July 30, 2025 • 26 mins
Jonas Knox and LaVar Arrington sit down with Dr. Ara Suppiah, Head of Tournament Medical Services for LIV Golf and founder of Functional Sports Medicine, for a no-BS talk about men’s health. From why guys dodge the doctor to things to keep an eye on down the road, LaVar and Jonas get real about staying in the game. Whether you're chasing a championship or just trying to keep up with your kids, this one’s got the playbook every guy needs.
This episode of 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe was independently created by iHeartRadio. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp is the exclusive advertising partner. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Please speak with your healthcare professional before making any treatment decisions.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ira. This is Two Pros and a Cup of Joff
your job, jap Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
are kicking off your day? Who is Jeff LeVar Arrington,
Brady Quam, Jonas knocks in the world. That's the only
way to describe it. Live from the studios of Fox
(00:23):
Sports Radio, Here's Jonas Knox and LeVar Arrington. This episode
of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe was independently
created by iHeartRadio. Novardes Pharmaceuticals Corp. Is the exclusive advertising partner.
It is intended for informational and educational purposes only and
is not intended as medical advice. Please speak with your
(00:44):
healthcare professional before making any treatment decisions. Welcome to Two
Pros and a Cup of Joe. I'm Jonas Knox here
with LeVar Arrington, and today we're stepping off the field
and into something just as important, your health.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's right, Jonas. Listen, we're talking about, well, how guys
can stay in the game when it comes to their health,
especially as we get older. And I know about that.
I'm getting a little bit older. And we've got a
special guest who knows a thing or two about keeping
elite athletes in peak shape. Jonas, Listen, I tell you
all the time. My family has a lot of health issues,
(01:22):
heart hypertension, back problems that I had to get a
back out of me the other day. I tell you what,
that's all right, Jonas, Because well, as long as you're
keeping up with your health and keeping it an important
part of what's going on, that's when things are well preventable. Yeah,
it's preventable, Jonas, that's right.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah. And listen, when you go to see a doctor.
Sometimes people think the only time they have to go
see a doctor or get checked up is when there's
something wrong. And sometimes, yeah, you can notice certain things,
and other times there's underlying issues that you need to
get checked out, just because it's better to get ahead
of it than to be behind it. It's never a
good idea to have to all of a sudden react
(02:01):
to something. When you can be proactive and get aggressive
with it early and take your health seriously, it's always
a better way to go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Definitely is. And listen, don't worry. We're not gonna get preachy.
This isn't about you know all of that. This is
about real talk, real stories, and real strategies to help
you stay in the game.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And Doctor Arasapaya is a personal physician on the PGA
and Live Tour, founder of Functional Sports Medicine, and a
guy who's worked with some of the best athletes in
the world. He's here now to break down what every
man needs to know about staying healthy, catching problems early,
and having real conversations with your doctor.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Doc, you've worked with some of the top names in
golf and beyond. Can you share a little bit about
your background and how you got into sports medicine.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Guys, First of all, thank you for having me big
fan of your show. How I thought it was very simple.
I wanted to be a professional athlete. I wanted to
be a pro tennis player. It turned out I was
too short, and I got a scholarship to go study
medicine in the United Kingdom in the UK, and so
my mom and my.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Coach were like, no, you need to go be a doctor.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
So they were right though, I turned out to be
a much better doctor than I ever would have been
a tennis player. So that's how I got into medicine,
and then I trained in the UK. After graduating medical school,
I trained as a surgeon. I didn't quite like it,
even though I got bought certified, and then I swopped
to train in emergency medicine.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And during that time.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I discovered a kid came in with a sprained ankle
and he asked me a very simple question, when can
I play tennis again?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Right?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And I realized like, despite all my training, all my studying,
I couldn't answer the question. And so that then got
me into studying sports medicine. And from there, you know,
I started working with fortunately in golf, with a lot
of European tour players and it just snowball from there.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Guys, what's it like being a personal physician on say,
the PGA Tour. Is there any stories you can share?
We don't want your name and names, we don't want
you getting in trouble. But what is that? What is
that personal experience like for you? So far?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's well, it's a blessing, right Like I get to
live vicariously through my athletes. I was a golf not
I get to be inside the ropes. I get to
see all the things that go on. I get to
see the one side of them that makes them incredible
at what they do. And then on the other side,
how They are just every bit like you and me.
(04:41):
You know, they have the same problems, the same issues
I deal with.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
You know, it's not all glamorous.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I also work in the emergency room, so it's not
all trauma. You know, you deal with coughs and calls,
and so these guys have the same thing. And then
I've I've you know, I mean I've seen everything, and
I've had a guy who was playing in Oman who
called me up at two am and said, hey, my
my testicle is painful.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
What do I do?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I'm going to tee up in two hours and can
balue walk. So, you know, try solving that problem from.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Here, that is an interesting problem to have to solve.
And and thank goodness there are people that you can
go to to help you with with doing So let
me ask you, this, doc, What's what's one thing you
wish more men understood about their health?
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I think most men are. They delay their care, they
delay their approach to health. You know, they put it behind.
You know, if you if you go back and look
at us, like we are hunters by by nature, right,
hunter gatherers, so we were the hunters. Hunters have to
get a job done. They can't you know, if your
elbow hurt, your knee hurts, you got to go hunt,
(05:54):
you got to feed the family, so you get things done.
And that's that evolution has an changed. So for most part,
I would say, you know, most men, they have other
priorities in life and they put that ahead before seeking
medical advice. Right, that's number one, And then number two,
(06:14):
I think many men, like I see this in the
er all the time. Men are fearful. Women are much
more open and coming seeing doctor having a conversation early
than men are. Oftentimes, when by the time a man
comes in and he's been having chess plain for six months,
and I say, well, what took you so long? And
(06:35):
the wife will say, you know, he's stubborn, but he's
actually fearful. He doesn't want to deal with, you know,
all the potential things it could be, all the bad
things and what it could mean, and so often they
put things off. And what I'd like to say is
that may have been through many moons ago, but we
live at a time when technology, treatment, diagnosis, everything is
(07:01):
so much better.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
There are so many diseases.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
When I was training as a medical medical student, you know,
those diseases were deadly, and now they are reversible. We
have medications. You know, chemotherapy used to be brutal, and
now people get in, go home, and you know, come
back to the clinic, get their treatment tablet form no
IV with minimum side effects. So if you can pick
(07:25):
it up early, we can get a great outcome.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And you mentioned you know men, you know, being hesitant
to want to go see the doctor. Do you see
this among pro athletes as well too, or is it
more of a general population issue.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Oh, they are just as bad. Oh, trust me, they
are just as bad. You have no I mean last
week I was working abroad on Live and I had
a guy with a wrist issue and he had he'd
had the pain for weeks, and I'd seen him multiple times.
(07:57):
Never once did he say anything, you know, And I
was like, why didn't you say something sooner? And sure
enough the answer was exactly the same, like, hey, you know,
I didn't want to deal with it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I wanted to compete. I wanted to you know.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
So yeah, no, like I said, as I get to
see the human side to them, and they are exactly
the same as all the rest of us, no different.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
How do you explain the importance of regular checkups to
guys who basically right now they feel fine.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
You know, feeling fine is kind of a low benchmark,
you know if you think about it. Right, your car,
you have scheduled maintenance and most people will take time
out of the day to go get their car service.
Your AC filter needs to be changed regularly otherwise you're
going to run into trouble. The body is no different, right,
(08:48):
take heart disease for instance, by the time you get
symptoms of chest pain or the classical symptoms, you know,
pain going down the arm, you know you've already had
a blockage which has been there for many years that
was developing.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
You could have picked this up.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Way earlier, and nowadays it's reversible. So you know, feeling
fine is is great until at certain age. So certainly
after the age of forty, you want to go see
you get your cholesterol check because if your cholesterol goes up,
you have no idea. Right if you start having symptoms
of heart disease, you have no idea. So there are
(09:26):
a lot of things that are silent. It's really important
to go see somebody and pick those up as just
just think of it as maintenance.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So, doctor, what are some of the most common health
issues you see in men over fifty.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
The most common things are the things like common calls, coughs,
you know, bronchitis, stuff like that, right, and then we
see the ones that like chronic diseases, heart disease, high
blood pressure, diabetes, those things men women, you see that
over the age of fifty, okay, and then there are
you know, your cancers typically your colorectal ca answer, prostate
(10:02):
and bladder. And then the things that often are not
addressed are you know, things like irrectile dysfunction. Many men
will not address it, they will not talk about it.
They embarrassed. Vision changes, so many men have problems, you know,
the eyesight gets worse and they don't go see a
(10:23):
doctor when they could, you know, losing your eyesight and
more importantly, losing your hearing, which is also something that
you know is more common after the age of fifty,
significantly increases your risk of Alzheimer's, but you won't know
that until you go get seen, right, So those are
very very common. And then lastly, mental health issues isolation, depression,
(10:46):
sadly suicide still still big issues in men over the
age of fifty.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
What are some easy and everyday things that men can
do to stay ahead of their health problems and issues.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Oh man, you're not gonna I mean, you're not gonna
like this answer. Oh it's okay. Let me let me.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
You know, everybody's heard about eating healthy and stuff, right,
so let me let's start. Let's do something slightly different.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
First and foremost, make sure you get you know, enough sleep.
I'm not going to give you an exact number, but
it's somewhere between six and eight hours for most people.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Make that your priority. And if you cannot sleep again,
that is one of those things you should go see
your doctor about because not only are there you know,
conditions like sleep app near or prostate issues that are
the reason why you're not sleeping, but sleep is the
best anti inflammatory I could prescribe, and I can prescribe drugs.
(11:48):
Right for every single athlete, sleep is your ultimate age.
So prioritize and make sure you get enough sleep.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And then I would say avoid smoking, avoid vaping. Thirdly,
I would say move rather than exercise. I would consider like,
think of it as movement. And when it comes to movement,
I want your listeners to make sure they understand that.
For every single one of you. I want you to
focus on just like an athlete. Okay, speed, strength, power, endurance,
(12:25):
and agility. There are five components to movement, and it
doesn't matter who you are, at what stage you are.
If you can only walk around your block, well, one day,
try to walk it a little bit faster, you know,
one day, try to endurance and say, okay, you know what,
let me see if I can walk a block in
a bit more, you know, adding strength to your walk.
(12:47):
Anything that you can do to incorporate all five components
will help you get healthier faster. And then you know,
there's old adage that I like, you know, eat less,
but eat better, and finally, hydrate like half your body weight.
There's two things, sleep and hydration. If you give this up,
(13:07):
you're giving up huge, huge, huge advantages in life as general.
So hydration is at a BAM minimum. Whatever you weigh
in pounds, drink half of that in oounce us of water.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So we're going to be back right here with doctor Arasapaya.
Don't go anywhere here on this special edition of two
Pros and a Cup of Joe. Now, let's talk about
something that affects a lot of men, but doesn't get
talked about enough as well too, And that's prostate cancer.
It's the second most common cancer in American men, with
about one in eight being diagnosed in their lifetime. In
(13:42):
twenty twenty five alone, over three hundred and thirteen thousand
new cases are expected in the US, and it's the
second leading cause of cancer death in men. Most cases
are found in men over sixty five, but early detection
can make a huge difference. So what should men know
about prostate cancer, especially as they get older. What are
the symptoms you can tell us about?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Great question. Let's start with symptoms. At the early stages.
You'll have urinary symptoms, okay, that is difficulty is starting
to pee, and difficulty stopping. When you stop, you'll still
dribble a little bit. You know, things like that which
are starting to change. You didn't have that, and now
you're starting to develop those symptoms, and then needing to
(14:25):
pee way more often, like feeling like you need to
pee a lot, peeing a lot, especially through the night,
waking up multiple times to p and then if you
see any blood in the urine or in the semuen,
then you know those are all tell tale signs. But
here's the thing. Those symptoms are not unique to prostate cancer.
That just could be an enlarged prostate like benign prosthetic
(14:47):
hypertrophy which is BPH can mimic they can produce exactly
same symptoms, right. But here's why I want you to
pay attention. If you have those symptoms, and in addition,
you have persistent bone pain, specifically your hips or your
lower back, If you feel extremely tired all of a sudden,
(15:08):
you know, over the last six months, you feel like,
oh my god, I don't know what's going on. If
you've lost significant weight without crying, in addition to the
urinary symptoms, those are signs that you really need to
go see your doctor and get this checked out because
those could be signs of prostetic cancer.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Doctor, what's the difference between early stage and metastatic prostate cancer?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Early stage is often defined as the cancer staying within
the prostate. Many times it happens later in life and
it's not as aggressive, right because it's slow growing and
it often stays in the prostate itself. But there is
a variant. There is one type. We don't know why yet,
but there are certain people who develop a very aggressive
(15:53):
form of prostate cancer, even in later life when it
starts spreading very quickly outside the so metastatic prostate cancer
means the bone. It's it has spread usually to the bones.
And that's why I was saying. You know, if you're
pain in your hips, if you're paining your lower back,
persistent pain with urinary symptoms, you want to be very
(16:14):
careful and see you know that's it has spread those areas.
It can also spread to the to the lower part
of the belly, to the abdomen, palvis area, and and
can cause persistent pain.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So that's the difference.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Now you talked about the early stage of of prostate
cancer and understanding it. What is ps M A PET scans?
What are those and why are they so important?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Great question? So this is something most you know, it's
fairly new. So that's a really good question. So ps
M a PET scan is if it's a it's a
very it's a fancy scan. It's done not to screen, Okay,
So it's usually done in early stages when you've been
diagnosed with state cancer. The whole thing takes about two hours.
(17:02):
But the scan, you know, what happens is you go
see them, they put an IV in you and then
they inject this radioactive material and then they give it
about thirty minutes. And the idea behind it is things
like prostate cancer have unique markers. Okay, so think about
like a zip code. If you have that zip code,
(17:23):
then you know that's unique to certain area. Right, So
prostate cancer has a unique marker on it, and they
can identify by injecting this radioactive material that goes to
those specific zip codes. So from there they can see
you has your prostate cancer spread. Additionally, if you've had
(17:44):
cancer before and you've been treated, it's a good way
to screen you to see if.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
It's coming back, is it spread? Is it coming back?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
So that's that's a fairly new scan, very very very effective.
If you add it with a CT scan, it's it's
very very good be done early stage or prostate cancer.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
M How can guys start the conversation with their I mean,
I know, I did, I went and I'm I'm forty
seven and I got an exam. I did it. You know, listen,
I'm comfortable talking about it because I want to help
other people to go be comfortable with it as well.
But you know, how do you have the conversation with them,
(18:23):
you know, in terms of the symptoms, being worried about them,
and knowing what to say in particular.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
First of all, as doctors, we don't judge, right what
I mean, let me tell you whatever you think you have,
we've either seen it, heard about it, or read about
it like.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
We've seen it.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Okay, so you're not being judged number one. Number two,
if it's really difficult, just start with that conversation. Just
start by saying, Doc, I'm worried about something and leave
it there. And most doctors will look at you and open,
you know, create a space for you to say, oh,
what's going on, you know, and have and take you
(19:04):
down the conversation where we can ask you questions and
then you can be more open about it.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
And I think specifically with prostate cancer, the days of
you know, you know, finger up the butt, feeling you know,
time for you know, glove finger that those those days
are few and far between because we can do blood
tests now, right, run your PSA and check you for symptoms.
And you know, if you don't want to get that done,
you can get a scan. There are there are there
(19:31):
are ultrasound scans, there are cat scans. There's so many
other scans that you can do to get a diagnosis of,
you know, an enlarged prostate or prostate cancer. So the
important thing is when you have these symptoms, have the
conversation and just start there and just say, Doc, I
got something on my mind. Just start there, and most doctors,
(19:51):
we are trained, we know, we know how to take
you from there.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Doc, What does personalized treatment mean? In the context of
prostate cancer?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Things have changed significantly in terms of diagnosis, in terms
of treatment, and so survival rates have gone out right.
What we can do now is we can now identify
the type of cancer you have and how it's going
to respond to treatment based on you, your age, your lifestyle,
(20:23):
your genetics, and then based on the cancer itself. We
can actually study the cancer and see, you know, hey,
this type of cancer is going to respond to hormone treatment,
this type is not. This type is likely to respond
to immunotherapy, this one is not. And so now we
can we can get very very personalized treatment specifically for you.
(20:45):
Because you know, what we know now is not all
can all prostate cancer behave exactly the same prostate cancer
in you can behave very differently to someone to prostate
cancer in someone else. So if we can understand that,
and we now have the means of studying that we
(21:05):
can now create treatment plans specifically for you. That's personalized
treatment right there.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
So, Doc, what's the biggest myth or misconception you hear
from men about their health?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
The most common one I get is when people say,
you know, if nothing hurts, I must be healthy. That
is the biggest misconception out there right now, you know,
And the reason is so many of the common conditions
the ones I mentioned right. You asked me a great question.
Why the common conditions after the age of fifty, right,
(21:40):
heart disease, Alzheimer's, vision changes, cancers. They often have no symptoms.
They are often building up in you without any symptoms.
So waiting till it hurts or waiting till you have
symptoms is late. So just because you don't have symptoms
(22:04):
doesn't mean you're healthy. Right, you want to go get
that checked. It's it's like saying, you know, just because
my car is running doesn't mean there's nothing wrong. You
still go get it serviced.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Right.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
It's exactly the same thing. So, you know, just no
symptoms doesn't mean, you're healthy. That's the that's a takeaway home,
takeaway point.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Dark a lot of great information thus far. If you
could give one piece of advice to every guy listening
right now, what would it.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Be, Oh, putting me on the spot, dude.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I said, there's a lot of spots in this conversation,
dot based on based on the phone call you got
from while you were working on the PGA tour late
at night.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Uh, you know, I think I think that's an easy
one to put you on the spot.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I think in this day and age, when you get
blood test done, or your blood pressure done, or all
of this done, and certainly this is applicable to you
know what I what I what I bring from the
professional athlete world is normal isn't optimal. You want to
be optimized. Being normal this day and age is a
(23:07):
very low benchmark. So get the goal to be optimized,
get the goal to stay dangerous.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Doc, you talk about normal, and these conversations aren't normal
for certain and that's why we are here having it
with you right now. How do we normalize it? Like
talking fantasy football on game day?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
You know, I would really what I've seen is.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
You know, like when I run blood work right on
my athletes, and they all know because I I'll do like,
say five or six of them at the same time,
you know, in one day, and they all coun't wait
to find out the testerone results or you know, one
of those things.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
They all compare. They love to compare. They love to compete.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
We as humans generally are like that, right, whether it's
body fat percentage, whether it's testasterone levels, anything like that.
And if you look at even nowadays with wearable data, right,
they love telling someone, Hey, I've got a sleep crown,
you know, I got you know, my sleep score was this,
you know. So if we can gamify, if you can
(24:10):
create a scorecard for things like heart health, diabetes, cancer,
brain function strength, then you can make it more fun.
Then you can actually say, you know what, you can
get guys competing towards having the best best heart health,
the best brain, you know. And I think that that
would be the way to do it. And that's coming,
(24:31):
that's actually coming. I've seen a few things in the
in the in the works that is going to make
it like that, and and things like you know, I'm
forty nine, but I have a biological age of twenty nine.
That's that's what's going to drive things like this. The
more we can measure those things and the more we
can alter outcomes, you know, indirectly, the game will win.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
The winner of the game will be healthy.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's an awesome conversation to have. You've done an amazing
job Dot. Thank you absolutely, doctor r H. Sapaya for
you know, coming onto the show and shedding some light
on such a major conversation and topic. Uh, that was
a masterclass and how you take control of your health Jonas.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, fantastic stuff. Whether you're a weekend warrior just trying
to stay in the game of life. The message is clear,
do not wait, talk to your doctor, know your numbers,
and take action.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Definitely take action, Doc. Before we let you go, though,
where can they follow you and where can they learn
more about the work you're doing?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
My website is uh doctor Rasupaya dot com a R
A s U P p I a h dot com.
And then on social media, I am on Instagram mostly
and LinkedIn. My Instagram handle is doctor.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Ra on Call. That's d R A r A on Call.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And then yeah, you'll find me.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
There, Doc, We'll catch you next time. On two Pros
and a Cup of Joe. Stay strong, stay smart, and
stay in the game.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
This episode of two Pros and a Cup of Joe
was independently created by iHeartRadio. Novardes Pharmaceuticals Corp. Is the
exclusive advertising partner. It is intended for informational and educational
purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice. Please
speak with your healthcare professional before making any treatment decisions.
Ira. This is Two Pros and a Cup of Joff
your job, jap Two Pros and a Cup of Joe
are kicking off your day? Who is Jeff LeVar Arrington,
Brady Quam, Jonas knocks in the world. That's the only
way to describe it. Live from the studios of Fox
(00:23):
Sports Radio, Here's Jonas Knox and LeVar Arrington. This episode
of Two Pros and a Cup of Joe was independently
created by iHeartRadio. Novardes Pharmaceuticals Corp. Is the exclusive advertising partner.
It is intended for informational and educational purposes only and
is not intended as medical advice. Please speak with your
(00:44):
healthcare professional before making any treatment decisions. Welcome to Two
Pros and a Cup of Joe. I'm Jonas Knox here
with LeVar Arrington, and today we're stepping off the field
and into something just as important, your health.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
That's right, Jonas. Listen, we're talking about, well, how guys
can stay in the game when it comes to their health,
especially as we get older. And I know about that.
I'm getting a little bit older. And we've got a
special guest who knows a thing or two about keeping
elite athletes in peak shape. Jonas, Listen, I tell you
all the time. My family has a lot of health issues,
(01:22):
heart hypertension, back problems that I had to get a
back out of me the other day. I tell you what,
that's all right, Jonas, Because well, as long as you're
keeping up with your health and keeping it an important
part of what's going on, that's when things are well preventable. Yeah,
it's preventable, Jonas, that's right.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Yeah. And listen, when you go to see a doctor.
Sometimes people think the only time they have to go
see a doctor or get checked up is when there's
something wrong. And sometimes, yeah, you can notice certain things,
and other times there's underlying issues that you need to
get checked out, just because it's better to get ahead
of it than to be behind it. It's never a
good idea to have to all of a sudden react
(02:01):
to something. When you can be proactive and get aggressive
with it early and take your health seriously, it's always
a better way to go.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Definitely is. And listen, don't worry. We're not gonna get preachy.
This isn't about you know all of that. This is
about real talk, real stories, and real strategies to help
you stay in the game.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
And Doctor Arasapaya is a personal physician on the PGA
and Live Tour, founder of Functional Sports Medicine, and a
guy who's worked with some of the best athletes in
the world. He's here now to break down what every
man needs to know about staying healthy, catching problems early,
and having real conversations with your doctor.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Doc, you've worked with some of the top names in
golf and beyond. Can you share a little bit about
your background and how you got into sports medicine.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Guys, First of all, thank you for having me big
fan of your show. How I thought it was very simple.
I wanted to be a professional athlete. I wanted to
be a pro tennis player. It turned out I was
too short, and I got a scholarship to go study
medicine in the United Kingdom in the UK, and so
my mom and my.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Coach were like, no, you need to go be a doctor.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
So they were right though, I turned out to be
a much better doctor than I ever would have been
a tennis player. So that's how I got into medicine,
and then I trained in the UK. After graduating medical school,
I trained as a surgeon. I didn't quite like it,
even though I got bought certified, and then I swopped
to train in emergency medicine.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
And during that time.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I discovered a kid came in with a sprained ankle
and he asked me a very simple question, when can
I play tennis again?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Right?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And I realized like, despite all my training, all my studying,
I couldn't answer the question. And so that then got
me into studying sports medicine. And from there, you know,
I started working with fortunately in golf, with a lot
of European tour players and it just snowball from there.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Guys, what's it like being a personal physician on say,
the PGA Tour. Is there any stories you can share?
We don't want your name and names, we don't want
you getting in trouble. But what is that? What is
that personal experience like for you? So far?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
It's well, it's a blessing, right Like I get to
live vicariously through my athletes. I was a golf not
I get to be inside the ropes. I get to
see all the things that go on. I get to
see the one side of them that makes them incredible
at what they do. And then on the other side,
how They are just every bit like you and me.
(04:41):
You know, they have the same problems, the same issues
I deal with.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
You know, it's not all glamorous.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
I also work in the emergency room, so it's not
all trauma. You know, you deal with coughs and calls,
and so these guys have the same thing. And then
I've I've you know, I mean I've seen everything, and
I've had a guy who was playing in Oman who
called me up at two am and said, hey, my
my testicle is painful.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
What do I do?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
I'm going to tee up in two hours and can
balue walk. So, you know, try solving that problem from.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Here, that is an interesting problem to have to solve.
And and thank goodness there are people that you can
go to to help you with with doing So let
me ask you, this, doc, What's what's one thing you
wish more men understood about their health?
Speaker 4 (05:33):
I think most men are. They delay their care, they
delay their approach to health. You know, they put it behind.
You know, if you if you go back and look
at us, like we are hunters by by nature, right,
hunter gatherers, so we were the hunters. Hunters have to
get a job done. They can't you know, if your
elbow hurt, your knee hurts, you got to go hunt,
(05:54):
you got to feed the family, so you get things done.
And that's that evolution has an changed. So for most part,
I would say, you know, most men, they have other
priorities in life and they put that ahead before seeking
medical advice. Right, that's number one, And then number two,
(06:14):
I think many men, like I see this in the
er all the time. Men are fearful. Women are much
more open and coming seeing doctor having a conversation early
than men are. Oftentimes, when by the time a man
comes in and he's been having chess plain for six months,
and I say, well, what took you so long? And
(06:35):
the wife will say, you know, he's stubborn, but he's
actually fearful. He doesn't want to deal with, you know,
all the potential things it could be, all the bad
things and what it could mean, and so often they
put things off. And what I'd like to say is
that may have been through many moons ago, but we
live at a time when technology, treatment, diagnosis, everything is
(07:01):
so much better.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
There are so many diseases.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
When I was training as a medical medical student, you know,
those diseases were deadly, and now they are reversible. We
have medications. You know, chemotherapy used to be brutal, and
now people get in, go home, and you know, come
back to the clinic, get their treatment tablet form no
IV with minimum side effects. So if you can pick
(07:25):
it up early, we can get a great outcome.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
And you mentioned you know men, you know, being hesitant
to want to go see the doctor. Do you see
this among pro athletes as well too, or is it
more of a general population issue.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Oh, they are just as bad. Oh, trust me, they
are just as bad. You have no I mean last
week I was working abroad on Live and I had
a guy with a wrist issue and he had he'd
had the pain for weeks, and I'd seen him multiple times.
(07:57):
Never once did he say anything, you know, And I
was like, why didn't you say something sooner? And sure
enough the answer was exactly the same, like, hey, you know,
I didn't want to deal with it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
I wanted to compete. I wanted to you know.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
So yeah, no, like I said, as I get to
see the human side to them, and they are exactly
the same as all the rest of us, no different.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
How do you explain the importance of regular checkups to
guys who basically right now they feel fine.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
You know, feeling fine is kind of a low benchmark,
you know if you think about it. Right, your car,
you have scheduled maintenance and most people will take time
out of the day to go get their car service.
Your AC filter needs to be changed regularly otherwise you're
going to run into trouble. The body is no different, right,
(08:48):
take heart disease for instance, by the time you get
symptoms of chest pain or the classical symptoms, you know,
pain going down the arm, you know you've already had
a blockage which has been there for many years that
was developing.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
You could have picked this up.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Way earlier, and nowadays it's reversible. So you know, feeling
fine is is great until at certain age. So certainly
after the age of forty, you want to go see
you get your cholesterol check because if your cholesterol goes up,
you have no idea. Right if you start having symptoms
of heart disease, you have no idea. So there are
(09:26):
a lot of things that are silent. It's really important
to go see somebody and pick those up as just
just think of it as maintenance.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So, doctor, what are some of the most common health
issues you see in men over fifty.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
The most common things are the things like common calls, coughs,
you know, bronchitis, stuff like that, right, and then we
see the ones that like chronic diseases, heart disease, high
blood pressure, diabetes, those things men women, you see that
over the age of fifty, okay, and then there are
you know, your cancers typically your colorectal ca answer, prostate
(10:02):
and bladder. And then the things that often are not
addressed are you know, things like irrectile dysfunction. Many men
will not address it, they will not talk about it.
They embarrassed. Vision changes, so many men have problems, you know,
the eyesight gets worse and they don't go see a
(10:23):
doctor when they could, you know, losing your eyesight and
more importantly, losing your hearing, which is also something that
you know is more common after the age of fifty,
significantly increases your risk of Alzheimer's, but you won't know
that until you go get seen, right, So those are
very very common. And then lastly, mental health issues isolation, depression,
(10:46):
sadly suicide still still big issues in men over the
age of fifty.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
What are some easy and everyday things that men can
do to stay ahead of their health problems and issues.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Oh man, you're not gonna I mean, you're not gonna
like this answer. Oh it's okay. Let me let me.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
You know, everybody's heard about eating healthy and stuff, right,
so let me let's start. Let's do something slightly different.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
First and foremost, make sure you get you know, enough sleep.
I'm not going to give you an exact number, but
it's somewhere between six and eight hours for most people.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Right.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Make that your priority. And if you cannot sleep again,
that is one of those things you should go see
your doctor about because not only are there you know,
conditions like sleep app near or prostate issues that are
the reason why you're not sleeping, but sleep is the
best anti inflammatory I could prescribe, and I can prescribe drugs.
(11:48):
Right for every single athlete, sleep is your ultimate age.
So prioritize and make sure you get enough sleep.
Speaker 3 (11:56):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
And then I would say avoid smoking, avoid vaping. Thirdly,
I would say move rather than exercise. I would consider like,
think of it as movement. And when it comes to movement,
I want your listeners to make sure they understand that.
For every single one of you. I want you to
focus on just like an athlete. Okay, speed, strength, power, endurance,
(12:25):
and agility. There are five components to movement, and it
doesn't matter who you are, at what stage you are.
If you can only walk around your block, well, one day,
try to walk it a little bit faster, you know,
one day, try to endurance and say, okay, you know what,
let me see if I can walk a block in
a bit more, you know, adding strength to your walk.
(12:47):
Anything that you can do to incorporate all five components
will help you get healthier faster. And then you know,
there's old adage that I like, you know, eat less,
but eat better, and finally, hydrate like half your body weight.
There's two things, sleep and hydration. If you give this up,
(13:07):
you're giving up huge, huge, huge advantages in life as general.
So hydration is at a BAM minimum. Whatever you weigh
in pounds, drink half of that in oounce us of water.
Speaker 3 (13:20):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
So we're going to be back right here with doctor Arasapaya.
Don't go anywhere here on this special edition of two
Pros and a Cup of Joe. Now, let's talk about
something that affects a lot of men, but doesn't get
talked about enough as well too, And that's prostate cancer.
It's the second most common cancer in American men, with
about one in eight being diagnosed in their lifetime. In
(13:42):
twenty twenty five alone, over three hundred and thirteen thousand
new cases are expected in the US, and it's the
second leading cause of cancer death in men. Most cases
are found in men over sixty five, but early detection
can make a huge difference. So what should men know
about prostate cancer, especially as they get older. What are
the symptoms you can tell us about?
Speaker 4 (14:04):
Great question. Let's start with symptoms. At the early stages.
You'll have urinary symptoms, okay, that is difficulty is starting
to pee, and difficulty stopping. When you stop, you'll still
dribble a little bit. You know, things like that which
are starting to change. You didn't have that, and now
you're starting to develop those symptoms, and then needing to
(14:25):
pee way more often, like feeling like you need to
pee a lot, peeing a lot, especially through the night,
waking up multiple times to p and then if you
see any blood in the urine or in the semuen,
then you know those are all tell tale signs. But
here's the thing. Those symptoms are not unique to prostate cancer.
That just could be an enlarged prostate like benign prosthetic
(14:47):
hypertrophy which is BPH can mimic they can produce exactly
same symptoms, right. But here's why I want you to
pay attention. If you have those symptoms, and in addition,
you have persistent bone pain, specifically your hips or your
lower back, If you feel extremely tired all of a sudden,
(15:08):
you know, over the last six months, you feel like,
oh my god, I don't know what's going on. If
you've lost significant weight without crying, in addition to the
urinary symptoms, those are signs that you really need to
go see your doctor and get this checked out because
those could be signs of prostetic cancer.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Doctor, what's the difference between early stage and metastatic prostate cancer?
Speaker 4 (15:30):
Early stage is often defined as the cancer staying within
the prostate. Many times it happens later in life and
it's not as aggressive, right because it's slow growing and
it often stays in the prostate itself. But there is
a variant. There is one type. We don't know why yet,
but there are certain people who develop a very aggressive
(15:53):
form of prostate cancer, even in later life when it
starts spreading very quickly outside the so metastatic prostate cancer
means the bone. It's it has spread usually to the bones.
And that's why I was saying. You know, if you're
pain in your hips, if you're paining your lower back,
persistent pain with urinary symptoms, you want to be very
(16:14):
careful and see you know that's it has spread those areas.
It can also spread to the to the lower part
of the belly, to the abdomen, palvis area, and and
can cause persistent pain.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
So that's the difference.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Now you talked about the early stage of of prostate
cancer and understanding it. What is ps M A PET scans?
What are those and why are they so important?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Great question? So this is something most you know, it's
fairly new. So that's a really good question. So ps
M a PET scan is if it's a it's a
very it's a fancy scan. It's done not to screen, Okay,
So it's usually done in early stages when you've been
diagnosed with state cancer. The whole thing takes about two hours.
(17:02):
But the scan, you know, what happens is you go
see them, they put an IV in you and then
they inject this radioactive material and then they give it
about thirty minutes. And the idea behind it is things
like prostate cancer have unique markers. Okay, so think about
like a zip code. If you have that zip code,
(17:23):
then you know that's unique to certain area. Right, So
prostate cancer has a unique marker on it, and they
can identify by injecting this radioactive material that goes to
those specific zip codes. So from there they can see
you has your prostate cancer spread. Additionally, if you've had
(17:44):
cancer before and you've been treated, it's a good way
to screen you to see if.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
It's coming back, is it spread? Is it coming back?
Speaker 4 (17:51):
So that's that's a fairly new scan, very very very effective.
If you add it with a CT scan, it's it's
very very good be done early stage or prostate cancer.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
M How can guys start the conversation with their I mean,
I know, I did, I went and I'm I'm forty
seven and I got an exam. I did it. You know, listen,
I'm comfortable talking about it because I want to help
other people to go be comfortable with it as well.
But you know, how do you have the conversation with them,
(18:23):
you know, in terms of the symptoms, being worried about them,
and knowing what to say in particular.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
First of all, as doctors, we don't judge, right what
I mean, let me tell you whatever you think you have,
we've either seen it, heard about it, or read about
it like.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
We've seen it.
Speaker 4 (18:43):
Okay, so you're not being judged number one. Number two,
if it's really difficult, just start with that conversation. Just
start by saying, Doc, I'm worried about something and leave
it there. And most doctors will look at you and open,
you know, create a space for you to say, oh,
what's going on, you know, and have and take you
(19:04):
down the conversation where we can ask you questions and
then you can be more open about it.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Right.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
And I think specifically with prostate cancer, the days of
you know, you know, finger up the butt, feeling you know,
time for you know, glove finger that those those days
are few and far between because we can do blood
tests now, right, run your PSA and check you for symptoms.
And you know, if you don't want to get that done,
you can get a scan. There are there are there
(19:31):
are ultrasound scans, there are cat scans. There's so many
other scans that you can do to get a diagnosis of,
you know, an enlarged prostate or prostate cancer. So the
important thing is when you have these symptoms, have the
conversation and just start there and just say, Doc, I
got something on my mind. Just start there, and most doctors,
(19:51):
we are trained, we know, we know how to take
you from there.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Doc, What does personalized treatment mean? In the context of
prostate cancer?
Speaker 4 (20:01):
Things have changed significantly in terms of diagnosis, in terms
of treatment, and so survival rates have gone out right.
What we can do now is we can now identify
the type of cancer you have and how it's going
to respond to treatment based on you, your age, your lifestyle,
(20:23):
your genetics, and then based on the cancer itself. We
can actually study the cancer and see, you know, hey,
this type of cancer is going to respond to hormone treatment,
this type is not. This type is likely to respond
to immunotherapy, this one is not. And so now we
can we can get very very personalized treatment specifically for you.
(20:45):
Because you know, what we know now is not all
can all prostate cancer behave exactly the same prostate cancer
in you can behave very differently to someone to prostate
cancer in someone else. So if we can understand that,
and we now have the means of studying that we
(21:05):
can now create treatment plans specifically for you. That's personalized
treatment right there.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
So, Doc, what's the biggest myth or misconception you hear
from men about their health?
Speaker 4 (21:18):
The most common one I get is when people say,
you know, if nothing hurts, I must be healthy. That
is the biggest misconception out there right now, you know,
And the reason is so many of the common conditions
the ones I mentioned right. You asked me a great question.
Why the common conditions after the age of fifty, right,
(21:40):
heart disease, Alzheimer's, vision changes, cancers. They often have no symptoms.
They are often building up in you without any symptoms.
So waiting till it hurts or waiting till you have
symptoms is late. So just because you don't have symptoms
(22:04):
doesn't mean you're healthy. Right, you want to go get
that checked. It's it's like saying, you know, just because
my car is running doesn't mean there's nothing wrong. You
still go get it serviced.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Right.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
It's exactly the same thing. So, you know, just no
symptoms doesn't mean, you're healthy. That's the that's a takeaway home,
takeaway point.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Dark a lot of great information thus far. If you
could give one piece of advice to every guy listening
right now, what would it.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Be, Oh, putting me on the spot, dude.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
I said, there's a lot of spots in this conversation,
dot based on based on the phone call you got
from while you were working on the PGA tour late
at night.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Uh, you know, I think I think that's an easy
one to put you on the spot.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I think in this day and age, when you get
blood test done, or your blood pressure done, or all
of this done, and certainly this is applicable to you
know what I what I what I bring from the
professional athlete world is normal isn't optimal. You want to
be optimized. Being normal this day and age is a
(23:07):
very low benchmark. So get the goal to be optimized,
get the goal to stay dangerous.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Doc, you talk about normal, and these conversations aren't normal
for certain and that's why we are here having it
with you right now. How do we normalize it? Like
talking fantasy football on game day?
Speaker 3 (23:29):
You know, I would really what I've seen is.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
You know, like when I run blood work right on
my athletes, and they all know because I I'll do like,
say five or six of them at the same time,
you know, in one day, and they all coun't wait
to find out the testerone results or you know, one
of those things.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
They all compare. They love to compare. They love to compete.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
We as humans generally are like that, right, whether it's
body fat percentage, whether it's testasterone levels, anything like that.
And if you look at even nowadays with wearable data, right,
they love telling someone, Hey, I've got a sleep crown,
you know, I got you know, my sleep score was this,
you know. So if we can gamify, if you can
(24:10):
create a scorecard for things like heart health, diabetes, cancer,
brain function strength, then you can make it more fun.
Then you can actually say, you know what, you can
get guys competing towards having the best best heart health,
the best brain, you know. And I think that that
would be the way to do it. And that's coming,
(24:31):
that's actually coming. I've seen a few things in the
in the in the works that is going to make
it like that, and and things like you know, I'm
forty nine, but I have a biological age of twenty nine.
That's that's what's going to drive things like this. The
more we can measure those things and the more we
can alter outcomes, you know, indirectly, the game will win.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
The winner of the game will be healthy.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
It's an awesome conversation to have. You've done an amazing
job Dot. Thank you absolutely, doctor r H. Sapaya for
you know, coming onto the show and shedding some light
on such a major conversation and topic. Uh, that was
a masterclass and how you take control of your health Jonas.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah, fantastic stuff. Whether you're a weekend warrior just trying
to stay in the game of life. The message is clear,
do not wait, talk to your doctor, know your numbers,
and take action.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Definitely take action, Doc. Before we let you go, though,
where can they follow you and where can they learn
more about the work you're doing?
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Uh?
Speaker 4 (25:34):
My website is uh doctor Rasupaya dot com a R
A s U P p I a h dot com.
And then on social media, I am on Instagram mostly
and LinkedIn. My Instagram handle is doctor.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Ra on Call. That's d R A r A on Call.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And then yeah, you'll find me.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
There, Doc, We'll catch you next time. On two Pros
and a Cup of Joe. Stay strong, stay smart, and
stay in the game.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
This episode of two Pros and a Cup of Joe
was independently created by iHeartRadio. Novardes Pharmaceuticals Corp. Is the
exclusive advertising partner. It is intended for informational and educational
purposes only, and is not intended as medical advice. Please
speak with your healthcare professional before making any treatment decisions.
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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