Episode 174 – From Risk to Asset – The One Thing in Your Practice You Aren’t Paying Close Enough Attention To

“As we age things change, and a lot of time we hear ‘that’s just what getting old feels like’….and that is not true!”

-Regan Robertson

This is the greatest risk to your office. It’s also your number 1 asset.  

Do you know what it is?

It’s your health. 

We’ll be honest. We’re both in our 40s…and if you don’t already know, things change! The problem we both ran into however, was we heard a lot of “Oh that’s just what getting old feels like.” And we’re here to tell you that’s just not true!

Now maybe, like Chad, according to American standards your health is fine. So why not just keep doing what you’re doing? Well, as Chad discovered there can be problems lurking underneath.

Wether you’re struggling with current health issues, or think you’re doing OK all things considered, we want to tell you that it’s OK to put the focus on you. It’s OK to take care of yourself and get off autopilot so you can maximize your health. 

And we’re here to tell you – wherever you are in your health journey – there is hope. As Chad says in today’s episode, “I am healthier now than I was 5 years ago.” And that’s what we want for you! 

Remember, YOUR HEALTH is your dental business’s #1 asset. So in these next two episodes we are sharing our own health journies along with tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way that can help you achieve your optimal health, including:

• What being your own healthcare advocate looks like
• Finding providers who will take you and your health goals seriously
• The power of bloodwork and panels

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on iTunes & Spotify. Visit us at http://www.everydaypracticespodcast.com

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Regan 0:00
Hi, Dr. Regan, Robertson, CCO productive dentist Academy here and I have a question for you. Are you finding it hard to get your team aligned to your vision, but you know, you deserve growth just like everybody else. That’s why we’ve created the PDA productivity workshop. For nearly 20 years PDA workshops have helped dentists just like you align their teams, get control of scheduling, and create productive practices that they love walking into every day. Just imagine how you will feel when you know your schedule is productive. Your systems are humming, and your team is aligned to your vision. It’s simple, but it’s not necessarily easy. We can help visit productive dentists.com/workshop that’s productive dentist.com/workshop to secure your seats. Now, as we age. I can tell you what I’ve been told over the years is Oh, that’s just what getting old feels like. And so you know it can if that’s implanted over and over again. That mindset comes in, then you just start to live with the discomfort and just think well, this is as good as it gets. And that is not true. Welcome to the everyday practices Podcast. I’m Regan Robertson, and my co host Dr. Chad Johnson and I are on a mission to share the stories of everyday dentists who generate extraordinary results using practical proven methods you can take right into your own dental practice. If you’re ready to elevate patient care and produce results that are anything but ordinary. Buckle up and listen in.

Regan 1:37
Welcome to everyday practices dental podcast. I am your host Regan Robertson here with my trusty faithful co host Dr. Chad Johnson. Chet, how’re you doing? today?

Dr. Chad Johnson 1:46
I’m doing well. Hey, everyone, thanks for listening in on your drive to work or in the shower or whatever you’re doing weird or not weird. You know?

Regan 1:53
How many people do you think have wireless shower speakers? I do. Good to know. Fun fact. Yep.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:01
And to make it even more fun, I put on Pandora and I listened to Hawaiian music in the shower. It just relaxes me like no other. So there’s a there’s a nugget

Regan 2:10
right there. That’s how I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna take that I am gonna steal that. Yeah, let me head over to the Amazon. And I’m gonna get a wireless speaker and put on Hawaiian music. That sounds really fun. Yeah, our topic today, people listening, listeners, doctors, team members, business owners. It’s about putting the focus on you today. So we know in order for us to be the best leaders within an organization. It really starts with ourselves. So like the proverbial, the airline illustration, when the oxygen masks drop down, you put yours on first. Yep, in order to be your best today is all about health journeys. And Chad is my esteemed guest and co host today because you have so kindly volunteered to be willing to share your health journey.

Dr. Chad Johnson 2:57
Yeah, so I mean, I’ll just start with a couple ideas, and then we’ll just go from there. Does that sound okay?

Regan 3:03
It does. I think it’s good to paint for everybody. We’re both in our 40s Yep. Early 40s estrous, early 40s.

Dr. Chad Johnson 3:11
Hey, I’m technically a 70s child. So born in 79. And in Jimmy Carter for two months before he was out of office. So the best

Regan 3:20
year to be born, what can we say about it? The best year, things changed. Things changed when we both hit 40

Dr. Chad Johnson 3:27
Yeah, I just started noticing. So you know, I’ve I’ve been consistently working out since Dental School finished. I wasn’t consistently working out in dental school. I did occasionally but you know. So after dental school, I started working out more consistently and I was playing basketball, I sprained my ankle, but he asked if I wanted to. If I well, I was hitting the pool and and he said, Hey, let me join you. And we can swim. And you know what? We could swim, and we could run and we could, we could go cycling, we could do a triathlon, and I was just like, slow down. No, not interested. But I’ll tell you what, you can come swim with me while I’m healing my ankle and then I’m gonna get back to basketball. And you know, if I help you do a triathlon, or at least workout with you, and so it was mentally kind of like, fair enough, you know, like all going with you but I don’t. And another like, little thing in dental school, I’d find if I lifted before school or anything like that, my hand would kind of be jittery. Really? Yeah, the muscle like the fine motor control was off. And so I didn’t really like lifting but come to find out. You can get around that. And I think also the more confident that I got in my fine motor skills, it wasn’t as big a deal but like in dental school, when you’re nervous about stuff and you’ve already worked out for the day, you know, you could be hosed. So But when so, you know, I’ve been working out for that was 27 or 28 when I started doing triathlons. So it’s been 15 years since I’ve started doing those workouts and I just consistently, you know, I swim more in the winter months. And I cycle more in the summer months, and then I lift year round. But it’s kind of casual. I don’t, you know, go out, you know, hardcore and, and then I hate running, but I get running in and I’ve become better at running. One of the things, you know, is just even, you know, my knee pain and trying to get that addressed, and then eventually figuring out, you know, how to address that through my running form. And so

Regan 5:42
that’s gonna be hard on your knees. Absolutely. But,

Dr. Chad Johnson 5:45
but I actually found like, I can, I’ve, I can now. Okay, so I mean, I’m just gonna get to it because it’s gonna sound like some of this is gonna sound like I’m bragging. And it’s like, Oh, I could do triathlons. I can dunk the basketball.

Regan 6:00
I, I think I’m interjecting here. Because what I think you’re painting right now for all of our listeners is you’ve had a pretty physically fit existence. You were an active child. You were disciplined? Yes. Going through all the way up into your college years and beyond. So what I like about this story, Chad, is that you’re not immune to having a health journey, and you’re not immune to trying to optimize your own performance, your own health along the way.

Dr. Chad Johnson 6:28
Yeah, because I mean, I wish I could run as fast as I used to the fact is, I’m still running because it’s good for my heart, you know, and I had to figure out how to run differently. So for those runners out there, I was a heel striker. And, and I figured out how to mid midsole, mid foot strike. And if you Google noms, not Google YouTube, mid foot strike, you know, you can see how that’s different for your joint, it gives your calf muscle more of the shock absorbing so that way your knees and hips aren’t taking it. So check into that and, and then I started, you know, my knees started getting better. I started doing squat machine because I was I had even done CrossFit for a little while. And my knees would kind of collapse when I would do squats. I’m serious. Even air squats, my knees would kind of collapse a couple inches in and it would cause like this tendinitis pain in my knee. And but now I started doing squats because my knee wasn’t hurting, my knee wasn’t hurting. When I was cycling, my knee wasn’t hurting when I push off the wall in the pool. And so I was able to start going back at it, I swear, 10 years ago, my knees hurt more than they do now. And I can even now having done squats, I found that that improves my explosive strength for doing you know, like when I can I coach my girls in basketball and in game and stuff like that when he was a little bit younger for Little League. And I can go up and dunk it now. I mean, I thought that was over. And it’s

Regan 7:54
really exciting to me about this as is the there’s a possibility of improvement and it generates Yes, the regeneration is even is even bigger that that’s the term I think we highlight and circled. Because as we age, I can tell you what I’ve been told over the years is Oh, that’s just what getting old feels like. And so you know, it can if that’s implanted over and over again, that mindset comes in, then you just start to live with the discomfort and just think, well, this is as good as it gets. And that is not true. I mean, sometimes perhaps, but not all the time,

Dr. Chad Johnson 8:26
not all the time, like in other words, you don’t have to take no for an answer necessarily. Now, if you’ve gone to do 10 consults, the 11th Consult might not tell you any different, but it’s worth exploring a second a second opinion at times for that purpose. So,

Regan 8:45
so intuitively your own advocate.

Dr. Chad Johnson 8:48
Yeah. And and again, you know, I wasn’t having big health problems. But I one of my problems was I started doing when I burned myself it was at this point six years ago, I started upping my protein because the dietician came into the hospital when I was in the hospital all burned up. I had a gasoline fire incident that’s an essay for listeners share with that was what happened. So I was doing a burn pile and I was using gasoline I know you’re not supposed to but listen, I just was and you really know now I really know. And and the gas can when I was dumping the gas it had caught a smoldering spot from a few hours prior and and caught on fire. Like you know, like I was dumping the gas on the fire. This thing was probably about eight eight parking spaces big so you can kind of picture how big this burn pile was. And so I was lit up and within a couple seconds I think I was out. It’s tough mentally to remember exactly how long I was in the fire because I think my mind won’t let me go there but I try and remember it like you try and replay it and it’s like how long was I actually in the fire? I want To say, like maybe a second or two, it really wasn’t all that long, you know, I think five seconds and I might have been toast. So I then was taking protein because the dietitian told me to and I was realizing how full I was. And I was like, Okay, this is fascinating. Like, protein keeps you full, I was doing 215 grams, 220 grams, something like that, a day. And that good amount of proteins, a ton of protein, most people do 70 to 90 grams a day. So this was a lot, but it was to regenerate my collagen, and my skin while I was trying to grow back, you know, 30% of my surface area still on my body? Well, then I fast forward, I did this DNA testing as a salivary DNA test through this company called id life, I have nothing to do with them. Productive dentist Academy doesn’t have anything to do with them. I’m just simply sharing that this company ID as an identification id life has a vitamin pack that they’ll sell you that, you know, there’s a morning pack and an evening pack and you can and they customize it according to your DNA profile from your saliva, salivary test. Well, something interesting this salivary test also told did

Regan 11:12
they have are they like powdered type in the vegetable capsules? Or are they hard vitamins? Because the hard vitamins don’t often break down. And in enough time I’ve read these are

Dr. Chad Johnson 11:21
in encapsulated say yeah, yes, it’s their high quality stuff. And, and what I found out from this DNA test that I was one of the most fascinating things was I there are two genes that they measure for people, like satiation for their hunger, and whatnot, I’m missing both of those genes that tell you when you’re full. So I overeat. And so what’s cool then is that I started toying around with intermittent fasting, trying to restrict my caloric intake, because when I do eat, I eat a ton. And it takes so I thought, if I only have

Regan 12:02
seen you have three, four, at one time, like a champ, I mean, I figured you’d get up in cycle 50 miles and so you know, you burn

Dr. Chad Johnson 12:11
on doing high cardio, then it’s fine. But like, like, you can’t do high cardio all the time. And at age 30, you can, but age 40, or maybe 50, at some point, 60 I don’t care at at some point, you can’t do the workout that you’re doing when you’re 30 the same cardio, like every day, all day, I used to do, you know, six, cardio a week and Sunday, well, and sometimes twice a day is you know, and I just your joints can’t quite handle that all the time, every, you know, week, month, year in, year out. So I started doing the intermittent fasting. And that was cool, because mentally learning to manage your hunger was was eye opening for me that when, in essence, I say like when I’m hungry. I tell my hunger to kiss off. It’s just like, listen, just tough luck. Just because you’re hungry doesn’t mean you have to eat and just be like, you could embrace hunger. And that’s a weird American thought is just like, just be like, when we’re hungry. We go, I’m hungry. So I have to eat. And it’s just like, what if you actually, like, chilled out and drink some water? And you know, and so how it started was I would I would prolong breakfast and have a protein shake in the morning, then I’d be busy. And then I finally started. Like, I would get to 11am. And I’d be like, Man, I haven’t even had my protein shake for the breakfast. And I’d be like, Can I not make it one more hour? I wonder if I can make it one more hour.

Regan 13:36
So I gamify it. Yep, that is very you

Dr. Chad Johnson 13:40
can I make it until noon. Then I started going well, I made it until noon. This is mind blowing to me. I mean, other people are like, Dude, I’ve been doing this for years. But I go, What if I could make it to mid afternoon. I wonder if I could make my eating window. Like two o’clock then three o’clock. I

Regan 13:55
had the old cliche thing when I’m hungry. So I’ve done intermittent fasting too. And and if you’re getting the right types of food in your body, you really shouldn’t be hungry. You should be fine. So if I was hungry, I would I would do the old cliche. Are you hungry or are you bored?

Dr. Chad Johnson 14:08
Yes. And I would I would. Mine’s a little bit more severe, but I’m like, am I going to die? Like, am I so calorie restricted that I’m going to die? I still have fat on me. I’m, I’m going to be fine. Most of the time I ride between, you know, like 15 ish percent body fat. That’s, that’s not initiated. Yeah, you know, right. Yeah, it’s healthy, like 15% is good. But it’s also not like, like, if you were 4% or something like that. You can’t stay at 5% very long. I’ve not heard of that. I’m not a pro but I know. You know, people get bodybuilders get down to 5%. You know?

Regan 14:48
And when I think of you, I think of a professional athlete. And that’s how I’ve seen you treat your body and your mental state the whole time that I’ve known you. It’s more about refinement than it is about wide swings and we know a bodybuilder or a UFC fighter, when they’re training, it’s for a specific outcome for a short amount of time. So when they’re not training it, they they go back into what they see as healthy, a healthy range of fat percentage, right? Right. So they know it’s not something that’s sustainable. So staying at 5% body fat, my assumption is I’m not a medical doctor, that’s probably not super healthy, sustained long term, but they can cut to get to that point. So it’s going back and forth. And that’s. So there’s that that the type of health that you see on the outside, and then there’s the type of health that you might not feel like anything is wrong, but something is wrong. I didn’t know for example, I had inflammation going on. And I could feel it in certain symptoms. But I didn’t know you don’t know what damage is being done to your organs until it gets to a point where it’s showing up and then by then it might be too late.

Dr. Chad Johnson 15:51
So listeners next week, we’re going to tap into like the next episode is going to be Reagan talking more about how what that mattered to her especially. But yeah, inflammatory stuff on on that topic. So I saw I was starting to have some high blood pressure. And I kind of denied it. My hygienist, Shonda would say, Here, let’s measure your blood pressure, you’ve got high blood pressure. And I’d be like, so what, you know, like,

Regan 16:21
really see, if the moment mine started to like, creep up, I was freaking out. I was like, this is a bad sign. This is a bad sign. It wasn’t even really high. But for me, it was,

Dr. Chad Johnson 16:30
I thought there’s like my pulse is normally like, sleeping, I can get mine in the 30s. Work, you know, like working and stuff like that. It’s probably 60 resting, it’s probably 50. And so like, I have this really low pulse. And then I’m thinking my cardiovascular health is top notch. And again, it’s a little cocky, but you know, that’s what I was thinking is. So you maybe my blood pressure is occasionally high at work. I’m a type A and I’m working. So like, you know that it’s called. It’s called your resting blood pressure, right? I’m just I’m not resting. You’re resting blood pressure face. Right? Yeah, good. So we, we spent a couple of years going honestly, a couple of years going back and forth, your blood pressure’s high. And I’d be like, Oh, whatever. And it was almost this joke. And so I started getting this bloody nose. And it was actually around when COVID was happening. And I don’t know if I Okay, so here, we’re here was my thought my, my diagnostics, you know, going around, I’m like, okay. Is it possible that I’ve got hypertension? And that’s what’s causing it? Is it that my nose is dry, or something like that, but it’s always my left nostril. And it’s just the weirdest thing is happening when I’m sleeping. Wait a second, why is it always happening when I’m sleeping? Is it because I have sleep apnea? And I’m momentarily having this spiked blood pressure? Because my, my pulse is going through the roof because of an APNIC moment. Okay, so maybe I have sleep apnea. You know, the blood pressure stuff, I’m reluctant to want to address it, but I finally decided, okay, so the bail Donini method. PDA has talked a lot about bail Donini method. And I thought, you know, why don’t I go get checked out? I actually, you know, because I go to the PDA workshops, I thought to myself, I’m gonna go down. I need to find a clinician to do that, that could do concierge Doctor treatment for me. And so I found Dr. Gina Pritchard. She’s a nurse practitioner. You can find her on LinkedIn, under the prevent clinic, Dr. Gina Pritchard in Frisco, Texas. And I thought, well, you know, there’s no one in Iowa that does it that I know of, because I looked on the website and so I was like, should I go to Chicago? No, I’m going to Dallas why don’t I just go down there? You know, like when I’m down there, I’ll just get it done. And we start ISIS told her you know, like, I’ve got these you know, bloody noses and I’m starting to wonder if I should get my, you know, health checked out. And she started dialing in my vitamins. She eventually because the vitamins weren’t homeopathically doing it. We I started about six months ago on a blood pressure Med and boy that makes you feel old. Right? Here’s the good news for anyone listening to it. I’m just trying to encourage you, I don’t actually feel any different. Taking the blood pressure meds, it might as well just be another vitamin that I take. I wouldn’t know. And now I’m on a ton of vitamins. before age 40. I took zero vitamins and and I would just take my protein drinks with a vegetable powder. And I you know, because I’m not the best at eating vegetables and stuff like that. So I thought I’ll supplement it with the vegetable powder. And so it was pretty naturalistic ish. And so I started taking the blood pressure med I started taking a baby aspirin upon recommendation of Dr. Gina Prichard and then we’re taking bloodwork every three to six months. And, and otherwise though, for a healthy guy, doctors don’t really care See, because they’re like, you’re healthy. Why are you even here? I’ve honestly literally had doctors and nurses, when I’ve gone into a clinic say, what are you here for? You know, like, and because they’re just like, you’re healthy compared to what they’re used to. Yes. And again, Reagan has a discussion about that, because she, you know, so what’s cool though, is you know, I started my blood pressure meds, I don’t feel any different, that’s encouragement to people that are like, is it gonna make me feel like exhausted or, you know, weak or weird. Then I also noticed that from the bloodwork Dr. Gene has said, you know, your testosterone isn’t zero, but like, it’s, it’s 300 to 50 I don’t remember if somewhere around 300, maybe 315. And 300 is kind of borderline where it’s low tea. But a lot of men are around three or 400. I mean, what’s interesting Italy is I’ve heard that historically, testosterone levels are were like 800,000 for men 100 years ago, and these days,

Regan 21:00
it’s almost it’s just like the nutritional density of food. Yes, has also decreased quite quite dramatically. Exactly. That’s which is interesting. I can I back up to Bill Dhoni method do it. So Dr. Brad bale and Amy Donini have a book I believe it’s called beat the heart attack gene. Exactly. And and I put this here because you didn’t go see Dr. Gina Pritchard to get you know, regular health care, which you mentioned, it’s quite exhaustive in the amount of risk factors that they look at. And I don’t know how many tests they did run you through, but I’m assuming it was quite a few or was it just one? Do they just take your blood? Like how did that work?

Dr. Chad Johnson 21:37
Um, because I was so healthy, they, they, most of it is blood work, and then just dialing that in. Even though it’s some some friends know that I drink a gallon of water a day. Why? Because I know that when I drink the gallon of water a day, it’s keeping my creatine kinase levels down. And and it’s part of the the complete blood series you know, panel that we do that I’m that they can see. If I’m clearing the metabolites of everything, you know, well, so that way I’m healthy because I also I don’t really actually like drinking a gallon of water a day.

Regan 22:12
Oh, really enjoys water.

Dr. Chad Johnson 22:15
I hear people say, I just love water. I drink water all day long. It’s the best and I just go I mean, good for you.

Regan 22:21
So efficiency and mine, which is which is a powdery vitamin that doesn’t have all the sugar in it like emergency which is just not recommends it called sufficient C. Okay. And it’s and so that gives it a little bit of flavor. Yes. That makes it because I don’t do the drops. I don’t do anything artificial at all. I don’t. I gotta keep it pretty,

Dr. Chad Johnson 22:44
pretty good or not. This water right here, um, that I’m showing you. It’s distilled. It’s even better distilled water. And people are like, Isn’t that gross? I’m like, I don’t know.

Regan 22:53
You could you could Nettie Lodi potty that with that water, you could go and clean your nose out.

Dr. Chad Johnson 22:57
So when we did the one of the six months ago, I held my hands above my heart. And they did a CT scan of my heart like a I don’t know what they call it is a functional CT, that they were checking for the thickness of my endothelial and because that’s where inflammatory stuff happens. And again, this is in the bale don’t mean but. And she said, man, your heart is super healthy. And that made me feel good at peace of mind to know that, you know that my endothelial inflammation is actually really low. Yeah, someone could say, oh, look at your cholesterol you you’ve got, you know, inflammation, for sure. And it’s just like, No, actually, if you look at the endothelium it shows that I’m just fine. So that’s cool. So you know, dialing in that in and I you know, like so most of my work, personally is just bloodwork and

Regan 23:52
you get your testosterone brought up. Did you did you end up? Yes. So So where did where it’s like optimal? Where did you want 1000? Well, you want to be at 1000 And so you’re around 300 So they got you back up to 1000 Yes, did that feel different?

Dr. Chad Johnson 24:06
No, believe it or not? No, I I’ve got a little bulkier in the last year so I can tell that and I started taking So what’s cool is she also like because she costs being a concierge doctor. I have an annual fee. But then what’s cool is then i She saved me money by doing this testosterone therapy as opposed to doing it you know, just at a local clinic that you know can charge a 300 bucks per pop or something like you know 500 bucks per pop or something like that. But mine was medically necessary it was 15 bucks copay on my insurance for like a half year supply. Yeah, and so what’s cool is like all the sudden, I felt like my workout endurance was improving because again I’m in essence I’m doping. I mean, you know, like, it’s not it’s not where people that are

Regan 24:59
doping, doing tests. Faster adding Jocelyn. I mean, you do if you do estrogen replacement, is that considered doping? Also?

Dr. Chad Johnson 25:05
I don’t think so. But if but I’m not, I’m not again, you know, positive about that, because but I know women sometimes do testosterone therapy, right? Yes, they do. And that would be an abnormal amount of testosterone because your body isn’t used to that, right. So that would be in essence doping. But for a man to be able to have 1000, you know, whatever it is milligrams per deciliter. Who knows, but what the measurements 1000 For for that measurement. It’s, it’s actually just getting it back to to normal, what it should be, I was doing, they’ve got these point five CC bottles, and I was doing that, uh, you know, half a twice a week, half of it twice a week. So I would use the point five, and it was at 1200. And she said, Well, that’s a little high, because people that are actually injecting for, you know, competition stuff. They’re going 3000 5000 They’re doing, you know, ridiculous high numbers. Mine is just getting it back to optimal. So when I call it doping, I’m halfway, you know, joking about it. It’s not, you know, but again, I’m not doing any Olympic competition, right, I’m competing against myself. This is just for self healthiness. And so when I do the testosterone replacement, we cut it back in half. So I’m just actually doing point two five CC’s a week, which then is even just half of that, you know, twice a week. And, and then by dialing it in half, it was still 1000. And so she’s like, good, there’s a good number. And we we, you know, toyed around with getting it titrated how would we know bloodwork?

Regan 26:45
So if your blood work is in your way to LD indicators are indicating health? Yeah, what what spurred the decision to include the semaglutide? peptides?

Dr. Chad Johnson 26:59
Yes, so that was it, I wanted actually to do the testosterone replacement therapy, because for weight loss, because I was just like, I told Dr. Gene, I said, you know, I’m still working out the same. And I’ve gained 20 pounds, right. And I said, it’s kind of frustrating, because, like, I was getting ready for a half Ironman, and I was dialing in and I was at 225. And I want it to get down to 220. And the month before the event, I started going up to 230 to 35. And I was like, This is really weird that I was going up in weight when I was trying to like then lose the last five pounds, I all of a sudden went up 10 pounds. That’s frustrating. And,

Regan 27:41
oh, I’d be so thrilled with that to just gain 10 pounds. But I trying to go the opposite direction,

Dr. Chad Johnson 27:47
right? Women you can understand. So then I told her, I said, you know that well then I started doing the testosterone, I went up to 250. And I gained muscle and you’re six

Regan 27:58
foot four or five? Yeah, yeah, just to put it in perspective. Sure. You’re not rocking the five foot three over here?

Dr. Chad Johnson 28:05
Correct. So I did the testosterone replacement. And, and I still wasn’t like, I was gaining muscle. But at the same time, I was like, Man, I feel like I’m not losing the fat percentage. I’m not losing the weight, like so. This helps me gain muscle, but it’s not really helping me lose fat, even though hypothetically it should. The more muscle you have, the more energy you’re burning throughout the day, especially if you’re working it out. So then I you know, I asked her I was just like, you know, I heard you mentioned some peptides that you can take she mentioned semaglutide. And so come to find out that this is not simply just a peptide, but it’s quite a popular Hollywood drug for losing weight called Hey, called ozempic. Yeah, and but I’m just taking the, you know, a small dose of it. And once a week, then I started shedding weight. Oh, man. I mean, so now I’m actually getting the results that I wanted. I joked around with the nurse and with Dr. Jean I said, I was sending them a text I said I want Beachbody you know, give me calendar Beachbody, you know, and she is just like, give it give this

Regan 29:14
on video listeners. Can you see my eye roll? Right? I know. You confirm the entire decade I’ve known you but I understand though. You want to push better. Yes, you can be and you want. Exactly. So everyone’s different on that journey. It’s also really frustrating when you’re trying to lose weight and nothing is working. And then it feels almost like magic to make one slight adjustment. Yep. And all of us I mean, at least for me, that’s how it was for me. I made one adjustment and then it all just the dominoes started going down. And I’m like oh after years of not seeing movement. So I like I like that one adjustment has helped you get back to where you want to be. The other thing that I wanted to bring up was monitoring your sleep through the aura ring. So when we were at the workshop, Chad had on wedding ring and then this other black brain. Yeah, I hadn’t seen it before. So I said what is that? And Michelle

Dr. Chad Johnson 30:04
shown it off on video if you’ve seen it on video.

Regan 30:06
Yes, yeah. Michelle Hudson is our she does hygiene calibration she owns I can’t remember integrative. Remember what her coaching thing is. But um, anyway, she’s a great great PDA alumni was Dr. Bruce Barrett’s. Hi, Janice, she mentioned doing the aura ring also. So I’m really curious about this. And you showed me so tell listeners about that and how you’ve been using it. Yeah, so

Dr. Chad Johnson 30:27
there’s an app on your phone. And in the aura ring, what she was what Dr. Gina was trying to do was, and I’m just showing here, you know, the app for the video people.

Regan 30:38
Oh, you are a

Dr. Chad Johnson 30:40
correct, yep. And the goal of it was I did a sleep test and I have mild obstructive sleep apnea, I started wearing an oral appliance I had that made through my Syriac I emailed it to through the portal to Great Lakes and had an appliance made. And Mom, that’s actually something that I noticed was not the first week. But eventually I found that I was like I’m sleeping better. I’m waking up actually in the same position. That’s kind of weird that I’m actually waking up in the center, like I’m not slapping around all night. And Sarah, my wife appreciates that I’m not snoring, I’m sure. Right. And so that actually was a huge improvement to my health after dialing in the testosterone. After using temporarily, you know, currently the semaglutide. And, and having an oral appliance. This just helps me monitor how it actually gives me a sleep score every night. And I can look at that stuff.

Regan 31:37
And identify that too. Oh, yes.

Dr. Chad Johnson 31:41
Yes. Yeah, I actually look at the week and I just go, Oh, of course, you know, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I got better sleep. Then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, because I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and stuff like that. So I look at stuff like that. But my blood work was the key. And I think if I have a take home message, I gave you guys some tangible stuff that I’ve been doing. But it’s my goal isn’t to say, I’ve done intermittent fasting. So you should too. I’ve done these things. So you should do like maybe you should check it out. And so I gave you ideas. But the take home message actually is for myself. Well, and it carries on to you as the listener bloodwork can be the key to it. And and then I think that might, you know, correlate to next week’s discussion how, you know, Reagan found that, that her blood work was improved. And so but going through these journeys, and asking yourself, okay, not only am I minimally healthy, but how could I maximize my health in the next year?

Regan 32:40
Thank you, I, my takeaway from this is, you really do get off of autopilot. Yeah, so stay off, get off of autopilot, be your own advocate. And, and it’s regardless, regardless of where you’re at. And I think that that’s, it’s kind of like the difference between going from good to great. So you can be in a bear in an area of total complacency because you are fine. So according to American standards, you’re fine. So why not just keep doing it. And what I don’t like about that model is that there’s some things that can be lurking underneath. And we know that fear comes from the unknown. So you were very inspiring to me, Chad, because you said I’m going to you know, rip that band aid off and I’m going to make the unknown known. So and I think bloodwork and specific panels is a key that that. So there are different panels that you can take that will tell you different things, and you went deep. So getting in with Gina Pritchard and saying I want to explore all of it helped you so that you can stay in absolute optimal health, which is your vision as a human being is how to empower others into optimal health.

Dr. Chad Johnson 33:44
I’m healthier than I was five years ago, let’s just say that. And the cool thing is, I also don’t have a bloody nose anymore. So yay, for that we’ve basically dialed in my blood pressure dialed in my blood work. And by most other people’s measures, they’d be like, Chad doesn’t need to go to the doctor. You know what I told myself, I don’t need to go to the doctor. And for decades, I bet I went twice, you know, you know for an earache from swimming, and stuff like that. But I was like, You know what, I’m 40. And he Oh, Victoria would be proud of this.

Regan 34:17
You also, that’s Victoria Peterson, our CEO of productive Academy. Exactly.

Dr. Chad Johnson 34:24
You also are your biggest risk to your office. So doctor, you need to make sure your health is dialed in. So that way you’re lowering your risk factors of being a detriment to your practice if you weren’t at your peak game. So with that, be encouraged. Tell us about your health journey. Regan at productive dentists.com And Chad at productive dentist.com You can right below on Facebook. If there’s a you know if you’re getting the link from this will have a comment section or you could private message us we’d love to hear how we could help encourage you with your health journey to

Regan 35:04
thank you, Chad and thank you listeners. See you next week. Woohoo. Thank you for listening to another episode of everyday practices podcast. Chad and I are here every week. Thanks to our community of listeners just like you, and we’d love your help. It would mean the world if you can help spread the word by sharing this episode with a fellow dentist and leave us a review on iTunes or Spotify. Do you have an extraordinary story you’d like to share? Or feedback on how we can make this podcast even more awesome? Drop us an email at podcast at productive dentist.com And don’t forget to check out our other podcasts from productive dentist Academy at productive dentists.com/podcasts See you next week.