Speaker A: Welcome to Sharing My Truth with Mel and Susie. The uncensored version where we bear it all.

Speaker B: We do.

Speaker C: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Speaker A: And hello everyone, and welcome back to Sharing My Truth Pod. You're here with Mel and Susie and here's a friendly quick reminder to subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening to it, whether that's Spotify, Apple or any other fun little place to go, hit that little bell button and you can hear from us all the time.

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And you can also go to our YouTubes where you could actually watch our podcasts. We put them out, out every week.

You can go to our website as well. This is a lot of information. I hope you're writing it down.

Website is cherrymytruth.com you can mail us, email us, voicemail us about your truths.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: Hello, baby.

Speaker B: Hello, darling.

Speaker A: How are you? I'm fine, guys. We just had an amazing little podcast with an adorable man. A man. We had a man.

Speaker B: It's very exciting. We interviewed a man. For everyone who's been complaining about the fact that we haven't to do interview.

Speaker A: A man, trust me, we've tried.

Speaker B: Quite difficult.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So anyway, he was very nice. Medical doctor.

Speaker A: Medical doctor. But in the realm of anti aging. Yeah, but medically, not like Botox, not like supplements, but like literal, the literal science of longevity and hormonal health and all of these things to actually make you live a.

Not only longer but a better life, the quality of life. And he's a literal expert on this. And it's just such an amazing conversation to have with him.

Speaker B: Yeah. And they tailor the care to you so it might be supplements or whatever, but they're very like high quality, like they know exactly what you. They've done all the tests of what your body needs to eat, take, blah, blah, blah.

It's amazing to function optimally. And one of the things we talked to him a lot about was sexual health, the importance of that generically on your health, on your mental health, on all sorts of things.

And when those pieces start to go wrong, particularly with age where something's not functioning, he called it the mechanics. I think that's very true. If the mechanics are not there, we tend to shy away and just shut down.

And of course that has a lot of, you know, effects on yourself, on your relationships, on the way you. You go into the world, you know, and so we talked A lot about that, which I think was very good for men and for women.

Yeah.

Speaker A: I love that we were able to have an actual man who obviously has, you know, experience with being a man, and he's able to speak with not only personal experience, but, you know, he.

He comes from a place of just, like, knowing these things are problems and knowing what the solutions are. And it's interesting for us because we have no real idea of, like, how men work and, like, what makes them tick and especially with their testosterone and what happens after 50.

Like, we. We can understand sort of what happens to women, you know, with menopause and all this, but there's no real, like, ticking time thing with men. Right. It's just like, the possibility of someday they get ed and, like, why does that happen?

So it was a very interesting conversation. And men who are having problems, like, don't be embarrassed by this stuff. There's so many solutions out there. If you can find someone like Dr.

Jonathan Christian. He's not French, but I felt like to be French there.

Speaker B: But, yeah, I mean, that's absolutely it. That lots of people have issues of all different kinds. They're all individual, and men aren't particularly good at going to the doctor or admitting that something wrong because they think they failed.

That is not true. We all have issues, you know, and if you can go and fix the issues, why not go and do that?

Speaker A: Also, longevity is, like, the sexiest thing right now.

Speaker B: It is very sexy.

Speaker A: It's like, the sexiest thing to, like, go into, and you could do, like, your ice baths and all of your, like, cool things that you do, and then you go get, like, prp and then it's, like, really sick.

Speaker B: Thanks, Susan.

Speaker A: Hey, you're welcome. I think that's, like, very important.

Speaker B: Yeah. Anyway, enough of that. And sorry.

Speaker A: It's been a long night, and we are so excited for you guys to hear this episode.

Speaker B: Yeah. Now.

Speaker C: Now.

Speaker A: And hello, everyone, and welcome back to sharing my truth Pod. Thank you so much, Jonathan, for joining us today. You guys were excited to have a man on the podcast. Can we believe it?

Speaker B: Hello.

Speaker C: Hi.

Speaker A: I know this is a lot of estrogen. It's a lot. A little bit of testosterone. We're very happy to see it. How are you?

Speaker C: Yeah, I'm doing great. Thanks for. Thanks for having me on. This is very exciting.

Speaker A: Oh, no, it's our pleasure. Trust us.

Speaker B: It really is.

Speaker A: You know, we just want to start off every episode by giving you the ability to maybe just say where people can find you, who you are, introduce yourself, and what you do best.

Speaker C: Cool.

Yeah. So I'm the medical director of a clinic called Eon Future Health.

And so we spend a lot of time looking at sort of an integrative approach to health optimization. So really when you think about overall health and you think of sort of the classic conventional care model, you know, we try and as opposed to being really reactive in our care, we try and be really proactive.

And I think, you know, my, our clinic here and our ethos is really good at that. And the way that you do that is with like a very integrated approach to health.

So that's kind of the platform and that's, that's what we're offering.

Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. The fact that you said proactive instead of reactive. I think a lot of people, like myself included, we go to the doctor when there's something wrong. Right?

Speaker C: Yeah, for sure.

Speaker A: And you are trying to change that.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. It's a slow grind, but we're getting there. For sure. Yeah.

Speaker A: Something that we found really incredible about your clinic and what you deal with on the day to day basis and what you're saying now, you know, longevity, metabolic health, like, I know obviously probably many people have different definitions of longevity.

What does it mean for most of the clients coming in to see you? Like, how are people being like, oh, I want to live longer, is that it? Or I want to live a better life?

Or what is the main reason that they're coming in?

Speaker C: Yeah, listen, I think like when people hear longevity medicine, it gets very blurry and in the distant. Right. You're trying to think about things and how they, how they're responding to things in the future.

But really it's.

Our focus is on health span. We want you to be, you know, set yourself up for success, to live your best, healthiest life today. Because that sets the platform for how you age.

It's how it sets the platform for how you live when you're 50, which sets a platform for how you live when you're 60 and 70 and 80.

And you know, we're not. It probably is a nice byproduct that you, that you might live longer, but really we want to, we want you to have the most sort of vitality and energy through the years that you do have and trying to optimize for those first.

Speaker B: Right. It's about the quality. As opposed to the quality. Yeah.

Speaker A: To the quantity of age you're having.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's, it's interesting. I mean, I'm 52, so like I'm, you know, thank you.

Speaker A: She just turned 52, by the way.

Speaker B: But obviously, sort of in my language, I'm talking about. My friends are talking about that. Susie's 29. So it's like, you know, in the way off distance.

But what are the people that come, like, men and women who come to the clinic? Like, what is the reason that. I mean, is there something that. Are they coming because they're like, okay, there's something wrong, or because they're my age and they figure they need to be doing something?

Or what exactly is the big motivation? Like, the thing that's, you know, the initial push to come See, I think.

Speaker C: The actual thing that brings them through the clinic has a tendency to be different, but the story is often the same, which is like, they've been to their general practitioner or their, like, primary care provider, and they say, listen, I just don't feel like myself.

I don't feel like. I'm like, I feel like I should feel better. And then, you know, you get a series of tests and those tests fall into, like, you know, there's no big red flags in this.

In this sort of big bell curve of labs that they get.

And so really, when they're coming to us, it's usually because they're like, listen, I just. I want to feel better. And, you know, I'd like to do that. And yet I haven't really found a way to do that on my own.

Or you're like, you know, trying to reach for these different random things and you buy a supplement off of Instagram and, you know, the next thing you go for, like a cold plunge.

There's no way to integrate it.

And so I think that, you know, maybe it's body composition, maybe it's hormones, maybe it's just, you know, overall vitality and energy in the. In the day to day.

And then when they come through the process, then becomes like, okay, let's not just look at the labs. Let's look at, you know, some of these other pieces that parse that out, like your nutrition, your exercise, your sleep.

Of course, we look at hormones and depth, and then at the end of it, you know, you come up with a much more concrete plan of things that you can do, none of which are going to make massive changes.

There's no silver bullet or magic pill. But when you compound these things together, like one after the other, you can see some really, really impressive results. Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker A: I like what you said about the cold plunges, because I. I find that obviously we're seeing it, especially in Toronto. I'm not sure. You're in Calgary, correct?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: So Toronto, it's ginormous.

The trend right now of cold plunges and saunas, it's horrible. It's horrible. And I've done it once. And, and so I'm from Edmonton, okay. So I know the cold like no one else, like yourself.

And to do that for fun is insane to me. And I've done it, and it's a lot.

How well do these things, these trends, actually make a difference? Like, if I'm going to do a cold plunge every week and I'm, like, committing to that, is that actually going to help my longevity or just, like, feeling better?

I know that people say they do, they sleep way better, but I'm like, cold equals death to me. Like saunas, I can get behind no problem. But, like, how much are these trends actually helping in terms of longevity?

Speaker C: I mean, listen, it's a.

It's a hard question to answer because all of those things can be really good for a specific case. Okay, so I'll give you an example for style. Okay.

Stana, we know from studies out of Finland, if you use sauna consistently four times a week, it can decrease your rate of heart attack and stroke by up to 52%.

Okay. So that's like a massive change. You're not going to see that. Wow. In most, most other medications that you get that are looking for the same thing. But if you, if your labs look amazing, you've never smoked, you exercise regularly, and you have no family history, like, is that the thing that you should be doing?

Probably not. Right, Right. Similarly, like, yeah, cold plungers can be. They do do a lot for sort of resetting your autonomic nervous system. Right. You hop into the cold water, you get that real shaking feeling, and then you come out of it and that resets.

And for many patients, like, you'll get much improved mood, you get more stamina. But if you have a cardiac condition where blood flow is really important, that's probably not the best choice for you.

Right. Because it kind of limits blood flow and things. So I think we have all of these different things, right? Supplements, hormones, technologies that we use in the clinic and outside, and they can all be really helpful.

But, you know, if you're trying to sort of parse these things out on your own, they can be really challenging to figure out what actually is the right choice for you.

Speaker B: And, yeah, that's very interesting. Is there a.

Like, you're talking about longevity? So we're assuming that people coming to see you are kind of my age or anywhere from 45 onwards. But in fact, the younger people come.

Are they worried about it or is it really your clients? Mostly sort of.

Speaker A: And you look very young. Are you. Are you actually 65 and we should know something about what's going on here or.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I'm Benjamin Button, you know, in the left. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, so. So listen, I'm 37. I think we have lots of patients who are coming through.

The interesting thing is, even though the people that it helps the Most are probably 50 plus, the people who are really interested and engaged with sort of maintaining their health and sort of caught this earlier wave.

So when we started, we thought it would all be sort of patients 50 and 60 trying to reset things. And more and more it's patients who are coming in who are sort of 35, 40, you know, they see the horizon.

Of what? Of how things have gone for maybe their grandparents or, you know, some older parents, and they're trying to sort of get ahead of it before those kind of diseases, dementia or heart attack, stroke, whatever it may be, get them in.

Our primary care programming just really isn't set up to address those things as well as we'd like. So it ends up being kind of a spectrum.

But, yeah, more and more younger patients, I think, because there's just more and more information about the space.

Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, this is a different topic, but these young girls that we hear about going to Sephora and doing retinol at like 12 years old, and we're like, what the hell is going on?

Right. So, I mean, as horrible as that is, maybe it is a good thing that we're starting to think about how. How do we live a better and longer life in general for people like my age?

We're like, maybe I shouldn't be smoking still, even though I'm still going out every Friday night. Like, maybe it is nice to do a cold plunge on a Saturday morning when I'm super hungover.

Like, there's things that we're changing our mindset slowly but surely.

Speaker B: Baby steps. I think it's next gen steps. It's definitely generational because I think that's the irony is, you know, my generational bit, Gen X, shall we say, in Boomer or whatever, who should be worrying?

We weren't. We just weren't educated to think about this stuff. So unless you're well informed and you follow, you know, I don't know, like, certain things on social media or you take the time to research stuff, you don't do anything about it.

Whereas younger people, they've seen it on social media that it's like, as you said, there's so much information. So they're much better set up. Well, they'll be much better when they're 40 and 50, I think.

Speaker A: We'll see. I don't know, maybe not. You never know.

Speaker C: Yeah. And it's a total generation thing. And at the same time, like, as soon as you start getting into the program, making some of those small changes, you know, people see a little bit of results.

Right. So when we think of longevity, we really think of like, oh, I want to, you know, live longer and be better. But ultimately it comes back to like how you're feeling today.

Right. So if you're trying to, like, maybe your joints hurt, maybe you're trying to lose weight, maybe you're trying to just feel better, as soon as you start doing that, then it doesn't matter what age you're at because you get a little bit of buy in.

That buy in produces a little bit of results. And it can be a little bit of a self propagating circle which is, you know, which is generational or not, can have like a huge impact on how, on how the future looks for everybody.

Speaker A: And so let's get into the nitty gritty of these terms because I don't think about these.

Speaker C: No, no, no.

Speaker A: And this is for me and this is hopefully for audience, because maybe I'm not the dumb one, but so like longevity.

Speaker B: Yes.

Speaker A: We've talked about metabolic health, hormone therapy, like, what do these terms really mean? And like, with someone like, I'm a client coming in and I'm like, I want to work on all of these things.

What is it really I'm doing and how do I get to any kind of longevity goals from these things, if that makes any sense.

Speaker C: Yeah. So let's touch on metabolic health because I think that's probably the biggest thing that impacts how you age. Okay. So really your body has all of these processes within the cell that it's trying to perform.

It's trying to make energy, it's trying to keep your DNA healthy.

And the way it does that is it uses things like sugars and fats as an energy source to sort of allow those reactions to occur. Okay.

As you get older, sometimes those reactions can become just a little bit disarrayed and a little bit broken. And so the end result of that is you either need more energy or, you know, some of these other processes, like DNA repair have a tendency to fall off.

So metabolic Health is really getting very granular, very specific about how your body is consuming things like sugars, how it's consuming things like fats and trying to optimize those things.

So your cell is functioning as fast as humanly possible.

And the way that you do that is through a combination of like all of the things that we know from the lifestyle pieces. We know that it's important to eat, right, we know that it's important to exercise, we know it's important to sleep.

But what I think is really cool is as the longevity space continues to evolve, you don't just figure out like, oh, you know, what is generally good nutrition. You can get very specific about like, okay, my DNA says that I should be on a ketogenic diet.

Or look, my lab shown that my sugars are running a little high. It's really important for me to do a fasting protocol. And that's why the, that's why the, the having such an individualized, sort of crafted approach is so important.

Make sense.

Speaker B: That makes a lot of sense, especially when you're talking about fasting because that's such a buzz thing. Everyone's going on about intermittent fasting and some people it seems to really work for and others it doesn't.

And that's the point, isn't it? Is, it's, it's not generic. I mean it's being sold that way, but it's actually, everybody's different. And some people also need to eat in the morning because they have blood sugar or whatever it is, that it can't work for everyone.

But why do like all these trends, like we sort of generalize it, it's just stupid, isn't it?

Speaker C: And, and you know, as a great example. Yeah, look, if you're, let's say you have, you need something called insulin to help take sugar and drive it into the cell. Okay.

So from like, and over time, if you have too much sugar or you kind of genetically predisposed to it, your sugar levels sort of gradually creep up.

Fasting is a great way where you have sort of a period of elimination where you don't have any, any sugar in your bloodstream, your body begins to, to readjust to that, to, to insulin, which is really important for longevity.

But if you're a 45 year old woman, right, and your insulin levels are fine, prolonged periods of fasting of like 12 or 18 hours can actually have pretty important impacts on your hormone levels, like on your testosterone and estrogen.

So it ends up being very specific to the individual and kind of what their what their outcomes are looking for.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Okay, so now I want to really talk about something that we don't really get to talk about a lot on this podcast, which is Men's Health, because we are not the experts, unfortunately.

We do not have any male genitalia. So as long as I know. As far as I know.

But, like, so I deal with a lot of older in quotes, like male clients. That's who my. That's who I kind of hang out with a lot.

And that's why, you know, they're nice, they're older. They have these hopes and dreams of staying young forever and having testosterone high as it can be.

I have a lot of those clients and friends who are in their maybe like, mid-50s, late-40s, early-60s that are really trying to keep, you know, staying young and fit and healthy for as long as they can.

And a lot of them look amazing. And when they do these things, like doing stuff with their longevity, it really. You can tell the difference.

But when is it like. Like, what helps the most and what helps the least for that? Is it just, like, working out, exercising, eating well for guys, and, like, not drinking as much, or do they have to do these, like, testosterone shots and all these other things?

Like, what's the real importance? And is it all important?

Speaker B: And what do they. Yeah, what does it do? Yeah.

Speaker C: Okay. All right. Loaded question. Let's get to it.

Speaker A: Hugely loaded question. Take your time.

Speaker C: Okay, so look, there's. There's two pieces to this pie, okay? The first one is testosterone does not exist in isolation, okay. It's impacted by your stress and your cortisol levels that can suppress it.

It's impacted by your insulin. So if you're carrying extra weight and you have sort of high levels of insulin, you're going to end up with lower levels of testosterone.

And it can also be impacted by sort of a variety of other sort of soft hormones that are related to lifestyle. So if you're not eating right and you're working 12 hours a day, you're.

You're sleeping poorly and you're drinking all the time. Yeah. Of course your testosterone is going to be low.

And fixing those things can have a really profound impact on what the testosterone levels are of any male at any point. Okay, so that's part like, part A.

Part B is after the age of, you know, 35 or 40, you do start to lose, like, 1 to 2% of your testosterone every year. Your. Your testes just don't make as much.

Okay, so.

And when that happens. Yeah, like, replacing testosterone can be really beneficial in terms of trying to get it back to like this sort of healthy set point.

I think the.

Where people run into trouble is they think it has to be either all one or the other. Right? They're like, oh, like I'm going to fix everything about my lifestyle and that's going to, that's going to sort of make me feel better.

And for many guys, yeah, that's enough, but. Or they're like, I'm not going to do any of the lifestyle pieces, just give me as much tea as possible, bring me right up to the brim, and that's going to fix all my problems.

And the truth is, neither of those are particularly good solutions. You need to be able to look at the lifestyle piece and then you also need to be able to judiciously use testosterone to help replace your levels to where you were in your 20s or 30s.

And testosterone has a ton of benefits. We think about it in terms of muscle mass. It's really important for sexual health and libido interactions, but it's also really important for things like cognition.

So concentration and mood in men often improves, their motivation improves.

So it ends up being this like, very sort of cyclical approach. And if you attack both of them, you can get some pretty, pretty impressive outcomes.

Speaker B: So, I mean, obviously we hear a lot more about or we do, and I certainly know a lot more about HRT for women and understand that. And obviously in the mainstream media are talking a lot more about menopause, thank God, finally.

And perimenopause was a bit more understanding. I still don't think there's an awful lot of empathy or sympathy from a lot of medical professionals, shall we say. But I don't think as women or even men, we talk about the male side of it, really.

Like, I don't think anybody talks any men I know talk about testosterone therapy.

Speaker A: But hormone replacement therapy for women, yeah.

Speaker B: So it's to replace your estrogen levels.

But like for men, I mean, I guess men don't talk about health anyway and they're not very good at going to the doctor in my experience, and sort of pretending everything's okay when it's not.

There's a difference there, I think, between men and women. But like hrt, to me, I get it as a woman, like why women take it, you know, after, you know, during menopause.

So when you know that they've got all sorts of issues and it's going to help. And I totally understand that. I just don't. I don't think we Fully understand what the testosterone therapy, like, is it absolutely necessary?

Speaker A: Is it when guys can't get hard?

Speaker B: Like, is it all sexual?

Speaker C: Yeah, sure.

Speaker A: Is it all sexual? Yeah. Is it libido?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: What is that?

Speaker C: Yeah, totally. So, okay, a few things. Number one is just to, just to backtrack a minute.

The reason, the big difference between men and women as they engage with the healthcare system, right, Women need to have consistent follow up, you know, for pap screening. And they have much more, you know, and then pregnancy, if you decide to do that, like, they have much more points of contact and it's way more accepted within the culture to like have those conversations with each other.

Right.

Whereas men, they don't really have any, like, they have neither the, the communication with each other or the experience. So by the, you know, they, they show up at the door at 50 when something's going wrong and they have no way of like expressing that conversation.

So when we're talking about testosterone and it comes to like libido and sexual health, it is massively important. Like there's, there was a study that was looking at men, I think it was over 50, that said 57% of men either have a hard time getting or maintaining an erection.

It's like over half, right? And if you like, of course, no one ever hears that stat. Men don't talk about it with each other, they don't talk about it with their doctor.

And so it goes on as this like perpetual issue that just sort of caught along. Testosterone can have a huge impact on sexual health, right? So in the short term it can improve libido, right?

Guys wanting to have sex.

It can also really improve like the strength and duration of erections and sort of give more pleasure that way.

And it, you know, it has a whole bunch of metabolic benefits from strength and bone health and how they, how they sort of metabolize sugars and insulin, those kind of things that we're talking about.

But even if we're just looking at the sexual health lens, right, Men who have more sex or even, you know, have like, even if it's just sort of more orgasms, period, improvement in how long they can live and how well they live by comparison to men who have sex.

Less decreased risk of prostate cancer.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Improved cardiovascular outcomes. So kind of think about these things as just being like a taboo thing and like, oh, you just want tea to sort of look better. It's like, no, no, those are, those are critical pieces to actually feel better today and set you up for success.

5, 10, 15, 20 years from now, Yeah.

Speaker B: I mean, I think that the men conversation is often men, it's sort of shrouded in shame, like the sexual health thing. I mean, you're not going to tell your friends. You can't.

It's not working down there. Or you're not feeling it. That's a problem.

I think most men, it's their partners who make them go to the doctor. Like, my husband will never go to the doctor if I didn't make the appointments. I mean, he'd literally go every 20 years.

So, you know, I just make the appointment and tell him to go.

Some men just don't go. And I think the sexual health piece, from my point of view, from, you know, being in my age group, people, you know, friends and so on, I think there's a real misunderstanding amongst men between libido, like their libido being low and actually their libido not being low but it not functioning, like they can't get an erection.

So there's a real misunderstanding that I think. So there are a lot of men whose libido is low and they just kind of go, okay, well, and they just sort of turn into these asexual beings, from what I can see.

They just kind of brush under the carpet, don't deal with it. And then that creates all sorts of other problems, doesn't it? Like mental health, health in general, not to mention their relationships, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: And then there's the issue of, no, I have the desire, but because of medication, because of a health problem, blood pressure, whatever it is, I can't get an erection. And I.

Because they don't want to talk about it, they end up not doing anything about it. I think from what I, you know, the conversations I've had.

Speaker C: Yeah. Many, or they don't even know where to turn or what the options are. And, you know.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: So let me just dive into a few of those pieces.

Libido, you know, feeling like. Like you want to have sex.

That's. There's two components of that, right. There's like, there's top half of the body, how your brain is functioning, you know, are you stressed? Are you overtired? Like all of those sort of lifestyle things that we were talking about.

And then there's like the hormonal piece. And for men, testosterone is a huge component to making sure that they want to feel like having sex. This is very different from women.

Right. Women. There's a. There's a hormonal component as well, but a lot of it is, you know, sort of above the belt. Right. And in terms of, like, making sure the mood and the set is correct.

So libido is one thing. Erections are a different beast. Like, erections are really a combination of needing hormones and then also needing good blood flow to the *****. Right. And as you get older, the blood vessels everywhere, but to the ***** especially, are like, they're, you know, they get a little.

Little worn, little afraid, they don't respond as well.

And so then, you know, you. You talk about medications, like, I'll use Dialis as a good example, or Tadalafil. You know, there's a. There's a big study that was looking at men who use that on a daily basis versus men who don't, who had ED recall dysfunction.

And what they found is the men who are using it daily, which is one of the ways you can use it, actually had like, a 19% decrease in mortality over, like, a fairly short term of, like, three and a half years.

Wow.

And because, yeah, it increases blood flow to the *****, but it also increases blood flow everywhere else to the heart. It improves cardiac motility, stuff like that. So what I think is so interesting about sexual health is, number one, there's tons of stigma from it from the medical perspective.

People are still, you know, conventional care is just beginning to wrap their head around using things like testosterone and Cialis in a more consistent manner.

But, you know, kind of as a public service announcement to your, you know, to your listeners, like, those two drugs, testosterone and Cialis, are. Can be, when used appropriately, really good to improve your sexual function, but also generally really good to improve, like, your health span, like, both sexually and otherwise.

And there's tons of other options that you can go down the pipeline that I'm happy to chat about. But those two things alone, I think, can make a massive difference to how men feel.

And then, you know, that has a waterfall effect on their relationships and their mental health and all that things. All those things coupled together.

Speaker A: That's amazing. Is Cialis and ****** the same thing?

Speaker C: Oh, they're kind of like. They're like sister drugs. So ****** is probably the original version, Sildelafil, and then Cialis is the newer version. But both of them work by essentially blocking a receptor that allows your blood vessels to open a little bit faster, which you need.

You need good blood flow to the ***** to gut interaction.

Speaker B: Yeah, but do you. Do you.

Surely part of the battle, though, for you as a clinic is getting these men to come through the doors to actually come visit. You like to sort of go okay, I'm going to have to talk about this.

And it's embarrassing and all that kind of stuff. I mean, are men still embarrassed?

Speaker A: Like, are they excited to come?

Speaker B: I mean, older men.

Speaker C: Yeah, so. So the funny thing about that is really twofold. Number one is, to your point, I would say half of our. Half of the men who come through are referred because their.

Their wives have had a good experience in the clinic. And.

Speaker A: Later, boys. Yeah.

Speaker C: And then. And then the. The second thing that comes through is that, is that the men, when they do come in, you know, like, at this point, I just ask, you know, I just ask, like, very pointedly, like, so how is everything functioning?

And they'll be like, it's okay. Or like, they'll leave it to the latter, the end of the conversation, to have those points of connection.

But the truth is, it's like, it's so prominent and it's such an important part of your health.

I feel like there has to be a wave of people who are going to sort of push that envelope forward. And, you know, my hope is, as we continue to sort of bang the drum on this, that more and more men will feel comfortable that, like, yeah, this isn't just.

This isn't some loss of your masculinity. This is actually, you know, what you need to do to get full health and wellness. And then the last part of that I'll say is maybe a third or a quarter of our patients will come in and, like, all they want, they're like, just give me the tea.

Like, I just want as much testosterone as you possibly can. And you're like. You're like, well, you know, there's maybe there's a few other things we should look at in addition to that.

So, yeah, it's usually the.

Speaker B: I think it's interesting what you said about loss of manhood, because I think with women, we sort of accept in our life that our libidos will go up and down because, you know, children and, you know, all the things that are affecting your hormones.

And so we kind of. It's more in our conversation. Whereas men, it's such a source of like. Well, what do you mean? Like, you know, there's something. Your manhood, it's like, all about your manhood, which is actually not true.

It could be so many things. Yeah, I think it's not.

Speaker A: Also because it's like, they can always have children where us. We have to really focus on when are we going to do it, how are we going to do it. Yes, exactly.

When they're Just like blowing their loads everywhere.

Speaker B: But thanks.

Speaker A: They don't care. If they could do it, why not do it? So no, I feel like that's. Men are just unbelievable. You lucky dogs, you.

Like, if I, if I could be doing that, I would.

But no. So men on the women's side, let's just get into a little bit of the women. Because you still deal with women and men correct for yourself, for sure.

Yeah. So when women.

Are you seeing the same issues with women and men, obviously different genitalia, but like, is it loss of libido, longevity? As in like they want their skin to look amazing?

Like, is there similarities? Is there like a whole bunch of differences? What do you see there?

Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, okay, we are seeing some of the similarities, right? The similarities are libidos change. Maybe they're not quite feeling themselves. I think the difference is for women because they have more sex hormones to deal with generally and replace it ends up just being a little bit more complex from a.

You know, of course when women come in, in perimenopause, we want to look at their progesterone. That's the first thing that drops off. And then as they enter into menopause, you really want to make sure that you're maintaining a healthy estrogen level.

But again, like the one hormone that nobody's talking about, which is the most commonly available hormone in sex hormone in women is testosterone as well. And just like men, you see this like gradual stepwise decline of those hormones and replacing that can have a huge impact in terms of kind of some of the similar things.

Cognition, libido. Right. Like that. Those two things have a tendency to really crop up over time. Body composition changes, things like that, which, you know, most women are excited about.

And then just like men on the sexual dysfunction side, as women get older, you know, their blood flow isn't as good as. Well, right?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: So, and so what you end up with is like if you think about the ***** and the ******** and how important those are for stimulation, climax. There's also this drop off in women in terms of what they can achieve in terms of sexual satisfaction.

And so replacing some of those hormones can have a huge impact on that. And then there's other therapies from laser therapy to ultrasound therapy that can help sort of bring blood flow back to those areas both for men and women.

Wow. That can have a huge difference. So, yeah.

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Speaker C: Yeah. So here's what I would say.

Just like men, you have two different changes. Number one is women have this gradual decrease in, in testosterone that happens over time that does impact things like libido also is really important for like, climax.

That's an important hormone to have for that. And at the same time, just like as men need good blood flow to their, to their ***** to actually have, you know, to like get an erection, women have those same issues, right?

So, you know, your, your *****, your ********, those things need good blood flow in order to, like, achieve the results that you're looking for.

And a big part, like, I think it's actually a massive part of health optimization longevity because it, it like permeates all these different things, like sexual satisfaction, intimacy with a partner.

All of those things sort of play on top of each other.

And yes, there's like the, you know, there's the mind body connection that's really important and certainly something we focus on, but also like, the mechanics need to be working. And so for women, that means replacing things like estrogen and testosterone, because when you don't have those two hormones, you end up with vaginal dryness, you end up with increasing pain with intercourse, and you end up with decreasing number of like, pleasurable experiences either like reaching climax or even coming close to that.

And so like you, the mechanics piece, there's so much that can be done in terms of hormone replacement that I think is incredibly important. That is again, really hasn't been addressed, hasn't been addressed properly by like our primary care providers because they have such a wealth of things that they're trying to sort of consume and incorporate.

And then again, from the, from the vascular health perspective, there's lots of things, both medications that you can take and other sort of treatments that you can get to sort of improve that blood flow.

And so if you do a combination of those things, especially if you and your partner are doing them together, like, I think you kind of set yourself up for success coming, you know, down, down the pike.

Speaker A: So, and then, so if like, for our pregnant friends or the women who have just had babies and they're feeling a little bit, obviously, like, less than youthful, especially down there, you know, less than youthful.

Is there, like, what are the best, I don't know, medications or even just, like, therapies to do or your ***** or anything like that when you've had a trauma like childbirth?

Speaker C: Totally. I mean, there's.

There's two parts to it. There's the muscular, pelvic floor. Right. Those are the things, like Kegels. Those are. Those are physiological. They even have different machines that help, can sort of help things contract.

Like. Mm. It's a really common one. Like, that's a brand name, but, you know, it essentially improves vascular blood flow and causes tightening, which is important.

And then also, like, there's the massive hormone shifts that you see in both, like, post pregnancy and also entering into menopause, which is, you know, your progesterone tanks, your. Your estrogen goes.

Goes quite low. And so there's this. This imbalance.

And, you know, you're talking about how people feel, right. And how they're, you know, they don't feel quite like themselves. But the other truth is, is when you don't have those hormones like estrogen.

Estrogen is really important for neurotransmitter production. So you know, how. How your brain creates serotonin and norepinephrine, which are really important for maintaining mental health. And so when women are, like, in the postpartum phase or the met ear, like the initiation of menopausal phase, and their estrogen drops, it's a really common time to have postpartum depression.

And menopausal depression, which is like 100% can be attributed to those hormonal pieces. And so you end up with, like, this combination where, you know, women often are just focusing on, like, they want to get the mechanics back, they want to get their pelvic floor back, they want to make sure that things are.

Things are comfortable. And yeah, there's. There's lots of things that can be done from that. From a physio perspective, again, there's lots of things. There's lots of lasers and techniques that can be done to improve the pelvic floor.

But also, you know, there's a broader sense of, like, you got to get your hormones checked and you got to get them in balance because those can cause massive shifts to how to.

How women feel during those times.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think it's so interesting what you're saying, like, talking about sexual health or. Or all of these pieces Is the problem, I think, is that you have to be a very good advocate for yourself, particularly within this kind of universal health care system where, you know, they just don't have time for you.

And things like sexual health, things like things like pain and genital, the genital area or whatever it is, I don't think they prioritize that much because there's really, as far as they're concerned, bigger things to deal with.

But of course, like you said, it has such an effect on your mental health, on the way you feel about yourself.

You know, if your sex life isn't good, it can affect your mental health, it can affect the way your relationship. I mean, it can affect everything, can't it? But it's like, it's not an important piece.

And unless you as a patient advocate for yourself within the system or come to, you know, a clinic like yours where obviously you've got the ability to pay for it, it's kind of difficult, isn't it?

Like you have to be good at that. Yeah.

Speaker C: And our healthcare system is really good. It's actually exceptionally good. Canadians. Canada's healthcare. Yeah, for when you are sick and you need anything to help sort of support you out of that illness, um, you know, it's really top notch.

But if you're trying to prevent that from happening, where you're trying to take yourself from like, you know, a 6 or a 7 out of 10 up to, in terms of feeling like an 8 or a 9 foundationally, it's just not, it's just not equipped to do that.

And so, you know, what I, what I hope our clinic can help to do is sort of bridge the gap between those two worlds a little bit.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that's, that's definitely what it can do because it's, it's sort of more of a react, the system's reactive like you said, as opposed to proactive. And unless you go and do your own research and you.

When I go to my gp, I have like a thousand questions and I look like a real nerd. I can't, I like have it on my phone. I'm just, just wait till I go through all the questions because otherwise they just want to shoo you off.

And I do understand it. They just have too many people, too much going on. Some people who've got really, really serious life threatening things and they don't have time. So unless you can get through your questions quick, you know.

But I just think there needs to be more understanding, like the expectations amongst us of what the system can do are far too high. So the people who come to a clinic like yours have understood it's good for that, but not for this other piece.

And I think more people, in my opinion, need to understand that their expectations of a state healthcare system, like any country in the world, that's just too high. You know, you can't deal with that.

Yeah.

Speaker C: And, you know, just, and I want to. The, the, the other hard thing is like, if you're a family physician, the amount of knowledge that you need to have.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: All of these different lanes is insane. Like they're great.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: But they're, they're like, then when you're, you know, if you get into more things like I'm having some vaginal dryness or it's a little bit painful, like their, their knowledge and understanding in those specific areas, you know, it would be, it would be unreasonable to expect them to know everything.

And so then you do have to be your own advocate. And that's hard to do like we were talking about before, because there's like this panacea of information that you're trying to consume and it's, it's hard to figure out what's what.

Speaker B: Right. And you have to be the right kind of person, like somebody who can be sort of proactive and advocate for yourself. And we're not all like that, are we? So that presents problems.

But yeah, you know, those are my thoughts on that. And.

Speaker A: Well, so you are a part of what's called the anti aging. The academy of anti aging medicine.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: What does that mean exactly? And what are the like anti aging advancements to look forward to trash that we have now? What should Mel and I be doing to look 20 years long younger?

I want to look like a literal child. Like, what do I need to be doing?

Speaker C: Listen, I think like the. Okay, there's, there's really a couple key advances that I think are really exciting. Okay. So the first one, which I'll call the most, the most boring of the three is like just getting the information of what your individual body needs to, you know, feel its best and look its best in stuff we're already doing.

Right. So knowing like exactly what supplements you need at what dose for your DNA that's already here, which medications are best for your mental and physical health, that information is already here.

It just isn't. It isn't well disseminated yet. And so like from a lifestyle perspective, that's powerful. Right. Because then you know exactly what you need to do to like attain the best outcomes.

Right. The Second one is what I'd call like from the medication perspective is off label use of these medications. So medicine's a slow moving beast. We're beginning to think of these medications as more than just what their indication is.

And we're beginning to think of them, okay, do they have more profound effects on longevity overall? So we talked about testosterone, we talked about Cialis.

Those medications, their indication is not to help you live a long, healthy life, but we're now doing research that helps us, guide us in that direction to find that answer.

And that's really important because there's some of these medications that are coming out that address metabolic health, that address sort of other, other pieces of health on a very cellular level that I think are going to have really important impacts for, for longevity.

So that's number two, that and I could go down that road forever because it's kind of where we're spending most of the time. And there's billions of dollars of research in that field alone.

And then the last piece, which is like just crazy, is where the research is in terms of like cellular regeneration.

You know, we, we think of all of these, all of these things for how to maintain your health not just from like prevention of disease, but actually how to keep your cells healthy on a long term basis.

And there's medications that are now in trial that are looking at like, how do we keep our cells youthful? And as you, as you begin to work through those, I mean the, the different types of gene therapies and injections and stem cells that are going to be available in 5, 10, 15 years from now is going to really change the landscape of what healthy living looks like today.

Um, and again, it's going to really set us all up for some, for some unique and exciting opportunities coming, coming down, down the pike.

Speaker B: Exciting.

Speaker A: So like, what do I, what am I gonna do? Put like stem cells in my face and then I'm gonna just like get rid of any flaw?

Speaker C: Yeah. So not only that, they'll actually take it one step further and they'll, you know, they'll draw your blood off. Okay. Or pull some hairs and you end up with these, these cells that are called pluripotent cells.

So cells that are mostly capable of transforming to other cells, then they spin those things down so you end up, you know how like right now they might do PRP and it might have, like.

Speaker A: I was literally going to ask you about prp. I'm so happy you brought it up because I feel like a lot of men are doing PRP and Can you explain that a little bit?

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Okay. So where we're at right now in terms of like the longevity, skin health, also good for, for sexual injections as well for men and women is essentially they'll, they'll take your blood and they will spin off the blood to the different components.

And as, as you kind of spin them off, they kind of filter out like, like different layers in a, in a tube and the t. The layer that has the most proteins and growth factor.

And then they sort of draw out of a syringe and they re. Inject into either your hair or your face or your, you know, your ***** or whatever.

And that's supposed to, that, that actually like, is supposed to stimulate healthy cells to grow in that area. Okay.

But that doesn't actually have any of the cells that you need in that area. All it has is the growth factors. Like the stuff that would be. If you drew a vial of blood, anything that's not a red blood cell that you can spin out is kind of what you're left with.

But really if you have cells themselves that can divide on their own, like specific for you. So you, you know, you, you take a couple hair follicles, you take the cells out that are, that are the healthiest cells and capable of dividing.

You send them to. There's actually a place in Toronto called Acorn that's doing this now.

You send them to there, they then replicate them on, on their own.

And then what you're left with when you're injecting back into your, into your skin or into your face or, you know, this is going to be a massive area of growth.

As time goes on, you're going to be able to inject healthy cells that are specific for you, that are your cells. So there's no like, risk of, there's no major risk of like, you know, fighting them off or them sort of dying when they get there.

And those are going to have really important impacts to skin regrowth, hair regrowth, and sexual health regrowth. So, so yeah, I think it's that stuff is. It feels kind of sci fi in terms of like where it's at, but it's not nearly as far off as, as people think it is.

Speaker A: Can you just explain a little bit more about the sexual health growth? Because that's confusing. I get it. Like you put it in your skin, like in your, like a hairline, you're gonna, you might grow hair, right?

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: If you put in your *****, what is that gonna do? Make you harder, like what does that.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, good question. So, so essentially what you do, like right now they're doing it with prp, right? So, so you, you take these growth factors, you, you inject them into the *****, you cause a little bit of micro trauma and it helps with vascular blood flow.

It helps to, you know, regenerate blood vessels with new healthy cells that can, that can line the vascular bed. Okay.

I think where it's going to go in the future is stem cells are all. We already know stem cells are really good from like an inflammatory perspective. But like the other thing that you need is you need healthy structure of your, of your, you know, of your tissue of your *****.

So it helps with collagen regrowth, helps with like support of the. Support of like the matrix just around the ***** as well.

And some of those things that are just at the, you know, just are feel. I, I think a little bit like very futuristic now. Like, okay, are you going to stick stem cells in my, you know, my *****?

And what's that going to look like?

The hardest part that we have right now is we don't know how to tell those stem cells what they need to grow into. Do you need to be hair cell?

Do you need to be a skin cell? Do you need to be, you know, some sort of like vascular cell? As those issues get, get addressed and managed, we're going to be getting way more specific in terms of how to grow healthy tissue where, you know, maybe tissue previously wasn't as healthy.

So instead of having like an 85 year old vascular blood vessel cell in your *****, now you're injecting something that's substantially healthier.

And as soon as we can kind of figure out how to tell those cells where to go and what to grow into, it's going to be a, it's going to be a really interesting step forward in medicine.

Speaker A: So exciting.

Speaker B: Wow, that, that does sound.

Speaker A: Yeah, that is so exciting. I. Yeah, because I feel like a lot of. And what also we haven't really spoke about except for prp is like a lot of men are embarrassed and like, don't want to talk about like their hair falling out.

Right. Or not growing back for sure. And I think that's obviously sad and obviously women deal with stuff like that if not the same thing, right? Like, yeah, but yeah, yeah, it's very exciting.

Speaker B: I mean, yeah, I mean it, yeah. I mean, it's just, I don't know, sort of speechless.

There's so much that can be done. I hope it's a good thing. I Hope it'll be there by the time I'm like 55, 60, sweetie, you're.

Speaker A: Gonna look like 18 now.

Speaker B: You're gonna be 60, 18.

Speaker C: But here's the thing that I would say, which is like, we have the great hope that these medical advancements take us from where we are today to the very next level in this very futuristic sort of approach.

I mean, the reality is there is a ton of things from lifestyle to supplements to hormone replacement, to the off label use of medications that we already have that can make a massive, massive change to how you're feeling today and what sets you up for the future.

So by the time these, these sort of futuristic medications come to be, you're already in a spot where you're, you're, you're sort of at your optimal level. And then when they come in, you know, you can actually, you can actually utilize the best of your availability.

Speaker B: Yeah, it can actually really work. Yeah. But stuff like supplements, I mean, there's so much, I mean I take a whole bunch of supplements. I think I know what I'm doing, but probably not, but.

And I think it makes me feel better. But like, is there a dangerous, like, you know, obviously they're available. There's so much stuff.

Speaker A: Well, not just supplements, but like Botox, obviously. Like we're doing all this skincare stuff that's like medical, but also like we go overboard because doctors allow us to like.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Where is the line between supplements and then more medical procedures, if you will.

Speaker C: Yeah. So I got, I have two thoughts on that. So number one is we use evidence based quality controlled supplements at the clinic all the time. They are just like a medication.

They are a molecule that we're looking to achieve a result with. And if you know what your goal is and you have a clear idea of what supplements do, that they can be really effective.

I think the two things that have given supplements a bad name is like number one, 10, 20 years ago, we had no research, right. Everyone was just taking supplements. A handful of vitamin C and they're sick, like, hoping for the best.

There was no.

Speaker A: Oh my God, that's literally me.

Speaker C: Yeah, totally. Like, I just, I'll do it. I can't hurt.

So that's, that's part of it. And then the other thing is the quality of supplements. It's not like medicine. Like, there is very little control from Health Canada in terms of like what supplements have in them, where they were sourced, stuff like that.

So getting quality supplements is a really big piece.

And then transitioning that to the other topic around like Botox and filler. And the other medical component of it is like, I think it's important for when, oftentimes when patients are coming in.

Right. If you're doing all of these things around your lifestyle and you're eating right, I think it's totally reasonable to want to look and feel your best.

But in the same breath, I also think that a lot of those things that you can do, you can do from the inside out, you know, so like, you know, making sure that your omegas and your B vitamins, those are impactful for like hair and skin, having a healthy amount of estrogen, really important for skin, collagen, fiber, you know, th.

Those, those things all relate. And then I think there's probably a bit of a shift now towards like more things that can help with your skin from the inside out.

So there's like, you know, one of the hot supplements is called Nishido. I think it's Nishido time. And it's like an, it's like a supplement that's supposed to help with your skin by providing your skin and your body with the energy it needs to keep a really healthy skin in check.

And so I think there's also like this wave of not just trying to, you know, do as much externally, but try and fix some of these things from the, from the ground up.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think there's also as you get older, like a line like I certainly think like you kind of like you have to know what you're trying to achieve.

And you know, if you're 52, you're not going to look like a 25 year old. You sort of have to get over yourself and you know, you have to want to be healthy and look the best that you can look, but not trying to try and achieve something that's not attainable, which I think a lot of people are in that gray space for sure.

Speaker C: I. And I think it's, it comes down to personal preference and being in the hands of someone that you trust to try and make those calls, you know?

Speaker B: Yeah, 100%, 10%. So much information.

Speaker A: I know.

And also, I mean like, thank you so much again for coming on the pod.

Really such a treat to have you and your huge amount of knowledge about anti aging and all this good stuff.

We always have one last question to our guests who come on our podcast and it is in the spirit of sharing truths. What truth would you share with your younger self?

And you know, this could be within anti aging or something completely different that you just you want to share with them?

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, it's a great question.

I will stick with the anti aging theme, which is like, I think when I was like, one of the things I've really learned from my patients who have come through is like, you know, health optimization is.

It's kind of. You're playing it for the long game. Right? Like, like you. I see these patients come through and everyone's frustrated because in the first six weeks they haven't seen the results that they're looking for.

And if you give it enough time, you know, the, the things that you do compound. And so I think if I were to say one thing to my younger self, it would probably be like, have a little bit more patience and, you know, and, and perhaps give, you know, be a little bit more forgiving of like when you sort of fall off the bandwagon because it's a long term game and I think I've probably learned that more lately than ever.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's. That's good. That's very good.

Speaker A: And also I feel like maybe you feel like this took. You're 37, is that right?

Speaker C: Yep.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So young.

Speaker A: So young. Skin's amazing.

That, like, I feel like I look better. Like, maybe it's just because I'm more confident or something. But when I was like, then I was like 23. Do you know what I mean?

We get, we get older, we get hotter. It's just the way it's going to be.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: Keep limited. Yeah, that's great.

Speaker A: It's a mindset. Well, thank you so much again, Dr. Bastian. Is it Dr. Bastian?

Speaker C: Yeah, it's Dr. Bastian.

Speaker A: I was like, are we French?

Speaker C: Yeah, I wish, I wish.

Speaker A: Thank you so much again. It was literally such a pleasure. If any of our lovely listeners have any questions for Dr. Jonathan Bastian, we would welcome those and we will hopefully even have you on the pod again.

It was such a pleasure and we can answer some of those questions.

But yeah, thank you again.

Speaker B: Thank you so much for your time.

Speaker A: We will talk to you soon.

Speaker B: We will be in touch.

Speaker C: Thanks so much. It was wonderful to be on.

Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful evening.

Speaker B: Bye.

Speaker C: Bye.

Speaker A: Bye.

Speaker B: Thanks so much for listening. Please rate and review this podcast and follow us on social at Sharing My truth Pod and leave us a voicemail on our website sharingmytruth.com to share your stories and experiences with us.

We'll see you next time. Bye.