Business Innovators Radio - The Average American

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

When something starts “The Average American…”, there’s a good chance it’s followed by a statistic that is unflattering, unusual, or quite often unhealthy. In the medical world, however, “The Average American” is used to set standards for our health. The question that each person must then ask themselves is: What does it mean to be average?In this episode, Dr. Dan and Angela break down the difference between average and normal, discuss how characteristics of a population dictate what “average” really means, and how defining health based on the national average can do more harm than good. This is a must-listen for anyone that would like to have a better handle on their health and is tired of relaying on the average of a generally unhealthy population. To learn more about this and other hot health topics, follow us on social media and subscribe to our WTH podcast. If you have a specific health question or would like to find out if we can help you with a personal health challenge, check out our office page or contact us at 412-369-0400/ [e-mail]. As always, our mission is to help you Get Healthy and Stay Healthy for a Lifetime!What the Health?!https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/what-the-health/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-average-american

Welcome to What the Health, where anything health is fair game as we tackle the trends and bust the myths about health and wellness. Here are your hosts, Dr. Dan and Angela Toro. And welcome to another episode of What the Health. I am Dr. Dan here with my co-host. Angela, welcome back, guys. I'll get the disclaimer out of the way here. As you know, we're here for informational purposes only. We are not offering any individualized medical advice.

Always talk to your trusted health care provider. before making changes to your specific lifestyle. So with that being said. Excellent. The question of the day, are you proud to be an American? No, we're coming up on July 4th. No, are you proud to be an average American?

Yeah, the big underlying word there is average. We wanted to talk about this concept. But have you ever been a, you know, health care practitioner, you know, and they're reviewing some blood work numbers? And they say, oh, you know, dear Mr. and Mrs. Smith, you know, congratulations. I see that your, you know, your blood work here or your cholesterol level or whatever it is, is average compared to other people your age. Yes. So, yes. So, you know, many of us have

been down that path. And I think that's the question of, well, is that, you know, so the follow-up question, which is usually never answered is, well, what does that mean? Or is that a good thing? Yeah, something. Or if you're above average or below average, what does that mean? Is that you know, you hear about that a lot with, I think especially too, with kids, you know, I think back to like the growth charts, you know. So I was always above average for height and weight. And it's like, okay, would that mean something was wrong? Or because that's how I always interpreted it.

So it's like, or was that just, you know, that was how you were growing. Yeah, I was growing faster. Your son, you know, your oldest son's the same way. Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes. Yeah, he's almost taller than my wife now. And I think, you know, if he gets a growth spurt this summer,

we're in trouble. But yeah, I mean, it's really the question of, okay, well, you know, the follow-up question. So what's it mean to be average? Yeah. So, you know, doctor comes in and they say, okay, your cholesterol level is average compared to other people with your age. It's like, well, okay, so does that mean it's healthy? Or does, you know, what happens? And this is what we, you know, what we've, what we talk about a lot with people is if the majority of people, if it's all about the

sample size, right? It's all about the group that you're taking. You did research for a while, Angela, we've talked about that before, but it's all about the group size. So if there's a hundred people or a thousand people that they're taking, you know, samples from, and 90% of them have high levels, well, now you've skewed that whole average above what might be normal and healthy. Something as simple as weight, right? You know, America is significant. significantly overweight compared to the rest of the world. Yes. And so if you're only saying, no, so if you said, you know, if your doctor came in and said,

well, you have an average weight for, you know, a man, you know, your age. It's like, okay, well, is that sampling out of Americans or is that sampling in the entire world? Because there would be a massive difference between those two numbers. I should actually look that up. I know for certain that America is significantly overweight. So I'd be interested in what those exact numbers are. Worldwide average adult male weight, worldwide average adult female weight, it would be very interesting to look at.

Now, again, I know we talk a lot about, you know, it's not just about the number on the scale. But when you're looking at multiple different factors, you know, blood chemistry numbers, you know, weight, BMI, muscle concentration, you know, water, hydration levels. I mean, vitamin levels, all of these things are very important to look at. But again, if we're skewing... Yeah, what are you comparing it to? Because when you talk about, you know, even, again, coming up with these standard ranges that we look at, you know, those are based off of, again, looking at a, you know, a range of people, but just because, like, you might be within the quote unquote, you know, normal range.

Yeah. But is that what is right for you? Yeah. Is it, you know, there can still be, you know, again, it's people get so hung up on, you know, trying to hit a specific number for something without necessarily understanding what that means and what it means for you specifically. Yeah. Yeah.

When there's even, you know, and again, we'll go back to cholesterol just because we talk a lot about it. And again, that's one of those, you know, medications. We're going to get to medication here in a second. But that's just one of those medications that, you know, they force back from like the 80s in 90s, actually 1993, they changed the rules and regulations on

what the levels were appropriate to start giving someone a statin medication to lower their cholesterol. And they changed it from 240 to 200. Total cholesterol level. That was done by a panel of 10 doctors. Nine of those doctors

we found out had a direct financial tie to statin drug medication. It's like, now wait a minute. If that's not a conflict of interest than what is. They just did it recently with blood pressure too. Did they really? I wasn't aware.

Yeah, it used to be 140 over 90. Now it's considered, 120 over 80 is now actually considered high. That used to be considered, yeah. You're kidding. Yeah. So there now people, actually, I was just talking to a friend last night whose blood pressure is like 130 something over 83 and they went around medication. That's disgusting.

Yep. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So it's now, yeah, 140 over 90. He's now considered hypertension two. That used to be hypertension one. Wow. Yeah, and now it's less than 120 over 80 is normal.

So if you have 120 over 80, they're considering that high. Wow. So you see how they start to play this game with these numbers and all in the, and again, I would be interested to know. Why? Yeah, is it? Why? Were you actually seeing more people with that blood pressure having heart disease? Having heart disease, strokes.

And that's what's infuriating. Because if you're sick, because that should, in theory, that should be the reason, right? There should be some reason why, okay, well, because we're now finding that, you know, people with, you know, with this range of blood pressure are having X, Y, or Z outcome. But, you know, it's, again, without looking at all the other factors, you know, their activity levels, their other, you know, their diet, their stress levels. Well, not just that, but also just going back to the underlying question of the efficacy, right? Risk versus benefit. Yeah, exactly. And that's what we have seen over the past four decades, you know, three decades with cholesterol medication.

You know, there is a very small percentage of the population that actually have a net benefit by being on a statin medication. You know, the research shows pretty clearly that if you have had, so you've, you've, already had a cardiac event, you know, whether it was a mild heart attack, you know, maybe it was a transient ischemic attack, which is another word for, you know, again, a mild stroke, you know, kind of comes and goes real quickly. But you've had a cardiac, cardiovascular event. Those individuals, and your male, then you, there has been shown net benefit of being on a statin medication. Okay, low-dose statin medication, that it actually does prevent a second event from happening, okay? But for women, there's been, I mean, the research is pretty clear that there is actually a net risk to being on a statin medication long term.

Because again, it's like, yeah, you might lower your cholesterol level, but people were still dying with, you know, low cholesterol levels with the same amount of heart attacks and strokes. Okay. If we, you know, we have millions, tens of millions of people on statin medication over the past, you know, three decades. And if you look at cardiovascular disease, it's still the number one killer in the United States. And so if there was really that big of a correlation of taking a statin medication and being able to prevent, you know, heart attacks and strokes, you would have thought we'd seen those numbers. But we didn't. And so because we didn't, again, the science. is just very clear that it is not, it's not the efficacy. It's not providing the benefit that we originally anticipate it. So, again, we're getting all stuck on cholesterol, but, you know, again, same thing with blood pressure medication. Are we actually going to see what is the benefit versus then the risk? Yes, and putting somebody with a blood pressure of 130 over 80 on medication, what exactly is that medication that has a laundry list of side effects? Correct. So, and this is somebody, again, this is someone I know from the gym.

She's 63 years old. She's at the gym almost every day, super active, has cleaned up her diet. You know, it's just an otherwise healthy person. But because of her age and number, let's put her on a medication. Yeah. And I was happy to hear she fought back against it. But, you know, again, but how many people just blindly go, okay. Yeah, they trust their doctor.

And again, their doctor's going off the recommendations. Yeah. So I don't even blame the healthcare professionals anymore because they're going on. off the recommendations from these larger governing boards. Exactly. That again, are just, it feels like they're just arbitrarily changing these numbers without any sort

of rhyme or reason to it, other than to get more people on medication. It's infuriated. Yeah, we're seeing the same thing with diabetes. You know, it's like, again, all these numbers are, you know, they're just, they're trying to, yeah. The only thing I see that's changed is more people are on medication. Does that be more people are healthy?

Well, and there, so there, guys, so there, you got to the bottom of one of the big things I wanted to talk about. And again, that's the average, right? The average is more people are on medication. If more people are on medication, we talk about this all the time. Does that actually mean they are healthier? And if we look at the numbers with the United States, we've talked about this compared to other

countries, compared to other developed countries, we're one of the sickest. It's disgusting. You know, we rank below shilly. Exactly. Exactly. We spend the most on health care. Okay. I mean, I forget what in terms of GDP, what we actually spend on it.

But we spend trillions of dollars a year on health care. Health care, I know. We're doing our air quotes here. Quote unquote. What we do here is health care. It's sick care intervention, right? It's disease management. That's unfortunately what our health care system is.

but we spend more money, and yet we rank below other developed countries like Chile and Cuba. You know, Cuba has a better health care outcome. You will live longer, you know, and healthier if you live in Cuba compared to the United States. So that's the average. The average in the United States is more medications, but does that mean healthier? Oh, I'm an average American, but does that actually mean you are a healthy individual? Yes. And the answer is no, you're not.

And if you look at the number of medications. So let's talk about average. This study came out in August of 2019, straight from, I believe it was CDC or U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I got this right off CDC and Department of Health and Human Services website. If you are 40 years of age in the United States or older, I'm approaching that. I'm not there yet. But if you're 40 years of age or older, 70% of Americans, 40 years of age and older, are on at least one, at least one medication. 70% to over two-thirds of our country is on a prescription medication.

Okay. Now, that number, if you go, if you are, I'm sorry, if you are 60 years of age or older, okay? So 60 to 79 year olds, you have a 22% chance of being on five medications or more. 22% of Americans age 60 to 79 are on five medications. And I bet we could guess which five they are. Yeah, so go ahead. Let's say, yeah, look at that. Colesterol is the highest one.

That's the highest percentage one. Blood pressure. Yep, that's on there. Probably some kind of anxiety. Yep, antidepressant. an an acid of some sort. Yep, propump inhibitors on there. And pain, something for pain.

Yep, analgesic and anti-diabetic. Yeah, but they broke it down into age. And so, yeah, the anti-diabetic was actually for 40 to 59-year-olds. That actually goes away and you get more into the blood pressure and reflux medication for the 60 to 79-year-olds. And they break down the United States and Canada. up. But oh my gosh, this is disgusting. Like this report, I just found this today because I knew we were going to talk about this topic. And all I had to do is go on and say, you know, you know, a number of medications, you know, per individual in United States. And boom, this article pops up from just,

you know, just four, less than, you know, five years ago. And I'm sure it's just gotten worse. And that's the problem, too, is when you talk about, so if you're the average American, as we just talked about, the average American over 40, you're on a medication, according to that. At least one medication. Yes. So if you're comparing yourself to the average American, it seems like, oh, okay, well, I'm on. And if you're only on one or two, you might think you're doing it pretty good. Honestly, I mean, you are compared to.

Yeah, you know, five. But it's like, so if that's where we're, that's where we're setting the standard. Yes, we're setting the bar super below. Yeah. I don't even know which direction we're going anymore. But it's, you know, that's what we talk about all the time. When you talk about average, you're comparing yourself to others. That's where an average come from.

You can't, you know, if you do a poll of one, you can't get an average. I like to do that all the time. Yeah. I get vetoed. So as soon as you start talking about averages, you're talking about comparing yourself to a group of people. And as we talked about, it really comes down to what is that, what group are you comparing yourself to? And actually, we have a whole podcast on when we talked about, you know, listening to the experts. So check that one out, especially some of this research stuff is interesting to you.

because we talk about in there, you know, again, I worked on a research study where we, I had to recruit healthy. Healthy. Healthy. Healthy. Healthy. It was healthy 40 to, I think it was 40 to 64 year olds. And they couldn't be on any of those medications. Yeah, good luck.

So two-thirds. When I saw the recruitment criteria, I was like, who? Does that exist? I was like, how? Who are we going to find? Yeah. And the people that. we do find aren't going to be representative of the 70% of 40 to 64 year olds who are on those

medicaid. Now, we're studying this group who is actually not the average. Yes. And we're going to interpret those. And it was a health, it was a heart study. So we're going to interpret those results and we're going to say, see, if you're X, Y, and Z, you have this outcome. Well, yes, but those people were already healthier than the average as we established. They had to be healthy to get into the study. So they're really only talking to the 30% who aren't on. So that's where, again, well, you just have to be careful when you start to look in, when you start to look in and interpret research because it's, you have, you have to have a certain criteria to fit into a research study. Yes. But then that means that you're all, yes, you can only interpret those results for those

individuals. People that have that criteria. And that's the problem. People will say, well, oh, well, this study said this and this stuff said this and why are there so many confounding things. That's why. And that's why, again, when you talk about being average or comparing yourself to the average, you have to look at, well, what was the population that number was pulled from? And do I want to be the average of that population? Yeah. And so again, it just goes back to the question of, is it healthy, right? You know, it's like, you know, so the numbers are very clear, you know, in the United States and Canada, we take a significantly more medication than, you know, compared to the rest of the world. And then, again, the question becomes, is that healthier?

And the numbers are clear that, no, we don't live longer. In fact, isn't this, aren't they saying this was going to be one of the first, like, one of the first generations? Yes, I think our kids, so, you know, I'm almost 40, but my kids generation, I think, I don't know if it was the millennials, I'd have to double check that, but I believe Gen X, after the millennials, I'm sorry, Gen Z, Z, sorry, go on the wrong one. Gen Z after the millennials was the one I have to double check this,

but is the generation that is actually losing life expectancy compared to their predecessors. So why? We have all these, we have all these medications. We have all this, you know, health, you know, healthcare interventions. So why? Yeah, so we're spending more money. And so our return on investment is just shitty in terms of, you know,

United States health care. It's like again, go to go to another country if you want better health. Unfortunately, that's the reality. Or, as we talk about all the time in the office, you have to become your greatest advocate for your own health. And compare yourself to yourself. Exactly. Exactly. When there's even research, again, not to beat a dead horse with the cholesterol thing, but there's even some research out there that shows that

different ethnicities have different cholesterol levels. In fact, you know, if you, I remember, I'll have to see if I can find this research again. I know we're not the best with referencing. I know. In case you can notice, we sometimes think of things as we go. But again, it's like, was that the paleo-cardiologist? I think he... That may have been one of them. But yeah, like Eastern European or Middle Europeans tend to have just naturally higher genetic cholesterol levels.

Now, interestingly enough, there's also some research showing that people who had cholesterol levels in the 300 and above, they had a significant decrease in cancers and mental brain fog, which again makes sense because you're looking at some of these studies of people who are on some of this medication long term. They have a significant increase in cancers and, you know, dementia and Alzheimer's, you know, and especially, I mean, it makes complete sense in terms of brain health because your brain is 70s. percent fat. Your brain loves fat. Yeah. And so fat and cholesterol.

So it's like you need that to be healthy. And I would argue too with that. Again, it's actually one of our focuses for this month is on gut health. And one of the big side effects of any medication is that it's going to affect your gut microbiome. And if you're screwing up your gut microbiome, that's going to start to have a direct impact on your brain health. And so it's just, again, it just becomes this vicious cycle of... And then what are they going to do?

They're going to put you on another medication. You have low iron, right? You know, you've got a medication and now your body can't absorb iron as well and now you have low iron. And so, boom, now we've got to put you on, you know, an iron supplement and, you know, it's just like round and round and round we go. But again, it's like, you know, I would totally stop one of my favorite quotes. Really, it was a life changer for me. I was in the gym with a body of mine. And it was early in the morning, and we were working out pretty consistently.

And, you know, so we were warming up on bench press. And we turn and we, we see just one of those big, freaking guys in the gym. Bodybuilder, but, you know, he was more of a bodybuilder, but still. Like, can't touch his own head. He was out with ridiculous amount of weight. Like, you know, he had to have over 500 pounds on a squat bar. And, you know, so my friend just kind of like leans over to me and whispers in my ear. he goes

Comparison is the thief of all joy and man did that quote hit me between the eyes because it's like you know yeah you're absolutely if I'm constantly comparing myself

to others which I later learned out that he got it from I think it was Theodore Roosevelt I was the quote but yeah comparison is the thief of all joy if we're constantly comparing ourselves to others you know and where we think we should be

and you're constantly robbing yourself of, you know, of your enjoyment, your fulfillment in life. But, but that doesn't mean, so again, if we, we shouldn't be comparing ourselves in this situation when we're talking about our health to the average, we should be comparing herself to what is healthy. Yeah. And I think that's where, unfortunately, I don't think many of our, you know, again, large governing bodies have done a good job answering what is health. Yeah. Because it doesn't serve the first. pharmaceutical industry and their pockets. And again, it's so freaking tied into, you know, even everyone who has a retirement plan, guaranteed, has, you know, a fund or, you know,

some investments that are tied to pharmaceutical industry. And so you're really funding our own unhealthiness. Yeah. And when we talk about, you know, again, trying to be average or comparing to others, you know, at the end of the day, it's, you know, our boss. bodies. We all know what it, when we feel good. I mean, it's, we have, again, have a podcast on that our battling, stop battling your biology podcast, which again is really just about listening to your body and your body signals instead of blindly following whatever the thing is. Because again, you have to remember too, research takes decades to come out. So by the time recommendations are coming out, that research is already 10, 15, maybe 20 years old. So it might not even,

be relevant anymore in the current, especially with how quickly things are changing on a day-to-day basis in our, you know, in our life, in our environment, in our world. So, you know, you've really have to be careful when it comes to, you know, comes to research and just blindly following recommendations, especially if it goes directly against something. I tell people at a time, like, you know, if you've been doing something in your whole life and you feel good and you feel healthy and you feel energetic and some now you know jo Shmo who's you know whatever says this is yeah this is this is bad for you and you know this is killing you and no da-da-da-da- I'm like well I guarantee you Joe Shmo is trying to sell you something so and again as everybody that's the world we live in but you know again

really really listen to listen to yourself because you know again we talk about patients coming here all the time they'll be like oh I finally feel normal again or I feel like me again and And that doesn't necessarily mean that they have the same numbers or the same experience as anybody else. It just means finally whatever was feeling off has now that just feeling. We all know. We all know when we just feel off. We all know when we're getting sick or something's just not right or something's, you know, nagging on us from a mental or emotional side. We know and we power through because that's what we're told to do.

And that's a fantastic. point because you go back to, I just feel off. And that is so much of today's, you know, what we, you know, deal with coming in our office. It's like, yeah, you can point out some aches and pains. But again, it's just, a lot of times it's just generalizing some pains. It's, it's brain fog, it's fatigue. But if you were to go to your medical doctor and, you know, they have to go through a specific checklist, you may have completely normal, quote unquote, blood work. You might be, you know, because you're average. You fall between the range.

So your blood work might look completely normal because either you haven't had, you know, what's off, hasn't had enough time to accumulate long enough to show up on a test. You know, I always use the example of cancer or heart disease, right?

You don't develop heart disease overnight. It takes probably a decade or longer for an artery, a major artery, to build up enough blockage to give you a heart attack or a stroke. you know, same thing with cancer. It takes several decades. A tumor just doesn't show up overnight.

It can take several, a decade or more, for a tumor to grow big enough to be detected on a scan. So, you know, when we're looking at these tests and stuff, yeah, you may, your tests may come back completely normal or within the average range that's been established by a governing, you know, medical, you know, elite leadership. group or whatever. But at the end of the day, you still feel off. So, you know, those are, there's something, there's some alarm or signal telling you that, hey, something needs to change, okay,

because it's not the same as it was. And, you know, that's where, you know, looking at things differently and asking different questions can make a major, major difference in trying to establish what is healthy, not what is average. Yeah. And I think, unfortunately, again, And as we know, the average Americans on these medications, which means they're dealing with these things.

And I think, unfortunately, a lot of people is quote unquote normal has become being in pain, being tired, having brain fog. That's the new normal. Yeah. And that's when we see, and that's when we have the people that are like, the unexpected side effects are the ones that we love. And we actually, you know, in our alchemist has when we track this, you know, periodically ask people about, you know, okay, well, here's what you came in for. How are those things doing? And then, hey, by the way, anything else going on? It's like, oh, well, yeah, I'm sleeping better.

I have more energy. I have, like, things that people didn't even realize because that was just their normal. Just, you know, waking up and feeling crappy was just. Yeah, feeling like you needed three cups of coffee to get moving. Yeah. And, like, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow, yeah, I'm just like, I feel, yeah, I feel good. I'm pooping better. My mood, like, just, you know, suddenly people don't mind being around me.

Yeah. Suddenly, when my wife finds me. attractive again. Maybe we should be sending these to spouses and children. I've thought about that. I've actually, yes, I have thought about that. But it is. It's sad when, you know, again, the normal becomes

or, you know, again, if you're considering normal being what's average, then. Yeah, and how many times do we just hear like, oh, I'm just getting older, right? Yep, all the time. But again, it's like because we have, you know, we have

brainwashed ourselves in America that think being old means being yeah oh i'm 40 now so again again the statistics show if you're 40 70% chance of being on one medication it's like oh so so that then becomes the excuse right uh well all my all my friends family colleagues peers like they're all on a medication so oh my blood pressure's a little bit borderline so better start that blood pressure oh my cholesterol's a little bit borderline better start that statin medication and it's like and now you get the side effects which only accumulate over time and so you you Before you know it, it's like, well, I'm just getting older and, you know, this is how it has to be.

Yeah, as opposed to asking why, because yes, there are absolutely physiological thing, like, changes that happen. Yeah, so 70-year-old is not the same as a 20-year-old. We're not denying that. So instead of asking, okay, why is this, like, I hit this age and now I'm experiencing this. So, you know, maybe I need to change my diet. Maybe I need to change my exercise. You know, I can't. I need to get my spine adjusted.

Yeah, the workouts I'm doing now, I guarantee you I will not be doing what I'm 50 or 60. So, you know, maybe we need to make some, you know, make changes. And instead of, again, I think heartburn is a big one. You know, everyone, I joke too. Everyone, I remember, it was our brother. We have a brother between us. And he made a joke like, oh, wait until you turn 30. You're going to get heartburn.

I'm like, ha, ha. And I'm 28 at the time. I'm two years behind him. I swear it was like the week of my 30th birthday. And I'm like, what is this really? And it was, you know, an imperialist. You know, it flares up. But again, you know, what... Usually it's around eating or drinking and wait at night.

Yeah, like, well, what... You know, and yes, it's things that I used to be able to eat and drink. Yes. But again, so obviously, after 30 years of, you know, my gut microbiome, something's changed. It's not able to process, you know, the spicy, find the spicy things. It's always worth it, though, for that. Yeah, maybe not able to process the spicy things. Or, again, if I do too much coffee or, you know, it's just...

But again, you know, the average person my age would do what? would take a pill. Pop those thumbs and do it again. Yeah. And I'm like, okay, well, I, you know, again, not being average, happily not being average. If I'm having that feeling like, okay, what did I eat? When did I eat it? What was I doing?

You know, what caused it so that I don't repeat this? And recognizing that and, you know, getting to the root of why are you having these issues so that we can naturally address that. Yeah. Yeah. And again, I know I tell we harp on this all the time about becoming your greatest advocate. And it's like, you know, there are so many resources out there. And, you know, I hope you have a good relationship with the primary care provider.

A lot of people, I think there's more and more people starting to choose, you know, like their chiropractor as their primary care provider. I know we have a lot of patients who come in and they consider, you know, us, their primary care provider. because again, they don't want to jump to the medication. Again, medication has a time and a place, but that is not what they want to do as their first resource. Because again, that was the other thing I was going to bring up with this study. It's like every one of these medications is for a preventable disease, a lifestyle preventable disease.

So it's like, you know, instead of, you know, sitting there having the conversation, and again, you know, what's a medical doctor do? And again, I don't fault them for it. It's the system they're in. They don't have time to talk to people because they have to see a certain number of people and write a certain number of prescriptions so that they can meet their overhead and pay their staff. And again, that's how their system is built upon. It's a sinking ship, unfortunately, and it's not going to continue to maintain for, you know,

because they're not getting people healthy. Yeah, I'm happy to hear when they do try to address those things. Yeah, I was working with one patient and her, uh, Her blood pressure was up and, you know, her doctor actually talked to her about increasing water intake and, you know, and actually address, you know, the activity and some lifestyle, some of the stuff that we've been working on. So I was happy to, you know, happy to hear that. And because, again, that's not, you know, that's not always the, always the case. Yeah.

And I think we're trying, we're seeing some changes. I think some, you know, and again, it should, we talk about insurance, you know, we don't talk a lot about insurance. But again, we're so stuck, you know, society is so stuck on, well, if my insurance covers it, then I'll do it. But, you know, unfortunately, we are in this transitionary time of we have to, if you truly want to be healthy, you need to spend money on things that are not covered by your insurance. Oh, yeah, I say that all the time. Yeah, I was telling people about the hip injection, the PRP injections I got. Everyone's like, oh, oh, that was covered by insurance. I'm like, absolutely not.

But it helped. Exactly. And you were able to compete and do the thing that brings you a lot of enjoying it in life. Because the medical system, back story, I have a torn labrum in my hip. And hopefully it's healed by now. Yeah. I mean, I think it's probably not 100%. But the only solution to that in the medical system is surgery. And surgery would 100% take me out of competing. So it's, you know, and not necessarily take away the pain because that's what I talked to somebody from the gym and had the surgery.

And even she was like, don't. She's like a worst decision in my life. And so I was able to find something that actually fixed it. But insurance didn't cover. But again, that was an investment in your health. Exactly. And that's what, you know, that's what I love working with people. We are, again, I mean, most people know this coming into our office.

I mean, we are 99% self-pay. We just don't deal with third-party insurers. And because we're not reliant on that, We are able to sit, have conversations, and spend the time and make the recommendations that are truly going to help you get healthy. And if we don't get results, people are paying us money to do that. If we don't get results, they get to take those dollars somewhere else. Exactly. If you just only go to where your insurance is going to cover you, well, first of all, you're going to go in to a practice that is beholden to the third.

party payer. If they don't follow their rules, then they don't get paid. And so, and again, if you don't get results, it doesn't really matter to you. Yeah, you want to feel better, but it doesn't matter to you as much because you are not physically paying out of pocket for it. And that's why I love what we do, because we work so hard to find the underlying causes of, you know, your health to give you true solutions to help you. And by doing that, people then, you know, reward us with the, you know, the value of their heart earned dollars. And it's made for just a really, really beautiful environment in terms of, you know, and again, we are such a microcosm of health care. But, you know, we've created it. It's such a beautiful

environment for people to come in and say, I want to get healthy, you know. I feel off. I have not found solutions with, you know, my medical doctor. Again, just be through this. You've been listening to What the Health with Dr. Dan and Angela Toro, brought to you by Toro family chiropractic. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.org.com.