January 27, 2026 • 49 mins
In episode 53 of The Adaptive Mindset, Brett Gallant interviews Judy Gaman, CEO of Executive Medicine of Texas, award-winning author, and host of the Stay Young America podcast, who shares her inspiring journey into the world of preventative care and longevity, revealing the blind spots that high achievers often overlook when it comes to their health.
Tune in for practical advice on thriving personally and professionally in today’s fast-paced digital world.
TIMESTAMPS
[00:01:43] Longevity as a leadership strategy.
[00:06:29] Concierge medicine revolution.
[00:11:19] Unreasonable hospitality in healthcare.
[00:12:50] Unreasonable hospitality in healthcare.
[00:18:18] Longevity as a leadership strategy.
[00:21:50] Healthy leadership and business success.
[00:28:10] High performers' health blind spots.
[00:33:12] Stress effects on the body.
[00:35:06] Exercise effectively reduces stress.
[00:39:30] Proactive health management strategies.
[00:44:21] Mental health in caregiving.
[00:47:36] Longevity and attitude connection.
QUOTES
- "When you have something that the patients need and want, and quite frankly deserve, they will come, and they are so grateful." -Judy Gaman
- "If you can take a patient and have these kinds of conversations about them and about how to optimize their health, you're not just affecting them, you're affecting their children and their spouse and their children's children." -Judy Gaman
- "Prevention starts with a decision." -Brett Gallant
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Brett Gallant
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brett_gallant/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brett.gallant.9
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-gallant-97805726/
Judy Gaman
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judygaman/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/judygaman/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jgamanspeaker/
WEBSITE
Adaptive Office Solutions: https://www.adaptiveoffice.ca/
Judy Gaman: https://www.judygaman.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thoughtleader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we
don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, andmindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and
thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. WelcomeToday, I'm joined by Judy Gaman, CEO of
(00:27):
Executive Medicine of Texas, award-winningauthor, national speaker, and host of the Stay Young America podcast.
Judy has spent years working with high-performing executives, businessowners, and professionals who look successful on the outside, but
are often running on empty behind the scenes. Herwork focuses on longevity, preventative care, and
(00:50):
helping leaders perform at a high level without sacrificing theirhealth, energy, or purpose. In this conversation,
we're going to talk about why longevity is a leadership strategy,the blind spots high achievers often miss, and how leaders
can think long-term about their health the same way that theythink about risk, performance, and sustainability in their businesses.
(01:13):
This is a practical, grounded conversation for anyone whowants to win the long game, personally and professionally.
It's such a pleasure to have you. I wantto ask you this, Judy, before we dive into leadership and longevity, I'd
(01:33):
like to start with your story. What led youinto this work and what made you passionate about helping people
Well, you know, it really goes back to when I was 16, my firstjob, which was a very hard job was to be a nursing
assistant in a nursing home. And I got to seefirsthand at a very young age. what it
(01:57):
looks like to age poorly. And Iknew that was something I certainly didn't want to do and
I didn't want to have for myself. And I didn't want otherpeople to have that if it was at all avoidable. And
I kind of carried that experience with me for years. AndI couldn't be more pleased with where I found myself
(02:18):
now as the CEO of Executive Medicine of Texas because we'reable to get people in their 30s, 40s,
50s, what have you, and make sure that they knowand understand their health status, and then take
the steps to ensure that they are gonna have along and healthy life, and that they're doing everything they can to
(02:42):
Yeah, that's beautiful. I had a guest onthe podcast a number of episodes ago. And
he shared with me health as well. AndI believe a lot of times we often neglect that
to put ourselves, prioritize our health, prioritize puttingourselves first. A lot of business owners I speak to, they
(03:07):
put everything else first, but they don't take time for themselvesin looking at the honest truth about where their health is. So
was there a moment when you realized that there was a systematic issuewith, like, when did you, like, was there a moment where
(03:28):
Well, I think for me personally, it was just kind ofwatching what was going on around me, but things certainly
had to change in the healthcare industry. I spent muchof my career in what I
like to call the HMO treadmill world, wherethe decisions are being made by insurance companies and
(03:49):
the patient isn't really given enough timeto sit down with their healthcare provider and really understand what's
going on with them. And people would bring in like these lists,right? They'd have these lists and
you're only gonna address what's on the list. And I'd standin the room with physicians that I think just really
(04:11):
felt like their hands were tied. And a lot of times it was like, okay, well, yourlist is really like a two hour appointment and you're in a
15 minute slot, so let's prioritize. Andwatching this in real time, and knowing these people
might not come back, but the doctors couldn't makeit work. They couldn't run a business unless it
(04:35):
was built on quantity, becausethe expenses of chasing after the
insurance company, having a business office completely dedicated tothat, and then the reimbursement rates from the insurance companies,
which are kind of changing all the time and Medicare and such, theywere all over the place. It was extremely chaotic and the
(04:56):
doctors were losing, the patients were losing, andit just was such a broken system. And two
of the founders of executive medicine, one ismy husband, Dr. Walter Gamm, the other one is Dr. Mark Anderson.
They literally had a moment where they were like, Idon't know if this is really what I signed up for when
(05:19):
I went to medical school. And I'm not getting any satisfactionwith one hand on the door and the other one trying to service
the patient and talk to the patient and knowing that there's fivemore people down the hall. And they just
were so fed up. And then as the system continued tochange and the demands on the healthcare providers became
(05:41):
even greater, They said, okay, nobody's winning.
What do we wanna do? There was a moment where we thought that Dr. Anderson wouldjust ride his Harley off into the sunset and Dr.
Gamble might just go become a mathteacher or something because he's always loved math and been great
in math and has a degree in that as well. But both of them had fallen outof love with medicine, fallen out of love with something that
(06:09):
they had given their life and their careers to. literallya napkin idea in a cafe one morning, sat
down and said, all right, if we could do this differently, what wouldit look like? And they started making a list. And it
was really a conversation about savingthemselves, saving the patients, and Then
(06:32):
at the end, it was like, oh, well, why don't we just do this? And thiswas 20 years ago when concierge medicine wasn't really
a thing as much as it is now. And itwasn't like how it is with insurance, you know, you hang a shingle and
they will come. And if your last name starts with a, you're at the topof the HMO book. It was literally, we're going to
take a leap of faith and we're going to say, Hey, youknow what? we believe there's a better way. And
(06:59):
that's what started executive medicine. And I love thatwe have just grown from those two founders doing it
part-time while they were still trying to run their other practice tocoming over full-time to growing it to where we are today. And
it's just mind-blowing to me that whenyou have something that the patients need and
(07:21):
want, and quite frankly deserve, theywill come and they are so grateful. They're just so
grateful. And here you have a complete differentthing where the patients are happy, the
employees are happy, the doctors are happy,and everybody knows that patients come in and they say, wow, I
(07:44):
don't think I've ever been to a doctor's office where everyone's happy to be here. Andwe really are. And I love that we
could make a bit of a difference inYeah, that's amazing. Especially
when you have that whole culture and dynamic going on,it's a rare entity in any organization with
(08:11):
some of today's realities and challenges. How'sthe journey been along the way since the founding? Any
Yeah, I think in 2005, it was a little bit of a struggle becausewe didn't have the doctors there full time. And it was a
(08:33):
time, it was a couple of years there where the doctors werefunding this idea they had. and waiting
for it to kind of catch on and to be able to spend as much time thereas they could and still run the practice that
was funding this practice. Ithink those moments really shaped us because we
(08:55):
really appreciated every single person that walked through the door. Everyperson who said, you know what? I'm gonna have a dog in this hunt. I'm
willing to pay out of my pocket for this because I see value in it. Iremember those days. I think those were really special.
Some recent things that I think really shape mymemory of why this is beyond
(09:20):
just a doctor's office, and the things I think I'll look back onvery fondly. There's one that comes
to mind, there's several of them, but this one reallyspeaks to the we-see-you model.
All of our employees dosomething we call book club. So we'll all be reading a particular book
(09:41):
together. And one of the books that we readwas Unreasonable Hospitality. And I don't know if you've read this book.
It really was written by somebody in the restaurant business, but it reallycrosses all
different backgrounds, all different businesses. And it's really about seeingyour customer and and appreciating that customer
(10:03):
and going above and beyond. And our patient, our staffreally took that to heart. So they started looking for
ways that they could have unreasonable hospitality.
They could really go above and beyond. Andwe've always been good at listening to patients, but this particular day
(10:23):
we had one of our patients in and he spoke about his son.
He was really disheartened and, and Oneof the nurses said, you know, you don't see him yourself, what's going on? He
said, oh, my son's having surgery tomorrow. And shejust said, tell me more about your son. And as they
had this conversation, she happened to learn that the son wasa huge Texas Rangers fan. And
(10:48):
we called the dad afterwards andsaid, you know, I wonder if your
son would like to be visited by one of our other patients.
And we kind of describe what we what we would do. And,and the dad was just beside himself and said,
Wow, oh, my gosh, you know, wecan't call them and talk to them unless, you know, we have your permission. Oh,
(11:15):
absolutely. So this particular Texas Rangerperson went out and took memorabilia, signed
cards, really made that reallytough time in that family's life just a little bit better.
And that's more of whatwe want. We want to see our patients. We
(11:41):
want to see them, their struggles. How can we help them?
How can we lift their burden a little bit? And allof our staff is on board with that. I mean, that's just kind of one
of them. That's one of my favorites because itYeah. No, I need to hear that unreasonable hospitality. What
(12:06):
Oh, my goodness. I just seen an example of,well, tremendous kindness. I
don't know why I want to share this story with you, but I'm going to share it with you right now. Inmy community, I live in Canada, so
we do have access. Healthcare is generallyfree. But sometimes when
(12:30):
we have difficult challenges, we have togo outside of the country or go to other specialists. There's
a young lady, she's under 18, andshe needed a special treatment for her heart. She's had multiple
heart attacks. And we found out,the community found out that she needed $80,000 to get
(12:52):
a special treatment. And mycommunity version of unreasonable hospitality The
whole community pitched in, businesses chipped in $1,000 each. Therewas a GoFundMe, and they raised $80,000 in
less than 72 hours in a small town of 18,000. Sothat's not completely relevant, but unreasonable hospitality
(13:26):
of what you just shared. Ithink the world needs to do more of that. Incredible.
Have there been other times that have stood outYeah, I definitely think so. There's
(13:49):
been times where we were really on the cutting edge,like we were doing virtual colonography before it
was even a thing. You know, wehad, speaking of Canada, because my husband's from Canada, he practiced
in Manitoba for many years before he came to the States. Andwhen the Canadian system started looking at
(14:10):
maybe doing this, and we had had it, I don't know, agood 10 years, that came Um, some, some people
came from Canada to train, um, at our facility. And it was, itwas really fascinating to kind of see that come full
circle where we're here. We're doing some things that area little more advanced and then we're able to train. Um, some
(14:30):
other physicians on, on that advancement, but one of the reallycool things about doing the virtual colonography, which is
another one of these neat stories is we had a patient. Andhe was in his forties. So normally when we think about colon
cancer, we don't really think about somebody being in their forties. Andthis particular patient was on a Southwest airlines
(14:53):
flight, and there was a magazine in the back. Now they don't havemagazines on their lines, but there was a magazine at the time. And
the An ad, it wasn't even our ad,was there for executive physicals, these half-day exams and
such. And he reached out to his executiveassistant and said, you know, I didn't sleep all night. I saw this
(15:14):
ad. I don't know why. I can't getit out of my head, but I just feel like I really need to have one
of these physicals. Find me the best place to go. Sothis particular executive assistant called around and
asked a lot of questions, called back, and then said,OK, you guys are the only ones doing this virtual colonography.
(15:39):
you know, he said, find me the most comprehensive exam. So I'dlike to book him with with you all. So he gets booked with
us. And when we do the virtual colonography, it'sa colonoscopy, but it's done on a CT machine. And
instead of a long 60 centimeter tube, it's about fourinches goes in, it's The, the columns inflated but
(16:01):
we're actually able to see the inside of the colon, the outside ofthe colon, and because it includes a CT of the pelvis we
can see within the pelvis. wereshocked to find out that unbeknownst to him, he had tailbone
cancer. And we found it onthis virtual colonography. The one thing that the
(16:23):
assistant just was adamant that she should add, whicha lot of times you'll hear like, well, you're 40 years old, you don't need this.
Now we've actually found a lot of colon cancer in 40 year olds, somein 30 year olds. So that argument's out
the window. But for this particular executive assistant, just wasreally hung up on this. It's one of those things where you think this
(16:44):
guy really had guardian angel because hesaw that ad, he listened to that prompting, wasn't our ad,
the assistant called around, chose us, he ended upgetting this particular test, which at the time we were the only
one offering it. And Itwas incredible that it saved his life. So within two
(17:05):
days of him coming in for that exam, he was in for surgery.
And by the end of the week, he was out playing baseball withhis kids again. And he just never in
his wildest dreams would have imagined the day before he picked up that magazineIncredible. And just changed his
(17:30):
A lot of times we don't find things like tailbone cancer until they'vespread elsewhere. And then the story
Yeah, all kinds of challenges in different ways and differentoutcomes, unfortunately. One
of the things, looking at your profile, oneof the things that has stood out to me is how often
(17:55):
leaders separate health from their performance, eventhough they're deeply connected. And we take this for granted. And
I know this just because of my own personal journey. Whydo you believe longevity should
(18:18):
Oh, I love the way you worded that question. And itis almost like a quotable question. It is absolutely
side by side. If you look at yourbusiness and you're saying, OK, I've got this company and
I want to grow it, you're never saying, let's just besuccessful today. You're not, you're
(18:40):
looking forward. Where are we going to be in a year? Where are we going to be in three years,five years, 10 years? What's the exit strategy? You're looking at
this business as a whole. Yet so many times executives,they have what we like to term ostrich syndrome. They stick
their head in the sands. They're like, I feel good today, you know,and they never look further to say, what am
(19:02):
I going to feel like in three years, five years? And that you can't,you know, the mirror doesn't tell the story. You can't get the answer to that question unless
you do a deep dive, unless you get all of these metrics together.
You run your company, you look at metrics, you know, where you were,where you're going, where your pitfalls are, you
know, where your danger zones are. You have to do thiswith your own body. And as far as leadership, you
(19:28):
know, you have to learn how to lead your own health and your ownbody. and take personal responsibility. Part
of that is saying, I'm going to figure out where I am andwhere I wanna go, gotta have a goal. And the goal's not
always the same for everybody. We have some people come in and say, okay, mydad died at 59, I don't wanna have a heart attack at 59. That's
(19:50):
their goal. Okay, we can deal with that. We have other people comein and say, I wanna run a 10K by Christmas next
year. Okay, let's look at that. Everybody'sgoal's different. And I think that really gets back to, saying,
all right, who, who are you andas an individual, and what do you want out
(20:12):
of this visit? What do you want from us? And howcan we help you with what you want to achieve? It's
so often in medicine, it's you getpigeonholed, you know, oh, you know, you're a female age, whatever,
here's what we do for you. You're a male age, whatever, here's what we do for you. Andthere's, there's never any kind of
(20:35):
camaraderie between the patient and the doctor. There's not alet's get a plan together, and let's figure out
what your main goal is. So I dothink, man, longevity and leadership
Yeah, I've heard it said I'm in Dan Martell's coachingprogram, and he said belt buckles
(21:00):
down while it's up. AndI do know just
from my own journey, having released 150 pounds, Iwas 349. And so it's changed how I lead, how I show up. Because when
I started making myself a priority, abyproduct of that, I also started making my business
(21:35):
a priority. Isn't that interesting?
It is so interesting, and it's so much of what we see. AndI think that's why we do so well in our corporate agreements, because
the corporations know this. They know ifthey have healthy executives, healthy team members, they
are going to have a healthier company, because healthy businesses startwith healthy leadership. It's just a known fact. This is
(22:00):
why they're shelling out money and saying, look, givethem what they need, because it's in our best interest as a
company to have them healthy. And if acompany is willing to do that, think about even
if maybe someone's listening right now and they're like, well, I'mnot in the C-suite or I don't own my own business. And they're
(22:21):
listening to this. Well, you have a family to run.
You have a life to run. You need to be reallygood at the job that you do. And then start
thinking about what does my life look like in three years,five years, 10 years? And what's that
Yeah. Yeah. And we, alot of times we have it all wrong. And it's great that businesses are
(22:47):
recognizing that, that health isa priority, not just, and I know we're
talking about physical, but I think a by-product of, oftaking care of ourselves and investing in ourselves, like
what, what people can do with your organization,by-product of that is also mental wellbeing. Because
(23:09):
when you feel good, when your health is good, you feel good.
And it's about legacy, too. Because when you feel good andyour health is good, you start thinking, how
do I want to leave this world better? We've seen people come tous. And I was just thinking about another
case. This is a fascinating story. Itwas a lawyer. And he was a highly successful lawyer,
(23:35):
highly regarded lawyer. And hewas in his 60s. And he came and he said, you
know, I just think I'm going to retire. AndLike, yeah, you're 60. But you're at the top of your game, you
know? And he's like, I don't know what's going on. ButI just know that I've just lost my mojo. And
(24:02):
we're like, okay, let's get to the bottom of this. Andduring his executive physical, we do something called
a carotid Doppler. And we're basically looking for intimal thickeninghere in the carotid arteries, which could lead to stroke risk. And
because we were looking at that, we happened tosee the thyroid. And if the thyroid's enlarged or
(24:24):
there's a nodule or something, it often shows up on these. Andsure enough, he had a massive growth
on his thyroid behind it. So it wasn't like it wassticking out in front and obvious. And then we send
a head, a head and neck surgeon. They went in, they took it out andit wasn't cancerous, but it was a very specific type
(24:46):
of tumor that releases basically like toxins inthe body. And this is why he had lost his energy.
This is why he couldn't focus. This is why he just, ashe's put it, lost his mojo. So he went through
surgery, got that removed. Hehad the best like next five years. He
(25:07):
said, I feel like I'm 40, not 60. Andhe just really, even though we knew he didn't feel good, he
didn't realize how much that ailment had completely overtakenWell, he couldn't even see it. Yeah. And
you can't identify it. And sometimes wedon't know. And it was a physical. It was
(25:31):
a symptom. It wasn't mental. It was something in his body.
He didn't know. And had he not gone to you, he would neverhave known. And he would have kept his mojo. gone.
So, I mean, he probably would have died young because, youknow, once that depression sets in and you're still active and
such, I mean, it's, it's a downhill spiral. Sothat, that really just, I
(25:59):
just, I love that story because it's one of those whereyou can't really put your finger on it, but you know, something's up
and, and boy, these, these tests, they just,It like both those stories I just shared, you
know, the guy wanted the colonography because he wanted tolook at his colon, but he found something on his tailbone. You know, this
(26:21):
particular one, we were looking at the carotid arteries, but we happento see something on the thyroid. So I never put
those two and two together until just now, but it is interesting that sometimes wefind things that we weren't necessarily looking for. Now
we're talking about big drastic things though. Yeah. They're not alwaysthat big and they're not always that drastic. Sometimes we just see, oh, you have a vitamin D
(26:43):
deficiency that explains a lot, you know? Yeah.
Or your, your B12s off, maybe it's too high. We'veseen that people take too many supplements and we're like, okay, this
explains a lot. You know, those heart palpitations you're having probably becauseyou're taking this, the supplement you're over, overusing the
B vitamins and people say, oh, well, you know, you just, Andso many doctors say, oh, you just pee them out. Well, yes, but when your levels are
(27:08):
too high, you can have side effects and such in the meantime. So sometimesit's just simple little fixes and sometimes it's
big things, but I, I lovewhat we do. We're so passionate about it because
we just have seen the changes in people's lives andI love this episode because I know we're going to inspire people to
(27:33):
take action on their health in ways that they may nothave considered. And what we were
just talking about, what you touched on for a moment wasreally blind spots in high performers. We
don't really know them, we can't really see them. So youwork with people who are driven, disciplined, and
(27:56):
successful. Lookingback at what we just shared and what you just shared, what
blind spots do high performers tend to have when it comes toWell, there's a lot, especially if they travel a lot, you know, we
see this so much, they, they travel, they go, go,go, go, go, but they're not doing some things that are, that
(28:20):
are really simple and they seem very elementary. Likethey're not staying hydrated at the rate they should. So we
give them the formula. Okay. This is how much water, water youneed for your body weight and for your travel schedule. It's
it changes with everybody, but things like that, becausechronic dehydration can have lasting effects
(28:43):
on the kidneys and on the brain and the brain is mostlymade up of water. So I think that's definitely something
that we see a lot of a pitfall. Hormones are another pitfall.
People don't realize that these hormone shifts in age andit's not, for men, people say, oh, I gotta up my
testosterone because I want a better sex life. Yeah, that's great. That'spart of it. But there's a lot more than just your sex life.
(29:10):
How are you gonna heal after surgery? You're gonna heal alot better if your testosterone is optimized. How
is your muscle mass going to be, which is gonna keep you from fallinglater because you're gonna be able to You know, hold yourself up.
We all know once you start falling and you lose thatstability, that's a big indicator for
(29:31):
decline. So there are some of these things that, especiallyin men, that happen. And
the travel is one of sleep is another one. We really diveinto people's sleep. because they could have
sleep apnea, which is a killer. I mean, people are like, oh,you just snore. That's annoying. Well, it's more than annoying. You
(29:54):
can die from it. People also don't understandthat when we sleep, and we now know this with functional
MRI, which is being used in theuniversities and for research purposes, that when we sleep, our
brain actually washes itself like a washing machine,but we have to get into a really deep REM sleep. And
(30:17):
when you think about sleep and you think about the REM cycle, thelonger you're asleep, the longer the REM cycle is.
So if you're getting up, every three, two,three hours, you're never going to get into that deep
sleep, that deep REM sleep that you need to actuallyhave that brain washed and to clear out all that. And then you're putting
(30:38):
yourself at risk for dementia and Alzheimer's. Sowe say, okay, what are the things that wake people up? If nobody's dressing this,
you know, is it BPH? the prostate BPH,but I have a prosthetic hypertrophy. Or is it that
you have an animal that sleeps in your bed, a dogor a cat? These are questions that we ask
(31:01):
our patients. All of these things can keep you awake. Isyour room temperature too warm? Because we
know that you sleep deeper in a cool room. Are youlooking at your phone before bed or right when you wake up? That's
(31:21):
actually going to mess up your circadian rhythm. But these things ina traditional model of medicine
where you have 15 minutes with a patient andyou're not able to take the time to really ask
and teach, educate. This is again, whereI feel that medicine falls down because if
(31:43):
you can take a patient and havethese kinds of conversations about them
and about how to optimize their health, you'renot just affecting them, you're affecting their children and
their spouse and their children's children. ThisOh, it's so true. And I'm thinking of this, how it applies here,
(32:16):
The doctors, there's, in my community,there's 4,000, I would argue probably more that don't
have a family doctor. And you're lucky tosee your doctor. And you mentioned 15 minutes. And
it's not 15 minutes. Sometimes it'sfive. And that's the reality of
(32:42):
So how can we cover all the bases? It'sjust it's just putting a Band-Aid on on it. And
what your what your approach is a whole level approachI want to ask you, how does stress show up physically
(33:12):
Wow, stress is one of those things that if you take adiagram of the human body and say, you're gonna draw a line
out from each part of the body that stress affects, it'sgoing to look like one of those voodoo pin cushion dolls
because it literally affects so much. Stressaffects the brain and cognition and
(33:34):
the executive decision-making that happensin the brain. It also affects
sleep greatly. We always tell ourpatients the positive attributes of journaling. So
whether that's a prayer journal or it's a diary of sortsor it's any kind of journaling before they go to bed to actually
(33:57):
have a spiral or something next to the bed, they justwrite this out, whatever it is that's on their heart
and their mind, because it's almost like a computer dump Ifyou don't close all the windows, your computer eventually doesn't function right.
You got to close the loops. And it also allows you to go tosleep because there's something you are like, I'm so afraid I'm going to forget this. It interrupts
(34:20):
your sleep so much. So we always tell people, look, ifyou want to reduce stress, keep a journal, keep it by your bedside and
make it a nightly routine. You know, as we kindof work down the body, you could have TMJ where
you could actually have jaw pain because you're clenching your teeth. Andmaybe you're doing this in your sleep. Maybe you're doing this when you're awake, but we've
(34:41):
seen that we've seen dental issues from stress. Ofcourse, we know about chest pain and the risk for heart disease, uh,
when the, when stress is high and, and thenthe, even the, um, Bowels,
we see issues that people have either constipation or diarrhea relatedto stress. Stress can make it to where
(35:03):
you. don't want to exercise. Ironically, exercise isthe best thing you can do for stress, but you just feel so
tense that you can't imagine going to the gym. It seems soforeign. So we do tell people our
bodies are designed to release stressphysically. This is why when we Any
(35:25):
moons ago, hunting for our food and shopping ourown wood and carrying buckets of water there, we
were able to endure so much more becausethere was that outlet. And now the simplest
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And I see it so often with peopleI talk to, but I was that person before. I
wouldn't even take 20 minutes to go for a walk. Andnow I know that you can take, everybody has 20 minutes. We
often say that we don't have the time, but everybodyhas time. We just don't prioritize it. So for
(36:11):
me, as soon as the children get on the bus, I'llgo for 20 minutes to go around the neighborhood, get
the oxygen going. And if everything's crazy inthe day, I'll take off for 20 minutes and go
for a walk anyways, cause it's the best thing I can do. And we, andwe say to ourselves, I don't have time, but you can't
(36:35):
You can't afford not to. And I love that you're doing this. Ilove when you say, and the kids get on the bus, that means you're doing it in the morning. This,
what you're doing, if you could get all of your listenersto do the dramatic change they would have in their
life, like they can't even see it now, but I promise theywould be thinking clearer. They would be happier at
(36:57):
home. They'd be sleeping better. allof these things because they took that 20 minutes. Now, there's a lot of
research, too, that a 20 minutebrisk walk is as effective as
taking a Prozac. And what happened inthe 90s, everybody got put on these antidepressants and
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it was like, oh, you're sad. Oh, you're this, you're that. Let me give yousome medication. And then That, you
know, not being the optimal choice, exercise would have been the optimal choice,had the other side effects. They were putting on weight. They
were increasing what they were eating and craving carbsand all kinds of things with, and I'm not just picking on Prozac, just
(37:41):
antidepressants in general. So I lovethat you're talking about that walk. And when
you said something that really resonated with me, Brett, is, Everybodyhas the same 24 hours in the day. Everybody.
It's just how do you choose to prioritize your 24 hours? I mean,It's true. And I've even
(38:06):
tied it into daily rhythms of what's possible. AndI know one time when we were doing in a mastermind that I've
been a member of, often in masterminds, wewere doing a deep dive on somebody's business, and we'd have 15 half
an hour breaks. I would purposely getoutside and go for a walk around the neighborhood. And
(38:31):
what was really interesting about that, Ishared that with the lady that was in the group, the facilitator. And
when she heard that I did, I said that 15 to 20 minuteanalogy, she started doing it. and
Good for her. See, I love how you're inspiring peopleYeah, yeah. And
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this is the thing, that prevention startswith a decision. And it's
the decision of your 20 minutes, but it's also the decision to seekand make a decision and prioritize your health, your
self care. It's noSo we've been talking just for the last minute or two about being proactive instead
(39:34):
of reactive, like the parallels here are pretty striking.
If leaders treated their health risks the same way asthey treat financial or cybersecurity risks, what would change? And
I bring up cybersecurity because that's what I do. Butwhat would change if they really made that decision
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Well, first of all, I think they'd have a sense of urgency. Andthey'd put themselves on their calendar. That's
huge. We encourage our patients, put yourself on your calendar andmake those non-negotiable. Maybe it's that 20 minute walk.
Maybe it's that eight hours of sleep. Maybe it's redlight therapy. Maybe it's whatever it is, put it on the calendar and
(40:25):
it's non-negotiable. And Ireally believe that it's to your point, if they treated
their own body and their own health that way, these are the things theywould do. And they would try to understand it. because
you know you can't run a business if you don't understand it. Andso they try to understand themselves a little bit better and
(40:48):
really get those numbers and really deep diveinto, okay, where am I at? It's
another, you know, we talked a minute ago about how thisis a multi-generational thing. We've
seen, we have something called the family coxears. Sowe have couples. So we had seen that when the couples
(41:11):
would come in, And they both leave with their leatherbinders with all their results, you know, 40, 50 pages
of everything about them, graphs and charts and everything. Andwhen they were doing this together, we saw an incredible
amount of enthusiasm around it. And we also saw that the nextyear when they came back, they were so excited together
(41:34):
to share their progress. So we started doing something called Family Concierge,which actually was at a, a
recommendation by one of our patients years ago said, well, can you see mywhole family? Like I can't, I can no longer go to the
pediatrician's office and do the racket. Youknow, we can see you next Tuesday at two o'clock. If you can't do that, it's going to be six weeks.
(41:56):
And, and so we started the, the family concierge andwhat we've seen is families getting healthier together. And
parents actually being mentors totheir kids. And sometimes these are young kids. Sometimes they're teenagers.
And they're saying, OK, we're going to do this together. Everyone's on thesame page. It's beautiful. Now, in
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2026, we rolled out. And this was an interesting concept. Sowe've just rolled this out within a matter of weeks. The multi-generational
concierge, because we had people thatsay, okay, you see my kids, you see my
spouse and I, but I've got these aging parents andI don't even know what to do or where to start. And
(42:44):
so now we see the three generations andit's beautiful because for several of
our doctors or family practice, we've got an internist, we just hired anortho as well, but several of our
patients really want toget healthy and understand the ins and outs of their parents, how slick
(43:08):
and best be their advocate. But our doctors loveit because being family practitioners, especially, we'll
take Walter, who was in Canada for years deliveringhis own babies, you know, because in Canada, family practice does
a lot. He's been able to do that here in the States,not deliver babies, but continue with this more
(43:31):
global approach because that's his experience. Andreally, I think, again, it goes
back to the win-win. It's a win for the patients.
It's a win for the doctors. And in a lot of ways,it's a win for the system because if we can
keep them healthy, Medicare and theinsurance companies, they're not paying. ridiculous reimbursements for
(43:58):
But if the family's healthy, there's so many other wins thatwe're not even talking about. The whole dynamic of
being there for each other and supporting and nothaving the anxiety about worrying about mom or grandma, knowing
that you know the plan, the steps, you know whatyou're dealing with, or they've gotten the appropriate
(44:21):
For me and the mental health of the person in the sandwich generation,the mental health of the person who's like, I'm trying to deal with my
kids, my family, my parents, and I don't even know whatWe haven't even really talked about that. But mental health. Absolutely.
(44:43):
And just a byproduct of that, though, everyone, and wesaid it already, the 20 minutes, just taking
a walk, 20 minutes, andlooking at the whole body and not just physically, the
mental, game changer. AbsoluteJudy, I had such an
(45:07):
incredible time speaking with you today. I wantto make sure that we make sure our audience knows
Yeah, sure. I mean, I think the best way is to go to emtexas.com. That'sexecutive medicine. So emtexas.com. And
(45:32):
Yeah, they can follow us. You can find us on Facebook,Instagram, all those places. Very
easy search for us. And then also, wehave a podcast called Stay Young America. So anywhere
you get podcasts, you can find us there. We knowthat our mission is to educate and
(45:55):
to help as many people as possible. And so we,over the years, have had radio show podcasts
and such, but anyone can go and find Stay Young America podcastand can download some of those episodes and listen
Perfect. We'll make sure that we have that in the show notes, Judy. Um,I want to end with a rapid fire round questions for
(46:26):
Okay. Um, just first thing that comes to your head and yourheart morning routine or evening routine for
you morning morning. Okay. Uh,one daily habit with the biggest health return walking.
Most overlooked health metric for leaders, mentalhealth, coffee, friend or
(46:58):
So put you onIf you had to choose one exercise, biggest
myth about aging. Say it again. Biggestmyth about aging? That
you don't have a choice. We all have a choice, don'twe? One behavior leaders need to
(47:22):
stop normalizing. Notsleeping. One thing
leaders should start doing this week, this minute. Journaling.
Yes, thank you for this. I needed to hear that. A book yourecommend most to executives? Oh,
(47:48):
gosh, there's so many good ones. Recently, we've been talking a lot aboutYeah, I'm
going to check that out. Okay, last question. Finish this sentence.
Attitude. Attitude. Everyone,To our listeners listening today,
(48:15):
do you decide to make justone change after hearing this conversation? And
you've been inspired with what Judy has shared. Please, pleaseshare this episode with one or two people you
know that this could impact them. And reach outto Judy and thank her and check out the wonderful resources she's
(48:36):
shared. Connect with her on socialmedia. listen to the podcast, benefit
from it. And I know I certainly havebenefited from this conversation. Judy, I want to thank you
again. It was such a pleasure to have thisBrett, it's been an honor. Thank you so much for having me on. I enjoyed my time with
(49:00):
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks fortuning into the Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode,
don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share itwith someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay secure,
Welcome to the Adaptive Mindset. I'm Brett Gallant, cybersecurity thoughtleader and founder of Adaptive Office Solutions. Here, we
don't just talk tech, we unlock the strategies, stories, andmindset shifts you need to stay secure, lead boldly, and
thrive in a digital world. Let's get started. WelcomeToday, I'm joined by Judy Gaman, CEO of
(00:27):
Executive Medicine of Texas, award-winningauthor, national speaker, and host of the Stay Young America podcast.
Judy has spent years working with high-performing executives, businessowners, and professionals who look successful on the outside, but
are often running on empty behind the scenes. Herwork focuses on longevity, preventative care, and
(00:50):
helping leaders perform at a high level without sacrificing theirhealth, energy, or purpose. In this conversation,
we're going to talk about why longevity is a leadership strategy,the blind spots high achievers often miss, and how leaders
can think long-term about their health the same way that theythink about risk, performance, and sustainability in their businesses.
(01:13):
This is a practical, grounded conversation for anyone whowants to win the long game, personally and professionally.
It's such a pleasure to have you. I wantto ask you this, Judy, before we dive into leadership and longevity, I'd
(01:33):
like to start with your story. What led youinto this work and what made you passionate about helping people
Well, you know, it really goes back to when I was 16, my firstjob, which was a very hard job was to be a nursing
assistant in a nursing home. And I got to seefirsthand at a very young age. what it
(01:57):
looks like to age poorly. And Iknew that was something I certainly didn't want to do and
I didn't want to have for myself. And I didn't want otherpeople to have that if it was at all avoidable. And
I kind of carried that experience with me for years. AndI couldn't be more pleased with where I found myself
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now as the CEO of Executive Medicine of Texas because we'reable to get people in their 30s, 40s,
50s, what have you, and make sure that they knowand understand their health status, and then take
the steps to ensure that they are gonna have along and healthy life, and that they're doing everything they can to
(02:42):
Yeah, that's beautiful. I had a guest onthe podcast a number of episodes ago. And
he shared with me health as well. AndI believe a lot of times we often neglect that
to put ourselves, prioritize our health, prioritize puttingourselves first. A lot of business owners I speak to, they
(03:07):
put everything else first, but they don't take time for themselvesin looking at the honest truth about where their health is. So
was there a moment when you realized that there was a systematic issuewith, like, when did you, like, was there a moment where
(03:28):
Well, I think for me personally, it was just kind ofwatching what was going on around me, but things certainly
had to change in the healthcare industry. I spent muchof my career in what I
like to call the HMO treadmill world, wherethe decisions are being made by insurance companies and
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the patient isn't really given enough timeto sit down with their healthcare provider and really understand what's
going on with them. And people would bring in like these lists,right? They'd have these lists and
you're only gonna address what's on the list. And I'd standin the room with physicians that I think just really
(04:11):
felt like their hands were tied. And a lot of times it was like, okay, well, yourlist is really like a two hour appointment and you're in a
15 minute slot, so let's prioritize. Andwatching this in real time, and knowing these people
might not come back, but the doctors couldn't makeit work. They couldn't run a business unless it
(04:35):
was built on quantity, becausethe expenses of chasing after the
insurance company, having a business office completely dedicated tothat, and then the reimbursement rates from the insurance companies,
which are kind of changing all the time and Medicare and such, theywere all over the place. It was extremely chaotic and the
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doctors were losing, the patients were losing, andit just was such a broken system. And two
of the founders of executive medicine, one ismy husband, Dr. Walter Gamm, the other one is Dr. Mark Anderson.
They literally had a moment where they were like, Idon't know if this is really what I signed up for when
(05:19):
I went to medical school. And I'm not getting any satisfactionwith one hand on the door and the other one trying to service
the patient and talk to the patient and knowing that there's fivemore people down the hall. And they just
were so fed up. And then as the system continued tochange and the demands on the healthcare providers became
(05:41):
even greater, They said, okay, nobody's winning.
What do we wanna do? There was a moment where we thought that Dr. Anderson wouldjust ride his Harley off into the sunset and Dr.
Gamble might just go become a mathteacher or something because he's always loved math and been great
in math and has a degree in that as well. But both of them had fallen outof love with medicine, fallen out of love with something that
(06:09):
they had given their life and their careers to. literallya napkin idea in a cafe one morning, sat
down and said, all right, if we could do this differently, what wouldit look like? And they started making a list. And it
was really a conversation about savingthemselves, saving the patients, and Then
(06:32):
at the end, it was like, oh, well, why don't we just do this? And thiswas 20 years ago when concierge medicine wasn't really
a thing as much as it is now. And itwasn't like how it is with insurance, you know, you hang a shingle and
they will come. And if your last name starts with a, you're at the topof the HMO book. It was literally, we're going to
take a leap of faith and we're going to say, Hey, youknow what? we believe there's a better way. And
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that's what started executive medicine. And I love thatwe have just grown from those two founders doing it
part-time while they were still trying to run their other practice tocoming over full-time to growing it to where we are today. And
it's just mind-blowing to me that whenyou have something that the patients need and
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want, and quite frankly deserve, theywill come and they are so grateful. They're just so
grateful. And here you have a complete differentthing where the patients are happy, the
employees are happy, the doctors are happy,and everybody knows that patients come in and they say, wow, I
(07:44):
don't think I've ever been to a doctor's office where everyone's happy to be here. Andwe really are. And I love that we
could make a bit of a difference inYeah, that's amazing. Especially
when you have that whole culture and dynamic going on,it's a rare entity in any organization with
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some of today's realities and challenges. How'sthe journey been along the way since the founding? Any
Yeah, I think in 2005, it was a little bit of a struggle becausewe didn't have the doctors there full time. And it was a
(08:33):
time, it was a couple of years there where the doctors werefunding this idea they had. and waiting
for it to kind of catch on and to be able to spend as much time thereas they could and still run the practice that
was funding this practice. Ithink those moments really shaped us because we
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really appreciated every single person that walked through the door. Everyperson who said, you know what? I'm gonna have a dog in this hunt. I'm
willing to pay out of my pocket for this because I see value in it. Iremember those days. I think those were really special.
Some recent things that I think really shape mymemory of why this is beyond
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just a doctor's office, and the things I think I'll look back onvery fondly. There's one that comes
to mind, there's several of them, but this one reallyspeaks to the we-see-you model.
All of our employees dosomething we call book club. So we'll all be reading a particular book
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together. And one of the books that we readwas Unreasonable Hospitality. And I don't know if you've read this book.
It really was written by somebody in the restaurant business, but it reallycrosses all
different backgrounds, all different businesses. And it's really about seeingyour customer and and appreciating that customer
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and going above and beyond. And our patient, our staffreally took that to heart. So they started looking for
ways that they could have unreasonable hospitality.
They could really go above and beyond. Andwe've always been good at listening to patients, but this particular day
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we had one of our patients in and he spoke about his son.
He was really disheartened and, and Oneof the nurses said, you know, you don't see him yourself, what's going on? He
said, oh, my son's having surgery tomorrow. And shejust said, tell me more about your son. And as they
had this conversation, she happened to learn that the son wasa huge Texas Rangers fan. And
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we called the dad afterwards andsaid, you know, I wonder if your
son would like to be visited by one of our other patients.
And we kind of describe what we what we would do. And,and the dad was just beside himself and said,
Wow, oh, my gosh, you know, wecan't call them and talk to them unless, you know, we have your permission. Oh,
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absolutely. So this particular Texas Rangerperson went out and took memorabilia, signed
cards, really made that reallytough time in that family's life just a little bit better.
And that's more of whatwe want. We want to see our patients. We
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want to see them, their struggles. How can we help them?
How can we lift their burden a little bit? And allof our staff is on board with that. I mean, that's just kind of one
of them. That's one of my favorites because itYeah. No, I need to hear that unreasonable hospitality. What
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Oh, my goodness. I just seen an example of,well, tremendous kindness. I
don't know why I want to share this story with you, but I'm going to share it with you right now. Inmy community, I live in Canada, so
we do have access. Healthcare is generallyfree. But sometimes when
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we have difficult challenges, we have togo outside of the country or go to other specialists. There's
a young lady, she's under 18, andshe needed a special treatment for her heart. She's had multiple
heart attacks. And we found out,the community found out that she needed $80,000 to get
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a special treatment. And mycommunity version of unreasonable hospitality The
whole community pitched in, businesses chipped in $1,000 each. Therewas a GoFundMe, and they raised $80,000 in
less than 72 hours in a small town of 18,000. Sothat's not completely relevant, but unreasonable hospitality
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of what you just shared. Ithink the world needs to do more of that. Incredible.
Have there been other times that have stood outYeah, I definitely think so. There's
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been times where we were really on the cutting edge,like we were doing virtual colonography before it
was even a thing. You know, wehad, speaking of Canada, because my husband's from Canada, he practiced
in Manitoba for many years before he came to the States. Andwhen the Canadian system started looking at
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maybe doing this, and we had had it, I don't know, agood 10 years, that came Um, some, some people
came from Canada to train, um, at our facility. And it was, itwas really fascinating to kind of see that come full
circle where we're here. We're doing some things that area little more advanced and then we're able to train. Um, some
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other physicians on, on that advancement, but one of the reallycool things about doing the virtual colonography, which is
another one of these neat stories is we had a patient. Andhe was in his forties. So normally when we think about colon
cancer, we don't really think about somebody being in their forties. Andthis particular patient was on a Southwest airlines
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flight, and there was a magazine in the back. Now they don't havemagazines on their lines, but there was a magazine at the time. And
the An ad, it wasn't even our ad,was there for executive physicals, these half-day exams and
such. And he reached out to his executiveassistant and said, you know, I didn't sleep all night. I saw this
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ad. I don't know why. I can't getit out of my head, but I just feel like I really need to have one
of these physicals. Find me the best place to go. Sothis particular executive assistant called around and
asked a lot of questions, called back, and then said,OK, you guys are the only ones doing this virtual colonography.
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you know, he said, find me the most comprehensive exam. So I'dlike to book him with with you all. So he gets booked with
us. And when we do the virtual colonography, it'sa colonoscopy, but it's done on a CT machine. And
instead of a long 60 centimeter tube, it's about fourinches goes in, it's The, the columns inflated but
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we're actually able to see the inside of the colon, the outside ofthe colon, and because it includes a CT of the pelvis we
can see within the pelvis. wereshocked to find out that unbeknownst to him, he had tailbone
cancer. And we found it onthis virtual colonography. The one thing that the
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assistant just was adamant that she should add, whicha lot of times you'll hear like, well, you're 40 years old, you don't need this.
Now we've actually found a lot of colon cancer in 40 year olds, somein 30 year olds. So that argument's out
the window. But for this particular executive assistant, just wasreally hung up on this. It's one of those things where you think this
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guy really had guardian angel because hesaw that ad, he listened to that prompting, wasn't our ad,
the assistant called around, chose us, he ended upgetting this particular test, which at the time we were the only
one offering it. And Itwas incredible that it saved his life. So within two
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days of him coming in for that exam, he was in for surgery.
And by the end of the week, he was out playing baseball withhis kids again. And he just never in
his wildest dreams would have imagined the day before he picked up that magazineIncredible. And just changed his
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A lot of times we don't find things like tailbone cancer until they'vespread elsewhere. And then the story
Yeah, all kinds of challenges in different ways and differentoutcomes, unfortunately. One
of the things, looking at your profile, oneof the things that has stood out to me is how often
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leaders separate health from their performance, eventhough they're deeply connected. And we take this for granted. And
I know this just because of my own personal journey. Whydo you believe longevity should
(18:18):
Oh, I love the way you worded that question. And itis almost like a quotable question. It is absolutely
side by side. If you look at yourbusiness and you're saying, OK, I've got this company and
I want to grow it, you're never saying, let's just besuccessful today. You're not, you're
(18:40):
looking forward. Where are we going to be in a year? Where are we going to be in three years,five years, 10 years? What's the exit strategy? You're looking at
this business as a whole. Yet so many times executives,they have what we like to term ostrich syndrome. They stick
their head in the sands. They're like, I feel good today, you know,and they never look further to say, what am
(19:02):
I going to feel like in three years, five years? And that you can't,you know, the mirror doesn't tell the story. You can't get the answer to that question unless
you do a deep dive, unless you get all of these metrics together.
You run your company, you look at metrics, you know, where you were,where you're going, where your pitfalls are, you
know, where your danger zones are. You have to do thiswith your own body. And as far as leadership, you
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know, you have to learn how to lead your own health and your ownbody. and take personal responsibility. Part
of that is saying, I'm going to figure out where I am andwhere I wanna go, gotta have a goal. And the goal's not
always the same for everybody. We have some people come in and say, okay, mydad died at 59, I don't wanna have a heart attack at 59. That's
(19:50):
their goal. Okay, we can deal with that. We have other people comein and say, I wanna run a 10K by Christmas next
year. Okay, let's look at that. Everybody'sgoal's different. And I think that really gets back to, saying,
all right, who, who are you andas an individual, and what do you want out
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of this visit? What do you want from us? And howcan we help you with what you want to achieve? It's
so often in medicine, it's you getpigeonholed, you know, oh, you know, you're a female age, whatever,
here's what we do for you. You're a male age, whatever, here's what we do for you. Andthere's, there's never any kind of
(20:35):
camaraderie between the patient and the doctor. There's not alet's get a plan together, and let's figure out
what your main goal is. So I dothink, man, longevity and leadership
Yeah, I've heard it said I'm in Dan Martell's coachingprogram, and he said belt buckles
(21:00):
down while it's up. AndI do know just
from my own journey, having released 150 pounds, Iwas 349. And so it's changed how I lead, how I show up. Because when
I started making myself a priority, abyproduct of that, I also started making my business
(21:35):
a priority. Isn't that interesting?
It is so interesting, and it's so much of what we see. AndI think that's why we do so well in our corporate agreements, because
the corporations know this. They know ifthey have healthy executives, healthy team members, they
are going to have a healthier company, because healthy businesses startwith healthy leadership. It's just a known fact. This is
(22:00):
why they're shelling out money and saying, look, givethem what they need, because it's in our best interest as a
company to have them healthy. And if acompany is willing to do that, think about even
if maybe someone's listening right now and they're like, well, I'mnot in the C-suite or I don't own my own business. And they're
(22:21):
listening to this. Well, you have a family to run.
You have a life to run. You need to be reallygood at the job that you do. And then start
thinking about what does my life look like in three years,five years, 10 years? And what's that
Yeah. Yeah. And we, alot of times we have it all wrong. And it's great that businesses are
(22:47):
recognizing that, that health isa priority, not just, and I know we're
talking about physical, but I think a by-product of, oftaking care of ourselves and investing in ourselves, like
what, what people can do with your organization,by-product of that is also mental wellbeing. Because
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when you feel good, when your health is good, you feel good.
And it's about legacy, too. Because when you feel good andyour health is good, you start thinking, how
do I want to leave this world better? We've seen people come tous. And I was just thinking about another
case. This is a fascinating story. Itwas a lawyer. And he was a highly successful lawyer,
(23:35):
highly regarded lawyer. And hewas in his 60s. And he came and he said, you
know, I just think I'm going to retire. AndLike, yeah, you're 60. But you're at the top of your game, you
know? And he's like, I don't know what's going on. ButI just know that I've just lost my mojo. And
(24:02):
we're like, okay, let's get to the bottom of this. Andduring his executive physical, we do something called
a carotid Doppler. And we're basically looking for intimal thickeninghere in the carotid arteries, which could lead to stroke risk. And
because we were looking at that, we happened tosee the thyroid. And if the thyroid's enlarged or
(24:24):
there's a nodule or something, it often shows up on these. Andsure enough, he had a massive growth
on his thyroid behind it. So it wasn't like it wassticking out in front and obvious. And then we send
a head, a head and neck surgeon. They went in, they took it out andit wasn't cancerous, but it was a very specific type
(24:46):
of tumor that releases basically like toxins inthe body. And this is why he had lost his energy.
This is why he couldn't focus. This is why he just, ashe's put it, lost his mojo. So he went through
surgery, got that removed. Hehad the best like next five years. He
(25:07):
said, I feel like I'm 40, not 60. Andhe just really, even though we knew he didn't feel good, he
didn't realize how much that ailment had completely overtakenWell, he couldn't even see it. Yeah. And
you can't identify it. And sometimes wedon't know. And it was a physical. It was
(25:31):
a symptom. It wasn't mental. It was something in his body.
He didn't know. And had he not gone to you, he would neverhave known. And he would have kept his mojo. gone.
So, I mean, he probably would have died young because, youknow, once that depression sets in and you're still active and
such, I mean, it's, it's a downhill spiral. Sothat, that really just, I
(25:59):
just, I love that story because it's one of those whereyou can't really put your finger on it, but you know, something's up
and, and boy, these, these tests, they just,It like both those stories I just shared, you
know, the guy wanted the colonography because he wanted tolook at his colon, but he found something on his tailbone. You know, this
(26:21):
particular one, we were looking at the carotid arteries, but we happento see something on the thyroid. So I never put
those two and two together until just now, but it is interesting that sometimes wefind things that we weren't necessarily looking for. Now
we're talking about big drastic things though. Yeah. They're not alwaysthat big and they're not always that drastic. Sometimes we just see, oh, you have a vitamin D
(26:43):
deficiency that explains a lot, you know? Yeah.
Or your, your B12s off, maybe it's too high. We'veseen that people take too many supplements and we're like, okay, this
explains a lot. You know, those heart palpitations you're having probably becauseyou're taking this, the supplement you're over, overusing the
B vitamins and people say, oh, well, you know, you just, Andso many doctors say, oh, you just pee them out. Well, yes, but when your levels are
(27:08):
too high, you can have side effects and such in the meantime. So sometimesit's just simple little fixes and sometimes it's
big things, but I, I lovewhat we do. We're so passionate about it because
we just have seen the changes in people's lives andI love this episode because I know we're going to inspire people to
(27:33):
take action on their health in ways that they may nothave considered. And what we were
just talking about, what you touched on for a moment wasreally blind spots in high performers. We
don't really know them, we can't really see them. So youwork with people who are driven, disciplined, and
(27:56):
successful. Lookingback at what we just shared and what you just shared, what
blind spots do high performers tend to have when it comes toWell, there's a lot, especially if they travel a lot, you know, we
see this so much, they, they travel, they go, go,go, go, go, but they're not doing some things that are, that
(28:20):
are really simple and they seem very elementary. Likethey're not staying hydrated at the rate they should. So we
give them the formula. Okay. This is how much water, water youneed for your body weight and for your travel schedule. It's
it changes with everybody, but things like that, becausechronic dehydration can have lasting effects
(28:43):
on the kidneys and on the brain and the brain is mostlymade up of water. So I think that's definitely something
that we see a lot of a pitfall. Hormones are another pitfall.
People don't realize that these hormone shifts in age andit's not, for men, people say, oh, I gotta up my
testosterone because I want a better sex life. Yeah, that's great. That'spart of it. But there's a lot more than just your sex life.
(29:10):
How are you gonna heal after surgery? You're gonna heal alot better if your testosterone is optimized. How
is your muscle mass going to be, which is gonna keep you from fallinglater because you're gonna be able to You know, hold yourself up.
We all know once you start falling and you lose thatstability, that's a big indicator for
(29:31):
decline. So there are some of these things that, especiallyin men, that happen. And
the travel is one of sleep is another one. We really diveinto people's sleep. because they could have
sleep apnea, which is a killer. I mean, people are like, oh,you just snore. That's annoying. Well, it's more than annoying. You
(29:54):
can die from it. People also don't understandthat when we sleep, and we now know this with functional
MRI, which is being used in theuniversities and for research purposes, that when we sleep, our
brain actually washes itself like a washing machine,but we have to get into a really deep REM sleep. And
(30:17):
when you think about sleep and you think about the REM cycle, thelonger you're asleep, the longer the REM cycle is.
So if you're getting up, every three, two,three hours, you're never going to get into that deep
sleep, that deep REM sleep that you need to actuallyhave that brain washed and to clear out all that. And then you're putting
(30:38):
yourself at risk for dementia and Alzheimer's. Sowe say, okay, what are the things that wake people up? If nobody's dressing this,
you know, is it BPH? the prostate BPH,but I have a prosthetic hypertrophy. Or is it that
you have an animal that sleeps in your bed, a dogor a cat? These are questions that we ask
(31:01):
our patients. All of these things can keep you awake. Isyour room temperature too warm? Because we
know that you sleep deeper in a cool room. Are youlooking at your phone before bed or right when you wake up? That's
(31:21):
actually going to mess up your circadian rhythm. But these things ina traditional model of medicine
where you have 15 minutes with a patient andyou're not able to take the time to really ask
and teach, educate. This is again, whereI feel that medicine falls down because if
(31:43):
you can take a patient and havethese kinds of conversations about them
and about how to optimize their health, you'renot just affecting them, you're affecting their children and
their spouse and their children's children. ThisOh, it's so true. And I'm thinking of this, how it applies here,
(32:16):
The doctors, there's, in my community,there's 4,000, I would argue probably more that don't
have a family doctor. And you're lucky tosee your doctor. And you mentioned 15 minutes. And
it's not 15 minutes. Sometimes it'sfive. And that's the reality of
(32:42):
So how can we cover all the bases? It'sjust it's just putting a Band-Aid on on it. And
what your what your approach is a whole level approachI want to ask you, how does stress show up physically
(33:12):
Wow, stress is one of those things that if you take adiagram of the human body and say, you're gonna draw a line
out from each part of the body that stress affects, it'sgoing to look like one of those voodoo pin cushion dolls
because it literally affects so much. Stressaffects the brain and cognition and
(33:34):
the executive decision-making that happensin the brain. It also affects
sleep greatly. We always tell ourpatients the positive attributes of journaling. So
whether that's a prayer journal or it's a diary of sortsor it's any kind of journaling before they go to bed to actually
(33:57):
have a spiral or something next to the bed, they justwrite this out, whatever it is that's on their heart
and their mind, because it's almost like a computer dump Ifyou don't close all the windows, your computer eventually doesn't function right.
You got to close the loops. And it also allows you to go tosleep because there's something you are like, I'm so afraid I'm going to forget this. It interrupts
(34:20):
your sleep so much. So we always tell people, look, ifyou want to reduce stress, keep a journal, keep it by your bedside and
make it a nightly routine. You know, as we kindof work down the body, you could have TMJ where
you could actually have jaw pain because you're clenching your teeth. Andmaybe you're doing this in your sleep. Maybe you're doing this when you're awake, but we've
(34:41):
seen that we've seen dental issues from stress. Ofcourse, we know about chest pain and the risk for heart disease, uh,
when the, when stress is high and, and thenthe, even the, um, Bowels,
we see issues that people have either constipation or diarrhea relatedto stress. Stress can make it to where
(35:03):
you. don't want to exercise. Ironically, exercise isthe best thing you can do for stress, but you just feel so
tense that you can't imagine going to the gym. It seems soforeign. So we do tell people our
bodies are designed to release stressphysically. This is why when we Any
(35:25):
moons ago, hunting for our food and shopping ourown wood and carrying buckets of water there, we
were able to endure so much more becausethere was that outlet. And now the simplest
(35:48):
And I see it so often with peopleI talk to, but I was that person before. I
wouldn't even take 20 minutes to go for a walk. Andnow I know that you can take, everybody has 20 minutes. We
often say that we don't have the time, but everybodyhas time. We just don't prioritize it. So for
(36:11):
me, as soon as the children get on the bus, I'llgo for 20 minutes to go around the neighborhood, get
the oxygen going. And if everything's crazy inthe day, I'll take off for 20 minutes and go
for a walk anyways, cause it's the best thing I can do. And we, andwe say to ourselves, I don't have time, but you can't
(36:35):
You can't afford not to. And I love that you're doing this. Ilove when you say, and the kids get on the bus, that means you're doing it in the morning. This,
what you're doing, if you could get all of your listenersto do the dramatic change they would have in their
life, like they can't even see it now, but I promise theywould be thinking clearer. They would be happier at
(36:57):
home. They'd be sleeping better. allof these things because they took that 20 minutes. Now, there's a lot of
research, too, that a 20 minutebrisk walk is as effective as
taking a Prozac. And what happened inthe 90s, everybody got put on these antidepressants and
(37:19):
it was like, oh, you're sad. Oh, you're this, you're that. Let me give yousome medication. And then That, you
know, not being the optimal choice, exercise would have been the optimal choice,had the other side effects. They were putting on weight. They
were increasing what they were eating and craving carbsand all kinds of things with, and I'm not just picking on Prozac, just
(37:41):
antidepressants in general. So I lovethat you're talking about that walk. And when
you said something that really resonated with me, Brett, is, Everybodyhas the same 24 hours in the day. Everybody.
It's just how do you choose to prioritize your 24 hours? I mean,It's true. And I've even
(38:06):
tied it into daily rhythms of what's possible. AndI know one time when we were doing in a mastermind that I've
been a member of, often in masterminds, wewere doing a deep dive on somebody's business, and we'd have 15 half
an hour breaks. I would purposely getoutside and go for a walk around the neighborhood. And
(38:31):
what was really interesting about that, Ishared that with the lady that was in the group, the facilitator. And
when she heard that I did, I said that 15 to 20 minuteanalogy, she started doing it. and
Good for her. See, I love how you're inspiring peopleYeah, yeah. And
(39:02):
this is the thing, that prevention startswith a decision. And it's
the decision of your 20 minutes, but it's also the decision to seekand make a decision and prioritize your health, your
self care. It's noSo we've been talking just for the last minute or two about being proactive instead
(39:34):
of reactive, like the parallels here are pretty striking.
If leaders treated their health risks the same way asthey treat financial or cybersecurity risks, what would change? And
I bring up cybersecurity because that's what I do. Butwhat would change if they really made that decision
(40:00):
Well, first of all, I think they'd have a sense of urgency. Andthey'd put themselves on their calendar. That's
huge. We encourage our patients, put yourself on your calendar andmake those non-negotiable. Maybe it's that 20 minute walk.
Maybe it's that eight hours of sleep. Maybe it's redlight therapy. Maybe it's whatever it is, put it on the calendar and
(40:25):
it's non-negotiable. And Ireally believe that it's to your point, if they treated
their own body and their own health that way, these are the things theywould do. And they would try to understand it. because
you know you can't run a business if you don't understand it. Andso they try to understand themselves a little bit better and
(40:48):
really get those numbers and really deep diveinto, okay, where am I at? It's
another, you know, we talked a minute ago about how thisis a multi-generational thing. We've
seen, we have something called the family coxears. Sowe have couples. So we had seen that when the couples
(41:11):
would come in, And they both leave with their leatherbinders with all their results, you know, 40, 50 pages
of everything about them, graphs and charts and everything. Andwhen they were doing this together, we saw an incredible
amount of enthusiasm around it. And we also saw that the nextyear when they came back, they were so excited together
(41:34):
to share their progress. So we started doing something called Family Concierge,which actually was at a, a
recommendation by one of our patients years ago said, well, can you see mywhole family? Like I can't, I can no longer go to the
pediatrician's office and do the racket. Youknow, we can see you next Tuesday at two o'clock. If you can't do that, it's going to be six weeks.
(41:56):
And, and so we started the, the family concierge andwhat we've seen is families getting healthier together. And
parents actually being mentors totheir kids. And sometimes these are young kids. Sometimes they're teenagers.
And they're saying, OK, we're going to do this together. Everyone's on thesame page. It's beautiful. Now, in
(42:19):
2026, we rolled out. And this was an interesting concept. Sowe've just rolled this out within a matter of weeks. The multi-generational
concierge, because we had people thatsay, okay, you see my kids, you see my
spouse and I, but I've got these aging parents andI don't even know what to do or where to start. And
(42:44):
so now we see the three generations andit's beautiful because for several of
our doctors or family practice, we've got an internist, we just hired anortho as well, but several of our
patients really want toget healthy and understand the ins and outs of their parents, how slick
(43:08):
and best be their advocate. But our doctors loveit because being family practitioners, especially, we'll
take Walter, who was in Canada for years deliveringhis own babies, you know, because in Canada, family practice does
a lot. He's been able to do that here in the States,not deliver babies, but continue with this more
(43:31):
global approach because that's his experience. Andreally, I think, again, it goes
back to the win-win. It's a win for the patients.
It's a win for the doctors. And in a lot of ways,it's a win for the system because if we can
keep them healthy, Medicare and theinsurance companies, they're not paying. ridiculous reimbursements for
(43:58):
But if the family's healthy, there's so many other wins thatwe're not even talking about. The whole dynamic of
being there for each other and supporting and nothaving the anxiety about worrying about mom or grandma, knowing
that you know the plan, the steps, you know whatyou're dealing with, or they've gotten the appropriate
(44:21):
For me and the mental health of the person in the sandwich generation,the mental health of the person who's like, I'm trying to deal with my
kids, my family, my parents, and I don't even know whatWe haven't even really talked about that. But mental health. Absolutely.
(44:43):
And just a byproduct of that, though, everyone, and wesaid it already, the 20 minutes, just taking
a walk, 20 minutes, andlooking at the whole body and not just physically, the
mental, game changer. AbsoluteJudy, I had such an
(45:07):
incredible time speaking with you today. I wantto make sure that we make sure our audience knows
Yeah, sure. I mean, I think the best way is to go to emtexas.com. That'sexecutive medicine. So emtexas.com. And
(45:32):
Yeah, they can follow us. You can find us on Facebook,Instagram, all those places. Very
easy search for us. And then also, wehave a podcast called Stay Young America. So anywhere
you get podcasts, you can find us there. We knowthat our mission is to educate and
(45:55):
to help as many people as possible. And so we,over the years, have had radio show podcasts
and such, but anyone can go and find Stay Young America podcastand can download some of those episodes and listen
Perfect. We'll make sure that we have that in the show notes, Judy. Um,I want to end with a rapid fire round questions for
(46:26):
Okay. Um, just first thing that comes to your head and yourheart morning routine or evening routine for
you morning morning. Okay. Uh,one daily habit with the biggest health return walking.
Most overlooked health metric for leaders, mentalhealth, coffee, friend or
(46:58):
So put you onIf you had to choose one exercise, biggest
myth about aging. Say it again. Biggestmyth about aging? That
you don't have a choice. We all have a choice, don'twe? One behavior leaders need to
(47:22):
stop normalizing. Notsleeping. One thing
leaders should start doing this week, this minute. Journaling.
Yes, thank you for this. I needed to hear that. A book yourecommend most to executives? Oh,
(47:48):
gosh, there's so many good ones. Recently, we've been talking a lot aboutYeah, I'm
going to check that out. Okay, last question. Finish this sentence.
Attitude. Attitude. Everyone,To our listeners listening today,
(48:15):
do you decide to make justone change after hearing this conversation? And
you've been inspired with what Judy has shared. Please, pleaseshare this episode with one or two people you
know that this could impact them. And reach outto Judy and thank her and check out the wonderful resources she's
(48:36):
shared. Connect with her on socialmedia. listen to the podcast, benefit
from it. And I know I certainly havebenefited from this conversation. Judy, I want to thank you
again. It was such a pleasure to have thisBrett, it's been an honor. Thank you so much for having me on. I enjoyed my time with
(49:00):
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks fortuning into the Adaptive Mindset. If you found value in today's episode,
don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share itwith someone who's ready to thrive in the digital age. Stay secure,
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