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The Everyday Millionaire and Mindset Matters Podcast
TEDM – Dr. Tracy Gapin – Pioneer in Precision Medicine and Peak Performance (Episode 220)
01:08:57
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign hi there and welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. My name is Patrick Francie and I am your host and I want to begin by saying thank you for listening. On this show I am having conversations with seemingly ordinary individuals who have achieved some amazing and extraordinary results in both their life and business. My intention is to inspire and help you learn and grow by having my guests share their journey of how they face and overcome their challenges, but also how they celebrate their their many wins. And now let's get on with this show and have a conversation with today's guest. My guest today, Dr. Tracy Gapen is a renowned expert in men's health optimization and longevity. With over 25 years of experience as a board certified urologist. He founded the Gapen Institute to help high performing individuals and including entrepreneurs, executives and athletes achieve peak performance through personalized health programs. Dr. Gapen integrates advanced diagnostics, epigenetics, hormone therapy and wearable technology to monitor and transform his clients health focusing on sustainable and measurable outcomes. He is a thought leader and author of his bestselling books Male 2.0 and Codes of Longevity. And Dr. Gepen has been featured on NBC Entrepreneur Magazine and at Dave Osprey's Biohacking conference. He is a member of the American Academy of Anti Aging, the Age Management Medical Group and the International Peptide Society. He has an absolutely amazing story. We unpack a lot of things related to health and there are some amazing insights that he shares that I think you're going to want to really hear about. Let's get this show started. Listen in. Enjoy. Doc Tracy, welcome to the Everyday Millionaire podcast. So excited to have this conversation with you today. So thanks for joining me.
- [02:09]
B
Oh, glad to be here. Thanks so much Dr. Tracy.
- [02:12]
A
I like to open because you know, bios are great and you know, I read your bio and share your notes but it's never as effective as when my guests answer the question that when somebody walks up to them and says hey Dr. Tracy, what do you do? What's your answer to that question? Because you've had quite a journey.
- [02:31]
B
Yeah. So plain and simple, I help high performing leaders be their absolute best again. So I come from the traditional healthcare world. I spent 25 years as a board certified urologist and long story short, through my own health issues I came to find that our healthcare system is broken. And I went back to school and spent a decade learning it all over again. The right way. Learning functional medicine, regenerative medicine, hormones, peptides, epigenetics, you name it. And what I've come to learn is Our health can be our greatest asset or our biggest liability. And I work with so many high performing leaders, founders, executives, CEOs, millionaires, billionaires who take their health for granted, who don't recognize how their health and the way their mind and body works directly affects how they show up every day. It directly affects their income and their impact. And so this is why I'm so passionate about working with high performing entrepreneurs and leaders. Because if you don't focus on your health, you have nothing.
- [03:36]
A
Well, that boils down to the old, you know, without health, wealth doesn't matter, you know, or you spend your life making money to then re spend it on staying healthy so you stay alive to be able to spend it. I mean, there's all sorts of analogies that go along with that. Now, is your focus primarily on men or is it on women as well? Where are you in that?
- [03:58]
B
Great question. Yeah, we serve both men at the Gap and Institute, my center, we serve both men and women around the country. So we serve both. My background, my passion has always been men's health and that's always been my area of interest and focus. But what happened years ago when we opened our center five, six years ago, the wives came in. Well, what about me? And so we built that entire women's health team as well, recognizing how important it is that couples do it as a team and that you get much better results when you work together. So definitely important that both men and women appreciate this as well. Yeah.
- [04:32]
A
Well, it's interesting that because of my own journey over the past many years has been on my own health and I've been very blessed to not have ever really suffered any illness. I don't even remember the last time I had a cold. I am very focused on my health. I train regularly and although I've, you know, go in and out of, over the years of, you know, maybe weight management, my overall health has always been my priority. And you know, today as I'm getting close to turning 67 years old, I just really embrace the fact that I can do what I do physically. And that's because. And the fact that I'm as healthy as I am and that's, I know, is my commitment to learning and gaining knowledge, having conversations with experts like yourself. And so I'm only saying that to, for listeners to get that is so important and we actually set the trajectory for where we are. I didn't set the trajectory, although you can kind of backpedal and catch up. I mean, I've been doing some form of training and Paying attention to diet and all those things, supplements, all my life and, or certainly most of my life. But that set the trajectory for where I am today. Now you talked about, Dr. Tracy, about your own health issue. Can we get a little background there and then kind of see where your trajectory kind of started and went?
- [05:51]
B
Absolutely. Before I get there, I want to push back on you a little bit. I'll have a little fun here for a moment because please, this is the most common thing I hear. I hear this every day. I'm fine. No, no, I'm fine. I'm good. I'm healthy. And what I always like to ask people is how do you know you're healthy, you think you're healthy, you feel healthy, but let me give you an example of situations that really drive home the point that you're not as healthy as you think you are. So Bob Harper, he is the lead fitness trainer on the TV show the Biggest Loser. Right. He teaches people how to lose weight and get in shape. The guy trains for a living. That's what he does. Until one day a few years ago, at the age of 51, Bob Harper had a massive heart attack that almost killed him. Bob thought he was healthy, just like you. I'm doing everything great. I'm training every day, I'm in the gym. Guy almost died. I almost died because he wasn't having the right testing done. Because our traditional healthcare system doesn't look at the right markers. People don't get the right testing done. They barely scratch the surface. And he missed a major blind spot. So this is why I talk about blind spots in your health. My brother in law, John, John floric, he was 49 years old. He was the epitome of discipline and in great shape at the gym every day, eating the perfect diet looked amazing. He thought he was healthy, we thought he was healthy. Until one morning getting ready for work at the age of 49, John dropped dead. And so I, I just like to push back a little bit whenever someone says I'm healthy. But my question is, how do you know? Have you looked at your microbiome? Have you looked at your hormones? Have you looked at inflammation, blood sugar, you know, all these key markers we could talk about. So I just like to play a little bit and just point out that people think they're healthy. But we all have blind spots and until you do the advanced diagnostics, you don't even realize what you don't know. And that's the problem.
- [07:32]
A
Yeah, well, and I'm a little bit of a weirdo. That way. So yes, I have had testing done and so I, I know where my mark and like I said, I'm a little bit odd that way and it's because it's just something I got really interested in and continue to do. And then there's another side of it which I get a little critical of what we call our healthcare system. You know, I always say we should rephrase it and call it disease care because it's certainly not health care. And so but that's a, that we go off on those kind of tangents. But you make such a valid point and I 100% see it, I agree with it. And this part of what started my journey even a few years ago, even going deeper, was understanding the difference between wellness and fitness. So you know, you described a couple of your acquaintances or friends, you know, that were very fit but what they discovered and what you've seen is they're not well and there is a difference between fitness and wellness. And I would like to even have your perspective on that conversation. And you know, as I my mom for example, I'll just use her as a quick example is you know, she's 97 years old and although physically she's broken down, she's quite healthy mentally and all the rest of it. But the point is, is that over the years she was never fit but she was always well, you know, she was doing yoga, she walked regularly, she did some kind of activity on a regular basis, she did pay attention to her diet, et cetera. So although she, her fitness level wasn't high compared to even a part time athlete, you know, she certainly was. Well, so I use that kind of distinction and that would be I think a cool part of conversation as well. What's your thoughts?
- [09:08]
B
That'd be great. Yeah, so absolutely. And, and I, I see a lot of men and women who look incredibly healthy on the outside. They feel healthy. But then when you do deeper dive, you find they have massive issues with cardiovascular health. They have issues with blood sugar regulation not just from diet but from other stressors to our system. They have issues with microbiome. You know, our gut controls the entire body. It controls our immune system, our hormones, our neurotransmitters in our brain. It controls our metabolism, energy systems. Everything is in some way controlled by the microbiome. Most people don't ever even look at it. Right. Nutrient levels, hormones is a massive one that people discount is, is so important. And so you're absolutely right that I'll see a lot of bodybuilders who look around the outside and then you lift up the hood and realize, holy cow, there's a lot of inflammation, there's a lot of dysbiosis in the gut. There's blood sugar imbalance. And I'll give you a great example. Another story is Sean. He's actually a PA who works with me. He looks great on the outside. He's at the gym every day, eating great, and he looks awesome. And his lipid numbers even look really good for him. The VO2 max testing. So VO2 max is a measure of fitness level. Okay. And it's a cardiopulmonary fitness test where you wear a mask, you're on a, either a stationary bike or a treadmill. Right.
- [10:26]
A
It sucks. It sucks.
- [10:27]
B
Yeah. You know about it. And his was terrible. His results were awful. And he, he, he looks great. Something wasn't right. We did testing on Sean. As amazing as he looks, he had a terrible calcium score. Calcium score is looking at hard, mature calcified plaque in the coronary vessels, the blood vessels to your heart. And on a clearly AI heart scan, he actually had partial blockage of his LAD, the main blood vessel to his heart at age 38 years old.
- [10:56]
A
Wow.
- [10:57]
B
And so you're spot on. Absolutely. I agree with you that, that a lot of people who look healthy on the outside, they're not healthy on the inside for sure.
- [11:05]
A
So can you. And I know there's a lot of terminology that people won't be familiar with and, but I think it's, it's great to at least plant the seeds of thought in or the of terminology. So when you start measuring and getting benchmarks of a potential or a patient, what kind of things are you looking at? You mentioned VO2 Max and I have some familiarity with it. You know what with somebody that you say, okay, you're healthy, you know, you're working, you're not an athlete, you're maybe a weekend warrior. You do a VO2 max. And what should, what would be a reasonable or a healthy VO2 max given that you're not an athlete? Yeah.
- [11:47]
B
And, and there's a. For VO2 max specifically, there's a range that depends on age. And so it honestly depends on your age and also depends on your fitness level as well. And so, you know, you look at an 80 year old grandma versus a 38 year old healthy guy, that number is going to be very different. So you need to kind of look at, in perspective. But I like to look at it first. When you, you know, I talk about finding your blind spots. And this is really well is people say, where do you start? I would start with blood labs as the best way to get going. And there are five general categories I look at in BO labs. There's cardiovascular health and believe it or not, total cholesterol, ldl, hdl, like your doctor will typically order. They barely scratch the surface. And I would argue they're fairly irrelevant. So there are other markers. APOB is the one most important test. Everyone should be getting APOB or apo, lipoprotein B, most important marker when it comes to lipids. Lp, little A it's called. It looks like an A with a parenthesis around it. That's a genetically inherited one. That's the Bob Harper one I was telling you about earlier. His was massively elevated. Doctors never checked it. And so there are other markers. Cardiovascular health wise, Hormones is the second category. And every man and woman should be looking at free testosterone. Most doctors only look at total. They're missing the most important marker. Free testosterone for thyroid hormone, important for men and women, free T3. Most doctors don't check this. DHEA, cortisol, nitric oxide, vitamin D is actually a critical hormone that everyone needs to be looking at. Yeah. So a lot of hormones. The third category is inflammation. Inflammation is the driver of the aging process and that's why a lot of people call it inflammaging. So markers like CRP is a great measure of systemic chronic inflammation. Ferritin uric acid is another one. Then the fourth category would be blood sugar regulation. And here we're looking at both short term and long term markers of how well your body's regulating blood sugar. You cannot build muscle, you can't burn fat, you're not gonna have energy like you need. Your, your brain, mind is not gonna work like it needs to. If blood sugar is not controlled and people think that you're either normal or you're diabetic and, and either black or white. Well, it's actually not that simple. There's a spectrum of what's called insulin sensitivity, how well your body controls blood sugar. And when that's off, you're fighting an uphill battle in, in many ways when it comes to performance on a daily basis. So that's the fourth category. And the fifth one is nutrient levels. Things like magnesium and zinc and homocysteine. Looking at B complex, vitamins, B12 and folate and some other markers of nutrient levels are so important. So that's the blood labs. When it comes to functional testing. There's gut health, mark testing. Look at Markers of gut health and gut permeability called how well is your microbiome balanced? And the gut wall integrity. Cortisol is our stress hormone. And, and I got to tell you, almost everyone listening to this show, your show, entrepreneurs, people who are focused on making money and growing their wealth, they're stressed. They don't want to admit it, but they're stressed. And I can actually measure it, I can prove it with a test, a cortisol test. It's a, it's a salivary hormone test we do with four different spot tests throughout the day. And we can see the pattern of your cortisol tells a lot about your internal stress levels. Most people think they're not stressed, but they are. And we can measure it and we can fix it. Food sensitivities is, is another functional test that we do. So often people have issues with temporary short term food sensitivities that leads to brain fog, inflammation, low energy, difficulty, burning fat, losing weight, building muscle kind of stuff. So these are some classic tests that everyone should be getting done.
- [15:20]
A
So when we start to, I mean, when I, when we consider age, youth has a lot of flex, right? You know, we're, we're pretty, we seemingly feel maybe indestructible in our 20s and even our 30s, perhaps in our 40s, we're starting to feel a little bit, you know, out of whack. But what would be some of the reasons? So you know, for example, your friends, the people that you, the couple guys that you mentioned that were actually really unhealthy, although they seemed healthy on the outside, maybe even felt healthy on the outside, why would they go and get this kind of testing? So would they, would somebody reflect and say, okay, I've got some relatives that have, you know, early, you know, heart attacks or stuff, stuff going on. Is there something that would say I should just go because, or because most people are going to wait till there's a problem?
- [16:10]
B
This is a perfect question. Yes, and you're, you're exactly right. And this is what's wrong with our broken healthcare system, our disease care system, you call it. It's broken, it's reactive, it's passive, it waits until there's a problem. You know, my book I, I, I put out several years ago was called Mail 2.0. Mail 1.0 was all about waiting until there's a problem, right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of mentality. And, and that's what our, our healthcare system has trained us instinctually to do, to just wait and be passive. And. And. And if I feel okay, then I must be healthy. And so you're exactly right. What I think the paradigm needs to shift toward is being proactive, being intentional. Do the advanced diagnostics. Why? Because I have a higher purpose. Because I have a higher purpose. And that purpose can be anything. It could be you're an athlete, it could be you're an executive, you could be a parent, and you want to be there to see your grandkids. Could be a lot of different reasons. You know, what's your why that should drive you to focus on, you know, what are the blind spots that I'm missing? You know, we're so focused on, like you mentioned earlier, our wealth. But your health is your key driver of your success. And so you're asking the right question. The answer is people need to start taking a very different, more intentional, proactive approach. Just get the testing done, and if the test, fine, then you're great, you're good. But I guarantee you're going to find a lot of stuff you had no idea was even happening under the hood.
- [17:35]
A
You know, there's a philosophy that I have that I actually work with some of my coaching clients over the years. And just in general, my basic philosophy when I'm working with individuals, you know, that why that you talk about, I indicate to people, if I was speaking to you, and I go, listen, Dr. Tracy, you know, you are the center of your universe. You are in the middle of it, and around you is your friends. There's family, there's your business, there's your workmates or your peers, there's the community. You are the center of that universe. And if for no other reason, you owe it to yourself to look after you in order to look after all of the things that you look after, and you owe it to them, it is the most selfless thing you can do is to go through the process of assessing your health, mental, emotional, physical, all aspects of your health, so that you are the best version of you as the center of your universe. So that you can, in fact, support all the things that you want to support, that you're driven to do, that you're inspired to do. That's how I position the why, by the way. It just brings it into, you know, don't feel selfish, don't feel greedy, don't feel like, oh, gosh, you know, I'm more important than anybody. No, you are the most important person in the world to everybody around you that you are looking after and responsible for. So that's my kind of rant on that conversation.
- [18:51]
B
I love it. And I think people don't even realize how far off they are from functioning at their highest level at their, you know, peak performance to me is not about being an Olympian or being an Ironman triathlete. It's about showing up every day and being your best as a, as a parent, as a leader, as a business owner, as a millionaire, whatever you're doing. And there's a great quote I love to, to share is by this philosopher, the Greek philosopher from literally 108 AD. Okay, this is from like almost 2,000 years ago. And Epictetus said, how long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself? How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself? And most of us wait until it's too late. Wait till there's a problem. And you don't even realize how every day you're suffering without even realizing it.
- [19:35]
A
Well, let's talk about your journey a little bit. You spent many years in, as a doctor in the healthcare system, and then you had your own challenge. And one day you kind of wake up and go, holy crap, something's going on here I'm not paying attention to. So even with your training and, you know, being in it, you missed the mark. You, you know, you're operating on top of it. It was your blind spot. So, yeah, yeah, so give me a little bit of that story. I think it would really give context to all of what you're doing.
- [20:01]
B
Sure. So, yeah, as I said I was earlier, I was a board certified urologist for about 25 years. About halfway into that career, I'm about 39, 40 years old, I hit a wall. I was stressed out because I'm in the hospital every night operating, I'm doing robotic surgery, treating prostate cancer every day, saving lives every day and neglecting myself in the process. And I wake up one day and I am exhausted. I am 30 pounds overweight, so I'm fat, I'm tired. I am, I'm not a happy man. I realized, you know, when I walked in the hospital every day, I didn't like who I be, who I was. I was a miserable human being. You know, they talk about surgeons being. I was, I truly was. And it's because I just, I wasn't really living my best life and my health suffered because of it. Here I was, a men's health expert, and I was sacrificing myself for the sake of my business, my career, my patients. And so my wife convinced me to finally go get A physical. And so at age 40, I go to this local concierge dock here in town, Sarasota, Florida, and I got my first physical exam ever. And it was a very eye opening, vulnerable experience to, to be on the other side of that experience. You know, I was always the doctor up until then. Here I am sitting on this exam table wearing one of those thin little paper gowns and, you know, my butt's not even covered. And incredibly vulnerable feeling. And he was going through my lab numbers, talking about my mortality numbers because my lipids were off and my cholesterol was high and my creatinine, my kidney function was off. My liver numbers weren't perfect. And he said, you know, you need to lose some weight and probably need to push on a statin.
- [21:43]
A
A statin. Wow.
- [21:45]
B
And that was it.
- [21:46]
A
That's a wake up.
- [21:47]
B
That was it. And, and I'm like, wow. Like I left that day and I was, I was, you know, suddenly aware of my own mortality. So it was a very, you know, eye opening moment for me. But I knew that there was more to it than just that, more to it than just a statin. And I started researching, I started studying, and that got me to go back to school. And I studied epigenetics, which is a fancy term for the science of how your lifestyle, your behavior, your environment affects your genetic expression, the way your body works. Basically, that got me learning, wait a second, a lot more than just a drug, a lot more than just a pharmaceutical. Then I trained in functional medicine, and then I changed, trained in hormone therapy, doing it the right way. And they don't ever teach you the stuff in urology training. They teach you how to prescribe drugs and do surgery. That's it. I learned about peptides and peptide therapy, this amazing cutting edge, you know, regenerative field of, of how to help the body heal itself. And I started putting all these pieces together and I was able to turn my health around. And I lost the weight or regain my energy and focus and I, I felt great. And I realized that I was on to something when I started sharing this newfound passion of mine with my patients. And they were getting great results as well by not throwing drugs at them, but focusing on identifying the underlying problem and fixing it, typically with lifestyle medicine, with supplements, with behavioral change.
- [23:13]
A
So Dr. Tracy, starting, Greg, but just so I can stay on the same path, is that given what you're doing today, have you, you know, you've got a very traditional medical science based background and would you say that you've kind of evolved a little to a more holistic approach and with the science in behind it, but holistically, looking at how you can take better care of yourself, take, have your body and work with your body to look after itself better. Is that a fair kind of view of what you're doing these days? Like I say, you've got lots of science behind it and all the things. But are you taking a more holistic approach as opposed to looking to prescribe a drug or, and, and instead of doing that saying, okay, let's start this process and here's some supplements where I'm seeing that would, would benefit.
- [24:04]
B
So I've completely shifted the whole paradigm of men's health. Yes. To answer your question, yes, I've evolved to where I do nothing now. My, my team, I have medical team, I have functional medicine trained health coaches, we look at wearable technology, we look at genetics, we look at advanced functional testing, full body imaging, and we're prescribing nutrition meal plans, we're prescribing fitness programming, we're prescribing some target supplementation, we're using some cutting edge peptides to help people get there quicker, we're optimizing hormones and we're doing it all in a very personalized, precise manner. And I'll tell you, I can't remember the last time I actually prescribed national pharmaceutical. And so we are, we have completely shifted the paradigm now. So, so holistic. Yes, I would, I would say that's certainly an accurate descriptor of it all. It is really what we do at the gaping institute is we are, and this is. My passion has become. My mission now is to really redefine health care. And for me, my passion started in men's health, but this applies to women as well. How do we help leaders be their absolute best again, not by throwing drugs, pharmaceuticals at you, but by optimizing every part of your body. And typically that does not require a drug. That requires understanding at a personalized level based on your genetics, based on functional testing, based on labs, based on wearable technology, how your body's working, what are the blind spots and how do we fix that? And that's very different. Every individual, you know, my, one of my taglines is one size fails all because what's right for one person is wrong for the next. And this is what's wrong with our healthcare system. And it's also what's wrong with all the influencers out there right now on Instagram and Twitter and, and all the other social platforms shooting all over you, telling you. What you should do? Well, it depends. And so absolutely, you know, this has become my passion to really take a very different approach to health and performance and longevity.
- [26:01]
A
So can you, just because you dropped the word a couple times, lipins and peptides, can you give us a kind of a, a real kind of rookie kind of understanding of what that is and why we should pay attention to them? I got a, a bunch of questions like you're, you're really firing in my wheelhouse of what I'm interested in. So, so can you give me some insights into what, what those mean and, and why, why they matter?
- [26:27]
B
Peptides. Yeah. Yeah. So, so peptides are simply short proteins. Okay. They're simply a, a specific sequence of amino acids. And a protein is just a long sequence of amino acids, very specific amino acids. So a peptide is under 100amino acids in length. It's called a peptide. Longer than that is called a protein. It's, it's that simple. Now, peptides have become popular in the last. I started prescribing them about 10, 12 years ago. Now they become popular because they allow us to, to achieve very precise specific outcomes because they are signals. They're signally molecules that your body recognizes because they come from our own bodies. So there are signals that come from our own stomach that helps reduce systemic inflammation. There are peptides that come from our thymus gland, which shrinks away as we're, when we're an infant, so it's gone the rest of your life. But critical immune cells come from your thymus gland that can help you heal, heal from illness, heal from injury, heal from surgery. There are peptides that can help you with energy, cognitive function, focus, mental acuity, weight loss, musculoskeletal repair, gut issues, you name it. Anxiety, depression, sexual health issues. There are peptides that can help you, and they are signals that come from our own bodies. They are, they are sequenced. They are made by compounding pharmacies, but the actual sequence comes from our own body. So they're not drugs, they're not pharmaceuticals. They are able to achieve very specific outcomes for us. They come in oral. Some are oral, some are injectable, some are nasal spray, some are topical. It depends on what the peptide is. Now, a couple words of caution. Number one is, first, caution is there are a lot of stores that anyone can go to as a consumer and buy peptides with a simple credit card swipe. I would caution you against anyone doing that directly because these pharmacies, these stores have very little quality assurance, oversight, purity inspection, FDA Regulations, you don't know what you're getting. And there are a lot of studies that have shown they either have nothing in them or they have heavy metals. And so you want to be really careful buying them directly. I prescribe them from reputable FDA regulated and overseen compounding pharmacies that have purity, authenticity, quality assurance, you know, verification on a daily basis. That's the first caveat. The second caveat is some people think that peptides are the magic bullet and they can solve everything. And like, you've probably heard of semaglutide, which has become a very popular peptide in the last couple years. A weight loss peptide.
- [29:07]
A
Right.
- [29:08]
B
The problem with this type of approach is I think of peptides like the icy on a cake, the frosting, okay, the cake, the ingredients of that cake is made of proper gut, health, nutrition, hormones, sleep, fitness, mindset, toxins, environment. All of these things come together, these ingredients to help you optimize and bake that cake. Then the peptides are a great way to augment that to make it even better. Think how good, how, how frosting can completely change a cake. Right? That's what we're talking about here. Some people try to just buy the can of frosting and eat that by itself, not the same thing. And so that's the analogy I like to use. And peptides are awesome, but there's context and nuance, that they're part of a much bigger, more comprehensive, like as you use the term, holistic approach that's so important.
- [29:58]
A
So when we look at what's going on in the world these days and the food that's out there, the knowledge of food, I mean, I don't know where I want to go with it, but I, I think about the understanding that you have, for example, and do you think that given, you know, how the world has been changing over the years, even the quality of foods, the availability of fast foods, there's a part of it that I understand and I don't ever eat fast food. It's not a thing, it never has been. But it seems that food becomes almost. Some of those foods become addictive and people don't even realize that they're addicted to those foods. It affects your mood, it affects. And it becomes that whole downward spiral. So where am I going with this? I think this is a, you know, this is almost a societal trend, if you will. It has been for many years. I don't know if it seems to be getting worse as people feel more stress, you know, more, more discourse in what's happening in the world today. Do you see or do you have to deal with, or do you deal with that? You, you mentioned it, that mindset part of it, that attitude. Because there is, there is some of it, you know, that we get into these downward spirals and it's like, I'm bummed out. I go to food, I bowed out, I eat chips, I'm bummed out. I, you know, like, so it becomes this downward spiral that is really difficult to reverse. That downward spiral where you're what, philosophically, where are you and your, your team at?
- [31:27]
B
Sure, we talk a lot about this and I have some YouTube videos that really dive deeper into this topic. But in, in general, you know, a lot of the package processed, refined foods now, they're hyper palatable, they're full of inflammatory seed oils. You know, the oils used to cook foods at restaurants or in packages now clearly promote inflammation, which is tied to cardiovascular disease and, and mortality, longevity issues. The other big issue that doesn't get enough attention is endocrine disruption. So this is a big topic for me as it relates to men's health, especially with low testosterone. So we know that testosterone levels are literally half what they were 20 to 30 years ago worldwide. Three massive studies have shown this. Why?
- [32:07]
A
Do we know why?
- [32:08]
B
Yeah, why? The big issue, without question, is endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals, toxins in our environment that have been shown to crush hormones, cause autoimmune disease, cause precocious puberty, cause cancers, cause all infertility, cause all adhd, cause all kinds of health and mental health issues. They're crushing our mind, crushing our body. And endocrine disruptors are especially found in our foods. So, you know, atrazine is a common herbicide that's sprayed in our crops, especially in the Midwest. And so a lot of our foods are poisoned not only with the seed oils and the refined sugars and all that, but they're poisoned with these chemicals, things like atrazine, glyphosate, other chemicals that are in our food. There are chemicals in our drinking water. So if you're not filtering your water, you're drinking a high level of chemicals, for example, women's birth control, synthetic estrogen is found in massive levels in our drinking water because our treatment plants can't clear it. And so I like to joke that all men out there, you're on the pill because you're drinking water that's laden with these estrogenic chemicals that are crushing your hormones. They're causing inflammation, they're making a store fat, they're causing Cancers, they are ruining us. They're in our personal care products. So soap and, and shampoo and deodorant and sunscreen and laundry detergent. I tell you, everywhere you turn, there are chemicals and toxins that are killing us. And so I'm really big on being very intentional about what you eat, what you drink and what you put on your body and the products you use, because it's a, it's a compounding effect when you're surrounded by this. I call it a soup of endocrine disruption everywhere you turn.
- [33:56]
A
That's so fascinating. You're the first person that I've ever heard talk about estrogen levels in our water, given the birth control that's necessary in for women. And I'm going, wow. Then they can't filter, they can't clean it up. Like, holy cow. That's a, that's a bit eye opening. It kind of reminds me of, you know, everybody was on let's, you know, soy being the thing to do, but understanding what that meant for males particularly and the impact that that would have. Do you think that it's coming more into these? You know, I'm thinking about Kennedy and his mission to make America healthy again. I don't know what your stand is on that. I don't follow it that closely. On the, on the surface, I'm going, good for you. You know, you're. You're shutting down seed oils. Do you think that's a good initiative? Are you kind of following along with the doctor, Tracy?
- [34:47]
B
Yeah, I am. And I like to stay out of the politics because I know, you know, you're gonna piss off half the people. But I love what's happening. I love that there's increased awareness of it. Look, it's all in the spirit of how do we get healthier? And we know that seed oils are causing massive inflammation. These are, these are industrial chemicals that were never meant to be used in food. And so it's simply bringing awareness to how do we get healthy and what could be more important than that? Like, my whole career, my life is based upon helping people get healthy. And so I am wholeheartedly a staunch supporter in doing everything we can to eliminate seed oils, eliminate refined sugars, eliminate endocrine disruptors, because they are crushing our health.
- [35:29]
A
You know, it's. A couple years ago, I quit drinking. And for no other reason than one day, I, I think I either saw a video or I read something from a holistic. A very credible doctor who said, make no mistake, alcohol is toxic to your body. Full stop. Doesn't matter. We get away with it, we do what we do, but ultimately it's toxic. And so yes, we justify it, qualify it, quantify it. Glass of wine is good for you every night or whatever the story is. And I don't making anybody wrong, I've certainly had my fair share of wine. But over the, a couple years ago, I just quit drinking. I said, you know, I don't know why I'm doing it. I, it's not that I don't enjoy it, but really why do I do it? And so I just quit. And it was like now two years later, if somebody said to me, what have you noticed the difference? I could, I actually would have to say, I don't, I don't know what it was, but I was drinking fairly regular. I would have a glass of wine probably every night at least. And, and so I don't know what the benefits are other than I decided at some point I, I like food and if I'm going to get calories, I prefer to get it from food rather than alcohol, especially given alcohol is toxic. So I don't know where I was going with that, that comment, but just understanding the way that we kind of view our bodies and our health and the awareness that is coming out, like if I wouldn't have heard that statement, maybe I would have, wouldn't have considered it. I don't know, I'm kind of wired that way anyways. But in the, in the world of alcohol. Any thoughts or any comments in your research that you want to point out to the listeners?
- [37:07]
B
Thank you. So there are so much around alcohol that, that people don't recognize it's the calories. Sure. It causes inflammation, it crushes your hormones, it destroys your microbiome, which is a stressor to your system. It leads to systemic inflammation which further perpetuates weight gain and catabolic state where you can't build muscle. It crushes your hormones even further. It crushes your sleep. Now people say, no, no, it helps me, helps me sleep. No, it does not. It helps you fall asleep. But what it does, and I love to talk about sleep, there are two key stages of sleep times during your sleep cycle that are so important. That's the deep sleep cycle. You need an hour of deep sleep every night and you need two hours of REM sleep every night. Alcohol crushes deep sleep. This is why you drink and you fall asleep. But you wake up in the morning, you still feel like crap, right? You feel like you didn't sleep. You don't feel Refreshed, it's because it destroys the deep sleep. What that does, it raises your resting heart rate, it raises your cortisol levels. Now, when you have high cortisol, what does it do? It further crushes hormones, further causes inflammation, further tears up your gut, affects neurotransmitter production. It's an endless cycle, raises blood sugar, which has further cascade of events. It becomes this ugly cascade that is like, is so harmful in so many ways for your body, you can't even count. And so when people start to realize that it makes all the difference in the world. So you know what I do with my clients, I love to use wearable technology because the data doesn't lie. And when you, when you measure it, you can manage it. You know, when you know your numbers, you're able to really track outcomes. And so I'll put a continuous glucose monitor on my clients, a blood sugar monitor, and we'll see what happens. And when they see how horrible their blood sugar is after they drink, even if they haven't eaten, I don't care, it doesn't matter. Or even the next morning, they've been fasting for 12 hours and the blood sugar is still 150. It's very eye opening to see the real data, the real results, real time, what's happening to your body. And that's when people start to make change and start to really wake up. And so it's is one of the things, like you said, you don't necessarily feel a difference, but it's making a massive difference.
- [39:21]
A
So let's talk about a couple things here that, you know, I know that, you know, when we think about, and I 100% concur, is that when we look at the leaders in the world, the CEOs, the business owners, those individuals that are kind of really driving the bus, responsible for a lot of different things and their health is so, so important. But let's think about even these tests now. You know, I, they're not free. So you know that, you know, there's, there are probably some relatively significant costs depending on where you are in, you know, in the pay scale, so to speak. But what does somebody do that you know, is, wants to be healthier, can't afford the tests, can't afford, but understands that, you know, I want to be healthier. No. What do you say to somebody goes, I can't afford a fricking test with Dr. Tracy.
- [40:11]
B
Yeah. So, you know, first of all, it comes down to how much do you spend on travel, how much do you spend on, on food, how much do you spend on your car, how much do you spend on, on vacations, how much do you spend all this other stuff and you know, can you not afford it or are you really more focused on spending your money on other things that maybe are not quite as important? That's the first thing I'll emphasize. Our insurance coverage is awful. You know, insurance is really for disease. If you go to your primary care doctor and ask for some of the blood tests I'm talking about, they will look at you like you have three eyes. They won't even understand why you're asking for these. And it's because we're not trained in our, in our medical school system. We're not trained any of this stuff. This was again, me going back to spending a decade going back to, to school, relearning all this stuff the right way that they don't teach you. And so insurance isn't going to cover it and so it is going to be a lot of it out of pocket. Yes. The answer is, first of all, there are ways that you can budgetize and you can, you know, cut out certain tests and some tests are more expensive than others. And so that's a, a whole separate, you know, private conversation with someone who is, who's looking at, to, to save a buck here or there. But I think it comes down to again, investing in yourself, investing in your health. And there are a lot of things that, you know, what I like to say is there are a lot of things that everybody out there should be doing. I can go through a lot of like, you know, rapid fire suggestions for lifestyle, behavioral kind of things that everybody should be doing that don't cost you anything. But I would still recommend, even if you're doing all those things that you still need to get some form of basic testing, even if it's blood testing, a lot of the blood tests you can get for under 500 bucks, get a massive panel of over 100 lives. So it can be affordable if done right.
- [41:51]
A
Yeah, I think you make a really good point. And that is, you know, what is it worth? You know, like you would invest in your health to at least, if nothing else, get benchmarks, get some kind of markers that you can compare to, you know, down the road that you can share with a doctor or something at some point going, if you, if you do get sick, at least you have some kind of markers going, holy cow. That's where you were. This is where you're at. This could be a flag, something to pay attention to. Is there, you know, but when we consider our overall health, if you will, you know, I don't know where I want to go with it, but, you know, I consider training. Is there a. When you, when you're working with clients, are you saying, okay, you need to get out and you need to walk those 10,000 steps a day, you need to, you know, lift weights of some sort, you need to stress your body. If you've got inflammation, that in itself is a flag that, hey, why have you got inflammation? You have to look at it, you have to consider it. And then I would ask the question, now at this point in my life, you know, sometimes I got achy joints, you know, my knees bug me. I've had, you know, an injury years ago and now starting to show up as inflammation. Now is that normal or is it something that, you know, maybe an adjustment of diet would take that inflammation away. What's your kind of guidance in that spectrum of thoughts?
- [43:11]
B
Great question. I, I don't consider any of that normal, honestly. I think that people accept it as the natural aging process. They just accept that. O, I'm, I'm over 50, I'm over 60. So that's just part of life. And I, I got to say, no, BS is not part of life. We just come to accept it. There are a lot of triggers for that kind of stuff. I'll give you so many stories. So one of my clients was a race car driver, and he came to me because his decision making focus on the track. Something was off. Couldn't, couldn't figure out what it was. But decision making was off. And going 2m 200 miles an hour around corners is kind of important that you can think quickly, make quick decisions. For him, it was all in his gut. He had gut issues. He had food sensitivity issues that was causing systemic inflammation. He didn't need a nootropic, a magic peptide or a drug or something to make him think clearer. He, he needed nutrition and a few supplements to clean up his gut. I see so many people who have issues with inflammation, like you're talking about with brain fog or can't lose weight and they're eating the wrong foods. They're not bad foods, but based on their body, based on their genetics, based on their functional testing, it's wrong for their body. And so there are a lot of things that you can do when it comes to nutrition, when it comes to lifestyle that can help solve a lot of that. And then there are regenerative treatments as well. So regenerative medicine is helping the Body help itself. We're talking about PRP and stem cell therapy. These are treatments that you can do that help your body heal and can often completely eliminate knee pain, shoulder pain, elbow, tennis elbow, you name it. And all it is, it's cellular therapy. It's taking your own cells, concentrating them and then putting them where you need them to help your body heal itself. So that's the magic of what we can do now that has nothing to do with pharmaceuticals, nothing to do with surgery, nothing to do with traditional health care, but can help alleviate the stuff you're talking about now.
- [45:13]
A
So let's talk about specifically. You mentioned stem cells. So I've been, you know, I've been intermittent fasting now for, I don't know, a couple of years. I'm pretty, pretty solid with it. I'm pretty committed to it. And, and I've got into my groove where, you know, going 16, 18, 20 hours, some, occasionally I do a 48 or even a 72 hour fast. It doesn't really bother me. I don't see struggle to do that anymore. But my understanding is, based on the research that I've heard and again, you know, you, what do you trust and what do you don't trust without actually having tests done? But my understanding is, is that in the intermittent fasting world, your body starts to produce stem cells after I think 48 hours or even maybe a shorter period of time, and then really escalates into that 72 hour window. Can you confirm or clarify that kind of thought process, Dr. Tracy?
- [46:07]
B
Yeah. So you're right that your body still has stem cells even till the day you die. Your body has stem cells in it now. You do they lose power to lose quantity? Absolutely, yes. The magic of fasting is it's a stressor to our system. Okay. It is helping your body, you know, take out the trash. Autophagy is the, is the word for the process where your body clears cellular debris, clears toxins, and helps it basically heal itself. You do get a ramp up in production, make no mistake about it, of those key restorative repair cells that your body needs during fasting. The reason why it's not quite as significant as, you know, specific PRP or stem cell therapy, for example, is it's not concentrated where you want it, where you need it most. So for example, I had tennis elbow and about three weeks ago I had a PRP injection. And that's concentrating that right where your body needs it to heal itself. For example. Yeah.
- [47:02]
A
What does the PRP stand for?
- [47:04]
B
So PRP is platelet rich plasma. That means that they draw your blood, we spin it down, we isolate the, it's called the buffy coat, which is the, the layer of platelets which has all the healthy growth factors, cytokines, and that's what's going to stimulate massively increased repair.
- [47:23]
A
Now I know I'm jumping around a little bit, but I do want to go back to microbiomes and biomes and the gut health. And there a book I read many years ago, I probably forgotten a bunch of it was, you know, your gut is your second brain. I think some version of that title. And people just don't realize how significant a factor our gut is to a lot of things of how we operate, how we think or how we feel. Back to even inflammation, brain fog, all of those things. You want to comment on that a little bit further?
- [47:58]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So the gut controls everything. You're exactly right. And I'll give you an example. So a lot of men and women have issues with weight gain, right? Men especially is the belly fat. No matter what you do, you can't shake it. Women have the fat in their butt. And a big driver for that is blood sugar regulation. And we've all heard of GLP1 by now. GLP1 is, it's the biggest rave you hear on social media. Everywhere you turn. It's the, it's the, the peptide that can help you lose weight. Okay. SEM glutide is the name of the, the, the generic name for this peptide. GLP1 is actually made by your gut. GLP1 is what signals your brain to tell you when to stop eating when you're full. It tells your stomach when you're full so that you don't eat as much. It helps tell the pancreas to produce more insulin, better insulin efficiency so that you control blood sugar better or all those mechanisms help you burn fat, lose weight when your microbiome is messed up, when the mic. You know, the balance of the good bugs and bad bugs, to put it simply, is out of balance, it kills the key bugs. Akkermansia is the key cornerstone bacteria that helps the L cell, which is the cell in your gut, produce this magic peptide that your body makes to help control blood sugar and control weight. And so the great example of how when a lot of people can't lose weight, it may be simply because of the microbiome.
- [49:25]
A
And so what should somebody consider a change of diet? How would they know what diet? Like what do we, what, what do we know is for sure, take it off the list, quit Eating it. I mean, certainly fast foods come immediately into that, that category. You know, sugars and all of those kinds of things. But you know, what, what are some of the other things that maybe people are eating and not even understanding the impact of it, and they maybe think they're eating healthy?
- [49:52]
B
Well, one of the biggest disruptors of the microbiome is sugar. So sugar, especially alcohol, refined processed sugar, even seed oils, inflammatory seed oils, all of these can disrupt that microbiome and cause major issues. And so there's a lot of foods that can definitely crush it. What can you do to help it? Fiber is a great food for the good bugs, the, the healthy commensal bacteria, which is really what you want in your microbiome. So plenty of fiber is always critically important. You know, green leafy vegetables, you know, whole foods. You know, people try to push me, well, do you recommend keto or paleo or vegan or Mediterranean or carnivore or this or that? And, well, there's a lot of nuance around that related to genetics and functional testing and individualization. But in general, if you just focus on doing nothing else other than just simply eating real food, just real food, that either is an animal, if you. And if you eat meat, great. If you eat fish, great. Otherwise, eat plants, eat vegetables, eat fruit, eat real food, you'd be amazed at the amazing difference, just that change alone will do to your body.
- [51:05]
A
It is interesting, I think it was Huberman that says, eat fish, eat. Eat beef, eat pork, like eat meat and fish, eat fruits, eat vegetables, and you will be golden. Like that will be. That's all you need to really do. But everybody, well, many we get sucked into, you know, the, the breads, the grains, the, you know, those carbohydrates. But without going down that path too deep. But one of the things that has become a topic, at least in what I'm seeing, is that we just don't eat enough protein, full stop. We, you know, fruits and vegetables aside, we're eating. We. We live into this world of carbohydrates and we're. We're not eating enough protein, which of course, is what our bodies need to maintain muscle. What, what are you seeing? Or what's your kind of thought process or philosophy on that?
- [51:58]
B
Yeah, most people will say no, like, plenty of protein. That's not me. So what I always do is I say, let's track it, just measure it. And so there are free apps you can get on your phone. There's Chronometer, MyFitnessPal, there's several others. Or you can simply get a pen and paper and document. Track everything you eat for three days in a row. Just, just, just track it. Do nothing else but measure and count. Most people are shocked at two things. Number one, they're shocked at how many calories they're eating. They had no idea they're eating that many calories. And number two, you're spot on that people don't realize how many carbs are eating in relation to protein. And the biggest way to lose weight and specifically burn fat, build muscle, is to simply make sure you're getting enough protein. That's it. And so the best way.
- [52:44]
A
It's hard to do.
- [52:46]
B
You're exactly right. It requires work. You have to be very intentional and plan and be strategic with your meals, with your shopping. But you can do it. But the goal, the Target is around 1 gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Ideal.
- [53:00]
A
Ideal body weight?
- [53:00]
B
Yeah, ideal body weight. So around one time. Now, most people don't do one gram. They end up getting around 0.6, 0.8. One gram is your goal. Should be your goal every day.
- [53:09]
A
Yeah. And, and I, you know, when I, when I go on my kind of, okay, I'm gonna lean out or I'm gonna, you know, when I set, I'm good. When I set a goal, like I've got a couple bats apps, I really track my calories, but also my, my macronutrients, micronutrients, I kind of pay attention to it. My point is, is that my ideal weight. I, you know, at six foot one, I really work well and am pretty lean at about 190, 293 pounds. So I go, you know, a gram of protein, and I'm, it's really hard to get that 193 grams of protein in a day. Like, it takes real effort to make that happen. So I'm just bringing that up and with no other reason. I'm not making excuses, but it is, it is something that you, to your point, you have to be very intentional and very focused in order to achieve those goals, which doesn't make it easy. But again, when we want to stand out and be healthy and be the center of our universe and, and be there for those that we support in our world, including ourselves. I think that's how intentional you got to get. That's just the way it is. We're sedentary in terms of our lifestyle. Technology's made life really easy. I find I know myself that, you know, I work a lot. I. In from a writing point of View. I'm in front of my laptop far too often, and if I get into a mode where I'm really having fun writing, it's hard to peel me away from there. And I got to force myself to go out. And fortunately, we live on five acres. We got two big dogs, and, you know, so they're. They're insisting that I take them for a walk out in the back 40, but, you know, it. That's also environment is creating an environment for your own success. And when you're looking and working with some of your patients, you got to see that. Is that part of your guidance as well, is like, what is your environment? You. You know, are you setting yourself up for success, or are you setting your up for self, up for failure?
- [55:01]
B
Yeah, great point. So one of the biggest issues I find is high performers. They know what to do, but why don't they do it right here? I was. I was a men's health.
- [55:12]
A
Let's answer that question, Dr. Tracy.
- [55:15]
B
I'm operating. I'm. I'm doing robotic surgery, treating cancer, saving lives every day. And here I am neglecting my health as well. And the answer is, we don't have consistency. We don't have discipline. And willpower will lose every day over discipline. And so you have to have consistent habits. And so this gets me to one of my favorite books of all time, Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. Now, Atomic Habits by James Clear is great also, but I really would recommend everyone out there read Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. He's a Stanford professor, and what he talks about is. Is abc, basically. Anchor is A, what's the anchor in your life that you can tie a B, behavior to and then C, celebrate so that you'll continue and perpetuate that good behavior. Example would be, he gives this in the book. BJ gives the book. Every time he pees, he has two pushups. P2 pushups. P2 push ups. Now, he may do a hundred pushups that day, but he's always going to do at least two every time he pees. The caveat, the reason this is so important, this is a critical distinction here, is not that those two push ups are going to help you lose weight or build muscles, your pecs. It's not that it's the consistent habits that you're ingraining. It's the behavioral change that you're training yourself to always be disciplined, to do what you know you're supposed to do, but you're not doing it. And so you find an anchor in your daily Life tie a behavior to it. You got to celebrate the win. The win is you did it. The win is you actually disciplined enough to do what you know you're supposed to do. And that perpetuates behavior change. And so a lot of what we do is getting leaders to buy into their own accountability by establishing daily consistency in the little tiny things that make all the difference in the world. Another great one is in the morning, when you get up in the morning, 6am Tennis shoes are right there by my coffee maker.
- [57:13]
A
Set yourself up for success.
- [57:15]
B
Yeah, I, I could make coffee and put my ass on the couch and just sit there for an hour and, and scroll and read emails and waste time, but I got to put my shoes on now. I can put my shoes on and do nothing else. And, And I will have one. I will have succeeded in, in fulfilling that discipline in that consistent behavior that I, I'm supposed to do. But, you know, once you get your shoes on, what are you going to do? You're going to go for a walk. And that's the hardest part. You find the hardest trigger. How can you overcome that? And so a lot of nuance around behavior change, coming down to tiny habits.
- [57:48]
A
You know, it's interesting is the way I've set up my office is I've actually got a gym in my office and you know, one of my commitments in the 10,000 steps. And of course, you know, when weather's bad, you don't want to go out, you don't want to go for that walk. But I have a rebounder and my commitment is like, I literally will trip over my rebounder to get to my office. So it's like in my face, like, okay, well, I'll do five minutes, which then turns to 10 often or 15. And you know, I find rebounding very effective in terms of. I think it's. For me, I think it's better than walking. But that's just my story. I don't know if it is from a health point of view. Some research says that it is good as walking, but there it's right in front of me. I trip over it. Otherwise, you know, people feel pretty guilty if I don't. The. I wanted. I don't even know where we can go with this really. But I was. Something interesting that showed up for me recently, Dr. Tracy, was a comment that somebody made. And because we're talking about kind of that mental side of things where we, you know, get to do or not do and habits and, And I have read Atomic Habits. I'm a Big fan of James Clear. Clear. I followed his, his career. Somebody said, and I don't. I gotta find the quote again. But he goes, habits. The term habit is actually used incorrectly because a habit is something that you do unconsciously. You're really unconscious about it. Once you are aware of it and calling it a habit, it's no longer a habit. It's a choice. And you use the word discipline, which that to me is the real word is not. I don't have to create habits because it's not a habit. You don't create a habit. It's a choice. Once you think it's, you know, habit is a mindless thing. And, and you know, you don't. You're not aware of you're doing it. We call smoking habits. We have this term. But he pointed out, I don't know if I agree or disagree, but I went, oh, what an interesting thought is if it's, if you, if you're aware of it, it's not a habit, it's a choice. Then comes in discipline. And I'm a big fan of the term discipline and, and using discipline. I don't know if you have some thoughts on it. I don't know where I'm going with it, but I just wanted to put it on the table again.
- [59:52]
B
No, I, I think you're spot on. It comes down to when there's a choice, you will fail. Everyone will fail. We are weak. We. We are mortals. And willpower will always lose to discipline. And so you have to, in my mind, establish it where there is no choice. It's what you do. And like you said, you know, you have. It may be the wrong word, but whatever that behavior is, it needs to be ingrained that that's just what you do. There's no other choice. And that's how you develop that consistency and that discipline.
- [60:22]
A
Well, I think all of it is just a mental game anyways, you know, so in other words, you have to pay attention to your mental game. You know, even the term willpower, somebody says they don't have the willpower. Well, turn it into want power. You know, the, the whole thing about willpower, even I need to be motivated. That term about being, I need to be motivated. That indicates right there that it's not something you want to do. If you have to use willpower to get over something to your game, to your point, it's a losing game. It's obviously something that you don't want to do and you're trying to will your way through it as opposed to flipping it and turning it into something that makes sense, and that mentally, you go, okay, no, I'm going to shift how I view that particular world. And I just see it as such an important part of even the work you're doing. You mentioned that you have. It's part of what your team does, is you talk about those kind of mental hacks. How do you kind of approach it from the institute's point of view?
- [61:17]
B
Yeah, I. I recognize that the. The mindset piece is without question the most important part of what we do. And when clients work with us, I. I truly believe that the biggest transformation happens just by enrollment, just by enrolling in our program. When you raise your hand and when you commit, you have made the biggest transformation because you're finally committing to yourself. And, and we, we, you know, we. We talk almost an hour ago about, you know, how do you get people to. To pursue their health when they feel fine, when someone is able to commit to something like that, that's a huge win in of itself. So mindset's first. But the big part of that is how do you stay committed for those who are, you know, weak, who still don't have the discipline yet? And I like to fall back on your why, and your why is different than anybody else's why. But what's your personal why? What's it all about for you? You know, what, What's. What's the point of all this you're doing every day? Why do you wake up every day? For me, it's my kids. Like, nothing will make me cry like, thinking about, talking about how amazing my kids are and how important they are to me. And so everything I do is so that I can show up at the end of my busy day running my team, building a business, being a leader in the community, and doing podcasts with you and all this other fun stuff I love doing. But what's more important than any of that is how I'm able to be present and engaged to those two amazing kids when I get home. And so everything I do has to align with that. If it doesn't, what the hell is it for? And so I get people to. To journal, to document gratitude. What are they grateful for? You know, the. The gap in the GAIN concept of be. Be grateful for what you've achieved, not what you're lacking. And then what is. What's it all about? What's your why? What's. What's the most important thing in your life? And is everything you're doing aligned with that? And so there's a lot of mindset work that I think has to come before you start talking about hormones and gut health and peptides and all the other fun stuff that we do.
- [63:19]
A
Well, I think, I love that and I think it's so critical. I mean, you know, how are you setting yourself up for success? And back to what you just said is so important. The foundation of it all is why am I doing this and why is it important to me? And often because it's also important to your kids. You know, they want a dad that they're gonna, you know, watch, get old and maybe celebrate grandchildren or whatever that might be. So it's the connecting the dots mentally from it. Now, I, I don't want to step over. When you look at the, your, your clinic, your institute, do you have a, a kind of a grand vision or a grand mission that you, you know you're gonna make a million people healthy or where are you at with that?
- [64:03]
B
Bigger than that.
- [64:04]
A
Yeah.
- [64:04]
B
So. So my goal is to really reinvent our health care system. Help leaders be their absolute best again. You know, you remember how good you used to feel back in your 20s and 30s. You remember how you were at your best. So I want to help leaders be their absolute best again. And I want to empower other doctors to practice cutting edge, innovative healthcare like I'm doing as well and carry forth this mission. And so the next big phase of what I'm really passionate and focused on, I get all excited about right now, is training other doctors how to get out of that broken healthcare system that they're stuck in and do what I'm doing. Because I tell you, I can only reach so many people treating patients, you know, with my medical team, getting a podcast, sharing my message. But when I can start training other doctors how to follow my footsteps and do what I'm doing, that's how it'll gain exponential exposure and that's going to really carry forth the mission.
- [64:57]
A
I love that. So as we wind down and before I get into my rapid fire little segment we have some fun with, is there anything that we didn't talk about that you want to shine a light on before we kind of wind down?
- [65:12]
B
So I have get a gift for your listeners. I have a bunch of resources I'd be happy to share if now is the right time for that or not.
- [65:18]
A
Let's do it, you know.
- [65:20]
B
Okay, so my website, gapininstitute.com G A P I N Institute, but if you'll go to gabininstitute.com forward/launch there are a number of free gifts there. Free resources for anyone listening. There's a copy of my best selling book mail 2.0 digital copy. Just copy my high performance health handbook. Copy my ultimate peptide guide that goes into much deeper detail about a lot of peptides that I mentioned today. All those resources are my gift to your community.
- [65:47]
A
Fantastic. And we'll make sure that all of that is in the description when we push this out. Love it. Okay, so let's wind down a couple of. I go through what we call rapid fire questions that aren't always so rapid fire, but we have some fun doing it anyways. And simple and easy. Android or Apple?
- [66:06]
B
Apple.
- [66:07]
A
Okay. Are you a thorough through and through Apple guy?
- [66:11]
B
Everything's Apple. There's no, no PC, no Android. Now we have one employee in my, in my business who has an Android and we all make fun of him.
- [66:18]
A
Yeah, fire him. Fire him. Get rid of him. Okay.
- [66:20]
B
Yeah, he's going to be there.
- [66:22]
A
So, favorite tune, favorite band? Anything that kind of really stands out for you. Are you a bit of a music guy?
- [66:28]
B
I'm a big music guy. The script is my favorite band and there's a song that, that was a big trigger for me back 15 years ago when I was very frustrated, disillusioned with. With medicine and when I went through the healthcare crisis that I share with you. There's a song they wrote called it's not right for you and, and listen to the song. But the, the key line that drives home. My point here is if you don't love what you do, it's not right for you. And that's what got me to leave, honestly is my experience that I went through and that song got me to leave a seven figure practice to start from scratch with the gaping institute. And I can't be. I'm thrilled that I did. I can't believe I waited so long. But that was a key song for me.
- [67:10]
A
Well, interesting, you know, sometimes. Okay, well, we'll carry on. Otherwise we're going to get into a whole new conversation. Favorite book, aside from a song that kind of was a fork in the road moment for you, was there a favorite book that was a. That you gifted out or that you recommend or was maybe even a fork in the road moment for you?
- [67:26]
B
Yeah. How to win Friends influence people. By far.
- [67:29]
A
Classic. Classic. Favorite movie? Any have any favorite movies that stand out?
- [67:34]
B
Pulp Fiction, no question.
- [67:36]
A
Pulp Fiction. Oh, that's a classic. Gosh. Going back, going back into the oldies for sure.
- [67:42]
B
Oldies.
- [67:43]
A
So when you get to the gates and you meet God. What do you want him to say?
- [67:49]
B
Her?
- [67:50]
A
Yeah.
- [67:50]
B
I'm proud of the father that you were beautiful.
- [67:54]
A
And final question for today, Dr. Tracy. What are you grateful for?
- [68:00]
B
My beautiful wife and my amazing little kids.
- [68:03]
A
And I am always grateful for my guests like you. I am grateful for my amazing wife, my children, my grandchildren, and appreciate the conversation today. I've learned so much and appreciate your time and the wisdom and the experience that you brought to the show today. Thanks very much, Dr. Tracy.
- [68:21]
B
Thank you so much.
- [68:23]
A
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. If you found value in the podcast, please take the time to rate and review and share with others. Share with your friends as it is my goal to always improve and to provide the highest value for you, the listener. If you have any any comments, suggestions or questions you'd like answered, please email me@ceoaincanada.com that's CEO E I N Canada.com I look forward to hearing from you. And until next time. Patrick. Oh.