TRT, Peptides, and the Future of Men’s Health: Biohacking, AI, and Living Longer with Dr. Haad

In this powerhouse episode, we dive deep with Dr. Haad, founder of Zeus Men’s Health, to explore the cutting edge of male optimization — from testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) to peptides, biohacking, and AI-driven personalized medicine.

We unpack:

• The critical role content plays in digital marketing (and why bad creatives are killing your campaigns)
• How AI and iOS privacy updates are rewriting advertising rules
• The content-first strategy behind $2M/month ad spends
• Debunking myths about testosterone, TRT vs. steroids, and the stigma surrounding men’s health
• Safe vs. unsafe peptide use: enclomiphene, BPC-157, Sermorelin, HCG, and more
• Shockwave therapy for erectile dysfunction, muscle growth strategies, and testosterone’s effect on libido, mood, and confidence
• Why alcohol is killing your gains — and how fiber is nature’s secret biohack
• How AI could soon revolutionize preventative medicine and patient treatment protocols

Whether you're a health-conscious man in your 30s or a digital marketer trying to win with content, this episode is packed with insights to help you level up your health, mindset, and impact.

🔗 Connect with Dr. Haad: ZeusMensHealth.com
📲 Instagram: @HaadMD

Presented by Daniel Walton (@yourpropagandist)

Transcript

0:00: Yo, what's cracking. 
 0:01: This is Daniel Walton and this is the show for those who don't believe in limitations. 
 0:04: So if you're ready to be better than you were yesterday and hit new levels mentally, physically, financially, or spiritually, it's time to go higher. 
 0:11: Most people like don't even know like the algorithm, you know, it's like follower-based algorithm, which was like based on how many followers you had, that's how many people like would see your content. 
 0:20: And then, you know, short form content came out, TikTok being the first one to like really like create short form content like as like content platform. 
 0:28: And it completely changed the game, which was like we're no longer a follower-based platform, we're an interest-based algorithm, right? 
 0:36: So it went from that follower based algorithm to an interest-based algorithm which is like it will first show your content to so many followers, right? 
 0:43: Like I believe it's 5% of your following we'll see. 
 0:46: Your content based off of how those people engage, it's then gonna show it to more of your followers. 
 0:52: It's gonna double it up about 10% of your followers are gonna see it. 
 0:55: Then if it continues to do well, right? 
 0:58: Well, what makes good content engagement, well what is engagement composed of Watch time, likes. 
 1:03: Shares, saves, but not just likes, right? 
 1:06: Like real likes cause it's analyzing like oh if somebody just going through and like hitting like. 
 1:10: Well, we know then that's probably just a friend liking it, right? 
 1:13: So it's like, what actual metrics and it has all these different points of preference that it's looking at and analyzing all these data points. 
 1:21: And it's determining this is good content based off of user interactions through it's analyzing their face, like everything like these apps are literally looking at our facial expressions to how we analyze content and it's like depending on that, it's gonna determine this piece of content's good. 
 1:36: So on the organic side. 
 1:38: It will show your content to more people if you have good content, right, which is why I'm like, hey, we need to create some good content out of this too. 
 1:45: But the algorithm rewards you by helping you go viral. 
 1:49: The platforms when you're paying and investing, they reward you by lowering your CPM. 
 1:54: So most places like that are just doing these crazy like discounts like buy this, buy that, all these supplements that you. 
 1:59: See, it's like they're not making as much money because, you know, it's just like not content most people want to see where when you can actually create like engaging content, content that's like unique, content people can relate to, it's like now you can like really align with the algorithm, align with the audience. 
 2:15: And then you're gonna also build just like so much more like you can actually build the authenticity. 
 2:20: And that's where like, I think a lot of these questions, they'll queue up that like it's gonna build more of an authentic who you are, you're a real human, show some personality, real questions that men actually are wondering, that men's girlfriends are actually wondering and then now we can create content that is gonna be rewarded when you start spending on ads, right? 
 2:37: So that's pretty much like what most people don't understand. 
 2:40: And it's like looking at everything. 
 2:42: I mean, the social media platforms like the average Facebook user, as I said, spends about 2 hours and 20 minutes per day scrolling, which is insane. 
 2:50: I'm like, yeah, I'm like I probably spend more time because like I'm looking at content now I'm trying to spend less like. 
 2:57: The the motto for myself is like I'm a content creator, not a content consumer. 
 3:02: So I like reinforce I'm like alright, I gotta create content, I consume it. 
 3:05: But these with these platforms, what they do is they analyze like everything like they have an average of 5 and this is from our Facebook reps since we're a partner now, they have an average of 52,000 points of preference per user. 
 3:18: So that 2 hours and 20 minutes that they're spending like they're analyzing everything about you like. 
 3:22: That's why like if you engage with more reels, you're gonna see more reels, more short form content. 
 3:27: If you engage with a lot of the carousel posts, like they're gonna show more carousel posts on your feed. 
 3:31: If you engage with, like, you know, for me it's like this year, like one of my things that I'm gonna do is buy, buy a 9/11. 
 3:36: So I'm just like scrolling through all these 9/11 videos, all I see now on my suggested pages. 
 3:41: Like 9/11 videos and it's like they know exactly what you like and want to see more than you do almost. 
 3:47: Like, I don't know 200 things that I like, you know, I like good coffee from, from Ken. 
 3:52: I like a couple other things, but like aside from that, I'm like, I don't know 200 things that I like and these apps have an average of 52,000 points of preference. 
 4:01: So now, like, as we're talking about, it's like we're in the content age, like it's true, like you have to understand content. 
 4:08: And not just understand content but like human psychology, persuasion, storytelling, and then understanding what these platforms reward you for, right? 
 4:17: And then when you can pair all of that together, you can make a lot of money in paid, you know, and in organic, but organics is very slow, long time frame to see results and the scalability is not. 
 4:29: There right. 
 4:30: Our phones listening to us when they hear our preferences? 
 4:33: Yeah, oh yeah, they're talking about something and it just pops up, right? 
 4:36: Yeah, for sure. 
 4:36: They're listening to you and they're, they're watching you like when you're scrolling like they're, they're analyzing like this has been like Facebook's come out publicly about this. 
 4:44: I used to be so against it like like I came from the cannabis industry. 
 4:47: That was my first business here did like a prop 215 California compliant dispensary and delivery. 
 4:52: And so I was like, I don't want to be on the internet at all like just like no way. 
 4:56: And then it got to a point where I was like. 
 4:58: You can't like win in business. 
 5:01: Like if you're unless you're established, it's like, and even established ones, I feel like they're gonna go away if you're not active, you know, as I said, like these the average consumer spends like 2 hours and 20 minutes just scrolling mindlessly, right? 
 5:14: Where, what were they doing before, right? 
 5:16: Right. 
 5:17: Well they were watching TV, right? 
 5:18: They were watching the news, they were listening to the radio. 
 5:21: Now these platforms have consumed so much of it. 
 5:24: So if you think like, OK, well, how did they communicate? 
 5:27: How do businesses like stay alive, stay in front of audiences like they use the radio, they use the news, they use TV so what's been, what's replacing these platforms and well, how do you get in front of them? 
 5:36: You have to have really good content. 
 5:38: So it's just so important to invest in like really high quality content. 
 5:42: And yeah, this has been like a game changer for me. 
 5:45: I have, man, I have a crazy amount of content that I haven't even like launched yet that I see some of it I see some of the one in that room looks good. 
 5:53: Yeah, thanks. 
 5:53: Yeah, I just, you know, still a work in progress. 
 5:55: It's just like reps, you know, you just need a time on camera for sure you get comfortable in front of the camera like I've noticed even in the beginning when I used to like make my own little videos. 
 6:05: Till now it's significant improvement, you know, just being in front of it and seeing how different things like how you talk with your hands a little bit more. 
 6:12: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. 
 6:14: I know I used to like, I was like a conductor with my when I first started. 
 6:18: I have some of my, my original videos up because I just want people to see like I didn't know what I was doing was just filming a bunch of random. 
 6:26: shit and now like starting to take off, which is kind of the personality now when you're talking is, yeah, there's a lot, it's just, it's a lot. 
 6:34: I feel like I've always been good on camera, maybe just from like doing sales my whole life, you know, like I used to sell the newspaper, like go door to door, like I would go to like the LA Fair, Orange County Fair and just set up like a booth and like those. 
 6:47: There's like vendor sections and I would just like yell you have to have like a voice that resonates a little bit, you know, something that some people just don't have it, you know, yeah, you do too, like you're, you're natural, like personable. 
 6:58: I feel like people who are generally can't have no problem like talking to others, it's like you're gonna probably do fine on camera. 
 7:04: OK, so welcome to 7 figure practices, your go to resource for all things sales, marketing, operations, and all the stuff you wish you knew when you started your practice. 
 7:15: Today we got a special guest, Doctor Hodd. 
 7:17: Doctor Had runs Zeus Men's Health and is currently still working in the the while scaling this business. 
 7:24: So why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself? 
 7:26: Doctor Homoon here. 
 7:27: Yeah, so I grew up in Chicago, a small suburb called Oakbrook outside of Chicago. 
 7:32: love science, so went into biochemistry at University of Illinois. 
 7:36: That was my major 200, I was that's up the year 2004 through 2008, and then I went into medicine. 
 7:44: I went into med school at Chicago Medical School in 200. 
 7:47: 8 to 2012, took my residency in LA in California, actually Huntington Memorial Hospital, and they were at the time affiliated with USC now they're affiliated with Cedars, but that was from 2012 to 2015. 
 8:01: And I've been practicing there and also several other hospitals during COVID, there was a a great need for physicians kind of throughout the country. 
 8:09: So I worked in Tennessee, Reading, California, Sacramento, kind of all over. 
 8:13: worked like probably 10 different hospitals during that time and after just helping different areas just pretty crazy time but so yeah that working there and still work at Huntington a little bit, Kind of managing this business and starting that up over the past year, yeah, yeah, that's exciting. 
 8:30: What made you choose internal medicine? 
 8:32: So internal for me, internal is kind of like the the center of the universe in terms of medicine. 
 8:36: It's kind of the like the holistic approach to it. 
 8:40: To kind of give you an example of like a, I guess a patient case. 
 8:43: It's always easier to learn from examples, but say you had a patient, I saw a lot of this, an obese guy comes in having a heart attack, you know, but in the process of having a heart attack. 
 8:53: You realize he has diabetes too, and he actually has kidney damage from the diabetes, so he's got kidney failure, heart attack, had a history of a stroke, and then from the kidney failure, he now has he had a renal syndrome, so his liver is failing. 
 9:06: And so you kind of have Yeah, the ability to tie all these diverse medical problems to like one issue like the fact that he was obese kind of caused all this, so you can kind of take a step back and say, well, maybe if we worked on this obesity problem that he's had for 20 years it's built all this disease in his body preventatively and preemptively, you know, we, we could have done something about it. 
 9:27: So that's kind of where being in the hospital and seeing all this disease. 
 9:32: Kind of sparked my interest in why can't we get ahead of these diseases before they happen as opposed to being reactive and putting a band-aid on something after it happens and then something else pops up a week later, you know, seeing a lot of that. 
 9:45: So would you say like internal medicine is, is more of like the the holistic approach to health versus some of the other more like treatment-based? 
 9:53: Yeah, like, so you have like you have surgery where they're like, you know, let's go in there, let's fix it, close it up, we're done, you know, internal medicine is kind of the The foundation of all the specialties that come out of internal medicine like pulmonology, hepatology, cardiology, neurology. 
 10:09: These are all like almost branches of internal medicine. 
 10:12: And so if you wanna be a good internal medicine doctor, especially in the hospital or, or even, you know, preventative care wise, you kind of have to know how all organ systems affect each other. 
 10:21: And being a biochem major, I think it was more of always like a big picture type of thing for me, so. 
 10:26: I see internal medicine as like the big picture approach to medicine, right? 
 10:30: So is that kind of what sets you up to, to start like Zeus Men's Health? 
 10:34: Yeah, so I mean, I think that the men's health part of it is, is probably half of the story. 
 10:39: I mean, I think I wanted, I started focusing more on preventative health, you know, kind of holistic care. 
 10:46: They call it functional medicine is another way to to to say that. 
 10:49: they're all kind of the same umbrella, in terms of men's health. 
 10:53: I kind of just started focusing on on my own health after I got COVID twice in 2019 and I just felt horrible afterwards. 
 11:01: I think a lot of people can relate to that, the whole long COVID, the brain fog and inflammation you get. 
 11:06: It's just, it's just a severely inflammatory disease, and I'm sure you know inflammation essentially equals disease and age, right? 
 11:13: So you're. 
 11:15: You know, after I got COVID, I was just a shell of myself. 
 11:17: I had no energy, you know, I had the brain fog, fatigue, wasn't even, you know, waking up on the right side of the bed ever. 
 11:26: So I made some changes to myself, So a lot of, you know, diet and exercise resistance training, definitely a lot of cardiovascular health. 
 11:36: I started taking certain supplements at that time I, you know, started my research into supplements and seeing what things may help me, may not help me. 
 11:44: Did a lot more lab testing, found out that, you know, I actually have a glutathione. 
 11:48: Enzyme deficiency. 
 11:49: And so so glutathione is your master antioxidant, so it's gonna seek out, you know, when you have inflammation or you have glucose spikes, you end up getting a lot of free radicals which are like these oxygen species that basically, can go and damage your DNA as they damage your DNA over time, you age and they shorten your telomere length, which means you have less resistance to damage to your DNA. 
 12:15: So glutathione is the, molecule that can go and bind to the those species and prevent them from damaging the DNA. 
 12:23: So I did this advanced functional testing and I found out that that's actually contributing to a lot of my, my aging and so a lot of like no clue up until this test there's no way I would have known that you're young and healthy. 
 12:37: This was I was probably 33, 34 at the time, and then I found that out and so I, I started taking glutathione daily. 
 12:44: And I noticed like a significant change in my mental clarity and my mood, and along the same line, you know, glutathione is is basically dealing with byproducts of your mitochondrial metabolism and so. 
 12:57: When your mitochondria is not working properly and as we age our NED levels go down, I started taking NAD as well. 
 13:02: So a couple, couple of changes in my supplement regimen, but they were based off of testing that I got done, not just like based off of advertisement, seeing that NAD is popular and just taking it, you know, you'll see maybe 50 different NED ads, NED, and you're like, we work for a few. 
 13:18: Let's take a couple of those. 
 13:19: And maybe take some different supplements, maybe take some probiotics, but if you put evidence and science behind your decisions and you actually do the research and the testing to find out what's going on and why, there's a lot more you can do for your health. 
 13:32: just how does somebody get like this kind of test? 
 13:35: What kind of test is it? 
 13:36: So I mean currently we're partnered up with a company that does it called Vibrant Health. 
 13:40: they, they do a really, really. 
 13:43: And it and it's, you know, it's, it's not a cookie cutter approach. 
 13:45: It kind of depends on your symptoms. 
 13:47: So if you're having like GI issues, we can do like something called a gut zoomer also check for intestinal permeability. 
 13:54: What GI issues like look like bloating. 
 13:57: So great question. 
 13:58: That could be a whole hour talk, but the reason the reason why is have you back. 
 14:04: We now know that there's like there's something called a gut brain. 
 14:07: And I got heart axis. 
 14:08: OK, so there's certain things we can do to our GI tract and certain things we can consume that are gonna affect our heart and our brain like significantly. 
 14:16: And the best way to think about that is we have about we have trillions of cells in our GI tract bacteria that we live with, and they outnumber our cells in our body by like 10 to 1. 
 14:26: So it's almost like we live with them or do they live with us, right? 
 14:30: Maybe we're the host. 
 14:31: Yeah, so if we're not keeping them happy, then they start to get out of whack and then our body reacts with inflammation. 
 14:38: It can affect the heart and the brain and the whole, our whole body. 
 14:40: So inflammation in the GI tract appears as you're saying bloating, what else? 
 14:46: So that would be, yeah, so specifically in the GI tract, you know, bloating, upset stomach, IBS type of symptoms where your bowel bowel like, you know, your bowel movements. 
 14:56: Irregular, those are things that people would notice, you know, right away, but as those problems kind of continue, that's when they start to affect your whole body. 
 15:04: And so if you have leaky gut, that means now your intestinal permeability or your barrier has kind of opened up and has holes in it. 
 15:11: And so now heavy metals can get in, plastics can get in, start depositing throughout your whole body, and now you get the brain fog, the fatigue. 
 15:18: You can get like your your you can deposit in your testicles, your testosterone can go down. 
 15:22: It can actually cross the placental barrier. 
 15:25: And so it can affect kids their development, so it's it's a big deal. 
 15:29: It's a lot, a lot that we're learning and. 
 15:31: If you start getting those tests done, you can kind of see what you need to do, right? 
 15:36: So like, is internal medicine like kind of like on the rise now with cause I feel like all these supplements, all this stuff around like gut health, everything is just like so important, you know, with biohacking and all this stuff like Joe Rogan and all these other like top like health experts are are. 
 15:53: What is Gary Brea like it's just like blowing up around all this stuff. 
 15:56: So like is internal medicine like kind of the core of that because like kind of I think in just Western medicine and internal medicine and what we're learning in med school and we apply it to our healthcare system is a very reactive system. 
 16:10: It it's not as focused on prevention. 
 16:12: We have a lot of measures now that we can test for like apolipoprotein Bs and omega sixes and. 
 16:17: , IL-6 and TNF alphas, which are like different inflammatory markers that can indicate poor cardiovascular outcomes, right? 
 16:25: And so these are things that we're now implementing into our testing, and there's so much more that we can do, you know, aside from that, but the problem with health care in general is, is, it's, it's, it's very reactive, it's very let's fix the disease once it happens, you know, and so internal medicine, the way I was taught it initially in med school is here's the list of diseases, here's how to treat them, here's the pharmacology behind it. 
 16:46: And if somebody needs to be on 40 medications for these 20 issues, no problem. 
 16:51: But the more you practice, I mean 10 years of practicing in hospitals, I realized I don't think that's really the right way to do it. 
 16:58: What is the right way right way is like kind of getting behind the underlying causes and, and seeing if we can prevent diabetes. 
 17:04: So just to give you an example, in 1960, about 13% of 13% of adult Americans were obese, and that's, calculated by a BMI of over 30, OK, so 13% then to 43% in 2020. 
 17:23: That's more than I think more than 50% is obese, over 75% overweight. 
 17:28: It's pretty crazy. 
 17:29: So if you think about that, we're doing something wrong, right? 
 17:32: And if we're putting people now we have 43% of Americans who are obese with, you know, comorbidities and chronic medical issues. 
 17:40: We're putting all of them on medications. 
 17:42: Is that really getting to the underlying cause? 
 17:44: Like why, why are we having 3 times more obese people than we did in the 1960s? 
 17:49: Something has to be happening. 
 17:50: So we need to go back to the drawing board and say what are we putting in our bodies, you know, and, and the, and the, the answer is a lot of process. 
 17:58: I mean there's so much, it's almost impossible to go somewhere and eat out and, and have something that's not gonna be like toxic to your body, right? 
 18:06: seed oils and omega 6s that come out of that, just one example, but. 
 18:11: So I think it's, it's, it's kind of time to go backwards a little bit and say what, what can we do to prevent some of these diseases as opposed to just trying to treat them all because it's right, it's really cumbersome to try to do that. 
 18:20: Yeah, I know RFK Junior, he's, he's really A big proponents, yeah, he's got some good ideas. 
 18:28: I think it would be crazy if he can execute half of them, you know, I think it'll be we're so far behind. 
 18:34: I mean like those dyes like yellow 5 and yellows, they literally cause, you know, tumors in animals, and they cause hyperactivity in children and like every other kid has ADD and it's like, I wonder why, right? 
 18:45: And they're banned in like so many other countries in Europe, in the EU there has to be like a huge, you know, like those massive like cigarette logos that says like this can cause all these problems. 
 18:57: But here it's like there's nothing. 
 18:58: Yeah, and it's like, come on, we need to at least be with our third world countries that do certain things. 
 19:03: I try to not eat processed foods, but there is one processed food that I just like I get a craving for from childhood, the flaming hot fries. 
 19:10: I don't know if it's got red number 5 Cheetos, the worst thing in the world for you. 
 19:15: I'm like, I don't care how bad these are, I'm gonna eat them every time 11 vice that, yeah, that occasional like Sour Patch kids or something like that, but I'm like. 
 19:25: But most of the time I try, I try not to eat processed foods. 
 19:28: I like I, I tell my one of my friends was hitting me up. 
 19:30: He's like, hey, like what's your secret? 
 19:31: I'm like, no processed foods. 
 19:33: I drink black coffee, water, that's it. 
 19:36: Like, like it's like high protein, high fruit, like high vegetable. 
 19:41: I try to eat like either fruits and vegetables, good source of protein, nothing complex, just very simple diets like and and then work out, you know, you can processed foods with plant-based fiber. 
 19:53: It's like the biggest thing you do yeah just simply cutting processed foods, cutting process like sugar. 
 19:59: My mom never like we didn't have money, so my mom like cooked all the meals so that I think I just grew up that way naturally, but then she also never allowed us to have sugar like in anything like she wouldn't even give us like sweet cereal. 
 20:09: It was like if we were lucky she would mix like honey nut Cheerios Cheerios with like regular Cheerios. 
 20:15: So it was like half and half like diluted, but I just got used to like not eating sugar and then seeing the like feeling the effects of it. 
 20:21: Because like when you actually like can cleanse like processed sugar out of your diet, and then you introduce it, it's like you feel sluggish, slow, your brain, like you notice the effects so much more, but then when you're just addicted to it, like, you, you don't even know that your body's Addicted to this, this drug, essentially, right? 
 20:38: And like now you're craving it, and you're not even aware that you're addicted to something and it has control over you just like constantly consuming and everything that you eat. 
 20:48: So it sounds like just passion for health and, you know, turning around your own health has been the leading impact and like why you decided to start Zeus Men's Health. 
 20:57: So I guess for like the consumer out there who might be listening, what exactly do you like, what do you do? 
 21:04: What can you help people with like to the to the end consumer, like, go ahead and give like your three minute pitch of like who you are, who you help, and how you help them. 
 21:13: Yeah, definitely. 
 21:13: No, so I think, you know, it's the holistic approach starts from. 
 21:16: How patients feel. 
 21:17: I think a lot of, you'll see a lot of advertising for like hymns and different companies that basically are giving you the cookie cutter approach, right, which is basically like, OK, everybody who has low testosterone is gonna get testosterone and everybody who has erectile dysfunction is gonna get phosphized inhibitor like sildenafil or or bag or whatever. 
 21:35: , but for us it's more about spending the initial period of time, you know, on the initial consult to really get to know the patient. 
 21:42: What are, what's the person's life like, you know, what's their social situation like? 
 21:44: How's their marriage? 
 21:45: You know, these things all matter, right? 
 21:46: When you talk about somebody, for example, with erectile dysfunction, one of the biggest things is you have to ask like, did this happen out of the blue or did this happen gradually over time, right? 
 21:55: And so, if it's something that happened out of the blue, a lot of times it's just something like stress. 
 21:59: It could be work, it could be relationships, and if you're not asking these questions and you're not getting to the root cause analysis of what somebody's issues are, and you're just prescribing them medication, then they're better off, you know, not even seeing a physician, right? 
 22:13: Right. 
 22:13: So what you're getting with me is a is a personalized approach. 
 22:16: It's, it's really, it's about establishing a relationship, figuring out exactly what's happening with someone's health from top to bottom, and then seeing, you know, what can we optimize. 
 22:25: In terms of their preferences too, right? 
 22:27: So some people, a great example I give is some people really care about their hair and some people really care about their muscle mass, OK? 
 22:34: And so the treatment for those two patients, from the standpoint of testosterone are very different, right? 
 22:39: If you blast somebody, who has a full head of hair and, and cares more about that and say for example, fertility is really important, they're trying to conceive and just give them testosterone, well now they they might lose their hair, they might lose their fertility, right? 
 22:52: And they might build some muscle, but that's not what they wanted. 
 22:54: And so it's a matter of asking people like what what they want. 
 22:57: It's not about treating a number, you know, so there's some serious like altercations or complications that can arise from the wrong dosing or the wrong wrong providers and and it's so important that everybody's story is unique, you know, and that's that's where the physician part of it comes in and it's not just a business or it's not just a subscription where you're signing up for something that you you know. 
 23:19: Probably won't ever talk to the doctor again and you won't get any, you know, adjustments of your doses or follow-ups or, you know, repeat labs, that's what I think a lot of other companies are doing, and they might have been able to scale a lot faster because of that, maybe because they're not giving the personalized approach, but for us it's all about the patient. 
 23:36: That's why I went into medicine, right, to help people. 
 23:38: If I, if I wanted to go to business, I would have just wanted a business. 
 23:41: Yeah, it's important to me. 
 23:43: Yeah, that that's good and yeah, it's crazy how many. 
 23:46: People don't, don't think that way and you know, they, they let price be the only like determining factor. 
 23:51: There's like, oh, I want TRT it's like the thing that everyone's doing. 
 23:54: So like, what's the cheapest, right? 
 23:56: And it's like they don't even know like all the complications that can come from like that kind of thinking and we do a lot of weight loss like TRT is is one of the newer things that we've been working with, but in weight loss, like we've seen it like we've been doing that for like. 
 24:09: Over 2 years now and like people get all these adverse effects from these like cheap providers because they're just prescribing like generic doses to just anybody they're getting like Ozempic butt hair loss, you know, they're losing muscle mass. 
 24:21: It's like crazy and people don't always think of that. 
 24:24: They're just so like short-sighted, so it's so important to do, especially with the weight loss medications like to do it right is is especially. 
 24:32: people go too high on the doses, they end up with the Ozempic face or they get really bad nausea. 
 24:38: We've had actually zero major adverse side effects because we always go up gradually, I was following up with the patients very closely. 
 24:44: we, we're one of the only clinics to provide Zofran with every, subscription. 
 24:49: So patients always have nausea medications if they have nausea available right away. 
 24:54: You're not scrambling to try to. 
 24:55: You know, get a prescription for it. 
 24:57: when you have nausea, you're not trying to like drive to the pharmacy, you're vomiting, right? 
 25:01: So we just, we think ahead in terms of everything that we do. 
 25:04: It's, it's, it's a lot, you know. 
 25:06: , you, you're getting more than just a subscription, you're getting a relationship with a provider. 
 25:11: Yeah, so it's. 
 25:13: So why do people get hair loss from like these weight loss treatments or from, from even from TRTs? 
 25:18: So the TRT especially, if, if it's not done right, so there's there's like a fine range that you can find where the hair loss is mitigated, but if you're going too high on the testosterone and you're not watching it carefully. 
 25:29: , you can build some DHT, which is one way to think about it is like the bad testosterone. 
 25:35: DHT gives you like, it can give you acne or backne give you hair loss. 
 25:40: It gives you irritable mood swings, so we try to avoid the DHT. 
 25:43: We actually do a natural DHT blocker with all our subscriptions, so it's a call it a TRT supplement, but it actually saw palmetto, Pygium, and nettle. 
 25:54: So it's a combination of herbs that help decrease your DHT production we include that in all our subscriptions for TRT. 
 26:01: So patients are really happy with, you know, lack of side effects. 
 26:04: They're not losing as much. 
 26:06: They don't have to worry about it. 
 26:07: And, and, and then we always recheck their estrogen levels to make sure that those are being managed properly. 
 26:12: We check their LAfestation to make sure their pituitary is being managed properly. 
 26:15: So very few people are doing all of that with testosterone, but that makes sure their side effects are kind of maintained and controlled. 
 26:23: So what by not monitoring the estrogen, is that how men like start to develop tits man boobs. 
 26:30: So nobody wants that. 
 26:32: So that's true they want the opposite of that up if you're not being careful and as soon as that happens, generally if it starts to be high, it's already too late. 
 26:39: You're gonna have some fat tissue around your nipples already, so you gotta be really careful with that. 
 26:45: I would definitely not want to be on TRT and like what's the point? 
 26:49: I, I have, yeah, yeah, that's great. 
 26:49: So then,, with weight loss, like, and you know, with people like developing hair loss from weight loss medications, how do you guys combat that? 
 27:01: So a lot of things you can do. 
 27:02: So first TRT support that I was telling you about those pills, those are the like basically nature's way of doing it. 
 27:07: Those are like herbal supplements that help, so most of my patients don't develop that. 
 27:12: I have had some that have, it's just natural to get some DHT conversion. 
 27:16: So we can do a medication like finasteride. 
 27:18: finasteride will help block that as well. 
 27:20: We also have topical agents. 
 27:22: Some people don't like the finasteride because it can rarely affect your libido. 
 27:27: So then we have like a hair solution that has a finasteride in it, has monoxodil, has triamcinolone in it, and so it's something you just apply once a day, helps kind of reverse some of that and actually some people end up with even thicker hair afterwards. 
 27:38: Wow. 
 27:39: So there's also. 
 27:40: A separate treatment for for hair loss like exosome treatment and PRP treatment we do in the clinic in Burbank too, so somebody's more focused on their hair, we can, we can treat them with that. 
 27:50: Yeah, I know there's FDA cleared hair loss laser. 
 27:52: Have you seen that the ol by Luminous? 
 27:56: Painless. 
 27:56: Oh well, they, they claim painless like you don't need any numbing or, you know, anything, so just feels like laser hair removal is what I've heard. 
 28:05: Lumin Luminous, yeah, yeah, so the first FDA cleared. 
 28:09: I haven't tried it yet. 
 28:10: There's a couple clinics here in Orange County that have it, but I'm like I should, I should try it you still got you still got to get out of there, yeah, for sure. 
 28:16: I, I tried, I do the monoxodil drops, so yeah, try to prevent as, as, as much as I can because, yeah, preemptive, it's better to, yeah, it's preemptive than than afterwards, definitely. 
 28:29: So with all these prescriptions, I mean all of these need to be prescribed, right? 
 28:33: Yeah. 
 28:34: So how do you do this right compliantly? 
 28:36: Is there like legit script? 
 28:38: Is it needed? 
 28:39: How do you do you recommend it for other like entrepreneurs who might be, you know, looking to get in this space? 
 28:44: Great question. 
 28:44: So I mean you, you can run and operate your business or your medical practice without log scripts, but when it starts to become something that you want to scale for advertisement, you basically have to have scripts, so. 
 28:56: , the reason you need it is because you can't, you can't make, or you can't post Facebook ads or Google ads without with the name of the medication in it unless you're logistical certified, and that's extremely important. 
 29:08: So I mean, imagine you have an ad that's so vague and generic that somebody can't tell what it's for, which is basically all you can make. 
 29:15: So you can say weight loss medications offered here and no one's gonna know what that means or what you're talking about. 
 29:21: And your competitors that can say that can say some of Blutide offered, you know, GLP ones offered here are gonna have a huge edge on you. 
 29:29: So I think that's something that I'm doing kind of now after about a year of being in practice. 
 29:34: I think that's something for new entrepreneurs, people starting their business, especially medical practice they wanna advertise for, I would say just get that started immediately, yeah, I would agree too as a marketer, it just makes it so much easier if you go. 
 29:48: the telemedicine route and you want to be like a hymns Ro.co, some of these other bigger companies where you can just, you know, purchase press with the press of a button they absolutely needed. 
 29:58: Now if you're doing more traditional brick and mortar where it's like a an asynchronous model where you can come in, meet the provider and then they can determine if they're gonna prescribe that to you, not as needed. 
 30:09: But yeah, if you want to do like a check out an e-commerce style website, like we, we won't even take on clients now if they're they're not legit script just because it's like. 
 30:16: Just way too much work. 
 30:18: Yeah, it's like you're just gonna spend way more time, way more effort marketing. 
 30:22: It's just like just the cost of doing business now. 
 30:24: What was that process going like for like what was that process like for you the legit script? 
 30:29: So initially you had a marketing company I was working with that was quote unquote doing it for me. 
 30:33: I think we talked about that they were they said they were doing it for me, but a month later I checked in on it and they hadn't done anything for it. 
 30:40: So, this is a famous thing if you want. 
 30:43: Done right to do yourself. 
 30:45: This is a good example of that. 
 30:46: So I started looking into it myself and there's a pretty big checklist with a lot of really nitpicky details that they want to have sorted out before you apply. 
 30:55: What are those things? 
 30:56: And a lot of these things have to do with the pharmacies you're you're using, so your pharmacies you're using also have to be logistic certified. 
 31:01: It's really important. 
 31:02: Your pharmacies have to be listed on your website, the ones that you're using. 
 31:06: You have to be, there's something to do with the server. 
 31:08: It has to be. 
 31:09: , a public server that anybody can look and see who you are and who is registered to has to do with the domain and so if you have a good developer they could take care of that really easily for you. 
 31:19: You have to have all the side effects listed for each medication on each child page that you have to check out for. 
 31:25: And then there's things with the e-commerce that has to be a certain criteria e-commerce has to meet Visa and your credit cards and things that are a little more technical that kind of, the development teams helping you with. 
 31:35: So how did you figure all this out? 
 31:37: There's a check. 
 31:38: So when you're, when you're going to apply, it's one of the first things that comes up. 
 31:41: It's a big checklist that says make sure you have all these things done before you apply or there's a good chance to get rejected. 
 31:48: And so if you're like paying that much money to do it, do it right. 
 31:51: And just for me, I got a new design team for my website which is going really well. 
 31:57: They're really quick. 
 31:58: it was a holiday, so, you know, they took a little bit of time, but they've got most of it done now. 
 32:02: And then did you pay for the expedited fee? 
 32:06: I, I will. 
 32:07: I think once you apply you kind of have that option, and it's like $2500 totally worth it. 
 32:12: Yeah, I mean when you start running like you can scale that, make that revenue like very fast with the right content strategy, page strategies. 
 32:18: I think they said something like once you pay that fee, they do the initial review within 2 or 3 days versus it could be in the queue for us, right, yeah, no, I've I've literally seen people like. 
 32:29: Do the application, pay for the application and not do the expedited and they're like, it's been 3 months and we haven't heard anything. 
 32:35: I'm like that's crazy. 
 32:36: Like I would have paid the 2 and they've got a they're the only company that can certify anything for these ads for, you know, Google ads or Facebook ads, so they can kind of just do whatever they want. 
 32:45: It's crazy, yeah, so you have to kind of, you know, be aggressive with them, or else, you know, they can take their time. 
 32:51: Yeah, it's crazy what the monopoly they have on it, like the utilities companies that we have to deal with right. 
 32:58: So how do you approach like setting up your your telehealth business? 
 33:00: So you kind of went from being internal medicine, what was your, your strategy like what was your vision with it and kind of how did you execute on like going from, I'm, I'm a doctor practicing to launching like a telehealth company. 
 33:14: It was, it was luck because initially I was working in the hospital so much I didn't have a lot of time for this so it was like more of a it was an idea was a passion is something I wanted to do. 
 33:21: I was already helping a lot of my friends, friends and family is where it started from I'm like you should try this, try that, and I was helping a lot of people get, you know, really optimizing their health. 
 33:30: And so that was OK. 
 33:32: That was, I was able to do that just from, you know, being friends with with people. 
 33:35: But then working in the hospital and. 
 33:39: Having a physical location and a physical practice address that you could meet patients at and trying to juggle that together initially is probably very difficult. 
 33:47: It could maybe compromise patient care if you're trying to run back and forth between a clinic and a hospital on the same day. 
 33:52: So I thought telehealth is a good way to get, you know, people set by seeing them and you can address most of their goals. 
 33:57: You can see all their labs, you can review their charts, and then from there I realized, you know, I stopped working in the hospital recently for the most part, but. 
 34:07: I realized the hybrid model is kind of the way to go. 
 34:10: So now I have a clinic in Burbank, West Hollywood, and you know, whoever wants to come and see me, I would say it's probably 25% wanna come in and see you. 
 34:17: You always give them the option, and then which is great because you build a personal relationship when you meet somebody in person exactly, but I think since COVID happened, everyone's realizing that you can get almost everything out of a telehealth or or a Zoom call and people are busy and LA. 
 34:34: Traffic is horrible. 
 34:35: So I think most people are still opting for the platform. 
 34:40: Yeah, I'm sure that the more saturated markets like LA, New York, definitely. 
 34:46: I noticed here like in Orange County, a lot of the clients like. 
 34:49: They have the more like suburb areas have higher preference toward in clinic and they they stay a little bit longer like we're seeing anywhere from like a 6 to 12 month LTV for some of these weight loss and then for telemedicine, you know, like a 4 to 5 months. 
 35:06: OK. 
 35:06: So treatments versus more chronic treatments. 
 35:09: Well, they just seem to stay longer for for the weight loss the retention wise, they just stay longer and I would imagine it's just like that human touch, right? 
 35:16: It's like you're actually meeting with somebody, it's like. 
 35:19: Do you feel more connected to somebody that you've only met through the internet, or do you feel more connected to somebody who's actually like met in person? 
 35:25: I was like personally I like to meet them at least once, even if it's not the first, the first telehealth call can be like an intro call, getting to know each other, like getting to know kind of where their health is at, but even if it's a follow up. 
 35:35: I get to meet them, it's always nicer. 
 35:37: that the human touch is always good. 
 35:39: Yeah, yeah, definitely. 
 35:40: So with that, that jump, like what was just something you, you wish you would have known before you started going down this rabbit hole of entrepreneurship and particularly like tele telehealth. 
 35:51: Yeah, just I mean kind of. 
 35:52: How good help is hard to find it's really important who you choose to work with you. 
 35:56: I mean that's, it's a reflection of your work ethic and who you are. 
 36:00: So if you have a team that's kind of maybe a little bit slower or unresponsive or poor correspondence, I mean that's, that's a reflection on you then, right? 
 36:07: Because a lot of times. 
 36:08: You know, and this, this applies to the pharmacies I work with, to the advertising company I worked with before, as well as even my, development team, right? 
 36:16: If I have a pharmacy that's delivering something late for any reason, right, that reflects on me. 
 36:22: And so I think the most important thing early on and, and now I've gotten to the point where I trust everyone I'm working with and it's flowing, you know, seamlessly, but that took almost a year. 
 36:31: And so if you can in the beginning have a little bit better radar on who. 
 36:35: You know, has more of the values that you have and they align better and, you know, if you have a good work ethic, then you want to have somebody else with a good work ethic. 
 36:43: I think that the difficulty in medicine is that One of the hardest things about medicine is that we're held to such a high standard. 
 36:50: I mean, if we make a mistake, someone can like die they can get really bad reaction, right? 
 36:54: But I think in a lot of other industries and we have like a governing body, we have like an FDA, we have a pharmacy board, we have a medical board, we have all these people that are watching us to make sure that we're fit to practice, right? 
 37:06: But then you have like companies a lot of times that. 
 37:09: That don't have any governing bodies. 
 37:10: They don't have somebody that's, you know, watching them for, for example, say advertising company that goes to you and says, says that they're working on your logistical application when they didn't do anything, there's no like, you know, accountability. 
 37:22: And so it's hard to kind of find that, but as if that's kind of the hardest part I've had to deal with for this practice. 
 37:28: Yeah, so finding it sounds like good fits for like either partnerships with external operators or internally with with staff members just finding people that align with with your core values, which is hard work. 
 37:41: Exactly, honesty, integrity, yeah, and that that's the hardest part with scaling. 
 37:47: So with that, like, what are some of the things that you look for now that like you weren't even looking for before, like, you know, for example, with like a marketing company. 
 37:55: So I mean, for me it's if, if I, if I feel like somebody's hands on, cause I'm pretty hands on. 
 38:00: I, I have. 
 38:01: I I'm a little bit more aggressive if I, if I have an idea and I want something like to happen, I'm like, let's do this and let's make it happen, right? 
 38:06: But if I'm seeing somebody that seems kind of fake or like they're like, oh like let's do that, or they're, they're gonna promise you the world but then kind of like are starting to underdeliver. 
 38:16: I think what I may have done in the past is give that person like maybe several chances or, or let them waste maybe a couple of months. 
 38:23: Most of my time, but the problem is what you eventually realize is that those months that were wasted, you could have spent skilling, you could have spent maybe on your patience, you could spend on more patience or building more like new relationships because that time that's wasted, you can't get it back. 
 38:37: So once you start to see a decline in performance or like some sort of irregularities or inconsistencies with what you're being promised, what you're being given, it's better to just pull the plug and somebody else. 
 38:48: Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things I see in like successful entrepreneurs and like. 
 38:53: You know, you gotta keep in mind like I interview thousands of entrepreneurs a year. 
 38:57: Like we get literally like thousands of leads and I try to handle at least like a lot of that front end conversation with them because like pretty early like I can understand their business and like see what the things are and then I can tell my team like, hey, look, these are the things we need to fix. 
 39:13: And then they'll all be like specialists and like go and do those particular things, but it takes me kind of understanding one, what it takes to be a business owner, like what the business owner actually cares about. 
 39:23: Which is like making money and being profitable how they make that money. 
 39:26: And then a couple other things that like you wouldn't get from a marketing person, right? 
 39:30: You hire a social media manager, she's not thinking like a business owner, right? 
 39:33: You hire, you know, somebody to build a funnel like they're not thinking like a business person, right? 
 39:37: So that's why I think like with me it's like I come in, I really understand things from a business perspective and being a business owner and then I can like hand that off to my team. 
 39:47: But, you know, we've interviewed thousands, literally thousands of business owners and we see it. 
 39:51: It's like the ones who show up they. 
 39:53: They're willing to roll up their sleeves, they win. 
 39:55: The ones who execute fast like they win. 
 39:57: And it's like, it's one of the most frustrating things too for me is like, because I'm, I can see like what, what the issue is and I'm like, I can solve this, right? 
 40:03: And then a person's like, well, let me give this person another chance and like, let's wait, let's, you know, they're offering us a free month. 
 40:10: I'm like, you had 3 months with them and now they're offering you a free month and you think something's gonna change like that they weren't doing until you brought it to their attention. 
 40:19: You know, it's like, I can understand, obviously, mistakes happen. 
 40:21: Like there's no marketing. 
 40:23: Plan that's gonna be perfect. 
 40:24: Like, you know, we take on clients and like, just there's problems that we're not even aware of that we're like, oh crap, we gotta fix this, right? 
 40:30: But it's like, are they showing up? 
 40:32: Are they like expressing those things? 
 40:34: Are they like react, you know, proactive in those things? 
 40:37: And it's just crazy the difference between like entrepreneurs and like within 5 minutes, I can like have a conversation and know I'm like, yeah, I don't like yesterday I had a call with the guy and I was like, I just don't think this is gonna be a good fit. 
 40:48: I wish you the best of luck, but I, I'm just not choosing to take this on right now. 
 40:52: And it's like, I can see as a marketing person too, like who's gonna win and who's not and I'm not even taking on clients. 
 40:57: I'm like, I don't care what your budget is. 
 40:58: Like if I don't think you are the right person that can work with us and combining those two forces, we're gonna win, I'm like I just don't want to even like deal with that. 
 41:06: It's not worth the money anymore to me or the you have a better radar. 
 41:10: Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, better, better radar for sure. 
 41:14: I mean, that's something so many like business owners, I think should probably do is just like you should interview every marketing company, ask them, pull as much because like the markers, they know, like they know everything marketers that's that's what they do. 
 41:25: So they're gonna market themselves better than anybody else, right? 
 41:27: And they just, they see it like from let's say like you are a very successful business, maybe you're doing like 8 figures like 10 mil a year, right? 
 41:36: But you only have that limited perspective like of what's worked for you, right, a marketing agency like myself or somebody who's like consulted on hundreds of businesses now it's like I've seen that and, you know, hundreds of other use cases, so it's like so much more just like for you with like medicine, it's like. 
 41:55: You might have seen like your own internal medicine and like what worked for you, but then now like you're actually noticing this at scale, these things, these similarities, and you can like start to connect dots and like notice like trends and patterns and like, OK, this is actually what is most likely the case. 
 42:10: And so like, you know, yeah, just getting close with the marketing companies is so important and undervalued, especially when you're just getting started off. 
 42:17: It might cost you, it might eat up some of your. 
 42:19: Profits, but it also increases your likelihood of success drastically. 
 42:23: So it's like, do you want to risk like, cool, you might not profit as much up front the 1st 6 months, year, maybe 2 years, right? 
 42:30: But like you have something that works now. 
 42:33: And now you can duplicate this and scale it on your own. 
 42:36: And the, the business owners that get that, they, they're willing to work with us and invest and then they just, you know, they're like, hey, we're gonna bring this in-house like. 
 42:43: And we'll help them either develop the systems, help them hire the team, we'll help them in that transition, but now they're like, hey, we're gonna do this more profitably, but like you guys were instrumental to like help us build out those internal systems. 
 42:55: Yeah, it's crazy just like the level of entrepreneur like at scale that I. 
 42:59: Like, I can tell though because I mean even when we talked initially, like, you know, it was like an initial call we weren't working together or anything but you immediately diagnosed logistics issue you kind of followed up on it. 
 43:09: You had the, you know, the foresight to understand what was going on and, and you're right and and now and now I have a solution to it, so. 
 43:16: I mean someone that has like, you know, can make a plan or can make a diagnosis, can make a plan, can execute it can follow up. 
 43:23: Is that kind of what everybody wants? 
 43:24: I mean, that's, that's what people want from a physicians but like that's also what people want from anybody, right? 
 43:29: So as opposed to the original company I worked with, where all they wanted to do was make sure I sign up and make sure I, you know. 
 43:36: They kind of were obviously you want me to sign up. 
 43:38: I was saying I was saying is that they were focusing on just like bringing on the price to the point where, you know, enticing you and saying today is the last day for the offer, yeah, no matter what red flag, you're like red flag like like like oh the price has dropped 1/3 of the the last like 2 minutes, but and if you, if you walk now we're not gonna be able to offer this to you again, but you have to wire us some money now and then ghost me and it's like, you know, you can kind of. 
 44:03: Sense that if you're if you're smart about it and that's what I'm gonna do, yeah, yeah, no, I have, I've hired lots of closers and I'm like they're always like, can I like get, can I like cause like they make money like on the front end, right? 
 44:15: And then it's like, well, we have to retain them on the back end. 
 44:18: So they're like, well, can I get them to pay more upfront? 
 44:21: I'm like, no, like because I don't like it's not about you making more money, it's about them like staying with us and the more we charge. 
 44:27: Them upfront, the more demand they're gonna have like, I want them to stay with us and get results, right? 
 44:32: And also it's like if we're charging them 3 times the price up front just so you can get a bigger paycheck, like they're gonna have to put 3 times the amount of money into ads and like most businesses just can't afford that. 
 44:44: It's like you're asking them for like $45,000 of like upfront in month one. 
 44:48: It's like some businesses can afford that. 
 44:50: We have clients that can, but. 
 44:53: A lot of businesses like they need that spread out over the course of the next like 3 to 6 months, and that's going to be their lifeline, right? 
 45:00: So it just doesn't make sense. 
 45:02: That's why I like to, like, I really like I, I went through a phase where I didn't see some of the clients like that we brought on and we just had like front end strategists, hey, do they check these boxes? 
 45:12: And now I'm just like, no, like I want to meet every client, so. 
 45:15: Even if I don't like close them or like somebody else does, it's like we, my team schedules a call with me, like an audit. 
 45:21: And now I get to audit their business. 
 45:22: And it's like, if I don't think that, I'm just like, hey, like, I just don't think we're gonna get you like we're the right, it could be like a fit like culturally or it's like, we might not be the right person for you. 
 45:32: I'm just gonna refund your money and like, we'll just go separate ways because it's just not even worth the headache and just like. 
 45:38: You know, caring about like a couple 1000 bucks, it's like really just not worth it. 
 45:41: My peace of mind is just too, too valuable now for sure, that's cool. 
 45:45: So how did you handle like state statewide compliance? 
 45:48: I know you're based here in California, that's a big issue in the telehealth space. 
 45:52: So we live in the most regulated and governed state by far in the US when it comes to. 
 45:59: Especially the pharmacies, so the, yeah, yeah, right. 
 46:02: Well, literally, so I mean getting, I was, I was just telling you earlier but I was at this, this conference in Las Vegas, last month, the A4M conference, and they had this huge convention hall with, you know, almost 100 pharmacies in there. 
 46:14: A4M, what was that for for those that don't know. 
 46:16: So it stands for American Academy and Anti-Aging Medicine and so it's a lot of, you know, I don't know if you know Dave Asprey and, a lot of really good great speakers were there. 
 46:26: So basically. 
 46:28: You know, out of the 100 pharmacies that they had that set up, you know, booths to try to get business, only 2 of them were currently delivering sterile injectable medications in California. 
 46:38: So it's a huge barrier. 
 46:39: So you can imagine, you know, one of the best things you could do for your patients is having a lot of options, right? 
 46:45: So the more options you have. 
 46:46: , the better you can make sure, you know, ensure timely delivery, you can ensure that the quality of the product is, is absolutely the highest, but California sometimes makes it difficult because there's so many rules for these pharmacies to not be able to ship into California. 
 47:01: luckily, you know, going this this took probably like, not probably, this took like several months to get to the point where I'm comfortable with enough pharmacies, you know, to get the medications in California to get the medications to my patients. 
 47:15: But that was like by far the hardest part. 
 47:17: The good news is when I'm, you know, getting ready to go to other states, I got an Arizona license currently pending and we're gonna scale from there, Whatever we're doing in California is it should definitely correspond with compliance in other states because it's the highest regulated, right? 
 47:35: I think there's only one state that doesn't allow California to ship to them. 
 47:39: Oh really? 
 47:40: I think it, yeah, yeah, there's like Wyoming, it's a red, I'm like, wait, what? 
 47:44: Like the opposite of everyone else. 
 47:46: Like somebody told me that I was like, no, no, I think you got it backwards. 
 47:48: They're like, no, no, we don't want. 
 47:50: I'm like, wait, what? 
 47:51: You can't if you're in California, you can't ship there. 
 47:53: They're like, yeah. 
 47:54: Yeah, it's like one random state, but yeah, normally it's like California is the one state most of these businesses like don't have. 
 48:01: New York I know is pretty regulated. 
 48:03: New Jersey, another highly regulated one, but those are like the three states that generally are like pretty hard to get to take patients in. 
 48:11: But it's still just a massive market, right? 
 48:13: Even if like you're limited to to some other, you know, let's say you can't do California, New York or New Jersey, it's like, well, there's 47 other states you can ship to that are. 
 48:22: Huge. 
 48:22: And if you figure it out here, you're pretty much good. 
 48:25: I mean it would be easier in other states. 
 48:28: So where can you direct like somebody who wants to get started in telehealth space like to find the pharmacies or partners or like to go through that process did you call around. 
 48:37: You gotta call every pharmacy in your in your neighborhood, in your area, start from there, make the radius bigger. 
 48:43: And what are they asking for? 
 48:44: Are you 50, 50 or 50 if it's 50, they can ship your clin. 
 48:50: If it's 503A, they can go straight to the patient. 
 48:52: Either one's either one's fine. 
 48:54: It kind of depends on patient preference too. 
 48:56: patient would rather come to the clinic and pick it up from you, that could be 503A or B. 
 49:01: the 503A can go to the patient directly, and 503B means that they're actually FDA cleared or FDA cleared, correct? 
 49:07: And that also means that then they can go straight to the clinic and they don't have to be under a specific prescription for a patient. 
 49:13: So now the clinic is responsible for then dispensing the medication. 
 49:17: So we, you know, we obviously partner with both, but. 
 49:19: Yeah, the way, the way to do it is you, you really have to kind of call around and talk to hundreds of pharmacies. 
 49:24: It, it takes a long time. 
 49:25: You build this long spreadsheet out and most of the spreadsheets are like X, no, no. 
 49:31: Either they can't do it or there's something you don't like about it, right? 
 49:34: They might have, the delivery time might be too long, you know, you don't want an unhappy customer or patient if they're getting their medication like later than a week. 
 49:42: For me, that's, that's already too long, right? 
 49:44: So you really narrow it down to. 
 49:47: , pharmacies that you really wanna work with, and then there's the quality of the product, right? 
 49:50: I mean, if you have, for me it's a, it's a two strike system. 
 49:53: If anybody has a problem with the medication or something happens with it, you know. 
 49:58: It's done. 
 49:59: I'm not gonna use that pharmacy anymore, right? 
 50:00: And how do you check that? 
 50:01: Do they have like public reviews or so there's, there's, there's gonna be, I'm talking more about like my patients. 
 50:08: If my patient uses a medication and they have any issue with like, OK, so after you've selected the last time I got it, it was, it worked a little stronger. 
 50:15: It doesn't seem as strong as I'm like, you know, to me like that's enough to not use them anymore because there's enough options to not have to deal with that, yeah, yeah. 
 50:23: Yeah, it's crazy. 
 50:23: A lot of, you know, like I said, I started off in the cannabis industry, same thing, a lot of manufacturers just like cut products, dilute them and it's like, what the heck, like, why? 
 50:33: Yeah, it's like this is a drug people are coming back for this if you're gonna cut it now it's not the same and you're gonna have, yeah. 
 50:39: So then to get started, you have the biggest challenge is finding the pharmacies. 
 50:43: Finding the pharmacies and then building, building out your e-commerce because you have to make sure that, you know, if somebody has a subscription with you, they need to be able to go into their portal, review the subscriptions, change it, cancel it, put it on hold. 
 50:56: If you don't have a way that they can, they can do that that will functions properly, then it's not gonna work. 
 51:01: The whole thing is gonna break, and then communication. 
 51:04: So you have to make sure you can. 
 51:07: Be able to safely and effectively communicate with your patients whether that's email or so I use high level HIPAA compliant, yeah, so you can use that for your telehealth, you can use it for your emails, you can make, you know, email, you know, newsletters, you can have different, you know, coupon codes and deals for. 
 51:23: , different holidays and things like that, so I use that for almost everything, but you need to be able to actually do your telehealth consults in a HIPAA compliant manner for it to be, OK with California's laws, right? 
 51:35: Otherwise if you do, if you use like Facebook, you can't do that because it's not allowed. 
 51:39: It has to be through HIPAA compliance. 
 51:41: Yeah, that's the, that's the hardest thing, and I know like there's challenges with the e-commerce stores, like how they can be HIPAA compliant. 
 51:50: I've heard mixed reviews. 
 51:51: I've heard some people say they can make Shopify HIPAA compliant depending on like how they set it up, but I've also heard some businesses say like no, they can't. 
 51:58: That's not our specialty. 
 51:59: Like ours is obviously just getting patients, but,, HIPA does ask you about all that, right? 
 52:05: Yeah, they're gonna, you know, you know, if you're using high level, you have to indicate that using high level they want your number for high level and they're gonna do their back. 
 52:14: Research to make sure you're doing it properly. 
 52:17: So here's a hack to get all the pharmacies that you need is I would just literally like hire a $5 per hour VA and just have them like manually pull a list, create all the numbers, and then they can just like rip the phones and ask all the questions that you need to ask them. 
 52:30: And then they can just do that like on background autopilot, they could probably in a week scrape every pharmacy that would be exactly. 
 52:37: Needed and it costs you literally like $200 to like have a VA do that. 
 52:44: So I would yeah I know literally like you're just gonna go on online jobs hire the $5 per hour Filipino VA. 
 52:51: They're like super good workers they show up, they work hard, give them, hey, I need you to pull a list of every pharmacy. 
 52:58: I need every phone number. 
 52:59: I need to know this, what's the question? 
 53:02: Like what injectable, sterile medications can be shipped into California. 
 53:06: That's right. 
 53:07: That's it. 
 53:07: And that's the biggest barrier. 
 53:09: OK. 
 53:09: And then what if none of the other states because if they can ship to California, then they can ship pretty much everywhere else. 
 53:14: Yeah, so you can use those. 
 53:15: Yeah, so then you build up, you know, you build out pricing, you build out kind of delivery time. 
 53:20: So some will say like, you know, 14 business days, that's that's not gonna, right? 
 53:25: So you narrow it down to who can deliver it fast, who's priced reasonably, and who can actually get it into California. 
 53:31: So you do like 5 or, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's pretty much that's something, yeah, I see so many people like there's different dosing options like you know some people only do 2 mg or 10 mg or 5 mg indicate all that yeah. 
 53:45: Yeah, that's a big thing like I, I noticed a lot of entrepreneurs not necessarily doing this like leveraging like VAs or assistants or just other people, right? 
 53:53: One of my first business coaches, he's like, I need you to write down everything that you do in a week, like everything. 
 53:58: If you wash your clothes, if you shower, if you eat, if you cook, like everything you need to that you do in a week, write it down, write down how much time you spend doing that activity. 
 54:09: And then I need you to audit those and you need to offload everything that you can offload. 
 54:13: You write a price tag next to it, how much is it worth to you, right? 
 54:16: You know, some tasks are only $25 an hour task, some tasks are 100 hour, you know, some are very high level. 
 54:21: For me it's like the strategy is like the highest level thing that I can do is like I can look at a business, I can analyze their social media, I can analyze their website, I can analyze a lot and be like, OK, we need to fix these landing pages. 
 54:32: They actually have really good content. 
 54:34: So instead of putting the budget to content, we're actually put more budget to split testing more landing pages and like I can really optim like look at a high level and see like what are the main things that need to get done. 
 54:44: Very few people can do that, right? 
 54:46: Like really look at a business holistically and see like what the biggest bottlenecks are. 
 54:50: so that's why I like to now be like, do all that front end stuff. 
 54:53: But, you know, when it comes to like building a landing page, I don't need to do that. 
 54:55: I actually don't do any of the work. 
 54:57: It's like I just have a team that does all of it. 
 54:59: But like, yeah, that would like, as you're getting started in business, like you have to really get clear on your time and it's like, maybe you want to make $250 an hour, maybe you want to work $500 an hour, whatever that number is that you want to make, like you need to know what that is. 
 55:11: Maybe you can reverse engineer exactly how much you want to make in a month. 
 55:14: So if it's like, you know, I wanna make 100K a month, we'll reverse engineer that. 
 55:18: There's 160 working hours roughly in a month. 
 55:21: So what is that hourly rate? 
 55:22: That's how you're gonna calculate that. 
 55:24: And then you need to ask yourself like, is this activity that I'm doing worth that rate, right? 
 55:28: So if you're like calling up pharmacies, like you could literally have somebody for $5 an hour do that you go high level, they can use, they don't even have to be. 
 55:35: In the country, they can rip the phones like through another country from a VoIP number and give you all the answers and then find 10 pharmacies that fit your criteria and you were able to build an entire landing page or website or something else that you only you can do, right? 
 55:50: And so that's like just so important for business owners to do is like really audit their time and like see what's, what's worth it, what they can offload. 
 55:57: Have you read the book Buy Back Your Time? 
 55:59: I've not. 
 55:59: That's a great book by Dan Martelly, yeah, that like literally changes how you look at time. 
 56:04: I think the biggest takeaway I got from that was like a job done 80% by somebody else is 100% awesome. 
 56:11: Essentially it's like how can I get somebody to get 80% of this done? 
 56:14: I only need to sign off on the, you know, finishing 10%. 
 56:16: Maybe I start off the project, do the 1st 10%, say, hey, here's my vision with this, go do this, bring it to me when you've like pretty much completed it and then they'll bring it to you and like, I'm done. 
 56:28: And then now you just come through it, finalize and be like, yeah, this is good. 
 56:31: And it's like now you essentially bought back so much of your time by just offloading the right tasks to other people. 
 56:37: Makes sense. 
 56:37: I love it. 
 56:38: Yeah, I think in the health care system setting like in a hospital setting, you have like you have your nurses, you have your, your PTs, your OTs. 
 56:44: You have like discharge planners. 
 56:45: Everyone has like delegated task, but then when you start your own business, it's like you're kind of you and so you kind of what you're saying, which makes a lot of now it's crazy how AI is able to do a lot of this kind of stuff, but, you know, looking and seeing what what's more valuable, delegating your own time is is super important definitely yeah, AI is gonna. 
 57:04: Man, already changing so much. 
 57:06: I'm just like, it's, it's insane what like I'm building an AI like master class right now and it's just like it's crazy like for content creators just like what they can do, like how much time they had to just spend like looking at content creating content and now like we have AI that can just like. 
 57:22: Do like 90% of the work. 
 57:23: All you need to do is like pull out your camera and just film and it's like, yeah, it's, it's wild. 
 57:29: So with to to wrap things up around like just the overall operations of like the telehealth business like what tech stack are you using, you know, what, what plug-ins, kind of walk us through like everything like apps. 
 57:39: I know you said go high level, but what else are you using other things? 
 57:42: So the website WordPress, so WordPress, then I use WooCommerce for my e-commerce, OK, there's a couple. 
 57:49: Plugins like the trust index and the Google reviews and kind of some things that to make it pop and then is that kind of kind of what the yeah, yeah, exactly anything to integrate the pharmacies and I was gonna, yeah, so pharmacy wise, Life file, so LifeFile is gonna be your prescribing mecca. 
 58:07: You just basically just go there. 
 58:09: And you can log into each different pharmacy that you're using, saves all your patient profiles. 
 58:14: It saves the last couple of medications. 
 58:16: You can set up refills through it too, and they'll make sure that it gets fulfilled on time. 
 58:19: So I love the LifeFilele app, and then, Practice Ally is the EMR I use, which I can do separately controlled substances through if I need to, testosterone is a controlled substance, I usually use that for that. 
 58:31: , so basically everything's electronic now. 
 58:33: You, you know, you don't, you're not sending people written prescriptions anymore or triplicates, and those days are you can still do that, but, Lifeile and practice that and all these EMRs now have a really, really integrated e-prescribing option now kind of use that for, for that. 
 58:47: So it's a couple. 
 58:48: I, I try to make it as not as many like not having too many different systems at the same time. 
 58:52: So I like I'll practice that I uses, an EMR mixed with the e-scribing option, but then life files kind of. 
 59:00: More for the pharmacies I'm I'm partnering with for everything else and that's so when you get a new pharmacy partner, you input their information in there and then is that where the the patient goes to only pick pharmacies that have life, so they have to have it just because it's, it's the best way to make sure that people are getting their refills for me. 
 59:16: I mean, I, I know that if that, I know the system so well now that it saves your medications and it sets refills. 
 59:23: I know everyone get their medications on time, And it and it's just like such a good system that's like the MIS system pretty much for the pharmacy refills, I think so, yeah, and, and enough pharmacies have it now like I'd say I don't know, somewhere between 70-80% of pharmacists have it to the point there's no reason to use someone that doesn't, right? 
 59:40: OK, yeah, OK, yeah, so that's big then in that criteria for your VA make sure they make sure yeah for sure. 
 59:50: So I know we kind of discussed like some of the marketing issues, finding a good partner. 
 59:55: What is the like strategy that you you're kind of taking for marketing or you know what, what was your like maybe like actually let's go back before that. 
 1:00:04: What did you think of marketing and like what was your understanding of marketing like when you started and like now how do you look at marketing now that you have like a year under your belt and kind of been through some sounds like some pretty painstaking marketing partners. 
 1:00:18: a little bit more careful with, you know, what route I go and always do my due diligence before I sign up with anybody and that that's not even the marketing that has to do with the, the development website, and anyone else I'm working, I'm working with the SCO agency to which I really carefully, you know, made sure that they're a good, good company for me. 
 1:00:37: But so for the marketing standpoint, I think I had like everyone has their idea in their head of what it's gonna be like and then there's like the reality Instagram versus reality we say. 
 1:00:45: And so I think the ads that I was seeing from some competitors and competitors, some some other companies that are doing really cool ads or this really, you know, unique or interesting content that really catches your eye and and makes you click on it, right? 
 1:01:00: And so something that's gonna. 
 1:01:01: Be different or unique, right? 
 1:01:03: And so what I was seeing from the company that I chose was very generic, almost like lo fi, like even not even high resolution images where I was just like who would, yeah, who would like, I wouldn't click on that, right? 
 1:01:17: And I think going through one thing you, you know, mentioned is we spend like. 
 1:01:21: 2 hours a day going through our feed on average 2 hours and 20 minutes a day scrolling. 
 1:01:27: And so Instagram knows me well, so they're giving me all my men's health, you know, competitors in there. 
 1:01:32: They're giving me all my functional health stuff or and so I'm looking at how creative people are with their content in terms of, you know, kind of like what we're doing right now, but even more, you know, different options and different things. 
 1:01:42: People are doing that. 
 1:01:43: I, I was thinking more along the lines of something more creative like someone that's willing, willing to work with me and say, you know what, here's the strengths that you have. 
 1:01:51: Let's optimize these, let's enhance them into something that would catch somebody's eye and and you know, bring you in a new patient. 
 1:01:58: Yeah, content is so important. 
 1:02:00: I don't think people like understand it. 
 1:02:02: Actually one of my friends, And then he does some consulting on, on some of our like bigger like spending clients, but he manages about $2 million a month in ad spend. 
 1:02:14: And previously you needed this this media buyer, right, who would like do all these different split tests like they were pretty much a statistician like looking at all these different stats and like segmenting things, creating different audiences. 
 1:02:26: And that's like that was a very valuable skill. 
 1:02:29: Now media buyers I think are gonna be replaced within the next like 12 to like 24 months, because the AI on these platforms have gotten so advanced and where does it come from? 
 1:02:40: Well, it's coming from. 
 1:02:42: The privacy, right? 
 1:02:43: iOS 14.5, that was a big update like that fucked up marketing, right? 
 1:02:48: People were like now all this off platform content or off platform analytics that we got, we're no longer getting that, right? 
 1:02:55: So marketers immediately like overnight lost tons of data that they were getting like it it and. 
 1:03:00: Most of these marketers, they were also still optimizing for these old ad campaigns, right, these old strategies and now like I got lucky, I think, because I came into like the whole like online digital marketing space like around like 2021, like I was very passionate about marketing the whole time like years before that with my like offline businesses, you know, in the cannabis space. 
 1:03:21: So I always studied marketing, persuasion, psychology, and so and now we're just like learning how to like integrate it online. 
 1:03:28: But coming in after all this stuff, it was like I never understood like the old way of doing it. 
 1:03:34: So I was I think able to learn the right way of doing it from the start, which is a content first approach, right? 
 1:03:41: These platforms like with my friend who spends $2 million a month on one single business, he doesn't even segment anything based off of like audiences. 
 1:03:50: Like there's no, he's not like most people like, oh well, I want to target earners or like all these things, right? 
 1:03:54: And they think like that's what's gonna get them. 
 1:03:55: , it's just like telling Facebook like I want people that make over 100K and all this thing, and Facebook's actually eliminating all these targeting things like, so Facebook's slowly starting to eliminate all targeting completely because, I'm not entirely sure. 
 1:04:08: I think they've had a lot of like lawsuits of like targeting, you know, overweight people or poor people or all these different things so they're actually a. 
 1:04:17: Eliminating all the targeting. 
 1:04:18: So how do you get in front of the right audience? 
 1:04:20: Well, your content, right? 
 1:04:21: So my friend who's spending $2 million a year on, actually it's a direct competitor with this company. 
 1:04:26: I won't mention it, but, he, he's spending $2 million a month on, on, on ads for the direct competitor like this shirt company and they segment all their campaigns based off of. 
 1:04:39: The the color of the shirt, right? 
 1:04:41: You're wearing a black shirt, so it's like they're like, well, he, he likes black shirts. 
 1:04:45: So I'm gonna show him more black shirts in the ads, right? 
 1:04:47: And people who buy white shirts, they're more likely to see white shirts in their ads because that's exactly how the AI looks at it. 
 1:04:54: It's like, hey, I've noticed all these, you know, they have 52,000 points of preference on each user on average, right? 
 1:05:01: You're a high consumer, I'm a high consumer of content so it's gonna be probably even more for people like us, but the average consumer, they have 52,000 points. 
 1:05:08: Preference. 
 1:05:08: So they're noticing like what color shirts are you buying? 
 1:05:10: what content are you consuming? 
 1:05:12: So for you, you're all about men's health, right? 
 1:05:14: Or, you know, your consumer, they might find out they have like an IBS issue or a leaky gut and now they're starting to scroll through all this content. 
 1:05:20: They're seeing that you think they're gonna stop on some random looking like static ad that looks ghetto that anybody can pull up and like create themselves on cambo from like a free app. 
 1:05:29: No, it's like they're gonna see something like what you and I are creating right now, which is like educational content, scroll stopping content. 
 1:05:37: And that's the push, that's where like content, now the right content will win, and we've seen it like countless times and we have single videos that have literally generated like $5 million in revenue like have signed up thousands of patients from one single video and now and when you look at it like that, it's like, oh, OK, like I know the game, I need to invest heavily in content. 
 1:05:59: And then also the, the right marketing systems, automations like those are very important, but like the content is like is what you need. 
 1:06:06: It's a content first approach and it's because all these privacy policies, right? 
 1:06:10: iOS 14.5, Google's completely eliminating cookies this year. 
 1:06:14: So like as marketers we have less and less data off platforms so you 100% need to be investing in in in content if I was like a business owner. 
 1:06:23: Just like you, I'd be hopping on every podcast, every getting on as much camera time as possible, just talking about who I am, what I do, how I help, and trying to like make it engaging, you know, not just like, I'm, I'm Doctor Hod like, you know, I'm like it's like we're like having a conversation, we're talking about stuff people wanna know, it's fun, it's entertaining, it's engaging. 
 1:06:43: That's the type of content you want to be creating and the people that do that. 
 1:06:47: They're gonna win and they're gonna win the most and you know, you pair that with somebody like myself, like a growth strategist, like now we can really scale a business because we have what we need to really like help you scale your business and do numbers and that's like what we've seen consistently among all of our 78 figure businesses is, is like they get to a point where they can't grow anymore and they're just missing the right content and we plug that content strategy and for them we'll help them develop it. 
 1:07:14: Anything that Anything about marketing that you like could share to somebody or is that pretty much everything just like that's kind of it yeah just be you know really do do your due diligence, take your time. 
 1:07:25: I think one thing you mentioned is like interview a lot of different, you know, marketing companies, just so that you have an idea of what different, you know, options are and what what people are offering, and what their styles are and then, you know. 
 1:07:37: Go with somebody that has the same vision as you, right? 
 1:07:40: So if you look at a marketing company, see what their ads look like, what are they producing and, and is it something that you, you know, is in line with your vision or is it not? 
 1:07:50: And if it's not, then you know try to find somebody that's creating content or creating ads that that are like are something that you envision your ads looking like, yeah. 
 1:07:59: Yeah, the messaging is very important too, and that that's what like the AI is analyzing too is like your messaging, right? 
 1:08:04: And the content, it's watching your content that you're putting out as an ad. 
 1:08:08: So as an advertiser, like that piece of content you put out, it's looking at that. 
 1:08:12: It's looking at the copy that's in the ad. 
 1:08:14: It's looking at the headline. 
 1:08:16: It's also analyzing your entire landing page, all your website's crawling all of that. 
 1:08:21: Based off of that it didn't determine your costs, right? 
 1:08:25: So some people like you'll see, I mean, I can like diagnose like a business. 
 1:08:28: I'll look at their CPMs and I'll come in on like. 
 1:08:31: You guys are paying this much like your CPMs are outrageous. 
 1:08:33: Well, what does that tell me as somebody who understands what the numbers mean? 
 1:08:36: They're messaging is off, right? 
 1:08:37: Their contents off, their landing pages off, right? 
 1:08:40: And when you're doing all this like heavy coupon style like sign up, opt now, like discount, it's like cool, you can get a lot of opt-ins, but like getting conversions, you're not targeting the right people, you're getting these Groupon style shoppers and your messaging is so bad that Facebook actually says we don't want you, but they don't have a big enough business to call up. 
 1:08:58: Every business and say stop doing what you're doing. 
 1:09:01: So they just punish you. 
 1:09:02: They just increase your costs of CPMs, right? 
 1:09:05: So you look like your CPMs are through the roof. 
 1:09:07: We took a client like literally in 3 days of launching the campaign, we just refreshed the creatives. 
 1:09:12: We didn't even launch any of our creatives because it takes about 2 to 4 weeks for us to come up with like some new creatives. 
 1:09:17: We took their existing stuff, we made it better, so better text overlays, better editing, like faster cuts and improve the copy. 
 1:09:27: Took their appointment costs and and just improve the the audience like so nothing new, like literally just working with what the same team, their same marketing strategist had took them from an $80 to a $14 appointment cost. 
 1:09:40: Like we actually have some appointments that are coming in at like $8 just because Facebook's like, this is good. 
 1:09:46: This aligns, we're gonna reward you and this stuff sucks so we're gonna punish you and we're gonna raise your prices, right? 
 1:09:53: And it's like because they can't call every business and say, hey, you're, you're messing up like because to them they're also compliance, right? 
 1:09:59: They're, they don't wanna get sued. 
 1:10:00: So if you're making these bold claims, if you're saying stuff that's not compliant, especially in weight loss prescriptions, like it's through the roof, right? 
 1:10:07: So you absolutely need to have somebody who understands and is doing the right messaging, saying the right things. 
 1:10:13: On your landing pages, on your funnels, on your content, on all of it, and Facebook, well, hey, go figure they're gonna reward you when you do things that they actually want, which is create a better user experience. 
 1:10:24: You're increasing their likelihood of getting sued, they're gonna punish you as an advertiser. 
 1:10:29: So yeah, it's crazy how all this stuff works. 
 1:10:31: And most people don't know. 
 1:10:32: I didn't know, you know, I was just doing a lot of this myself too and then we got, we became a Facebook partner this last year. 
 1:10:38: I also invest heavily into like. 
 1:10:41: Just like some of the the highest level like digital marketing groups there are just because I know I'm like this is valuable. 
 1:10:47: I wanna be the best. 
 1:10:47: I'm hyper competitive too like you said it's like a culture fit. 
 1:10:51: You wanna make sure you find people that like wanna win and dominate and that's like how I, I am like I'm an ex-college wrestler so it's like the only thing I see is like winning like losing is not an option and like that's where like the client side like to attract or like do you wanna dominate? 
 1:11:04: I'm like, yeah, we can help you then. 
 1:11:06: So what made you obviously like this is like kind of a big market weight loss. 
 1:11:12: Telehealth, what made you focus just on like men's health. 
 1:11:15: So men's health in general I think is, is under kind of a certain, so if you're looking at How many med spas there are if you, if you just search medspa, you'll see there's like probably 20 medpas. 
 1:11:29: There's one on every corner, and medspas generally tailored to women, right? 
 1:11:32: And so generally women go there, they get their Botox, they get their filler, they get their mostly cosmetic stuff and so they're mainly focusing on anti-aging for women, right? 
 1:11:41: And so there's so many, so many med spas, but there's not many men's spas, right? 
 1:11:45: There's not many places where a man can go and focus on his aging, right? 
 1:11:50: There's some TRT clinics now and there's, it's, it's kind of gaining some traction. 
 1:11:53: I think the men's health domain is as functional medicine is gaining traction. 
 1:11:57: I think men's health is as well, but I think it's very like under underserved. 
 1:12:02: So there's a huge void there that I'm trying to fill. 
 1:12:05: And especially in LA, I mean, I, I think in Burbank, I'm the only men's health clinic and in LA there's like not too many either so just filling that void in that in that, you know, areas service area. 
 1:12:17: Love it. 
 1:12:18: What advice would you give to doctors who are currently working, you know, for maybe a hospital like yourself and wanting to start their own clinic, whether it's in person or tele telehealth. 
 1:12:28: Yeah, just keep gaining from the experience. 
 1:12:30: I mean, medicine, if you think about. 
 1:12:32: You know, practicing medicine, we call it practicing medicine because nobody's ever perfect at it, right? 
 1:12:37: We're always getting better. 
 1:12:38: I didn't start my business right away. 
 1:12:40: I started after 10 years of practicing medicine, right? 
 1:12:43: So over those 10 years, you know, you, you build a style, you the word doctor means teacher, right? 
 1:12:48: So you're, I was teaching residents a lot. 
 1:12:50: Obviously teaching my patients, you learn a style of teaching your patients that kind of aligns with, you know, what they're looking for and and your ability to make sure that they follow your treatment protocol because if you're not teaching someone something, properly then they're probably not gonna take your medications they're not gonna listen to your advice, right? 
 1:13:06: So there's no point. 
 1:13:07: So developing those styles, those those traits, Take time, right? 
 1:13:12: And so as you practice medicine, you become a better practitioner. 
 1:13:15: Always, you know, learn, learn as much as you can, keep yourself up to speed on the studies, all the new research, make sure you're adding that to your repertoire, and then. 
 1:13:25: When you feel like you're ready, when you feel like you're confident enough and you've, you know, you've developed your bedside manner and your, your medical swagger or whatever you wanna call it, and you're ready to start your own practice and you're ready to start seeing patients on your own, then just do it. 
 1:13:36: You, you just have to do it because you can think about it, you can plan it, you can say, oh, next year, you know, such and such time, I'm gonna start doing this. 
 1:13:44: you'll know when you're ready, and it's generally when. 
 1:13:46: Your patients are asking you and so many patients that like last couple of years have been asking me at the hospital, when are you start your own practice? 
 1:13:53: I wanna, I wanna see you in a clinic or I don't like, can I see you in a clinic? 
 1:13:56: And I'm like, no, I'm only here and it's like if that starts to happen in almost every conversation, you're probably doing something right and it might be time for you to do your own practice, so. 
 1:14:08: Build the skills, develop yourself, and then, execute with speed. 
 1:14:13: Yeah, just do it when you're ready. 
 1:14:14: Yeah. 
 1:14:15: With Zeus, what's the main concerns patients are coming to you for? 
 1:14:19: So I'll say kind of a testosterone concern. 
 1:14:21: I mean, I think people have enough education now about testosterone and how it works that I think men when they hit their 30s or 40s, have an idea of, you know, maybe my testosterone levels going down, so they'll say, hey, doc, I think, you know, I have low energy, my libido is down, I don't feel good, for the past couple of years. 
 1:14:38: I think my testosterone might have taken a hit. 
 1:14:41: can we check that? 
 1:14:41: Can we treat it and Or they've already checked their testosterone and they already know it's low. 
 1:14:46: So I'd say that's like the biggest reason they see me is for testosterone concerns, and then we talk about all the things we can do for that, and then second biggest would be. 
 1:14:55: , somebody who's really, especially in LA, LA, we have so much access to, you know, just health, health options. 
 1:15:01: It's easy to be healthy, easier to be healthy in LA, aside from the pollution, we'll get me started on that. 
 1:15:05: But like, generally diet wise we have a lot of options, right? 
 1:15:09: And so people, the second type of patient would be somebody who's already really healthy, maybe, you know, even more fit than I am, and just looking for like a little bit of an edge or a little boost, right, in the gym or, you know, just in general and their mental clarity, or overall energy. 
 1:15:25: That's where maybe NAD and peptides become more of an option for someone who's already kind of optimized or looking for a little bit extra boost. 
 1:15:33: Yeah. 
 1:15:33: What typically holds men back from taking that step in preventative medicine? 
 1:15:38: I think testosterone at some point in the 90s started to get a lot of stigma about it, concerns with cardiovascular risk and concerns about testicular cancer. 
 1:15:49: But if you look at like recent studies have kind of totally debunked that basically saying that you know when testosterone or anabolic steroids for that matter are abused, you know, if you're going to a level that's not safe or you're getting prescribed, this is why it's important to get prescribed by a physician, not taking your friend's supply at the gym in the locker room or different things that people do. 
 1:16:09: When it's done unsafely, that's when you can have those those adverse effects, but if it's done in a tightly regulated, controlled manner, where you're looking for side effects and you're watching someone's blood and hemoglobin and their levels, it can be very safe. 
 1:16:23: So I think most people are, when they're hesitant, it's because of that stigma that That it carries with it, you know, they're, they're afraid of the possibilities of negative outcomes. 
 1:16:33: Yeah, negative outcomes and more so it, it, I think it had that stigma around it where it was being abused by a lot of, you know, weightlifters and And that that type of, you know, vibe that it was getting so I think people had put it into a negative category like oh you're on TRT or it's something that, you know, people categorize it the same as like steroids exactly and and it's, and it's totally different. 
 1:16:55: What is the difference between TRT and steroids? 
 1:16:57: So testosterone is a. 
 1:16:58: Right, so that's, that's one thing is, is that it is technically an anabolic steroid, right? 
 1:17:03: But it's something that our body normally creates, but there's other steroids, right? 
 1:17:06: So estrogen is a steroid, progesterone is a steroid. 
 1:17:08: Those are steroids that women have that we don't want to have as much of. 
 1:17:12: We do need a certain healthy level of estrogen and progesterone to function properly, but we don't want that to go too high. 
 1:17:18: Anabolic steroids would be, you know, something your friend got from Tijuana. 
 1:17:23: That you're gonna try in the locker room with your buddies and it's gonna give you this, you know, rush of energy and be extremely unsafe, right? 
 1:17:31: And so there's a safe way to do something and that's, so the word steroids then gets that stigma. 
 1:17:38: You're you're like, what's the difference between testosterone and steroids? 
 1:17:40: Well, they're both technically steroids, but one is just done properly like TRT is a way that you can do it safely. 
 1:17:46: And one would be, you know, taking anabolic steroids from an unknown source from the black market online or through, you know, a friend that you haven't been evaluated for it. 
 1:17:54: A lot of young people are doing that and that's where they get in trouble where they become dependent on it or the balls shrink permanently or they lose their fertility, right? 
 1:18:01: And so it gets that stigma because of those things. 
 1:18:04: So your body naturally produces testosterone. 
 1:18:07: How, how I guess how is it considered like a steroid or how is, how is that for some of these steroids like our body doesn't naturally produce those things. 
 1:18:14: Yeah, so I mean, great question. 
 1:18:15: So, you know, the problem with testosterone is that our testosterone levels decline roughly at the age of 30 to 40 and it declines every year, OK. 
 1:18:23: And so if you look at the reference range for testosterone, that the labs indicate that normal is anywhere from 2 200 to 1100. 
 1:18:32: So I guarantee you somebody at 200 will feel probably very different than somebody at 1100, right? 
 1:18:38: there's a couple of reasons why they do this with the reference range. 
 1:18:40: One is because it is one of the problems with our health care system is insurance companies are cheap and they don't wanna cover testosterone because they know it, it requires a lot of frequent, visits to the doctor to prescribe it, which is expensive. 
 1:18:53: So they make this range of 200 to 1100, and I think the criteria is you have to have two recorded low readings. 
 1:19:00: To be able to even get on TRT covered by the insurance companies, which I've literally, I, I, I try, but I've had no patients that that fall on the criteria. 
 1:19:09: If you're less than 200, you probably can't even get out of bed to get your testosterone checked. 
 1:19:13: Like you're that diminished low, yeah, so normally, I mean, testosterone helps so much with like, you know, our central adiposity, getting rid of that helps with our muscle mass. 
 1:19:24: In fact, our muscle mass decreases by about 3 to 8% per decade after the age of 30. 
 1:19:29: And then after the age of 50, it decreases by about 1.5% per year. 
 1:19:33: So muscle mass going down kind of correlates with our testosterone levels going down, kind of the same time frame. 
 1:19:39: You can't really, prove causality with correlation, but in essence you can almost estimate that it follows the same curve for the same reason, right? 
 1:19:47: That way when men get on TRT they generally put on like more muscle mass. 
 1:19:51: Correct, yeah, absolutely. 
 1:19:52: So, and that's why one of the ways we can mitigate the muscle loss, the muscle loss over time, we call it sarcopenia is the medical term for it is by, you know, monitoring someone's testosterone levels and treating it accordingly, for sure, right. 
 1:20:05: So then, are there any other protocols that can help people, help men like improve their their testosterone levels without getting on TRT? 
 1:20:13: Great question. 
 1:20:13: Absolutely. 
 1:20:14: So, we use something personally called enclomiphene citrate. 
 1:20:17: OK, so enclomiphene citrate is a great example of biohacking, right? 
 1:20:21: So what it does is it actually goes up into your hypothalamus and tells your hypothalamus to make more GNRH, OK? 
 1:20:29: That's called a gonadotropic releasing hormone. 
 1:20:31: , very important because what that does is it tells your body to make your pituitary right underneath your hypothalamus to make more LH, OK? 
 1:20:39: Your LH then goes to your testicles and tells it to make more testosterone. 
 1:20:42: Very different than TRT because TRT, through negative feedback when you take testosterone, actually shuts down your LH production and shuts down your, your testicular testosterone production. 
 1:20:54: So you're kind of shutting down your factory. 
 1:20:56: that's why your balls shrink when you take TRT, and they don't generally shrink when you take clomiphine. 
 1:21:01: So I always try to do enclomiphine first if a patient is a candidate. 
 1:21:06: generally peptide, just a pill that you take a couple of times a couple times a week or or daily, a couple of different dosages, but if my patients can be on that, I'll always try it. 
 1:21:17: It's something that after the age of 40, it doesn't work as well, OK? 
 1:21:21: It's something that because our natural levels go down so it doesn't, our natural factory isn't gonna be producing as much testosterone, so the enclomiphene can't stimulate it as much. 
 1:21:29: So there's a perfect patient for both. 
 1:21:31: There's a perfect patient for enclomorphine and a perfect patient for TRT, but we always find like a balance and and try the enclomophine if we can. 
 1:21:39: It also preserves fertility. 
 1:21:41: Your balls don't shrink, and if you stop the enclomiphene, you generally go back to where you normally would be at at your age level for your testosterone production. 
 1:21:49: it doesn't shut down your factory. 
 1:21:50: You're actually increasing or ramping up your testicular production of testosterone naturally. 
 1:21:55: So it's a lot safer in in terms of some of the side effects, but you might argue not as robust of a response as you get with the testosterone. 
 1:22:04: Do people use Use HCG for the same for a similar like processor. 
 1:22:10: HCG works in a manner very similar to enclophine. 
 1:22:13: OK, so it's HCG basically is LH. 
 1:22:16: OK. 
 1:22:17: So when I said that the enclophine is telling your hypothalamus to make more GNRH, which is stimulating LH production, just one more pathway down, you're giving somebody LH. 
 1:22:26: So it'll still, it'll still, or what would you recommend or ECG is gonna be, so HCG is one treatment for a lot of times infertility for patients that were on testosterone that you get off of testosterone ready to have a kid, and then you put them on HCG and usually Clomid, which is similar to clomiphine because it's then stimulating your testes to make more testosterone. 
 1:22:48: It's also stimulating your pituitary to help stimulate the stoli cells in your testicles to make more sperm and to help with sperm motility. 
 1:22:56: So HCG is better for somebody who's looking for fertility and who wants to remain fertile. 
 1:23:02: That's kind of also what enclomiphine does. 
 1:23:04: Eloyphine does also make you more fertile by stimulating your testicles. 
 1:23:07: It's kind of case by case depending on if you're if you're on, if you're on clo and you, yeah, I would, I would definitely be really careful. 
 1:23:16: You might, you might knock somebody up. 
 1:23:19: So if you're on clomiphen or ACG double rapid if you're not trying to have if you're on TRT, you're, you're probably a little bit better off. 
 1:23:26: OK, OK, little rapid, yeah, yeah, I mean peptides are blowing up right now. 
 1:23:30: I know another big one is Samoan. 
 1:23:33: Yeah, what, what are the benefits for Samoan? 
 1:23:35: So is my favorite, peptide for men, and Teslan is my favorite peptide for women. 
 1:23:39: , they both work very similarly. 
 1:23:41: They're both, basically growth hormone secretedos. 
 1:23:45: So it's kind of similar in a manner to the way I was describing in clomorphine in that it doesn't affect your axis. 
 1:23:50: When we say affect your axis, that means you're pituitary to your body. 
 1:23:55: It sends, feedback to itself to shut it down if you already have something, right? 
 1:23:59: So if you take growth hormone exogenously like growth hormone injections, you'll shut down your axis and you'll produce less growth hormone because your body sees it as, oh, we already have growth hormone, we don't need to make any more. 
 1:24:10: Problem is it shuts down your production of your own growth hormone in your in your pituitary gland, and if you do that for long enough, the gland atrophies get smaller. 
 1:24:19: And actually works less when you get off of it. 
 1:24:21: So now when you get off a growth hormone, you have a crash, OK. 
 1:24:24: With Sirmolin and intestinorin, a lot of these re usually when they end in rein it means it's a growth hormone accretago. 
 1:24:30: So I palin as well, yeah, you got it. 
 1:24:34: CGSC, these are all gonna be working in a very similar manner. 
 1:24:38: So you're going. 
 1:24:39: To the hypothalamus again, telling the hypothalamus to make more growth hormone releasing hormone and then that's telling your pituitary to make more growth hormone. 
 1:24:48: So you're ramping up the production of your own body's growth hormone. 
 1:24:51: So that if you stop it, you should, your your pituitary is still used to making growth hormone. 
 1:24:56: You didn't shut down the factory. 
 1:24:58: So it's you're essentially tricking your body to like do it naturally. 
 1:25:02: Exactly. 
 1:25:02: So you're kind of, it's a great example of biohacking, right? 
 1:25:05: Tricking your body to do it naturally so that if you stop it, you didn't atrophy that pituitary gland. 
 1:25:10: So it's still able to make growth hormone on its own without shutting it down, right, a lot safer than growth hormone in my opinion. 
 1:25:18: Is there ever a reason a man would be prescribed, like Tessimorin or or moan? 
 1:25:24: Absolutely. 
 1:25:25: So it totally depends on your goals. 
 1:25:27: if somebody's looking for a really robust significant response in the gym specifically, I would probably do the combination of the Eor and CJC. 
 1:25:36: The problem is that currently, the FDA is taking that one off the market. 
 1:25:41: But we do still have Samoan, which is almost equally as good. 
 1:25:44: I love ermolin because it stimulates the hypothalamus and the pituitary, whereas the reason you have to take the CJC and the EPA molin together is because one stimulates the hypothalamus and one stimulates the pituitary. 
 1:25:55: Somoulin just does both on its own. 
 1:25:57: So you can just take one peptide there. 
 1:25:59: That one is FDA approved, that one we do, yeah, so we can, how do you know what dose to take like or what dose to prescribe because I've asked countless. 
 1:26:08: Clinicians and physicians and I feel like they like there's no like yeah it's it's like how do people know they're just doing like random doses and like I wouldn't say random but it's like. 
 1:26:19: There's, is there any research like showing like this is the dose you wanna be, here's the effects you can get? 
 1:26:25: Yes and no. 
 1:26:25: So it is a really novel peptide. 
 1:26:27: So any novel treatment has less studies associated with it, right? 
 1:26:30: So it's more clinician based. 
 1:26:31: My particular experience, there's a pretty broad therapeutic index for Sir Morland. 
 1:26:36: It, it ranges from 400 mcg all the way to 2000 or you know, 2 CCs and so. 
 1:26:42: You know, in that range, you never wanna start somebody on a high dose of anything when you're when you're trying to titrate something. 
 1:26:47: So we usually start around 400 to 500 mcg, about 4 to 5 days per week, just to give your body a couple of days off and and let it function, you know, normally without it. 
 1:26:57: But we'll, we'll see at that range of pretty significant robust response. 
 1:27:01: And then from there, you know, there's options of going up slightly. 
 1:27:04: You can always decrease the frequency of the days, increase the frequency of the days, right? 
 1:27:07: And you'll eventually find a good therapeutic response to the patient where they're, this is why it's important to constantly follow up with the patients almost on a weekly basis, how they're feeling. 
 1:27:16: But once you find that sweet spot, they can stay on that. 
 1:27:19: Usually we'll do like 3 months on, 1 month off. 
 1:27:21: Why do you guys cycle or why cycle? 
 1:27:23: So you don't, again, you don't really have, so with the growth hormone, you have to, right? 
 1:27:26: And the reason you have to is to reset your pituitary. 
 1:27:29: we do it more just for. 
 1:27:31: Kind of resetting the system, OK? 
 1:27:32: It's not something that you have to do. 
 1:27:34: It's just something that you wanna kind of give yourself a couple days or maybe a month of your own physiology. 
 1:27:40: You don't want your body to forget your own physiology, right? 
 1:27:42: You want it to kind of remember how it used to function or how it has functioned. 
 1:27:46: Also, you don't need 3 months of anabolic activity. 
 1:27:50: You know, followed by another month of anabolic activity, you can have, you can have 3 months of muscle building and muscle growth and then a month off, right? 
 1:27:58: I, once you're building muscle at a, you know, tremendous rate for too long, it starts to put, stress on your tendons and ligaments. 
 1:28:06: So it's good to have a one month off where you go back to your normal routine and then you can get right back. 
 1:28:10: So what you can like, like ligament pains or like in your body from if your muscles grow too fast. 
 1:28:16: Yeah, that happened to me like I, I was on Tessa Moreland and I, and I don't know if it just was like I wasn't stretching enough or what, but like I had like crazy back pain. 
 1:28:27: And I like, I started developing it actually before I got on those and then like I'm just like a brute, so I just like power through things and then it got to the point where it was like debilitating like I couldn't even stand for like 20 minutes. 
 1:28:42: It was something that kind of. 
 1:28:44: Start like you said, started beforehand and then kind of just exacerbated into like a in into a little bit of a subacute issue, but The reason I think it's odd is because Temolin and Emolin both are one of the ways that the growth of one peptide works is that it helps with recovery. 
 1:29:00: So it's, you get less sore for, you know, less long, and your muscles are ready for ready to go again kind of sooner than usual. 
 1:29:08: So, but if you have an injury, it's usually better to be on something like BPC or the kind of like the Wolverine peptide. 
 1:29:15: So I think like. 
 1:29:15: The the and the combo, the BPC, the MGF, and the TB 500, those together are just so anti-inflammatory. 
 1:29:22: Do you do you prescribe BPC? 
 1:29:23: So BPC is off label because it is not FDA approved currently, but yeah, in, in certain instances, you know, we would do, we would do it for experimental purposes. 
 1:29:32: But the way BPC works, I, I really can't wait for this to get back on the market because BPC stands for Boteion compound. 
 1:29:40: I was isolated initially in the stomach in response to the stomach ulcers, right? 
 1:29:44: So people were getting ulcers and they found that this peptide was at, you know, markedly higher levels in their stomachs at that time. 
 1:29:51: So they said, OK, this is playing some sort of response to ulcers and healing ulcers. 
 1:29:55: So they started trying it in different parts of the GI tract with people with ulcerative colitis, and they noticed that this is helping all over, you know, the entire GI tract. 
 1:30:04: Eventually they realized it helps in joints too. 
 1:30:06: And so now it's just a really potent powerful anti-inflammatory and it's something our body normally makes. 
 1:30:12: If you think about it, it's a lot safer than like ibuprofen or and so it's like, but these drug companies are pushing lawmakers to make sure that we allow ibuprofens and Basically pharmaceuticals, when there's something in our own body that our own stomach makes in response to ulcers and inflammation that can help our entire body with it. 
 1:30:31: I've had patients with, you know, like post post-op knee pain after like a surgery, knee replacement, and they do PPC and it's the pain's gone within a week. 
 1:30:40: I mean, it's like a miracle drug. 
 1:30:42: I hurt my left shoulder. 
 1:30:44: I took a 2 weeks supply of it and it was gone. 
 1:30:49: Injection or so all these peptides I think should be injectable. 
 1:30:52: Yeah, there's some oral trochies that we used to offer. 
 1:30:56: they just don't work. 
 1:30:57: I wouldn't recommend it. 
 1:30:58: And is that just like even if they're like, does anybody do liposomal or nanotechnology for these or not, not really. 
 1:31:04: So liposomal you have to understand that for liposomal to work when you do it orally, right, it still has to get through the gut barrier, right? 
 1:31:12: So you're. 
 1:31:13: Assuming you know you don't have maabsorption, you don't have a leaky gut, you don't have any intestinal permeability issues. 
 1:31:19: You're also assuming that your, your gut lining is working properly, that your microbiota are all not gonna start to break down this, you know, this liposomal product that you're putting in your body. 
 1:31:30: It's, it's a lot of assumptions and people, especially with NED, they're taking NMN NR these supplements are great when they work, right? 
 1:31:37: And if somebody has a totally fully functioning GI tract. 
 1:31:40: And then can get it into their body, not to mention once it's in your body, those, those derivatives have to be converted then into NED. 
 1:31:46: So a lot of assumptions there to assume that that's gonna turn into NED as opposed to injecting NED, right? 
 1:31:52: And so same goes for the peptides when you're taking them orally, the trochies, I don't think they work that well. 
 1:31:57: I always recommend the injectable form if possible. 
 1:31:59: It might be a little bit more pricey. 
 1:32:01: You might have to inject yourself. 
 1:32:03: Yeah, I see it when people tell me that. 
 1:32:04: I'm like, look, if you're a diabetic, you'd have to inject yourself 4 times a day. 
 1:32:08: Type 1 diabetics do it 4 times a day. 
 1:32:10: I'm like, you can do it a couple times a week, you know, and, and you're gonna get used to it, so. 
 1:32:14: It's not small. 
 1:32:15: There's, yeah, they're small use the small insulin needles. 
 1:32:18: It's only subcutaneous, not IM, so you don't have to go into your vitamin injection once. 
 1:32:23: That was nuts. 
 1:32:24: That was like intense into my leg. 
 1:32:27: I'm like I can't do this. 
 1:32:28: I'm like I'm gonna go in the sun vitamin D. 
 1:32:31: I'm like screw that. 
 1:32:33: Like flu shots and all the vaccines that we had that was crazy, yeah, yeah, but the peptide needles, those were easy. 
 1:32:40: You don't even feel them like you literally, it's like do it I did it here for for the the the I Morland, Tessa Morland, and then I was on HCG as well. 
 1:32:50: How's your back a little bit better. 
 1:32:52: Well, so I actually stopped taking those just cause personally like I felt like I don't know if it and this is I'm probably like a really weird candidate for this to ask this question. 
 1:33:03: I'm like, I, I, I feel very grounded and like, like I, I, I've been meditating for like 11 years now, maybe, maybe longer, like pretty much every day, twice a day. 
 1:33:14: And I felt that when I was on the peptides, what happened is I got very in my body and like kind of got out of like my, my spirit, you know, and I was just like focused mostly on just like only my, my physical, which is great, but like, You know, it's like I also want to like maintain that like alignment with my highest self and you feel like it changed your your almost your, I wouldn't say that it changed it. 
 1:33:39: I think what happened is I was just like, It was almost like I was being rewarded by like more physical things like going to the gym, like, you know, it's like I saw the effect of it. 
 1:33:49: It was just like I was and I like, I stopped like prioritizing like meditation. 
 1:33:53: So I'm not saying that everybody would have this, and maybe I would could probably try it again and just like really focus more on like being more balanced. 
 1:34:00: You know, in my meditation practice, but at the time, it was like I wanted to get to like 200 pounds in body weight. 
 1:34:06: And so I was like, like, and I just lock in on a goal when I said it, and it was just like that was the only thing. 
 1:34:11: So like, I don't know if like it was just like me or if it had something to do with it. 
 1:34:15: So I just decided to stop like taking the the injections and like, You know, that was just like a personal thing because I, I'm also like very minimalist. 
 1:34:23: I try to like not rely on anything outside of my body and I mean it's, it's not for everyone like so peptides is something that I would say are very like patient specific, you know, in terms of like if it's for you or not and which one might work best for you. 
 1:34:35: There are things that anybody could do for their health that like, you know, like nature's biohacking, you know, like fiber fiber is something that I think, you know, people always ask me. 
 1:34:45: What supplements should I take? 
 1:34:46: What peptides should I take? 
 1:34:47: or what's one thing you recommend and it's like, OK. 
 1:34:50: Those are all good questions, but like the first thing I always try to look at is what are you doing right now? 
 1:34:56: Are you avoiding harmful things? 
 1:34:58: Are you, are you putting things in your body that are actually gonna help your health and so. 
 1:35:03: The biggest thing I think, you know, plant, so I call it like plant-based fiber is is is nature's biohacking compound, right? 
 1:35:09: And the reason for that is it just has so many benefits, so. 
 1:35:12: You know, if you eat like a like a salad or, you know, high high plant-based fiber meal, you're doing so so many good things for your body. 
 1:35:21: One is, you know, you're putting stretch on your GI tract because it has so much bulk, and your GI tract has these receptors, stretch receptors that send signals to your brain, satiety signals telling your brain you're full, OK? 
 1:35:33: So by telling your brain you're full, especially in the beginning of your meals, so if you do plant-based fiber in the beginning of your meal. 
 1:35:38: The rest of the meal, I mean, you don't have much room in your GI tract for all the bad stuff that's bad for you, right? 
 1:35:44: So if you have like a steak dinner, say, and you start with a salad versus somebody who doesn't, right? 
 1:35:49: The person who doesn't probably have like the big rib eye, they'll have the creamed spinach, they have the scallop potatoes, they'll have like the dessert, but by the time the first patient, you know, has the salad. 
 1:36:00: They get to their steak, they might only have like a small petite filet or something, right, because they're already kind of full. 
 1:36:05: They're already getting those receptors in their brain telling them that they're full. 
 1:36:08: They might not mess with the cream spinach and the sides, and they won't have, they definitely won't have room for dessert, right? 
 1:36:13: And so just by making that change. 
 1:36:15: You're putting something that's so good for you into your body and you're displacing so much stuff that's bad for you, right? 
 1:36:22: And that good stuff, that fiber actually goes to your GI tract. 
 1:36:24: It actually has so many benefits to your microbiota. 
 1:36:27: It kind of stimulates the production of the better bacteria in your, in your gut, which is like the acromancia, the lactobacili, the bifidobacterium. 
 1:36:37: So you have better bacteria in your gut now that that are focused more on protecting your intestinal barrier, your intestinal lining, and then they're also Forming something called short chain fatty acids into your body, that your body uses, and then those short chain fatty acids have been shown in studies to decrease heart disease, decrease strokes, and decrease diabetes. 
 1:36:57: So that's all just from taking fiber. 
 1:36:59: Not to mention they sequester glucose or sugar. 
 1:37:03: So when you eat a lot of sugar. 
 1:37:05: You get that glucose spike and you get that insulin spike, right? 
 1:37:09: And that glucose spike is significantly bad for your body. 
 1:37:12: I mean, it takes so much for your body to break that down. 
 1:37:16: it, you know, puts so much oxidative stress on your mitochondria. 
 1:37:19: You get DNA damage from all those free radicals, but imagine fiber grabs onto that sugar that you eat. 
 1:37:25: And time releases it throughout your in your GI tract into your bloodstream by holding on to sequestering it and slowly releasing it. 
 1:37:32: So now you don't get that glucose spike, you don't get that insulin spike which causes insulin resistance. 
 1:37:37: You get like a very graduated response. 
 1:37:40: So it helps regulate blood sugar, it helps with your intestinal lining, it helps with your gut microbiota, and it helps displace bad things in your diet. 
 1:37:47: So easy thing anybody can do, you know, we don't all have to take peptides, but there's so many things, small things we can do in our diet and exercise regimen like seed oils and I could go on and on about this forever. 
 1:37:59: Yeah, I know we should probably have another episode just about the biohacking and all that. 
 1:38:03: So why, why are men so unhealthy? 
 1:38:06: So good question. 
 1:38:07: So men, we have a lifespan, unfortunately 5 to 7 years younger than women. 
 1:38:14: we have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. 
 1:38:16: We have a higher risk of accidental deaths, which is, I guess, like car accidents and accidental fatalities. 
 1:38:24: So some people argue for that part of it, that we have more reckless behavior, more, more incidences of reckless driving related accidents. 
 1:38:32: the 5 to 7 year difference is pretty large. 
 1:38:35: Yeah, it definitely is at attributable to increase in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. 
 1:38:42: So those are your biggest, you know, causes of death, and men have increased incidences of those, and so it, it's, it's hard to say why. 
 1:38:52: 11 other reason that they've found is that men are less likely to get help when they have a medical illness, so we're more likely to hide it or for whatever reason we're too busy or. 
 1:39:02: You know, just less likely to get help when they have a medical issue. 
 1:39:05: So it's probably a combination of that, maybe a little bit more reckless decision making, you know, more impulsive behavior, which is maybe why we have more accidental deaths, but the 5 to 7 year range is definitely those major comorbidities that we have, right? 
 1:39:21: So, what are the signs of that men should get get on TRT? 
 1:39:26: So signs would be kind of around the age of 30 to 40. 
 1:39:30: Things that might start to happen is decreased libido, decrease erection function, erectile dysfunction. 
 1:39:36: If you start to have central adiposity, you're starting to gain some weight in the midsection that you can't control. 
 1:39:41: Weight's going up despite adequate exercise and nutrition, mental, you know, clarity starting to go down, you're experiencing brain fog. 
 1:39:51: And then just low energy, not feeling like you want to get out of bed, low drive, mood issues, if only that depression or anxiety developing out of nowhere, and then sleep issues. 
 1:40:00: Sleep issues can be affected by testosterone too. 
 1:40:03: So I mean, obviously there are a lot of various things. 
 1:40:05: If you have even a couple. 
 1:40:07: Of those, it's worth getting your testosterone checked. 
 1:40:09: I think everyone should get their testosterone checked. 
 1:40:12: I mean, after the age of 30, every 6 months to 12 months, you should be getting a check because, if that's heading in the wrong direction, you can put serious, you know, problems in your life. 
 1:40:22: Yeah. 
 1:40:23: What are the signs that men should be on some more? 
 1:40:27: So Sir Moreland is more of something I don't think anybody has to be on, for example, I think it's more of something I use as like an adjunct or a boost, somebody maybe who comes to you and is stalling out of the gym or kind of feels like they're putting in a lot of work or effort into their exercise and and diet regimen, but they're not getting that result that they want. 
 1:40:46: They want the extra 10% boost. 
 1:40:48: That's kind of more of what the moral will be for. 
 1:40:51: The TRT would be more for somebody who has those significant symptoms of decline in their levels of going down. 
 1:40:56: OK, so kind of different. 
 1:40:58: Yeah. 
 1:40:58: Can you drink alcohol while being on TRT or some morelin? 
 1:41:02: I mean the answer to that would be alcohol is horrible for you in so many ways. 
 1:41:06: I mean, it's it the the byproduct that you produce acitaldehyde, it's just, it, it's so toxic to your body, it makes you fat, it makes you retain, you know, fat in your liver, you get fatty liver disease, people die from that. 
 1:41:19: But the real issue is, is that, when your body sees alcohol in it, it is gonna process the alcohol first, and when it processes it, it Breaks it into acetaldehyde, which is extremely toxic, a lot of oxidative stress in your body, damages your mitochondria, damages your DNA you start to age, and then it doesn't get to the other stuff until after it breaks down the alcohol. 
 1:41:41: So you might have had some glucose in there, you might have had some sugar in your drink or whatever. 
 1:41:44: Well, guess what? 
 1:41:45: That's not getting processed till after the alcohol. 
 1:41:47: It's on, it's on a waiting list. 
 1:41:48: Wow. 
 1:41:48: And so now that sugar spike and that other fat that you have in your diet with your alcohol. 
 1:41:54: It's all on standby, moving around your body and just damaging all your tissues until eventually your liver, which is probably so worn out after having to deal with the alcohol, can finally break that down, right? 
 1:42:05: So that's kind of how the pathophysiology works in terms of why it's bad for you, but I mean, to answer your question, can you drink on TRT? 
 1:42:12: I mean, you can. 
 1:42:13: It's just, it's not gonna optimize the the treatment, right? 
 1:42:16: The whole point of the TRT is to optimize your health, get you, you know, moving in the right direction, but then taking something else it's moving in the other direction. 
 1:42:23: So you're just playing tug of war with your, with your body and your health. 
 1:42:27: So I don't know if it's gonna do anything. 
 1:42:29: Yeah, it's crazy how many Americans just drink all the time with every meal. 
 1:42:33: I don't think anything of it and it's like they're just pouring like straight poison into their body and it's like so socially accepted. 
 1:42:41: Actually, it's. 
 1:42:42: Unaccepted if you don't drink. 
 1:42:43: Like you go somewhere and say I don't drink, they're like, what? 
 1:42:45: What's wrong with you? 
 1:42:47: Are you an alcoholic? 
 1:42:47: I'm like, no, I care about my health, right? 
 1:42:52: So like feeling the the way that it makes me feel the next day. 
 1:42:55: That's the crazy thing. 
 1:42:55: Like there's so many things we can eliminate, right? 
 1:42:57: Like, so it's like people talk about erectile dysfunction. 
 1:42:59: It's like, what should I do? 
 1:43:00: Should I take Viagra and you can just go and order medications on him now by filling out a form, right? 
 1:43:05: But it's like, what's the root cause, you know, like smoking, alcohol use, age, cerbrovascular disease, heart disease, high blood pressure. 
 1:43:13: These are all things that cause, you know, erectile dysfunctioning. 
 1:43:16: Have those been address? 
 1:43:18: It's like if somebody's obese and they're trying to take Viagra, it's like, you know, you have to get your heart rate high enough to be able to sustain a sexual response, and I don't care how, how much Viagra you're taking if you're like fat, out of shape and not working out, it's not you're not gonna be the best and, you know, so it's like those are the questions that people need to be asking, you know. 
 1:43:36: So the reason people can't lose weight is oftentimes because they're consuming alcohol. 
 1:43:40: Oh yeah, I mean that's, that's probably gonna be one of the biggest, you know. 
 1:43:43: If if you had to say one of the biggest contributors to alcohol, you have to choose one or to to not losing weight, alcohol consumption or or diet like in that's a tough one. 
 1:43:55: I, I wish we had some more head to head studies on it. 
 1:43:58: That's a good idea. 
 1:43:58: I'm gonna, I'm gonna look for that or implement that, but I see so many of my studies. 
 1:44:02: I mean, like I work out heavily, so like I've never had to worry about like my diet per se, but I see a lot of people at the gym that work out as much as me, if not more than me, and they're fat and I'm like. 
 1:44:13: And I can tell that and then I see him at a bar at a restaurant. 
 1:44:16: I'm like, OK, I know why you're drinking every night of the week. 
 1:44:19: That's why you're not. 
 1:44:20: So that's a huge factor and then there's also a genetic factor too. 
 1:44:23: There's definitely a genetic component of obesity and, and, you know, type 2 diabetes and all the things associated with it. 
 1:44:29: But for sure if you're comparing two individuals, one who's got a, you know, active and healthy lifestyle and still, you know, drinks heavily at night versus one who's active and healthy lifestyle, for sure, you know, the second guy is gonna be. 
 1:44:42: Yeah for sure. 
 1:44:43: Cut alcohol, that's like the hack it's funny at that at the conference I went to all the like, you know, Sinclair, Dave Aspbuy, Peter Tio was there, all of them had the same common message. 
 1:44:56: None of them drink, you know, it's like, it's like none of them drink at all for a long time and look at them, they're like the biohacking experts, right? 
 1:45:03: And it's just like that's the first I mean the first thing we should do is eliminate stuff like plastics. 
 1:45:08: And heavy metals and and you know, alcohol and tobacco and it's like if you're not eliminating that stuff, what peptide can I give you that's really gonna help your health a lot. 
 1:45:17: So I always say do that first and then see how you feel in about a month and then let's talk about what you can do to boost it, you know, for sure, yeah, I see that a lot. 
 1:45:25: People just want the easy, the easy route instead of like, if I take NAD, I can still do all these bad things in my body and it's like probably not. 
 1:45:32: Do steroids actually make your penis small? 
 1:45:34: , so they, they won't, they shouldn't make your, so testosterone should not make your penis small, testosterone replacement therapy can shrink your your balls. 
 1:45:47: Yeah, so TRT can shrink your balls, and clomiphene bolt and clomiphine will keep them, you know, the same size, but usually with the TRT that we do, we do a TRT support, subscription as it comes with the subscription of the TRT, but you'll basically get a couple of pills that'll help prevent the balls from shrinking. 
 1:46:06: So we, we prefer if people don't complain about that. 
 1:46:09: Oh, same thing when it goes with the gynecomastia. 
 1:46:12: We don't want knock on, we have no patients developed man boobs to this day. 
 1:46:17: part of it also is a TRT support. 
 1:46:18: We kind of, kind of designed that with one of our partner pharmacies specifically for this, this situation, so people have anti-estrogen effects, and they get a little bit of the, Clomid to help with, testicle size, so. 
 1:46:32: So if you're concerned about your, your, your balls shrinking in size, you wanna make sure to do your guys' subscription at at Zeus. 
 1:46:40: Zeus, and we'll, we'll give you the TRT support pills with the subscription and your balls should be good. 
 1:46:46: Hey, you gotta protect them at all costs. 
 1:46:48: We don't wanna, we don't wanna shrinking out out of nowhere for sure. 
 1:46:51: , can men get a bigger penis? 
 1:46:53: , so, so I, so I guess it's two parts of the question. 
 1:46:59: I, to answer your question, men can get a bigger like actual penis, the answer would be no. 
 1:47:05: We, we, we can't really, change what we've been endowed with since we've been born, but there's so much we can do for our erections, you know, I mean, as we age, our nitric oxide levels go down, and nitric oxide is what keeps our vessels in our penis and our whole body open. 
 1:47:22: And so that's kind of where Viagra and Cialis come in oftentimes, you know, it's a phosphotase inhibitor, so it actually increases your nitric oxide levels, so it can help you with with your erections. 
 1:47:33: But there's so many other causes, right? 
 1:47:34: There's psychological causes we kind of we talked about a little bit. 
 1:47:37: There's also vascular causes, right? 
 1:47:39: And so, You know, there's no cookie cutter approach to this where you just give everybody Viagra and call it a day. 
 1:47:44: You kind of have to see, is there things going on at home? 
 1:47:46: Is there stress at work? 
 1:47:48: Is there, I guess it's a sudden, you know, acute cause is happening over time. 
 1:47:52: So age-related things, comorbidities, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, blood pressure. 
 1:47:58: Can all cause erectile dysfunction. 
 1:48:00: So we actually have a shock wave machine now in the Burbank clinic. 
 1:48:03: And so shock wave therapy is about 6 to 12 sessions. 
 1:48:06: We do one every 1 or 2 weeks, and there are about 20 minute sessions. 
 1:48:11: It's just using sound therapy, so it's not anything invasive like your penis. 
 1:48:15: Nope, and it's super pain-free. 
 1:48:17: the only time it would be painful if somebody had Peroni's disease or some scarring there, which actually helps with too, or if somebody had really bad inflammation. 
 1:48:24: But if you do that, treatment in 50 to 80% of patients we saw, we're seeing an increase, in erection function with the shock wave therapy. 
 1:48:34: So there's non-invasive things there can, you can do like shock wave therapy. 
 1:48:38: There's, pharmacologic things you can do like Viagra, Cialis, etc. 
 1:48:42: Levitra, and then there's, some people can get surgeries which they'll have to answer your question. 
 1:48:48: You can increase the size. 
 1:48:49: If you get the penis pumps and yeah, like I actually it's crazy. 
 1:48:54: I, I, you know, I ask all these questions about these businesses and I was asking one of the meds spots like, you know, give me like your breakdown of, of your, your patients, like what they're coming in for, and they're like, oh, we do like this much filler. 
 1:49:06: And I was like, that's crazy. 
 1:49:08: Like you guys are like gotta be in like the top like 5 or 6%. 
 1:49:11: They're like, yeah, and you'll never believe what it's for. 
 1:49:13: I was like, what, like BBLs they're like, no, penis enlargement. 
 1:49:15: So I'm like, are you kidding me? 
 1:49:19: We definitely don't do that. 
 1:49:20: I know that's gotten really popular. 
 1:49:22: I personally would never put a needle or a surgical scalpel in my penis down there. 
 1:49:28: Hell no. 
 1:49:29: I, I used a razor just to shave one time down there and that was the closest. 
 1:49:33: I was like, never again nicked it and I was like, It's,, filler in general is is dangerous. 
 1:49:40: if you're messing with your nerves down there, it's a very delicate situation. 
 1:49:44: You're putting filler in there, you could give yourself permanent erectile dysfunction. 
 1:49:48: I wouldn't recommend it. 
 1:49:49: I know some people are doing it. 
 1:49:50: I would actually, you know, refer, you know, a patient who's interested in anything like any sort of like. 
 1:49:57: PRP grafting or any injections to a urologist. 
 1:50:00: I just feel like it's best to go to your urologist, and see if it's a good fit for you, but personally for me, I, I don't think any procedure, is the answer down there. 
 1:50:09: I think the most what I would do is a shock wave. 
 1:50:12: Yeah, yeah, for sure. 
 1:50:13: So then is TRT safe? 
 1:50:16: TRT safe, yeah. 
 1:50:16: So again, we were talking a little bit about, you know, in the 90s, they got the stigma for you know, cardiovascular disease and for potential for testicular cancer, but That's really reserved for people who are abusing it, getting their levels way too high. 
 1:50:30: if you're above 1100 for too long, you can get polycythemia, your hemoglobin can go up, and you can start to throw clots, you can have heart attacks, strokes, but that's if it's not monitored properly, not done, done well enough. 
 1:50:40: So if you're doing it right, it's safe. 
 1:50:43: those studies have been pretty much debunked, so it, it is safe if it's done properly and managed properly. 
 1:50:48: Yeah. 
 1:50:49: So I know a lot of like these pop-up clinics and other businesses, they might be making some like really bold claims around like patient expectations, what they can get from these treatments. 
 1:50:59: Can you just set the record straight? 
 1:51:02: Yeah, I mean, I think there's certain instances, I mean there's, there are some miracle drugs, OK, like I, I think NAD is something that anybody can take and it will help everybody's health. 
 1:51:11: I mean we, our, our NAD declines as we get older. 
 1:51:14: And if you ever, if you, the only way to try it is taking it, if you take it, you'll notice that your energy levels are gonna be higher, your mental clarity is gonna be at a peak for a couple of days. 
 1:51:24: and so there are some things when they, when people are claiming that and it is, you know, the end all be all miracle, it kind of is, right? 
 1:51:32: But then if there's people are telling you that. 
 1:51:34: Everybody should be on peptides or everybody should be on GLP ones. 
 1:51:38: that's, that's not true. 
 1:51:39: And you really have to look at every patient individually. 
 1:51:43: There's a lot of people that just aren't good candidates for GLP ones living in LA, we have, a lot of people that are coming to me asking me with BMIs of of 21 or 19 or 20 if they can get on that big, and I'm like, no, I'm like. 
 1:51:57: And I know some doctors that would do that and I'm like that's malpractice, you know, the studies on Ozempic, the trial that they have the 72 week trial that shows about 15% weight loss in patients with some glutide and about 21% weight loss with patients with zeppatide. 
 1:52:14: It's over 72 weeks, but it's done on obese patients with a BMI greater than 30. 
 1:52:18: Right, and so you're, which is, by the way, a lot of 15%, 21% of, of BMI greater than 30 is a lot of weight, so it really works well for the right patient in under the right circumstances. 
 1:52:29: But if people are using it, you know, or abusing it on underweight people who maybe have anorexia. 
 1:52:35: Or some psychological problems where they want to lose additional weight, you could really be doing more harm than good. 
 1:52:40: You could be ending up with pancreatitis, renal failure in the hospital with, you know, ileus or gastroparesis, and we've seen that. 
 1:52:46: I mean, I haven't seen that personally with any of my patients because we do it really safely. 
 1:52:50: We screen all our patients. 
 1:52:51: , online and in person, we make sure that they're a safe candidate and especially early on we're watching everything really closely, so, it's absolutely not true that everybody should be on GLP ones and same with peptides, they're not for everybody. 
 1:53:05: Yeah, I used to be very against like GLP ones, you know, weight loss. 
 1:53:09: I kind of fell on my lap with one of our clients and I was just like, I don't really want to like get behind this because I'm all about like biohacking, holistic health. 
 1:53:17: But then, like, you know, it was like a big perspective shifts just seeing some of the, I started doing more research and it was like it was just such a catalyst for some of these people who are like 300, 400 pounds who like actually need it. 
 1:53:28: And they're like, I'm about to be wheelchaired. 
 1:53:30: I can't walk, you know, and it's like, OK, now they can walk, now they can get mobile. 
 1:53:35: Now it's a step forward, they feel more confident. 
 1:53:38: Now they can start actually being significantly more healthy. 
 1:53:41: So yeah, it is definitely. 
 1:53:42: Something that like I was very against before, but now seeing like the life changing effect that it's had on so many people who like, it literally like changed their lives. 
 1:53:52: They got mobile, they started going to the gym, they started eating right and they're like, I feel better and it's like, it can really change people's lives. 
 1:53:58: But as you said, it's like it's not for everybody. 
 1:54:00: If you're just trying to get abs, there can be some, some adverse effects. 
 1:54:05: And then on the other, the other side of the same spectrum, I mean, I always Screen my patients for their like what lifestyle choices are they making before the treatment, right? 
 1:54:13: So if you have somebody who's really sedentary, eating like crap and not working out at all, and you put them on Ozempic and they lose some weight, guess what, when they get off of it, they're right you're gonna gain it right back. 
 1:54:24: The same lifestyle choices are gonna go right back to what they're doing before and so it's like it's so important. 
 1:54:29: Before starting this medication that you make sure patients are making the appropriate lifestyle modifications, you know, before, during, and after the treatment, for the best effects, otherwise, they're just gonna gain it right back. 
 1:54:40: Yeah, it's crazy. 
 1:54:41: And, and there's so many businesses too that just they prey on that. 
 1:54:44: They know they're just gonna get right back on the medication and they, they don't care at all. 
 1:54:48: It's like. 
 1:54:49: Yeah, but you know, you're a doctor like you, you, you went into practicing medicine first and wanting to help people first and then pivot into this. 
 1:54:58: So many people, not the case. 
 1:54:59: They're just like green rush, you know, like gold rush, like I'm gonna, I'm gonna make money on it. 
 1:55:04: Yeah. 
 1:55:05: Subscriptions where they'll be like, you know, you have to, you have to be on it for 90 days or you you can't cancel for like the next 120 days and it's like it doesn't even make sense. 
 1:55:12: Like what if somebody has a reaction or or they have a side effect or after 30 days they lose enough weight that they're happy and they wanna stop it so you know like you said people preying on you know, patience and making it into more of a business than a than a practice for us if you any point, you know, you reach your goals or you wanna stop treatment, it's literally a click and you cancel and you're done. 
 1:55:33: And I, I actually want my patients after they reached their goals for their weight loss medications, to not see them again for weight loss. 
 1:55:39: I want, I want them to keep it off, you know what I mean? 
 1:55:42: So if I don't see them after they lose their weight and everything's going well, that, that's a good sign, you know. 
 1:55:46: What are some of the biggest things that like men notice when they, when they get on on TRT? 
 1:55:52: OK, so it's kind of a graduated response. 
 1:55:54: It, it's, it's not something that happens like right, you, you're not gonna wake up the next day feeling like the Hulk. 
 1:55:58: it usually happens over the course of a couple of days and maybe a couple of injections. 
 1:56:01: So if you're doing, you know, if you're doing injections a couple of times a week or once a week, you might notice in about a week or two. 
 1:56:08: once your body has the right testosterone level for a period of time. 
 1:56:11: , you start, you're gonna start to feel more energy. 
 1:56:14: You're gonna wake up in the morning with more drive to start your day. 
 1:56:17: That's kind of the biggest way I would describe it is, you know, you're excited to about life again. 
 1:56:22: You wanna have your cup of coffee and you wanna, you know, you want to get your, your day going. 
 1:56:26: you're more excited about work, you're more excited about what we call activities of daily living. 
 1:56:30: This is kind of how a low testosterone manifests in depression because you get this feeling of anhedonia or inability to kind of enjoy your normal routine parts of life. 
 1:56:41: Like, for example, you might find yourself singing in the shower, right? 
 1:56:44: Like an example that maybe you're enjoying showering again or just normal activities. 
 1:56:49: And then your libido is gonna start to come back, right? 
 1:56:51: Or your sexual function's gonna start to be enhanced, if you have a female partner, male partner, whatever, somebody else that that you're, you're with, I mean, they'll definitely notice an increase in your drive. 
 1:57:01: You might want to go several times a day as opposed to maybe not wanting to or having issues with libido. 
 1:57:06: Do the women like it when men get on TRT? 
 1:57:08: I think so. 
 1:57:09: I mean, I think it, it's a noticeable increase in sex drive and, and it's like, whoa, where did this come from? 
 1:57:14: Like, who are you, you know, that type of response. 
 1:57:16: I get that a lot of my patients and. 
 1:57:18: And then the last thing would be the gym, right? 
 1:57:20: I mean, you have that, increased energy in the gym, your muscle, it's it's anabolics, so it's promoting muscle growth, and then it's also helping shred down any excess fat that you have or central adipocity so it's. 
 1:57:32: It's, it's just something that makes us a man, right? 
 1:57:35: And without it, you know, you become a shell of yourself. 
 1:57:38: I think that's why people are kind of ashamed or, or like, you know, hesitant to get on TRT or even get the testosterone checked because they're scared. 
 1:57:45: It's like an indication of their manhood, but it's like it's not something you have to fear. 
 1:57:49: Some our testosterone levels go down every year that all men experience exactly. 
 1:57:54: And so if you know it's gonna happen, it's better to, you know, deal with it preemptively, take care of it, and feel better. 
 1:58:01: Yeah, and when you, when you look better, you feel better. 
 1:58:03: Exactly it's, it's, it's like a, it's like a it's a cycle, right? 
 1:58:07: Because if you, if your levels start to go down and everything in your life will start to kind of crumble in a way, but if you're maintaining it, then you're just gonna feel good. 
 1:58:14: Yeah, and you can tell for life. 
 1:58:16: You can tell like I work out of the gym all the time. 
 1:58:18: I would say I think the reason I'm such a good marker is I'm very observant, like just my whole life always observed things. 
 1:58:25: I noticed like guys at the gym, I'm like I see them and. 
 1:58:27: And like, I just noticed like they start walking differently, they start coming in. 
 1:58:31: I'm like they're actually putting on side and I'm like, OK, I'm pretty sure that guy on TRT or some form of peptide and then they're just like, you know, they're just like glowing like they just feel more confident, more like attracted, more attractive, and then they start talking to women at the gym and they just attract like more things in their life. 
 1:58:48: I haven't met anybody that's like regretted being on TRT, And I'm assuming most of the women and they're significant on their regret it either, right? 
 1:58:57: For sure. 
 1:58:59: Yeah. 
 1:59:00: What are some of the common like hesitations that that patients have to possibly getting on a TRT or, you know, one of the treatments that you guys might have? 
 1:59:07: I say like the one of the biggest is like how people are scared of needles, scared of injections, scared of the stigma of doing injections, and so I often times like I'll offer the patient, you know, come to the office, let's do it together. 
 1:59:19: We'll walk you through your first one. 
 1:59:20: I'll have them do their first one together with them, hold their hand and They'll usually realize it's, it's not that bad. 
 1:59:25: It's not that hard, and especially with something you're doing once a week or twice a week for significant, you know, benefit. 
 1:59:32: Once they do it a couple times, that hesitation kind of goes away. 
 1:59:36: I can suddenly they're like, I don't care about needles. 
 1:59:38: I can say from firsthand experience I was terrified of needles. 
 1:59:41: I had no idea actually it was one of our clients. 
 1:59:44: He was like. 
 1:59:45: He asked me like, what do you want? 
 1:59:46: Like, what are you trying to get out of like, you know, where you're at? 
 1:59:48: I was like, honestly, I feel good. 
 1:59:49: Like I just want to like be more optimized, show up like I was in my best self every day and he's like, OK, I'll like, so he got me like on Tessa Morland, Morland and HCG and I had no idea that it was even gonna be an injection. 
 2:00:01: Like I didn't even know at all. 
 2:00:03: Like, so I just like get all these needles. 
 2:00:05: I'm like, what the fuck? 
 2:00:06: Like this is crazy and like, I like to smoke weed that's like I'm not a, I'm not a big drinker, so like I like to smoke to like wine. 
 2:00:14: Down and it's something I do like a couple times a month, and it happened to be like the night I was planning to like start the regimen. 
 2:00:20: So I'm like, you know, I, I smoke. 
 2:00:22: I'm like, OK, like time to get the needles and I like literally just like freaked. 
 2:00:26: I, I like had like a borderline panic attack. 
 2:00:30: Like I'm like, I hope I'm mixing this right, like the reconstitution. 
 2:00:33: I'm like, I'm a chemist right now. 
 2:00:35: And I, I probably like it was, it was like if somebody watched it, they probably would have been laughing hysterically. 
 2:00:40: I'm sure you're probably understanding exactly what I'm going through and I'm just like. 
 2:00:44: Like, literally I probably watched a video online like 10 times to make sure I did it right. 
 2:00:48: I read the directions like 10 times. 
 2:00:50: I was like, oh my God. 
 2:00:51: And then like I, I poked and I'm like I didn't even feel anything. 
 2:00:53: I was like that was like I'm like what a fucking way I was like it's just it's I was so in my head once you did it was I was like you don't even feel it like it was, it was just so fast and then I was like I literally. 
 2:01:05: I think I got it down to like 30 seconds, like, you know, I like, I would like to go in the fridge, pull it out like it, and it was like super quick. 
 2:01:12: Now that the vitamin D, that thing was gnarly. 
 2:01:14: That sucks yeah that was like right in my thigh. 
 2:01:17: I'm like never doing that again. 
 2:01:18: I'm like, I'll suffer, I'll be vitamin D deficient if that's you're like no way, yeah, so how are patients finding some of this stuff like so dirt cheap? 
 2:01:31: Very good question. 
 2:01:31: So there's a, there's a workaround right now, and it, it, it applies to some of the peptides that have been FDA, that the FDA currently is not approving and so. 
 2:01:41: Compounding pharmacies are basically regulated by the FDA as well as the pharmacy board that they're under, right? 
 2:01:48: So, if you're compounding pharmacy in California, the pharmacy Board of California regulates it, and the FDA regulated, right? 
 2:01:54: Which means they're testing it very carefully, they're making sure that patients aren't having adverse effects, making sure it's safe, right? 
 2:02:01: Very important. 
 2:02:03: But there's different rules that govern research peptides, OK? 
 2:02:06: So research peptides. 
 2:02:08: They actually have to indicate on the package that these are not indicate that these are not for humans. 
 2:02:14: It says this literally says this is not something that's intended for humans, and they're selling these to humans and I still don't understand how the work on goes from that standpoint, but these research companies are not regulated by the FDA or by any pharmacy, board or medical board, so they're able to basically put whatever they want in a vial. 
 2:02:33: Say that this is not intended for human use and sell it to people through the workaround and you could be taking something that's not even close to what you're paying. 
 2:02:43: It could be complete crap and I've actually had a friend who had a almost, you know, almost anaphylactic reaction from Emoral and CJC, which was clearly not any and I'm like, dude, stop, don't, don't do that he's like, Should I try it again? 
 2:02:57: I'm like, no, don't do it. 
 2:02:58: Yeah, so if you have an anaphylactic reaction, the second time you have it, it's gonna be significantly worse. 
 2:03:03: What does that mean for somebody that's not like a life-threatening allergic reaction? 
 2:03:07: OK, so like they're, if you're allergic to peanuts, you have peanuts, and so he was like having wheezing, he couldn't breathe. 
 2:03:13: I had to go to the. 
 2:03:14: He had to get a bunch of injections, saved his life. 
 2:03:17: But I mean these are things that you can actually die from. 
 2:03:20: So it's like, and they're really cheap, so because for that reason. 
 2:03:24: What you really should be doing is, you know, I always recommend getting it under a supervision of physician, MD, if you can, and getting it, you know, just administered properly. 
 2:03:34: You're gonna usually you'll administer it with the physician because I generally want to see how people do in person with these injections, at least for the first time such a TRT peptides and NAD if possible. 
 2:03:46: There's limitations sometimes to people being able to make it, but we work around it occasionally, but yeah. 
 2:03:52: At least that way you're you're with a physician in case something happens and you're under the treatment physician if something happens, you know, with the medication. 
 2:03:59: So I found it cheaper somewhere else doesn't necessarily mean one that you actually found it cheaper because it could be something that's like not actually what you're you're paying. 
 2:04:06: So if it says for research use only or if it says, not for use for humans on it, do not use it take it back. 
 2:04:15: Yeah, OK. 
 2:04:16: So then, you know, someone wants to get. 
 2:04:18: Walk us through like the patient journey, what's the process like to get started with with with you guys at Zeus Men's Health for sure. 
 2:04:25: So it might be, so it kind of depends on how they found us, you know, if it, if it's a referral, you know, I'd probably give them my direct contact and they would contact me. 
 2:04:32: if it's something, you know, that they found organically through the search engine, you know, just by googling, they usually go to the website, they can make an appointment through the website just to contact us, for example, and then, you know, when I was running ads there was a similar situation they would either. 
 2:04:46: Do the contact us through the website or through the ad, but once they get in touch with me, the first step is always doing a consult. 
 2:04:54: So we schedule a consult, you know, when it works for them or me in person or virtual. 
 2:04:58: Like I said, most people choose virtual just for convenience, and you know, we spend like the, the time we spend really varies on the patient, you know, how complex the patient is, how many questions they have, anywhere from 20 minutes to like an hour. 
 2:05:09: I mean I've spent a significant amount of time, but we, you know, get to the bottom of all our concerns. 
 2:05:14: We kind of do a full. 
 2:05:16: History, full review systems, figure out, you know, all their family history, take a look at all. 
 2:05:22: I try to get their labs before the appointment if I can so I can review everything and so I have an idea of their most recent labs. 
 2:05:28: And then at that point, once the consult is over, obviously we have like the assessment and plan. 
 2:05:32: I tell them, you know, here's what I think we should do if it's more testing, then we would do more testing. 
 2:05:37: we can always call our labs in quest. 
 2:05:40: We can also send them a, we have home testing kits as well, which are super easy to use and painless and cheap. 
 2:05:44: , so either one, if we need to do more testing, we wait for those tests to come back. 
 2:05:49: Once those tests come back, Reconvene and talk about different treatment options. 
 2:05:54: This could range from things like TRT. 
 2:05:56: It could be, supplements I recommend and it could be like other things we talked about like peptides, hair loss treatments, shock wave therapy for penis, whatever, whatever they're interested in or or what they, what they need for, for their, you know, what they're looking for. 
 2:06:10: So if you're a man and you're, you're fatigued, maybe might be experiencing brain fog. 
 2:06:16: You're tired, not sleeping as well as you, you could be feeling possibly depressed. 
 2:06:22: These are the signs that you should probably schedule, is it a free consult with, with, with you right now it's a free consult, especially, you know, during the holidays I, I made it a free console as a promotion, but I'm gonna keep that going like for virtual or in person, we can go over your whole health, we can get to the bottom. 
 2:06:39: it and figure out why you feel that way. 
 2:06:40: And so recommend getting your labs done first. 
 2:06:45: If not, you'll just pretty much have to send them to the labs before you can really understand always review what they have. 
 2:06:50: If there's something within the last year, I can sometimes I can work with something glaringly obvious, but generally, you know, if they can get their labs done, it's always better. 
 2:06:58: OK. 
 2:06:59: I kind of like to be the one ordering the labs because I kind of specifically order a lot of different things that contain more to men's health, and anti-aging, but If they can do it with their primary, that's totally fine too. 
 2:07:10: Yeah. 
 2:07:11: What's the difference between peptides and steroids? 
 2:07:13: Well, peptides, I guess steroids would be like more your TRT or your traditional kind of men's health treatments or estrogen and progesterone or both steroids we want to avoid, right? 
 2:07:22: peptides would be something that your body normally makes. 
 2:07:25: So peptide technically is a protein that's a short enough length. 
 2:07:29: Proteins, all peptides are proteins, but not all proteins are peptides is the way to think about it. 
 2:07:34: And generally, less than 100 amino acids is what a peptide's gonna be known as. 
 2:07:40: It's small enough that it can cross the blood brain barrier. 
 2:07:42: It's small enough that it can be injected in your subcutaneously and be absorbed in your bloodstream, without getting basically broken down by your system. 
 2:07:50: When it gets longer than a certain amount, it folds into a three dimensional structure called the quaternary structure, and that's what a protein looks like then. 
 2:07:58: That's kind of what our muscles are made up of, right? 
 2:08:00: Those are too big for our body to absorb, so we, we break it down. 
 2:08:04: We have enzymes that break those down and then they get absorbed as amino acids. 
 2:08:09: So a peptide is small enough that it can travel throughout the body and almost acts as a messenger and you know, have various effects throughout the body. 
 2:08:16: Usually. 
 2:08:17: It comes from something that we've already isolated in our own bodies. 
 2:08:21: Like I was telling you, BPC comes from the stomach, so it's generally safer than, you know, a medication or pharmaceutical because it's something our body normally probably already makes, but we're just kind of increasing the concentration of it, to give our body an edge, kind of like a biohacking mechanism, OK. 
 2:08:37: So what does personalized medicine mean exactly? 
 2:08:42: So personalized medicine would mean maybe the opposite. 
 2:08:45: If somebody has, you know, a low testosterone, we're gonna give all of them testosterone. 
 2:08:51: That's it. 
 2:08:52: personalized medicine would be if somebody has low testosterone, but they're looking to conceive, they wanna make, they wanna have kids soon, then we probably try something more like encloorphine. 
 2:09:02: But if they're looking more for something for, you know, to make sure they don't. 
 2:09:06: Lose their hair, that's the most important, you know, function. 
 2:09:10: We might stay away from testosterone, we might try something like a peptide. 
 2:09:13: If somebody wants to specifically for their brain fog and energy, we might try something like NAD. 
 2:09:18: So you're kind of looking at a patient as a whole and saying, OK, what, not just the numbers, but what does this patient specifically care about? 
 2:09:26: What's their preference? 
 2:09:27: What are they, what are the goals and trying to address their specific goals and not their numbers or just what you would do for everybody else thing, right? 
 2:09:35: Is personalized medicine the future of, of like healthcare or like preventative. 
 2:09:40: Yes, and I think it's gonna be my prediction is it's gonna be because of AI. 
 2:09:43: I think AI is gonna be able to just like you were mentioning how how well AI is working for advertisements and making sure we see what we're interested in. 
 2:09:52: I think eventually AI is gonna be able to pick up what health parameters matter most to us, and also what may be going wrong. 
 2:10:00: And essentially come up with a treatment plan. 
 2:10:02: I might not have a job. 
 2:10:03: We might have, we might have a, we might have a computer that's basically. 
 2:10:07: You know, going through somebody's information and saying you need X Y and Z supplement or X, Y, and Z medication, and that might be the way of the future. 
 2:10:15: We saw that in the conference at the A4M. 
 2:10:18: There's already a AI company that's basically doing like a chat GPT but for doctors, using all the available literature and coming up with treatment plans. 
 2:10:28: If you put in a patient's case, it just tells you like, what, what medications are prescribed. 
 2:10:33: Yeah, I was like that's so cool, but then I'm like, wait a minute, what about us? 
 2:10:36: Yeah, yeah, like I need to be leveraging that before I need to have that before. 
 2:10:41: No, exactly. 
 2:10:42: I'm like if I don't have that, I'm at a disadvantage. 
 2:10:44: The people that are gonna be affected by AI are the ones that aren't using AI to better their lives, their work, better their output, 100%, so. 
 2:10:54: Obviously, you have a wealth of information around health, men's health, how do people stay connected, how do they find you? 
 2:11:00: So at Zeusmenshealth.com was my Instagram at HotmD they're both public at me, ask me questions, DM me. 
 2:11:06: you can always go to the website Deusmann's Health.com. 
 2:11:09: the contact me and about us there's a lot of information there, and then it's got my number on there, you can always contact me directly. 
 2:11:15: I love to talk to you. 
 2:11:16: This is my passion, so I don't, I don't ever think of it as like, you know, something cumbersome or Or like, whenever somebody wants to talk to me about this stuff, I'm always willing and I love it. 
 2:11:27: I think that's everything. 
 2:11:28: It was awesome. 
 2:11:29: Thanks for having me. 
 2:11:30: Yeah, for sure, pleasure for coming out. 
 2:11:31: We'll have, I think what we need to do is probably schedule a second episode where we just like really dive into some of the topics that we talked about. 
 2:11:41: I mean like you covered so much stuff and