
Loading summary
A
You're listening to the Good Question podcast with Richard Jacobs. Our goal is to make each of our guests exclaim, hmm, that's a good question. I don't know the answer. Because when that happens, it means you, the listener, may be inspired to learn more beyond the interview and to ask great questions yourself that lead to new insights. In this podcast, we cover historical and current anthropology, comparative religion and history. Welcome. And let's get started.
B
Hello, everyone. This is Richard Jacobs with the Good Question podcast. My guest today is John Goldman. He's the founder and CEO of what's called Rebel Health. It's a new kind of healthcare company. The goal is to make people stronger, sharper, and more resilient and improve what's possible. He's become a case study himself. We'll find out what that means and, you know, what's involved there. His goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 18 months or less. So this should be a very interesting call. Welcome, John. Thanks for coming.
C
Hey, thanks. My pleasure. Thanks for having me, Richard.
B
Yeah. So what's the story behind Rebel Health? Like what. What were you doing in your life where you decided you needed to do something about your health and help others?
C
Yeah. Rebel Health alliance was started in. Well, the idea was started in. In 2022. I. I woke up one day feeling terrible after thinking I had done everything right all these years. I've been in the gym basically for, you know, 20 years, and I thought I was eating right and doing the right things, but I wok feeling terrible. I couldn't sleep. I just knew my energy was down and my. My blood markers were all a little high, but my primary care doctor was like, oh, whatever, it's fine. We'll just keep an eye on it. And I was relaying this information to a friend of mine who, you know, you might call him a biohacker. And I said, dude, guys my age, when they say they feel great, because you hear that, right? You hear guys in the 40s and 50s, and they're like, oh, I feel better than I ever have. I said, man, I was like, those guys are full of it, right? And he said, no. Said, not only are gu your age feeling good today, they are getting better every single day. And I said, man, if you know how to fix that for me, let me know. Because I was looking out into the future at age it was like 46 then. And I was thinking, if this is the peak of my health, I got a long 30 years coming where everything is just going to get worse every single day. And I knew that I could not live like that. And so he connected me to a bunch of doctors and dietitians and genetic counselors, and we did crazy lab work I had never heard of at that that time, and genetic testing and all kinds of stuff that was really new to me then. And I discovered a lot of things that I really didn't, had no clue. One, I was pre diabetic. May 1C was really high. I was on my way to having died. I had five pounds of visceral fat content, which is the fat inside your abdomen that causes all kinds of inflammation. My inflammation scores were through the roof. My cholesterol was high, and I was a lot fatter than I thought I was. And he's like, man, if you don't fix this, you're gonna be diabetic soon. And. And to hear that I was gonna have diabe, crazy to me because I've done CrossFit and I've done powerlifting and I've done bodybuilding, and I played sports in school, and I did Muay Thai, and I did all this stuff. And to end up as a diabetic at age 50 was just so outside of my personal identity. I was like, I was sure, you're
B
lucky you made it to 50 now, because kids that are diabetic and all that, it's crazy, right?
C
And so he put me through all these protocols, and within six months, I'd lost all the weight. I had a six pack, my lipids had cleared, my blood sugars had cleared. I'd lost all the visceral fat content. I got my sleep dialed in. I was feeling better than ever. And I thought to myself, man, there have got to be other guys my age and in my situation, businessmen, entrepreneurs, successful people, family guys who could really benefit from the process that I had just gone through. And from there, that's where Rebel Health alliance was born. And then we just started building the company from there.
B
Well, when you look back, knowing what you know now, is it obvious to you what you were doing wrong? Or even if you knew what you know now, you. It still is not obvious.
C
Yeah, it was. It's obvious to me now. I mean, I was definitely not. Not getting enough of the right kind of exercise. Right. You can lift weights, but if you don't cardio, do cardio. If you don't improve your cardio respiratory fitness, you're really. You're really leaving a lot on the table. I also was eating way more than I thought I was eating. I was eating a lot of the wrong foods. I Wasn't taking the right supplements and I wasn't focusing on my sleep and I wasn't prioritizing the, the day to day things that are going to lead to positive compounding health outcomes. And we have taken that experience and turned it into a real, you know, program for people that are, that's helping people all over the country from all kinds of, you know, health perspectives, whether they've got metabolic disorder, which I had learned about and I can tell you all about, or whether they were simply overweight or they were under muscled or under fueled or getting poor sleep or couldn't concentrate or had bad mental and emotional regulation. We're helping people every single day right now by giving them a full comprehensive suite of services with a physician, dietitian, strength coach, a conditioning coach, a genetic counselor, clinical specialists. And we use data driven analysis to create precision healthcare that generates real health outcomes in people that you're not going to get by going to your typical primary care doc.
B
I turned 50 last year and I noticed something and I haven't really heard it talked about, but this was really scary actually. I felt a drop in my vitality, you know, like all the, the energy and presence you have as a person. You have a certain level of energy. And I felt that take a step down. Not a big step, but a step down. And I was like, oh no, this, it was hard to describe. It's, it is hard describe. But have you ever felt that or have you ever heard that from people?
C
100% that that's what I was feeling. I was waking up feeling worse each of the next day and not having the energy that I was accustomed to and not having the focus and frankly just being a little bit more miserable than I remembered being and that I definitely wanted to be. And when people come to rebel, that's one of the main complaints that they, they bring to us. Which is like you said, like my, my, my vitality is gone. I, I don't feel like I used to. I don't have the energy or the power that I used to have. And when you ask them, well, what happens if you don't change that? That's when things get really somber. You know, you start thinking, well man, I am midlife. Am I? Have I peaked? Is this, is this bad feeling that I'm having only going to get worse? And if so, what does that mean for my personal relationships? What does that mean for my business performance? What does that mean for the way that I see myself as a human being? What kind of father can I be? What kind of colleague and partner can I be? What kind of member of community am I going to be if every day from age 46 onwards I'm just feeling crappier and crappier every single day? And, and when you really grapple with that notion and realize that there are alternatives where you don't have to feel like that. And I'm a, I'm a model. I'm a testament to being able to make that change and radically transform your life. And we've seen it with hundreds and hundreds of members all across the country when you, when you realize there's an alternative and, and you're just simply not taking it.
B
I thought to myself, this is how the progression towards, and death happens. I've, I've taken the first step down and I was like, oh man, this is not good. But that's, that's what I felt when it happened. It was like a really sobering thought. I realized, like, ah, this is, you know, a few more steps to this. And I see why people truly feel and get old if they don't do something about it. Yeah.
C
And you know, Richard, what did you decide to do about.
B
Well, for a few months, nothing. And then I, I recently hurt my knee, which put me into this whole, like, it actually was a really great thing because they changed my eating completely, you know, about a month ago, and my sleep and all these other things. And I'm starting to feel radically better. I know I have, you know, more ways to go and I'm supplementing and all that. Sounds like your program has, you know, far more than even what I've been doing. But I'm, I feel like I'm starting to return back to, to what I used to be, which is great.
C
Congratulations.
B
Yeah. Years ago I had thyroid cancer and so I went on like, the ketogenic diet. And for a while I forgot. I, I felt so good. Some days I, I literally didn't know what to do with myself. Like, my, my brain was working so well. I felt so good. I, I just literally like fre do. It was a pretty cool feeling. And after a while I, I had let it go and I forgot about that. So it's. Some of the, you know, it's on the road back there, which is great.
C
Congratulations, man. You know what, what we do at Rebel is that we make sure one, you're not missing anything because we get, you know, most of the people coming to us are, are, are, are in a similar spot to you, which is, they've already had that aha moment and they already have taken some steps towards remedying the, the problem. But then they realize that one, you know, you shouldn't be the quarterback of your own health out there who can help. Two, that it's not happening as quickly as they want it to be. And three, maybe we're, you're missing things. Four, you know, accountability, structure and framework benefits everyone, myself included. And so what we offer people is comprehensive, comprehensive analysis, full team support, full coordination, full accountability, structure, coaching and support so that we can move you to your desired health outcome on the shortest, straightest line. Like to joke that we optimize your optimization process because you can on your own go to down rabbit holes that may or may not be right for you. You might decide to try some fad diet that's good for a minute but not good for the long term. Or maybe you're doing a workout that you read about on the Internet, but it's not really the thing that's best suited for you or man. You've never even taken a look at your genetics and understood how to harmonize your lifestyle and behavior with your DNA so that you can work with your body instead of against it. And we've seen that for the relatively minor investment you can make in our product and our get outsized returns in a short period of time because you know, getting your health squared, getting your energy back, getting that vitality back that you talked about, Richard, and like having more energy than you, you can recently remember that is priceless and it spills over into everything else that you do.
B
You're a good example because you honestly thought, I'm sure you're doing all the right things and you're probably working out a lot. So it was like a big surprise to you. Like how could I not be getting results? How could I not feel good? I'm doing everything I should, I think, right?
C
Yeah, 100%. I really did think that. And it turns out I was doing things the wrong way. And for me really, the, the accountability structure, the coaching, the support, the data, the data which discovered things that I didn't know. And our physicians will look at your blood work and your data in a different way than a typical primary care doctor that you see once a year. That guy's got no time for you. He's only got seven minutes for you. He doesn't really know you. He's got no time to coach you. He has no time to solve your root cause problems, give you the ability to make lifestyle changes that are going to remedy everything per permanently. He's just going to be like, hey, here's some blood pressure medicine for you. Here's a statin for your cholesterol, here's some Ambien for your sleep. And you know, call me in a year and let me know how things are going. That is 180 degrees away from what we do. We, we are going to solve your cholesterol problem, solve your blood pressure problem, solve your weight problems, solve your sleep problems and make it so you don't need to take prescription medicine for the rest of your life. Millions and millions of people are just on a whole slew of prescriptions every day for the rest of their lives. And we see it especially now GLP1s and Ozempic and Mounjaro and Zepbound and whatnot. People are going on those medications but not doing anything else. That's going to set them up for success. For when they come off, you can, those drugs are miracle. You take those drugs, you will lose weight, you will lose fat, you will lose muscle, you will lose moan density. When you want to come off of those drugs, you're going to then have a hunger rebound. You're not going to have a lifestyle that's built to support your new, your new health condition and you're going to have less muscle mass. So that means you have a higher chance of rebound. And we've seen the data come out recently that's showing that people who take Ozempic and come off gain, gain all the weight back and then some. So you're either on the drug for the rest of your life. Nobody really wants that, right? That's injections every week forever. Or you can do it with us where we will use that drug but as a scaffolding in order to build the building that can stand on its own. And we pull the scaffolding away in 18 months or so and you're good to go with a whole new body and a whole new health circumstance. And so we can't even really compare what we do to typical primary care, which everybody is sick of. Nobody comes to Paul's and says, oh, you know, my primary care doctor, doctor is amazing. Through, through care first or whatever.
B
You know, I had a primary care. I got a story for you about, you know, for a while I was having all my blood markers looked at every six months and I was excited. I went into him and I said, look, I put them on a graph in Excel and he's like, I don't need that. Just show me the latest ones. Like, don't you want to see what Went up and down, you know, and I was like, whatever, forget it. If they're not even willing to look at where they're going. And this chart I made, I was happy about, there's no sense talking to them, you know, Right.
C
They, they have no time for that. They have no time for that. And they' got weird incentives and you know, they get X amount of people taking certain drugs and certain tests and whatever. They get certain amount of compensation. It's just a completely screwed up model that does not put the patient as a human being at the center and incentivize the physician to give the best care possible. So like for example, in our model, we don't sell you supplements, we don't sell you labs, we don't sell you tests, we don't sell you red light therapies or saunas or the latest, whatever longevity craze is. We get paid if you're happy and healthy and that's it. And we have access to 3,000 labs and tests out there. So if we need to order anything we can. And we're not limited by what my insurance company is going to pay for. We're not limited by whatever computer software, you know, the practice uses or, or what's pre authorized or whatever. We just do what's right for you. And if you get results, you stay with us. And if you don't, which nobody who does a program fails to get results, but you know, it's really all 100% like, are you happy and healthy? Yes, we get paid. That's the exact opposite model of the existing healthcare system.
B
I was going to ask you. I mean, I'm sure there's always cases, but as long as the person does what you're suggesting to them to do, will they fail ever or is it like incredibly rare or.
C
I mean there are definitely fringe cases where there are just what are called idiopathic conditions where you just don't, you just. Nobody, nobody knows what's causing the problem. You know, a lot of times people will come to us and say, I have no idea what's going on with my health, I have no idea why I'm not doing this or the other. And we find out later that they drink like three or four glasses of wine every night. Well, I don't know, maybe that's got something to do with it. Right. And so what, what we find is, is the biggest hurdle to success is the honesty and the vulnerability that the member can bring to the relationship with the care team. And, and by that I mean just being able to openly discuss your actual diet, your actual lifestyle, how much you move, what kind of movement you do, what are you eating and when. How are you really taking care of yourself, telling us, you know, not forgetting to tell us about this snack or that or the extra this or that and here or the three nights a week you're binge and then really having the motivation to make change. And that makes it a tough sell sometimes, right? Because we, we have to find people who are motivated to make change. How many people do you know who are unhealthy, who are seemingly content with it? You look around and oh yeah, you're like, dude, you're really out of shape and you're really unhealthy and you're now taking like six medications. Are you going to like do anything to change? And they just don't. And so there is, there's no magic pill selling. And anybody out there that is trying to sell you something that is just going to solve the problem for you as a free lunch is lying. All these companies, hims and hers and others that are just pushing all these OIC drugs on people, it sounds like a free lunch. I just take this drug and I get skinny. Okay, what happens afterward? And are you getting skinny in the healthy way? And are you really taking care of your lifestyle and are you really making fundamental changes? And so we're, we're not only rebuilding your diet and your strength and your conditioning and everything, we're. We're rebuilding you as a person. And if you, if you stick with it, you know, seen time and time again, just massive transformation. And when you lose the weight and build the muscle and strengthen your heart and improve your cardio and eat the right way and sleep the right way and take the right supplements, the energy that you have is just different. You're just a different new person and you radiate and you attract other people into your life and you attract new opportunities into your life and your relationships improve and, and the way your children see you improves and you're standing in the community improves proofs like we're helping people change their lives completely. Not just like, oh, I want to lose 10.
B
What are some surprising comments that people have made to you, you know, about the program?
C
What has surprised me about the like
B
surprising to them even is fine, doesn't have to be necessarily you.
C
Yeah, I, I think what most people come to understand is that one or two glasses of wine every night is not innocuous.
B
Right?
C
Alcohol disrupts your sleep, it disrupts your heart rate, it disrupts your Heart, your heart rate variability and your resting heart rate. It adds unnecessary calor often leads to poor food decisions. Right. You have a couple of. It's always a couple of beers that are the problem. It's the nachos that come after.
B
Right.
C
And like I think most people, I get surprised when they begin to track what they do and then become aware and, and the data that we collect and the data analysis that we do that that's the whole point in doing it is to be here. No, this is really your current state of affairs. Like for me, for example, getting that extensive blood work done that I did and learning about visceral fat and fatty liver disease, which I had just didn't even know those were things I just didn't even know that there was a particular kind of fat that's inside of your abdomen that has causes different problems than like subcutaneous chubby cheek kind of fat. Like I didn't know even what a 1C was. I didn't know that there was a thing called pre diabetes. The data. Putting the data in front of your face of also like this is how many calories I'm eating, this is what I'm drinking and this is what I'm not doing. In terms of movement, it's a real. Can be a real rude awake. But I do think that people deep down inside know what they should be doing. What they're looking for is someone to clear the path for them to make it seem easier so that they can muster the energy to change the status quo. And that. And that's really what we're doing. We're changing the status quo. We're kicking off a growth period. And growth is always challenging and has its own particular challenges that you have to face. And people need the strength and the encouragement and the coaching and the accountability and the support and the plan so that they can move off the status quo, go into the. What they call the adaptive. The wilderness, adapt into to a new person and come out the other side at a newer, higher peak. And when you really use the data and you go through that shock and awe and surprise stage of like holy crap, I, I am not as healthy as I thought that that's when people, you know, can make the change. Absence, of course, the people that come to us who are like I just had a heart attack or someone in my family died of heart disease or
B
my people are very motivated.
C
Yeah, they're very motivated. But even so man, like we'll talk to people who, whose entire family has diabetes, even neuropathy. And have their foot chop off and they still won't make changes. What we have found are the people who make changes are typically follow the same profile. They are what we call highly agentic, right? These are people that are self starters. These are people that are probably in some professional capacity. These are people who come from maybe an athletic background and you know, they kind of know what needs to be done, but just haven't been able to do it because of this, that or the other. Namely, it's usually like young kids busy at work, Things started slipping, then they snowballed and they woke up seven years later and their kids are in high school and they're like, man, what happened? That's right. We get so many people, 45 to 55, right? And so it's those folks that are really empowered and able to make change because they, they get things done in their real life. You know, like they hire people to solve problems for them all the time at work. They hire the structural engineer to do the whole structure for this new thing that they're building. Or they hire accountants and financial people or lawyers or whomever, where they run teams of people at work to solve problems and create solutions. You know, why aren't they hiring somebody like that for the most important thing they've got in life, which is their health? Because if you don't have your health, buddy, it's hard to have much else.
B
But I think there's two things. So, you know, I've kept a food diary and even if I didn't show anybody, I didn't want to write some stuff down. And you know, so it can be very embarrassing, all that. And then too if, if you're like, okay, you know, from now on I need to eat this way, I do this and it's forever. It's like, oh my God, you know, I want to enjoy this sugar sometimes or this, you know, this cake or ice cream, whatever. Why do I have to. I'm guessing a lot of people feel like, man, if I don't do this perfectly, what's the point? It's not going to work. And how can I change things for the next 30 or 40 years and not have the things they used to enjoy? It just seems like a gigantic mountain of the things you get past. It may not be true, but.
C
Yeah, no, that's a great point, man. You know, first of all, like, we definitely Preach sort of 80, 80, 20 rule, right? Like you don't have to not eat your birthday cake and you don't have to not have champagne at your daughter's wedding or have a drink when you go out with your buddies every so often. But the vast majority of your day to day process needs to be focused on your health. I think people get it into ruts and I've, I've done it myself, where you just come home from work and you grab a drink and you grab some food and you sit there and you eat and you drink and you watch tv. You can do that a couple times a month maybe, but like, if that's your lifestyle, well then you're gonna have predictable result from that. And I'll also say that the transformation process is different than the maintenance process. So, you know, if you've got 40 or 50 pounds to lose and a lot of red markers on your blood to solve, the things that you need to do to resolve them are a little bit more drastic than what you need to do to maintain it. So like for me, for example, I, I've recently lost another 30 pounds on purpose. And I wasn't really like overweight, but I wanted to get lighter for this marathon training. And it took, you know, really calculated caloric deficits in order to make that happen. But once I hit my, my first goal weight here, now we've added back in a bunch of calories and like I'm now, you know, eating, you know, relatively normal again and just using my increased activity rates, like I E Running a ton to continue to, to pull weight off. And I just had my 50th birthday. I ate a bunch of cheesecake and I didn't ruin anything. You know, it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. I definitely went out and drank and did normal things. But you know, now that, now that the holiday season's over, my birthday is behind me, you know, now it's like, okay, time to get back in the groove and really just be focused on what I'm eating and how moving and stay focused on the goals. And I was able to come off of blood pressure medicine for the first time and I can't remember how long in the last couple of months because of this new level of weight loss that I have experienced. And so I used to be 150 over whatever and on blood pressure medicine and now my blood pressure is like 105 over 65 every morning. And that's just by following the protocols that my team at Rebel Health has put together. And I can do that and have my birthday cake and eat it too. It's just the lifestyle part of it that, that's giving you the results that you want has to be 80, 90%. And you know, the special occasions just actually need to be special occasions instead of just the routine or the rut that.
B
How long have you been on your own program?
C
Well, you know, it was my original program that got us here in the first place and that, that took me originally from 2:90 to 2:45. I'm 6 foot 4. I'm really muscular. So even at 2:55, I was still like in the teens of body fat percentage. But, you know, originally I lost Those first like 45 pounds using our program. And then, you know, as I'm business, I, I was just kind of living my life feeling pretty good at like 18 body fat, happy, feeling good. Blood markers looking good. But I was still on the blood pressure medicine. And then, you know, back in like November, I decided I wanted to qualify for Boston Marathon. And so I really doubled down on using our, our own service here. And that is when I've lost another £30, got down to about 215, got off the blood pressure medicine. I'm lean as I've ever been in my life. I'm running farther and faster than I ever have in my life. I'm definitely in the best shape I ever been in my life. I'm lifting twice a week. I'm rowing three times a week. I'm running all the time. And, you know, you don't have to do what I'm doing in order to be in good shape. I'm trying to be in like elite, elite shape for 50 years old. Right? And those are like, we attract a lot of people. Like we, we call it high performance healthcare. We have a ton of people who are trying to go from good to great in whatever sport or recreational activity that they're, they're doing or trying to reclaim former glory from their, their younger years. But, you know, you don't have to run. I'm running like 40 miles a week. You don't have 40 miles a week to be healthy.
B
Right.
C
But you do have to do cardio
B
three or four times a week, though. So it might be a cool program. I thought about this. I thought, you know, once in my life it would be cool to be totally ripped even for just a month or something and then go back to being, you know, in good shape but not crazy. It'd be interesting if you had a program like that. It's, you know, then people could say they've, they've done this, whatever you want to call it. They've climbed this Mount Everest of health and they, you know, they can't stay up there. They don't want to stay up there, let's say the whole time. But at least they've done it. You know, you do like a whole photo session before and after or whatever. It's this, it's a special program. I wonder how many people would like something like that. Yeah.
C
You know what's interesting about what you just said was that you use the Mount Everest analogy. And my endurance team and strength training team at Rebel, we had this conversation very recently. Like I am moving towards a Mount Everest moment myself. And the thing about Mount Everest is once you get there, you look around, you take some pictures, and then you come back down the mountain. Right. And very few people in this world, despite what you see on social media, despite what you see on Instagram. Instagram, whatever, shirtless dudes and, you know, underwear models or whatever, they are not ripped all the time. Even bodybuilders are not ripped all the time. They do it seasonally. They, they diet down to a moment in time so that they can be as lean as they possibly can. And then, and then they recover back to healthier rates. 12% body fat for a man is plenty low. Anybody talking about 10 or 8% of something consistent is absolutely absurd. 15 to 18% for a woman. Totally good, totally great for your long term health. Most important is going to be how strong your heart is and how much muscle you have. So, yeah, we have members that come in, go balls to the wall and get as shredded as they possibly can, but nobody stays there. You know, they come back a little bit and then you live your life because at the end of the day, you're not living your life to take pictures to put on the Internet, unless that's your like absolute full time job.
B
You just feed your own self. So you totally have it on your desk or whatever.
C
We can do that for you, Richard. You should join us and we can, we can get you wherever you want to go. You just got to follow the program.
B
Yeah, some of the questions or how long? I know everyone's different, but if you've had someone that's been out of shape like their whole life, how long might it take? Or if someone's just out of shape for the past 10 years or 20 years, how long might it take?
C
You know, it's an interesting question, right, because it's all, it's all relative. So somebody who's like completely out of shape, sedentary, coming off the couch, we can, we can make absolute life changing changes in their health in three to six months. Absolutely life changing. Now that's because we're coming off of a really low low. Right? We're going to, we're going to fundamentally change in six. You're going to be moving like you've never moved before, feeling like you have it, looking like you have it and you know, probably sleeping better and everything is going to be way better. You're going to be so happy. And that's when the momentum kicks in. This thing about chasing 12% or whatever, it gets harder as you get closer, as you get closer to that goal and the time, the time takes longer to get there. But I would say that the vast majority of people that, that join us and do, do the program, see visible result in their blood work and in their body composition and in within 90 days, see life changing changes within 60 days and become entirely new people within a year. And then from there the attitude is like, okay, well this is what I've just done over last year. What can I do for the next year? Where, where can I go? And once you start moving around, once you start, you know, doing some cardio and lifting and feeling good and buying new clothes, then, then your sights change, your goals change, they, they become more audacious, they become bigger. You, you want to enter into your local 5Ks, you want to, you know, do well at your CrossFit gym or you know, you want pickleball player down at the club or whatever the case may be because like I said, we're building a whole new life. And so once you build those new lifestyle then you're, you populate that lifestyle with activities and then when you're doing new activities then you get progressively better at them and then you realize that your health and your performance in these activities are inextricably linked and so you want to just keep getting better. We're all competitive. Some of us are just stuck in some level of inertia. And when you see and feel the results is when the motivation really kicks in in and you start being motivated instead of like from fear of wow, I don't want to die like my dad did at a heart attack of 60 or my uncle's got diabetes or you know, my kids, friends, you know, parents are so, you know, out of shape that they can't play with them at the playground. Then once you move from fear into your new person and then you become aspirational, you're like, oh shit, I feel amazing. I want to keep going, I want to achieve new goals. And you just continue to set yourself sights higher because there's no final destination. Richard of I'm healthy. Check the box. Now I get to go back to doing whatever it was I was doing. It. It's, it is when we say lifestyle change and you must change your life and you will become a new person and you will have different activities and you will make new friends and you will build new community. And that actually brings up a really great point, is that your community has such a big part to do in your health and your health outcomes and how you can perform as a parent or a father or a brother or a colleague or a partner or whatever, because the people you surround your yourself with rub off on you. And if one, if you don't have community, it's, it's a big, big ding to longevity. Community makes you happier, healthier and wealthier. It's proven out a million times. But the community that you're in will also lead to positive or negative outcomes. If you hang out with a bunch of guys that get drunk at the club, at the pub every night after work, you know that's who you're going to be. If you hang out with people that run or do CrossFit or play pickleball or golf or go cycling or hiking or mountain climbing or surfing or whatever it is, you know you're going to do more of that. And because our lifestyles as, as a culture have shifted to desk work and car commuting and media consumption, you know, we have to build into our life hobbies that get you moving, you have to find something that you like to do that gets your heart rate going, build some aerobic capacity, that builds your strength, that makes it so that you are a higher functioning human being. Because if you just go to work in your car, sit in your work at the office, come home in your car, sit on your couch and watch Netflix, you're going to be and you're going to die early of a really horrible chronic disease that you could have avoided. And man, nobody wants that on their conscience when they're, you know, looking at the end of life.
B
Right, so what is. So if someone joins, what is the first week look like and what does the first month look like? Just as an example?
C
Yeah. So the first thing what we do is, you know, you get welcomed by our concierge team and you get acclimated to the program. We order your blood work, we send out your DNA kit. As soon as the blood work is back, which is usually about a week or so, then you meet with your doctor. And when you meet with your doctor, you're not just having a five minute conversation, this is like a 60, 90 minute conversation. This is a get to know you event. This is, this is the beginning of a relationship. And from there you have unlimited telehealth visits, unlimited communication, a direct line phone and message to your doctor that you can talk to any day, all day, every day. Then you meet with your strength coach, you meet with your dietitian, you meet with the genetic counselor, you get a plan from each of them and then you know, we coordinate the entire plan. Your doctor knows what your strength plan is, knows what your diet is, knows what your genetics are, and they all work together to optimize everything. When was the last time you had a dietitian at all, first off, but had a dietitian that also talked to your strength coach who was all coordinated by a physician who had the quarterback position of, of your health? For most people that never is, is never, but that's exactly what we offer. And so you've got basically this entire elite healthcare team in your pocket with you everywhere you go, every single day. And we have members talk to people on the team team every day. We're, we're doing every workout for you, we're doing every meal plan for you, every supplement to take, managing your medications, managing your day to day healthcare issues that might come up, like normal primary care stuff, like I got a rash or I've got a weird thing or I fell down and hurt my ankle. We help you with all of that. And you know, having, having it all on demand in your pocket, coordinated with somebody that knows everything about you and where you want to go is so far removed from the typical healthcare experience that most people have that it's impossible understand the benefit and the joy that it brings from knowing that you're protected and taken care of and somebody has a plan for you that you're following along and then they're there to coach and support you in a very personal way. Like you're going to get to know everyone on the team. We, we don't connect you to an AI bot, we don't send you PDFs of standard protocols. This is all 100% custom, 100% precision
B
medicine, you know, it's great. Yeah, this is like halfway to what an athlete for like a sports team would get.
C
As a matter of fact, it's actually more than what most professional athletes. And I know this because we have professional athletes come to us and use our program. We just had a professional boxer named Ed Lattimore come to us, ask us to help him get optimized so he could make a return to professional boxing, which he did. And he won by first round knockout. And we recorded the whole thing and it's all on our website. We did a really cool documentary about it. So in two weeks we'll have already announced this. We have two Olympic athletes who are joining us. Well, one Olympic hopeful and one Olympic silver medalist in the triathlon who's joined our program, who's becoming a spokesperson for us when Pete. People who are actually fighting for gold medal Olympics come to us because we're giving them more than, than what they're getting even through their professional athlete avenues. We have runners and soccer players. The only people who really get more than what we're offering are like NFL, NBA, MLB and that's it. And, and even in, even in the minors or in the D league or whatever, like actual bonafide professional athletes, they don't get anything remotely like this. And of course, course if you're in a, in a non flagship sport, you don't get anything like this at all. Even, even actual Olympic medalists don't get what we offer. And so they come to us.
B
Fantastic. So where can people go to find out about the program? Like are there different levels or is it one standard?
C
We have one, we have one package, different way to pay for it because we believe that our model is the best way to do three things. One, to prevent chronic disease, to cure any chronic disease. Okay. First and foremost we want to solve any obesity, diabetes, blood pressure, heart dise disease, prevent strokes, prevent cancer. We want to prevent or solve anything first. Then we want to get you healthier, we make you healthier and then we want you dialed in. And our process achieves all three of those things and can achieve it in, in whatever way is appropriate for wherever you are at that time. So we have one pro, we have one service, but we have different ways to pay for it. Go to rebelhealth Alliance IO rebelhealthalliance IO or follow me on Twitter at John Goldman and send me a dm. I'm very active on there. I've been building a you little following on Twitter for a number of years. We've got a hundred thousand people following. Follow me there, send me a DM and we'll get you a consult. We offer free consultations to anybody who's interested in the program. You'll meet with somebody on the team, whether it's myself or one of our doctors or one of our therapists or one of our customer service specialists. You'll meet with somebody on the team. We'll do an assessment, we'll see if it's a good fit, and then from there we can get you started right away.
B
Okay, that's great, John. It's been good speaking to you, and I appreciate you taking the time to come on the program. So thank you.
C
Yeah, absolutely, Richard, My pleasure, man. And my offer to you is legit. If you want to. If you want to get to Mount Everest like you said, you should join us and we can get you there, buddy.
B
Excellent.
C
If you like this podcast, please click the link in the description to subscribe and review us on itunes.
A
Thank you for listening to the Good Question podcast. Please email support at the good question podcast.com if you have any referrals to great guests for us to interview, visit thegoodquestionpodcast.com to hear more interviews. And please help us spread the word by rating and reviewing us on Apple podcasts, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to this podcast.
Episode: Precision Longevity: John Goldman On High-Performance Health & Data-Driven Medicine
Host: Richard Jacobs
Guest: John Goldman, Founder & CEO of Rebel Health
Date: May 13, 2026
This episode explores the concept of "high-performance health" and the role of data-driven, individualized medicine in transforming longevity and vitality, especially for busy, midlife professionals. John Goldman shares his personal health journey, the founding story of Rebel Health, and the comprehensive, team-based approach his company uses to deliver precision medicine. The conversation touches on the pitfalls of traditional healthcare, the benefits of data and accountability, and how even healthy, active people can make surprising discoveries—and recover youthful energy—through targeted intervention. The episode is rich with actionable insights for anyone seeking to optimize health, avoid chronic disease, and redefine aging.
| Timestamp | Segment Topic | |-----------|------------------------------| | 01:11 | John’s health crisis & origin story | | 03:29 | Rapid personal health transformation | | 05:26 | Host experiences loss of vitality | | 08:41 | The value of coaching, structure, and data | | 10:29 | Breaking the illusion of “doing it right” | | 11:57 | GLP-1 drugs and weight rebound risk | | 14:25 | Key factors for success: honesty & motivation | | 19:25 | Who makes lasting changes: “agentic” individuals | | 21:18 | Flexibility, not perfection, in lifestyle change | | 25:57 | “Mount Everest” peak goals vs. sustainable health | | 27:39 | Timeline for transformation & key milestones | | 31:56 | What the first week/month in the program looks like | | 34:10 | Even professional athletes use this service | | 35:31 | Access, model, and how to get started |
This episode delivers a compelling case for rejecting the slow decline of midlife “inevitability” and replacing it with actionable, data-driven, team-supported health transformation. Key takeaways are the immense value of precise diagnostics, integrated care, and ongoing accountability, and the critical role of mindset and community in sustaining positive change. If you think you’re already doing things “right”—this interview will challenge and inspire you to go deeper and take greater charge of your health and longevity.
Learn more or book a consult at: rebelhealthalliance.io
Follow John Goldman: Twitter: @johngoldman