Dwayne Johnson on His Health Journey—and Why Ownership of Our Health Matters

My grandfather was a tough guy, and he had all these aches and pains, refused to go see the doctor. What was the pain? Cancer. It had metastasized to a point where there was just no going back. Dwayne Johnson.

The Rock.

DJ, he's here.

And he's getting personal about his health.

I got this gut issue, and he's.

Like, what's going on? I said, I've seen doctors, and I can't quite nail it. I can't quite fix it.

It's in my digestion. Even someone like you who eats really healthy, who takes care of himself, you.

Had a lot of nutritional deficiencies, basically things that are super easy to fix. the noise comes in many forms. You're doing it wrong. There's gurus, there's influencers. Here's what's not noise is data. And the data that, for example, a functional health can provide, like that's not noise. That is real, it's data, it's factual, and you take that, that will inform how you move forward.

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That's right. It's the best gift that we can give.

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Well, DJ, it's so good to have.

You on the podcast, man. Good to see you, Mark. Thank you, man. Good to see you too. Yeah, it's been a long time coming. You've been someone who's been focused on your health and wellbeing, but you, you all, also struggled with the healthcare system and getting the answers you needed and figuring out what's going on. And maybe you could share like how we got connected and how this all started with us. And just as transparency, like I'm your doctor, so it was like a, you know, intimate conversation, everybody. And did you tell us share a lot about, you know, what he learned and what he's found about himself? But how did you kind of end up in my lap?

So to speak, right? I like Santa. Santa Hyman to start where we started was, so probably going on a couple of years now, and I was having some gut issues. And at that time, you and I didn't know each other, and we have a common friend. We have a lot of common friends that come to find out. But we have a common friend in Ari Emanuel. And I was talking to Ari at the end of 2023. And we were just talking. We were talking about our stuff. He's been a long time business partner of mine. He's been my lead agent as well for years and years, decades. and I was talking to him about my gut and I said, Man, I got this gut issue. And he's like, what's going on? I said, I've seen doctors and I can't quite nail it. I can't quite fix it. It's in my digestion. I feel great and that's the odd thing, but I just can't crack it. And he said, I'm gonna introduce you to a friend of mine. His name is Dr. Mark Hyman and I'm gonna connect you. And as you know, Ari, and anyone out there who knows Arvi, these conversations last 30 seconds. So this was a five minute call that I had with him, which is a long time. And so he connected you and I via text, and then you and I spoke. And I'll never forget when I talked to you, it was a Zoom. And you had said, hey, just curious, are you familiar with who I am and what I do? And I said, not one bit. I have no idea. And you said, do you know anything about functional medicine? I said, well, I've heard about it a little bit. And I said, tell me a little bit about it. He goes, well, this is my specialty and this is what I do. And you had said very succinctly, you had said, I'm not going to treat your symptoms. I'm going to go deeper than that. And I'm going to treat the root cause of what's going on. And I said, I love that. And that that speaks to some of the challenges that I've had with my own health journey in the past with some of the doctors and not indicting any doctors now, but because it's how they operate and it's what they do. Yeah, but I found it's how they're trained. It's how they're trained. Yes, exactly. But I found, you know, so challenged with them to try and get to the root cause of this problem and a few others in the past. And I remember asking you, I said, you know, this sounds fantastic. I said, but can I ask you.

How about my gut?

And you said, well, that's what I specialize in. And then you went on to tell me- you- said call me Dr. See Every Poop. Did you say that? Well, that's what, by the way, you brought that up. You said, Hey, we're gonna do a deep dive with your blood panel, and we're gonna do a stool test, and we're gonna do all these tests. We're gonna find out what's going on. And that was at the beginning of 2024, and I was just getting ready to launch into what would become a nine month work for me, workload for me of nonstop work. And it was all in front of me. And I was thinking, holy shit, how am I going to get through this with my gut issues? I'm not digesting properly. And I would say probably six to eight weeks later, you had me on the right track and things started to come around and recalibrate.

It's so true. I think a lot of people, when they go to the doctor there, they're usually getting symptomatic treatment and not the root cause.

Yes.

And what we found was rather than just sort of like giving you symptomatic treatment, we dug into the why. And we found out that you had taken an antibiotic for something you had. Two.

I remember that. Two rounds of antibiotics.

Yes, that's right. And then your gut changed. But regular doctors don't pay much attention to that. And to the detective work of taking your history, finding out, oh, that's what was the moment when things changed. Yes. We were able to go, well, that means you probably killed off the good guys in your gut.

That'S right.

And so we then were able to rebuild.

And we found when we did the.

Stool test, wasn't there a lining that was missing? Yeah, there's a very important bacteria that can easily kill when you take an antibody called Akkermansia, which is basically coating the lining of your intestine and protects you from having food and proteins and bacteria leaking in and causing inflammation in your body. And when you have gut issues, it can, you know, it can spread, it can lead to your whole body being out of balance. So basically by doing kind of a program where we basically rehabbed your gut, actually gave you probiotics, gave you various plant chemicals like pomegranate and green tea and cranberry, it basically helped to rebuild this bacteria in your gut and resolve your symptoms.

It was this amazing gut health shake that had about, I don't think, 10 ingredients, maybe more, that we put together for me and some other things as well. But you bring up a great point. I feel like that's the microcosm of a larger issue here, right? Which is just this idea that It was finally through you understanding the power of, wait, let's hold on. We know what the symptoms are. Let's not treat the symptoms. Let's go deeper and look under the hood and find out what the root cause is. Because what happened prior to me meeting you, I was seeing my doctors and it was, well, it feels like it's this. It's probably this. Let's take some of this. Let's take a little bit of that. And then four weeks later, no, nothing's changed. and I got to tell you, one of the things that I realized that once you and I got together and once you and I really became close and I started to understand function, health and really deep diving is just this idea of doctors.

Really.

Not only writing a prescription for what they're sensing and what, what our symptoms are, but also I think just having the aperture to go, well, let's take a look and go deeper. And the challenging thing for me was their very consistent declaration of, this is what you have. And you realize, and as someone who — and you're stuck with it. — and you're stuck with it, but then if you don't know — yeah. — like I didn't know at that time, I would think, oh, this is what I have then, and I'm going to get treated by this particular pill or two. but it's that declaration that I realized after you and I got together that that's the declaration that's one of the challenges out there. That when you declare things like this without doing a deeper dive on the blood panel, without doing a stool test, you realize how antiquated at times that system and that kind of training can be.

Yeah, it's true. And we're not trained to be proactive. We're not trained to be preventive. We're not trained to look at the cause. And that's where medicine is changing. And you mentioned functional health. That's where you can get the deep dive on your body that really it's hard to find other places. And we did that for you. And, you know, one of the things you called me about later was your heart. And, yes, you got a bit of a scare. You want to talk about what that was and, and how we ended up figuring out what was going on? Because I think it, it speaks the importance of actually looking at your risk factors in a deep way that we did, we did with you with functional health panel. I mean, we were able to find so many things that kind of gave us a sense of relief rather than.

Being a lifelong medication. Well, a huge sense of relief, by the way. And I just, I was never a medication guy. Like, I wasn't taking any kind of medications or anything like that. And even now as it relates to my heart, you know, all of a sudden you're rolling along in life and things are good and then you reach your fifth level of life and you realize that, oh, you're of age. Yeah, you're 53 now. And when you become 53, and then so when you become of age, that's when all the tests start to happen, right? Okay, where's the colonoscopy line? Let's do that. And, hey, here's the cardiovascular workup and let's look at the heart and let's look at all the valves and things like that. so when I was looking at the valves, and this was a little bit before you and I met.

Yeah.

But just as we met.

Yeah.

I was looking at the valves, and I had a complete cardiovascular workup, and everything looked great. Thank God. Knock on wood. And then there was what looked to be. What looked to be some. What looked to be some stuff inside them.

Like a build up of, like, what.

They thought was black, what they thought was plaque in the circumflex.

Valve in the artery.

Yeah, in the artery.

Right.

And I didn't even know what that. I never even heard of that. That sounds cool.

It goes around the back.

It goes in the back. Now I know that. Right. I always hear the. The main two. That's what you hear. But for those listening, like me, I was unaware that we also have a really important one that goes around the back, the circumflex. There was some build up or so they thought. And then when we looked at that on the old school, traditional MRI and the scans, it looked like I had build up. And then immediately the call. action was, all right, well let's get you on this medication. It's a multi-month medication and here we go. We got to get on it right away. And I thought, God, and I was so hesitant because I wasn't taking a medication. So then I called you. And I said, Doc, listen, here's what I got. I'm not indicting anybody. I'm not throwing anybody under the bus, but what do you think? And here's what their suggestion is. and again, I'll never forget on that Zoom, you went, okay, hold on. Hold on. Let's not jump to conclusions. I don't want you getting on that right now. Don't get on the medication. There's a couple of steps here, I think, that we can do that could be invaluable. For example, let's get a scan done, but let's get an AI scan done. That is incredible. And I said, okay, we got the scan done. You sent it to your guy, and then it came back. you know, it was almost like, you know, when you hear a song for the first time, you're like, holy, I love that song. That song sounds great. So I remember when you told me, you said, hey, look, here's the report from our cardio, our head cardiologist, who's a very good friend of yours.

Yeah.

And he said that he said, looks great. It is just an anatomical thing that's happening back there. It's not build up at all. Those valves look great. Come back in three years.

And what was amazing was, you know, your, your cholesterol was actually pretty good. I mean, you had, you had low HDL genetically, which is the, oh, good cholesterol. It's a little oversimplification, but, you know, when we, we did a deeper panel of your cardiovascular risk factors, and we looked at things like apob, which is now being declared as this sort of the best biomarker for your heart, which, again, most doctors don't, they don't do that.

Right.

We looked at your, you know, insulin metabolic health, you can blood sugar and insulin, which nobody really looks at in your insulin resistance score, which was perfect. You didn't really have any of the risk factors. Your inflammation level was super low. So here you were about to start a drug for a problem that you maybe had or didn't have that they were concerned about that you would have had to take for the rest of your life that you didn't need.

And can I ask you, I just want to go back on something that I found really interesting, which is the Apo B, which I didn't know about until you and I started talking and you started educating me. Why is that so important?

That'S a great question. So, so, I mean, that's a great question. Um, the, the problem with America is that we're all metabolically unhealthy, meaning we eat too much starch and sugar that turns our metabolism into a system that doesn't work like it was designed. And so we, we have kind of busted metabolism and we end up in.

This, Metabolically, like we're, we're not, as.

A country, we're not optimizing. Yeah, like 93% of us have some degree of insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, type two diabetes, like it's in that spectrum.

Mm-.

And, and what, what, what kills people is that that's what, that's what's killing people from heart disease and cancer and dementia and, and even things like depression are all related to this phenomena of poor metabolic health. What's amazing was now with the ApoB test and with the other kind of even more sophisticated test that we did, which looks at the size and number of your cholesterol particles, we can tell what's happening with your, with your metabolic health because all the the bad cholesterol particles tend to be the result of eating too much starch and sugar, not necessarily fat. That's kind of a myth we had for a long time. They thought we should eat a low-fat diet, that we should have margarine and all this stuff, but that was a bad idea. And it turns out that sugar and starch is driving it. So ApoB is basically an indicator of.

All the dangerous cholesterol particles in your blood. Let me ask you this again, who's someone who's not an expert, but just as someone who cares. is APOB. Why isn't APOB, in your opinion, part of the old school traditional testing that just- why is it not? Why is it not rather? Yes, why is it not?

It's just, you know, it's like, it sounds kind of stupid, but like it just, doctors get their order forms and they order their panel of tests and they probably establish that order form when they started practice in whatever year they started and they don't change. And it's very hard for doctors to change their practice, to change the workflow, to change their mind, to be influenced by new ideas. And it's unfortunate because, you know, the amount of change that's happening is so rapid in medicine and science. And even if you are wanting to change and adapt, even if you're a doctor, even if you want to, it's hard. The science is advancing so fast. Like, you know, you have a family history of dementia. I imagine it's scary, right? Yes. And it's one of those diseases you don't want to get. It's like the C word or the A word, you know?

Right. Right.

And, we were able to, what was.

That biomarker that connects to dementia that you had looked at and you said, oh, that actually looks pretty good that you can do.

What is that?

Can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, this APOE testing, which is a kind of APOE. It's called APOE. We can go on with that all means, but basically there's different varieties. There's a two, a three and a four. And if you have a four and a four, that's the high risk. But there's a lot you can do to actually prevent it. Now we know that Alzheimer's is preventable. that by intensive lifestyle therapy, you can even slow it down or even reverse it. And we can actually now look at that APOE and everybody, and we wanted to know for you because we're like, well, are you at risk? And what do we, we have to do something different proactively so you don't end up getting dementia when you're 70 and your kids are still relatively young and you can't remember their names. That's not fun. So, so we now actually have even blood tests that are blood biomarkers. once called Ptau217, which looks at some of the proteins that get released when you have Alzheimer's in your blood.

And you can, that's what I took.

Yeah.

Yes.

And we can look at that. And if you don't have that, you're clean. And you can combine that with the APO AE testing and the brain imaging. And so you get a 360 view of what's going on. You know, we have all the conditions that really can become things that we don't die from anymore that we can pick up early that we can then change the trajectory of. And so we found out you actually had what we call the jackpot gene, which is the opposite. You had like the APOE2, which is a gene that means you kind of live a long time. You know, the people who like smoke and drink and live forever.

Yeah.

You're kind of one of those. Although you have, you don't have the.

22, which is the true Jack pot. Wait a second. So if I'm understanding, you have a 2-3. You have a 2-3.

No amount of tequila. Well, I don't know about that. There is an amount of tequila that can override your genes, that's for sure. There's a limit that exceeds your genetic ability.

Okay, got it, got it, got it. A little bit once in a while. I thought you were on speed dial for me.

Doc, is this okay? I'm gonna open up my second bottle. Second bottle of the night, of the year. Yeah, but it's, that's what's so exciting now with these.

It's very exciting. Let me ask you something, Doc. Then when it comes to like apolB and inflammation and things like that. So really, even if I didn't get the AI scan, the detailed AI scan just by looking at that, right? Looking at all those other markers that are the deep dive would have helped indicate, hey, here's how we should move forward, because everything else looks so good.

Yeah.

This doesn't make sense.

Yeah.

Right.

And I've seen this, you know, where.

You can do the opposite. You can find someone who's got great labs, but their heart scan looks bad or you can have someone with bad labs and a heart scan looks perfect. So, I think, you know, people just need to know their data. And I imagine sometimes, you know, it's scary for people. And I think, you know, we talked about, you know, you being a little, I started diving into this was a little scary in a way because you're like, what am I going to find? And it's going to be bad. There's always that like kind of bury your head in the sand kind of move, which guys do, you know?

We have a tendency to do that. And I know that I was like that too as well. And I remember the first couple of times we sat down and we went over, we were so nice enough to come over and you and I are sitting, it's like we're sitting side by side and I'm going over everything with you and you're going everything with me and I'm like, I'm like, Jesus, half of this I don't understand. And I kept asking you, okay, so I'm good. Am I good here? You're like, you,'re really good. You're really good. It's funny because you could feel good and you feel like, hey, I look good and I'm rolling along in life and I feel like I'm making all the right moves here. But then when it comes time, like, hey, let's take a deeper dive underneath this hood, you never know. And that's the scary part, I think, for a lot of guys.

And I know I was hesitant.

You know, with you, like, okay, how.

Far do I go?

How far do we need to go?

We started slow. We started looking at a few things. I was like, how about we do a little bit deeper? You're like, okay, okay. I trust you. Now you fix my tummy. That's right.

My poops are good. Like, let's trust you with the rest of my life. Fix my tummy. That's the name of my next book. Right. We'll co-author you fix my tummy. But you're right. Why is that? Why do you think is dudes in, in general are like that. I have a thought, too, but let me have.

You know, I see, we see this as pretty classic in medicine. You know, women always are more proactive about their health. They go to the doctor better. Maybe they start earlier, they, you know, gynecological exams are used to it. Men just are scared of doctors. They're scared what they're going to find.

Yeah.

They know. They just don't want to know.

And I think it also has to do with this.

You think it's a vulnerability aspect?

Yeah.

Guys don't want to be vulnerable. They don't want to be weak. They don't be seen as, you know. fragile. And I think there's a sort of a macho thing of like, well, I'm just gonna tough through it. And I'm gonna, I have these symptoms, but like, I'm not gonna go to the doctor, which is often what happens.

And then by the time you end up having to go, it's often too late.

Yeah.

My grandfather was a prime example of that, of just toughing through it. And he was a, he was a tough guy. He was a Samoan. He was one of the first Samoan professional wrestlers. Wow. And his name was, you come by this naturally.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, he kind of toughed through it, and he had all these aches and pains. refused to go see the doctor. And one of his guys, one of his fellow wrestlers, used to have him come over every day. And this was in Hawaii. He goes, I need you to pound on my back.

Oh, wow.

He would just pound on his back just constantly thinking like just that old school, probably barbaric head in the sand.

Yeah.

Kind of mentality. He was 45 when he died.

What was the pain? Was it something?

Cancer.

Cancer.

Yeah.

And he refused it for months and months and months. and then it had metastasized to a point where there was just no going back. And that was it. By the time they caught it, reached a point where I. I gotta go see a doctor and see what's happening.

Yeah.

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To get 15% off and grab your superfood bars today. It's really heartbreaking, you know, and that you know, we're at a point in medicine where those stories can be a part of history. That's right. And then really, for the first time, I think, in history, we can actually do comprehensive blood screening. We can do liquid biopsies for cancer, and we can do whole body MRIs.

By the way, let's talk about that really, really quickly. I'm so sorry, but. Because that. That's amazing news.

So it's.

So the full body scans, which I have not had one yet, I gotta say, we're gonna get you one. We gotta get me one. Yes, I'll get you in the big. That are. usually an hour. So this new technology that you guys acquired brings it down from an hour to 22 minutes.

22 minutes. And we use very sophisticated AI to make the interpretation much more accurate, much higher resolution, and get huge amounts of data. And it's such a low cost that you can do it annually.

But the cost of these are generally.

Like a couple of hundred bucks.

Right?

500 bucks, yeah.

How much is the- 499. So for 499, you can get your comprehensive lab testing and comprehensive imaging. and be able to actually make cancer a thing of the past. Dying from cancer. We can't get rid of cancer because it's going to come because we live in such a toxic world. But imagine a world where everybody gets screened every year. Like imagine if your grandfather was screened. You know, he would still maybe be here. I don't know.

You never know, man.

And like, yes, you never know. And, you know, he certainly didn't have to die at 45. If you have a stage one or two cancer, the five year survival rate is like in the 90%. So basically, if you catch it early in early stages, you can cure it. cancer is curable and you can basically cut it out. But if you catch it late, you know, it's only a matter of time, actually.

Right.

You know, it's only a matter of time.

Yeah.

Like, having, having, like, this available is really revolutionary. Yes. And, and, you know, it, you know, when you hear those stories, like, my father also, he, he died of cancer of lung cancer. He was a smoker when he was younger. He quit, but caught up with him and he ended up dying of lung cancer. Oh, man.

And if he'd had the scanning, my.

Father wouldn't have had to die when he did. He would have lived. Pramme still be alive.

He's a very stubborn guy.

My sister died of bile duct cancer or something. Again, it picked up very late and this kind of screening would have picked it up early. The amount of lives we can save, the amount of suffering we can end is just incredible. Before it was sort of only really for wealthy or elite, and I think that's changing. You know, now we're able to democratize healthcare. We're providing solutions outside the healthcare system because it's still very ossified. It takes a long time for medicine to change. But when you start to think about what this unlocks for people, being able to get their data on a longitudinal basis, being able to get their imaging data, their lab data, follow it regularly over time for basically a couple of bucks a day, it's a game changer.

Really, it's for everybody.

Yeah.

How important that is. Because ultimately, and this is the thing that you and I have talked about, which is what I advocate for in my own little way, however I can help, is you want to take agency of your own life. You want to take accountability of your own health. There's so much noise out there in social media and just out there in the world as it relates to health. The noise comes in many forms. You're doing it wrong.

Right.

Do it better. There's gurus, there's experts, there's influencers. Here's what's not noise is data and the data that, for example, a functional health can provide, like that's not noise. That is real, it's data, it's factual, and you take that and you can inform yourself and that will inform how you move forward with your own life. You want to take control of your life.

Yeah, that's true. I think that's an era where I think where people are sort of getting that medicine's a little bit antiquated and that things are, like you said, held back from them from their doctors either not knowing about it, there's innovations or taking decades for things to get into practice. And so the beautiful thing about Function is it's literally able to take all the world's scientific literature using technology and AI machine learning to inform what it means and to tell you what to do about your results. That with knowledge experts, tens of thousands of pages of training we've created provides a model where it actually tells you this is what it means for you. This is why it's important. This is how it relates to everything else. These are the things that you might be headed towards. And these are the things you can do to take agency over your health now without necessarily even medical care. You may need medical care, but you may not. In fact, 80% of health happens outside the doctor's office. It's where you live, it's where you eat, it's where you play, you pray. that's where health happens, not in the clinic or the hospital. That's for disease treatment. But health, you know, what you eat, your lifestyle, exercise, how you sleep, how you manage stress, optimizing your nutritional status or sometimes supplements, which are important because they're not so deficient. And it's all sort of critical parts of optimizing your health and your function, which is the whole point of function, is to help you function better, right? So you can do your life. It's not about being healthy for healthy's sake. It's so you engage in the work you love so you can be with your family and be present with your kids and show up for your friends and, you know, be available to actually fully engage and not feel like crap all the time.

Yes.

You know, and even someone like you who, like, eats really healthy, who takes care of himself, you had a lot of nutritional deficiencies. You had low vitamin D, low. Some of the Omega-3s that were low, you had low magnesium, you had low folate and basically things that are super simple and easy to fix. And, and we're able to get these insights from doing your diagnostic labs and, and doctors don't check nutrition levels. They don't check your toxin levels. They don't check for your, what's going on with your gut or, or all the things that we, we check for, for your insulin and metabolic health. So it's, it's like this, there's this really incredible moment now where, where we've got this movement in America where people are starting to wake up about their health. We have people, you know, realizing that you know, the emperor has no clothes in some ways that healthcare is, is necessary providing all the answers that they want. And I can't see everybody. Like, I wish I could see millions of patients, but I can, you know, but this is, this is can scale to billions of people. Yes. And, and really help unlock a lot of, of agency and ownership for people's health where they, they don't have to suffer from things needlessly. Cause for me, that's, that's what's driven me. You know, there's so many millions of.

People that suffer needlessly from problems they don't have to deal with.

If they knew what to do.

And so much of that, I feel like the connective tissue goes back to, you said, nutrition.

Yeah. Right.

And supplements. And that's one of the things that I was really amazed at when you and I started working together and we started talking about my gut and gut health and how to fix it. You were like, hey, let's look at what you're eating. And I said, you're gonna laugh at what I'm eating because I eat the same thing every day for years. It's like complex carbohydrates, protein and that's it. In green.

This podcast is special because it's, it's coming around Father's Day. And a lot of guys totally neglect their health.

Yeah.

And miss the boat when it comes to picking up things that affect their quality of life or affect even them being alive. You know, like half of the time when guys find out they have heart disease, it's sudden death.

That's too late. Yes. Because there's a lot just as dudes too, as well. There's a lot of stuff that we take control of the car we drive, the job we have, you know, if we see a beautiful girl, you want to talk to her, whatever the thing may be. But then when it comes to health stuff and this idea of sometimes looking into the hood can make you feel vulnerable, maybe a little bit weak, you don't want to do that. We shy away from that. We put our head in the sand, as you say. And that's the thing that I thought, oh, well, what an opportunity this is with Function Health to give dudes and guys like, Hey, permission.

Yeah.

Like go after it. By the way, speaking of Father's Day, like we have one of my favorite country artists is a good buddy of mine, Sergiol Simpson. There's a great line in one of his songs, after life is over, the afterlife goes on. So we're all going to get there one day. So I feel like the space between right now, you and I talking and people watching and listening to when we're walking in the clouds, we can really take accountability of that space in there. And why not?

Yeah.

You know, and why not get as much data and information as possible and make the right decision so we can be around for a lot more Father's Days and we can be around to raise our kids and be there for the graduations and the weddings and all the other stuff. And I always like to say, if Wellness was a wagon, you know, I'll fall off it every once in a while. Like tonight, I'll open the bottle of tequila, and I'll have a cookie or two.

Yeah.

But anyway, that's why it was so important to me, and I felt like it was really personalized to me to share that with everybody who is listening.

Yeah, it's beautiful because, you know, it sometimes can be scary, right? And, and you said it was a little scary for you. And I think, what would you say to people who, who are maybe scared to look under the hood?

I get it. I get it. It's scary to look under the hood, especially, you know, if you're not an expert, I'm not an expert. I'm just somebody who cares. All the guys who I know, with the exception of yourself, we're not experts.

We just care.

I get that it could be scary. I get that you don't want to be vulnerable. I get that, you know, there's a good buddy of mine who, you know, you reach a fifth level in life and you become of age, and he was getting all of his blood work done and his tests and his stool tests and everything.

And just.

And he goes, I gotta get all my cardiovascular workup done. And he was really scared.

Yeah.

He was like, I'm praying every day. I'm like, I get it, brother. I'll pray with you, but we gotta get it done.

Yeah.

So I would say I get it. But you can take control of this and you have an opportunity to take control of this. So why not? Why not? And if you can extend your life by a day or two or years or decades, you never know. I lived it. I watched it with my grandfather where he kind of just refused to...

Pound on my back.

Pound on my back, yeah. It's the name of my next book I'm going to write.

And for fathers, I think particularly, I was at your house, I met your kids. I mean, they were pretty young. so you're an older dad.

Yeah.

And so you, you think you, like, if you're a dad, you want to be around when your kids are young. You want to be able to do stuff with them. You want to be able to be there and see your grandkids.

Right.

And in order to do that, you can't just wait around and hope nothing happens to you. You have to be proactive.

That is. And for a lot of people watching and listening right now, especially us dads and fathers, whether you're younger dads or older dads, there's the why.

Yeah.

The why is the little ones who are running around and keeping you up at night and driving you crazy and making a mess of things. And, you know, that's the reason why to do this. And that's the reason why to take accountability and responsibility for your health. And again, there's so much other stuff out there that we will chase as guys and we'll go after. We'll chase this thing and that thing, and we'll chase a lot of stuff that we shouldn't be chasing. But the one thing we should, which is our health.

Yeah.

And you said, you know, you, you know, your, your health is a gift to your kids, right?

That's right.

It is.

It's the best gift that we can give.

Yeah.

Because we want to be around and we want to, not only do we want to be around, but also we want to be the example for them. And, hey, listen, this is what Daddy's doing. But this is why I'm doing it.

Yeah.

By the way, when you left that day and you left the house, you were like, Daddy, who is that guy? He's taller than you. Who's that guy?

He's taller, but not wider.

And I told him, I said, well, that's my doctor. I've been with him for a couple of years now and here's what we do. And, you know, when I get the function health blood panel done, they're right there.

Yeah.

They're watching the blood panel getting done.

It's pretty cool for them too as well.

Yeah.

It's awesome. And you're actually modeling for them.

Yes, exactly. Leaning into your health. To show them leaning into the health. And so we have a pretty healthy household with the exception of one day out of the week when I have.

My cheat day, you know, that they're right there. You know, you, you, you sort of, I think, leaned into a lot of this in a way that I surprised because, you know, you could be doing anything with your time and energy and effort and that you care so much about this as a lot about you. And you, you said this isn't just a message, it's a mindset for you. What does it look like to kind of own your own health and for you and, and also, you know, what would it look like for more people to do that?

Well, for me, what it looks like to own my own health is just to make the move. It could be scary. It could be, especially the uncertain stuff. and you and I experienced that and I got vulnerable with you, Doc. I don't know. I don't know what I'm gonna find. It might look fine on the outside aesthetically, but you never know and took the dive and I'm glad I did it, by the way. And had not been for the grace of God in the universe and I'm knocking on wood again, you never know how those things go and that's okay. But the fact that I did do it, modeling not only for my kids, showing them that this is what we need to do, I wanna be around for you. Also, it's very, empowering when you take control that way and you do it. And again, just as guys and women too, I'm going to speak on behalf of dudes, like we take accountability over a lot of things and we go after a lot of things that are important. Success is important and making it. What it looked like for me was taking the step and taking action, you know, in the universe. I feel like that all meets you halfway when you take those steps. And so for other people out there who are considering this, and I have talked to so many guys, who I know, who are in my inner circle, who are kind of on my inner outer circle, and then just people who I see out in the gym or whatever, wherever, if they get a quick minute with me, I usually get a couple of questions from them within a couple of minutes. If we have a couple of minutes, it's, Hey, do you got any keys to success? They say, well, here, I could share this with you. This is my experience. And how about on the health side? Like I get versions of health, wellness, mental health, mental wellness, that kind of thing.

Mental health is what a lot of people have.

Mental health is what we have. In order to get to the mental wellness, you got to go through the mental health. But I get a lot of that. And I would say for people out there, take the step.

Yeah.

Take the step because the alternative is you don't. And we know what the pathology is to that. We know where that road eventually for all of us where it ends. Yeah. But if you can, I think, in my opinion, I feel like if you can get in there and you can get as much information and data, it's hard data. It's like, as you told me when we first met, hey, think of this. Hold the mirror up to your biology and see what that looks like. And are you willing to do that? And once you are, then, man, I can help you.

Yeah.

And we can help you. And function Health can help you. And then let's go.

Yeah.

Test.

Don't guess.

That's. That's right. Test.

Don't guess. You know, you're. You. Everybody thinks of you, like, as the Rock, right?

You're the Rock, which is Invincible.

Yeah, sex is man alive. I got a lot of sex. I mean, I thought I was a sexy male.

You are sexy as Dr. Love.

People think of you as sort of a minuscule and even your name, like the rock is sort of emblematic of that.

The pressure of that, doc. We've been talking about that.

Jesus. Oh, Christ. All right. But you've been really vulnerable here. You've shared your medical story. You've shared what's going on. You've shared some of the fears you've.

Had, some of the stuff in your family. What do you hope people take away from seeing you sharing your own vulnerability around this? Oh, I can do it, too. I mean, that's it. It feels like that's the stripped down takeaway of this is, oh, if my guy DJ can do it, I can do it. And if you want to be vulnerable, great. I'm an advocate for that. And I get it. It's not the easiest thing for guys. It's not the easiest thing for anybody to do, but especially guys, just how we're wired, it's how we are. We don't want to be vulnerable. We don't want to be weak. We want to have all the answers. We want to be tough. We want to be strong in the face of our kids. our girlfriends, wives, whatever it is. We don't want to show all this stuff. And, you know, whether you're in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, whatever age you are and whatever level of life you are, it. It's all the same. It doesn't change. Like, there's one person who controls it. For me, when I think about this and I think about people out there watching and listening and people who I talk to, go for it. It's gonna be scary. You never know what you're gonna find, but you, you're gonna wanna find it as opposed to not. And then all of a sudden you're in a situation that you don't wanna be in.

Yeah.

Well, I just want, I just wanna thank you for being so courageous, for leaning in your own health, for actually using your voice to raise awareness about this. 'Cause a lot of people don't know that they can know.

Well, my pleasure. And you're doing tremendous work, by the way. I know how busy you are and, you know, with everyone who you're seeing, who you sit down with, you talk to in a podcast and interview everyone, but also just all the work you're doing, period, is really commendable, man. Yeah.

Well, I hate. I hate.

History always looks back.

Yeah.

I think one day when you and I are walking in the clouds, they'll look back on all the work that.

You'Re doing here, and you go, that's our guy. Seeing the game up in the sky. Yeah.

Thanks for being on the podcast.

You know, this conversation. Thank you for all your help. I appreciate it.

Oh, anytime.

All the time.

On the tequila, you can text me if you need.

I'm on my third bottle. Is this good?

You'Re like on the night?

The night?

No.

So this, you know, this conversation has really been all about empowerment and taking control of your health and making informed and proactive choices. So I want to share that, like, we're really excited to invite everybody on this mission with us. And we believe everybody deserves to access their own health data. We believe in affordability. It shouldn't be a barrier. And that's why we really are offering this part of this podcast, a special hundred Credit toward your functional health membership for the first thousand people who sign up. All you have to do is enter the promo code, take control 100 at checkout and take the first step toward owning your health today. All right. Thanks, DJ, for being here.

Thank you, brother.

A pleasure.

If you love this podcast, don't forget there's a way to listen completely ad free with Hyman Plus on Apple Podcasts. You can enjoy every episode without any breaks. Just open Apple Podcasts and tap try.

Free to start your seven day free trial. Cast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. you can find me on all social media channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at ultrawellnesscenter.com, and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.