talk about this all day.

You all know that.

So I seriously like we're going to call you like

that's just a foregone conclusion.

Yeah.

Cool.

Thank you so much.

Thank you all so much.

So good to meet you.

Take care.

Bye.

Take care.

I'm happy new year.

Thank you for watching the most recent episode of

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Testosterone, nutrition, and health myths we get wrong with Allie Donnell, PA-C

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