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Charge Forward Podcast
The Charge Forward Podcast: Dedicated to those who choose to Charge Forward into the Storm when hit with challenges. This is what makes them different and has lead to their success. When in doubt.... Charge Forward!
Charge Forward Podcast
Regenerative Medicine, Peptides & Healing Trauma | Dr. Mike, Breanna & Steve Price
What if the key to healing isn’t in a prescription bottle—but already inside your body?
In this breakthrough episode of The Charge Forward Podcast, Dr. Michael Meighen (regenerative medicine specialist), Breanna Price (health coach), and Steve Price (cryo and recovery expert) join Jim Cripps to explore how regenerative medicine, peptides, and functional therapies are transforming the way we approach health, pain, and trauma.
Instead of masking symptoms or shutting down inflammation, regenerative medicine works with your biology to “trick the body into healing itself.” From PRP to peptides, these cutting-edge therapies activate your body’s repair systems for real, lasting recovery.
💡 In this conversation, we cover:
- Why under-eating and over-exercising sabotage long-term health
- The difference between conventional healthcare and functional, cash-pay models (and why the latter can often cost less)
- The profound impact of blood sugar and hormones on chronic conditions and overall performance
- Veterans’ health breakthroughs with treatments like stellate ganglion block (SGB), which reset the nervous system from fight-or-flight mode
- The ripple effect of healing trauma—not just for veterans, but for spouses and families living with secondary stress
From improving sleep and restoring energy to unlocking emotional resilience, this episode offers a roadmap for anyone frustrated with quick fixes and ready to invest in real healing.
🔥 As Breanna puts it: “How much is your money worth if you can’t even live the life that you dream of?”
🩺💛🏃🏼♂️➡️ Want to connect with Dr Michael Meighen?
📘 Facebook: Dr. Michael Meighen
📸 Instagram: PTSD Medical Center
📍 Amazon: Best-Selling Book
🩺💛🏃🏼♂️➡️ Want to connect with Steve & Breanna Price?
Libertas Cryo
🌐 Website: Libertas Cryo
📱 Instagram: @libertascryo
📱 Facebook: Libertas Cryo
Radiant Roots Coaching
🌐 Website: Radiant Roots Coaching
📱 Instagram: @radiantrootscoaching
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how much is your money worth if you can't even live the life that you dream of? That's right.
Speaker 2:Our goal is basically to trick the body into healing itself. So we're trying to inflame that tissue again and the body responds by sending in a number of their own cells, kind of signaling it hey, there's a problem here.
Speaker 3:Hey, team, jim Cripps here with the charge forward podcast, and I have a special treat for you today. It is a collage of guests, some that you've already met before and some that you haven't, and then, oddly enough, I didn't know that they knew each other. So we're going to just dive into this one and we're going to have some fun. We're going to talk regenerative medicine, we're going to talk our men and women in our armed forces and some of the special foundations and programs that help take care of them and help them enjoy a better quality of life. So, without any further ado, dr Mike, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you, jim. Good to see you, bree, welcome.
Speaker 1:Good to be here again, Steve welcome. Thanks.
Speaker 3:Jim, all right. So for anybody that doesn't know so, dr Mike, you've probably heard me talk about him before, so we met back in 2021, I believe. And, dr Mike, you started as an ortho and then went neck deep into the regenerative medicine space, right?
Speaker 2:So I started in physical medicine, rehabilitation, so basically non-operative orthopedics, doing a lot of interventional pain nerve blocks, epidurals, facet joints, joint injections, you name it and while I was helping people short-term and kind of get them out of pain, long-term I wasn't seeing the benefits or the changes that I was hoping for. So then I started looking for potential alternatives and that's how I got kind of in the regenerative medicine space, starting with what's called prolotherapy, where basically we inject a substance most of the time now dextrose, which is the sugar that's in all IV fluids that can both be anti-inflammatory at low percentages, so we can use it for nerves and other things, but also can be inflammatory at higher percentages, where we can use it for joints, soft tissues, supportive structures, discs, cartilage, you name it.
Speaker 3:And when we're using it as an inflammatory, what we're actually trying to do is we're trying to get the body to attack and try to repair that space Correct the body to attack and try to repair that space, correct.
Speaker 2:So inflammation is thrown around a lot in the social media space and not all inflammation is the same. So acute inflammation is actually quite helpful for us to heal, recover, get better. Those type things, the chronic inflammation, that's usually the problem and that's what most people are speaking of. So the problem with what we do as far as treating most orthopedic issues, as we shut down that acute inflammation, we use anti-inflammatories, we use steroids, we use other modalities and it basically turns off the healing process.
Speaker 2:So with any type of regenerative therapy our goal is basically to trick the body into healing itself. So we're trying to inflame that tissue again and the body responds by sending in a number of their own cells, kind of signaling it hey, there's a problem here. And we can get in some of the other therapies as well, including PRP or bone marrow or adipose. But basically it sends in cytokines which are helpful for inflaming the tissue and or for healing other growth factors, fibroblasts, which help kind of set down new tissue and a good number of other things from that standpoint. And it also kind of works with the immune system as well. So we're kind of modulating the body's inflammatory and immune response to promote a healing phase and or a recovery phase.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, and one of the things that frustrates me is all a lot of this gets overlooked or it's kind of swept under the rug, unless you're into the regenerative space. An example of that would be you know, just two months ago I did a piece with Men's Health Magazine and what did they leave out of the fact that I went and got stem cell therapy in Honduras? They left you out completely, and then they also left out that it worked and that I'm healthier now because I got it done, which you would think would be something you would want in that article. But much like um several of the treatments that you're talking about, because big pharma can't make huge amounts of money on them, they don't get talked about.
Speaker 2:Unfortunate. But you know, I think you know one of the bigger, you know, complaints or criticisms is there's not a lot of literature. Well, that's not absolutely the case and you know there are a great number of studies if you, you know, use Google Scholar or PubMed or those sort of things. And Chris antenna, who is a physiatrist like myself, who has done tons of research and has kind of really moved this forward, usually each year, and he just put it out on um, I think, linkedin um, showing the number of studies just in the last year or two related to prp, and they've outnumbered any number of orthopedic studies by multiples. Yeah, and yeah, there is good data there. Now, is it perfect? Unfortunately no, but there's enough there showing positive response that you can quote and show that, hey, there are opportunities and options that may be as good as or even better than surgery. Now are there certain things where surgery is absolutely necessary? Yes, and we still use orthopedic surgeons. They're not going to go away. Sure, and you know, you've got a full thickness ACL tear. Usually that needs to be fixed. Full thickness rotator cuff tear usually needs to be fixed. Broken bone that needs to be put back in place. I mean, certain things you're just going to have to fix Sure, sure.
Speaker 2:However, with that doesn't necessarily preclude the fact that you could do regenerative therapies afterwards.
Speaker 2:I mean, they're going to hit the big things, but usually with an ACL injury you've got, you know, significant bone edema or think of bone bruise. Oftentimes you're going to injure the medial collateral ligament, which is the one on the inside part of the knee, and oftentimes you will injure the medial meniscus too. So it's got a, you know, not a great name, it's called the terrible triad. So and it's degrees too I mean not all of them are horrible to the point where they need to be operated on Sure. Some do. But a lot of times if you fix the ACL and you don't assess or treat the MCL or some of the issues with the medial meniscus, your outcome may not be quite as good. So there are ways to augment those treatments afterwards too. So it's not just one size fits all or fixes all, either combination therapies, and some of the good orthopedic surgeons are actually doing that. They're doing some regenerative therapies at the time of surgery and some are even doing it post-surgery, for the reasons that we just outlined.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, probably three years ago, right after I went to the biohacking conference, I think we had a similar conversation because of one of the conversations I had there, this gentleman had worked in the Florida state um in a football program. He had worked for the, had worked with the Jaguars, and his point was yeah, you may have a significant enough issue that you've got to have surgery, but by combining the therapies that are available with the surgery, you're probably going to heal faster and get more range of motion, quicker and more long term if you combine the two right I mean a lot of orthopedic related issues are due to instability.
Speaker 2:So the goal is to try to re-establish that integrity of whatever you're treating, whether it's your knee, whether it's your hip, whether it's your shoulder or any of the other things. So, um, think of a, a tire that is on your car but not fully tight and it's kind of a little bit wobbly. If that's the case, your car is not going to drive great, it's not going to turn or corner. Well, you're not going to be able to get up to speed particularly well and pretty soon you're going to shake it to the point where it may fall off or you may have issues with your alignment or other things too Correct. So if you can kind of reestablish integrity and kind of get everything more balanced, get everything tighter, and then work on some of the deficiencies from a muscle or nerve related standpoint, where you've got either some tightnesses, you've got some weaknesses, you've got some instabilities, things aren't firing properly, um, you're going to have the best possible outcome that you can have Perfect, no, but much better than you were previously. And again, I mean I've, I've lived this, I mean I've had, you know, issues in relation to my knee, my left foot and ankle, shoulders, that sort of thing, and definite benefits if used and, and you know, injected in the proper place.
Speaker 2:I mean, we can talk about all the nice tools and all the great things, but the other part is you got to put it where the problem is. So there's also the skill of using some type of imaging guidance whether it be ultrasound, whether it be x-ray or fluoroscopy and really trying to target the tissue that you're trying to treat. So that's the other piece that is incredibly important. So everybody asks well, you know, what do I have to use? It depends. But the bigger part is, I don't care what you use. If you target it properly, you're going to get a good response.
Speaker 3:Right Well, and I think most importantly is it's not one size fits all. And good response Right Well, and I think most importantly is it's not one size fits all. And the thing I love about regenerative medicine or people that are open to it, is it's not about one or two tools or this is off the table and that's on the table. It's really how do we use anything at our disposal in order to get the best possible outcome?
Speaker 2:Correct. No, no question on that. And you know we'll talk about some other interventions that can be quite helpful and beneficial. But you know, one of the things that I like better about what I do now than what I used to do then is I look at the whole person. Yeah, I don't look at you as, hey, you're a knee problem or hey, you got a low back issue or hey, um, you know you're, you're just tired or fatigued.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of looking at you from head to toe and kind of getting an idea of more of the root cause of the things that are going on.
Speaker 2:So just look at your knee, I'm looking upstream, look at your hip, looking at your low back, even looking at your upper body, see if there are particular issues or problems, along with downstream, looking at your foot or ankle, and you know kind of getting a full picture and piece of what may be going on. And then you know looking at your cell health and hormone health and some of the other things that are going to give you the best availability to heal, recover and have the best functional restoration too. So you know. And then looking at lifestyle pieces, are you sleeping well? Are you exercising appropriately? Are you fueling yourself appropriately from a nutrition fluid standpoint? Are you doing some stress reduction type techniques? Are you unplugging a bit? Is your nervous system getting more balanced? So it can be overwhelming and daunting, but by the same token, I think if you're doing a good evaluation, both from a history, physical standpoint, and also doing appropriate assessments, either lab wise or otherwise, I think your outcomes are going to be much better than if you're just treating just your knee.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and you know, looking at that whole body experience and you know what, what all triggers or what all pressures does, does the body have? Uh kind of leads us to uh, why Bree and Steve are here. Um, I did not know that they knew you, they did not know that you knew me, and I was talking about you coming up for this, this episode or this series of episodes, and Steve and I were talking and Steve said, uh, we had Dr Mike's coming at the end of the month, right, and I was like I don't know that we've talked about it, have I already said that? And he was like no. Bree told me he's like your doctor is our doctor, had no idea and then really didn't have any idea that you and Bree are working together on some stuff. We are, bree, what do you all have cooking?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it was a surprise to me as well. Dr Mike and I were talking and we were just going over stuff because we've been partnering together, and he was like, hey, I'm coming up and I'm going to see Jim for the podcast and I was like, how do you know Jim? But no, so we have been working together. So when Dr Mike was talking about how he's addressing the whole person component and how I mean it does take a lot of work and it takes daily interaction, and something that I have noticed that is a gap in the health and wellness space is the doctors that are doing a good job, that care, that are trying to dig into a whole person concept. They only have so much time to be able to dedicate to every day with those people and, um, I have that time and that's part of what my coaching is, and so we've been working together where, if he's had someone who needs some help with some weight or working on their lipids or their blood sugar regulation, stress management, um exercise programming, all of that. Where, um he gives her information, I talk to them, see if it were a good fit for each other, if we can help each other out, and then, um, I've been working with them and I've had quite a few clients that have come from Dr Mike, which is also really great, thank you, um. But I I love data and um, I've been using data to show the three-month, six-month progress of how these people are improving and we address every component of their life. We address the digestion, we address blood sugar regulation, sleep, stress management, nutrient-dense diet, and then I also add in the exercise movement component to it, because many people are not exercising in a way that builds skeletal muscle mass and I, the programming that I it do, does that. And nice, um, when he was talking about alignment and the.
Speaker 1:That happens often when someone's body isn't moving properly, whether they have the, a muscular imbalance, or they've been doing a movement pattern that doesn't benefit their body. They do that for a long period of time. They have weakness in some areas and strength in other areas, and so I've been working with them where we do a mobility assessment. It can be difficult when it's online because I'm not hands-on, but they videotape themselves working out. We do Zoom mobility assessments and then we make sure that, as we progress, we're addressing every aspect of their life and we're working day to day um, day in and day out with each other and it's going really well, and I mean that that's how we know each other and have been working together. But I was definitely surprised too. It was like how do you know, jim?
Speaker 3:Well, it's a small world and then, at the same time, it's just um, you know, I think sometimes we gravitate towards people that are like-minded or that have good energy, and you know, I think we're all concerned with kind of not just our own health but those around us improving their health. Uh, you know, with Libertas cryo Steve, I mean those around us improving their health. Uh, you know, with Libertas cryo Steve, I mean you guys are crushing it in the uh, cryo and alternative therapies. I love coming hanging out with you guys, um, and it's great to see the business growing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I'm super excited about the business growing, but also, um, the things we offer, I think, are, uh, great options. Um, I think they're really good in conjunction with other treatments. I think they can be really useful as an in-between waiting for different things. But I mean one of the things that got me into this, you know, regenerative medicine. What we do is not nearly in-depth or profound as what Dr Mike does, by any means. But whenever the Donovan and Banks Foundation sent me not to Dr Mike, I wish Dr Mike had been with them at the time but I went to Chicago and did the stellate ganglion block and some ketamine therapy.
Speaker 5:And you know, for me the stellate ganglion block didn't really do a whole lot. The ketamine therapy was awesome but it didn't last very long. So I found some alternatives that you know again, not nearly as profound but pretty decent to help me with what I had going on, pretty decent to help me with what I had going on and, um, just uh, you know. And then that aspect of looking for things to to avoid surgery, like I wish, instead of getting my shoulder surgery, I would have had a good regenerative medicine doctor to try some things out, cause I didn't have to have that surgery at the time, like I was in pain, but I'd been in pain for years. Um, and you know, my surgery didn't go great and I still had pain and I I only wonder, had I done something with a regenerative medicine doctor beforehand, could I have avoided surgery? Or, if not, avoided it, could I have had better outcomes?
Speaker 3:Sure, well, and I think that was one of our first conversations early on is because since you started as an ortho and I mean good, bad or ugly If you go to see an orthopedic, a lot of times that's going to be a surgery. And you said I got tired of cutting on people and you know you were like there's a lot of things that we can do to avoid that. Or there's a lot of things we can do in conjunction with that or even before that, to make sure that the body is as healthy as possible, to give it the best possible outcome.
Speaker 2:Right. So just to be clear, I don't operate, so I do more of the non-operative therapies. But your point is well taken. I mean, if you're going to see a surgeon, you know the vast majority of times they're going to recommend that and not out of malice or any of those sorts of things, you know. I think they're trying to help truly tools that they have available.
Speaker 3:Correct?
Speaker 2:Um, but you know, I would say ballpark, and they've looked at this multiple times probably 80 to 90% of things and maybe even a little bit more that go to us, you know, orthopedic surgery, clinic or non-operative, um, but again, I mean even Steve talking with his shoulder, I still think there may be possibilities of things that can be done now to even augment or accentuate his response and outcomes from that standpoint too.
Speaker 2:And then you know, Bree's been incredibly helpful and you know I would say two things and she can comment probably a little bit more in detail on this. But I would say the vast majority of people, from a nutrition standpoint, think they do well, almost nobody comes to me and say I'm terrible. There's a few that are honest, but most people are pretty clean and to some degree, degree that's true. But I would say on a whole, almost all of us either under eat or don't eat the right things and we over exercise. So we try to accommodate for that. Oh, you know, I'm going to work out, do CrossFit seven days a week. Well, that's not necessarily going to be good because you're going to be inflamed.
Speaker 2:That's right, you're not going to recover, you're not going to grow. I mean there inflamed, that's right, you're not going to recover, you're not going to grow. I mean there's, there's benefits to rest big time, and I think those are things that people need to grasp to some degree. And then she does a great job with women and kind of working with um. You know their cycles and some of the other things and I'll let her comment a little bit more in detail on that. But you know there's there's opportunities and ways to exercise during your cycle and or to try to enhance how you feel, and you know the way that your digestive system works and a number of other things too. So, very integral, and you know the other part is she gets a lot more touch points which I think are very important as well. So, um, trying to hit people and kind of keeping them engaged to some degree. Sometimes she probably is as much their therapist as she is their nutritionist and some of the other pieces. But that's also incredibly helpful and important to say, hey, you're doing good, don't give up, don't throw in the towel.
Speaker 2:I mean, if you're looking at weight, everybody I don't say everybody, the vast majority and unfortunately, women probably a little bit more than men want to look at the number on the scale and it's a lot more nuanced and there's a lot more detail. Which is why I think looking at in-body scanning or dexabody composition scanning, looking at, you know, recovery rates from either heart rate variability, sleep, some of the other things, can be very important, because then you can look and say, yeah, your number didn't change, but you've gained four pounds muscle, you've lost four pounds of fat and your bone health looks significantly better. Oh, how are your clothes fitting? Oh, much better. I'm down two sizes. Oh, okay, it looks like we're moving the right direction. How do you feel? Feel better.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Speaker 2:So, you know, I think trying to give objective data is incredibly helpful, powerful and important to try to give people a little bit more than just looking at the number and saying, you know, eat less and exercise more, which isn't necessarily helpful for, I would say, the vast majority of folks. I think there's everybody's different. That's why, you know, if you look at diets, not everybody does well with a carnivore, keto diet. There are some people that do better with a higher carbohydrate diet, believe it or not.
Speaker 2:Um, and carbohydrates are not our enemy. Um, they can be part of a good diet, especially, you know, if you're looking to, you know, recover well, if you're looking to grow, if you want to add some muscle or some mass, carbohydrates got to be a big part of that. And the other thing is, if you don't have enough, you're going to turn your thyroid down to the point where you're going to have your metabolism reduced, which is going to also be problematic. So there's, there's things all over the place, but again, we can balance those pieces out depending on what your goals are at that stage.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, I think, uh, to use an analogy, it's kind of like a cruise control. You can't set the cruise control and forget about it. It's there has to be some modification as you go along. And so what works today at say, somebody that's 25 is not necessarily going to work when they're 35, or when they're 45, or when they're 55, or if there is an injury. I mean, uh, I think even you know, um, what was it about? Two years ago you had a car accident and you know it probably took you a year to to really kind of get the mechanics back in line.
Speaker 2:I mean threw me for a loop for sure, both from a nervous system standpoint. And then, you know, left foot and ankle, initially left shoulder left shoulder actually did well conservatively, and then my right shoulder started bothering me and so I did have some adipose injections by one of my colleagues in December of last year and significant improvements on what, five months out, give or take now. And foot and ankles probably 90 to 95%, better shoulders probably 80 to 85%. So significant improvements from that standpoint. And, um, yeah, I mean it was. It was a big change from that standpoint, even though you know I was still functional, I was still able to work, I was still able to do most of the things. But you know, even walking became a challenge and difficult and, you know, definitely played on your mind for sure.
Speaker 3:Well, I think about it much like the car example you gave earlier is if you hadn't been focused on fixing the mechanics so that they actually lined up Not that you couldn't walk, but you couldn't walk with the natural gait, the way that you should. They actually lined up, not that you couldn't walk, but you couldn't walk with the natural gait, the way that you should. And so if you just let that go on and this happens to a lot of people is they allow their body to compensate, as opposed to going and having it fixed, whatever that repair looks like, and then they wear out other parts, whether that's a hip or whether that's an ankle, whether that's putting undue pressure on their spine. There's all kinds of things. You know. I think of Castle. You know he broke his toe the fourth day of school and the fact that he was in a boot for eight weeks with one, you know, one side being higher than the other. You know it took months for the chiropractor you know to work with him and get that kind of dialed back in.
Speaker 4:Bree, tell me if I'm right or if I'm wrong here. I'd love to I know right.
Speaker 3:Well, we've had some people come in and we've had some conversations specifically around, like rehabilitation, from a drug rehab standpoint and for those that are doing great things in those spaces. It is very common that kind of the factor as to whether or not somebody stays on the right path or falls off the path is how long their engagement is with somebody, kind of holding that accountability. Do you see the same thing in you know? Because I will tell you, you know, being the fat kid from the age of three, you know I was addicted to sugar and if I went and had something sweet right now I'd be, you know, right back at it. Do you see that in kind of your coaching and your discipline? Yes, and your discipline.
Speaker 1:Yes, and in the essence of everybody has patterns and training yourself, training your body, training your mind to handle those new patterns. It takes time and when you're able to do it, and do it in a way where you're not feeling restrictive. So I deal a lot with food, of course, with people, and I have so many people and, like Dr, like dr mike said, every person that I have had has been under eating and over exercising and convincing them to exercise less and eat more. And that that is difficult, man, because so many people will get stuck in thought patterns, behavior patterns, food patterns, cultural patterns that they think is appropriate and that doesn't change overnight. And so those people also have issues with they do carnivore as a crash diet, they'll do whole 30 as a crash diet and they've done it for so many years that they get to the point of two, three weeks in a month in of our programs together and we go slow. We purposely go slow and master one skill at a time. But even in that they come to me and like I don't know if this is working, I don't know if I'm doing this right, I might as well just quit and fail. They think they're failing themselves, they think that they've already failed themselves. So I don't deal in the world of addiction, but I would assume that with people as a whole, we get stuck on our patterns and whether that is a like a self-destruct pattern or you truly don't trust yourself that you can actually achieve this, you need help and that's where a lot of people need that help.
Speaker 1:In a month, six weeks, I actually have a client where we're seven weeks in and she has lost an inch on her neck and an inch on her waist and is down five pounds.
Speaker 1:And she was eating a thousand calories and now we're at to 1700 calories and she was working out five days a week of like a hit workout style thing. And, um, she's working out three days a week and we're doing floor mobility work so huge change in her routine. And we were just talking the other day. She's working out three days a week and we're doing floor mobility work so huge change in her routine. And we were just talking the other day. She's like I don't think this is working, I don't think I'm doing anything right and I'm like, okay, let's go back to the data, which is why I'm going to start offering DEXA scans as a part of my program because we are collecting data. But the scale is one point. I like to do non-scale wins and remind people that, like the scale has a component to our health, it has a component to our fitness component, but it's not the only thing.
Speaker 3:So for somebody out there please explain a DEXA scan.
Speaker 1:I think Dr Mike might explain it better. So there's a couple of different options. There's the body comp option and you can go. So DEXxacom, you can go and you can go anywhere In Tennessee. It's about $130. And they're looking at your lean muscle mass and your bones, no your fat. I think you can explain it better.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's a low radiation scan that does basically two things and it runs concurrently. So it will look at your bone health and then it will also look at your soft tissue components so think muscle, think adipose, think connective tissue and so many other things from that standpoint and can give you ideas about you know where you're starting and we can also, um, assess it moving forward, to see if the changes that we were making, no matter what it may be, uh, are moving the needle in a proper direction. So, um, and everybody's like ah, I don't want radiation, I want this, I want that. It's like how often do you get in a plane? And radiation that you get in a plane on a daytime flight for an hour is less or, excuse me, is more than what you would get with a DEXA scan, I promise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you're talking about a grand total of maybe 10 minutes and at least locally, you know, in Pleasant View, they offer them for $75. So I would say a good range, and y'all keep me honest here somewhere between probably 75 is on the low side and 150 on the high side and less than a half hour's worth of time.
Speaker 2:Correct. And then you know you buy a package of you know two to four, then the price is going to be better. How often? I would say minimum every six months. I think that's a good way to do it. Some would say every three, and I think it depends on, again, what your goals are. If you're a bodybuilder or you're looking to do a bikini competition, yeah I mean, we may want to do it every six weeks.
Speaker 2:But if you're just looking more for general health or you've got some osteopenia, some thinning of the bones, or you're in the osteoporosis range, then you know, I definitely think it's worthwhile to kind of see where things are moving and there's other things that we can check too. But it's another to kind of see where things are moving and there's other things that we can check too. But it's it's another objective part and there's other things that can be looked at. They're a little bit higher level that you know are much more expensive too. So I don't think they're necessary, but this gives, in a short period of time, I think, tons of information that you can use.
Speaker 2:The other thing I like it for from a regenerative standpoint is you're looking at size of all four limbs. So if you see a pound difference, say comparing your right leg to left leg or right arm to left arm, then that starts, you know, my my mind looking and going, okay, what's going on here, and oftentimes you'll pick up oh yeah, you know, I've had an issue with this left knee for years, or now I got a low back issue and sciatica. It's affected my left side. So it's another part where also, you can see changes and benefits of some of the treatments that you involve people in and that could be as simple as getting them going, and there's some physical therapy or personal training too, yeah, so, um, I think it's for what you get. I think it's got a great bang for the buck, for sure. What do you see as a good entry point for people you get? I think it's got a great bang for the buck, for sure.
Speaker 3:What do you see as a good entry point for people? Obviously, not everybody's going to be down in South Florida where you're at. But just regardless of where you're at, what do you see as a good entry point for somebody? Maybe they've just been in Western medicine their entire life. They know nothing about peptides. They pretend to know things about diet and exercise. You know they're just. They're new to it all. What's a good starting point?
Speaker 2:I think looking for a good functional medicine provider and or you know people that you know it's going to be a little bit foreign.
Speaker 2:Most is that are most cash pay practices, because then you can tailor what you do to the client, not the other way around. If you're looking at allopathic medicine or insurance-based medicine, you've got to hustle, you've got to move quickly, otherwise it's going to be challenging for the provider, the office, the clinic, the healthcare system, any of that sort of thing to make enough money to kind of keep everything going. That's why the appointments are very short 15 minutes, 30 minutes probably, max at this stage, whereas folks that run their own business or have a cash pay practice, they're able to, you know, allow 60, 90, some even 120 minutes for an initial assessment. Um, now you know you're going to pay for that time but by the same token you're going to get a lot deeper dive and look and really get ideas on potential root causes and things to really enhance your goals and kind of meet those type things. So you know, to me blood is still the King.
Speaker 3:There's so much you can derive from those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's a century, basically, of studies on blood. Uh is a perfect no um, but it can give you a very good snapshot of where somebody is and where they're starting what are some.
Speaker 3:What are some panels? Because you know, if I, if I go see my, my doctor and don't get me wrong I have a great relationship with my Western medicine doctor in that, um, when I tell her what panels I want to run, she starts writing Um, but you know, for the most part, if you just go get a physical, they're running the bare minimum, correct, you know, I think in the other, if you just go get a physical, they're running the bare minimum, correct.
Speaker 2:You know. I think in the other way to look at it too is looking at direct primary care too. So if you're have interest in looking at a little bit different way to do primary care, that's a great way to do it. Most of those folks again are cash pay and they have very small client lists and they also will see you if you have a cold or if you've got, you know, something else going on that may need to be assessed. Which is the nice piece. You know, I think the bare minimum still is fine. I don't have any issue with a, you know, a CBC, a complete blood count, a comprehensive metabolic panel. You know some of the baseline things because you can garner still a lot of information from that. But you know, I think where we tend to dive deeper at least I do is you know you're looking at more advanced inflammatory markers, looking at things like C-reactive protein, homocysteine, sometimes a sedimentation rate which kind of gives you a little bit more of an idea, more of chronic inflammation. We're looking at all hormone markers, specifically a little bit or a lot bit deeper dive in thyroid, whereas most primary care panels are just going to look at TSH or thyroid stimulating hormone Not a great way to look at thyroid. Looking at your free T3, free T4, we're looking for autoimmune related challenges, issues with your thyroid, and picked up a good number of those and have had pretty good success with cleaning a lot of that up, whereas people have been told, hey, there's no issue because your TSH is okay.
Speaker 2:Um, you know. Looking at your free and total testosterone, looking at your estradiol and estrone levels, looking at, um, you know, for women, progesterone, even for guys, I mean, we make progesterone too. So if it's off, sleep can be poor. Um, and and kind of getting an idea on other facets of health, including, you know, your pituitary health and some of the other things, if we're looking at our, our military members I mean cumulative brain trauma unfortunately is a real thing, you know chronic brain trauma or even, you know, an acute brain injury too. So oftentimes that can negatively affect your pituitary and if we can help to enhance that neuroendocrine system it can make a pretty profound difference. In fact, just this past weekend I went to a course in Florida and Dr Mark Gordon was speaking and he does a lot of work with military, ex military folks too, and he basically his practice is helping to enhance neuroendocrine function, primarily just looking at hormone related health and getting guys and girls back online and getting them going. So a lot of the things I do with pretty much everybody I see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a lot of the things I do with pretty much everybody I see. Yeah, well, one of the things that I love about the way you look at medicine is you don't see it as something you know everything about. You're constantly going to conferences, constantly going to new trainings on what's coming out, what's you know, what's working somewhere else, and really kind of keeping an open mind to what that looks like. And I would just encourage other people, just in general, kind of stand in line with the car analogy, because when you say cash pay, 75% of the people watching are tuning it out. And, yes, you have things that are under warranty on your car, that they will fix, but you pay for maintenance along the way, correct. And so for us to think that we shouldn't pay for maintenance because when you talk about health insurance, people are like, well, it's not covered under insurance, I'm not doing it. And I think that it's just a short-sighted way to think about things, because you're basically saying, until it breaks, I'm not going to do anything about it, correct.
Speaker 2:I mean, I have these conversations specifically just looking at imaging. So cash pay MRI is a real thing pretty much anywhere in the US and it is not in my opinion. And again, I'm not trying to spend anybody's money, but it's not expensive. Trying to spend anybody's money, um, but it's not expensive. Um, I had a client recently in Orlando that was getting a shoulder MRI and cost, including the reading, was just a little over 200 bucks. If you look at most other policies, almost every MRI has to get pre-certed or pre-certified. Uh, meaning that you're going to have to go through rigmarole and hoops, you're going to have to do six weeks of physical therapy and fail that, and you're going to have to do anti-inflammatories. We just talked about why that may not be the best idea, or?
Speaker 3:way to go, because it's impeding your body's ability to repair itself.
Speaker 2:So they've created these artificial hoops for you to jump through just so you can get the scan done. And probably, with your deductible and other things, you're going to pay as much, if not more, and then you're going to get a bill, not just from you know, the MRI company, but you're also going to get a radiology bill and some other things too. So, and again, you can look at both. I don't have any problem with okay, if I do it, insurance, what's it going to cost me? If I'm doing a cash, what's it going to cost me? And and make an informed decision. And you know, I think those are the important pieces.
Speaker 2:I think the other thing, too, that people don't quite understand is, when you submit anything to insurance is they now have leverage against you, meaning that if you put down a code to so you can get a lab done, they will use that code against you. For example, when this happened to me, I was trying to get health insurance and, um, one of the assessments and things we talk about on the lab panel is called DHEA or DHEAS, which is a hormone that's in the pathway going from cholesterol down your sex hormones. To get that covered, you have to have a code for either adrenal suppression or adrenal dysfunction. The treatment is an over-the-counter supplement called DHEA.
Speaker 3:And it's like $25 a quarter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nothing. So I tried to get insurance and they saw that code and they basically flagged me for it and we're going to raise rates, or they basically told me that they weren't going to insure me just for that. So, while I understand, people have it, they want to use it, they want to do all the things with it as best they can, and I totally understand, um, there are benefits to being a bit anonymous with those type things too, because it, you know, helps you not just in the short term but in the longterm too. So you know, I think the take home is just, look, I mean, don't just go, well, if it's not covered insurance, I ain't doing it. Well, it could be cheaper. I mean, even, you know, I get folks too that you know with their drugs, oh, it's not covered. Okay, did you ask him what the cash price, cash pay price was?
Speaker 3:No, and oftentimes it's actually cheaper than what you would pay if it's covered. So, and the other thing that I noticed too and you know again, this is this is a big pharma is you'll have some medications that a 50 milligram dose is Thirty dollars a pill and the hundred milligram is six dollars a pill. And it just blows my mind. But you know, I think that I think people want the easy route. They want to show up at the doctor and the doctor tell them what to do or give them a pat on the butt and say that they're okay and I'll see you again next year, and I think that's totally fine.
Speaker 3:If you want to be the majority of people that spend the last 10 years of their lifespan without health span, meaning they're somebody's got to take care of them in some shape, form or fashion. They're not on their own, um. But if you want your health span and your lifespan to basically come as close together as possible, to be able to play with your grandkids, to be able to, you know, enjoy life, um, you got to be more proactive okay, I mean, I think the other piece is too.
Speaker 2:I mean some docs or people in healthcare don't like people that do research or read or, you know, look at certain things and even question right, okay, why, why would you recommend that I do this? Yeah. Are there other things that I might be able to do, or people that will come with some questions To me? That's showing me that you're you're engaged, you are advocating for your health.
Speaker 2:Now, some of the things you may have written down may be, you know, not true or maybe a little bit um out of whack or out of kilter, Maybe even some bro science which is okay too, but it it, it stimulates conversation and then we can do some education, some of the other things too, and there's been times where you know I've learned something, or, after we got done, I was like, okay, I got to research this a little bit, which helps me as well.
Speaker 2:I don't know it all, yeah, um, which is why I work with other people that have, you know, knowledge in other areas where either I have some or I'm weak, but it's their area of expertise and they love doing it. I mean, that's part of why I do what I do is I love to have collaborative partners, can all over the country where I can just tap them and say, hey, help me here. Or would you see this person, or do you know of anybody in you know a state where they live that we could do as well? So I think those are all important pieces and keys and you know creating, you know relationships and showing the client that you've got the best opportunity to help them and it's not just all about you, yeah, Well, and I think the big difference is like there is I call it sick care.
Speaker 1:There's diagnosing and sick care, and then there is wellness and health span and lifespan and wanting those to match up. And so I think for a lot of people, when they're deciding whether to use health insurance or pay for the cash pay, um, it's deciding what kind of life you want to live. Do you want to live a life where you are struggling, waiting for a diagnosis and then, when you're diagnosed, oftentimes the damage is done? There's so many chronic conditions and diseases in our country that are 100% impacted by lifestyle, and so we'll use diabetes as a great example, just because I think it's over 50% of Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic, and so we'll use diabetes as a great example, just because I think it's over 50% of Americans are diabetic or pre-diabetic. And with that, that's lifestyle. You have power to change that. You are capable of it. It takes some change. That's hard, but you're capable of it. You're not powerless in that situation and a lot of people will wait until they get the diagnosis and then they start doing it, but there's already potential damage that's happened in your body. So a lot of times when talking with people. I ask you know, do you, do you want to wait to that point or do you want to stop it now and help your body? Because your blood sugar regulation and insulin impacts every single area of your body. And so it's not just oh, I have low blood sugar, oh, I'm a little dizzy, or I have high blood sugar, I feel a little weird. It's so much more. It's your entire body. And so when I think that the cash pay can be hard, it can be a hard pill to swallow sometimes. Sometimes it's cheaper, sometimes it's expensive.
Speaker 1:But, like Steven and I were both veterans, we have the VA and, because he retired, we have TRICARE, and they still don't fix what we've got going on. So we try to use the system, because every system is not perfect. We try to use the system to its best possible capacity, and then we just know that a part of our budget has to be spent on health and wellness, as opposed to just waiting for the VA to do what they're supposed to do. Because I've had so much help from Dr Mike and my VA doctors have all told me I need to stop getting the medicine that he's helped me with. I need to stop.
Speaker 1:You know, no-transcript dose I'd say, hey, this is not okay, my body's not okay. And it was one 30 minute call with dr mike and we got the medicine that I need. It's t3 and4. And in the last year and a half almost two years my thyroid nodules have gone down, my antibodies are all going down and I was doing the lifestyle changes but sometimes because I waited so long I wasn't getting the help in that cash flow system. I had to wait to the diagnosis until there was a big problem and my body is slowly healing. But if I would have kept fighting that system I would have kept getting sicker. And I think a lot of people when they put it in that perspective, like how much is your money worth if you can't even live the life that you dream of? That's right.
Speaker 3:Well, and the thing too is, I think a lot of times, especially when you get into standard Western medicine healthcare, it's almost this. They're almost the opposite of Dr Mike. Dr Mike, you're constantly learning, constantly trying to pair up with people that know more in a certain area than you do, and this is not a blanket. I'm not saying that everybody out there does this, but I'm saying. A lot of times it is the assumption that your doctor knows everything and whatever they tell you is exactly what you should do and there's no other alternative out there. And then, to your point, there's a lot of situations where, whether it's VA or somewhere else, the problem is not bad enough for them to be willing to fix it.
Speaker 1:Yet or they can't, and so that's part of the hard conversation with kind of like, there can be two truths in the same situation of not all doctors are bad, and even the ones that are stuck in that system. People don't go into medicine, they don't go and have all that crazy debt and all that education and all that sacrifice to screw people over that's right.
Speaker 1:It's not a thing they're stuck in that own and they they're adding value where they can, like we have. I work with doctors. We have family members that are doctors um, and they are in in their area. They're doing the very best that they can, so it doesn't I don't want it to be like I hate all of them.
Speaker 4:They're doing the very best that they can, so it doesn't.
Speaker 1:I don't want it to be like I hate all of them. They're all failing, because they do a damn good job and in the areas where they can, they do well. But there's so many limitations, and insurance is a big part of it, and big pharma is a big problem. But I don't want it to be like a oh, they're all terrible, Cause that's. There's two truths they can be doing their very best and it's still not enough for health and wellness.
Speaker 3:Well, I almost look at it like they're geofenced, like there's a fence as to where they can go. They can be as good as they can possibly be, but if the thing that was needed was on the other side of that fence, they're not allowed to go there in a lot of cases.
Speaker 1:In North Carolina. I was doing a lot of shadowing with PAs and I was shadowing some functional medicine doctors and PAs and then I also shadowed one where he was. It was an urgent care clinic. They also did primary care, but he was doing his absolute best to do a functional medicine approach and I don't know how that could be sustainable because he had so many regulations that he was stuck on and running a clinic is very expensive. He had all these regulations, he was stuck on. He was trying to help people and there were plenty of times throughout the three days that I was with him that he was paying for something out of pocket himself to be able to give these people better care or a lab test that the insurance wouldn't approve and it's not sustainable. So there definitely is a broken part of that system, but they really are like they're stuck.
Speaker 3:They're kind of trapped.
Speaker 3:Well, even I think, with you know, for all the faults that the VA has, there are some perks to VA health care in that, you know, I think about my dad back in 2020. You know, I think about my dad back in 2020, you know, he was on Jardians and it has the potential to cause Forstner's gangrene and so he goes to on July 3rd I think it was. So we're in the middle of the lockdown and he goes, and the last thing my mom saw was him fall through the emergency room doors. Of course she wasn't allowed in at that time because it was during the lockdown and the surgeon called and said good news is we have the team here and we're going to give it a try. And I was like give it a try and he goes roughly a 4% chance to make it through the surgery.
Speaker 3:Nowhere else would they have even tried. You know, at VA it's kind of like okay, everybody's here, we'll give it a whirl, whereas elsewhere they'd have been like yep, you know, insurance company's not going to cover that, so we'll make him comfortable until he passes. Uh, knock on wood, he's still here today. So there are benefits. There are, I mean, absolutely. There are people doing great things out there, but it's up to us as individuals, in order to decide what we are willing to spend of our time, of our money, of our brain power, in order to increase our health span.
Speaker 1:And quality of life? Sure yeah.
Speaker 3:Some of it's as simple as taking a walk with the family, you know.
Speaker 5:You know, jimmy, bring that up. Yeah, some of it's as simple as taking a walk with the family, you know. You know, jim, you bring that up. Yeah, it's not just up to the individual to, you know, really try to. You know, we should all try to advocate for ourselves. But something I've learned with nonprofits and seeing different stuff and seeing how Dr Mike helps people and green health people, um, you know it's up to us to ask for help, absolutely, and not just to your doctor, but to your friends, to to the right people or to to anybody that you know that can need help. Ask for help. Yeah, um, and you know, don't be shy about that, because there are organizations out there, there are people that care. If you ask enough, hopefully you don't have to ask much. But if you keep asking, hopefully you find those right people that can help you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. Um, and really, I mean that's how Dr Mike and I met is I didn't know who to ask. And so, you know, I had, I had dealt with my doctor and here, you know, in Nashville, and good guy. But I knew, based on my symptoms, I knew that my testosterone was through the floor and I go in, and I had them specifically run that and I said it's either my testosterone or my, my thyroid. And I had, I had lost 85 pounds at the time and so I was like, you know, I've, I've done, I've done the hard work over here, but there's still something battling me.
Speaker 3:And, um, you know, I get not even a call back. I get, um, you know, my panel in the mail is circled and it's in the red, but it says don't worry, it's okay. And I'm like well, what do you mean? I mean it's in the red. So I call and they're like well, yeah, but it's just in the red by a couple of numbers. Well, the red means I'm at the bottom, that's the bottom of the range.
Speaker 3:And so, after some argument, in fact, he even said to me well, you know, I'm not here to help you get an extra pump in the gym. I'm like you saw me when I was 305. I'm here at 220. What makes you think I'm trying to get a pump in the gym? I'm trying to live for my family and just got incredible pushback. So you know, I go to the biohacking conference in order to figure out who do I talk to, and that's where Dr I'm at. It's like okay, well, and you know, I thought it was just incredibly profound that the first thing that dr mike wanted to know was you know, what are your goals? What do you want to do? No doctor had ever asked me that, and so you know I, yes, it's cash pay, but at the same time you get a different level of service yeah, I have my question dr.
Speaker 5:Dr Mike, yeah, when should somebody get their first panel or this stuff? Looking at myself or a lot of veterans, especially special operators, they got this whole thing called operator syndrome, where a whole list of all these negative things are associated with that. A lot of service members have low testosterone or all these negative things are associated with that. And you know a lot of service members have low testosterone or all these other issues. Or Jim, like in your case, you know you're at the bottom but like, do you know what you were at when you were young and you felt good.
Speaker 3:I have no idea and that's a challenge, because you don't know what your normal should be.
Speaker 2:True. I mean, oftentimes none of those things are looked at in quote unquote healthy people. You know, I would say ballpark. If it were a perfect world, I would probably get some type of a baseline or reasonable panel, probably around the age of 20, to be honest and then you know yearly after that, every other year. I think it's hard to say, I think it just depends on the same thing, I mean what your goals are and kind of directions you want to go from that standpoint and when you start throwing in exposures, whether it be, you know, heavy metals, to a lot of the things you all have been exposed to, be it burn pits, be it bullets, be it, you know, explosives, all the other pieces, you know cumulative trauma, brain trauma, a lot of the things.
Speaker 2:From that standpoint, I would probably say every six months to some degree in that ballpark. You know my folks, how often do we test? Um, I would say initially probably every three months, as we're starting to kind of move needles on things and I want to see if we again are moving it where we want. I think, once things are hopefully more in the optimal range and people are feeling better, I would say probably every six months. You could probably push it out to maybe yearly after that, but you know, I think that would be the minimum in my opinion. So you know, getting that first panel I'll probably say early 20s would be the goal. But how realistic that is I think is a bit challenging. But you know, I do think that that would probably be worthwhile. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, most guys in their early 20s they feel great, so they're not thinking about it.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:And then, when they start feeling bad, they're like well, what am I aiming for in trying to match up their symptoms and how they're feeling with their lab values, lap values, I know for me early 20s.
Speaker 5:That ain't necessarily, but I think it would have been great to have something like that before my first combat deployment, before the first time I got blown up and were exposed to so many things. That'd be a great thing to have, and to include some neurological testing and stuff like that. You know, I'll never forget when I was getting out of the army and they did some scans for TBIs and did stuff. They made me do all these tests and especially special operations. You know they're pretty smart for the most part, and so you take these tests that are made for general people and they're're like you're really smart, you passed those tests. You know you knew those big words or you, you did all this stuff. I was like, yeah, but I felt slow, I felt like I wasn't there. Yeah, I got it. I'm smart, but I'm smarter than that. Still, there's just a lot of things that can be done, preventative wise and baseline wide, so that, I think, can be important well, I think it's twofold um.
Speaker 3:You know, I think if you were running um in an ideal world, you would. You would look at your special forces guys, almost like, uh, your ferrari race team, and so you would dial that in 100. You'd'd have so much data. It wouldn't even be funny. But this is the ugly side of it and I'm not saying that this is true, but I think there's an argument for whether it could be or not Is, if they had that data, then they would probably have to take responsibility for what you lost 100%, 100%.
Speaker 3:So that could factor into why they don't collect that data. But you know, obviously it's not right. I mean, let's just be real. I mean selfishly, you know, as as an American I would I would want our, our team, to have the best of the best and as much data as possible and to know, like, not just who's the sharpest, but who's by sharpest, by the you know one thousandth degree um, and then want you to stay that way. You know as much as possible um, which I do see, and I know that you guys have worked together.
Speaker 3:But you know, now there's some foundations and there's some work being done with special operators, uh, in the regenerative medicine space, and I could argue that, you know, maybe that is the government figured out that it's cheaper to spend money on special operators in order to keep them longer, or maybe they're doing it out of the kindness of their heart. We'll just let listeners kind of decide which side of that they think they're on. But that's really kind of how y'all met and whether you were working together directly, but the foundation was similar or something of that nature, right, correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and this is going to be moving the conversation in that way.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to that and what Steve said of reaching out and asking for help or going into the talk of veterans and how we met him, which is mental health component, and what Steve said is ask for help. That's a really big deal. So my best friend and I we are both veterans and we recently have implemented a new rule with each other of asking for eight minutes. So a lot of people don't know how to ask for help. A lot of veterans and military don't know how to ask for help, but the studies and data have shown that eight minutes with someone that you love and connect with helps regulate your brain and your emotional state, and so we've implemented that policy in our relationship of like I would probably rather die than ask for help, and so, knowing my own um problem in that and not wanting to be a burden for other people and I know a lot of veterans feel that way um, implementing that eight minute rule of like, you don't even have to ask for anything, you just say, hey, I just need eight minutes. You don't have to go into detail, you don't have to be crazy about anything, you just you just need that time. Um, we donovan and banks was the non-profit that steve got introduced to and in north car Carolina when he was getting out of the military and they were working with other nonprofits that were being able to fund that and working with veterans for their overall health and wellness.
Speaker 1:Um, pain management, which I think that goes along with stellate ganglia block, absolutely, and um, and then of course PTSD, anxiety, depression, and I think now as we're talking and I'm reflecting, I was supposed to get stellate ganglia block in Chicago with Steve and I found out I was pregnant on that trip. So I didn't get it and then thinking just, I mean at the time I thought, oh my God, I year two years, I'm still stuck in my own head and I can't get help. So it was very daunting and very scary to think I'm still trapped in my own head and I can't get the help. That I think will make that difference. So that was very hard.
Speaker 1:Of course hindsight is always fun, but in the perspective part of it, if I had gotten that treatment I don't know if we'd ever met, if we would have ever met Dr Mike, and so it's kind of that cool thing where you looked at years down the road and you're like, no, that actually worked out for a really good reason. But we, stephen, got stellate ganglia block. They had a ketamine therapy that he was able to try and then I got Stellate Ganglia Block in January of 24. And it has been life changing and that's how I met Dr Mike and how the nonprofit that was paying for that Like there's so many nonprofits out there that if you are looking and asking for help you'll find that answer but they're there and they paid for that for us and it was truly life changing and able to help us take our lives back.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's fantastic. Yeah, Dr Mike, if you will share a little bit about you know, the foundation that you're working with these days and and the work that you guys are doing down there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so dovetailing. Taking just one step back, we're going to do another podcast tomorrow with a former Navy SEAL whom I've also treated. He'll go into detail. They have a really cool app called Envy and that's short for Invisible Visible. So put together by two former Navy SEALs and he'll go deep into the details on this.
Speaker 2:But they basically did it for support, similar to what Brianna was talking about, and they will tell you that they've lost more seals to suicide than they have to combat death. So what they did is they put together a program. It was kind of like a buddy system. So they use wearable data whether it be heart rate variability, heart rate, sleep activity and then you have to answer five questions each day and they're very simple type things. And then they've got it set up.
Speaker 2:If someone is starting to kind of fall off the wagon that they have. Kind of it's almost like AA, where they have a sponsor where that person will get in contact with that person to have a conversation similar to what Brianna was touching on and or they've got people on the ground that can be close to that person, that they can intervene if need be, and some of it may just be a conversation, some of it may be they need to get them help. Occasionally it may be they have to take them for psychiatric intervention and some of the other things too Sure them for psychiatric intervention and some of the other things too Sure, and it's actually a very cool system. And then they're looking for ways to march that out to the general public too. So it's actually quite cool and they can impart any part of data, similar to what we talked about with the DexBodyComp scan. They can use that data. They can use any type of lab data. They can use any piece that they can put in and it's assessed by AI. So and then, uh, they've also got a couple of nonprofits that we are going to tap into that also include um first responders. That um, you know, we're going to work with and come up with a pretty robust program in relation to treatment. So, you know, lab pieces similar what we touched on with Steve probably looking at comprehensive blood panel. We'll look at heavy metal toxicities and we'll probably look at gut health as the top three things and then definitely have the stellaganglion block as part of the treatment, basically kind of getting them out of that fight-or-flight feel or that high-stress feel.
Speaker 2:Think about looking at a squirrel looking around all the time. That's, unfortunately where almost all of us live. Stress feel, um, you know, think about looking at a squirrel looking around all the time. That's unfortunately where almost all of us live, or at least live there way too often.
Speaker 2:So what the injection does is just using the anesthetic agent to kind of break that cycle. And it's also got benefits, both short and long-term. But typically you will see, you know, significant improvements in heart rate variability Typically a higher number is better and also you'll see significant improvements in sleep scores and good other things too. So then it's also got benefits moving forward for reducing overall inflammation, cortisol levels, optimizing your immune system, kind of turning down hyperactive parts of your brain and turning up hypoactive parts of your brain. Works on the amygdala, which is kind of a part of our primitive brain where we hold a lot of our fears, a lot of our traumas, a lot of our injuries, and also turns down one of our stimulatory neurotransmitters called norepinephrine.
Speaker 2:And then it can help with gut, where we do the injection is very close to the vagus nerve, believe it or not. So we can even, you know, hydro dissect that nerve at the same time, if need be, if somebody has specific issues or problems, um, but it's almost like a reset in just kind of getting people back to balance. So you can get into that parasympathetic feel that that rest, relax, digest, feel, think about when you're sitting in a, in a hot tub or in a hot bath, just zoning. That's kind of the thought that you want to have or that you feel, and it can work relatively quickly. Sometimes it can take a while. I mean, we've had people do day one and come back and go. You know, I was in a car and got cut off. Usually I'd be yelling, screaming, cussing, bitching, moaning, complaining, it's like yeah didn't seem to bug me a great deal.
Speaker 2:And you know, a lot of times I'll go back and say I took a nap for the first time in 10 years and it felt great. Um, so it's. It's almost kind of that unplug thing. Now, not everybody gets that. Some people it will be stimulating, believe it, or because that's kind of what they need Usually. Kind of compare it to plant medicine and I wash and some other things People like well, what does it do? And my answer almost all the time is it gives you what you need.
Speaker 2:So, and you know, for some people it will take a little time to kick in, Could be days, could be weeks. But you know, as long as you're incorporating some of the other pieces too, I think it gives you the best opportunity for outcomes. But I mean, I've had some of the operators come up to me. We usually will have fundraisers twice a year and a couple of them have told me you know I had guns in my head and I don't have that feeling anymore. I've had some wives come up and just give me a big hug and say you know you saved our marriage and get choked up a little bit. But it's, it's very rewarding and it's been pretty amazing as far as some of the feedback we've gotten and you know, as I've told many people, it's given me as much as I've given them, Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you mentioned the wife-spouse component and I definitely have my own experiences and stuff that brings my own problems to the table, which is always great. But the reason the foundation paid for me as a spouse is the service member. Usually if it's the special operations, it's a guy. He will have PTSD. He'll have his own stuff, however that manifests. It's different for different people but that is kind of communicable in a way where the, the wives, experience that too and I know far too many women where they are helping and supporting their husbands along the way and that is still coming off on them. And so there are women that have have gone and need that stellate ganglia block and not that specifically, but needing help with PTSD after spending a lifetime 20 years is a lifetime, it's all of our young years in the military with our spouse deploying and um, I mean the.
Speaker 1:It's easy to be deployed. I, my friends and I like to talk about that Um, and there's hard things. There's hard things being deployed, but it's easy to be the person leaving. It's really hard to be the person staying and thinking I'll never see this person again. And Steve and I were both deployed and when I on my deployment at the same time and we were in the same country and there was a two week period that I didn't know anything. I didn't and I didn't know what was going on with him.
Speaker 1:I was part of the evacs Um. I was checking things every day. It was. It was a very traumatic thing and it happens so like that's a little bit more extreme in the I was a little bit more involved than most spouses are, but that women still experience that and if just the guy gets the stellate ganglia block and just the guy gets his help, that's good for the family. It helps. But those women still need help. However, that looks for them and their family. They still need help. And I think some women forget that if they weren't in combat or if they never deployed, they think, oh, it's not me, I don't need that. But often they do.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I think that can't be overlooked. It has to be talked about.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Well. You guys are a team period, and so when one of you is suffering, the other one is too, just in their own way, and it's that fight or flight that's activated and just never gets turned off, which is not healthy, you know. Again, I think it all goes back to one you have to be an active participant in your own health. You have to be willing to raise your hand and say I need help, or you have to be willing to take the action to seek out a functional medicine, doctor, or to get to, you know, ask for the additional blood panels, or to open up your wallet and go uh, try cold therapy, cryotherapy, red light therapy, salt therapy, a contrast therapy, uh, shockwave. I mean, uh, there's just so many things that are out there, or just carve out an hour a day just to go sit in the park. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Read a book, go for a walk, spend time with your kids Schedule it.
Speaker 5:It's very impactful. Things that people can do that are free and that you can do on your own is mindfulness and breath work. Those can have two huge impacts on people's lives.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I'm going to spring this one on y'all just a little bit, and anybody can answer. We can do a round robin or we can do it however you want to. But I want to throw out some combination of like peptides, vitamins, therapies, mindfulness, et cetera, therapies, mindfulness, et cetera, and just whoever wants to jump in, give it a, give it a score one to 10. Okay, I know, I know this is going to be fun and a little bit disorganized, but I'm going to start with my favorite and do not you can, you can't hurt my feelings with these, whether I like them or not. I'm not saying that y'all have to. Um, BPC one 57. One to 10. I'm pressing nine, nine. Okay, I'm going to. I'm dialing a little bit further into that one. The oral version.
Speaker 2:I think if you've got GI gut health issues, I think you're going to get a better response with that. I think if it's more of a musculoskeletal inflammatory issue, brain trauma issue, kidney dysfunction issue, I would say more likely you can get a better response with the injectable. Okay, TB500? Similar. I'd probably put in eight or nine, um, kind of same thing. Neither of them. I should say one thing I don't know that they found a lethal dose for either one. Yeah, Um, some people will get a little bit of a histamine reaction with BPC on occasion where it can cause some bit of a histamine reaction with bpc on occasion where it can cause some increased release of histamine.
Speaker 2:I'd say that's rare, not unheard of. I had a few people that just unfortunately couldn't tolerate it. But you know, I think quite safe and it can be really good. For I think the two bigger biggies are musculoskeletal pain and or inflammatory load and then gut, probably very close third. As far as that goes for sure, I think it's much better than using proton pump inhibitors like Omeprazole and some of the other things which can negatively affect absorption of many nutrients, micronutrients. That can cause some issues and problems, sure.
Speaker 3:Steve, I'm going to throw this one your way and then we're going to part b. That's going to be breeze lifting heavy I mean lifting is extremely important.
Speaker 5:Um, I say lifting appropriate heavy a 10, almost anybody. If it's an appropriate weight, appropriate method, anything you can do to increase the muscle mass that's going to help your longevity improve. Your use of glucose has so many profound effects on people that appropriately heavy is awesome Okay.
Speaker 3:Bree lifting heavy for women 10 out of 10.
Speaker 1:And I say that because and oh God, I hear it so much the 1200 calorie rule, which is the most dumbest thing I've ever heard. Please stop. Whoever's doing that, please stop. But so many women are. They look at the weights and they think I'm afraid I'll get bulky. One, that is really, really hard to get there. Two, the women that truly are bulky when you look at them. They're usually bodybuilders or some type of competitor in that way, and usually they're doing some type of performance enhancement, of performance enhancement. So it's if, if women want that sexy shape, those curves, the big, beautiful butt, you need to eat food and you need to lift heavy appropriately.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I promise, I promise you won't get bulky Getting bulky is so hard, it's so hard, and especially if you're over 25, like, if you're over 25, good luck getting bulky.
Speaker 1:Yes, I have been trying to like, get bulky strong for a couple of years and I'm not there and I have been trying, so it's not going to happen. What's going to happen is they're going to feel and look sexier and so many women are like I think I'll look like a man, like no, the beautiful shape that you see with women where they have more of an hourglass and shape in their shoulders and a big, beautiful, but that's muscle.
Speaker 3:It's that that comes from lifting heavy, and it's on purpose.
Speaker 1:On purpose, yeah 10 out of 10.
Speaker 3:I love it. Uh well, team, thank you so much for all of you joining us in the studio today. And, uh again, I think it's just serendipitous that you all knew each other. Dr Mike and I had met, and then, when you got the therapy last January, it wasn't long after that when we met for the first time. So, anyway, the world just works the way it's supposed to. I love it, that's a great way to put it.
Speaker 3:That's right. That's right. Well, team, thanks so much for joining us here on the Charge Forward podcast. Again, the goal is to bring amazing guests that come and share bits and pieces of their world, their experiences, the things that they do to help others and so that you can take some building blocks from that and make your world even better, or maybe help somebody else that you know world even better, or maybe help somebody else that you know. Again, please continue to share the podcast and let us know who you enjoyed the most, what your favorite parts were, and we will continue to bring amazing guests each and every week. Remember, episodes drop every Thursday and again we come to you live from HitLab Studios here in Nashville, tennessee. Thanks so much. Take care, team.
Speaker 3:Is Jim Cripps here with the Charge Forward Podcast? I just want to tell you I love you, I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you for subscribing and sharing the Charge Forward Podcast with people you know and you love, because that's what we're here for. We are here to share the amazing stories, the things that people have been through, the ways that they were able to improve their life, so that you can take little nuggets from theirs and help improve your story and be better tomorrow than you were today. I hope that this is the tool you needed at the right time and that you find value in the amazing guests that we bring each and every week. Thanks so much and don't forget new episodes drop every Thursday.