FROM WEIGHT LOSS RESISTANCE To High Performance w/ Dr. Matt Accurso

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Wellness force radio episode 81 with human potential and healthcare specialist Dr. Matt.

There's weight loss resistance. Your body is essentially turning into a sugar burner and not a fat burner. And that's really key right there because most people when they lose weight and if they're gaining it back, they're a sugar burner, which means that the weight is going to come back. What happens is you get on this diet, you're like, oh man, I'm doing great, losing the pounds. But the problem is is that the diet is not long term sustainable, meaning it might be, you know, like traditional diet that you're using, like a Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers or it might be a book you're reading out of. But whatever it is, the diet has to promote proper hormone regulation from brain to body.

Welcome back to another episode, my friend. I am your host and wellness coach, Josh Trent. Thank you for spending your time with me here on the podcast. This is where every week I bring you access to global experts in wellness, technology and behavior change. On this podcast, you'll learn from exceptional people who are dedicating their lives to driving real transformations in physical and emotional wellness. My intention with the show is that together we'll discover the connections between your emotions and healthy habits to live your best life and enjoy the process. This episode is brought to you by Perfect Supplements, a company I'm honored to stand with who walks the talk with their values of non GMO pesticide free real food supplements that support us all on the wellness journey. Hop on over to perfectsupplements.com wellnessforce Enter code wellnessforce to save 10% off your entire order at checkout. Today on the podcast, we're talking with my good friend and human potential and healthcare specialist, Dr. Matt Akur. Dr. Matt has incredible energy. You're going to feel his genuine service to not just the wellness community, but also how Dr. Matt is changing the paradigm in the field of health and wellness. How he uses blood testing and advanced biomarkers to help his clients, including executives, entrepreneurs and everyday people who are looking to get more energy and let go of old weight. He's been featured in Inc. Magazine and other media outlets. He helps people use this cutting edge research and supported strategies like lifestyle genetics, cellular detoxification and advanced customized nutrit to help create long term sustainable transformations with clients both in person and globally. We're going to talk about weight loss resistance. What that is what this struggle with weight loss can be really an issue from childhood, from gut health, from a dysregulation of leptin and ghrelin, hormones produced by fat cells. And why for some people who are experiencing this weight loss resistance, the body never gets that message from the brain to actually burn fat. So if you've been on a diet for a long time or you're just starting, this is your episode. Learn how to let go of old weight and get more energy by unpack this complicated piece with a simple solution called weight loss resistance. Let's jump into this awesome conversation with Dr. Matt Accurso. Dr. Matt, welcome to the show.

Josh, thanks so much for having me on, man. I'm excited.

This is going to be fun. You know, we connected, I think it was over six weeks ago, found out that we're both Sicilian that we have a very similar path when it comes to the family aspect. But today, what's really, really getting me excited is to talk about something we have not dove into in depth yet, and that is high performance and contrasting weight loss. So thanks so much for sharing your time with us today, Matt.

It is an absolute pleasure and I just can't wait to add a ton of value to everybody listening.

Tell us something fun, man, besides that we're both Sicilian Tell us something fun that people might not know about you from all the information online.

I love surfing. I love getting out in nature and experiencing nature. Honestly, that to me is the number one top health strategy that you can possibly utilize is getting out in nature. I was raised in a holistic family and so the family reun were adjustments, chiropractic adjustments, and essentially all this amazing nutritious food and we would get around each other and just thrive off life. We would just be high on life and high on health. I was never raised thinking that the body needed an antibiotic or a medication to be well. I was always raised knowing that there's a power inside your body that's greater than you and respect that power and admonish that power and know that when you treat it right and you give it the respect it deserves, it will blow your mind, man.

I'm thinking about this. I'm visualizing like a family reunion for your family and there's adjustments going on. I'm seeing A massage table laid out. That's pretty cool. So when you were a young kid, this was your context, this was your environment. You had an uncle that really inspired you. Tell us about your uncle, and then we'll dive a little bit more into your story and biological.

Yeah, absolutely. So I'll start out by saying that he was the catalyst that got me to do what I'm doing today. And I remember When I was 8 years old, my mom, who is a hardcore Sicilian woman. You don't mess with Sicilian women, by the way. That's another tip that you know very well. She wanted us to go to this thing called Saturday Night Live, which was down south, and it was a bunch of doctors from all over the world that flew in to essentially come together and say, okay, we want to help people get well. We don't want to essentially address sickness and disease, even though those are important factors. We want to learn how to get someone well and keep someone well for the rest of their life. And so I went to the seminar thinking that I was going to fall asleep. Like, I don't want to go to a seminar and be around doctors the whole time. It's going to be science. Well, I got there and I was just blown away at the love and conviction that was being spoken from stage. And I remember standing at the foot of the stage and listening to my uncle and thinking, whatever he does, I want to do it. And, you know, I always say, if he told if he sold Tupperware, I'd be a Tupperware salesman today. But he was a doctor of cause. He was a doctor that looked at what is the underlying factors that are causing someone to not perform optimally, to not release that power, that innate power that's in our body. And so we went home and I said to my mom, I said, you know, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I never looked back. You know, I took some journeys here and there. I did a little zigging and a zagging, but ultimately I got back to my calling.

You know, it's so really inspiring to know that at an early age you found it. It's pretty rare, though, Dr. Matt. I mean, not everyone gets that when they wake up one morning at seven and realize they want to be a firefighter. So you had this moment where you just felt it in your body. Do you feel like your uncle was the biggest inspiration? Or did you have any terms that you came to on yourself, like any life experiences at an early age that really pull you in that Direction of becoming a doctor and helping people in a global way.

Yeah. You know, I've always had the feeling inside me that I was put on the earth for a bigger purpose other than myself. And I'm a really strong advocate that we're on this Earth to lock arms with those that are to the left and to the right of us, and we're on this Earth to respect each other as people and to essentially bend over backwards to help your neighbor. And like you and I were talking about, Josh, a little while ago, you know, this massive hurricane that hit the eastern seaboard of Florida, People banded together. They dropped everything. They had businesses closed for days at a time. They didn't need to because some of these businesses were fine, and they were helping people in ways that hadn't been seen on the east coast of Florida. I mean, I don't think ever. And so I think that I always grew up with a responsibility in my heart that that's what I need to do for my fellow man. No matter what it is that I do. Whatever trade I have, I need to use it to the best of my ability. And so I had that growing up and then getting into this environment where I was around all my doctor. My cousins are doctors, and my uncle is a doctor. And all of them believe that there's a power that made the body, and that power can heal the body. And so, knowing what I know about the innate intelligence inside the body, I just felt like it was a natural progression. Like I have to use my gift to reach the masses, because the tragedy that's happening within the current healthcare system, it's just. It's unbelievable. And if I sat back and just said, well, you know, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna hang a shingle on my. On my door, and I'm gonna let people come to me, I wouldn't be doing my. My. My gift justice. I would be essentially closing off the talent that God's given me. And so, you know, that's why essentially, we're on a podcast today, because I believe this message is too big to just keep within four walls of a clinic, which that's essentially why I do virtual now as well.

And the roots run deep. I mean, you're inspired by your uncle, but you've also been through some different pieces in your life that have directed you and given you that insight that it's not just about you. Your message, your mission, is about serving the world. Your dad passed away at 52. There's been four generations of heart disease in your family. I mean, how did that shape you? There's a lot of people listening that have lost loved ones, parents. How did that shape you? And how did that mold how you treat people as a physician?

Yeah, absolutely. I've never been asked that question, Josh, on a podcast, so that's awesome. Thank you for asking that. Because it is something that I keep deep within my heart that has given my story momentum. And my dad passing away was a huge hit because I did not expect it at all. Growing up, my dad was a rugby player. My dad was a farmer. He was a huge 6 foot 2, just hairy dude that you just would never think that someone like that would be on a hospital bed dying. And you know, when I'll say this, it was very hard for me because I think if I would have known now, if I would have been the doctor that I am now, then I could have helped my dad and I could have said, hey, dad, you're going down the wrong track. Let's do some of this advanced testing that I do now and figure out what's going on and let's discover the disease before it actually has a chance to manifest itself. And then you find yourself in this emergency situation. And I think that it really did scar me because my heart goes out to family men especially. I think there are a lot of. Because I just relate to that. I think there are a lot of men who are walking around thinking it's not going to be me. Because that's what our human tendency tends to do when we watch the news, we separate ourselves from it. We say, well, that'll never be me. Well, the fact is, if you don't do anything to invest in your health now, it is going to be you. If you talk to someone about finances or if you talk to someone about their relationship, if you say, hey, if you didn't put any work into either of those things, are those things going to be around five years from now? And anybody's going to tell you, no, they're not yet. When it comes to our health, we tend to just walk through life and think, hey, well, yeah, I'm not going to eat that pizza every once in a while, but I'm going to have the 10 Diet Cokes. But I'm not going to eat the French fry today, but maybe eat it tomorrow. It's just this ebb and flow. There's no game plan. And I think if you don't have a game plan, you're heading into rough waters and a health condition. I mean, everything stops when that happens. When my dad was on that operating table, and he was Air Force. He was over in Russia, and he had some of the best surgeons in the world around him. They couldn't do anything for him. I mean, no matter the money that was taken care of, that was not a worry for him. He's like, he did not have enough money. He had everything he needed to handle the disease. It was just too far gone. And in that moment, if you would have asked him, what would you be willing to give up to get your health back? He would say, anything. Doesn't matter what I need to give up. I'll give up anything to get my health back. And that's where I think a lot of times people find themselves, is they find themselves in that position where they're like, man, I wish I could go back and do something different. And that's essentially what my mission is today, is to show people that you can, man.

Dr. Matt, I got chills because not only do I feel the incredible service that you're doing in part to honor your father, but also your story mirrors so many who have stepped into serving other people. Coming from that place of knowing what it's like to lose somebody they care about. I mean, William Hoff, the Iceman, Dan Pardee, we've had on the show, they've both had tremendous losses in their life, but now they're extrapolating incredible value for other people based on what they've overcome. So I'm gonna honor you for just one second here in the work that you're doing before we get into weight loss resistance and high performance, and just thank you so much for taking the turn towards the positive and making something powerful and meaningful from that event. So thank you for that.

Thanks, Josh. That means a lot, man.

Well, this concierge piece, I mean, you work with high performance executives. You know, it's interesting on your site, you're actually a bulletproof executive. Recommended doctor, tell us about that. I mean, what would that certification process look like? Why did bulletproof choose to work with you?

Yeah, you know, they. So essentially, Dave Asprey saw the results that we were getting with a lot of these entrepreneurs that were going to some of the best medical institutes in the world, and they weren't getting the results that they wanted. They were getting traditional testing, and they were getting traditional diagnosis. That in and of itself was an issue. So we stepped in and we said, hey, have you looked at advanced functional testing? Have you looked at things that are going to show you disease and dysfunction before they develop? And, I mean, Josh, we can actually look at the body and see disease developing 20 to 30 years before it actually turns into a full blown diagnosis. So some of these entrepreneurs, I think of one of the guys that came through, he was a bulletproof Exec. He was 31 years old, Internet celebrity, top of his game, beautiful family, great life. But being crushed by disease. It was Crohn's disease, which is seemingly incurable. That's what we're told. It was cool because he said Crohn's was the best thing that had ever happened to him because it propelled him to help others. Which is really neat because I think that when you're in dire straits, it can lead to that. But essentially we were able to look at all the underlying factors that promote that disease. For instance, intracellular micronutrient deficiencies. Looking at stool, looking at if there's overgrowth of yeast, looking at if there's klebsiella, which is inflammation in the stool, Looking at a hormone panel, looking at how someone actually regulates cortisol. That's a big one. I will say that stress is a huge one. Whenever you're looking at lab work, whenever you're looking at getting a person healthy for myself even, you have to look at your stress levels. If you're looking at blood pressure and you're looking at cholesterol, that's standardized testing. That is not going to show you what's underlying disease formation and dysfunction. So we started optimizing these guys performance capabilities and their income went through the roof. Their time, that's a big one. If you talk to someone who's doing really well, who's successful, you're like, what's the most valuable thing to you? It's not money, it's actually time. They're like, yeah, I have the resources, I just don't have the time. I get home, I'm spent. I can't spend time with the family. I can't devote energy into my relationship with my wife. My life's taking a really big hit. How do I get that back? And that's where we decided to focus on performance. Let's start optimizing performance to get you more time. And now all of a sudden, you really start to get your life back. You start to thrive.

And not only do you work with bulletproof, you've also worked with Olympic swimmers and athletes. I mean, you have a really long cv. But it's interesting because whether we're an athlete or a mom at home or a dad or just somebody who's a regular human being having a Good life. Sometimes people try their very best, Dr. Matt, but they can't lose the weight. I mean, I can relate where in my early 20s, I tried a whole bunch of different things because I didn't have the education. And you said something interesting in a previous interview. You said, I don't work with patients, I work with health participants. Tell us about that.

Yeah, you know, so going back to my background, I was always taught to see, or my uncle always saw people as his family. He called his staff like his second cousins, and he called his patients his family. And he never used the word patient. And so going into my practice, I kept the same premise. I didn't want to call someone a patient because I believe when you call someone a patient, then it puts me here, up top. And it puts you here meaning that, okay, I'm in control. As a doctor, you're going to do everything I say, A, B and C. And then you're going to do those things and then you're going to get healthy because you just did all the things that I told you to do. The problem with that is that by me doing that, I'm not empowering you to take control of your health. I'm simply telling you what to do. So six years down the road, when you look around, there's something else going on and you say, oh, man, I need Dr. Matt again because he's the one who got me healthy. Well, no, no, no, actually, I didn't. Your body has the power to do whatever it needs to do. All I simply did was I addressed the deficiencies and I addressed the toxicities, and then we let your body heal. And so we're losing the groundwork. And I think our ancestors had it and then we've slowly lost it. As we stepped into traditional medicine, I think we're losing the groundwork where the body is brilliant and to give it the credit that it deserves, it all comes back to that. I want someone to be empowered. I want someone to feel like they don't need me to be healthy. Can I give you some strategies and can we actually get you in the right direction? Yeah. But the most powerful part about the whole journey with everyone that I've ever worked with is long term, sustainable results. I want you to leave my care and I want you to teach your family, and I want them to teach other people and other people and other people. Because essentially my mission in this life, when I look back on my life, I want to see healthcare change. And healthcare is not going to change with doctors who have egos. Who are just wanting their name being put out in lights. Right.

Well, it's interesting because when we look at resistance, right, it's easier to pull than it is to push. Napoleon Hill famously states in his book, right. What we resist persists. And so with weight loss resistance, how would you define weight loss resistance? And how do you work with clients that are experiencing that?

Yeah, you know, so weight loss resistance is actually not very complicated. And it does come down to one thing, Josh. It comes down to inflammation in the body. More specifically, inflammation on a cellular level. Whenever you look at the body, you want to look at it through the lens of cells. So your heart's made up of cells, your lungs are made up of cells. Every part of you is made up of cells. When I specifically start trying to look at one organ, that's when I start to look at the body mechanistically. And what that means is I look at it as a sum of parts and not just a whole. And that's dangerous because when someone's dealing with weight loss resistance, it's not just one thing that's happen. Like it's not just your hormones. It can be a gut issue. It can actually be a micronutrient issue. And so we have to look at the body as a puzzle. So for instance, when there's weight loss resistance, your body is essentially turning into a sugar burner and not a fat burner. And that's really key right there because most people when they lose weight, and if they're gaining it back, they're a sugar burner, which means that the weight is going to come back. What happens is you get on this diet, you're like, oh man, I'm doing great losing the pounds. But the problem is that the diet is not long term sustain, meaning it might be like traditional diet that you're using, like Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers, or it might be a book you're reading out of. But whatever it is, the diet has to promote proper hormone regulation from brain to body. And what that means is that there's two hormones in the body that are key for losing weight called leptin and ghrelin. Think of ghrelin like grrr. Like a bear. If there's more ghrelin being released, then you're going to be hungry.

So leptin or hangry.

Or hangry. Right. And so leptin is for energy reducing appetite and weight loss. Ketosis is a big one when we talk about weight loss resistance, ketosis. So for instance, I'm in ketosis right now. Ketosis is a really powerful way to address the leptin and the ghrelin and to regulate those properly. Ketosis has a bad rap due to the Atkins diet. And I'm not talking about Atkins at all. I'm talking about actually having really high amounts of good fat, having very little to no carbs, and having really healthy meats. What that does is it replenishes the cell, which allows cells to start communicating with themselves, because that's what weight loss resistance is. The brain is trying to communicate to the body, yet cell receptors are blunted so they can't hear what's happening from the brain. Simply by putting in more good fats into your diet, you actually start to replenish the cells. Cells from the thyroid, CE gut, all start to come back online again. And that is essentially how I address a person with weight loss resistance, is we start optimizing hormones through diet. And we can get into more of the specifics, Josh, if you want to, of like, what type of diet is the best type of diet and what to eat and when to not eat, things like that. But in a nutshell, a person who's had dealing with weight loss resistance, they're not getting enough fats. They're getting way too many toxins in their food. So we need to start addressing micronutrient deficiencies. And then their sleep patterns are off, so they're not resting like they should. Some people who have weight loss resistance, they'll say, well, I sleep fine. And I say, well, how's your REM sleep? And they're like, well, what in the world is that? I've kind of heard of it, right? And I say, well, your REM sleep is how your body actually recovers. So do you know if you're dropping into REM sleep or not? They're like, well, I have no idea. So. Well, a good judge of that is if you wake up in the morning, you're super refreshed, revived, and then around about 1:30, you just crash and you can't get your energy back. It's a really good sign that you're not dropping into REM sleep properly.

What blocks the brain, though? I mean, there's this piece where you talked about the brain shouting a message at the body. Hey, you guys, we need you to do A, B and C. And the body just can't hear the brain. I mean, is that something where you test? Is there three or five biomarkers you look at in blood testing when it comes to people having the achieving whim over weight loss? Resistance or is it something else besides just biomarkers?

Yeah, well, one really great biomarker is gut health. You know, gut health, the gut is the second brain of the body. So if we can get the gut healthy, we can do a lot between brain body communication. When the brain needs help, the gut chimes in. It's like, all right, well, what do we need to do to regulate hormones properly? Let's regulate melatonin, let's regulate serotonin in to keep the body up, to get the body asleep, things like that. So what I do is I look at ecology of the gut, I look at bacteria, I look at inflammation, I look at yeast overgrowth, I look at parasites. And from that test alone, I mean, I can't say enough about it. I just saw a woman the other day. She hadn't slept in 15 years. Literally 15 years.

God, she probably had some wrinkles.

Oh, right. Yeah.

Fifteen years of not sleeping.

Be this on and off thing where she'd be like, Yeah, I slept two hours last night. Well, I kind of got four hours the other night. Well, I got only 15 minutes the other day. It's just this on and off thing. And actually, she looks great. That's the amazing part. You would not think that she would lose that much sleep. But we did one gut ecology test on her, and we found that the inflammation in her gut was through the roof. And she was eating all this organic food and she was exercising. She was a great weight. You would never know she's having these. But she did have severe depression. And she was constantly just like in the dumps, just feeling fatigued and tired. So we started to look at her gut, we started to look at the inflammation and where the inflammation was coming from. And we found that it was the cleaning products that she was using. She put everything out. I mean, she was, you know, everything was perfect. But it was some cleaning products, some makeup products that she'd been using for a very, very long time that had some serious chemicals in them that were cause that were suffocating her cells, essentially.

Wow, this is incredible because we're gonna have Dr. Trevor Cates on the show in a couple weeks. And I just got done with the interviewing with her and she went into depth on this topic. You're right. I mean, some of the blocking factors for people's normal physiology and psychology to function can be something they're spraying on their skin, like perfumes, colognes. There's all these different ingredients that other countries have banned. Dr. But we have not been. That's probably a Whole different show. But when we look at this weight resistance piece, like somebody who's trying their very best, maybe even this person you're describing, they're eating well. They figured out through trial and error if a paleo or a ketosis or a whole 30 or whatever it is might be a good fit for them. They've actually done the work, they're working on their sleep, but they're still not getting results. How do you start that process with them and what does it look like?

So I would say, you know, it all starts with sleep and it all starts with the diet. So I work a lot with high performers, entrepreneurs, people who really want to maximize productivity, which is really what it's all about. And ultimately, if you can get your body into a state of fat burning or what they call beta oxidation, some are like, we just talked about ketosis. I'm not in ketosis all the time. I eat two meals a day and I hardly snack. So I would say it starts, that's something really easy. It's a low lying fruit. You know, start not snacking, eat a low carb diet. So number one, I would say eat healthy fats. So eat avocados, start eating nuts and seeds, start supplementing the right way. That's a huge one. A lot of the vitamins that we take in our culture are USPS vitamins and they're stripped of nutrients. Not to get into a whole supplement debate, but for instance, the multivitamin that I'm on, it's derived from organic fruits and vegetables. The technology is being used by the company is very, very new, it's about two years old. But the technology that they use to extract the nutrients from the whole foods is one of the most cutting edge systems I've ever seen. I think that's so key because when we take different vitamins, like for instance, whole food based vitamins, they're really just USP vitamins that are fed to a bacteria like yeast and then they sprinkle a bunch of fruit juice on themor blended plants or blended fruits and then they just stick a label on it calling it whole food based multivitamin. So I think it's really dangerous because we have a lot of people who have micronutrient deficiencies and they're like, well, I'm taking all these vitamins so I should be healthy. Well, those vitamins are synthesized in a lab and so you got to be really careful, you know, if you're a supplement taker, what type of supplements you're taking. Another thing that I Talk about is the types of foods that you're eating throughout your week. So are you eating freshwater fish? Are you eating free range birds? Are you eating grass fed meat? Because we know that all those things trigger healthy hormones. All those things actually help cell to cell communication because the omega 3s are extremely healthy within the meat. For instance, something that wouldn't be healthy would be a cow that grazes on conventional grain, sprayed grain.

We'll get right back to Dr. Matt, but first I want to share something that I have been doing for the past eight months in my diet because I'm always on the go and busy like you are. So what happens is on the road it's difficult to get in protein, especially if we don't want to wrap chicken breast in little Ziploc baggies. So to go around this, we can use real hydrolyzed collagen that's grass fed from perfect supplements. But here's the kicker. You're actually supporting a fundamental food system that is healing for the world. Not only will you receive health benefits from consuming this hydrolyzed grass fed collagen, which is gut healing and joint integrity building, but you're also taking away some of the broken system that we see in these controlled animal feeding operations where the farmers feed cows antibiotics because the cows are eating corn. Well, healthy cows eat grass and then we eat the healthy cow. So make a clean decision. Pick up your grass fed collagen from perfectsupplements.com WellnessForce. Don't forget to enter your audience discount WellnessForce to save money and get healthy in the process. Let's get back with Dr. Matt.

You know, we know that for every square foot of sprayed grain, that's a pound of toxic meat in that cow's body and it's now bioaccumulated in that cow's body. So then when you eat that meat from that cow, you're getting a bioaccumulated dose of toxins, whatever that toxin might be that's being sprayed on those plants that disorganizes hormones and it just causes a rampage effect in the body. And if you look, a lot of times when someone comes to me, it's one of the first things I ask. I actually do a mnemonic with them. I say, are you doing this? And I spell it out like this. Meat fat. Sally. Sally is a cow. And this is a really good nutritional rule of thumb. Your meat's. So are your meats conventional? Your fats? Are you eating fats in your diet? And how much you should be getting about 80% fat in your diet, that's really hard to do. But if you can even get it to 60, that's good. Sally. So Sally means sugar. So what type of sugars do you have in your diet? Are you eating fake sugars? Are you eating conventional sugars? And then Sally's a cow, so that's your dairy. So are you eating conventional dairy? If you're eating conventional dairy, I can tell you that, that there is no nutritional value in it whatsoever. And not to get gross on you, but you're actually eating pus. You're drinking pus from the cow. And the reason that that is is because cows are forced to produce milk in a conventional dairy system. So they're injecting that cow's antibiotics as fast as it can possibly handle it because it's not producing enough milk. So they want it to get it to produce enough milk, so they hit it with more antibiotics and that gets it to produce enough milk. Well, what happens is the cow is already at its max, so then it starts producing or fighting an infection inside the body and that goes into the milk as well.

Man, if there's any vegans or vegetarians listening, I mean, they're like cheering for you right now. But you know, there is options around this and kind of tying it back. I mean, you talked about sleep, you talked about food and food quality. You also talked about supplements. The one thing I love that you didn't hammer on, which so many people in the fitness industry specifically talk about is, is just move more and eat less. And I love how you didn't say that, because when we talked about weight loss resistance, the three top things that came up was sleep, food quality, nutrient density and supplements. But when someone wants more energy, is that a separate category from weight loss resistance? I mean, you have three kids. Like, how do you balance life as a doctor with a fast paced life and family?

Yeah, man, you know, I'm still figuring that out, Josh, I will tell you that. So, yes, I'll answer the first question. So is that separate? It can be separate. It definitely can be. Brain health is a big one. And not to harp on the same thing over and over again, but your brain is 70% cholesterol. So a lot of times we flip out when our cholesterol is high. Well, you have to understand, if you look at the 30s, the 50s, the 70s, cholesterol numerics have changed. Back in the 50s, your cholesterol could be 140 and they could be like, oh, you're fine now today, if it's that they're like, we got to get it down immediately. I'm going to get you on some synthetic medication that's going to get it down. Well, the problem is that now you have a cholesterol deficiency. The brain is starving, so there's no energy in the body. And so a lot of times when someone is on a cholesterol lowering medication, their energy is very, very low. And it's because their brain is starved of cholesterol. And how do you get cholesterol back? You eat good fats. So, so piggybacking off that I will say too. A myth in our culture is fat makes you fat. Fat doesn't make you fat. It's the inability to burn fat. There's also another myth that cholesterol is bad for you. Well, actually, cholesterol is good for you. It's the oxidation of cholesterol that's bad for you, and that's what clogs your arteries. A lot of people don't know that. Your cholesterol could be very, very high. You could be a very healthy person if you're taking in good fat. Now when the cholesterol oxidizes, that's when you get a slowing of blood and then your blood pressure gets high and all those other crazy things too.

How does the cholesterol oxidize?

The cholesterol oxidizes because of the toxins within the foods that the person is eating. So a bad cholesterol will actually crowd itself into the artery. And the reason that it does that is because the body doesn't recognize it. So for instance, a medium chain triglycerides from coconut oil, body recognizes it immediately and it assimilates it immediately. If I eat a French fry from McDonald's, bunch of trans fat in there, I eat that. That's oxidized cholesterol.

I think there's more in the fry than just trans fat. Isn't there like 45 ingredients in a French fry?

You know, it's funny you say that. I have a presentation. I'll have to send it to you. I have a milkshake. A McDonald's strawberry milkshake. Right. There is no milk and there's no strawberries and a McDonald's strawberry milkshake.

How is that possible? That's false advertising. Exactly. That's false advert.

Don't get me started.

Well, this one piece though, when you talked about the quality and how that relates to weight loss resistance, but also more energy. I mean, you're a dad, so you have children. A lot of people that Are listening. Have families. I know my brother has three kids and I'm always like, how do you do it, James? Like, how does he do it? How do you do it? I mean, you're a doctor building a business. You have this fast paced life. How do you balance that with your family? To have energy throughout the day, man.

You know, I think especially because we have a five month old and in the beginning you just don't get sleep. And I always say that's a season and we go through seasons. I will say this, don't beat yourself up if you're going through a season. Because I was a perfectionist back in the day where I'd be like, man, I gotta be reading five books a month like my mentors and I have to be up at the butt crack of dawn and I have to be working out like this and running my business like this. And we compare a lot and, and I had a mentor say, hey, you're in a season right now, so just respect that season. You're not going to be reading five books a month when you have three kids. Take your time, maybe read 10 pages a night, break it down and don't be hard on yourself. But I will say, to address the energy question, it's very important that you're treating your body right and recognizing how your body works and what it needs. And the way you do that is some through experimentation, but then some things we just know, like, we know that if your body's not dropping into REM sleep, then you're going to be tired and fatigued. So try to get to bed earlier. That's what I do. I try to get to bed earlier. I try to keep my nutrition on point, I try to keep my exercise program on point. That's really, really important. Some things that I do is I know my triggers and I know what's going to crush my energy. And so I stay away from those things. For instance, for instance, I work on an empty stomach. So right now, Josh, I'm working on an empty stomach. I haven't eaten breakfast. And the reason that I haven't is because I want to release hgh. And working on an empty stomach triggers hgh, human growth hormone. And we know that that optimizes muscle. It actually optimizes brain function. It rejuvenates muscle. I also, when I work out, I work out and I do multiple things at one time. So I'm not this type of guy that goes into the gym, works out for an hour. My workouts last about 30 to 40 minutes and I do what's called neurological overload sets and it was developed by Ben Pikulski. I don't know. Have you heard of Ben before?

I think I've heard the name. But what you're talking about is this like a functional fitness type approach?

Dr. It is, yes, it is a functional fitness type approach, but it's a little bit different in that what you're doing is you want to fatigue the nervous system while you're fatiguing the muscle muscle. And what this does is this optimizes energy tremendously because it's almost like that feel good effect that you get after a workout. You're actually doing that for your nervous system. The way it goes is you get 80% of your max. So you work out with whatever weight you're going to do. It's 80% and then you hold it at the end so you hold the weight. So for instance, if I'm doing a chest press, the weights all the way down on my chest, I'm going to hold that weight in that position and I'm going to hold it for 20 seconds. And what it does is it's an overload on the nervous system. So you're stressing the nervous system and then you're dropping the weight and you're going to another weight. So it's like a drop set initially, but not because you're doing this hold at the end. And what scientists have found is when you do that hold, you're actually reconnecting brain synapses. So, so really, really powerful for someone who's having a lot of brain fog. If you do exercise where you can actually hold a position, that's why Pilates can be really good. Or bar barre amped can be really good because you're holding the position so you're actually reconnecting brain synapses. So a lot of people find that their memory is really good after workouts like this. But this is what I do in the morning and honestly it sets the tone until about one and then I make sure that my nutrition is really on point. So, so there are some months I don't eat any grain at all. I'm doing fruits and vegetables and very minimal fruit, fruits that are low on the glycemic index. Like berries, any type of berry. And then I also, I try to get out in nature like I said. So I want to refresh myself and I want to ground myself. So I always get my feet on the bare ground. I paddle board, I do some tabata training on the beach. I do What I love, I try to keep the energy fresh. And then I always have a cutoff time at the end of my day. I think because I have a family, I can't be like the young guns, the single young guns anymore who just literally work until 7:30, 8 o'. Clock. I don't believe that's healthy anyway. But I always have a cutoff time and I give myself incentive to get there. If I get to my cutoff time time, then I'll reward myself with something.

That is so cool, man. Well, I'm definitely one of the young guns. I work sometimes till like 9 o' clock at night, so I'm like shaking my head as you're talking here, but I got some beautiful gems. We're gonna list everything you talked about for gaining more energy, especially that isometric hold, that type of nervous system training in the show notes today. And Matt, you know, I wanna transition because a lot of people have known your story. You've opened up. You've been so powerful in the things that you've given us. But there's something that I wanted to ask you in the very beginning of the show, and it was about environment. Epig and the power of our environment based on what we're actually born with our genetic coding. So we all kind of start life with ACE Cs, Ts and GS. But what impact does our environment have on us? How can we structure our environment so that we can turn on the right genes and not activate the ones that can be deleterious?

Yeah. So talking aboutso epigenetics, you know, we're gonna talk about epigenetics. And epigenetics is huge. Epigenetics has, has something to do with your thoughts. Like you just said, Josh, environmental stress. Candace Pert out of the University of Chicago came out with molecules of emotion. How our actually emotions affect our thought patterns and then affect our genes. Bruce Lipton wrote a book called biology of how your thoughts manifest themselves. And thoughts are physical neuropeptides in the brain that come from the hypothalamus and they coat all the cells, all the tissues, all the organs in your body. We know that epigenetically, we have to control our thoughts first. One of the things that I do right when I wake up is if I'm laying in bed and I feel a negative thought come into my head. Like, for instance, if I have bitterness towards someone or if I'm thinking about how I'm going to compare myself to the next guy, I just basically say, I'm not getting. My feet are not going to hit this floor until that thought is gone and I've replaced it with something else that's going to override that. I have to replace it with a positive thought. And I will lay there for as long as it takes. Josh. Sometimes I've laid there for an hour. Right. And some people will be like, well, that's an hour of productivity. But I know that if I get up with that thought, it's going to crush my day and I'm not going to be as productive.

How have you done that? I mean, how do you. So you're sitting there for an hour. This is really powerful because you tell yourself, I'm not going to let my feet hit the ground ground until I have some kind of high vibrational thought that I take into my day. But that's easier said than done. So, I mean, a lot of people we've had on the show have talked incredibly about emotional intelligence and about the power of the mind and our vibration. How do you do it, though, as a dad, as a busy person, as a doctor? I mean, what's that hour look like or that half an hour look like for you?

Yeah. So I immediately have to drop into gratefulness and I have to think about everything that I'm grateful for while maintaining a breath pattern that I do. And the breath pattern that I do is I stick with my. My tongue on the roof of my mouth and I breathe through the mouth that way. And actually, that technique optimizes airway structure so it opens up the back of the throat a little bit more because all you're doing is pressing the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and you're breathing through your mouth like that. So in through your nose, out through your mouth, and then in through the mouth, out through the nose. And I practice gratefulness. So I'm constantly thinking about all the things that I'm thankful for. And I do that until those thoughts dissipate and I feel joy or I feel happiness or I feel like it's overrided itself. It takes practice, like with anything. I was bad at it at first, but now I've developed such a rhythm and I know the thing that gets me out of it. Then at that point I say, okay, I'm good. That thought's gone. And I go about my day.

Wow. And I mean, the power of this is that I almost feel like we've gone deep into some very scientific terminology and kind of medical theory. But when you talked about that one piece where Your feet don't hit the floor unless you're at high vibration. I don't know if it's possible to do the other things without doing that first.

Yeah, I know. You're exactly right. Yeah, you're exactly right. You're saying, like, the other things throughout your day.

Yeah. I mean, everything we've talked about today has been very action oriented. There's a lot of gems. Right. But before we can take action, there has to be a base of trust that we actually trust ourselves, kind of moving in today in a high vibrational state. So thank you so much for singing that, man. Is there anything else about the energy piece? As a busy father, I know there's a lot of people that have kids that are listening.

Being in that place in life, you have to know that it's going to pass in a second. We're a wave tossed in the ocean. We're a vapor in the wind. And I'm a firm believer in that. Life is very short and so. So you have to know that being on your A game is going to allow you to accomplish so much more with your goals when it comes to your family. And I think just having that right mindset and knowing that continuing on the path you're on, what is that going to accomplish? And then changing course, what is that going to accomplish? And one of the things that I write out all the time is pros and cons. I'm a pros and cons freak. My wife makes fun of me. She's like, you write a pros and cons and cons list for everything. But the reason that I do is because I get the stuff out of my head and then I'm able to write it on a paper and look at it and so it materializes it. And then I say, okay. And then I can actually look at it practically, because I will say, like, I am not a practical person. I'm not a stat person, but that helps me become that a little bit more. And then I'm able to look at, okay, if I take this way or this way, what's going to happen? And you can look at your health in the same way. You can say, if I keep on this journey, is it going to lead to more health and vibrance and vitality, or is it going to lead to. Or it may be a black hole. Like, you may not know where it leads. And that's not a good place to be in either.

Wow. This part that you mentioned is, I believe, maybe the most challenging one we've touched on. For the whole interview, because it involves a real kind of uncomfortable, emotional inventory of, like, what's serving and what's not serving. So thank you for saying that, man. This is the last part of the show. This is seven questions for seven amazing answers. But don't worry, you don't have to be perfect. Are you ready?

I'm ready.

The first one is if you could sit down with the President of the United States, Maybe you have five minutes or 10 minutes, what would you say to him to address the health and wellness system we have in America for the change you'd want to see?

Man, Put me on the spot, Josh. Yeah, I would say, you know, from your past experiences and the experiences you've had had with or learning from other presidents, do you feel like this current route we're taking is fixing the system or is it actually causing more harm than good? And I would also add in to that that in the past, we've thrown more money than any other country in the world at the system, and it still hasn't fixed it. So. So can you and I talk about how to change the paradigm so not just talk about diet and a fitness program to get the country back on? Because we know Michelle did that, and it was great and all, but now let's start talking about how to change the paradigm of healthcare instead of just changing the system and adding more systems to the already broken system that we have.

Well, just drop the mic. We're done with the interview. Boom. What's a life experience you've had that society might deem a failure, but that you defined as one of your greatest lessons?

My performance in school. I was never a good student. I honestly struggled a lot in school, and it's because I had a 75% hearing loss. And I remember I had to have a clock taped on my desk because I couldn't tell time. And that was one of the most embarrassing things that I had ever had done. And I remember being told by teachers, you're not going to amount to anything. You're not smart enough, you're not talented enough. And I just look back and I say, none of that mattered. But what that did was, is it gave me a callous, a good callous, to literally look at the naysayers and the things that have been spoken to me and override them and say, none of those things are true. True. It's just something that's been programmed into me and that I can change. I have a choice.

Man, I'm so glad we interviewed today. I loved your answer. Next Question is, in life, what gives you the most awe? And it's something that you're also the most grateful for.

The thing that gives me the most awe are my wife and kids, man. I look at them every day and my kids show me my wife as well. They show me me that we never have. There's no cap on love. The love that we can show to people around us is endless. And love conquers anything and everything. Any boundary that we have, any root of, any bitterness that we have, it conquers everything. And if you just give, if you just put love first, it'll guide you to an amazing season of your life.

What is something in life that makes you laugh the most? What cracks you up?

What cracks me up? Well, I laugh a lot because I'm a firm believer in it. I like seeing people wipe out. It's a horrible. It's a horrible thing. But there's this thing that I listen to. I'm going to tell you a guilty pleasure of mine. It's called Kookslams K O O K S L A M S and it's literally people wiping out on surfboards and getting crushed by waves and it cracks me up.

That kind of makes me laugh just thinking about that because I surf out here and sometimes I see somebody from like Nebraska on a longboard and there's some kook slams out here, man. Well, what's a mantra or a message that you might tell yourself when life gets hard? I mean, you're feeling stressed. Do you have something you tell yourself in your mind with low breath?

I say they're better with me than without me. And I say that a lot. I just need to know that I may not be where I want to be. I may not be performing at the level that I need to perform at. But as long as I keep service at the forefront, as long as I keep love at the forefront, people, the environment, the situations that I put myself in are better with me than without me.

Last question, man. This is what I ask every guest. And with your awesome background and everything you've come through, what is wellness to you? I mean, if you had to define wellness, what's your personal definition of someone that has wellness?

Wellness is. Wellness is a state of mind. And it starts in the mind. I believe that it is optimally functioning physically, mentally and spiritually. And obviously that is different for a lot of people. So I think that when we honor the innate power that's within us, that's when we truly start to step in to that season, to that wellness that.

Our body was made for such an incredible time. Talking with you, Dr. Matt, where can people learn more about what you have going on for 2016 but also the changes that are happening in 2017?

Yeah, man, we got some exciting stuff. They can go to designerhealthcenters.com we are rebranding to a website called or a company called Elevase.com and that's spelled E L E V A Y-S dot com and then if you want to know more about flow hacks and energy hacks and nutrition hacks, you can go to superhuman entrepreneur.com and I would love to connect with anybody out there like you and I, Josh, talked about about. For the first three people that decide to take their health to the next level, I'm going to be taking $300 off my initial consultation fee. So that would bring it to 197. So I would love to converse with you and see if we would work well together.

Thank you so much for the generosity, Dr. Matt. We appreciate that, man. And I want to take just one second here to completely acknowledge you for not only what you've been through, the things you've overcome, but also how you've turned that into being really of service to so many people in this world, man, to giving them their body back, their mind back, and some better life quality.

So thanks for what you do, Josh, man. I can't thank you enough, brother. And honestly, the honor goes right back to you because without you and without you living your mission and allowing me to speak to your people, this would never happen. So I appreciate you and your heart, brother.

I receive that, man. And we will have you back on the show in the future. Future. Have the rest of the amazing day that's coming to you.

You too.

That is it for 81, my friend, with Dr. Matt Accurso. Everything that we talked about today on the show is going to be found for the show notes page@wellnessforce.com Dr. Matt, you know, four really strong takeaways from this episode. The one that hit me the hardest is when he talked about giving yourself the time to take that emotional inventory. A lot of what we talked about can be scientific action. You know, what to do, when to do it, how to do it. But before we do any of that, we have to get clarity on why we want to do it in the first place. So give yourself permission to actually create whatever that looks like. A piece of paper with a pro and a con, a piece of paper with a do or a don't do, but figure out why we're doing it in the first place. Number two, Give yourself permission to enjoy the seasons. Are you in a season of life where you get to be a little more compassionate to yourself? Maybe you're carrying extra weight because you have a new child in the family family or you're in a new project for your job. Take a breath, recognize that you're in a season and then move forward. Number three, change your state to gratitude before your feet ever even hit the floor. Whatever process that looks like for you, make that commitment before you roll out of bed. Start your day on the right foot with the right vibration, weight loss resistance. Focus not so much on the hardcore workouts, but more on the quality of your food and the quality of your sleep. There's a lot of different training and tracking devices for food quality and sleep tracking. We'll also list some of those in the Show Notes page. And then lastly, stepping into more HIIT training and less steady state cardio. Figuring out if you're endomorph, ectomorph, mesomorph. Basically, if you're kind of like a person that carries more muscle, you're more thin or you're in the middle. Figure out who you are and what kind of training works best for you. Try on some of that nervous system training. We'll link that in the show notes as well. Don't forget to reach out to Dr. Matt for his awesome and generous discount. We'll have a link on the page where you can reach out to Dr. Matt if you're feeling a fit. Now all that's left to do is go out and create an amazing day with all the information and inspiration you got from Dr. Matt and every guest who's been on the show. So until I see you again next week, I'm wishing you love and.