How To Prevent Dementia, Ditch Overmedication, And Feel Strong At Any Age

What if getting older didn’t have to mean getting weaker, foggier, and overmedicated? We sit down with Dr. Tom Rogers of Performance Medicine to rethink aging from the ground up—focusing on prevention, strength, and clarity rather than quick prescriptions and seven-minute visits. From food and movement to sleep and community, we map out the habits and tools that help you feel capable at any age.

Dr. Rogers explains why so many adults get trapped on long-term medications they may not need—like proton pump inhibitors or certain mood drugs—and how to safely revisit those choices with a root-cause lens. We unpack practical strategies to lower dementia risk: consistent exercise, better sleep, targeted nutrients, and hormone evaluation for women, who face a higher burden of cognitive decline. Expect clear talk on estrogen’s protective role for brain, bone density, and heart health, plus the overlooked impact of sleep apnea on memory and blood pressure.

We also get specific about brain support stacks and advanced screening. Hear how methylene blue, lithium orotate, choline, coQ10, PQQ, and even carefully used nicotine patches can complement a solid lifestyle foundation. Then zoom out to the bigger picture: purpose and community as medicine. Loneliness damages health; service, connection, and meaningful work extend both lifespan and healthspan. Dr. Rogers shares why he left the insurance treadmill to spend more time with patients, use deeper panels like the Cleveland Heart Panel, and integrate peptides and emerging tools to catch risk early and personalize care.

If you’re ready to trade reaction for prevention and build real momentum in your health, this conversation shows you where to start and what to measure. Subscribe, share with someone you love, and leave a review to tell us the one habit you’ll commit to this week.

To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.jonathanandsteve.com. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

This is Benchmark Opening. Brought to you by Jonathan and Steve from Benchmark Homeland. Northeast Tennessee. Johnson City, Kingsport, Bristol, the Troy City, one of the most beautiful places in the country to live. Tons of great things to do and awesome local businesses. And on this show, you'll find out why people are dying to move to Northeast Tennessee. And on the way, we'll have discussions about mortgages and we'll interview people in the real estate industry. It's what we do. This is Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Benchmark Home Loans. And now your host, Christine Reed.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Benchmark Happenings. And you know, we always have a rock star that comes on the show. And so today we have Dr. Tom Rogers with Performance Medicine. So thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Thank you, Christine. I wish I was a rock star. I do like to play the guitar, but I'm not a rock star. But uh I have to compliment you on this studio. This studio probably is better than Joe Rogan's studio. It's amazing. People can see it because it's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Yeah, you know, we used to video too, but then we realized people are not watching the YouTube video. So we're like, okay, well, and that that kind of added another layer of comfort because people are a little nervous when they're on video, you know, especially if you have notes and need to read. But but thank you. Thank you. It's uh we we love doing it. Um we love just you know having people like you and um just great people in our community that are doing, you know, such a wonderful service to people. And you know, performance medicine, I'm telling I'm I'm a patient there. Um I guess I should come up with a better term pet than patient, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Friend.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Friend. I mean, but but you're I'm not sick. Patron. I'm healthy. Um that's what that's what I'm saying. I'm living my best life, Dr.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Rogers. That's right. So you don't have to see a doctor. We can maybe teach you how to be your own doctor and how to avoid the health care system that's right if you can.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

That's right. And you guys have just grown so much. So how's the Abington office going?

SPEAKER_02 2:22

It's going great. Really, really. Samantha is an amazing provider in that office. And Abington's just a wonderful place. I've been wanting to get an office up there for years because I love going up there. The people up there are so nice. I love Damascus. You know, that you've got two towns that are almost complete opposites within eight miles, and they're so different, but I enjoy both.

Why Leave The Insurance System

SPEAKER_01 2:50

That's right. That's right. Well, I'm glad you're there, and I know the people are are glad. And uh Knoxville's booming, and then we've got Bristol, Kingsport, Johnson City. I mean, it's just you know, we had good times.

SPEAKER_02 3:04

We had good timing on uh starting this business 19 years ago with uh kind of just hanging out my shingle and doing medicine like I think it should be done and outside the system, not tied in with insurance companies who really rule medicine nowadays. They really it's sad actually, even what's going on in this the dri-cities area with uh some of our medical care systems. I'm not gonna go into a deep dive on that because I don't want to offend anybody, but um it's a rough negotiating the health care system around here is rough, maybe rougher than a lot of other places just because of all the things that are going on.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Well, and it's just you know, to be able to have functional medicine to where uh it you know you you pay and and you get um excellent just advice and treatment of living you're and I really I mean I am, I'm living my best life, and I know it's because I started coming to performance medicine, taking hormones, vitamins, and you know, of course, exercise and what you eat, and it it you thrive. You it makes a difference, and I love your and if you guys aren't listening to the Common Sense MD podcast that you have weekly, you're missing it because I've learned so much. The education that you provide is so valuable.

Food Quality, Supplements, And Sourcing

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Thank you so much for saying that. We've been doing the Common Sense MD for eight years. We haven't missed a week. Um, and we also do a QA every Tuesday night from seven to eight, uh, where we get on all the platforms like Facebook and Instagram, YouTube, and people just ask me any kind of medical question that they want, and we get a big following, and we get some great questions. I learn a lot from what people ask me, and then they'll share their experiences with it. Um we get people from all over the world. We had uh two nights ago on Tuesday night, we had um somebody from Thailand, we had somebody from Australia, somebody from England. So it's just it's just a great community of people that are interested in optimizing their health. Absolutely. Yeah, you're a nurse and you're uh you you wear many hats. I can't believe all the things you've done in your life when we were talking before this this podcast, all the stuff that you have done, and then your your own mom is 92 and thriving. Yes, because she started taking vitamins early on, she did, and you know, living a healthy lifestyle, doesn't smoke, drink, do any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Not anything. And you know, I used to tell her because back in the day, when I was a young nurse and I would talk about vitamins, you know, all the physicians they were like, Oh, you're wasting your time. Don't take vitamins. I'll be like, Well, my mom takes lots of vitamins. They're like, Well, she's just wasting her money, but boy, have we learned differently.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

I agree. I used to tell patients the same thing. And I'd say, You're wasting your money, you're peeing your vitamins out. And I couldn't have been more wrong. You should see the vitamins I take. I take a lot of vitamins. And ironically, the patients that told me that 30 years ago, they're still my patients and they're 90 something, they look great. There's no doubt you cannot get enough vitamin supplements through your food. I wish you could. You can't.

Aging Well Versus Anti-Aging

SPEAKER_01 6:44

That that's true. Because we didn't realize how our food here in America is just it's just not good. And I love the I can't think of the farm um that that you work with that provides. Brookhaven. Brookhaven, yes.

SPEAKER_02 7:00

Yeah, wonderful grass-fed beef. Um their poultry is all, you know, non-hormonal, non-pesticide. They're uh pastured, their eggs are pastured. I mean, everything is pure grass-fed A2 cattle, no hormones, no pesticides. It's it's clean. I love it. I love it. That's where I buy.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

That's great. And it's nice that we have the options, but you know, a lot of your podcasts I've been listening to here recently, and you know, of course, it's always about health and wellness, but I love how you've been focusing on um older people, and there's been so many things that I've just learned about, you know, assisted living, and you've had physical therapists on. So some of those things, would you like to kind of speak to some of that for those who are listening of how they can help themselves or you know, my one of my board certifications is in anti-aging medicine.

Overmedication And What To Reevaluate

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Um, and there is no such thing as anti-aging, but there's certainly something called uh aging well, I like to put it. And you know, being 71 years old myself, I'm thinking about it because Absolutely. You know, I want in a lot of my patients are older, most of us are baby boomers, and people are you know, you get my age and things start happening, and what I want to do is prevent it. So like falling, breaking your hip. What our knees, orthopedically, I think our knees are maybe the limiting factor in you moving, and you have to move as you get older. You cannot sit a lot, you have to move. That's right. Um so yeah, I took, you know, I really like working with older people. I actually love it. I mean, they're they're especially the greatest generation. I mean, I have veterans from the Korean War. I have a lot of Vietnam vets that are friends and have a lot of great life experiences. I could tell you some great stories about some of these folks, and they're just wonderful. I treat a lot of doctors and nurses, and I want to teach them how not to fall and what to do if they do fall. And when it's time to kind of get off some of the medications that they're over-medicated with, one of the common problems I see with elderly people is they're over-medicated. They've been put on too many medications. And probably the first 20 years of my practice I spent writing prescriptions. The second 20 years I've spent taking them off of medicines that they're indeed.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

What are some of those medicines that people are taking as they age that they probably should not take any longer?

SPEAKER_02 10:03

Well, again, always speak to your doctor because I can't say this is medical advice, but um uh proton pump inhibitors, PPIs are overprescribed, like Nexium, Pralisec, uh, pantoprazal, some of those that cut acid down off your stomach. Now, sometimes they're necessary and they definitely work, but really they're supposed to be used for two weeks unless you have a more serious condition like Barrett's esophagus. But what I find is a lot of people get on those and they're on them for 20 years. And you need, I mean, God put acid in your stomach for a reason to digest your food.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:44

So if you're on those things chronically, you're gonna be depleted and you're not gonna be nourished like you should. So that's one of my pet peeves. Um other ones, uh, a lot of the antidepressants and anti-anxiety agents, um, you know, they they prescribe um just because you're depressed. And really, in my practice of integrated functional medicine, we try to get to the root cause of the problem.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

That's what I love. That's so important.

Depression, Anxiety, And Root Causes

SPEAKER_02 11:19

So if somebody comes into your office and they're depressed, and the typical thing a doctor's gonna do is you're depressed, do you need some prosac or zoloft? And the for and some people may need them. Some of my patients take them. I actually prescribe them rarely. Um, but really they don't work, to be honest with you. They don't work very well. They just um they flatten your affect, they make you kind of apathetic, and they're very hard to get off of. You have to wean very slowly, especially if you're on something like Paxel or Cymbalta. Uh, the anti-anxiety agents or the benzos are very habit forming. Um I don't like the I I like to look at one thing that I do with aging folks is evaluate them from a cognitive standpoint. You know, we all are afraid of getting dementia. Right. I I actually check genetic tests for dementia. Um so and dementia is in some ways in large part preventable. I mean, it's not you're gonna get dementia.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:34

Um, but you need to recognize it early, and there's a lot of things you can do about it. I do not like the dementia medicines that we use.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

I was gonna ask you about that. My brother and I had a conversation the other day. He's he's a nurse also, and we he was we were talking about those types of medications. So, what are some of the things that people could actually do or or maybe maybe what your regimen is?

SPEAKER_02 12:58

I do have a a regimen that I take myself, and I I just don't like the the uh Namendas aeroseps, and there's a new one out that has to be an infusion that one out of ten people uh have a brain bleed on. So I don't know how they got FDA approved, but they did. But in any event, I don't think Namenda and Aerosep work. Uh if they do work, it may, you know, help you for two months. I mean, and they have a lot of serious side effects. I saw them used in my mom who died of Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

Okay.

Dementia Risks And What Actually Helps

SPEAKER_02 13:31

And they definitely did not work on her, and they caused a lot of side effects. So I'm not saying for some people they may not, they may be useful, but in my experience, I just don't think they work. Um I like li early lifestyle interventions. If there's anything that works to prevent dementia early on, it's exercise. Which, by the way, is the the best treatment for anxiety and depression is exercise. And maybe going and helping somebody else out. Yes. And quit focusing on yourself and serve another person. And a lot of times I I'll be very upfront with my patients, and I'm I'm honest. You get this old, you've been a doctor for 40 years, you tend to tell people the truth. You don't, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

And that's what people need, and that's that's love. I mean, you know, telling people truth, you know, especially about their health.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

That's exactly right. So I I like a little um besides exercise, hormone evaluation. I mean, now we all know that the female hormone regimens are wonderful. They do not cause breast cancer. Um so the the labels have been taken off of that or are being taken off, thanks to some of the people in administration right now. So one of the best ways for a female to prevent dementia, and again, they get dementia four to one over men.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Isn't that amazing that women more so than men?

SPEAKER_02 14:58

That yeah, four to one. Men die of nine out of the ten cause major causes of death more frequently than women, except one thing, dementia.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Dementia.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

And women also get more autoimmune diseases than men do. But in any event, one reason is because they lose their estrogen. Another thing that happens to them, they lose their bone density. They get osteoporosis way more than men do because they lose their estrogen. And why do you think women don't have heart attacks before age 50 like men do?

SPEAKER_01 15:31

It's because they have estrogen. They have cardiac protective.

SPEAKER_02 15:34

That's exactly right. When they hit 50, if they don't take hormones, their rate of MIs exceeds that of men, and it's worse in a woman than a man. When they have a heart attack, they have smaller cornea arteries. So you have to screen for that and think about that. Sleep is huge. A lot of people have sleep apnea, which can cause heart disease, hypertension, dementia. Um, so there's a lot of things you can do besides eat right, uh, exercise, um, take hormones or be evaluated for your hormones and get a good night's sleep. Um, I have a little stack that I do. Uh, and personally, um, I like methylene blue. Okay, I'll throw a few things.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I take methylene blue.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Um, I really like lithium orotate. That's a mineral, and don't think of the lithium that we used to treat manic depressives with.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Okay, when you mentioned that, I'm thinking, okay, is that oh uh is that lithium? Like what you know, you take the scary term. No. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

No, lithium orotate is safe. It's one of the safest medicines we ever use. It's dirt cheap, too. And a recent Harvard study proved it that worked better than Aerosept or Dim or Namenda.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Wow. Is that a prescription that you have to do? It's an over-the-counter cheap counter.

Exercise, Purpose, And Community

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Wow. Yes, I take it every day. Um, so I like those are two of my favorite. One that I've been working with, especially for people that have this brain fog of dementia, is nicotine patches. Believe it or not, nicotine is good for your brain. Interesting. People think nicotine, they think cigarettes. Right. But actually, nicotine is the only good thing that come have a cigarette. It actually is good for you. It enhances dopamine. So um I certainly like that one a lot. And there's a lot of others that you can take, certainly uh to take care of your mitochondria, like a coQ10, PQQ. There's a lot of other um things that I do for preventing dementia. Choline is is one of them. Okay. Um Bacopa is another one. Uh, there's a lot of natural things you can do to to prevent dementia. Um, and you need to stay active. People are lonely too. Lonely people have a much higher incidence of dementia than people that have good relationships. And 20% of Americans are lonely.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Yeah, it's so sad. We have so many elderly people who live alone, isolated.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Yeah, and that's very bad for your health. As a matter of fact, isolation and loneliness are akin to smoking cigarettes as far as for your health.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

That's hard to believe, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 18:31

It is hard to believe. Well, you know, if you think about the way God designed us, he designed us for relationship. Yeah. He designed us to be around people and designed us for love and to be loved and to love others, you know, not to be alone.

SPEAKER_02 18:46

Um and serve others.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

And serve, yes.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

You know, I think I tell people, serve other people. That's your purpose here. You know, and you get as old as I am and you've been a doctor so long, and you really could retire if you wanted to, but I don't want to because I like serving others a purpose. And people with a purpose do well. People without a purpose don't do well. I find that people that retire too early don't do too well health-wise.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Um that's what Steve, my husband and I, we talk about that all the time. We have no desire to retire. We've seen so many people retire young. I mean, like early 50s, 60s, and it's like I know.

SPEAKER_02 19:29

I can't wait to retire.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Why?

SPEAKER_02 19:31

I I don't understand it either. Um, granted, you need to get a job that you enjoy doing.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:38

And but it seems like a lot of people retire too early and that's their goal. And then you know, their life, they don't have a purpose.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

They don't have hobbies or or and then if you have to watch, you know, income, fixed incomes, that's that would be so stressful. And then they start worrying. If you notice that, they

SPEAKER_02 20:00

Start worrying more.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 20:02

When they should worry less because they've had a career, you know, they they shouldn't have as many financial burdens as they used to have. Right. But a lot of them really without a purpose, they start worrying, they get more cranky. They probably need hormones for that.

Women’s Hormones, Bone And Heart Health

SPEAKER_01 20:21

They need hormones. Amen to that. I'm telling you, it's a life change. I tell all my girlfriends, I'm like, if you don't have hormones, you need to go to performance and you've got to get on hormones. And I tell them all the benefits of it, you know, and it's it it truly is a game changer.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

It's it's one of the most beneficial things I've ever seen in the practice of medicine is hormones. And some some of my patients, you know, ask me, you know, isn't it just natural to lose your hormones when you go through menopause or andropause? Same thing applies to men. And yeah, I I it is natural. But the problem is so as our hormones decline, we decline. It's like nature saying to us, you finish reproducing, start dying. The problem is we're living a long time.

SPEAKER_01 21:11

Yes, we are.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

So if you don't live that second half of your life without hormones, you're gonna get brittle from your bones to your muscles to your brain, um, and you have to do it better. And I'll tell them, well, it is natural for your hormones to get to get low and for you to get brittle. That is letting nature take its course. But let me ask you a question. You know how your vision gets worse as you as you get older? Would you refuse to wear glasses because that's not normal? Would you not wear a hearing aid when you can't hear because it's normal hearing loss? No, you take advantage of this technology. People are gonna be living a long time in the very near future. I predict 120 will be common, maybe even 140.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Yeah, that's amazing to me.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

Um, I predict it will happen. I go to a lot of these meetings all over the country with anti-aging things, and you know, they're gonna be live, people are gonna live a lot longer. We're gonna have things that you can't even imagine now. And some of the things we do in medicine right now are gonna be considered barbaric. Some of the common procedures we do right now are gonna be are gonna be termed barbaric in the future. I can almost guarantee you. You know, there's even the technology now to detect things early. We we try in my practice to screen. I want to find out if you have cancer or if you have heart disease so we can prevent the progression of it. And there's a lot of new tools from full-body MRIs to uh cancer guard blood tests that will um test your DNA and see if you're putting out already these abnormal cancer proteins.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

And if it's positive, then we we go deeper with scanning. That's fairly new.

SPEAKER_03 23:09

Wow.

Sleep, Sleep Apnea, And Brain Health

SPEAKER_02 23:09

But there's all kinds of things that are on the horizon that are really already being utilized.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

But that's apart from the Cleveland panel, right?

SPEAKER_02 23:19

The Cleveland is a great blood panel. That's probably the best thing I do. Yet the best thing I do to see where you are metabolically, hormonally, inflammatory-wise, uh is the Cleveland heart panel. That that's a good start for what I do because it really gives me a great picture of where you're at. But some of the other things that are advanced, you know, most people have never even heard of, like stem cells. Um, we use a lot of peptides in our practice, um, which most doctors have never heard of, but they're certainly advantageous in uh aging well. So you'll hear a lot more about them in the future, but we've already been doing those for many years. Um so there's a lot of exciting, there's a lot of excitement around medicine.

SPEAKER_03 24:07

There is.

Dr. Rogers’ Brain Health Stack

SPEAKER_02 24:07

But if you if you're not proactive and kind of do the research yourself or talk to a physician who's well versed with these things, um, you're not gonna find this stuff out. One of the reasons I began my own practice many, many years ago and got out on my own and out from under insurance companies telling me what to do, non-medical administrators telling me what to do, and how many patients I had to see a day is cut out the middleman. And the way I the way I do it has enabled me to go from having to see up to 40, sometimes more patients a day and find codes for their diseases, label them, and get them out of my office in seven minutes. Now, at most I see 12 patients a day. So when you go to from 40 patients a day to 12 patients a day, you're able to help that person more. You get to know them because otherwise, they're coming in with a number. Oh, your cholesterol's 250, you need lip torci in three months. Yeah. Or you your blood pressure's up. Let me put you on this medicine. Oh, you're pre-diabetic. Here's your metformin, I'll see you in three months. You there's no way you can be a good doctor doing that. It's not the doctor's fault, it's the system's fault and the way they're trained, for sure. But um I could talk about the our modern health care system forever. We've got all this new technology, and we can do things like operate on a fetus, interuterine, uh, but we can't take care of our prime, we can't prevent certain things from happening that should be prevented. So our primary care is very weak in this country. The advanced stuff we do, like some of the surgeries, cancer treatments have come a long way with all the new things. But as far as primary care, look at your average American. I mean, they're not healthy.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

No, they're not. And you just have to go sit in a restaurant and just see, and I am I just it kind of hurts me a little bit just to see p the people walking, they walking around. It's almost they're it's painful. They wobble, and it's just you can tell they're they're not exercising or and and a lot of times it's just a mindset that we get into. But like you said, there's so many things we can do preventatively to have, you know, a great life and to take care of our health. Because if we don't have our health, it doesn't matter how much money we have, it's miserable.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

Yeah, yeah. I I think you're right. Um I I treat a lot of people that have a lot of money, very wealthy people, and they want their health over anything. Besides God and family, they want their health, they would pay anything to be healthy and feel energy and not hurt, and be able to move, to be able to relax, to sleep, to enjoy their families.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

And to help other people because if you're suffering, if you're in pain all the time or you're tired all the time, you're miserable and you can't help other people.

SPEAKER_01 27:19

No.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

And that's why you get on all these drugs for this.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

That's right. And and a lot of people don't know better. But I'm so thankful for performance medicine and what you're doing. And so I I just highly recommend anybody, if you're looking for something alternative, if you're not happy where you are with your health journey, you know, please call uh performance medicine. They've got locations everywhere. And uh thank you for being here today. It's always just uh I just learned so much. Your whole family, I'm like Jenny, and and we've got Miss Jenny back here. She's gonna close us out today, Miss Curious Jenny and your son Andy and Kelly. You guys just have a great family. So thank you.

SPEAKER_02 28:05

You're so kind, and I've enjoyed talking to you.

Loneliness, Service, And Purpose

SPEAKER_01 28:08

It's always true. So true. So, but hopefully it won't be uh it was like it's been too long since you you were you were here, so okay. Well, thank you for having me. Absolutely. All right, Miss Jenny, you're gonna end us.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

This has been Benchmark Happenings, brought to you by Jonathan Tipton and Steve Reed from Benchmark Home Loans. Jonathan and Steve are residential mortgage lenders. They do home loans in Northeast Tennessee, and they're not only licensed in Tennessee, but Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did, make sure to like, rate, and review. Our passion is Northeast Tennessee. So if you have questions about mortgages, call us at 423-491-5405. And the website is www.jonathansteve.com. Thanks for being with us, and we'll see you next time on Benchmark Happenings.