Episode 1 - Introduction to Wild Health

Mike:  Jody, why are we here?

Matt:  And why there microphones in front of our faces?

Jody:  Simple. Guys, we've had a ton of conversations where afterwards I feel like "man I wish I recorded that" or "the world should hear this". I'm a normal guy.  You two are trained as docs, and I'm not obsessively reading about human performance enhancement, longevity, and all the stuff you like to do, so it's a pretty sweet hack for me to be able to talk to you. Whether it's email, text, or phone calls and say like "Hey just summarize the stuff you've been reading and tell me what I what I can do."

Matt:  Well, talking about that stuff, that's fun for us. Mike and I we live and breathe this. We basically won't quit talking about when anybody asks us about it. We've done a lot of things in our life like adventure races and stuff where were obsessed with constantly figuring out how to optimize our bodies for those things and push the limits of what we can do. Especially since we have very little of what they call "talent" and now that we're getting older we've really become obsessed with longevity also and how we're going to be around for our kids, grandkids, are great grandkids. We want to kind of do both. Absolutely crush it now and live forever or at least close to forever.

Mike:  Yeah all that stuff for sure Matt, but what you're talking about Jody just sounds like a bunch of fun.  I mean if you're talking about having us do a podcast I assume, that's why we have the Mics here, right?  So let's be honest: man I love making fun of my Matt and if you're giving us the opportunity to record it and make fun of you as well then man sign me up.  I mean I've been his podcast thing for like 7 years now so the idea of recording some of that doesn't sound weird.

Jody:  Right. So, the medical community already knows you guys as the Ultrasound podcast guys, so why pivot to longevity and performance optimization?

Matt:  Well first off, I think you're the one asking us to record this but if you're asking why are we interested in those things instead, well we've always been interested in them.  I mean we're just super curious in general and love exploring new ideas and kind of pushing the limits, which I think is why people enjoy listening to the ultrasound podcast. We've done a lot of courses and taught a lot of Physicians and we love that, but as you know as soon as we turn off the mics and leave the lecture stage all we really talk about with each other is optimizing performance and whatever longevity hacks we found recently.

Mike:  Exactly. I mean you should see some of the text messages about all the crazy self-experimentation stuff that we are doing with fasting, different diets, taking Ketone salts and Esters and how it affects our individual BHB levels in conjunction with different weight training interval sets and then correlating that with max effort running trials and super nerdy stuff but that's what we're into.  I mean, granted, debating the methodological flaws of calorie restriction studies may not be super great listening but we're really into all this stuff so I could see how some people might benefit from hearing are conclusions on how to apply this stuff to their lives. Or who knows, maybe they'll hate it but they'll enjoy some of this banter.

Jody:  I get it, but I mean you guys are Er docs.  Why not just double down on that if you're going to do another podcast.  Why teach people about this stuff

Matt:  So, on my last shift, this guy came in and we intubated him.  We saved his life by putting a breathing tube in for him when he couldn't breathe.  He was a morbidly obese guy with cancer and was a really difficult intubation, and I'm  thinking afterwards how cool it was that we were able to use cutting-edge technology, video laryngoscopy in this case, to save this guy's life and how that just came out in the last decade.  So it's really amazing how technology is progressing and allowing us to do things like that and then I thought about this poor guy a little more deeply and realized that I may have added 3 to 6 months to his life at best.  What if he was equipped with the knowledge that I have about healthspan, nutrition, and longevity, though. Would even have cancer? Would he be obese? I mean I went into emergency medicine because I really loved it. The adrenaline that comes from a save like that or the privilege of getting to meet people in their darkest hour and help them out is truly amazing.  

But honestly, 90% of the people I see I just shake my head and think if only they knew some basic things that aren't hard to implement they wouldn't need me. They wouldn't be in the ER.  So, I have no idea if anybody would listen to this if you recorded but if they do and it makes a difference then I'm going to be really really grateful for that. And if they don't, honestly I just like talking about this stuff.

Mike:  Yeah I mean pretty much same here.  I still love emergency medicine but that doesn't mean it's the only aspect of medicine I'm interested in.  The thing that got me interested in medicine in the first place was actually biochemistry. I know, nerdiest statement ever, but I was in college for chemical engineering at the time and trying to lose some weight. I was actually a fat kid until I was about 20 and I never learned anything about healthy eating or dieting as I grew up in the Deep South and had terrible Fitness and a terribly diet.  I was like 260 lbs around year 2000 and I finally got fed up and started learning about the biochemistry and some of the metabolic stuff. I got serious about it, started working out, lifting, cardio, and learning about metabolism, cortisol, and insulin responses to foods and exercise.

I was pretty obsessed and eventually it pushed me into medicine.  But you can't really go into residency for longevity or performance science so I ended up in what excited me the most, which was emergency medicine.  But that doesn't mean I ever give up my personal obsession with human performance which has recently morphed into this idea of healthspan and Longevity.

Matt:  We still love emergency medicine, but our real obsession is longevity and performance optimization.  We constantly talk to our friends and family about it any time they ask and if we can help some strangers by you hitting record when they give you advice, then I'm all in.  I think as doctors we definitely have a responsibility to use your training and knowledge to help people whenever we can.

Jody:  Sweet! So how are we going to do this?  I'm thinking I could ask you guys a question that I'm wondering cuz I'm sure other people wondering it also.  Like, should I take vitamin D? What's the best way to get super strong and super ripped? What the hell is a float tank and should I do it?  Can I live forever? What's the best diet? Does cryotherapy work? You know I've have got thousands of questions

Matt:  Yeah, that's awesome.  All that stuff. I mean that's exactly the type of stuff we love talking about so I'm getting pumped just thinking about the crazy argument Mike and I are going to have about this stuff.

Jody:  Yeah, about that.  I know you and Mike tend to go overboard sometimes and super deep into the studies and those kind of things, so we got to keep this applicable and simplify in the end.

Matt:  No, I agree.  So what we need to do is make this be useful, not esoteric crap and just droning on about biochemical pathways.  At the end of each podcast episode we should do a 96% Pareto squared summary.

Jody:  Perfect.  Exactly. That's what I was thinking.......except what is that?  

Matt:  So Pareto's principle basically says that 80% of the benefit comes from 20% of the causes or inputs.  So for example, if we talk about how to get you caveman strong, then we'll talk about the two to three simple things you can do that the biggest bang for the buck.  The the 20% that gets 80% of the benefit. Then if we do that one more time and give the most important things in top 20% we get 80% of the remaining 20% Then we're squaring Pareto and giving you 96% of the benefit.  Then Mike and I can fight over the last four percent but who really cares? Maybe somebody, but we're going to try to break it down and get you benefit without having to dig for that last four percent. Pareto Square it.

Mike:  We'll be publishing Matt's math here at the bottom of the podcast because I'm sure nobody actually followed that.

Jody:  I'm going to trust you for now on the math.  Let's do this though

Mike:  Jody that we're getting ready to have some fun too so I agree I'll answer your questions but I want to get to torture you a little bit on the back end so after each time we get to test on you you going to be our guinea pig will do a super scientific in of Jodi study where we test our conclusions and we test them on you so for example we test your testosterone and then you let us

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you try some four methods that we give you to increase it and then we retest and see how you respond we got to do as many lab test as we want before and after we put you through the different diets the cry therapy protocols all that stuff have I ever back down from ridiculous challenge that can endanger my life that's why we love you and we got to find some sweet after music right now