Leveraging BELIEF & Hope for Better Health W/James O'Hara

1. James’s IG
   https://www.instagram.com/jamesoharanp/
2. The website
   1. https://gilletthealth.com/
3. How Mindset (and Hope) Plays a Role in a Patients recovery
4. E.g. Leveraging Belief into the recovery process
5. Be mindful of the parts of life that add joy to your day
   1. Make sure its something that adds legitimate joy to your day.
6. Placebo Effect details
7. Forest Bathing Benefits / Time in Nature
8. Benefits of having an office view of the outdoors
9. Protecting your circadian rhythm 
10. 4-4-4 breathing to calm down for sleep
11. Finding a training method you enjoy
    1. Pickleball!!
    2. Biking
12. James’s Top supplements
    1. Tongkat Ali for testosterone - 200 - 800 mg per day for about 2+ weeks
       1. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07983JXN2?maas=maas_adg_985EBD6E8FDF2AD62D325500E22B751F_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1sucBhDgARIsAFoytUsH6K7_J59fYlat0vc21zMcwjBihbT-cm9bgLiNjkh_Tqc7V9hiJd0aAtMUEALw_wcB
    2. Omega 3’s -  for anti-catabolic effects (W/both DHA and EPA)
       1. Get your red blood cell test to determine your omega count
       2. He prefers the Omega ethyl esthers
    3. Creatine Monohydrate

Instagram

https://sproutspout.com/

Transcript

 [00:00:00] Hi, and thanks for joining me and chasing energy today. I'm your host, Daniel Lucas. Very happy. You're here. We talk about mindset nutrition. And training. And today. Is pretty much focused on nutrition. 

Our guest is James O'Hara. He works at Gillette health. He is a nurse practitioner. I spent the majority of his nursing career. We're working in cardiology. And. And looking at preventive. Medicine. This is from his website. Right. Jamie's feels it's important to inspire hope in each patient. Patient while providing them with the education and tools they need to take control of their health. 

He utilizes integrative approach. To practicing medicine, which combines lifestyle interventions, appropriate [00:01:00] supplementation and smart prescribing. When indicated to empower patients to feel better and live longer, healthier lives. And how's that for a mission statement, people. I love it. Which I had a t-shirt that had that with my name and that I hope to live up to something like that with this podcast someday. 

At a small scale anyway. So, what do we talk about today? Well, we talk about how mindset plays a role. In a patient's recovery, although this is. This is more focused on a new, a. Nutritional type thing. There are some interventions that James and I covered. And we do talk a lot about how belief factors into a patient's healing process, what they believe will happen. So we discussed the placebo effect a little bit. We talk about forced. 

Forest bathing and time in nature. Meaning how, how that affects your mindset in recovery. Protecting your circadian rhythm. With certain techniques, meaning your sleep cycle and making sure that you have a healthy sleep cycle, finding [00:02:00] a training method you enjoy. I do mention pickleball in this episode, which is one of my. 

Uh, favorite new hobbies? Uh, thanks to Melissa for getting me. And do that a few months ago. James top supplements. Now. Last note before we start this podcast. I think we recorded it. I don't know, about six weeks ago, five weeks ago. And I actually started taking one of the supplements he mentioned is the very first one that Tomcat LA. 

And I will tell you now it is not a wives' tale. That stuff actually. He works. I think he says that the studies. These take about two weeks. I don't think it took quite that long for me. Um, but I began to notice. Uh, differences. Uh, pretty quickly and it affects your testosterone. Uh, and I was lifting and within. 

With, I definitely noticed a difference. I've actually, uh, gone to just taking it. Um, instead of taking it daily, like all the studies [00:03:00] do, I only take it on today's I lift and I take a very modest amount because I found that it was, it was impacting me, uh, in the gym and outside of the gym. We'll leave that at that. 

His other supplement recommendations include a case for why omega-threes are becoming more and more critical for you to take in your daily life. And we talk about the role that wild fish place. Creatine. Monohydrate no shocker there, but it's, it's a solid staple in your supplementation routine. Even if you're not lifting very much. There's there's now it's now being studied for a lot of its cognitive benefits. I hope you enjoy this podcast if you haven't left a review You already what? what are you waiting for We have a newsletter that's going to be live shortly Where i hope to share a. lot of summaries from these episodes And uh the website which is going to have all the episodes and all the What's on it And probably before christmas i'll be sending out links on that so i hope You'll visit it and [00:04:00] bookmark it or anytime you want to reference an episode you just pull it up there Please share your thoughts on this episode and follow the podcast thank you so much for listening to chasing energy

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daniel_lucas: right. James O'Hara, thanks for joining Chasing Energy from Kansas today.

Track 1: Yeah. Daniel, thanks so much for having me on. Very excited to

daniel_lucas: Oh, yeah, yeah. Tell us about yourself, James.

Track 1: Yeah, so I am now a nurse practitioner, um, and I work in the health optimization space. Um, and health optimization is kind of encompassing of preventive medicine cuz you can't really have one without the other. So what I'm really looking at is how can we help people live healthier, happier lives and prevent chronic disease from ever developing in the first place.

Um, but as far as, you know, going back, uh, , you know, it's quite a long story, but how I got into healthcare initially, um, I was on the patient side of things growing up, so I broke a lot of bones. Always kind of had an interest in the [00:05:00] sciences, but I had one experience in particular where I, uh, developed a complication called Compartment syndrome.

Uh, which for the listeners is, uh, a situation where you have a large amount of swelling in a, you know, muscle compartment as they call it. And that cuts off the blood supply to the tissue that is distal to that. So happens in your arm, cuts off the tissue to your hand, um, and you get. , excruciating pain there, some numbness and tingling.

If it's not recognized early, you can lose some, uh, function or you can actually lose a limb that way. Uh, fortunately for myself, I had both a good mother and a good surgeon, so one of which got me to the hospital, the other did the emergency surgery, and I think that was a really profound impact. Um, had a profound impact on me and probably steered me in the direction of the medical field within the sciences.

So, After getting out of high school, I went to nursing school, uh, became an lpn, became an rn, [00:06:00] sort of worked my way up there. Um, and initially I went into orthopedics, um, given my extensive orthopedic experience myself. Um, and that's probably the first part of like realizing how important mindset is. Um, because when I see these patients, I was doing a lot of joint replacements at the time.

These are still very, uh, they're doing a lot of these procedure. and you would see people, they were doing their, you know, pre-surgery exercises, getting ready for a, you know, speedy recovery that way. And then they'd go in, they'd have their surgery done and. , every patient told me when they woke up, you know, there was pain, but it was a different pain.

Uh, it wasn't that pain that they were feeling before where they just know this is gonna get worse and worse and worse every day. They knew they were gonna be getting a little bit better. So that was really like a aha moment for me where that mindset that someone has around a situation. Uh, can really dictate a lot about their quality of life.

And, you know, you don't always have to have a surgery as a catalyst [00:07:00] for that shift. Um, but I think that was one of those early experiences within the medical field caring for people that had a, a big impact

daniel_lucas: Okay, so you're saying that their perception of, of the impact of surgery changed their, how they interpreted the.

Track 1: Exactly, and it was a different type of pain. Uh, but instead of the mindset where, you know, I know this arthritis is gonna be worse this time next year than it is now, they're thinking this time next year, the person I'm gonna be is the person that can walk down to the mailbox with minimal pain that can play with the grandkids, carry the grandkids around.

Cuz I don't have this limitation.

daniel_lucas: So in, well, what it sounds like is they had a higher sense of hope in terms of. What their recovery may be and things like that. Um, how often do you feel like that was grounded in the belief of what the surgery did versus what actually occurred?

Track 1: Yeah, there's both, and this is a really interesting topic. So certainly we know that, um, [00:08:00] x-rays don't always correlate with the level of function or pain a person is having. Um, a lot of it is, you know, the power of the mindset and. , they feel that their condition is going to affect themselves. So some people will have a back injury and they get an X-ray or a CT mri.

And what is is found there is actually not correlating at all with what they're feeling acutely. A lot of the pain is from the, the muscle tension that comes around, uh, the. , the muscles that are around that area, um, that they just injured. So I think the patient's expectation of improvement does play a big role.

Um, I would wager that if you had someone who says, you know, yeah, this surgery's not gonna help me, I'm still gonna be in pain, that they're gonna have a worse outcome than someone who, you know, says, Hey, you know, I've, I've seen someone else go through this. You know, my sister had this done and now she's doing great, so I'm gonna do great too.

So that the power of mindset and, and positive thinking, um, carries into a lot of different health conditions. If you look at, um, even after [00:09:00] like, uh, open heart surgery or, um, even in cancer, patients mindset can make a difference. And instilling hope is something that, um, I inspire to do in, you know, each and every

daniel_lucas: What is a protocol that you would do to instill hope without the risk of, in inflating the, the benefits of a particular procedure?

Track 1: Yeah, so that's a good point. Um, because I think that, uh, like back surgeries in particular for anybody, unless you absolutely need that, you don't want to end up there cuz those are some of the people that I've heard, uh, have some of the worst

daniel_lucas: As a, as, as someone who, uh, struggled with, uh, chronic back pain for many years. Uh, I can, I, I, I quizzed a lot of people who had the surgery and they, they constantly talked to me out of it. I thought it would fix my problem.

Track 1: Yeah. Yeah. So I think you have to be fair and balanced and you'll have people that are on. Either extreme, right? So you're saying that you know, oh, this is the magic bullet, it's gonna fix [00:10:00] everything. Or you have some people who say it doesn't work at all. And I really try to find that middle ground and build that trust with patients, which doesn't happen overnight.

If we think about the, you know, the patient provider relationship, it's really kind of bizarre where somebody's meeting a total stranger and you're talking. All the details of your health and your life and what's going on. Um, and we know that people don't always tell us everything, um, but we just try to create a very, you know, open environment, non-judgmental.

go through these, you know, questions, take a good family history. Um, you know, cuz I'm looking at really the top two, like, you know, what are, what are the causes of death in your family history? Heart disease, cancer are usually number one and two. And as the conversation builds, then we can kind of talk about, you know, what kind of interventions are going to get this person where they want to be.

You know, and I, um, I don't ever, like when people conflate claims, Particularly pulling from in vitro data and [00:11:00] then extrapolating that to a living, breathing person and saying, oh, well this was more powerful in this study, so this is gonna work for you. Or, you know, they dumped, uh, this ingredient on cells and a culture dish and it was toxic.

So this is toxic for

daniel_lucas: Studies in rats versus humans, things like that.

Track 1: Exactly, yeah. , which rats are a little bit better than cells in a Petri

daniel_lucas: Yeah. Yeah.

Track 1: just taking a fair and balanced approach and building trust is probably the foundation

daniel_lucas: Okay, so let's, let's see how we got down this rabbit hole. Um, we were talking about how mindset plays a role in the patient's ability to recover. And how you do that is you start with a rapport, your bedside manner. You're, you build trust, uh, by giving them information relevant on actual cases or studies that are relevant to what's being done.

But the idea there is that you're giving them hope that this will in fact, uh, improve them. Uh, [00:12:00] I, I, you're, you're kind of highlighting and you're, you're much more medically trained than me. Um, but this is an example of, you know, when you talk about the placebo effect, a placebo, Uh, often interpreted as well.

That means nothing happened and that's not true cuz a placebo effect means the, the patient had the belief that something would happen and it is statistically viable, um, in, in many cases in terms of what their belief of the this treatment or thing will cause. . So you're leveraging belief into the healing process.

Tell me a little bit more about some of the, uh, common practices you do. You said, uh, healthier and happier, so I wanted you to kind of elaborate on both of those, but go ahead.

Track 1: Yeah. So for, you know, healthier and happier. I, I think those go hand in hand. Um, when I got, you know, first out of my, uh, master's program started working, seeing patients, I was fortunate to work with the psychiatrist at the time, who realized [00:13:00] that, you know, many, many years ago, probably 20 years ago at this point, that, you know, all the Prozac in the world isn't going to solve the problem.

You know, there's some sort of metabolic health or a hormonal issue going on. So there's, there's definitely mind body integration there. So the foundation of that is, is really gonna be different lifestyle pillars in what. You know, habits people have are going to long term lead to, you know, what state of health you're in and where your mindset is at.

Um, and you know, you mentioned the sort of placebo effect, which I think is just fascinating in a lot of the research. Certainly the. Confounds things and people are always trying to figure out how to control for placebo. And that's why we have these, you know, double blind randomized trials, but seems to be mediated partially by, uh, the dopaminergic signaling and then also by your endorphin system.

Uh, if they block peripherally the, um, opiate receptors, um, then you actually lose the [00:14:00] effect where a sort of anesthetic would cause a, I say anesthetic, really a placebo, an. That would, uh, attenuate a pain response. So it does have some underlying physiology there. Um, I like to kind of put that evidence out there cuz as you said, some people think that placebo effect is something that just, you know, isn't there at all.

daniel_lucas: All right. So g, go into the, the happier part. Um, w when you were describing that, I was thinking about, um, how it's almost when, if you think of somebody who's, uh, has a tooth, Or, uh, needs an extraction or, uh, crown. Um, it is almost impossible to be happy on those days. Uh, you're just basically just trudging.

So when you talk about happy, what type of practices do you do outside of saying, are you out of pain? How do you leverage happiness into health?

Track 1: Yeah, so if you're looking at an acute problem, you [00:15:00] certainly, as you alluded to, there's a dental problem, you wanna fix that problem, or it's gonna be, you know, a major roadblock for that goal of happiness. So a couple of practices, you know, in. You know, mindset or tools that I will often recommend for people are just finding something small and meaningful that's in your everyday life.

And in being mindful of that, and this term, mindfulness kind of gets thrown around, but it has to be something that is like truly meaningful and enjoyable to you. So, you know, like if, if you're trying to be, you know, mindful eating, um, you know, a raisin brand without any milk, uh, you know that it's probably not gonna be that enjoyable.

So like, for. Um, a morning cup of coffee is something that I actually enjoy. I think it, it sets my day up well. It's part of my routine that I've gotten into. Um, and I like to read through the studies of coffee that show me it's good for my health to reinforce my bias

daniel_lucas: It is the most studied. It is caffeine. I think there's more studies on caffeine than any other drug out there, so,[00:16:00] 

Track 1: yeah. Yeah, there's a, a plethora of data. Um, and, you know, the most popular neutropic as.

daniel_lucas: Yeah. Um, my general, uh, whenever I see the caffeine studies, they almost, and you can correct me here, James, they almost always sort of say the same thing, which is some is good, uh, too much can be bad, and. , it is associated with a longer lifespan. However, what you might take or from the, from the whole coffee thing is that is maybe that's part of a social exercise, for example, kind of like the people who drink a glass or two of wine.

I think about whether the wine does something or not. It's usually in a social environment, and what I think would be hard to uh, argue is. having friends and family as part of your, uh, regular routine, being directly involved with them is highly associated with, uh, a longer [00:17:00] and happier lifespan.

Track 1: Yeah. And with the caffeine or coffee, certainly timing is important for myself. I do cut that out before noon, or I find that, you know, it is gonna usually impact my sleep quality to some degree. And there's different caffeine metabolizers through the C Y P one A two enzyme. They're gonna have some people that are very slow metabolizers.

They're gonna be more prone to anxiety, you know, from co uh, from coffee and caffeine. , then you're gonna see the people that are, uh, the lucky ones, the fast metabolizers that get the most neutropic benefit and the best improvements in exercise performance from caffeine. Uh, so as far as the, you know, happier and healthier, very hard to argue with the social element.

You know, social health is so important, um, and spending time with people that you care. Um, it, especially if you pair this with another intervention, something my wife and I do almost every weekend, we go for at least a, you know, it's like a three mile nature walk or a nature [00:18:00] hike. You know, spending time outdoors plus spending time with someone you care about, you know, that's a, a great recipe for a happier, healthier

daniel_lucas: Yeah. You know, I've, I've seen more science lately on what is sometimes referred to as forest bathing, which is where you're in the forest. Uh, I think, I believe it's the Japanese that have popularized the technique because the studies have shown, you know, there's a very high stress lifestyle of these 60 hour work weeks, and they go out into the forest for one or two hours.

They measure. You know, their blood pressure and all these other markers of stress, they come back and say, man, just, just two hours a week is a majorly impactful thing. Uh, and they've tried everything down to like, uh, what if you just have a picture of a plant on the wall? Or what if, you know, and or what if you can see the park from where your office is?

And there, there, it's kind of like what you'd imagine. There's varying levels of how it impacts your health. But I will say, um, I'm a believer in. Uh, I, I tell my kids every week, I was like, [00:19:00] we, at some point this weekend, we have to be surrounded by trees for a while. I don't care whether it's in this park or that park or we're biking or we're walking.

We just have to be surrounded by trees for a while because that's where I feel like we rejuvenate. Okay.

Track 1: Yeah, I, I totally agree. And you see this with, you know, more green spaces trying to be incorporated into urban areas. And it really makes a lot of sense from a, you know, evolutionary perspective, why we have, you know, such high levels of anxiety and distress as a society now. Cuz a lot of people are in these urban areas, there's not those.

Reassuring cues from nature, uh, like Birdsong for example. Just as, as you talked about, the piece of that data, if you have

daniel_lucas: Yeah, and just seeing this and just looking out your window and seeing what part of the day it is. I think when you're in a, I once worked in a, um, I mean the office I work in now does not have a window, but I once worked in a base. it, it was, it was called the command center and you [00:20:00] were in surrounded by center block, nine hours a day.

And I, I, after a month in that thing, I was going, uh, this is not gonna work out. Um, I timed it, but, um, it definitely played a role in the, uh, the, what I felt after I got off work in that sort of transition. And, um, I think, I don't know if you and I in the pre-call talked about sleep or not, , uh, the transition between, um, uh, dinner and bedtime, those activities and the hours that lead up, I have put a lot more emphasis on making that a wind down instead of just saying, for example, well, I turned the TV off, let me go brush my teeth and go to bed.

Um, I've now started inserting about an hour, hour and a half of different things. , uh, conducive towards just not getting me riled up. And of course that that involves putting away the phone, turning off the tv. Um, and even [00:21:00] going so far as I've gone down to candlelight now after nine o'clock, I just go down the candlelight in the house and it, it seems to help.

I mean, it really does seem to help. I, I wouldn't do it if it.

Track 1: Yeah. That circadian programming is, is really important. And you know, I worked night shift for probably about five years, uh, when I was working as an rn, and that is the total opposite of what. Uh, we're supposed to do as, as a species in terms of our, our wake and sleeping cycles. And I, I thought I was doing okay.

You know, I like function pretty well. You know, I'd flip back and forth from days to nights. Um, and then, you know, the more I was, you know, looking into things, you see higher rates of metabolic syndrome, cancers, blood pressure issues, cuz you're really just pushing back against everything your biology wants to do.

So then when I actually did switch over to a a day shift role, . Oh, I, I thought I was feeling good, but now I know what feeling good actually is. So, you know, it, it's very powerful whenever you really [00:22:00] are living in conjunction with your circadian rhythm when you can, you know, see what time of day it is. As you mentioned, you know, if you're in a cubicle or in a basement for, you know, nine plus hours a day, you know, that's gonna, that's gonna take a hit to your, your circadian rhythm and, and sense of where that is.

And, you know, screens and tv. After dinner, probably not a good place for those things. And, um, what I recommend a lot of people do is, you know, maybe just some light reading and a, and a separate area, not in the bed, but maybe a seating area, a chair that's, you know, in the bedroom perhaps. That way you can.

Transition and it keeps you from, you know, the last thing you wanna do before you go to sleep is look at your phone. So, you know, get your alarm set, get your do not disturb on, kinda get into that parasympathetic, uh, state where you're ready to go to sleep. Um, and then, you know, there are some tools for people that just have a hard time turning that dial to completely off.

So, you know, they're replaying everything that happened during the day, or, oh, I forgot to do this or that. So, you know, [00:23:00] it can be helpful to get some of those thoughts out on paper before you go to. Even better if you can recall some of the positive things that happened during your day or during your week.

Um, and then, you know, there's like square breathing is something that I've found people have a lot of success with

daniel_lucas: Is that 4 4 44? Are you talking about,

Track 1: Yeah. Yeah. And you can kind of, I have people. 4 44 is a good place to start. Sometimes I'll have people do 3 33, um, and then kind of build out to longer and longer pauses, and then, you know, before they know it, they're kind of subconsciously doing it and they drift off to sleep.

Um, I've always heard about, you know, progressive muscle relaxation, but never did anything for me. Um, I, I still have people try it because I, I'm a tool guy and I like to give people, you know, a number of different tools for whatever goal they're trying to accomplish. Cause it, it's definitely not one

daniel_lucas: That's right. That. , uh, talk to me a little bit about, um, when you, when you talk about exercise protocols, uh, for people and how you sort [00:24:00] of find the sweet spot for what they will or won't stick with.

Track 1: Yeah. And that, that's important part because you know, you can write somebody the best plan in the world, but. , you know, it's gotta be something that's sustainable and realistic. So the first part of that is I'm asking somebody where are they at as far as exercise right now? So you'll hear some people say, oh yeah, you know, I, I exercise every day and it's okay.

Specifically what are you doing for exercise? Cuz maybe that's just, I like going on a walk with their, their dog or, you know, going on a walk with their wife, that sort of thing. Um, and. , are they actually sweating when they're exercising? Like, you know, what is the intensity level? Um, and, you know, are they incorporating any resistance training?

So kind of figuring out what their baseline is helps me build out those next steps. So if I've got somebody who is, let's say they're just walking the dog, you know, do that a couple times a day, oh, we definitely need to get started on some resistance training. Um, the sooner the better. And we could start with, you know, body weight [00:25:00] squat.

Some sort of pulling or rowing movement and then some sort of pressing movement. If this person's never been in the gym before, you're gonna hit all the, the major muscle groups. And a lot of times I'll have people, you know, you know, if they have the resources to, you know, consult a personal trainer or, you know, find things online about what exercises are, you know, safe to do.

Cause not everybody needs to be doing, you know, super heavy squats, super heavy deadlifts to. , you know, 80, 90% of the benefits they're looking for. Um, and then in terms of, you know, what we can build towards, you know, I, I don't tell everybody, you know, right off the bat, okay, you've gotta get three hours of aerobic exercise in every single week if somebody's pressed for time.

they can increase the intensity a little bit. Um, and there's some data there with the high intensity interval training that maybe promotes a little bit better arterial function, but gotta be mindful of somebody's fitness level so that we're not causing injuries. So a lot of times it's just building that base, like, okay, can you do [00:26:00] one hour per week?

You know, low intensity. We'll hear people talk about kind of zone two. , it's a little bit different for everybody and their age, and you know, what their max heart rate really is. But you know, somewhere between, you know, 130, 140 beats per minute if

daniel_lucas: Yeah. I, I tell people zone two is like five, six words without a breath. If you can, you know, start talking about your day and you're not panting, uh, while you're doing it, you're probably in zone too. I call it the conversational jog base or whatever, but.

Track 1: Yeah. And that's, that's a really good threshold. You know, some people will go as far as, you know, getting the lactate testing done to see precisely are they in zone two or not. Um, but I think, yeah, just tying it to something like, You know, subjective, like easy conversation or objective, like their heart rate on the, the Apple Watch or whatever it may be.

It's a good way for people to kind of set that benchmark and then build from

daniel_lucas: I can't speak. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.

Track 1: yeah, ideally I'd love to see everyone, you know, getting that three hours of aerobic [00:27:00] activity in every week. Um, whether it's a bike or whether it's playing pickleball or basketball or tennis, you know, just find something that you enjoy, um, and then build from.

daniel_lucas: Yeah. And when you first brought this, uh, up with the patient saying, well, I walked the dog once or twice a day, the first thing, uh, that I thought of was, well, how far is that walk? Because there's some people will walk for 10, 20 minutes at a time. Someone, some do three or four minutes. Uh, not a lot of steps.

Um, and, uh, anyways, and the pickle ball thing, that was the other thing I was gonna say was, um, I've started taking that sport up and uh, I have to agree. Uh, the time flies and, uh, you stay busy the entire time. It's a great. Uh, I'm so far, I'm, I'm not good at it, but I, but I, I love the idea of being more, um, in a state of, uh, focus and flow while I'm exercising.

I do enjoy that I have a rowing machine, but it's n it's almost impossible to get into a [00:28:00] state of flow on a rowing machine. I d I'm not able to do that

Track 1: Yeah. And with the group exercise a sport, you're getting that social health aspect we talked about earlier too. Uh, for my, for me, the only way for me to consistently do it is to have, you know, either a treadmill or an exercise bike in my house. And then I, I carve out time every day to, well, not every day, but every week to, to get those three hours in.

Usually it's three days a week. I'm doing about an hour of that, you know, kind of zone two foundational aerobic.

daniel_lucas: Okay. That's good stuff. Um, For me, it's, uh, uh, biking This year has been the year for biking for me. Uh, I, even when I was an Ironman, I didn't enjoy the biking part. I just sort of did what I had to do on the spin station and the group rides. But this year I've sort of stepped back from running, which I normally is my big sport, and I've, I've really enjoyed it.

Uh, but that part of that is, Less about the bike or, or anything. But we have some great, uh, paths here in Chattanooga where [00:29:00] it's private, there's no cars, which was always my issue with training. I was like, I don't wanna share the road with cars. It's just someone gets hit every week. The, it's good to hear how you leverage that.

Tell me, James, um, it's a question I've been sort of ping my guest with lately. Uh, what in the, in the last, we'll say 90. A hundred, 150 days. What are your top three supplements that you've most been surprised by? Either, uh, the effects on yourself or what the studies have shown.

Track 1: Oh, that's a good question. So kind of following the data recently. Um, this is probably a little bit past the 120 day mark, but the, the data that's come out on, you know, tongue cat is a testosterone booster. Cause when I first heard of it, it was something I sort of wrote off because there's been so many that have come and gone.

You, you know, Tris, tour Restis, a lot of these things just have a ton of caffeine in them so people feel something, you know, de aspartic acid, you know, a lot of these things that just never, you know, stuck around [00:30:00] because they didn't really work. But there is a significant amount of data there. Um, Both young and older populations, um, actually both men and women, which is very surprising to have that

daniel_lucas: tell me, tell me how often and when you.

Track 1: Yeah.

daniel_lucas: seen this stuff. It looks like dirt for the, for the listener. It looks like a bag of dirt, but yeah.

Track 1: Yeah. Yeah. So this is something that, uh, you take daily, essentially in the effective dose range, anywhere between 200 and 800 milligrams. So, you know, six to 800 is where you see some of the more robust effects in terms of, you know, testosterone and estradiol levels

daniel_lucas: what type of timeline are we looking at to where you start feeling any type of.

Track 1: Yeah, probably about two weeks is the soonest I would think that people would see changes on blood work. Um, usually four to six weeks is a good idea. Like okay, you can kind of gauge and, and see, you know, what are the effects, you know, take note of how people are feeling differently.

daniel_lucas: And this would.

Track 1: but I did want to [00:31:00] say the supplement that has kind of been paired with this, you know, people also talk about, you know, Fido gratis.

Uh, has zero human studies. So that's one that I was surprised to see be almost as popular, um, but with essentially zero data and, and some data in the preclinical, the, the mouse models talking about possible testicular toxicity.

daniel_lucas: Okay, so I, you lost me on that last one. We should or should not look into that.

Track 1: You should definitely look

daniel_lucas: I I got that. I got that. What was the second one you were talking about?

Track 1: Yeah. The second one there is, uh, Fido

daniel_lucas: Yeah, the one,

Track 1: and it's not one that I recommend frequently because there's just a lack of data there. You know, I'll have people ask me about it and, you know, we, I'm just in that, you know, space that's fair and balanced. They say, well, yeah, we know it increases testosterone and rats, but it also may cause some testicular toxicity.

Probably stay

daniel_lucas: Okay, so that's one. Gimme another one.[00:32:00] 

Track 1: Uh, some of the anti catabolic effects of, uh, omega three s. Um, so, you know, omega three s, you know, we've seen those in the literature with the O Omega-3 index, um, and some of the, the Framingham data, which was a, a large cohort of cardiac patients where when they did subgroup analyses based on their omega-3 indexes, indices, they.

You know, a lot of different health benefits and attenuation of risk, that sort of

daniel_lucas: So do you, did you do a blood test to look at your Omega three s?

Track 1: mm-hmm. . I have actually,

daniel_lucas: because I, and you know, I, I'm asking because I had a guest, uh, I just, uh, did a show with, and she was talking about omega three s as one of her go-tos, and she said, I thought I was okay on omega-3 S till I did a blood test. So now she's got me thinking maybe I need to do that.

I eat a, I eat a lot of wild fish, so I'd be kind of curious.

Track 1: Yeah, and some people will have naturally a very high level [00:33:00] of omega three s that are incorporated into the tissue. Uh, and what we're using is the surrogate. Is the red blood cell. So what is the omega-3 index of the red blood cell? Cuz that's not, it's not gonna be skewed. Like if you just look at omega three s in the serum, if you had a, a fatty fish, you know, the night before that's gonna be elevated.

It's gonna look like everything's, you know, really checking out. Um, but if you are, you know, somebody who eats fish very rarely or, or you just incorporate less of the omega-3 into your tissue, that's why you really want to have it tied to the red blood cell. but I wasn't aware that they had these sort of at least anti catabolic, if not anabolic properties until here recently.

daniel_lucas: Is that, do, do you have to get both d hha and is it DHA and EPA? On, on the, um, on the

Track 1: Yeah, so I typically recommend both. Um, there are some people who will recommend EPA only, um, just because that's where some of the evidence with the, like antidepressant studies use a high dose of [00:34:00] EPA only. Um, but I tend to recommend both because that's how you find it, uh, in nature and, and you do. a slight risk of bleeding with the EPA only, um, in some of these studies that they've done with four grams of epa, because it does affect platelet function.

You're, you know, in those cases they are trying to. thin the blood a little bit. Um, but with the combination they've actually given people very high doses of EPA DHA combined, uh, prior to even like open heart surgeries, and they don't see an increase in bleeding risk. So for that reason, I tend to default to, you know, the EPA and DHA combos, uh, which very affordable with like, uh, a coupon if people want to go prescription grade.

Even

daniel_lucas: Okay. So that, that brings me to my, the second half of that question. What is the brand and, uh, amount that you take at that?

Track 1: Yeah, so for myself, uh, two capsules of the Omega-3 Esters, um, is what I do now. Um, but previously I was just using the Kirkland brand Omega

daniel_lucas: What [00:35:00] made you switch?

Track 1: and, uh, the price honestly, and not having to take, uh, like six or eight capsules per day. Uh, , it's like

daniel_lucas: I was gonna say it's hard to beat the price on anything Kirkland. So if you switch for price, you must be doing pretty.

Track 1: Yeah, it, it wasn't that much more expensive. And you're taking two capsules. I don't have to worry. Uh, were these things sitting in a hot warehouse or they rancid? Um, and it's like 20, 25 cents per capsule. Um, so that gives you, uh, nine. If you're taking two of them, you get 900 milligrams of epa, 900 milligrams of dha.

And I know that it's, you know, pharmaceutical quality, but I hear good things about like, you know, Nordic Naturals and, and js. Those are some of the more established

daniel_lucas: Carlton's or whatever. Yeah,

Track 1: Mm-hmm.

daniel_lucas: convent.

Track 1: All those I think are pretty top notch.

daniel_lucas: All right. Do you have a third one for us?

Track 1: Probably creatine.

daniel_lucas: It's hard to beat, man. That's like the third most studied [00:36:00] supplement of all type of, yes.

Track 1: Yeah. Because of the like extreme safety profile that it has, it's got so much data on it. Um, and we've known for a long time it's gonna improve exercise performance. You're gonna be able to squeeze out more reps and that's gonna drive more progressive overload.

Um, it's not magic. You still have to lift the weights. Um, but more so for the potential, you know, mental

daniel_lucas: I've been hearing this more lately about the cognitive benefits of creatine. Now I still, what? I still don't understand. , uh, or I shouldn't say I've concluded on is what the best time of day to take it is. I've heard you should take it with some carbs, uh, and, uh, whether it's before or after the workout, I, I, I don't know, but it would seem like for cognitive benefits, you would want to take it earlier in the day.

What are your thoughts on.

Track 1: Yeah. I, I would tend to err on the side of just making sure you're getting it

daniel_lucas: This is, this is like your exercise recommendations. Yeah.[00:37:00] 

Track 1: Yeah. But yeah, early in the day I think makes sense.

daniel_lucas: Five, five grams. Right. You stick to five grams.

Track 1: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. There may be a little bit more benefit if somebody's like, got a particularly large amount of muscle masks, then maybe.

10 grams might get you a little bit extra, but for, you know, 90% of people listening to this in my patient population, 5,000 milligrams, five grams of just creatine, monohydrate, it's gonna be just fine. , I would tend to take it earlier in the day, uh, just because it does seem to be a little bit pro dopaminergic.

Um, they did have some studies where they've, you know, given creatine supplementation to some mental health populations and they saw some of those bipolar patients, uh, did have mania triggered, which we know is dopamine driven to some degree. So it makes sense to take it earlier in the morning for that reason, for consistency.

Insulin is going to probably shuttle a bit more of that, you know, into the muscle, into storage as you lead to taking it with [00:38:00] some carbohydrates. So I think that's the rationale there. Like if somebody's taking this with a little bit of, you know, dextrous powder before their morning workout to kind of get it into the muscle might make a little bit of a difference.

But I think you're still gonna get, you know, 80% of the benefit just by being consistent with it and getting that five

daniel_lucas: Yeah. Yeah. And probably, I mean, I don't know. I, I generally tell people to drink a little bit more water after they take it. Um, but that, I guess that's neg.

Track 1: Yeah. Well, I do have some people who will talk about water retention, you know, as a side effect. There are some people who tend to have, you know, a bit of bloating. Um, and just because things are supplements doesn't mean they're always gonna be, you know, side effect. Um, so some people will have a little bit of bloating and they may do better with, you know, like a, a creatine ethyl er, but really it's not gonna be any more like above and beyond effective other than, you know, it might decrease the bloating, uh, as we talked about, it might decrease the bloating because they [00:39:00] expect it to decrease the bloating.

daniel_lucas: Oh wow. So we've covered a lot of bases here, uh, and you've been very kind with your time. James, tell us a little bit about how people can follow and learn from you, uh, in the future.

Track 1: Absolutely. So I would say my main platform is on Instagram. That's at James O'Hara, np. Uh, O'Hara is O H A R A. Um, and then if people wanted to work with myself individually, , um, they can find out information about that, uh, our clinic website, which is gillette health.com.

daniel_lucas: right, James, this is great information, man. I appreciate your time today, especially on the supplements, man. Uh, you always. Always good to hear what people have to say about that. Um, enjoy your, enjoy the rest of your day, man, and thank you for sharing your time with chasing energy and your insights. Uh, I hope you get some traffic from this buddy.

Track 1: Yeah, absolutely. No, I really appreciate you having me. And have a good rest of your day as

daniel_lucas: James. [00:40:00]