Latest / Intellectual Medicine / The Tests Men With Prostate Cancer Should Question First | Dr. Stephen Petteruti

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The Tests Men With Prostate Cancer Should Question First | Dr. Stephen Petteruti · Intellectual Medicine

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  We all want to live long. We all want vitality.
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  None of us want to age. But there's so much smoke and
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  mirrors out there gang. There are a lot of would be anti
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  aging specialist body hackers that are using the ambition you
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  have for legitimate anti aging to direct you toward proprietary
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  pathways selling you junk. Look, I don't mind selling you
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  stuff, but it damn well better work, better be substance behind
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  it. All right?
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  Body hackers, we all. Want to live long?
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  We all want vitality. None of us want to age.
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  But there's so much smoke and mirrors out there, gang.
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  My job, in part, is to separate the myth from the reality.
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  So here are the things that I think are really kind of dorky
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  and I don't think you should do. There are a lot of well would be
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  anti aging specialist body hackers that are using the
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  ambition you have for legitimate anti aging to direct you toward
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  well proprietary pathways selling you junk.
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  But I don't mind selling you stuff.
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  But it damn well better work, better be substance behind it.
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  So let's get right to it. Here's one thing I heartily
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  recommend you never do a DEXA scan.
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  These DEXA scans are promoted as a means of assessing percent
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  body fat, muscle mass. They can do that, but at what
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  price? You're being exposed to ionizing
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  radiation, people. That's carcinogenic.
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  You don't need it. You can get a good assessment of
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  percent body fat and muscle mass through bio electric impedance
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  testing. The in body is 1 brand name.
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  There are others. Although I like that device, we
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  use it in my practice. It enables us to determine
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  percent body fat and muscle mass and compare it over time without
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  risking your health, without exposing you to radiation.
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  You don't fight aging by willfully exposing yourself to
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  carcinogens. It is important to know how the
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  muscles are doing. As go the muscle, so goes the
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  bone. More muscle, more vitality,
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  longer life, so bone density. No assessing muscle mass,
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  Absolutely. What's a better way to do that?
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  Simple grip strength. These are well validated metrics
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  that correlate better with lifespan and health than blood
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  pressure, than cholesterol levels, than DEXA scans.
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  It's not sexy. It's a literal grip strength
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  inexpensive device that any anti aging specialist should be
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  familiar with and make available to you.
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  It doesn't cost really anything. So this is part of my standard
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  assessments is getting grip strength so we can serve as a
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  point of comparison year over year.
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  It's another thing that I that I don't like and I don't think you
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  should ever do. I'm not a big advocate.
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  In fact, I've never ordered a biological aging blood test.
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  Really, these things are completely made-up, and they're
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  projecting or attempting to correlate it with your
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  biological age, a ridiculous concept.
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  They can tell from a blood test where you rank.
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  Yeah, they can compare biometric markers.
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  They can compare them based upon age norms.
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  That's not that relevant. What matters the most is not
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  your biological biometric age. There are lab tests worthy of
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  evaluating and worthy of tracking, but they don't predict
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  your age, folks. So let's just stop this fantasy.
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  Oh, my biological age is actually 28.
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  Really, what matters is your segmental age.
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  Segmental age? We don't age the same.
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  If your brain is going fast, that supersedes any biometric.
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  How about your heart? Your arteries?
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  How about your joints? If your biological age based on
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  some made-up metric is 28, but you've got advanced arthritis in
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  your joints, you could have a joint that's 80 years old.
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  That's the focus. We are as young as our oldest
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  part, so looking at it segmentally far more important.
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  How do you do that? History helps.
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  There are some imaging studies that can help.
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  I don't like doing a whole body MRI.
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  That's another thing that is a ridiculous waste of money.
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  You're going to look for what, for cancer, for hardening of the
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  arteries, and you're going to find shadows all over the place.
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  It's going to create anxiety. It's going to create false
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  targets. Now you find a cyst in your
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  liver. Most people have them.
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  Oh, but it could be something. You're going to find a nodule in
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  your kidney. You're going to find a lump in
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  your thyroid. Far better to do targeted
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  segmental assessment. At the right age, say 50 or
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  older, a calcium score of your heart is worth getting.
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  It's a CAT scan of your heart. It can tell you whether or not
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  and how much hardening of the arteries you have calcium build
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  up. It's inexpensive.
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  Yes it's radiation exposure, but it's a one and done test.
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  You don't track this test that frequently.
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  It doesn't change that quickly. At age 50 if your calcium scores
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  is 0. Good news, your risk of a heart
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  attack, stroke, heart failure, practically non existent for the
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  next 10 years. A valuable tool to help
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  determine how aggressively you should be focusing on
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  cardiovascular, either support or restoration.
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  Another test worth getting is a consideration.
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  It's actually an MRI of your brain.
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  I mean, why not? Your brain is a vital part of
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  your aging dynamic that most people kind of ignore.
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  You can be losing cognitive function without knowing it.
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  Your brain adapts, it fills in the blanks, the words you can't
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  find. It builds a bridge over them.
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  Executive function can corrode, but you can compensate for that
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  until you can't. A brain MRI is a reasonable
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  consideration without contrast, right?
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  No radiation. It can help determine.
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  Do you have microvascular changes?
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  Are the capillaries damaged in a manner that is slowly killing
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  off neurons? So I like a one shot brain MRI.
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  What else do I like? Well, I like the told you
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  calcium score, the brain MRI. There's a test you can do to
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  help assess future cardiovascular risk in addition
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  to the ones I described. It's called the prevent
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  calculator. That's prevent PREVENT
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  calculator. You can put that in a search
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  engine and the calculator will pop up.
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  With the help of your doctor, you can order the necessary
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  testing, plug in the numbers and it will give you a 10 year risk
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  of heart attack, stroke, heart failure.
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  It's fantastic because it's the most accurate metric yet
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  devised. It supersedes.
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  It's better than what's out there currently, although it's
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  not fully mainstreamed yet. They look at things like total
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  cholesterol, HDL, your hemoglobin A1C measure of blood
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  sugar. Look at your creatinine
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  clearance, how well is your kidney filtering.
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  Look at the albumin to creatinine ratio in your urine.
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  This test can be easily ordered. Ask your doctor for it.
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  It'll tell you whether or not you're spilling protein into the
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  urine. An early sign of kidney damage,
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  which connects to arterial health.
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  All these things linked together, things not to get.
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  There's something out there called Lifeline where they
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  assess your arteries, they do an ultrasound of your abdomen, your
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  feet for peripheral vascular disease.
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  It sounds good, but it is useless.
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  You can make the same assessments just through your
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  history and if needed, imaging studies can be ordered in a
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  targeted manner. Brain, heart, kidney, these are
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  the areas we want to look at. Musculoskeletal that is
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  primarily history based. You don't need X-rays of your
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  joints. You really don't.
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  I really don't like getting X-rays just to see what's there.
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  If it'll make a decision about treatment that's different.
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  Once you know what you know, you don't have to track it.
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  What do I mean? So I have an arthritic shoulder
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  well established, had an X-ray three years ago.
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  It was bone on bone, saith the doctor.
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  Of course you guys know I don't believe in that Bone on bone
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  doesn't really reflect what's going on in the joint.
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  After all of his bone on bone, you can't move it because, well,
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  it's bone upon bone. If I can move my shoulder, let
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  me show it off my range of motion.
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  If I can move my shoulder, it tells me that the surface is
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  still intact on a microscopic level.
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  The idea of regrowing cartilage, Your body attempts to do that.
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  It can happen. Orthopaedic docs don't believe
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  in that. But history defies the common
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  notion that bone on bone is irreversible.
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  So I guess I'll put that in my category of things to be
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  cautious about. Be wary of getting joints
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  replaced if it has to happen. I get it, it's something that
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  may enhance function when pain can't otherwise be controlled.
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  But go slowly down that path, try to regenerate your joints,
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  and if it gets replaced, remember the muscles that
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  surround it or what's going to maintain it for as long as
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  possible. Once that joint gets replaced,
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  it's going to start to decay, so you want to avoid weakening the
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  muscles that surround it. And this is where things like
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  testosterone and the proper use of peptides can come in.
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  And while I'm on that topic, I'll put that in my category of
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  things not to do. Body hackers that are going
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  online and buying peptides for research purposes only.
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  That's how they're labeled. That means they were
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  manufactured likely overseas. They're manufactured in a manner
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  that is not fit for human use. One study found that the
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  majority of peptides tested for human for experimental purposes
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  only. These are the kind you can buy
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  direct online. You'll get bombarded by them
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  with all the promotional hype that goes along with it.
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  How fantastic they are. I'm going to do peptide
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  stacking. No, you're going to be exposing
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  yourself to fruitless expense in most cases with unknown purity
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  and quality. One study found that the
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  majority of peptides sold online had in fact nothing in them.
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  They were selling you powder. A placebo.
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  How about purity? If they say it's 99% pure,
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  that's contaminated folks. It doesn't take much to create
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  an adverse reaction. Furthermore, there's a better
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  solution. Yes, there are peptides that are
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  completely legal for doctors to prescribe.
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  If you're using a peptide, it should be coming from a doctor
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  or a nurse practitioner. In some cases, a licensed
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  naturopath can have authority to prescribe.
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  It should not be coming from Freddie the body hacker online.
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  These people are there for a purpose and the purpose is to
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  make them money and sell you stuff with a bunch of hype
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  without much tangible value. Peptides, properly directed,
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  properly utilized, can have a niche to fill, but they should
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  be from a cleared American compounding pharmacy.
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  And if they're not, they're not worth it.
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  Folks, you could do better things with your time, with your
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  money, with better effect. There are peptides that are
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  clean and available. You want to have a legitimate
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  provider. If a doctor or provider guides
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  you towards black market peptides, in my opinion, they're
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  operating below the highest ethical standards.
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  You cannot do that to people in clear conscience thinking that
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  they'll be no potential adverse effect.
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  In fact, it might even be technically illegal, but I'm not
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  here to be a whistleblower. I'm here to help you stay vital
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  stay healthy yes maintain anti aging.
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  So avoiding the hype, avoiding the false notions, avoiding the
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  the pitch for targeted supplements based upon specious
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  lab testing. So most of the places where you
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  can get biological age testing done, they're going to link that
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  to supplements you should use to make your biological age score
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  look better. OK, it's just a circular logic.
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  You're treating numbers and labs, not cellular health.
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  Another thing that I don't believe has merit this over
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  promotion of MTHFR mutation imposing or at least implying
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  that you are methylating in an inefficient inappropriate manner
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  and because you have a mutation called the MTHFR, you need
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  special supplements so you can methylate better.
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  Methylation is valuable, it's important, and there are some
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  people that are methylate that are challenged in their ability
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  to methylate a relative minority of them.
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  It can be assessed quite easily by looking at your homocysteine
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  level. It can be assessed quite easily,
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  easily by looking at the folate and the vitamin B12 levels.
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  There are legitimate ways to look at it, but methylation
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  mutation is a mislabel. We all have MTHFR genotypes.
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  It would be like calling blue eyes a mutation.
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  It is a trait. So you, me, all of us, we have
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  an MTHFR trait and there are very few people, an exquisite
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  minority that have a true mutation that imposes risk to
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  their health. One of the most sensitive
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  markers for methylation inadequacy is an elevated
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  homocysteine level simple blood test easily acquired.
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  So avoid the hyper promotion of supplements.
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  Link up with a provider that can help guide you in that in that
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  space as well. If you're buying a supplements
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  online from a company that sells supplements, it's hard to get a
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  straight answer. I like clinicians who really you
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  pay them for their mind, for their guidance, for their
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  opinion, but they're relatively agnostic when it comes to the
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  supplements that they'll recommend.
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  Focusing really on what's best for the patient.
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  That's the goal, that's the direction.
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  So get me to a good anti aging specialist.
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  They're out there. You know, I've been doing this
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  for many years. You don't find it through
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  conventional medicine. I will say another tip for your
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  anti aging pursuit, a Doctor Who is working for a company, a
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  hospital, a group, or is taking a conventional insurance as
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  reimbursement is less likely to have the interest, the knowledge
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  and the capacity to fully engage in your anti aging guided
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  therapy. It's not that they are
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  incapable, it's just they're put themselves in a position of
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  having to follow the standard of care for conventional medicine.
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  It's a separate universe. You got conventional medicine
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  over here, disease intervention. You have what you and I really
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  want, vitality, youthful energy, a lack of decay.
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  That, my friends, requires guidance from a clinician who's
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  dedicated significant time to acquiring the fund of knowledge
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  to guide you and can give you the time needed to execute that
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  path. Well, I hope these tips have
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  helped you a little bit. I hope they, I hope they help
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  you focus. Look, we all have a finite
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  budget. Time, money, swallow capacity,
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  injection tolerance. There are a lot of things out
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  there. You can't do them all.
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  You want to do the ones that matter the most to you.
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  So avoid radiation, avoid DEXA scans, avoid well specious
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  testing, biological aging, lot of smoke and mirrors.
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  One last thing to avoid VO2 Max. I see this promoted a lot.
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  It is a test of how efficiently your body is utilizing oxygen.
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  It is true that if you have a good VO2 Max, you're well
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  conditioned. A lot of athletes have a
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  fabulous VO2 Max. It doesn't mean, however,
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  they're going to live a long time.
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  It just means that you're conditioned.
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  The idea that this parallels longevity is a false
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  extrapolation. It parallels conditioning.
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  It parallels cardiovascular capacity.
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  You look at NBA players have a great the O2 Max.
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  Are they going to live long? A lot of pro athletes have
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  disappointingly short life spans.
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  So I don't like the O2 Max as a metric of anti aging.
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  I think if you want to utilize it to measure your conditioning
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  regimen, I suppose that's OK. You can get the same result by
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  doing more simple testing. One last Test.
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  One last Test that's worth considering.
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  It's called the Sit stand test. I know it sounds stupidly simple
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  because it is. You literally cross your hands
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  over your shoulders like this and in 30 seconds see how many
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  times you can stand, sit and stand again with a chair
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  underneath your butt. Standard chair.
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  Look at that number and then compare it year over year.
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  It should remain stable or improve.
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  That test correlates better with longevity than VO2 Max.
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  Simple and expensive. All right, well, that's all I
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  got for today team. Thanks for watching and let's
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  keep fighting aging. Let's live the future like it's
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  now. Staying vital.
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  Get old chronologically, but not physiologically.
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  See you next time.