The Dr. Hyman Show - NBA Legend Chris Paul on Longevity, Nutrition & Staying Elite at 40

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

Longevity isn’t just about talent—it’s about what you’re willing to change when your body starts asking for something different. On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I’m joined by Chris Paul—one of the most respected point guards of all time—to talk about the mindset that’s carried him through more than two decades in the NBA. We get into what shifted along the way and what it really takes to keep showing up at a high level year after year. Watch the full conversation on YouTube, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Here’s what we cover: • Why what worked in your 20s stops working and what to do instead • How inflammation shows up and what improves when you address it • Why stress and poor sleep quietly drain energy and slow recovery • What simple habits actually move the needle over time • How understanding your data helps you make better daily decisions Your body is always giving you signals. The earlier you begin to listen and respond, the more it can support you over time. 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 Sunlighten, Korrus, Seed, Paleovalley, Pique and Made In Cookware. Visit sunlighten.com and use code HYMAN to save up to $1600 today! Visit Korrus.com/DrHyman for 15% off their newest product OIO Sphere with code HYMANSPHERE15. Go to seed.com/hyman and use code 20HYMAN to get 20% off your first month. Head to paleovalley.com/hyman to save 15% off your first order today. Secure 20% off your order plus a free starter kit at piquelife.com/hyman. Visit MadeInCookware.com and use code HYMAN10 for 10% off your order. (0:00) Chris Paul’s mindset, falling in love with monotony, and introduction by Dr. Mark Hyman (2:51) Chris Paul on hard work, success, and his grandfather’s influence (9:26) Longevity in the NBA, transition to plant-based diet, and dietary impact on performance (18:21) Effects of diet on performance, recovery, and family health habits (22:11) Impact of diet on athletic performance and Function Health insights (25:26) Emotional and family impact of health changes (27:52) Stress, gut health, cortisol, and the importance of rest (31:34) NBA players’ health insurance, short careers, and health education (34:52) Function Health’s accessibility and intelligence (37:32) Daily routines, hydration, and rest for athletes (45:06) Evolution of Chris Paul’s diet, recovery, and disconnecting from technology (48:24) The significance of sleep for athletes (52:42) Chris Paul’s nonprofit work and food access initiatives (55:00) Future plans, community, accountability, and health advice to a younger self

You have to fall in love with the monotony. When you're really good at something, you just think, I ain't gotta change nothing. What you realize and you learn is that you don't know what you don't know. Somewhere, this became a mindset, not just in sport, but whatever I do. If you have a million-dollar racehorse,

you're not gonna feed at McDonald's. Inflammation is sort of the enemy of the athlete, right? The more inflammation you have, it's gonna affect your performance, your recovery, your longevity, everything. For 2019 is when I went plant-based to see the way inflammation disappeared for me. It was crazy.

People don't realize. your second brain is your gut. What I learned is that the thing that's passed down from generation to generation is recipes and habits. The thing that money can't buy you is health. Today I'm joined by NBA legend Chris Paul. He is one of the greatest pointguards of all time. At 40 years old, he is redefining elite performance

by mastering the data of his own health. Living a long and healthy life isn't about chasing shortcuts. It's about focusing on small daily habits that support the body at the cellular level. Circulation, recovery, repair of your cells, which are the foundation of long-term health. And one ritual I built into my own routine is using an infrared sauna.

Infrared works differently than a traditional sauna. Instead of just hitting the air, it uses light energy that's absorbed into the body's tissues. In many ways, our bodies are like solar panels. We're designed to receive and use this kind of energy. And the research suggests that infrared may help support circulation, improve mitochondrial activity, and the body's own natural repair processes,

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R-R-U-S dot com slash sphere and use the code Hyman's sphere 15. All right, Chris, welcome to the podcast. Yes, sir. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks for being here. You know, people know who you are generally, and if they don't, you're a basketball player, if somebody listening to health and doesn't know anything about basketball,

this guy's one of the OGs. And people think that success like you have is sort of just talent that you're born with or that it's just kind of lucky. But, you know, you talk a lot about how it's just a lot of hard work. and we were just chit-chat and you said you were in the gym at 7 this morning, you're on the court 8.30, you've been working on a morning. You have to do the hard work to actually make something yourself in life, right? Absolutely.

You know, it's funny having kids, right? I have a 16-year-old son, a 13-year-old daughter. I think people see you now a lot of times and don't realize. I'm sure my kids can't imagine me when I was their age, right? I'm sure it's hard for them or they probably don't even want to think about me when I was their age. But you don't always just have it, right? Like some people have talent,

but I think you have to be coached and you have to be nurtured. And sometimes it comes from loss, comes from defeat. And you just never know what's going to happen in your life to make you have that drive and that want to. I knew I wanted to make it to the NBA when I was a kid, didn't know I wanted to play.

So it a million other kids. Exactly. Exactly, but once you get there. My son wants to be one of those guys. Right. But once you get there also, I didn't know I wanted to be 21 years. Yeah. Right.

Because there's been a lot of heartache along that process. But somewhere, I can't even point out what year it was. Obviously, there's been a lot of setbacks here and there. But somewhere, it was just, this became a mindset. Yeah, the mindset. That not just in sport, but whatever I do. Yeah. Well, you know, he's so touched by, like, reading about your story

with your grandfather, Papa Jones, who was the first Black Own Service Station in North Carolina, and he worked really hard. And he didn't have a lot of employees. He was the guy who ran the station. Then you were his employees probably didn't get paid. You know, and you had to show up and change the oil and change the tires and do the work.

And that ethic, you know, of just showing up day after day doing the hard things is what actually makes people, you know, have a life that it's worth living in a way. It's the things that you don't think about, right? Like, you have to fall in love with the monotony and going to that service station, whether I want it to or not. I had to. If I wanted a new pair of shoes, my granddad was like, you're going to come work for it. And it just instills something different into you.

And as a kid, you don't always understand why you're doing these little tedious things, right? It's almost like that karate kid movie where he keeps making him put his jacket up. Keeps making him put his jacket up. details you're talking about. Over and over again. So it's if you have your kids making their bed up every day and they get up and they're about to run out the house and you're like, you ain't made your bed up, right? You don't appreciate some of those things until you get older. Maybe you can share the story of when your grandfather died he was 61. It was a big influence on your life and you had to play a game that next day. You know, it just shows sort of like

the story of your mindset. November 14, 2002, it's crazy. It's been that long. I signed my letter of intent to go to Wake Forest. It was a huge day for me and my family. My granddad was there, took off a Wake Forest hat, and gave it to me and put on. I put the hat on. And at night, me and my granddad went to go see White Play, just me and him.

I always say that I knew my brother that went back to school. My parents were probably at home. But it was just me and my granddad because his wife, my grandmother, had passed away when I was seven. And that was on November 14th, we go to the game. On the 15th, I'm at a high school game, a Friday night, watching the football team play. And I get a phone call from my parents, my brother called first to tell me that he was coming back home. And I was like, what you mean you coming back home?

And he said my granddad was sick. As I was going to the car, a cousin stopped me and told me that they had found him murdered. And November 19th ended up being the funeral. And the 20th was the first game of my senior year. Wow. And I scored 61 points in that game, and my grandfather was 61 when he died. But you threw away the last, you could have got the last shot. Yeah, I had 59.

I had 59. My career high up to then was like 34. Wow. Right. So it was absolutely an out of body experience. But we were actually playing against my mom's old high school. And all my family was in town for the funeral. And, yeah, I had 59 points.

I drove, made a layup and got filed, knew I had 61, and I didn't want to score anymore. So I walked to the free throw line and threw the ball out of bounds. And my dad was my assistant coach, and I remember just walking off the court falling in his arm. So it's definitely one of the most memorable experiences I've ever had in sport. Yeah, I got the chills because, you know, it's like your grandfather was playing through you right then, right? No question. I still have that basketball from that game. It's in a trophy case at my, at my parents' house.

But my granddad was, was everything, right? Especially at that age for me, right? Because I lost my grandmother when I was seven. And you got kids? Yeah. You got kids? You got grandkids? Coming up.

July. Yeah. Congrats. Congrats. Because to think of me, right, being seven when I lost my grandmother. And 17 was when my grandfather was, was. murdered, my mom lost her mom and dad, right? And I'm so blessed to still have mom and dad. And now to see my parents and specifically my dad as a grandfather, the way he is to my son. And I just

thought about this. My son is 16, right around that age that I was, which is to watch that relationship and that dynamic makes me understand how it was with me and my granddad. Yeah, so beautiful. That mindset and that determination, those values that he taught you every day, working in the station and doing things he did, sort of helped you in your career. I mean, you put your head down, you work hard, and you become who you become and had an incredible longevity in the NBA. Most people are out by the time they're in their late 20s, early 30s, and you're pushed up on 40. Yeah, I ain't pushing up. I'm there. I'm 40.

Oh, you're 40? I'm 40. Oh, damn. I know you're 39. Yeah, I'm there. I'm there. I'm there. Yeah.

I'm there. Yeah. Yeah, so you're like in the Tom Brady zone now. And, you know, you kind of, in the beginning of your career, you kind of had your head down, brought talent, worked really hard, but you were eating crap. Like you were sharing me before you would stop before all the games in Orleans and get a McDonald's meal and then before you practice and kind of running on crap, right?

And you can kind of get away with that for a bunch of years. Like you can do that. Yeah. You want to have longevity. You can't really do that as an act. You can't feel your body with crap. If you have a million dollar racehorse, you're not gonna feed a McDonald's, right?

Yeah, it's gonna be hard. Yeah. So when was it like that kind of moment where you're like, oh, wait, I gotta, if I wanna have longevity in my job that I love? When was the moment you realized you had to focus and take care of your health? It's funny because when you're really good at something,

right? Like, when you're really good or something, you just think, like, I ain't gotta change nothing, right? I can just keep doing what I've been doing. Yeah. And what you realize and you learn is that you don't know know what you don't know. When I first came into the NBA and we practiced in Oklahoma City, we used to practice at this junior college. I think it was a junior college. It's called Southern

Nazarene University because we had got displaced because of Hurricane Katrina. Yeah, right. So every day on the way to practice, I would stop by McDonald's and I get a McGrittle combo. Mayor said, I don't know what that is, but. Oh, McGrittle? McGrill with fire. It's almost like two pancakes. Oh, eggs and pancakes? No, no, no, no, no. Grittle combo, right? I get a sausage McGrittle, right? So it's almost like two pancakes and then sausage in between. Oh, right, right?

Wow. Relax. I would get a hash, it comes with a hash brown and a large orange juice and I usually get an extra hash brown. And it was pizza at night. It was all these different things. It was me and my brother living together. Yeah.

Yeah, it worked. Well, you think it's working, which it is, right? We winning games. You're playing at a high level. When you're young, you can get away with stuff. Exactly. You want to keep going for 20 years. You can't do that.

I had to change. I had to change. So you had that injury. Would you take us back to that injury that day that you kind of had that hamishing injury? What happened and how it made you kind of shift your mindset to actually focus on your health a little bit? Yeah. So I started doing food sensitivity back in 2011, right? And so I had some injuries here and there.

And I was like, man, what is going on? Why do I keep getting injured? And I'm one of those people that I'll try whatever. I was eating, right? I felt like I was hydrating, all these different things. So I got hurt my first year in Houston in a very critical game in game five of the Finals, right? Western Conference Finals.

And then I hurt my hamstring again next year. And I was like, man, what I got to do? What I got to do? I got to change something. And then what did you shift? Yeah, so that summer 2019 is when I went plant-based. I needed to try and see what that did differently from my body. And I tell you, when I say the body is amazing.

It's crazy. And what I've learned is too much of anything can be bad for you, right? But if you can try different things or whatnot, just so that you can see what the body is capable of. Yeah. Right. And what works for you and what doesn't work for you, you should absolutely do that. So on that journey for me, uh, and getting a chance to see the way inflammation just

disappeared for me and all of that. So it was, it was crazy. That's powerful. Inflammation is sort of the enemy of the athlete, right? The more inflammation you have that's going to affect your performance, your recovery, your longevity, everything. So, and most people don't realize the diet that most Americans eat is super inflammatory. And it's driving not just, you know, obesity and diabetes and heart disease.

but it just makes people feel bad and makes people function less poorly. People have brain fog and be sore and achy and all the things that, you know, sort of are subtle that people don't really think about or related to food. But when you change your diet, you notice it. But you change your diet in 2011 from the food sensitivities. You didn't notice a big change then or you did? I did. I did notice a big change then. But it was more dramatic when you had the...

Yeah, it was a lot more dramatic. But what happened was I did the food sensitivity year and year out. But what started changing, the very first time I did it, I had 27 reds and yellows. So anyone who don't know when you do a food sensitivity test, they test basically your allergens against like 200 different foods and all this stuff. So you get these red yellows and greens back. I had 27 red yellows.

And there's stuff you're eating all the time. Yeah, and we usually do it every six months or not. And so then it changed, right? Because as an athlete, as a player, everybody on the team's doing it. So when we get hours back, you're hoping you don't have but so many reds and yellows because you want to be able to eat whatever you want. Exactly. Yeah. And so what was funny is being on a team with DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, right, it's crazy.

These little snack well cookies that used to be on the plane is sort of just what you eat when we fly in and playing cards. But I remember one year, that was sort of, one of the ingredients was on all of our, like, red and yellows. So we would get on the plane and grab them, just throw it to the other guy. Right. Just throw them at each other, just messing with each other because you know you couldn't have them. Yeah. It's cool when you have accountability partners, too. Doing that as a team and sort of knowing what other guys could do or whatnot.

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Now, collagen supplementation has been shown to support skin health and joint comfort. And glycine may have a role in overall health as well. I'll often add it to my tea or a smoothie and their chocolate flavor even makes a delicious hot cocoa. It's an easy ancestral-inspired way to support your body with collagen every single day. So head to paleovali.com slash hymen for 15% off or use the code hymen at checkout. That's paleo-valley, P-A-L-E-O-Valley.com slash hymen for 15% off and use the code hymen. Yeah, I mean, that's powerful. I think, you know, what you're talking about is actually a food sensitivity, not true allergy test.

And what happens is if you're eating crap in your gut becomes affected and you get what we call leaky gut and then food proteins leak in, it creates inflammation, and it can affect, you know, performance, recovery, just how you feel. And most people don't realize that. And so, I mean, I created something called the 10-day detox diet, which essentially gets sort of all the most common allergens and inflammatory foods. And like in 10 days, people get rid of 70% of the symptoms from all kinds of conditions just by a very short window of time. And you were saying, like, when you did this initially started seeing all this sort of mucus come out and all this stuff happening when you change your diet and got healthy. So when I first did it, it's 2,000,

I say, like I said, I said, I went cold turkey or cold tofu or whatnot. To watch my body transform, I would sit, the first three days or so, I would like literally just be sitting there and my nose would start running. Nose is started running. And that was literally like the mucus, like leaving my body. I think one of the biggest things that I learned what you just said was people don't realize your second brain is your gut. Yeah. Right. And when you're growing up, and especially being African-American,

and you're seeing people with high blood pressure, gout, my family's from the South, right? Like, I'm from North Carolina, but my dad was born and raised in South Carolina. And my parents noticed I will never forget going to visit my family in South Carolina when I was, like, we would always go every summer. But I might have been around like six, seven years old. And one of like my great uncles, you know, you're a kid and you're going to see,

Like your grandparents, grandparents, brothers and stuff like that. And I never forget walking in and looking down and seeing his foot. His foot was huge swollen. Swollen. But as a kid, and I got an older brother, you know, we're like, what, what, what? You know, like your kids, you don't know, right? And so then when you get a little older and your parents explain to you what gout is and all this different type stuff. All diet related.

It is diet related, but it also comes from. education, right? I think also food deserts, you know, what people are exposed to and not having those different options and all of that in different inner cities and all this stuff. But I think the thing that I've tried to do and why I've been so grateful for function, especially with my family, is that I'm 0.000-1% of my family that's gotten an opportunity to live the life that I live. Yeah.

The exposure that I've gotten, the fact that I was introduced to the food sensitivity test and able to learn all this, I try to bring what I get informed about back to my family. Because like our culture and everything in our family, we all say, you know, I got this different disease or whatever going on because my mom had it. Yeah. Or because my aunt had it. Yeah. Or because this person had it. And what I learned is that the thing that's passed down from generally. generation to generation is recipes.

Recipes and habits. In habits. Yeah. Exactly. And it's crazy because for me, when I talk about my first six years in the NBA, right, and nothing against all of this stuff, right? Because you don't know what you don't know. But I didn't even know unsweet tea existed.

Right. I didn't even know there was a such thing as unsweet tea. First of all, I don't drink that. But, like, I grew up, it's sweet tea, right? Give me sweet tea. give me like you don't understand all the sugar all these different things right and so just like with money what I learned is that I have to budget after budget right and food and all that should still be fun yeah right like food should still be an experience but what I learned is I have to budget with

different things that I eat or what I may want to eat because that gut thing when your gut doesn't feel well it'll change your whole day. You'll change your whole mood, attitude, and everything. It probably affects your game, too. Yeah, yeah. I used to get, like, bloated sometimes during games, right? Oh, that's not true. And just, like, real gassy and, like, burping and all this different type of stuff.

But you don't realize that's from a lot of the stuff that you consume it. And it affects your promise. You know, I think you mentioned functions for people listening. You're talking about function health, which is a company that gives you access to all your personal health data. And you're head of the NBA Players Association for a long time. Yeah. And advocating for players, I mean, they were in the 60s, they were making nothing and they were taking advantage of. And so, you know, you've really been one of the leading players in the last decade, didn't care of other players.

Yeah. And one of the things you did was sort of partnered with function health to help get access to data for players. So they would know what's going on their body and they would know what's going on their health. Like, and just like you've done with your test and you said your family is getting to actually understand this. What are you finding out about your family and what are they kind of learning from? Man, tell you true, it's really cool to find out the information that I'm finding out about function health because I'm one of two boys, right? I have an older brother. Having a wife now, having a daughter also, right?

So one of the most interesting things to me was that the women that do the function health, you have to do it twice. You have to get blood work twice. One, when you're on your cycle, one when you're off, right? And that just shows like women dealing with all. a whole lot of things. Yeah. Right? Like,

serious, like hormones and all these different types of things. So, my wife, to find out some of the information that she found out, the thing that I appreciate

so much about function health and especially people in general, but especially like black men, a lot of times you don't go to the doctor. No. Right? Because you don't want to know. Right.

You don't. It's a masculinity thing. It's a scary thing. I think for me, a lot of times it's been like just scared. Yeah. Right? Like you don't know what you're going to find, right?

Exactly. But when you find out, you can actually do something. Yes. Yes. It's actually a relief when you know and you change something and you're like, oh, this will help me. Yeah. This will help me. And I told a story one time before about my dad.

Yeah. I never forget my dad 60th birthday. My dad had just turned 60, and I did a partnership with just egg, right? So my parents, my family, everybody, you know, eating just egg and stuff. And so my dad, I don't think people realize how just subtle changes of not so many juices and all that and just consuming water, what that'll change for you. So my dad just being around and all that stuff, he made a few subtle changes. And my parents are sort of at that age and back home where, unfortunately, they're constantly at funerals. Yeah.

At funerals or friends are sick and diagnosed with this or that. My dad called me, and I was on a 405 driving, and my dad was crying. And so I pulled over. I said, Dad, what's going on? This was on FaceTime. And he said... You're on FaceTime when you're driving? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I answered, right? But now in cars, I got the little thing so you can put the... Yeah, yeah, I'm kidding. Phone over there and whatnot. But I pulled over more so because my dad was, like, crying. Yeah. And I called, Dad, what's wrong? He said he went to the doctor, you know, for his checkup because it was his birthday.

And his doctor asked him what he was doing differently. He said, your numbers, your vital, all this stuff looks so much better. Yeah. And I think my dad was just so emotional because, like I said, for him at his age and having a lot of friends that he's losing and stuff. And it just shows you, you know, my, my biggest, maybe flex is that I have my family. Yeah. Right. And selfishly, what exactly? I want them around. Even if they want to be hardheaded about certain things or whatnot, I've had that conversation with them. I said, you know what, at this point, it's not even about you. It's about the fact that I don't know what I would do without

you. Yeah. Right? So that's why functioned health in making sure that we give everybody and anybody an opportunity to be better. It's true. It's like, you know,

it's the biggest gift you can give someone is the gift of health. And knowing your information, you know, people are scared about it, but people don't realize it like over 90% of your health is determined by what you do, your choices that you make. Like we talked about your food choices and exercise.

You said your dad, you know, we want to golf. You got to exercise. Yeah. Get moving. And people don't realize that you can modify these things. And you find in your tests are not fixed.

They're actually changeable, whether you've got diabetes or whether you've got high blood pressure or you've got low vitamins or you've got hormones that are off. You can fix everything. And that's the thing that you learn with function is you actually have a roadmap on what to do. Exactly. And even for me, being a professional athlete for all these years since I was 19, there's a part of you that feels like invincible. Yeah.

Right? Like, oh, that's what I. happen to them. They ain't going to happen to you. I'm telling you, after 35 and then, especially at 40, at 40, I'm at the age where I've lost people that I know or people that have different, you know, sickness, disease and all this stuff. So it becomes really real. And what do you notice and find out that you didn't know about yourself from testing? I had really bad gut issues, right? And I think that's from stress. Yeah. Right. And that is the biggest marker, right? One of the things, that's a great question you just asked me, because when you

ask me, I'm like, well, there's a whole lot of things. Yeah. But one of the things that I try to pay a very close attention to is cortisol. Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. And that's one of those things that... It's your adrenals, yeah. Like, stress levels, you can become stress thinking about being stressed. Yeah. Like, seriously. Well, stress is what happens between your ears. Huh? Stress is what happens between your ears and it registers in your body. Yes. You think about heart and how all this stuff can be affected. And I think for me, um,

knowing the different gut issues that I've had have been somewhat stress related. Mm. And it's trying to simplify things if you can, right? Because the hustle and bustle of life, you all want to work. We want to do this. You want to do this. You want to do this.

You want to do this. And so I found that I have to sometimes say, let's take a break. Slow down. Slow down. Let's chill. Let's reset. Let's make sure I get around my family because trying to be everything for everybody, it'll run you ragged. And what you learn, too, is everyone thinks that money is everything.

Right? And there's a lot of things that can come with it, but it can't buy you happiness. It can't buy you peace. It can give you convenience and all these different things. but the thing that money can't buy you is health. Health, that's right. And when you see that, when you see this person that has all this wealth, you know, get sick or whatnot, there's nothing you can pay a doctor or something like that.

There's no pill or anything like that yet that you can buy and it says, give me a clean bill of health. Well, it's mostly what we do to ourselves. I mean, that's what you've learned for yourself is if you want to have a long career in basketball, you've got to take care of your health. And it's not just exercising. It's what you're eating. it's what you're putting your body.

It's a substance that you're taking. And you only can know what to do if you actually get the data, right? Yeah, and I just thought about something when you said that too, which you also realize is that it's really an individual journey, right? As much as like I love being on a team and being together, it's an individual journey because no matter if it's your spouse, your partner, whatever it is, you can't make that person get up and exercise. right you can't pass like

like some of your heart to that person right so I did lock my mother in my house once and for three months and I made her eat everything I gave her she lost like 30 pounds she reversed her heart failure her lungs got better so they get off her oxygen it was pretty amazing but she I made her out go on an exercise bike because she never like to exercise out what lot she used well she she couldn't drive

she was really sick and she could go anywhere so she just had to eat what I gave her and how was she like like afterwards, not health, but. Emotionally, and she was so happy, she could live on her own again, she was functioning. Of course, then when she went back to live on her own, she started bad habits again. She went this to make.

Right, but at least that was something. She got a chance to say. Yeah, I mean, but, you know, it's, the thing is, you know, when people know the data and information, there's things that they can do. And so whether it's your dad making those changes after learning his lab data and getting insights about his health that he would have known,

or you're making changes that improve your performance in health and well-being, or, you know, giving this gift is a powerful gift. Information is king. And you're doing this for the NBA players, too. So how do you imagine them using this? Because you mentioned a lot of guys just don't pay attention to their health.

Yeah, so I tell you, one of the things that I'm probably most proud of as the president of union, the time that I was there, was that we're the only sports league that has health insurance for retired players. Yeah, that's right. Right? Only sports league that have that. And so retired players, every so often in different regions, we have like clinics that players can show up and go to. And there have been a number of players who have been to these clinics and they found out different things. The legend, Tiny Archibald, I never forget when he went, he found out that he had a heart condition.

Right. And because of that, they were able to save him. Yeah. Right. And so for all the different players in the league to be able to use function, it is a, it's a tool, right? It's a, it's a. Are you hearing stories from them? Not yet.

A lot of guys are kind of private with their things, but you will. You will at some point because you know the average career for NBA player? Ten years? No. Not even close. It's like three and a half. Really? Yeah.

Because a lot of times people see the stories of, you know, myself, Kyle Lari, LeBron, all this stuff like that. Yeah, but you don't see the guys who come in for a year and then they go overseas. For the time period that guys are in the league, the fact that you get a chance to get exposed to function health, right? If your career is on the shorter side, at least you've been exposed to this, right? Talking about, like, how I was exposed to the food sensitivity test. Yeah. Right. Once guys get exposed to it, right? And it's something that guys can do, because there's a lot of things that when you're in the NBA, you'd be like, oh, yeah, we just get this because we're in the NBA. You want to find those different things that more of the masses can lean into. Yeah. Right. Yeah. It's only a dollar a day. So most people, not everybody, most people can afford a dollar a day for their health. And that's what I'm saying. So that's why this is such a game changer because it is for more people. Yeah, and it gives, you know, as we're, as we're, as we're functioning as becoming,

you know, a more mature company, we're actually building more intelligence into the product. And so it gets smarter and smarter and we're able to guide people on actually what to do. So it's sort of like, you know, supports them in decision making about their own health, helps them work with their doctor better. It really creates an ecosystem where they can actually change their health and see the change over time. And I think we never had that before. You had to go to the doctor. You had to get insurance.

But people wouldn't go. And it's, it's empowering people. in a way that we never had before. And you know, like, you can see this with your own family. Like, they're probably finding out all kinds of stuff they didn't know about themselves. And they're able to say, oh, wait a minute, I can do something about it.

And the fact that you get to go to your phone and you can look at it and you can see it and you can check what's going on. And you don't have to wait a week or two weeks for the doctor to tell you, you know, this is what's going on with you, right? And the fact that you can communicate and talk with somebody to tell you how to get better at it, because there's a lot of things that,

the things that I learned about food, right when I said I went plant-based. Yeah. Right. I started learning about all types of stuff that I had no clue about, right? Like I grew up in North Carolina. Like my snacks was little Debbie's oatmeal cream pods, right? And then being out here in California.

Little Debbie's, yep. Yeah. And then being out here in California and my kids growing up asking for seaweed. Yeah. Asking for seaweed and they coming up to me. Norie. Norris. They breath smell like the ocean.

Right. It's different, but you don't know what you don't know. And so, like you said, the information that function is able to give you is amazing. Yeah. Was there anything in your results that were surprised you that you were like, hey, I didn't know this and I would never have found this out? I'll be very honest with you. When you first get your results back, it's a lot.

It's a lot. It's a lot. It's kind of scary, right? Because I'm a self-diagnosed hypochondriac, right? So when I see the different levels or whatnot and they say this, marker right here should be here, I'm dying. Yeah. I'm dying. I'm dying. I already died. I'm dying. You know, but... I just scored 42 points, but I'm dying.

Right, right, right. But to not just get the results, right? Because there's sometimes, like, people give you results and be like, here you go. All right? And then you're like, what do I do with this? Yeah. What am I supposed to do? And so to have someone that can coach you... More supportive, yeah. Yes, the support. The support is necessary to be like, this is probably just like this because you were doing this, right? Or have you eaten a lot of this? Yeah. Or have you been-

Too much tuna fish and you didn't know that sushi or Mercury's really high. Mercury's really high. You know, I think you mentioned, you know, people don't have a dashboard for their health. Like they can go on their phone and they can look at their bank account. Yep. They can check their stocks or whatever. But they can't have a dashboard for their help. But now people can.

Yeah. And that's the beauty of this. And it's continuous over time. It's just like you don't check your bank account once. I'm good. I'm checking the rest of my life. You keep checking and make sure you're okay. And it's the same thing with your health.

You've got to keep after it. And to get the information, and even me being a professional athlete, feeling like I know so many different things. I have a nutritionist, her name is Mary, who works with me, right? Who coaches me on my results and all these different things

and try to figure out how it can make it more performance-based and all this stuff. And it's been amazing for me because, right? Like saying I'm 40. Yeah, at my age at 40. Don't the day over 35. I need every little advantage that I can get, every little edge that I can get. And so.

You're playing against guys 15 years younger than you. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, I'm paying attention to what I eat. So if games at 7 o'clock, I know my pregame is usually three hours before, right? Four o'clock, I usually eat my pregame meal. then an hour before the game, I have a snack, right? And so a game will start half time.

I have another snack because people don't realize the game is three hours long, right? So one of the things that I didn't like to do early in my career is, and I'm sure there are plenty of people like this in the world, like when you're exercising, you don't like to drink. No, right. Right? You don't like to drink. But I actually, in my brain, I've blamed a few of my injuries. on hydration. Being dehydrated, yeah.

Yep. I'm being hydrated. Dehydrated. Yeah. Had one of my trainers, you know, in the past few years or whatnot, whenever I come out the game, I would like, give me my drink even if I don't even ask for it. Yeah. Right?

Because you have to for that amount of time that you're playing and- You're having electrolytes too. Exactly. That's the other thing too. I think a lot of times people think you're just drinking water. No, you need electrolytes because you have to replenish, right? And so all that that is, you just drinking water. stuff when I became a lot more intentional and dialed in with that, changed everything.

And you said you noticed, you mentioned earlier we were chatting, he said, when you change your diet, like your face looks different. Oh, man. Or swollen or puffy and less inflammation in your body, better recovery, less injuries. I'm going to tell you this. Talking basketball, I was a real live killer when I played in New Orleans, right? Like, I, downhill, I was before I had knee surgery and all that stuff. But it's so funny for me to look at pictures of me back.

then, right? And in weight, I may have been a lighter. I think I was, but I look so much heavier because my face is so much fuller. And like you said, like I know now that that's inflammation. Yeah. That's inflammation. And so that's how you can pick up on the blood test too. You picked that up on the blood test, but I think what happens and why, like, I'm not a hoarder of information. If I learn something, I want nothing more than to pass it to the next person. But people will be like, yo, man, you don't hurt. You don't eat. Like how are you still playing? They'd be like, man, if I go out and play right now, I hurt so bad.

But it's because I found the different things for me that. Recovery. Yeah, recovery. And I eliminated as much inflammation as possible. And then when I make choices, right, that I know could possibly cause some inflammation, then I try to take the proper steps or whatnot to get rid of it. Yeah, you know, to adjust it. So what's it like an average day for you look like when you're playing in

terms of how you take care of your body, what you eat, and how you rest, how you recover from games. And walk us through it. Because, you know, it's unusual. I mean, you know, Tom Brady played, but, you know, he's quarterback and he's just, he's, he's, he's, he gives a few seconds of intense things. Exactly. I'm running up down the court. You're like, going, going, right? Yeah. And I love Tommy's a friend, but like, yeah. And I'm having to guard, these point guards, right, who 19, 20 years old and all that stuff like that, that's real shifty and all the stuff. But that's the competitiveness that comes in. And that's what makes me.

So on giving days, I mean, at one point, I felt like I was having digestion issues. So I'll wake up in the morning. I have celery juice, right? I got to do that. And then, you know, when I was with the clippers, what I would do is I would leave. We practiced, I think, at like 11.

So say practice at 11. I mean, I'm out of my house because it would take me 40 minutes to get to the practice facility, I would leave my house around 6.6.30. Yeah, I'm up early. I'm up early. And I'm gone. I get to the arena and my trainer, Donnie.

We would be in the gym and we would lift. Like, that's the other thing that I, the older I got, the more I lifted. Yeah. Right? Like, that's the thing that I'm sure you know as far as like muscle mass and all that stuff. The older you get, the more days,

like the days, you take off the body, you know, you don't use it, you lose it. Yeah. When you're younger, you kind of got a lot of hormones going on. And then when you're older, you got to, I know, I'm 66. I get it. Yeah, you got to keep. I get after it every day. Yeah, exactly. So I'm at the gym, dining, me and my trainer, we lift in probably like 730 to 845 or so. And then I would go eat. I would go make sure I get my protein and all that stuff in before practice because practice is at 11. And then I would, uh, I would usually be on the court, maybe like around 9.30. Is coffee good or bad for me? This is a question I get asked all the time.

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And when your cookware performs well, you're not worrying about hot spots or uneven cooking. You're focused on flavor and nourishment. Try it today. Visit Maidencookware.com and use the code Hyman10 for 10% off your order. So we'll be there at breakfast with a protein. Because being vegan, it's a little more challenging to get protein. that actually built muscle, you needed different combinations of amino acids and things.

So how do you work around that? I mean, when I was fully plant-based, I would do that. But because I've started to incorporate, like, fish and all these different things, it would vary, you know what I mean, on a given day, like maybe smoke salmon and things like that. So do that in the morning. And then after practice, well, practice is over. I'm laughing because I've had so many different stages of my. career. Yeah. Right. It was, it was when me and my brother just lived together. Yeah, eating pizza.

It was me and my girlfriend, right? Yeah. Then she became my wife. Then we had one kid. Then we had two kids. So now like when practice get over, dad starts. Right? Dad starts. So now is go home, uh, eat lunch. Um, well, after practice, depending on what I have on my schedule that day, uh, do you like the red light beds, the trifects? The trifects? Yeah, yeah. I would do that before or after practice, and I usually try to do a sauna. Sauna, like 20 minutes.

Yep, and cold plunge. You use like hyperbarics too? Yeah, I've done hyperbaric, that's crazy. I need to go back. I ain't did that probably in the last month. The house recovery, too. Absolutely. I used to have one in my house, like the one where you zip up here.

Yep, the blow up one. They actually got the ones here in Beverly Hills where like two people, three people can go in. Yeah, a big hard one, yeah. Yeah, you can actually like watch TV in them. and stuff right. I'm open to all the different things, right? But what I try to do is there's so much monotony in life, right?

Like with drills and all this stuff. So with my recovery, I try to change things up, right? So some days I'll do cold tub. Some days I'll do cold tub, hot tub, contrast, right? So someday it'll be massage, right? So just depending on how I feel. Why pick once you tomorrow the same day? No, that's a long day.

I know. That's a long day. But the other thing that the days or whatnot, what's really nice about the sauna or the red light bed, all these different things, is the time without your phone. Right? The time to connect. The time to just sort of be in daydream. I sort of talk about this all the time. time as far as like kids with phones or iPads is growing up when we were in a car with our parents

and we would be riding in the back seat and our parents would be listening to whatever they wanted to listen to. You would catch yourself just looking out the back window, right? And the trees just going by and then you just start daydreaming. Yeah. About any and everything. Like a meditation almost. Exactly. And with the speed of life and everything going on in the world, now where it's always an app, there's always a show, there's always something, there's very few time for us to disconnect. Yeah. And so I find in those times it gives me an opportunity to be.

Well, that's how you focus and be so focused as you are to succeed at something, because you can't be on your phone all the time if you want to be an elite athlete, right? Or you want to be successful in anything in life. Yeah, anything in life. But that's what basketball always has been and has been a safe haven. and just sort of a happy place. So when you can get out there on the court, a lot of guys probably don't even think about it.

Yes, you love playing basketball, but what it is is you love being and not being on your phone and someone asking you for something or doing something like that. You don't even have your phone on the court? Exactly. They probably lock it in the locker room, don't they? Oh, yeah, it's gone.

It's gone. That's right. So, Chris, I want to ask you also about sleep because, you know, you can work out, you can eat well, but you're on the road all the time. Yeah. Different cities, different time zones. playing at different times, and all the circadian rhythms get screwed up.

How do you handle taking care of your sleep? Man, sleep is everything, and I don't have my aura ring on now, which is crazy. But I think about sleep as just as important as the diet and the food and everything. And what's interesting is that I'm a napper, right? That's good. I'm a napper. And let my family tell you, they probably say I'm narcoleptic. But because of the days, right?

The days are so long and I'm up so early. And, you know, when you play in the NBA, you're on these planes and you get out of this high, intense game. And then you fly and land at 2 a.m. Then you got practice at 10, right? So I don't get eight hours every night. No. But when I do get home or whatnot and I'm sitting there, I will nap. I will fall asleep.

time to do that because. Napping is a very good power skill if you can do it. Yeah, I have to, especially in season on a game day. On a game day, I allow myself two hours. To nap. To nap. To nap. Going to a room, phone go on, do not disturb.

I want the lights, dark, right? Like, you constantly learning stuff. Little tricks. Yeah, little tricks. But even my wife, right, because I played six years away. Like six years, I lived away from my family. one year in Oklahoma City, three years in Phoenix, one year in Golden State, and then one year in San Antonio, right? So my wife now, she's like, she would always sleep with the TV on, right?

But she would do that because she's home alone. She said she's hearing things, right? Yeah. Like just the anxiety. Exactly. So she would sleep with the TV on. And since this season, when I've been back home, like I'll tell her. I'd be like, okay, we got to cut that off because I heard that like when you're sleeping,

even if the TV's on, it's like doing something to your brain and all that. So you all I see, just last night, I woke up in the middle of night. I was like, cut that damn TV. But the sleep thing is so important. And I tell you this with aura, which has been amazing because you can see what affects it. You can see what it affects you. It tells you your deep sleep, tells you all of these different types of things. And so we had a playoff game, 2021.

we were playing against the Clippers, ironically, when I was with Phoenix, and this was like game six, the game that could take us to the NBA finals. And the funniest thing about Oro is, I mean, I would be on the bus headed to a game, and it would say, like, you should be winding down right now, and I'm like, winding down. I'm winding up. I got to get up. I got 30 points I got this game going on. But one of the best games I ever played in my career, I woke up that morning.

And you know, like when you get a good night's rest, it'll tell you. Give you a score. It'll give you a score and it'll usually give you a message. Yeah. Mine that morning said, bring it on. Bring it on. I never forget it.

It said, bring it on. My aura ring told me that when I was about to have COVID. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I missed two games in a playoff series because that was the year that COVID was going on. But my oral ring was telling me that my body temperature was elevated. Heart ring.

And all that. Sleep. Yeah. is everything. And you, in my profession, you also have to be able to function on... Little sleep. Little sleep.

Kind of like a doctor. Yeah. Exactly. No, seriously. And I know pretty high functioning people that don't always get a whole lot of sleep. And I've never been, I don't, eight, nine hours? Who doing that?

That's not me. I'm not going to lie. I try. But when you do, you take the time to really do it. And you see the difference in like when you bring it on, when you had a good score, you got 41 points. Yes. And I believe in napping. Knapping.

All right. That's the trick, folks. Nap if you can, when you can. You do a lot of sort of nonprofit work too and food access and try to help people. Maybe share a little bit about that because I think it's, you know, you're trying to get back in a way to help empower people around their health. Always trying to get back to empower people, but also a lot of things that our foundation do, we start with kids, right? start with kids because kids, they're very open to learning, right? They're very open to learning. If you can introduce things to kids, sometimes people don't realize, but kids are teaching their

parents things. Even think about technology, social media and all the stuff. Like kids are teaching their parents. So if you can teach kids different eating habits or different things like that, which is already changing, right, as far as like snacks or whatnot. So my snack company, good eating, right? Like the, the whole purpose of that was to leave with taste, obviously, but there are clean ingredients. That's right. Right. So if you can start with that, because obviously food, like breakfast, lunch, and dinner or whatever, it's hard to change that aspect. But people in general, like, if we were sitting here talking, I should have brought the snacks anyway, but people just find themselves snacking. Yeah, yeah.

Right? So when we talked about budgeting, right? So if you can at least enjoy the snacks that you eat and know that you don't have all these different crap in them. Crap in them. That was the whole point of me starting my snack company because, like I said, I'm a snacker. Right. I like food. And so I wanted to make sure that at least when you're doing that, you're not feeling guilty and feeling bad that you're putting junk into your.

Yeah, I saw some of those cook your recipes. They were kind of interesting. The ingredients were pretty clean, but they were like, you'd think they're. wouldn't be, right? Like, Ragers or, like, cookies and cream popcorn. Exactly, exactly. And that's because. I'm like, wait a minute, Chris.

Wait a minute. I checked it out. I was like, all right. Well, that's because, right, like, I mean, if I said, like, these kids are still eating Doritos and Cheetos and stuff like that every day. You know what I mean? Like, why not have something that, um, that tastes good, but have better ingredients than that. And our kids liking it?

Love it. Yeah. Love it. Amazing. Wow. And how do you think about the next phase of your life? Yeah, I'm excited about it. I have a production company. I have the snack company. I have a lot of other things that I want to continue to work on. But the thing that I'm most excited about is being present, right? With your family. Exactly. Being present for my family, even for my friends, right? Like, I'm so grateful for the life that I've been able to enjoy and play for all of these years. But I haven't been able to show up. for friends, for my family, for them for a very, very long time.

So I'm really excited about that. And that's a hard thing. You know, success always comes to the price, right? You've got to work hard. You've got to do a lot. And, you know, your job entails a lot of travel, which means being away from your family. And that's got to be one of the hardest parts.

And people don't realize that. But it's so much gratitude. It's been an unbelievable journey in my family. Everybody's been able to go on this ride with me. But now, you know, it's time to do something different. One of the things I want to touch back on what you said, which I think is really important is the power of community

and doing things together, whether it's your teammates, whether it's with your family. You know, you kind of were chatting on another podcast about this group of friends you had since you were a kid and how you have a group chat. And they know you not as Chris Paul, the NBA player, but like just as dude, it's like... You know, to speak on that, my homies,

my fellow's group chat back home. My boy, John John, I think it was John John or Petey, probably like a week ago, which I need to follow up with them because we talked about it, but then nobody put it in motion. We said we was going to do something for like a month. Yeah. We was going to make a month challenge of, but because everybody's body type is different,

we was going to do like a body fat loss or something like that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we said we was going to do that, but nobody followed up, which just I need to follow up. Yeah. Because that's fun to do. Keep each other accountable, yeah. It keeps everybody accountable.

And my homies, I love y'all to death, but everybody definitely got different body types. Yeah. Well, you know, as you get older, it's like, you don't pay attention. No, no, no, no, very different body type. And everybody makes sure they tell each other in the chat just about every other day. But we can't just do body fat because a couple of them,

they got a lot to lose. They got a lot to lose. My homies, I'm excited about doing this challenge with them because we said we was going to do, and I don't know that. You might know how to, Like, how do we make it competitive for all of us if we all... Well, you just say the percent.

Like the percent amount of... But the thing is, you're not going to lose a lot because you're going to win the contest because you're already pretty... We've got to figure out how to make it competitive now. They can't just win just because they... No, no, no, no. My cousin Rod, my cousin's suit. Well, suit, no, but...

Yeah, you can figure that out because it's a percent, you know, of change, right? It matters. Like, where are you start? Like, how much can you improve? Yeah. But if you're already really good, it's hard to get that extra end. If you, like, get that extra point one second on 100-yard dash is not easy. Yeah, we don't figure it out, because that's going to be a fun competition to do with them.

Yeah, well, actually, I created a program that's a, we do a group program. We call it the 10-day detox, but you can do it for a month. And essentially, it's where people eat an anti-inflammatory diet for a month. Yeah. And they get reset and all their numbers get better. You can do function before and after, and you can compete on, you can even compete on that. I'm going to put that in the chat, dear. Yeah.

I'm going to put that in chat. Get them all function, $36 a year. I'm serious. I'm serious. I'm serious. I'm going to put it in the chat. because that's actually been some of the coolest days for me, right? Like my homies that I'm talking about, my fellow's group chat,

I never get to see them, right? We usually go on a trip once every summer, usually every season. I try to bring them out to a game, but they have lives. They have things going on. But it'd be so dope when one of the guys or something put in the chat or we all get on FaceTime and we look at,

I remember we looked at my cousin Rod one time when we was all on FaceTime and his face had just looked so different. We was like, yo, what you got going on over there? He was like, man, I've been basically doing like a detox or something like that. So to have real friends that you can encourage to do things like that, because these are my like real friends since we were, since we were younger. And some of them have had different health issues. And when you find out these guys, like, they're in the hospital, you're like, what?

Yeah. You know, they're in the hospital. Don't take care of yourself. It catches up fast. Yeah. So I'm going to definitely put that in the group chat. So everybody's got to remember. It's really about, you know, doing it together, right?

Health and enjoying life and enjoying experiences. And the only way we get a chance to do that is with our health. Last question is, Chris, you're looking back to your 22-old self and you're giving him some advice. What would you advise him to do? Ooh, I'm looking back at my 22-year-old self. Health advice. You know what?

Honestly, I probably wouldn't have did anything. that different, right? And I say that because I've learned so much. You had crispy creams and McGrittle? Yeah, yeah. I had to, right? I had to. And nothing against it or whatnot,

but I met, like, kids that have never had a cheeseburger or never had a, well, not a cheeseburger, but hamburger because I don't like cheese anyway. But they've never even experienced any of those things, right? So the things that I've gotten a chance to, to eat and understand. Like, I learned, I learned a lot. 22, where it was?

I was still playing in New Orleans at the time. Maybe, maybe not as, man, my chef used to make this crispy cream bread pudding. Whoa. That's what I'm saying. I can't say that I wouldn't. Crispy cream, red pudding. It's definitely on the Dr. Hyman diet.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But probably at that age, what I would have done, honestly, if I could do anything different. it's not as much sugar. Yeah. Because I didn't know. Sugar, yeah. Sugar is most inflammation.

Everything that I had then, right? Like I was, man, to think about what I would have like for dinner, right? Like, I would have, you know, like fried chicken, sweet tea finished with that crispy cream bread put. Wow. And then while I was chilling, watching games at night, I'd go in there and get me a honey bun. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I was around probably double back, go get me an oatmeal green. you were running up and down the court all day. You would have been two, three hundred pounds. Absolutely. Absolutely. Amazing. Well, Chris, thanks for being an example for how to take care of yourself and how to get back to the world and taking care of the players and, you know, telling the world about, you know, why it's important for everybody to take care of their house. So thank you so much. Thank you. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman.

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