Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Rethinking Health and Longevity with Dr. Joel Wussow

Starting point is 00:00:00 The one finite resource that we have is time, right? That's something that you can't take back. You can't necessarily turn back the clock. We don't have any medicine right now to turn back the clock. You're listening to The Radcast, a top 25 worldwide business podcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast.

Starting point is 00:00:31 I'm Ryan Alford, your host. We're excited. Got in studio today. A friend, but actually my doctor. And I'm excited to tell you about this because Dr. Joel Wasow is going to tell us some stories and he's going to enlighten us on some things that might save your life. And at the end of the day, we're about bringing value. We can't bring any more value, Chris, than saving lives. And that's what our good friend, Dr. Joel Wasow does every day. What's up, doctor?

Starting point is 00:01:00 Thank you for having me ryan of course pumped excited in full disclosure dr joel is my what my longevity doctor which we're going to be talking about which is a lot of his passion and what we're working on he's working on he's working on me i should say and i know chris you and dr joel we're so are our friends as, so it's always fun that we can do the show and have not only a friend, someone we believe in, and someone that has great passion around something that's going to change the world. Absolutely. What's happening, Doc, in studio here in Greenville? We appreciate you being here. We appreciate you being here.

Starting point is 00:01:45 I think we love to set the table for our audience, just maybe giving the who the hell is Dr. Joel Wiseau story. I know you're currently an ER doctor in Texas, but in the midst of bringing to life a longevity practice, which we'll get into. But let's tell the audience a little bit about you. Sure. So my name is Joel Wude. let's tell the audience a little bit about you. Sure. So my name is Joel Wooden. So actually,

Starting point is 00:02:15 I met Ryan through a mutual friend in Miami, where I currently live now, and we hit it off. But let's backtrack. So born and raised in Texas. I went to college in Arizona. Actually, believe it or not, I didn't go straight into medical school. I did pharmaceutical sales for a couple of years. This is way back in the day before there was a lot of regulation. And then it was there. I always kind of thought that I wanted to be a doctor. I did all of the prereqs. And then I went to this career fair, and I kind of got sucked in because I did do business as a minor. So I had some background there as well. So I decided to do pharmaceutical sales. You were doing it when it was fun.

Starting point is 00:02:55 It was fun. It was definitely fun. I had friends that did that shit, and I was like, that was the glory days. Before they put all the damn regulations in. Anything pretty much went. I mean, it did. Especially in Texas. It did.

Starting point is 00:03:09 Oh, no, this was in Arizona. So I did it, but still. Well, Scottsdale. It's still kind of cow, pretty cowboy state also, Arizona in my experience with the medical business. A hundred percent. I mean, there's really no other way of putting, a lot of this stuff was just borderline unethical

Starting point is 00:03:25 and I didn't feel comfortable taking that path and I'm just looking at these doctors I'm like I can be you and not only can I be you I feel like I can practice medicine better than what you're doing I ditched that kid gig and then I went to medical school in Philadelphia at Jefferson Medical College and then from there I decided I wanted to practice emergency medicine. I think it just kind of goes along with my personality. I'm an adrenaline junkie. I like to be managing a lot of things at one time. I like the variety. It goes along with my kind of my background in sports and training. I like to be really active. I've always been that way. So that's why I decided emergency medicine. So I did my emergency medicine residency at New York

Starting point is 00:04:11 Presbyterian Hospital, which is there's a Columbia campus as well as a Cornell campus. So I did a residency at both those campuses. And then after residency, I went back to Texas where I'm from, and then I started practicing emergency. Is that like a natural path? I think I hear a lot of doctor friends that I know. Is the ER path like a natural path for a lot of doctors, or is it like mainly they go to be in a physician's practice or something like that? I mean, emergency medicine, it's one or something like that? I mean, emergency medicine is, it's one of many specialties. I mean, you could be a general surgeon, you can do orthopedics, you could do internal medicine, family medicine, dermatology. Really, I chose emergency medicine

Starting point is 00:04:56 just because I like to, I like the pressure. I like life and death. I like using my hands, doing procedures. I like the variety. So it takes a very unique bird to want to practice that type of medicine. And again, as you'll find, we'll probably talk about this some more. It takes its toll, man. I mean, it's a very stressful type of a profession. And is it sort of the hotshot track? Is it kind of, is it the path top gun yeah you know what that it varies actually when i was going when we call it the match so you go through your

Starting point is 00:05:34 medical training and you decide what you want to do a residency in and essentially you do this whole courtship of going to a residency and you do all these interviews and then you decide what you want to specialize in and you have to go through the match process. Every year it's different in terms of which specialty is more competitive to match in because you can try to get into one residency, but you may not get it. When I was going through emergency medicine was one of the toughest residencies to get in, regardless of the program. Now it's actually kind of dropped off a bit. And I mean, I understand COVID, I think, has a lot to do with it. People are switching just lifestyle in general.

Starting point is 00:06:13 It's just a really tough job, but it fluctuates. How many, is there always, and I want to get into some of the specific things, both good, bad, and interesting in the ER, But is it, does it always have a life shelf? People aren't ER doctors forever, are they? Or are some people, is it a career? I mean, it's supposed to be a career, but unfortunately there's, I mean, the statistics show there's a shelf life for emergency medicine. It's around 10 years.

Starting point is 00:06:44 And lo and behold, Dr. Joe Wussuso is sort of right why is that 11 years right now yeah why i mean just yeah just the stress so you think the emotional stress the hours like it's just it's everything man i mean or is it people moving on to. Like I always compare it to lawyers when they'd be like a public defender, you kind of pay your dues and then you go private and you're making the big bucks that. No, I mean, the money, if you want it to be, is great. So it's not a money issue. It's not a job security issue. I think it really comes down to it's just a very stressful and hard job. And if your goal is to maximize your health span, which we'll talk about, it's very hard. You're going to be challenged to do

Starting point is 00:07:32 that because the hours are long. Sometimes you do get breaks. I've gone through shifts where I don't even pee for 11 hours straight, let alone try to eat something. I don't get a lunch break. Are you kidding me? I mean, sometimes we're afforded the opportunity to do that, but there's just a lot going on. If it's super busy, you just may not be taking breaks. You have hospital administration. You got to meet your metrics. You're seeing really sick people. You are working very odd hours, days, afternoons, nights, having to switch back and forth from that. So that's really messing up your circadian rhythm. There's just really a lot involved there.

Starting point is 00:08:11 And if you are someone that practices general emergency medicine, you're seeing geriatrics, regular adults, kids, just the stakes are high. You're dealing with life and death and you're having to deal with death a lot. And unfortunately, I mean, we're human beings, right? I am trained to, to cope with that and to deal with that and to be professional and to when the stakes are on the line to be hold my composure. But where does all, where do all those feelings and emotions go? This is a question in the long run. I think it really takes its toll. It sounds so morbid, but like roughly how many people have you had to witness decease in 11 years? Dozens? I don't think I've ever been asked that question. Is it a lot? I mean, it's a lot. Yeah. I mean, I would say, I mean, if I could, thinking about it just from a month at a time,

Starting point is 00:09:06 I'd say at least five to six a month. And then you factor that by 11 years. Four to 500, 500, 600 people. Yeah. So it's a lot. Yeah. And people ask me, like, how do you deal with that? and people ask me like, how do you deal with that?

Starting point is 00:09:31 And I don't know if it's, if it sounds callous, but oftentimes it doesn't really affect me much, the actual deceased person that I'm taking care of, but it's more so whenever I have to, because I'm the one that has to break the news, right? I have to talk to the family members when this happens. And if you could just imagine, you watch all these TV shows and dramas, like sometimes people have no idea what's going on, right? And you have to tell them that their loved one is dead. And that's, it's very emotional

Starting point is 00:09:57 when seeing the reaction on their face and having to do that. You have to desensitize yourself, I'm sure. You have to like kind of turn that on that whole i mean the how you relay that information i think you do a better you with practice you get better at it but those emotions that are going on inside your head that people aren't seeing that none of that gets old like every time i have to do that it's always hard yeah yeah doc my question was obviously those are very difficult conversations that most of us, I would venture to say 99% of us have probably never even had to entertain. Do you think, and I know you said you never used to it, but do you think it's carried over

Starting point is 00:10:37 in other parts of your life with just how you communicate? Is it easier for you to have difficult conversations now? That's a good question. I think so. I think for sure it's easier to have more difficult conversations. But when it comes to your personal life, one thing that I've had to work on definitely is being able to shut things off, right? And I've had a hard time initially in this career, shutting off my brain. I've done a much better job of that in my personal life. But initially,

Starting point is 00:11:21 if you don't shut it off, you're not vulnerable, right? And that really did, I felt like that bled over into my personal life. Now I'm doing a much better job of that. So by training myself to do that, some of those skills just kind of go away because I've trained my body to do that so that I can be more vulnerable and not be so much a machine. Because to be honest with you guys, you kind of have to, in a high pressure situation, you have to work like a machine because you have to be, you have to hold your composure. You're leading this group. And if you are showing signs that you are in distress, everybody's going to feel that. But yes, the switch, I feel like the switch is there now. And I think also that comes with time and practice.

Starting point is 00:12:00 But to answer your question about the personal life, I try not to carry that over into my personal life and be this stoic robot as i am when i'm practicing what related unrelated why are so many doctors seemingly so unhealthy it it always blows my mind. And look, if you're not watching the YouTube, the Instagram TV slash video slash real video, but you will. Dr. Joel's a very healthy, attractive, all the boxes check. But most doctors are not. Let's be honest. And I've never, it has nothing to do with you probably personally. You may not even know, but I'm sure you have a guess. I know, but it's you guys know more than anyone what's killing us. It always blows my mind when the doc walks in, but mainly in ER,

Starting point is 00:12:56 like my personal doctor is not that healthy either actually, or in the past now he is. But why is that? I think that's a complicated question. And I don't know that there's one answer for it. But my theory is twofold. One in medical training. So both. So you go to medical school for four years. And then in those four years, you just get like a general overview on everything that medicine has to offer, right? It's not tailored specifically to what you're going to specialize in. That's residency. So you go from everything from basic biochemistry, disease pathology, biology, all the different disease states. But so we do an amazing job in medical training, in medical school. We do such an amazing job of taking a fire hose full of information, distilling it down, regurgitating it. That's what we're training for in medical schools.

Starting point is 00:13:58 How can you take an abundance of information, make sense out of it and use it. But interesting enough, in medical training, there's very little training or insight into lifestyle optimization. We don't ever talk about, really talk about diet, nutrition, exercise. Did you realize that the most, like most colleges, maybe things have changed. I'm however many years, 11 years removed from medical school, but I had like maybe an hour or two hour lecture on sleep. And when we're talking about optimizing one's health and you're sleeping 33% of your life, percent of your life, wouldn't you want your practitioner being an expert on how to get someone to sleep the best they can? Because sleep is so important. It's such a huge component. So I think to answer your question from one standpoint, lifestyle optimization matters.

Starting point is 00:15:01 We're not taught that in medical training. And number two, doctors live extremely stressful lives and we're taught to be selfless. And we take the back seat and that includes your health. It's all about helping other people. So you may know what you need to do, but if you're taking the back seat, you're going to develop really bad habits. So you're not putting yourself forward or putting yourself first. And that includes diet, exercise, sleep. That's where I think it comes from. Not that most doctors aren't genuine. They don't know what they're talking about. And they just can't practice what they preach

Starting point is 00:15:38 because that was never instilled in them from the get-go. Which kind of transitions to some of your passions and where you're moving towards because you're, it's always been about treating symptoms, right? Treating conditions versus proactive, like, management and getting ahead of living not just a long life, but a long life. I mean, where did your passion around all that come from? I've always had the passion. That's the thing. I've always been like an exercise nut. I've always been into health and nutrition. I've

Starting point is 00:16:20 experimented with every single diet under the sun just because I've, I just, I've been weird like that. I tried to take, like during medical school, I remember they offered this integrative medicine course where this was very cutting edge. But again, this was an elective. This wasn't something that was required, right? So this kind of gives you the framework of this is how medical schools want you to learn.

Starting point is 00:16:44 Oh, if you want to get this elective on this quote unquote lifestyle medicine, longevity medicine, you can take it as an elective, but it's not a requirement. But I was totally fascinated with that stuff. Everything from genetic testing really wasn't out yet, but learning about different types of diet and what you're putting in your body and how that affects how everything works out in a cellular level, all the impact you get there, emotional health, emotional wellbeing, all that stuff. None of that stuff was really taught in medical training. So yeah, I've always had the passion and now it's, I just decided, I was like, it's i just decided i was like we need to make a change it's time to make a change and i've just become frustrated with the way that our system is we are a our medical system is amazing don't get me wrong we have the latest and greatest the best technology the smartest minds out there especially in amer America, our American medical system.

Starting point is 00:17:49 I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. I just think that we can optimize it. We can make it better. We can piggyback off all of the innovations that we've made today. Talking with Dr. Joel, who's so, Dr. Longevity, who's trademarked or owns that username. We're trademarking it too, right? We're trademarking the name, yes. Dr. Longevity, how we live longer, how we live longer well.

Starting point is 00:18:16 So we're trademarking Dr. Longevity, by the way. Not only are we talking about it, we're actually doing it. But doctor, what's interesting to me about medicine is I feel like I've also been in health and fitness and supplements and all these things. I feel like you're seeing this medicine start to be influenced by the biohacking community. Like consumers, people have been clamoring. i think i want to get ahead i want how can i be most productive how can i live longer how can i do these things while medicine is kind of trailed behind with still treating symptoms still yeah you do blood work but we're only checking for like the worst things possible and not necessarily how to get ahead and live better but how to treat diseases we already have while the while these communities

Starting point is 00:19:13 have built up around biohacking and how can i be most productive how can i live longer where's the fountain of youth and i feel like it's somewhat those worlds are starting to collide and you on the professional medical level bringing to life what we're working on. I don't know. Talk to me about your perspective of that, those worlds and coming together or being influenced by one another. For sure. So when you look at, let's call it conventional medicine. And that's what you're seeing now in today's health care system. I think that the general audience, people that don't have a lot of experience or with science background, medicine, in order to actually see results or for you to create something that's innovative, it takes time. And the reason why it takes time is nothing is going to be given to the masses until we know that it works. We know the

Starting point is 00:20:15 side effects that are associated with it. And to do that, you need to have numbers. And in addition, and that's called power. But in addition to numbers, you need to be able to test things effectively. So randomized controlled trials. So there are a lot of biohackers out there that claim that this and that works, which is great. And it may work for some people. But as far as conventional medicine is concerned, it's going to move much slower because that needs to be run through the whole system to make sure that you're getting

Starting point is 00:20:50 consistent results. So stuff just doesn't work as quickly as the way that our society is growing and how fast and innovative things are going with technology. Medicine doesn't work like that, unfortunately. I kind of am an adopter of both. And I think that we can piggyback off conventional medicine. And at the same time, we can look at new innovative stuff and intuitively think, okay, this potentially makes sense. And looking at risk benefit, we can try some things out that don't necessarily have all the literature there and stuff hasn't been 100% validated, but but in theory it makes sense so i kind of integrate both of those styles together but don't you think it's like

Starting point is 00:21:30 in a way though it's telling that it obviously takes i i totally get the trials thing so everybody's body is different there's so many different variables and chemicals, structures within the body that because some biohacking formula works for 20 people doesn't make it safe. And but it's like, the fact that we've been that we have these groundswells of people doing this, I think goes to show that the medical world's a little behind, like in they should doing testing on these things maybe before, right? like in they should be doing testing on these things maybe before, right? Yeah, and I think that, I mean, some people, I mean, in the medical community are not going to know what I have to say, but there's also a reason why things lag behind

Starting point is 00:22:15 in addition to making sure that the data is validated because I think that's extremely important. But what happens if you flip the switch or you turn the table and you're taking a proactive approach to where you're actually preventing disease? Because our whole system is based off of treating disease and chronic disease right now. Lots of money to be made by hospital systems, pharmaceutical companies treating disease, right? But what if you are actually turning the table and you're preventing that disease from even existing in your timeline in life, period? Your hospital systems are going to lose a lot of money if they're not filling beds, systems are going to lose a lot of money if they're not filling beds, if they're not writing or pharmaceutical companies are not, you know, you're putting money into R&D for prescriptions

Starting point is 00:23:09 for specific disease processes, which quite frankly, a lot of them are preventable. And then not only that, you're... Careful, Dr. Joel. All right. Piss off the wrong people. Oh, yeah. But just look at... You're speaking our language. Yeah. Look at insurance companies, right? There there's no we call them icd-10 codes there's no icd-10 code for anything preventable and no preventative medicine so

Starting point is 00:23:33 it's really sad because if you have quite in fact even the opposite i would say which i'll try after i continue for sure but if you look at a doctor and he or she is they have to make a living right so if they're sitting there counseling a patient on what they can do to prevent them from getting this disease and there's no icd-10 code for that to be billed for insurance how are they supposed to make money off of that so how are they how and a doctor's day is already jam-packed all of that time that they're spending with preventative care and they're not getting reimbursed for it, how can they do that, right? Unless they're doing charity work.

Starting point is 00:24:14 I've kind of, I've just decided that I'm still going to practice some emergency medicine, but I really have become frustrated treating chronic disease. And the problem also lies with not only our medical system, we need to hold the whole society accountable because people want to be spoon-fed their health, right? Or at least our medical system has kind of, has made it, made the thought process that it's okay for us to tell you what to do. It's okay to take this pill and to have this disease. This is part of life. But there needs to be education around, no, you need to be proactive.

Starting point is 00:24:58 You need to be proactive in preventing this stuff. You need to have insight into your own health. this stuff. You need to have insight into your own health. The patient or the human who's being treated needs to have some autonomy and not 100% rely on your physician. You need to have the structure in place. All of these lifestyle modifications optimize your lifestyle, right? Diet, exercise, nutrition, sleep. If you have all those things dialed in, for the most part, at least in your young life, and when I say young, I'm saying for most people into their 50s, if you are exercising regularly, good strength training, you're eating clean, getting plenty of protein, avoiding excess sugar, and you are getting good quality sleep and

Starting point is 00:25:46 tracking that, and you're doing something for your emotional health to help decompress, reflect, meditate, journaling, things of that nature, you are going to be leaps and bounds above 99% of the population in the world. Because most people don't do that i'll let you guys talk i'm talking yeah no you're not no it's you're right and i think awesome yeah but the motivations of doctors and the people don't it's the irony of this is we go to the doctor when we're sick and we get prescribed something that makes it better. And so we're valuing that relationship and that exchange when there are a lot of times if it had been preventative, you might not have needed it to begin with.

Starting point is 00:26:40 It's like we're treating the wrong end of the spectrum. That's the eye-opener. That's why people, oh, thank you of the spectrum. That's the eye opener. That's why people, oh, thank you. Thank you, doc. You saved me. You saved me, doc. When no, they didn't really save you. They saved you from what they could have prevented to begin with.

Starting point is 00:26:57 That's the scary proposition here. It is. You know what? I don't know. I saw this on your Instagram. It was an Instagram reel. And you talked about, and I think this really hits home, especially with executives or people that have everything figured out or they have a lot going for them. The one finite resource that we have is time, right? That's something that you can't take back. You can't necessarily turn back the clock.

Starting point is 00:27:26 We don't have any medicine right now to turn back the clock. And I'm not going to pretend that we do. However, if you look at things in a way where if you're optimizing your health, then if you're optimizing your health and you're trying to maximize your health span, which is your quality of life, and you're trying to, the name of the game in life is to compress morbidity. And that means to compress the time where you're sick. You essentially are getting some of that time back. If you're constantly working that in the forefront, you're going to gain more quality years in the end

Starting point is 00:28:06 so you are buying time i kind of argue if you treat your health as just an integral part of your life you are getting some time in the back end you're you are investing for the future if you don't do that you're going to lose those years so i don't know i was just thinking about that one thing we talked about that's why you're my doctor now because i want to prove myself and what wrong because i don't the time is finite and even if you worked with me and all that i could get hit by tomorrow but i'm healthy whenever that moment comes i think it's more that we don't ever know when that clock's going to end because there's a lot of variables beyond how healthy you're going to make me that are unfortunately out of our control.

Starting point is 00:28:50 But I want every moment to be as healthy as it could be because think about the people that are healthy that are 20, 30, 40 years old, but they spend 130 out of 360 days a year sick or feeling bad. That's not a good quality of life. But Chris, please jump in here. And if you want to learn from me directly, join my newsletter, RyanOffer.com backslash newsletter. Sign up.

Starting point is 00:29:19 I give daily advice on marketing, personal branding, podcasting, life. Give that a shout. Join that. It's free. It's free. It's daily. Just like this show, give away our best advice. I agree with everything everyone's saying. It's something I thought of when Joel was speaking

Starting point is 00:29:34 just about the system in general and my experience with my medical laboratory business. There was a point in time we did genetic testing and we all talked about this before I think we started recording great tool right so we we were doing pharmacogenetic testing where if your doctor was going to put you on a medication and let's use the example antidepressants we worked with a lot of psychiatry offices with this we could essentially swab your mouth and tell the doctor

Starting point is 00:30:01 which medication metabolizes best based on your genetic makeup. What is going to be the best medication for you? Especially with something like antidepressants. Doc, you know this. It can take three, six months to even know if it's working or not. And I would tell doctors, hey, you can do this test before even prescribing anything. And know and you'll start out with the right medication. You won't need to do this trial and error. That could take, honestly, nine months to a year to find the right med.

Starting point is 00:30:29 And what shocked me was how many doctors were like, nah, and they would just stick with the drug they were used to or the rep they saw the most. Say it's Prozac, for example. They're just like, I know my Prozac rep. We know that the data is pretty good. I'm just going to start them on that and i would always think why would you not utilize another tool especially a genetic test genetics are pretty fucking black and white but you add on top of

Starting point is 00:30:55 that reason we stopped doing it because we did have doctors that saw a lot of value the insurance company stopped covering it they they considered it preventative and they actually said we won't cover this until you've showed the patient has failed on three other medications and i would always think because i have depression in my family and i've seen members go through it three six nine months for someone in depression is a long ass time what you guys said how many how much time are you seeing because of your quality of life? But that to me, it kind of pissed me off with the system. That was one of the aha moments I had, where there's tools out there to treat people better and quicker, save that time. But the insurance companies don't want to get on board with it. They don't want to pay for it. And what

Starting point is 00:31:40 you said, there was no codes the doctor could bill for performing that test. So not only is it new, kind of new science, but doctors can't make money on it. Right. So we have this disconnect from actual technology and progress in the tools we have. And then the insurance companies and the way you said kind of medicine is being taught. And one more thing I want to add on that, I was because I had this conversation literally last night about cancer as a whole, really, of when I spent a lot of time in Houston as well with the med center there,

Starting point is 00:32:19 huge, one of the best cancer treatments in the world. And we celebrated, and part of me is like, why are we celebrating this? I don't think this is a sign that our society is doing good. If we have these sky rise hospitals coming up everywhere for cancer, it tells me we have a cancer problem that's not being treated properly. Yeah, we're celebrating the wrong thing, though. That's what I'm saying. Thank you, Doc. Thank you, Doc, for saving me.

Starting point is 00:32:41 Oh, we got a new hospital. Yay. We're celebrating the wrong end of the spectrum. Let's have this big ribbon-cutting ceremony that we're opening this brand new cancer center in town. I would rather be opening a new gym and cold plunge place in town

Starting point is 00:32:56 because everyone's so damn healthy and we don't need a cancer center because no one's got that much cancer. It's literally like celebrating we just opened up new ice cream stores i mean like at the end of the day it's right i'm serious like ice cream stores in it but look we have this wool pulled over our eyes okay the ice cream store is there because they're in business it may not be good for you but it's the american way. It's consumerism. They're making money. Hospitals

Starting point is 00:33:25 somehow get cloaked not being a business. It's a fucking business. It's a business. Hopefully, you don't spend much time inside a hospital. I've worked at a lot of hospitals.

Starting point is 00:33:41 I can't tell you. Actually, I can think of one but most hospitals you look inside their cafeteria what are they feeding you? Chick-fil-A what kinds of snacks what's the nutrition inside of a hospital if this is the mecca for your health

Starting point is 00:33:58 meat and three a lot of the processed macaroni and mashed potatoes and everything else I had a family member in the hospital this weekend A lot of the processed macaroni and mashed potatoes and everything else. Oh, I had a family member in the hospital this weekend, and they're telling me they don't feel good. And I was like, first of all, you've been in a hospital bed for two, three days eating, what, Jell-O?

Starting point is 00:34:19 Shit cafeteria food. Processed Salisbury steak. That's kind of what you said, Joel. If this is the pinnacle of health, what are we feeding the people while they're in the hospital? Is it healthy food even? Yeah. No, not at all. Just to piggyback off what you're, Chris, what you were talking about with that genetic testing for an antidepressant. And I think genetics is a relatively,

Starting point is 00:34:48 I mean, genetic testing is a relatively new technology in terms of how it's integrated into our overall healthcare. But it's so exciting in that I use it in my practice and to kind of go along with why we do all these randomized control trials and in conventional medicine and you want to adequately power a study meaning the number of people that are in a study to make it validated but there's one caveat to this and that is everybody's biochemistry and genetics is unique so sometimes you have to take studies with a grain of salt because everybody's genetics is unique. So one person's not going to necessarily,

Starting point is 00:35:33 how they respond to a study, it's not going to pan out the same for another person because their genetics are unique. The approach that I'm taking with medicine is everybody is unique. The approach that I'm taking with medicine is everybody is unique. Every single workup that I do on a patient, I get a blueprint on them. And we go all the way down to the bare bones, all the way down to the molecular level. We're looking at their blood work with biomarkers paired with genetic testing. So I can come up with a tailored, customized plan just for that particular patient. And yes, we look at studies and we reference that based off of the masses, but everything needs to be tailored individually to the patient if you want

Starting point is 00:36:12 to optimize your health. I think that's where the future of healthcare needs to go. And I'm seeing it going there in some regards, but just like anything else, if you're going to get a suit, if it's not tailor-made, I mean, it's just not going to look as good. And it won't fit me. But yeah. But personally. The big and tall store. Yeah, big and tall, but then they're all too big.

Starting point is 00:36:37 I've got a dainty waist for how big I am. Big and tall stores. My girlish figure, broad shoulders shoulders but girlish figure my hourglass but what we're dancing around and this is what i i love about what dr joel's doing is personalized medicine i mean concierge personalized medicine and it's i think growing but it's nascent. It's an early category. That's why you're so ahead, I think.

Starting point is 00:37:08 I mean, yes, there's a couple of, like, we can name two, maybe. And I bet you 99% of our listeners don't even know who they are. And so that's why it's exciting to see you ahead of the game. But I want, as we kind of tailor into the show here, like I do want to talk about the specific markers in this personalized medicine. I know we could talk hours on each one, but the types of things that are available now to be that you can see with this personalized blueprint and what can be preemptively treated? Again, the preventative side. Sure. What are some things that might surprise and delight the audience that you'll be able to do that these markers that are able to be seen and treated are?

Starting point is 00:38:01 Okay. seen and treated are. Okay. We've, we already touched on it a little bit before, and I don't want to under stress the value in optimizing your lifestyle factors, because if you're not optimizing sleep, exercising regularly, eating clean, and having some form of an emotional outlet and work on your emotional health. All of these tactics that I'm going to be guiding you through are essentially a drop in the bucket. This is more so icing on the cake, but it's a big icing. Okay. I mean, but what I'm saying is you're going to- It's that thick icing that I like to lick off the top, but I won't be doing it much anymore, Doc. I get that spoon out. My natural daddy made me a piece of cake, and all he does is eat the icing off the top. We're talking about thick icing there, right?

Starting point is 00:38:49 Thick icing. All right. All right. I mean, it really is just like building that foundation. And once you've built that foundation, we can really work from there. But we're going to be chasing our tail if you don't have all that other stuff dialed in. So I want to emphasize, and I have tools to help guide you through that whole process. So I focus on that first. In combination, first, we get a blueprint

Starting point is 00:39:12 by looking at your blood work with biomarkers. And I have a little over 70 biomarkers that we look at. I'm not going to bore you guys with the details but some of them include just looking at stuff for your cardiovascular your heart health, just optimizing your lipids things that are not necessarily done in traditional labs or traditional blood work ordered by your doctor, like one being in terms of lipids your ApoB level your ApoB is the number one biomarker that is linked to heart disease, and that's not

Starting point is 00:39:46 routinely checked by most doctors. That's just one example. Others being markers of inflammation, also vitamin, mineral deficiencies, and then hormones. Looking at all of your sex hormones, testosterone, SHBG, sex hormone binding globulin, a number of other sex hormones to get those optimized, thyroid function. So those are just to name a few. So what we do is we take your blood work. And I think blood work needs to be done regularly on a routine basis. My clients are doing them on a quarterly basis because you have to be looking at what's underneath the hood at all times. How you expect to optimize your health if you're not looking into it regularly. One checkup, a 30-minute annual checkup, which is the traditional conventional medicine way, that's just not enough.

Starting point is 00:40:41 Not if you want to optimize your health. We're doing quarterly blood work. And then we pair that with your genetic testing. You do a little cheek swab, order that, comes back in a couple of weeks. And then those two data points work synergistically. And I can help make a tailored plan just for you. I know what foods work for you. I know where a lot of your genetic deficiencies are. I can tell if you're metabolizing vitamin D correctly. I can see whether or not you process saturated fat well. And if you don't process saturated fat well, that leads to rises in ApoB. For me, I look at bacon, my ApoB levels are through the roof. For Ryan, we haven't done his genetic testing yet, but he may not be sensitive to saturated fat.

Starting point is 00:41:31 I hope not. I hope not. Fingers crossed. Legs crossed. Toes crossed. But again, this is where the custom-made personalization comes into play. So making a blanket statement, oh, you should just eat this or do this or that. No. Everything needs to be custom made just for you. And I think there's a lot of value in that because a lot of people can miss out on restrictions that they're having because health professionals are making blanket statements, which doesn't apply to everybody. So that's what I do in a nutshell, those two things. And we can talk about

Starting point is 00:42:05 diagnostic imaging and stuff and cancer prevention a little bit later on, but I do a lot of diagnostic imaging. I'll just to touch very briefly, full body MRI, I like I do that for early cancer detection, as well as a screening called a liquid biopsy, which is another cancer screening test, and it detects over 50 types of cancer in a very early stage. These are all things that you can be doing to be proactive and looking at things before they even begin. And that's the name of the game. I want to be looking, if I see a little blip that's incorrect, we address it, as opposed to saying, oh, I've got symptoms. It's already too late. Then we're managing chronic disease. So how often are we doing body scans? How often do you do those? When you say body scans, so a full body MRI, I mean, we'll probably do that on a, depending on

Starting point is 00:43:00 your age group, starting in your mid forties, I like to do that on a biannual basis. So twice, every two years, do a full body MRI. But then there's another scan that I like to be doing a couple of times a year. It's called the DEXA scan. Now, a DEXA scan is very useful because one of the main reasons, it does a lot of things things but it looks at organ fat causes havoc in your body causes a bunch of metabolic issues insulin resistance diabetes inflammation your some lipid dysfunction so i can see with a dexa scan how much fat you have around your organs is called visceral fat so this is another marker that we're looking at. So I can see through time, through our interventions, how much visceral fat are you losing, which in turn provides beneficial information for overall well-being. Like 20 years ago, when my friend came home and said he just had his blood drawn and he's going to an internal medicine doctor, I was like, that makes sense to me.

Starting point is 00:44:10 Okay, because I was just going to the regular doctor. I've always been into working out and trying to be ahead of things. But he told me that and it made sense to me. And then the same thing. I know and I feel the internal medicine's advanced and I've been pleased with that doctor for the most part but then I've seen and heard Dr. Joel's stuff and okay wait there's advancements in this and that and these markers and that markers and I don't know that the internal medicine has come along fast enough for the personalized level I still feel like I'm getting I might be ahead of some people getting internal medicine it's such a young age that I did, but now I feel like I'm behind in it's not as personalized internal medicine. I think that's the key word because everything is so individualistic to each person.

Starting point is 00:45:01 100%. Any final thoughts here, Chris, as we come down to the end kind of what joel said i mean i hear this a lot lately especially for men go get your fucking blood work done like regularly yeah i yeah it seems so silly to even say that like you go get your oil changed in your car. Like it almost blows my mind. And we talked about this a lot of why this hasn't been a conversation kind of being had more over the last couple of years. It almost seems like COVID really made a shift in people looking more

Starting point is 00:45:42 for preventative solutions and whatnot. So I just am a huge proponent. Obviously, I'm a big believer in what Dr. Joel is doing and excited for the future. And excited for more people to take their own health in their control. Exactly. And I think it's also, let's be honest, we pay for a lot. But affluent Americans pay for a lot. Affluent Americans pay for a lot of premium experiences.

Starting point is 00:46:16 And the one thing that's not fucking premium is health care for the most part. It's just not. And I mean, to have on speed, like think of how even me, I have a really good doctor. I been very pleased i do not want to put down any way the doctor i've had he's definitely been more available than most doctors but there's still a cloak of unavailability that comes with doctors and medicine all that you know that there's this wall there so that you don't feel like you're getting personalized premium experience with the doctor. And why does anything else matter if we're not getting premium, the best that we can afford?

Starting point is 00:46:59 Like, why would you, if you, whatever the best health care and the most premium experience in health care that you could afford, why would you not do that? And I think the answer is we would if we knew it was available. And we knew there were doctors like Dr. Joel. And I'm talking about the ones that can afford it and do all that. But just like some people drive a Mercedes and some people drive a Honda and some people drive that. But why wouldn't you want the Mercedes of doctor care? I don't know.

Starting point is 00:47:31 I think the answer is you would. But we need the availability of that. And to feel like that you have that concierge slash premium experience slash personalized, I think you're going to see that market explode. Dr. Joel is going to be in the front of it. And I think there's a lot of people that are ready for it. I think so too. It's been a great discussion. I mean, I think we'll be having many more and you'll see my journey with Dr. Joel and Dr. Longevity on all of my feeds and his. As we go through this discovery with all my stuff, I'll be transparent. There's no STDs I'm hiding or anything.

Starting point is 00:48:12 I'm a married man. I'm not worried about that. It'll all be, how many markers do I have? I'm hoping for the good one. I just want that bacon-eating one. I'll work on that. See if I can fudge that one for you. Make sure that one.

Starting point is 00:48:26 I know, dude. If that one's not looking good, you might need to cut out fucking hot cake Fridays at Mickey D's. Oh, I know. I have got, I will say this. I've cut back to, I take my protein bar. Doctor will be happy.

Starting point is 00:48:39 I take my protein bar with me. The kids eat the hot cakes, and I eat my protein bar and have my energy drink. You just smell the McDonald's bag and then... Yeah, free smells. The smells don't mess my markers up, right? Oh, if that went away, you couldn't smell anything. It sticks to you. We appreciate you coming on, Dr. Joel. It's been a pleasure.

Starting point is 00:49:04 Hey guys, if you want to find find us at the radcast.com. Use that search button. Search for Dr. Joel Woos or Dr. Longevity. You'll find all the highlight clips from today. We'll see you next time on the Radcast. To listen or watch full episodes, visit us on the web at theradcast.com or follow us on social media at our Instagram account the.rad.cast or at Ryan Alford. Stay radical.

Right About Now with Ryan Alford - Rethinking Health and Longevity with Dr. Joel Wussow

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.