Barbell Shrugged - Physiology Friday: [Inflammation] The Surprising Link Between Nutrition, Muscle, and Inflammation w/ Anders Varner, Doug Larson, Coach Travis Mash and Dan Garner

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

In this Episode of Barbell Shrugged: What is inflammation why does your body have it How inflammation can improve performance The difference between Good and Bad inflammation Proper ways to reduce inflammation What is Chronic vs. Acute Inflammation Work with RAPID Health Optimization Connect with our guests: Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram Dan Garner on Instagram

Shrug Family this week on Barbell Shrug Physiology Friday is back. Today we're talking about two topics that everybody's brain likes to hear about, testosterone and gut health and how they are linked together. Dan Garner is going to be taking the deep diatomic connection between the two, how you can improve both at the exact same time. And as always friends, make sure you get over to rapidhealthreport.com. That's where Dan Garner and Dr. Andy Galpin are doing a free lab lifestyle and performance analysis. And you can check that free report out at rapid health report.com friends. Let's get into the show.

Welcome to barbell shrug. I'm Andrew Varner, Doug Larson, Travis and Dan Garner. Big pre-show today that uh, the podcast, uh the podcast but yo before we get into testosterone and gut health travis mash three gold medals yeah and crew ryan grimsland he dominated uh shawn o'Malley number one uh fighter in the world right now pretty impressive weekend fellas their dudes are crushing is that what you're? If you are interested in playing life at the highest level, I'm just saying you should get Dan Garner to read your labs and get you some nutrition. I think that's kind of out of line. Yeah. And get Travis mass to do your program.

Yeah. And then right. And then Travis can write your strength program and game over. You get good. Just like that. You'll be the strongest in the world. Yeah. Just like that. To be in the right mindset. Keep the prequel to these episodes always edited out. And don't ever get on the boats. How close was the competition for Ryan Grimson? I saw one of course, but I didn't see how everybody else did. Was it close? Did he smash? No, he won on his openers, but I will say that there's a young American though, Kaden, who is on the up and coming. Be aware, there's a young dude that's coming like in the next quite probably that's Caden Kahoy, who's really good. It's just you know in a year or two. You'll be Yeah, yeah, he was I mean so America got first and second So it was really cool to be at the end of cleaner jerks, and I got a picture of just two Americans sitting there

That's all that's left. It's two Americans. I was like, so it just was like, it really was a big reality for me that how far that we've come as a sport, you know, like, you know, five years ago, you would never see that. You wouldn't even dream that to be possible. Ten years ago. Wait, hold on. Yeah. It was like ten years ago now that they had USA weightlifting nationals in like a roller skating rink. Roller skating rink. Yeah. And everybody was thinking how terrible we are as a sport and they were right. And so then a few people decided not to take that anymore. And here we are. So before we get into the real show today, Dan, dude, how cool is it taking some kid from Arizona,

turn them into a number one in the world? You guys are on like what seven or eight fights, something like that now. Yeah, that was our eighth fight. And it's been a heck of a ride, man. He you know, though, it's like I'm sure Travis knew with Ryan a long time ago that Ryan was going to be Ryan. And the same thing with O'Malley. We started working together eight fights ago, but it's like someone's already famous and then you're just waiting for the world to find out.

And I've been along for that ride. I'm grateful to be along for that ride. He's like one of my favorite athletes I've ever worked with by a long shot because like he looks kind of like silly and playful on Instagram and social media. And that's because he can be, but he is the most disciplined athlete I've ever worked with, arguably. Like, if I put something on a piece of paper, I don't have to check in with him. It's done. He's doing it. It's done. There's no complaining. He is an input-output machine. And that's why he's absolutely crushing it, man. He's and that's why he's he's absolutely crushing it man is his discipline

and consistency and just his intention and everything he does. I love working with the dude. Yeah. When you go from what it was he was ranked like 12th and now he's number one in one fight. Like um I feel like I was talking to a buddy of mine about uh it's like if you play AAA baseball and you were hitting like 400 you still aren't prepared for a fastball in the big leagues. There's a different speed. There's a different look. There's a different confidence in that picture. There's a whole, you go and step in the ring with the dude that's number two in the world. And uh, I would imagine there's just, there's just a speed that you have to catch up to on the spot that you can't train for and to come out and win.

That's wild, man. Yeah, came out, win, showed his heart, showed his conditioning, showed that he belongs, man. People that thought that he was all hype. No, he just beat the number one guy in the world and the former champ and a guy who many consider to still be the champ. There's a lot of people who thought Yann is the best guy in the world. And we just went in there and got it done and jumped 10 spots up the ranking. I love it. Yeah, I read where a ref, an outside ref who showed why he won. It was just like his strikes, you know, just causing more damage.

It was like he just inflicted more damage consistency. He said it was actually pretty, he thought it was like more than just a split decision. He thought it was pretty conclusive that he wanted, you know, and he explained it in a way where I'm like, yeah, you know, that's what I would have thought. Wait, more, more comprehensive than Instagram comments? Way more. Yeah, yeah. These dudes were just like, I lost other money on Yan. I did learn something in the Instagram comments about people that watch fighting that if you would like to have your opinion be more important than someone else's, you call that person that you want

below you a casual, like a casual fan that doesn't understand what it's like to fight at the highest the here's the door shut and see how much shrinkage you get. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's the segue into testosterone and gut health today. What's super, I'm excited about this one because it's one of the things that I feel like I've learned really the most over the last year of being in rapid because we have many people that are coming into the program right now that are either on TRT, want to get off TRT, having testosterone,

libido issues, energy issues. And they go to their primary care physician and the doctor just doesn't really have an answer. And what do they say? They go, well, go get on some TRT and you'll have more testosterone. So then you'll have more energy, and I think we've done a great job over the last, uh, couple episodes, um, and talking about testosterone of like, maybe that isn't the best thing to be doing. And one of the biggest reasons is because we don't understand and figure out, uh, the gut health side of things. Um, we're never really fixing the biggest constraint that's holding your physiology back from becoming what it should be so that there isn't a testosterone issue. Um, and I think it's really important, Dan, I want to start this, um, at the very top, which is like your theory of constraints when

it comes to physiology, performance health, um, we haven't done it in a while. It's in, in actually laying out what that theory looks like and the basis for everything that we do in our coaching program. Dr. Andy Galpin here. As a listener of the show, you've probably heard us talking about the RTA program, which we're all incredibly proud of. It's a culmination of everything Dan Garner and I have learned over more than two decades of working with some of the world's most elite performers, award winning

athletes, billionaires, musicians, executives, and frankly, anyone who just wanted to be at their absolute best. Arate is not a normal coaching program. It's not just macros and a workout plan. It's not physique transformation and pre and post pictures. Arate is something completely different. Arate is incredibly comprehensive

and designed to uncover your unique molecular signature, find your performance anchors, and solve them permanently. You'll be working with not one person, but rather a full team of elite professionals, each with their own special expertise, to maximize precision, accuracy, and effectiveness of your analysis and optimization plan. Arate isn't about treating symptoms or quick fixes. It's about unlocking your full potential and looking, feeling, and performing at your absolute best,

physically and mentally, when the stakes are the highest. To learn more, visit areteelab.com. That's A-R-E-T-E lab.com. Now, back to the show. So when it comes to the theory of constraint, that is a coaching philosophy that I've developed over the course of my career. Really being in the trenches. One thing I found with educators in the industry is that a lot of them are kind of just self-proclaimed, excellent coaches. They just like their excellent coach and now educator.

A lot of times that's self proclaimed. And then what can happen is an educator can kind of just stay an educator and they get out of the coaching game, but they really end up losing touch with reality and what really works on the battlefield of high performance. And I've always made sure like, yes, I'll do podcasts. Yes, I've come out with some courses in the past,

but these courses are very few and far between. And the podcast topics we do is never at the expense of how we opened this show. Sean O'Malley becoming the number one fighter in the world after us doing eight fights together. In the trenches shit is how you learn the most in the fastest way of the stuff that actually works. So this is a philosophy that's not new. It's something I've been working on for 10 years,

and it's the theory of constraints. And one thing that you find out very quickly when you're in the trenches is that everything connects to everything in physiology. Organs never work in isolation. The human body doesn't work in isolation from the mind. Your behaviors impact your physiology. Your physiology impacts your behaviors. All of your organ systems work together. So to truly identify what's going to take someone to the next level is to identify their current constraint. So the theory of constraint, basically the way in which I apply it is that you will only ever be as healthy to the degree that you are constrained. Identifying that

constraint is a coach's best quality. So for example, if you are a CEO in business, you're going to look down at your organizational chart. Why? Because a business will only scale to the degree that it is constrained. So you're going to look down at your organizational chart. Why? Because a business will only scale to the degree that it is constrained. So you're going to look down at your organizational chart and you'll be like, where is the bottleneck in my business? Is it in sales? Is it in marketing? Is it in company culture? Is it in management?

Where is it? Is it in product quality? I need to identify that bottleneck, remove that bottleneck in my business structure so that the business can scale to the next level. I need to identify that bottleneck, remove that bottleneck in my business structure so that the business can scale to the next level. A business will only scale to the degree that is constrained. When you identify and remove that constraint,

the business can scale to the next level. That's exactly how I view physiology. And that's exactly when you look at a business and you identify bottlenecks across every single department, well, guess what? In physiology, you have to identify bottlenecks across every single department. Well, guess what in physiology you have to identify bottlenecks across every single department That means organ organ system mind body cells hormones inflammation micronutrients you frickin name it We need to identify that constraint why because you only be healthy to the degree that you are constrained

So when somebody thinks about to the degree that you are constrained. So when somebody thinks about testosterone, they might think about the hormone department. And when someone thinks gut health, they might think the gastrointestinal system and maybe the microbiome and things like that. But it's crazy to me that people don't continue to connect these things. A real good exercise that all of the listeners could do is type in one organ and then type in another organ and then type in access. There's going to be an access between everything. There is the thyroid liver access, the brain gut access, the hypothalamus pituitary, pretty much pick any access, adrenal, gonadal.

It is absolutely everywhere. There's accesses for everything and that's because everything is connected to everything. So this constraint identification has a rippling effect across all physiology, because when you identify what's holding the system back, you'd be amazed at the ripple effect that that can have, say for example, in testosterone. So to stay in the pocket of today's topic, gut

health can absolutely impact testosterone in a major way. Shrug family, I want to take a quick break. If you are enjoying today's conversation, I want to invite you to come over to rapidhealthreport.com. When you get to rapidhealthreport.com, you will see an area for you to opt in, in which you can see Dan Garner read through my lab work. Now you know that we've been working at Rapid Health Optimization on programs for optimizing health. Now what does that actually mean?

It means in three parts we're going to be doing a ton of deep dive into your labs. That means the inside out approach. So we're not going to be guessing your macros. We're not going to be guessing the total calories that you need. We're actually gonna be doing all the work to uncover everything that you have going on inside you. Nutrition, supplementation, sleep. And then we're going to go through

and analyze your lifestyle. Dr. Andy Galpin is going to build out a lifestyle protocol based on the severity of your concerns. And then we're going to also build out all the programs that go into that based on the most severe things first. This truly is a world-class program, and we invite you to see step one of this process

by going over to rapidhealthreport.com. You can see Dan reading my labs, the nutrition and supplementation that he has recommended that has radically shifted the way that I sleep, the energy that I have during the day, my total testosterone level, and my ability to trust and have confidence in my health going forward. I really, really hope that you're able to go over

to rapidhealthreport.com, watch the video of my labs and see what is possible. And if it is something that you are interested in, please schedule a call with me on that page. Once again, it's rapid health report.com. And let's get back to the show. Why is testosterone? And maybe it isn't the only downrange effect, but it seems to be one of the like leading downrange effects of having issues somewhere else like a more root cause. If we, if we can't drill down and find the root cause testosterone seems to be like the catchall for men, 35 to 45 years old, that it's like you have bet energies off. Oh, it's gotta be testosterone. It's libido's off.

Got to be testosterone. Whatever, whatever all of these things are, testosterone just seems to be the catchall because it's of these things are. Testosterone just seems to be the catch all because it's easy to pour it into your body and make things better. But are there other things or is testosterone really like the first one that seems to go that has such a massive impact on many different aspects of life from energy, libido, muscle mass, just on and on really, but it is testosterone really just the easiest catchall. I do think it's the easiest catchall.

Number one, because everyone knows it and people like to act upon what they understand. A lot of people don't know prolactin. They don't know progesterone. They don't understand the importance of estrogen in male physiology. It's very complicated to understand neurotransmitters. So like when you can just kind of hone in on this one thing that you know about, then it's a lot easier to comprehend and apply in your life. So I do think it's easy in that respect in terms of self-perceived known application, but also the symptoms of low testosterone are also

so nonspecific that I think that it's an easy catch-all there too. Low libido, low energy, low muscle mass, increased body fat. It's explained like 90% of dudes, you know, in a certain age range who don't take care of themselves. Like these are just a catch-all symptom for a root cause that may not even be testosterone. Like I've mentioned many times on the podcast, it's not, hey, you have low testosterone, let's take testosterone. It's why is your testosterone low to begin with? So that overall simplicity of application and their own mind and the overall complexity of actually answering the root cause question of why testosterone is low is kind of

everybody's scapegoat not to go this route, but just like anything else in life. What when you work hard for something to truly find the real answer, it's so much more worth it in the end. Yeah. And the other thing that on the other side of it, if testosterone is like the catch all for all of the symptoms and people point to that, that gut health actually turns into like a very large catchall for root causes. Why is it, why is gut health so critical in really like the system of health? It's critical in the system of health because it feeds the systems of health.

Nothing is free in physiology, right? Like if you want some dopamine, you're going to need phenylalanine and vitamin B6. And then if you want to convert that dopamine into adrenaline, noradrenaline, you're going to need some vitamin C and copper. If you want to make thyroid hormone, you're going to need tyrosine, selenium, zinc, and iodine. If you want to make the precursor hormone for all hormones, which is pregnenolone, you're going to need some dietary fats and some vitamin B5. This all is stuff that we get from our diet and you aren't what you eat.

You only are what you eat and actually absorb. So if you don't have the stuff to make the other stuff, then everything else fails. Everything is connected to everything, so I don't like to over glorify one organ system over another because they all depend upon and leverage upon each other for optimal function. But when one organ is the feeder for everything else, feeding the thyroid, feeding the pancreas, feeding the liver, feeding the brain, feeding everything, then it's very easy to begin to comprehend in the mind the right limiting step that can take place. And that if we have a whole lot of supply, well, then we can increase the demand a lot more. More input equals more output in the sense of brain chemicals, for example. We've got a lot of raw material. Well, then we can make a lot of brain chemicals for a lot of memory, concentration, focus, and attention span. But if we don't have a lot of

this stuff, well the body is the ultimate efficiency machine. It's not going to out shoot its coverage. It is going to only make what it currently has access to. So the gut is a major root cause for a lot of issues from a raw material perspective, but it's also a root cause for a lot of issues from a raw material perspective, but it's also a root cause for a lot of issues simply because of its role in inflammation. When you do a lot of research in the world of inflammation, you really start to uncover how many things and systems that impacts testosterone definitely being one of them. Yeah. definitely being one of them. Yeah. When we first had the idea for the show, Gut Health and Testosterone, I kind of assumed that we were going to talk about how poor gut health can influence testosterone and likely decrease testosterone. But then the more I thought about it, I was like, oh, well, it's not

really a one-way street here. Like, poor or low testosterone likely has a detrimental effect to gut health as well. Is that accurate? I think that's absolutely accurate because the behaviors that would lead one to low testosterone would also be the behaviors that would lead one to poor gut health. Behaviors are always the root of everything that's going on in physiology. And if you have the behaviors, for example,

of procrastination, a lack of preparation, poor scheduling, not having the tough conversations that you need to have in your life, maintaining a shitty relationship or a shitty job. Well, all of these things are gonna drive up stress hormones and stress hormones work antagonistic with testosterone. You're going to lower testosterone,

but then that same byproduct of that life and those stress hormones are undeniably going to create negative impact in your gut as well. So all of that's absolutely a two-way street. So really your job then is to be you're like a detective like you got to figure out what is the symptom and what is the cause because sometimes the cause can be a symptom and the symptom could be a cause. Absolutely yes. You have to really identify that chicken and the egg thing. Where did it start?

Why is it starting? What is the symptom? How does that relationship work together? And that's the majority of the education that I go through these days. I get so many people who message me on, say, social media, what course are you doing right now? What do you recommend?

And I'm kind of lost for words a lot because the majority of my education now comes from being a detective, being a problem solver, because my clients, they'll come to me with a set of variables and say, I need this accomplished in this time. And then I'm the guy, I get it done. So then I'm given these variables. And then my education comes from Jesus, this physiology, these biomarkers aren't really making sense right now. So I've got to look into the literature on this.

I got to buy some papers. And then I learned, I'm like, wow, that has this half life. This has this excretion, this pathogen impacts that organ. I never knew that. So then you kind of learn through case studies at this point. And being a detective is a great way to put it. Yeah, I think like, um, whether you're like you, I mean, like, it's just like being a coach is like you learn all these things, like you learn about physiology, but then you only really learn about the application once you start doing once you have, you know, you have an athlete and they have

challenges, you figure that challenge out. So then you start to learn the application of all this mess you've learned while studying or in school or whatever you're doing. A hundred percent. Mess is not a good word. All this information. Yeah. But then that information can be utilized to pull on emotional triggers too. So like let's say you get a young kid who he's proud of, say, like his testosterone, right? Like, strength, muscle mass, you know what it's like to be the young football player or athlete, right? But then they also really love drinking a lot on the weekend. And then you know that's detrimental to them. But because of their whole hard nose mentality and because they're still getting results Yeah, you're it's very hard to actually get through to that person. But then you can actually is through this process of

Being a detective and identifying new research that adds to your toolkit. Yes, that helps your program design, but like for example it. Yes, that helps your program design. But like, for example, alcohol, it's been it's already demonstrated that four shots of vodka, even in a non drinker induces leaky gut. So it's a there's something known as leaky gut. And this is we'll tie this all back to testosterone, something known as leaky gut. There's tight junctions in the cell lining. And the lining of the gastrointestinal tract is only one cell thick. It's enormously thin. So when we insult that lining, these little cells can open up

and create microscopic holes in the intestines. And this is an opening of the tight junction. It's known online as leaky gut. It's known in the literature as intestinal permeability. But there is a bacteria in the gut called lipopolysaccharide or LPS. You'll see it quite a bit. When you have an opening or an impermeable intestine and that microscopic hole opens up a little bit and lipopolysaccharides sneak into circulation, that creates a massive

inflammatory effect. And this has been demonstrated to reduce testosterone in humans, by the way, twofold. Number one, it directly reduces testosterone production in the lady cells in the testes. So it's making its way all the way down to the testes and blocking testosterone production. But on top of that, it reduces serum LH secretion from the pituitary. So the brain is reducing its signal to tell the testosterone to, sorry, tell the testes to make testosterone. But even if it got down there, the lady cells that receive that receptor signal from the brain aren't functioning optimally. So this came from four shots of vodka, led to intestinal permeability, led to a reduction in LH and latex cell function, led to low testosterone. So do you need TRT or do you need to stop being an asshole when it comes to vodka, right? That's a very quick thing

too. This literature, it was fascinating when I went through that for the first time because blood alcohol concentration peaked after 60 minutes, but lipopolysaccharides were detectable in the blood after only 30 minutes. So intestinal permeability happened very, very fast and it was a placebo-controlled trial too. So the placebo group only drank pure orange juice and they had 20 times less inflammatory cytokines in their bloodstream than the alcohol group. 20 times difference.

So when I'm a coach and I don't really, I'm gonna tie this all the way back to that young athlete. When I'm a coach and I'm saying, yo, stop drinking on the weekend. He's gonna say, why? I'm getting results. I'm saying, yo, stop drinking on the weekend, he's going to say, why I'm getting results. I better than everybody else. Shut up. But if I come and tell him, you're going to have low testosterone testes aren't going to be working. Brain's not going to be working optimally. And you got holes in your gut. You shut up and stop drinking on the weekend so we can win this gold medal. Got it? Good. That's brilliant. So I know when I hurt my back

and they told me that I could possibly be crippled, didn't scare me at all. But then they start telling me, look, your penis might stop working. They got my attention. I was like, yeah, all right. Time out. I'm out. Hold on. We'll do what you say. You got you got my attention. You mentioned the lipopolysaccharide showed up after 30 minutes. Do you remember how long

they were after the drinking session was over? How long it stuck around? I'm so glad you asked. Yes, yes, yes. Is it cute or chronic? Yeah, these are the questions I wish my wife would ask me. I go upstairs after I read a study. I'm like, I'm so freaking ready. And she's like, yeah, OK, the voice is on. Like, I don't care. Shut up.

I'm like, empty the dishwasher. Be quiet. Hallie's sleeping. Shut up. Oh, my wife, my wife just said, shut up and get naked. I'm like, all right, I'll do it. I'm like, shut up and get naked. I'm like, all right, I'll do it. Shut up and keep all of your clothes on. To address the question, that life of polysaccharides did not return to baseline until 24 hours after the vodka shot. 24 hours. So you can imagine, you know, if you have a few drinks a day, well, that kind of just never ever stops. Right. So it's very important to care about those kinds of things. And you were castrating yourself. So what about like, like, so what point do things start to happen?

Is it one, two, three, four? Well at one drink, your brain begins to shrink. So I would already be pulling off. Yeah. Yeah. So your brain literally, I mean, physically shrinks. That research came out this year. It was the UK biobank that collected that data

on like 5,000 different people. And there was no low threshold. One drink shrunk your brain. So that was incredibly fascinating data to identify in that respect. But so that alone would deter my decision-making, but in my world, there is no, hey, how much of this can I have?

Because you're fighting the number one rank UFC fighter in eight weeks or so. So it's not even really a conversation in my world. And by the way, I don't, I'm not, I don't feel have any ill will or any negative thoughts about anybody who chooses to do those things. It's just, it don't do those things and then talk out of both sides of your mouth and say you also want to accomplish your goals. Like it is, that's always been very,

probably why I gravitated a lot to athletes because I would lay out logic to them and then connect it to their performance and then it would just simply be done. But then in the world of general population, there are a lot of people who talk about the things that they want to accomplish and they absolutely never change their habits. And that's just it's not what I'm about. Collect your labs to get exact answers to your exact questions for an exact protocol. If you're in, let's go. You know, I was proud of Ryan. Ryan, we were because normally what I tell my athletes is like zero, except

once every two, you know, six months when they compete, they do well. I'm like, that's your time to go out. But we were out and the dude still did not drink, you know, he just better everybody on this side of the world easily and then still chose not to do anything that would negatively affect even acutely negatively affect his performance. So I was

definitely watching a 20 year old boy grow up, you know, this past week made me proud of him. Nice. That's awesome. That the boy thing actually just reminded me of something. I saw other papers where women, if they have lipopolysaccharides detectable within their bloodstream during pregnancy, if there is a male fetus in the female body, it reduces his testosterone. So, that actually impacts the fetus during pregnancy as well. Yeah, it's a there's real fascinating stuff out there. Life of polysaccharides and inflammation as a whole really takes a toll on male hormone production. Let me ask you like, you know, with your dude like, like, um, um, Mally is one of my favorite,

maybe because he's your guy. It's like, makes me feel like I know him, but like, because he's your guy. It's like makes me feel like I know him. But like, so would you tell him zero tolerance for any kind of alcohol or anything or like, once you, you know, when you win something big like you just did, is it OK for to go out one time or zero? I actually told him to go have some drinks after the fight. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's actually sponsored. He's sponsored by Happy Dad, which is a beer company. That's a great name. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, he's sponsored by Happy Dad. And he texts me, he's still in Abu Dhabi. He said,

bro, I'm so sore. And I said, all right, get a mountain of protein, find some curcumin and wash it down with some Happy Duds. You earned it. So obviously it was a joking exchange, but in the real world, I'll typically phasically bring him into fight camp. So about, I'll actually just give him time off. Like I'm going to let him do American Thanksgiving and Christmas. He's been in fight camp for like seven months now. It was two 12 week fight camps back to back with like the shortest break in the world before and in between. So I'm just going to heat healthy anyways. I don't need to monitor him. So I'm gonna give him some time off and then about 16 weeks out from his next fight, I'll begin his off season. And then from about 12 weeks out to six weeks out, I call it a bridging phase. And then six weeks out to fight day is

extreme fight camp. So things typically start getting a lot more serious. And he really does not a drinker anyways, but starting about 16 weeks out and definitely 12 weeks out. Things, things get dialed in and then at six weeks out, they're extreme dialed in to make them the best in the world. Sure. I got it. this is not about that, but someday I would like to have a show all about like, you know, prepping an MMA, especially, you know, sugar. Case study shows it would be pretty cool too. That would be really fun. Anyway, but back to leaky gut. Well, alcohol isn't just about leaky gut on the testosterone side of things too. Like it has a massive impact,

like as an acute stressor to the body. And then it sounds like that one's more of like a chronic over time is going to happen in the leaky gut side of things, right? It's like just every, all of the side effects of alcohol being poor sleep, your brain shrinking, the dehydration, all of that stuff also has a massive effect on what your testosterone levels are going to do as well, correct? Yeah, absolutely.

Like I think that the leaky gut thing, well, it does happen that day, technically. Yeah. Remember the life-policycline is detectable in only 30 minutes. So that is acute. The brain shrinkage is acute. It reduces REM sleep, which reduces testosterone. So that is all three of those are connected to testosterone. But then in some way, shape or form, and this isn't a statement to represent all the listeners, but humans are amazing

at escapism. We do a really good job at not meeting our problems. And a lot of them feel a lot better when you have some alcohol to kind of take the edge off. So sometimes the lifestyle that we've chose or are currently trapped in can can lead us into the direction of self medication. And then we call it, hey, I'm just taking the edge off. But ultimately, it's a it's a larger situation that impacts a larger set of organ systems that create a large impact on your health. Yeah. Coming back, maybe just transitioning away from alcohol specific,

when it comes to gut health, are we always kind of under attack from bacteria getting into our gut and, uh, like parasites coming in, obviously they're, they're very small. They come in like water, like however they get in. Um, is there, is it because our immune system is weakened that some people then have issues with gut health. And that everyone is drinking bacteria whether you know it or not. But if your immune system is being overtaxed by other things by lack of sleep, lifestyle choices, whatever that is, that that is when you become more vulnerable to having some sort of downrange effect because your body just isn't handling those things

when that bacteria gets in, when that parasite gets in there, or is just having those things get into your gut at all is now a big problem and we don't have some sort of natural defense mechanism to be able to go and fight whatever parasite gets in there. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of things at play here. So you know, there's a resiliency score that I like to utilize in rapid.

And it's a combination of immunity, inflammation, hormones, your CO2 tolerance, and that type of balance really represents one's resiliency to incoming issues. Gut health is a major part of that because the gut, a lot of people forget, houses 70% of your immune tissue. So we have an enormous amount of immune tissue all hanging out in the gut, a lot of it hanging out in the mucus layer of the gut. There's tons of immune tissue in there. And that's really what is protecting us from, like you're suggesting here, the modern day

onslaught. There is basically no escape when you actually do research into real evidence-based environmental pollutant exposure, heavy metal exposure, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, plastics. There's so much that we're... And I haven't even included the parasites, the bacteria, the fungus. There's so much that we're're exposed to and it is what it is. So then you just have to be a more resilient dude or more resilient girl. Like you just have to actually create. That's like a part of my philosophy is a lot of people who kind of try to do what I do,

they eliminate the root cause and then if they even find the root cause, but they eliminate the root cause and then say they're done with it. I've always had the mindset that a root cause existed in you because you allowed it to. So I always wanna eliminate the root cause and then create a system with such a high amount of resilience that that root cause has such a low percentage chance of probability of ever coming back

into the system again. And one like, so we can actually just run through an example of how this can play out in real time. So you mentioned immunity being resilience and us taking in bacteria. Cool. Got it. Stress by itself reduces hydrochloric acid secretion in the stomach. Hydrochloric acid does a lot of really important things. It closes the esophageal sphincter so we don't get acid reflux. It helps us break down proteins into peptides and amino acids so we can properly absorb them. But in the context of this conversation, hydrochloric acid is a bath of acid. So when a lot of pathogens inevitably come through the esophagus, they don't survive the hydrochloric acid VAT, that is our

stomach acid, which helps protect everything self. There's a reason why the first digestive organ is the stomach, and there's a reason why it contains an inhabitable environment for basically anything that comes through, because that is you come through the protector before you're allowed to go anywhere else. The problem is the first thing I said, stress reduces hydrochloric acid secretion. So if we're under a lot of stress, well, then we're going to have low acid production. We have very low acid production. We increase our chance of pathogens getting into the gastrointestinal tract, which is a stressor, which can lower testosterone. But we also create another big problem as well

with undigested protein. So this is something you can actually pick up in the stool and in the urine. But if you have, let's say for example, you ate a chicken breast, and then because you're stressed, you only secreted enough hydrochloric acid to break down 90% of that chicken breast. Well, 90% of that chicken breast got

broken down, digested, and absorbed. What happened to the remaining 10%? Well, bacteria are alive and bacteria need to eat too. So if you have undigested protein in the gastrointestinal tract, bacteria is going to feed upon that protein. That process is called putrefaction. If protein gets eaten by bacteria, it putrefies. If carbs get eaten by bacteria, it ferments. If fats get eaten by bacteria, it goes rancid. These are all rancidification, putrefaction, fermentation. This can happen in any section of the gut, by the way. I'm just using protein as an example for communication. If we have this bacteria eating this protein, then that creates massive indigestion, a lot of water retention, and it actually spits out something known as indican, which is quite toxic for the system.

So that is going to create inflammation within the gastrointestinal tract, damage within the gastrointestinal tract, lipopolysaccharestinal tract, like the polysaccharides within the intestinal tract, that end up in circulation. That also gives you bloating, distension, farts, probably loose stools. Wait, am I describing the over 40 crowd a lot? Low testosterone with gastrointestinal symptoms? I think we're on to something right now. I don't think that's a mistake. I really don't. When you have two combined symptoms often, like, hey, you think we should probably address those or look into that instead of just look at your blood work and say, you've got low T. Yeah.

Take this. Like, come on, dude. That is like the number one thing that has come through with so many clients right now is like, low testosterone is a thing that they're super concerned about. Because it's like, we all want more. Like it affects so many things and it's such a number that like, kind of like hits the ego more than like, you've got gut health.

You're like, okay, cool, but I still get it up and still get it done. So who cares? But when you start messing with that phase of life, uh, all of a sudden everyone's ears perk up a little bit more and they want to, they want to learn more. But it's also, I have low testosterone. Oh, and I've got this like constipation issue or, oh, and I've got loose stools or, and my energy sucks. Like, why do I have this brain fog thing? And it's, it's, they're all related. Uh, and that's really like the, the, the fun part about really digging into the

lab work that I've learned so much and, and, and really like being a part of the program and talking to all these people about it in the, in, you know, for the doctors, like they're so used to having non-compliant patients, so they're just giving the information what they're used to. Like most people, they go and they find out they have type 2 diabetes. They're not gonna do anything about it. And the doctor knows it,

that 99% won't do anything about it. So here, take this insulin because you're not gonna do what you need to do. And so same thing, you got low testosterone. It doesn't matter if I tell you what's causing it, here's some testosterone. But like with you guys, if people come into you, no, they're not the 99%.

They're gonna be the people who want to do the right thing. So, you know, definitely not hating on the doctors. They're just doing it. No, dude, could you imagine being like a PCP in 2022? Yeah, when your job is to get sick people to unsick. All you say all day long is lose weight. Don't eat processed foods. Because that's everyone you see all day long. It's people that are doing all right things and still don't understand why they

don't feel good. They're already doing the working out. They're already eating well, they're already putting they should have the energy. They're already doing the work and out. They're already eating well. They're already putting, they should have the energy. They're worried about their sleep. They've got some sort of tracker that they're following. They've done all the pieces, but there's this last piece that just doesn't make sense. Why do I still deal with this,

even though I'm following everything that I'm supposed to do. All these other things. And everyone that comes to you, they want insurance to pay for whatever you're gonna tell them to do. They don other things. And everyone that comes to you, they want insurance to pay for whatever you're going to tell them to do. They don't want to pay out of pocket for anything.

And so the insurance model is a big component here where the doctor says, okay, hey, you know, like we have like on the fitness side of things, like people expect to pay for fitness things. But in the medical world, everyone wants my insurance to cover it. Like, yeah, your copay, which is kind of annoying, but outside of that, like you don't want to pay anything out of pocket. So whatever's covered by insurance,

that's what I want. And then the doctors know that. And so they, they, they play to the insurance model. It's actually, they're just kind of have to Dan, I have a model with, uh, with the way insurance works in Canada, do you guys have testosterone clinics at the same speed that they are growing in the United States? We have testosterone clinics, but nothing grows faster than American pharmaceuticals. Thanks, Dan. We're all drug addicts. Your guys' TV commercials are insane. I'm going to just tell you when I'm when I'm in the U.S. so we don't like have any drug commercials ever.

But when I'm in my hotel in the U.S. watching TV for 10 minutes, like something will pop on. Usually. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's always something. Take this drug to make your life great. Except it's got 99. If yes. Yeah. Don't worry if you have your heart stops.

All these anal leakage, but your penis will work, but you'll die. I'll do it. I'll totally do it. Yeah. So back to the gut health piece. Like, so would you, if someone had chronic, has chronic constipation or irritable bowel syndrome or, you know, opportunistic bacterial overgrowth and dysbiosis is also likely to, would you assume that they also have hormonal issues in those cases if those, if those conditions are a chronic issue for them? Absolutely. Yeah.

So they would absolutely, they would absolutely not be optimal. That's what I will say. So a lot of people actually don't know how good the human body is designed to feel. So symptoms, symptoms are kind of funny because they're subjective. You don't really know that you had low testosterone until you feel what good testosterone feels like. They're like, Holy crap, my mind's different. different my body's different my wiener's different everything starts changing to to a huge degree but that's just what wiener in a while for the record yeah my boy's got pps so yeah but for real that's just one example to articulate how anything can make you feel thyroid hormone, neurotransmitters, microbiome, digestion, your brain chemistry, your inflammation, all

of your other hormones that create so many different other effects that aren't called testosterone. Like, many people, if you have any gut issues, I'm not going to say a ton, if you have any gut issues, your hormones will not be optimal. Whether or not you have symptoms depends upon your subjective feeling of what you perceive to be as optimal. Again, one of the biggest things that comes our way and actually he's given me permission to say this, one of our clients, Ben Hicks.

I was just recently in Costa Rica at an XBT experience and did some lab-based nutrition lecturing there and my client was there and he was telling other people there, I thought it was fine. And then I felt so much better after I did the lab-based protocol. And a lot of people think they're fine because they've lived 30, 40 years in their body and they're not fine. They're just adapted to their current state. But when you actually get rid of,

to bring it all the way back to the beginning, when you get rid of those constraints, you realize what your true potential actually is. Yeah. I think one of those examples, you talk about sleep and about everybody tells you, turn off your phone hour before bed, at least, and all the blue lights, you know, machines that you might have. But like when you do it, it's like, it's crazy, like what it takes you to.

And then you see what a huge, man, I've always, I've heard you saying that so many times, and I'm always like, well, how much difference will it make? But it's pretty crazy if you've ever been at the height level of an athlete and then you do one little thing and it moves you closer to what you used to feel. It was pretty exceptional. Like what one little bitty thing you told people to do when you do it. It's a pretty big... You wrote an article about that lately.

It was insane, yes, because I just thought, let me try it. I figured it would take me months before I started experiencing something, literally the next day. It's been dramatic as far as me getting back in shape. That's the number one thing that's helping me get back in shape is that I put my stupid phone down. It's like, it's amazing. Yeah. That's incredible, dude. I love it. Dan Garner, where can the people find you? You can find me at Dan Garner Nutrition on Instagram. You can find my courses. Courses. You can find all my courses over at www.courtsgarner.com. And Canadians, I know it's a hassle to get blood work in Canada, but I got a deal set up for you guys to get it done hassle free. Inside tracker.com slash Garner. Sign up to get 20% off and it won't

be a hassle. Coach Trout of Smash. Smashlead.com, Instagram, Mashlead Performance. When are you lifting weights and powerlifting? Next year, like I wanna train for about 12. Who was talking shit to you? Oh, just some dude. How old was he, like half your age? No, no.

Coming after you, trying to eat your lunch? No, he's my age. He did beat me once, but like. Once. It was just what he said. It was, yeah. It was a lot more. I have to tell you a story.

What'd he say? What'd he say? He said, like, not only that he had like called me out and that he was trying to fight me. And I've always said he's such a nice guy. And I'm like, he never talked. I never heard him say a word until on that podcast. It was now. All right.

He was on West Side Barbell's podcast. Talking, talking. That's a good place to talk. That's real. Now, listen, it was good to know that that West Side Barbell was driven by me. Like their whole goal was to beat me because I beat Chuck so many times.

I'm like, Good to know. Yeah, you're in the red. I'm going to come back and beat him one more time. What are the numbers that you think you can put up here? I mean, I think I could get close to 800 squat. This is raw, not quit, but 800, 500, 800, you know, I think I can get back there. Just takes me a little while. We'll be, I'm not going to have to become one of your clients So I'm not spotting you

But we will not be spotting you Wait, so a 800 500 800 and for the audience how old are you and what weight class will that be in? Well, you know, I am I'll be 50 next year and it'll be, I'm assuming it'll be, that would be at 220, you know, or 100 kilos. But if I go down to 90 kilos, 198, then those, you know, I'll probably take those to like mid sevens, mid fours, mid sevens. So it depends on which I do. You look like you're closing a lot. I'd be a lean Travis Maffs. Yeah, one 98. I think right now I think that would make more sense if I went 198 it'd be more it'd be healthier

I could do that and like maybe not die. Yeah, I give you a reason to get extra lean Right. Oh, yeah, then yeah, I would need the rabbit health team. So You bet my Instagram Douglas e Larson I am Anders Warnerarner at Anders Varner and we are Barbell Shrugged at barbell underscore shrugged and make sure you get over to rtalab.com. That is the signature program. Inside rapid health optimization

where you can go and experience all the lab, lifestyle, performance, testing, analysis, and coaching to help you optimize your health and performance. And you can access all of that over at ritalab.com. Friends, we'll see you guys next week. ["Dreams of a Better World"]