054 - P.D. Mangan, How To Lose Fat & Build Muscle At Any Age
Summary
In this episode of the Playing to Win series, I am joined by P.D. Mangan, a self-proclaimed "The Batman" on social media. We talk about his origin story, how he got into fitness and self-care, and how he became a vegan and vegetarian.
Transcript
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All right, guys, what is up? We are live for another installment of the Playing to Win
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series, number 54, and I'm joined today by P.D. Mangan. How are you doing, brother?
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I'm doing fine. Thanks, Rich. How are you doing?
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I'm doing awesome. And I should try to frame who you are before we kind of like get into
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it and chop it up, because I didn't know you until I started using Twitter on a more frequent
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basis. And, you know, I see this, I'm not going to say older, I'm going to say more seasoned
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gentlemen, you know, giving decent advice on self-care and longevity and exercise and that
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sort of stuff. And you don't just talk about it, but you're one of the few guys that actually
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look the part. And let me just throw up a, I mean, this is like one of your standard sort
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of posts on your thread, but it's like, you know, hey, you know, today's workout is dead
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lifts, chin up, rows, face pull, dips, pushups, lateral raise, overhead press, hammer curl,
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shrugs, jump rope, all at one set, age 66, sun, stake, steel. And there's your, you know,
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jack self just, you know, proving and giving the receipts on, you know, the work has been
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done sort of thing. Can you talk a little bit about your, your, your background, like
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your Batman origin story, like how you got to where you are today, just to give the folks
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that don't really know who you are a little bit of frame. Sure. Um, so, uh, I've been
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interested. So what I do now, of course, is mostly talk about health and fitness and, uh,
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it's topic I've been interested in a long time, at least personally. So, you know, round about
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when I was back in college, which was a long time ago, um, I, you know, decided I needed to
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get in better shape. So I did. And, uh, you know, at the time I, I was a little on the
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plump side, uh, you know, back, back when I was sort of 18, 19, 20 in there. Um, and,
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and, and later on I, I became the skinny guy. So anyway, I can talk about that, but yeah,
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I, I just felt, I remember, uh, um, watching the 1976 Olympics on television, sitting there,
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uh, you know, on the couch, uh, I don't know, eating something, smoking a cigarette probably,
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uh, and, and thinking, wow, you know, all these people are in just tremendous shape and look
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at me, you know, so I should do something about this. Um, so I, you know, I got interested
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in it. And, um, so a little later on, this was, this was the 1970s, a little later on the
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running craze, uh, really started going on. Um, no, nobody really ran much before then.
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And my first exposure to it, I thought, wow, this is kind of crazy. People are really doing
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this, huh? And then, and then, uh, you know, so I started doing it and liked it and kept at
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it. Um, and before long, I was running long distances. So, you know, I, well, yeah, so I,
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I have run a couple of marathons in my life. Um, and you know, I was doing pretty good mileage
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every day, go out, do on the weekends, do a long run, you know, 12 to 15 miles, that kind
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of thing. And, um, so I liked it, kept at it. And then another thing was, um, I, I just,
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you know, I want, I wanted to be healthy. Right. So, um, my, my father had developed heart disease
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at a, you know, in middle age, pretty young age, he was not even 50. So, you know, ultimately
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he lived a long life. Um, but you know, this, this heart disease certainly affected him and
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I could see that and it, it affected me too. I decided, you know, like, you know, no way
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do I want that to happen to me. Um, so I got on the, uh, you know, low saturated fat bandwagon,
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which, you know, everybody was saying, um, and this especially took off, like say after
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around 1980. So, um, ultimately I became a vegetarian and a vegan. I, I, that's a good
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change from your narrative today too. Absolutely. I'm, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit it now,
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but I, I did do that. Okay. So when you're talking about like meat, like you're, like you're
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speaking from experience as somebody that was prior vegan. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, and
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so, so really what happened without, without, you know, going into long, tedious detail is
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I ultimately became ill from my, from, you know, veganism from, and then from running long
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distances put on top of that. Um, you know, hard to say what factor was, you know, doing
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what, but anyway, I became ill and. Were you, were you the typical like thin, like almost sickly
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looking like runner body, vegan looking guy? Cause I, I've seen a few of those guys out
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there. Yeah. Right. Right. Eventually, uh, you know, after a while, yes, I, I eventually
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what sort of disease did you end up with by, by sticking to like a plant-based diet? Cause
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I mean, I've heard all sorts of stories, like you can end up with neurological, uh, type of
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diseases. Cause it's very difficult to get all the nutrients your body needs just from plants.
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That, that, that is absolutely correct. So ultimately I had a diagnosis of chronic fatigue
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syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome really is not much of a diagnosis. They, they give
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it to you when they, when they can't figure out anything else. Um, fatigue is, is one of
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the major things that people complain about when they go to a doctor. So there's just a whole,
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you know, a ton of things that can cause somebody to be fatigued, you know? So they, you know,
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they start investigating, um, in, in trying to figure out what the cause of it is. And then
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eventually when they can't figure out, you know, that there's no seeming cause for your
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fatigue that, and, and it's unrelenting fatigue, there's certain characteristics of it. Like you
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don't, you're not refreshed by sleep, this kind of thing. Then you've got chronic fatigue
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syndrome. How old were you at that point? So at that, at that point I was, uh, how old
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was I? 41, 42, something like that. Um, right. Um, so then began a, uh, long odyssey, um,
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it, uh, 11 years to be precise of trying to figure this out. Um, and I went to numerous doctors,
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most of whom could do nothing for me and a good fraction of whom didn't seem to,
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I don't know, didn't seem to care. It didn't seem to be able to do anything. Didn't, you know,
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they were like, well, I don't know. I just don't seem to know most of the time. Yeah. Right. So,
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you know, there, there were some good ones. I eventually found a good doctor who, you know,
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who's basically willing to help, you know, willing to try almost anything. Um, you know, but
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for, for many years, you know, nothing happened, nothing got better. Um, and, and eventually
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I came to a point where I thought if I, I really, at this point, you know, in the middle of all this,
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I thought I was going to be this way for the rest of my life. Um, and so at some point I, I thought,
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well, if I'm not going to be like this for the rest of my life, I get, I have to figure it out for
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myself because the doctors are coming up with nothing. Um, and you know, so, so I decided,
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well, okay, I'll, I will try to figure it out. So my, uh, educational background, I have a degree in
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microbiology and, um, I've studied pharmacology as well. So, you know, I was relatively, uh, you know,
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comfortable with going through the medical and scientific literature and I could understand it.
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And, and so I just jumped in. Um, and one of the first things that I came across in, in doing this
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was, was that I figured out that being a vegan or a vegetarian was probably not a good idea.
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How did you come across that? Like, how did you arrive at that?
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Well, um, it has to do with protein intake, um, and glutathione. So glutathione is, you know, I'll,
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I'll, I'll keep this brief, not get too technical, but glutathione is the most important internal
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antioxidant that human beings have, that mammals have. It's made. By the way, you asked me the other
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day about what was in my vitamin bag and they do inject glutathione into the bag too.
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Right, right. I saw that. Yes. Um, so what had happened in, in my medical odyssey was that there were,
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there were, of course, lots of lab tests done and nothing ever turned up abnormal or not very abnormal
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anyway, not enough to explain anything. Finally, the one doctor did a test for glutathione and, um,
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this is a test that's not commonly done in the lab. Like, uh, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a
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special test. Only a few labs do it. Um, and it came back abnormal. Um, and so that was kind of a
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revelation because it was the first time that, you know, anything like that had come back abnormal.
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So I, I delved into looking at glutathione. Glutathione is a protein. So it's a, it's a small
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protein made of three amino acids. So where do amino acids come from? They come from protein.
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Um, and so if you, you know, the idea being, if you don't get enough protein or enough of the right
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protein, you won't be making enough glutathione. There is actually some, uh, you know, there are
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studies, uh, about this that, that, uh, people who don't eat meat do have lower levels of glutathione.
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So anyway, that was one of the first clues. Um, and at that, at that point, at that very moment,
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I, I was not totally convinced the, the, the way I phrase it just now about that. I thought that
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being a, being a vegetarian or vegan was not a good idea. That was, that was about the most I could get.
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Was it a bad idea? Uh, well, I didn't know at the time, but I thought there's no harm in not doing it
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anymore. You know, and at the time I was still buying the whole saturated fat causes heart disease
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kind of thing. Not that I was in any, in any danger of heart disease at the time, but anyway,
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so I quit, quit being a vegetarian, quit being a vegan and, um, felt better pretty quickly.
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Um, like, like within the first couple of days of eating meat or was it within a month or two?
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I wouldn't, I wouldn't say it was quite that quick, but certainly within a month or two,
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I was noticeably better. And what did you notice immediately? Like, like what were the biggest
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changes from a plant diet to a, I mean, did you go right from plant to carnivore or did you just
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incorporate more meat into like salads and stuff like that? Well, well, it was more like, uh, so it
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wasn't going to straight carnivore. No, it was more, more like a paleolithic diet. And I, I had a few
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stumbles there at the beginning because one of the first versions I read about the paleo diet was from
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someone, Lauren Cordain, who was, um, big on, you know, he still believed the saturated fat stuff about
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heart disease, you know? So I, so I, I read his stuff and decided to follow that. And I was basically
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really hungry all the time doing this. It was, it was that, so it didn't last that long, that
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particular version. Um, and then, but then I went more to just sort of, uh, you know, meat and vegetables,
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uh, that sort of thing. Um, and got rid of all the process stuff, all the non paleo stuff, um,
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with, you know, with a few exceptions, um, and, and felt better pretty, you know, relatively quickly.
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Can you spell out for the people watching, like what that, what that looked like on a daily basis?
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Like, was it steak, chicken, fish, like salads? Like what did you, right? So, uh, what would it be?
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Um, it, it would be very similar to what I'm doing now. So that would be, um, yes, I eat steak.
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Uh, I eat some chicken. I eat some fish. Um, I eat fermented dairy products like, uh, yogurt, uh, and cheese.
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And, um, I drink coffee and tea. I drink red wine. Um, I eat a few vegetables. Um, probably,
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I'm not sure how many I would eat if the lady of the house wasn't, uh, cooking them and serving them
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to me, but I do eat some. Um, so that, that's what it looks like. Um, and so in any case, you know,
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I, I did feel better. I, I was still fatigued and so on. Um, but at, at one point I thought,
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you know, wow, you know, I've, I feel, you know, on some particular day I've, I've got some good
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energy here and, um, um, I had wanted to take up weightlifting again. Um, I've, I had done it a few
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times in my life before. Um, and so I had an old barbell, you know, sitting in my, uh, sitting in my
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resistance training on muscles at all during the whole vegan time. I did do some. Yes. Um, I would
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say, you know, it wasn't the most effective way, you know, based on what I know now. And I'm sure I
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wasn't getting enough protein to, you know, support muscle growth, but I did do it. Um, but, but my
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major focus was on running. Um, so anyway, I, I picked up my, my old barbell and started doing a
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few things and managed to eke out about 15 minutes of, of a workout and, and it was exhausting. Um,
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and then I rested a day and then the day after that I did it again, um, and was feeling better.
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It, it felt good to do that. And, and after, uh, after a few weeks of doing this, I realized
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I needed heavier weights. Uh, and so I went and joined a gym. It's something I had never
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done before and, um, and just kept at it. And eventually the first year I did that, I put
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on, you know, 25 to 30 pounds of muscle. Um, it was very rapid progress. It, it is substantial.
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I, I came from, uh, are you a tall guy or do you have a shorter frame? Um, average. Okay.
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Right. Right. That's still quite a lot of muscle, especially for a guy that's like well into his
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like middle ages of his life. Right. Sure. Sure. It is. Um, I came from, I, you know, I was very
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thin to be, to begin with. Right. So, uh, you know, a lot of that was just working out hard and
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eating like the picture you have here on your Twitter banner at 53, like that, that to me looks
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like a standard vegan runner. Exactly. And that's what I, that's what I was. Yes. Right. Although
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by that time I wasn't able to run because of my fatigue, but, um, yes. So, so that photo you just
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showed, that is the base of, you know, that that's where I started in, in, in my, uh, weightlifting.
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And, um, so, so I did it. I put on a lot of muscle in, in the first year and felt really good.
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And, and then, you know, at some point along the way, I had told myself that if I, if I ever figured
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out, you know, if I could ever get out of this, if I could ever fix myself and figure
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out how, you know, how it's done that I should write about it. So at some point later on, I
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was like, oh, well, and I thought, oh yeah, I remember I was going to write about it. So
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I did. And so I, I wrote a book first one, it was about chronic fatigue, put it up on, uh,
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Amazon Kindle. And, and then, uh, after that, I was like, well, what am I going to do now?
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Well, I, I guess I'll just keep writing. And so I did. And, um, you know, I have, uh, started
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my website and wrote some more books, eventually, um, ended up on Twitter, which is my main venue
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these days. It's just a much more, uh, uh, you know, I don't know, ready, readily available
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format to, to get to people. Um, and so end of story. That's, that's, that's my origin story.
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That's how, that's how I got where I am here. Yeah. I, I had no idea that you were a vegan runner,
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um, for a length of time. I mean, I just, um, I mean, I came across you about a year or so ago,
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I think. And, um, you know, uh, I've just found that the content that you've put out has been
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quite useful, especially when it comes to self care and health. And I mean, you seem to have the
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same sort of mindset when it comes to life and everything else too. Um, but the, but the weight
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training for you started at age 53 roughly. Right. That's, that's right. That's, that's when it
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started in earnest until now. And I don't know if you can answer this. Cause I mean, you started at 53,
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but how is weight training at, at that stage of your life as a guy different from somebody that
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might be in their twenties or thirties? Um, I don't know that it is so different. Um,
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you know, there, there, there are a lot of myths around, uh, age and exercise, like especially weight
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training, that it's harder to build muscle, uh, past a certain age, past the age of 50. I've even seen
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people say, Oh, after 40, you know, you can't do it. And this is not true at all. Um, yes,
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there is some age related decline in the ability to build muscle, but it is just not very significant
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at all. That's far from the, um, dominant factor in, in being able to put on weight. You just,
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you know, you work out at its most basic level is you work out hard and you eat right. And you put
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on muscle that, you know, that's, that's how it works. So, um, older, older men do have, um,
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uh, let, let's say, let's say, uh, uh, they have to, they have to watch their recovery time better.
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They need more recovery time. They need more recovery, recovery time. Exactly.
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So if you worked out like every other day, let's say, or did three or four days a week when you were
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in your twenties, could you still get away with that? Well, in my twenties, I could, uh, it, in my
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fifties and sixties. So like right now I certainly can't. And the, the thing is what I want to make
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clear is I, I, I don't recommend that anybody do that, that sort of, you know, four or five days a
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week in the gym working, you know, for too much. Yeah. I believe it's too much. And, and, um,
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so, yeah, so, you know, but younger guys can get away with that more. Um, I, you know, I believe in
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basically minimally effect, minimal effective dose of exercise, um, that's going, going to be the most
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effective for you. So this, um, my, my view on this, as far as how much, how often you should train
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is partly borne out by experience because I have spent a lot of time, um, feeling not, not so great
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in terms of energy levels because I was working out too much. I see this in my clients quite often,
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um, um, where, you know, this is, this is especially true of, um, you know, high performing men.
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They, they want to exercise, they want to, uh, they want to be healthy and fit, um, and tend to go at it
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a lot. So there, there are guys out there that are going hard at it every day and they feel tired all the
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time and they don't know why. And usually when I, you know, when I find out about their, their exercise
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regimen, you know, that, that's the first thing to look at. Um, if they're, you know, going to, going to
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CrossFit four times a week or something like that, it's just a whole lot of exercise. The, the amount of
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exercise that, you know, and I'm, I'm, I'm going off on a tangent here. So, you know, feel free to,
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you know, reel me back. No, I'm listening, man. Hey, you know, school me. Yeah. Okay. So the amount
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of exercise that is, uh, conducive to health and fitness, um, the, the optimum amount of exercise
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is surprisingly low. Um, there've been some studies, for example, where they looked at runners,
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joggers and, um, looked at them in terms of mortality rates. And they found that the, the people
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who were doing something on the order of running, like a couple of miles at a time, two to three days
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a week had the lowest mortality levels compared, compared to people who did no exercise. Um, and then
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when, when people did more than that, there was either no effect or a detrimental effect.
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Similar thing has been found in weightlifting where people who did, uh, I, I think it was a couple of
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sessions a week had lower mortality rates, but they found that the people who were doing four to five
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sessions a week, basically the mortality was flat. It's just as if they weren't exercising at all. Um,
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and certainly, so, you know, this, this does get tricky because you're looking at populations of people.
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There's all kinds of factors involved. Um, but certainly it's, it's my view that when you get up
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into things like distance running, for example, marathon running, um, you're certainly getting
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into a level of exercise that is not beneficial to health, um, and, and is, is detrimental to health.
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So, uh, you know, there, there have been, uh, studies where they looked at heart problems in marathon
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runners. Um, so men who had been running long distance all their lives and, you know, found that
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they had this, um, you know, fibrosis in their hearts. Um, and, and so, you know, there's, there's a lot of
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evidence that, um, yeah, that too much exercise is not good for you. What that level of too much exercise
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is, you know, can be a little hard to determine. Um, but in, in terms of the way someone feels, um, and in their
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day-to-day life, certainly it's, it is definitely possible to exercise too much. And a lot of people
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are doing it. Yeah. I think your body like knows how to tell you when you're going too hard on it.
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Like I, I remember this, um, this friend's cottage that I went to a few years ago before all this COVID
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stuff went, went down and he goes, yeah, you know, bring your mountain bike up. There's some good trails
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up here. And I haven't, I don't mountain bike that often, but I got a nice bike. So I figured, all right,
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you know, let's, let's go do it. And he took me out on, it was like a two and a half hour ride
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through very hilly terrain. And I got out of the thing with my heart just pounding like crazy. And
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I was like, this can't be good. Like, this is ridiculous. Like I'm exhausted. Like my, like my
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heart's going a million miles an hour. Yeah. It was kind of fun, but it was more like torture.
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Right. And I thought the same thing, you know, before when I would run, cause my dad used to run,
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you know, and when I was younger, I'd go out with him. It's like, you know, you do a few miles and I'm
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like, this is like, this can't be good. This is, this is getting silly. Right. Right. This, this,
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uh, you know, chronic endurance exercise, um, just seems to be, you know, something that, that,
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well, at least it's not optimal. Uh, there's been a lot of interesting work done in the last
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couple of decades about high intensity interval training. So this is something like where people,
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um, when they do it in the lab, this is how they do it. They sit on a stationary bicycle with,
00:26:30.540
you know, uh, fine tune control. So they have the resistance adjusted just right.
00:26:36.100
Wired up to everything with a mask. And well, that, that, that particular thing with a mask would be,
00:26:41.520
so for VO two max testing. Um, but this particular protocol for high intensity interval training
00:26:48.320
is just, you know, basically getting on the stationary cycle and riding all out for 30 seconds.
00:26:56.220
Um, and some, sometimes even shorter. So there've been direct head to head comparisons of, um,
00:27:05.860
this type of exercise with aerobic training, cardio training, in other words, which is basically slow,
00:27:14.540
steady state endurance training. It turns out that people, so, so they get these guys in the,
00:27:21.840
in, into the gym or training center and they do this, um, high intensity interval training,
00:27:29.360
or more specifically, they call it sit sprint interval training, which when they do it on the bicycle,
00:27:35.340
on the stationary cycle. And they do, uh, this one particular one where they did
00:27:42.660
15 second all out bouts on the cycle interspersed with a few minutes in between at low, low intensity
00:27:51.440
cycling, you know, and then they do it again. So they did a total of four of these 15 second
00:27:57.220
intervals. So a total of one minute of intense exercise, not including of course, warm up,
00:28:04.980
cool down and the, that low intensity in between do that three times a week. Then they compared it to
00:28:11.640
people who were, uh, running on a treadmill for 45 minutes at, um, also three days a week. And
00:28:19.840
the same physiological changes were seen in both groups. So the, the one minute of exercise three
00:28:28.820
times a week did the same things in terms of increasing fitness as spending all that time
00:28:35.760
on the treadmill running. So intensity of exercise really matters a lot. Um, it, it's a very important
00:28:45.960
factor. If you get the intensity, right, the volume and frequency of exercise can go way down.
00:28:52.720
So that, that's how I look at it. And that's how I look at my weight training as well.
00:28:59.880
Yeah. So your personal strategy is one rep max.
00:29:03.480
No, not one rep max. It's going to momentary muscular failure.
00:29:07.740
So, so it's, so it's failure, but, but, but one, um, but one set,
00:29:13.380
one set, one set to failure, right? So if you're doing chin-ups, you'll do as many chin-ups as you
00:29:19.460
Exactly. Push-ups, you'll keep pushing up until you can't push up again. Right.
00:29:23.580
Exactly. Exactly. Right. Okay. Um, yeah. So, you know, that this is, uh, uh, a D a very different
00:29:33.240
method of training. Um, it's been espoused by some prominent people, but it certainly differs a lot
00:29:40.960
from what the majority of people are doing in the gym. Some of these prominent people like Mike Metzer,
00:29:46.680
Arthur Jones, um, um, Casey Beider, some others to, uh, uh, advocate this method. And Drew Bay on Twitter,
00:29:57.540
uh, also advocates this. Um, and it, it involves intense exercise, but it's much, much less frequent
00:30:07.920
and, and, and lower volume. Mm. Um, I want to ask you about, uh, testosterone therapy. What's your,
00:30:17.740
Okay. So my view on that is that it's fine basically. Um, however, I think that most men
00:30:27.360
would be better off, um, taking care of the other stuff first. In other words, their health and
00:30:32.960
fitness, losing body fat, putting on muscle, getting their diet, right. I think that TRT is
00:30:41.520
possibly resorted to by both doctors and patients a little too quickly. Um, that said, if somebody
00:30:51.160
needs it, if they've taken care of all the other stuff, their diet, their, you know, their level of
00:30:56.440
body fat and their muscle and so on their sleep, all this kind of thing, and they still need, uh, help
00:31:03.480
in that area, then I, I think TRT is fine. I think you mentioned somewhere in a tweet that you're
00:31:09.740
still natural. I am. Yes. Okay. Um, is there a reason why you haven't considered, uh, adding
00:31:15.920
testosterone therapy to what it is you're doing? Is it not needed or is it like, is there a risk
00:31:19.840
benefit analysis that you've done? Um, not really risk benefit. No, it's more a matter of, uh, I do
00:31:27.640
have a normal testosterone level and so haven't, you know, terribly felt the need. I, you know,
00:31:35.420
I've thought about it. I think it, I think my, um, I think it has a lot to do with, do I want to add
00:31:45.220
something else? Do I, do I want to be, uh, injecting myself twice a week with something that
00:31:50.260
I'm just going to have to keep doing for, uh, you know, um, the foreseeable future years. Um,
00:31:57.720
and I'm getting along okay without it. So I just thought, well, nah, I don't, I don't think I will.
00:32:03.460
Yeah. There was a, there's a podcast, I think it was on Andrew Huberman and he had some data collected
00:32:09.420
on like, there's some anomalies out there where there's 80 year old guys that have higher levels
00:32:15.980
of testosterone than many guys in their twenties. It's not, it's not normal. It's, it's more abnormal.
00:32:21.160
I mean, I, I started, uh, adding, uh, testosterone therapy, I'm gonna say it was about four or five
00:32:27.060
years ago. And I mean, I was already fit. I was able, you know, in pretty good shape, but I had all
00:32:32.760
the signs of, you know, declining teeth starting to show up and my levels weren't low per se on the
00:32:38.660
government tables. Cause they just, you know, when you can't dunk the ball in the net, they just lower the,
00:32:42.980
you know, the net for you when you get older. Um, so I had done a lot of research and I asked a bunch
00:32:48.880
of guys around and I figured, you know, this is right for me, but I get what you're saying. Like
00:32:51.700
the whole notion where you have to rely on a exogenous source of a hormone for pretty much the
00:32:57.280
rest of your life. Um, it's a little bit daunting, right? Cause I mean, like what happens if they run
00:33:01.620
out of it? What happens if the shit hits the fan and it's not available to you anymore? Like there's all
00:33:04.960
kinds of questions that could come up there. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. Um, the, the, yeah, it's interesting
00:33:11.960
what you, what you mentioned about the, um, 80 year olds with high testosterone, because I've seen
00:33:18.460
that data too. Um, there, there's a, you know, a small fraction of men into their, who, into their
00:33:26.340
eighties have, you know, like a 900 testosterone level, something like that. Um, the, you know,
00:33:33.640
so the question is how do they do it? Um, is it, is there a genetic component? Well, there's a
00:33:40.320
genetic component to everything. So yeah, there probably is some genetic component, but, um,
00:33:45.440
are they, you know, I'd like to see what these guys look like. Like, are they in shape? They work
00:33:51.200
out, they're eating right, all this kind of thing. Certainly if you do those things, you have more of
00:33:57.320
a chance of, you know, being one of those men that, that has high testosterone levels. And also I was
00:34:04.480
just going to remark, yeah, you know, they lower the testosterone level ranges, what's considered
00:34:10.160
normal. Um, they just did this about three years ago, I think where the, the lower, they, they
00:34:17.380
lowered the, the lower end of the range. So basically if you go to a doctor and you've got a testosterone
00:34:24.200
that's anywhere within this range that they deem normal, then the doctor's going to say, ah,
00:34:29.200
you're good. Don't worry about it. Um, and, and that is certainly not correct. Yeah. I mean,
00:34:35.560
I've seen guys message me in their twenties with their labs and I, I don't analyze this shit. I mean,
00:34:41.160
I'm not a doctor. I, I send them off, but it's like, I'll look at the numbers and it's like, wow,
00:34:45.560
you're like, that's, that's some low ass numbers for a 23 year old. Like, what are you doing? Right.
00:34:50.520
Um, it's interesting. Um, I want to ask you about, um, anti-aging. I mean, do you have an anti-aging
00:34:55.920
protocol to longevity, to health? Um, like as your supplement stack that you look at, I'm just
00:35:01.780
curious on what your position on that is. Yeah. So, um, one of the things that I discovered,
00:35:09.220
you know, fairly early on looking at all this stuff was that body composition is really important for
00:35:17.240
aging. So when you look at the changes that, um, you know, that someone, you know, that,
00:35:25.920
someone has when they get old, when, as they age, a lot of this resembles the same changes that you
00:35:33.780
see in obesity and diabetes. So they're not necessarily of the same magnitude. If, if,
00:35:42.000
in other words, if somebody stays lean and fit, they're going to have fewer of these changes, but
00:35:47.700
these changes do seem to be intrinsic to, to aging. People lose muscle. That is a big one.
00:35:55.920
Um, that, that is very, uh, underrated. So if you don't consciously try to keep muscle,
00:36:03.780
then you're going to lose it. And this starts from a very fairly young age, say the age of 30.
00:36:10.620
There's also a direct correlation, if I'm not mistaken, between skeletal muscle mass,
00:36:15.720
like lean skeletal muscle mass and diseases. I think like Alzheimer's, dementia, like there's a lot
00:36:23.080
of degenerative diseases as you get older as a guy that you're more likely to, to get if you don't
00:36:29.300
have, I mean, not, not bodybuilder size muscle, obviously, but like lean skeletal muscle on your
00:36:35.080
body where, I mean, I tell guys, look, if you can't do 20 pushups, 10 chin ups and skip rope for a
00:36:41.200
minute or two, like at least start there. Like that's a basic foundational sort of like requirement
00:36:46.360
for most guys. And that should be the same if you're 30 or 50 or even 60. I mean, you should be able
00:36:51.220
to do something basic like that at any age. So what's the relevance to the amount of like skeletal
00:36:55.680
muscle mass when it comes to, um, minimizing, limiting aging, you know, degenerative diseases
00:37:01.160
and all that stuff. Well, well, so, you know, skeletal muscle is, uh, what one way of looking
00:37:08.780
at it is it's a metabolic sink. So most of the energy that, that, uh, you use has to do with skeletal
00:37:17.500
muscle. Uh, and, and I mean, unless you were, if you were completely sedentary, um, you know,
00:37:25.300
a lot of the energy just goes to, you know, maintaining your basal metabolic rate. Um, but
00:37:31.400
your skeletal muscle uses a lot of energy. It's a sink for, for glucose. Um, and so it is very
00:37:38.900
important in aging and, and the fact that a man who gets to the age of 80 can have lost
00:37:47.800
half the muscle mass he had when he was 20. Um, so that's a huge amount. And so one, one
00:37:56.600
consequence of this is that people become frail and they become, you know, if, if this goes,
00:38:05.300
of course, we're, we're generally talking here about quite elderly people, but if you
00:38:11.280
get frail enough, then you need help living. You know, if you can't get out of your chair
00:38:14.780
by yourself and this happens a lot, um, and then people end up in nursing homes for, for
00:38:20.040
this reason. Um, but as far as your overall health, there's, you know, definitely a correlation
00:38:25.620
with the amount of muscle you have. There's a correlation with mortality. So with people have
00:38:31.960
more muscle mass, they have a lower death rates. Um, so all these things, and then, you
00:38:39.560
know, regarding these changes that, like I was saying that resemble, you know, diabetes
00:38:44.380
or obesity, you can fend these off, um, with having more muscle mass with doing strength
00:38:52.280
training. So as far as anti-aging goes, I consider this, I consider strength training to be fundamental
00:39:00.600
and the other part of this, of the training and with regards to aging is keeping body fat
00:39:11.440
off is very important too. So, you know, there, there's, um, older people generally have, uh,
00:39:22.040
poorer metabolism. So this has actually been looked at. So they, they, you know, uh, for example,
00:39:29.300
insulin sensitivity, which is really important. They look at these older people, they, their
00:39:33.780
insulin sensitivity is not as good as people who are younger. However, when they control
00:39:41.180
for waist size, they find that there's little difference. The difference is, is that these
00:39:46.240
older people put on body fat, put on visceral fat. And if you can keep that off, then your
00:39:53.380
insulin sensitivity is going to be, uh, very nearly that of a younger person.
00:39:59.020
Speaking of insulin sensitivity, what's your take on metformin as an, as an anti-aging compound? Do
00:40:04.020
you take that? Is that something that you recommend?
00:40:05.720
I, I have taken it from time to time. Um, it's one of those things that I can't say that I've noticed
00:40:13.040
anything, uh, uh, you know, that, that it's done. The, so this is interesting. Um, so metformin is an
00:40:22.600
anti-diabetic drug. And so this fits in with what I was just saying as, as people age, they have these
00:40:28.900
manifestations of something that resembles changes towards, towards diabetes. And this also, uh,
00:40:36.320
so metformin anti-diabetic drug fights aging. So it has been shown to extend lifespan in lab animals.
00:40:44.760
Now, the question is in my mind, does metformin do anything for someone who is already lean and fit?
00:40:56.820
Um, you know, or is it merely combating what we, uh, you know, are basically our modern food environment,
00:41:05.800
our modern sedentary environment, you know, what is it doing? My, I've thought about this a lot,
00:41:12.400
read about it a lot. My view is yes, it may, it may do something for older people who are already
00:41:18.480
lean and fit and doing everything. It, it, it obviously like with so many things, it does more
00:41:25.220
for people who need it more. Um, so yeah. So, you know, there's going to be a clinical trial of
00:41:32.100
metformin, um, to, to, uh, to see, to look at its anti-aging effects in humans. Um, you know,
00:41:41.760
one thing about metformin is it's dirt cheap. Um, you, you know, you can pick it up for like five or
00:41:48.820
six cents a tablet. And so, and it's generic. So there's very little incentive for people to study
00:41:57.100
it. Um, you know, in, in human beings, uh, most, most of the work has been, been done in animals,
00:42:02.980
but of course, a lot of people take metformin. It's the most prescribed anti-diabetic drug. So
00:42:08.420
they've looked at a lot of these, uh, populations too. What about, um, other compounds? I was watching
00:42:15.140
this, uh, conversation with, uh, Dr. David Sinclair, I think is his name. Do you know who he is?
00:42:21.500
Yes, I do. Um, Huberman, they were talking about anti-aging and longevity. And I think the two
00:42:26.680
compounds that stood out, um, were resveratrol. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right.
00:42:32.660
Uh, resveratrol. Yeah, that's it. And, uh, something else called NMN, which, um, studied in
00:42:39.960
lab animals, apparently extended their lives, like by something like 30%, like lab mice, like lived to,
00:42:46.220
like two years max is pretty standard. They've ever seen them live, live to like four or five years.
00:42:50.300
Um, what do you know about that stuff? Yeah. Yeah. So, so this, this is interesting too,
00:42:57.140
um, from the same point of view as metformin. So NMN is, uh, Nick, uh, nicotinamide mononucleotide.
00:43:05.660
There's another similar compound. They're not the same, but nicotinamide riboside. These are both
00:43:12.600
forms of vitamin B3, nicotinamide or niacin. And, and so nicotinamide is not exactly the same
00:43:21.260
as niacin, but they are both forms of vitamin B3. Um, so it's, and, and they make a certain
00:43:31.320
compound NAD plus that is important in metabolism that declines with age. So this, this is the basis.
00:43:37.140
I tried taking NR nicotinamide riboside. I tried taking it for a month, didn't notice anything
00:43:43.340
and it was quite expensive. So I stopped. There's also some evidence and the, these, these, these
00:43:50.880
people like, uh, David Sinclair or, uh, Charles Brenner is another one would might dispute me on
00:43:57.000
this, but there's also some evidence that just taking plain old vitamin B3 nicotinamide will do
00:44:02.480
the same thing as far as raising your levels of NAD plus. The other thing is that if you look at what
00:44:10.980
happens when people go on a low carb diet or, or start exercising, um, with intensity is NAD plus
00:44:18.700
levels also go up. So just like with metformin, what we're looking at here, is this really doing,
00:44:27.540
is, is this going to help lean and healthy people who are already lean and healthy who are old like
00:44:34.060
NMN, is it going to do that? You know, I, I don't know. I have to be agnostic on it. I'm, I'm not
00:44:40.680
taking it. Um, and I feel like my diet and exercise is probably keeping my NAD plus levels just as high
00:44:48.960
as they can possibly be. And, and if you take vitamin B3 nicotinamide, plain old, see these
00:44:56.180
supplements like NMN or NR. Um, I, I don't want to attribute, uh, nefarious motives to people,
00:45:06.260
but one reason that people are looking into these kinds of things is because they can make money at
00:45:11.180
it. Right. Okay. So supplement. Sure. Sure. And so there's nothing wrong with making money, but
00:45:17.500
if taking plain old vitamin B3, which is really, really cheap, it works the same. Obviously they're
00:45:26.640
not interested in looking at that. There's a very similar one. Um, a recent article was published on
00:45:33.040
this new, uh, supplement called Rejuvent and Rejuvent. Uh, so they, they've tested it in animals and it
00:45:42.520
extends lifespan. And they did this study on humans where they looked at, um, markers, um,
00:45:49.480
epigenetic markers of aging, and it made, made these markers go down. So they were epigenetically
00:45:56.800
younger from taking Rejuvent. Well, what is Rejuvent? Rejuvent is, uh, a compound called, uh,
00:46:06.260
alpha-ketoglutarate and some vitamins. So alpha-ketoglutarate, alpha-ketoglutarate. You can
00:46:14.180
go on Amazon and buy a big bag like this from bulk supplements for, you know, 20 bucks. Right. So,
00:46:22.380
but who's going to make money at that? So they have to put it into a proprietary formula. Uh, and,
00:46:29.720
and so they can say it's got alpha-ketoglutarate and some vitamins, special vitamins and yeah,
00:46:36.780
give it a name and then test it on humans. And then they can say, see, look, this study shows
00:46:41.380
Rejuvent, um, you know, and then sell it for 50, a hundred bucks a month, whatever. Um, so this dynamic
00:46:49.820
is, is going on a lot. Rapamycin is another one, a very promising anti-aging drug, and it's more
00:46:58.220
expensive than metformin or, or, or Rejuvent or, or NMN or anything like that. However, it's still
00:47:05.840
generic. Nobody has an incentive, you know, to really study it in humans. Um, as far as resveratrol,
00:47:14.160
resveratrol is interesting. I took it for a long time. I'm no longer taking it. Um, resveratrol has,
00:47:22.620
has never been shown to extend lifespan in, uh, in mammals, right? So it's extended lifespan in some
00:47:29.880
lower or so-called lower, lower organisms like worms and flies, but, um, they give it to mice.
00:47:36.260
It help, it helps, um, protect against the effects of a high fat, high sugar diet in mice.
00:47:43.360
So actually said, so sorry, just to, just to correct that. I think he said that if you take
00:47:48.140
it daily, it doesn't have much of an effect, but he said that if you take it every other day,
00:47:53.360
then that's when they saw the longevity effects on the lab mice. Um, well, I don't know about that.
00:48:00.820
The, the one, the, the one big study that came out, uh, maybe 15 years ago that, uh, or 10 years
00:48:09.260
ago that maybe that seemed to result in a lot of people losing interest in resveratrol was that it
00:48:17.220
did not extend lifespan of these mice, that it did protect against the high fat, high sugar diet.
00:48:23.060
But, um, so this is another thing similar, like I was just talking about with metformin or NAD plus
00:48:32.160
it's like, what is this doing? Is this protecting against a horrible food environment, a horrible
00:48:38.700
sedentary environment, or is it really fighting aging? Um, disentangling these things is difficult,
00:48:47.260
um, because everybody's living in this environment. Um, and pretty much, you know, I mean, over 80%
00:48:55.680
of the U S population is either overweight or obese and it gets worse as it's like, it's like about 80%
00:49:02.980
now. It, it is. Yes. And, and, you know, a lot of the rest of them are skinny fat. So, um, it's,
00:49:10.240
yeah, yeah. I mean, only, only, uh, one study showed that only 12% of the U S population was
00:49:19.420
metabolically healthy. That's horrible. Yeah. And they're cramming all these jabs in everybody's
00:49:25.620
throats and you don't do these, you don't get to go anywhere, but they never say anything about losing
00:49:29.760
body fat or eating properly. That that's right. That's right. This, this is something that I've
00:49:36.400
talked about quite a bit over the last year and a half. I mean, uh, obesity, diabetes, those two,
00:49:44.280
along with pure chronological age are the biggest risk factors for having severe COVID disease and
00:49:52.220
also vitamin D deficiency. Uh, I mean, vitamin D, um, you know, you can, you can, again, it's dirt
00:50:01.500
cheap, just like some of these things we were talking about and nobody's mentioning it.
00:50:06.800
Um, I gotta ask you though, like, you know, be specific. Cause I mean, you look good for your age.
00:50:12.180
I mean, it's, it's, it says on your Twitter, you're 66 and your skin doesn't look 66. I mean,
00:50:17.460
people might even argue watching this, like I'm in my late forties that we look the same practically
00:50:22.460
as far as the skin condition. Like, what do you take as far as, um, supplements for anti-aging
00:50:28.460
for yourself? Is there anything that you rely on at this point or is it just, you know, lots of water,
00:50:33.800
good diet and exercise and sunlight? I, I do take some supplements. Um, as far as, as far as my skin,
00:50:41.240
I guess, uh, you know, genetics again, probably has something to do with it. My, my, my mother had
00:50:48.360
nice skin into a very old age. Um, but I do take some supplements. I do credit diet and exercise with
00:50:59.640
a lot of, um, you know, what I look like and how I feel is certainly the most important thing.
00:51:05.380
Uh, people, people, and, and I'll tell you about the supplements, but, uh, people want to,
00:51:13.120
um, you know, there's this idea of adding something versus subtracting something. So,
00:51:19.440
you know, people want a magic pill, um, something to take that's going to, um, you know, um, negate
00:51:28.820
their bad habits or, you know, anything else they're doing, um, rather than, you know, subtracting
00:51:36.020
what they're, they're doing that, that isn't helping them. So, um, I mean, this phenomenon is
00:51:43.260
not just in the world of supplements or something like that. I mean, every doctor deals with it,
00:51:49.000
right? So, you know, somebody, somebody, uh, you know, goes to the doctor and the doctor says,
00:51:54.800
well, you've got diabetes, um, and, and the patient says, okay, doc, you know, give me a pill
00:52:00.300
rather than, you know, change the conditions that led them into diabetes. So this, this is just,
00:52:07.560
you know, everywhere. That's what, that's what people are like. So anyway, yes, diet and exercise.
00:52:14.500
Um, I take, uh, I take baby aspirin, um, and I have been for quite a while. So there,
00:52:21.760
there's some good evidence for that. If you talk about it online, there's all kinds of controversy,
00:52:26.560
but I've decided that it's good for me. Um, and, and also, by the way, with baby aspirin,
00:52:33.680
let me just add, there can be serious side effects. So I, you know, I don't tell people,
00:52:39.300
yeah, go, go ahead, take, take aspirin. You know, it's something that, um, basically should be
00:52:44.560
talked over with a doctor and decide whether that's a good thing to do. Um,
00:52:49.640
I take magnesium. So magnesium is really important. And this is a supplement that probably
00:52:57.780
most everybody could use. Is there a version that you like, theonate, chalate? I, I take,
00:53:03.900
uh, magnesium citrate. Um, there are some other good ones like glycinate is a good one. I think
00:53:10.320
theonate's the one that, that, that bridges the blood brain barrier. Like that's better for your
00:53:14.460
brain, especially for sleep too. I, I believe that is correct. Yes. Um, so vast numbers of people in
00:53:21.640
the United States are magnesium deficient. Um, and this has to do with a lot of things like,
00:53:26.820
for example, monocrop agriculture is leech magnesium out of the soil. Uh, and, and so they're not getting
00:53:34.120
as much in their, in their diets. People used to get a lot of magnesium from drinking hard water,
00:53:39.180
which they don't anymore. And, um, then other things like caffeine and alcohol can deplete
00:53:46.500
magnesium. So there's all kinds of reasons. So I do take magnesium and I feel that most people
00:53:51.880
would, would benefit from it. Um, what else I take, uh, I take vitamin D. So this is something
00:54:00.160
I've been doing a long time. I take 5,000. I use a vitamin D every day, except maybe, you know,
00:54:05.560
in the summer when I'm getting some sun. Um, so sunscreen when you're outside in the sun
00:54:10.700
or, or no, no, no, I don't. Uh, I don't use sunscreen. Most of the sunscreens out there
00:54:16.660
are basically toxic brews. Um, and there are some that are, that are better. You can find
00:54:23.140
them, but the average is the space ones. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And oddly enough, um, what
00:54:29.460
is her name? Gwyneth Paltrow, I think has some sunscreens that are like pretty
00:54:35.460
good. Um, if, if I'm remembering correctly, but they're, you know, you, you got to seek
00:54:40.820
those out. If you just get regular sunscreen, it's no, you don't want to do that. Best sunscreen
00:54:45.220
is shade clothing and a hat or suntan. Yeah. Yeah. Or, or suntan. But I mean, people, people
00:54:53.080
say, well, you know, people ask me, well, I'm going to be out in the sun all day long.
00:54:57.380
What do I do? I say, well, put on a long sleeve shirt and wear a hat, you know? Um, so, um,
00:55:03.660
yeah, so vitamin D, um, I take taurine, which is an amino acid, which has some good anti-aging
00:55:12.040
effects. Um, I, over the last couple of years. What are the anti-aging effects of taurine?
00:55:17.300
Cause I understood it just to be a cell volume volumizer or like an energy source. Um, it, it
00:55:22.440
functions as an antioxidant in much the same way as glutathione does or somewhat the same
00:55:29.240
way. Yes. And so we, um, our cells have the ability to make taurine and we get some in our
00:55:35.580
diet, but it does, uh, deplete with age. Um, so it, that, that's something that I've, I've
00:55:42.780
found useful for me. Here's another one. Citrulline. This, this is a really interesting supplement.
00:55:49.920
Um, citrulline promotes the, the production of nitric oxide in blood vessels. So this is a
00:55:59.220
very important. Nitric oxide, um, allows, uh, blood vessels to expand, uh, to dilate. And so this is,
00:56:08.460
this is a really important thing. There's good evidence that all of this, the dilation and so on,
00:56:14.340
or lack of it is involved in coronary artery disease and so on. So citrulline, um, helps promote
00:56:21.820
nitric oxide, uh, production. Um, so that's a good one. And, um,
00:56:27.400
it's good for jib pumps. It's also good for bedroom pumps too.
00:56:31.160
Yep. Exactly. Exactly. That's what it does. Yeah. The, you can, you can find a citrulline
00:56:37.200
added to, you know, pre-workout supplements and stuff. A big supplement bag off Amazon. That's
00:56:41.900
the one that I've bought in the past. Exactly. Yeah. Right. Right. So, um, you know, that about
00:56:48.760
covers it. Okay. That's interesting. Um, I want to ask you a little bit about peptides too,
00:56:53.660
because, um, we were talking about, um, sun protection, stuff like that. And I use a peptide
00:56:58.680
this summer, uh, called melanotan too. Are you familiar with, uh, peptides? I, I, yes, somewhat.
00:57:05.440
And that, uh, melanotan, you know, is basically, uh, yeah, it's something, something I know a bit
00:57:13.260
about, but, but, uh, you know, other than that, what do you think of these protein based peptides
00:57:18.580
as far as, you know, use in regular life, uh, you know, for optimization, health optimization,
00:57:24.420
like all that stuff? Well, um, I, I'm going to, I'll, I'll give you my, my opinion on this,
00:57:32.260
you know, and my, my impression is that a lot of it is kind of, you know, wanting to get same
00:57:44.360
effect or some of the effect is anabolic steroids. Um, and anabolic steroids are basically,
00:57:54.780
uh, they're pro aging. All right. So, so if someone were, you know, to take, um, you know,
00:58:03.760
some, something, uh, you know, I'm not, oh, oh, current with what everybody's doing now,
00:58:08.760
but Diana ball or, you know, something like that, um, you know, to get big in the gym,
00:58:14.760
this is, this is definitely pro aging. There is a fundamental trade-off in aging between,
00:58:21.740
between growth and longevity. So for example, the bigger, uh, with animals within species,
00:58:32.240
the bigger an animal is the shorter its lifespan. Um, so for probably the best example is dogs.
00:58:39.740
So little dogs live a long time. Big dogs don't. Um, humans too. Like there's not a lot of big
00:58:46.060
men that live into their eighties. Most guys that live past their eighties are shorter. They're more
00:58:51.220
compact. They have a lighter frame. Exactly. Exactly. Right. I mean, um, like big men don't live long.
00:58:58.060
Yeah. I mean, like basketball players, I, I, you know, reading something about them, it was very,
00:59:03.880
you know, it was poignant to read where these, these guys, these, these former NBA players,
00:59:12.060
they're like in their sixties and they're like, well, it's all coming into an end here because I'm
00:59:16.620
six foot 11 or something like that. Um, and, and yes, I, I mean, uh, a few years back there was a,
00:59:26.140
there was a lot of publicity about this, uh, uh, Frenchman, uh, Robert Marchand. And he was,
00:59:33.060
uh, like, you know, he was over a hundred, he was like 105 years old or something. He's out riding
00:59:39.220
his bicycle and, you know, setting these records. Of course, I suppose, you know, setting that there
00:59:44.360
aren't too many other 105 year olds out there. So setting the record might not be that tough, but
00:59:48.360
in any case, he was out there doing this kind of stuff. And so I looked into it a little further
00:59:53.400
and it turned out that Robert Marchand was five feet tall. Uh, you know, and, and so that, you
00:59:59.800
know, there you have another example, this, this centenarians are shorter and, uh, you know,
01:00:05.800
generally speaking. So, you know, in a roundabout way, the steroids thing, if it's making you bigger,
01:00:13.780
um, you know, or something like that, exactly like burning the candle at, at, at both ends,
01:00:19.720
there was, uh, there was a, um, video that I watched, um, on this channel and he's kind of a
01:00:25.440
longevity expert and, and, and he brought some data, uh, on Unix, um, to the table and, uh, you know,
01:00:33.720
collected all this information. And apparently it's been studied quite a lot over the last few
01:00:38.640
hundred years. And it's, and it's, and it's very, um, uh, I think the longest study they,
01:00:43.480
uh, pulled out of it was from Korea, but there was, um, I think monks or something and they were
01:00:49.300
all Unix and they lived considerably longer, um, than, than the average male at the time,
01:00:54.800
something like 30 or 35%, like, like that's a ridiculous amount of, of time. So they found out
01:01:01.880
that testosterone itself in the body, I think it's called nephrotoxicity to, which basically
01:01:07.820
means that it's toxic to your kidneys. Um, and your kidneys are real important for filtering
01:01:12.660
your blood and, you know, getting rid of, you know, fluids out of your body and all that sort
01:01:15.620
of stuff. So, um, I mean, that's one of the reasons why I don't do bodybuilding dosages of
01:01:20.620
testosterone. Like I'm doing 80 milligrams a week. It's, it's very low dose. Right. So I don't want
01:01:26.280
to carry around like 250 pounds, you know, worth of muscle. It's like, I'm good. Right. You know,
01:01:30.880
like I'm 210 pounds. I'm six foot two. Like I'm a pretty healthy weight. Right, right. Exactly. Um,
01:01:37.780
the, the, you know, things like, uh, also things like growth hormone, you know, same, same idea.
01:01:45.420
Right. So, I mean, they, you know, animals that lack growth hormone receptors live longer. Um,
01:01:52.180
you know, this kind of thing. Yeah. That's interesting. Um, okay. So as far as peptides
01:01:56.720
go, you, you don't know a lot about them or I, I, I'm going to say, yeah, I don't know a lot
01:02:01.300
about them. I, I think what I just told you is probably the extent of my knowledge.
01:02:05.160
All right. Um, what have we, what have we missed that we haven't talked about yet? Um,
01:02:11.420
you got about an hour into this. I figure we got about another 30 minutes left. Is there anything
01:02:14.940
else that we should cover? Um, well, let's, well, let's, let's see. So, so yeah, we, how about this?
01:02:22.780
How about this? Cause there's something that always comes up with that guys. It's like,
01:02:25.380
how do I maximize my experiences as a, as a seasoned man in the bedroom? Like what tips do you have for
01:02:31.440
guys on sexual performance? Well, so, uh, probably, probably the, the, the biggest tip is PDE five
01:02:40.240
inhibitors, AKA Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, um, those things. So what they do is very similar to what
01:02:49.280
citrulline does. They increase nitric oxide. Um, and, and the, there's actually an, an upside to this.
01:02:58.100
So these PDE five inhibitors, um, like Viagra have, uh, they have a lot of potential to treat a lot of
01:03:07.920
diseases, uh, for instance, both heart disease and cancer and other things, maybe Alzheimer's. So the
01:03:14.780
potential, what you see when some, when some drug or other intervention, what, uh, you know, be it
01:03:24.880
physical exercise or calorie restrict or anything affects all diseases that tends to mean that it is
01:03:33.560
slowing aging, um, because the, the, the biggest, uh, you know, aging is the biggest factor in chronic
01:03:42.500
disease. So, I mean, for example, heart disease, um, you know, heart disease is not seen in very many
01:03:49.840
people, uh, say under 60, um, but over 65, 70, you know, lots and lots of people have it same with
01:03:59.720
cancer, you know, some, something like, uh, you know, 75% of cases of cancer are people over 65 years
01:04:06.080
old. Um, and, and, and, and, and, you know, dementia, Alzheimer's disease come totally rare in, in somebody
01:04:14.020
under, let's say 55, very rare. So these are all diseases of aging. So if you find that a drug or
01:04:22.520
intervention affects multiple diseases like this, then that's the clue that it is fighting aging.
01:04:29.280
So these PDE5 inhibitors seem to be having that effect. Now I, I have postulated that,
01:04:39.540
uh, you know, somewhere, you know, someone is going to come along and do an experiment on lab animals
01:04:46.660
and give them Viagra and find out that they live longer because they're taking it. Um, to my knowledge,
01:04:52.320
no one has done that, um, yet, but, but I think that could happen. So, um, the, these drugs are,
01:05:01.220
you know, very interesting for that reason. They're, they're, um, you know, the risk benefit ratio seems
01:05:08.400
to be very good. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. There was, um, uh, I think there was an ebook. Um, do you know
01:05:16.540
who Jay Campbell is? Oh yeah. Yeah. Buddy, buddy of mine actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think
01:05:21.740
Jay was talking about his, um, top three stack was, uh, five milligram daily Cialis, Metformin
01:05:28.280
and testosterone, you know, for like a longevity stack, testosterone at therapeutic don't like
01:05:32.800
low dosages obviously. But yeah, I thought that was interesting. Um, all right. Well,
01:05:38.440
I want to ask you about, um, some personal stuff. Cause I mean, like as a seasoned guy that's been
01:05:43.080
around, I know that you followed my stuff. I wanted to get your take on, um, you know, that like some of
01:05:48.120
the stuff that I talk about, you know, around, um, you know, getting better results with women and all
01:05:52.420
that and life. I think you said that you've been through a divorce as well. Definitely have. Yes.
01:05:57.720
Yeah. What tips do you have for guys from, you know, from your own experience there?
01:06:02.260
Well, I think, um, you know, I think self-confidence is really supreme. This is something
01:06:09.840
that I've learned about, um, maybe, maybe the hard way and, and maybe only relatively recently in life.
01:06:18.400
Um, and you know, what, what, one of the themes of, you know, what you, what you talk about that,
01:06:25.740
that I like is, um, make, making yourself the center, um, making your, I'm not sure exactly how
01:06:34.220
you put it first, your own mental point of origin. Exactly. Exactly. Right. And, um,
01:06:39.840
rather than, you know, thinking that, um, getting a woman into your life is going to solve your
01:06:47.260
problems. Um, and I, and I think that I think exacerbates them. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. So
01:06:54.340
I think, uh, I think that's, that's something I've learned, you know, another thing, this is,
01:07:02.180
this is tangentially related and this is something that I talk about on, uh, you know,
01:07:09.640
on Twitter is the pack of lies that we've all been sold. Um, you know, and this has definitely,
01:07:18.260
you know, there's, there, there's a set of lies that come with relationships and marriage and so on.
01:07:26.060
Um, there's a lot of lies that come with, uh, education, making a living, and of course,
01:07:34.240
health and fitness, these things, uh, are, um, there, the, the people who, the people who are,
01:07:44.920
are telling you these things, um, have ulterior motives, let's say. And, and, and, and let me just
01:07:52.300
even say without necessarily bad faith for many of them, but, but they do. I mean, you know,
01:07:59.680
the adage, don't ask a barber if you need a haircut, um, you know, don't ask a guidance counselor if you
01:08:08.000
need more education. I mean, they will say yes every time. And it's not just the guidance counselor
01:08:14.720
in particular. It, it comes from society as a whole. Everybody's got to go to college, all this
01:08:20.320
kind of thing. Work, um, thing, you know, okay. Things are very different now for sure. I mean,
01:08:29.160
I was 40 years old the first time I used the internet, so it wasn't around. Um, so things,
01:08:37.180
things are definitely different for a lot of guys, but you know, the idea of going to a nine to five
01:08:46.760
every day, Monday through Friday, it's something you hate because you've got to make a living and
01:08:53.120
that's just the way it is. Um, it's, it's something, let's just say most men should really think deeply
01:09:01.160
about this. Um, I, my, my personal experiences, I look back over my life, my career, for example,
01:09:10.860
and a whole lot of it was spent doing things I did, did not like. Um, there are definitely worse
01:09:19.020
jobs. I'm not going to, you know, go on about how it was so terrible, but it was, um, not very
01:09:25.380
interesting for the most part and, um, often stressful and so on. Why was I doing that? Well,
01:09:32.620
you know, maybe I didn't see any alternative. Um, fortunately I do now, you know, so I, I'm not
01:09:39.680
saying there are set answers here, but I think that men, um, women too really should be looking at
01:09:47.360
this idea that there's this defined path through their life that is all set for them. And that's
01:09:54.820
the best way. Um, I, I, you know, no longer believe that retirement. There's another thing. Um,
01:10:03.140
it's my impression that most men retire because they hate their jobs. Um, why would you retire if
01:10:12.540
you're doing something fulfilling, making good money, all this kind of thing? You know, what are
01:10:17.280
you, what are you going to do? Go fishing or sit in front of Netflix? I mean, guys will work till
01:10:22.940
whatever it is like 65. And then most people live, I think it's an average of 11 years after
01:10:27.820
retirement before they die. So you're basically spending your entire life doing something you hate
01:10:32.280
to quit one day to get 11 years in a body. That's not as healthy as it would have been,
01:10:37.540
you know, years back if you use it for other things. Right. Absolutely. Uh, it, it, retirement
01:10:44.140
is a trap that way. And I think it's a trap. A lot of people die shortly after I can't see myself
01:10:49.980
ever retiring. Like people say like, why do you keep working? Like you don't need to work. You don't
01:10:53.140
need money. It's like, cause I like doing what I'm doing. Like I like, I like having these
01:10:56.000
conversations. Absolutely. Um, I, I feel very much the same. Why would I want to retire? What,
01:11:05.060
what am I going to do? Um, this is, I, I, I'm very fortunate in that in these last few years,
01:11:14.920
in these last three to five or, or a few more years, I've found something that I really like doing
01:11:22.500
that, um, I'm able to do every day that, yeah, it's, it's, it's fulfilling. I like it. Why,
01:11:30.020
why would I stop? Um, how did you find that? How, how did I find it? Yeah. You, you mean,
01:11:37.220
how did I find what I'm doing or like, I mean, it sounds like you're basically defining what I would
01:11:43.220
call your purpose, right? Like I tell guys to like, get on a grind, find a purpose, like put a little
01:11:48.080
dent in the universe, like, you know, have some sort of impact on people's lives. And it sounds like
01:11:52.000
you found that, I mean, could you, could you point to anything? Is there, are there things that led up
01:11:57.180
to that? Like, how would you define that? Cause a lot of, a lot of younger guys out there, they're
01:12:00.680
like, well, I don't really know what I want to do. Right. Um, so, you know, what led me into this
01:12:08.680
was of course, you know, what I talked about before about my, you know, my health and fitness journey,
01:12:13.520
but when, when you are, uh, you know, when you're working in an office or, you know, in my case,
01:12:22.940
working in healthcare, you're a cog in the machine and you're, you're definitely replaceable.
01:12:30.300
Um, when you're doing something that you like, uh, you, you are, you are not, you know, replaceable.
01:12:37.420
You, what you said about finding a purpose, I think this is really all important. I think it's
01:12:45.440
about, uh, well, the, the, the term, uh, I often think of is self-actualization. So you, I'm sure you
01:12:54.140
know about Maslow's hierarchy where you have the basic needs and it goes on up and you've got self-actualization.
01:13:00.400
I feel like this is something that I have looked for my life. I felt that I had things, I was able
01:13:08.960
to do things, think things that should come out. Um, but, but I was unable to do that until I, you
01:13:17.760
know, I got into, into, um, you know, what I'm doing now. So having a sense of purpose is all
01:13:24.200
important. That's why retirement is so bad because people lose their sense of purpose. Um,
01:13:29.220
so yeah, um, how, you know, how someone can find that. Well, I, I'm less sure about that. We would
01:13:37.040
require some experimentation. Um, if there's just going on a walkabout and sort of, yeah, like you
01:13:42.720
said, like experimenting, doing things like a buddy of mine once said, you know, in the absence of
01:13:47.880
clarity, do something like, don't like, don't just sit there milling over it in the absence of just
01:13:52.420
start moving in a direction because you're going to, you're going to walk up against a wall. Okay.
01:13:57.000
That's not it. You know, can you walk through the wall? Can you find a way around it? Can you
01:14:00.560
climb over it? No. Okay. Well, let's go over in this direction, right? That's how you do it. It's,
01:14:04.200
it's not having somebody, you know, hand it to you on a silver platter that says, Hey, Bill, you know,
01:14:09.680
here's your purpose now. So go out and do it. You'll be, and you'll feel fulfilled. Like you'll
01:14:13.040
reach the pinnacle of Maslow's hierarchy. It's, it's just, just start doing stuff, right? You know,
01:14:19.460
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. You know, in, in, in my line of work, I I've talked to a number of people
01:14:28.500
who've helped me out as far as the business side of things. And one of the things that has been said
01:14:34.260
to me a lot is don't overthink it, just do it. And so, you know, if you make a mistake, okay,
01:14:41.260
you make a mistake, you correct it and move on. But you, but just thinking about what I'm going to do
01:14:47.140
and then, uh, uh, bringing up imaginary problems that haven't happened yet. Uh, like what, what do
01:14:53.800
I do if this thing happens? Well, you know, worry about that when it does happen. Um, so yeah, I
01:15:00.400
think, I think just beginning to do things, if somebody is good at something and they like it
01:15:06.100
and they can figure out a way to make a living at it, that's obviously, you know, the best ways to go.
01:15:12.500
I mean, like you figured it out. There's a lot of people that don't even understand the basics and
01:15:15.920
you're one of those, you know, guys, you know, like you said, that you just started using the
01:15:19.080
internet when you're in, you know, 40 or so. So, um, there's there, the, the barrier to
01:15:26.660
video production, writing a book to, uh, setting a newsletter, it's never been lower. You don't need
01:15:33.900
anybody's permission to do these things today. It's, it's completely permissionless, you know,
01:15:38.160
in practicality. I got one more question for you before we go. Um, you mentioned that you like
01:15:42.700
to do a lot of research. What, what did you come across in your lifetime? That was like,
01:15:48.080
uh, I like to call these a frying pan to the forehead moment. Like, Holy cow, this is, this
01:15:52.860
is profound. Like what, what piece of data, what research did you come across that really
01:15:57.820
changes the direction in the way that you live and do things? Um, well, uh, I'm, I'm not sure
01:16:07.000
that changed the, the way that I live and do things except in, you know, minor ways. But,
01:16:12.800
uh, I came across the relationship of iron to, to aging and this is important for men.
01:16:20.600
So I, I wrote a book about it and I've actually written a scholarly article about it that was
01:16:25.960
just published a couple months ago. Um, so, uh, uh, you know, iron and aging men accumulate
01:16:32.520
iron, uh, as they get older women, much less so. Um, and, and this may very well bear on
01:16:41.520
the fact that, uh, men don't live as long as women. Um, so yeah, so I've, I've written
01:16:47.800
a lot about that. I, I suppose that's, uh, maybe not, not a mind blowing revelation, but
01:16:53.480
and, and I certainly didn't discover it myself. I've just, uh, put a lot of it together in,
01:16:58.860
in, uh, in a form that people can understand. Um, but it's certainly in a, uh, uh, a non-intuitive
01:17:06.020
result that people were not looking at. And, um, it seems to be quite important.
01:17:12.760
So having higher iron levels is directly correlated to a shorter, sicker life.
01:17:19.640
Correct. It is. It is. And, um, so I mean, a question for you then. So I, I usually do like
01:17:25.260
a blood dump every four months or so. Like I'll go and donate blood. Um, one of the things
01:17:30.080
my, my, my old doctor used to say, I've got a new doctor now, but one of the old things
01:17:33.180
that he used to say is that, you know, you don't want your blood to get rusty. And I think
01:17:36.220
he was referencing iron. So, so getting rid of blood like that sort of, sort of helps
01:17:42.120
with that. Like it helps solve that problem. Right. And I think, I, I think I noticed that
01:17:46.920
on your, your post where you were getting that IV that you had had a therapeutic
01:17:52.260
phlebotomy at the same time. Right. So yes. Um, so iron is stored in the body. It's, it's
01:17:59.260
totally necessary for life. Um, but we accumulate too much of it. Most of the iron in your body
01:18:04.920
is in your blood, in your red blood cells. So when you donate blood or do a therapeutic
01:18:09.880
phlebotomy, you're getting rid of a lot of iron. Then when you make the new red blood
01:18:14.140
cells, uh, the body takes iron from the rest of your body and makes new red blood cells
01:18:20.080
out of it. So therefore your overall body iron level goes down. Um, their, their, uh, you
01:18:27.100
know, blood donors have, um, lower mortality levels, uh, lower mortality rates, lower levels
01:18:34.340
of heart disease and so on. So, uh, yes, this, this is how you do it. Um, women naturally do
01:18:41.160
it before menopause, after menopause, their iron levels tend to go up after a few years to
01:18:47.160
the same level as that of men, but men in their forties have iron levels approximately
01:18:55.420
four to five times higher than women of the same age. And they have much higher rates of
01:19:00.820
heart disease and cancer and so on. Um, so yes. Um, and, and there, there are some, some
01:19:07.840
good indications that I've theorized about in my recent article that iron is directly involved
01:19:14.500
in aging and that keeping iron levels in, in a low normal level can, um, slow aging.
01:19:22.260
That's good to know. I appreciate that. Um, let's just throw your Twitter up. So best place
01:19:27.220
to find you, uh, you mentioned is on Twitter. So, uh, it's man, M A N G A N one 50. Uh, give
01:19:35.120
him a follow. He also has a link, uh, for one-on-one coaching. What sort of one-on-one coaching
01:19:40.320
do you do again? Yeah, I do health and fitness coaching. I've got a 12 week, uh, program and
01:19:46.500
they can contact me for further details. Um, I've coached hundreds of people, most, mostly
01:19:53.600
men, probably 90% men, a few women in there, but yes. Perfect. All right, Petey. Thanks for
01:19:59.060
joining me. Appreciate it. Um, just stick around for a second after I end the broadcast guys
01:20:02.500
hit the like button. Uh, I'm going to do a cast tomorrow, just kind of like a year end wrap
01:20:06.940
up. Just, you know, what all went down in 2021. So I'll create the event, um, later on
01:20:11.700
this afternoon and schedule it. And so check that out for tomorrow. Thanks, Petey.