Tracy (0s):
Natural ways of boosting testosterone. The most common question I get is, why is it solo? And the most common culprit is endocrine disruptors or toxins in our environment. So studies show very clearly it's the plastics, the BP, a, and the Phalates use to make our plastics. It's the chemicals in our food, it's the atrazine and other chemicals and, and the synthetic phytoestrogens. It's the chemicals in our personal care products. And it goes on and on. We're like in the soup of endocrine disruption. Mm. So the first way to increase testosterone levels is to simply be aware of and avoid all of these chemicals and toxins that are crushing our health, that are causing low testosterone, that're causing infertility and autoimmune disease and precocious puberty and a DD and, and hormone sensitive cancers by simply avoiding exposure to these chemicals. That's a big deal.
Tracy (40s):
And so what I mean by that,
Brian (42s):
This week I interviewed Dr. Tracy Gapin. Dr. Gapin is a board certified urologist, world renowned men's health and performance expert, and the founder of Gaan Institute. We discussed the importance of testing when it comes to your health, along with Why we should all measure cortisol, Ways to optimize sleep, Environmental toxins that tank testosterone, how peptides can help you and his one tip to get your body back to what it once was. Really enjoyed my interview with Dr. Gaan. I know you will too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All right. Welcome to the Get Lean, Eat Clean Podcast. My name is Brian Gryn and I have Dr. Tracy Gapin, and welcome to the show.
Tracy (1m 20s):
Hey, thanks so much. Good to be here with you.
Brian (1m 22s):
Good to have you on and out in Sarasota down south. I'm jealous.
Tracy (1m 27s):
Yeah, yeah. You know, we, we pay for it all summer long, So we can enjoy it right now. And you guys are, are in the snow in Chicago. We're living 71 and sunny here in Florida, so beautiful. Not a bad gig. Yeah.
Brian (1m 38s):
Beautiful. And you have the gap at INS Institute, when did you start that?
Tracy (1m 41s):
That's right. Yeah. That was a, a passion project that started way back when I, I was still in my urology days. I started running it in my existing medical practice until eventually about 2020 when I finally pulled the trigger and, and jumped off the cliff and left traditional medicine and launched gaping Institute then. So it's been years in the making, but technically four years formally, you know, opened as a, as a brick and mortar.
Brian (2m 3s):
That's great. Yeah. And you were, you're a board certified urologist? Yeah. How long did you practice that for? Almost
Tracy (2m 9s):
25 years. Yeah. I did, did bread and butter urology, did my own vasectomy years ago as well. In fact. Did a, did a lot of robotic surgery, prostate cancer, all that kind of stuff. And, and so yeah, long history in traditional healthcare and I, I came to, to learn how broken our system is and how, how we're really failing, especially when it comes to men's health.
Brian (2m 32s):
Yeah. Well, vasectomy, we, we, maybe we can touch on that for just a second. Is that something that should be feared or is that not a, not a big
Tracy (2m 40s):
No, it's super easy, man. It takes, I mean, it should, I do what's called a no scalpel technique, so there's no, no actual incision. Tiny little puncture made in the front, numbing up really well, and it takes 10 minutes, and it's fairly painless. I tell you, it is one of those things where the fear is worse than the actual procedure itself. Most guys are so terrified of it afterwards, it's like, oh, that wasn't a big deal. So, yeah, it's pretty easy. And it, it's actually much easier for men to undergo that procedure than for women to undergo sterilization technique like, you know, tubal, et cetera. So.
Brian (3m 9s):
Hmm. Okay. Yeah. What would you say, I know you, you, you were a urologist for 25 years. What's like the, I know it's a big question, but what's like the one main thing that you learned from all those years of practice that you sort of try to apply Now? I,
Tracy (3m 21s):
I learned that great question. I learned that, that men are, we're simple creatures, right? We, we will wait until something is broken before we pay any attention to it. And when, when it is broken, just gimme the quick magic pill. Gimme the magic bullet, make it fast, easy. I don't want to mess around with this. I don't want time. Gimme the pill. And, and so I believe that's what got us here in the first place. That that's what got us to this, I call it testosterone epidemic, where our levels are half what they were 20 years ago. It got us to the obesity situation we're in, where three quarters of men are either overweight or obese. It got us to where longevity is actually decreasing, you know, for the first time in decades, we're dying. Younger lifespan is decreasing. And so it, it's, it's a very passive reactive approach to health that men have where if it ain't broke, don't fix it kind of concept.
Tracy (4m 7s):
And when it is broke, gimme the blue pill or gimme some testosterone and, and let me go. And so I, I think that that's really the biggest problem with men's health where we're failing is, is it's very passive and reactive.
Brian (4m 19s):
Yes. Yeah. You, you wanna be proactive when it comes to your health and sort of get ahead of it. Right? A lot of times people wait till, not that it's too late, but that, you know, that that drastic measures have to be taken. Yeah.
Tracy (4m 32s):
Yeah. I noticed I I'll share some, oh, I'm sorry. I'll Yeah, go ahead. I'll share some stories. I think drive home this point that you just mentioned, I think is really important. And, and this is why I talk about, you know, finding your blind spots. Because most men, if you ask them, they'll say, yeah, I'm healthy. I'm, I'm good, I'm fine. I don't have any problems. I'm, I'm, I'm good. But you look at guys like Bob Harper, who was the, or is the main lead fitness trainer on the TV show, the Biggest Loser, great public figure example of he looks amazing. He's in perfect shape, and he's the epitome of good health. He teaches people how to lose weight and get in shape. And, and a few years ago, at the age of 51, Bob Harper had a massive heart attack that almost killed him. Bob looked healthy, he was not healthy.
Tracy (5m 12s):
My brother-in-law, John John, looked amazing. He was this beast. You know, he was in the gym every day, training, lifting weights, eating perfectly clean, looked incredible. He looked healthy. But at the age of 49, 1 morning getting ready for work, my brother-in-law, John dropped dead. So stories of that, that paint the picture that we all think we're doing fine, but in fact, we all had these major blind spots, these major health issues that are lurking under the surface, waiting to cause a problem. And because we're so passive and reactive, it's often too late by the time they rear their ugly head.
Brian (5m 47s):
Was that your brother-in-law, John, you mentioned? Yep. John, what happened with him?
Tracy (5m 52s):
We don't, we actually don't know. Yeah. Autopsy was inconclusive. We don't know really what happened to him, but he, he was doing everything, you know, air quotes, right, so to speak. He was eating clean, he was working out every day, you know, taking some target supplementation And, you know, he was, again, the epitome of good health. So you would think, and it, it just drives home to the point that, you know, you may look healthy, but there's a lot of stuff going on behind the surface that you don't realize. And there's a lot of issues with cardiovascular health, with hormones, with gut health, with stress, and how it's raising cortisol levels and causing all kinds of underlying problems, blood sugar issues, inflammation. So there's a lot of stuff happening under the surface that we don't pay attention to because it's just not really obvious to us.
Tracy (6m 35s):
And that's where our healthcare system, in my opinion, has failed in that we're not being proactive and, and looking for those massive warning flags until it's too late.
Brian (6m 45s):
Yeah. And I noticed that you've gone through functional diagnostic nutrition, which I've done as well, so it's very cool. Yeah. And they, they talk about like sort of these health diagnostic tests that individuals should go through. What do you, what do you take a typical individual, you know, let's say a male comes in and they wanna sort of learn more and get under the hood, like what do you take them through?
Tracy (7m 7s):
Yeah, so I, I appreciate that. I've, I've done training through FDN, I've done institute of functional medicine, Kish Institute for Functional Medicine, er hormone therapy, peptides through A four M and, and epigenetics through damn stickler, like I've, I, I've taken all these different modalities and modulate and compressed them together to realize that all it's important. And So we look at complex hormones And, you know, most guys only think about testosterone as, you know, the only hormone to worry about. But it's actually free testosterone, which is what is much more important to be looking at thyroid growth, hormone levels, DHEA, nitric oxide, vitamin D, all of these hormones that we need to be looking at markers of cardiovascular health that, you know, your doctor doesn't ever check things like a OB and LDL particle count, not LDL concentration or total cholesterol like your doctor's checking, which don't help you at all.
Tracy (7m 60s):
Markers of inflammation looking at the gut, you know, the gut, it's, it's incredible that the gut controls our entire body. Yeah. Our microbiome and our gut controls, hormone production, immune system metabolism, energy, neurotransmitters. It, it's directly tied to longevity and everything that's going on in our body. And, and most doctors don't even know about the gut and how it's affecting things. And so looking at gut health, looking at cortisol, which is a, a, a stress hormone that most people aren't familiar with, but most entrepreneurs, I work with these high performers. I work with Olympians and NFL players, and they're like, yeah, I'm not stressed. No, no, stress doesn't affect me and CEOs, no, no, I, I got stress under control. But stress is real. It affects everyone to different degrees.
Tracy (8m 41s):
And we can actually measure that and we can see how that's affecting your body. And so it's putting all these diagnostics tests together along with full body imaging And, you know, cardiovascular imaging like a, like a calcium score or a clearly angio heart scan to look for actual blockage. These are the kind of tests that are gonna help us identify those blind spots early. And the earlier you, you identify them, you can address them and, and really prevent major problems before they happen.
Brian (9m 7s):
Yeah. And you mentioned cortisol. I mean, that's a big one. And it's sort, you know, cortisol, it's tough because, you know, you go get a blood test and it might give you that snapshot in time, But it doesn't necessarily show you the sort of the rhythm that it should be like, obviously. Exactly. Right. Yeah, right. You want that rise in the morning and then a slow drop as the, as it goes into the evening. And, you know, that's one things through FDN, they, you know, they do that stress hormone test to see what, you know, where your cortisol levels are throughout the day.
Tracy (9m 34s):
That's right. Yeah, that's right. And a lot of people bastardize cortisol, bastardize, estradiol, other hormones as well. But you know, it, it's not that cortisol is bad for us, it's the balance and it needs to be finally regulated and tuned and, And, you know, it's helpful for us in acute situations, but like you said, long-term, it needs to be balanced. And there's a, there's a circadian rhythm to it on a daily basis that you can measure and you could modulate that and affect that. And, you know, how does that matter? Like, why do I care? Why am I listening to this podcast worrying about cortisol? I don't give a shit. Just, I wanna perform better. So entrepreneurs who are listening, high performers, athletes, you name it, you obviously care about cognitive function, right?
Tracy (10m 13s):
You care about your mind working focus, mental acuity energy. Well, when you have imbalance cortisol, what it does is it turns off key hormones in your brain. It turns off neurotransmitter production, it turns off key signals that affect energy and metabolism and cognitive function. It tears up the gut, which then leads to major systemic issues with inflammation, which is tied to cardiovascular risk and heart attacks, stroke, blood clots, et cetera. And so a lot of people don't recognize how important these topics are and how they directly apply to, you know, this constant peak performance. I hate that this phrase is thrown around, oh, peak performance. But what does it really mean is, is how, how do you get your, your body and mind to work at the highest level so you can, you know, be a better father, be a better leader in the community, be a better entrepreneur, be a better leader to your team at the office, whatever that role may be that you're trying to, to accomplish.
Tracy (11m 9s):
To me, that's, that's peak performance And what we're talking about directly affects that. And I think that's the real take home message here that sometimes gets lost.
Brian (11m 17s):
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, something that also affects cortisol is core quality sleep. And I know you talk about, you talk about that a lot on your website a little bit. What are some of the things? Is this, do you deal a lot with this with men? I, I, you know, I work with men as well, and, and yeah. Not even men, just women and anybody in general. Like what can we do to sort of set us, us, settle us up for quality sleep?
Tracy (11m 41s):
Sure. Yeah. So one of the biggest factors that, that trigger stress in our body, you know, people think of psychological stress like finances and marital issues and, and kids, whatever. But you're right that one of the biggest stressors to our body that raises cortisol is poor sleep. And so, you know, this often will show up as high performance will wake up in the middle of the night. It's typically like three o'clock, two, three o'clock-ish. They'll wake up, they have to pee, but that's not what woke them up. They just happen to go pee. 'cause they feel like they, they need to, it's a reflex in their brain that you gotta pee. And then their mind starts going, thinking about what they could have shoulda would've said or done yesterday or what they need to do tomorrow. And, and perseverating, next thing you know, it's an hour later and you're still up and, and your whole night's ruined.
Tracy (12m 22s):
I hear that all the time, wake up a couple times at night, and that same sort of thing happens. And, and that's cortisol, no question. That's cortisol affecting your sleep, which perpetuates it by further raising cortisol and becomes this ugly vicious cycle. And so the key is, is to really set yourself up and, and, and be intentional about the most important seven, eight hours of your day is when you're sleeping. And that's when hormones are produced, growth hormone, testosterone, et cetera. That's when your body repairs and recovers. And, you know, a lot of guys are in the gym all day and they're frustrated because they're not seeing any gains. But I think the important point here is that when you're training, when you're lifting weight, strength training, whatever, you're, you're actually tearing down damaging muscle so that it can recover bigger, bigger, better, stronger while you're sleeping.
Tracy (13m 9s):
And so that's why sleep is such an important time. And so how do you do that? Well, it starts with being intentional that, you know, count backwards. If you have to wake up at six o'clock, that means you gotta be in bed by 10 o'clock. You gotta be in bed. No one that it may take you, you know, as much as 30 minutes to fall asleep if you're able to fall. If you're latency, meaning how long it takes you to fall asleep is quick. Maybe you can get in bed at 10 30, but otherwise simply count backwards. You gotta be in bed at that time. And so now you've laid out the, in the duration of sleep. Now, how do you improve quality of sleep? Well, there are things that you can do before sleep. You know, people call it sleep hygiene. It's basically tactics that you can utilize before you go to bed. And I like to say for the last two hours before you go to bed, there are five things that you can do.
Tracy (13m 54s):
You can read a book, not on a Kindle, not on an iPad, tablet, not any kind of blue light device. It has to be an, an actual physical book with pages you can read, you can journal, which is a great way to really, you know, document and keep track of, of your thoughts and your day and your progress and your goals, et cetera. You can do sauna, which is great. You can have sex, which is a great way to relax, or you can meditate, which is a great way to turn off your mind as well. All five of those things are great things that you can do in those last two hours before you go to bed. It'd be really weird if you did all of them at the same time. So I wouldn't recommend doing them all simultaneously. Your or your wife would be like, what? What are you doing? But joking aside, those are the, the great things to do.
Tracy (14m 35s):
Two hours before bedtime, definitely no blue light. Everyone knows that. No blue light, no phone, no tablet. I like, you know, blue light blocking glasses starting when the sun goes down. But definitely even wearing those, you gotta be off the blue at for two hours before bed. Eating food can definitely trigger cortisol as well. So I would really recommend against eating within four hours of going to bed. That's gonna be a big thing for you as well.
Brian (14m 56s):
And one thing I, I find that helps me, 'cause you know, it's, it's everyone gets up in the middle of the night to pee, like it happens, whatever, it's, but the key is like how you handle that. And like, I try to like literally go, come back, like, not even like allow myself to, to think anything that's going on or that happened in the day before. But one thing is I've been doing just like a 10 minute meditation. I I actually do it in the morning, but I think whenever you do it, it's fine, I think. But when you learn how to just quiet your mind and do it, whether it's in the middle of the day or in the morning or at night, yeah. When you get into a situation where you need to fall back asleep, it'll be easier for you to fall back asleep if you're used to sort of getting your mind into that sort of quiet space.
Brian (15m 40s):
That's right. Yeah.
Tracy (15m 41s):
A hundred percent agree. Yeah, you're, you're training your mind how to turn off when it needs to. And so I love it. Like I said in the morning, I love when I, you know what I do, I wake up 6:00 AM first thing I do is I get my coffee, I'm a coffee attic, but that's okay, no sweetener or anything, but black coffee. I get my chest monitor onto it, measure my HRVI sit on the couch for a two and a half minute scan, and I take that time to actually do some journaling and meditation. Just five, 10 minute meditation then I think is so powerful to set you up for the day. And then what I love to do is when I'm coming home from work, so I have two little kids, they're nine 11, they're, they're my everything and I wanna be able to be present, engaged with them. But sometimes it's tough when your mind's still going from work.
Tracy (16m 24s):
And so I'll literally pull over in a parking lot and sit there in my car and meditate for 10 minutes. That way when you walk in that door, the kids are jumping on you, your wife is asking for help And you know, there's chaos. You're able to be present and engaged with the family because you've trained your mind to kind of calm down. And then the same principle applies just before bedtime as well. So I totally wholeheartedly agree with, with that concept of, of meditation to train the mind. Yeah.
Brian (16m 47s):
Yeah. And then like other things I, we like to use, like, and we initially used white noise, not for ourselves. Our dog was, we have two dogs, but one of them was hearing like an owl. So if he, if he hears the owl, he starts barking. So we put the white noise on, then we realize, God, you know what, this is sort of nice now. Like we travel with it, take it everywhere we go. Yeah. And I don't know, it's just like a comforting thing. Also too, what I've been using is red, a little bit of red light in the evening, you know, turn a lot of the lights off and put some red light on in the house. Yeah. And I think the dogs like it, and it's like sort of a soothing, nice way to sort of just like wind down.
Tracy (17m 25s):
So yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I, I think it's also important to emphasize, you know, your room needs to be pitch black, you know, even light from an alarm clock can actually affect your brain and hormone production and cortisol. And so totally dark room as cold as you can get it, the colder the better. We actually, to the point you just made, we have a fan going that provides it, it cools, But it also provides some of that white noise for us as well. Yeah,
Brian (17m 48s):
Yeah, yeah. No, that's great. Yeah, we keep ours between 61 and 65, so Yeah, it's, it's, yeah, 61. I will say, there's times I look, I go, God, it's a little cold. Like, you gotta find that. But yeah, I, but I would say like, if you could get it to 65, you know, in Chicago it's easy for you. In Florida, you might have to work on that, but you
Tracy (18m 10s):
Got crank the AC down. Yeah,
Brian (18m 11s):
Yeah, yeah. For us, we don't, we don't need anything. And it gets pretty cool on our, on our house, especially during the winter, so, yeah.
Tracy (18m 17s):
Yeah. Nice.
Brian (18m 19s):
What, what other issues like, I mean, I, I know on your website you talk a lot about testosterone, even erectile def dysfunction and also peptides, you know, why don't we touch on those three and, and like Yeah, sure. What are some of the main issues you run into with men who come into your office?
Tracy (18m 34s):
Yeah, sure. So, you know, I, I talk about this testosterone epidemic where we have three large, massive longitudinal studies here in the Europe, excuse me, in the US as well as in Europe. So three big studies that have shown that testosterone levels worldwide have dropped by almost 50% over the last 20 years. So what that means is a 50-year-old guy today has a free testosterone level that's about half of a, what a 50-year-old guy had 20 years ago. And that's the massive drop, right? How does that present itself? How does that appear? Well, men may have issues with energy where later in the day, they're crashing, they're tired, they want to take a nap.
Tracy (19m 19s):
If you're wanting to take a nap at three or four o'clock in the afternoon, something's wrong. That's not a typical, normal thing for a guy. Brain fog, cognitive function's, not what it used to be. You can't quite pay attention like you used to. Mental acuity is off, can't find the right words, can't remember things, you're just mentally off. Mood is off. A lot of guys notice they're just kind of just depressed, sad, just off, not themself. They don't feel like a man. I hear a lot of guys say, I can't burn that belly fat. I'm in the gym every day doing strength training, doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm eating clean, I'm eating the, the, the, you know, high protein diet and I am watching my, my macros and my caloric intake and I'm doing everything right and I can't burn that fat no matter what the hell I do.
Tracy (20m 2s):
Very common situation. Can't recover from injury as well. You know, they, they have a, they tweak their knee, tweak their elbow, and they're out for a month now because it just takes so long to recover. Sex drive isn't what it used to. You know, I used to chase my wife around now she's like, what's wrong? She's chasing me around. I just don't really have the same drive. I'm just not interested in sex anymore. And I've actually had couples come in where the wife thinks that the man is cheating on her because he's just not interested in sex like he was before. So it could be, you know, a real issue with relationships and then sexual performance as well. And so for a lot of guys, a lot of those symptoms are directly related to low testosterone. And you know, we have over 50 hormones in our body that we need to be focused on, but testosterone is by far the most impactful, the most important, and the one that gets all the attention.
Tracy (20m 49s):
And when we correct that, it fixes a lot of stuff that helps us now focus on next level stuff as well.
Brian (20m 55s):
And what would you say are like maybe your top four or five things to help boost it, you know, naturally?
Tracy (21m 0s):
So, natural ways of boosting testosterone. You know, the most common question I get is why is it elevated? So why is it, is it lower? Before I ask, they ask about how do I increase it? Why is it so low? And the most common culprit is endocrine disruptors or toxins in our environment. So studies show very clearly it's the plastics, the BPA and the thas used to make our plastics, it's the chemicals in our food, it's the atrazine and other chemicals and, and the, and the, the, the synthetic phytoestrogens, it's the chemicals and our personal care products. And it goes on and on. We're like in the soup of endocrine disruption. So the first way to, to increase testosterone levels is to simply be aware of and avoid all of these chemicals and toxins that are crushing our health, that are causing low testosterone, that are causing infertility and autoimmune disease and precocious puberty and a DD and, and hormone sensitive cancers by simply avoiding exposure to these chemicals.
Tracy (21m 52s):
That's a big deal. And so what I mean, I mean by that, like I have my, you know, filtered water bottle here. I don't drink from plaster water bottles ever. I filter my water. So, you know, we know that, that if you use tap drink from the tap, tap water is loaded with synthetic estradiol from women's birth control. All these other chemicals, these toxins that are water treatment plants are not effectively able to filter. And so drink filtered water, use a, a stainless steel water bottle rather than plastic water bottles. Don't heat your food up in any kind of plastic storage container. Eating organic fruits and vegetables, organic meats, wild caught fish.
Tracy (22m 33s):
Being intentional about the food and the water that we're taking in can be a big factor. And then personal care products, you know, there are, there are a number of apps out there that can help you understand what's in those products that you're using. The deodorant, the soap, the shampoo, the sunscreen, the shaving cream, the laundry detergent, all these products. So they, there's an app by the environmental working group called Healthy Living. It's a free app on your phone. You can scan barcodes of products and see what are the ingredients in this product and is it good for me or not. Yucca is another one. YUKA Yucca is a great one. Think dirty is another one. There are a bunch of apps out there, they're all free that you can use to look at the products that you're putting on or in your body to understand how to minimize exposure.
Tracy (23m 19s):
So that's the, the big part is that, that toxin load. Then I would say focusing on, you know, the lifestyle factors that we know can make an impact. Strength training is one of the biggest ones. You know, most men don't do enough strength training. They're doing too much cardio in relation to strength training. So heavy weights within, you know, taking care to avoid injury And you know, within your limits. But you need to be doing work on the core and the back and the, the big belly muscles like the hamstring and the quad, you know, those kind of training are gonna help improve testosterone, not dramatically. I wanna, I wanna be clear here that these are not gonna move the needle significantly, but they will definitely help. And the next one is sleep.
Tracy (23m 59s):
Without question. One of the biggest factors that in that affect testosterone production and impact your levels is sleep. And again, that goes back to cortisol. Crummy sleep raises cortisol. Cortisol directly tells the, the pituitary turn off testosterone production. And so improving sleep quality is a big factor as well. And I'm a big believer in wearables and so a lot of guys say, yeah, I sleep fine. Well get a wearable, whether it's an R ring, whether it's any of these other devices out there, R is definitely the most validated and most accurate, specifically for sleep. You wanna be sure you're getting an hour of deep sleep. So 60 minutes of deep sleep and two hours of REM sleep, 120 minutes of REM sleep.
Tracy (24m 39s):
So good quality sleep is really important there as well. So it's toxins, it's fitness, it is sleep. And then we can look at things like micronutrients and your nutrition. You know, testosterone production requires B complex vitamins, B six, B12, magnesium micronutrient, you know, minerals like boron and other things like that are important as well. That tends to be less of a, of an issue. The seed oils, you know, there's a big battle right now as you know, online about, you know, seed oils, whether they're good for you or bad for you. What we do know is that seed oils can directly impact normal hormone production. And So we don't even need, need to have the battle between saturated fats and sea oils.
Tracy (25m 20s):
We know that if you can just limit those types of fats need more, the healthy fats, the monoline saturated fats, the Omega-3 fats just load up on the healthier fats that's gonna be better for hormone production, especially testosterone.
Brian (25m 30s):
Yeah. And as far as sea oils is, is like, I know there's a debate back and forth about that. I mean, I think it's a pretty clear, now there's decent amount of research on how detrimental seed oils, especially like, you know, too many of them can, can be, and they're everywhere. So, but if you just watch how they're manufactured, it's, I think it's like pretty intuitive, the fact that you probably don't really wanna be consuming it. So Yeah. But yeah, just Google that, see how they make seed oils and you'll be like, do I really want to drink this or have this in my food? Yeah.
Tracy (25m 58s):
Yeah. And, and this, this brings up a great point. There's so much battle and fighting going on, especially in social media over, you know, what's the perfect diet? Whether it's carnivore, keto, paleo, mediterranean, vegan car, you know, whatever it may be. And you're gonna find a study that will support whatever position you have, right? And so there's a lot of, you know, individualization that needs to be take place. And, and I think genetics comes into play here a lot, but when it comes to things like the seed oil research and the soy research, which is insane, you need to look at who is funding the study you're looking at. And there's a lot of big food industry sponsored studies out there that will say what you want it to say, what they want to say, right?
Tracy (26m 44s):
And so there's so much bias in these studies that you need to really look at the, the way the study was designed and who funded it And what was their intention to really understand the bias behind that study. 'cause again, you could make a study, show, whatever you want to show if you structure it the right way.
Brian (27m 4s):
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And, and I also think it's important to, like, cedar oils is one thing where you sort of, you don't even know it's in the food. So, and a lot of times you don't under, you don't really feel the effects of it till maybe down the road. But a lot of times, like especially with digestion and like, you know, gas or bloating, you know, if this is happening a lot, I mean, there's something going on, right? Like you gotta sort of be a little bit of self-aware of these things and then maybe, you know, then maybe, you know, get with a professional like yourself or myself and, And you know, do maybe an elimination diet or whatever it is and do some testing, maybe a GI map, you know, I know FDN is big in GI maps and things like that. Yep,
Tracy (27m 41s):
Yep.
Brian (27m 42s):
What about peptides? Is that something that you utilize and maybe people don't?
Tracy (27m 46s):
I love peptides. Yeah. Pep people
Brian (27m 47s):
Don't understand what those are. Yeah.
Tracy (27m 49s):
Yeah. And, and they've, they've gotten a lot of attention recently. I've been using peptides for probably 6, 7, 8 years now. And they're amazing molecules with an asterisk, and I'll get to the asterisk once I explain it to the listener. Peptides are simply short proteins. They're simply specific sequences of amino acids that originate from our own bodies. They originate from our body. They're synthesized to mimic, for example, the thymus cland. You know, when we are young, when we are infants, our thymus cland is what produces our immune system, all the key immune cells that we have. And then the thymus gland involutes, it shrinks and it goes away and it's gone for the rest of your life. But those are key proteins that are produced by the thymus gland that are very helpful for immune function, for example, for repair and recovery.
Tracy (28m 32s):
And so some of the peptides we use come from the thymus cland. The stomach produces enzymes that are helpful for repair and reducing inflammation. Our body is amazing at healing itself if you just let it. And So they are peptides that come from enzymes in the stomach that help you repair and heal. And so peptides are simply short proteins that are synthesized and mimic enzymes from our own body. They're amazingly powerful at helping reduce inflammation, helping with weight loss, fat burning, building muscle, musculoskeletal repair, cognitive function and memory and focus and concentration and infections and anxiety and sexual dysfunction and libido and you name it.
Tracy (29m 18s):
And there are peptides that have been identified that could help improve that issue.
Brian (29m 24s):
How is it administered? How is it administered? Administered? Yeah, great. Great
Tracy (29m 28s):
Question. So some peptides are oral, some peptides are topical, some are injectable. It really depends on what the peptide is. It has to do with molecular weight, it has to do with route, you know, best method of absorption, bioavailability. So there's a lot of nuance, just like, you know, you could think of how some medications can be given orally versus some have to be given iv. It depends on, on the peptide itself. And so it just, the short answer is it depends. There are amazing peptides that come in in a drop or bottle that you can put on your scalp. And with microneedling are amazing for helping with hair loss. And so there are some topical ones like that. There's the creams for some memory and cognitive function peptides that we use.
Tracy (30m 13s):
And so it just depends. Yeah. And some are oral, some of the, like, you know, a lot of the most common, you know, initial peptides people start with is BPC 1 57, and that's an oral peptide that either BPC 1 57 or BPC with KPV, which is another peptide, which is a, an anti-inflammatory. They're put together a lot. Those are great oral ones if we're trying to reduce inflammation in the gut. And so this brings me to a point that I think is really important to emphasize here in that peptides are amazing, but there's nuance and there's context and people are, you know, online. Oh, I hear BPC is great, I should take that because so and so said it's a great peptide. I think it's important to understand that everyone's different And, you know, one size fails all I like to say, so what's right for one guy is wrong for the next.
Tracy (30m 58s):
And so I, I would be hesitant to just take somebody's word for it online who tells you, oh, this peptide is amazing. But number two, if you don't have the foundation set up first. Yeah. So if your hormones are a mess, if your gut is a mess, if you have systemic inflammation, if you have issues with, you know, vascular disease and all these other issues that we find, if you don't fix those first peptides aren't gonna do anything for you. And so a lot of people say, I tried this peptide didn't work. Well, if if your hormones are a wreck, then they're not gonna work. They're not supposed to work.
Brian (31m 34s):
Right? So you certainly, you, you need to build the foundation first, and this can come in as almost just like an adjunct to whatever Yeah. You're doing. Yeah. Yeah. That
Tracy (31m 43s):
Makes sense. I, I look at, I look at peptides and for that matter also, things like hyperbarics and PEMF and, and red light and cryo and all these other awesome treatments that that, that I, I love these treatments in the proper context. Yeah. But my analogy is, it's like, they're like, that can of frosting,
Brian (31m 59s):
Right?
Tracy (31m 59s):
You're baking a cake and once the cake is, is complete, you've, you've baked that cake, now it's time to put that frosting on and it, it completes the cake, right? But eating that frosting outta can is, it's kind of weird. It's kind of wrong. Like it's just not the way it's supposed to be. And it, and it doesn't have the same effect el you, it, it's a little too sweet concentrated. It's just, it, it's not the same. Right.
Brian (32m 17s):
No, that's a good
Tracy (32m 17s):
Analogy. And so I think of it as like the icing on the cake. Once you get your foundational stuff in place, now it's time to layer on stuff that could really augment the, the outcome. And
Brian (32m 25s):
I'm assuming peptides are like, you pay for 'em. Like let's say someone wants to use 'em. Is it like a monthly or how, how much is administered? And then, and then for how long?
Tracy (32m 36s):
Yeah, it again, short answer, it depends. Yeah. So some peptides can be taken continuously, some peptides are cycled where you take it, you know, once every couple months, for example, there's a amazing peptide called API on which I love, and it's been shown to extend lifespan. So longevity in animal studies, it's been shown to affect cancer growth. And it's amazing for reducing inflammation. And that's just taken for 10 days twice a year. So every six months you do a 10 day cycle of that. So it really just depends. Some people love some peptides that are great for libido and sexual arousal and sexual performance, and those could be taken just as as desires.
Tracy (33m 16s):
So I'll have couples that will go on a, you know, getaway weekend trip, and that's a great peptide to use for that situation. So it just depends on, on, again, individualizing it based on your goals, based on what you're trying to accomplish, your challenges. And then, you know, the individual peptides have different nuance around them. Hmm. I will emphasize that there are a lot of direct to consumer companies out there selling peptides. And I would caution the listener to stay away from them. So the, the best way to know, you know, if this applies to the one you're using is if the only requirement to obtain that peptide is a credit card swipe, then you need to walk away. Because the problem is, if it's not a, a registered compounding pharmacy, there is no oversight, there's no quality assurance, there's no purity controls.
Tracy (34m 7s):
And I've seen studies where they look at these peptides and there's either no peptide in the substance substance at all, and it's just empty. It's just water saline or it actually has heavy metals and toxins and other harmful ingredients instead. And so I would caution the listener that you don't wanna be buying any direct yourself. Yes, you can get a much cheaper and, and that should be a caution in and of itself. You may see a certificate of authenticity and I'll call bullshit because how do you know that that paper goes to that exact bottle that you have in your hand? And you just don't, there's no way to know that. And so I wouldn't trust them. Any, any peptide that I take personally that I prescribe for any of my patients all go through a compounding pharmacy.
Brian (34m 47s):
Okay. Got it. Yeah, that, that's good to know. I, it's a little bit like the supplement industry. Well, I know peptides are maybe a little bit different, but it's like the wild, wild west a bit, so you gotta make sure you're getting it from a quality source. What, what's one thing, you know, you've been in, I mean you were, you're an anti-aging space for the last, what, four years? What's maybe one thing you've changed your mind? Well, 12 years. About 12 now. Yeah. Okay. You opened your clinic and Okay. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. So 12 years, what's the one thing you've changed your mind on in the past 12 years? What
Tracy (35m 16s):
Have I changed my mind on? You know, when I first evolved away from traditional healthcare, you know, from the me, you know, I was, I was a, a urologist in a very busy medical practice. And when I had my own health issues, that's what got me starting to go down one rabbit hole after another of studying and learning and, and, and understanding this stuff. I was very skeptical in the beginning. And I was taught very early on going, going back to medical school. Really, I was taught that the main way to treat disease is with pharmaceuticals or surgery. And my whole practice, you know, now that I kind of have, have a, a different perspective, every patient I saw, it was either a drug or a surgery, that that's how you fix problems.
Tracy (35m 56s):
And so I was very skeptical that anything else really applied. And I, I laughed at, I scoffed at the concept of anti-aging back then. Anti-aging was a bad word. And now it's really pivoted to where longevity medicine is really what we're talking about here. And optimization, my entire perspective has changed in that I now see the science, I see the evidence, there's no dispute about it that what we are doing is massively impacting health. And we're doing that not by waiting until there's a disease to treat, but by being proactive and intentional and understanding at a cellular level, how can I optimize and improve cellular function and efficiency to prevent disease.
Tracy (36m 37s):
Example, we know that blood sugar regulation is tied directly to longevity. We know that, you know, blood sugar regulation is not just for diabetics. People always think, oh, I'm either diabetic or I'm not, or maybe I'm pre-diabetic. Well that's, again, that's a disease. You're waiting until you have a quote disease. The better way to look at it is insulin sensitivity, which is how well your body can quickly regulate your blood sugar as it fluctuates. And that dynamic ability to control blood sugar is directly tied to energy and cognitive function and metabolism and weight and sex and cardiovascular health and longevity.
Tracy (37m 19s):
And So we know how this all ties together is things like high cortisol, things like low testosterone, things like inflammation from the gut all affect blood sugar regulation. It drives up your blood sugar and elevated blood sugar directly causes cardiovascular disease. I wanna repeat that 'cause this is such a big point here. Elevated blood sugar directly causes cardiovascular disease. It's not just lipids. You know, people always think, oh, my LDL is fine, so I'm no bullshit. What causes cardiovascular disease, heart attack, blood clot, stroke, and sudden death? It's that atherosclerotic plaque that has formed over decades. It's not just like I turned 51 and I suddenly had a heart attack.
Tracy (38m 1s):
It developed over decades of time. And that's not just from lipids, it's also from blood sugar regulation and systemic inflammation. It's that, it's that milieu that causes cardiovascular disease. We know that without question the number one cause of death, the number one cause of mortality in both men and women by far is vascular disease, cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke, blood clot. And so if we know that gut health and blood sugar regulation and hormones and inflammation and cortisol and all these things directly impact that, why would we not wanna pay attention to those things and fix those before they become a real problem? So that's where my whole perspective has shifted in that I now know that we can prevent those problems before they happen and that will directly affect longevity.
Tracy (38m 49s):
'cause the best way to extend lifespan is to not die. Right. And so that's what it's really all about.
Brian (38m 55s):
Yeah. And I've had a lot of, like former doctors or people or individuals that were in sort of the, the formal healthcare pro or if you wanna say sick care program, And now they're getting into more preventative ways of helping people. And it's nice to see that more and more doctors are realizing that, that, you know, the western world, we've, we're really good with acute care when something happens, you know, you break an arm And you know, you you, you go to the hospital and they can fix it like that and you're back up and moving or, you know. Yep. But when it comes to just like preventative and self-care, it's one of those things I think we're lacking a little bit and, but I I do see it changing. I mean, I, you know, I, I'm in this world, so maybe I'm in my own little bubble, but hopefully we can try to make it change on more of a level where it's affordable and easy for more, most, more people than just certain individuals who are, you know, have the means to, to do it.
Tracy (39m 49s):
That's right. Yeah. And, and you bring up a, a great point about cost and, And you know, this cash based world that healthcare is quickly evolving into, you know, insurance has always been a, a disease focused coverage for acute situations. You have a heart attack, you have, you have a kidney stone, you have prostate cancer, you needs surgery, you have a baby, and insurance is great for those acute situations, But it does nothing for you until you get to that point. And so the way I, I try to emphasize it now is what's the cost of investing in your health versus the cost that you're gonna pay later? You can either pay now or you can pay later. Right?
Brian (40m 24s):
Right.
Tracy (40m 25s):
And, and I look at it as an investment in your future and your longevity and investment in quality of life. And that I think if you want that, it's going to be a matter of, of using your hard earned cash for much bigger gains in the long run.
Brian (40m 43s):
Yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. I always say, you know, I don't like to sp I don't spend a ton of money, but when we do, it's on like things that we're putting in our body and self-care. I think it's just, you know, if we're, if we don't, I always say, if we don't have our health, what do we have anyway? So, yeah. You know, might as well, you know, use our hard earned money to, to help enhance our, optimize our health. So, yeah. Well, this was great. I'll ask you one last question. If you were gonna tell someone, you know, maybe they wanted to, maybe they've, they've lost their, you know, their way a little bit, they've put on some weight. And what would you tell that individual if they wanted to get their body back to maybe what it once was, 10, 15, 20 years ago? What's, what's the first step you tell that person?
Tracy (41m 23s):
Sure. I, I always suggest to find your blind spots first. You know, step one, I have a four step process. My peak launch system, the first step is always find your blind spots. And so that means get the diagnostic testing done. And there are a lot of ways of doing that now. And I, I, I don't wanna even name, you know, we do that here, but I know a lot of other companies do that as well. But find your blind spots to identify what are the issues that need attention, and then you can start to dive deeper and do some advanced testing to understand what's causing those issues. And then you could look at treating it. I think so often people are looking for, I I love this, what supplements do you take? And, And you know why people ask that. People ask that. So whatever I tell 'em to take, oh, I'm just gonna go buy those supplements.
Tracy (42m 6s):
Well, you, it doesn't work like that. Everyone is different. One size fails all And what I'm taking, I can give you my stack of 15 things I take every day, but that may be completely wrong for you. And so it starts with the testing, the diagnostic testing the deep dive to understand what your body needs, and then you can construct this, you know, personalized blueprint of this customized stack of what's right for you. And so I, I caution people against trying to just quickly go out there and find the magic blue pill.
Brian (42m 32s):
Yeah, no, I agree. Test, don't guess, right? That's right. That's right. Well, Dr. Gman, this is great. Where's the best place for people to find you?
Tracy (42m 40s):
Thanks so much. So GAP Institute, we're here in Sarasota. We serve men and women around the country, though you can check out my website, gaping institute.com, and I have a gift for the listeners. If you go to gap institute.com/launch, L-A-U-N-C-H, I have a number of free gifts there. I have an ultimate peptide guy that goes through a lot of amazing cutting edge peptides. I have a high performance health handbook, I have an amazing masterclass I did on Men's Peak performance and a copy of my bestselling book, mail 2.0, a free digital copy there along with the companion guide. And you'll also get a link if you wanna jump on a call with my team. You know, you'll get information about that there as well.
Brian (43m 17s):
That's great. Wow. Lots of gifts. Well, it's the holiday season. Love.
Tracy (43m 21s):
I love to give free stuff away. All right. Well
Brian (43m 23s):
Tracy, well thank you so much for coming on and yeah, appreciate it. Sure. You got, man. Thanks for listening to the Get Lean Eat Clean Podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes at Brian Gryn dot com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
