Today’s show centers around the hot topic of performance enhancing drugs, testosterone replacement therapy, doping, cheating, and optimizing your lifestyle before considering hormone replacement therapy.

The Liver King controversy isn’t going away anytime soon, and the prevalence of this issue right now has caused me to reflect on something I have had a lot of strong opinions about my whole life—not only due to my history as a competitive athlete, but also because testosterone replacement therapy is becoming ever more popular, especially for males in my age group. At this time, I’m still clinging to the purist mentality I’ve carried with me my whole life, especially dating back to my days as a professional triathlete (a time I assumed most of my competitors were playing in a clean way [mostly true]. This was also a time before the major red blood cell boosting drug EPO rose to prominent use in endurance sports. This transformed elite endurance sports because EPO delivers a scientifically-validated 6% advantage; a performance boost so extreme that it basically compelled widespread use in the "dirty" sports just to remain competitive.

In this episode, I take a look at all sides of the issue, particularly with public misperception about drug cheating in sports, the need to optimize all elements of your lifestyle before considering hormone replacement, and the difference between abusing PED (performance enhancing drugs) and utilizing them in a therapeutic way. I talk about the mainstream perspective of PED as dangerous and whether these warnings have been sensationalized and overblown and share my personal philosophy towards this topic. I also share my thoughts on the rising popularity of microdosing testosterone and other modern high-tech interventions and keeping an open-mind on this topic. When is it necessary for us to loosen up on our obsession with ancestral living in pursuit of modern strategies that will help us achieve wholly modern fitness/athletic goals? When is it appropriate to consider interventions like hormone replacement therapy, and finally, if lifestyle interventions will ultimately always yield the best results.

TIMESTAMPS:

The hot topic of performance-enhancing drugs, testosterone replacement therapy, doping and cheating are on Brad’s mind. [01:11]

Currently we see wide spread use of EPO in endurance sports. [02:06]

The athlete in a drug-laden professional sport is faced with three choices. [04:29]

The use of performance enhancing drugs is pervasive. [08:08]

Hormone replacement therapy is good for advanced aged group but is filtering down to young people in their 20s. [13:41]

During Brad’s racing career, he opted to be free of any outside intervention because he wanted to feel what his current state of readiness and recovery was. [14:59]

Abuse of any drugs is dangerous. [18:10]

Brad’s aversion to outside intervention includes healing from surgeries. [20:41]

A lot of the prescription drugs and the massive profits the drug companies make comes from relief of symptoms rather than addressing the root cause of the problem. [24:46]

Exhaust all possible natural strategies before you even form the thought of bringing in outside intervention into your physiology. [27:40]

If you're training at the elite level in professional triathlon or CrossFit games like the most extreme athletes are doing, those performance enhancing drugs are possibly minimizing the adverse health consequences of the extreme regimen that you are performing. [37:27]

There is a lot of research going on looking at testosterone replacement therapy for prostate cancer patients that might prove interesting. [40:28]

The only justification for someone who's not already in pretty good health and fitness level to try a hormone replacement is to give a temporary boost so that you will have the energy to start doing some exercise, start doing some resistance training, start walking in order to change your body chemistry. [44:20]

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