In this episode we talk with world renowned urologist Dr. Tracy Gapin about how declining testosterone is becoming a silent epidemic among men and women.
Dr. Gapin talks about the causes of why testosterone is dropping and why this decline is such a big concern. He also addressed the symptoms and things to look out for, but more importantly, the things you can do to combat this epidemic.
If you are a husband (or wife) that has noticed a decrease in your sexual desire, energy levels, focus, weight management and overall well being, you need to listen to this episode.
If you haven't already, go check out the Ultimate Intimacy App in the app stores, or at ultimateintimacy.com to find "Ultimate Intimacy" in your marriage. It's FREE to download and so much fun! Find out why over 650,000 couples have downloaded the app and give it such high ratings and reviews!
WANT AMAZING PRODUCTS TO SPICE THINGS UP? YES PLEASE... CLICK HERE
Enter promo code UIAPP for 10% off your purchase (and free shipping in the US)
The Ultimate Intimacy Sexual Intimacy Marriage Course can be found HERE
The Intimacy and Adventure Marriage Retreat to connect on a deeper level as a couple! Find out more at https://ultimateintimacy.com/retreats/
Follow us on Instagram @ultimateintimacyapp for app updates, polls, giveaways, daily marriage quotes and more.
If you have any feedback, comments or topics you would like to hear on future episodes, reach out to us at amy@ultimateintimacy.com and let us know! We greatly appreciate your feedback and please leave us a review.
In this episode we talk with world renowned urologist Dr. Tracy Gapin about how declining testosterone is becoming a silent epidemic among men and women.
Dr. Gapin talks about the causes of why testosterone is dropping and why this decline is such a big concern. He also addressed the symptoms and things to look out for, but more importantly, the things you can do to combat this epidemic.
If you are a husband (or wife) that has noticed a decrease in your sexual desire, energy levels, focus, weight management and overall well being, you need to listen to this episode.
If you haven't already, go check out the Ultimate Intimacy App in the app stores, or at ultimateintimacy.com to find "Ultimate Intimacy" in your marriage. It's FREE to download and so much fun! Find out why over 650,000 couples have downloaded the app and give it such high ratings and reviews!
WANT AMAZING PRODUCTS TO SPICE THINGS UP? YES PLEASE... CLICK HERE
Enter promo code UIAPP for 10% off your purchase (and free shipping in the US)
The Ultimate Intimacy Sexual Intimacy Marriage Course can be found HERE
The Intimacy and Adventure Marriage Retreat to connect on a deeper level as a couple! Find out more at https://ultimateintimacy.com/retreats/
Follow us on Instagram @ultimateintimacyapp for app updates, polls, giveaways, daily marriage quotes and more.
If you have any feedback, comments or topics you would like to hear on future episodes, reach out to us at amy@ultimateintimacy.com and let us know! We greatly appreciate your feedback and please leave us a review.
You are listening to the Ultimate Intimacy Podcast, where we discuss how to find ultimate intimacy in your relationship. We believe that, no matter how many years you've been married, you can achieve passion, romance, happiness and ultimate intimacy at any stage of your life. Join us as we talk to not only marriage experts, but couples just like yourself and people who are just flat out fun. The Ultimate Intimacy Podcast is for couples who have a good relationship but want to make it even better.
Speaker 3:It's the Ultimate Intimacy Podcast with Nick and Amy, and today we're really excited for our guest. We have Dr Tracy Gappin, who is a board certified urologist and world renowned health and performance expert, and also the founder of the Gappin Institute. He has over 20 years experience in the field and is also a TEDx speaker, so we are again very excited to have you on the podcast today. We feel like this is a fantastic subject that we really need to talk about. So today's episode is titled how Declining Testosterone is Becoming a Silent Epidemic Among Men and, I would add, probably among women. So welcome to the podcast. It's absolute pleasure to have you here with us today.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much, nick, and Amy as well. Great to be here with you.
Speaker 3:So kind of as hit upon briefly. You know, we do a ton of polls with our audience and we have a pretty large audience and just we're always asking different questions and we really are finding that this is a very big problem among people in general, among men and women in general, and so it's going to be great to visit with you about this. But what I mean, what do you think is leading? Well, I guess, starting out, you called an epidemic, and the word epidemic is pretty serious, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So explain why you're calling this an epidemic and how serious this is really getting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thanks so much. So this is a great problem that I don't think is going to be any attention it deserves, and I call it an epidemic because this is a worldwide problem. So there are three longitudinal studies that actually look at this. One is the male Massachusetts aging study both men and women over 20 years. There's a similar study in Sweden and a similar study in Finland. All three studies followed both men and women for 20 to 30 years and looked at lab values, and what they found was, especially in men, we saw a precipitous decline in testosterone levels by almost 45% Wow. And so we're looking at free testosterone, which is the bioavailable active hormone testosterone, and in all three studies, anywhere from 30 to 45% decline over those 20 to 30 years. Wow. Now we know for every individual, as we age, yes, testosterone drops by about 1% a year or so, but that's not what the study showed. This study showed that a 50 year old man today has a free testosterone level is about 45% less than a 50 year old guy 20 years ago Wow, massive. And we see similar findings in women as well.
Speaker 2:So it's not just men, but this is not just about sex building, muscle aesthetics. Testosterone is vitally important when it comes to energy, when it comes to cognitive function, focus, memory, mental acuity, when it comes to personality and mood, when it comes to metabolism, when it comes to our ability to burn fat, our ability to burn, to build muscle and health is actually tied to cardiovascular health. All studies have shown that those with low testosterone have a markedly increased risk of major average cardiovascular disease and a major average cardiac event about a 30% difference. So we know that testosterone is critically important and you know it gets all the attention in men, and my passion focus has always been men's health and my you know, 25 year career in urology and hyperphometeal, but also for you know, amy's audience for the women as well. It affects the women also. Women need testosterone, as it's a hormone that's important for both of us, and so it's important that we pay homage to it and honor it, and that's why I call it an epidemic.
Speaker 3:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:I was just gonna say I love that you brought up just health in general and listed all those things, because I don't think we realize how important our basic health is is when it comes to relationships and marriage, because our physical, our mental, our spiritual, like everything is so intertwined and, like you said, mood all these different things totally affect your relationship. So taking care of your physical health is like key and such a big part of having such an amazing marriage, right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, you know it's. It's not just about sex and people have this tendency to kind of clump them together. And, yes, it's important for sex, driving libido, and that's one of the first symptoms. But a lot of it is subtle. I can't tell you how many times I've seen men that I work with, or the women that my team works with here, the Gavin Institute, who think they're doing okay and they just want to maybe lose 10, 15, 20 pounds. And we start working through protocols and putting together a comprehensive approach and suddenly they realize how their mind wasn't even close to functioning at the highest level. Suddenly their energy is different, their mood is different, they're more alive and they feel like the amazing individual that they should be. And so it's a sometimes a slow, subtle decay that we don't even realize until we correct it and recognize how far we had declined For sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, those are. Those are crazy statistics and, again, just like Amy said, I love that you kind of hit on everything because as a man, you typically think, oh, your testosterone level is really sex drive and maybe energy. But there is, there is so much more and those things are so vital to living a long, good and healthy life and having a great relationship and marriage. What, what are they finding that are the causes of this decline? Yeah, great question.
Speaker 2:There are a number of causes. I think it's very clear that the biggest culprit is toxins in our environment. Okay, endocrine disruptors that's the fancy term for chemicals or toxins in our environment that alter endocrine function, alter hormone function. They could do that through decreasing production of that hormone. They can mimic that hormone to block that hormone from having its effect on the androgen or hormone receptor, or can actually block the receptor from having its effect on the endocrine. They block the receptor from responding to the hormone. So multiple different mechanisms of action.
Speaker 2:But we're talking about things like herbicides and pesticides that are sprayed in our crops. So everyone hears about glyphosate. Of course, atrazine is one that's not very well known. It's actually the most second second commonly to use herbicide behind. Glyphosate has been clearly shown to crush testosterone levels in animal studies and we have massive levels of atrazine on our food, on our crops. There are studies that will look at human urine samples and there are massive levels of atrazine that can be detected. And so we know that our food's a big problem. We know that our water is a big problem. You know our drinking water is laden with numerous chemicals, including synthetic estrogen.
Speaker 2:So, women's birth control. You know, synthetic women's birth control does not get adequately filtered through our treatment plants, our municipal treatment, our water centers, and so if you were to measure your drinking water from your top, you're going to have high levels of synthetic estrogen that acts like glue to that androgen receptor and blocks testosterone and it has a very estrogenic effect. We can look at plastics. You know, plastic water bottles are probably one of the biggest culprits around us everywhere. Plastic, you know, gay array bottles, any kind of plastic container that stores either drinking liquids or fluids or water, or plastics that are holding food. Wow, you know, like storage containers, like like to go containers, especially if it's hot food, those plastics they're made of BPA, bisphenol A and phalates which will leach into the food and you're eating it and absorbing it and it goes straight to your fat, your visceral fat cells, your adipose tissue, and it stays there and it crushes testosterone production and testosterone function.
Speaker 2:Wow, Look at perfect care products like laundry detergent, sunscreen, soap, shampoo deodorant almost anything you're putting on your body is full of chemicals that have a lot of been shown, study after study, to crush androgen testosterone production and function. And what's amazing is that most other countries in the world these chemicals have been banned or outlawed, and in the US a lot of those chemicals are still being used in everyday products. Pretty scary. Why is that? Do you think yes?
Speaker 2:it's lack of regulation, it's money, it's you know how lobbyists work, how you know how you can get a lot of people to use it, and I think it's. You know how lobbyists work, how it's. It's this fine balance between appropriate regulation and heavy handedness. I think there's always that battle of how much regulation is too much. But this is clearly affecting our health. It's clearly affecting not just sexual function, not just cardiovascular health. It's actually affecting fertility as well. You know, along with testosterone, we see that fertility rates have declined by 50% in that same time span. Wow, and we believe it's because these chemicals are not just affecting hormone production, but they're also affecting germ cells, you know, sperm cells, ovaries, et cetera. And so 50% decline in fertility. And I made a very bold statement previously, and I'll hold to this that if we don't change something, in 20 years the entire population is going to be infertile. Wow, and that's because it's getting worse every year and there's no end in sight.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that is scary, that is scary stuff.
Speaker 2:It really is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but and this is maybe outside your expertise, but I'm going to ask this question anyways what role do you think technology and like social media use and things like that play as well? Because I know we've had experts on and we talk about that how you know. I guess taking your mind or focusing more on those things obviously is going to decrease the desire for sexual intimacy and things like that. We've actually had some polls to where, like 52% of men say they would rather, you know, lose a finger than you know, give up their device, or they would rather give up sex than give up their device, and it's just kind of crazy. Do you think there's any role that plays in dropping testosterone levels as far as the technology side of things, or?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good question. You know you can look at the EMF. So, first of all, you think of any wireless device, whether it's your cell phone, whether it's especially if you're wearing the AirPod or any sort of Bluetooth device like that, especially if it's on your bedside stand at night while you're sleeping. That EMF is affecting your brain, which affects testosterone production, without question. You're holding a phone up to your head or those Bluetooth devices are affecting neurons in your brain which certainly affect testosterone production. So when you look at decline in testosterone I believe in the study support that toxins are by far the biggest cause.
Speaker 2:But you can also look at stress. You look at poor nutrition. You look at, you know, lack of activity. You look at poor sleep is a big culprit. Micronutrient deficiency, gut health issues are massive, and so the this world of social media, this world of lack of activity, is world of social isolation with, with devices, can definitely tie into all what you're saying there as well, Nick. Yeah, the other big one that I think is just worth mentioning as well as porn, addictions are really problem in society and how it's crushing men's desire to be into it with their partner. When they are with their partner, they can't produce, they can't perform like they normally could because they have this unrealistic expectation in their mind that's been imprinted by this porn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's dopamine receptors and it has a devastating consequence on the, your actual brain physiology.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you brought that up, because our previous two episodes were just discussing that exact same thing, and so that you know I'm. That falls perfectly in line with what you just said, which absolutely affects your health.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, so, as you're talking about all these things, as a man I'm thinking, man, there's, there's a lot of things that are causing this. How do we know, or how can we look for the signs that maybe we have low testosterone? Because, as Amy said, you know, we as men are, like you know, macho and like oh, there's nothing wrong with me, I'm totally good, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, what are?
Speaker 3:some maybe the signs that we as men and also women can can maybe maybe watch or identify.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you asked this and man we're talking before we got online here that you know how men are. We're simple creatures and we're, like you know it ain't broke the big kind of mentality where we will not seek help until the last possible man. It's almost like asking for directions when you're traveling. I'd rather figure out myself. Guys are guilty of that and when it comes to our health, we're notoriously terrible where we'll wait till things are really bad before we seek help. But signs like lack of focus, lack of concentration at work, where you can't quite think as sharply, as clearly as you could before. One of the guys I work with, one of my clients. He's a race car driver and he actually came to see me because he told me how his decision making on the track was just off, like something wasn't right.
Speaker 1:That's dangerous.
Speaker 2:So it could be something like that. It could be that that you know at work you just feel like you've lost your confidence because you can't think quickly. It may be that that two or three in the afternoon you want to take a nap. There's a lot of guys that want to get an athlete the day. That's a problem. You should not want to take a nap.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Not be able to make it through the day, not being interested in your partner at night, of course. I've heard this a lot where you know, early in the relationship the man was chasing the life and suddenly the roles were reversed. So I think that couples come in and the woman thinks that he's cheating on her because he's not interested in her and has nothing to do with infidelity, has to do with physiology and hormones and how everything has kind of changed. So it could be lack of desire, it could be. I hear this a lot. Guys say you know, I had this, this Beer belly, these last 10 pounds I can't get rid of, and I've been. I've been in the gym every day, I'm eating perfectly and nothing's happening. I can't see results, like I used to, or I can't recover from injuries like I used to. Mm-hmm A lot of subtle stuff like that as an indicator that something is off. A lot of times people even realize there's a problem until we correct those problems and they realize holy cow person.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that happens a lot. Yes and that's why I'm a strong proponent for advanced diagnostic testing. You know I call it the line spots in your health that are maybe holding you back without even realizing it, and a lot of people don't even realize how far off they are from where they could be until you do that testing and find those Blind spots.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So is that something? Are those things that you can? Someone has to come do in person, or, or if someone were to call you For a free consultation over zoom or what have you, are these things that you can help people with? Maybe, let's say, live in a different state, or things like that?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we do a lot we do. We do consultations with, with men and women around the country, and One of the really big priorities that I emphasize is to do the advanced diagnostic testing to find out where you are, whether you just have to work with us in the end or not, you know.
Speaker 2:It's information that's been empower you to help you understand where you are and what are the issues that need to be corrected. So so, yeah, so we offer testing if anyone wants to. Anywhere around the country, we have clients who will you do testing, and that's it.
Speaker 3:Clients who want to work with us long term we're happy to do that as well, obviously, yeah so, going back to just pretty much, it sounds like everything, whether it's plastic bottles or cell phones, you know, everything is Having a negative impact on this. So obviously, as I'm sitting there listening, I'm thinking, well go, what can I do to eliminate some of those things in my life? And maybe, maybe, there's not a way to eliminate? So how do we counteract that? I mean, is there?
Speaker 3:No words just all around us. We want to, we want to feel better, we want to do what we can do, but everything's all around us and it's just not realistic to say I'm gonna cut out water bottles and all these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I I hate to be all doom and gloom. You turn the corners. We could talk about how you can, you can overcome, and it's really just it's. I talk about living with intention, about being very purposeful and everything you do, and so, yes, you want to limit exposures and so, to briefly touch on where we were a few minutes ago with the toxins, there are ways that you can eliminate or avoid Exposure. So, number one and be, you know, focus on what you're eating. Are you eating organic, clean foods? Are you being sure that your, your, your foods are clean of chemicals? And so a lot is gonna be eating fresh, organic Fruit and vegetables. Making sure that your, your fish is wall caught, making sure that your meat is farm raised, organic, grass fed, you know that sort of stuff cage-free chicken, if you eat, you know, if you eat meat and chicken, for example, when it comes to water, I always recommend filtering your water, and so I have a stainless steel you know, yeti container that I carry with me every day to work, and it is filtered water.
Speaker 3:So that filtered water, even just the simple filter like that, will help take care of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, so you can filter your water, and you need to be sure it needs to be a carbon block Filter that will get rid of those endocrine disruptors. We're talking about the estrogenic compounds. Reverse osmosis alone will not do it, so it's not enough to do just ROC, carbon block. But you can buy these that can either sell your counter, where they go, go under your sink as an add-on to your tears, sink Plumbing, or what we did. We just built the house three years ago and we actually installed a system for the whole house, and so especially our ice maker and our drinking water are both filtered, and now, every day, I know that my kids and my wife and I are drinking, you know, clean, purified water. We never use plastic water bottles and we just consider those a deal breaker that there's just not allowed in our house. We don't drink from them, and, and once you're aware of it, it makes you not want it anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah when you realize that there are clean ways you can drink water. So that's really a big deal. When it comes to personal care products, there are apps on your phone, if you like, free. You can go to an environmental working group app called Healthy Living, and it's free. And what you do is you simply, when you're at the store we have Target or the grocery just scan barcodes and it'll show you the ingredients of those products Nice and you'll see the crazy chemicals in them. It'll show you some good alternatives as well. So it helps you realize suddenly what you're putting on your body or in your body. That will, that will make a big difference. Every little decision is a baby step you can make toward avoiding exposures.
Speaker 3:Well, I guess all my years with not wearing sunscreen is. I was inspired, there, you go so that's all the exposure.
Speaker 2:But then you know, what can we do to overcome all this it? You know, guys are simple creatures. You know this name. We want that simple. Give me that magic bullet. What's?
Speaker 3:that Exactly.
Speaker 2:Give me that one magic peptide I could take, and then yeah.
Speaker 2:And unfortunately there's not one. There's. There's no magic and guys think it's testosterone. It's not. Guys think it's the blue pill. It's not. It's putting all the pieces together, and so I have a very clear protocol. When I work with men and my team works with women, it's correcting hormones. First. You got to correct hormones. It's like the machinery is the fuel, it's the engine that's running in the background. You know, if you take a guy off the street who needs to lose 30, 40 pounds and who's miserable and has low testosterone, is not sleeping, stressed out, you can picture that guy right now, absolutely, and you try to talk to him about training, training, fitness. He'd be like hell. No, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, he's not there, he's not ready, he's not able to even fathom.
Speaker 3:He's mentally in a different place. Daily routine yeah.
Speaker 2:But when you fix hormones, when you clean up the gut, when you fix sleep, now suddenly you have the energy of the drive, of the motivation let's go. And then you can start to incorporate some real fitness protocols and see some success. And so I really believe the sequence matters. And so, fixing hormones, you know, getting the testosterone corrected we have 50 hormones, so you got to look at all the other ones nitric oxide, dhea, vitamin D, thyroid, melatonin, it goes on and on and on, putting all the hormones together and then cleaning up the gut, the microbiome and nutrition, and then correcting sleep, putting fitness together, adding in the mindset work, the detox work we talked about. When you put all those pieces together, suddenly I know it sounds complex that's when you start to see some real transformation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which makes sense. I think a lot of times we so often we just rush to get something that immediately will counterbalance or help it, rather than addressing the issues. And I think when we do that, oftentimes, yeah, it might mask or cover the problem for time period, but over time maybe we're going to even be more unhealthy because we're not fixing the underlying issue of what's going on.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, exactly, that's right. It takes living with purpose, living with intention, and I talk a lot with my clients about what is your, why? You know everything I just went through. It sounds very overwhelming and intimidating. Where do I start? Oh my God, it's a lot. But when you just simplify down to what are the key, you know you have the analogy of the glass jar with the big rocks and the smaller rocks and pebbles and the sand. You're trying to put your sand in first. It doesn't work. You know that kind of analogy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if you think about it simply as what's your why and is what I'm doing in alignment with that and what are the big rocks, I got to move first and then take it from there, and it becomes much easier to more palatable to be able to incorporate these changes in your life. No one's perfect. You're going to have a birthday party, you're going to have things that come up, we're going to be traveling where you can't be. It's okay, but you got to just know that it's a process. You're not perfect, and just keep going and make those baby steps every day and put those pieces together, and that's where you start to see some real change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:I think the hardest part is, like you said, wanting to make that change, because sometimes it takes. We have to get to a point where, like physically not well, like you said, to want to make those steps right. Like the more you talk, the more I'm feeling like a guy because I'm suffering with all these things and I'm blaming it on age. I'm like open my 40s now right, Like it's just an age thing. So I just barely went and got all my hormones level checked and like I was trying to figure out like why is my libido gone? Why do I, for the first time in my life, do I feel like I need a nap in their afternoon, which I've never been like that?
Speaker 2:And why do I?
Speaker 1:have no energy and why am I in my computer all day not being able to focus, which is never, and so I love that you said that. So, yeah, I'm in the process of checking these things, which, which I had to get to that breaking point where, like, this is not me, like I need to get some kind of help. What's going on there? So, in a world of eating out instant gratification, addicted to phones, laziness, I mean, you've got your handful of people that really care about their health and go to the gym constantly, right, but there's probably a bigger portion of people that just have kind of given up. Lack of motivation, the stress, depression, anxiety, all those things that are affecting so many people. Like I guess my question is how, if you're strong with those things, how do you get yourself to be like? I need to fix it, you know?
Speaker 2:You're right. Yeah, it starts with making the decision that you're ready to make a change. It starts with the desire, not you don't need to know the how. You know you've heard all these people talk about how you make transformation in your life. It starts with not even worrying about the how, just making the decision that you're going to accomplish something. And when you do that, the how will work itself out.
Speaker 2:And in my opinion, it starts with hormones, because you brought up a very common situation in women as well, where you lose the motivation, you lose the drive, the energy, and you give into bad habits and cravings because you just don't have the strength to overcome that and you don't even know where to turn and it's all overwhelming when you fix hormones. And for women, testosterone is vitally important as well. You know women tend to think that testosterone is just for men, but incredibly important that women have optimized testosterone levels as well. I'll submit that for women's, often thyroid and DHEA, and sometimes cortisol, insulin, vitamin D, nitric oxide, some other hormones as well. But when you correct those, that opens the door to now being ready to take the next step and start to, you know, lifestyle practices is where it's all at right. We know that that behavior is really what's going to change the game for you and I'll talk about precision health lifestyle, that I have a lot of amazing powerful molecules I can prescribe for you, but if you don't do the hard work at home, forget it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but sometimes it's like you need help just to get started because a lot of people don't have the motivation and the willpower, etc. And so I think it's a combination, it's a blend of the two, where once you fix hormones, get things moving, then you're ready to make those real changes that you need to make. Before that you just don't have the desire, motivation, drive, etc.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, just get more healthy and balanced first, and then you're going to have that desire to exercise and eat better and do those things. It's really hard to have that desire when you're feeling miserable and don't have the energy.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's if we just go just for a minute off to the women's side. I'm going to vocalize for a lot of women. A lot of women are working and raising the kids, being a mom, I mean, 75% of our audience is like I'm too tired at night. I don't have the drive because I'm taking care of everybody else, right, and they're just kind of stuck on. Okay, I don't have a high sex drive, I don't really care for that. I don't feel like I'm broken, I just don't need that. But if it's important to the husband or vice versa, in a relationship it needs to be important to both people, because that's what a marriage is.
Speaker 1:So, for those wives that are just like it's, not in need of mine. Why do I need to go out and fix this? I'm taking care of everybody else. That can be a real stopping I mean for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:You don't want to go fix something that you don't feel like is broken If it's not negatively affecting you. It's hard to want to go do all those things, spend the money, go to those appointments, right, it's just hard. That's where I was. I mean, we've had to have those conversations a lot in our marriage, so I don't know the lower drive spouse, it's really important for you and I love that you brought up, because it's not just about sex. It's about, okay, you don't have a high libido, but there's so many other things that are going along with that the energy and the stress and just all those things that are affecting your body. This is such an important aspect to fixing all of those things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the way you frame that. It's all about balance and I think that in a relationship especially, I think that there needs to be intimacy, and when you lose that intimacy, the relationship decays and that trickles down to each individual, how they function in their life independently as well. And again, what is your why? As we grow and age, obviously our why changes. For me, my why is all about my kids right now. And how could I be the best father that I can be? But being the best father also means that they see how I treat my wife the mom.
Speaker 2:And they're going to absorb that subconsciously how I treat and interact with her and when they see me being loving and have a close relationship with her, it trickles down to them and how they grow and how they thrive as well. And so it's interesting. We talk about testosterone. People think it's all about sex. Well, yes, it is, and it's also actually about how you show up as a father.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely how you show up as a mother, and so it's all connected, it's all related and it's that balance in your life that you need that optimized.
Speaker 3:Well, and according to our audience 95% of our audience, both men and women, said good sexual intimacy is vital for them to be happy in their marriage. So even you know, coming back to it, the old question is everything really about sex? In a lot of ways, sex, sex plays such a vital role in the long term happiness and a relationship, and you know you can you can discount it and throw it to the side, but the truth is that is a vital component to be happy in a relationship. And so the other things, like the energy and those types of things.
Speaker 1:Your mood in your marriage 100% affects every other part of your marriage. Right your mood and your energy, your energy to put forth effort into your marriage and your mood and the way I mean your happiness and your positivity. Like it's all comes down to what we're eating, how we're taking care of ourselves and like you said, these levels testosterone, hormones, all these things make us who we are. Like that's going to affect every aspect. I just think it's so important that we just push on how important it is to be healthy. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It has a massive trickle down effect for sure. So how can our audience members you know, find out more about you, reach out to you, contact you, share a little bit more information there, Because I know that there are a ton of audience members right now saying okay, I want, I want to reach out, I want, I want to get some help with this.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. Yeah, so Gap Institute, we work with both men and women. We work with hyperforming individuals who are simply looking to have more energy, lose weight and have better sex, because that's what we all want, right? That's really what it comes down to, and so we work with folks here locally in Sarasota, florida, but we also work with men who've been around the country as well, and so they can reach us at our website at GapInstitutecom, or. I also have a gift for your listeners I have my high performance help handbook. It's 15 strategies and tactics that you can leverage today to have more energy, lose weight and have better sex. Awesome, and all you got to do is just text the word health to 26786. Again, that's health to the number 26786. And you've got a free copy of our hyperformance health handbook. And I'll also include a free copy of my Bessel and Book Mail 2.0, which talks about this transformation in men's health that we need to have, and so that's my gift to you.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 3:Wonderful. Well, I think this has been a great discussion. I learned a ton and I mean been awesome, and I think a lot of our audience members are going to find a lot of great information from this podcast as well. So, we really appreciate you being on and for all of you out there, reach out to them, don't be shy, take that initiative and do everything you can to have a better relationship.
Speaker 1:Better help.
Speaker 3:Better help, awesome. Well, next time we hope all of you find ultimate intimacy in your relationship.
Speaker 1:Thanks for being here.