What started as a venture for better cash flow became a passion project for Hal Cranmer. From flipping houses and running rental properties, he switched to the assisted living industry.
He has visited several homes, and he knew he didn’t want residents just laying down or watching TV as if waiting for their end to come. He wanted the residents to enjoy and live a quality life. To learn more, he researched exercises and low-carb diets. He hired doctors and personal trainers who share his goal. Here's the catch: as the residents' quality of life improves, the cost of operating the business decreases.
Beyond business standpoint, Hal Cranmer is truly doing something significant for his residents and the assisted living industry. In this conversation, he shares his passion to help the residents of A Paradise for Parents through three things: good food, exercise, and regular social interactions, and why a visit to these homes will motivate you to become healthy.
Quick Guide:
01:23 Introduction
06:57 Conditions for their assisted living
09:00 Changing business
12:59 A space for social interactions and X3 system training
20:55 Research on dementia led him to the Bredesen protocol
23:10 The huge compliment is when the residents get to enjoy their lives
36:27 Seeing this business from a financial standpoint
46:07 The feedback from the medical teams, the industry, and their families
54:08 Closing and contacts
Get to know our guest:
Hal Cranmer was an airforce pilot before he ventured to assisted living industry. His goal is to help improve the health of his residents so they can eventually choose to go home.
“I think a lot of the problems we see are we get a lot of people who come to us because their mom is in her apartment or her house by herself or dad is and they sit in front of the TV all day and don't do anything and that's when they saw the decline coming. A, they're not spending time with other people, and b, they're not moving around.”
Connect with him:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HalCranmer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/assisted_living_hal_cranmer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aparadiseforparentsassistedliving
Website: https://aparadiseforparents.com
LinkedIn:
Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier.
So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team.
One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started.
How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:
Twitter:
Learn more:
Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings
What started as a venture for better cash flow became a passion project for Hal Cranmer. From flipping houses and running rental properties, he switched to the assisted living industry.
He has visited several homes, and he knew he didn’t want residents just laying down or watching TV as if waiting for their end to come. He wanted the residents to enjoy and live a quality life. To learn more, he researched exercises and low-carb diets. He hired doctors and personal trainers who share his goal. Here's the catch: as the residents' quality of life improves, the cost of operating the business decreases.
Beyond business standpoint, Hal Cranmer is truly doing something significant for his residents and the assisted living industry. In this conversation, he shares his passion to help the residents of A Paradise for Parents through three things: good food, exercise, and regular social interactions, and why a visit to these homes will motivate you to become healthy.
Quick Guide:
01:23 Introduction
06:57 Conditions for their assisted living
09:00 Changing business
12:59 A space for social interactions and X3 system training
20:55 Research on dementia led him to the Bredesen protocol
23:10 The huge compliment is when the residents get to enjoy their lives
36:27 Seeing this business from a financial standpoint
46:07 The feedback from the medical teams, the industry, and their families
54:08 Closing and contacts
Get to know our guest:
Hal Cranmer was an airforce pilot before he ventured to assisted living industry. His goal is to help improve the health of his residents so they can eventually choose to go home.
“I think a lot of the problems we see are we get a lot of people who come to us because their mom is in her apartment or her house by herself or dad is and they sit in front of the TV all day and don't do anything and that's when they saw the decline coming. A, they're not spending time with other people, and b, they're not moving around.”
Connect with him:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HalCranmer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/assisted_living_hal_cranmer/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aparadiseforparentsassistedliving
Website: https://aparadiseforparents.com
LinkedIn:
Chances are, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast if you didn't need to change your life and get healthier.
So take action right now. Book a call with Dr. Ovadia's team.
One small step in the right direction is all it takes to get started.
How to connect with Stay Off My Operating Table:
Twitter:
Learn more:
Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings
S3E23 Hal Cranmer
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
home, people, residents, alzheimer, assisted living, business, hear, eat, family, dementia, bought, caregivers, food, personal trainer, health, move, parents, talk, running, life
SPEAKERS
Jack Heald, Hal Cranmer, Dr. Philip Ovadia
Announcer 00:10
He was a morbidly obese surgeon destined for an operating table and an early death. Now he's a rebel MD who is Fabulously Fit and fighting to make America healthy again. This is Stay Off My Operating Table with Dr. Philip Ovadia.
Jack Heald 00:37
Well, welcome back everybody. This is the Stay Off My Operating Table podcast with Dr. Philip Ovadia. I am your co-host, Jack Heald. And we've got a different kind of business that we're going to find out about today. I am really excited about this. Phil, you don't know this, but one of our best friends, one of Delawn and my best friends owns a home for the elderly. And what I've seen about our guest, I want to be able to share with my friend Ray. So, Ray, if you're listening, it's you I’m talking about. So, we've got Hal Cranmer here today. Phil, Bring us in man.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 01:23
Yeah, definitely. So, when you go, I guess, poking around the internet for people doing interesting things in the healthcare system, you never quite know who you're going to find. And we're really fortunate, to connect with Hal who's doing some very interesting things in a part of the healthcare system that people sometimes don't think about. And really, we'll get into it during the conversation. But I think for a large part, what Hal does is kind of ignored because he deals with the end stages of life. And people think that there's nothing you can do at that point. But Hal’s doing some real interesting things. And without giving away the punch line, I'm going to let Hal introduce himself to our audience. And I look forward to getting into this discussion with him.
Hal Cranmer 02:24
Well, Phil, and Jack, first of all, I want to thank you for bringing me on to this podcast. I follow both of you guys on Twitter. And I love what you're writing about, what you're passionate about. So, it seems like a really good fit for what I'm trying to do. And I'm hoping we stay in touch for a long time to come. So, I own four assisted living homes in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. I used to own five, I sold one about two years ago just because it was getting too busy for me.
Jack Heald 02:59
I'm sorry, but four sounds like three and a half times too much work. So.
Hal Cranmer 03:08
Well, you got to be passionate about it to want to do it. And I didn't get into this with a passion for it. I used to flip some houses and run a bunch of rental properties up in Minnesota. And I had an investor tell me about assisted living and how the cash flow is better. And so, I got into this thinking, cool I'll make more money and hopefully not work so hard. But when I bought them and moved down to Phoenix, which is a lot better weather than Minnesota, I just fell in love with it. And I fell in love with the families that are in there. I fell in love with just seeing how passionate they are, how much they love their mom or dad or whoever they have in our homes, and how much they're willing to help out. And it just became much more than a business and the caregivers I have become kind of part of my family. And it's been, it's so much more than a business now. And it really is exciting, especially when you get a little triumph along the way. You deal with a lot of heartache and sadness. So, when you get the good stuff, it's just phenomenal. But sorry, I digress because I get passionate about this. I got four assisted living homes, they're basically residential homes. Like if you drive by around the neighborhood, you'd never know that's a business. You'd think it's some family living there. They're larger homes obviously. The previous owner converted them into these assisted living homes were licensed by the Arizona Department of Health for up to 10 residency each home. Normally we have two caregivers for those 10 residents, pretty much the whole time, they're awake from about 6:30 - 7 in the morning till they go to bed at night, which is between seven and eight o'clock usually. And then we have one caregiver that stays through the night and checks on them every two hours or so to make sure no one's falling out of bed and is unconscious. And we don't know that hasn't happened. Knock on wood. But we want to make sure it doesn’t. And so, with this smaller home, it feels much more like a family. I mean, if people want this gorgeous palatial estate, to underbed facility, we're just not for them. They should go to some of the bigger places. But if they want a cozier family, I get people from those 200-bed facilities moving in just because they feel very impersonal and overwhelming and things like that.
Jack Heald 05:58
Institutional would be the word I would think of.
Hal Cranmer 06:01
Well, yeah, facility is supposed to be like a four-letter word and in assistance living, they've always wanted to say they're these giant living places, or homes or whatever, but it keeps slipping out. But yes, especially during COVID, they all locked everyone in their rooms. Well, we got a home, you can't lock people in their rooms. They have to eat. They have to go to the bathroom, and things like that. So, our business actually went out during COVID because people didn't want their mom locked away, they wanted them to have some social interaction. And so, we were able to give it to them. And the Department of Health was very lenient on us on what we could do to help our residents stay healthy and thrive through that pandemic. Does that give you a sort of summary?
Jack Heald 06:55
That’s a good start.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 06:57
I guess we'll get some basic questions, and then we'll really get into it. So, are there particular conditions that you provide this housing for? Or is it anyone that needs assistance?
Hal Cranmer 07:19
There are definitely no regulatory requirements of what we can do. Let me take that back. If they have behavioral issues, there are behavioral homes in the Phoenix area specifically for that. We don't really handle that. Although especially with Alzheimer's and dementia people, you're going to sometimes see behaviors. But we're open to kind of anything, and we've taken some behavioral people and we just had to categorize them and do a few other things. You name the chronic disease, I probably had at my home, anywhere from Alzheimer's to dementia, Parkinson's to diabetes all over the place, to osteoporosis to, I don't know, Crohn's disease to all of those will have them and a lot of them will have a combination of several of those. We try to screen them and see if they're appropriate for our home, we want to make sure they're not completely antisocial because they're going to be around other people. We have everyone eat together all the time and do activities together and things like that. But we'll try to take them. I've had people as old as 105 in my home, and I've had I think the youngest I had was 38. I currently got a 42-year-old. So, it really depends on the person, the condition. It's very, every case is a different kind of thing.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 09:00
And how long ago did you did you get into this? Did you buy the homes?
Hal Cranmer 09:07
So, I bought my first home in 2015. I was still living in Minnesota when I bought it. I had an extremely good manager in place. His dad started the home in 2001 or something like that. And so, I was flying down once a month for that first year to do it. And then a package of four homes came for sale. I came down here first and took a course in doing this. There was a real estate investing course on how to do this. And then the guy who was teaching the course had a real attorney and kind of specialized in this stuff. And so, I asked for his contact information and got to know him. And so, he was bringing me the deals. So, I bought that first one from him and then he got this package of four and I told my wife hey, we got enough potential cash flow here to move down to Phoenix and just do this. So, I kind of quit my job up there. And we moved the whole family down here, my daughter was going to ASU at the time, my son was going to be a freshman at ASU, and my older son, when the year we moved down here in 2016. And then my youngest son was like, just about to start eighth grade. So, it was kind of a transition for him. But yes, we moved down in 2016. But we started running these things in 2015.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 10:42
So, it sounds like what really started as a pure business investment opportunity turned into a passion project for you.
Hal Cranmer 10:55
Very much so. Yeah, I mean, flipping houses and doing rental properties is nice, but it's, I mean, I was I had rental properties mostly near the University of Minnesota. So, I was renting to like, kids, grad students, things like that. So, a lot of keg parties to deal with, a lot of smells awfully weird near that kind of thing. And I didn't really feel like I was helping them a whole lot other than giving them a roof over their head. So, it was very much a business. This was more what I'm dealing with mom and dad's life on the left here. And so that extra responsibility also meant extra joy when things went well. And even when it goes badly, they pass away as all of us will, just being invited to the funeral and meeting people who've done amazing things. I had a guy in my home, who was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton for five and a half years. He was shot down over Vietnam. And I, a former Air Force pilot, really looked up to those guys when I was growing up. Not necessarily POWs, but the guys fly in Vietnam and stuff. I have the great like some great, great, great-grandson of John Quincy Adams in my home. I've got a guy who participated in the Berlin Airlift. I had a guy, got Korean war vets I've got. I had a guy who made a fortune flipping cattle ranches in northern Canada. So just the stories that you hear, just amazing. I mean, I've got a living history in my home. It's just so neat to sit down and talk to these people.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 12:56
You're muted, Jack.
Jack Heald 12:59
I'm normally better than this. The reason folks tune into this show, I mean, it's a good story. I won't I'm not gonna pretend it's not. But the reason folks tune in to this show is because we talk about metabolic health. And I think that's why you're on this show. In fact, I know it is. Talk about, I did a little research and I saw a few mentions of stories of how you help people, not just in the last stages of life, be comfortable, but you're actually helping people regain things that they've lost. And I want to hear more about that. Tell us more about what are you what makes your homes different, other than you try to make them a family place. There's other stuff you're doing that's different. I know.
Hal Cranmer 14:02
Right? So, when I got into this, I toured some homes and started to learn about the business because obviously, I don't have a background in this. I don't have a medical degree. I don't even try to be a doctor or offer any medical advice, but I just was not, I was really turned off by how lethargic people looked in other assisted living homes. Like you'd go in, they're all laying on the couch or they're all in their room, the TV's on and they're just sitting there all day that way and people are bringing them something to eat. Okay, they eat regularly. I'm not saying they starve them or anything like that, but there doesn't seem like there's any life left to them. Like they're just putting them in the warehouse and waiting for them to expire. And I was like, I'm not going to let my home be that way. I'm going to do whatever I can. Maybe there are, obviously there's some people come to me in that condition and they're on hospice, and there's nothing I can do other than make them comfortable. And if that's the case, then that's what we're going to do. But there's an awful lot of people who come to me with the potential for life, for quality of life, and with the time they have left. They don't all come to me in hospice, they come to me just because they need more care, and their families have a life, they work full time they've got kids, being a full-time caregiver to their parents isn't an option for them. So, when they come to us, I don't know prescriptions and things like that. I have doctors who take care of that. I don't think that's my realm. And whatever the doctor says is, that's what goes and we give them those prescriptions. However, I'm going to keep asking the doctors, do they really need that? Can we cut back on this? I mean, we have people come in our homes with 20, 25 medications. And I'm thinking, what was the clinical trial that showed all those 25 medications are fine for them to have and the interaction between all of them? And I'm sure there isn't one. So, I'm going to bug them of what can we do to get them off these medications. Either what do I have to do to do that or do they really need that? Have we just been building up medication without removing the old ones? Then I also said, well, we can eat better. I think there's a lot of perception out there of, “it’s grandma so grandmas love to see the kids get cookies and ice cream and ice and all this stuff that's really sweet and nice and good to taste but ain't doing grandma any favors.” So, I talked to the families and say, look, I want I want them to do better. Yes, I want them to feel happy and everything. But here's how we make them feel happy. It's not food, you come anytime you want. One of the biggest things I think helps people's health is social interaction. And the best social interaction for older people is their own family, their kids, and their grandkids. I just became a grandfather a month ago. And it's the greatest thing in the world. I thought, oh, man, I'm getting old. But I can't tell you how much I love that kid. And so, I just think, the more they see that, that's why I abolished visiting hours at my home. I said, tell the families you want to come over two in the morning, I'm totally fine with it. You want to knock on the door at two in the morning, I'm totally fine with that. Your mom or dad might be asleep. And it might not be a great visit for you. You might want to call first. But if you want to do that, if you're wondering what we're doing when you are not around, you just knock on the door anytime come in. And I want you to come in. And I want them to get well enough that even if they don't go home, they get well enough that they can go out to dinner with you. Or they can go home for the weekend. Or they can go home for Christmas or they can Thanksgiving, whatever. And we had the guy who flipped cattle ranches went on a cruise with his family from our home. And that's so even if I don't get them totally fine, I get them well enough that they can enjoy life. So, the food's one component of it. I hired a guy to be my personal trainer at the homes. And he goes to it five days a week. And I include that in the price because I want one monthly fee and not nickel and dime people. And so, he goes to the home and works out the residents five days a week for an hour. And we do it in a big social group because I want the interaction. I want people making fun of each other and we have a karaoke machine and he'll just have them sing sometimes. But just moving, doing things, getting involved. I think their health does up with that stuff. Being on their own just watching TV, it's gonna decline. And I'm not saying I don't have them watch TV, like our TVs in the rooms and cable and everything but I try to limit that. We try to have good food. We just try not to have ice cream around so people aren't thinking of it. It's not in the home. It's sort of out of sight out of mind. Candy, all that kind of stuff. Our desserts are berries or maybe some carrots or something like that. I try to not do much, and this has been a journey for me, I've been learning. I tried to for a while I was, I heard how great plant-based stuff is so I talked to a naturopathic doctor. She came in and trained all our residents. We got some nutritionist and we tried going a little plant-based and I had a rebellion on my hands. So, we kind of canceled that. And then lately I've been discovering sort of low-carb and carnivore kind of stuff. As a result, I picked up an exercise thing as I researched exercise for my own residence. I found the system called the X3 system that this guy Dr. John Jaquish uses, and I love it and I bought it myself, I bought one for my parents. I bought a bunch for my personal trainer and said, use these in the homes as much as you can.
Jack Heald 20:42
This episode is brought to you by X3.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 20:49
Believe me, I talked about it often. I'm a big fan of it. I use it as well. So.
Hal Cranmer 20:55
It's easy, and my residents get a good workout without I mean, we're not making CrossFit champions here, but we're getting decent results. And so, part of his X3 thing is the carnivore diet, so I looked more into it. I've also done a lot of research on Alzheimer's and dementia. And I found this guy Dale Bredesen out in California that has this thing called the Bredesen protocol where he's actually reversed Alzheimer's in some people, I mean I don't know what I'm allowed to say on that FDA-wise and everything, but I see testimonial videos and I actually drove out to a home in San Diego that does his protocol for everyone in the home, which they only accept people who want to do the Bredesen protocol. It's called the Marama Experience and they've had tremendous success improving people. So, we've started doing that in our home and part of the Alzheimer's dementia improvement is a low-carb diet. There's a whole bunch of other stuff to it. But the low-carb diet’s a big part of it so it kind of jives with the carnivore thing too. I work with a company called to A Mind for All Seasons up in Idaho to implement that. And we've got a lady on it. I've got another lady moving out of Texas to come in and do it with me. She's supposed to be here in the next couple of days. And then I got another lady that moved in a couple of weeks ago from Pensacola, Florida. And they needed some time to settle in, but we're going to introduce them to it next week. And the lady that I've got on it now she's been on it a couple of months and her cognitive scores that when we've given her the MoCA tests, and some of the other tests have actually improved. I mean, my caregivers are like she's remembering all our names now. She couldn't do that when she came in here. So not to say I'm going to cure or anything like that. But even if I can get them a bit better, that their family can enjoy them, and they can enjoy the time they have left. I consider that a huge win.
Jack Heald 23:10
Well, I think there are more stories that you're not telling us. Again, I did a little snooping around and tried to learn a little bit about you. I saw, I didn't count but more than one example of folks coming into one of your homes in a wheelchair unable to get themselves around. And as a result of how you provide care going from not being able to stand to being able to stand to using a walker to actually be able to get themselves around without a walker. Tell us some of those stories. And in particular, why you think you're able to have those kinds of results when the normal experience and these kinds of senior care facilities?
Hal Cranmer 24:07
Okay. Well, I think...
Jack Heald 24:11
You're allowed to brag on this show. We are intentionally going against the mainstream here. We know we're saying stuff that is controversial and everybody that we talked to can back it up, either in their own life or in the lives of their patients or both. So, you don't have to tread lightly here.
Hal Cranmer 24:35
Okay. Well, I give a lot of credit to my personal trainers. So, when I got into this, it seemed like the big push like to do well in these homes is to get like a perfect inspection from the Department of Health. And I totally understand the role of Department of Health, I don't want people abusing seniors and doing it the right way and everything, but it was, everyone was so focused on we got to make sure the paperwork looks good. And when someone gets a perfect inspection, they brag all over Facebook and Twitter hoping, hey, I'll get more residents if they know I'm doing everything right by the Department of Health. Well, that Department of Health, yes, they look at the residents and make sure there's not gaping wounds on him or bruises from abuse or something. But they don't really, they're not telling them you need to do this. Like, for food, the Department of Health's requirement is that we post a week-long menu at all times the residents know what's coming up on the week. Well, I could put ice cream and macaroni and cheese and pie on there every meal. And they'd say, I want to give him some nutritional stuff, but you meet our requirements, right? So, the big compliment I get from the Department of Health, compliment slash, yeah, I have a couple of write-ups, nothing huge. But I need signatures from families that are out of state and trying to track them down. And I don't have it by the time because they show up unannounced. So, they say well, your paperwork isn't optimal. However, your residents are amazing. They're all walking around and talking and everything. And so that, to me is a huge compliment. The paperwork, the families don't move them in because my paperwork is fantastic. They want to know that we're giving them the medications per the doctor's orders, which we are. Usually, the write up is something like, hey, you didn't get this fire extinguisher inspected till February and it was due in January, something like that. So, when we talk about individual stories like I have one lady that moved in in 2016, on hospice bed-bound, we've been feeding her gradually more and more nutritious meals, and she's still with us. And she was in a hospice in 2016. And she now, she was in a wheelchair for a couple of years with me. And now she's walking with assistance. Like we have bars around the homes, on the walls that they hold on to that my trainer will do like leg lifts and squats and we'll use the bars so they can pull themselves out of the wheelchair and sit back down. And she's walking along those bars, kind of holding on to them. So, she belongs to a church and the priest comes over here regularly and is absolutely thrilled. And she's been able to go to the church now and celebrate mass and everything. I'm kind of a religious guy and love that kind of stuff.
Jack Heald 28:06
That's got to be incredibly meaningful for this, for someone who is bed-bound, and has that kind of spiritual practice that is not able to participate in and as a result of the care...
Hal Cranmer 28:23
But that's the quality of life I'm talking about. Yes, she's still in my home. She's not living at home. But she's enjoying life, which is the main thing we want for them and if we can send them home, I have a guy that is going home today. And I just posted a little video of him on Twitter. I don't know if you saw it, but he was kind of in rough shape. He was actually living by himself in Mexico. And he was kind of wasting away down there and not doing well and his family went down ago. Oh my god, he needs care. So, they brought him up, put him in our home. Well, he's going home with his family today. And he was standing there singing and dancing and everything, celebrating going home.
Jack Heald
That is so fantastic.
Hal Cranmer
Yeah, and one of the biggest compliments I got is a hospice agency told me, we're not sure we want to bring anyone more to your home because you always take them off our hospice.
Jack Heald 29:25
Because it makes us look like we don't know what we're doing.
Hal Cranmer 29:27
Right. And they meant it in a totally complimentary way. They know we need to keep them on hospice. So, but hearing that just made my day. So, I'm not doing anything crazy scientific. I'm just feeding them good food, and I'm exercising them and I'm giving them a ton of social interaction.
Jack Heald 29:49
Okay, talk about typically the folks who are paying attention to this kind of show are in their 30s or 40s, or 50s. And they've added pounds over the years, and they're stiff, and they feel sluggish. And it's just kind of the typical you reach middle age and everything starts falling apart. And we talk about things that help them to get better both in terms of their physical health and also in their habits for maintaining health. You are dealing with an entirely different demographic, you're talking about folks who are, in some cases have been declared, “you're going to be dead soon go somewhere where they can take care of you at the end of your life.” And you're doing something different than is happening in other hospice locales. So, I want details about and I'm not asking you to throw people under the bus, but your homes are doing some specific things nutritionally that aren't normal in other places. Let's go into details because many of us have older parents. In fact, I think anyone’s parents are older than themselves.
Hal Cranmer 31:11
I have older parents. Fortunately, they’re still alive and doing well.
Jack Heald 31:16
So, talk about and what I'm interested in is, you got to have folks who've been eating crappy for years, or maybe their whole life, right? You introduced them to a new way of eating. I want to hear how they respond emotionally to the new way of eating initially. And then as it begins to demonstrate efficacy.
Hal Cranmer 31:35
Well, I get the whole range. So, I don't want to make it sound like I fix everyone. I get people who want to come to my house.
Jack Heald 31:43
You really are from the Midwest, aren't you?
Hal Cranmer 31:46
No, I'm not. I'm from Connecticut originally.
Jack Heald 31:49
Oh, well, that Midwest humility has really rubbed off on you.
Hal Cranmer 31:53
Yeah, my mom's from Chicago. And she raised me well, I guess. And my wife's from Minnesota. Okay, so we're where do we go with these?
Jack Heald
Nutrition details.
Hal Cranmer
So, what I'd say for the first thing for your motivation for your 30, 40 and 50-year-olds is to visit an assisted living home, not necessarily mine, but visit anyone near yours, near you. That'll motivate you to get healthy. Because everyone who comes to my home, even if I explain this program and the results we're having says, I don't want to be here, I want to live at home. And I totally get that. My parents said Halia Beautiful homes, don't ever put us in them. So, if you want some motivation to be healthy, start now in your 30s, 40s, and 50s. All right, and you'll get motivated if you go to these homes. I would say something that's very important to know is dementia starts in your 30s, 40s, and 50s. You don't see the signs and symptoms of it until your 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. But what you do in your 30s, 40s, and 50s, at least what I've seen. I'm not a doctor, I'm not giving medical advice. But everything I've read says what you do in your younger life can very much affect what happens to you and your older life, especially with dementia and Alzheimer's. And if you spend time with people who have dementia and Alzheimer's, it will motivate the heck out of you to eat well. I would say if you can cut out the carbs now. I've been on a journey to do that. I was a big beer drinker in college and through my Air Force career, it was sort of expected to do that. I don't really drink anymore. I found cutting out one thing at a time, concentrate on that candy bar after lunch, get rid of that first. And then get rid of your breakfast cereal and then get rid of, eat your burgers without a bun. Have a salad instead of French fries with your burger or something like that. Just take on, no pun intended, bite-size things to get along there. I would say try to move as much as you can. I think a lot of the problems we see are we get a lot of people who come to us because their mom is in her apartment or her house by herself or dad is and they sit in front of the TV all day and don't do anything and that's when they saw the decline coming. A, they're not spending time with other people and b, they're not moving around. So even if you don't go to the gym and work out, go walking, get out in the sunshine. Go for a run, bike ride, pick up a hobby, sport. In Arizona, everyone goes hiking here. Some people do it in 115 heat, which I don't understand, but just move. And then I would say, don't be a hermit. I think a lot of guys, especially men, as we get older, don't make friends easily.
Jack Heald
Yeah. I've seen that.
Hal Cranmer
I stay in touch with all my other buddies, but because I'm busy with this business, I don't make an effort to go out and meet new guys. So, my wife, actually, during the pandemic made me buy a boat. She's like, you're gonna find social people to be with. So, I've done that, and through sort of a local boating club and stuff, I've made some friends. And it's been wonderful. So, I would say those relationships help with your brain and train your brain and things like that. And I think we're social creatures. And just like, we're supposed to eat good nutrition, we're supposed to have interactions with other people, definitely with your family, but reach out and spend time with others. I think it'll do a lot of good. I don't know if that helps.
Jack Heald 36:24
We're getting there.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 36:27
I think so. So, I mean, what I'm hearing is you are getting pretty amazing results for people who are at the end stages of all these diseases. And so, it really points to imagine what you can do, if you start this stuff earlier, and like you say, I think everyone's goal is to not end up in one of your places, just like their goal is to not end up on my operating table. This is the way you accomplish it. I have a couple of questions, but let's start with so you got into this as an investment essentially, and you're obviously running a business. And one of the criticisms that you often hear about the carnivore diet, low-carb diet, and all this stuff, it's too expensive. So, I'm sure you've looked at this from the business standpoint, from the financial standpoint. Talk a little bit about running a home, running a group home, I don't want to call it an institution because it's clearly not an institution. But when you're running a significant organization, you're caring for 50 people, or whatever it is, you would see the finances of it. So, I'm curious to hear what you've seen on that.
Hal Cranmer 38:00
Well, I've been extremely blessed by a very smart wife who handles all our finances, who runs the books for this business. But we go over it together. And you're right, I do look at it. And obviously, like every business, try to maximize revenues, minimize costs. But what people don't look at is, what's your total, I used to be in manufacturing. What's your total cost of ownership? They call it. You don't buy a part to manufacture it. You buy the part and decide where to buy it. But it's not just the price you buy it, but what's the freight on it? What's the lead time? What's their quality record? Am I going to have to throw half the parts away? There's all kinds of costs associated with what you're doing. Beyond the specific, very visible cost of going to the grocery store and buying the meat or whatever food you're buying. So, here's how I look at it. When I need a new resident, when we lose someone, they hopefully move out, go home, but most of the time passed away. 80% of the people who move in, I get through what's called a referral agent. These are former social workers, nurses, case managers in hospitals, things like that, that have a very good network in rehab facilities, hospitals, doctors' offices, things like that. And so those networks call them and say, hey, I have an 88-year-old lady with Parkinson's disease. Can you place her in Surprise Arizona? So those referral agents call me that I've made connections with and say, we need to move this person in. They’re big national ones. So those like A Place for Mom, I don't know if you've heard of that.
Jack Heald
I've heard of that.
Hal Cranmer
Caring.com, things like that. So, when they refer them to me, and I put them in my homes, I have to pay them a month's rent, whatever I'm charging that resident who moves in, the first month goes to them. And some of them just give me a phone number, and I do everything else. And they get several thousand dollars because of it. So, every month that I'm keeping people alive and happy and thriving means a month I don't have to pay a referral agent.
Jack Heald 40:30
Ohh, I get it.
Hal Cranmer 40:33
If you look at the total cost, and my return on investment, a couple hundred dollars a month more in food, versus one, maybe two or three referral fees a month, it's a no brainer and as they get better, the risk of my caregivers having an injury because their backs don't have to worry about it. Their cost of care goes down. I don't have to, if we can get them going to the bathroom on their own, we're not buying supplies, things like that. It's more their cost is down for medical issues. And so maybe we'll raise the rent a little or something that will both participate in the savings. So, you got to look at the whole business, not just the food bill actually.
Jack Heald 41:32
Exactly. Your cost of ownership, your cost of running the business goes down when you buy better food, when you create a social environment, where people are interacting socially regularly, where they get to see their family whenever their family wants to. And even though you're paying a personal trainer and have bought fitness equipment, that still actually drives down your costs as a business owner, and you end up with happier, healthier everybody else.
Hal Cranmer 42:11
Not to mention, my close rate, when I show the place to families is in the 80 to 90% range. And usually, if I don't get someone, it's either because my home is too far away from their house, but they thought it they’d check it out anyway. Or I get the impression they don't want their mom or dad there because they don't want them getting better. They want to get to the inheritance. They got dementia, and that's not my mom and dad anymore. And let's just get this over with. So, when they come in and see all these happy, healthy people walking around, I usually get them. Because they go into the other care homes and everyone's just lying around watching TV. So, and I go, look, here's all the things I do for you. I'm not this gorgeous palatial estate, but I'm not that group home where mom or dad's just gonna lie around all day. So, I can charge more. And say, you're gonna get value for money. I'm doing, putting a lot more effort into trying to make your person better. So, the revenue goes up, and the costs go down. Even if my food bill goes up, and I have a personal trainer expense.
Jack Heald 43:30
I get frustrated sometimes with family who won't try alternative forms of health care or medical care, because it's not covered by their insurance.
Hal Cranmer 43:43
Oh, yeah, I get that all the time.
Jack Heald 43:47
And I figured out a long time ago, because I had a health crisis, that it was a whole lot cheaper for me to pay out of pocket for care that actually got me well, than to go to a healthcare provider who took my insurance but didn't actually heal me. To me, it was a simple calculus and to this day, it staggers me that that's not blindingly obvious. Thank God, I got through to my mom several years ago.
Hal Cranmer 44:21
Yeah, so assisted living isn't cheap. I mean, about the cheaper you can get it is, if you're on Medicaid, you're gonna get it for about 3000 a month. Okay. It goes up to, I know there's a place in Phoenix that charges 18,000 a month. A gym membership is a whole lot cheaper than that. When you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, my parents are in their 80s, they go to the gym. The cost of long-term care and unless you get long-term care insurance, there are some programs for the very people who don't have much money like Medicaid, but other than that you're on your own. You better pay out your savings, selling your house, reverse mortgage, or something like that. So, yes, finding care that works is so much more important than finding care covered by insurance. I'll tell you one insurance story, this Bredesen protocol we're putting this lady on, one of the items is we check their hormone levels, because the hormones affect the brain, like a lot of other stuff. And her hormones, relevant ones like pregnenolone and progesterone, and I think maybe estrogen, I can't remember exactly which ones were low. Our doctor, who we need to prescribe this stuff, can't prescribe any hormone treatment, because it's not the standard of care for her insurance. Her malpractice, and that kind of stuff, her liability. So, she's like, I totally get it. I read the research; it makes total sense. I'm not going to prescribe it for you. So, it almost works against them having this insurance sometimes.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 46:07
Yeah, no. And that's really a shame to hear. And I was going to ask you kind of what feedback you get from these patients, physicians when you have someone like the lady you described who was put on hospice, and six years later not only is she still alive, but she's actually in much better condition. What kind of feedback do you get from their physicians, from their medical teams?
Hal Cranmer 46:35
That physician that's struggling to prescribe the hormones told my manager, I know, this suck, but I just want you to know when I get old, I want to move into this home. So mostly, the doctors that I work with, love it, and think it's great, and how can we help as much as they can. So, I'm blessed with a lot of good medical people around me. They don't really get into it, they let me kind of do the diet exercise kind of stuff. But they take care of the prescription stuff and procedures, but they're cheering me on. But I'll tell you what, I went to a hospital one time to visit a patient that was in there that was close to the end. And I had this nurse come in and order her food and ordered her macaroni and cheese and chocolate. And I was just like I said to her, can we do a little better than that? And she's like, she's near the end, just let her enjoy it. And she was practically like, non-responsive. So, it wasn't like she asked to order that. Like, as you're just ordering, get hers up. And I just wonder how often does that happen.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 48:01
Yeah, well, I can tell you, it happens very often. But it's sad that we give up on these people, we don't give them hope. And you're doing exactly that. You're giving hope, you're demonstrating that there is hope for many of these people. And yeah, you may not cure whatever it is their disease, but you're going to make whatever time they have left better for them. And in many situations, you're obviously extending that time that they have left, but I think the quality of it is what most people would care about. And so, I think it's amazing to work. I don't know what kind of networking you have within the assisted living industry. But do you talk to your fellow owners or managers of assisted living? And what kind of response do they have, hearing what you're doing and the outcomes that you're getting?
Hal Cranmer 49:14
I get a range of responses. I get some that are just thrilled by it and think it's just awesome. And they want to learn more about it and everything. And I try to give them all the resources I use to find out about it. And I get some that are, there's a bunch of them that are like, they were like me that were investors that got into this and they're continuing to be investors and didn't pick up the passion. And just were like I'm looking at my costs and everything. I don't want to spend a lot of money on groceries kind of thing. So, I tell my kids that when you graduate from high school, look around your class. You've got superstars down to slugs, and that doesn't change the whole way through life. You're always gonna have some great people, and you're gonna have some horrible people, and you're gonna have everything in between. I think it's that way. And so just like my residents, I want to find the ones who want to get better. And if you just want to hang out, get ice cream and pizza, and watch TV, I got plenty of people I can refer you to. It's the same way with assisted living homeowners. There are some phenomenal ones. And there are some not-so-great ones. And there's everything in between.
Jack Heald 50:34
Do you see family members make changes to their behaviors as a result of seeing their parents get better? Have you had any experience with that?
Hal Cranmer 50:49
Yes, some I do. What really got me excited about this was in assisted living homes are kind of the perfect environment to change behaviors because I can control the food, I control their schedule. They can't cheat. They can't go to the fridge and find that chocolate cake in the middle of the night. We've locked the fridge occasionally.
Jack Heald 51:12
I love it.
Hal Cranmer 51:15
I get a lot of families talk about it and love it. And they'll bring me books about it. And hey, have you read this one and things like that. But I don't take someone who is way overweight, smokes, and drinks a lot and turn them into Fantasticks' physical specimen. But I get, I plant the seed, and I see them start doing more and more like they'll say, hey, I joined the gym today. I'm going to do this, that kind of thing. And I think it's partly like I said, if you need motivation go to an assisted living home because they, when they toured around looking at them, they're like, I'm going to the gym.
Jack Heald 51:59
Wow. So, the three elements are, get your nutrition straightened out, move in some way. Rather than... Eat real food instead of the crap that everybody eats.
Hal Cranmer 52:16
We call it one ingredient meals.
Jack Heald 52:18
A what?
Hal Cranmer 52:20
If you read the ingredients on food, and it says broccoli or beef or chicken, you can eat it. If it says Xeomin tiene niacin aspy. Don’t eat that.
Jack Heald 52:33
One ingredient foods. I like that. I've heard Phil say of more than one occasion, if you can tell what it is by looking at it, you can eat that. I thought that was pretty sharp. Okay. So, eat good foods instead of crappy food, move instead of sit on your butt, and have that social interaction, regular social interaction.
Hal Cranmer 52:59
Yes. I think that's huge. I tell my residents and their families. Family’s the best medicine because it's you can tell the residents, they get regular visits by their family, are happier and generally healthier.
Jack Heald 53:16
Wow. I would I hope at some point, somebody hears this and says, I want to run an actual controlled study. And I want to use a house places.
Hal Cranmer 53:29
I don’t have subjects for it. But yeah, I would...
Jack Heald 53:31
Completely unrelated. But I have another I have a client who is actually in para healthcare kind of situation, who told me because of what the work he's doing, he had to figure out how these research studies were run. The average number of people in a healthcare study published, the ones that get cited and all that is it's less than 25.
Hal Cranmer 54:04
Whoa, I thought it was like supposed to be thousands.
Jack Heald 54:08
Yeah, we all thought that. Yeah, we all thought that. He's running a research study where the n is just slightly less than a hundred. And my comment to him was, well, Mark it sounds like you really need a lot more, and he said you and then he told me about the average NIH healthcare study has less than 25 people in it. So, I'm putting a call out there, folks. Here is a home care, I'm sorry, what's the name? What's the type of business? Assisted living business that's different, that is certainly a good place to run the kind of research studies that some of you want to run. Contact Hal. So, Hal, this leads us to the point of how do listeners find out more about have A Place for Parents.
Hal Cranmer 55:04
Okay, so you can go to our website, aparadiseforparents.com. And then I have to give kudos to the previous owner, he came up with that one. On their heels, you can see a music video we made with our residents we took
Jack Heald
I saw that. That was fantastic.
Hal Cranmer
Assisted living Rhapsody, had a blast doing that. And then I'm on Twitter at @HalCranmer. We have a Facebook. I started a Facebook group called Brainstorming Alzheimer's where I kind of am talking about the Bredesen protocol and what we're doing in our home and success and failures. It's not an easy process. But giving people ideas for helping people with Alzheimer's. I also have A Paradise for Parents - Assisted Living is our business page on Facebook. And then you can just, if you want email me it's hal@aparadiseforparents.com. I'd love to talk to people. I did another podcast recently and had a lot of people email me. I’m surprised that...
Jack Heald
Well, it will happen.
Hal Cranmer
I love people who are passionate about making other people better like you, Phil.
Dr. Philip Ovadia 56:27
Yeah, no. When I had heard what you were doing and heard your story, it's one that needs to get out. Because, like I said, ultimately, what you're doing, what I'm doing, what we're all trying to do here is give people hope. And you are really dealing with what many would say are the most hopeless people the most hopeless situations. And you're giving people hope in those situations, and you're seeing amazing results. And I think it's like you said, it's a lesson for us all of what can be accomplished even at late stages of disease. So, like I said earlier, imagine what happens when you started earlier.
Hal Cranmer 57:21
Right? Oh, yeah, everything. The earlier you catch it, the better.
Jack Heald 57:27
All right, well, we try to keep these things at about an hour. And I think that's where we're at. I want to remind our listeners all the contact information for Hal Cranmer and A Paradise for Parents will be available on our show notes. So, on YouTube, on the various podcast channels, it's all there. And wow, I'm impressed. And since we live in the same town, we're gonna get together and have a coffee bar to check. Phil, thanks again, man. I love getting to talk with folks like these.
Hal Cranmer 57:57
Thank you, Phil. I really enjoyed this.
Jack Heald 58:03
All right, well for Dr. Philip Ovadia and Hal Cranmer, I'm Jack Heald. This is the Stay Off My Operating Table podcast. Go ahead and like and subscribe to this show. We drop a new one every Tuesday at midnight. So, we'll talk to y'all next time.
Jack Heald 58:25
America is fat and sick and tired. 88% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy and at risk of a sudden heart attack. Are you one of them? Go to ifixhearts.co and take Dr. Ovadia's metabolic health quiz. Learn specific steps you can take to reclaim your health reduce your risk of heart attack and stay off Dr. Ovadia's operating table. This has been a production of 38 atoms