Imagine waking up every day feeling like a superhero. I, Stephen McCain, a former professional athlete turned biohacker, experienced this when I took charge of my health post-retirement. After grappling with a reckless lifestyle and deteriorating health, I took a leap into the unknown, giving up alcohol, embracing a healthy lifestyle, biohacking, and discovering the transformative power of regenerative medicine.
Not only did I regain my energy and vitality, but I also successfully transitioned from my gymnastics career into a career in Hollywood and eventually a health professional. This video is my hero's journey and a possible guide for you on how you too can tap into the innately powerful potential of your health.
So gear up for an educational and inspiring speech that underscores the power of peptides, health optimization, and the importance of health ownership.
This video is a speech I gave at the 2023 World Peptide Congress. Taught by the revolutionary leaders of Regenerative Medicine, this two day symposium covers the latest medical advancements that are redefining the field of anti-aging medicine. age-related disease.With world-renowned speakers and international guest lecturers, the Peptide World Congress will change how you understand aging and treating age-related disease, for good.
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Take advantage of Olympian Stephen McCain's partnership with Thorne to get a 20% discount on all Thorne supplements. Discount automatically applied to all orders. Plus free shipping! Go to ThorneDiscount.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi guys, welcome to another episode of the Stephen
McCain podcast.
This is going to be a solo castepisode of a speech I gave this
year at the World PeptideCongress.
It really illustrates why I dowhat I do and it's my journey
from being a professionalathlete to getting really
(00:21):
unhealthy and living a recklesslife in my opinion for a number
of years and then turning it allaround finding biohacking and
really committing myself to thelast 14 years quitting drinking,
finding peptides, working withfunctional medicine doctors,
doing all these things to reallyrebuild myself.
And I hope it's somewhatinspirational for you and I hope
(00:45):
it also gives you a little bitmore insight into who I am and
how much that I really love andsubscribe to these things that I
talk about on this podcast.
So I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
From the pommel horse to the global stage, stephen
McCain has established himselfas a Titan in the world of
gymnastics.
As a two-time Olympic gymnastand a world champion silver
medalist, he's not just definedby his accolades but by his
unparalleled commitment to thesport.
His global footprint ingymnastics is inspiring.
(01:22):
He has showcased his talent onalmost every continent except
for Antarctica.
But Stephen's prowess isn'tconfined to gymnastics alone.
He's a talented actor in films,television and commercials.
Beyond the glitz of the arenaand the silver screen, stephen's
heart beats for a noble cause.
With a keen interest in thehuman optimization and
(01:45):
performance journey, he isdedicated to advancing health
span.
He champions the idea thatindividuals can harness their
optimum health potential at anyage.
Today he is 49 years young andStephen stands as a testament to
this belief, consistentlychallenging conventions about
aging and its perceived limitsTo kick off peptide world crong
(02:06):
as properly.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome our first speaker,
stephen McCain.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Thank you so much.
Thank you All right, this is soexciting.
She rewrote my bio for me and Ithink she did a way better job,
so thank you for that.
Are you guys excited for this?
Are you guys excited for this?
Come on, man, this is cuttingedge stuff.
(02:39):
I have personally had a loveaffair with peptides for 10
years and it was prettyunderground when I first got
into it.
So I mean to have some placelike this where you can go and
get a state of the art educationunbelievable.
So I would like to take you ona journey with me of my history
and how human optimization andregenerative medicine and
(03:04):
peptides have changed my life.
And so, in order to do that, wegot to go back in time a little
bit, and I used to be a worldclass athlete.
I spent my whole upbringingdedicating everything to the
sport of gymnastics.
It's kind of my nature, mypersonality.
You're going to find out thatwhen I get into something, I
(03:25):
tend to rabbit hole on it.
Two-time Olympian Hall of Fameand Ducati got to compete all
over the world.
Phenomenal career film,television commercial that's
Adriana Lima from the Victoria'sSegris model, in case you were
wondering.
And then just to give you anexample of the kind of stuff I
used to do.
Let's watch a high bar routine.
(03:47):
This is one of my favoriteapparatuses.
A few years ago you would bealmost done, but nowhere here
now.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You have to go back.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Pretty cool, right?
I mean, I'm 20 years retired.
I can look at it now as a fan.
So to me sometimes it's likeJesus, how did I learn that
stuff?
And so look, an amazing career.
But the hardest thing that Iever did in gymnastics I'm going
to be doing it was retire.
(04:47):
This was a massive rug pull onmy lifestyle, my discipline.
I lost all of it.
I had no purpose.
I didn't know what I wanted todo.
I didn't love anything and Iwas pretty abusive to my body.
I was eating whatever I wanted,sleeping whatever I wanted.
I started smoking cigarettes,drinking almost every single day
, waking up with a hangoveralmost every single day.
(05:08):
I was poofy.
I had brain fog.
It was not a good place.
Five dark years Just felt likegarbage.
So I had gone from being one ofthe best in the world at
something to feeling terrible,and it all kind of came to a
head one night after I had hungout with a friend at a bar.
(05:31):
I came back, fell down andcollapsed, drinking so much, and
my fiance at the time woke upto her shaking me and I was
vomiting all over myself and Iremember looking at her and
thinking she's crying.
But why is she mad at me and Iwas totally paralyzed and in
(05:54):
that moment I had this out ofbody experience.
It was literally like it justsucked back and I was watching
the whole thing with 100%clarity, totally sober, and I
just saw what was happening andI literally said to myself oh my
god, I'm killing myself.
And in that moment I thought Idon't want to die, I want to
live.
(06:15):
And that moment changed my lifeforever.
And I woke up the next day andI said to myself I don't want to
just live, I want to feel likea superhero again.
I want to feel like I did whenI was an athlete.
I want to live that way for therest of my life.
That's what I want to do.
I want to be thenon-professional athlete.
(06:36):
And so I quit drinking, stillsober, almost 15 years.
That was really good, thank you.
By the way.
Clearing the air allowed me toreally address a lot of stuff
with my dad and all this stuffand it got me, I think, to be
more of a stable person and Irealized a lot of my domestic
success was built in the factthat my coaches were my
(06:56):
proverbial father.
So it was very interesting andthen I got into.
It was right at the beginningof the whole biohacking movement
.
I had a friend of mine that hadLyme disease.
He had all these supplementsand needles and all this stuff
everywhere and I was like Jesusand she said, listen, everyone
waits till they get cancer.
They get something.
She said people should be doingwhat I do right now and I said
(07:17):
I'm in.
So I came into this wholemovement, this new health
biohacking movement on a rocketship, started working out again,
trying every protocol whicheventually led to a
longevity-based workout where Ifeel awesome, I'm supple, I'm
strong, I'm metabolically fit.
My diet I personalized it.
(07:39):
I tested it with my blood.
I really pinpointed what dietworked for me, I tracked it and
supplements were a part of that.
I've basically tried every damnsupplement there is in the
world almost, and then I'velearned to sort of architect
that with certain people, likeSandra Kaufman's approach to
(08:00):
becoming a longevity oranti-aging supplement protocol,
biohacking gear Spent a ton ofmoney on things that look we're
bound to Earth, right, we'reaffected by heat, we're affected
by cold, we're affected byoxygen, we're affected by energy
, we're affected by light.
So a lot of these biohackingtools use things that like
(08:23):
natural elements to manipulateour physiology and it just
allows you to be able to get abetter return on your investment
of time and energy in yourhealth pursuit.
Testing we're right now in thetime of personalized medicine,
right, you have to prove whatyou're doing is working.
(08:43):
If you're not, in my opinionyou're a thing of the past,
right?
So for me it was testing mysleep and my exercise.
I mean, obviously some of theseslides are pretty old no one
uses 23 in me anymore but bloodtesting, testing, my brain dexa
scanning, all of that stuff.
And then there was two booksthat sort of changed the
(09:03):
trajectory of my approach.
Now, I don't necessarilyrecommend this book it's
probably a little bit outdatedbut I read this book and it made
me realize what functionalmedicine doctors do and how they
optimize hormones and reallylook at the health of the body
from a biomarker perspective,like of blood, like real
optimization.
And so I ended up reading thisbook and I found myself an
(09:27):
anti-aging doctor.
I was getting I was 39, gettingclose to 40, you know and ended
up optimizing my hormones,really learning to read my blood
labs and, most importantly,finding out what was my weakest
link.
So this is how I looked on theright and this was my
cholesterol panel at the timevery high LDL particle count.
(09:51):
I had very small particle sizeof LDL, so the LDL was not
breaking down, it wasn't beingcleared, and I had lipoprotein
associated phospholipase A2,which is an enzyme that becomes
elevated when you incur arterialinflammation, so I was most
(10:13):
likely accumulating plaque.
I did a carotid artery scanconfirmed I was getting plaque,
and so this was a multi-yearprocess of getting these numbers
back in line.
If I wouldn't have, if Iwouldn't have read that book, if
I wouldn't have gotten to workwith a functional medicine
doctor, gotten out of thetraditional sick care system, I
(10:34):
wouldn't have known this.
By the way, I was on one ofthose ketogenic diets and I
thought, oh, just look at me,you know.
And the doctor told me he'slike we never see anyone that
looks like this, that has theselevels.
By the way, these diets can bedangerous.
So you know you don't want tojust do things willy-nilly.
You know that testing isparamount these days.
The other book I read was this Ifound this guy he went by the
(10:55):
name Dr X in Europe andexcellent researcher, not a
doctor actually, but he was kindof like who I was, but maybe 15
years older and he really gotme thinking about peptides and
exploring peptides.
And I went all the way in and Icame to this conference,
(11:16):
watched it, learned from DrSeeds, took his courses.
I was even had been in hisoffice hours before asking
questions, read every book Icould get my hands on, you know,
worked with a lot of differentdoctors and stuff.
It's kind of my peptide rabbithole.
Just some pictures of my lifewith it, but profound, you know.
(11:37):
And now I've rolled that intolike sort of like a longevity
calendar.
The calendar will run me.
It's time for this protocol.
So, you know, the comeback had,in my opinion, at age 44 or 45,
had been complete.
I had accomplished what Ireally wanted to do and I can
tell you these things work.
(11:57):
They do.
You do not have to be anOlympic athlete.
I just took an Olympic approachto this stuff and had a lot of
thirst for it, right, but thishappened.
I was tested once again.
I was working on a Nikecommercial with a two-time
(12:19):
Oscar-winning director.
Him and his director ofphotography were world-class.
They did the Revenant, they didBirdman, alejandro Gonzalez
Inarito, and we were doing someamazing stuff.
And the assistant directorwhispered in my ear hey, can you
come in Tomorrow?
We want to do a whole other dayof shooting with you.
(12:39):
And I was like man, I'm feelinglike I feel like I never retired
, you know like mid-40s, and I'mlike I'm like a rock star again
.
And I was just about to tellthem I think we've done enough.
The flooring isn't really thatsafe.
And I kept going and I tore myAchilles and I was furious at
myself for letting this happen.
(12:59):
Furious, 999,999 times out of amillion.
I never would have made thatmistake.
And I thought you peoplepleaser, you idiot, what did you
do?
You can tell how much Irespected my physiology and I
(13:22):
remember my therapist as I wasseeing some guy about this
because I was so upset.
I never played the victim, butI was really mad at myself and
he said Steve, listen, theAchilles story has stood the
test of thousands and thousandsof years.
Talking about warriors thatfrom the Greek times that had
their Achilles torn, that's it.
They were decimated, they'redone.
That's why it's lasted thislong and that really helped me.
(13:45):
But here's what happened.
I went after this like I was anOlympic athlete.
I threw the kitchen sink at itand what I did is I stopped
asking for permission.
I stopped looking for others totell me what to do.
I had all the informationloaded in me.
Called up my anti-aging doctor.
I said I need to go on growthhormone right now.
I want maximum healing capacity.
I came home from surgery,started injecting right above
(14:08):
the Achilles tendon with healingpeptides.
I started using massive amountsof essential amino acids to
rescaphal that tendon.
Blood flow restriction, all thethings.
And in five months I wasrunning and that was the fastest
they had ever seen.
And the place that I rehab waswhere Kobe Bryant, conor
(14:31):
McGregor top people in the worldgo to and I had broken the
record.
So again, these things work,they work.
You know, it's very exciting tome, so, like when I look at all
this stuff.
You know my story and I thinkabout making recommendations to
people.
And you know again, six monthsfrom now, recommendations could
(14:53):
change.
A year from now they couldchange.
But after making these slides Ithought, eh, this is what I
feel about my journey.
You know, first of all, you gotto make up your mind Somewhere
in there.
You got to tell yourself I wantto make a change right, I want
a result.
There is an entire quantumfield of medicine that exists in
the brain that we don't fullyunderstand.
(15:15):
But when you decide you wantsomething, or something is at
risk if you don't make a change,it does something right.
And then the second thing Ialways think about when all this
stuff are like health, if youjust optimize for fitness, you
have to optimize for sleep, youhave to optimize your diet, you
(15:36):
have to optimize your stress.
Exercise is stress, resiliency,right.
That's what you're learning todo.
I mean it's always to peoplelike just really make like the
skeleton key, the master.
Switch your fitness.
Focus on that.
(15:56):
There's an athlete in all of usand if you can focus on trying
to optimize the fitness youreally will take care of so much
more.
Why?
Because fitness positivelyaffects every single tenant of
aging and the more you're inshape, the more you can pump
those channels.
So it's a positive feedbackloop, right?
(16:17):
It's fascinating how powerfulexercise is, and I'm so glad
that we're finally starting torealize that.
I mean, just take a look at howin shape Dr Seeds is when he
comes up here.
I tell him every single time Isee him you look like a 60 year
old gymnast.
It's amazing.
Then obviously, I don't gottatell you any of anyone in this
room.
Get out of the sick care system.
This is what I always tellpeople.
Get out and start working withdoctors that can help you right,
(16:40):
and then focus on the thingthat's gonna kill you first.
Who cares if all your organsand your entire body can live to
be 125.
But you've got this onecholesterol thing that's gonna
kill you in your 80s.
Optimize that.
That's your weakest link,that's your bottleneck.
Go after that, like your lifedepends on it because it does
(17:02):
right, and then finally learn touse peptides.
You know, I mean, that's whywe're here, you know, and that's
not just some little cherry ontop because we're at a peptide
conference.
I mean, these things arepowerful.
I will tell you this aboutpeptides.
This is my personal opinion onpeptides People vastly
(17:22):
overestimate what peptides cando and, at the exact same time,
people vastly underestimate whatpeptides can do.
It is your job to solve thatriddle In your practice with
your patients.
Figure that out, and so that'smy story, and I have a podcast.
(17:49):
If one of you would like to beon the podcast, feel like you
have something you want to share.
I'd love to hear it.
I'd love to hear your storiesReach out to me.
I'm going to be here all day.
I'm going to be watching thepresentations because I want to
learn this stuff and because weare a peptide conference.
I have one last story that Iwant to share, and it's part of
(18:09):
that taking ownership of thisinformation that I've learned on
this journey and really puttingit to use.
My fiancee during COVID.
She ended up experiencing heror ring was telling her
something's going on with yourpulse and she started
(18:30):
experiencing rapid heart beating.
She couldn't sleep anymore.
I felt like somebody wassitting on her chest At rest.
Her heart was racing like shehad been running and it wouldn't
go away and it was very scaryand I suspected it was her
thyroid.
We found an endocrinologist inBeverly Hills and we ran some
(18:51):
labs and she had thyroidantibodies and they diagnosed
her with Graves disease.
And so we were on telemedicinewith this doctor and I said just
explain to me what's happening,just tell me the mechanisms of
action, exactly what's going onhere.
And he starts explaining it tome the innate immune system, the
adaptive immune system,inspiring all your control.
And I start thinking I've heardthis stuff.
(19:14):
I've heard this stuff in DrCede's courses.
I've heard it.
And I said listen, are youfamiliar with peptides?
He said I know of them, but Idon't use them.
I can't help you with that.
I said, listen, well, I knowhow to use them.
And I said would you be willingto do all the blood tests,
because I don't know exactlywhat we're testing for, I don't
know the labs to run for this,but would you be willing to let
(19:36):
us do this and use, superviseand try this?
And he said yes.
So I got her on a three-monthautoimmune protocol with
peptides and in two and a halfmonths the labs came back.
She didn't have Graves anymore,and so the doctor was like you
could tell he was so perplexedwhen he was looking at it.
(19:59):
And you know, look, I'm not adoctor.
I was a pre-med at UCLA and Idropped out because I wanted to
be an Olympian.
But when push comes to shoveand things matter, like they're
going to ablate and take outpart of my fiance's thyroid I'm
(20:20):
not asking for permission, andwhether or not it was grave
disease or not grave disease,there's a good chance that if
she was in the traditionalhealth care, she wouldn't have
all of her thyroid right now.
Right, that's the truth of thematter, and so this stuff is
important.
We need people to be educatedin this field, and that's why
(20:46):
I'm so excited to see the growthof this industry but, more
importantly, the growth of thistype of peptide knowledge,
because what's fascinating aboutwhat Dr Seeds and his team have
done is they've democratizedthis information.
They've allowed someone like mewho I'm not a doctor to be able
(21:09):
to come in and be a part ofthis and really learn this
information and take thesecourses and have it change not
only my life, but the lives ofpeople that I love and care for,
and so I'm hugely grateful forthis organization.
(21:31):
And my final little piece, mycherry on top of all of this, is
that with I saw on the bannerthere was a live better, live
longer, live better.
And I thought about that beforeI came Literally to myself.
I said this is about livinglonger, this is about living
better.
(21:51):
And then I saw it on the banneras they were like same thing.
But this is also about nothaving to give up something that
you love, and if I want to dogymnastics and I want to be able
to do this stuff at my age,then I am going to do it.
(22:12):
Right, you don't needpermission to do this stuff.
This stuff works.
So that is my story and Iappreciate you listening, and I
will be here all weekend.
If you want to ask me questions, please come and talk to me.
I love this stuff.
(22:33):
Thank you everyone, thank you.
Hi guys, welcome to another episode of the Stephen
McCain podcast.
This is going to be a solo castepisode of a speech I gave this
year at the World PeptideCongress.
It really illustrates why I dowhat I do and it's my journey
from being a professionalathlete to getting really
(00:21):
unhealthy and living a recklesslife in my opinion for a number
of years and then turning it allaround finding biohacking and
really committing myself to thelast 14 years quitting drinking,
finding peptides, working withfunctional medicine doctors,
doing all these things to reallyrebuild myself.
And I hope it's somewhatinspirational for you and I hope
(00:45):
it also gives you a little bitmore insight into who I am and
how much that I really love andsubscribe to these things that I
talk about on this podcast.
So I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
From the pommel horse to the global stage, stephen
McCain has established himselfas a Titan in the world of
gymnastics.
As a two-time Olympic gymnastand a world champion silver
medalist, he's not just definedby his accolades but by his
unparalleled commitment to thesport.
His global footprint ingymnastics is inspiring.
(01:22):
He has showcased his talent onalmost every continent except
for Antarctica.
But Stephen's prowess isn'tconfined to gymnastics alone.
He's a talented actor in films,television and commercials.
Beyond the glitz of the arenaand the silver screen, stephen's
heart beats for a noble cause.
With a keen interest in thehuman optimization and
(01:45):
performance journey, he isdedicated to advancing health
span.
He champions the idea thatindividuals can harness their
optimum health potential at anyage.
Today he is 49 years young andStephen stands as a testament to
this belief, consistentlychallenging conventions about
aging and its perceived limitsTo kick off peptide world crong
(02:06):
as properly.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome our first speaker,
stephen McCain.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Thank you so much.
Thank you All right, this is soexciting.
She rewrote my bio for me and Ithink she did a way better job,
so thank you for that.
Are you guys excited for this?
Are you guys excited for this?
Come on, man, this is cuttingedge stuff.
(02:39):
I have personally had a loveaffair with peptides for 10
years and it was prettyunderground when I first got
into it.
So I mean to have some placelike this where you can go and
get a state of the art educationunbelievable.
So I would like to take you ona journey with me of my history
and how human optimization andregenerative medicine and
(03:04):
peptides have changed my life.
And so, in order to do that, wegot to go back in time a little
bit, and I used to be a worldclass athlete.
I spent my whole upbringingdedicating everything to the
sport of gymnastics.
It's kind of my nature, mypersonality.
You're going to find out thatwhen I get into something, I
(03:25):
tend to rabbit hole on it.
Two-time Olympian Hall of Fameand Ducati got to compete all
over the world.
Phenomenal career film,television commercial that's
Adriana Lima from the Victoria'sSegris model, in case you were
wondering.
And then just to give you anexample of the kind of stuff I
used to do.
Let's watch a high bar routine.
(03:47):
This is one of my favoriteapparatuses.
A few years ago you would bealmost done, but nowhere here
now.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
You have to go back.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Pretty cool, right?
I mean, I'm 20 years retired.
I can look at it now as a fan.
So to me sometimes it's likeJesus, how did I learn that
stuff?
And so look, an amazing career.
But the hardest thing that Iever did in gymnastics I'm going
to be doing it was retire.
(04:47):
This was a massive rug pull onmy lifestyle, my discipline.
I lost all of it.
I had no purpose.
I didn't know what I wanted todo.
I didn't love anything and Iwas pretty abusive to my body.
I was eating whatever I wanted,sleeping whatever I wanted.
I started smoking cigarettes,drinking almost every single day
, waking up with a hangoveralmost every single day.
(05:08):
I was poofy.
I had brain fog.
It was not a good place.
Five dark years Just felt likegarbage.
So I had gone from being one ofthe best in the world at
something to feeling terrible,and it all kind of came to a
head one night after I had hungout with a friend at a bar.
(05:31):
I came back, fell down andcollapsed, drinking so much, and
my fiance at the time woke upto her shaking me and I was
vomiting all over myself and Iremember looking at her and
thinking she's crying.
But why is she mad at me and Iwas totally paralyzed and in
(05:54):
that moment I had this out ofbody experience.
It was literally like it justsucked back and I was watching
the whole thing with 100%clarity, totally sober, and I
just saw what was happening andI literally said to myself oh my
god, I'm killing myself.
And in that moment I thought Idon't want to die, I want to
live.
(06:15):
And that moment changed my lifeforever.
And I woke up the next day andI said to myself I don't want to
just live, I want to feel likea superhero again.
I want to feel like I did whenI was an athlete.
I want to live that way for therest of my life.
That's what I want to do.
I want to be thenon-professional athlete.
(06:36):
And so I quit drinking, stillsober, almost 15 years.
That was really good, thank you.
By the way.
Clearing the air allowed me toreally address a lot of stuff
with my dad and all this stuffand it got me, I think, to be
more of a stable person and Irealized a lot of my domestic
success was built in the factthat my coaches were my
(06:56):
proverbial father.
So it was very interesting andthen I got into.
It was right at the beginningof the whole biohacking movement
.
I had a friend of mine that hadLyme disease.
He had all these supplementsand needles and all this stuff
everywhere and I was like Jesusand she said, listen, everyone
waits till they get cancer.
They get something.
She said people should be doingwhat I do right now and I said
(07:17):
I'm in.
So I came into this wholemovement, this new health
biohacking movement on a rocketship, started working out again,
trying every protocol whicheventually led to a
longevity-based workout where Ifeel awesome, I'm supple, I'm
strong, I'm metabolically fit.
My diet I personalized it.
(07:39):
I tested it with my blood.
I really pinpointed what dietworked for me, I tracked it and
supplements were a part of that.
I've basically tried every damnsupplement there is in the
world almost, and then I'velearned to sort of architect
that with certain people, likeSandra Kaufman's approach to
(08:00):
becoming a longevity oranti-aging supplement protocol,
biohacking gear Spent a ton ofmoney on things that look we're
bound to Earth, right, we'reaffected by heat, we're affected
by cold, we're affected byoxygen, we're affected by energy
, we're affected by light.
So a lot of these biohackingtools use things that like
(08:23):
natural elements to manipulateour physiology and it just
allows you to be able to get abetter return on your investment
of time and energy in yourhealth pursuit.
Testing we're right now in thetime of personalized medicine,
right, you have to prove whatyou're doing is working.
(08:43):
If you're not, in my opinionyou're a thing of the past,
right?
So for me it was testing mysleep and my exercise.
I mean, obviously some of theseslides are pretty old no one
uses 23 in me anymore but bloodtesting, testing, my brain dexa
scanning, all of that stuff.
And then there was two booksthat sort of changed the
(09:03):
trajectory of my approach.
Now, I don't necessarilyrecommend this book it's
probably a little bit outdatedbut I read this book and it made
me realize what functionalmedicine doctors do and how they
optimize hormones and reallylook at the health of the body
from a biomarker perspective,like of blood, like real
optimization.
And so I ended up reading thisbook and I found myself an
(09:27):
anti-aging doctor.
I was getting I was 39, gettingclose to 40, you know and ended
up optimizing my hormones,really learning to read my blood
labs and, most importantly,finding out what was my weakest
link.
So this is how I looked on theright and this was my
cholesterol panel at the timevery high LDL particle count.
(09:51):
I had very small particle sizeof LDL, so the LDL was not
breaking down, it wasn't beingcleared, and I had lipoprotein
associated phospholipase A2,which is an enzyme that becomes
elevated when you incur arterialinflammation, so I was most
(10:13):
likely accumulating plaque.
I did a carotid artery scanconfirmed I was getting plaque,
and so this was a multi-yearprocess of getting these numbers
back in line.
If I wouldn't have, if Iwouldn't have read that book, if
I wouldn't have gotten to workwith a functional medicine
doctor, gotten out of thetraditional sick care system, I
(10:34):
wouldn't have known this.
By the way, I was on one ofthose ketogenic diets and I
thought, oh, just look at me,you know.
And the doctor told me he'slike we never see anyone that
looks like this, that has theselevels.
By the way, these diets can bedangerous.
So you know you don't want tojust do things willy-nilly.
You know that testing isparamount these days.
The other book I read was this Ifound this guy he went by the
(10:55):
name Dr X in Europe andexcellent researcher, not a
doctor actually, but he was kindof like who I was, but maybe 15
years older and he really gotme thinking about peptides and
exploring peptides.
And I went all the way in and Icame to this conference,
(11:16):
watched it, learned from DrSeeds, took his courses.
I was even had been in hisoffice hours before asking
questions, read every book Icould get my hands on, you know,
worked with a lot of differentdoctors and stuff.
It's kind of my peptide rabbithole.
Just some pictures of my lifewith it, but profound, you know.
(11:37):
And now I've rolled that intolike sort of like a longevity
calendar.
The calendar will run me.
It's time for this protocol.
So, you know, the comeback had,in my opinion, at age 44 or 45,
had been complete.
I had accomplished what Ireally wanted to do and I can
tell you these things work.
(11:57):
They do.
You do not have to be anOlympic athlete.
I just took an Olympic approachto this stuff and had a lot of
thirst for it, right, but thishappened.
I was tested once again.
I was working on a Nikecommercial with a two-time
(12:19):
Oscar-winning director.
Him and his director ofphotography were world-class.
They did the Revenant, they didBirdman, alejandro Gonzalez
Inarito, and we were doing someamazing stuff.
And the assistant directorwhispered in my ear hey, can you
come in Tomorrow?
We want to do a whole other dayof shooting with you.
(12:39):
And I was like man, I'm feelinglike I feel like I never retired
, you know like mid-40s, and I'mlike I'm like a rock star again
.
And I was just about to tellthem I think we've done enough.
The flooring isn't really thatsafe.
And I kept going and I tore myAchilles and I was furious at
myself for letting this happen.
(12:59):
Furious, 999,999 times out of amillion.
I never would have made thatmistake.
And I thought you peoplepleaser, you idiot, what did you
do?
You can tell how much Irespected my physiology and I
(13:22):
remember my therapist as I wasseeing some guy about this
because I was so upset.
I never played the victim, butI was really mad at myself and
he said Steve, listen, theAchilles story has stood the
test of thousands and thousandsof years.
Talking about warriors thatfrom the Greek times that had
their Achilles torn, that's it.
They were decimated, they'redone.
That's why it's lasted thislong and that really helped me.
(13:45):
But here's what happened.
I went after this like I was anOlympic athlete.
I threw the kitchen sink at itand what I did is I stopped
asking for permission.
I stopped looking for others totell me what to do.
I had all the informationloaded in me.
Called up my anti-aging doctor.
I said I need to go on growthhormone right now.
I want maximum healing capacity.
I came home from surgery,started injecting right above
(14:08):
the Achilles tendon with healingpeptides.
I started using massive amountsof essential amino acids to
rescaphal that tendon.
Blood flow restriction, all thethings.
And in five months I wasrunning and that was the fastest
they had ever seen.
And the place that I rehab waswhere Kobe Bryant, conor
(14:31):
McGregor top people in the worldgo to and I had broken the
record.
So again, these things work,they work.
You know, it's very exciting tome, so, like when I look at all
this stuff.
You know my story and I thinkabout making recommendations to
people.
And you know again, six monthsfrom now, recommendations could
(14:53):
change.
A year from now they couldchange.
But after making these slides Ithought, eh, this is what I
feel about my journey.
You know, first of all, you gotto make up your mind Somewhere
in there.
You got to tell yourself I wantto make a change right, I want
a result.
There is an entire quantumfield of medicine that exists in
the brain that we don't fullyunderstand.
(15:15):
But when you decide you wantsomething, or something is at
risk if you don't make a change,it does something right.
And then the second thing Ialways think about when all this
stuff are like health, if youjust optimize for fitness, you
have to optimize for sleep, youhave to optimize your diet, you
(15:36):
have to optimize your stress.
Exercise is stress, resiliency,right.
That's what you're learning todo.
I mean it's always to peoplelike just really make like the
skeleton key, the master.
Switch your fitness.
Focus on that.
(15:56):
There's an athlete in all of usand if you can focus on trying
to optimize the fitness youreally will take care of so much
more.
Why?
Because fitness positivelyaffects every single tenant of
aging and the more you're inshape, the more you can pump
those channels.
So it's a positive feedbackloop, right?
(16:17):
It's fascinating how powerfulexercise is, and I'm so glad
that we're finally starting torealize that.
I mean, just take a look at howin shape Dr Seeds is when he
comes up here.
I tell him every single time Isee him you look like a 60 year
old gymnast.
It's amazing.
Then obviously, I don't gottatell you any of anyone in this
room.
Get out of the sick care system.
This is what I always tellpeople.
Get out and start working withdoctors that can help you right,
(16:40):
and then focus on the thingthat's gonna kill you first.
Who cares if all your organsand your entire body can live to
be 125.
But you've got this onecholesterol thing that's gonna
kill you in your 80s.
Optimize that.
That's your weakest link,that's your bottleneck.
Go after that, like your lifedepends on it because it does
(17:02):
right, and then finally learn touse peptides.
You know, I mean, that's whywe're here, you know, and that's
not just some little cherry ontop because we're at a peptide
conference.
I mean, these things arepowerful.
I will tell you this aboutpeptides.
This is my personal opinion onpeptides People vastly
(17:22):
overestimate what peptides cando and, at the exact same time,
people vastly underestimate whatpeptides can do.
It is your job to solve thatriddle In your practice with
your patients.
Figure that out, and so that'smy story, and I have a podcast.
(17:49):
If one of you would like to beon the podcast, feel like you
have something you want to share.
I'd love to hear it.
I'd love to hear your storiesReach out to me.
I'm going to be here all day.
I'm going to be watching thepresentations because I want to
learn this stuff and because weare a peptide conference.
I have one last story that Iwant to share, and it's part of
(18:09):
that taking ownership of thisinformation that I've learned on
this journey and really puttingit to use.
My fiancee during COVID.
She ended up experiencing heror ring was telling her
something's going on with yourpulse and she started
(18:30):
experiencing rapid heart beating.
She couldn't sleep anymore.
I felt like somebody wassitting on her chest At rest.
Her heart was racing like shehad been running and it wouldn't
go away and it was very scaryand I suspected it was her
thyroid.
We found an endocrinologist inBeverly Hills and we ran some
(18:51):
labs and she had thyroidantibodies and they diagnosed
her with Graves disease.
And so we were on telemedicinewith this doctor and I said just
explain to me what's happening,just tell me the mechanisms of
action, exactly what's going onhere.
And he starts explaining it tome the innate immune system, the
adaptive immune system,inspiring all your control.
And I start thinking I've heardthis stuff.
(19:14):
I've heard this stuff in DrCede's courses.
I've heard it.
And I said listen, are youfamiliar with peptides?
He said I know of them, but Idon't use them.
I can't help you with that.
I said, listen, well, I knowhow to use them.
And I said would you be willingto do all the blood tests,
because I don't know exactlywhat we're testing for, I don't
know the labs to run for this,but would you be willing to let
(19:36):
us do this and use, superviseand try this?
And he said yes.
So I got her on a three-monthautoimmune protocol with
peptides and in two and a halfmonths the labs came back.
She didn't have Graves anymore,and so the doctor was like you
could tell he was so perplexedwhen he was looking at it.
(19:59):
And you know, look, I'm not adoctor.
I was a pre-med at UCLA and Idropped out because I wanted to
be an Olympian.
But when push comes to shoveand things matter, like they're
going to ablate and take outpart of my fiance's thyroid I'm
(20:20):
not asking for permission, andwhether or not it was grave
disease or not grave disease,there's a good chance that if
she was in the traditionalhealth care, she wouldn't have
all of her thyroid right now.
Right, that's the truth of thematter, and so this stuff is
important.
We need people to be educatedin this field, and that's why
(20:46):
I'm so excited to see the growthof this industry but, more
importantly, the growth of thistype of peptide knowledge,
because what's fascinating aboutwhat Dr Seeds and his team have
done is they've democratizedthis information.
They've allowed someone like mewho I'm not a doctor to be able
(21:09):
to come in and be a part ofthis and really learn this
information and take thesecourses and have it change not
only my life, but the lives ofpeople that I love and care for,
and so I'm hugely grateful forthis organization.
(21:31):
And my final little piece, mycherry on top of all of this, is
that with I saw on the bannerthere was a live better, live
longer, live better.
And I thought about that beforeI came Literally to myself.
I said this is about livinglonger, this is about living
better.
(21:51):
And then I saw it on the banneras they were like same thing.
But this is also about nothaving to give up something that
you love, and if I want to dogymnastics and I want to be able
to do this stuff at my age,then I am going to do it.
(22:12):
Right, you don't needpermission to do this stuff.
This stuff works.
So that is my story and Iappreciate you listening, and I
will be here all weekend.
If you want to ask me questions, please come and talk to me.
I love this stuff.
(22:33):
Thank you everyone, thank you.
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