Today’s show will introduce you to the very fit, engaging, and enthusiastic Dr. Andreas Boettcher who has an operation called ItsOnlyHalfTime.com, which is all about aging gracefully and extricating yourself from the disastrous patterns and norms we see around us with accelerated aging, disease, decline, and demise.
You’ll enjoy hearing this practical and easy-to-follow discussion—no extreme or controversial statements—this episode is all about how easy it ultimately is to proceed with a pattern of aging gracefully and enjoying healthspan (the quality of life) for as long as possible. You will learn about the three main categories of disease and how to deal with them, his reboot program 7 Simple Shifts in 7 Days, and the inspiring story of the difficult road he was on before arriving at the place he is in today. As you will hear, Dr. Andreas knows from experience that it is truly never too late to turn your life around.
Check out Dr. Andreas’ website here and his Instagram here.
TIMESTAMPS:
Aging is inevitable however, how you age is a choice. [03:21]
Making the decision to age gracefully and healthfully is easier than most people think. [08:15]
The US population is the most medicated nation in the world. [10:51]
Doctors can give us medication, but often they don’t talk about lifestyle factors like diet. [17:32]
When you do get a medication, does that take you back to optimal health? [19:46]
The human body is amazingly beautiful as it is designed to self-heal and self-regulate. We have lost sight of that. [27:48]
Dr. Andreas describes his Seven Simple Shifts for Seven Days to Jumpstart Your Age-Defying Journey. [30:06]
How can an athlete monitor his training to maximize his or her health span longevity? [35:22]
Use fitness as your vehicle to manage stress. [40:39]
When making these changes in diet and exercise, it may be uncomfortable at first. You just have to trust in the process to get you to the other side. [46:07]
Pain pills mask the pain signal between injury and your brain. Your body cannot then heal itself. You want to repair the injury, not pacify it. [54:54]
LINKS:
- Brad Kearns.com
- Brad’s Shopping page
- B.rad Whey Protein Isolate Superfuel
- It’s Only Halftime
- IOHNutrition.com
LISTEN:
We appreciate all feedback, and questions for Q&A shows, emailed to podcast@bradventures.com. If you have a moment, please share an episode you like with a quick text message, or leave a review on your podcast app. Thank you!
Check out each of these companies because they are absolutely awesome or they wouldn’t occupy this revered space. Seriously, Brad won’t promote anything he doesn’t absolutely love and use in daily life.
- Mito Red Light: Photobiomodulation light panels to enhance cellular energy production, improve recovery, and optimize circadian rhythm. Use code BRAD for 5% discount!
- Plunge: Sensational custom-designed home cold plunge with filtered, circulating water, custom temperature setting, and sleek design. Save $150 with code BRAD
- B.rad Whey + Creatine Superfuel: Premium quality, all-natural supplement for peak performance, recovery, and longevity
- Brad’s Macadamia Masterpiece: Mind-blowing, life-changing nut butter blend
- Online educational courses: Numerous great offerings for an immersive home-study educational experience
Shopping Page For Discounts And Navigation To The Best Products
I have a newly organized shopping experience at BradKearns.com/Shop. Visit here and you can navigate to my B.rad Nutrition products on Amazon (Macadamia Masterpiece and Whey + Creatine Superfuel), my library of online multimedia educational courses, link to great discounts on an assortment of my favorite products and partners, complete details and discounts on my MOFO product with Ancestral Supplements, and a library of my favorite hand-picked Amazon products for fitness and healthy living!
B.Rad Podcast:
Andreas (00:00:00):
The thing that, uh, that I’m trying to, to get people to understand is that when you do get a medication, what people have to understand is, does that take you back to optimal health?
Brad (00:00:10):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast, where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life without taking ourselves too seriously. I’m Brad Kearns, New York Times bestselling author, former number three world-ranked professional triathlete and Guinness World Record Masters athlete. I connect with experts in diet, fitness, and personal growth, and deliver short breather shows where you get simple, actionable tips to improve your life right away. Let’s explore beyond the hype, hacks, shortcuts, and sciencey talk to laugh, have fun and appreciate the journey. It’s time to B.rad.
Brad (00:00:49):
Hey, listeners, please meet a very fit and enthusiastic and interesting Doctor Andreas Boettcher. He has an operation called It’s Only Halftime.com. That’s right. It’s about aging gracefully and extricating one’s self from the disastrous pattern and norms that we see around us of accelerated aging and decline and disease and demise. So, I think you’re gonna enjoy a very practical, easy-to-follow discussion where everything’s very agreeable. You’re not gonna get, uh, pushed off by extreme or controversial statements. We are just gonna converse about how easy it is to proceed with a pattern of aging gracefully and enjoying health span. That’s the quality of life for as long as possible. And Dr. Andreas breaks it down very nicely. He talks about the three main categories of disease are physical, chemical, and emotional stress, and particularly how we deal with the physical, chemical and emotional stresses that we are bound to face in life, right?
Brad (00:02:07):
So if you are dealing with that with, uh, prescription medication, and we talk quite a bit about, the reality of what’s happening when you consume a prescription medication and the side effects and the adverse effects. So that is yet another form of chemical stress that one commonly takes to deal with an assortment of physical and even emotional stresses. He has a great reboot program on his website called Seven Simple Shifts in Seven Days. And another interesting element of his story is the difficulties and the circuitous road he’s followed with some really heavy challenges and tragedies that he relates. Somewhere around halfway through the show, the starts to get real. And he says, look, I wanna tell you authentically where I was was, so this is a guy who had trashed his health, had all kinds of, um, uh, setbacks and disasters in his personal life, and put himself back together and got on this path, and now sharing it with others that it’s never too late. It’s only halftime. So please enjoy Dr. Andreas Boettcher.
Brad (00:03:21):
Dr. Andreas Boettcher. I’m so glad to catch up with you. When you jump onto your website, you get blown away with an incredible story and this enthusiasm and passion for aging gracefully, staying fit for life. And, uh, you bring some really interesting, uh, backstory to the table. So I can’t wait to get into all aspects of aging gracefully and optimizing. But perhaps you could start with just a basic introduction of, uh, how your life’s work is gone and what you’re doing these days. Yeah,
Dr. Andreas (00:03:53):
No, absolutely. It’s an honor to be here with you, and I’m excited to share this message. I feel like I’ve lived my entire life to share what we’re gonna be talking about. You know, here I turned 53 this year, and I really truly like to live by example. You know, I’m a former practicing chiropractic physician. I built one of the largest practices back in the day in 2007 in just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. And I’ve always been passionate about health and wellness, and I’ve learned it from lessons from my grandparents, which I’m sure we’re gonna get into later on in today’s show. But really, it was just through that experience and taking care of patients and learning the lessons that I did as a young man, I started seeing that there was a common groove, there was a common element, you know, yes, aging is inevitable, however, how you age is a choice.
Dr. Andreas (00:04:44):
And I started seeing the power of choices through my own life. My own family members’ lives, my patients’ lives. And the biggest regret that I often saw among my more senior patients, if you will, is, you know, Dr. Andreas, you know, if I have just taken care of my health when I had the chance, and that is a regret that I don’t wanna see anyone live because irregardless of where people sit over the challenges we’ve had over the last few years, I personally have been very frustrated by the lack of the message of health and wellness in general. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, We’re not defenseless, helpless human beings that just simply need to get overweight, get outta shape, and have aches and pains and have a low quality of life. And so I really want to take this message and take this opportunity to empower people to declare it’s only halftime and decide how they wanna exit the locker room, if you will, and finish this game of life only.
Dr. Andreas (00:05:41):
This is no game. This is your life. And life is not a dress rehearsal. And the sooner we get started in taking charge of our most precious asset, the better our ability to not only have longevity, I I’m not the guy that says, Hey, I’m gonna live to be be 120. I don’t know what’s God’s plan for me? I just wanna know, whatever that is for me is a good health span, a high quality of life that is free of medications, free of doctor visits, and anyone who wants to join me in this mission and join our community is more than welcome to because I feel like we have an opportunity today to age better than we ever have if we just start making some simple choices.
Brad (00:06:23):
Yeah. It seems like one thing to overcome is this cultural programming where we are now socialized to see the norm. And the norm is you start getting a spare tire at 30, at 40 you start having some joints wear out, you start taking, ED medication. Half of the half of the prescriptions are for people under age 40 or some crazy stat like that. And, um, if that’s what we see in all directions, we start to kind of immerse into that expectation. Um, the average number of prescriptions in, in U S A adults is something like 17 or some unbelievable number like that. And that’s something that is important to extricate from. And it seems like now looking around, there’s this tiny, wonderful sliver of the population who has embraced aging gracefully, and they go to the gym and they’re into fitness, and they cross the finish line of endurance races. And then there’s a big chunk of people that have been left behind.
Dr. Andreas (00:07:19):
Yeah. There has it, it, it’s a growing acceptance of what I call a declining average. And it begins, um, what I feel is I call it the unspoken pandemic. It’s a keynote address that I have. And if we can, I think if we talk about this, this’ll be really powerful because it really gets at the crux, in my opinion, at the root of this paradigm. It’s a paradigm. This is a set of beliefs. Everything you just outlined is based on a set of beliefs that have now become standard, that have become accepted. And I’m often told people, it’s like how anyone lives their life is their choice. Let me just be clear about that upfront. And that is entirely up to the individual. However, if you want to have an exceptional quality of life, especially with today’s declining average, be the exception, you have to start thinking differently.
Dr. Andreas (00:08:15):
And so the question that I’ve often asked audiences is, how do you want to age? What does that look like for you? What will it look like in five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years? Will you be playing with your kids as they get older? Will you be working out into the gym when they’re teenagers? Will you be playing with your grandkids? Will you be free of a walker, free of a wheelchair? Have nothing to do with a nursing home? What does that ultimately look like for you? And so many people aren’t very clear on that because they set these kind of esoteric type of goals. Well, I just need to lose 20 pounds, or I just fit into this dress for this wedding. I just need to get ready for this reunion. And we’re not thinking long term. And so the beautiful part is, it’s actually easier than most people think.
Dr. Andreas (00:09:08):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and I’m a big fan of biohacking, and there’s a lot of science and a lot of data. However, I’m a big fan of the foundation, the blocking and tackling, the simple fundamentals of the basic foods we were designed to eat, the ways that our body was designed to move, how it can perform. Where exercise is a celebration of what your body can do, not a punishment for what it is. And so when we start thinking about this, and, and bear with me as I kind of go through this, and we can kind of talk back and forth because in my opinion, in my experience, you know, and I’ve delivered this keynote in Turkey, I’ve been in Moscow, I’ve been all over the world, and this resonates and hits home every single time because in my opinion, you get this concept, you will start redefining your age.
Dr. Andreas (00:10:00):
You will start becoming the exception. And I also tell people, if you do what your average neighbor does down the street, you’re going to get what your average neighbor gets, which you just eloquently outlined. You know, the average, you know what? 60% of Americans are on at least one medication, if not more. What? Over 50% of the American population is now obese, chronically obese. Every every chronic disease is on the rise. It doesn’t matter whether it’s, you know, uh, diabetes comorbidities, right? Metabolic syndrome, thyroid disorders, low T hormone imbalances, cardiovascular disease, cancer, stroke, you name it. At some point we gotta stop and say, what, what’s not working?
Dr. Andreas (00:10:51):
And or is it, I mean, we are the most medicated nation on the planet, so it must be the healthiest. Right? And if we look at all the statistics, every category is on the rise. And that’s just the children I’m talking about. I haven’t even talked about the adults. And it breaks my heart, and it’s not necessary. It begins with that simple question, right? That I ask the audience is how do you want to age? Now? Now, when you get clear on what that is, we need to get clear on what health is. Right? And if you ask people, you know, well, how do you define health? What do you, what do you most typically get?
Brad (00:11:25):
A healthy weight would be a starting, starting judgment, I guess.
Dr. Andreas (00:11:31):
Yeah. You know, healthy weight, I mean, most people just base it on how they feel. Well, they feel fine. Nothing hurts. Everything is great. I just got the routine, you know, headaches, I’ve just got the routine migraine. I have some trouble focusing at work. You know, I got the routine tire around my midsection. That’s that growing acceptance of a decline average. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, none of those things are normal. But then I’ll ask people, I say, well, look, I don’t fault you for thinking that. I mean, at the end of the day, not everyone’s a physician and you know, you’re, you’re just wanting to live and thrive and have a wonderful life. Now, the question then becomes, what is the first symptom of cancer? What is the first symptom of a heart attack or cardiovascular disease, right? Heart attack. And 50% of those are fatal, right? What’s the first symptom of atherosclerosis, right? Diabetes, insulin resistance, any of these factors, right? See, the problem is in today’s mechanistic approach to health and wellness, right?
Dr. Andreas (00:12:42):
Nothing’s broken. You don’t need to, you don’t, you don’t need to fix it, right? And if it’s broken, it’s a very mechanistic approach. It’s a mechanical approach, right? It’s like a how we approach fixing a car. But the human body is more beautiful and more eloquent than that. And what we, that mechanistic approach fails to take into account how long each of those conditions have been there. Because every one of those conditions that I’ve just listed, right? We treat disease as if, as if it’s an event, something that you caught outside of a viral infection or a respiratory infection. That’s something completely different. I’m just talking about in general, chronic disease. And so we treat it as if we caught it overnight. Oh, I just got, I just got diabetes, huh? Got cardiovascular disease. You know, I just got hypertension. I just got high cholesterol.
Brad (00:13:32):
Because of my family history. Of course, that’s why I caught it.
Dr. Andreas (00:13:34):
Yeah. Yeah. And I just caught it. And that’s just the way it is. That’s inevitable. And I’ve got my orange little bottle and I’m good, right? And so that’s the mentality out there, and versus thinking about addressing the real pandemic, which I’ll get to in a moment, right? So if we think about health. Health is really the balance of mental and physical and spiritual wellbeing, not merely the absence of disease symptoms and infirmity. Okay? Now the question then becomes, what interferes. So if we have optimal health up here, okay. What interferes with our body’s ability to be healthy? Well, in my opinion, you can lump all of it into really three major categories. Physical, chemical and emotional stress, right? Physical being, accident injuries, trauma, so forth, okay? Emotional stress, right? Day in the life, career, family, kids, divorce, bankruptcy, you know, just life in general.
Dr. Andreas (00:14:38):
Okay? Um, and then there’s chemical stress. Pollutions, pesticides, hormones. But also what people fail to realize are medications. Well, drugs, okay? We hear it on all the wonderful commercials, right? Don’t take this. If you have nausea, vomiting, decreased length of health and healing time, and you have prone in cardiovascular, good, good.
Brad (00:15:03):
Great speed there. Good speed there, Dr. Andreas. So you gotta talk really fast when you talk about the side effects. So headaches are coming as well. Nausea, vomiting
Dr. Andreas (00:15:05):
Exactly like it’s nothing. And then, you know, a family’s playing in the park. And I just think to myself, who raises their hand and says, yes, give me some of that. Okay? And, and we’ll get to the unspoken pandemic. You might be figuring this out as we go along. And I hope this is helpful, by the way. So the, you start thinking, okay, physical, chemical, emotional stress, and then we add to it ourselves and how we medicate ourselves, how we avoid it, how we push through it, how we manage it, right?
Dr. Andreas (00:15:43):
And so, because we gotta keep going. And then what happens is, is that creates enough pressure on the system. Now some stress is good, right? When we do exercise, intermittent fasting or medic responses through infrared, hot sauna, cryotherapy, things like that. That’s a good form of hormetic stress, which we can talk about maybe a little bit later. But I’m, what I’m talking about is that self-induced stress and compounded on top of external stress. How we choose to see events in our lives. Okay? And so that then creates a process of dis-ease in the body. And notice, I kind of said it hyphenated. Meaning the body has to lose function first before it can manifest itself into disease symptoms or infirmity. Cancer is not an event. It didn’t happen overnight. Neither did cardiovascular disease or anything else, right? Many people are already far down this continuum and just don’t know.
Dr. Andreas (00:16:40):
’cause they keep medicating the warning lights. Hmm. Right? So they can push through. And this is the slippery slope that many Americans are on. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have to be that way, because we can choose how we handle that stress better. And what we teach is how to leverage that stress. ‘Cause stress is just energy. We give that stress meaning, and we get to choose what we can do with it. And the way that I tend to look at it, the beauty of all that external stress is there’s plenty of it in the world. We all face it, right? It’s just what we choose to do with it. It can fuel us or it can suppress us, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so I have the same thing going on in my own life. You know, many people will look at my, you know, my photos or see what I do with my fitness these days, and they don’t see the backstory, right?
Dr. Andreas (00:17:32):
The ups and downs, the emergency back surgery that I had, my own autoimmune condition, my own low testosterone that I had. And every time when I was diagnosed, when I was down there, remember I was in a deceased state that when it’s left there long enough, then becomes asymptomatic pathology. Now you’ve got pathology, you’ve got disease, you just don’t know it yet. ’cause there’s no symptoms. Mm-hmm. It could be detected in a blood test, a urine test, a CAT scan, MRI, blood pressure reading lab results. Okay? And so that’s now asymptomatic pathology. Now the doctors wanted to put me on medication, right? Because then it becomes pathology. You’re now diagnosed with X, Y, Z, and you will typically walk out with a prescription. Now, I’m not saying there’s not a time in place for proper medication, that’s not what I’m saying. But the question that I often ask doctors is, how are we doing a patient a disservice if we haven’t talked about the lifestyle factors that have led down to this path? All too many are just too busy. They don’t have time to teach component
Brad (00:18:38):
Or not familiar. They’re not familiar with lifestyle behaviors and their effects, especially diet. Even worse, they dispense dietary information without having any true training, knowledge, awareness. It’s just party line. Bad advice instead of none advice would be much better than getting bad advice.
Dr. Andreas (00:18:57):
Well, that’s just it. And that’s a, I’m glad you brought that up, because this is something that’s really important because, you know, and I, I know plenty of medical doctors. I’ve got great medical doctor friends. I’m not hating on my colleagues. And, and I’ll say this too, when it comes to emergency medicine, trauma, transplants, joint replacements, I tip my hat all day long. Amazing, amazing work. But when it comes to maintaining our health or reclaiming it, how well are we doing? Right? And most of ’em will acknowledge, well, yeah, we’re just medicating symptoms, we’re just palliating the symptoms and putting numbers into artificial reference range. But we haven’t really addressed the cause of the problem. Right? I often ask people, I say, well, is your X, Y, Z condition a result of a lack of an orange little bottle in your bloodstream?
Dr. Andreas (00:19:47):
And well, no, of course not. So then have we really addressed the cause? And then they say, well, yeah, my genetics are part of the problem. Well, that’s 20% of the equation generously speaking. Then we have the whole science of epigenetics. How do we turn genes on and off based on how we manage stress? Right? We, and if your genetics are stacked against you, you darn well be, be better. Be paying attention up here more, okay? Rather than using it as an excuse to stay down here. Right? And so the, you know, the thing that, uh, that I’m trying to, to get people to understand is that when you do get a medication, what people have to understand is, does that take you back to optimal health? And when I ask people that, they invariably say, no. What does it do? It takes you back to asymptomatic pathology. So you haven’t returned back to optimal health. Right? You’re now what’s called pharmaceutically dependent because 80% of medications are prescribed for life.
Brad (00:20:48):
Wow.
Dr. Andreas (00:20:49):
Now
Brad (00:20:49):
That’s heavy, man.
Dr. Andreas (00:20:51):
It’s very heavy. This is a heavy topic because people are thinking they’re doing the right thing. They’re giving their bodies every chance to age well, where in my opinion, they’re just suppressing the problem so that they can move on.
Brad (00:21:07):
Yeah. I wonder what, I wonder what percentage of prescription indulgence is acknowledging that they’re just going for a shortcut and relief of symptoms. And then what percentage are deluded that this is actually the path to preventing heart disease by taking your statin? I, I don’t know.
Dr. Andreas (00:21:30):
Well, that’s just it. And you know, and then it becomes how do we actually look at the labs and, you know, they just look at the L D L ratio and not necessarily what is the H D L to triglyceride ratio, which to me is more important. Okay? You want to have low triglyceride levels with high H D L. And that normally is we should be around a one-to-one or two to one type of ratio. Hey, H D L to triglycerides. Um, and so that to me, when I look at labs is very important number more to me than the L D L because L D L is so important for cell membrane function, hormone function, uh,
Brad (00:22:08):
Right. It’s not evil.
Dr. Andreas (00:22:10):
It’s not evil. Yeah.
Brad (00:22:11):
The doctor just last month said, your good cholesterol’s this and your bad cholesterol. And I said, we don’t say bad anymore, but they had absolutely no awareness of, right. The, the discussion pattern here, because most people are 40 years behind the emerging research. And you mentioned this opinion, and it’s also shared by great leaders like Dr. Cate Shanahan, Dr. Ron Sinha, looking at that H D L to triglycerides ratio as the key heart disease risk metric vastly superior to just the basic blood work that we get and that doctors operate on, or, or, you know, go by typically.
Dr. Andreas (00:22:47):
Yeah. And, and I’ll even share my own lab results. I think my L D L is like 164, well above a hundred, they would put me on a statin. Well, I, obviously I personally won’t do it. Okay. Number one for many reasons. But more importantly for me is looking at that ratio because it’s insulin resistance. That’s the problem. That’s what we need to be looking at. That’s what increases your risk for an inflammatory condition in a chronic state that damages the interior of the arterial wall, that allows the L D L to actually get locked in and build those plaques. L D L is actually part of the repair process. It’s, it’s a, it’s almost like the firemen rushing into a burning building that gets trapped. They’re there to do good. They’re not there to do evil. Now, this is something to take with your doctor, which brings me back to a point that you were talking about earlier, that I really encourage people to do when the doctors diagnosed me with my I G A nephropathy, which was an autoimmune condition, or is okay, where my body secretes too much I G A and it’s a large cell that can congregate in the kidneys and damage the filters of the kidney and cause renal failure.
Dr. Andreas (00:24:06):
I was faced with this when I was 30 years of age, right when I was opening practice, right? And so, a little scary diagnosis. And I was only found because I had a routine health insurance exam, and it was discovered I had microscopic hematuria, right? Non-visible blood in my urine. And I immediately knew when that was detected. I’m like, oh, crap, I hope I don’t have cancer. Ah,
Dr. Andreas (00:24:30):
Right. That’s, that’s what the first thing that enters in your mind. But I went in for a kidney biopsy, found out that’s what it was. Here’s my point to, to help people that are struggling with this, that are wanting to wa find ways to get off their medications. ’cause I’m not here to ridicule anyone for their choices. I just wanna help open up another door for you to look at. And when you talk to your doctors, because doctors self-admittedly, they get maybe three hours of nutritional education, their entire medical career, maybe. And that’s over like a weekend. I’m not talking three semester hours.
Brad (00:25:05):
People think, uh, people think you’re embellishing when we, when we hear this. And, um, I interviewed another doctor on the show who said she recalls it was one hour of, of four years of medical training. And it’s like, it, it’s,
Dr. Andreas (00:25:20):
That’s generous.
Brad (00:25:21):
Yeah. And it’s like, I also love and respect the medical community, including many members of my family. I grew up basically in a, in a doctor family. And right when you need that help, that’s what they’re there for. And that’s what they’re trained for. We just somehow have like, uh, you know, outsourced our own responsibility for health and living to the medical community to our detriment. And of course to their detriment too, because I don’t think a lot of physicians are, you know, inspired and, and fulfilled by taking care of people who keep returning with the same crap and needing a refill.
Dr. Andreas (00:25:58):
Well, that’s just it. And then what the problem is, is what are all medications? Another form of, they’re another form of chemical stress. And so it adds back to that <inaudible> creates more disease in the body, more asymptomatic pathology, and you see it in all the side effects. So then they end up on another medication and another medication, and then this is how the medicine cabinet grows. And these things are not candy. These things have serious side effects, but people treat them like candy. And I’m just imploring people. When you talk to your physician, say, listen, and this is how I did it to my position. ’cause they wanted to put me on an ACE inhibitor for my autoimmune condition. I said, listen, I appreciate that. That’s a blood pressure medication that can also help me to develop a chronic cough. I’m sure you have your reasons why you believe that will help me with my inflammation, but I’ll pass.
Dr. Andreas (00:26:51):
But I’m gonna ask you to monitor me in my labs while I do what I know I should be doing. Because I had just graduated school. Mm-hmm. I gained some sympathetic weight with my first wife. And on her pregnancy and the stress of opening a practice, I was 30 pounds heavier than I am now. And I knew that I wasn’t taking care of the stress properly. In my own life. I’m calling a spade a spade. And so this is the unspoken pandemic. It’s the lack of people’s willingness to take personal responsibility for their health. Hmm. You know, by taking personal responsibility for my health, losing the weight, exercising, increasing my omega three consumption, my tocotrienol vitamin E consumption, reducing inflammatory sugars and all of that nonsense and alcohol. Okay? I was playing on the golf course, eating hotdog and drinking beer with my buddies, but I was killing myself.
Dr. Andreas (00:27:48):
And I had to stop because I was like, this is it. And now the beautiful part is I’ve, I lost all that weight. My lab’s are normal. I have no more blood in my urine. And I’ve seen the power of the human body. The body is amazingly beautiful, and it is designed to self-heal and self-regulate. And somewhere in this healthcare continuum, we’ve lost sight of that, that somewhere we’re just these helpless, defenseless human beings that just need outside intervention when there’s so much glory inside that if you just start giving it what it needs and stop giving it what it doesn’t. You know, I used to tell my patients all the time, I said, listen, I don’t heal you. Only your body does. My job is just to remove the interference, give it what it needs, and step back and see what your body can do.
Dr. Andreas (00:28:41):
And so, challenge your doctors and don’t be afraid to get a second opinion. If they just say, no, you need to take this medication for the rest of your life. Probably by now, anyone who’s watching this will know. I would never accept that answer, even if I were on something now, is like, what are we doing to get me off? And so that is what I really want people to understand, because when you start playing down here, that’s a very, very slippery slope that doesn’t help our ability to age well and age gracefully. And if you look at that, and you look at the average statistics that we talked about, you know, we are now looking at a point in our first time in history that mortality is going up and life and expectancy is going down. And so what my mission has become is let’s get back to the basics, the blocking and tackling and the fundamentals. Yes, we can biohack and we can do all that, but a lot of people still, still don’t take care of their lifestyle properly, and they, biohack is gonna come rescue them. And so I bring people all the way back to those basics, and then we get the foundation in place of the right nutrition, the right fitness, the right training, the right mindset, and then we can add in the right supplements and the right biohacks. Then you really start to tap in to what’s possible as we age.
Brad (00:30:06):
Yeah. And it’s kind of like the popularity of hormone replacement and getting that boost in your testosterone while you’re living a overly stressful inflammatory lifestyle. And it can actually go to waste. You can aromatize the testosterone that you’re taking in, which means converted into estrogen and just, uh, you know, be being left in, in a deeper hole that you’re digging. So from your perspective, what do you think are the most powerful and immediate interventions that someone can take to turn the corner and maybe talk about what you did to get out of your hole and all the litany of issues that you mentioned to become, uh, uh, obviously apparently much healthier and fitter at 53, you said than you were at 33 or whatever previous age.
Dr. Andreas (00:31:01):
Yeah, no, it, it’s really quite simple. And I really focus on, you know, in my community, we have a free app when that people can download and join us. It’s like a, a Facebook group on an Olympic level, if you will. Meaning, you know, you get to interact with my wife and I, and we answer questions. And in there we have a program, it’s called Seven Simple Shifts for Seven Days to Jumpstart Your Age Defying Journey. And they’re really basic. Um, and there’s really two premises that I focus on with people that they can really start doing right now. And I already touched on one a bit, is focusing on insulin resistance. Knowing insulin resistance is at the root cause of so many comorbidity factors, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, you name it. And whether that’s wearing a continuous glucose monitor that people may need to do to get an idea of where they’re at. Get your labs done. Take a look at your H D L to triglyceride ratio is one of the biggest markers that I look for to detect early onset of insulin resistance. And then the other component is inflammation. You’ve gotta reduce the amount of inflammation that’s in the body. And so that’s looking at, you know, the, the obvious stuff, the, the basic stuff that we all inevitably know, right? We all know that we should exercise and then we sit on the couch and we wait for that feeling to go away,
Brad (00:32:29):
<laugh>.
Dr. Andreas (00:32:30):
So what we need to do, right? The seven simple shifts, right, are sleep, rest, recovery, water, limit. Clean out the alcohol for now. It’s nothing but toxic. It’s it, I know there’s people that say, yeah, in the Mediterranean diet, you might live longer. If you wanna play that, that’s fine. I don’t recommend it, especially when you’re trying to go clean. Okay? Right? Eliminate the sugar. Get rid of the processed food. Anything in a bag or anything in a box, get back to whole food nutrition, it’s basic stuff. Okay? And then step back and then get into movement, get into, uh, 30 minutes of it, minimum some kind of movement. I’m talking about the person, I’m not talking about the elite fitness person or Ironman triathlete, right now, I’m talking to the average professional man and woman that’s out there listening right now that’s just looking to get back into the game, right?
Dr. Andreas (00:33:23):
They realize, you know, Hey, it’s only halftime and I need to do something now, or it’s gonna get to be too late for me. And so get started, build the habits. And then, you know, I have custom stuff that I do where I take all the guesswork out through custom meal plans, custom training programs, because there’s really two key components. And one of your former guests that I really admire quite a bit is, um, Peter Attia, Dr. Peter Attia. And, and I agree with him wholeheartedly, such a big component of what we do at It’s Only Halftime revolves around fitness.
Dr. Andreas (00:33:56):
And it’s two types of fitness, right? It’s the cardio respiratory fitness, which can reduce your risk of all cause mortality, which means what you die of in any given moment by five X. And there, there’s no drug. And I own a supplement company too, by the way. There’s no supplement, there’s no diet that even comes close to those numbers, okay? The other is strength. I’m not talking about the strength, the vanity of a six pack of what you see on a body building stage. I’m talking about functional strength, grip strength, squat, strength, you know, picking up stuff, okay? Um, can reduce your all cause mortality by another three X. And those are the key factors that need to be done. And so what I do is I get people away from, I can teach people how to build six packs all day. That’s easy. What I’m working on is I go beyond the six pack, I go beyond the vanity, I go beyond the scale, I go beyond the mirror. All of those results that people want are a side effect, right? Of getting this foundation in place. So people are so focused on that, and I understand why, but if we can shift it to a bigger cause and a big purpose, it makes this much easier and it makes it more of a lifestyle. And that really is the, is the focus.
Brad (00:35:22):
In your own athletic and fitness journey. You’ve been out there at the extreme performance level doing the Ironman triathlon scene and getting deep into that. And now I love how you, promote on your website that you do surprisingly little to get super fit, and we have pictures to prove it. And all that. I think you mentioned like three and a half hours a week is, you know, the commitment necessary to be not just fit, but super fit. But I wonder now if you have some reflections looking back at those triathlon years as I do looking back at that time and realizing that you can definitely take things to the extreme where you start losing the health span longevity benefits in return for marginal gains and performance. And I wonder how people can navigate as you have done from, uh, crossing the finish line and getting your, getting your Ironman award to now basically optimizing for health span.
Dr. Andreas (00:36:18):
Yeah. You know, and it’s not saying that someone who’s doing Ironman can’t have a great health span, um, but in my opinion, um, this type of athletic performance and demand requires an even more exceptional level of nutrition, supplementation, recovery, and performance than the average person. Now, I do what I do now because I enjoy other things in my life. I, I love playing golf now and I wanna be able to swing my golf club and still drive at 300 yards with 20 year olds, right? And I love being here with my 19 year old son and going to the gym, and I still can kick his butt in the gym even though I’m 53. You know, it’s, so, it has been a shift. But to answer your question, what I’ve seen is the big mistake, and I’ve even done this myself, is that these extreme endurance athletes except maybe like the elite pros.
Dr. Andreas (00:37:11):
’cause I’ve, I’ve known some of the elite pros back in the day when I was doing like Chris McCormack and so forth, who did pay meticulous attention to their performance, nutrition, recovery and all of that. But a lot of the average age groupers, like you and I, we’re using it as a way to eat what they want. ’cause they can get away with it physically. Now, that’s the other extreme that even though someone may look thin, can still be unhealthy. Okay? Um, and one of my dear friends, uh, who was a patient of mine, she used it as a way to justify eating candy corn all the time, because that was her favorite thing. But the amount of inflammation, she could still be insulin resistant, still create a pre-diabetic state, even though she was thin and fit. Okay? So that is the other end of the extreme.
Dr. Andreas (00:38:00):
So when I work with athletes at that level, the amount of attention to detail to recovery and proper supplementation at the right time was, is becomes even more important and requires more fine tuning. And then, you know, in another extreme as an example, you know, um, you know, people ask me, you know, I’ll digress for just a second. You know, why did you call this It’s Only Halftime?. Why is your brand It’s Only Halftime?.Well, it became a metaphor because, you know, a lot of people, again, will see where I am today, but not see the journey. In 2010, it was incredibly difficult for me. I went through bankruptcy. Um, I got, I got caught in the collapse of the commercial real estate market at property in Florida and Arizona to the worst markets back in 2008. I went through divorce, I had emergency back surgery.
Dr. Andreas (00:38:58):
I blew out my back doing kettle ball swings, then had to reinvent my career. I had to start from scratch. I had to move to a new city. I, had to take a job for the first time in my life to get by. You know, it was some pretty dark days, I’m not gonna lie.
Brad (00:39:16):
Besides that, did you have any stressful circumstances in your life?
Dr. Andreas (00:39:21):
Oh, oh my God.
Brad (00:39:22):
That, that’s rough, man. I, I don’t know how you can stack that scoreboard any higher.
Dr. Andreas (00:39:25):
That that’s, well, that’s an incredible list. It did, it did get higher unfortunately. Then I lost my mom to cancer, you know, a couple years later and then my dad to suicide seven months later. And so it, you know, a lot of people would’ve totally understood if I just sat on the couch and just decided to do nothing and just eat bon bons for the rest of my life.
Dr. Andreas (00:39:52):
But it wasn’t my, in my MO I mean, I’m not gonna say I didn’t cave sometime. There were some days I, I’ll be completely transparent because it’s the only way I think we feel like we can help people. I just thought my best days were gone, that they were behind me, and that there was nothing really worth living anymore. And, but I remember my then girlfriend, my now wife, I was telling her a promise. I said, listen, I don’t know how, but someday, somehow people are going to know my name and I gotta turn this mess into a message That’s correct. Ought to help someone. And it was the one thing that kept me going. And so my point in that is that after I lost my father’s suicide, there’s a perfect example of how we can deal with stress. I decided to enter a master’s men’s physique show because I always wanted to do one.
Dr. Andreas (00:40:39):
And I needed something to put that energy in because I had so many emotions going on in my life at that time. You know, why did my dad do that? Was I not still good enough? What about the grandkids? You know, you so many. And then part of me was understanding why. You know, it was, you know, even to this day is still tough. And so I chose to use fitness and it’s always been my vehicle. And that’s what I try to teach my clients to do, is to use fitness as your vehicle to manage stress. It is the best antidepressant. It is the best elixir. It is the best for hormetic response. It’s the best for longevity. There’s, to me, it all starts there. All the biohacks in the world aren’t gonna matter if you don’t have your fitness. And so when you get fit, you awaken the doctor within. Ah, um, now, but there’s the extreme. ’cause after I did my men’s physique show and I got down and I dieted down to about 3% body fat, I was training twice a day. I was doing, you know, weights hour and a half in the morning. And then I was doing 45 minutes of cardio in the afternoon. And I was doing that six days a week.
Dr. Andreas (00:41:52):
My testosterone plummeted. I think it was as low as 200. And of course, what did my doctor wanna do? Wanted to put me on TRT. And what do you think my answer was? Thanks, but no thanks.
Brad (00:42:10):
Well, I mean the competition, you probably had a lot of people that were indulging in that because it’s so common with.
Dr. Andreas (00:42:18):
Yeah. I mean, I was the smallest guy up there.
Brad (00:42:20):
You were going for the natural, the natural master’s physique. Yeah.
Dr. Andreas (00:42:24):
Yeah. So yeah, I was, um, I just wanted to do it. And it, you know, and then the cool thing is that day that I was on stage, that was my father’s birthday, you know, and that was like three and a half months after everything had happened. But, um, anyway, my point is, is that, you know, I went back to the basics and changed up my whole workout routine because that long steady state cardio is terrible for men long term. Um, and then the, the weight training was so much volume and then the dieting was so strict that my diet was very, very low on saturated fat.
Brad (00:43:00):
Hmm.
Dr. Andreas (00:43:00):
And so that was one of the things that I immediately did. So I talked to the guys for the second, because I know so many of you guys are on T R T and T R T is not just candy. Again, it, you need to have a doctor who needs to know what they’re doing. And it needs to be constantly monitored. Because remember, the body always wants to stay in homeostasis. So anytime you artificially inject something into the body, the body’s natural production of that naturally goes down because the body says, oh, well there’s plenty of it around. Right? It’s the innate intelligence of the human body and it creates long-term problems. So anyway, changed up my sleep. I got rid of the long steady state cardio, backed it way down to three days of, you know, interval type of cardio sessions in a three days a week of weight training each muscle group once a week, lighter weight, upped my saturated fat intake, okay?
Dr. Andreas (00:43:55):
Supplemented with D H E A omega threes, got my vitamin D back up, right? And then started weight training in the morning again on a fasted stomach, which stimulates growth hormone by as high as a thousand percent, right? And then allowed that to happen. And then in a matter of about three or four months, my testosterone was back to nearly a thousand, without the use of anything at all. And so one of the things that really bothers me is the dietary advice that I hear that’s coming from the top. And in my opinion, many of it I could argue is actually creating part of this problem because we’re being told to avoid saturated fat. We’re being told that it’s the enemy, that it’s the poison and it’s the precursor to so many of the hormones that we both need as men and as women. And so, I dunno where I’m kind of going with all of that. But the, the thing that I want to challenge people to do is to just start thinking about how you make decisions. And have you really done everything you can to manage your physical, chemical and emotional stress? Have you really eliminated those things I talked about earlier and then give them enough time to work? You know, when I created the seven by seven day challenge, um, when people follow it, I can see it in their face. The puffiness goes down swelling in
Brad (00:45:22):
Seven days, huh?
Dr. Andreas (00:45:23):
In seven days. People follow it and go clean, as I call it. You start giving it, you can already, I’m not saying people are gonna have a six pack in seven days. That’s not what I’m saying. <laugh> what? People will start feeling better, energy’s better focusing better. They’re sleeping better, their skin looks better, the puffiness goes down because you’re eliminating so much of the stuff that we don’t need. And you’re starting to giving it more what it does. And it’s like the body is like a sponge that’s just been sitting in the sun for so long, it’s been dried up and is now all of a sudden given what it’s needed, and it just fluffs up and light comes. Um, and then once I tell people say, we can do seven, well, you can do 10, you can do 10, you can do 20, and let’s see how long we keep this streak going.
Dr. Andreas (00:46:07):
And then the longer people keep that streak going, the less the desire or the cravings for the other stuff. You just gotta be willing to wallow in a little uncomfortness and a little pain for a little bit to get to the other side. And it’s, it’s when I help my son lose his weight when he was 14, um, I always kind of told him, and I tell my clients all the time, you gotta just trust the process. ’cause a lot of people don’t know what it’s like to be on the other side. They’ve never really seen it, felt it or experienced it. And I think that’s the biggest challenge I have, is a health coach is getting people to believe that that is possible for them and that what they are doing, if given enough time, will get them there.
Brad (00:46:49):
Yeah. I guess going from unfit, inactive, a lot of time off to a active fit lifestyle, there is a ramp up there that can be difficult. And one of the concerns I have is it’s way more difficult than it should be because of the nature of the fitness industry. And I contend that a lot of traditional programming is depleting and exhausting.
Dr. Andreas (00:47:13):
A hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. And, and unfortunately, what I don’t like about this, this industry is that I have to chase down a lot of these fads, gimmicks and diets to be educated about ’em because people bring them to me. And health is not complicated. It’s only been made complicated and made to sound difficult by creative marketers who wanna sell you more stuff. And they’re part of the problem and not part of the solution. It is creating this epidemic of complacency, convenience, do nothing, eat all you want, still lose the weight, you know, all of this nonsense. And it’s not teaching people how to be healthy, how to be well from the inside out. And I think, you know, we, we talked about this in our, in our pre-interview, you know, I shared with you the story of my ALPAs, um, my two grandfathers, and how I really learned this.
Dr. Andreas (00:48:04):
It’s such a young age, and I, I think it’s such an important story if you, want me to share that. But it really also illustrates you’re never too late to start. Right? And so, you know, one of the great privileges I had, I was actually born in Germany, and then I was raised in Richmond, Virginia. And, forgive me for that. And during that time, I still had grandparents that lived in Germany and grandparents that lived in Spain. And my father worked for a German company. He had three months vacation off every year. And we spent a month and a half in Spain, month and a half in Germany. The biggest gift my parents ever gave me was travel and culture and different viewpoints. And so anyway, I’d visit my grandfather in Germany, and you know, he smoked, he drank, he didn’t take care of himself, he didn’t exercise.
Dr. Andreas (00:48:54):
He was in and outta doctor visits. I, every time I would go see him every summer, his medicine cabinet just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. His function would continue to keep going. Down, down, down. He would’ve a cane, then we’d have a walker, then he was in a wheelchair, and then he had both legs amputated because he had circulation issues that were so bad. And then he was grumpy through this whole process, rightfully so. And I, I’m not hating on him, I’m, I love him dearly, right? But it also showed me something because now imagine that I, I would see this from ages of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 years of age. I mean, every year I just saw this decline, right? Just like I was talking about. Okay? Then I would go to the other side of the equation, go to Spain and see my other grandfather who did the exact opposite.
Dr. Andreas (00:49:43):
He had a garden, a multi-tiered garden that overlooked the Mediterranean sea. He, that would rival anything you would find at any farmer’s market. He ate pretty much out everything out of there. He walked his German shepherd Pasha, six miles, and I mean, like a walk, like I had hard time keeping up and I was playing varsity soccer. He had a pace, and he’s dragging the dog like <laugh>. I mean, this is a big 50, 60 pound dog. And so anyway, and then he would ride his 10-speed 80 miles every Sunday to the neighboring town of Benny Dorm from where he lived. And, and this was like a Tour de France kind of bike. This wasn’t like, you know, an electric bike now, like you see everybody cruising around on. And so I couldn’t keep up with him. He would drop me, and that’s what got me into cycling too.
Dr. Andreas (00:50:35):
But, um, different story. But the point was, is that he never went to the doctor. If he did, they’re like, why are you here? He never took a medication his entire life. He hated, now I’m quoting him. He hated hanging around old people. And he was 78 at the time when he told me this, because he thought they just complained too much. All they talked about was their pain, their drugs, their doctor visits, their neck surgery. He’s like, I don’t have time for that. So he always hung around younger people that were more vibrant or alive because that gave him life. And so I saw this dichotomy between them. Now, they both lived to be about the same age, but their health span could not have been more opposite. And so I saw that, and the, and the beautiful part of that story that, um, people don’t realize is that he wasn’t always in shape.
Dr. Andreas (00:51:31):
He was a butcher by trade in Germany. And so he ate a lot of what he made, right? The knockwrust, the broadwurst, the liverwurst you know, everything. He was associated with the German butcher. And he used to hate on my dad a bit when he was dating his daughter because he thought he’s focused too much on his soccer, his sport. You need to focus on your business, you gotta take care of my daughter. That kind of tone, that kind of lecture. And then finally he said at one time, too many to my dad, where my dad retorted back to him and said, you know what, what good is all that money gonna do for you when you can’t even right now, look down and see your toes? You can’t even walk up the stairs to your apartment without getting out of breath or collapsing.
Dr. Andreas (00:52:15):
Where do you think all that money you’re making is going to go if you don’t do anything about it now? Triggered, right? And <laugh>, I mean, talk about a moment, right? He is dating his daughter, but he received it well, and, and, he said, you know, you’re right. I need to do something about this. And here was his big magic plan to lose 50 pounds. He just started walking everywhere, not rocket science. He stopped eating the junk, started eating whole food and meat, right? And fresh, uh, fruits and veggies, simple stuff, right? Stop the, the alcohol, stop the sugar. And then just started walking. And I remember this distinctly, it was, uh, forget, like he would make us pull over. We would be a block from his house or two blocks from his home and say, just drop me off. I’m gonna walk the rest of the way.
Dr. Andreas (00:53:06):
Then that block would turn into a mile. He goes, oh, just, you know what? Drop me off here. I’m gonna walk the rest of the way home. I’ll see you when you get there. And then that, you know, he would walk his errands and then, you know, he’d walk the buildings instead of the escalator and all of that stuff. And that was his magic plan. And it worked. He lost 50 pounds and then lived the life that I explained earlier. And so I share that in hopes to inspire people that you never, it’s never too late. It’s Only Halftime, you know, but you’ve gotta choose to decide how you want to come out of a locker room.
Brad (00:53:42):
So clearly you were Inspired from a young age, and now you’re living your, your, your true destiny and your authentic self. But I wonder if we can go back to that, that detour you took when your health got outta balance, even as you were a chiropractic student, which is so focused on, on wellness and holistic health. Um, how does that, how does that happen? And then what was the magic of you to recalibrate, especially through all those difficulties?
Dr. Andreas (00:54:09):
Yeah, and I mean, you know, it’s, it’s been kind of an up and down journey, you know, I remember going through chiropractic school, carrying a cooler with me to stay on track. You know, I was a full-time chiropractic student, was paying my own way. Um, I was working a personal training job at nights after school during the week, and then I was waiting tables at Outback Steakhouse on Friday and Saturday nights. But I wouldn’t eat it there, <laugh>. I just wouldn’t, uh, do it. But, so, you know, I was, I did really well, you know, during that time. And then, but then life happened, right? I graduated school, go into debt to start a practice, family, kids. I was playing golf. Like I told you, I got gained weight, got outta shape. And I, and I, but I always remembered the story of my grandfather’s.
Dr. Andreas (00:54:54):
Mm-hmm. And even if I strayed away from it, I always said, whoa, wait a minute. You can still decide to do something different. And I think, you know, recognizing that I didn’t want, so the way that I was when I was younger, even when I was playing soccer, and when I go to the doctor for knee pain, you know, I will never forget one time you wanted to hand me some samples that his pharmaceutical sales rep brought in and said, here, take these for your knee pain. And even then, it, it didn’t make sense to me. It still doesn’t. I’m like, what is this going to do for my knee pain? I don’t get it. And he said, well, it’ll block the pathway so you don’t feel it. So it cuts off the communication in the brain. But I said, but the problem’s still there, so it’s like a rock in my shoe.
Dr. Andreas (00:55:41):
I just can’t feel it now. Right? And he said, well, yeah, but at least pain will go away. And I’m like, nah, I don’t want that. I want, I want to feel the pain. So then my body tells me, you know, Hey, don’t do that ,stupid, and that’s gonna hurt and you need to start modifying it. And so, you know, I think remembering all those lessons and then when the fan really hit, uh, like it did in 2010, it was that impetus of remembering those lessons and, and seeing so many patients that I felt over time, and now it was time for me to, to really live up to that. And so that was really the, the impetus behind that and knowing I better start doing something because I was faced with one, I thought it was cancer at first, like I mentioned, but then the fact that I could lose my kidney someday, and I don’t know if you’ve ever been to a dialysis center.
Brad (00:56:42):
Nope.
Dr. Andreas (00:56:43):
I’ll tell you, and, and I saw this firsthand with my father-in-law, if people want to get a real motivation to start taking charge of their health, go visit a long-term care facility or a dialysis center. Do a field trip. It don’t change your life in your outlook because it is one of the saddest, most tragic things. Now, sometimes things happen. I get it, I understand that, but so much of that is self-inflicted and is not necessary. And so I think, you know, for me, facing the potential of that was like, whoa, this is it. I, this, I have to, to manage this. And so even though my numbers are normal now, okay, you know, I manage my kidney markers, right? I look at my creatinine clearance, I look at my bun, right? I look at my, um, hematuria, if it’s there or not, protein levels, all these basic markers of renal function. I stay on top of them because just, and this is the mistake I also see people making is they think, ah, I’ve got the numbers back to normal. Now I can go back to doing the stuff that be there. I’m fixed. There’s no finish line to help. But six feet under. Yeah. So that finish line, it’s a lifelong endeavor. And really what I’m trying to do is to impart people that it doesn’t take a lot to move the needle in a big way. And so I focus on what’s the minimal effective dose to get the result so that I can still do the other things that I want in my life for as long as I can.
Brad (00:58:22):
Well said, Dr. Andreas, that’s great stuff. I especially like that description. The doctor gave about how this pill is going to help your knee pain. It shuts off the signaling between the knee and the brain so you don’t feel the pain. And even that right there is such an amazing wake-up call because the body, uh, you know, expresses pain for very important reasons. And then when you shut it off, that then allows you to go do more damage. It’s just the, the basics of, uh, the natural laws of the universe.
Dr. Andreas (00:58:54):
It is, and it’s the same thing that had, when I had my emergency back surgery, when I blew out my disc, 75% of the disc had herniated into the spinal canal. It was the largest my neurosurgeon had saw, and they wanted to put me on Oxycontin after. I’m like, no, no, no, no, you don’t. And I said, you know, let me just have this pain. And the next day I was out. You know, now bear in mind, I had just, I was just doing Ironman triathlons maybe a month or two before. And now I was just happy to go for a walk on the beach. That’s how bad it was. But I didn’t numb up the pain. It hurt, but I just said, Nope, that pain is there. And so I have to work around it. And so that was another impetus behind all of that, is I wanted to stabilize my spine and my back doing what I had studied, you know, being a chiropractor, and focus on my core strength and my flexibility and, and knock on wood.
Dr. Andreas (00:59:46):
And I’m, you know, I’m still racing a 450 pound standup jet ski with 20 year olds at 53. I’m still swinging the golf club, but I, you know, I work at it so that I can enjoy those things. And that, to me, the ultimate R O I and I think one of the big mistakes that I see people making is they think, well, this is inconvenient and you just don’t have time. Maybe. But I think I’ve proven to you, if you have the priority, you’ll find the time. Um, because if you don’t, your body will find it for you. And you may not like when it does, that’s inconvenient. Inconvenient is doctor visits, Medicaid, <laugh>, <inaudible>, you know, chronic disease, that’s inconvenient. Maintaining your health, that’s a privilege. That’s a gift. And if we cherish that gift, even if you’re down that road and you’re down here and you’re struggling with a lot of stuff, challenge your doctors to say, what are we going to do to get, what do I need to do to change my lifestyl? How I can start expressing my best self, my best version. And that’s all I ever ask of my clients. What can we do to have the best version of yourself so that we can all age as gracefully as possible?
Brad (01:01:05):
Dr. Andreas, your people leaving us with words to live by. I love it. Tell us about your website and your offerings and how we can connect with you.
Dr. Andreas (01:01:15):
Yeah, no, I, I appreciate that. You know, you can go to, It’s Only Halftime.com. We take it to a whole nother level. Um, we just don’t give you a free opt-in with another P D F or something. My wife and I, Patricia, you’ll be a chance to meet us both. We have a custom app where our own community, where you can join us, see how we live our life, interact with us, ask us questions. You can take the seven by seven day challenge, the seven simple shifts for seven days.
Dr. Andreas (01:01:43):
It’s a quick, easy to consider mini course. You can ask me questions in there, you can participate. There’s, it’s free for you to join. There’s no credit card required whatsoever. I do offer custom meal plans, custom coaching, custom fitness programs where I take all the guesswork out around your life, fitting it in, make it work. And then of course, we have our old supplement clinical grade nutrition products at IOH nutrition.com, um, that are all clinical grade F D A, G M P certified, N SS F and so forth. Um, but I use them as tools when I work with my one-on-one clients. ’cause I review the labs and make custom recommendations. And even more than happy to work with your physician and say, Hey, here’s the protocol we’re putting together. Run it by them. Make sure they monitor you with them, and let’s see what we can do to help you to start reclaiming your health to the best of your abilities.
Brad (01:02:37):
Love it. IOH like it’s only halftime IOH nutrition. So, uh, I’m only 58, so I’m not quite at halftime yet. Will it still benefit me to love it, to engage with your content?
Dr. Andreas (01:02:50):
Absolutely not. It’s a, it’s a nice, it’s a mindset, right? All of this is the mindset and you’re never too old to declare. It’s only halftime, uh, when you take charge of your health. And so it’s all about tapping your greatest potential, more the merrier. Any age is welcome. Of course, the younger you start, the easier the future will be. And I think we can both can attest to that. Thanks for listening to Every Bad.
Brad (01:03:16):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad Podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email, podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally, become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.
