The Power of Peptide Therapy & Functional Medicine: Craig Mullen | Ep.6 Pathway to Peak Performance

In this inspiring episode, nurse practitioner Craig Mullen shares his powerful personal story—starting with a tragic childhood event—and how it shaped his career in healthcare. From working as a nurse to becoming a nurse practitioner specializing in integrative and functional medicine, Craig opens up about his mission to help patients achieve peak health.

We explore the shortcomings of the American healthcare system and how Craig is addressing them with a holistic, proactive approach to patient care. This conversation covers the essential building blocks of wellness—exercise, nutrition, and quality sleep—and how they work hand-in-hand with advanced laboratory testing and cutting-edge treatments like peptide therapy (GLP-1, thymosin beta-4, BPC-157, and more).

Craig emphasizes the importance of lifestyle modifications, personalized care, and optimizing performance at every stage of life. Whether you’re looking to prevent disease, recover from injury, or simply feel your best, you’ll walk away from this episode with actionable tools to take charge of your health.

If you found this episode valuable, be sure to hit the Like button, subscribe to the channel, and turn on notifications so you don’t miss future episodes. We’d also love to hear from you—drop a comment with your thoughts or questions, and share this video with friends, family, or anyone who could benefit from this information.

Transcript

 As people become less metabolically efficient, they actually switch over from burning fat to sugar at a lower heart rate. Um, and so you know, you can really get a good idea using a device like pin noi, metabolic breath analysis at, you know, where people need to be exercising. American healthcare is sort of doing things.

In a way that may be construed as backwards or retroactive retrospective. And this point was really driven home to me once I started working in the inpatient setting. You're really covering the full gamut. Life is a journey we're not living if we're not learning, if we're not growing. And, uh, that's what we're here to do.

That's our mission. In this episode, Craig Mullen, who is a nurse practitioner from Maryland, who decided that the system that he was working in was broken and he wanted to change how he was treating patients and helping people to achieve peak performance in their health. In this episode, we'll dive into it all.

Welcome to the show. Great to have you in. Thank you. Yeah. Wonderful to be here. Welcome to the state of California, um, all the way from lovely Maryland. Yep. Yeah, that is, um, that's a trip. I tell you what, it's, you know, the second time I've been to California, the first time I've ever been to California to do anything other than a little bit of a backpacking excursion.

First time I came out I was in Yosemite and had a great time with that. Um, but have not been out here since. And that was over a decade ago. Let's take it all the way back. What, like, tell us about your childhood. So I'm gonna be 38 at the end of this month, so taking it way back, um. Childhood was, you know, kind of wild, but whose isn't had sort of like an interesting start to my life.

Uh, it was a little bit different than your traditional start, uh, in that, um, the early portion of my life was really marked by, uh, tragedy. And, you know, we talked about this a little bit before, but um, when I was 16 months old on the eve of Thanksgiving, um, my house burnt down and uh, I lost my mother and my brother and my sister in that house fire.

Um, my dad and I were able to make it out relatively unscathed. Um, but you know, our family was fractured and we were never gonna be the same as a result. Um. That's, uh, you know, really influenced so much of the rest of my life up, up through this day. Uh, my dad and I were super close growing up as a result, just totally intertwined with each other and, um, very much codependent, you know, in some aspects.

And it, in probably a not so great way, but just had an incredibly strong relationship. Um. With my dad growing up, and, uh, he unfortunately passed away this past December. Hmm. Um, we were, you know, doing the duo thing, father and son for, uh, up until the point that I was six years old in, in which, uh, at which point he got remarried.

Um, so did the step family thing for a while. Um, you know, went through my dad's divorce and all through that time, you know, was, um, very much, uh, driven by sports, you know, so I, I loved, uh, baseball growing up. It was my main passion was just always very sort of athletically inclined, love to love to play baseball.

Uh, and that really influenced a lot of my development as, you know, someone who was interested in sports and in mobility, uh, and, you know, overall health and just staying, you know, vital, uh, as a kid. I remember being really young and sort of like taking into consideration like, you know, do I have abs or do I not?

And you know, what can I do to enhance my physicality and, and things like that. So, um, you know, really had sort of a traditional life in that sense of traditional childhood and went off to college, uh, initially in, um, North Carolina. Uh, and then I actually left North Carolina, came back to Maryland and, and finished, uh, undergrad, which my, uh, initial undergrad was a philosophy degree.

I thought maybe I was gonna, uh, do something in law school or, um, you know, who knows what, right. Maybe, maybe become a teacher or professor. Um, was really influenced by some of the, you know, liberal arts approaches to, to various careers. Um, graduated with my philosophy degree and then at that point in time.

Decided, I really have no idea what I want to do with my life. So I took, uh, about a year off, moved out to Arizona, and, uh, lived in Arizona for I'd say 13, 14 months. And, um, worked construction, uh, learned a lot and, uh, did a, you know, plenty of backpacking out in, uh, American Southwest. Had a great time with that.

And then, uh, ultimately, again, migrated back to the East Coast. And at that point in time, wasn't getting any younger. And I decided, Hey, you know, you, you want things in life. You want a family, you want to make money, you wanna forge your own way. Uh, what are you gonna do Craig to, you know, establish yourself as a, as a young adult.

And, um, my father who's an oral surgeon, uh, you know. Gave me the idea, well, maybe, you know, think about going into healthcare or medicine or something along those lines. And, you know, having been around his practice all my life, it did seem like an obvious sort of easy transition. Uh, and so I went back and did what they consider, what they call a second degree accelerated nursing program where you have an undergraduate degree, you can sort of, you know, bypass or, uh, just skip over a lot of the prerequisites, um, you know, to get into a health related career.

Uh, and jumped right into the nursing program, went through that, worked as a nurse, which, uh, you know, as you mentioned, definitely sought after, uh, profession. And, and you know, it's hard work. It's, it's honest labor. It's tough, you know, labor. But, uh, it's, it's hugely necessary. And, um. Just as you mentioned, really sort of does set the backbone of, you know, a lot of what we do in healthcare, especially in the inpatient setting.

So, worked, uh, in critical care for a handful of years and, um, messed my back up, you know, pulling patients up in the bed and turning patients. But, um, you know, really found myself to be very fascinated by the science of it all. And, um, all throughout that time I really knew that, you know, nursing or working as an RN wasn't the end game for me.

I understood very well, uh, at that time that I wanted to have the prescriptive and diagnostic privilege and authority. Um, and so, you know, the next step is either go on, get your nurse practitioner, become a, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, and do you know anesthesia? By this time I'm married, have, uh, a new child or my, my beautiful baby girl was born in 2016 and, uh, I really wanted to be A-C-R-N-A and so I appealed to my wife, you know, Hey, why don't we think about moving, uh, the closest program to where we are is about two hours away in Baltimore, university of Maryland has the closest CRNA school.

And she was like, no, we're not moving. All of our support system is here. We got a new baby, you know, we're gonna stay within our community. Um, and so what I did have access to locally was, uh, nurse practitioner school. And, uh, so, you know, that's sort of how I inevitably found myself, uh, in that role. Uh, graduated from a family nurse practitioner program.

Worked in, uh, urgent care and immediate care, primary care setting for a few years. And this is right now, right about the start of COVID, which is an interesting story. We can come back to that later if we want. But, uh, also knew that I didn't wanna stay outpatient at the time. I wanted to work with sick people.

I wanted to, you know, make a change and, and be influential in that, um, area and discipline. So, went back to school to get what's called, uh, your acute care nursing, uh, nurse practitioner degree. So, um, one of the things that sets, uh, nurse practitioners apart from other mid-levels or, you know, PAs, is that we sort of have to get specialized training in various different, um, aspects of care versus a pa, which is like, you get, you get it all.

Um, so to work inpatient or work in a, in an acute care setting such as a hospital, you have to go back to school, uh, and do additional training, additional certification. So at that point I went to, uh, Drexel, got my acute care nurse practitioner degree, uh, after another two and a half years of school, um, did all the didactic and the clinical coursework and then, um, basically started working inpatient with the same hospital that I was working outpatient with.

Uh, previous to that, all the while. Knowing that, um, American healthcare is sort of doing things in a way that may be construed as backwards or retroactive retrospective. And this point was really driven home to me once I started working in the inpatient setting, because you see all of these people who have significant burden of chronic disease, comorbid conditions, and not just one or two, but you know, 3, 4, 5 conditions that's just like severely life limiting, um, poor quality of life a lot of times in and outta the hospital.

And I said to myself, you know, this, this isn't the apex of what we can be doing to help people. And, um, so at that time, really dove into research and training for, uh, more functional and integrative medical approaches to, uh, wellness. Um, namely, did a lot of investigation into bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

From there, I was exposed to, you know, the nuanced, um, aspects of nutrition and, and dietary changes and, um, you know, lifestyle modification to really enhance mobility and exercise performance. And all of that really led me down this path to peptides, right? So, uh, you know, an area that you're, you know, very well, uh, aware of.

And it's just become rapidly the most fascinating area of my practice. Uh, and my goodness, you know, it's like, had I not gone down those rabbit holes, I never would've, you know, found my way to peptides and, and I'm trying to get more people to, um, you know, see how cold these. These cell signaling agents can be, and, uh, you know, what good they can bring to people's lives.

And, uh, I think, you know, in large respects we hear it all the time, but you know, there a lot of peptides are gonna be at the fore of medicine and where it goes in the future. And in some respects, they already are, you know, um, and, and have been, um, you know, namely with things like GLP one Therapeutics and certain growth hormones, secret gogs that have been instrumental in, you know, helping, um, HIV patients and, um.

Peptides that were being heavily investigated for autoimmune, gastrointestinal issues like celiac disease, and that's just here in the States. So like when we look at what's been going on overseas, namely in Europe, um, during CVID and and so forth, you know, they've been doing a lot that, that, frankly, America is sort of behind the curve, um, with what we could be doing in, in that sense.

But, um, yeah, so that's my story. Long-winded answer to a simple question, so I apologize. I agree with you. You know, the, the US healthcare system, obviously I've talked about it a lot for a long time. Um, when I first started my career, I was like, well, I don't get it. Like, you know, there's all, what's going on here?

Like, don't we wanna do these things that are gonna keep people healthy? I think what's really interesting is that now we see this, we're in the midst of what I feel is like this massive change in the way that people. Are viewing their health, you're at the forefront of it. You're doing it every single day.

Uh, you're seeing patients and you know, the GLP one is an easy place for us to enter this, this next piece. Sure. When you see patients, what, what that are wanting? Medical weight loss. Mm-hmm. Um. How do you approach that? I tell my clients out the gate, I say, Hey, listen, you know, these things that we do when it comes to BHRT, bioidentical hormones, peptide therapies, uh, any other small molecules that we may use, nutraceutical supplements, yada yada, um.

You know, these are the sprinkles on top of the cupcake. It's the icing on top of the cake. It's these three core elements. It's exercise, it's nutrition, it's sleep. Um, that's 85, 90% of the game right there. If you can dial those things in, you are already ahead of the curve, right? Because our population is sick, getting sicker.

Um, and to really hone in on those three areas of, of lifestyle, uh, and be able to say, Hey, I'm, you know, excelling in those facets of my life, then, you know, you're already well ahead of the curve. So I tell patients that out of the gate, you know, these are the three things, these are the core elements.

Anything beyond that is just. Going to synergize or augment what you're already doing when you have those aspects of your life dialed in. And so patients come to me, uh, you know, inquiring about GLP one therapeutics, something to help them burn fat, um, and optimize their body composition. Of course, there's room for all of these, uh, you know, novel peptides.

And I, and I love to use them, but it really is about setting that strong foundation. And a lot of times it's, you know, uh, it's in conjunction with the medication. Uh, both things are happening at the same time. We're trying to optimize the lifestyle, but we're also seeing how we can help them out along the way with the, with the GLP ones.

So, you know, GLP ones, um. Have been around for decades now, a couple of decades since, uh, the, the first one that was introduced to the market liraglutide back in the mid two thousands as, uh, Saxenda and Victoza. Victoza had the, um, indication for type two diabetes treatment with Saxenda as the weight loss option.

Um, and, you know, a lot of people had great success with, with those medications. Uh, and then, you know, come the 2000 teens and the advent and release of Semaglutide, um, as a once weekly injectable really sort of changed the game up, uh, at that point in time and again, had the indication for type two diabetes.

But then, um, you know, also the profound, um, metabolic enhancements, uh, associated with it. And then of course, tirzepatide, which added the second receptor, uh, the GIP receptor onboard. Which, uh, you know, changes, changes things up a little bit. Um, and it's interesting because one of the things that a lot of people don't know is that these medications were heavily studied, uh, in the, um, you know, Alzheimer's, uh, you know, area of research.

Um, looking at how we can. Be more proactive about preventing the progression of dementia, um, and, and thwarting that disease. And that's when they started to notice, oh, okay, well this, there's, you know, reductions in, uh, hemoglobin A1C and improvements in insulin resistance, uh, throughout the body, and improvements in cardiometabolic health and, um, you know, fatty liver disease.

And, uh, you know, then you look at other groups of patients, patients with type two diabetes who also have chronic kidney disease, and we see preservation of the, uh, glomerular filtration rate. Um, and just, you know, remarkable multi-system benefits. Um, and so basically, you know, to come back to your question, when I start, uh, you know, clients on these medications, I say, Hey, look, you know, we're gonna have the metabolic benefit.

We're gonna have, uh, the, you know, profound ability to, to burn fat, to, um, you know, just. Drive it and, and hone in on insulin sensitivity and really make sure that we're capitalizing on that. But I'm always trying to reinforce the fact that, you know, it's those, those core elements. Um, exercise, you know, you gotta move, you gotta make sure that you're incorporating resistance training, um, preserving lean composition in the body.

Um, not only because muscle is, you know, the main metabolically active tissue and, and sort of like an endocrine tissue in it in its own right. Um, but you know. Without muscle. There's, there's less, you know, in impetus for our bones to remain strong. And so exercise, mobility and then, uh, nutrition, you know, which comes down to everything from, um, making sure that we're getting the right, um, you know, hitting our macros.

We're, we're taking in the protein to make sure that we, we have the ability to build and preserve muscle, um, but also making sure that we're avoiding the pitfalls, you know, the processed foods, the, um, additives and, and preservatives that we know are contributing to everything from, as you mentioned, um, A DHD type symptoms and, you know, migraine disorders and changes in the diversity of our microbiome.

Um, and changes in the way that our brain and our pancreas, uh, you know, work in conjunction with each other to signal the release of insulin in response to something that, that's sweet, but not, you know, real, it's artificial. Um, and so working with the patients on the exercise, the nutrition, and then again, how are we sleeping?

You know, 'cause sleep is so important. Um, it's the anabolic phase of, you know, our day where we're going through the repair mechanisms and our cells are able to clean and restore. Um, and if we're not able to do that, then we're ultimately gonna become less efficient, um, as, as organisms, you know. And so, um, you know, it's, it's the type of thing that nowadays, you know, people are having a harder and harder time sleeping all the time because of the.

The world that we're living in, you know, constant distraction, uh, addiction, dopamine, addiction from blue light, uh, exposure. Uh, and it's just a stressful world now. People want an escape and a lot of times it's too easy to have that escape. Be your phone at bedtime or TV at bedtime, you know? Yeah. A huge, yeah, it's a big, it's been a big problem for me for years and I've like, you know, I've got to a point in time I was really disciplining myself to like.

I am gonna have it around. I'm just gonna listen. Yep. I'm curious, what, what are some of the things that you're seeing on the sleep side that are like, that are kinda lighting it up? Well, you know, I think it's challenging, number one. I mean, there are days when I struggle and, uh, you know, I try to do everything right and, um, you know, get the kids to bed at a decent time, turn off the tv, turn off the distractions and so forth, and still have a tough time and, uh, you know, lay my head down on the pillow and it's like, you know, why can't I get my thoughts to calm down?

Why, you know, am I not tired? And, um, you know, again, I think it comes down to some of the stressors that we face in our day-to-day life. But I have really found some things that, uh, have been, you know, pretty. Integral to helping me achieve better sleep. And, um, starts with in-home temperatures 60 to 67 degrees, just, you know, helps the body get into a deeper state of sleep and stay asleep, um, you know, longer without disruption.

So always have that dialed in. Another thing is try to cut down on, you know, caffeine after, uh, 2:00 PM most days, um, and limit, you know, fluid intake after maybe 7:00 PM just so that I'm not up all night, you know, using the bathroom. Um, and then speaking of which, can I ask you, I'm starting to interrupt you, but I'm just curious, what do you feel is the optimum fluid ounce per pound of body weight?

Yeah, so usually I tell my patients, whatever you weigh in pounds just divided by two. And that's sort of like the minimum or the amount that you want to target. Now everybody's a little bit different. If they're expending, you know, tons of energy and they're out in the sun and they're working hard and they're sweating a lot, or they've, you know, maybe they're sick and they've got a fever and they have like, you know, insensible losses or something of that nature, you're gonna need more, right?

Um, if you're just sitting around all day. Um, and you know, there are some people who obviously have considerations for fluid management and, you know, whether that's, uh. CHF or more progressed kidney disease, liver disease, um, then those people really need to be more on a, you know, fluid restrictive side of the equation.

Um, but by and large, for the most part, um, what I recommend is take your body weight in pounds divided by two. That's sort of how many ounces of fluid to drink a day. And that encompasses everything. So, you know, it's not just water. It's if you have a, you know, coffee, tea, soup, oatmeal, you know, the food that we eat, you have to take into account the moisture content or the, the fluid content of that.

And, um, you know, it's sort of an imperfect science in that sense. And, and the body has its own. Methods for, uh, you know, the rein, angiotensin, aldosterone, uh, system has its own methods for assessing fluid balance in the body and making adjustments along the way. Um, so that, you know, if you're behind on fluids, well, you're gonna conserve and you're gonna hold onto salt and you're gonna hold onto, uh, you know, water.

And the reverse is true as well. So, um, but yeah, so that, that's, you know, well, this is kinda interesting. You know what, let's do something. Sure. Let's build a generalized path to peak performance for the average person that's sort of like starting out today. Are you on any kind of like, uh, diet track where you're like believing in metabolic flexibility?

Or are you a keto guy? Are you a carnivore guy? What animal based, like Paul Saladino? What, what's your, what's your angle? I recommend Mediterranean. I think that's the most well-researched and it's got the most evidence to support it. I see potential benefits in some of these other, uh, nutrition approaches that people have.

Um, I do, you know, I've noticed that people have had sometimes remarkable, um, results and outcome with things like ketogenic diet. Uh, but I do caution people because, you know, you're taking in a lot of fats sometimes, you know, they're, um. Not well aware of maybe their, you know, genetic predisposition to, um, cholesterol synthesis and cholesterol management and things of that nature.

And so you've, you kind of gotta be careful and maybe do a little bit more of a, you know, biomarker investigation in that sense, if somebody's gonna be doing that. But by and large, Mediterranean diet, I think is the way to go. So, you know, focusing on the lean protein, whether it's, you know, salmon, poultry, Turkey, um, you know, vegetarians, uh, sources for protein, lentils, um.

Utilizing things like chickpeas and, and so forth and, uh, which are, you know, rich in, in amino acids. And, uh, namely some of the, um, amino acids that are absolutely critical for lean mass. Uh, accrual, chickpeas, uh, have, are, are rich and, and leucine va, um, isoleucine Valine. Uh, so you're BCAAs. Yeah, BCAAs. And, you know, which are not the end all, be all.

You need, you know, the, the full, yeah, the full. So recommending that, dialing that in. Uh, and then I also, you know, am heavy on sort of baseline laboratory workup, you know, to see where people are at. A lot of people have, um, impaired nutrient absorption, whether that's due to genetic, uh. Predisposition you've heard of things like M-T-H-F-R and MTRR and things of that nature where, uh, you know, there is an inability to properly absorb B vitamins, which are necessary for neurologic function, which are necessary for hormone synthesis and, and, you know, metabolism and breakdown of certain substances in the body.

So, uh, as well as abnormal folate metabolism. Now this contributes to disruption in DNA synthesis and repair, uh, which is why it contributes downstream in women who, um, you know, have miscarriage. Uh, we see, you know, significant burden of that and in women who have M-T-H-F-R. Um, and not only that, but then what happens, you may be aware, is that they, uh, have abnormal elevations in, um, a marker called homocysteine, which is, um, you know, a metabolite of amino acid metabolism.

Uh, but it's very pro-inflammatory and it's very pro-inflammatory to the vascular endothelium. And so we see in patients who have, um, homocysteine elevation that they're more prone to heart attack and stroke, looking at things like that. Um, you know, doing a comprehensive analysis of their nutrition. Um, you know, B12 magnesium, B six, vitamin D.

Um. And inflammatory markers. So in all my patients, I, I look at their homocysteine levels. I'm looking at, uh, c-reactive protein levels to get a gauge on, you know, whether there is any sort of, you know, low grade or high grade systemic inflammation. Um, it's a very non-specific marker, but you know, it does tell you if it's persistently elevated in somebody that you gotta look deeper.

Um, and then, uh, you know, certainly blood counts and liver and kidney function, but also, um, you know, the, the real meat of it is when we start to look at people's hormones and, um, you know, sex hormones, which, uh, play a vital role in our wellbeing. So, um, in. Women who are in their mid thirties, half of women over the age of 35 tend to, uh, have a decline in progesterone.

And they're progesterone deficient, which leads to a functional, estrogen dominant state where they start to have, you know, mood lability and disruption of sleep anxiety creeps into the fold. Um, and they're having breast tenderness or, or changes in, in the, uh, texture and consistency of their breast tissue.

Um, and, you know, maybe some heavier periods, bloating, cramping, premenstrual, dysphoria. You know, I see this in so many of the women that I treat. Um, and it is, you know, the type of thing that if left unchecked or unregulated really becomes intrusive in their lives. And all of a sudden they're, you know, having relationship issues.

They're having trouble at work, they're not motivated. Kids are tiring them out, you know, and, uh, they're desperate for a change, guys too. Guys, you know, get to that stage and they're just like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired, I can't do anything, can't lift, can't work out. Start putting on body fat. It gets worse.

It becomes like, you start spiraling out. Sure. Right. And that's, it's like, you know, it's like right when you think. That everything should be going well, that's when you gotta really pick up that weight again and start pumping it and, and cranking it as hard as you possibly can. You got it. You got it.

That's, um, you know, and that goes back to the metabolic flexibility thing too. It's like, you know, tricking the body and, and tricking the metabolism in a way to enable us to be more efficient. Switching over from things like, you know, glucose, uh, metabolism as an energy source to how are we, you know, oxidizing fats and utilizing, um, fatty acids and ketones for our energy source.

And, um, it's the type of thing that I'm always telling my clients, Hey, listen, you know, maybe incorporate a little bit of intermittent fasting, uh, few days a week, and then in the morning when you wake up, go for a high intensity interval training exercise, you know, three to four days a week, maybe try that.

And then in that setting, when you're in a fasted state in the morning, your body's. Looking for some other source of fuel, you know? And so you know that that's the time where it's gonna say, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm gonna figure out this other way. That, and a more efficient way, you know, uh, utilizing fatty acids and ketones as an energy source is actually more efficient, uh, less reactive oxygen species generating pathway, uh, for us to, you know, develop and, and utilize energy.

Um, so yeah, trying to, trying to drive that home, home with my clients and yeah, guys, um, are, are definitely, you know, having a tough time right now. I mean, I see, uh, gentlemen coming into my clinic who are in their twenties, you'd think that they'd be in the, the peak of their metabolic performance and fitness level and, um, you know.

Gentlemen with total testosterone levels in their mid twenties of around 300. And it's like, what's happening here? And, um, what do you think that is? Do you think that's plastic exposure or what, what is it? Yeah. Estrogen, the plastic. Yep. Certainly. Yep. Uh, it's, it's microplastics. It's nanoplastics, it's, um, you know, vitamin D insufficiency or deficiency.

Whoa. Yep. Whether it's, there's, you know, changes in, in cortisol, uh, and, and, you know, some ab barren adrenal function, uh, contributing to that as well. And then also the, the heavy reliance and over utilization of alcohol, uh, is, is a real problem, you know? So, um, anything that's gonna influence the health of the liver, um, in a negative way is gonna contribute to more, um, you know, production of estradiol, uh, which, you know, can really counter, um.

Testosterone, namely in the way that increased estradiol levels are going to increase SHBG or sex hormone binding glo. And when you have increased SHBG that binds up testosterone, there's less free testosterone. You know, for, for men to have bioavailable, um, and, and utilize and reap the benefits of alcohol even in moderation has been associated with increased incidence of, uh, gastrointestinal cancers.

Um, and, you know, liver disease and other metabolic diseases. Uh, and you know, I, I tell patients in my hospitalist role, 'cause we see alcohol, you know, that has gone well to beyond the point where it's. Moderate use. Um, and it's one of the worst ways to leave this world in, in my opinion, if not the worst.

Yeah. I mean, gosh, you get like, go into total toxicity. Yeah. Holy smokes. Yeah. And not only, not only, you know, is the risk for cirrhosis and things like portal hypertension, which can increase the risk for gastrointestinal bleeding and certain cancers, they just end up so bloated and, um, encephalopathic with elevated ammonia levels and, and such.

And it's just, it's a terrible, terrible way to go. And, um. So, you know, I'm not averse to, you know, a glass of wine or a cocktail here and there, maybe a beer. But, um, you know, the daily use is just something that I always caution people against. And traditionally I tell patients, avoid it entirely if you can.

So, okay. So we got the nutrition piece. Mm-hmm. And now we're moving into the exercise side of things. Sure. You just talked about fasted, um, high intensity interval training. What about just steady state cardio? Yeah. Um, how do you, how do you like that as well? I think it's good. I think it's especially good if you are doing, uh, some component of metabolic breath analysis where you're, you know, able to.

Identifies somebody's zone two target. That's the state at which basically, uh, you know, you're maximizing, um, your efficiency in terms of burning fat as your primary energy source. Uh, people become less metabolically efficient. They actually switch over from burning fat to sugar at a lower heart rate. Um, and so, you know, you can really get a good idea using a device like pin noi, metabolic breath analysis, uh, you know, where people need to be exercising, uh, what steady state heart rate they should be locked in, uh, to maximize their fat burning potential.

Um, and then of course, again, you know, tricking the body. So shifting between, you know, cardio to endurance train and other forms of endurance training to resistance training. Um. Mobility exercise, even if it's just body weight, uh, plyometrics, I isometrics. All of those things can be really useful. And I think that there's room for all of them.

Well, it's interesting, right? That's kind of like a, that's a sort of a moderation. Um, you know, I find my training to be heavily dominated by, um, you know, time in the gym and lifting. 'cause that's what I love to do. That's what I, I mean I always, that's kind of been my thing for muscle tone. Well, for, you know, for the longest time.

Right. So it's like, that's kind of what I've been into. But now as I, as I look at it, I go, okay, you know, I have a Peloton. I ride the Peloton. I like to walk. I live in a place where I can walk and get a lot of reps in. And you know, hey, the other day I walked for like two hours, got 11,000 steps in, he's, and it was, you know, variable up and down hills and all over the place.

And so you're getting more than the 11,000 steps. Sure. Uh, burning a lot of calories. You know, we used to go into the gym, man, like, seriously, it wasn't that long ago. I go and do two hour Wow. Heavy duty workouts where you're really coming. But, you know, I found that that would just fry my CNS So central nervous system can be taxed by all, like you mentioned, cortisol, I mean stress really, you know, like, hey, you don't, we don't get the right amount of sleep.

Or we're super stressed out from whatever is happening in our environment. That can come in a variety of formats, eating the wrong food, eating too much food, uh, all of these things add up. So when we start getting to this place where it's like it's all getting straight lined out, I like this notion of the training, uh, where you're doing lots of different things.

Yeah. And, and you have to also really tailor it to the individual. I mean, you know, some people just don't enjoy going to the gym. Like I'm, I'm one of those people that, uh, you know, it's like a total chore for me to get myself into the car, drive 15 minutes across town to get to the gym. So like, I try to, as much as possible, um, optimize my exercise time and whatnot at home, incorporate as, as much of, of that as I can into my home life.

Whether that's kettlebells or, you know, some free weights. Um, I even, you know, will go outside and just. I've got some stairs leading up to my front door. We'll go outside and just do like box jumps, you know, up to the top of my stairs. Um, and so you really have to meet people where they are when it comes to prescribing or recommending exercise.

And then the other thing is that the, the whole other element of, um, exercise is not even what somebody's physically capable of. It's what their motivation and mindset will allow them to do. I mean, a huge issue, I think one of the major obstacles that people have is, um, just, you know, consistency and, you know, building habits.

So people that are really resistant to the notion of exercise or incorporating movement into their life, maybe they just don't know how, maybe they have, you know, poor ability or difficulty with building routine. And so that's one of the things that I really like to do in my practice. I see it as a puzzle.

I see it as a challenge. It's like somebody comes in and they're like, I hate to exercise Craig, or I just don't know how. Or, I'm spending all my time helping everybody else in my family. I, I leave no time for myself. Well, it's like I see that as an opportune time to intervene and figure out how can I help this person build a little consistency, even if it's just the most minute baby steps to begin with, you know, and, and 15 minutes in the morning doing, going through some squats or lunges or, um, you know, what have you.

And then ultimately over weeks, over months, building upon that and helping them really build a foundation of consistency, routine, uh, that's going to propel them into the future and whatever they want to do from a, you know, physical standpoint. It's so great that you actually like, look at it that way.

One thing I've keyed into recently, I just would love to get your take on this, is minimum effective dose. Mm-hmm. Yep. So that's absolutely true. You know, whether it's um, whether it's GLP ones and, uh, people, you know, staying at the lowest effective dose and leaving more room for if they need to titrate up their dose later.

Or, you know, just staying at a lower dose because they're having less side effects. You know, uh, it's a consideration with, with all sorts of other therapeutics and, um. For example, I myself have a degree of chronic pain. I have, uh, Tourette syndrome. I've had it ever since I was a kid. I have some motor ticks associated with it.

Uh, namely in the head and and neck, you know, shoulder region. That's so funny. I never noticed. I know. Yeah. It's like when I get locked in, when I focus that it tends to get better when I'm stressed, it really comes out. But, you know, over the years, um, it's contributed to some component of like cervical dystonia or, you know, abnormal, uh, you know, muscle tension hypertonicity in, in my cervical region and in my upper thoracic spine.

And inevitably a little bit of, um, you know, degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis and, um. There's been a couple things that I've really found to be very, uh, helpful in combating, encountering some of the discomfort that I feel from that on a daily basis. Number one, foam rolling. Uh, you know, and other mobility and exercise, uh, training like, you know, yoga and Pilates and things of that nature.

Uh, just availing myself with the opportunity to stretch, you know, and, um, decompression, uh, treatments with, with foam roll, uh, are great. Number two. Um, you know, limiting sugars, limiting processed foods, um, you know, that that's absolutely instrumental and, and I can't, you know, harp on that enough. Plays back into the inflammation thing.

Yeah, right. Exactly. Exactly. And then, uh, something that, uh, has really been gaining a lot of notoriety, um, recently over the past couple of years is the increasing utilization of something called naltrexone at low doses, which is, um, you know, it's been used at 50 milligram a day doses for people who have issues with opioid use disorder, um, and alcohol use disorder as well.

We're finding more and more, and the research is supporting that, uh, utilization of low dose naltrexone, which is technically in the realm of like 1.5 to around four to five milligrams a day, uh, has this effect of sort of blunting chronic pain or the awareness and sensation of it. And, um, it, it's interesting the way in which it, which it achieves that benefit.

What's the mechanism? How does it all work? The, how does the low, low dose naltrexone? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, it blocks mu and delta receptors and, uh, opioid receptors in the brain, um, for a period of the few hours. And there's a subsequent increase in our endogenous release of endorphins and enkephalins. You know, we think of them as like our feelgood chemicals, um, and.

Not only that, but it's uh, also been shown to reduce some of the bad players in terms of inflammation in the body. So we think about like interleukin one beta and tumor necrosis factor alpha interleukin six. We see that these are, you know, downregulated to an extent. Um, now these are necessary molecules, necessary cytokines in certain situations, but if they're chronically elevated, you know, they're gonna cau cause issues.

And, uh, so being able to blunt the release of those molecules can, um, really do a great. Deal in, in, in mitigating and helping to ameliorate chronic inflammation, uh, in individuals. And that's one of the things that we see with low dose naltrexone. And it also speaks to its utility in the treatment of certain autoimmune conditions, whether that's multiple sclerosis or Hashimoto's hypothyroidism.

Um, you know, I'm, I'm seeing pretty substantial results in, in patients who have those conditions, uh, whether it's just a reduction in symptoms subjectively, or, you know, if we're looking at thyroid antibodies six months down the road, I'm seeing in some patients up to a 50% reduction in thyroid peroxidase antibody or thyroid globulin antibody, which, um, you know, fancy words to say these are immune proteins that are generated, uh, by the body in an inappropriate fashion end up attacking our own, you know, tissues, um, which is the nature of autoimmunity.

And so. The reporting subjective improvements and how they feel from day to day, and then their biomarkers are also showing improvement. And, uh, so I like low-dose naltrexone. I, you know, myself have been on it, um, now for probably four months and, you know, feel some benefit associated with it. I think it's a really good therapeutic that is not being utilized as much as it should in, uh, the world of chronic pain.

Cool. Nutrition, we covered that. We covered some, you know, flexibility in training and figuring out kind of what works for you. So then we're into the testing side of things. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And taking a look at, and you can hear, you hear lots of people that are like, oh, oh man, you know, do the Mark Hyman 500 biomarker test.

Sure. Uh, and then you hear the people that are like, oh no, don't do any, like, well, I can't make any sense of all that stuff. Um, where do you fall in that? I mean, probably mid-range. I think that there are indispensable labs that everybody should have assessed. Um, what are they, C, B, C, you know, make sure that we're, you know, not anemic.

That our, you know, we have adequate. Hemoglobin and hematocrit and red cells. Make sure that our white cells are within a normal parameter and that we have, you know, an appropriate amount of platelets. Now looking always at red cell Indic indices, we're talking about like MCV, uh, MCH, MCHC. These give an indication, uh, about a couple of different things, whether we have, you know, some component of chronic inflammation, whether we have certain nutritional deficiencies.

Um, so, you know, there's a lot that we can glean from that. Um, looking at metabolic function, liver function, kidney function, these are an electrolyte balance. These are indispensable labs that everybody needs thyroid, right? So, um, you know, making sure that the organ that's really setting our metabolic rate is appropriately functioning.

And there's a lot of issues that people are having nowadays with thyroid. Um, so. I like to do a little bit of a deeper dive with thyroid. If you go to your PCP, a lot of times you get yeah, just the bare minimum TTSH and T four. But, you know, looking at free T four, free T three, reverse T three, and then thyroid antibodies, that's, that's the workup right there.

Um, that should, should be included. Um, but, you know, hey, beyond that, lipids, right? Um, and I, I think that we're doing sort of the bare minimum again of, uh, lipid analysis. So if you, you know, are just looking at a lipid panel as one would order again through insurance or what have you, uh, it's really not giving you the whole picture.

Um, and so. Checking something like a lipo profile, NMR lipo profile, um, you know, gives a, a much more robust indication of true cardiovascular risk. And that's because, you know, you hear of LDLs as being your bad cholesterol, right? Uh, but LDLs come in different sizes and they can be large, fluffy or not.

Yeah, they can be fluffy and buoyant, um, and very, you know, bouncy in the endothelium, the, uh, lining of the, of the vessel. They can be very small and dense and potentially destructive, more prone to contributing to athero, atherogenesis and plaque buildup in the arteries. And that's where the real danger exists.

Exactly. Yeah. And so we can, um, you know, look at those, we can see the size, we can see the particle number. Do you think statins, let me ask you something. Where do you think statins play a role? I think there's evidence to support the fact that statins will, uh, through their ability to, um, inhibit that enzyme, HMG, uh, co-enzyme reductase, uh, or COA reductase, that is the, um, you know, basically the rate limiting enzyme for cholesterol production, uh, cholesterol synthesis in the body.

And so through inhibiting them, you know, you are blunting your body's own synthesis and namely in the liver production of cholesterol. And there's evidence to support that. You know, statins also will help with plaque stabilization in people that have risk for or have had cardiovascular disease or stroke.

Um. Things of that nature. So, uh, I agree that the science is there to support their utilization in some situations, I think we give them out, by and large, like their candy, and I think that their potential to cause issues in patients or, or in people, uh, is way understated. And I think that, um, you know, cholesterol is an absolutely critical, um, you know, compound in our body.

It's necessary for brain health. It's necessary for the health of our, uh, cell membranes. It's necessary for, uh, steroidogenesis and hormonal synthesis in the body. And, uh, just, you know, critical so by blunting cholesterol too low, you know, we're really doing a disservice to patients. But, you know, I, I'm in this interesting.

Part of my career where I'm still working in the hospital. And it's like, you're not hitting the core measures unless everybody who comes in with an mi, everybody who comes in with a TIA or A-C-V-A-A stroke, you know, that it's like they're going on a statin. And not only are they going on a statin, but they're going on high intensity.

Lipitor, Crestor. Um, and there's two sides of the coin. There's, there's good, uh, associated with them. There's a lot of potential doubt in sides. And, you know, statin induced myopathies and, and leg pain and weakness is, is very real. And, um, you know, it's, uh, it's the type of thing that, uh, you know, there's a lot of other potential therapies out there that can do a great job of, of lipid lowering.

Um, if, if somebody has high risk, uh, for cardiovascular cerebrovascular disease. Um, and I just think that, you know. This is another area where things like GLP ones and, and hormone optimization are really doing a great deal of good in helping to improve people's lipid profile. It's interesting, you know, I was talking to a friend and he was like, yeah, gonna go start back on Red Tru tide, um, because A1C was up.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Uh, l were up. This is a optimizer, right? This is your guy that's at a another level, peak level. Okay. So we've got the test. Now we're into like talking about. Peptide. So GLP one's phenomenal. Like sure, there's some, there's also some downsides to those, and you gotta be careful. Sure. Beyond that, what's a top peptide that you feel no one's really talking about, or one that you just really like?

Yeah, I think, um, thymosin beta four, we've talked about it's utilization alongside something like BPC 1 57 for acute injury, uh, repair, um, reduction in, in, uh, you know, inflammation and pain. But, you know, a lot of the things that, you know, it, it, it doesn't garner enough attention for. Um, is its, you know, ability to help with things like stem cell migration to areas where, you know, tissues have been damaged in the past, uh, or acutely.

And, um, it's been investigated, uh, for traumatic brain injury and healing post CBA, um, it was used, you know, pretty profoundly in, in some experimental therapies in China during the COVID pandemic. Uh, so, you know, there's just a lot of different aspects to thymus and beta four and its, you know, partner, uh, thymus and alpha one as peptides that are really, uh, potent modulators of inflammatory response, um, and regulators of the immune system.

Uh, and, uh, I think, you know, it also has these abilities alongside, uh, you know, BPC with augmenting VEGF or vascular endothelial growth factor to promote angiogenesis in the formation of new blood vessels. So I love. Thymosin beta four. Um, you know, it's even got, uh, skin and soft tissue and hair benefits, you know, where so people can, uh, have improvements in hair, skin, nail quality with, with something like Thymosin Beta four.

Um, and beyond that, one of the ones that I like to utilize a lot and in my clients, um. And it's simple, uh, and it's not an injection is, uh, Cmax, which, um, you know, is a nasal spray that people can utilize on, uh, uh, once or twice daily, um, regimen. And, um, you know, this is a peptide, it's a neuropeptide that has the ability to, um, increase the amount of BDNF or brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is associated with improvements in short-term memory, uh, and hippocampal volume, which is where, you know, it's basically like the seed of short-term memory formulation in the brain.

Um, and then, you know, we see as we do with so many of the other peptides that, that we love better regulation of the inflammatory molecules that can either create problems or help to resolve a problem in an acute situation. So, so you must like sea like that. I do like Srilanka, and I think that, you know, that has, um, a lot of utility in people who have anxiety disorders and, you know, whether it's, uh, whether that's contributing to sleep disruption or, or panic episodes, uh, what have you.

I, I think that they can be used, you know, in combination with each other's Slan and Cmax. So I really love those. Um, another one that I've been utilizing with, um, increasing frequencies is, um, Telin and, I mean, I'll tell you what Teslin is. Like who? Yeah. Oh, whoa. It's, talk about a visceral, fat destroyer.

Sure. That is like, um, it's roots in Yeah. You know, where it came from. You know, you could explain more about that, but Rista is like, yep. Oh man. That's serious stuff. Absolutely. Yeah. So Rista was, uh, the FDA approved medication for, for Temor and, um. As, you know, way to counter some of the HIV associated lipodystrophy, uh, that we see in patients who are on these anti antiretroviral medications to treat their illness.

So lipodystrophy for those that don't know, means that, you know, you've, you put on mass amounts of, uh, visceral body fat in the adult cavity and, uh, yeah. So yeah, yeah, Tesla's great. It's, um, you know, it's phenomenal for helping to reduce visceral fat and, and for, um, you know, people who may not be aware, that's the fat tissue that we really have to be very cautious about and, and be aware of in the body.

It's very pro-inflammatory. It's, uh, hormonally disruptive. So, so we're talking about nutrition. Mm-hmm. We're talking about pep testing, talking about use of peptides. Um, you like. Um, Cmax Cell Inc. Um, thy beta thon, beta fourth thymosin alpha one. From a immune standpoint. Exactly. BBC 1, 5 7. Um, ghr. HS and G ps.

Yeah. So talk, you know what, so many people when they hear that, they don't know what that means. Mm-hmm. Can you break that down? Right. So, uh, growth hormone of which there are, you know, over a hundred different types in the, in the body, um, you know, that are naturally produced, uh, is, you know, the type of thing that is associated with, um.

Generation of tissues or expansion of tissues, whether it's, you know, uh, cellular growth or, uh, reproduction of cells. Um, and so it becomes instrumental as, you know, a hormone that drives growth, um, which is necessary through development. And, you know, as we age, we tend to lose growth hormone. Now growth hormone peaks in our twenties, it generally declines by about 14% every decade thereafter.

Uh, and so by the time we're in our later forties or our fifties, sixties, you know, we're dealing with a lot less growth hormone than we had when we were in our younger years. That being said. The machinery that's implicated or involved in producing growth hormone, um, does not decline in its, you know, ability to do so.

So, uh, one of the things that we can do is use growth hormone secrete dogs or peptides that mimics some of the natural substances found in our body that, um, enable us to release or, or promote the release of growth hormone in order to achieve some of those, uh, more robust levels that we had in our younger years.

And so when we talk about A-A-G-H-R-H, we're talking about a growth hormone releasing hormone, um, which, you know, basically primes the machine, so to speak, and then a growth hormone releasing peptide, which allows for the actual release of, of growth hormone from the anterior pituitary gland. And, um, I. You know what happens?

Growth hormone is, it's not just in a steady state of, uh, being released throughout the day. It's released in pulses. Uh, you know, when we're younger, we get, you know, maybe eight good pulses of growth hormone throughout the day, the strongest of which being, uh, at nighttime during sleep. Uh, which again helps with that, you know, anabolic repair phase, um, of our day.

Um, and then, you know, as again, as we age, we're losing the number of the frequency with which growth hormone is released, and we're also losing some of the amplitude, the amount of growth hormones that's released. So, so by utilizing. Growth hormone secreted glos, whether it's CJC 1295 or um, rein with the HEXA or, uh, utilizing tein and imar.

Um, you know, that combination of GHRH and GHRP allows for us to restore the frequency with which the growth hormone is, is pulsed from the pituitary gland and restore the amplitude, the amount, uh, and volume of growth hormone, uh, that is released. And then, you know, basically what that does is it, it drives IGF one, which is, um, you know, molecule synthesized in the liver, uh, that really incites those, those processes of, of repair and growth.

Um, and, you know. As a result, individuals have, um, increased muscle protein synthesis. So they're able to, you know, put on more lean composition. They have increases in lipolysis and fat burning potential. Um, we see, you know, changes in the way that their body responds to insulin. And that's one of the things that we have to keep an eye on because sometimes those, uh, can actually go the, a little too far and drive some insulin resistance.

So, um, you know, we pay attention to that. And then the other benefit of working with growth hormone secreted dogs is that they, um, do help with, uh, deeper sleep. You know, so people that have some sleep related issues, uh, often see that there's some improvement in their substantial improvement in their sleep.

Um. And for those who have taken it, you know, uh, they'll, they'll notice, you know, a a, a very present, you know, flushing sensation, uh, maybe five to 10 minutes after, um, utilizing something like CJC or Tero. Yeah, I see that with CJC eMAR. Uh, exactly. Heavy flushing. Yeah. Um, I liken it to like a, like a niacin flush, but without the uncomfortable itching associated with it.

It's like anytime you take beta alanine Yeah. Yeah. Too. This is terrible. Right. I can't, I hate that stuff. I mean, it's great for like endurance workouts, but Sure. Um, but just in chills say Yeah, that flushing that you get CJC 1295 Amarin not as much to test Marin rein's gonna give you a pretty heavy duty cortisol response.

Sure. Yeah. That probably not a great one to take at night. There are some other things you can use with it though to Sure. Yourself down and get, get to sleep. Right. Uh, that's actually one that I haven't. Prescribed or utilized, you know? Uh, yeah. Yeah. So the other ones have become very, you know, challenging to, uh, utilize and, and prescribe to, to people.

Now that's because of some of the recent FDA changes, um, you know, in putting them on a bulk substances category, two bulk substances list and, and whatnot. But there are still, uh, compounding pharmacies out there that are, you know, going full steam ahead with their peptides production. Um, and, and you definitely want to go that route.

You do not want to go Yeah. Research based. Yeah. Yeah. There are a lot of people that are on that research based tip. There really are. And I, I think it's unfortunate. And there's people who are big names in that industry who are, um. They're, they're really, they've got companies, they're making products, but I just, you know, as a, as a clinician, number one, I would never, you know, it's 5 0 3 a compounding pharmacy all the way G compliant.

Third party tested. Exactly, exactly. And not only that, but like, you know, for a consumer, you know, if you're somebody who's got access to the internet and a credit card and you wanna go buy peptides online, you know, that's, that's on you at the end of the day. If you. Receive something in the mail and, and put it in your body, you know, at least when you're working with a clinician.

Um, and having recommendations and peptides prescribed to you from known, you know, reputable sources. Um, again, you know, 5 0 3 A compounding pharmacies. There's, you know, a, a little bit of protection and, and potential recourse if you have a negative response or some sort of. Atrogenic in injury, God forbid, from, um, you know, taking a, taking a peptide.

Now generally peptides are very safe and I, I feel like I have to say that, but pretty, pretty rare to get so, I mean exactly. Because they're signaling agents. Yeah. You know, you're not gonna go off the wall. Like if you took a, a real drug that's causing a mechanism of action that's like, you not gonna be able to stop it.

Right. Exactly. Exactly. And then the other thing, um, you know, I'm just gonna throw this back in, go back to the G-H-R-H-G-H-R-P thing. So, you know, it's kind of like, um, in this industry, in, in this, you know, the world of fitness bodybuilding, um, performance optimization, uh, there's people who are using actual HGH, you know, human growth hormone, which, um, when it's utilized, uh, unfortunately, um, you know, is suppressive to, um.

You know that axis again, and, uh, you're, you're only use utilizing one of the, one of the forms of, of HDH when there's, you know, several. So you're not giving the body the opportunity to decide, you know, which is the right growth hormones to release for which indication, and then you're shutting it down.

So, um, you know, that's one of the things that you can circumvent and bypass when you use growth hormone secrete dogs. So like a patient comes to see you. Mm-hmm. So first thing, it's like workup on tests, trying to figure out, you get to talk with 'em. What are your goals? Trying to understand where they are, meet the patient where they are.

Uh, love your philosophy on exercise. Um, and then nutrition. Uh, trying to get somebody, you know, I'm sure you work with people who are vegan and you work with people who are carnivore and all these types of things. We're trying to work in all of that. Um, and then, you know, talking about testing, um, peptides and sleep, you're really covering the full gamut.

For someone, which is super cool because oftentimes you're just not gonna get that in the traditional model that we've been talking about. That is really what we'll call quote unquote sick care. Certainly. So, yeah, I think that, um, you know, hitting on all those points, I mean, I, I pride myself on the fact that when, when clients come to see me, I want them to feel refreshed by their encounter.

You know, I want them to feel like, wow, somebody sat there and actually asked me about, you know, how am I managing stress? How am I sleeping? You know, what did I eat yesterday? What did you know? What am I doing to move my body? Um, and where do I want to go with my health? And, um, you know, that's just not the type of thing that's, uh, that you see or encounter much in, in the traditional sick care model.

And so, um, you know, that's where it starts with me. And then, you know, my philosophy coming back to the peak performance, uh, aspect, my philosophy from. At the time when I was a kid and on now I'm gonna be 38 at the end of this month. Um, you know, it's, do the next right thing that might be paying a bill. It might be, you know, taking out the trash, raking the leaves, um, you know, reading your kid a story to bed, you know, do the next right thing because when you put the the foot down and you're on the right path, the next step becomes so much easier.

And, um, it builds on it, it builds but it effective success. Exactly. Yeah. It starts there and, uh, that's hard for some people. I, I get it. And, um, you know, I just, I wanna emphasize to, to people that, you know, tomorrow's a new day. There's, there's always a new opportunity and that's when you gotta lock in and say, Hey, I'm just gonna do the thing that I know that I gotta do to get me to the.

The next phase, the next level up. Um, and, and the more that people continue to build upon those habits and, you know, strive for those small successes, the more inclined they are to, you know, bigger projects, greater endeavors, you know, having more future success down the road. And so, um, that's my personal philosophy.

I think that's what's enabled me to go from working as a, as a CNA to getting my nursing degree to going back to grad school, becoming a nurse practitioner, you know, and. Continuing to learn, you know, life is a journey. We're not living if we're not learning, if we're not growing. And, uh, that's all I can say.

You know, it's, it's what you gotta do. That's what we're here to do. That's our mission. Yeah. It's all, it's always about, Hey, what's next? Like the brain scan stuff we were talking about. I mean, I think that's gonna be fascinating. Super cool. Yeah, I'm excited to, uh, neuro steer the, uh, yeah, you know, it's, it's brainwave, uh, brain activity, electrical activity, um, mapping.

Um, and I'm, I would love to incorporate that into my practice. And I think, you know, really, uh, again, sort of what you're alluding to and, and, uh, what I was alluding to is, you know, you gotta avail yourself of opportunities. Don't limit yourself, you know, don't fall victim to. Negative self-talk and imposter syndrome and, and things where you, you are ultimately setting yourself up, yourself up to fail because you think that you can't achieve.

You know, it's, it's about just availing yourself of opportunities, you know, diving in, taking risks and, um, calculated risks and, and, uh. You know, so you gotta go for it, man. You got, you gotta go for it. And you know what, like there's a million reasons why not to, uh, but at the end of the day when you go for it and you know, quiet the noise of what it everybody else is gonna think or what are they're gonna say, who cares?

Exactly. You know what, what really matters is if you got a good heart for it, you really care about what you're doing, you're not gonna be perfect. Gonna make mistakes, gonna mess up. Uh, obviously not a clinical side, but you know what I mean. It's, it's important to, uh, to stay with it and, and really, uh, and really hit it as hard as you possibly can.

So I'm stoked for you, man. Great. God bless. Great to have you here. And, um, yeah, it's just been a pleasure spending time with you. Likewise my friend. Thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it was awesome. Hey, thanks for joining us today. If you like what you heard or saw, please make sure to like, comment, and subscribe and share with a friend so that they might be able to get access to this content as well.

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