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Local Living
A community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland.
Local Living
The Game Day Difference: Evidence-Based Men's Health with Dr. Haleem Mohammed
Dr. Haleem Mohammed, Chief Medical Officer of Game Day Men's Health, shares his journey from Wall Street stockbroker to physician entrepreneur and discusses his mission to revolutionize men's healthcare through personalized, evidence-based approaches.
• Game Day Men's Health is the largest men's health network globally with 310 brick-and-mortar clinics
• Dr. Hal operates three South Florida locations (Weston, Boca Raton, Aventura) and serves as national CMO
• Providing concierge-style care allows for 45-minute appointments and personalized treatment planning
• Simple optimization strategies like splitting testosterone dosages can dramatically improve patient outcomes
• Dr. Hal's personal health transformation included losing 55 pounds before opening his first clinic
• The clinic focuses on treating root causes of common issues like fatigue, brain fog, and loss of motivation
• Game Day differentiates itself through physician leadership and strict adherence to evidence-based protocols
• Balance is crucial: Dr. Mohamed prioritizes dedicated family time with his wife and young son despite his busy schedule
• The Boca Raton clinic is located at 7280 West Palmetto Park Road, Suite 103N
• Potential patients can call 561-462-0979 or visit gamedaymenshealth.com to learn more
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast!
Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Welcome. Welcome, welcome to Local Living. We are a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host for today, and you know I've had numerous doctors appear on this podcast, but I've never had my doctor. So today I get the pleasure of introducing to you Dr Halim Mohamed. He's owner-operator of three local game day men's health franchises, as well as chief medical officer for the entire national organization. Dr Howell, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for that intro. It's an honor, first of all, to be your doctor. I don't know if we're violating HIPAA there, right.
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:But yeah, thank you. Thank you for the honor and I appreciate being on the show to you.
Speaker 1:But I want to start out and I want to learn more about you. But I want you to share with our listeners. Tell them a little bit more about Game Day, men's Health, what you do locally and what you're doing nationally for them as well.
Speaker 2:Sure so Game Day Men's Health is a franchise men's health network across the country. We're the largest men's health network in the world, I think at this point, with 310 brick-and-mortar clinics that are open. Our founder, evan Miller, phd academic. He started the organization back in 2018 in California. It was just a wild success.
Speaker 2:There's a real need in healthcare for concierge men's health and to do it right and he brought me on, you know, basically told me last month that I was taking over as chief medical officer.
Speaker 2:He asked us when we opened our locations and we were the first to open on the East Coast, fastest to open in the history of the country, in the history of the company still are, I think and you know he saw what we were doing down here, combining guideline-based, evidence-based medicine with men's health concierge men's health and just was really impressed asked us to take over as national training partners for him, and so we've trained quite a few clinicians and groups that have come through the Weston location and the Boca location.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you've been there when we've had classes and it's an honor to be able to educate the nation that way, and a lot of my work is in that. It's in patient education and clinician education and following, you know, american Urological Association guidelines as close as we can, and sometimes even doing more than what is recommended in terms of testing and bringing them back in, just because we have the capability to do it and we're not bound by insurance. So there are patients that I've seen eight times in a month if I need to adjust dosing to make sure that things are going properly, and I can spend 45 minutes a patient if I need to, not the 15 minutes that unfortunately some of our insurance-based colleagues have to.
Speaker 1:So I know, when I met you, firstly, I was already using testosterone, so I had a prescription for it. I had been working with another very off-hands doctor, nice gentleman, and I came to you and shared a little bit about my experience. You took my blood work, you analyzed and you know what you did. You made a simple change to my dosage. You split it up to where I was taking two smaller doses as opposed to the original dose and I got to tell you, doc, the results have been outstanding. I, um, I feel like I just started taking it again. I feel great. I want to thank you for that.
Speaker 2:That gives me goosebumps whenever I hear stuff like that, because this is exactly why we do it, and the satisfaction, the joy that I feel when I hear back from my patients that we took something that just needed a little bit of optimization and a little bit more time and a little bit more energy and cerebral effort and look at the impact that we're seeing and that's incredible. I call us a men's performance clinic. That's what we are.
Speaker 1:So who might be an ideal candidate to come and see you at Game Day? Men's Health.
Speaker 2:Initially, I had thought our demographic was going to be, you know, 40 to 65. And what I'm finding is that there are men out there that are younger than that or older than that that also benefit from, you know, getting regular checks and making sure that everything is optimized, and I always repeat this. But there's the average lifespan now of the American male, like you and me, is 74 years old, and it seems to have dropped a couple of years recently as well. So that means that middle age is 37, not 50, like we think in our heads. So I'm turning 45 in two days.
Speaker 2:I have a 16 old baby. I want to live forever, if I can, so that my child is always taken care of. I have a wife that I adore, that I don't want to leave alone in any way, shape or form. How do I do that? By optimizing my health, and I think that's what we're noticing in guys that come in that are are married, have significant others, they have family, they have children. They're not doing it for themselves anymore. It's more about I've got to be there, I've got to perform for my family, I've got to perform for my kids, and that's that's what we're. That's what we're doing.
Speaker 1:So I do know you have an extensive medical background. I want you to share a little bit more about that with our listeners. And you were extremely successful already. What made you transition? Also, can you tell me what inspired you to transition into this health space?
Speaker 2:Sure, I actually started in finance 20 plus years ago. I was a retail stockbroker at Ladenburg-Dolman, one of the oldest investment banks in New York, and then transitioned to a smaller Japanese investment bank.
Speaker 1:I've got to just take a quick pause. So before you were a doctor, you were a stockbroker.
Speaker 2:I was Hal the Stockbroker, did you?
Speaker 1:watch Wall Street. How does that even happen?
Speaker 2:I was a poor kid in Brooklyn born in.
Speaker 2:India, raised in Brooklyn, and I always had big dreams and my mom and dad said, ok, go see what you can do. They always had me in spectacular schools, all of our schools. You had to test into them. You had to test into them. My junior high, even my elementary school, you had to test into. My elementary school. Junior high you had to test into. My high school was Stuyvesant High School, still considered, I think, the number one high school in New York City. 30,000 kids apply, only 3% get in. So my parents were like, ok, focus on school, focus on school, focus on school. And then so all of us had to do that. But they allowed me a little bit of leeway and they said, okay, if you want to go into business, go ahead and you can try it. And I went in and I was pretty successful. At 23, I made VP and then in 2005, mom and dad said, okay, that's enough, go be a doctor, like a good Indian boy.
Speaker 2:So I went off to med school. I went to a six year accelerated program, combined pre-med med came back and then I was. I did my internal medicine training at Advocate Masonic in Chicago. It's a top 100 hospital. And my first year I was voted class rep my second year. I was voted class rep my second year. I was voted uh uh resident of the year.
Speaker 2:The day I graduated I was offered a spot in in emergency medicine by the chairman of emergency medicine there, just because I guess I'd made an impression on her. She was amazing woman, um. But I declined because I'd gotten into uh the MBA program at University of Massachusetts and accepted uh a position as medical director hospital medicine director at a hospital in about two hours outside of Chicago and my wife was two years behind me in residency at the same program. So I accepted that position and I would travel every week or every two weeks or so. And I would travel every week or every two weeks or so and I would stay at a hotel nearby the hospital and I would work a 24-hour shift but you know, sleeping in the hospital or sleeping in the hotel room, taking call, seeing a full panel of patients and then admitting patients overnight. I had no subspecialty support. The closest major hospital was about 30 miles away so they had to be either airlifted or I had to do telehealth calls. So I was sort of running at the tip of my license in internal medicine and I learned a lot quickly because you had to.
Speaker 2:And I did that for a couple of years and then my wife finished residency and I was looking at possibly a more national role, but she said, hey, let's move to Miami. And we moved to Miami. So when we came to Miami, worked with HCA, worked with another larger Medicare provider and plan I was a regional medical director, hospital medical director, then chief medical officer director, then chief medical officer, and the entire time I'm, I'm like accelerating in my career thought you know where I was, exactly where I want it to be, and my wife and I, uh, had delayed having a baby for about 10 years and because of school and everything else in careers. And she sat me down one day and she said, hey, I want to have a baby. And I said, great. And I looked at myself in the mirror and I was 250 pounds. I had borderline hypertension, my cholesterol numbers were through the roof. I you know family history of diabetes, so it was pre-diabetic hormonal changes, things that all those things that happen when you when you gain that sort of weight and don't take care of yourself Resigned from my position May of 2023 and got myself together, lost 55 pounds.
Speaker 2:My blood work looks like an 18-year-old's now Opened the first game day in November of 2023. In November 18th, my son was born, 2023. And November 28th 2023, I opened the first game day clinic. Six months later, we opened the second one in Boca. A few months after that, we opened the third one in Aventura, and we're not stopping the third one in Aventura and we're not stopping.
Speaker 1:That's incredible and, as you mentioned when we were chatting before, you're a patient also aren't you.
Speaker 2:I am a patient and actually I think most of the most of the game day owners, franchise owners, are also patients, because they've seen the impact that it's had in their lives. And it was really creative because Evan Miller saw the need for personalized concierge care in person, with complex labs in-house, being able to have the results immediately. You needed something better. I grew frustrated with corporate medicine, short visits, rushed care, insurance companies making clinical decisions instead of doctors. This is a better way. This is a much better way. You put patients first, before paperwork, before insurance, you know, before profits, and we focus on personalized care and it's guided by the patient. It's precision. That's exactly what precision medicine is. It's based on you.
Speaker 2:It's not just here's a cookie cutter response of you know, if you've got this problem, you get this, and you've got this problem, you get this. No, we need to take a look at the entire person. You know guys that come in are dealing with symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, loss of motivation. That's all directly correlating into their lives, whether it's their home life, their business life, personally, friends, family. All of that it's directly correlated. So we need to get to root causes. I always say my favorite prescription is a diet and some exercise. Seven, eight hours of sleep reduce stress, and then we can talk about interventions. But there are plenty of interventions once we've optimized all the big buckets that we can.
Speaker 1:So what misconceptions do you find that people may have about the men's health space when they come in to see you?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of stigmas out there, right, there's a lot of misinformation out there. There's a lot of myths out there. There's a lot of men's health places that, unfortunately, you know are bad actors, or there's med spas out there that are delving into hormonal health and I think you know all of those things have their their, their place. I think a med spa is great when I need a pedicure or manicure or some laser. Um, you know other things you can do, but, uh, when you start messing with you know IV therapy, where you're, uh, you're screwing with electrolyte balances and osmolality and those things that the med spa clinician who's usually an aesthetic clinician maybe doesn't understand really and they're playing a little bit of a dangerous game because you don't know what you don't know in medicine and I'm a huge believer in we need to stay in our lane when it comes to medicine and I don't know how to do laser therapy. I don't know how to do the things I don't know how to do. You know the things that you can do at med spas. So hormonal health lead to, you know, a men's health specialist. I also know my limitations as an internist and I've got my urology colleagues and endocrinology colleagues on speed dial. I've actually got urologists next door, you know, at some of the clinics I've got endocrinologists next door at some of the clinics. I've got endocrinologists next door at some of the clinics and I'm pretty quick to recognize there's something out of my scope and it very quickly will get referred out to a specialist who can take care of that patient.
Speaker 2:And that's another thing that I don't think exists in a lot of the men's health places or med spas that are out there right now. We're also the largest by default, just because of the size. And then within our network we've got an amazing group of board certified physicians who are part of our medical advisory board and these are folks who are constantly vetting and they're actually owners of clinics as well. So they're constantly vetting to make sure that we're doing things right, we're following evidence-based guidelines, that it's not just one person making a decision. I always say nothing is because Dr Howell said so. Show me the evidence, show me the research, show me the meta-analyses, show me the randomized, controlled trials. Then we'll make decisions, but not because one person decided, or a podcaster mentioned it or anecdotal studies like that. We're not fans of it all.
Speaker 1:So, doctor, you're obviously extremely busy obvious to anyone listening extremely ambitious. Quite frankly, you're the kind of person that makes somebody want to hitch their wagon to you because I think they understand they're going to go to the top with you. I think they understand they're going to go to the top with you. But when you're not working and I've got a hunch that your wife is pretty ambitious too and extremely intelligent also but when you're not working I know you love your son. It shows the minute you mention him you see your face light up. But what do you guys like to do for fun down here in South Florida? Do you ever get time to diffuse from all of this?
Speaker 2:There's a moment every Saturday and Sunday that it's just me, my wife and my son and it's, you know, it's usually about an hour or two hours where we go for a walk in the neighborhood and you know we'll get up. And sometimes it's, you know, it's before or after a workout, whatever, but we're out there and we'll spend that hour or two decompressing, connecting and making sure that you know how the week went and how the next week is going to go and plan out, for you know the craziness that comes with. Both of us are physicians. My wife is an academic physician and she has med students and residents and she works at a major institution here in Miami Beach. She actually went to med school on a scholarship probably the most intelligent doctor I know. She's also the one that will fact, check me all day long. She will.
Speaker 2:You know I do majority of my podcasts and videos from home and she's given me a little corner in our bedroom. So a lot of times I'm up late at night and I'm videoing and I hear her from the bed and she'll say do that one again, or you know, or you might want to add this, and I've got. I've caught her on camera saying that a couple of times, but that, plus in the evenings when I get home or when she gets home, we spend time with the baby. That's the most important thing. We've adjusted our schedule so that we've got about three hours of home time between what time he goes to bed, like dinner, and what time he goes to bed. We try to have dinner together and we try to make sure that we have playtime with the baby together. That's more important than anything else. No one's going to remember how hard you worked or how much time you spent in the office besides your children, 20 years from now.
Speaker 1:Well said, doctor. What's one thing that you want anyone listening that may be considering reaching out to you? What do you want them to know about game day, men's health, and what makes you different?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of options. I know. I know how many options there are because I Google. Sometimes in the neighborhood there's probably popping up on a monthly basis different folks that are doing testosterone replacement therapy or weight loss or you know different things. Um, we're not one of those places. We're a medical clinic. We're built by doctors, led by physicians. The leadership is academic. Evan Miller is a PhD, I have an MD and an MBA. It's led by evidence-based guidance and that's the major difference, I think, between us and what else is out there.
Speaker 1:And we're constantly innovating. And I could tell you one other thing when I went in to see a doctor, I realized you're one of those people that have the unique ability to make the person that you're talking to feel like they're the only person in the room. And I can tell you, as a patient, in today's day and age, when most people can't even tell you what their doctor's name is, that's a wonderful feeling, doctor, I want to thank you for that.
Speaker 2:I'm humbled that you think that that means a lot and it's something that I hope that all of our clinicians are the same way. If you talk to my clinic directors in the West and Boca and Aventura locations, they understand that patient first every time.
Speaker 1:Well, that sounds like an amazing culture and obviously it's a top-down culture. I know you have three local franchises, three locations that you founded here one in Weston, one in Aventura and one in Boca. What's the address for your Boca Raton location If you could share the information? If they want to go to Boca, I know it's on on Palmetto park road, is that correct?
Speaker 2:So it's Palmetto and power line. Uh it's, it's 72, 80 West Palmetto park road. It's in those uh beautiful glass buildings and if, uh, I think if you're going east it'll be on your right side and it's, uh, it's suite one oh three N. So it's the first building that's on a Palmetto park road and, yeah, it's, we're on. We're on the first floor, we're right by the bathroom, in case you need to go.
Speaker 1:Thanks for that, doug. You realize I'm 58. So that quite often I think I've used that bathroom coming and going on a couple of occasions and the best way to reach out is to go online to Game Day. Men's Health Is that the best way to make an initial inquiry?
Speaker 2:Sure, or you can just call the office it's 561-462-0979 and speak to front desk. Vilma usually picks up the phone. She's amazing as well.
Speaker 1:She's very nice.
Speaker 2:Or you could just go to gamedaymenshealthcom and find your nearest location. Our you know, we do have multiple locations across the country, and even in South Florida there's about eight locations that are open. My personal ones again are the Boca Aventura and West End locations. But there's some amazing clinicians across the system that I speak to on a regular basis as their chief medical officer.
Speaker 1:Dr Howe, you've been a great guest and I am very confident that if your wife were listening, she would feel no need to tell you that you need to do this one again. You are fantastic. I really appreciate you joining us, doctor.
Speaker 2:Take care. Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1:Once again, everyone that was Dr Howell with Game Day Men's Health, be sure to give him a call. It's fantastic over there. It will change your life. And I again am David Conway. This is Local Living, your local community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland, and we look forward to having you back real soon.
Speaker 2:That was cool.