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The USA declared war on heart disease in 1955. 70 years later it is still the leading cause of death. What about statins and all that medical progress we’ve had. Exactly, what about it?

Dr Michael Twyman is a board certified cardiologist who runs Apollo Cardiology, a clinic serving patients from all over the world. His approach is to understand cardiovascular health from a whole body perspective. Rather than focus on LDL and HDL and apoB, he says we need to look at the bigger picture of cardiovascular health….namely cardiovascular health as a marker of whole body health. He says plaques can start building early in life....stop the progression now to eliminate the need for dramatic interventions with significant side effect later in life.

We discuss specific behaviors and supplements and even medications to signal the body to stop building plaques. A statin is only one of many potential solutions. Since recording this episode, I have stopped taking my low-dose statin that was significantly reducing my muscle power, and replaced it with better tools.

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Pro Level Supplements for WiseAthletes

If you look around you can see that body fatness is a bigger problem now than it used to be.  Officially the statistic is approximately 45% of Americans are obese measured by BMI. But if we measure body fat as a percentage of total body weight, the metric is closer to 90 percent. because of the many people who don’t look obese but have high fat combined with low muscle mass. What's even more concerning for wise athletes is that the level of body fatness that is unhealthy varies dramatically between people because the location of the fat is what matters. Some people have a very low threshold for fatness before they start to experience metabolic problems that are associated with obesity including higher rates of Cancer, t2d, and CVD.  So what is my threshold for unhealthy fat? What is yours?

Today on episode 135, Dr Vyvyane Loh joins the show to explain what is happening to our bodies and why, and thankfully she shines a bright light on the pathway to metabolic health and athletic longevity.  Dr Loh is board certified in internal and obesity medicine, and she runs a medical practice helping people of all shapes and sizes to solve metabolic health challenges. And she has answers to my questions on how to know if this applies to you, and how to avoid the excessive catabolism that comes from sitting too much, over weighting endurance exercise, eating too little protein, intermittent fasting, frequent dieting, and more. 

Pro Level Supplements for WiseAthletes

Should I take TRT? Should my testosterone be higher? I've been thinking about testosterone for 15 years, and of course the issue goes way beyond athletic performance enhancement ... wise athletes have serious questions about testosterone's impact on health and longevity. We all want to be better athletes, to be stronger and recover like we used to. Is there a way to boost testosterone that gives me all the benefits of getting back to my youthful levels of testosterone without injuring my ability to be a strong and healthy athlete throughout a long life? To answer those questions and more, on Episode 134 I am rejoined by Rick Cohen MD, a longevity and hormone health expert who works with athletes of all ages to find a safe and sustainable path to being the strong athlete we all want to be.

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Gut health is all the rage now but it is so complicated and everybody has a different solution…from eating lots of fiber to eating only meat to taking probiotics.  How can we figure out what to do?  Is improved athletic performance possible from gut health? Today in episode 133 I am joined by Ross Pelton, the Natural Pharmacist who recently published a paper on the microbiome theory of aging in the medical journal Integrative medicine.  Ross shares his deep knowledge about improving gut health and also his knowledge about an emerging topic for me….postbiotics which are beneficial substances made by bacteria that our bodies rely upon and respond well to when we do have an optimal gut.  We’ve all heard of SCFA (short chain fatty acids), well that is only one of many substances made by bacteria in a healthy gut but now are available in supplement form to help us all get our gut back on track.  Ross works with Dr Ohhira's Probiotics & Postbiotic Metabolites which are available in the Wise Athletes Fullscript store if you’d like to check it out. Ross shares several medical studies using Dr Ohhira's including one with athletes that showed significant increases in vo2max and lactate threshold.....legal doping!

Paper: The Microbiome Theory of Aging, January 2023

Link to get free copy of book: Dr. Ohhira's Probiotics & Postbiotic Metabolites

Ross's website: naturalpharmacist.net

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Everybody knows exercise is good for us but why? And why doesn't my food tracker balance my calories even when I weigh my food and use a power meter and heart rate monitor to track energy usage? Do I really have to step on a scale everyday to know if I am eating too much? And how can I tell if I'm eating too little to build muscle and to avoid bone and immune function issues down the road?

Today on episode 132 I am joined by Hari Mix, a Stanford University PhD and the Founder and CEO of Calorify, an emerging technology company providing athletes and sports teams with the world's most accurate measurement of energy expenditure, powered by doubly labeled water. Only by accurately measuring metabolic activity can athletes and everyday people know if we are consuming too much or too little food to power our athletic pursuits and the bodily functions that repair our bodies and keep us healthy for a long time.

Hari Mix explains that professional athletes are shifting from "how little can I eat and still perform" to "how much can I eat to perform better", and he walks us though what is known about these complicated and vexing questions about balancing calories in vs. out, and why exercise is not a great tool for losing weight.

The image below is a weak illustration of the idea that your metabolism changes in response to changes in energy availability / left over after exercise. It works both ways: too little available energy will turn down metabolic rate while too much energy availability will turn up the metabolic rate. The metabolic rate of energy usage is indicative of bodily function activity level: energy surplus: growing muscles and bones and other organs, energy shortage: scavenging of old and damaged proteins in muscles, bones, immune cells, etc. (autophagy, mitophogy):

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I think it is clear that nutritional supplements are a useful and medically legitimate way for me to meet my nutritional needs and support my efforts to be a strong athlete for a long time. Yet, the question of which nutritional supplements to buy turns out to be much more complicated than it appears … my conversation today will make that challenge less overwhelming. 

If you have ever dared to wonder if that nutritional supplement you have been taking for the last year with no or little effect really contains the real botanical or amino acid or whatever you wanted and expected, then you have already realized you have no idea and no way to find out. 

Sure, you can use 3rd party services like ConsumerLab but that can’t tell you if the bottle in your hand is the same as the one they tested.  So what is a wise athlete to do?

Today on episode 131 I am interviewing Dr Jeff Gladd who is a medical doctor with his own clinic and the chief medical officer of Fullscript, a wholesale nutritional supplement fulfillment service serving over 6 million patients through 100,000 healthcare providers. Dr Gladd knows the ins and outs of the nutritional supplement business, and he shares his tips for how to find brands and to source product that provides the best chance of having the purity and potency you and I seek.   And he also shared his advice on specific supplements for the older athlete. 

And be sure to explore the WiseAthletes Fullscript site where you can see for yourself if the product selection and pricing is as good as the quality control offered by FullScript. I am no longer buying from Amazon as I have done for years. It's time for me to make sure I am getting the purity and potency I need. 

As Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jeffrey

Fullscript for WiseAthletes

Breathing is the essence of life. Yet lung function declines as we age. The chemicals and small particles breathed into our lungs leave a mark and reduce lung function, a little here and a little there. But we can slow the decline, and we can even recover lost function with targeted effort. Do you know how to protect and strengthen your lungs?

Today I am joined by MeiLan K. Han, MD, a pulmonologist and the Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the University of Michigan, and a national spokesperson for the American Lung Association. Dr Han is also the author of Breathing Lessons ... a rallying cry for lung health. With the authority that only a practitioner and medical researcher can deliver, Dr Han reveals the latest scientific thinking about the leading respiratory risks — including indoor and outdoor pollution, smoking and vaping, and wildfire smoke during outdoor exercise — and offers practical advice on how to protect the lungs.

Listen in to learn about treating your lungs well and maintaining or recovering effortless breathing as you age.

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Fullscript for WiseAthletes

This is part 2 of my bone health exploration, and this time the question is what should I do if I have osteoperosis? Is it game over? No. Absolutely not. But you will need to work hard to recover the bone health you lost.

Doug Lucas, DO, Board Certified Orthopedic Surgeon and Anti-Aging Specialist, will give you insight into the lifestyle, nutrition, testing, and medical solutions for Osteoporosis management and yes, possibly, even reversal. Avoiding pharmaceuticals if at all possible.

Dr Doug Lucas is a double board certified physician specializing in optimizing healthspan and bone health. Seven years after completing his training at Stanford and starting his career as an orthopedic surgeon Dr Doug left the traditional medical model to pursue a second fellowship and board certification in anti-aging and regenerative medicine and achieve the status of fellow in Anti-Aging and Metabolic Medicine.

Dr Doug has gone on to build a team of experts to help optimize patient's health and help them to live better, longer. The vision has come to fruition with 100s of patients seeing success by reversing chronic diseases like osteoporosis and diabetes but also by improving energy, performance and vitality.

Fullscript for WiseAthletes

Mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, as we learned in high school biology. What's emerging from science more recently is how unhealthy mitochondria are at the heart of many diseases, and even shows up in our daily lives as feeling chronically fatigued or having brain fog. Improving mitochondrial function is at the heart of everything we do for athletic performance, health, and athletic longevity. Heck, mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the 12 hallmarks of aging...so what can we do?

Today I am speaking with Dr. Scott Sherr who says "he is a conductor of all things optimal health & performance"....he says everything he does for his patients...whatever their issues are...is usually aimed at improving mitochondrial dysfunction. Dr Sherr is not just a medical doctor …his unique background has led him to build a medical practice combining the best of traditional and alternative medicine.

Dr. Scott Sherr is a Board Certified Internal Medicine Physician and a specialist in Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT).  His clinical practice includes Health Optimization Medicine as its foundation plus an integrative approach to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, trargeted supplementation, synergistic new & ancient technologies, and more.  He is the perfect doctor to speak to the Wise Athletes podcast.

But there is still more.  Dr. Scott is also the COO of Smarter Not Harder, the company behind Troscriptions, a line of unique supplements to optimize brain and body energy production and to relax and calm when needed.  And, as you will soon hear, Dr Sherr is the person who convinced me to try Methylene Blue, which has served to banish afternoon brain fog from my life.

Fullscript for WiseAthletes

The surprising truth is that bone health is one of the key levers of health and longevity for men and women. Bone health is a driver AND a symptom of overall health that declines steadily past the age of 30. Yet, it is slow to give us feedback on our mistakes...it is a lagging indicator that is hard to fix once low bone density and/or quality have arrived. Do. Not. Let. It. Happen. I used to think I didn't need to worry about my bone health because I was a strong and active athlete my whole life. But I was wrong. Osteoporosis afflicts 50% of all women and 20% of all men, including life-long athletes who "did everything right".

Today, on episode 127, I am joined by Dr. R. Keith McCormick to talk about Great Bones. Dr McCormick was an Olympic athlete who discovered 1st hand how "doing everything right" does not keep you safe from osteoporosis. His journey from Olympic athlete to bone fractures from osteoporosis at 45 years old, and back to competitive athlete at 69 years old has informed his deep knowledge about losing and regaining bone health. In his book, Great Bones, Dr McCormick explains not just the fundamentals of osteoporosis and the mechanics of bone loss and regaining skeletal health, but also what you and I can do to slow the decline in bone density and quality so we can keep our bone great bones well into our 60s, 70s, and beyond. In our chat today, Dr McCormick share a little of this knowledge with us.

This episode is a bit long and we get into the weeds but there is important information shared all the way to the end.  Take your time, and get to the end. You will learn a ton about the hows and whys about having great bones. And how to avoid weak bones and fractures and the fear of fractures that may come for you if you are not careful. I can promise you that I am being careful starting now.