Doctors EXPOSE Medical Myths on Statins, Supplements, and Reflux

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🎙️ **Welcome to Episode 1 of *Two Doctors Tell the Truth*** — the medical podcast that cuts through misinformation and hype to bring you the *real, evidence-based truth*. Hosted by **Dr. Michael Richman**, a double board-certified cardiothoracic and general surgeon, and **Dr. Michael Fiorillo**, a double board-certified general and plastic surgeon, this show is dedicated to giving you straight answers about your health.

These two highly trained, no-nonsense doctors are not here to sell you supplements or push trendy cures — they’re here to **expose the myths, decode the data**, and help you become your own health advocate.

🧠 **IN THIS EPISODE: **

✅ Why you can’t trust most “TikTok doctors” and online health influencers  
✅ The truth about **statins** — do they cause Alzheimer’s or *save lives*?  
✅ Are **supplements and IV drips** helpful or just expensive fads?  
✅ The dangerous link between **reflux medications** and **esophageal cancer**  
✅ Why today’s medical training has changed — and why that matters to *you*  
✅ How to **fact-check health claims** and take back control of your own care

With a combined **100,000+ surgeries** and decades of clinical experience, Dr. Richman and Dr. Fiorillo have seen it all. And they’re here to give you real-world insight into what actually works — and what’s just marketing hype.

💡 **WHAT MAKES THIS PODCAST DIFFERENT? **

In a world flooded with influencers, wellness warriors, “functional” practitioners, and supplement shills, *Two Doctors Tell the Truth* stands out as one of the only podcasts hosted by two **real, practicing, double board-certified surgeons**. These guys have:
- Done the surgeries
- Treated the patients
- Read the journals
- Trained under the old-school, high-stakes model of medicine
- Seen through the fog of modern misinformation

They’re here to bring you **medical clarity** in a noisy, profit-driven world.

🔍 **TOPICS WE COVER REGULARLY:**

- Cardiovascular disease & prevention  
- Anti-aging medicine (what’s legit, what’s not)  
- Supplements, peptides, biohacking, detoxes  
- Weight loss drugs: **Ozempic, Wegovy, Semaglutide**  
- Cancer screening: colonoscopy, mammography, full-body scans  
- Testosterone therapy for men  
- Cholesterol, statins, and lipids — explained in plain English  
- The REAL impact of diet, exercise, and lifestyle  
- How to interpret medical studies without a PhD  
- Why you MUST advocate for yourself in today’s healthcare system

If it’s trending on TikTok or Instagram, chances are it’s already on our radar — and we’ll tell you whether it holds up or falls apart.

📚 **EVERYTHING WE SAY IS BACKED BY SCIENCE**

We reference **peer-reviewed medical literature**, real clinical studies, and our own experience from thousands of hours in the OR and clinic. This is medicine from the inside — not YouTube university.

Get all episode references and links at:  
👉 **(https://www.thetruthdocs.com)**

There, you’ll find:
- Articles and papers we reference in every show  
- Extended show notes  
- Submissions for YOUR medical questions and topic suggestions  
- Our contact info and links to follow us on every platform

---

🗣️ **WHO ARE DR. MICHAEL RICHMAN & DR. MICHAEL FIORILLO?**

🔹 **Dr. Michael Richman**  
- Cardiothoracic surgeon  
- General surgeon  
- Expert in advanced cholesterol & lipid management  
- Over 25 years of surgical experience

🔹 **Dr. Michael Fiorillo**  
- Plastic & reconstructive surgeon  
- General surgeon  
- Anti-aging and hormone therapy educator  
- National speaker on medical myths and misinformation

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Good afternoon, everybody.
This is Dr.
Michael Richman, and today isour inaugural episode of our
podcast, Two Doctors Who Tellthe Truth.
I am with my very close friend,Dr.
Michael Fiorillo, and we areboth so excited to do our first
show, and hopefully we're goingto keep going and do as many

(00:21):
episodes as we can.
as we can.
Just a little bit about myself.
I'm a double board certifiedcardiothoracic and general
surgeon.
And I've also spent 20 yearsdoing complex cholesterol
management.
I've spent decades practicallyin the operating room doing
cardiothoracic, which isanything in the chest, lungs,

(00:44):
heart, esophagus surgery.
And basically, I have dedicatedmy career to educating people on
the truths in medicine, what istrue, what is evidence-based.
And I'd like to introduce nowofficially my partner in crime

(01:05):
and good friend, one of the bestplastic surgeons that I know,
who's also double boardcertified in general surgery and
plastic surgery.
So with further ado, there's Dr.
Firo.

SPEAKER_00 (01:18):
All righty, all righty.
So Man, this is great, isn't it?
We've been talking about thisfor quite some time.
And it seems like yesterday thatme and Mike met each other in
1991 at LA Children's Hospital.
We were doing pediatric surgeryrotation.
God, that seems like a lifetimeago.
Well, I guess it was.

(01:39):
And, you know, we've always keptin touch, but we just kind of
reconnected recently.
And we were just talking aboutall the information that's out
there.
We didn't have this when we wereresidents.
And now there's so muchinformation, information age,
right, with Twitter andInstagram, Facebook.
And we just sit there everynight and we're talking about

(02:00):
how this study is wrong and thisstudy is not true.
And people are making all theseclaims with no evidence.
So between both of us, wefigured out today we might have
about 100,000 surgeries betweenus, maybe more.
If you include all our trainingand go back

SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
to that.
Features and everything.
Yes.

SPEAKER_00 (02:21):
And how many patients we've treated.
And that really leads us withour experience, plus the boards,
plus journals that we respectand we trust to really bring,
you know, our audience realinformation as truthful and as
evidence-based as possible.

(02:41):
Not us guessing, hey, take thisor take that.
And we really want to beadvocates for our patients like
me, like we talked about.
And we're going to have somereally hot topics and we're
going to dive into it.
We're going to give you thereferences and let you make your
own decisions and we'll helpguide you.

SPEAKER_01 (02:59):
I mean, a little bit about both our training.
So things have changed a littlebit today, but Mike and I are
still one of the few doubleboard certified.
You have to, you don't have totoday, but when we trained, you
had to be board certified ingeneral surgery, which is
basically everything from headto toe.

(03:20):
And it's a five or six yearresidency.
So Mike and I both can take careof pretty much every problem.
We could even figure outneurosurgery if necessary, you
know, which is brain surgery.
But so, you know, we have uniquetraining and our mission here
is, like Mike said, is to Ifit's an opinion, we're going to

(03:44):
tell you an opinion, but it'sbased on evidence.
And, you know, you'll see on theinternet and on TikTok and all
these guys who have podcasts, ifyou look and dive deeper, you
see their qualifications.
So many of them are not evendoctors.
And they're giving you stuffthat's, they're saying it's
factual or they're saying somestudy, but never quote the

(04:05):
study.
We're going to teach you to beable to critically read a study,
to know if it's garbage or as Icall, industry magazines or
toilet journals?
Or is this legitimate?
And with the information thatwe're going to teach you from
cancer, cardiovascular disease,supplements, anti-aging, you're

(04:26):
going to have a knowledge basewith which to go in and number
one, challenge your doctor.
Because you need to rememberwhen you go see a doctor, you...
They're lucky to have you as apatient.
People forget that.
You're going in to interview thedoctor, not vice versa.
And Mike and I both hate whensomebody says, whatever you say,

(04:47):
doctor.
No, it's a patient-physicianrelationship that needs to
develop.
And Mike are just going toempower you with that knowledge
We're not selling anything.
We're not selling snake oil.
We're not selling products.
What we're selling is the best,most accurate knowledge to allow
you to navigate the complexhealthcare space.

SPEAKER_00 (05:08):
A hundred percent.
You know, you need to advocatefor yourself.
You find yourself in a hospitalor a loved one, you know,
there's a lot of good caringdoctors out there for sure, but
you also need to advocate foryourself.
And especially today, you can dothe research and you can find
what works and what doesn'twork.
And I see so many people come inand they say, hey, I saw this on

(05:30):
TikTok and I'm supposed to, youknow, live seven years longer.
Well, I mean, you know, whoknows where that's coming from,
right?
And there's a lot of peoplespending a lot of money on
products.
So what worked?
What doesn't work?
I mean, look at all the hottopics today, right?
We could go just through andname a few, right?
So Dr.
Richman is an expert in lipids.

(05:52):
So a lot of people will say, oh,my HDL allele is fine.
I'm fine.
There's so much more to it thanthat, which Dr.
Richmond is going to really deepdive upcoming episode.
How about all the weight lossdrugs, all the Ozempics,
semiglutide?
What about IV drips?
What about all the numeroussupplements?

(06:15):
What about cancer screening?
Me and Dr.
Richmond talking about that.
So much now in cancer screening.
Should you do it?
Should you do prophylacticstuff?
So this is just the tip of theiceberg that we're going to go
through.

SPEAKER_01 (06:25):
Right.
I mean, we're going to gothrough, I'll give you another
esoteric topic.
Reflux, which everybody talksabout.
I have reflux, I have reflux.
Well, esophageal cancer, therise in esophageal cancer
parallels the rise of using thedrugs that you take over the
counter, Prilosec and Nexium,the purple pill, because that

(06:49):
gets rid of the ouch, the partthat tells you you have reflux.
But the problem that's causingreflux the cancer to develop is
still going on.
So if you look at the curves,there was a parallel rise.
So Mike and I are going toempower you to be like, okay,
hey, I have reflux.
Yes, you need to go have anendoscopy.
You can't just sit and keeptaking medicine.

(07:10):
So, you know, not only we'regoing to do hot and fun topics,
talk about lasers, which he's,you know, a pro in, in plastic
surgery.
And, you know, if you're goingto have implants that, but, but
like, Cardiovascular disease isthe number one killer of men and
women in the United States.
And if you total up the nextseven causes, it doesn't even
come close.

(07:30):
And why is that?
Well, we're going to dive intothat.
And we're going to tell youbecause there is a reason, you
know, but we're going to giveyou factual evidence-based
medicine.
And remember, so much of thisstuff has been around for
decades and decades.
And it's just, if you ask us,like, why doesn't anybody know
it?

(07:50):
Just in general, there's a lotof reasons.
They don't teach it in school.
It's not lucrative.
It takes too much time to spendwith patients because, you know,
the dynamics of healthcare havechanged.
So, you know, just a myriad oftopics.
We're going to take topics fromyou, hopefully the listener who
will give us topics, and we'rejust going to have fun with this

(08:12):
and see where it

SPEAKER_00 (08:13):
goes.
Yeah, 100%.
One of the reasons we startedtalking, too, was I told you
about all my friends are gettingoff their statins.
Everyone says it's causingAlzheimer's, causing dementia.
Don't take it.
And then the other literaturesays statins is one of the few
things that can save your life,prolong your life.
So these are topics that peoplewant to hear.
Should men our age be takingtestosterone?

(08:36):
Fair question, right?
Should we all be on Ozempic?
Should we be microdosingOzempic?
Does fasting work?
Should we be fasting?
I mean, there's so many topics,but what I'd like to do is to
bring you the actual paper.
papers from real journals, not,you know, 30 men feel better.

(08:57):
Yeah, correct.
Not like, oh, 30 men feel alittle bit better because they
took this vitamin.
And it's not a real study.

SPEAKER_01 (09:05):
Right, right.
I mean, to give you an example,because Mike, since we decided
to do this, he aggravates me.
I wake up aggravated mostmornings because he's on the
East Coast, I'm on the WestCoast.
So he sends me, he sends mestuff.
And I three in the morning, youknow, being doctors, I can't, we
can't turn off our phones.
It's just habit.
And so he'll get up at six andI'll get something at three in

(09:28):
the morning and I'll look at itand I just get beyond
aggravated.
So he sent me a study recentlywith creatine, which is a hot
topic because somebody onInstagram or Tik TOK, some
functional medicine doctor saidin the study is it was like 60
men in And it was a 12-weekstudy of taking creatine versus

(09:50):
no creatine.
And the endpoint was asix-minute walk.
Did they do it faster thanbefore creatine or the placebo?
And that's what people arequoting.
It's insanity.
And then people are going outand buying it.

SPEAKER_00 (10:08):
It really is.
And we talk about this all thetime.
Most of the people you see thatare experts, nutritionists,
biologists, you know, functionalmedicine.
And that's fine.
They're all great specialties,you know, and very smart people.
But I think we have the uniqueadvantage of extensive training.
I did seven years.

(10:29):
Mike, what did you do, seven oreight years?

SPEAKER_01 (10:32):
I did five years of general surgery.
Then I stayed on faculty as afor one year doing trauma at LA
County.
And then I did two more years ofcardiothoracic training.

SPEAKER_00 (10:45):
Yeah.
So you did

SPEAKER_01 (10:46):
eight.
And there's how everybody,that's after our four years of
med school.

SPEAKER_00 (10:50):
Right.
So, right.
So after four years, you dideight, I did seven.
And then the thousands of peoplethat we treated.
So we're writing prescriptions.
We're ordering blood work.
We're checking blood work.
We're reading EKGs.
We're cutting people open.
We're seeing people on theinside.
So we're It's not that we'rebetter or smarter than these
other people, but we have theexperience and we have really

(11:15):
good training because thetraining today is not like it
was.
I mean, I lived in the hospital.
So did Mike.
We did, baby, 81 of the hours aweek.

SPEAKER_01 (11:24):
Right.
It was not uncommon for us oncertain rotations, 120 hours in
the hospital a week.
Okay.
And this isn't exaggerating.
And, you know, we're going totalk about it after she, on a
show, but after 2005, theychanged the residency rules
because of fatigue.
So now residents max can spend80 hours a week in the hospital.

(11:47):
Now, yes, there's good and bad,and we'll all discuss that.
But I have a Substack page, andI write a lot, and I just wrote
an article about that doctorsare ordering 60% of tests that
are ordered today are medicallyunnecessary.
And I have this adage, If theresult of a negative test is the

(12:10):
same, you're going to do thesame action as the result.
If it's positive, you don't needto do the test.
And the problem is all we'redoing today is testing because
the art of physical diagnosis isgone.
So Mike and I, I mean, I knowwe're older than you think.
We're the same age.
We're not going to divulge it,but we're older than you think.

(12:32):
We still train where youactually...
diagnosed an acute appendicitiswith your hands.
You didn't get an ultrasound andyou didn't get a CT.
We actually listened to theheart and could decipher
murmurs.
So, you know, that is the lostart, the lost art of physical
diagnosis.
So, you know, it's not thatwe're special, but it's, you

(12:53):
know, while still being youngand our vitality, we bring the
ability with us of knowing howto take care of people, how to
diagnose them, and how to treatthem.

SPEAKER_00 (13:06):
Yeah.
Listen, I'm really excited aboutthis.
I think it's going to be great.
I think hopefully people willlove it and they'll learn from
it, maybe save money from it.
And who knows?
I think we're going to have afun time doing it as well.
And we're going to save people'slives.
Correct.
Hopefully we will.
Yes.
And it's going to be a lot offun.

(13:27):
And I think we're going to learna lot ourselves too.
I'm excited to start, you know,really digging in on these
topics.
You know, a lot of them wealready have, but we're going to
really do deep dives on a lot oftopics.
And I think we're going tosurprise a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 (13:42):
And we're going to have some experts on, you know,
and as time goes on, but, butguys who we know, some of we
don't know, but like reallegitimate experts, thought
leaders in the field who, who, alot of them we talk to to get
some guidance and to getopinion.
So it's going to be a fun show.

(14:04):
Definitely we're going to laughand we'll tell you stories about
our training and the insanity wewent through and lighten it up
sometimes.
And sometimes we're going to bevery, very serious.
But I just can't be more excitedto do this because, I don't
know, I don't think there'sanybody...

(14:25):
who's doing a podcast like this.
Everybody's selling something.
We're selling truth, reality,knowledge to empower you to have
a healthy life, essentially.
So we wanna thank you forlistening and we're gonna wrap
it up right now.
We can be found atwww.thetruthdocs.com.

(14:52):
And we look forward to youleaving comments and we'll be
leaving literature on there thatwe talk about and papers.
So if you want to deep dive intoit, you'll be able to.

SPEAKER_00 (15:05):
Yeah, I want to encourage everybody to subscribe
and submit questions.
We'll be on all social media.
The links will be down below.
You'll see everything.
Ask questions, submit topics andstay healthy, my friends.