Brian (0s):
Coming up on the Get Lean EAN podcast,
Neil (4s):
What you wanna do. Cause the thing with testosterone that I'll leave it just for men for now, is that I have like 30 year old men who wanna go testosterone. And then I'm like, do you understand that it may increase, it may decrease your fertility, it may decrease your sperm count and the sperm vitality. You may not wanna do this right now, you may wanna try again. There's three ton of other things that we can try first before we go there. And I think people don't understand that part going in. We, and then they, and they have a gold number cause they see so and so on. Again, on social media or a podcast talking at one a 1200, 1400 testosterone, my testosterone's do the best. And it doesn't always work that way. I mean, I tell my patients, you want at lease a 600 usually in a perfect world.
Neil (48s):
I mean, and then like people in that 600, 900 is like the sweet spot. And then if you, if you do great at higher than that and you're not having any side effects and you're not converting to estrogen and you're not having any side effects, great. But again, do you wanna just find that sweet spot and then kind of go from there?
Brian (1m 8s):
Hello and welcome to the Get Lean EAN podcast. I'm Brian Grn and I'm here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it once was, five, 10, even 15 years ago. Each week I'll give you an in-depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long-term sustainable results. This week I interviewed New York City-based anti-aging and integrative medicine practitioner Dr. Neil Parvin. Dr. Parvin uses an evidence-based approach to functional medicine using cutting age advances in science technology and personalized precision medicine to help patients heal, thrive, and optimize their human potential.
Brian (1m 49s):
We discussed tips to optimize testosterone, Dr. Vin's favorite supplements to optimize health span, ways to fix brain fog and headaches, advantages of red light therapy and his one tip to get your body back to what it once was. Really enjoyed my interview with Dr. Alvin. I hope you do too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All right. Welcome to the Get Lean ean podcast. My name is Brian Grn and I have Dr. Paul on welcome to the show.
Neil (2m 18s):
Hello. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me.
Brian (2m 21s):
Thanks for coming on. And you are located in New York, New York City. Maybe tell the audience a little bit about your practice. I know you're anti-aging and integrative medicine, correct?
Neil (2m 33s):
Exactly. So yeah, my practice has kind of morphed over the years, but right now it's pretty much about 75% anti-aging regenerative medicine with a, a sports medicine, pain medicine slant to it. And then the other like about a quarter is still what I call chronic illness like fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, Lyme disease, things like that.
Brian (2m 55s):
Okay. And when did you open up your practice and what sort of got you into getting into that side of like anti-aging and things like that?
Neil (3m 3s):
I mean the one, I mean in Pxa Manhattan for about six years, overall over 20 now. Wow. And in terms of getting into it, it's kinda like a lot of docs or people who were into the, the health, the health space is, I had headaches for years in med school that were very debilitating, tried everything, just basic, traditional and they gave me more side effects than benefit. So I started looking for things that would help me and I found things with acupuncture and breath work and I'm like, wow, this actually, this stuff works. I don't have any side effects. And then it kind of, I went down the rabbit hole from there.
Brian (3m 34s):
Gotcha. So, so acupuncture really, I, I've done acupuncture once before. Is that something that you really recommend for your clients when it comes to maybe, you know, migraines and headaches and things like that?
Neil (3m 47s):
It's one, it's really, it's helpful. I mean this is almost 20 years ago now. There wasn't as many things out as there are now. Right. But it's, it's definitely a great add-on and it, it, it definitely something that could help almost everybody and again, have really no side effects to it. So it, it's definitely something that people should look into.
Brian (4m 6s):
What is probably one of the more common things that you see in your practice and that you're helping people like overcome?
Neil (4m 14s):
I mean the main things that I get right now are two, probably three things and I'll, I mean brain fog. The second thing is just patients don't know how to deal with joint pain without being on steroids or unfortunate narcotics. And then just this chronic fatigue type situation on their own overload right now, just from everything going on, I mean the things that we, so, I mean everything starts really quickly just with terms of getting either doing with a physical exam, obviously evaluating this specific problem. We're not just looking at the area itself, but looking kind of at the whole body. Cause again, everything could be either fascia related or nerve related coming from, if it's something in the hand, it could be from the neck if it's, if it's a, if it's a foot injury, it could be from the hip.
Neil (4m 59s):
So again, we, that's kind of the broader approach than some traditional medicine. Everything than anything like fatigue or brain fog. We're always starting with lab work and microbiome testing and then combine. So we take the old school foundational stuff and we mix with some of the new things like peptides or IVs or red light therapy. And again, I like to play, I like to have a huge toolbox, which is kind of why people come seek me out because I can kind of, I can play on all sides of the fence.
Brian (5m 24s):
Yeah, no, that's great. And I feel like this is hopefully where a lot of, well maybe not a lot, but more doctors are going down this route hopefully and getting in on, you know, both the western side and you know, the traditional side and then maybe, you know, more like the biohacking side.
Neil (5m 41s):
Yeah, there's some, yeah, you gotta, you, you have to have, everything works. I always tell my patients if, if, if the foundation of the house isn't good, doesn't matter what cool biohacking thing you're gonna do, but they're, the biohacking stuff is great, but it still comes down to that lab work and sleep and exercise and everything kind of goes from there. So.
Brian (5m 58s):
Right. The the foundational tools. Right.
Neil (6m 0s):
Exactly.
Brian (6m 1s):
And what are, I mean you mentioned sleep, exercise, what other foundational tools do you work on with your clients?
Neil (6m 8s):
I mean, the main four again is sleep, exercise, stress, re stress management I guess is probably the best way of putting in and diet. And everybody's different. And I don't have like a, a a one size fits off for everybody cause it doesn't work. Everybody's, you have to kind of adapt to everything. But that, that's to me is the core four. And then like I said, the lab work is, is that other piece where again, if somebody's thyroid is off or their immune system is overactive or what their gut health is awful, then you gotta fix that as well.
Brian (6m 44s):
Yeah. And I know you're in New York City so, and I'm hearing the horns in the back around, so you might, is stress something that is a common occurrence with a lot of your clients? Like just stress management and, and ways to overcome, you know, obviously a stressful lifestyle.
Neil (7m 3s):
It is. It's actually, I'm amazed now that it, it still is, but a lot of people now, I mean three or four years ago, nobody would come to me and it's very few people would come to me and say, I'm doing breath work or I'm doing cold plunge to relax myself. And now it's become more nature. I think maybe more of the app. Everything's kind of an app. There's an app for that type of thing where they can just hop on an app for five minutes before people are journaling now without me telling them. But there's definitely things that we definitely do. And again, it's always trying to figure out what they, what is gonna work for them, what is figuring out what their triggers are. Is it something that's gonna be short term, is it a job loss or is it something that's gonna be, okay I have five kids and I have and from 16 to two and that's something that's gonna be more lifelong and we gotta work on more permanent type things.
Neil (7m 48s):
And and it's also figure out, and I have grown men who are not gonna be journaling or, or doing yoga and we gotta potentially work on a like exercise or other type of supplements versus some people are like, no, I'm going to, I do my breath work 15 minutes a day and I'm good to go. So it's, it's again, it's, it's always a moving target. But I think luckily again, things have dramatically changed for a good way that people are now adopting or trying to treat their own health rather than waiting for somebody to tell 'em what to do. And then I'm like, I always tell my patients some ways, I'm always a traffic cop where I'm kind of saying, okay, you may wanna check this out or check out this app or go do this person or watch this thing on YouTube or whatever.
Brian (8m 25s):
Right.
Neil (8m 26s):
Which works out really well.
Brian (8m 28s):
Yeah, that's the thing nowadays it's like there's so much information out there between YouTube and even podcasting and, and like you said, apps, it's like you, you could, the information's out there, it's just a matter of finding, you know, sort of what will work for you. Like some people I've, my wife and I have meditated with using certain apps or just even YouTube, some guided meditations and you know, obviously I d I was just, just actually in Florida did, did a bunch of yoga using some guided yoga classes on YouTube. So it's like everything's out there. It's just a matter of applying yourself really.
Neil (9m 4s):
Yeah, applying yourself on again and trial and error. Yeah. And not, and also not being swayed by some stuff. It's sometimes too good to be true. But otherwise,
Brian (9m 15s):
And what would you say, what, what are some things that you, maybe some things that have gotten a bunch of hype but just haven't really lived up to, is there any things that, that any come off the top of your mind?
Neil (9m 25s):
I mean the one thing is there's a lot of technology that like these cap looking things or these headset looking things that are saying put on your head and for 15 minutes program and I just haven't seen the, the wow factor in a lot of cases with that. That's probably one thing I'm trying to think. And like these people who are doing more, it's, it's the extreme part of it. I mean there's people, oh I did a coal plunge for 20 minutes or I went in the sauna for an hour and a half. It's understanding moderation is a lot of times better, better for your body. Those are kind of the things that I'm seeing now. I mean there's a bunch of supplements out there when I look at the supplements I'm like, what this is gar, there's either sugar in there or filler in there that's gonna not help you.
Neil (10m 10s):
Or the doses are either too high or too low and they're like, I feel worse. I'm all jittery now. I'm like, because there's this in there and that in there. It's kinda like, again, I think again it's kind of become a buyer beware type of situation, which is a shame in healthcare. But
Brian (10m 23s):
Yeah,
Neil (10m 23s):
Well it's, or it's here I guess. Yeah,
Brian (10m 25s):
I mean the supplement industry, I mean that's, that, that's like the wild wild west a little bit. I mean just a
Neil (10m 31s):
Little bit. Yeah.
Brian (10m 31s):
Yeah. You really gotta know where you're getting it from. I've had a few individuals who have their own supplement company and they, they tell me some stories about, you know, how, you know, you just gotta really be aware of where it's coming from, what's, who's sourcing it and things like that. Exactly. Are there certain supplements that you look towards a lot as far as helping with your clients? Whether it's, I know, I know I actually saw right up you did on Instagram regarding sp spare miad and are there any things that sort of come to your mind that, that are worthwhile looking into?
Neil (11m 1s):
I mean besides the basics and most people know vitamin D and omega-3 fish oil at this point. I mean two two that I really, really like. One is sperm, which I love as long as you're not allergic to gluten cause it does derive from wheatgerm. There are some gluten-free versions but it, if you, if you're into the anti-aging, it has technically the most anti-aging indications of any product in the world right now. Even above rapamycin, which gets like 10 times more publicity even though I love rapamycin as in the future. But it helps everything from gut health to brain health. And it's actually getting a niche cuz it helps grow your hair and your eye and your eyelashes and that that's, people care about more than the fact that maybe healing your gut. It's kind interesting what people kind of fade into there.
Neil (11m 42s):
And then the other one is something called your ly, it's at root of your gut microbiome. You can't get a little bit pomegranate and berries but you just can't get enough to make it really useful. And there's a couple studies that come out in the last two or three months showing that it may be linked to, well you know, it helps with cartilage repair. It may have a link to Alzheimer's. It boosts what's called miy, which is kind of the same thing as a autophagy just for the mitochondria itself. And it's, a lot of studies are coming out now, like a lot of profe, I, I found it interesting, some professional teams were using it for muscle endurance and for healing joints. And now all these other cool studies are coming out in terms of gut and brain health that, and it's something that's very simple to get, not insanely expensive, which is always good.
Brian (12m 26s):
And what was the name of that one again?
Neil (12m 28s):
It's called Lysin, U R O L I T H I N A.
Brian (12m 36s):
Okay. You're a, you're li say that one more time.
Neil (12m 40s):
You're a li you're a li a
Brian (12m 42s):
That's, that's, yeah I was like, I've heard a lot of supplements. I have not heard that one.
Neil (12m 46s):
It's, it's by this time next year I think it's gonna be one of the most popular ones. Cause the studies that are coming out, I don't know if I'm using, you want me using brand names or not using brand names? Everybody's
Brian (12m 57s):
Different. Yeah.
Neil (12m 58s):
But there's a couple, two big brands out there that have it. But it, it's, it has a lot of cool benefits to it.
Brian (13m 3s):
Who, yeah, you can say that. I don't,
Neil (13m 5s):
I mean the main brand right now is something called Miop Pure
Brian (13m 8s):
Miop.
Neil (13m 8s):
Okay. Timeline nutrition is the same thing.
Brian (13m 11s):
Yeah. Gosh I feel like, well I'll look into that one. That one I've not heard of and I What about testosterone? Why don't we touch a little bit on that? Is this something that you, you run into with clients and it seems like a hot topic especially for, you know, obviously middle-aged men
Neil (13m 28s):
Talk about the wild wild west.
Brian (13m 30s):
Yeah,
Neil (13m 31s):
Right. All everything's blazed in there. Yeah, I mean it's great and bad all at the same time because I mean it's great that people are becoming aware of the importance of testosterone. It's even that spec that women need it as well. It's not just a man topic, male topic. Sure. The problem is is that there's so much it's become, especially with the online medicine world, that people like are just trying to push up levels beyond and then they're having side effects of hair loss and man breast development and all these other things. So it's very important. It's understanding what your goals are with it and understanding what you wanna do. Cause the thing with testosterone that, I'll leave it just for men for now is that I like 30 year old men who wanna go into testosterone.
Neil (14m 17s):
And then I'm like, do you understand that it may increase, it may decrease your fertility, it may decrease your sperm count and the sperm vitality, you may not wanna do this right now, you may wanna try again. There's three ton of other things that we can try first before we go there. And I think people don't understand that part going in. We and then they, and they have a gold number cause they see so and so on, again on social media or podcast talking at one a 1200, 1400 testosterone, my testosterone to you the best. And it doesn't always work that way. I mean I tell my patients you want at lease a 600 usually in a perfect world. I mean and then like people in that 600, 900 is like the sweet spot.
Neil (14m 58s):
And then if you, if you do great at higher than that and you're not having any side effects and you're not converting to estrogen and you're not having any side effects, great. But again, do you wanna just find that sweet spot and then kind of go from there. And then also making sure that you understand that there's other labs that go along. It's not just the testosterone, it's a free testosterone which is your testosterone. It's actually floating a blood in kind of the worker B, you wanna know your sex hormone and binding globulin. Cause if some there's, if that's too high then all your testosterone is bound to that and it's not the problem that you have don't have enough that you don't have enough actually working. So I think it's, I think people just know okay I want my number high, I wanna just have and build muscle and so on.
Neil (15m 39s):
They don't want, there's a lot of nuance to it now that people I think are starting to get a little bit but it's, it's ton of breaking through the ice a little bit too.
Brian (15m 47s):
Okay. So from that point, what would you recommend, what are some of like maybe your top three recommendations to help naturally boost testosterone?
Neil (15m 55s):
Naturally boost it. I mean the first thing is going back ex zone two especially zone two exercise. I mean that's number one. Number two is getting deep sleep. I mean if for everybody was like an aura or whoop or whatever the wearable is, making sure that deep sleep score is good because that's when your body's gonna recycle the hormones. In terms of other supplementation, I am a big fan of carnitine, especially now they're fine that maybe doing injectable carnitine may be better in terms of metabolizing it. But you can also do his pills. I also like I omega-3 fish oil and shallot are also can be helpful.
Neil (16m 37s):
And then again if we're trying to bring down the D, the sex and globulin, then we're looking at things kind of like D H E A or boron or something called toca. So there's again, it depends on what, where the, the problems are. And also if your other, if your hormones are way off, if your insulins off or your cortisol's off your hormones are like you probably had discussed, your hormones are like a symphony. So one thing's off, you gotta fix that too. And not just ham, the testosterone more and more and more. You gotta fix the prop, you gotta fix where the leak is.
Brian (17m 6s):
Yeah. And I know you mentioned before about you your, one of the common thing issues that you see as brain fog. What do you stem that from? Is that a hormonal issue or what are some of the reasonings for that?
Neil (17m 22s):
I mean, I mean there's so many at this point. I mean brain fog is the, the two or three most common are is gut health cuz of the gut brain connection. We see just a lot of that. Part of it is hormonal, definitely hormonal both in men and women having lack of testosterone, lack of estrogen, thyroid is off so we other different reasons insulin resistance. And then the third is could be from concussion like brain issues, concussion or Lyme disease or now we're seeing on unfortunately with like the long covid patients. So that's kind of the three major buckets and there's obviously a lot of other things that could go into that as well.
Brian (18m 2s):
Yeah. And you, and I'm sure gut health comes up a lot as well in your practice. Are there like sort of go-to things that you implement with your clients to help improve gut health? I know it's sort of a wide, wide range of things that could happen but
Neil (18m 18s):
Yeah, I mean like way I treat a lot of things and I try to is that especially now, there's just so much new stuff out there and studies out there you wanna pick from different buckets when you're treating a problem. So with gut health you nine times at 99, most of the time you're trying to treat the gut lining. And my favorite for that are something called BBC 1 57, which is a peptide. There's also a new peptide called the rosat which had been shown to heal the, the the one cell layer thick gut lining and the gut membrane. So if you don't fix the, again, you wanna get rid of what's causing the problem but also wanna heal the gut lining, then you can add in something like a glutamine as well, which is very healing.
Neil (18m 59s):
We also add in butyrate cuz butyrate has so many great gut beneficial gut benefits to it and, but it works differently. So again, we're trying to treat from different buckets and then a lot of times either we're going to treat the infections a lot of times if we're doing a stool test, there could be a can infection, there could be sibo, we're treating that problem with some, whatever that happens to be. And and those, that's kind of where we normally would treat it. And then again we also try to figure out is it, are they eating a lot of inflammatory foods? Are they sensitive to histamine foods? Again, that's kinda more personal step by step type thing. Like I, I'm sensitive foods with high histamine in it, the patients are obviously sensitive to gluten.
Neil (19m 41s):
So you got, that's kind of the more individual part. But again, you wanna try to hit it from different components. If you're just saying, okay, I'm just gonna give you glutamine and, and probiotics, it seems like people are just kind of handed out like candy and you don't fix the other stuff. Sometimes you can just kind of chase your tail a little bit.
Brian (19m 56s):
Right. I was gonna ask you about sort of the diet end of things. What are some foods that are high in histamines?
Neil (20m 3s):
Definitely red wine cheeses, cured meats. Those are usually some of the, definitely the bigger ones.
Brian (20m 10s):
Okay.
Neil (20m 11s):
Yeah, no, no heart salami for you.
Brian (20m 15s):
And then what about like you, you know obviously you hear like the carnivore diet, which is like almost like can be the ultimate elimination diet I guess. Is that something that you've implemented with individuals that maybe certain gut, you know, certain foods are irritating their gut and they sort of do some type of elimination diet?
Neil (20m 35s):
I do. I will do a, I do do it to some cases I am kind of at the point of where I'm at, where I'm the doctor who sees the patients with like the 10 inch thick chart. So they've done a lot of that already. But I do u I'll use it. But again, I tend to try to do a little more of a focus based on, this may sound what I like, I kind of, you can kind of get an idea of what the issues are if they're presenting with his masa will do that. If we're, if it's more a gluten thing, there are people who I say, okay, we're gonna take all these things out. If I have no idea, then we say, okay, we're gonna take all these things out and you're gonna add things one by one by one. But usually a lot of times now there's enough either lab test indications or you can say, they can say, oh my god, every time I have this I get triggered to say every time I had pizza I get triggered.
Neil (21m 20s):
Then you can kind of guess a little bit. But yeah, I, I it's definitely gotta be part of it. But the thing is gonna be, so like I said, you treat that part but you also wanna treat with the what it's already done, like the inflammation or allergic response.
Brian (21m 34s):
Okay. Well changing topics a little bit. Mitochondria health.
Neil (21m 40s):
Okay.
Brian (21m 42s):
I actually just had Molly Malouf who wrote the book Spark Factor and we talked a bunch about mitochondria health. What are some of the best ways to sort of optimize your mitochondria, you know, for, for you know, energy and performance and things like that?
Neil (22m 2s):
It's always quiet in here. And today the I apologizes,
Brian (22m 5s):
Oh, it's loud is yeah, I hear the horns a little bit. It's, you know, yeah,
Neil (22m 9s):
I don't know why I, I apologize.
Brian (22m 10s):
That's okay.
Neil (22m 12s):
So in terms of mitochondria, again, it's a structured approach. Definitely it's same, it's the same thing. It's, we know deep sleep and, and exercise of the, the simple parts. Then we get into, I mean the supplements, again, I love supplements and kind the newer stuff. Something called I love miq or a form of coq 10 has to be on board that then I love again kind ones, I've already talked about sperm, aine, lyin a all target, different parts of the mitochondria,
Brian (22m 40s):
Methylene blue. What about methylene blue?
Neil (22m 42s):
Methylene blue? I like, I like it as kind of as an add-on. I, I don't ha, most of my patients aren't taking it every day. It's great like couple times a week. I have patients take it also when they're having, again, we talked about brain fog before, it's great cause it helps with vein fog, it helps with energy and it helps with the mitochondria. So I do do it a couple times a week. Most of my patients don't do it daily. But I love methylene blue, I love ribos, I love aoic acid. And then the tech side, a lot of my patients when they're taking their supplements or doing a mitochondrial iv, we're doing red light therapy with them or will ha or, and they'll also will sometimes add in a cold element to it, like a cold plunge and all those things are when you really jazz up your mitochondria, that's the way to do it.
Neil (23m 29s):
If you're getting it from multiple things at one time, rather than doing, okay, I'm gonna have my methylene blue in the morning and I'm gonna do my workout the afternoon and then I'll take this at night. If you can do all of it at one time, it's a much more energizing point. My patients will do like a five or a 10 day program a fast or just break things down for like five or six days and then they build everything back up and we supplement things like N A D and some peptides like Mat C, which is the one I would recommend everybody look into. Now the data with MAT C or, or is a PEP is incredible right now.
Brian (23m 59s):
Mo that's MOS dash C
Neil (24m 2s):
Is that OTs C. Okay. It's an exercise mimetic, which means that it, it'll stimulate exercise, it helps with weight loss and it's also mitochondrial peptide. So a lot of people are doing that with methylene blue another, whatever their cocktail is at this point. There's so, but I lo I that's with sperm aine probably my top two.
Brian (24m 25s):
And so for mitochondria deep sleep zone two, exercise N A C N A C and a D?
Neil (24m 35s):
No, N A D N A C I don't use as much for mitochondria. Okay. Like it's definitely has some potential with it. Definitely N A D again, as we speak now, NMN may not be existing anymore. NR is still available. Nick Niam riboside or you can do the IVs
Brian (24m 55s):
Carnitine.
Neil (24m 57s):
I love carnitine, but again, I like people doing it higher dose than a lot of people recommend. But again, talk to healthcare provider about that. Again, I like people who now I have more converting to people doing injections or the iv if it, if it's feasible for them, they, not that you can just do that at home. I'm gonna do my IV right now. But it's, it's usually a little more beneficial and also helps brain, again, brain fog as well. So again, the more things we can and helps testosterone. So the more things I can check off with one medicine is, is is great for me and it's great the patients appreciate it rather than having to do 52 different things.
Brian (25m 30s):
Yeah. And I know you mentioned a couple times already, red light therapy. Maybe go a little bit into the reasonings about using that.
Neil (25m 39s):
Oh, I think that the whole podcast by itself, but yeah, I mean red light therapy, I mean more and more data is coming out. Different frequencies of red light do different things. Some are better for deep versus some like more for inflammation wound healing. The reason I really like it is because again, it has that variation depending what frequencies are in there and what it does it also, so it helps main things that we, we use it for now, it helps with inflammation. It does work on cytochrome oxide, which is part of your electron transport chain. So it's gonna give you energy. It also works on the mitochondria there. And then we're also using it now for everything from hair loss. The really thing that I'm really excited about, a big primary practice is, is brain health.
Neil (26m 21s):
And now they're finding that intranasal and trans and not trans and, and the, and the red leg caps are now showing some promise with like neurodegenerative issues like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and really just for maximizing brain performance, quote unquote. So for something that has very little side effect to do all those different things, it's pretty awesome. I think we're still trying to, again, I, I think in two or three years when some of this stuff gets really fine tuned it, it's gonna be part of everybody's routine. But of all the, all the technology that's out there, it's one of my top ones I really prefer.
Brian (26m 55s):
Yeah, I I actually just got a red light. I did some this morning. Is this something that you do every day yourself or like every other day?
Neil (27m 5s):
I try to do it every other day.
Brian (27m 6s):
Yeah.
Neil (27m 7s):
I have, I, I call it mitis where I, I, I wish I had room in my apartment for everything. So a lot of times I'll have to wait, okay, I gotta go back to the office now and grab this or grab that. Hmm. But yeah, no, I, I try to do it at least three times a week different. I have different, I, I'm a red light junkie, I have a panel, I have a little wraparound, I have a, this, I have like the full, I have a friend who's the bed. It's kind of like, I kind of mix and match. I'm like the little kid in the candy store with red light
Brian (27m 35s):
And, and the studies done on red light, are those, those have been, obviously some of it's inconclusive in the sense that we're still, are we still waiting on a lot of this stuff, but a lot of the stuff that's out is mainly like treating wrinkles, redness, acne, like scars, you know, things like that.
Neil (27m 52s):
It's both. Yeah. I mean there's a bunch of, I've tried to, I mean there's a bunch of studies that just came out preliminary on the brain health part in terms of that they found, I don't remember exact, like I know the vi, which is the intranasal and the Thor helmet. I think they showed some early indications with the neurodegenerative issues. I don't wanna misquote the study. They're smaller studies. I mean, they still need to be done on a fuller scale. Right. But there are human studies, which is good. I mean, I don't think red studies work well and this is not red light and animals I don't think are gonna be as, as good as some other things. We use it for the skin, the skins are definitely there. The gut health is already starting to come out. There's, it's still, it's probably gone from early to middle stage, I guess is the best way I can, it's, it's useful is it gospel and everybody and their mother should have red light right now.
Neil (28m 40s):
I can't say it definitively yet. Right. But we're getting there and the FDA's fine start approved some of these, he these red lights for certain conditions. So that could be a stamp of approval as well.
Brian (28m 53s):
Okay. And then I know you mentioned briefly earlier on about peptide therapy. Perhaps maybe go into that a little bit and, and the benefits regarding peptide therapy.
Neil (29m 4s):
Again, another whole podcast. I mean, I love peptides. I mean, I think, I mean peptides for those who don't know, I mean they can, they are small groups of amino acids. They either work on a hormone or a, an enzyme system or a specific location. They can be done every way from injectable to cream to iv. And they pretty much now can have an input in almost everything out there. I mean the main ones I, I call there's five. I love bucket, the bucket analogy. There's the inflammation recovery, there's the gut health, there is the energy, there's anti-aging. And then I call it the vanity subset, which is like, like weight loss, hair, skin.
Neil (29m 44s):
And then that encompasses most of them. I mean there's a couple stragglers here and there, but those kind of the five main buckets of what peptides help with.
Brian (29m 53s):
Yeah, I mean it's cool like that you have all these things that your disposal when, when helping clients, is it, do you ever run into a problem where you're like, there's so many, you know, sort of solutions and trying to figure out what works best?
Neil (30m 8s):
Not as much anymore. Okay. I mean I've gotten it down. I mean, I've learned the questions to ask ahead of time. Right? Again, I, my first question now, a couple first couple questions is, are you okay injecting yourself? How many things do you wanna do at one time? Because I've had, I've recommend six things to a patient. If they only and they come back two months later and say, I only did this. I'm like, okay, it's good to know that ahead of time. And like I said, there's so many things now that can hit almost a lot of the main things that I'm seeing. Like again, like sperm orine or Mo c bbc, which is another peptide or red light that again, there's so many things that overlaps. So, so comes with gut health and brain health. Okay. These three things I know are gonna do both.
Neil (30m 49s):
So it's, I I used to be a pain in the neck. Now it's, I've learned the questions to ask and who I'm dealing with. And it, it, it's, it's fun. It's kind of like, again, I'm like a little kid in the toy store, like, okay, want this and this and this and that. And again, I luckily my patients are coming to see me cause they know that I do all that stuff. If they just want one specific thing, then I, they don't, I, it's, it's not always, I'm not always seeing that person.
Brian (31m 14s):
Yeah. And I think, and you mentioned earlier I, you know, all this stuff like red light therapy and you know, even the peptide therapy, I mean it's great thing there, it, there's great use behind it, but if you're not doing sort of the foundations, you know, the sleep, right, the stress management, the exercise, I think a lot of that stuff can sort of, not that it's not useful, but I think you should focus on the foundation first and then you can sort of add on these other things.
Neil (31m 44s):
No, yeah, it's like I said before, the foundation's crummy. Everything else is gonna fall apart. So, right. I mean you could, I mean, again, short term you can always work around it. Like I have execs who are, I'm, I'm, I'm work right now for the next three months I have to work till two in the morning. My sleep's gonna be bad. I know it. Okay then we just have to add in some detours short term. And then we try to optimize the best we can. And again, luckily now with, again, 10 years ago, I was not able to look at somebody's Aura score and say, okay, your deep sleep is bad. I have the way now of tracking at least a ballpark idea of what's going on. And patients are much more in tune with their bodies now. I mean, at least the patients I'm seeing are like, they know, I mean they're a lot of times coming to me now and saying, I wanna try this, or what do you think about this?
Neil (32m 28s):
Or what do you think about hybrid back? And it's great cause it makes things easier as opposed to 10 years ago when they're like, they look at me with like this weird look and like, what in the world are you talking about, Paul? And, and it's, it's flipped and I love how things have changed over now where patients are being much more proactive with their health.
Brian (32m 45s):
And couple more questions. Do you, do you find that you have patients that come in there that are just, they're on like, let's see a statin or, or some type of drug that they probably don't even necessarily need to be on. And do you find your, that you're trying to get your individual, these individuals off like, you know, certain prescription meds that are probably just over-prescribed?
Neil (33m 8s):
It's both. I mean, I, again, I, I it's, I mean again, bec I keep going back to the same thing cuz of the day that's out there now I can usually get a good idea. I mean I I what they need to be on what they don't prescription wise. I mean I have a lot of patients that with, I mean especially with in the anti-inflammatory pain that I'm usually able to get people off very easily. The brain stuff, the sleep stuff. I mean I have so many patients on Adderall or what or Ambient
Brian (33m 37s):
Talk about, talk about 80% of the people are on Adderall probably. Right. I
Neil (33m 42s):
Mean, exactly. So those are things, I mean, yeah. So there's definitely, I try to get everything done, but I also, like I said, play both sides of the fence. There's one or two med that they need to be on and their, and their heart data is horrible. Then I have no problem beyond something to protect their heart. And again, I always, in certain cases I'm like, okay, your cardiologist has all your stuff. I know they're gonna make that decision and I can give some suggestions. You may wanna, there's a study on this supple like arterio cell, which is great for the endothelium and what's called a gly. I like, again, in certain case I know my, I know my place, but I a lot of meds. I'm trying to get the page off of the meds. I know I can get them off of because I know that unfortunately in most cases prescriptions have more side effects than supplements or lifestyle or doing red light therapy or something like that.
Brian (34m 29s):
And I'm just curious, you talk about a mitochondrial respiration and things like that. Have you looked into aspirin as an antioxidant and something that could stimulate mitochondrial or aspiration? Have you, have you heard anything about that?
Neil (34m 44s):
I mean, I've heard things here and there.
Brian (34m 48s):
The, and the reason I bring it up is I, I had he, I haven't published it yet, Danny Roddy, a few other people who are like sort of the part of the Ray Pete, Dr. Ray Pete, who recently just passed away, has, you know, was a re health researcher for, I don't know, 40 years. And he has articles on aspirin and I don't know, I just threw that out there. Just curious if, if you've looked into that also helping with lipid peroxidation. But anyways, I was just curious.
Neil (35m 13s):
It does help. I mean it helps. I, it's not my go-to, I've used it. I mean, a lot of cases, again, like you said, some cases are already on it and I use it again. There's other things that can do the same thing. So I tend to limit what I'm prescribing versus other people to keep it under. I try getting under double digits if I can. Oh yeah. It def it definitely has benefit and has very limited side effects. So I, I it's, it's, it's there. And again, 10, 15 years ago or even whatever, I dunno, time limit it is, it's there, there's things that have some more benefits. But it, it, it works and it's very simple and there's very, again, limited side effects, which is all good.
Brian (35m 51s):
Okay. And then lastly, what are some of the biomarkers that you have individuals look at as far as, you know, evaluating their health?
Neil (35m 60s):
There's a bunch. I mean, I'll, yeah, so I mean the ones that are kind of beside the basic ones that everybody kind of knows about. I mean the ones that are really going to prominence now is making sure that you're getting an NMR lipid panel. The basic L d L type thing is just not what we need anymore. Or a Boston heart, again, a complex lipid panel with a apli protein B, which has now been shown to be the biggest indicator of heart illness. And the thing that we be more action about than anything else. I, I've gotten more into the uric acid because the u we know uric acid now is a links to a lot heart disease and things like that. I love now I just got mine this week, a dxa scan because that gives us so much information I love in bodies and what those types of a in the gym type things, but they're just not as accurate.
Neil (36m 47s):
It lets, you know, visceral fat, which we know again has linked to everything from diabetes to cancer, unfortunately. And that's something that's not that expensive to do. And it's, it's so much more usable than other stuff. I'm trying to think what else. Oxidative stress has now become more and more common. And then I like, like again, I think the sleep data is usable. It's not perfect. Right.
Brian (37m 11s):
I think the the the wearables, you mean like the aura ring and the the bio straps and things like
Neil (37m 15s):
That? Exactly. Cause I can at least get an idea of the functionality. How will your body responding? I don't have a fixed number in mind, but if I know that okay, they went from, there's a, there's some flexi, there's volatility, that's actually a good thing. If they're just stuck at one thing, I know their body's saying, okay, I'm overtaxed, help me now. Or we're gonna go down the rabbit hole. I mean those are some of the basic things I definitely look for. Beside the more common things that people do.
Brian (37m 43s):
Fasting insulins is probably a big one too.
Neil (37m 45s):
Yeah. Yeah. Fasting insulin, hemoglobin a1c. Sure. And C R P with MAC helps with both the hard house and just overall knowing how well insulin is.
Brian (37m 54s):
Yeah.
Neil (37m 55s):
And now we're starting to get into more of the brain scans as well, but that's kind of more for people who are trying to do a really deep dive.
Brian (38m 1s):
Oh wow. You're doing brain scans.
Neil (38m 4s):
Yeah. We've heard that. We, we'll do like some people believe in spec scans. Some people, which is Dr. Amons kind of claim to fame. I do 12 Q EEGs. Where we're, you can tell which part of the brain, which parts of the brain are working are not working frontal, the pral areas and one side versus the other. Each one will sometimes have different functions. And I mean, I've done 'em or I've had somebody do 'em on me and they're like, you had a problem with this for like a lot of time. I'm like, how'd you know that? And they're like, well, because this is, and this, so it's almost like they, they have this like psychic ability by just looking at your brain scan. It's, especially with people who have like mold or toxin exposure or have brain fog. It's really helpful.
Neil (38m 44s):
Really,
Brian (38m 44s):
Really.
Neil (38m 45s):
But a little further down the rabbit hole.
Brian (38m 46s):
Yeah. That one I have not heard. I mean I've heard of brain scans but not done sort of as a, like an adjunct or like for anti-aging.
Neil (38m 55s):
It would, yeah, that and then also like we're adults trying to do like a VO two max testing on people also. That's also very helpful. And also like what their metabolic rate is. Are they a fat burner? Are they not a fat burner? Can they switch? Are they metabolically flexible? Or they can switch between carbs and fats. Just if they can't, you gotta work, change their exercise routine. Otherwise they're gonna have a hard time losing that weight. They're like, why am I not losing weight? Because you're not doing the right type of exercise. Even if you're gonna the gym for an hour, you're not doing what you need to do. So we wanna optimize that. So it's, that's the buzzword now. Optimize, optimize, optimize and be as most efficient as possible because you can't do 50 things. It's not, unless you're, it's not feasible unless you're Brian Johnson or who has 2 million a week to spend on it.
Brian (39m 36s):
Who was that? Brian Johnson. I don't know if that
Neil (39m 38s):
Yeah, he was, he, oh, he was just on like every news channel that he spends like 2 million a year on everything he can do. He just like to optimize his health. It's, it's,
Brian (39m 49s):
I mean you could really go down the rabbit hole. I do like d I do like dexo scans. It's something I do for my clients and myself. It's just like a baseline. Just to know where you're at, you know, gives you obviously a lot more information than you probably need. But at least it gives you, you know, you know, lean mass and, and body fat percentage and things like that.
Neil (40m 6s):
It's so usable and it's so easy to do. I mean I, it, I was like, I'm done already. It was like six minutes. I'm like, and it wasn't, and it's just awesome. You could check your fem your bone health. I mean, again, it, to me it's one of those things that's just a win-win.
Brian (40m 19s):
Yeah. I usually do 'em every four to six months, you know, just to see where I'm, see where I'm at.
Neil (40m 24s):
Exactly. Yeah. Optimally. Yeah.
Brian (40m 28s):
Couple more questions and then we'll, we'll finish up. One was, I, I'm a big routine guy. Are there any type of routines that you implement in your life, whether it's morning or evening, that sort of sets you up for the day?
Neil (40m 40s):
In a perfect world, Hmm. I tend to either meditate and or journal like the first 15 minutes of the day and then I will, and then I try to, then the next thing I do is I'll try to kind of, okay, okay, what, what are the big three things I have to do that day? Okay. And I find that I, this is kind of more on the entrepreneurial side is that I find that if I know, okay, these are three big things, I always try to pick out the thing I'm, I'm dreading the most. So, so if I get that done, first one's outta the way and two, okay, I did that, I'm proud of myself. And then everything kind of, you're motivated to get to the rest of the day. If you're like dreading that one thing that you don't want to do, like going to the dentist or something the whole day, it kind of holds you back a little bit.
Brian (41m 22s):
Right?
Neil (41m 22s):
And then, then, so I find that I tend, and I also have tried now to do timeboxing, which is just like, okay, I'm gonna do three hours of blogging today, work on my blog and then that's it. It, I'm done, whatever that time is, I'm done. You're not being a perfectionist. You get, you're working on it and then you move on. Cause I find otherwise my schedule just gets obsessed about one thing and then my whole day gets blown up and then nothing else gets done. And then, so I think that's kind of something, again, not even medicine thing, but if you calm down your stress and you're, it kind of works as well. And like I said, I try to do red light mul. It's red light exercise. I have my supplement routine. I got down to about six or seven on a regular basis.
Brian (42m 5s):
Let's hear, let's hear your supplement stack.
Neil (42m 8s):
Oh boy.
Brian (42m 9s):
Six things. Yeah,
Neil (42m 11s):
Six things. Again, like I said, I have a, there's a product now that actually has three of 'em in there. I use it. It's, it's sperm amadine or guanine, which is a really strong antioxidant. And it has green, green tea and fish on it. It's actually four of the things I really like. Okay. I, I always take a nitric oxide supplement cause I'm, so I've been testing, that's another thing I've been trying to do more of my patients is see what their nitric oxide is.
Brian (42m 35s):
Is that like a beet root or what is that what you're
Neil (42m 38s):
Talking? It's a nitric. It's a nitric oxide. Now I don't, I the be aren't as strong. Ok. What else do I use? I definitely take a, a MIQ for my, I take a miq. I take, I usually take some type of peptide today. Now I'm, I'm a mo C cycle, so that's once a week, which is nice. And then I always take vitamin D.
Brian (43m 2s):
Those are the vitamin D. Yeah,
Neil (43m 4s):
That's probably, I'm probably missing one in there somewhere. And then I take a, like a probio, I do take a probiotic that, that's my core.
Brian (43m 12s):
What's your core, okay. So yeah, so morning routine, you got meditation, journaling and then you do your three biggest movers that are gonna sort of take that next step for your business.
Neil (43m 24s):
Yeah. Or I mean it could or it could be, it could be life as well. I mean I find that if I have a checklist and I get things done, it just keeps me organized. And again, if I'm more organized, I'm stressing and things are organized and I can get to the gym and I'm not like, well I'll just put off the gym for today. And I, or Right. I'm gonna put off this other thing for today. It just works better if I, if I'm a checklist person, I have to have my list done. I'm not my, I have other friends who like just kind of go with the flow. Lae fair and I drives me crazy. I need to have
Brian (43m 56s):
At I'm the same way. I'm the same way. Alright, well one last question for you. What, what tip would you give a maybe a middle-aged individual, maybe 50, 60 years old and they're looking to sort of get their body back to what it once was 10 years ago. What maybe one tip would you give that individual?
Neil (44m 15s):
I mean that's simple. I mean's the same I've been saying, I mean we, it's just exercise, exercise, exercise. Cuz we know that they get older, they're gonna have sarcopenia, which is a breakdown of muscle and we know it affects everything from the brain health to your testosterone. So that's fall if you can no matter. And there's so many things they can do now. Now it doesn't have to be lifted. We want you in some type of weight. Right. But that's by far number one. And then making sure that you're supplementing it, be it creatine, be it branch chain of acid to make sure you're getting your leucine and then just, and then working from there.
Brian (44m 47s):
Love that. Yeah. Can't go wrong with so resist an ex resistance exercise. You, it would be your tip. Yeah, yeah.
Neil (44m 56s):
Exactly.
Brian (44m 57s):
Totally agree. Well Dr. Paul, this was great. Glad you could take part of your day and and drop some knowledge on us and where's the best place for people to find Jim?
Neil (45m 7s):
The best place for find Me is either on is the website, which is Dr spelled out, d o ctr, my last name, vin.com and the YouTube channel, Dr. Vin are probably the two best places to get some, some information.
Brian (45m 22s):
Awesome. And then you're also on, so you're on Instagram, Dr. Vin on Instagram as well?
Neil (45m 27s):
Yeah, exactly. All the social channels. Yeah, too many social channels. Yeah,
Brian (45m 31s):
I know, right? Yeah, I'd stick to a few. I know you're, are you friends with Dr. Twyman? I had him on.
Neil (45m 36s):
Oh yes. He's awesome.
Brian (45m 37s):
He is, yeah.
Neil (45m 39s):
He can explain red light and heart health better than if he told me to do something. He's my go-to. I
Brian (45m 45s):
Mean like Okay. Good to know.
Neil (45m 47s):
Yeah, he's my go-to if I have a question about heart health, I'm like, Hey, is this something that's real? And it's like, yes. He's like, yeah, gives me the blessing and I'm good to go on that. I respect him immensely.
Brian (45m 57s):
Yeah, he was great. I had him on not that long ago, a month or two ago, so I noticed you had some He's following you. So it's a small world when it comes to the, the the biohacking realm, huh?
Neil (46m 8s):
Yeah, exactly. I think everybody knows everybody's, everybody's on like the same podcast. Yeah, it's, it's good though. Cause again, you know who to trust and you know who's good information, who's kind of just trying to sell a product. But no, he's great. A lot of great guys, great information that's not that, that helps people out a lot.
Brian (46m 22s):
Yeah, no doubt. Well thank you so much for coming on and enjoy the rest of your day. Thanks,
Neil (46m 28s):
You too.
Brian (46m 30s):
Thanks for listening to the Get Lean EAN 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@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. 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.
