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Chapter 5
334 Plays6 months ago
Super Dave! The new test results are in! Meanwhile, Dave tries to survive Super Bowl weekend without Dr. Val calling any penalties on him!
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Transcript
Dave's Journey and Dr. Val's Plan
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, welcome back, and thanks for joining us on this journey. This week, I try to survive life on the road while Doc pops the hood on me again to see if her plan has been working. Or maybe just to find out if I've been living up to my end of the bargain. Let's find out together. It's chapter 5 of Dr. Val Saves Dave.
00:00:24
Speaker
Hey everybody, have you heard the news? Dave's turning 50 and he's got the blues He's out of shape and this is true He needs help, he has no clue He grabs his phone and she can't quit Talk about we'll do her trick She'll be tough, there's no free pass
00:00:43
Speaker
Come on Dave, get off your ass! Dr. Val, can you save Dave? He's quite alive. Do you think that he'll behave? I believe not. Or do you think he will cave? Listen, and he's back in school! It's his body but it's Dr. Val's rules. It's his body but it's Dr. Val's rules.
Self-Reflection and Health Updates
00:01:09
Speaker
Hello, Doctor. Hello, hello, and good morning, live from Toronto. Mm-hmm, on a beautiful, beautiful morning. And I am back from life on the road. We're here for the new updates. Doc has peered inside me once again. So we have new blood numbers. It's not pretty. It's not pretty. No, not from that angle. You gotta get the light just right in the mirror, I find, a lot of yourself.
00:01:37
Speaker
And pick a good mirror. Not all mirrors are the same. I don't know if you've noticed, but I travel a lot. And some hotel rooms have more flattering mirrors than others. So word to the wise out there, get yourself a good mirror. Hold on to that one. Anyhow, where do you want to start, doc? What do we do today?
00:01:55
Speaker
Well, I think the first thing to do is kind of catch up everybody on your journey, where you've been, where some of the pitfalls were. Let's kind of break that down. And then we did an update on your blood work. And so we'll go over that too. So I had my first cheap day, everybody. It was pretty exciting.
00:02:19
Speaker
I was down in Palm Springs for a golf tournament and a Super Bowl event. Yes, because it's easy to eat clean during the Super Bowl. I mean, if you're going to have a cheat day, Super Bowl Sunday seems like it's kind of set up, you're set up to fail.
00:02:37
Speaker
But before we get to the big cheat day fail, I would like to pat myself on the back and celebrate Dr. Val's guidance, of course, his body, her rules, right? So I had to go to a grocery store because there was literally nothing I could eat at the hotel, which was shocking. And I'm not going to say, you know, this is America. I'm just going to say this particular hotel, there was nothing that didn't have cheese or bread involved in some way. Even the salads were
00:03:06
Speaker
draped in blue cheese dressing with bacon and bread. And so it was a challenge. So I had to go to a grocery store, which is fine. That's not the important part of the story, but during the round of golf, we're talking, you know, four or five hours.
Healthy Choices and New Experiences
00:03:20
Speaker
You know, guys are getting hot dogs and sandwiches at the turn, as you do in golf, maybe a beer or two to wash those down. I had cans of tuna in my golf bag and a can of sardines, which I've never bought in my life, just for the protein hit. And I got to tell you, nice can of warm tuna on a hot day. That's living.
00:03:47
Speaker
That tasted great, I bet. Yes, that was. But again, I was being a good boy doing it by the rules, which led us to Super Bowl Sunday, where I knew there would be no chance. Ooh, Saturday night there was a dinner where I texted you a pic of the menu and you selected grilled eggplant as my starter, which is something I've never had.
00:04:14
Speaker
And? In my life. It was delicious. I hate to say it. I don't know why I hate to say it. What's wrong with saying it? It was delicious. You ate grilled eggplant and you loved it. I enjoyed it.
00:04:29
Speaker
Did you enjoy new foods? Let's not say I'm not booking a table for a great eggplant. But you will make it again. I will. I did enjoy it. Not only that, this healthy thing, and this is surprising. You know, folks, if you've been listening from Jump Street, then you know I like to party. I've been drinking some bad food in my past.
00:04:51
Speaker
And you know, I'm somewhat no, I wouldn't say I'm the life of the party, but you know, I'm a good time. And so at a gathering such as this in the past, I would lead the charge drinking wise, so to speak. But one thing I'm noticing now is people are actually starting to live a little healthier around me. Is this a common thing that happens?
Influence on Others and Food Industry Critique
00:05:11
Speaker
It really is. It really is. Especially if you're the first in your family to go see a naturopath or to go start changing the foods that you're eating, what's going to happen is you're going to be the canary in the coal mine. So if you don't die and you come out, they're going to be curious as to what you're doing. So, you know, we all know the person who has, you know, quit smoking or become a vegan or gone paleo and just has been converted, seen the light and said, this is the best thing.
00:05:38
Speaker
and everybody should be doing this. Okay, we all know that person. Okay, don't be that person. You feel good, and that's great, but you just do you, and everybody's gonna be like, what are you doing? Now you look 10 years younger. What's going on? I want what you have. Be that person. Well, I gotta tell you, I'm not that person. I'm the guy who's going, I'm not allowed to do stuff. You can be that person, too. Because I've got a doctor who's in charge of my body right now. It's a great outfit.
00:06:08
Speaker
I have to walk around going, I'm on a cleanse. I'm on a cleanse. I'm doing a thing. But still, there was a young guy who was there who chose to eat like I was. He's looking at the menu and I said, well, look, all I'm telling you is these are doctor picked. You know, these are Dr. Val selected. So he ate what I ate. And we both felt great after a lovely piece of fish.
00:06:32
Speaker
Whereas there was a lot of stake and past that happening around us. Nothing against stake, right? That's just particular to me.
00:06:39
Speaker
Nothing against stake at all, but now you're starting to see where you're being poisoned at every turn and set up for failure. So in North America, the average North American is overweight or obese. It's like 72% of North Americans are overweight or obese. And it's not your fault. You're being poisoned everywhere and you don't even know it. And so the information isn't getting out there about what's really toxic. When I look at those menus, I can look and see, oh, this is where they're hooking you.
00:07:05
Speaker
because fat, salt, and sugar are the magic weight gain combinations. They're the magic kill you combinations, but they're also the, it's the magic combination for wanting you to eat more. So your brain is hardwired to love eating fat, salt, and sugar together. And so there's fat, salt, and sugar in everything. Every restaurant is doing it. Every chef is doing it. Even the ones that call themselves healthy, if you actually break down the menus, you'll be like, oh my God, there's sugar and fat and salt in all of this stuff.
00:07:34
Speaker
So it's really hard to just eat real food. And as you're seeing in some places where you go, whether that's in the US in Palm Springs during your trip or, you know, there are places in Canada where I've gone where like, it's just like, there's not even a vegetable here. Like you can't even get a vegetable that's not deep fried and in batter and with gluten wrapped around it and then snuggled in dairy.
00:07:59
Speaker
That was the case. There was no vegetables on this hotel menu. I'm not going to say the name of the hotel because it's not important. It could have been any hotel. It could have been. This particular one, it was shocking that they didn't have any vegetables available at all. And I can tell you about the addiction as a fact because even just now when you said fat, salt and sugar, I'd have that. I saw the drool. Yeah, if you pan fry that up right now, a little fat, a little salt, a little sugar. Yeah, I mean, can we make that into a cake?
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah, let's take some butter, roll it in sugar. Oh yeah, add butter. Come on, talk to me. Can we roll a steak in the butter and sugar? Oh, stop it.
00:08:39
Speaker
Butter is the thing I miss the most, I think. It's shifted from cheeseburgers. Well, here's a wonderful thing. So there's a company and I'm going to give it a shout out. Not that I get any kickbacks, but it's called Nutiva and they make a coconut oil. That's a vegan butter flavoured coconut oil. And they use different herbs to mimic the flavour of butter, but it's coconut oil. So there you go. Go pick up the Nutiva coconut butter flavoured coconut oil. Okay. Don't sacrifice.
00:09:06
Speaker
Right here. Get yourself some. But you wouldn't spread that on toast. Not that I could have toast. Well, it depends on what the toast is. So let's say, you know, for you, let's say we're using coconut flour.
00:09:18
Speaker
Right, to make the bread, you can do that. Let's say for some people who are gluten free, let's say we're using a buckwheat bread. I have a recipe that is just buckwheat to make the bread. One ingredient, no sugar, no yeast, no nothing, just buckwheat. Thank the Italians for that. In this fairy tale, I'm baking my own bread now.
00:09:39
Speaker
Yes, you are. How bad do you want it? Or you're getting your Italian friends to make it for you, or you're going to a bakery that makes that type of bread, right? Okay. Yeah, I guess I'll have to call around because I'm usually too busy whittling.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah, I do my quilting, then I bake my own bread. This is the first time I'm finding out I'm even allowed bread. How much do you want bread? So you're telling me there's a type of bread I could have now? I'm telling you there's a workaround for just about everything. And so this isn't about starving yourself. It's not about depriving yourself or feeling bad. I still want you to be eating foods that are tasty, but we'll find you different recipes that allow you to eat clean and be a glutton at the same time. That's what I like.
00:10:26
Speaker
Okay, coming up in the future then is an episode called workarounds. It's going to be all recipes. I want all the cheats on what I could do because I still want a bacon and egg sandwich in the morning. But listen, I sent you that recipe for the pumpkin seed butter cups, right? So you use pumpkin seed butter instead of peanut butter and you can make it into like a little Reese's peanut butter shape. So you have your high protein, healthy Reese's peanut butter cups. You know, I think it got lost in my recipe drawer.
00:10:54
Speaker
You have to put it on recipe cards. Yeah, I can't remember where I put that. So I'll check again for that pumpkin seed butter muffin tray. Cups, like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yeah, sure. And I make it in a muffin tray, though, I'm guessing. Well, you could, I guess, but if you go to the bulk barn, you can just get, like, they have molds that are in that shape. Oh, great. Super. So I'll go to the bulk barn on the way to my recipe tray.
00:11:25
Speaker
So just the bulk barn, I love that store. Shout out to bulk barn two, I guess. This is the day we shout out. Welcome to plug product week. Exactly. You can pay me later. Yes, we should set up a GoFundMe.
00:11:43
Speaker
You probably should. Anyway, let's move on to Super Bowl Sunday. So here I was feeling great coming off this Saturday night dinner. Nice piece of fish, grilled eggplant, a lovely tomato side there. Really great. Oh, a big shrimp cocktail. No sauce. No sauce. These are the rules. But you can have fun under your systems, as it turns out, even in public.
00:12:08
Speaker
And you want me in the recipe bar, recipe box, recipe bar. I'm so hungry for the fat bar. I've got one of those too. That's the alcohol portion. We'll talk about that later. Let's fry it up. I want that recipe bar inside me. So again, started Sunday with golf, which again, healthy choices by the old champ here. Although, I don't know if I told you this, I did have a couple of sips of a very light beer.
00:12:38
Speaker
I recall. It was early. It was a sunny day. There was free beer. All the guys are getting beer out of the tub. And I was like, well, this one, I think it was a Corona, but it was super light, low carb. And I'm like, this has got to be okay. Anyway, a couple of sips. And I don't know if it was guilt or that I've changed, but it did not satisfy to the point where I did not finish a beer, ladies and gentlemen.
00:13:03
Speaker
Put this down. I know. Where are the sound effects? Needle scratch. What? Across the record. Who am I? What is happening around here? So this is actually a great time to talk about that because when you first start making changes, you miss certain foods and you just think how much you miss them. And then your taste buds start to change and adapt. And I think you and Mark were talking about this before too.
00:13:32
Speaker
And so what will happen is you'll go back eventually and you'll start to have that food that you missed that you thought you loved. And you'll be like, this doesn't taste as good as I remember. Your taste buds will change and your body's going to want to start eating healthy foods. And it's going to go, I want healthy foods. Like don't feed me this garbage. It's going to miss. You're going to start to miss vegetables.
00:13:54
Speaker
This is an alarming truth that I'm experiencing right now. But it's true. I've always lived on the road. I'm a road warrior. I love a beef dip. Just pile the beef on the bread. Give me an au jus. I don't need the onions and the horserat. Just let me have meat and salt. It's great. So I'm going to have to wait and test one of those on you.
00:14:20
Speaker
I still haven't had a double cheeseburger. I still haven't had that thing. But Super Bowl Sunday, I had my little can of tuna at the turn.
Indulgence and Feeling Younger
00:14:30
Speaker
And then I knew there was going to be no situation. Sixty guys in a private room. There's no way they're serving up salads at this event. That's just not how guys eat at a group setting. And it turns out guys voluntarily poison themselves.
00:14:45
Speaker
Yeah, and each other. Yeah, because here's what happened at this event. And we talked and I got clearance from from the dock on this one. Yep. Because there was no just no chance it was it was you know, the little torches come out in the silver trays which warn you you're not getting anything healthy. Yeah.
00:15:03
Speaker
It was onion rings, it was french fries, it was hot dogs, it was chili. I don't think there were nachos, but it was hot dogs, onion rings, french fries, and then there was pizza. Chicken wings, that's right. There was chicken wings that had a buffalo sauce that was suspect. It had a particular shade of orange.
00:15:31
Speaker
Your liver would not have liked. I had one because it was a cheat day, so I'm going to eat everything. So I had the hot dog, I had the fries, I had the oven ring. I had the wings. The wings weren't great at all. I had the pizza. And I had a couple of drinks with it. And I felt awful. Just awful the next day.
00:15:53
Speaker
Yeah. But see, you had to do it. And I understand. So my whole philosophy and what I say is like, listen, if you're going to do it, do it with pride, go hard or go home. So when you have a day, I don't call them cheat days. I just say, okay, listen, you're going to detox, you're going to retox, then you're going to detox again. So when you're, it's really important that when you're in that moment that you really lean into it, no guilt and you go for it. You just go hard and get your fill, not like, I'm going to
00:16:21
Speaker
have just a little bit, no, do it and do it with pride, lean into it. And I get too, like, listen, you're in a room full of, you said 60 guys. If you didn't partake in that, if you asked for a salad, you would have lost your man card. They would be like, you're not invited to man camp again ever. It wasn't happening. There was nobody there to bring you a salad. I was like, yeah, no, you're not eating.
00:16:42
Speaker
The salad is what my food eats. That's pretty much it. It was actually a fun moment when you said, if you're going to drink, drink with pride, and eat the heck out of that burger. Now, they didn't have the greasy, delicious cheeseburger I was looking for, unfortunately.
00:16:59
Speaker
But when he said, go ahead and eat all that crap and go ahead and drink with pride, I remember thinking, well, what do I need you for? That's what I was doing before. You know how you felt the next morning? You're welcome. That's what's different. That's what's different. Yeah, I felt absolutely awful. Yeah. And so flew home for a day, also flying. Oh boy, oh boy. First of all, I don't know if you're out there, my one road trip is try not to fly hungover.
00:17:28
Speaker
That is the worst. I guess it's from the air pressure or something. You get dehydrated quicker. Flying hunger was terrible. My alcohol tolerance has crashed, polluted. So that's an interesting side note. Well, your liver's working better. Well, I'm going to have to retrain it then. That was unacceptable. Well, Dave got a little tipsy. I recalled a phone call. I'm used to outdrinking 60 guys, no problem.
00:17:58
Speaker
I had to sneak out early. I actually didn't go out after, which is a shocking move for me too. But I got back to the room and I laid down for a sec, which is always the kiss of death. But I went, oh, this actually feels really good. I think it was about nine o'clock and I laid down on, oh, am I allowed to not go out? New choice for me to not go out, but that bed felt great and I did not for meeting all this garbage.
00:18:25
Speaker
So, flew home flying is very difficult to find food in an airport. It's even tougher than, you know, in hotels. Yeah. At least with hotels, you know, there's always Uber Eats.
00:18:38
Speaker
So I was talking to someone who just was at a hotel and decided that he was going to order in his favorite Starbucks hotel because there was no Starbucks there. He spent 30 bucks for two coffees. That's an addiction. That's an addiction, exactly. Yeah. I don't know if you know this, but Uber Eats doesn't offer a terrifically healthy options either. Well, they don't. No, but you can work around a little bit. You can. You can find a salad out there. Yeah, grocery stores, best bet.
00:19:07
Speaker
Best bet, it turns out. So I flew back, then, since we're shoutin' out to everybody, went to Winnipeg to play Rumors. Best comedy club in the country. And again, there, I'm a legend for drinking. Check this out over the years. I think I've been goin' there almost 20 years. And my status is documented. Normally they have a full tray of drinks set up for me when I arrive, a little private bar cart
00:19:35
Speaker
It's like R2-D2, he just follows you around. Yeah, just ready to go. And then at a moment's notice. And this time I gave him the heads up, look, I'm doing a thing. So they just had some water for me. Which was nice. And then they had like a diet coke or whatever. And the guy was like, no, he's like, I didn't know. I don't know what. I don't know who you are anymore.
00:19:56
Speaker
But I want to shout out to Tyler, the manager there who always looks after me, but also to Norm, the man in the kitchen, who, when I told him what I was doing, would go out and get different foods for me every day that went on the menu. And Norm was kind enough to make me fish and chicken and some veg. He made me a shrimp salad. He doesn't eat shrimp. He had to get somebody to taste it in the back while I was on stage going, does this taste right? If they don't die, it's okay for Dave.
00:20:25
Speaker
You have a taster now. That's good. You know, I'm royalty there. Well, thank you, Norm. Yeah, and Tyler for looking after me there. And then I did very well through the week until Saturday Late Show when the crowd was fired up as Saturday Late Show as can be. And they were gracious enough to send me four shots of tequila.
00:20:49
Speaker
Not at once. It was a shot of tequila, 10 minutes into my set. And I was doing, you know, 50 minutes or so. And so they sent another one and another one. And so I ended up doing about an hour. I had to cut myself off. I looked out and the fourth one, I just, what I did was I didn't, I realized every time I drink one, they send me another. So I left the fourth one there until the end of the show and then drank it. Clever, huh? Smart. Yeah. Like a fox.
00:21:20
Speaker
So the only cheating really, and this was key according to you, was after Super Bowl, the blowout. We're not calling it a cheat day, but after retalks, I got back on the program quickly. And so as a result, we didn't see a big weight gain. We didn't see any weight gain. We didn't see a slippery slope. So I have maintained my course.
00:21:49
Speaker
What? Lightning bolt? Cheap date. Do I get another retox? Gold star? Yeah. Like, can I eat something crappy somewhere along the way here? Not quite yet. And we should kind of talk about why. Although I do also want to say thank you to rumors because, you know, again, this is the shout out episode. Um, they were kind enough, I believe, to provide you with a photographer who took some pictures of you. They did.
00:22:15
Speaker
and you sent them to me and you were like, I looked younger than I did when I was here last time. And two years before that. Wow. We'll have to find a couple of the older pictures to share online for those of you listening who are curious. You can judge for yourselves, but the consensus was that I looked a little younger. Yep, that is what happens when you start getting healthy. You'll get this healthy glow from the inside. You'll look about 10 years younger. That might have been the tequila
00:22:45
Speaker
But then that would be them drinking the tequila. The pictures were taken on the Tuesday, which was actually two days after Super Bowl. So that's a particular test, testament is what I want to say to you and your good work here. Well, to you and your hard work.
00:23:03
Speaker
Yeah, but I mean, I'm doing what you tell me to, so it's not that hard. I mean, it's hard finding the food, but even harder would be if I was left alone in the wild like this. I would never have eaten like this. I wouldn't be making the choices that I'm making. It's difficult out there, and it's so easy to think you're making healthy choices.
00:23:20
Speaker
Most people have no idea. And if, yeah. Well, even people who think they're educated about food, I was having a conversation with another healthcare professional a little while ago who felt that they knew everything there was to know about nutrition and just started telling me a whole bunch of stuff about their beliefs about nutrition. And then kind of looked at me and go, wait a minute, you're the expert. You should be telling me. It was kind of like, yeah, I don't even know where to start with how wrong you are.
00:23:50
Speaker
about everything that just came out of your mouth. Most people don't have any idea. Your medical doctors are really well trained. They're fantastic human beings. They have a lot of knowledge. They get, at best, half a semester of nutrition. They don't know. People who are classically trained with nutrition, they get one perspective. I've been trained in that way, so I get it. There's a lot of misinformation that they have.
00:24:19
Speaker
If you ask people if peanut butter, if they think peanut butter is healthy, if they say yes, don't listen to them. That's an easy tip off. Here we go. Don't get her going on the peanut butter, folks. This is a hot button topic for Dr. Valis. This is a real pet peevee of yours. And I want to listen to the previous episode's nose. Don't bring up peanut butter around this woman.
00:24:41
Speaker
I would say the biggest takeaway so far, just for if anyone's listener wants to try something, I know what we're doing is specific to me, but is avoiding anything with sauce. Oh. Sauce is my number one thing when I'm at anything that says sticky.
00:24:57
Speaker
or sweet or sour, just no sauces. Oh, yeah. And some of the vegetarian and vegan foods that are out there that people think are healthy, they've put so much sugar in there, but they've labeled it as, oh, it's date sugar, it's fruit sugar, it's monk fruit, it's got to be okay. It's not. It's awful. So yeah, avoid words that say sweet, sticky, or crispy.
00:25:24
Speaker
Yes, exactly. Some of the restaurants have lettuce wrap for chicken or whatever, Asian lettuce wraps they would call it or something, but then it's got crispy wontons in it, sticky honey glaze or something where you're like, oh, this is still all sugar. Balsamic vinegar, pure sugar. Right.
00:25:45
Speaker
All right. So the point is I had my blowout stuff, but I'm back on track and healthy. So we want to, you want to let us know a little bit about the blood work. Cause this is interesting in, in five weeks, four weeks, five weeks, what date was the blood work done?
00:26:00
Speaker
So the first blood work that we did was on January 9th. And then the next one that we did was actually February 10th. So as far as I'm concerned, January 14th is the day I started living different. That's the six months to July 14th. So we took that blood work. So the original blood work was before I was doing anything. And this blood work then would be from the 14th to the 10th. So not quite a full month. And you're seeing some changes already.
00:26:29
Speaker
We were seeing some really great changes. We were seeing a lot of improvements, even in your white blood cell, your red blood cell count. That wasn't out of a normal range, but just wasn't in the healthiest range of normal for you. And that all went back into a very, very healthy range of normal. So just that fast. And you think that's based on diet? Yeah. That you can change
Blood Cell Counts and Liver Health
00:26:51
Speaker
your blood cell count? Of course, yeah. Really? Yeah. How was that?
00:26:55
Speaker
Well, so in terms of different types of foods, if you have an infection and you're eating poor foods, sugar suppresses the immune system, for example. If you're low in zinc or if you're low in protein, you can't fight off the infection. Vitamin C is helpful for fighting off infection. So you were coming off fighting off a bit of an infection.
00:27:14
Speaker
When you first started, there was that... There was, yes. And so... From my little volcano guy. Yes, there was. And so we're seeing that the body isn't trying to fight off an infection anymore. It's killed it off. It's doing well. Your... Now, my Gal Gadot's, as I recall, if you're listening, GGT, do you want to say the proper term for anybody who actually is intelligent that's listening?
00:27:39
Speaker
I'm sure there's a lot of intelligent people that are listening, but GGT is a liver enzyme. It stands for gamma-glutamyltransferase, and it was elevated. I don't know why I can't remember to say that. GGT, Gal Gadot. The Gal Gadot theory. And so there's three different liver enzymes that we monitor in the blood. Two of them start with A, right? Two of them start with A. AST, ALT. There you go.
00:28:06
Speaker
20 gold stars. And so with the liver enzymes, if 70% or more of your liver is damaged, they'll start elevating. So when it happens, you know to pay attention. And with GGT, that's the one that if you've been drinking a lot, that's the one that's going to come up first. And yours was elevated.
00:28:27
Speaker
And so what we did was we started doing some things to clean out your liver, to support really good liver enzymes, to help in terms of healing the duodenitis. And your liver enzymes, your GGT, are now well within the normal range. So it should be below 65. You were at 71 before, which isn't very elevated. But now you're at 32. What?
00:28:53
Speaker
I know. Come on. Super happy. I went from 71 to 32. Yes. That's amazing. Yep. In three weeks, almost four weeks.
00:29:03
Speaker
OK, well, listen up here, drinkers. It makes a difference. It turns out cutting way down. Now again, very few people drink like I drank. Yes. Well, you never know. You don't know. I don't know who's listening, so it's hard to say. But if you do drink a lot, as is amazing, you can turn it around that fast. That's great news. So I'm going to party this week.
00:29:28
Speaker
I better bring those numbers back up again. I got some wiggle room. I want to hit about a 40, 45. See if I can get it. I like to have it hover right around my age if I get it on my GGT. 32 sounds low. Listen Humpty Dumpty, there's only so many times I can put you back together, so quit dancing on the wall, okay? Humpty Dumpty. Alex, there's a good name there. Don't push it. I really hope none of my friends are listening right now.
00:30:06
Speaker
Okay, so that's great news. Yeah. So is there more good news? There's more good news. So your ferritin levels, which are a marker of iron stores within your body, they were elevated. So they should be between 15 and 275 and they were at 331 and they've already dropped to 308. So they're improving and they're heading in a good direction.
00:30:29
Speaker
It's still a little high though. Still a little high. Now walking through Faridin again, I don't remember what that is. It's the storage of iron. You said that, yeah. So this is just a blood. What's happening is that's stored in your liver. And if you have too much of it sitting in your liver, it can start to become a pro-oxidant and it can do damage. It can damage the liver and it can damage the heart. If it goes too high, it increases your risk of cardiovascular disease. Yeah, but you have to remember I'm descendant from Viking, so I'm made of iron.
00:30:55
Speaker
Quite literally. So I probably just have more than the average man because I'm a hard man. Well, this will help with the weight loss. We'll drop some of the iron. Yeah, no. That iron's probably going to go up because I'm just going to get stronger. Is that not how it works? It's not how it works. No, once my abs are chiseled, why don't you see more iron? Hopefully not. So how do I reduce the iron then?
00:31:24
Speaker
Well, a big part of it is staying away from the red meat. Red meat is a big source of iron. Which I have been. Yeah. So that's great. There are things that we can do, like taking extra zinc, for example, and extra copper. Zinc and copper, if you have higher amounts of them, they can, what we call chelate, they can pull iron out of the system, or they can kind of displace it from the system. You want me taking a different metal?
00:31:48
Speaker
Yes, because you're probably low in zinc. So copper, zinc and iron are all absorbed by the same protein from the intestinal tract. So if you have a lot of one, you can become deficient in the other. And zinc is really important for your immune system and testosterone production. And we were seeing for you that
00:32:07
Speaker
Well, the immune system was compromised. It wasn't optimal. And the testosterone levels weren't optimal at that time either. Well, again, I'd been watching some Hallmark movies. Yeah, that will do it. So yeah, it was very lowered. It was the holidays. You know how it is. Just a bunch of sappy.
00:32:22
Speaker
And did you know that the hops in beer actually is estrogenic? It increases estrogen in the system? No, I didn't know that. There you go. So cutting down in the beer, very helpful. Oh, really? Interesting fact. There we go. Something new every day. Yeah, so there's estrogen in beer. Is that what you're saying? Yeah, because the hops. Hops is estrogenic. All right. Well, you can all make your own jokes on that out there, people. I'm not gonna.
00:32:54
Speaker
Ask any Irish woman if she's been told when she's pregnant that if she drinks some beer, that it'll help bring her milk. Oh, really? Okay, just Irish women? The Irish women are like, that's a tradition. I heard that from my mom. Every Irish woman that I spoke to has been pregnant. Well, they're probably telling them to drink Guinness, specifically. Yes. And it's probably a campaign put out by Guinness. It may be, but they're not all wrong. They're not all right. They're saying Guinness was healthy. No. I'm not saying it's healthy. I'm just saying it's a thing.
00:33:23
Speaker
You're going to have a beer, have a Guinness. I believe that's the Irish way. That is the Irish way. Yeah. And when in doubt, have a Guinness. Yeah. Yeah. But from a shorter tap, that's another big thing over there too. You got to get the right Guinness, the right pint. Oh, there we go. You have to go to the right pub and based on how long their lines are, they'll assure you that this is a better pint. Very, very particular of the Guinness. I see a new, our next podcast.
00:33:50
Speaker
Let's fly over to Ireland. I have to get my iron so we can go up. Exactly. Well, the liver's doing great.
00:34:01
Speaker
Our medical disclaimer. Before you go down the rabbit hole of kale smoothies and laughter yoga, a quick reminder, we're not your doctor. We might have the prescription for a good joke, but when it comes to your health, consult the pros. So laugh and learn, but keep that stethoscope handy. Just in case. So, and speaking of getting you to Ireland and drinking without harming your liver,
00:34:25
Speaker
When we did the blood work, we saw something surprising happen. Yes, we saw the GGT numbers, the Gal Gadot's go down, which we wanted to, and directly correlated that with, hey, you've stopped drinking, yay you. What we didn't expect is to see the ALT and the AST come up. So other liver enzymes started to go up.
00:34:46
Speaker
And so that was one of the things that I wanted to talk about because the first thing that can happen is you can freak out and go, oh my gosh, my liver's being damaged. I'm doing everything right. What's wrong?
00:34:57
Speaker
And so there's a supplement that we had you on for healing your intestinal tract called L-glutamine. And I think this is a really important point that we should share with everybody because L-glutamine, a lot of bodybuilders use it. It's really fantastic for sports, for helping to build muscle. So a lot of people take it. It's really great for healing the intestinal tract and it can have some wonderful therapeutic benefits. And we've even used it or we can use it in higher doses to help in terms of
00:35:25
Speaker
healing addiction and decreasing cravings when people are addicted to alcohol or sugar or even different types of substances. For you, what happened is what will happen to a small number of people is that L-glutamine can raise liver enzymes. And that's exactly what we saw for you.
00:35:43
Speaker
So your ALT and AST were in the normal range when we first did it. So you should be less than 50 and you were at 36 for your alanine amino transferase, your ALT. Your AST should be less than 35 and you were at 29, so very healthy. But what happened is the ALT went up to 106 and the AST went up to 299.
00:36:11
Speaker
So Gal Gadot scared those guys. She did. She was just so intimidating. And they ran for their lives and they spiked. No, what ended up happening was the supplement that we gave you, the L-glutamine that was healing for your intestinal tract, we did a higher dose and it caused the liver enzymes to go up.
00:36:32
Speaker
That can happen. There's research showing that it can do that. Those are unhealthy numbers, though, right? Those are unhealthy numbers, so you have to stop it. Has it done permanent damage? No, of course not. The liver is a robust organ, is it? It is. As a matter of fact, you're correct. It can regenerate itself, which is great. So we haven't done any permanent harm, but what I think is really important is that people have this
00:37:01
Speaker
information or this misunderstanding and they think if something's healthy like a vitamin or a mineral that it can't be harmful and it actually it can be so it was great that we were doing a higher dose but we were monitoring the liver so this is why you go to see a naturopath versus a holistic nutritionist or a homeopath or a chiropractor when you're doing
00:37:25
Speaker
supplements in higher doses than recommended on the bottle. Because when a naturopath is using them in therapeutic amounts, we're monitoring what's going to happen. And so we're seeing, hey, good job in terms of lowering the GGT, your liver is doing better, but we've got to cut down and we've got to stop the L-glutamine. So we're stopping that and I expect these liver enzymes will come right back down and you'll be fine. The L-glutamine is going to miss me.
00:37:53
Speaker
I'm sure. It was great for healing the intestinal tract. So for people out there who maybe you have had Crohn's or colitis or you know, you've heard that it's great for bodybuilding. If you're going to be taking it, make sure you're monitoring your liver enzymes for most people.
00:38:12
Speaker
it doesn't raise it. I've used it in higher doses for people who have been quitting alcohol or different types of substances where they've been abusing the substances and they just want to cut the cravings and it works very, very well. But when you're using those higher dosages, you have the potential for harm. So just make sure that you're having that monitored.
00:38:31
Speaker
All right, so if you're taking out glutamine, check your blood numbers. Yep. Is that the takeaway there? Liver enzymes. Liver enzymes, yeah. Yep, and if you- Your AST and your ALT. ALT and your Galga Dose. Yeah, you've got to keep an eye on those GTTs. You do, you do. And so if you, hopefully you have a naturopath that you're working with, but if you don't, make sure that your medical doctor is aware of this. Then I know where you could find one.
00:39:02
Speaker
If you would like to work with a naturopathic, DM me.
00:39:10
Speaker
And I'll put you in touch. I'm having to know a couple of people. Best in the world. That's great. Best in the world. I'm like, that's shadowing. Sure, I happen to work with the best. Well, why wouldn't you? Well, I think you're the best. I mean, your numbers are impressive. Thank you. And speaking of numbers, so are yours because your cholesterol now is doing amazing as well.
00:39:39
Speaker
First of all, that was a fantastic segment for someone who's new to show this. What a terrific segment. Tell me about the weather next, Dr. Val. It's sunny. How are my cholesterol numbers? They're fantastic. Thanks for noticing. Where were they and what are they?
00:39:59
Speaker
So when we first measured on January 9th your triglycerides were at 1.41 which is in the normal range but because it should be less than 1.7 but I like to see those numbers ideally less than one and now you're at 0.67.
00:40:15
Speaker
I know. You're paying attention. You're doing the work. I know. Your total cholesterol levels have gone from 5.36, so they were a little bit elevated. They should be less than 5.2. They've gone all the way down to 4.67. Oh my gosh. You've got wiggle room.
00:40:32
Speaker
And your LDL cholesterol, so L stands technically for low density lipoprotein, but I say L for lousy. It's the bad cholesterol that when it's really high, it's going to increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. It went from 3.54 and it should be less than 3.5. It went down to 3.11. All right. Well, I take your word for it that those are good things. It's getting a little sciency for me.
00:41:00
Speaker
For those intelligent listeners of ours, they're probably going, oh. And your thyroid got better. Did it? It did. I meant to ask. Yes. That was my thyroid. So your thyroid was always in a medically normal range, but naturopaths, we like to see the thyroid less than two, between about 0.5 and two. And you were at 2.16, which just isn't optimal. Healthy, not abnormal, but not optimal. And you're now at 1.97.
00:41:28
Speaker
Okay, so all in all, outside of the ALT and the AST, which we think we've identified due to a supplement that I was taking that my body went, don't love that for this part. Outside of that, all my other numbers are better. Yes. And your vitamin D levels, which were at the low normal level, they should be between 75 and 250. They were at 76.2 and they've gone up to 88.9.
00:41:57
Speaker
Now, we still want to see those go up even further. I want to see that 120 or above, but we're in the right range. Well, here's an example to take on a myth. Now, this was taken, this blood was taken before I went to Palm Springs. So would three days of golfing in the sunshine have increased my vitamin D because everyone says sunshine is a great source of vitamin D?
00:42:18
Speaker
It is, and it should. And so for you, it should do that because you're not morbidly obese. Now, for people who are darker skinned, they're going to need more time in the sunlight. For people who are morbidly obese, they're going to have more issues with that because what happens with the skin, the skin starts producing vitamin D, but vitamin D is fat soluble. So if you're more morbidly obese, the vitamin D has to go through the fat layers to get into the bloodstream in order to be utilized, and that's not happening.
00:42:46
Speaker
it'll be sucked into the fat cells. So vitamin D, if it's low, will cause obesity. So if you are obese or morbidly obese and you're having challenges with respect to vitamin D levels, I wouldn't count on the sun being the greatest source for you. I would supplement until you can get some of those levels up and I would say monitor the supplementation. Because again, vitamin D, if you take too much of it,
00:43:15
Speaker
And if it gets too high, it can become toxic. So you always want to make sure you're monitoring when you're taking supplementation.
00:43:23
Speaker
Well, luckily I went to Winnipeg right afterwards, so there wasn't a lot of sun there. No, no. So I'm sure my vitamin D plummeted appropriately back to a healthy level. It's Canadian sun too, which I've always said is like a black hole sun. Like you can go to the Caribbean or someplace warm, get tan. As soon as you step off the plane and you get into the Canadian sun, it sucks the tan right out of you. It doesn't take long. No, a couple of days and you're back to scaring children
00:43:53
Speaker
Exactly, glowing in the dark. Why do I live here? I know I know I love my country. Okay, so what's our, is that, are there any other numbers or?
00:44:09
Speaker
Those are the numbers that we were looking at. We were looking at your testosterone levels as well. Your testosterone levels should be between 3.6 and 11.2 and the last time you were at 6.7 and what's happened is your testosterone levels actually went down to 5.2.
Testosterone Levels and Future Plans
00:44:26
Speaker
Hang on, my testosterone has gone down? Yep. Even with all that iron in my liver? You need zinc.
00:44:35
Speaker
Okay. So we're going to up my zinc. We are. And then there was a supplement that I recommended for you for testosterone. And you said, I can't get that. I'm going to get this one that they said was the same thing at the health food store. And they were wrong. Okay. And so that's what you get.
00:44:53
Speaker
So you want me to get the one that, uh, yeah. Well, the works that works. Yeah. So, but based on this though, I'm getting a pretty good bill of health right now. You're getting excellent results. Some of the issues I had when we started, I no longer have everything's getting healthier for the most part. Livers getting healthier despite the little blip. That's just the L glutamine cholesterol is getting healthier. Blood sugar levels are getting healthier. Thyroid is healthier. Vitamin D levels are healthier. Everything has improved.
00:45:23
Speaker
Okay, but that was all, of course, before Super Bowl Sunday. Yes. Good thing we took it then. We don't know what kind of damage I was able to do myself in one day of debauchery. There's the next episode. We measure the blood work before and then after the debauchery. That's right. Welcome to our version of Super Size Me. That does sound fun. What's the next debaucher's day? I guess St. Patty's Day.
00:45:49
Speaker
would be the next, uh, uh, reckless. I don't, I don't really drink that's, that's an amateur drinking day. I only drink with professionals. There we go. I avoid new year's Eve and say Patty's day. That's the amateur hour. When's your next golf tournament? That's what it's going to be. Unpracticed drinkers. Pros need pros.
00:46:11
Speaker
All right, awesome. Well, what I'm hearing is I'm doing well. You are. Everything's improving. And I guess that means you know what you're talking about. A little bit. Okay, it turns out. And so I can start increasing my exercise now. Yes. And things like that. So, all right. So next episode, I believe you have a guest for us.
00:46:35
Speaker
I do. I have the man who is known as the wizard. He is absolutely incredible. His name is David Thunder. He is from the UK. He's a movement specialist, and he is just incredible when it comes to looking at the biochemistry, the biomechanics,
00:46:55
Speaker
getting you into shape, helping in terms of healing. So he's going to take a look at your body, and he's going to be telling you, okay, not only here are the exercises that you should be doing, but he's going to be able to tell you, okay, you've had this injury here, you're experiencing this pain there, this is going on with you, and here's how we bring it back into alignment. And I've seen him do miracles with people. Awesome. Well, you had me at Thunder. Yes.
00:47:21
Speaker
David Lightning, meet David Thunder. That's right. Those of you who don't know, I was struck by lightning back in 1999, had it passed through my body more specifically, but that's a longer story for another time. What I'm hearing though, and for those of you who are following along with the journey, is that this part, I'm going to say, was probably the easiest part. I mean, as hard as changing my diet has been,
00:47:45
Speaker
It was pretty much just eating different. But if we're trying to get an optimum health, if we're trying to get in great shape, the best shape I can be at at 50, then now I'm probably going to have to start working.
00:47:55
Speaker
on getting stronger, leaner, more flexible and all the things that hurt. Because not eating food has been, except for that first week where I had the detox and the withdrawal, it has been a rather painless process. I'm eating. This part's going to be training. This is where muscles are going to start to hurt, things are going to start to get sore.
00:48:17
Speaker
You know, and we're going to build on it too. So there's a point where when we first start where we're saying these things are out of balance and we've got to heal them and bring them into alignment. Once we get past the healing stage, then we get into optimizing your performance and optimizing your health, optimizing that metabolic flexibility. And so things will change and shift then. And that's where it gets really fun and where we start to get really specific and dialed in. Awesome.
00:48:43
Speaker
All right, well, there you have it. Excited. Excited for next week? You're excited? Well, me too. I'm excited for all the weeks coming up, except I'm a little bit nervous, because once again, somebody's going to pick me apart, and this guy's going to look at me and say, you don't even know how to be a person. How are you alive? That was my question. I know. I was just starting to feel good, too. So it's good that we bring someone in that'll make me feel bad. Yeah. Thanks for listening to Dr. Pal Saves Dave, and talk to you guys next week. Thanks, Doc.
00:49:13
Speaker
Dr. Val, can you save Dave? Do you think that he'll behave? Or do you think he will cave? Listen in! He's back in school! It's his funny buddy, Dr. Val's rules!