In this interview, JJ Virgin talks with an ICU/critical‑care clinician (Speaker B) about the massive personal, financial, and societal toll of intensive‑care admissions and how a large share of them are preventable through lifestyle choices. The clinician notes that roughly 30‑50 % of ICU cases stem from metabolic disease and other modifiable risk factors, and emphasizes the high daily cost of ICU care (>$3,000 / day, up to $10,000 on the first day). JJ shares a personal story: his 16‑year‑old son spent four and a half months in the ICU after a car accident but entered the unit in good physical shape, which helped his recovery, while JJ’s own adrenal health suffered from caregiver stress. The conversation underscores that baseline fitness—particularly strength training—can improve resilience, reduce the likelihood of severe complications, and lessen the emotional and economic burden on families. They conclude by urging listeners to adopt preventive measures, especially strength‑building exercise, to lower the risk of ending up in an ICU.
How much of what you see, because I would imagine you see the broken leg, right? Or, you know, but how much of what you see is preventable?
Yeah, good question, JJ. Like the examples of the ones that aren't preventable, we see a lot of car accidents, aneurysmal bleed, some cancers that are just due to bad luck. But I'd say we're talking close to 50%. When it comes to metabolic disease, it's certainly in the realm of, 33 to 50%, but from preventable disease, like from lifestyle choices, including smoking, it's significant. And I can't reinforce, JJ, how devastating it is to land in ICU. And when the patients land, when they— when we see our patients, it is usually a protracted, a long admission. You go, you have pain, you have suffering. PTSD, anxiety if you survive. You are a shell of what you once were because a lot of our patients aren't fit like yourself. They're not coming in with a great baseline. And so going through all this, functionally they're poor and their families are involved in terms of, of trying to be there for their families. And so they're taking time off work and And so it is really a devastating event that could happen for a family. And so when you add it all up, plus my, my, my research area was in cost savings in healthcare. If you were landing in an intensive care unit, whether it's Canadian or, or in the US, that's on average at least $3,000 a day minimum. First day being like close to $8,000 to $10,000 depending on what you're admitted for. And so when you add it all up, it is so important to try and avoid landing in hospital, landing in ICU. So we are ultra passionate about giving people the tools to avoid getting sick.
Yeah. What you don't know about me is I actually spent 4 and a half months in the ICU with my son. So I know of what you speak and, um, It was pretty amazing to see. And here's what was the craziest part of it. Now, you said something I'd never thought about before. Fortunately, when my son got hit by a car and ended up in the ICU at 16, he was in really good shape when he landed there. Because, you know, when you're in a coma and then recovering and on bed rest— because he literally couldn't walk because of some of the injuries— you lose a lot of muscle. I was them with aminos and fish oil and all sorts of stuff. But the other part was I came in healthy too, because that level of stress for the caretakers is insane. In fact, I tested our adrenal health after the fact, and his looked pretty good, and mine was like trashed. I'm like, wow. So you don't think about the fact that, you know, you want to be— you never know when these things are going to happen. And if you do have to go to the ICU, you actually want to go in as best shape as possible. But if you were in as best shape as possible, it sounds like half the ICU ICU cases probably wouldn't even be happening, which is also like something we'd really want. There's always going to be a need for it, like, you know, saved my son, but what we don't want is it to be an unnecessary situation with diabetes or stroke or heart attack that could have been prevented. So when we walk down that path, and I know prevention is like the least sexy thing out there, it's just the hardest thing to sell, um, But we're going to sell it on this show because I know the people listening really care about quality of life and longevity. So what are some of the key things people could do to never have to see you in the ICU?
So first of all, JJ, just really sorry that you and your son had to go through that and your family had to go through all that. And you, I don't know if you remember this, but on the show you actually opened my eyes because of the peptide treatment that you mentioned in terms of treatment offers for your son. So you've really opened my eyes and now it's an aspect where I want to explore in terms of being able to provide better care for our ICU patients. So I just wanted to, first of all, highlight that. In terms of important elements, so I can't tell you how vital it is to be strong. Like we know already, like if everyone on your show can— I'm sure has been an advocate of strength training and being strong going in. And I want to give you a quick story about a patient that I saw. He's a guy in his 70s, giving me permission to tell this story, and he had a— unfortunately had a cardiac arrest. He, he passed away for a period of time, but luckily his wife was a nurse, so gave him CPR right away. And in my line of work, if you're in your 70s and you have a Cardiac arrest, you die for a period of time. You do not come out. You don't leave hospital. You don't, we rarely see you survive. And because of this man's disposition, so he was a guy that went to the gym 5 days a week and had that resilience, like I call it body armor. He was physically, you could tell he went to the gym. Also was resilient mentally because you have that dedication, right, JJ? Like, right, going to the gym 5 days a week no matter how you feel. And he's a guy that was going at 5:30 in the morning. And long story short, he survived 3 months in that— in the ICU. He got home. He got to with his grandkids. He's not in a nursing home. And that was the power we saw of being strong, focusing on strength. It was such a motivator for not only the staff, but the patients around because he was walking on a ventilator. I want to, and I want to repeat that, folks, on a ventilator, he was walking. Okay. Like that was the power of being strong.
