The Dr. Hyman Show - How David Beckham & A Heart Transplant Survivor Plan to Stay Strong at 80

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

For much of our lives, performance is measured in speed, strength, and output. As we get older, the equation changes. On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Sir David Beckham and Dr. ...Dawn Mussallem to explore what elite sport, stage IV cancer, and heart transplantation can teach us about prevention—and what it really takes to sustain health over time. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Together, we explore: • Why your health trajectory is more changeable than you’ve been taught—especially after 40 • How sleep, stress, and metabolic health quietly shape your long-term disease risk • Which daily habits give you the biggest return on investment over decades • How to build resilience now so your body supports you later The real measure of health isn’t what you can achieve in your 20s or 30s. It’s the resilience you build so your body supports you for decades to come. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Maui Nui, Made In Cookware, Timeline, Seed, Sunlighten and BON CHARGE. Learn more about the health benefits of venison and how to get yours, head over to mauinuivenison.com/hyman. Head to madeincookware.com and use the code DRHYMAN for 10% off your order. Receive 35% off a subscription at timeline.com/drhyman. Go to seed.com/hyman and use code 20HYMAN to get 20% off your first month. Visit sunlighten.com and use code HYMAN to save up to $1400. Upgrade your routine. Head to boncharge.com/hyman and use code HYMAN for 15% off. (0:00) Sir David Beckham and Dr. Dawn Mussallem on Health and Recovery (1:25) Defining Health and Wellness (2:33) David Beckham's Diet and Athlete Nutrition Evolution (8:23) Health Maintenance Post-Retirement and Turning 50 (14:50) Dr. Dawn Mussallem's Health Journey and Heart Transplant Experience (25:05) Lifestyle Changes, Sleep, and Nutrient Deficiencies (29:55) David Beckham's Daily Routine and Connection with Nature (41:21) Dawn Mussallem's Daily Health Practices and Mayo Clinic Research (44:54) Essential Habits for Sustained Health (47:17) Dietary Choices and Anti-Inflammatory Foods (52:00) Recovery Tools and Health Priorities in Later Life (56:10) Closing Remarks

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 When I retired, I thought that my body needed to just recover. And I stopped working out. My body fell apart. I'm aging exactly the same as everybody else's ageing. It's really about how I want to feel when I'm 80 years old, not right now. Let's switch over you, Don, because your story is quite amazing. It's more than quite amazing. It was just a few weeks in a medical school that I was diagnosed to stage four cancer.
Starting point is 00:00:21 And they said you have three months to live. You'll never be able to have children. Ultimately, I had a heart transplant. You were the first one to run a marathon within a year of having a heart cancer. When I took my first step, I thought, I think I made a big mistake. I was so decompensated. My calf muscles were literally indented. I had a three-person assist and a rolling walker.
Starting point is 00:00:39 David Beckham is a global icon whose name is synonymous with elite performance. Over a 20-year career at the highest level of professional football, he redefined what longevity looks like for an athlete. Now, at 50, he is applying that same world-class discipline to a new mission. Joining him is Dr. Don Musselam, previously a Mayo Clinic physician who survived stage 4 breast cancer and a heart transplant, only to run a marriage. marathon one year later. Together, they are stripping away the confusion of the wellness industry to reveal what it actually takes to stay elite at any age. So kind of walk us through a day of the life
Starting point is 00:01:09 of David Beckham in terms of your health routine. I still want to live and feel like an athlete. Every part of my life, I treat as if I'm still playing. I think you should have him talk about his time and nature with his farm. This cockerel is the most handsome cockerel you'll ever see. So how do you define health now for yourself? Most people hear the word red meat. and automatically think of beef. But Venison sits in a completely different nutritional category. It's the cleanest, leanest, most nutrient-dense red meat available. If beef represents old ideas about red meat,
Starting point is 00:01:46 venison represents the future ideal, incredibly nutrient-rich, anti-inflammatory, metabolically efficient, and naturally aligned with human physiology. Venison is high in protein, low in fat, and has a fatty acid profile that supports metabolic and cardiovascular health. It's loaded with highly bioavailable B vitamins that power your mitochondria, energy production, brain function, and detox pathways. And when you look at minerals like magnesium, iron, copper,
Starting point is 00:02:09 and potassium, venison consistently outperforms beef. These are the nutrients most people are deficient in today. Just as important is what venison doesn't contain. Because it's not an industrial feedlot product, you avoid the inflammatory fats, antibiotics, and many of the contaminants found in conventional beef. And when harvested responsibly, venison tests far below safety thresholds for heavy metals, making it one of the cleanest animal proteins available. The best source for wild harvested venison, and the company I get my venison from is Maui-Nui-Venison. So if you're looking for a protein that supports longevity, metabolic health, and clean-e-eating, venison is one of the smartest choices you can make.
Starting point is 00:02:43 The best source for wild-harvested venison, and the company I get mine from is Maui-N-E-N-E-Venneson. And how to get yours, head over to Maui-Nu-E-Venisin.com slash hymen to learn more. Cooking isn't just about nutrition. It's a daily ritual that helped me slow down, reconnect, and nourish both my body and mind. That's why I cook with Maiden. I personally choose their stainless clad and carbon steel cookware. Time-tested materials that professional chefs have relied on for generations. They're beautifully made, perform incredibly well, and don't rely on synthetic non-stick coatings.
Starting point is 00:03:19 Stainless steel is the backbone of my kitchen. It's durable, non-reactive, and versatile enough for almost anything I cook. And when I want something that develops a natural non-stick surface over time, I reach for carbon steel, especially for higher heat cooking. Made-in stainless-clad cookware is built with true five-ply construction, five layers of premium metals layered together, and it's the gold standard in cookware design, delivering fast, even heating, consistent performance,
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Starting point is 00:04:02 Get yours today. David, Dong, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Well, it's so great to have you both here. You both have health journeys and stories to tell. You as an athlete, you as a survivor of breast cancer and a heart transplant. And also talk about how the average person can learn from the things that you've learned in ways that are remarkable. Both of your stories are extraordinary.
Starting point is 00:04:24 One, you as an elite athlete who's learned how to take care of his health from the beginning. and then continually improving, even at this age, I think you look better now than you did in pictures when you were like 20. Now you sound like my wife. She says the same thing to me on the time. And I don't believe her. You're part of a scrawny little kid, though. I saw those pictures.
Starting point is 00:04:44 That's very true. That's very true. And, you know, you came back from two impossible things, which is stage four breast cancer and a heart transplant, and you look fabulous and glowing. So everybody's going to want to know what have you, both done. David, let's start with you. You, you, uh, obviously everybody knows who you are. You're an elite athlete, you're football player, or as we say here, a soccer player. And, uh, you,
Starting point is 00:05:08 you, you, um, we're chatting earlier. You're saying you've always been sort of paying attention your health, but you kind of also grew up on crap food, like pie and mash and fish and chips and the, you know, East end of London and like, it wasn't a thing. And, you know, you would go to cheesecake factory when you were playing to get your pregame meals and they gave you a few bucks from the team to play. Tell us about how you've kind of, you've kind of, you've kind of, thought about your own health as a player because, you know, most athletes who were chatting about this, don't pay much attention to what they're eating. Some high performance Olympians obviously do, but the average people in major league sports,
Starting point is 00:05:43 you know, football players, basketball players, soccer players, baseball players, or other football players, don't really pay attention. They're eating crap and I've seen it. We were chatting. I've seen, you know, what players eat and friends with own basketball teams or football teams and I'll go in after the game. They're just eating like fried chicken and pizza and pasta and crap and burgers and hot dogs. And I'm like, if you have a million dollar racehorse,
Starting point is 00:06:09 you're not going to feed it McDonald's and Coke and fries and a milkshake for a pregame Kentucky Derby meal. It's funny you say that, though, because, you know, being an owner of a team, you know, I want my players to be healthy. I want them to be doing the right things, eating the right things, drinking the same things or the right things. And each player has to be treated differently. I learned that when I was playing in A.C. Milan.
Starting point is 00:06:34 You know, each player was treated differently after a game. You'd go and get, you know, you'd go and have a blood test that tell you exactly how you, how much you run, what you need to do in the next few games. So, you know, every player gets treated differently these days. It wasn't the same when I was playing. But I walked into our locker room, you know, last season a couple of times. and players are eating pizza. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:59 And I'm like, is this the right thing? And they're like, well, players just want something, something. They don't want something healthy. They don't want something that's that good for you. They just want something. And pizza is the kind of food of choice on most of the players. And that's right after the game. But going back to my upbringing, you know, I grew up in the east end of London.
Starting point is 00:07:22 My mom was an amazing cook. You know, my dad worked from 6 a. till 9 p.m. every single day. So my mum was the one that was home looking after me and my two sisters. Now, my mum, like I said, she without knowing prepared me for my career. Yes, we ate fish and chips. Yes, we ate pie and mash. But that was really a kind of a treat at the weekend or a Friday night. I don't know whether you know that, but on a Friday night, it's tradition that you have fish and chips. Yeah. And I always used to go on a Sunday morning, my grandma and my granddad, not my granddad because he was working, but my grandma,
Starting point is 00:08:02 and we'd always go to our local pie mash. But what is pie mash for Americans? Okay. So pie mash, I'll explain it. So pie mash is, it's like a minced meat pie. It's a very basic, minced meat pie with pastry. And then you have a mashed potato, but it's not your whipped, creamy, you know, milky mashed potato. It is a mashed potato
Starting point is 00:08:26 that is just mashed, it's just potatoes and salt. And then here's the part where everyone goes ugh. That's so bad. It's called liquor and it's a kind of gravy but it's made out of stewed ills and parsley. And it's mixed together and it's
Starting point is 00:08:42 this green sauce that is you like the lizard. I mean like a snake thing. And then you pile like pepper and salt and like chili vinegar, which is, it's It's my favorite meal. That would be my last meal.
Starting point is 00:08:57 That's amazing. So in all honesty, you know, those were treats. We understood that those were treats. But during the week, actually, and the night before I would play on a Sunday morning, my mum would always make me like a piece of steak or a piece of grilled chicken and pasta. So that really prepared me for, you know, probably gave me the longevity in my career. You know, from a really early age, I was eating good things. You know, I might have the odd pie mash, fish and chips,
Starting point is 00:09:30 but majority of the time, I was eating good things. So that really has completely changed now, you know, in the world of football or soccer. Completely changed. You know, the scientific part of, you know, eating and looking after yourself and wellness now has completely gone, you know, full circle, in all honesty. because like I said, when I first joined Manchester United,
Starting point is 00:09:54 we at lunchtimes, we used to have steak and chips or pie and chips, baked beans, and for dessert we'd have a chocolate pudding and chocolate custard. Every single day, every single day. There's no vegetables in there. No vegetables. No vegetables. I mean, when you've got beans on your plate and chips,
Starting point is 00:10:15 you know, we were like not worried about the vegetables. And the fact that I then continued, I went on and played until I was 38 years old. So I had a long career. What's the average football players? At that time, it was probably 32, 34, if you were lucky. Yeah. But nowadays, obviously, with all the science that's in with the teams now and the players, players, their longevity of their careers now is going, some players are playing until 38, 40, 41, 40.
Starting point is 00:10:48 players are longing their careers because of what they're doing to their bodies now. And did you change over time in terms of what you were doing to maintain your health as you're playing? No, I was honestly pretty consistent. You know, a lot of players obviously had to change because, you know, I've not talked about, you know, going for a pint, you know, on a Wednesday or a Thursday afternoon, you know, players, I didn't used to do that, but players used to do that. You know, before a game on a Saturday, they would go and have 10 pints in the pub on a Wednesday. or a Thursday before a game. Wow.
Starting point is 00:11:20 You know, so. That's a lot of pines. I mean, I'm talking about 30, 40 years ago. I'm not talking about 10 years ago. I'm talking about that time. So it was a different, and players were still performing. Five quarts of beer, I'd be like on the floor. I know.
Starting point is 00:11:34 But that's really how I was able to, you know, I did adjust. Of course, I adjusted because I had to. But I was pretty consistent through my whole career. You know, players used to go away after the end of the season, come back and they would be heavy, you know. And I was never like that. You know, throughout the summer, I always looked after myself. I never over ate.
Starting point is 00:11:57 I never drank. I was never a big drinker, in all honesty, anyway. So I was able to go away for four or five weeks in the summer, eat what I wanted, but I always looked after myself. You know, the coach would always turn around to us and say, take four weeks or just take two weeks and do nothing. I never did anything. nothing. I always did my training throughout those four weeks. And that's, that's how you stayed so long in the
Starting point is 00:12:22 game. I think so. Yeah. And how do you sort of navigate this now, you know, being 50 in? Like you're, yeah, 50, 50 last year. That's a big year, right? It was a big year. A lot happened last year for me. So it was a special year last year. Yeah, turning 50 was a big milestone. But to be honest, everyone made, you know, I think my wife made a little bit more fuss about it than me, turning 50. She turned 50 the year before me, which I always remind her about, obviously. But she turned 50 the year before me. But I was excited about, you know, I just treated it like any other birthday. I don't feel any different. I don't, I don't think I look any different, but a few more grey hairs, but apart from that, no, it's... It hasn't made you think differently
Starting point is 00:13:11 about your help because, you know, we're going to talk about a minute, but you created a new company, I Am 8, which is about helping people create health on a simple daily regimen. And you recently launched a longevity product, which we're going to talk about, which I love. What made you sort of want to think differently about your own health that led to kind of this? Like I said earlier, that, you know, early on in my career, no one talked about the scientific part of looking after yourself or the wellness part or the supplement part or the vitamins part. No one talked about it. It wasn't really a thing that really got talked about.
Starting point is 00:13:47 We weren't sat down and said and told to take certain things. But I always looked at the market as something really interesting, you know, and I always looked at what was out there, you know, and even before the end of my career, I started looking at things and what I could do to make my performance better, you know, more on the holistic side than any other. So I was always looking for things. I was always looking for supplements. I was always looking for different vitamins and things and different smoothies and what I
Starting point is 00:14:20 could do to kind of keep myself as healthy and keep, you know, on that level of play and also level of professionalism. So when I started coming towards the end and after my career, I then started to focus, okay, I've been an elite athlete for 22 years. Now I'm not an elite athlete. I still want to live and feel like an athlete.
Starting point is 00:14:49 I still, every part of my life I treat as if I'm still playing. You know, I wake up, I have a schedule, I'm very regimented on what I do every single day, what I take every single day, how I look after myself. If I've got an important day, you know, one day,
Starting point is 00:15:06 I will still go to bed at the same time as I did when I play football. So I continued to treat myself and treat my body like when I was playing. But I looked at what was out there. And, you know, I had so many people come up to me and say, it's just so confusing. What do you take? What do you do? What do you put in your body?
Starting point is 00:15:28 And I'm like, well, I want. to be able to turn around to someone to say, okay, this is what I take, and I want it simple. And it's one of the things that I spoke to Danny Young about when, you know, when we first started the conversations, I said, all I want is simplicity. I don't want to be taking 17 to 20 tablets every single morning. I want to put it in one drink and I want to put it in water and I'll mix it up and I want to take it and I want it easy. And I want it to taste good. And I want it to taste good. And finally enough, that was one of my things. Well, it does, actually. I'm having some right now. It's got to taste good. And I want to feel an instant like impact. And I must admit,
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Starting point is 00:17:54 check it out and get 20% off your first month by going to seed.com slash hymen and use code 20 hymen. That's 20% off your first month of seeds, DSO-1 daily symbiotic at s-eed.com slash hymen code 20 so when you turn 50 and do you think about your health differently or you're just like, I'm on the same regimen, I'm going to act like I'm 20 and keep I don't think. What's your like daily regimen that you? I don't think of my time at 50. I want to think of my time at 80. Yeah, that's what I mean. And that's really why I'm doing the things that I'm doing now.
Starting point is 00:18:35 It's why I'm looking to the future rather than looking at 50 because I've done what I've done. I'm aging exactly the same as everybody else is aging. You know, I might have been an athlete for, you know, a long time, but I'm still aging the same as what you're aging, what everyone else is aging. So, you know, it's really about how I want to feel when I'm 80 years old, not right now because I've done what I've done. to get myself to this point. I feel good. And that's what I want to continue. Amazing.
Starting point is 00:19:07 Let's switch over you, Don, because your story is quite amazing. It's more than quite amazing. Yeah, it's kind of like I don't think I've ever met anybody who's had your story. And I also don't think I've ever really met anybody who looks as good as you who's had a heart transplant. You're a physician. You're trained in sort of integrative medicine. you work at Mayo Clinic in, you know, teaching women who are going through breast cancer
Starting point is 00:19:33 or how to do that in a holistic way, you have been a patient. And that's led you on a health journey for yourself and made you so passionate about bringing this to so many people. And I think a lot of us who are in this field are like that. We've had some normally happen to us. Regular medicine didn't figure it out.
Starting point is 00:19:47 And then we had to figure it out for ourselves. So maybe you could share a little bit about, as a patient and survivor, like, what was it about your health journey that helped lead you to where you are now and this mission that you're on to bring help to so many. And tell us a little bit about what you went through. So thanks, Mark. And thank you, David. I know you're having to listen to this again. But it's powerful. And, you know, so often I almost in the beginning was embarrassed and a little
Starting point is 00:20:14 quiet about sharing my story, but then I was getting so much feedback about how inspiring it was and giving individuals hope. And I really want to help move individuals beyond hope to knowing that they too can attain their vitality without pause and flourish beyond massive healthcare adversity, which is what I did. And much like you, David, you know, I lived a very healthy life style growing up because my mom was at home. She cooked these healthy meals. You know, and that's a big part of it. When you have, I think, a solid foundation of health and wellness, you have much better outcomes. And so this is a big shout out because when I work with women, a lot of times they're very inspired to want to make change within themselves, but then quickly the next.
Starting point is 00:20:53 thing they say is, yes, but my husband's not going to want to do this. What about my kids? And this is really a big shoutout that the earlier we start, the more likely you're going to have a flourishing life regardless of whatever may come to you because we don't have total control over health adversity. Even if you're living a healthy lifestyle, it's not to blame yourself. These things sometimes just happen. Yeah, you didn't get breast cancer because you're eating crap or something. We live in a toxic environment and who knows. I have so many women that come in and they ask that question, why me? And that It was one thing I never did. I never felt like I was in a battle or I was fighting this.
Starting point is 00:21:25 I just trusted. You know, I looked for lessons and I really felt it's like a more forte. Like this was really happening, you know, for me, not to me. But it was just a few weeks in a medical school that I was diagnosed to stage four cancer. And it just. And you were old? I was 26. That's crazy.
Starting point is 00:21:40 So it was just really quite surprising that this was the diagnosis that had happened. And, you know, they came into the room. This was the year 2000, Thanksgiving weekend. And they came in. I had actually collapsed. They had to take me to urgent surgery. I was in cardiogenic shock, 16 centimeter mass wrapped around my chest because I was misdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, misdiagnosed.
Starting point is 00:22:01 Doctors really didn't think anything was wrong with me, but with the fast-paced medicine that people don't just pause. And this was, you know, starting back in the 2000s, when healthcare was really starting to shift even back then. No one ever listened to my lung. So I ended up getting diagnosed at a very late stage. And so I had this massive tumor wrapped. around my heart that was compressing the great vessels.
Starting point is 00:22:23 And that resulted in cardiogenic shock. They did a thoracotomy. The next day... That's when they crack open your chest. Yeah, just big, massive surgery. And, you know, the next day, they came in my room and they said, you have three months to live without chemotherapy, 20 months to live with chemotherapy. You have stage four cancer.
Starting point is 00:22:39 And you're going to need to drop out in medical school and you'll never be able to have children. It was like all these absolutes. And I thought, wow, you know. That's a lot to hold. It was interesting. You know, and I remember just feeling very serious. sturdy, though, and steady. I'd always had faith in God and belief in something bigger than myself,
Starting point is 00:22:55 and I just trusted. I was in medical school, so there was this element of curiosity, which was kind of an interesting psychology, but I never fought it. You know, I knew I needed to do the conventional therapy, so when I'd do chemotherapy and bone marrow transplant radiation therapy, stayed in school the whole time. But when I had my knowing, the great question you asked is, how did you know you wanted to do what you did? Is I remember during my bone marrow transplant, my oncologist was a very special I had a bicycle in my room. You had surgery. You had chemo.
Starting point is 00:23:24 You had radiation. Yeah. And then you had a bone marrow transplant. And a bone marrow transplant. This was in 2000. So this was back when they just really gave you high doses of treatment to just totally deplete the immune system. And then they gave it back to you. So it was pretty powerful treatment.
Starting point is 00:23:38 And by the way, just for people listening who don't understand what a bone marrow transplant is, essentially they destroy your own immune system. They kill your bone marrow. Yeah. And then they give you somebody else's bone marrow, which rebuilds your immune system. and then hopefully we'll help you survive, but it's a lot. That's exactly right. You know, and this was with the City of Hope, this was in a research study because they knew
Starting point is 00:23:58 that, you know, otherwise there's no way really to cure this cancer. And so that's what they did. The Hail Mary. It's exactly. It's a Hail Mary. And so it was so fascinating, though. I kept my life the way it always, I always wake up at 4 a.m. I would ride the bike that was in my room.
Starting point is 00:24:13 There was also a bicycle that my oncologist had at the nurse's stations. I could sneak out. And it was in that sneaking out to watch the sunrise to go ride my bike. at the nurse's station. Everyone in the other rooms. Wait, wait, you brought a bike into the nurse station? The oncologist did. He was so cool.
Starting point is 00:24:26 Like a stationary bike. Two stationary bikes. I had two bikes. One in my room for on the days that he really didn't want me to leave. And he said, yeah, most mornings, everyone's tucked in the rooms. You're fine to come out. And I'd ride my bike and watch the sunrise every day for about an hour. I mean, this is when my hemoglobes were like six.
Starting point is 00:24:42 It was crazy. It was really fast. Okay, wait a minute. You have to understand what she's talking about because I recently had surgery and my Hemoglobin went to seven and I could barely sit up in a chair and hear you're saying you're riding your bike. That's when you have no blood in your body. It's like a third of the blood that you're supposed to have in your body. It is true. But you know, I'm a smaller stature individual. I was very much into cardiovascular exercise, but you are too. We each have our different reserves. But I was very fit.
Starting point is 00:25:08 Prior to my cancer diagnosis, I would do Camelback Mountain in Arizona twice. I'd go up, come down, go up, come down, and then I'd even run after that. So I was very fit. I had a high VO2. So I had a lot a reserve. So when my hemoglobin was low, I would even climb camelback with a chemoglobin of seven. It was crazy. I just was very blessed to have this high vitality. But you know why? It's because I showed up for myself. I ate right. I exercise regularly. And we know exercise during chemotherapy is incredibly powerful. We know it improves outcomes. In recent colorectal cancer study, you know, like on par with the benefits of chemo. It's really important exercise. We, you know, exercise is just so, so important that we move our body. But I just really, like, you know,
Starting point is 00:25:47 remember looking out and seeing everyone else in the rooms and they were dying enough to stay alive, you know, but I describe it as I attained my vitality without pause, and it was a lifestyle that made the difference. And I really do attribute that to why I'm here today. And unfortunately, those treatments were, you know, ones that we really didn't know what they would do to someone. They cured the cancer. What a blessing, right? Because otherwise, I wouldn't be here. But they caused advanced heart failure. So we care the disease, but the patient died. Yeah, exactly. It's another testament to the importance of exercise. exercise because when I was found to have advanced heart failure, my ejection fraction, I don't think
Starting point is 00:26:22 I've ever heard of one. Lower was 8%. And you were walking around? No, I was actually ready to collapse. I was in cardiogenic shock again. And this was in the year 2003. So it was about three years after my Omer. That's like for people in plain English, it's like basically about a seventh of what your heart should be pumping. If it can only beat and pump a seventh of the blood, that's what she had. It was really hard. And I lived with heart failure for 18 years. That's insane. You know, and I, I remained in, I finished residency, did a hospital fellowship, and heart failure, you get better, you get better, you get worse. You know, you get worse. There was a lot of procedures along the way and different interventions that they kind of would patch me up. You know, I'd work a little better for a while and I'd kind of decompensate. And the chemo is what destroyed your heart. You know, it's really fascinating. Well, this is super cool science. So, you know, ultimately, I had a heart transplant. And they are investigating the heart and the genes and the heart and how this could have happened. And they identify something called the Titan. gene. And this Titan gene is a gene that makes the myocytes, the heart cells very sensitive to chemo and radiation and childbirth. And I was actually able to have a baby. And so I went into this
Starting point is 00:27:32 end stage heart failure right after I delivered my child. So it was kind of like a triple hit. So most individuals, you know, if they have chemo, they're okay. Well, you had a baby and a heart failure. That's all three. How are you still smart? It's so impressive. Well, it's just such a blessing. And you know, that's the beauty of post-traumatic growth, right? When if you have adversity and you rise above, you know how hard life can be. And now it's like I live this seamless, just truly blissful, glorious life. Just a life without resistance is so easy. Life is so easy now.
Starting point is 00:28:02 But you had a hard transplant in 2021, right? It's the ultimate longevity hack, I must say, because I have a very young heart in my body. So I'm not recommending anyone else to do it. And you were the first one to run a. marathon within a year of having a heart transplant. Or you're the only one who's had a heart transplant who's run a marathon. No, there's been other men. Actually, I don't believe that there's been a woman that's actually run it.
Starting point is 00:28:25 I think there was one woman that walked one, but it was many years after her heart transplant. So this is exactly one year after my heart transplant. And after I said I was going to do that, I thought, uh-oh. When I took my first step, I thought, I think I made a big mistake. I was so decomposited. My calf muscles were literally indented. I had a three-person assist and a rolling walker. And I was just thinking, oh, I may not be able to do this.
Starting point is 00:28:48 I was like, I've got to try. So I applied all those pillars of lifestyle medicine. I mean, after the surgery, you know, on a walker. Yeah, after the surgery, you know, on a walker. I was on life support. But not during the marathon, you were not alone. No, I ran that hard, man. I shined.
Starting point is 00:29:00 That was pretty cool. Yeah. But, yeah, we have a cardio sports medicine specialist, who's a cardiologist at Mayo, and they ran races with me leading up to the marathon. I trained very smart. The truth is I actually ran a marathon at the 11 month, because they, We wanted to run one marathon just to make sure I would be safe in terms of public. We don't want the cameras on me and she like dies.
Starting point is 00:29:21 Well, this sort of space of the really next question for you, which is you went through all this, which almost killed you. And these are serious diseases, you know, stage four breast cancer, heart failure. They're not really lifestyle diseases. I mean, heart failure was from chemo. How did it change how you think about your own health and investing in your health and your own sort of regimen for creating health? And then how did it affect, you know, you're thinking about what you're doing in the world?
Starting point is 00:29:43 It's been so inspiring to be able to figure out how important lifestyle is. And I always was really fascinated with food. So I've always really invested in eating healthy. But sometimes it was a little too restrictive and it wasn't balanced and it wasn't with harmony. There was a little bit of turbulence. Maybe I was doing it out of fear where now I really, you know, eat to live. And I embrace that in a way that it's enjoyable. And it's something that individuals should really try to do the same.
Starting point is 00:30:09 I don't think that we should use fair tactics to inspire others to eat healthy. this is just what fuels our body. You know, you don't put, we've heard these analogy. You don't put junk in a car. You shouldn't put junk in your body. Yeah. I mean, getting rid of the ultra-processed food, and David, that's what she said was so important as your mom was there cooking dinner.
Starting point is 00:30:25 You didn't eat fake food. I was lucky. That's the most important thing is. I think fish and chips and pie match actually sounds pretty healthy to me compared to what most people eat today. But I'm talking about fishing chips and pie mash, and then we've got Dawn telling her inspiring story. It's okay. Well, just really blessed.
Starting point is 00:30:42 And exercise and movement, I always move my whole life. And I continue to do that. So I think I was really blessed that I had this very healthy childhood that my parents really believed in. And it just set the stage for this to be just very natural for me in this entire transition. The one thing that I would say, I really have to work on is sleep. I'm not very good with sleep. Me too.
Starting point is 00:31:01 I'd rather be alive. Sleep is really hard. I sleep good, but I don't want to sleep. I want to, like, live. So that's my goal. It's fine. I feel I could replace sleep. There is a gene.
Starting point is 00:31:10 Maybe we all have this, that you just don't require as much. We think that these individuals can get restored to... I definitely have that gene. I think I need to. I must have that gene. Yeah, I'm happy with four hours. I'm like I feel like I'm missing out when I'm sleeping. I feel like I'm missing something.
Starting point is 00:31:25 Yeah, I know. Something's going on that I want to be part of. So the idea of you sleep when you're dead, life's too fun. Yeah, you're right. But you do need to sleep. You do need to sleep. You do need to sleep for metabolic health. And, you know, so I think that this is actually a very important thing that we had to focus on.
Starting point is 00:31:41 And when I was running that marathon, that was one thing I really was mindful of. And you said another really important thing, David, is that you're very regular with your sleep and you have sleep consistency because there's research now that says, yeah, that's important. 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. you need that sleep. That's like the critical hours if you can be really regular, especially over a lifetime. But, you know, there's no magic bullet. But, you know, we all know, in my background was an exercise physiology. And so I did a lot of research early on. We called it ergogenic AIDS at the time. And that was nutraceuticals. support sports performance or peak performance, human existence. And so I really do believe in supplements as an adjunct to a healthy lifestyle. It's never going to replace a healthy lifestyle. But even the healthiest of lifestyle just isn't enough anymore. You know, there's a lot of nutrient gaps.
Starting point is 00:32:29 You know, the enhanced data. You know, you talk about this often. It's hard to get what you need, even if you're eating what you think may be an idea. You know, what she's talking about in English is This is this study that the government puts on called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Essentially, it's a big study that's been going on for decades that tracks everybody in America and what they're eating and their health and their blood tests and their nutrition levels. And this studies find that over 90% are deficient or insufficient in one or more nutrients at the level, not that's optimal for health, but at the level you wouldn't get a deficiency
Starting point is 00:33:00 disease. So how much vitamin C do you need to not get scurvy? I think 10% of Americans are deficient in vitamin C at the level that would give them scurvy or 80% are deficient, insufficient in vitamin D or 93%? or low in omega-3s and, you know, 50% are low in magnesium and zinc and, you know, it's like it's a lot. And we're seeing this. You know, at Function Health, which is the company that I co-founded to help people track
Starting point is 00:33:20 their own personal health data. It's shocking. 70% or low in the Quest reference range, which is the standard reference lab we use, in 70% or low in one or more nutrients at the level that's not the level I think is good, or you would think it's good. Like vitamin D of 30 is not good. It should be 50 or a ferretter iron stores of 16. is not good. It should be 45. It's between, you know, lower than 45, you'll get hair loss and fatigue
Starting point is 00:33:45 and all kinds of sleep issues and other things. And, you know, omega-3 fats and vitamin D. And it's just, it's amazing to see the problems in a population that actually is pretty health forward because they're actually going to do proactive things about their health. So what about the rest of the population, you know? So I think, I think providing basic nutrients is so important. But I kind of, I want to kind of look back to you because what you said kind of struck me was, you know, you're not doing what you're doing now. To stay healthy at 50, you're doing what you're doing. now to stay healthy at 80. So kind of walk us through a day
Starting point is 00:34:13 the life of David Beckham in terms of your health routine and what are the foundational things? It's actually not that interesting. But I will tell you, but I will tell you. Obviously I have four children, so I have one, my daughter who's 14 years old. She's still obviously at school every single day.
Starting point is 00:34:32 So my mornings really revolve around getting her out of bed, downstairs, breakfast inside her. I wake up at probably 6.15, 6.30 every morning because I like to go downstairs, make sure everything's set up, breakfast, the fire's on, lights are on, music's on, you know, radios on the radio station that she loves. So, and then she comes down at around 7.30. Victoria is up by then as well.
Starting point is 00:35:02 So she's kind of an early riser as well. So she comes down around the same time as me. and then we wait for Harper to come down. She comes down. She has breakfast. Most of the time, she has scrambled eggs or some cereal or some fruit. And then I drive her to school. You're the chauffeur.
Starting point is 00:35:20 Do you wear a hat? I should get a hat because I am. She likes to sit in the back sometimes when she's got her friend. But no, most of the time. But I thought I was like, don't talk to me. You don't know me. Like, just drop me off like 100 yards from the door school. I'm actually not there yet.
Starting point is 00:35:38 She's not like embarrassed to me at the moment. So, and even if she shows any of those kind of sides, I'm all over her. Like, I'll walk in, I'm kissing her, I'm telling her that I love her in front of her friends, her teachers. No, but so I, but I love that time in the morning. I love, you know, Victoria goes into the gym. She starts her session quite early. So she does like 45 minutes before me.
Starting point is 00:36:05 and then we go in and we work out together. But I'll get to that. So I take her to school, I drop her off. And then obviously I drive back to the house. I go into the gym and that's like my time with Victoria to work out and laugh. I love to work out and laugh. And that's why I actually work out of my wife because she makes me laugh. And I make her laugh apparently.
Starting point is 00:36:29 But she's laughing at me rather than anything else. So we do about, she does about. 30 to 40 minutes on the stair climber first before I get there. And then we work out with one of my close friends who's actually an ambassador for I'm mate, Bobby Rich. So he works us out. And I mean, he loses his mind working out with me in Victoria because I'm very, I, Victoria always says that I procrastinate her.
Starting point is 00:36:58 Yeah, she says, I'm always trying to like talk to him about something to slow the session down. but I'm always taking the right time in between each set. But she's like, okay, let's go, let's go, let's go. So she's always jumping onto it. So we work out together for an hour. We laugh a lot at each other. And that's part of the routine, in all honesty. Family, connection, love, laughter, exercise.
Starting point is 00:37:24 You already got like five really big health points. Yeah. And then obviously. Before you even have breakfast. Before we had breakfast. So then we're going to have breakfast. we're working out and actually there's one exercise which she actually cried once through this exercise because she found it so difficult and every time I try and get Bobby to do it at least once a
Starting point is 00:37:44 week because it makes me laugh. It makes me laugh to watch her go through this painful like exercise but she does say there's exercises that I'm not very good at as well. So what is that exercise that makes you cry? It's just it's a it's a pull up but like you have to slowly let yourself down and I don't know what she was having a moment during during that session and all of a sudden i was like you're not crying i you're crying and i made a big thing of it so um but we laugh about it um so we work out together we have a lot of fun and then i go up to she goes up to shower and then i go up to make us a smoothie uh we both have uh like a uh a smoothie each with i'mate in it and and she's obsessed with it and And she's not easy to like change supplement.
Starting point is 00:38:32 Whatever she's taking, she's like very loyal to that. But then when we started the IMA, you know, I think it was 2024 that I started taking it. She was very curious, but she was like, well, I've got my thing. It can't be as good as my thing. And I was like, well, you're going to have to change at some point to show some loyalty to me. So, yeah, so she changed finally. But then so we have a. smoothie, I go up and shower and then I head into the office. I always eat at 1.30 every day.
Starting point is 00:39:04 I have grilled salmon, brown rice, vegetables. Then I have full day in the office. I go and pick my daughter up every day at 4 o'clock, which I feel very blessed to be able to do that because not every parent gets that opportunity. I drive her home and then we prepare dinner and then, you know, put her in bed and then do exactly the same the next day. Amazing. So that's it. That's That's good. You're eating healthy. You're with family. You're laughing. You're connected. I mean, that that's it really. I mean, I think, you know, people to understand that it's not that hard, that it's just, it's just a consistency. It's their daily habits. It's building your routine. And your sleep stuff is also important. So tell us to life.
Starting point is 00:39:45 The sleep stuff is really important because I think, like me and Dawn just said, you know, I've not really been, I'm not great at sleeping, you know, like I always, I just want to be awake, to be honest. But throughout my career, I was pretty good. You know, I always went to bed, like 10 o'clock was the latest I went to bed night before a game. And the games would always be at like either 3 o'clock in the afternoon or 4 o'clock or sometimes in the evening, but I would always go asleep at the same time every single night. And I always slept pretty well, unless it was a big game where I was a little bit, not nervous or anxious, just excited. You know, I was, I was not one of those nervous players, I was kind of excited about the game. So, you know, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my,
Starting point is 00:40:32 my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my life, and I was playing. And, and, and, and, and I'm, night and I know you need a little bit more than that but that's that's pretty good for me. That's great. So that has really been, you know, part of my kind of thing that I've really worked hard on because when we talk about balance, you know, in people's diets, in people's lifestyle, it's not just about, you know, what you take. It's about everything else that you do. Like we've just said, you know, I laugh throughout my workout. You know, I walk my dogs. I take my daughter to school. I do have pie mash every now and again. You know, it is about balance, and we have to get that right.
Starting point is 00:41:25 It's about a number of things that we do, and sleep is a big part of that. You know, and I have worked harder at that. Like I've worked harder at drinking more water. You know, I was never great at drinking a lot of water, but now I'm great at it, apparently. But, you know, you get up a few nights, a few times during the night, obviously, but if you drink too much water, but I... With World Cancer Day this month, we often focus on diet, toxic, and stress, yet one of the most overlooked disruptors is artificial light. Research links circadian disruption to cancer risk, metabolic disease, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. And most of us live
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Starting point is 00:43:01 and reduce inflammation, the key drivers of thinning hair. Clinical studies show it can safely improve hair density and thickness in both men and women. That's why I recommend Bond charges red light cap just 10 minutes a day a few times a week and you're giving your body the support it needs right at the cellular level. Try it today at bondcharge.com slash hymen and use code DR mark for 15 off. That's B-O-N-C-H-A-R-E dot com slash hymencode D-R-Mark. I think you should have him to talk about as time in nature with his farm. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's right. You're a beekeeper. You're a gardener. That's a big part of my life. Yeah. It's a big part of my life. Yeah. Nature is also medicine.
Starting point is 00:43:45 Yeah. Yeah. Is this in the UK? You've got a... This is in the UK. It's in in the Cotswolds down in the countryside and I started I you know throughout lockdown after lockdown I was like okay I want to create our own like I want our own food I want our own vegetables I want to be able to grow things that we eat every every weekend so that's what I do so I created this farm that's grown and grown and grown and then we started obviously with the bees the bees was the first thing actually the bees was the first thing, which me and one of my children came to me throughout lockdown. And he was like, Dad, have you seen these beehives online? He said, let's get one.
Starting point is 00:44:27 So we bought a, it was a flat pack beehive. We stayed up till four in the morning building it. And then I was like, do the bees, I had no idea. This was my first time even thinking about bees and honey. And I was like, do the bees come naturally? And obviously they don't. You have to buy the bees. So you buy the bees and a man, a man comes up in a white van, and he gets out with a carballed box.
Starting point is 00:44:54 And he says, there you go. There's your bees. And you're stood there holding this box of bees. And you don't have one of those suits on yet. No, because they're all in the box still. So you've got this box of bees. And there's 5,000 bees in each box. 5,000.
Starting point is 00:45:08 5,000. There's one queen bee and there's 5,000 bees. So I'm stood there. So then I contacted a local beekeeper. and she's amazing. So she came around, and her name's Helen. She's unbelievable. She came around as she said, okay, this is how it works.
Starting point is 00:45:24 We put the bee, we put the bee suit on. We put the bees, transferred the bees from the box into the hive. And that's really how it all began. But I must admit, I post a lot with my stuff that I do in my garden. Because I have this amazing cockerel and I have these amazing hens. This cockerel is the most handsome cockerel you'll ever see. I'm going to show you a picture. He's so handsome and he struts around and he's gorgeous.
Starting point is 00:45:54 He's so handsome. But one of the things that is that I get a lot of comments from. I like to walk around my garden and bare feet. You know, not when I'm planting, but I once was planting a rose and I was digging with, obviously, I was digging with no shoes on. and no sucks on. And it didn't go down very well. So everyone had a lot of comments about that.
Starting point is 00:46:20 Because of the roses. But I love it. You know, it's one of those that I always go down to the countryside for a day and just walk around. In bare feet, walk around my garden, walk around the vegetable garden. And it's one of my big passions. Being in nature is something we're all deficient in. And eat it and eat the food. And I eat the food.
Starting point is 00:46:41 Chickens eat the eggs. Eat the eggs. We have seven, six hens, one cockerel. I have seven ducks. So we have duck eggs. Duck eggs. Duck eggs. We have some amazing apple juice, actually, at the house now as well.
Starting point is 00:46:57 So we have apple juice. We have jam, plum jam. From the trees. Yeah. Yeah, we have so many plum trees that I was just like, what am I going to do all these plums? So one weekend, Victoria came down and the table was like covered in these plums. She was like, what are you?
Starting point is 00:47:13 you doing? I was like, well, I'm going to make some jam. I love it. I love it. Wow. And Don, how about you? I mean, in terms of your routine. I mean, you've been in your early 50s, you've had two major illnesses, you know, that mostly would have killed people. And you look like you're just starting your life. So what is what is your sort of routine and non-negotiables that you've kind of come to understand that are part of, you know, essentials for your life? Yeah, you know, I wake up at 4 a.m. every morning. I start my work early. That's when my mind is nice and clear. And I exercise in the morning.
Starting point is 00:47:47 So I try to get a 60-minute run in the morning. I eat a whole food plant predominant diet. But for the most part, I've done that most of my life. When I'm traveling, I'll add in some fish here and there just because it gets hard to do whole food plant-based. But I really stick to a healthy nutritional pattern, getting lots of vegetables and fruits. I really focus on that food diversity for the gut microbiome. I don't have a garden. I wish I did.
Starting point is 00:48:08 I'm just so inspired by that story. It's just very hopeful. It's something I think I want to do in 2020. You should. Yeah, you've inspired me. I don't know if I can get roosters, but yeah, this is pretty, our hands. This is pretty exciting. So I really live by what I speak to my patients about in my own lifestyle, but I have such meaning and purpose in my career.
Starting point is 00:48:27 My work is not work. It is my love and my passion, truly. So I start my day typically about eight or nine o'clock with patients. And I have pretty long days. I go pretty late. Research projects, you know, keep me busy. I started the Lifestyle Medicine residency curriculum at Mayo Clinic. And I'm medical director for employee well-being where, you know, it's so meaningful because
Starting point is 00:48:48 they're people that saved my life. So to help them be their healthiest version of himself, they're caring for our patients. So really to help them learn how to cook healthy, start at a fitness center at Mayo Clinic. So our staff at Mayo actually have access to a gym that's up in 365 days a year, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and no charge. So it's pretty cool. So they can go and exercise right on site. And, you know, this is really cool.
Starting point is 00:49:12 So part of that employee well-being, we're actually doing a 100-person randomized controlled study with the IMA. This is a high-stress group of individuals. So it's going to be fun to look at those nutrient deficiencies. You know, there's nutrient gaps. So you're testing them before? Yep. We're large panel of testing.
Starting point is 00:49:30 And Danny Young has really invested appropriate. I mean, I don't know of any other nutraceutical company that dedicates resources to having a scientific advisory board as well. is the research. So we're really excited about doing this study at Mayo Clinic. And we actually brought IM8 onto Mayo Clinic's Mayo Clinic ventures because we're not allowed to collaborate with outside industry. But in this realm where we're building product and helping to advance science, we're able to do this. So it's really exciting. And it's fun to do it in the staff. And the staff are really excited about it. So we actually sell IMA in the Mayo Clinic pharmacy.
Starting point is 00:50:05 A lot of my patients do really nicely with it. They love the flavor. They love the convenience like we talked about, but it's really fun for me to be able to not just care for patients, but help to optimize staff as well. So it's been- Yeah, because healthcare workers are among the sickest in the country. Yeah, they really are. You know, and they're role-modeling this behavior, which is so, so critical. And, you know, I guess, you know, for me, winding down the end of the day, my daughter is in college now. She's 22, so, you know, it's easy to kind of work a little a little bit later and I try to go to bed by 10 o'clock. You know, I don't get my seven hours. But I just don't feel, I wake up. I'd like spring out of bed. Wow. So you got a bit at 10,
Starting point is 00:50:41 wake up at 4. That's a. I love my 4 a. Sometimes it's like 3.22. But I'm on California. So we're allowed. It's really 622 my time. Let's let's dive into some, some, some rap fire questions. What's one habit that is sort of non-negotiable that you, you would never give up or that you maybe a bad habit that you like that maybe it's the one non-negotiable habit that I to be honest it's working out it's working out because when I retired I thought that my body needed to just recover and I stopped working out I just sat and did nothing for I plan to do nothing for six months because I thought my body has been through everything it's been through surgery it's been you know beating it up over the that that time um but it was the
Starting point is 00:51:28 worst thing I could have done. So from that day, I was like, I'm always doing something. Did you do nothing for six months? I did nothing for six months. And what happened to you? My body fell apart. My body fell apart. I thought that, you know, my back would feel better. My knees would feel better. My ankle. I ruptured my Achilles through my career. I thought that the body needed to just recover. And it was the worst thing I could have done. So gradually, I started getting back into, you know, cycling. I started, you know, boxing. I tried everything. I tried everything. And I was the worst thing. I was the worst thing. I tried everything. I tried everything. And then I found a workout that worked for me. And that's my non-negotiable. I will work out every single morning. And if I, if I'm traveling, I'll be doing
Starting point is 00:52:09 press-ups in my room. I'll do something. I'll always do something to just get my money. Because it's not what I don't, it's not that I don't care about what I look like. It's not all about that. It's, it's actually what mentally and how I feel. So that's my non-negotiable. Yeah, I agree for me too. you know, especially, you know, the older you get, the more non-negotiable it is. Yeah. Like when you're younger, you can get away with it. That's very true. You know, I've had many back surgeries.
Starting point is 00:52:35 And to me, it's just, it's just a foundation for feeling good. If I don't, my back hurts. Yeah. And so I know I have to do it just for keep myself going. Yeah. And it makes me feel good and it's just good for everything. Exactly. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:48 If you don't move, you won't. It's true. How about you done? My non-negotiable is way. up at 4 a.m. because I just have so much I wanted to do, including move. I have a lot. So it is my quiet time. So it's just so peaceful. But my non-negotiable is 4 a.m. earlier, actually. I mean, I love that if you go to bed early enough. Yeah. Yeah, I do. I try. I mean, I love getting up early and I love it quiet and I love that like nobody's bothering me.
Starting point is 00:53:16 It's like, you know, you make up at 5 or 4 or 6. You know, it's like the world's still asleep and you can have this moment. It's great. So what's what's a food you could eat every day? Oh my goodness. A food I can eat every day. It could be pie and mash if you want. It could be pie and mash, but it shouldn't be pie and mash. But it can. That's okay. Oh, my goodness. When you do everything else right, it doesn't have to be about perfection.
Starting point is 00:53:41 A food I can eat every day. You know what? And it's quite controversial. A radish. A radish. A radish. I love radishes. A spicy radishes? Spicy radishes. From the garden. From the garden. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:53 From the garden. I like it. I pull them. I clean them a little bit, and then I love radishes. You need some of the dirt on because then you get some more probiotics. There you go. There you go. Yeah, good adjunct your I'm eight.
Starting point is 00:54:05 Yeah, so radish. I like that. That's good. Oh, mine is easy. The purple sweet potato. I just love those. They're glory. I think you had to have had them.
Starting point is 00:54:14 They're so gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah, those are the Okinawa and sweet potatoes. And in Okinawa is one of the blue zones where people live a very long time. So they have 150% more anthocyanins than blueberries. That powerful fighting. eat them almost three times a week. Like, they're in my house all the time.
Starting point is 00:54:30 And if I can't find them in the grocery store, it's very upsetting. Yeah, you're right. They'll sell out or they're a little bit out of season. So there's a way you can grow them. I should grow them. I should grow them. I get messages from people in the UK. Where can I get purple sweet potatoes?
Starting point is 00:54:44 David Bacom has them. Yeah, those are great. That's a great. I'm going to have a long queue outside my house. How about recovery? What's your most important recovery tool to use? IMA. I AMA actually is, you know, I've had a couple of things in the last couple of years where I've had to have, you know, whether it be nasal surgery or, you know, dental surgery.
Starting point is 00:55:04 And the one thing that I took every single morning and it helps me recover quickly was IMA. Other than that, an ice bath. I love ice baths. It helps me recover from, actually, it clears my head. It clears my head. You know, even if I've not worked out, I'll go and sit in an ice bath for 10 minutes. 10 minutes. What temperature? I go in and it, it's, it's like two, two degrees.
Starting point is 00:55:31 Damn. Yeah, so it's cold. You're like whim hopping. It's cold. Holy cow. I don't know, like somebody said I had like 6% body fat. And if I, if I did that, I'd be like shaking for an hour. Oh, yeah. You have to, you have to have a shower close to, to warm your bones up. But, but ice bath, ice bath seems to recover muscles, you know, my muscles and, and my aches and pains, and I love it. I love ice bath.
Starting point is 00:55:57 I have what I call it tribathlon. It's a sauna, a hot tub, and a cold plunge on my deck. I love my house. I like that. Yeah, you can come over and do my tributtal. How about you, Don? What do you do? Oh, gosh. You know, I feel like my life is a little bit complex.
Starting point is 00:56:14 I feel like sometimes I get just so busy and I recover really quick because of my nutrition. And so I find that my whole food plant based. nutrition just has such powerful anti-inflammatory properties that I can really just keep going. But I would say for me, it's not necessarily something I do every single day, but every three months, I do a five-day fasting mimicking diet with prolon. I really, and I'm not sponsored by them, but I really love that. And I use that fasting mimicking diet for my patients during chemotherapy, actually, for their 72-hour fast. So I'm a big advocate for that. I'm not a good faster, like daily. I like to eat as soon as I wake up. Yeah, well, you're a little and thin. So if you're faster,
Starting point is 00:56:52 like me and kind of waste away. And I need energy. As soon as I wake up, I am intuitive. I listen to my body like I would never get in that cold. Uh-uh. Not getting the hot. Now you're sounding like Victoria. Victoria's never got in.
Starting point is 00:57:04 Actually, she got in the ice bath once. Oh, good for her. Just the ones. That was love, by the way. It was love. Good for Victoria. It was. Well, I actually told her it tightened skin. I was like, it tightens your skin.
Starting point is 00:57:15 She was like, okay. She was like, I'm in. I'm in. So, yeah, she only did it once. She didn't need it. Bring on the wrinkles. Yeah, so the fasting is what I would recommend. You know, I think that trying to get that 12 hours each night is great, but I just, I'm not good at that.
Starting point is 00:57:30 Yeah, it's hard. You know, it's what you said, I think I want to just double down on the anti-inflammatory diet. It should be a sort of a non-cocial recovery tool because whether you're professional sports or whether you're just a human being wanting to live up and feel good, it's so important. And I think with my patients, see how much inflammation plays a role in their health or disease. actually, and how much an anti-inflammatory diet can actually help them feel better. And I created something called the 10-day detox diet, which was just, you know, it's just the name of what I did by my patients in elimination diet, it adds in all the healthy
Starting point is 00:58:02 foods and the anti-inflammatory foods and takes out all the inflammatory foods. And you do it for 10 days. And people's lives are changed. I mean, not just so they lose weight, but the inflammation goes out of their body, their skin clears up, their rashes go away, their joints feel better, their headaches go away, their digestion gets better. And it's so simple. It's not, it's just basically taking out of the body,
Starting point is 00:58:21 the bad stuff, putting in the good stuff. And it's, in 10 days, we've done thousands of people. There's a 70% reduction in all symptoms from all diseases in 10 days. And it sounds like I'm hyperbolic, but actually that's what people find. And it's so quick. And I just, I would say people don't believe how they can feel better. They don't realize how close it is if they just change a few habits. So hopefully this inspires them to some habit change.
Starting point is 00:58:49 So any other diet, I don't know about the 10 minute cold plunge, but the workout for sure. What are you more strict about now in your 50s than you were when you're 18 that you're sort of like doubling down on? Sleep and drinking water. You know, I'm definitely stricter with that now. You know, I think that that's almost a non-negotiable. It's almost sleep and water. When you started to say drinking, I was like, drinking? I had to correct that really quickly.
Starting point is 00:59:21 Sleep and drinking. Water. Okay. There was a little bit too much of a pause between drinking and water. Definitely not 10 points. And how about you, John? You know, for me, it's sleep too. And I really work on that. I'm very intentional because I found out when I wasn't sleeping,
Starting point is 00:59:38 my metabolic house was more deranged. It wasn't because I had a body composition issue. I wasn't sleeping. So we really do need to honor our sleep. And, you know, a unique thing I find. my patients is so much sleep apnea that would have otherwise been not detected. That's not necessarily my situation, but this is just a shout out sleep hygiene is something really to focus in on. So for me, it would be sleep too. Sleep, I agree. Sleep is important. All right. So how do
Starting point is 01:00:01 you define health now for yourself, both of you? David, how do I define health? To be honest, I want to obviously look after myself, but I want my family to understand. What does health mean to you? Like, when you think of health, what does it represent? I think it represents. I think it represents. everything that is in my life at the moment. And that really wasn't, I'm not saying it wasn't as important when I was playing, because when you're an athlete, you're surrounded by doctors, by nutritionists, by people that want to look after you and have to look after you. But now, obviously, for a long time, I've been looking after myself in a different way,
Starting point is 01:00:39 purely because I've had to. You know, of course I have an amazing wife that does everything for me. You know, she makes my smoothies when I'm not making them for her. So I have an amazing wife that does that. But my health, I've noticed how important it is for me because there's nobody else doing it for me other than myself. And I have to do that. I have to do that. How about you, Don't?
Starting point is 01:01:03 Yeah, I think that's just so important. For me, it would be, you know, especially going through health care adversity, it's just to wake up each morning and feel good, you know, not have any resistance and impediments. and things that are pulling you down, whether it's aches or pains or reduction in energy, shortness of breath, chest pain, whatever it may be, but just to live that life without those ailments. And, you know, I just find even in my patients during chemotherapy, when they're taking good care of their bodies, that they're able to attain that vitality. And then to use that vitality to really, you know, go after your meeting in life and then share that with others,
Starting point is 01:01:39 and it just fulfills this beautiful purpose-driven life. I think that's really important, Don't know. I mean, you know, a lot of people walk around with what I call FLC syndrome. You know what that is? That's when you feel like crap. And that, you know, that's something people think they have to live with. And, you know, the work both you're doing, you know, with support things like IMA, healthy diet, exercise, sleep, it's not that hard.
Starting point is 01:02:02 Thanks for being on the show. Thanks for doing the work you do in the world and making a little bit better place. Thanks, Mark. This is a lot of fun. Yeah, thank you so much, Mark. It's a pleasure. Thank you. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it.
Starting point is 01:02:14 You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I am chief medical officer.
Starting point is 01:02:41 This podcast represents my opinions and my guest's opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic,
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