Uncommonly Remarkable
Uncommonly Remarkable is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health. The show is published in two formats: authored monologues that explore core ideas around health, resilience, and human biology, and In Conversation episodes featuring long-form discussions with clinicians, scientists, and founders. Rather than chasing trends, the show focuses on systems, signals, and long-term trajectory. Hosted by Artis Beatty.
Uncommonly Remarkable
Protein Isn’t the First Question
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Protein dominates health conversations — but are we focusing on the wrong lever? In this conversation, Carson and I unpack muscle preservation, hormones, fiber, and where peptides actually fit into long-term health.
Protein is one of the most talked-about nutrients in modern health culture. But true protein deficiency in the United States is rare — while other foundational elements of health are often overlooked.
In this conversation with Carson, we step back from the macro-counting mindset and look at the bigger physiological picture.
We discuss: • Why protein deficiency is uncommon — and why fiber deficiency is not • The real drivers of muscle preservation as we age • Resistance training vs. macronutrient obsession • Sleep, endocrine balance, and recovery • The difference between exogenous hormones and peptide stimulation • Growth hormone modulation and long-term risk • Short-term performance vs. long-term healthspan
This episode is less about how many grams you’re eating — and more about which levers actually move the needle.
If you care about strength, recovery, metabolic health, and longevity, this conversation reframes where your attention might belong.
Uncommonly Remarkable℠ is a health and wellness show focused on understanding how the body works and how everyday choices shape long-term health.
I’m Artis Beatty, a doctor of optometry and Chief Medical Officer at MyEyeDr. While my professional background informs how I think, the perspectives shared here are my own.
When in the United States, when you look at protein deficiency, that's less than three percent of Americans. But yet it it occupies this much of a conversation.
SPEAKER_02That is really interesting to think about, right? Like um, because it you hear about um protein in some way, form, or fashion almost daily, right? Um and so the big assumption, my assumption until you just said that is that it must be a big problem for people. So to to think that it's only three percent of people who have a problem is kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_01Right. It's a funny term. Maybe go back and learn the term we learn learn in med school, right? Quashior core syndrome or disease, which is protein deficiency to degree where you're getting peripheral edema, skin manifestations, the swollen baby. Remember, that was uh the Ethiopian commercials that we'd see for the young kids. We don't see that in the United States, right? But there's a lot of focus on that intake. And several studies, when you look at them, whether it's in 30 to 50 year olds or whether it's in 60 plus, or you're sarcopinic individuals, protein intake is relatively inconsequential. What's more consequential is am I moving weight? Am I engaging in some type of resistance training? Alternatively, where Americans do fall short is the nutrient or role of dietary fiber. About uh 95 plus percent fall deficient in the recommended daily intake of fiber.
SPEAKER_02This is uncommonly remarkable in conversation. Ladies, gentlemen, all you remarkable people, please welcome Dr. Carson Shearer to the show. Carson, I am excited to have you here. Thank you for coming back and having a conversation with us. It's been a little while since uh we've gotten to sit down and really talk.
SPEAKER_01It has. Wow. I'm I'm flattered that I'm among your first and returning guests. Pleasure to be here and uh always feel more insight, insightful and uh a better person in your presence. So yeah, happy to be here. Oh man, man.
SPEAKER_02You're starting this thing off right. You know, I've had a a lot of conversations since we last talked on the show, and I've learned uh a lot of things. I am still not an expert in any of them, but I am a jack of even more trades now. And one of the things that has been on my mind is thinking about our nutrition and thinking about recovery and the building blocks of the body. If uh listeners have gone back through some of the episodes recently, we have really focused a lot on how do we go from being just okay to being a better version of ourselves, and we focus specifically on that from a physical point of view. So the last episode that we um had, we talked about sleep and how we always frame sleep in in the frame of recovery, but it's much, much more. There's a bunch of other things going on, and there's a psychological effect from getting ample and proper sleep, and that shouldn't be discounted. Previous to that, though, we talked about the microbiome, we've talked about just overall nutrition, we've talked about supplementation, and all of those things are really circling around what are the body's building blocks and what are the things that we need to do in order to improve the way our body is processing things, improving our recovery. But also for those of us who are looking for better strength or better performance for physical activity, what are those things that we need? And there's a lot of mystery around protein. And it's interesting for me because in the protein world, you get these recommendations for how much protein you should have. Nobody's really consistent on that. There are variables depending on how young or how old you are, if you're male, if you're female, if you're really active or only kind of active. And it can get really confusing for people. And so what I hope today we will accomplish is having a discussion around protein importance, kind of the big picture of what you need to be thinking about so that as people do their research and make decisions about how they want to approach it, they're better armed to understand some of those things that uh come up and can make those decisions. Along with protein, though, there has been a boom in uh peptide use and recommendation. And people are getting recommended peptides all over the place. I mean, if you scroll through any social media thread and it catches you looking at one peptide in 10 minutes, there's five or six different offers about peptides, people who I don't know have adequate training or recommending peptides to people. And it can also be very confusing. Thinking about peptides as building blocks for proteins is kind of interesting, right? And so I would love for us to be able to dive into that topic as well as we go through the conversation. Sounds great. So why don't we start off thinking about just protein in general? Talk to us a little bit about protein itself, what it's what it really does for the body, and maybe some of the importance of uh adequate protein intake.
SPEAKER_01Sure. I think from a high level, right? So protein is one of our three of macronutrients with fats and carbs, and serve as different chemical mediators, right, on a cellular level. I think most commonly when we're talking about protein intake, it's around the support of skeletal muscle mass. And uh to reiterate what you said, yes, there's certainly varying recommendations and numerous studies out there on what's the ideal protein intake. And before we kind of get in the woods there, and I think when we start talking about that, just as your prior shows and you realize how in-depth in the role of sleep from a biochemical and recovery standpoint, the intricacy of the gastrointestinal system, the biome specifically, we quickly get into the woods and kind of isolate this dynamic human physiology and say, hey, artist, you need this much, or this age needs this much. Is it pertinent to how vigorous and what type of exercise you do that day? It's not um I I'll you know, I'll tell you, I'm I'm continuously humbled by human physiology. And so I don't think there is a hard number. You need 0.08, you need 1.5 milligrams per kilogram of protein per day. Um, you know, it's easy to get caught in that woods, and I think there's a lot of misinformation. And I get this all the time in our gyms, our trainers, and the importance of it. But at least, you know, through the literature that I go back and look at, um, hopefully this you know doesn't or puts it in perspective, I think, from a high level. Somebody has an underactive endocrine function. Let's take the thyroid, very common, right? If it's underactive and you've got hypothyroidism, it does not matter how much protein intake you take, you consume to maintain lean muscle mass. Vice versa, if you've got hypogonadism as a male or a female, um, it really doesn't matter if you have very low testosterone or a very high TSH, very underactive thyroid, and you double or triple your protein intake, I think that has inconsequential when you're talking about skeletal muscle mass support. So again, from a high level, won't we hop right in when we talk about, hey, what's the exact recommendation there? So I think it all depends on where your homeostasis is from a physiologic standpoint, where is your sleep, and you know, there's other major hormones that come into play, your autonomic nervous system, your adrenal access. Um, I think all that comes into play. So I'd be misleading you or anybody else because I said, hey, you this is the exact number that you need. More importantly, um, you know, you made me kind of brush up on some of this information before coming in, but this is a very hotly debated conversation, right? Yeah. When in the United States, when you look at protein deficiency, that's less than 3% of Americans. But yet it it occupies this much of a conversation. Trevor Burrus, Jr. That is really interesting to think about, right?
SPEAKER_02Like because you hear about protein in some way, form, or fashion almost daily, right? And so the big assumption, my assumption until you just said that is that it must be a big problem for people. So to think that it's only 3% of people who have a problem is kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_01Right. It's a funny term. Remember, you go back and learn the term we learn learn in med school, right? Quashior core syndrome or disease, which is protein deficiency to degree where you're getting peripheral edema, skin manifestations, the swelling diaping. Remember, that was uh the Ethiopian commercials that we'd see for the young kids. We don't see that in the United States, right? But there's a lot of focus on that intake. And several studies, when you look at them, whether it's in 30 to 50 year olds or whether it's in 60 plus, or you're sarcopinic individuals, protein intake is relatively inconsequential. What's more consequential is am I moving weight? Am I engaging in some type of resistance training? Alternatively, where Americans do fall short is the nutrient or role of dietary fiber. About uh 95 plus percent fall deficient in the recommended daily intake of fiber. And the reason the reason I bring that up and not to elude the conversation of protein, we can talk more about sources of protein, but again, it's not just isolation in my protein uh intake there. There's a lot more that goes to it. And I think the you know, from from a high level, when I guide clients, rather than hopping right into the woods, it's much more important for me the quality of the foods that we eat and when we eat them, as opposed to spending too much mental currency in the exact macronutrient profile and grams of protein in this case. If you're going to focus on something or put some mental currency into it, my recommendation would be put on the fiber component.
SPEAKER_02That's that's so interesting because you I think when we really look at the I guess macronutrient uh intake, you know, there's been a lot of talk about the pyramid and um and whether it's a cube or pyramid misstacked, maybe it's I don't know, got diagonal slides, I don't know. Like there is there is an emphasis on the things like uh fats and on carbohydrates, there's an emphasis on protein for sure, right? But the fiber component doesn't get a lot of airplay. How sexy is it? It's not. It's not. And there are a lot of there are lots of, I guess, digestive functions that are dependent on uh fiber intake. And having fiber also helps to displace some of the things that would maybe be negative in a diet in the process, right? And so combined, you can end up with better outcomes overall by making sure you hit that fiber intake piece. Um, and but why do you think it's not talked about in the same regard as these other nutrients?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, I coming back to that, I think hey, right, biceps are a lot sexier than poop than feces. I think that's a big component of it. And I, you know, and I think I'll I'll back up again for a second when we're talking about protein intake, at least at least from a uh practitioner or medicine standpoint, I try to center those conversations around, hey, what are your goals, right? And still I would say with that, hey, if my goal is to gain X amount of skeletal lean muscle mass, um, in disregard risk of colon cancer, the risk of cardiovascular disease, the amount of protein intake is is as long as you're not falling at deficient, you know, 3% of Americans less than 50 or 60 grams a day, it's pretty inconsequential when you've got physiologic accord, your endocrine system, sleep dialed in, um, those things make a much bigger difference. That that global health or overall physiology as opposed to, hey, am I just dialing in this macronutrient? And I think, you know, really when you look at the strain on organ systems, liver, and kidneys, we do run that risk. You do run that risk. There was a great book years ago, the end of Alzheimer's, uh, physician that wrote there was a neurologist. And he, you know, he pulled out insight that said, hey, if you overdo it on protein intake, similar carbohydrates, it will generate pancreatic insulin secretion and generate insulin resistance. Similarly, one of the studies I just brushed up in talked about the difference in animal protein versus plant protein. And both, if you generate this 10% of weight loss, most people get improvement in insulin sensitivity. But you lose the insulin sensitivity improvements are lost with animal protein intake, even with the 10% of weight loss. Some of that is interesting. And some there was another study that shows, hey, some of that is has to do with where body fat deposition is. Uh there's a particular study that shows MRIs of the leg and where higher animal protein intake, the adipose tissue is more ingrained in the muscle tissue itself, which they're attributing to that loss of metabolic function function and insulin sensitivity, as opposed to even if body fat is percentage that that subcutaneous fat was where the equal amounts of fat was deposited in somebody who is more plant-based protein.
SPEAKER_02Really? So, you know, thinking about thinking about that then, let's go backwards for a second. If we if we've established that most people are at they have adequate protein, and that is really a function of living where we live and having access to the types of foods that we have, then we are generally less worried about are we getting enough? There could be more concern around certain individuals, are they getting too much? And when we think about the difference between animal proteins and plant proteins, if I'm hearing you right, they both can have the same positive effect. They can have the negative effect if you're getting too much just in general, but maybe plant proteins live a little bit different when it comes to fat deposition and that fat being within layers of muscle versus how protein, animal proteins are metabolized or stored. That's correct. Yeah, that's correct.
SPEAKER_01And I think I think a lot of that is you know gear based several things that that I would point out, right? If and again, this is from high level as an internist, and and when I'm focusing on people's goals, background in me is looking at the common causes of death and disease. How do I mitigate that, right? That might not be something we're addressing from day one, but certainly in the back of my mind with cardiovascular disease, cancers, strokes, and so on. There's a there's a particular study that I looked at and it and it used, I think it was older adults, 65 and older, and um it was X number of months on 0.8 milligrams per kilogram of body weight protein ingestion versus 1.3. Um, and there was really no significant difference in strength, speed, power, skeletal muscle mass with that. Now when you add in resistance training with protein, there's a slight edge. Resistance training alone, a strength training, that has a positive impact on that. And maybe there's a little bit of edge with moderate amount of protein, moderate amount of protein um and combined with resistance training in gaining skeletal muscle mass.
SPEAKER_02So the training becomes more important. And I maybe maybe we should emphasize that the conversation around protein really started because of the definite understanding, the proven understanding that higher levels of skeletal muscle, particularly as we age, puts us in a much better position to do so and maintain our independence.
SPEAKER_01Very important. Very important. Yes. Yeah, that part I am not belittling, extremely important from aging well. It's a close second to the VO2 max reflection of that cardiopulmonary relationship. So very important as you age. But again, I wouldn't put the focus, and plenty of studies prove that it's not, hey, as we age, increase your protein intake. Again, with that, you've got a little bit of a loss of resiliency in the renal kidney and in liver function. And by tacking on extra protein, you're putting a little bit more burden on those. Instead, what I find when I use four-point bioelectrical impedance analysis in my office, I tell men and women the bigger drivers in maintaining and growing skeletal muscle mass, am I picking up heavy weight? Do I have high normal testosterone levels? And do I have adequate growth hormone? Those unequivocally are the bigger, bigger drivers in there. And so if in traditionally I'll tell people, hey, if you've got those three things dialed in, your protein intake, as long as you're not grossly deficient, less than that is not the case in the majority of our Americans, it really is inconsequential. Really is inconsequential. It makes sense. We we can look at studies and in design, but we know this if somebody's a couch potato sitting on the sofa and they consume 0.5 or 2 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, that's not gonna move the needle. Yeah. That's not gonna move not from a skeletal muscle mass gain. In fact, that that risk benefit profile, they've really heightened that risk associated with it. And so the same thing, if it's not sitting on the sofa, but my DSH is five, six, seven, or even you know, three to four, where your metabolic rate is slowed down a little bit, that protein's not gonna you're doubling your protein, it's not gonna make a difference.
SPEAKER_02So I think that this is a very powerful conversation to have then, because it I always feel that you're in when we're having these types of talks, we start with what everybody has really heard, right? Like there's nobody who has not heard adequate protein is very important, right? So once you start to peel that back and understand that you're probably not having inadequate protein, then the natural second question is then what do I do in order to make sure I'm gonna be in the best position as time goes on? And your your three seem like very important pieces, right? And I don't know that there's a lot of conversation about making sure that and I love how you phrased it high normal testosterone as an example, right? Sure. Because like BMI, the testosterone levels are kind of normalized based on maybe inadequacies or just kind of what the general population is, not necessarily what the general population should be. Um, and so that's very interesting to think about that. Do you find with your patients or even when you talk to colleagues that people are aware of the fact that maybe they should be looking at hormone levels or body chemistry alongside their targets in order to get uh to maximize uh what they're trying to do? We certainly have those discussions.
SPEAKER_01Um probably some of the more common presenting symptoms or concerns or rooms for improvement that I'll get are energy level decomposition. And so with those, we we really hone in on the endocrine system. And I'll you know, refer back to that pituitary gland, the anterior pituitary in the brain, and the importance of it's the the main hormones that come from there, your thyroid stimulating hormone, your growth hormone, uh, your ACTH, the stimulus the adrenal glands. You want to keep those in a homeostatic uh around, homeostasis normal and not perpetually in sympathetic overload, right? Where I'm sleeping four hours a night over time, we can get by with it for a night or two. So I think having all those dialed in and keeping those in a youthful state should translate to aging well. And two other things you commented on, you know, how we've gotten where we're the the marketing and importance of protein. And I kind of stepped back a little bit, maybe not quite the same or quite as egregious, but maybe somewhere after that industrial revolution, as you pointed out earlier, the quality and nutrition nutrient density of foods has decreased, but the marketing powers and lobbying interests, we've we've got things to sell, right, from those from those interests. Where, you know, really without you know, if if if you just have a reasonable understanding of human physiology, we know what the cells run off of, we know what the human body needs. And I'd point out, hey, you can go straight to the source and get those nutrients, whether it's protein or or vitamin B or D, and consume those, or you can go to the third party vendor, now the pig, the chicken. Right. And those those things we take on a little risk of their in metabolic toxins, right? That um are in and what they end up on our on our plate, right? And when I talk to peers and colleagues who I I look up in mentors, they'll point out, hey, look, a lot of these studies aren't done with the grass fed, aren't done with the wild wild caught. And I I'll give that, I'll save that a little bit, but at the end of the day, right, looking at a a gorilla or cow, they have a robust amount of lean muscle mass. They're not eating other animals, not eating other animals. And so, you know, for me, I like and engage all the time in sports performance and body composition, but I sleep better at night knowing that I'm kind of tackling long-term risk and common cause of death and disease. I don't want to trade one one for the other.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I don't know that I've ever heard anybody talk through it that way, right? We hear about vegan diets, we hear about vegetarian diets, and it's often framed as a choice that is based on a social constraint or social pressure to decide I'm not going to have meat, right? Or maybe it's a moral conscious decision, I um I'm not gonna have meat because I don't believe that we should be using animals for that. That that is framed all the time. And so it's really interesting and a lot different to think about it being from the source versus kind of the second source, which I think is kind of interesting, right? Because you you established a really good point in that you're looking at these animals that are highly muscular, muscular enough that we want to eat them, right? And they do that based on being able to metabolize plants. And so can people do the same thing and cut out some of the Things that may actually be problematic based on how we treat or raise those animals. And I think to me, that's a much cleaner argument and really more educated way to think about am I going to get what I need? Well, the answer sounds like yes. Do I lower my risk? Probably so. Then can I make that choice and feel good about the choice that I made? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Uh it was a saying years ago that I heard is that, hey, if you don't know what you're eating is eating, then you don't know what you're eating. Um, and that might not make a big difference today or next week or in the month, but certainly in years to come is that goal of detoxification in the 21st world century and what we're feeding our animals. And uh that makes a big difference in the long term. That makes a big difference. I go back to saying, hey, nutrition, I love peptides, love hormones, there's some pharmaceuticals, GLPs, U3 that are great, but your your uh most pivotal therapeutic medicine of the course of a lifetime is nutrition, unequivocally. And coming back to one of your previous shows where you talked about gut and biome. I talk with everybody about the importance of bowel transit time. When we quickly, our perception, when we say protein, we hop to whatever animal protein that is, right? That's that's kind of ingrained, whether it's marketing or not. That's our uh the common jump that we go to. And there's no fiber in an egg, there's no fiber in fish, there's no fiber in chicken or steak or beef, right? And that is definitely gonna slow down transit time. Definitely gonna slow down transit time. So again, my encouragement for most people is is the mental currency that you're spending on, hey, I've got to get this many grams a a day of it. Um, I'd encourage you to put that mental currency into fiber, into sleep, into moving some weight.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well, then if there's one thing that if you're hearing about protein on on the left side, the one thing you're hearing constantly on the right side are some of the things you just mentioned. You know, we think about amino acids as kind of being the base building block, and those amino acids form peptides and those peptides intern in or form uh proteins. Talk about um uh GLPs, like there's a lot of conversation uh today around all of the components that would lead to protein, but their individual uses and how those components given by themselves may be beneficial. So for people who are interested in, I mean, if they're having the protein thoughts and conversations, then they are most certainly wondering about the importance of peptides and whether or not they are missing out or should be investigating those as much as they are thinking about their protein. So now that we've established most people are not short on protein and that they should be thinking about a whole bunch of other things, where do peptides in this uh brave new world uh fall and how do people start thinking about those? Yeah, great, great question.
SPEAKER_01So I'll start from the high level when we talk about proteins. That's a shorter chain. Oh, I'm sorry, we talk about peptides rather, it's a shorter chain of amino acids. Yeah, I think most researchers put that at more less than 50 amino acids in a chain. We call it a peptide. You've got thousands of endogenous peptides serving as chemical mediators throughout the body. Um, and there's probably over a hundred, close to a hundred FDA-approved peptides uh on the market. There's a lot of other non-FDA approved peptide therapeutics on the market. And they've been fascinating to work with. It really has. It's been my most exciting field of medicine for the past five, ten plus years. Um those those are yeah, those are those are fun. In general, when I look at the risk and benefit of those, it's got a nice profile, not to say, hey, everybody needs to act like be on this, but a common one that a lot of people have heard of, one of my favorite, particularly I mean, off of gut health or musculoskeletal health or performance or recovery is one we make in our stomach called BPC 157 or Body Protection Complex 157. Understanding is that the amount that we make as we age decreases. Most of its chemical impact is in the gastrointestinal system and integrity and in the musculoskeletal uh system for repair and recovery. So that's a, you know, that's um that's a great peptide. I've told people for years, hey, it's far safer than Tylenol and ibuprofen. If I owned a sports team or I was in charge of the military, everybody's gonna be on BPC 157. However, it is on the Wada list, the World Anti-Doping Association. It it enhances performance or recovery. But when you understand the role of it physiologically, again, it is far safer than most over-the-counter medications that are sold in pharmaceuticals. Um yeah, the the list could go on. One in there, when we're talking about protein and skeletal muscle mass, the importance is the role of growth hormone. And I don't use and recommend exogenous growth hormone, instead, peptides that stimulate your body's own pituitary production of growth hormone. And the brilliancy of that is you don't run the risk of being supra-physiologic. You're just asking that pituitary as we age, hey, give me back the production and secretion of growth hormone that I had in my teen and 20 years. Growth hormone impacts every organ system, just like most hormones, but predominantly people recognize it for changes in body composition.
SPEAKER_02And that's uh that's an important difference to think about, right? Because in researching for this conversation, kind of looking at all the things that uh come across uh your screen or your desk about peptides and supplementation, one of the things that is, I think, extremely troubling is the number of times you'll see things like growth hormone as a supplement or an added peptide, and it's not from stimulating uh your pituitary system. It is exogenous. And my limited understanding is that you can really cause some issues by jacking up and keeping your growth hormone level really high based on exogenous growth hormone. And it's uh, and I don't know that there's a lot of conversation about that for people who are not trying to do that on purpose, but are wondering, oh, this might be bad, this might be good for me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You know, there's there's a saying when I was in a hospital training, there was an old saying that would say, hey, if somebody is septic in the ICU and not doing well and you're throwing antibiotics, giving them fluids, nobody's the same was, hey, nobody should die without a good course of steroids. You give them steroids, IV, that's kind of that last win, that last draw. And so for me, when I have conversations with people and say, hey, what a Dr. What about uh growth hormone? I say, hey, I'm gonna save that from my 80s or 90s. I'll save that for my 80s or 90s. There's, again, with when you use that exogenous hormone, when you run the risk of being supra physiologic, what happens as with most hormones, you will down-regulate uh downstream receptors uh for that, making that therapy less effective over time. There are some other adverse consequences when you use that long term. There's, you know, I think the uh only FDA indication for it are kids with stunted growth uh for it. But it it's it's not my favorite. Yeah, we put people on that and everybody's gonna look better. Short term, everybody's gonna look a lot better, right? Uh the the role of growth hormone modulating peptides. And there's you know, sermorelin 15 plus years ago was FDA approved, tesumerelin more recently, CJC 1295 and ipamarelin are other ones. There's some other other uh peptides that stimulate growth hormone. But most of my experiences with CJC, ipamarelin, tesimerellin, I've used a little sermellin, but with with those, you're never gonna be super physiologic.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Acting through your pituitary, so you're not gonna produce more than what you were that's and I think that's an amazing way to think about it, right?
SPEAKER_02Like you're never going to get beyond what your body would have been able to produce. So your likelihood, chances of becoming problematic is much lower because you were you're performing within the constraints of what um what your body would be able to do. And that's and to me, there's a difference between people who are looking to that growth hormone for purposes of feeling, doing, looking better, longevity extension, quality of life type things, versus where you hear it abused are for people who are looking for a significant edge in some professional type environment, right? So you hear it from bodybuilders, you hear it from professional athletes, and those short-term gains can really have long-term negative consequences, not to get too far out of pocket, but you you're starting to hear more and more about younger bodybuilders in particular passing away. And and when they're when people are interviewing the folks that know them, they're kind of going back and looking at their histories. There are a lot of things that we're talking about today that they're using at the extreme and mounting up those long-term side effects in a very short period of time. And so it just speaks to the relative danger if you're not properly supervised and uh not using the uh tools for what they're really meant to be.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You know, in in again, coming back to hey, what are what are your short-term, what are your long-term goals? And I'll tell people in if it is, you know, if you get paid professionally as an as an athlete in performance, I get the short-term uh benefit or inclination to implement those, but you you want to balance that with your future self, whether it's five years in and what else is to come in into life.
SPEAKER_02As we kind of think about then, Carson, if people I always like to think about if I'm listening to this and I'm trying to make decisions about my next steps, like what the things that are going to be important for me. It feels like if we rewind rewind just a little bit, it feels like I want to keep an eye on the protein that I eat. Likely because I live in the US and have access to US-based foods. I'm probably not under eating on protein unless I'm purposely doing it from a maybe a restricted diet or really reduced calorie intake because that's what I'm doing on purpose, right? I I don't have to concentrate so much on the 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1, 2 type of mentality because I'm probably going to be okay. But I should be making sure that I'm strength training. I should be checking to make sure that my body chemistry is at least good, if not optimal, right? If I'm trying to preparing for the future, trying to have that health span that we talk about so often, where we know that skeletal muscle is going to be important. And then when it comes to uh from a peptide perspective, there are peptides that can help facilitate that. So whether it's uh better recovery from EPC 157, or if it's uh from thinking differently about increasing growth hormone through peptides and not exogenous, there can be some benefit for me if I'm not getting to the optimal as I'm trying to do these things the right way. And that might be some place that I want to investigate if I'm not feeling like I'm getting what I what I'm working for.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I I you summarize that well. I'd point out, hey, a similar analogy that I'll chat with people about when that role of testosterone, both in men and women in in maintaining growing skeletal muscle mass and where that is, that if you can keep that, the you can keep those optimal, right? And hey, what do I do? Do I need to go see a doctor to see this? Well, that importance of rest and digest and getting that restorative sleep plays a big role in hormone production. A big role in it. And so when I think growth hormone, I think repair and recover. We don't gain skeletal muscle mass when we're actively doing the leg press or squat or jump, right? We're actually breaking the fiber down. You've got to put the right uh building blocks in place and you've got to get that repair and recover with deep sleep to promote that. But when talking about where testosterone level is, it was within your lab core or quest reference range versus where is it compared to my 18 or 28-year-old self. If you can get your lifestyle dial dialed in, maybe that sees some improvement there, lifting heavyweights, getting repair and recovery. Maybe if you're fortunate, as some people through specific supplements can help get some boost there. Um and then otherwise, what I look at is similar to what we talked about with the growth hormone modulating peptides, where you're stimulating your own, are gnatotropin-releasing hormones like the pharmaceutical clomid or clomafine, HCG, gnadarelin, cispeptin, those are those are other similar ones, but I see pretty consistent results with clomophene that's been used in men and women for in the fertility world for decades. But that stimulates the pituitary secretion of LH, luteinizing hormone, and follicle stimulating hormone. And ethically, I just I feel better starting there. If people don't get the great the response that we need, uh then we look at it and say, hey, this is a primary hypogonadism. Hey, the testicles or ovaries just aren't making sense. Then you introduce or consider uh exogenous testosterone in that one.
SPEAKER_02And but then that also becomes very important to uh to monitor and to look at the right way because you can create any number of unintended consequences by overdoing that, particularly over a long period of time. And uh I think one of the it's almost I don't I I won't say it's criminal, but I do think it is. I don't understand how you can today go out and find a personal trainer at a gym or an online personal trainer, and they can actually send things to you to use as their client, right? And so they they can decide that you should have a testosterone, they can decide that you should have any number of peptides, they can send those things to you, and then you can use that and they will monitor on your on your behalf, right? And I just don't know how those types of things make it into the okay world because I just by talking to you and talking to other physicians, there are so many consequences that unless you are really trained to look at these over a long period of time, you've had the type of studies that you need to have in order to understand how it works with each individual. You could be setting up someone to have a big problem over their lifetime, or the recipient could be ready to have a big problem over their lifetime and they're and they don't know. They're none the wiser about it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Uh good, good point. I work with a I work with a lot of different personal strangers, some of them brilliant, spot on. Common things that are um kind of fingernails on a chalkboard, hey, got to have this many grams of protein, gotta eat it within this this point after exercise. And commonly, and they're not wrong in this. Again, it comes down to, hey, what are your goals is hey, you want to eat some carbs, eat that carb right before class, right before your performance. And that's wrong. If their short-term goals, hey, I want to perform the best in this particular session, great. But what's what's fingernails on a chartboard is, hey, I want to know where that A1C, where that insulin glucose relationship is before I'm telling people, hey, let's front load carbs and put that in context of where's their goals.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So if uh if there was anything that you would tell someone listening to think about or what they should do as their next step in their fitness or health journey, what would that be?
SPEAKER_01I say keep your 10-year, your 20-year self in mind. Start now, prepare now, it's whether it's gastrointestinal, the sleep. We're always going to have someone offs. Life happens, but find some consistency and rhythm and that learned behavior of ingraining the therapeutic benefits of routine exercise into your day-to-day life. Start small, be consistent, and uh that that goes a long way. That goes a long way.
SPEAKER_02Fair enough. Carson, I I have to say again, thank you. This has been fantastic because I do think we got to touch on some things that felt like relative truths that turn out to be only part of the story. And so being able to get that other part of the story in and give us something broader to think about has been uh I think enlightening. And I I like to challenge kind of the normal thought, right? And so I've taken away several things that I'm not gonna forget, particularly about the protein from the source. And uh, and so I really appreciate you spending some time today.
SPEAKER_01My pleasure, anytime, artist.
SPEAKER_02Well, I got you back once. I'm probably gonna get you back again.
SPEAKER_01Look forward to it. Perfect.