The Masters Athlete Survival Guide

What To Ask Your Doctor As An Athlete Over 40

• John Katalinas and Scott Fike • Episode 53

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We talk about why masters athletes over 40 need real medical baselines instead of guessing, especially when training hard can hide early warning signs. We share the questions we bring to annual physicals so we can advocate for ourselves, track trends, and keep doing what we love for decades. 
• why men often avoid the doctor and why that backfires 
• what to ask at an annual physical and how to think about screenings 
• how bad measurements happen and why cuff size matters for blood pressure 
• building baselines so a single lab result does not drive big decisions 
• overtraining versus overexertion and the role of recovery 
• cardiac health questions and signs that mean slow down 
• supplement hype versus what blood work can actually tell you 
• hormones beyond testosterone including thyroid and cortisol balance 
• lung function, skin checks, and broader cancer screening awareness 
• blood tests to discuss with your doctor including CBC, iron, thyroid, ApoB, IGF-1, and hormone ratios 
If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media, or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide.


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Welcome And Show Mission

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Masters of Athletes or Mind Company, where we explore the secrets to thriving in sports after 40. I'm John Catalinus, and along with Scott Fike, we'll dive into training tips, nutrition hacks, and inspiring stories from seasoned athletes who defy age limits. Whether you're a weekend warrior or a competitive pro, this podcast is your playbook for staying fit, strong, and motivated. Let's get started. And we're back. Hi, I'm John. I'm Scott. Hi, Scott. Hi, John. You know, we have this whole survival guide thing. What are we surviving? Well, we propose that we're some sort of I don't know, pseudo-experts.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I know. Glad you used the word propose there.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, thank you for uh for the laughter. Because uh that wasn't canned, by the way. I I don't know about your life, but people ask me questions. I I get the same thing. Yeah, they ask me questions because you know they listen and they're like, hey, you know, it does this when I walk. Uh what does that mean? Stop doing that, then that's what it means. Uh do you know what I mostly say to them? Listen to this.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's fucking awesome.

SPEAKER_00

Wait, wait, there's your dollar. There you go.

unknown

Not a doctor.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. So I recorded that off uh like that. I did like a 1977 version of that. I recorded it off the TV. It's the bumper from a production company that does Brooklyn 99, the good place, and something else. It made me laugh.

SPEAKER_01

That's a classic.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm the keeper. I'm not a doctor. So that's what I usually start with. I'm not a doctor. But I am. Sort of. You need not a real doctor. Yeah, yeah, that's a different thing. But I am a scientist. You are? I did some research. On what? On why you should go to the doctor and what you should talk about while you're there. What kind of doctor? Uh, all kinds. So are it Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Now now I'm gonna be half serious. Are we talking about like our general practitioner? Are we talking about like our yearly thing?

SPEAKER_00

Well, here's the thing. Yes, you always gotta start there. And yeah, I think if unless you want to spend a billion dollars, uh you need to do like your annual physical.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So I guess this is like this is if we had a guy sitting over there who's a typical guy. Although it applies to women. It does. Gentlemen are horrible at going to the doctor.

SPEAKER_02

I think there's more obstinence when you're dealing with men. I would agree with that.

Prostate Biopsy Reality Check

SPEAKER_00

Can I tell you a fun fact that has nothing to do with this topic, but it's doctor related? You like the word obstinence? Yeah, I do actually. So say you have prostate problems. Okay. And no, this is this is medical and it freaks me out, and I think it's a good, like, cautionary tale. You have please caution me. Yeah, you have caught you have cautioned. Um, you have prostate problems to the point that they need to do a biopsy of your prostate. Okay. Do you know how they do a biopsy of your prostate?

SPEAKER_02

Please tell me they go into those reverse forceps and open your buttocks up.

SPEAKER_00

Oh no. No, they take a biopsy needle, which looks an awful lot like uh something you might baste a turkey with. Like the the gauge at the needle is ridiculous. Okay. Like the piece of tissue they take out approaches looking like a pencil eraser. Oh damn. Yeah. Um they go through your butthole into the prostate. So I was kind of right. Oh, yeah, you were. And between seven and ten percent of people get an infection, and some of those people die. Because if you think about it, right, you're you're per piercing the walls of the uh the rectum. The rectum and uh going into the prostate. And I just thought that could be a shitty position. Oh, I knew it was coming. I thought you were gonna say rectum. I nearly killed him.

SPEAKER_02

I I came real close. I I I withstood the temptation for about 15 seconds.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

But I but it just that's what caught me on this topic of go to your doctor and ask questions because uh well, just uh I know we joke about it, but you know, men and women need to get, you know, colonoscopies for for a variety of reasons. And with the increasing rates of prostate cancer in men, men living longer, so cancer becomes more of a concern as the longer you live. I can understand that, you know, and you see these scaretales and all that type of stuff. So I like that you're taking us there tonight.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, and it's not just about prostate cancer, but I have all these fun facts about prostate cancer.

SPEAKER_02

I don't want any more fun facts about prostate cancer.

Annual Physicals And Bad Measurements

SPEAKER_00

Did you know that like 80% of men will will have some form of prostate cancer when they die? Did you know that John doesn't listen when I say don't want to know more about prostates? Like, seriously, like we all develop some cancerous cells, and it doesn't always it doesn't always present itself as like a problem, but it happens. Um I'm sorry, I'm very prostate-centric these days for some reason. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

One of the things that I ask when I go to see my general practitioner. Yes. I mean, when we all go in, you know, you you get the normal weight, the normal, this is how much you weigh, this is you know how you're feeling. I just had my yearly at the time a recording, probably about a month, month and a half ago, I think it was. And I went in and they said, please step on the scale. It didn't go tilt, so shut the fuck up.

SPEAKER_01

This is why we need that video podcast because y'all should have seen his face.

SPEAKER_00

I was loading up something for sure. There definitely was something coming on that comment.

SPEAKER_02

So I step on the scale, and it was still cold in western New York at the time, like snow. So I step on and I've got steel toe boots on, I'm holding my water jug, I've got my jacket on and all the miscellaneous sundries that you carry in jacket pockets. And I'm standing on it and I'm waiting for the medical assistant to say, I'm sorry, could you take your boots off? Could you take your jacket off? Could you take all this stuff off? This person never did. Yeah, because you know they gave me a weight. Oh god, and then they called me, you know, a week later, and I said, Well, I just gotta point out to you that when I went home, I weighed about seven kilos less, so about 15 pounds. And the person goes, Why? And I explained that to me, he goes, Oh, we're gonna have to re-educate some people about how you take your weight.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and you know, I I think that that stems from one of the things that made me want to do this topic, other than the fact that I have all these prostate fun facts. Do you know how much I like the col the colonoscopy drug that they put you out with? If I was ever addicted to a drug, it would be whatever that is. That is the the best sleep you ever get.

SPEAKER_02

So the other thing that I want to tell you that happened when I went to my general practitioner this time, yes. I go in and they're asking you the do you drink? Are you a social drinker? How much do you drink?

SPEAKER_00

You know, I need them to refine those questions because like your choices are you either never drink or you drink like weekly or daily. Like Well, they'll ask they.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, they went to the point where they asked me, How many drinks a month do you think you have? And I said, you know, probably four. Thirty. I said four. Okay. And they said, Well, how often? I said, you know, sometimes I might have two or three, sometimes I might not have anything for several weeks. And so the person looks at me and he says, Do you ever have more than four? I said, sometimes maybe. Is ever more than five or six? They're like counting up. Yeah. I'm thinking to myself, what is this? Sesame Street? Yeah. One. Uh uh. Give me a break. Nice. So I said, No, I said, I don't. And then he asked me again, I said, I literally looked at this person. I said, asked and answered. Oh, you got snotty. Next question. Wow, you are kind of a jerk to your doctor. Oh, this wasn't my doctor. This is a medical assistant. And I knew this person. But then the problem was, what do they do next? All right, we're gonna take your blood pressure. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Folks, they put a cuff on my arm. This is Scott laying in an excuse for the fact that his blood pressure was 800 over 700. 600. 800 over 600. Okay, continue.

SPEAKER_02

So they put a cuff on that would fit an average person. Oh, that makes me feel good about my biceps when they do that. So they take it and they start doing Oh, did it fit you? Thing, right? Oh, cool. Oh, this person is like yanking on this thing to get it to fit around my arm. So they're doing that little, you know, they're squeezing the little bulb thing, and it's going, going, going. And he squeezes it about twice on ears. And the cuff popped off my head. Yep. That that's it.

SPEAKER_00

So they grabbed the next one up. That's half the reason. Half the reason why I go to the doctor is for that eco boost right there.

Advocate For Yourself In The Room

SPEAKER_02

And I said, Do you have one that goes on a person's leg? So they took my blood pressure, and my now my blood pressure's through the roof. Go home. They told me buy one, they did a prescription, I got it. Go home, and they said, We want you to take it for a week straight, and we want you to come back. So they called me, say the appointment's canceled. What have your numbers been? I tell them they go, so it's back where it's always been. I said, Yeah, and then I proceeded to explain the whole how many drinks are you having, da da da da thing. And they're like, Yeah, we gotta really work on that re-education package. I'm thinking to myself, uh maybe it's time to see a new doctor, but I like my doctor is the thing. The doctor I see, the nurse practitioner that I see there, they're great. Yeah, you know, so I think one of the things that when you told me we were gonna talk about this, and was I wanted to come up with like questions. Yeah, that's fresh.

SPEAKER_00

You have to be an advocate for yourself because I mean they like I finally saw an endocrinologist about my diabetes, and it took months to get in, and he spent a solid, really important. I was very impressed, six minutes with me.

SPEAKER_02

That's impressive.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, I I have another appointment with him, and I'm really I'm gonna have to hope for seven minutes. No, but I'm gonna have to be like written down stuffy, and he's gonna say something, and I'm just gonna like not yet spew my stuff at him. Like, hey, ew. Um, you know, here's this question, here's that question, here's this other question. I have all these questions.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and that's the thing. I mean, you're right. If you're not an advocate for yourself, and I get this, you know, modern medicine, and it is nothing against because we have a lot of friends who are MDs and you know, DNPs and stuff like that, they are so overworked because there are so few of them that I mean, right now I had to book to see my my actual doctor, not one of his assistants or PAs. I had to book out a year, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and if you don't, you're in trouble. No, and then it always comes close, and I always have some conflict. And they're like, Okay, we have an opening in four months. I'm like, or you can see the physician assistant. I've never a week from Thursday. I've never seen my doctor. Like, I've never had an appointment with him. I mean, I know he exists, I've seen him, but I always go to a practitioner and I like her. She's actually, you know, my personal preference in all things like that are female doctors. I feel like their attention to detail is just better in in general.

SPEAKER_02

You see, and the the nurse practitioner that I saw was a female, but in this case, I think my actual PC has a stronger attention to detail. But now that being said, I guess that we're talking with right now, trying to set some stuff up with Dr. Fox. Shh, you know, she is uber hyper focused on details and listens and whatnot. So I I think it goes case by case, maybe. And you want her on this podcast. Poor woman. I was actually talking to her when we were driving over here, she gave me a call. Okay. Um, no, she is not my nurse practitioner, doctor of nurse practitioner. Um, Megan works in gerontology, which is part of the reason that we want to have her, you know, talk to us because it's she works with folks that are, you know, 50, 60, 70 years old.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, hey, that's us. Um, before we go any farther, and I'm not gonna belabor the point about what's her name? Yes, her name is Megan Fox. Okay, just chucking. Just that just hit me. I'm like, hey, hey.

SPEAKER_02

Her name was Megan Snyder. She recently got married. Um, I don't remember her husband's first name. He's a uh trooper, nice guy. Um, but yes, it is Dr. Megan Fox.

Screenings To Ask For After 40

SPEAKER_00

I wish this was like a relationship podcast because I would like to know, especially if it was calling. I would like to know from women have they ever like dated someone and go, uh, I I never see that last name working out. I'm I I'm pulling a cord right now. We're I'm out of here. This would make my name stupid, especially in the days before not taking the husband name. Like, oh yeah. I don't know. I don't know. You want to talk about the actual topic at all, or just want to ramble? All right. So, why should you go to the doctor, Scott?

SPEAKER_02

So we've talked a lot on this podcast about you know feeling bad, you know, push to just past, you know, feeling uncomfortable. We've talked about some of the injuries that happen. We talked about how preventing those injuries with grip. But there are a lot of things that when you go to your doctor that they can get those sort of early views on. So I think the key thing, one of the first things that I always look at when I go to my doctor is, all right, so you know, I'm 55 years old. I'm a you know, a reasonably talented, reasonably in very large, bolded, underlined, italicized, quotes, strong man. Don't push it. You're you're you're training with me on Sunday, don't push it. That's right, never mind. Um you know, at 55, you know, what screenings should I have done? You know, given my age, given, you know, the activity that I do, given my job. I mean, I recently started uh a new job at the same at the college. I went from being on the campuses to a 100% remote position. So I find that I'm sitting a lot more. So all these conversations I have with my doctor, and it's you know, what screening should I have done?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And here's a footnote, and I don't even know if you're aware, it took me a minute to figure this out. We live in New York. Yes, I I I've known that. Lots of other states, you can just walk into like a Quest lab and get like blood work on demand. Yes, I don't need to go through my doctor. New York State gotta go through my doctor. My two my nutritionist can write scripts for certain things to get blood work done. Except in New York, it's a frustrating. Anyway, I you know the first thing I thought, because I've been struggling with this whole stupid trying to figure out my diabetes, which we will do in a future episode because that's a lot to unpack. Um I think you should establish a baseline. I think that's what those screenings do. Yeah, I think you need to know as much as you need to know when you're healthy and as young as reasonable. Like 40-year-old John is not 30-year-old John, it's not 20-year-old John, but 50-year-old John. Right. But you know, you know, baseline for the decade, baseline for your current, you know, whatever. I th I think that's super critical because if you don't get that and you do get a number, what does that number mean? I mean, in science, you would never make decisions based off of one data point.

SPEAKER_02

No.

SPEAKER_00

And yet we go to our doctors, they suck some blood out of our arm, they send it to a lab, and suddenly, you know, we have high cholesterol. Right. But I or like you, we have high blood pressure.

SPEAKER_02

But I think that's that's where I went right as soon as you said that, that's where my head went. They said, This is what it is, we need to check this. And when they called again a week later and I gave them the new numbers, they say, All right, you're back to where you're normally at. So I think that's where that baseline comes in. Yeah. But I'm gonna counter your argument here for a second by saying when you go, and you know, you you've mentioned, and we've both talked about being diabetic. Diabetes, when you get it taken, yes, they'll take your blood sugar, but they also take your A1C. And your A1C is a three-month average.

SPEAKER_00

Right. No, I get that. And those are those are probably bad examples that, but I mean, think all the other things that you get blood work for that. That's the only time you learn about those things is through blood work.

SPEAKER_02

You you know, your kidney function. Yeah, think about that, especially you know, for diabetics, especially for people who are lifting, like we do. You know, we used to tease you and we still do about those weight cuts that you've done in the past. Oh, good lord. You know, forget being diabetic, okay? Just throw in there the amount of water that you consumed to do a water cut and then didn't basically drink for two days, three days. Your kidneys are like, what the frog's going on here?

SPEAKER_00

What's the frog?

SPEAKER_02

You know, and then and then and then I love this, and then you weigh in, so you tie your feed bag on, you get some fluid in you, yep. And what do you do for the next two and a half, three days at the Arnold Sports Festival, John?

Overtraining Vs Overexertion

SPEAKER_00

Um, eat protein and drink chemicals. Yes, your kidneys are like in caffeine, dude. Yes, no, yes, yes. I am uh you know, I do not necessarily practice what I preach. And do you know why? Because you're a scientist, and you're not a doctor. Not a doctor. Um, so I think the baseline part is important, but like I have some I I did a bunch of research, I have some questions. Do you uh like here's the first thing that came up. Um, I sort of framed it by you know who I think our audience is, you know. All three of them. Moderately athletic, definitely over 40, uh interested in being healthy and me and dealing with their health. Uh and the the thing that kept coming up was something called overtraining syndrome.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

I I I did a deep dive on overtraining syndrome. I think overtraining syndrome is I don't want to call it a lie, but I and I know there's athletes out there. I mean, I could probably pull up a CrossFit video of somebody going bonkers on on something, over training. But you know, if we were to walk in the local big box gym, zero people in there of our age are over training.

SPEAKER_02

Well, depending on what your goal is, because that's one of the things that you've given me shit about over the years that Tony really gets into, you know, my brother and I about because he trains the two of us is you grow during rest. You know, you need the chance for the muscles, for the joints, for the everything to not do. Now, rest doesn't necessarily mean doing nothing, you know, you're not sitting on the couch eating ketos.

SPEAKER_00

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Not a sponsor. Thank you. Sorry, I almost missed that one. Yeah, it could be active rest. You know, like I'll I'll go and I'll sit on the recumbent bike or go for a walk or something like that. So yeah, it can be active rest, but you know, it I can understand overtraining syndrome, but I guess it's it's more situational.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's just over for me saying like normal people saying they're overtraining is a lot like the the I think at this point it's not as true as it's just a meme. You know, the women that don't want to lift weights because they don't want to get bulky. Yeah, I think there's a much better understanding of that now, but it you know that phrase still kicks around. Uh I don't know. It my research on overtraining, like, I mean, you're an animal, and and I've been known to train hard. We don't over-train.

SPEAKER_02

No, we don't. I think there's times when we overexert.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, oh, you mean like acute versus chronic? Yeah, absolutely. Acutely, I've walked out of the gym some days like afraid that I was going to soil myself or something.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Just last week I called you because we were dealing with something for the foundation, and you said I can't work my hands right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, my hands were done.

Cardiac Health And When To Stop

SPEAKER_00

My hands won't close. Yeah, my hands were done. So, I mean, I would agree with that. Yeah. So, overtraining was the first thing I came to when it came to this baseline. Like, because I sort of approached my baseline from what do changes from the baseline indicate for you? And the first thing was overtraining, which again, the the the internet tells Tells me is about you know you can figure out chronic fatigue, you can look at your hormones and some immune suppression. Um there's better ways to get to that, I think. Um the other the other gigantic one, and I I do agree with this one, is cardiac health.

SPEAKER_02

And it's funny you say that because that's where my next two questions came in. Go ahead and then I'll ask my question.

SPEAKER_00

No, it was just the fact that if you have especially when you're you know younger, and by younger, we'll say 40. Let's say we we let's start our program at 40. The younger master. Yeah, the the the welcome to the club master. Um you know, what once you are looking at your cardiac health with some regularity, you can see trends, and trends allow you to get out in front of like bad things. I don't like bad actually, like bad things scare me when it comes to health.

SPEAKER_02

What was um Jesse Titus? Yep, yeah, great example of it. Yep, you know, he knew there was something there, and then it just you know he kept slowly training less, training less, training less, and now he has to train differently. Yep, yep, you know, and I'm look for the Jesse Titus episode in in our catalog. It's a great one. And Jesse was just a phenomenal guest. A good guy, yeah. I guess the wow, they must be having a parade outside of the studios. Yes, it's in your honor, you missed it. Thank you. I guess my questions that sort of you know bounce around the idea of cardiac health are asking your doctor, okay, this is the program I'm starting. This is the program I'm in. Is my heart healthy enough to do this? And what are the signs that I should be looking for that say hit the brakes? Yeah, you know, so I mean it really it bookends your cardiac health right philosophy there because it's like you can say, you know, what's your pulse? Okay, I mean, you know, I I take you know some measurements every day because I've become more anal retentive, like my scientist friend across the studio. That's me. That's you. So I take some things every day. And it's funny because I'm right around 140 kilos, so that's a little over 300 about 310 pounds somewhere in that ballpark. And you know, you and I were talking about this. A friend said, you know, my pulse is normal. Well, what's normal? Okay, I'm 310 pounds for a round number, I'm 55 years old. My pulse right now is between 55 and 65 beats a minute resting. Okay. Yeah, but yet I guarantee, because this weekend, one of the things we'll do is we'll do a um uh an am rep as many reps as possible in 30 seconds and a minute with a bag load.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay. If anybody has anything they want me to do with them on Sunday, I I am open because that sounds right around 12 o'clock is what John said. Absolutely willing to help you move a couch, whatever.

SPEAKER_02

I'll guarantee that my pulse will come damn close if not hit triple digits. Because you are going all out for that time. So I mean, you know, okay, so we need to say to the doctor, what's the hint that hit the brakes?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I don't know. So I mean, mine, so I weigh pretty much walking around at 242. Um that's 110 kilos. That's 110 kilos for our friends north of the border or in Europe or in the Faroe Islands, anywhere except the United States.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_00

Um, my resting pulse rate is usually around 6570. Yeah. So it's just higher. I I don't think I'm any more or less fit from that metric.

SPEAKER_02

Not not in the least, but it is it is a thing. But I mean, it goes again to where do they say stop? You know, okay, so if your resting rate is let's say 85, yeah, should you be exercising at, you know, some sort of a hit level, high intensity level? Yeah. Or should you be walking and you know, sitting on a bike and doing those types of things? I guess though that's the conversation when I say to the doctor, am I healthy is my heart healthy enough to do this? And am I putting the right type of stuff into me so that like when my heart beats, is it getting the blood where it needs to go without too much effort? You know, basically we're talking about our blood pressure now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, you know, this all before we go too far, I think a critical thing, and I'm sure there's plenty of people wincing out there, it comes down to who your doctor is. Because I can think of multiple examples where somebody has gone through something and they've asked their doctor, you know, when can I start training again? And they're and the doctor's always like, Well, you probably shouldn't. Ricardo. Yeah, Ricardo Magni's. Oh, that's right. Look at our catalog for the Ricardo Magni episode.

SPEAKER_02

You know, and you and I have had this conversation about my wife. Yeah, you know, different thing because she's a cancer survivor. She kept asking the question, or the doctor kept saying, Oh, you're imagining, oh, it's fine, it's fine. She went somewhere else, and the doctor said, What the f and you know, now my wife is physically in a much better place.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, you gotta, I don't know, you gotta be an advocate for yourself, I think is just the the best way to sum all that up. Um, which is such a fine line because I never want to look my doctor in the eye and go, No, you're wrong, because again, I'm not a doctor. Yeah, so I like that button by the way. It's making me gonna take that away from you.

SPEAKER_02

But I want to, you know, counter you're not a doctor with the questions we're asking because of research, being a scientist, however you want to put it, those types of things. We go to someone like Dr. B and look for Dr. Briarly's episode. Yeah, this man, definitely a doctor, definitely a doctor, way a doctor, talking brilliant. But, you know, he's gonna ask you those questions, right? You know, and no, we're not all gonna get doctors like Dr. B, but we need to learn those questions to ask for ourselves.

Supplements Hype And Arnold Expo

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, which the scary part is like I go to B and he asks a question that I never considered asking, or never considered like, oh, that's a variable I need to consider. And that's the thing, it it brings up a whole new realm of questions for us to consider. Yeah. So I don't know, you gotta be an advocate for yourself. You know, the other the other thing, and it's a billion-dollar industry, but oh yeah, supplements and all and and all that crap, like you know, GNC, vitamin World, all that stuff. Knowing what you truly need to supplement, I mean, you know, I I'm sure right now if you just if you just page through the internet, you're gonna find people saying, you know, you should get all that from food. Uh, here's the few supplements that work. You're also gonna find uh I think it was Ronnie Coleman, and it probably was a lie. Um he was there's a video of him in the gym opening basically a tackle box with every little divider had a different colored pill in it. Uh I suspect most of them were legal somethings. I'm sure they were all legal. Well, if they were maybe not ethical. But you know, I honestly think I don't know where to draw the line. Like, am I and some things people take because you know, vi I don't get outside enough. I take vitamin D. Yep. Is that is that the right you know I mean, am I it the the thing like with vitamin C that people always say is you know, it's a you make an expensive urine.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and that's I've talked to a lot of people who are in the um sanitary engineering field, and when they clean out the uh the receptacles that you see at different venues, they're full of vitamins. You know, I was that a polite way of saying what I said?

SPEAKER_00

For the listeners, the the only thing disturbing in this is I have talked to a lot of them. Like, is that a hobby of yours? Like, hey, you're emptying that porta potty. Do you have 15 minutes to talk about? Um let's talk about your car's extended warranty.

SPEAKER_02

Wow. But you know, John, one of the things and we never did do a follow-up video uh or uh video podcast video's coming, by the way. Is it? Are you teasing something? I'm teasing. Uh wow, shiny thing. When we never did a follow-up podcast of our experience this year at the Arnold, because I think this year's Arnold was much different than than the previous ones we've gone to. The amount of supplementation and varieties of like things like creatine. I mean, how many different creatin booths did we talk to people about? I don't know. You know, other than the German creatine, which is the the the original stuff. Yeah, the best stuff, yeah. The the the best stuff out there. The amount of things we saw there, and it's like, oh, we gotta try this, you gotta try this. Yeah, really, you know nothing about me.

SPEAKER_00

Well, the weird thing is, again, we can drift into Arnold a little bit because it was a mess. Um, the amount of 19-year-old broccoli-headed boys wandering around thinking that they needed to buy vitamin XYZ gummies to like get swole. Like they are getting marketed too hard.

SPEAKER_02

Here's the problem. And I I was victim of this as I know you were as well. You know, muscular development, muscle and fitness, pro-bodybuilding USA, all those magazines were out when we were kids in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. And, you know, those types of things, you look at it like, all right, if I do this many sets with this many reps with this much weight, I'm gonna be a pro bodybuilder. You know what? Genetics, folks. Well, if you are, I mean, you know, I'll go from the example of my son who was 6'2 and very long-limbed. The amount of gear he would have had to have been on to fill out his body frame would have been monumental to one of his best friends who is like 5'6, yeah, and the same thing, can't pack muscle on to save his life and eats more food than I do.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, but you can be the best version of yourself. I mean, you're right. We're not gonna, you know, we're not all gonna win the Olympia, but you know, you can you can train hard and eat right and all that stuff, and look good. I am just very skeptical. I'm not even skeptical. Uh, it's not that's not it at all. I I don't have enough data to know what I'm especially these micronutrients, what I'm deficient in.

SPEAKER_02

There's certain things that I'll take because I know what it's done and how it helps my body.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and maybe that list is very, very small. Yeah. You know, I like I don't know how I feel about a multivitamin. I don't know necessarily how I feel about a lot of the weird testosterone boosters that I think are all a lie, but I saw plenty of booths selling them at the Arnold to 19-year-old broccoli-headed boys.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that the uh the creatine-infused protein coffees that taste like a caramel mocha latte or whatever the hell it was that we saw that one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. But then there's some other things like the protein peanut butter that I ate like with a spoon and it lasted like three days.

SPEAKER_02

Well, do you remember when we were folks? Do you remember the you'd put a quarter in the little gumball machine and you twist it and you put your hand under there and it'd all come down at the metal latch, you'd lift the latch up and it'd fall into your hand, the gumballs or the little smarties or something.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

Do you remember the uh we were at the one booth and you could get either red or blue, and you had to twist the little thing and it came out. Those are little, you know, like amino supplements. Oh, I didn't. I I must have missed that one. No, you didn't because you did the same thing I did. You put one in your mouth and you spit the damn thing. Oh, that was the donkey piss.

SPEAKER_00

That was that was I don't want to know how you know how that tastes, and we're gonna let that alone. But yeah, again, the amount of marketing, and then the weird thing in in the peptide booth. Oh, yeah. Like like right there, a booth had peptides for sale with uh a doctor, like an MD, an MD that I guess could prescribe them to you right then and there. Well, we gotta remember in it maybe.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it could be because we were in Ohio, it may have been part of Ohio's health law, too.

SPEAKER_00

And you know, the other end of that spectrum is is like the Merrick Health places, the the the concierge doctors where I wish I had the money. But you know, if you if you could had you know fifty thousand dollars to a year to spend on preventive maintenance, basically, you know, you've got a doctor like uh I think it's Dave Tate at um Elite FTS has a has a doctor like that where you know, and he was on a self-admittedly on a boatload of chemicals, but you know, they're looking at all his markers always.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and that leads me to one of the questions that I would ask, you know, and it goes to the sort of screenings that we should get. Are my hormones levels impacting my, you know, my athletic ability, lack of athletic ability, my growth? I mean, as we get older, the testosterone level for men sort of wanes. Okay, at what level do you consider that we need to do boosters? You know, is it something that I should be doing? You know, at 55 years old, if I get every hormone checked and my doctor says you got low T, should I be taking something? Well, in the same vein, I don't want the testosterone level of a 20-year-old. I do.

Lung Function And Cancer Screening

SPEAKER_00

I liked being 20. I was great at it. Um, you weren't. I wasn't. I I I have heard, and I uh, you know, I didn't do enough research on this, but I think because you know, hormones are a balance, right? And women have testosterone. Yes. I don't believe testosterone uh sampling is covered by insurance for women. I think that's true. I could be lying. Again, not a doctor. I'm not gonna push the button, but not a doctor. Not a doctor. But hormone the more things that come up, I think now that we've solved some of the basics, you know, eat a lot of protein, you know, be reasonable with your carbohydrates and fats. Um, I think hormones are sort of that next plateau of everybody should know. Like if if if I were to send someone out into the world, yeah. Yeah, I think you need to know. Because, you know, the other thing is that hormones, your brain goes right to like testosterone and uh estrogen. But yeah, you know, thyroid. A lot of others, yeah. I think thyroid, especially for women, especially here in Western New York. Did you know we're like a weird hotspot of thyroid problems in the in the country? We've got a lot of radiation issues in Western New York. We got a lot of a lot, we got a lot of other lot of things, apparently. But yeah, apparently we're a hotspot for Hashimoto's disease. Look, I mentioned a thyroid disease like anyone's talk about. I I'm I'm impressed. Thanks. I'm impressed too. Um what else would I want to baseline on? Oh, I know. Hi, my name's John, and I sit on the board of the American Lung Association. Lung function. VO capacity or VO2 capacity. Why do you think you have to get that deep because like just like what people don't realize, and it always freaks me out when I go to a lung association, like like you know, if there's a speaker, it's a doctor. A lot of lung cancers happen in people that like live healthy lives and don't smoke. Like you have lungs, you can get cancer.

SPEAKER_02

One of my favorite teachers never smoked a cigarette in his life, died of lung cancer.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so you know, some sort of lung function. I hate it. I don't know if it's the only test for lung function, it's the one I hate the most when I get my annual physical. Have you ever done the one where you're basically like you're blowing down a toilet paper tube with that's instrumented so there's no resistance, and they ask you to like breathe your entire like lung volume out. I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my god, I've seen it uh with some of the different things we've gone through. I've never had the test done.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, it's it's rough. And they make you, I mean, they make you squeeze as much air out of you as you can because it talks about uh, you know, I think it's like working fraction of your lung volume. Huh. Yeah, it's horrible. I hate it, but you know, do it.

SPEAKER_02

Well, one of the things, and this is never had it with any of the doctors before until I started going to this one. Every year, he'll, you know, you're sitting in your little paper-covered stool or whatever the heck you're sitting on. My doctor will stand up on a little bench and he'll look at the top of my head. Oh, he's looking for precancerous spots. Oh, you know, for those of you that don't know, John and I are both follically challenged. I'm not follically challenged.

SPEAKER_00

No, you're just my yeah, I was gonna say my follicles gave up a long time ago.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so but you know, that's cool. He does that, and you know, if he sees something that's precancerous, he'll go up there and he'll take just like a micro dot of um liquid nitrogen and just burn it.

SPEAKER_00

Oh wow, you have a better doctor than I. Never considered that. Although I will admit, and I'm not proud, um, go to dermatologist has been on my to-do list now. Uh, probably two months because you're right. I I know plenty of people. I I can think of four off top of my head gentlemen that were bald that had to get little divots taken out of the top of their head.

SPEAKER_02

Well, here's something, and I never in my life would have thought of this. You know, we talked a little bit about cancer and and a few of the different varieties. My wife had an uncle who died of breast cancer. So it's not out of the realm of reality because I mean, men have breast tissue to talk to your doctor about the different types of cancer. I mean, you know, you think men, okay, what's the male cancer? Well, testicular cancer. Okay, well, men can get breast cancer as well. So make sure you get full screenings for those things. Talk about the lumps and bumps and and those types of things.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, again, that's where you need to be an advocate, right? Like, like when they when they ask you, you know, any changes, you need to be aware of you need to be real. Don't be, you know, this is not the macho time. Right. It is not. It is not, absolutely. Um I don't know. As far as as far as talking to my doctor, I think I listed everything that at least I researched. Um we sort of drifted into supplementation I have written down here. Right. Uh again, I I feel like that could be its own program, is just talking about what works, what doesn't work, what costs money, what doesn't cost money. Um but yeah, that that was my list.

Blood Pressure Standards And Doctor Fit

SPEAKER_02

Do you have any uh I got a couple others? Okay. One of the things was, you know, talk about the future with your doctor. You know, I'm 55, you know, we we've we've made a a lot of mention on my shoulder over these past few uh years of doing this. But you know, say to your doctor, what can I do now that will help me to still be doing what I love 10, 20, 30 years from now? That's a solid question. You know, I mean I I'm sitting across somebody who is the future 80-year-old plus deadlift world record holder. Yeah, take that, Doc. Yeah, and Eric Jensen, look out because Catalan is gonna whip your ass.

SPEAKER_00

I'm setting it first. I looked it up, it doesn't exist.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, you'll set it. I said um the other thing, and I've I've mentioned blood pressure a couple times and what happened with me. When you lift, because we put so much strain on the body, you know, at what level is your blood pressure, you know, if you're slightly we used to think that 120 over 80 was perfect. Well, 121 over 80 is now considered elevated.

SPEAKER_00

I think they lowered the standard too. I think it's actually like 110 over 70 or something ridiculous like that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. You know, so if you're sitting in the 120s over the 80s or even you know, the 130s, that's considered stage one of hypertension. Okay, so when I'm doing something, you know, exerting playing pickleball, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Uh, you know, weightlifting, running, all of these different things. What do I need to do? You know, should I be worrying about this? Right, right. You know, so how just how much are these things influencing my blood pressure at different moments?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and the other thing is in in this whole sort of like same ilk of establishing a baseline is establishing a relationship with your doctor. Like yeah, don't be afraid. Like when they get to know you, right? Like if they know it knew you better and they're like, Oh yeah, I know that Sundays you go for a 20 mile run. Uh thanks, Bruce. That those kind of those kind of things. Um that's probably equally as important. And and I think you I think you need to doctor shop early and often. I think you need to be comfortable with your doctor at some point.

SPEAKER_02

I like how you phrase that. You need to doctor shop. You need to be comfortable and you need to be confident enough that you can say, you know what? This isn't working for me. I need to find somebody. And it's not because they're telling you things you don't want to hear. If that's the case, then that's on you. That's not on them. Okay. I think more so that if you're asking questions and they get frustrated or they can't answer, not because they're poor questions, because they just don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Or they just ignore you. Like they just think it's a silly question. Like, what why would you lift such heavy weights? Get on the couch. Have some Cheetos. Not a sponsor.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I mean, but it's it's it's those types of things. So I think being comfortable and not being afraid to go somewhere. You know, you're gonna run into those things where when I looked for a doctor, they said, Well, you left, you know, Susie Smith, who's in our our 45 doctor consortium practice, so none of us can see you. Well, you know what?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, yeah, and it's not it's certainly not that easy, right? Because there's insurance, like yeah, you'll get so many things. Yeah, so I mean, let's not kid ourselves that it's a perfect system because it's not, but you gotta do what you can. You just you do.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you've already made the commitment to being a master's athlete, you know, whether that's stone lifting, whether that's pickleball, bowling, walking, whatever. You've already made that commitment. Yep. So, you know, this is part of that journey.

SPEAKER_00

It's it's it's part of your pit crew, right? I mean, you gotta someone like Bruce who's motivating you, you know, you got someone who's you know who's dealing with all sorts of things, nutrition, training. You gotta have a doctor in your pocket, and one that you trust. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's gonna make your life better. I, my friend, I collected a list of blood tests.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

That the internet recommends to people over 40 who are athletic. And I am not a doctor, I'll button pushing aside. So I'm just going to go through my list. I don't know that they're super discussable because we don't really have a strong opinion about them, but I'm just gonna spell them out because there's only a few. Uh the typical CBC uh is will will will screen you for anemia, any infection, and what your recovery status is like.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Um that's a theme throughout all these tests. Uh poor recovery isn't just you're not ready for the next 5k. Poor recovery can be an indicator of a lot of like heart health. Yeah, a lot of like pre-disease kind of things. Uh iron. Uh iron is apparently low iron is very common in endurance athletes, especially female endurance athletes. Okay, so you know you gotta have that conversation with your doctor. You know, should I supplement with iron? I think, or you know, get it from food. Um thyroid. I have a test in here called the RT3. Yep. Uh if RTT RT3 is high, it shows a slow metabolism and recovery. You know, we all chase, and I I chase it using monster energy drinks, but you know, those I just don't feel much. It does nothing. That's it's delicious. It's basically mother's milk. Soon we'll be feeding m monster energy to babies. Um, but you know, we we all walk around going, oh, I just don't have the energy. There can be a medical medical basis for feeling kind of sluggish. Yeah, yeah. Hey, Alexa just told me that I got a package, by the way. Maybe it's your monster energy dress. Oh, I hope so. Um Apo B. So I listen to almost everything that Dr. Peter Peter Atiad uh puts out on the internet. He's sort of a, I don't think he'd consider himself a longevity doctor, but his sort of mantra is basically, I think he calls it the I don't know, the hundred-year-old marathon. He wants to be able to do things when he's a hundred. And that's sort of his ilk when he's um he has said, and other people say as well, the test for this APO B indicator is much better at cardiac health than LDL. It it's an it's the emergent flag for cardiac health, is this APO B test. Again, not a doctor, I can't explain it to you. Um IGF 1. IGF 1 test will show if you have insufficient protein. And I think there's plenty of studies and plenty of you know, cohorts out there that are just you're not getting enough protein, it sort of sets you on the road to ruin it. I think we're overproteinizing a little bit. Oh god, everything has protein. Yeah, it's like water with protein in it. Protein cereal. Yeah. Uh what else I saw? I saw something really stupid with protein Pop Tarts. Yeah, did you know that real Pop Tarts are the worst food for you? Like worst. They did a whole study. Please don't tell me that. Yeah, they are Pop Tar Pop Tarts are the worst food.

SPEAKER_02

Pop-tarts, not a sponsor anymore.

SPEAKER_00

They definitely are not a sponsor. They don't deserve to be a sponsor, even less so than Cheetos. Way less than Cheetos are not a sponsor. Um and then I just have the testosterone cortisol um ratio. Yeah, I I think I don't know. I don't, you know, I not being a woman ever in my life. Um you know, I I feel like I know a handful of guys that are on TRT and it has helped them not dramatically, but I think it we keep talking about this baseline. I think it raises the baseline back to a healthier, younger you. What should be normal? Yeah, what was considered normal. Yeah, so those are some things. I would write them down, I'd take them to your doctor, your doctor might say, This is dumb. Where did you get this? And you could say, I heard it from this bald guy on the internet, and he'll say, Stop listening to bald guys on the internet.

SPEAKER_02

Just make sure you listen to the Master's Athlete Survival Guide, though. Yes, and subscribe to our Instagram and download like and all of that. At some point, yes, sir, maybe something more. What does that mean? I might be teasing something to come.

SPEAKER_00

Oh but the only thing that we don't do now that we could possibly do in the future is some sort of video podcast. Huh. Hmm. We'll have to talk about that offline.

SPEAKER_02

Hmm. Maybe think more about some of the stuff that we've talked about. Hmm. I don't know. Interesting. People would see Studio 54. It's not Studio 54, it's Aurora Studios, dummy.

SPEAKER_00

Right. Studio number 54 at Aurora Studios. Wow. I don't like you know, I know we're working in 54 today, but I like 27 better. The the lights a little nicer. Um, you got anything else? I do not. Oh, that's good. So those are some things. You know, I guess if you were sitting, if if you were sitting here with us having a cup of coffee and we were just talking as uh I don't drink coffee. If you were here with us and you were sitting around just drinking some protein water, um how about bourbon? If you were here with us just sitting around drinking bourbon, uh I think these are the kind of things I would say to a friend. You know, I agree.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, all kidding aside, these are conversations that you and I have had. Yep. You know, and we talked to, you know, some of our close friends about them.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I just remember before my mom died, like this is one of the things that I never want to get to. There comes a point in your health where there's just too many fires to put out if you don't take care of it early. Like if you have diabetes and you don't breathe well, and you've got some cardiac issues, and you've got, you know, some joint issues, you know, you got two bad knees and two bad hips, and you can't really walk, so you can't get your weight down. And I never want to get to that.

SPEAKER_02

It becomes a circle, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It really does become that you know, that proverbial snowball going downhill. Never want to get there. Never want to get there. When we're doing this podcast when we're 80, and I have set the uh 80-year-old deadlift record. By the way, I'll still be in my 70s. That's true. Oh no, you can't break my oh, you'll be a different weight class.

SPEAKER_02

Oh no, there's only one 80-year-old deadlift record that's I'm gonna break it with one hand.

Final Takeaways And Listener Support

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's you know, do you know that uh according to my research, they suspect it would have to be 400 pounds for it to be like to be considered a world record? Yeah, like for any of the like the you know, the can you tell the 400 pounds now? And yes, any of the powerlifting federations to uh like accept it. So what are you going for? 401? I guess we're doing 401 when I'm 80. So doc will do 402. That's ridiculous. That's alright. I I'm totally comfortable with being former world record holder. Plus, you mean you already are. Yeah, see, I'm comfortable with it. I like it. I bring it up in conversation way too often. Yeah, you do. You do. You want to stop this podcast? Let's stop this podcast. Okay. Who are you? I'm still Scott. And I am John, and like I said, and I'm not saying this jokingly, not a doctor. We are not doctors of any sort, no matter what the PhD in our in our bio says. Take all this, take it to your doctor, have some discussions, and uh live your best life, people. Don't forget to ask. You've gotta ask, folks. And on that note, bye. Bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the podcast, please share it with others, post it on your social media, or leave a review. To catch all the latest from us, you can follow us on Instagram at Masters Athlete Survival Guide. Thanks again. Now get off our lawn, you damn kids.