Maxed out Man
Welcome to the Maxed Out Man Podcast, where success meets personal growth. Dive into conversations with entrepreneur Kevin Davis and a roster of experts, as we unravel the essence of being a man today. Whether you're navigating isolation or seeking to elevate your life, this podcast promises insights and strategies to help you become the man you were made to be. Perfect for those ready to challenge themselves and transform.
Maxed out Man
Episode 73 - The Importance of an Open Mindset in Men's Health - Dr. Dan Sullivan
Dr. Dan Sullivan, a licensed naturopathic doctor, discusses the importance of a holistic approach to men's health. He emphasizes the need for an open mindset, healthy connections, and comprehensive blood work to optimize health and well-being. Dr. Sullivan also highlights the significance of diet, exercise, and lifestyle choices in supporting testosterone levels and overall health.
Takeaways
- Maintaining an open mindset is crucial for men to seek help and make positive changes in their health.
- Surrounding oneself with healthy connections and friends can provide motivation and support for making lifestyle changes.
- Getting comprehensive blood work done can provide valuable insights into one's health and guide targeted interventions.
- A healthy diet, regular exercise, and stress management are key factors in supporting testosterone levels and overall well-being.
To learn more about Maxed Out Man and to maximize your potential, visit www.maxedoutman.com or connect with us on Social Media:
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok
0:00
like if you were going to say okay these are the top three things that men should be thinking about with their health um
0:05
what top three things should men be thinking about or action should they be taking in order to better their
0:13
health welcome to maxed out man helping you become the man you were made to
0:20
be hey guys this is Kevin Davis from the maxed man podcast I here with Dr Dan Sullivan but before we begin don't
0:27
forget to go to max out man.com check out what we've got going on there with coaches and uh coaching courses all
0:33
sorts of resources over there I do want to mention too we're thinking about doing an adventure retreat in Costa Rica
0:39
sometime in the fall of 2024 if you're listening to this I have no plans for this whatsoever at this point but I've
0:45
mentioned it to a couple of guys and they're like that sounds super cool and so if you are interested in something
0:50
like that reach out to me KD MaxOut man.com and we'll figure it out so hey I want to give Dr Dan's bio here so we got
0:59
uh Dr Dan Sullivan is a licensed naturopathic doctor and a certified health coach from The Institute for
1:05
Integrative Nutrition Dr Sullivan has been in interested in health and performance optimization from an early
1:12
age in order to pursue ice hockey at a higher level D1 uh he advanced in hockey
1:17
and received a full scholarship from division one University of Maine uh black bears uh go black bears right uh
1:25
during this time he was diagnosed with ADHD and began searching for answers other than uh prescription medication Dr
1:32
suvan loves helping people optimize their health and has a clinical interest in mental health brain health hormones
1:38
performance and biohacking uh he has Advanced Training from Apex energetics in thyroid blood
1:45
chemistry brain chemistry and functional Indo Endocrinology there you go
1:52
additionally he has completed functional medicine training from The Institute for functional medicine and is in the
1:58
process of becoming a certified practice practitioner you do a lot that's awesome
2:03
uh I appreciate you taking the time taking the time to be with me today and I'm super excited all of that stuff is
2:09
like I nerd out on on all yeah so my background's in in health and fitness
2:16
and you know exercise physiology and all that stuff but I'm not a physician you you're
2:21
like you are just like way on the other side of that that Continuum for me so I'm super excited to learn from you so
2:28
that's like your ledin bio your like website bio so fill us in on the gaps like that how' you get here how' you get
2:36
interested in and why did you go the you know naturopathic medicine versus you
2:42
know traditional medicine this functional medicine all that so give me give me a little bit more background on
2:48
that yeah I mean I think you know starting off I was an athlete I was a hockey player played you know many
2:55
different sports growing up golf tennis racketball U baseball you name it but
3:00
hockey kind of became my passion that was what I wanted to do and I wanted to play in the NHL and so you know over
3:09
that journey I was always interested in how do I get to the next level how do I
3:14
optimize my health and performance for me back then it was more about how do I
3:19
optimize my performance on the ice and so that just naturally led me
3:25
down podcasts books seeking out mentorship changing my diet you looking
3:32
at websites all that kind of stuff just trying to devour information on how to
3:37
optimize myself and so during that process I was diagnosed with ADHD when I
3:45
was about 18 19 years old and I wasn't given any other options
3:51
other than just pharmaceutical medication I wasn't asked about my my
3:57
diet my stress levels my there wasn't any blood work or genetic testing that was done on me so I didn't
4:06
know any other options and so I just started taking the medication and that
4:12
was very helpful in certain ways my focus dramatically improved but then I
4:17
was noticing all kinds of other side effects and so I was kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place where I
4:25
really needed the medication to function well and to do well in school I was having terrible time focusing a lot of
4:31
brain fog I would just read a page and just not even remember anything about
4:37
what I had literally just read and motivation levels were just very low to
4:44
do anything other than what I was very interested in doing and
4:50
so gosh yeah long story short I met a mentor while I was playing uh hockey in
4:56
college he was an acupuncturist he practiced functional medicine he was just a super super inspiring guy very
5:04
passionate about what he did and he was like you know Dan there are other options other than medication and the
5:12
amount of sugar the amount of processed foods that you're consuming in your diet are significantly impacting your ADHD
5:20
and so we did a number of different tests and food sensitivity testing and
5:26
blood work and all this stuff to really investigate what are the root causes of my issues focusing and so after working
5:34
with him I was able to get off that medication and that's sort of what lit
5:39
me up in terms of okay there is something huge about this functional
5:46
medicine World naturopathic medicine world and
5:51
so I I was on track to play professionally but then at that point it
5:57
was sort of a critical Tipping Point point in my career where I knew I could roll the dice and play pro play in the
6:04
minors and hopefully keep progressing make it to the NHL like some of my teammates uh have been doing or or did
6:14
um which was very exciting the thought of just playing at that level is you
6:19
know my dream come true but ultimately I knew that that was
6:26
going to be a massive sacrifice and a Gamble as well and it could take a long time and if I wanted to pursue
6:33
medicine I was already 25 at the time so I figured I would you know it was pretty
6:39
much now or never for me or that's what I was thinking at the time so then I
6:45
started my journey with getting a health coaching certification and then realizing that I
6:51
just I wanted more tools to offer people so my dad was actually a traditionally
6:56
trained physician so I originally explored that option I was looking at becoming a
7:02
do and it was actually interesting I I
7:07
visited a school and during that process I just realized that there was
7:14
there was a disconnect there or so in in my eyes there was so I noticed that a
7:19
lot of the students were the types of foods that they were consuming was not very healthy I noticed that they had
7:26
vending machines that were you know stock full full of candy and soda and things like that and I'm like what is
7:33
happening here you know there's there's some kind of a disconnect between
7:39
the fundamentals of Health diet you know being a primary driver of Health as you
7:46
as you're well aware and and so I kind of veered away from that and I
7:53
I started exploring other options and so when
8:00
so I I had worked for that functional medicine doctor after I worked with him
8:06
I ended up working at his office and taking a low grade roll there just to
8:12
get my foot in the door but during my time there he took me to all these seminars on different you know andol
8:20
brainal all these kinds of things all over the place and I was able to meet other practitioners and so during that
8:28
time I met other naturopathic doctors and realize what that even was and then
8:35
after talking to them and exploring that path I decided that that was the best
8:40
route for me so yeah long story but here yeah I mean
8:46
I like it and I think that you know I think it begs the question and maybe some definitions from you I know that
8:53
when we had kind of initially talked you know we we used the term naturopath in
8:59
you know synonymously with naturopathic doctor so make that distinction for me
9:05
and also like just Define what that means like you know you said do which I
9:10
know what that is but kind of explain some of that because I I think there's so many medical terms and stuff that go
9:17
around and like you say oh natural paath if I say hey I go to a natural paath they're like oh so you do crystals and
9:23
you they wave the little smoke thing around you and all you know whatever they you know they got the sage in the
9:28
office so like just kind of walk through that because I want to set some context for people on what this actually
9:35
means yeah so a naturopath is not a is not a degree per se so that's a you can
9:44
take you know an online certification it's a much shorter process for that to
9:50
be a natural path to basically be just educating people on their health their
9:57
their diet their lifestyle things of that nature but they're not actually going to medical school so that's the
10:03
distinction so a naturopathic doctor or a naturopathic uh medical doctor is
10:09
someone who goes to Premed before they go to medical school then they go through four years of medical school in
10:17
which it's very similar the first two years are very similar to that of a doo which is a doctor of osteopathic
10:23
medicine or an MD medical doctor and so those first two years are very very
10:30
physiology biology focused we're just learning the nuts and bolts of Health
10:36
we're doing cadaver lab where we're dissecting human beings uh so we do all
10:42
that very similar to a traditional Medical School whether that's MD or do
10:48
those are very MD and do are very similar they were they were much
10:55
different in the past I think they've they've gotten closer uh so dos will learn manipulation you
11:04
physical manipulation but a lot of the curriculum is similar to that of an MD
11:10
so before like my dad is a is a do so back in the 70s when he was going to
11:16
school those were kind of considered the the quacks and the you know and so now
11:24
they're recognized in all 50 states very synonymous with an n
11:29
status wise and so with an ND or naturopathic doctor we're about we're
11:35
licensing about half of the US right now about more than half of the US so
11:41
they're recognizing us so basically and then the other difference I should say is that the MDS and dos go
11:50
through a mandatory residency period whereas the naturopathic doctors unfortunately there isn't that there
11:58
isn't that relationship with with hospitals at this point and so we have an optional residency where ours is more
12:05
of a more of a private practice you go into a residency in a much smaller scale
12:12
so that that's a that's a something that we're working on that
12:18
we'd really love to have that um so we are lacking that but um and so you know
12:24
we can prescribe testosterone we can prescribe hormone replacement therapy estrogen progesterone we do a lot of IV
12:33
Therapy we can do the schedule 3 four and five drugs so think of the lower
12:41
intervention drugs so the you know when you're thinking about like uh add
12:47
stimulant medications narcotics things like that those are usually schedule one and two which we don't prescribe so
12:55
that's another distinction between a naturopathic doctor as well okay yeah and you can you know put your
13:02
tenf foil hat on and and kind of think through why the licensing issue why the
13:07
residency issue and why the the um you know animosity or antagonistic
13:13
relationship between hospitals and indes right because it's like well you know if
13:19
you guys aren't writing scripts for the expensive schedule one drugs then you know then that hurts the bottom line you
13:26
know Healthcare is so crazy especially now and it seems like it gets worse all the time um but but I think the
13:34
promising thing is as you're talking about the the the less um you know less
13:40
of a dichotomy between MD and do would hopefully mean that the MDS are getting
13:45
more holistic um Ty type of ucation
13:51
right well and and the the very end of the bio that you read The Institute for
13:57
functional medicine that's that's big long certification process that I'm doing a lot of MDS and dos are in that
14:05
same program and so they're a lot of them have already you know they're already established Physicians and then
14:12
they actually want to Pivot and go into more functional medicine but they were never taught those things which are more
14:19
in alignment with what we're taught as naturopathic doctors which I should probably mention which is more of the
14:26
diet the LIF we have lot of I forget how many hours hundreds of hours of diet
14:33
nutrition you know different vitamins uh minerals we we learn a lot
14:40
about just holistic medicine you know how how to how
14:47
to how to get better how to feel better on a on a root cause level ver and we
14:53
still granted we still have pharmacology classes where we learn medications right
14:59
you know I got my DEA license which required me to pass a huge exam based around just purely
15:06
medications and so there's yeah there's there's kind of
15:11
that we learn we learn enough of the conventional to to understand that
15:18
because a lot of because we really have to understand that right because a lot of I forget how many how many
15:24
medications the average American is on but it's it's a fair amount and so we
15:30
have to kind of know what we're doing in terms of how do we how do we help them how do we work with their p with their
15:36
prescribing doctor how do we wean them down if possible some of those medications and intervene with the
15:44
lifestyle the more Natural Therapeutics yeah I was listening to a podcast this morning um Robert and uh
15:51
charlot Shaw who have mastering your marriage podcast which is Awesome by the way but they had they had a doctor and
15:57
they were talking about um my wife and I were listening to it because she's 50 she's kind of in that per menopause
16:03
stage and and the podcast this particular one was about HRT and about
16:09
the um kind of the fears behind it and all the symptoms of param menopause I
16:14
mean I realize this is a man's podcast but if your if your wife or significant other is going through any of this stuff
16:21
um but all that to say she was talking a lot about functional medicine and she was also talking about you know the
16:27
whole uh lifestyle thing like you can you can control some things with diet uh
16:33
nutrition exercise all of these things but in this case they were talking about estrogen and progesterone production and
16:40
like once your body's not producing those anymore you can't do like you have
16:45
to go a pharmacological route was was her stance um because you just don't
16:50
have that you have to go a replacement route because you just don't have it um and so that's where like what you guys
16:57
do versus is important because there are just times when taking a pharmacological
17:02
approach is the approach right or at least opponent of it right 100% yeah
17:11
there's also ways too it's like how do you marry the pharmaceutical with the
17:16
other the stress reduction the dietary changes the Supple the targeted supplementation the the labs right the
17:23
comprehensive lab work that really fine tunes the HRT right because there's a
17:30
lot of other things that affect uh hormone metabolism how well it's how well the hormones are binding at the
17:36
receptor especially in men and testosterone a lot of guys would just want to go on trt you know but if
17:43
they're if they're a little bit overweight they got that Central at aosi that you know that midsection weight
17:50
they're going to aromatize that testosterone into estrogen yeah more
17:55
more of it right so they're going to convert that testosterone into estrogen so there's a lot of
18:01
other supportive factors to adding in a pharmaceutical that we would you try to
18:09
optimize to get the the best bang for your buck out of that pharmaceutical
18:14
yeah because I mean sometimes it's just it's just part of the like and that's what I want to Define what holistic
18:19
medicine is uh and just the holistic approach because it in some cases when I used to hear words like holistic right
18:26
again it's like oh we got this sh and he's sitting in a yoga pose and all that holistic just means whole body right
18:34
like everything fits together a good bunny of mine Justin rosling's Hofer who actually was a NHL strength and
18:41
conditioning coach um he's he's very much about the whole self and I've
18:47
learned a lot from him because I'm a go go go you know lift weight six days a week you know and like he starts looking
18:54
at HRV and some of these numbers and my Sleep Quality is like dude you're going to die early you're going to look great
19:01
but you're going to die early because you're not taking a holistic approach to your health right and then that's that's something we're missing in modern
19:07
medicine and just everyday especially Western life right for sure for sure
19:13
yeah we have those we have those blind spots too and I feel like a
19:18
comprehensive it's just yeah in my eyes holistic it's just comprehensive comprehensive View and so you know for
19:25
instance what I'll do is I'll do a 90 minute initial exam or initial intake
19:31
with somebody that comes in every new patient is seen for an hour and a half by me wait you're only supposed to get like seven minutes I thought seven
19:37
minutes was I know I know so yeah that's you
19:44
know that's that's inherently an issue right with our current medical system
19:49
and the insurance model it just doesn't that doesn't fit the model and so it's
19:57
unfortunate for people that aren't getting the type of care that they deserve I feel like everybody deserves
20:03
to have a comprehensive look at their body their physiology to understand what's going on because we know so much
20:09
about the body and how to optimize obviously there's so much more to learn which is always exciting but I feel like
20:18
that you that's why we do that is to really literally go ask them questions
20:23
from birth right were they grass-fed were they see baby for you did they get
20:29
chronic ear infections or or sinus infections were they put on chronic antibiotics as a child what is their gut
20:36
microbiome like because that is the house of 80% of the immune system and a
20:41
lot of times I would say probably 80% of patients plus that I see do have some
20:48
level of gut dysfunction going on and so the more I do this the more I test for
20:54
that and a lot of people have never had their full gut
21:00
tested and that plays a significant role in their hormones and how how their
21:05
physique looks how are they absorbing their pristine diets you know with all
21:11
the the macros getting um perfectly calculated all that stuff so it really
21:18
it's just a deeper look and I think that's what I really learned from my original Mentor Jay the the functional
21:26
medicine provider that helped me make the transition was he was just like man
21:32
there's so much more for you to learn and there's there's just deeper and
21:38
deeper levels of knowledge and how this stuff all all works to to optimize a a
21:43
just a massive level than where you're currently at and um and so yeah so just
21:50
to finish that thought I think that uh we call that the subjective right what
21:56
the person is telling us combined that with a comprehensive objective so
22:01
drawing the blood looking at their comprehensive blood work their vitamin D and their testosterone there not only
22:07
the total testosterone granted but the free testosterone the sexor bining globulin the estradiol the ratio of
22:15
testosterone to estrogen you all these different markers talking more men there
22:22
obviously but and then as well is the lipid panels This is this this is a huge
22:29
issue that's that's coming up a lot and where they'll go to their primary care
22:35
and they'll get total cholesterol LDL HDL and
22:41
triglycerides that's it and that stuff may look normal or okay but they're
22:48
literally a ticking Time Bomb when we do we do a a very Advanced Cardiovascular
22:54
panel on people that it would be indicated on or their they're interested in doing that a lot of times the the
23:02
breakdown of the more advanced lipid markers is very telling and so they can
23:09
get away with a seemingly clean bill of health by just looking at surface level
23:15
data but when they dig a little deeper then they realize oh there's some stuff
23:21
going on and then you know it's very empowering too because we can connect the dots and say oh you know you've got
23:27
inflammation going on here you got your vitamin D is low you've got you know your uh your iron status is suboptimal
23:33
all this stuff and how that interplays with the thyroid which is affecting your gut motility which is then affecting
23:40
your brain function and your brain fog people have never had all those dots
23:45
connected before so that's really a fun part of my job and it's really just exciting to see them like Buy in they're
23:52
like oh wow you all this stuff is like it's all connected and I can you know do
23:58
something about it and feel better yeah and and to realize that you know doctors
24:03
don't ask about lifestyle ever like I you know I don't go to the doctor very much because I'm healthy but uh you know
24:12
but in they don't ask about diet they don't ask about your nutrition like in
24:17
general they don't ask about do you work out do you lift weights do you exercise do you have strong family connections do
24:23
you know all of these things all they do are like well you know oh you're glycolides are too high let me throw you
24:30
on this Statin which by the way is going to kill you you know which is like a
24:35
Terri it's just it's just so that 90 minutes is so crucial for people in
24:41
order to get that because you may see all these data and like you said I love the you're you become more of a
24:47
behavioral specialist it you know coupled with data right very
24:53
true yeah I I'm definitely running into that a lot more that that approach
24:58
of okay because a lot of this stuff is
25:04
is they have to do something about it they have to change their lifestyle their relationships whatever the root
25:11
cause we investigate what is causing the issue here is it your is the limiting
25:16
factor the relationship or the lack thereof with your dad or with you know
25:22
whatever the case may be or is it the mold toxicity that you have right is it a physiological reason or some
25:30
combination usually some combination of five to seven factors for most people
25:35
and so yeah it's just uh it it becomes an art and I'm spending more time learning
25:44
about motiv what motivates people what inspires people you know it's it's one
25:51
thing to look at the data and give them a treatment plan I feel like that's
25:58
that's easier so to speak than it is to okay where is this person at in their
26:03
life how are they financially how what kind of a time commitment do they have how motivated are they how can I Inspire
26:11
and motivate them and then what order of operations would be most effective where
26:16
do we start to get the most meaningful quick change for them to feel better as
26:23
soon as possible and then to you know have that motivation and that
26:30
um what's that word I'm looking for the compliance
26:39
gosh that's gonna kill me man that uh yeah gosh that continued um
26:48
yeah that just that motivation the kind of getting the ball rolling in the right direction yeah so are you doing like
26:55
parallel paths almost you know because you could say okay okay well I know that you need to stop eating at McDonald's 6
27:00
days a week I know that you need to actually lift weights I know that you need to do all these things but if I just have you do those that may take you
27:08
six nine 12 months you know I mean you're going to see benefits within six weeks six to 12 weeks obviously by just
27:15
doing some of those things but then you're taking you know whether whether it's supplementation um you know whatever
27:22
whatever those that that other path so are you taking more of a parallel path to do both of those at the same
27:30
time yes so that's sort of where the art comes in and also that what just came to
27:36
mind is the is the Pharmaceuticals too the higher level the higher level intervention for some people to kind of
27:43
just get a kickstar too so that's I will do that when it's when it's indicated
27:50
when I think that would make a really big difference for that person and just help to get them on board so
27:59
yeah there's there's a time and a place for that I think it's just I think you know for for
28:05
a lot of people though it is it is very motivating once they see the data that they've never really seen before laid
28:11
out like that that is really motivating and for men too where you know a lot of
28:17
men are data driven and and um gosh it's just it's crazy what comes up you know
28:24
yeah and seemingly like I just had a guy great guy you know he's what 40 years
28:30
old 42 years old nice family his wife came in she had a
28:35
Hashimoto and I'm treating her and and she's like yeah I want you know I want to get my husband in here and so he
28:42
doesn't really have that much going on you know feels pretty good comes in and um you know he finally comes in he's a
28:48
busy guy and we we get to talking we do some Labs on him and I don't know how
28:56
this guy's functioning because he had mercury levels that were through the roof his homocysteine was like 3x the
29:03
normal limit which is a measure of inflammation in the body he had two different parasitic infections in his
29:09
gut he had massive leaky gut or intestinal permeability he like there was probably
29:17
10 other things going on and I'm like how are you even how are you doing this and and imagine what imagine how much
29:24
better you can feel if we addressed some of this stuff so we're doing that now and man I'm just
29:31
I'm so excited for people like that that are like that are operating you know at a certain percent um of their of their
29:38
capacity and it's like oh now and that's what's exciting for me too is helping people to get to from maybe 50%
29:46
efficiency to 80 90 100% capable of so much you know oh man
29:54
it's and it's not you know at the end of the day it's not that hard it was funny cuz when we uh when I first started
30:01
talking to Justin who's the the guy that he it's called own it which they do
30:06
cellular testing and DNA testing and all this different stuff and then custom supplementation but when I first started
30:12
talking to him I had this like super cocky attitude right like oh I'm Mr fit Mr high performance Mr all
30:19
whatever but my wife is dealing with paropa and sleep issues and all this
30:24
kind of stuff and we get we get our data back and like the same thing as this guy
30:29
right like you're you're patient like all right I'm I look great from the outside and I'm high performance but
30:35
like I don't sleep well my HRV is in the tank I look you know I I'm just
30:41
cellularly not that healthy and so like that's where as a guy you're like oh
30:46
well the data is right here what do I need to do and so I put in all these things in place you know we have better
30:53
sleep things we have we have you know more stress relief which is the Killer
30:58
right like the stress part of it Stress Management all of those things I've been on trt for about three years now I have
31:04
a basically have one testicle so because of a motorcycle accident so that there's
31:09
a physicality that that affected that but mine was like 243 in my in my early in my early 40s
31:17
and so you can imagine how I felt with that um yeah I I do want to ask you about hormone regulation when it comes
31:23
to trt estradi those kind of things um we we at max out man I've been
31:30
concentrating on the like 45 plus demographic so a lot of our listens are that way but I also want to talk to
31:36
these younger guys who were in there you know 18 to 25 18 to 30 I just had a
31:42
buddy of mine that's like 32 and his was like 246 his testosterone was um and so
31:49
talk to me kind of how we evaluate as guys like how do when should we get
31:54
tested what are our procedures what dietary and nutrition and and exercise
32:00
things can we do uh in order to kind of address some of those symptomatic
32:06
things so I think number one everybody every man should be tested for the
32:12
testosterone for sure have a baseline the younger you are the better right in
32:17
your in your in your 20s I would start there just so you have a baseline this is where I was at in my 20s and then you
32:23
can kind of track that over time um I would also encourage guys to
32:29
get a full panel in terms of so not just the Testo total testosterone but also
32:35
looking at free testosterone looking at sexual hormone binding globulin looking at
32:40
estradiol uh looking at dheas I mean really just I'd encourage people to get as comprehensive a panel
32:46
as possible whatever they can afford and and if you're going through your primary care you really have to in most cases
32:54
advocate for yourself so looking up a full panel get getting knowledgeable on
33:01
what that looks like and then presenting that to the doctor and just asking for all those labs and seeing what they'll
33:06
do so I'd recommend doing that and you can go to you can go to an external lab
33:12
too right like that's what I that's what I do and they even have so like they at my thing they have um they'll do the
33:18
full testosterone panel that you described and it's half price on Tuesday and Thursdays I don't know why they do
33:23
that but like you can you can go to an external lab and then you you I present
33:29
that to my you know ND and I'm like all right here's here's my labs you know
33:34
this is what I this is what I've been on this is what I think I should do do you have any you know disagreements or
33:40
whatever but you know to your point go get tested keep going yeah for sure um
33:45
and that yeah that's a great point because that's becoming more and more uh you know financially doable for people
33:53
too because it is that would be an out-of- pocket expense um but yeah becoming more and more reasonable to get
33:59
to get comprehensive labs done um in terms of what were you asking about the
34:05
diet and the exercise just like Steps like you could take you know how do you
34:11
evaluate whether or not like you know you I mean everybody should get tested right but what's the motivation
34:17
to get tested like symptomatically what is you know what things do you look with your diet and and exercise and all that
34:24
too so yeah I think yeah every everybody should get tested because even if you
34:29
feel like you're feeling okay you want to get some data to evaluate that to
34:37
kind of combine how you're feeling with how you're doing objectively and so you can feel okay with a testosterone of you
34:45
know 350 maybe you can because that's kind of your Norm right and so you wouldn't know that until you get the
34:52
yeah until you get I did air quotes if you're listening to this Norm but the
34:57
norm yeah that's a whole another topic but um so yeah I think symptom Wise It's
35:04
just inability of gaining muscle in the gym it's a lack of motivation it's you know are you getting
35:12
are you not getting erections in the morning when you're waking up um or throughout the night you would really
35:17
know that um you know just general kind of malaise also body composition as well
35:27
um can be can suffer so just not being able to gain muscle or be even motivated
35:34
to get to the gym to put on the muscle in the first place also with Focus
35:39
motivation right testosterone plays a significant role in the frontal lobe of the brain where we make a lot of
35:45
executive decisions and so it's a big problem that people have low testosterone right that's a that's a
35:51
that's a risk factor for cardiovascular disease when they have low tea and so
35:56
that's a huge problem so I want to just encourage men that it's okay to seek out
36:03
you know trt or to you know want to optimize basically just want to optimize
36:08
your testosterone right try to do it naturally if at all possible and try to exhaust those options because that's the
36:16
other thing too that I'll just mention before I get into diet and exercise is that the testost if you if you are to do
36:24
testosterone replacement therapy and you haven't address the fundamentals first
36:30
you're not going to get that good of result with it you're going to you know potentially aromatize it into estrogen
36:37
you're going to have to be put on higher dosages higher dosages of something like an nrol to inhibit the conversion and
36:44
you're kind of playing whack-a-mole with these other side effects that happen like the acne that'll come up because
36:51
you're going to have to take higher and higher dosages because if you're more inflamed the testosterone will bind as
36:58
effectively at the receptor so there's all these other things that are playing a role in how effective the testosterone
37:05
is so I'd also encourage me because I know it's it's tempting to just say oh I
37:12
got low testosterone I just want to you know get my levels up as soon as possible but it's worth the work and
37:20
effort that it takes to set the stage right and then after that's
37:25
done if you still truly need trt then by all means do it and but then you're just
37:33
in a you're in a place where the trt is just going to supercharge you instead of
37:39
this weird place where you're getting all these side effects and stuff and it's not really you get the honeymoon
37:45
and it'll just kind of decrease after a couple months so I just wanted to go on
37:51
a little rant there no that's super helpful because I actually haven't heard anybody talk about trt in the you know
37:57
because that it's not a Magic Bullet right just like steroids are not a Magic Bullet the guys
38:02
that are doing steroids which is like 10 times what I take those guys are still working their ass off in the gym like
38:08
it's not a magic it's not it's not magic serum you know like like you're a super
38:13
hero but I love that you talked about the fact that you know I I know guys that are on trt and they're still 50
38:19
pounds overweight 30 pounds overweight because they don't exercise they still eat like crap I was originally on an
38:26
asrol and my doctor like you don't need that you're low body fat you're fine just don't and I don't take it so now I
38:32
just do just just do that I don't worry about HCG or anything that and atrophy because I'm married and my wife doesn't
38:38
care uh and I don't really care that much either but um yeah so but I I
38:44
really appreciate that component is because it's it's something that comes into what you'll talk about next which
38:50
is you know lifestyle stuff right yeah so to touch on that I think
38:57
having adequate protein is critical so I recommend having protein with every meal
39:03
so having at least you know three meals a day typically
39:09
um highly variable in terms of who's a good candidate for intermittent fasting
39:14
things like that for some people that can be very effective if you're very stressed already I would not recommend
39:21
intermittent fasting just because it is another physiological stressor on the body
39:27
um in terms of diet I mean really you want to you want to be assuming as low amount of sugar as possible because
39:34
higher amounts of sugar decrease the immune system decrease testosterone
39:41
literally I would encourage people to be consuming a lot of cruciferous
39:46
vegetables a lot of fiber content that fiber is very good for uh lowering LDL
39:54
cholesterol number one but also just good for the gut microbiome that
39:59
ferments that um very good for the health of the gut which is highly
40:05
affects your hormones like testosterone also um you know making sure you're
40:11
having regular bve movement so the fiber will help with that which will promote detoxification which is also good for
40:18
testosterone um you know quality over quantity as well too so making sure
40:24
you're getting grass-fed beef you're getting you know organic eggs um all those kinds of things the the pesticides
40:31
and residues that's unconventionally grown um vegetables or fruits and meats
40:37
things like that or not pesticides on Meats but just hormones and other things that are in conventionally U meat
40:44
conventionally grown meats are not good and so for many
40:51
reasons I think so yeah I think that's those are some of the pillars I would
40:57
say of of supporting testosterone there's a lot of other Nuance in there of course
41:03
but I think if you're eating mainly Whole Food you're trying to stay away
41:09
from the inflammatory seed oils the fast food obviously the the packaged Foods as
41:15
much just how it comes from nature as possible the better and then I think in
41:21
terms of exercise I would say having regular weightlifting session
41:28
is going to be the most important thing doing full body movements complex lifts
41:35
you know deadlift bench press back squat or if you're unable to do those things
41:40
just still getting a complex movement in like a leg press uh or a p you know Push
41:46
Pull overhead push overhead pull um movements like that and you're
41:52
going you're you're you're working your body in a
41:58
I mean I think the rep ranges too can be can be variable but I like to go more on the Lower Side uh not super low as to as
42:07
to potentially increase risk of injury but you know you know enough weight
42:13
where you're really working you're really stressing the muscle maybe six reps 10 6 to 10 5 to 10 to 12 somewhere
42:21
in that range I feel like is a good uh range for most people and then I think
42:31
um not overtraining either right so if you're going aggressively every single
42:38
day an hour and a half in the gym right there's a point of diminishing return so
42:44
I feel like to your point you're talking about you know the stress and the relaxation that's equally as important
42:50
so hitting the gym hard and then also re rejuvenating uh as well because that's
42:56
OB ly when your body grows is is out of the gym yeah we always make the
43:02
distinction between overtraining and under recovered you know we talked I talked to I talked to a buddy of mine
43:08
and he was saying that it's even Elite athletes have a hard time overtraining
43:13
right like and it typically it's we use that phrase and it really is under recovered to your point that you just
43:20
gave which is just we're not we're not allowing our bodies to grow and to repair and to you know build those
43:27
things that we're that's why we're doing everything right is in order to keep that recovery and and build uh build
43:33
better bodies 100% 100% yeah I ran into that too as a
43:38
hockey player like I it was just yeah I was I was uh not doing a good job of
43:45
recovering under a lot of stress yeah yeah I know so much better now it's it's
43:51
pretty typical hey I want to I want to finish up but I want to can you give you're going to say okay these are the
43:56
top three things that men should be thinking about with their health um what Tope three things should men be thinking
44:02
about or action should they be taking in order to better their
44:08
health D that's a hard one put you
44:16
yeah I think I think number one is actually
44:25
mindset so keep keeping an open mind being open to being wrong
44:33
or just you know like like you were saying like you're thinking you're the healthiest guy in the room or whatever
44:39
and then you know you do some labs and it's like oh I got some work to do so just being open to that I feel like a
44:44
lot of guys and I run into this a lot because most of my practice is women right because I you know that's just the
44:52
way that's just the way it pans out women just are more likely to to seek help and you know get things checked out
45:00
and so for guys I'd highly encourage them to keep the mindset of keeping an open mind you know asking for help if
45:07
you if you're experiencing symptoms like the symptoms of low te or whatever
45:12
seeking go like just yeah doing it okay got it getting help um and
45:20
then yeah I think there's so much to mindset I love that topic but um I think
45:26
that's where it all starts right if you're not open to doing anything or open to changing then the the other two
45:33
are for for no yeah um I would
45:40
say I would say number two
45:46
is uh having having really good connections and people who are
45:55
healthy that you're friends with that you spend time with because we that's
46:00
like the biggest indicator more than me telling you to eat Whole Foods and
46:05
everything which is I think very important obviously but I think if you're around that environment on a
46:11
daily basis it becomes very hard to deviate from that and become unhealthy if everybody else around you is healthy
46:18
right yep so I think that would be do your best to you know be around people
46:23
like that and and create friendships if if you don't have any like that already
46:29
that's very very important to do that or with anything else that you want to get better at if you want to make more money
46:36
spend time around people who who make more money right things like that right
46:41
and then I think number three would be just you know um from my from a biased
46:48
standpoint I think getting tested getting comprehensive blood work as as a
46:53
baseline to just see where things are at and then go from there because
47:00
honestly you don't know till you know and uh know you feel but it's another thing
47:08
to really get a comprehensive look and then it's it's super empowering too
47:13
because you see the data you see the before and then you take action you take
47:19
certain supplements you change your diet or you change your relationships and then you retest and you see what
47:25
happened it's just like an one experiment yeah 100% you know nine times
47:30
out of 10 you're going to be feeling significantly better in the process yeah I love it I love it hey Dr Dan Sullivan
47:37
how do we find you how do we get more information about you learn more about what you do and and um kind of reach out
47:44
if we need help or information yeah so I'm mostly on
47:49
Instagram dr. Dan Sullivan is my handle um Oasis health and medicine so that's
47:57
the clinic that I work at so we have a clinic me and my partner in San Diego California um so Oasis health and
48:05
medicine all spelled out.com is our website so we're seeing patients uh in
48:10
person virtually and we're also looking to expand so we're actively creating um
48:17
an online community on school right now so nice that's very exciting so because
48:23
yeah that's one of the things we're running into is we just don't have the time to see all these people so um and
48:29
then also you know some people just cannot afford it so we want to really make this type of medicine much more
48:36
available as as as available as possible so out for that hey I'm gonna I may
48:43
reach out to you about my wife too with her HRT and talk talk a little bit about that so hey thank you so much for coming
48:49
on board super interesting we'll have to bring you back and talk more about mindset I love that topic as well so I'd
48:54
love to have you back at some point but thanks so much for coming on board man have a great day my pleasure my pleasure
49:00
likewise if you're looking to really maximize your life and become the man you were made to be head over to maxed
49:07
out man.com and get your journey started today