From Boxer to Doctor: The Fighter Who’s Changing Modern Medicine | Dr. Josh Himes | Ep. 93

Opening Hook and Podcast Introduction 0:00

Things are going to change colors, smells, consistency, texture in a couple of days because it's real. If it doesn't change, there's something wrong with it. Something that the lab made or added to that piece of food that's going allow it to stay that same color for a long time. We've watched the McDonald's since a year later. It's the same burger or Big Mac. What are some non-negotiables for you, for your health on a day to day basis? This week, we're stepping into the ring with a fighter who left the ropes to help people heal.

From the handsome hitman to a doctor of functional health, Josh Himes is here to show us how to win the fight for your well-being. When we were healing from an injury, from a TBI, mostly these injuries come from lack of oxygen. Hypoxia. And we'll see like ischemia take place. There's a lack of blood supply. I go back to HBOT because I know H-Bot hyperbaric oxygen therapy will feed those open up and dilate those arterioles and feed the oxygen and nutrients that it needs. So again, oxygen is going to kind of relax the blood vessels and heal the process.

What do the fighters have today that you didn't have? There was a statistic that came out that 70% of the youth that can potentially be drafted into the military is unfit to be in the Military. That's sad. What do we do about that? Welcome to another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. I'm your host, Sam Tahata. And as usual, we're bringing experts from all over the world to talk about health, wellness, beauty, and mindset. Today's guest, this guy, he comes from another part here in the United States, one of the nice areas.

He is a clinical scientist. he's got two PhDs.He is changing the course of medicine. What he is doing, he's not just a doctor who's treating, He's a Doctor who is fighting for his patients to be well. The reason why I say fighting, he comes from the background as a fighter, as an actual MMA fighter. You know, fighting out, winning championships, and then changing things for athletes. We're gonna be talking about traumatic brain injury. What it does to these fighters and how we can make them better.

Today we have Dr. Josh Himes, clinical scientist. Doc, how you doing, man? All right. There you go. Hey nice little welcome there, huh? My man sam. Thank you so much for having me Yeah, so welcome on a healthy point of view podcast, you know, um, it's a pleasure to have you here and um You know you have an interesting background. You're not just a doctor, right? Um, every doctor has a story of why they became a Doctor and got their uh phd md do whatever it is that they ended up getting right to to be able to help people you Have a a background in fighting I haven't met that many doctors that come from a professional fighting background.

So I want the listeners and viewers to really get to know who you are and why you decided to go this route in your career.

Josh Himes' Boxing Background and Career Shift 3:03

Awesome, well first, thank you for having me. And the transition for me from a fighting career, I'm a retired professional boxer, former All-America's champion, had a blessed career. But after my time as a professional fighter, the fight never stopped for my. I transitioned and kept a fight going, but the fighting for optimal health, to fight for longevity, fight to continue on and live an optimal life, took precedence. Shortly after I retired, I had my first child. Welcome to life. And it was just, that's when just my wife went through a hard time with my third child, so it just took more of a priority for me to just make sure I have to fight now for my family's health, for their health.

Just kept on transpiring to the next. So my goal after our retirement fighting was to help. I wanted to stop hurting people, but help people. Went from boxer to doctor, and that was the goal to So you're boxing it was an MMA. Correct. It was boxing. Correction. Okay. So I slipped up on that. So okay, the real boxing, they're real fighting, right? The real fight, yes. No pun towards any other combat sports. I have respect for all the combat sport. But yes, my game was boxing. Amazing, amazing. Which, you know, growing up, that's what we would watch.

The MMA stuff came after about. So, I want to talk a little bit about that. What inspired you to even go into boxing? So this will be the first time ever publicly I've ever announced why, genuinely, I started boxing. So I didn't start till I was 19 years old. I start this later on in life. You know, people start from the early on, adolescence, and they're fighting. Right. And I came up that way. How old were you when that? 19 when I first started. Oh, wow. Came up football, baseball, basketball, the whole nine yards.

But I went to Youngstown State College for baseball scholarship, actually. Was playing ball. Got in trouble for fighting, ended up going to jail, losing my scholarship. I came out at 19 years old after going to jail with not a pot to pee in, nothing. And I literally found my life and found myself through boxing. So boxing gave me a second chance at life. It made my live pretty much because I had to fight for everything I have and change the stars, the trajectory of my Life. When you made that decision to actually start boxing, Um, did you have like a coach or did he just go to like the local boxing gym?

So again, I want to sign up. I wanna do this boxing. Exactly that I went to a local Beaver County boxing, Jim, where I'm from, found a great group of people to take me under their wings. I became the fastest in Pennsylvania history to win an open Golden Gloves title at a blessed career that skyrocketed for me and never looked back. And it just, like I said, changed the trajectory of my life going forward. Wow. Was there a a pivotable like a pivotal moment when you were fighting that led you to where you're at today?

Like like something that and it doesn't have to be like you won something or you lost it. What was it when your boxing when he said you know what? I want to go this route with my Great question. There was a pivotal time in my career as an amateur actually. I was fighting at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh and I am an amatuer still at this time, so you know when you're amateurs you actually weigh in the day before the fight. Or the Day of the Fight, sorry. As pros you weigh-in the night before, you have a chance to replenish yourself, recuperate, and get back on your weight you need to.

And as amatures you sometimes weigh an hour before you fight With that fight, I had actually lost six pounds the day of the fight. Weighed in and I fought about an hour later. And I was dropped in the fighting. This was a fight that Roy Jones Jr. was promoting at Rivers Casino, big fight a lot of people there. I got folded, and got dropped. Went to the hospital afterwards. Actually, my team doctor is Dr. Marco Ocala, was the pirate's doctor, has always been in my corner, a big help for me. Went through the hospitals, got a scan afterwards, no injuries.

Brain was dehydrated. And that was simply and merely a lack of water, lack a fluids. You were cutting weight. I was cutting, trying to lose weight to make the weight and got dropped, lost the fight because I Nothing else. No lasting injuries, thankfully. And that was a wake-up call for me. What went through your mind when that happened and you're sitting in the hospital, you know, and the doctors tell you, hey, nothing happened to you. You just were super dehydrated. Thankful first, like, okay, great.

It's nothing, no lasting injury, but a great wake up call. Like, listen, if you just can't take it for granted, we're not impervious. Impenetrable. We can become self-induced and we can get hurt. But let me take this as a learning tool, right? Let me roll with the punches as I always say and let get better. Never let this happen again because I was a product of my own environment. I got jammed up because i did something not smart, stupid for myself. And I learned the hard way. So I had to pick myself back up again after that and make a pact that I will never do this again and start taking my health, making it a priority and not just taking it for granted.

So, you know, what we're talking about here, this is not. Just something that happened to you. This happens to a lot of fighters. Right. And, You know. Not now that you're in a whole different side of health and wellness and working with athletes, right. Helping these athletes perform at their optimal levels, at the peak of their optimum levels. you have the ability to see certain things that you unfortunately didn't have at your fingertips. So I wanna talk about some of the things when you were fighting that yourself and other fighters would go through.

Number one, it's not good for your health. And number two, the damage that's happening to your body. What do the fighters have today that your didn' have? The fighters today have so much more at their fingertips that that I wish I had for example one of the things I Wish I Had my career was a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, right? I wished we had that amazing tool that a modality to help exploit the healing process because as a fighter You know, we just we're in the game. We don't think about tomorrow we think of all right now how I can get Back in there.

How can you get back in? The ring to fight again if you got a payday at this coming weekend, so doesn't matter what's happening or what? It's hurting You're pushing through and we don't think about the consequences aftermath, right? We don' think how is this going to affect me when I retire. We think let's get paid. Let's take care of business. Go to work. Keep going. And this oftentimes just clouds our vision. Because we're solely focused on one, like a tunnel vision, tunnel mind. We get the fight in front of us.

And we do not make our health again a priority. So the fighters now have this opportunity and this chance to put their health at the forefront of their journey.

Injury Wake-Up Call and Health Priorities 10:03

Yeah, and you know what one of the things like we work with a lot of NFL players right that are experiencing a Lot of same similar injuries that fighters experienced the TBI traumatic brain injury and You know fighters the same way that when I started working at the fire department Which you kudos to you because you also volunteer as a firefighter medic as well and is when I went to the fire department, I knew that I was putting my life in danger. I know I'm gonna get exposed to toxins, also have sleep deprivation, but it doesn't mean that we just have to accept it and take that.

There's certain things that you can do to combat that, to counteract it. Right. And these are a lot of things like if you go to the old timers, they didn't have access to what we have. Access today. So with a. Lot of the NFL players that we're working with, you mentioned hyperbaric chamber, right? There's other modalities, stem cells, the exosomes that help regenerate. You know, when you talk about regenerative medicine. and allows these people to go through these sports, these athletes to these different competitions, experience the damage, but at the same time, be able to recover from it.

So I want you, as a clinical scientist, to get into a little bit more detail of what you're doing with the hyperbaric chamber and some of the other modalities that you are working with athletes with now. Great question. But before we just breeze by, thank you for your service. Obviously firefighter because you and I as fire brothers, you know, I have a lot of respect for all first responders. Absolutely. Fire, police, military. I tip my hat. So I love your career and what you do and your passion behind it.

Thank you. That's a difference maker. And yes, medic, you're a fighter as my career in the ring was a fight. But now what we see in terms of TBIs and injuries in general, H, but how I see it directly linked to helping traumatic brain injuries, for example, let's talk about tissue from a scientific standpoint. Let me not get too nitty gritty, But from my science standpoint, when somebody has a an injury, traumatic, brain injury and there is soft tissue damage, And there is tissue that dies, it's gone forever and salvageable.

But there's tissue around dead tissue called penubra tissue. That penumbra is still viable through oxygenation. So we can heal it. And again, we have a second chance. It's not your diagnosis, your definition. You have the chance to be healed. Sometimes we just need the tools or somebody to kind of guide us in the right direction. Try this. allowed that oxygen to heal that renewable tissue. Allowed that tissue to be revitalized, regenerated. And that auction was the difference maker for us at our clinics, for future athletes, For anybody that experiences an injury, because it can be healed, where there's breath, there is life.

That's the truth, man. One thing that I've learned with a lot of athletes that have experienced traumatic brain injury when they don't have access to these type of tools, What ends up happening is that they start experiencing a lot of signs and symptoms. And they started going to one of these traditional conventional medicine doctors. And then the diagnosis is something completely different that's not even gonna fix the problem. That's gonna cause, I mean I've known guys that go and start getting checked out and they start putting on psychiatric meds.

And all of a sudden these psych med are making them even more crazy. Where now they become suicidal. They're forgetting things. Some of these guys start having seizures all the time. The family members are the ones dealing with it. the wives, the kids. So when you have someone who can actually put you through the proper diagnosis, right? Doing the right scans, doing blood work to get all the different biomarkers to look at, you can get the actual definitive care that you need for the issue that have.

Because I'll tell you right now, with a lot of the guys that we've dealt with, Maybe you really aren't crazy, right? Maybe it's all the traumatic brain injury that you experience through fighting and playing the sports that caused that. So tell me more about some of the athletes that's you've worked with that have gone from traditional medicine to then working with someone like yourself and then the type of results that see the outcomes from it. Love the question. This is where I think we closely align.

When we try to break away obviously or deviate from conventional medicine, we're not going to go in left field. We're going do what we call functional medicine. Right. And it's where we kind of bridge the gap from naturopathic to allopathic medicine and bridge that gap using the tools, the latest tools and resources that science is available to us. But yet getting down to the root cause. It's all about that root causes analysis, right? Exactly. Not just a symptom, not just the outside, but let's dive deeper.

Let's run a few more tests a, few, more panels and let's kind of give get a little deeper look as I would say a larger blueprint of what's going on. So we can kind, of like pinpoint the problem and more easily combat that issue as opposed to just throwing a pill for real, getting down to nitty gritty and finding out the exact root cause of the. Right, right. And that's what I like to call, let's take a deep dive and look under the hood, right? Exactly. To really figure out what the root cause is of why they're feeling the way they feel, why is it that they are presenting or thinking the they way thinking.

So I'm happy you said that. You as a fighter, right? As a former fighter there's a lot of training that goes involved. And one of the things that we like to put emphasis on is your health. You have to train as well too. So I want you to kind of explain the parallel between how fighters train versus how you really should train with your hell. So fighters train again, and it's that that tunnel mindset, right? I'm going pedal to the metal to get through an eight week, 12 week camp to give it a prize.

As I train now, I'm training for longevity. I am training the mile. After the fact that when the lights go down to the next morning, i'm trained for that. So I trained now with the prevention in mind. Because I love being ahead of the game, more of a reactive mindset, proactive than reactive. Right. So I keep that proactive approach instead of waiting till something goes wrong to fix it. That's what we do. And you see it in the medicine, right? I used to work in an emergency room. We would see somebody comes over to us.

People treat their health and take it for granted until it fails them. Then it's too late. You're playing catch up, Right? Don't play catch-up. Stay ahead of the curve. Be proactive, not reactive. Yeah, that's, unfortunately, our traditional medical system has really been established where it has been more reactive,

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Recovery 17:03

right? Where it's a sick care system. We wait until people are sick to then take care of them. And I'd like to divide it into three different categories, prevention, early detection, and treatment intervention, in making sure you're doing the right things in all three of those categories. I like the fact that you brought up the whole being proactive side of it. Now, when we start talking about brain trauma, What are some of the things that you wanna tell the audience about understanding and being aware of a patient that potentially might have some kind of brain trauma, like a traumatic brain injury?

So as my grandfather used to tell me, weight broke the wagon. So don't wait on things. When you have something that feels out of line, something feels a little bit different, slightly off, you're not yourself, do not wait. Do not let a persistent cough that takes two or three weeks to just go away. Things don't just happen overnight, right? People expect to just heal real fast, and then they just let it go. It'll be better tomorrow. I'll better the next day. And just keep on just letting it and go, blowing it off.

We need to make our health again a priority, because longevity needs to be priority. In order to, make yourself, put health here and make it again, a priori,e and to at that optimal level, you cannot just allow things to let go and just brush under the rug. You've got to take the proper steps, So if something's out of line or something is off, be proactive. Be your own advocate. What does that look like, being proactive? So being your health advocate, for example. If I have a bumpy or rash here, I'm going to monitor that 24-7.

Again, if it's a little bruise on my arm. I know the progression steps of a bruised, right? It's going diminish over time quickly. And I normally do things like hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help expedite the healing process. But I'm going to do things, eat proper food, proper diet, anti-inflammatory diet that's going help the inflammation internally. But doing everything I can personally to help mitigate these symptoms, knock this out and combat the problem and not just let it go. Not just look at it two weeks later and say, well, it didn't go away.

Right. Just like somebody gets bit by a spider or and they don't know what spider it is. They just Let it Go. It'll go way on its own. but then that brown recluse or that black widow spider that bit you turned into a gaping hole two week later because we blew it off. We've got to make sure we go after the problem. You can't just take it like for granted again and delicately treat the situation. Got to be aggressive about your health. Your health deserves it. And that awareness is extremely important for people to recognize that.

Now, let me ask you this to go back on the topic of traumatic brain injury, the TBI. If there's, let's say, a medical provider who's kind of new into the functional medicine space or an athlete that might potentially be experiencing certain signs of TBI, what are some of the things that they should kind be aware of when it comes to signs and symptoms that potentially might have traumatic brain injury? Great question. So I always tell people to look out for. Again, I'll use it from a fighter standpoint, from something I personally experienced.

After a fight or after a couple rough hits, if you are feeling any more dazed, confused, any incoherence, and any bit of disorientation, It's not normal for you to wake up in the morning and forget things that you normally might never ever experience. The next morning when you wake you should feel fresh, recharged, maybe sore from work or working out or from a fight. But you shouldn't forget the typical day things you wouldn't ever forget. So if that's any experience at all, your pupils for example.

We know our people shouldn't be having the same or ones dial it one one's super super fly super flush super dark other one super dilated just so you gotta make sure you're looking at pupils how the react and how they're responding. You're going to make. Sure that they are not fading off and getting more and more fatigue faster more tire faster things that are beyond the norm beyond a common side effects that would typically be from responding recovering. Right, right. Then what about like other like physical signs on the skin?

Any kind of bruising, battle wounds or anything like that? If you have a typical bruise, for example, Battle Bruise Battle Scars, they see a base of scolar fractions in the back of their head, behind their ears, things that would typically progress in a healing process, we would see that bruised or diminishing with the blood start healing with things, the color start changing. If things are not responding properly as they should in a typical time frame. A couple of days that brew starts changing colors and it's been a week and a half.

It's a been week in five days where we know it is a more delayed process. be proactive, be your advocate, address this. So if somebody has a, like my mother-in-law, for example, she had a knee surgery and it was weeks later and her knee was looking no different at all. Same swollen bruised knee and she called us up, what's going on? I said, that's not normal. You shouldn't have more of a problem. It should be bigger. This is three weeks late, right? This should be starting to go the right direction now.

Things should get better. We should start seeing that bruising go away a little bit. Start seeing the swelling come down a bit, we shouldn't be seeing this stagnant problem. That's important. When I worked at the fire department, one of the signs they would always tell us when we went through the training. If you have someone who presents with some of those battle wounds, like for example the raccoon eyes, where they bruise around the eyes. Well that person probably experienced some serious trauma to the head.

So that's something that you'd have to consider as a sign of symptom. So what are some of the things that are misunderstood when it comes to traumatic brain injury with a lot of people that you've experienced, like a lotta fighters and stuff that they kinda like don't understand it or have misconceptions about it? So, we were talking earlier, the question about the TBIs and recovery wise, and I want to kind of just touch back on that one more time to go into this question to have a segue into there.

When we're healing from an injury, from a TBI, mostly these injuries come from, a lack of oxygen. Hypoxia. And we'll see like ischemia take place where there's a lack of blood supply. Right. I go back to HBOT because I know H-Bot hyperbaric oxygen therapy will feed, open up and dilate those arterioles and feed it to oxygen and nutrients that it needs. So again, oxygen is going to kind of relax the blood vessels, the spasms in there and heal the process. Mm. We see whenever somebody has a concussion, somebody who has trauma in the brain where the We know that that penurable tissue we talked about, we know the brain and the dura matter, the epidural, all this can be healed through oxygenation.

So I'd love to just go obviously touch back on the HBOT being that bread and butter for us that can help heal that non-invasively, safely and effectively. Nice. Are there any other treatment modalities that you use in conjunction to something like the hyperbaric? Great. So I'd like to use, if we can, red light therapy or near infrared prior to going in the chamber to obviously enhance those benefits and ability to pull oxygen from the blood. How does that work, the red-light therapy? So really relates great and not just the ones towards obviously that you see a plan to finish all the other mass commercials places.

But if you like one that has eight hundred fifty nine hundred level that can allow deeper penetration into the vessels into blood, that's going to allow for deeper tissue healing. That's what obviously want to open up prior to going into chamber to allowed in for the oxygen concentration to be enhanced. Right. Right, which should be auction. Again, that's the key word.

Functional Medicine and Root-Cause Care 25:03

Auction is the difference maker auction is life. But which bring in more nutrients to the cells and everything else. Understood. So so as a doctor fighting for health, you know, That's one thing that when we talked before, You put a lot of emphasis like I'm not just a regular doctor. I am not. Just a guy who's got a PhD. Am a Doctor who is fighting. For your health. What does that mean? That word fight for me is life and everything I do is like that. I make a lot of obviously relationships and jetbacks to fighter analogies, but it's what it is.

We have to we have the fight our life. So me fighting as a doctor, I'm not just the fighting dog that I just talk about it. And walk the walk.I live the lifestyle in the ring, living there countless hours, countless sessions being beat up, being hurting. in coming back and trying to be at this optimal level without just just guessing anyone can help me. I went back in and dove back into once I got my first PhD, what's going to the most effective ways to help you heal? What's the effective way that I can kind of detect like you said, early detection, find out, OK, What if I change this?

Would I pivot here? What's gonna be, what's going to simplify it for somebody where it's not just making it like it to scientific terms or somebody can't digest this? You gotta make it, it layman's terms so everybody can understand. The understanding of that, we have to fight for our health. You have go after and go get it. If it was easier to be healthy. But we live in a society in America where obviously we're going against the grain because we are getting more fat, more obese, higher diabetes, where our rates are going the opposite directions.

We're not getting better. Even as much progression as we do in our country, things are Getting better for us because We were faced with instant gratification. Were faced With so many things that we available to us. And we love that. Let me get this real quick. I mean, not worry about my diet. And let me just eat this pea pizza real fast. Keep going. So I want to just stress to people the importance of fighting for your health and why I live it. If I lived that lifestyle that I'm going to fight for my patients, I will go the extra mile for somebody.

That will roll with the punches and find out the root cause of the problem until we knock it out. Yeah, you know, the patient has to be willing to put in that effort as well, too. So you putting that out there saying you got to fight for your health. That's kind of important for people to kind understand that as. Well, these I mean, we're talking about it. We live in a toxic world, ultra processed foods, toxins in the environment. all of that stuff that doesn't feed, regardless how many, you know, hyperbaric chamber treatments you do or anything else, like if you have that external factor continuing to be fed in the body, that's a problem, right?

100%. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Right, all right. So, so, I want to talk about something, man, is, um, You know I was reading something online, a statistic out there, and it was talking about how, because you were just mentioning that A lot of people are going in reverse when it comes to health. Here in the United States, obesity is a huge problem. Even with all the GOP-1 drugs that are being prescribed, people still walking around fat. Say how it is. There was a statistic that came out that 70% The youth that is in the age range that can potentially be drafted into the military is unfit to be in The military That's sad Mind-blowing and sad.

What do we do about that? I mean, in my personal opinion, not to get too political here, but if we wanna be a strong nation, a nation that has a powerful defense system, which we do, the United States, right? But at the point in time that all of your people who can actually go out and fight the soldiers are not even fit to be in the military, to me, that's a scary thing. That's the wake-up call. It should be for us. I mean look at that even stems to our autism rates, right? Why are those rates increasing?

Which again is going to limit our ability to have available soldiers. So the more rates we have of obesity, the rates of autism, all these factors are playing into, again, less warriors, soldiers, a country that is diminishing in testosterone levels. across the board. The masculine alpha males are going to be far and few between than they used to. Right. Now, you're not kidding. So, I mean, we see that a good bit in our clinics and some things that when it comes to that, because again, We can't make somebody go be fit and go on a fight.

Go get it. But we want to make sure that somebody is going to get the raw material they're lacking or why they can't find out what's going on. Test a few more things. Run a Few more panels. They're lack in this. Give them the wrong material. The need and boom, different kid in a couple of days. Just by that subtle changes like that can change somebody's trajectory to life just by giving them raw materials like an MTHFR mutation. For example, that genetic mutation Is the reason why this kid cannot process folic acid in the majority of our foods aren't grains, pastas, bread, starches are fortified and enriched with spray with folate acid.

Right. But yet these kids can't process it. And 44% of the population can process full of acid, but yet we're just feeding our kids folac acid telling all of her mothers. Here's folag acid while you're going through pregnancy. Well, you are recommending this to the half population. Can't. Process. So what's this causing? Inflammation, this is causing chronic problems that we just do not seem to care to get to the root cause of the problem. Because we're feeding them the problems, what they can't process.

So just by changing that one little subtle change, detecting that they're a carrier of this mutation, substituting some foods, raw material getting back in their diets, different chowding in a week. So you brought up testing, like doing genetic testing. Looking at the MTHFR. What are the biomarkers are you recommending for your patients to actually test for? So I'm broad. When it comes to the MTHFR, the Methylene Tetrahydrofol Reductase test, this is a mutation, again, that half the population carries, 44% to be exact.

That's almost half population is going to carry this mutation. I recommend everybody gets this test. It's a one time test through a buccal swab. Find out if you're a carrier or not. Rule it out. get definitive concrete answers that you know going forward if you're a carrier that's not. So I don't think there's a certain link that I say, hey, you should get this test. I think everybody should just get the test, rule of thumb. Are there any other biomarkers that your clients to test for? Any hormones or any type of biomARKers?

The three hallmark for longevity that i love testing for. i Love testing an HSCRP. high sensitivity C-reactive protein and inflammatory marker. I love checking for the LDL and I loved checking the insulin with the A1C. And the last one I'd love to check for is going to be the triglycerides. There are three tests, the Triglycyrides, LDl and the CRP that across all centenarians across the world, That's the one common denominator they have. They have a slightly elevated LDL cholesterol that we fear, right?

We fear cholesterol levels all the time. Cholesterol and eggs, for example, eggs are terrible. Eggs are nature's multivitamin. I love eggs. We have 12 chickens ourselves. Oh, no, I'm all about eggs They lay an egg every day? You're dang right they do. That's a lot of eggs. A lot eggs, you guys eat them all? I got four kids, we eat em all. Okay. We don't have any leftover eggs but the eggs obviously, there was a recent study done where a guy ate 24 eggs a day and yet his cholesterol levels came down.

Training for Longevity and Proactive Health 33:03

So we don' fear eggs in affecting our cholesterol but that LDL, slightly elevated LDl, A low HSCRP, again, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, three and under is a good range. One and another is optimal. And then our triglycerides should be 150 or lower. Those three numbers in range are the hallmark for longevity again across the board of centenarians. Ikaria, Greece, Sardinia, Italy, Loma Linda, California, Okinawa, Japan. You look at across, the world, those three are common in the mortality space.

Wow. What do you think about the blue zones? We're talking about around the world, you know? But what do think you about that? Because, we start talking all of these treatment modalities and everything and you go to some of this blue zone and they don't even have access to any of the stuff that we're taking about, like performance wise. You know, but but you start kind of seeing like how people are living and it's very, very interesting. And these people live in the past 100. It's amazing. I love that.

Our family's from Italy, so I see when I say Sardinia. Obviously, I loved that, But that again, besides from that three trio of labs you look at. One thing, another thing they all have in common, Sardinia, Italy, Ikaria, Greece, these places have it in commons, is they have the love from the family. They don't just put someone in a nursing home and say, ciao, see you later. Because they don' want to take care of somebody. You got the kids walking up the hill to go to the grocery store. So the act of lifestyle.

I always tell people, circulation is life, stagnation is death. Can't you just sit around, lay around? I mean, that's the new smoking, right? sedentary lifestyles is the new smoking. We're lazy. we gotta get up and go be active. So the kids are watching the parents. They're living with them. so now the grandparents are with the grandchildren. they're around love. their around this joy. Their walking to the market to get some fresh food. That food that's gonna probably go bad in a couple days because it's real food It's not genetically modified.

It is not sprayed with thousands of pesticides and insecticides, organophosphates. It is real food that's going to change colors, smell and get bad in a couple of days. The way it should be. So that common denominator that you see across the board is Real. That's life. that is the way should it be From a scale one to ten. Ten being most important. How important is community? I love community as, as firefighters and paramedics. Obviously we, we love to volunteer and for our community, obviously he's giving back to our.

But community for the elderly is impervious. It's an impenetrable. You need to have that community that love, love being obviously the magic word because that loved gives people a purpose. He gives. A reason why a reason to stay healthy or reason, to get fit or reasons to keep living. And these are a lot of the things that. Sometimes we get so fixed into this biohacking world. You gotta order the NAD, you gotta do this. Some of this stuff can be very expensive. But when we start talking about community, there's not a price to that.

That's something that you can do for free. getting up first thing in the morning and getting out there and get that initial sunlight, right? That initial blue light that stimulates that cortisol production. So I wanna talk about some of the things that people can do that's free, because everyone always thinks about being healthy is expensive. I always hear people, oh, I gotta go to Whole Foods, Whole Paycheck. No, no, there's certain basic things, that allows you to take control of your health. And I want you kind of chime in on that.

100%. I didn't grow up with obviously loads of money in the mansion. We came up, obviously my mother, my family, we didn' have much growing up and we made the best because you don't need to have this endless budget to live healthy. You can live a very, very clean lifestyle inexpensively because like you mentioned first light before the harmful UVA, UVB rays, you go out first flight. Fantastic doesn't cost you a dollar get out and get some first light right you want to wake up in the morning and Get some some movement going Go for a walk go for 10-15 minute walk stroll around if Again, I never recommend just fast everybody to fast because we always say fasting everybody should fast.

That's that's not true That farthest from the truth Get your A1C checked. If you have an A 1C that's 5.2, 5 .3 or lower, you should not fast. You're not a candidate to fast because obviously you had that chance of going to hypoglycemic shock. So I don't just recommend fasting, but obviously once you know your levels, different story. But get your first light. you want a cold shower. It takes you three minutes to get a cool shower, so I'll care if you don' have hot water. Don't have a water tank.

Doesn't matter. Go get cold showers, right? You get the benefits from it. You want to do some push ups, go do pushups. The average American cannot do 10 push-ups or one pull-up. That's sad. And yet again, it's push up and pull ups. These don't cost you a dollar to get in the ground and drop to 10. But the average America can't do ten of them. Again, that was a couple of years ago when I did that stat. They might even be worse off now. Push ups sit ups pullups, this doesn't cause you anything. Get your workout in.

Movement. Yeah. You know, these are a lot of things that people could do that are free of charge, right? What about nutrition? Good question. So whenever I talk about diet, this is a very, very common question I get from patients. And I always say, what do you like to diet wise? Now, I don't care if you are a vegan or a carnivore, whatever route you want to go, you can look it up on Google and support it. That's going to be preference based. I obviously have a personal diet that I recommend that.

Like I love a Mediterranean diet. Again, my family is from Italy, so I loved Mediterranean, clean. But the best type of diet I'd recommend is just eat real food. What's that? A jerf. Just eat real food. J-E-R-F. I like that. And simple worms, as a Christian, if the Lord made it, you can eat it. Things are going to change colors, smells, consistency, texture in a couple of days because it's real. If it doesn't change, there's something wrong with it. Something that the lab made or added to that piece of food that's going to allow it to stay that same color for a long time.

We've watched the McDonald's things on Netflix and stuff. It's a year later, it's the same burger or Big Mac. That's disgusting. That just rotting in your gut and your insides. This man-made food is the problem we see on a day-to-day basis and we're feeding to our adult children and wondering why our A1C and our triglycerides and sugars are skyrocketing because we are eating crap food on daily basis. You said one thing, you're a Christian, so am I. And I actually did a whole podcast episode with a guest called Holy Gabbana who's a, Christian as well.

I brought my barber in who is a christian and we're always talking about the word. You got a nice cut, a fresh cut. Always, always, twice a week, that's how I roll. So part of it, what we did on a healthy point of view is talk about how out of the Bible, it actually teaches you how to be healthy. And there's actual verses in the Bible that talk about that. So the first part, talk a little bit about spirituality. What's the importance of having a spiritual belief? And we're both Christians, so I want to talk spiritual beliefs, not just Christianity, but for other people that believe in other things.

But how important is for people to have some kind of spiritual believe? I say half the battle, when somebody is diagnosed with cancer, half of the battles I believe is mentally. That spiritual clinging that you have, that power of faith is unparalleled.

TBI Warning Signs and Recovery Strategies 41:03

I've seen people who can just hold on to faith and that can take them to the next level because of that alone. Just having a strong faith, trusting in God that You can be healed. And I utilize that emotion or side of things with healing because we need obviously physical healing, but emotional healing. Spiritual healing all collective together to get to I agree. Do you meditate? Not enough, not enough. But that's part of the healing process, obviously, is that meditation, that common, the common relaxation, and that time with the Lord.

So every single morning before I go about my day, I spend time and I pray. I get in the car and ask the lord obviously for protection, for safety for my family, my four children. Lose my angels around us. Make sure that I just I ask to Lord to watch over my Family. Do you do you know what your God given purpose is? my God given purpose today. And again, since my transition from fighting and hurting people to not helping people is to make a difference in his life, to makes sure that my children, my family, might my kids and my all of my Family in the community and the people I see that can live this a better world than it was yesterday, make people healthier, educate people on why you should eat this instead of that, why should do this?

Instead of That my wife and I love the analogy this for that. And sometimes it's as easy as that. This for that, this organic apple first, This waxed appeal apple. this for That. So that's one thing I would love. My purpose as I go forward is to just keep this purpose going, driven to make a difference in a positive way to Make sure that we could change these numbers and change our stars. I love that I Love that That's a strong God-given purpose. And it's something that you're doing not just for yourself, you doing it for the Lord, but you also doing for community, for people around you to make that change.

You know, talking about that. Right now there's a huge movement going on with the new administration being led by R.F.K. Junior called Maha, the Maja movement, right? Make America healthy again. Yes. I want to hear your input as a clinical scientist of what do you think about this whole Macha movement? I love it. America for the first time in a long time is going in the right direction. We need more testing done. We needs more for these vaccines we're pushing on somebody. And again, I'm not an anti-vaxxer, but we need testing more done before we are just pushing a vaccine for every children.

Children are born healthy and beautiful and thriving. Give them a chance. Before we know we just injecting something into these kids. The long-term effects of this. What's the reason why we put this in some child's body? Right. So I'm fully behind the new administration. I think we are making positive headway and should keep on going in the right direction as long as we keep this and get this this domino effect going. Right? And it's a long road ahead of us. But, you know, I talked to a lot of like the older functional medicine doctors and stuff that are like in their 70s, 80s.

And they'll straight up tell me like I did. So to actually see this and seeing it happening now, during our time, to me it's a beautiful thing. It's amazing. For example, you and I talked previously about the Echo water bottles. The water bottle is a simple change like that for children, because we are polluted with toxins and chemicals, we're just surrounded by. My one-year-old baby boy, Giovanni, had atopic dermatitis, eczema. Super bad hospital. Quick to give somebody a steroid cream, right? Here's a stairway cream.

Nothing was going to work for the little man. I changed his water source and I change his formula because he was taking the formula that is packed with seed oils. Oh, wow. Change that to a goat milk formula. Changed his water source to hydrogen water egg is more away in a week No more eggs in my week later. I saw before my eyes My child's dermatitis is that is a eczema that was surrounding his legs changed in week just by the water Source that simple foundational change and I know that can happen across the board across that the country and world Just by subtle changes this for that What are some non-negotiables for you, for your health, on a day-to-day basis?

A lot. And we don't actually sit there and try to preach this to our kids. For us, it's a lot of modeling to out kids, something like non negotiables. I don' personally eat cheese, but cheese is non negotiateable. Again, Italiano, no formaggio, we dont eat cheeses. There's alot of cheese in it. Im the rarity, because everything my family makes, and my wife is Sicilian, so she's Italian as well. There it's packed with cheese. Does she eat cheese too or no? She eats cheese, my kids eat Cheese. I'm the one off that does not eat.

Cheese, but that's a non-negotiable for me. Okay, and it is not just because of health, even though I will argue to the cows come down that cheese clogs arteries. And that is the reason why I personally believe that my cholesterol levels, My LDL, HDL and my triglycerides are super low. And America loves to embellish and just indulge in cheese. Right. In our waxed out cheese, our fake cheese that we have in America. There is a lot of fake. It's not the typical formaggio cheese you see in Italy. Yeah, it's the waxy sticky stuff that you can leave there for a year long.

That looks the same. and what a lot of people don't understand a Lot of the cheese especially like the shredded cheese that that people buy as like that anti-caking Yes, which is like borderline wood chips, you know, that's what it is So it's scary and people would just again just keep on you throw it back. All right, right So OK, so so what other non non negotiable workout? It is a non-negotiable for me. I have got to work out probably, I would say, at a minimum, four to five times a week if I can, six times week and not because I I'm working out to get ready for a fight.

And working for my health. Right. Working out for Me is life. Work it out. For me is. Again, it's not going to be where I've gone for two hours and sitting there shooting the crap. Sometimes 25 minutes when I can I get it in when i can fit it and I'll go on a lunch break. I will go get in again that movement circulation is life stagnation is death I've got to get movement in at least five times a week. Are you, obviously as a clinical scientist, you're data driven. So are you a data kind of guy?

Are tracking your data or a ring, whoop, or any kind data devices that you are utilizing? I am not. I'm a results driven guy when it comes to working out. I check my levels, I test my level frequently. I'm a guinea pig for everything. Every supplement, every test, Every piece of blood work, blood urine sample, stool sample. testing myself on everything, on my own guineapig. And I am a results driven person. If I could test myself, if I did for vitamin D, for example, i was at a 20, and I was low.

i said okay, challenge accepted. Put myself in a protocol for 30 days. 45 days later, I tested myself and I went up for 20 points. Nice. Great. Okay. So then I'm always telling patients, i will try before I buy it. I will make sure that I make, should I give you a raw real answer that i tried this? I know it works. Absolutely. If I threw two words at you, which one is more important, health span or longevity?

Nutrition, Blue Zones, and Everyday Health Habits 49:03

I would elaborate on health span. Health span, what do you mean? Healthspan is quality of life, mobility, things of that nature, longevity, meaning how long you live. Get longevity. I find those words in tandem a lot because living a life without purpose, living in life, obviously frail, brittle, not in vitality isn't living. It's, you know, You're getting by. So I would I Would consider longevity with health span. I will try to merge those two words together personally. No, no, but you can't pick them both.

Because right now we're living in this world of biohacking and functional medicine where everything is about longevity, longevity. You got people like the Brian Johnson, don't die guy, who wants to live. He says that he can be immortal, he could live to 250 or whatever. But at the end of the day, I'll tell you on my end, like, longevity is great, right? If I can live to 120, 150, but if I'm gonna live 70 years as a vegetable, not being able to move, you know? So it's like some people are so focused on longevity, But then at same time, health span, when it talks about when we're relating that to vigor, vitality, quality of life, which one is more important to someone like yourself who's a doctor?

So I kind of answered I guess in a roundabout way when I said about that's not living, that just getting by. So then longevity wouldn't be the pinnacle, the belt. The belt would be health span, living full of vitality, live in life that is optimal. Living something that you can go and you could go run. You could do what you want to do. That's freedom. Health freedom, right? Yeah, I agree with that, man. I. Agree. Hey, you know, it's weird because I always get different answers because then you get someone who's a father or grandfather and she's like, oh, want I just live longer so I can be around for, yeah.

It was like do you really want. To be a round for your grandkids, but not be able to move or anything. Yeah, and be around so you can't hold them right around. So you cant embrace and enjoy the time with them I want to I'm gonna be a round so I could throw the kids around and I can go race and challenge them. I Don't come competitive. Um, I still fighter even though I retired, you know, i'm going to challenge my kids I wanna make them the best they can be let's race right? Let's go run So I don't want just get by in life.I want live life to the fullest I agree.

Dr. Josh What does legacy look like for you? legacy is something that lives on after you're gone legacy something I can live on pass on to my kids, my grandkids and farther on past that legacy, something on where I go my my kid's think about her telling stories to the grand kids or great grandkid's that Pap, or what I'll be called then, probably none of them. But that he was a product of his product, of this environment. He didn't just talk the talk, but he walked the walk. he lived it. You didn' tell somebody don't eat this.

Try this, do this? He lived. It he modeled to us, he showed us getting out, getting fresh air, and getting sunlight, going for a walk, eating clean. That this life in this lifestyle, again, not a hobby for me, it's a lifestyle. Is Just radiates off me and it radiated off to the family and they've all had the same exact This this feeling they got for me this positivity that they get this legacy of Vitality this Legacy of longevity just transpired to us through our father our grandfather That that's a role model.

Legacy is a roll model you look up to and then you want to model your life off of them. And I want that legacy to just forever precede me. That's powerful. Dr. Josh, what is what's the next big thing for Dr Josh? I got to kind of narrow down because I'm so fast. And when it comes to like, I want to do so many things. My wife has to sometimes gear me back in track. Okay, let's focus on what's in front of us. So as of right now, we have two clinics. We have a clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Beaver County, and the one in Charleston, South Carolina.

2024, We actually were voted best functional medicine clinic and all of Charlestown. Amazing. Congrats. Thank you. So it was a huge blessing for us for our clinic. There was our second year in business there in Charleston. It's been a just a blessing in disguise being there. But the next move for us is to educate more people and teach them the benefits of how hyperbarics, oxygen therapy, how we do things that probably can help somebody, How you can have another option. How your diagnosis is not your definition.

You have more chances. You got more choices. Fight for your health. Make it a priority. We only got one. So Dr. Josh, we're going to have some fun here now. Let's get it. So I, um, I watch a podcast. It's one of my favorite podcasts besides watching myself, right? Um, it's called the diary of a CEO with a Steven Bartlett. Okay. I've seen, he's got one in the top podcast, so he came out with these conversation cards. so I want you to go ahead and open it up and, uh, you can shuffle it if you want or whatever and pull out two cards and then you're gonna read one and answer the question.

And then after you've done answering that one, read the other one. Let's get it. Let me just go with the first one.

Faith, Purpose, and the MAHA Movement 55:03

What makes you most angry about society? I mean that's easy. Our foods, our lifestyles, what we have available to us. That makes me That just drives me up a wall. Going to the store and seeing people walk around with a cigarette in their mouth and an auction tank. And going to middle of the aisle and just buying a bag of... chips and folic acid cereal and fortified and rich stuff and just the stuff that we have available to us. That makes me most mad about societies that our own country I feel like is poisoning us with what's available.

Yeah, I've seen that too, man. I'm going to say how it is. that is really hard. You know, when you're in the wellness space and Very well educated in the wellness space you go to the grocery store and you see someone like pulling up To the the same grocery, you know, check out the cashier line as you and they got a shopping cart. That's just like filled up with everything that you can think that's just like not good for your health. You got everything from the Oreos, the chips, every single ultra processed food, you know, Kool-Aid and then the candy.

Did I see it? And I'm just saying. Oh, man, what are you doing to your kids? Yeah, because I know it's not going to just be this one person, you know, when they have something that full. It's like you're bringing it home. Your kids are just ruining their health. So let's do another card trickle down effect. Absolutely. Just keep it going. What topic is no one talking about now that historians will study in the future? that medical devices such as hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers can be installed in your house and you can become a patient at the comfort of your own house.

We at ProHealthBase actually are setting people up in their homes with chambers, allowing patients to become advocates and take their health in our hands. And that, I believe, in the future is going to be that's the feature of medicine in general, that is a device that I will not live without. My family, my kids, we will always have that available to us. That is something that future historians will be talking about. These medical devices that are actually in people's homes and they're operating themselves.

allowing the patient to truly take control of their health. Absolutely. Amazing. But Dr. Josh Mann, as we wrap up here, if we have someone listening or viewing the podcast that really resonates with today's message, what is one thing that you can leave them off with? Don't settle. Don' allow your diagnosis to be your definitive definition.

Legacy, Clinics, and Final Advice 58:03

don't be afraid to roll with the punches. Seek out other options. Keep fighting. Do not just again, settle and lay down. We're not designed to laydown, we're designed, to fight back. So fight for your health, get up and get after it. That's powerful, man. That is powerful. And Dr. Josh, if people want to find you, where can they find me? Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Dr Josh Himes or Josh times PhD. You'll find us at Pro Health Place on Instagram and Facebook as well. Pro health place. If you want, call us up at 724-900-9940.

Amazing. Dr Joshua, it was a pleasure having you on the podcast, Man. I appreciate you and God bless. Then let me know. The pleasure was mine. Thank you very much for everything. Amazing. Guys, you heard Dr. Josh here. You gotta be a warrior, a Warrior for your health. He's a fighter and he's telling you that the fight just never stops. you have to keep on fighting. It's extremely important. Sometimes what you're taught is not the right thing and it's up to you to take control of your Health. So guys, make sure you share this, subscribe, follow, do all that fun stuff and then we'll see you for the next one.