0:02

Welcome to Good Intentions, the podcast where we explore the world around us to find meaning and intention in what we do. I'm Kelly Harvard and I'm on a mission to spread positive stories that will inspire you to live a more meaningful and connected life. Dean Henry became fascinated with health and fitness at an early age. He grew up in a household that was dominated by sports and was on the path to a promising athletic career before a knee injury. Quite literally got in his way. It was this sudden change of trajectory in his life alongside a peanut allergy diagnosis for his daughter that prompted him to delve deeper into the world of health and nutrition. As a functional medicine coach, everything Dean does centers around the belief that wellness starts from within. He helps his clients to achieve balance through natural means, whether that's lifestyle changes like functional fitness supplements, or therapeutic nutrition. I'm absolutely passionate about all things health and wellness, and I'm always looking for ways to live life at a more optimal level. So it was truly fascinating to talk to Dean about biohacking, peptides, gut health and hormones. Dean is incredibly warm and hugely knowledgeable. I could have chatted to him all day about how we can live our lives operating at the highest mental and physical level. Did you know that peptides were a rushing military secret or that there's 40 years of data to support their use and effectiveness? Dean kindly talked to me through exactly what peptides are in layman's terms, and how they can target focus areas to ultimately slow down aging and improve health. We also talked about the monetization of health and medicine and whether a truly healthy lifestyle is only for the wealthy. Spoiler alert, it's thankfully isn't. It can be achieved by everyone. Dean is open and honest about how to navigate the world, and that includes bad days and those days when the only solution is to eat a Magnum ice cream. Truly a man after my own heart. There's heaps of excellent advice in this conversation and Dean's passion for great health and immunity shine through. Please enjoy our conversation. Morning, Dean, thanks so much for joining us on the podcast.

1:58

Good morning, Kelly . Thanks you for having me.

1:59

I've got so much to ask you about and I've wanted to kind of cover off this topic in this area for ages, so I'm really excited about it. Like your job title is Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach. Like I have to read it quite slowly to make sure I get it all in. What on earth does that actually mean? Like what's that all about? Please just tell us before we get into the real details of, of all the exciting stuff you're gonna tell me about as

2:20

Well. Sure, sure. So I think just understanding of functional medicine, really it's using lifestyle to be health optimized. I think that's probably the most basic way I , and you have functional medicine doctors, and actually there's some of my favorite doctors because if they've studied the allopathic medicine, but they've also studied, you know, how to work naturally. And actually when you combine the two, it's amazing. So when I first started out, I worked alongside lots of doctors. So the problem with the allopathic system is that they've only got sort of 10, 20 minutes to see a patient and then, you know, they move them along and then they say , what does the patient do? Because sometimes any guidance, I mean there's something very specific that we can talk about later. Later when it comes to Jiro and the , uh, you know, the weight loss injection. We , we , I'm not gonna digress on that right now, but you know, where they just give an injection and someone 'em to go away and you say , you know, and then next week do a higher dose. So the following week do a higher dose and then just off they go. And actually I'm hearing doctors say, just do it forever. It's fine. Which is just, you know, so anyway, I digress. So, you know, with this sort of , um, you know, go , go away, take your medication and then just you be done with it. It just doesn't work really for a lot of people. So they need some sort of guidance and coaching. And that's really where functional medicine coaching began is that , okay, we're gonna send you out the doctor's room now I'm gonna allocate you a coach and with this coach, they're gonna talk to you about your lifestyle. We do a functional medicine timeline , uh, go all the way back to their birth and their parents' health. And that first call or that first consultation takes 90 minutes 'cause we're really going through everything. And , um, you know , understanding when they had their first antibiotic, which is probably related to why they might have gut , uh, gut health issues now, you know, it's all these, all these things. And actually, do you know what, I think five times out of 10 with these calls, these 90 minute consultations, it normally comes to tears. Some, somebody normally ends up crying, but it becomes a , a cut a counseling session. And it's quite ironic that the best sessions or the best feedback I've ever had is when I say Lex, it's, it's really interesting. I thought they said that was the best. Thank you so much. Amazing case study thought . Well , I didn't really say anything <laugh> because some people just need to talk, especially in this day and age, they just need to talk and be heard, right? So yeah. And then it's a , it's, it's , of course it's nutrition, lifestyle, exercise, mindfulness, meditation. So it's, it, it's all those categories really. That's what help punctual medicine, coaching use .

4:35

See , and when you're talking it through, like it just sounds so obvious, like of course this is gonna be like a much better way to approach life and health rather than, you know, yeah . Being in and out in like 10, 20 minutes. And isn , that's also fantastic statistic that traditional doctors, they only get a couple of hours nutritional training out the whole, you know, there are many, many, many, many years of medical training. Their nutritional training is like this, so, you know, they just can't everything in. So

4:59

It's not their, it's not their fault . It's , it's of my , no , it's not one of my biggest frustrations actually. And it's not their thought that they didn't get the training, but then when I hear doctors, and it's not all of them, but when I hear doctors say that Neuronutrition isn't important, just do this. That's maybe something we can discuss loads as well. So

5:16

That seems to be central rather than another, in my opinion. But yeah. So when people come to you, I mean, why do they come to you? Is it because they've kind of got like a breaking point where something's like, not , not that people are broken, but you know what I mean, like something has gone wrong? Or is it just that people are just more aware now of health and you know, what , what brings someone to be sat in front of you?

5:32

Generally? Unfortunately, the , the idea for functional medicine as well is, is a preventative and people, 80% of people not , not so much more now, I'd say post post the pandemic people are quite interested in , in preventative. But before that, people wasn't really interested in prop prevent , like saying that , I've got this tablet, it's an organic, you know , natural tablet, it's gonna stop you from ever getting headaches. It was , I don't get headaches, you know, I'm not interested, you know , okay, but here's a , you've got a really bad headache now here's an aspirin. Oh , I need that, I'll take it. And you know, so trying to have that mindset of, of working as a prevention, people don't really care until they get sick or until there's something wrong. So unfortunately, it's normally people come to me that got some sort of generally gut helps been a big one for me over the years. And that's 'cause I started a bone broth company in 2016 and a lot of people got directed to me through , through that. And it just ended up being gut health and allergies and you , you know , things related to that. And also hormones is a big one. Females mainly that have had one or two children. That's a big one. Pre menopause, that's another big one. And also men that have been taking some sorts of um, uh, testosterone or you know, sort of bro science type testosterone. And now they can't produce their own testosterone. That's another big one for me as well now .

6:43

Oh , how interesting. Yeah. And it's , it's interesting what you say about the whole preventative versus once you've got a problem, I think, yeah , during the whole covid thing, I was just baffled by this sort of just the whole, okay, yeah, I get it. You know, wash your hands, stay away. There is some merit in this, but yeah, how about, yeah , you take care of your whole body first so that you don't get sick. 'cause we've got an immune system and that's what it's here for and you know, it will keep you safe in most cases. Sorry , I I find the whole thing quite baffling in the messaging around that. Very confusing. So , um, yeah, I'm fully on board with what you're saying. You bet . I have to ask you, Dean , um, you, you say, I know that you grew up in a household that was really dominated by sports and you were actually gonna sort of have a career in sport before , um, an injury stopped you from heading down that route. That that's the reason why I'm talking to you then . Now you have gone down that route, thankfully, like , can you tell us a bit more about that? Like what was this injury and, and how did it feel when this happened?

7:32

Yeah , it's , it's one of those things as , as an adult, you look back at it. So I was very young. I was only , um, I was almost 16, so , um, and that's when I snapped my a c l. And now at the time, you know, we lived in the Council of state , you know, my friend's dad used to pick me up and take me to the, take me to football. And , uh, I was naturally very fast. I was a sprinter, you know, I , I found sprinting very easy and I was, you know, a county sort of level sprinter. And then with that you can, there's a lot of sport you can do when you're fast, even if you're not very good <laugh> . So I was , uh, I was a left footed sprinter, so I , I used to play left back and then I had a lot to , um, people scouting me at the time. I had south of England trials , I had brentford trials coming up, and it was all towards the end of that summer. And then just right at the end of that summer, I , I snapped my, my my a c l and then the team that I was playing for, they went up to semi-professional. They said that when you're ready to come back, we've got a contract for you , obviously we , we want you to play for us. I was like, great. So I had that sort of semiprofessional there already as a , as a 16 year old, I had something to aspire to. So that was amazing. But the hospital misdiagnosed my injury and uh, they kept shaving away my cartilage , um, when it was my a c l. So <laugh> , I went back twice. And in the end, I think, you know, as I say, I look at this now , uh, as an adult and I , I s l went off the rails. It's so dramatic, you know, I just went out and had drinks and parties and did what every other 15, 16 year old does . I always , I went off the rails, got off the rails, but , you know, and just do , do what 16 and seven olds do. And my knee just obviously just wasn't repairing. And I was , I was always been into the gym. My dad was a, a bodybuilder. Uh , he was a boxer and a bodybuilder. So, you know, I always had that around me. And I just started to train a lot and , and stay fit and healthy that way. But at the same time, I was still going out partying and, and doing stuff. But from the outside, you know, I was hearing rumors that , oh , it , you know, dean's not coming back to foot . His knee's fine. It's just that he , he's out partying now doing what other 16 seventh Joels do, which , which I might have done anyway, I don't know . But , um, yeah, I , I just never had, I was never able to get back to playing football again. And then it wasn't until I was 30 when I could have afforded private healthcare that someone went in and actually readjusted my whole knee. I had to have my machine snapped and bones taken from my hip and it was a real, it was quite a, you know, quite a basic. So that was it. That was it . You know, I've , I've managed to stay fit and healthy ever since. And the more I've learned about how to , uh, functional fitness as really kept me going and I love fitness, I love sport and you know, I'm doing all sorts now.

9:51

Well, you , I have to say, you look the picture of Health Dean , so I don't think it's exactly held you back, but I mean 16 year old Dean who is kind of thinks that your road , your life has like this roadmap . And obviously I know like how aspirational football is, but it's a kid . Like how, do you remember how that felt when you kind of had to sort of decide, okay, this is isn't gonna happen for me. Did you feel like resentment or, you know , envy or all those things that I would expect you to naturally feel?

10:15

Yeah, but it's a pretty good question. 'cause I think at the time you sort of , uh, numb it down a bit, you know? 'cause I had a lot going on. My, my parents split up when I was 15 as well. So, and actually what I've, I've learned so much about how the body reacts to stress. You know, I think I had a lot of stress going in my life then as well. And it just so happens that I had a knee injury, you know, and then around about a year after that, my throat , my esophagus used to close up. So every time I'd try to eat food every time, but every now and then I'd eat food. My esophagus would close up and I couldn't finish my food to the point where , you know, this went on right until my daughter was born when I was 30. Even

10:50

As you're talking about it. Yeah, that's

10:51

Right. You're having, no , This is real. Okay. So yeah , of course. And I think I went to see the doctors about this when I was about 24. 'cause it got to a point where every other meal I was literally having to go and regurgitate because it wouldn't get past my esophagus. And then , um, they said, look, it just happens. This is what it's called. I can't even remember the disease. It was some strange word. And they said, it happens , uh, what we need to do, we need to put a balloon down your esophagus and then expand it. But we're working blind, so what could happen is that we are overexpanded then you'd have to open surgery. And I was like, so again , I'm wearing this out thing , Joe , what at 24? I'm just gonna go and get on with it. So I said, I'm just gonna go and get on with it. And then when my daughter was born, I thought, you know, I've been struggling with this a long time. I was in sales at the time, I was taking out people for entertaining. I was going to ascott racing and I'm sitting there having dinner, having to run away from the table and throw up. And I was thinking , right , this isn't , I'm gonna just have to risk it. And the other thing that they said is that when you do have it done, this was the caveat to all of it . When you do have it done, it will come back. Yeah . This is a doctor sitting in front of you . It will come back <laugh>. Okay . Right . So , uh, so we went and had it done, and that was , uh, 18 years ago and hasn't gone back.

12:02

Oh , <inaudible> .

12:02

And I think this is , um, maybe seg here, but my daughter's born with Natology . It , it just happens. Uh , we missed our a c l , it just happens. Uh , your throat closes up, it just happens. And this is really what pushed me to down this road of understanding alternative health.

12:19

Yeah, of course. And yeah, I mean it's a throat and all your, I mean, if you go into all the sort of chakras and mind body connection and being able to speak and communicate and there's a lot of, a lot of things going on behind the scenes there that a doctor might not necessarily want to or know about or, you know, be able to discuss with you. So yeah, that was really interesting. So I know you've got loads of like these sort of like biohacking amazing tips and, and I'm sure we could talk about all of them for ages , but I just wanted to really zoom in on peptides because this is something that's coming up a lot. And I know you've got these incredible products. So tell us about them. You know, what are they, why are they important? I'll be totally honest. I went onto your website, there's 21, and I mean, I just thought, I mean, surely I should just take 'em all and then they'll just be like superhuman or bio . Like what, what are they

13:06

Don't say they're testy . Don't , don't take them one the testicles. You won't do anything for you

13:09

<laugh>. Well, I mean, you never know, do you , um, this crazy world we live in , um,

13:13

Yeah , 2023 after all , you never know <laugh> .

13:16

Um , but yeah, I mean , just tell that like top one . Why should we be interested in them? What are they gonna do for us? Why should we know about them and you know, why they so fantastic.

13:24

Yeah. Firstly, a quick biology lesson. So most people know what amino acids are. So they're just small proteins, right? So a peptide turns into a peptide when two amino acids come together once they're bonded together. So that then turns into a peptide. So it has to be a minimum of two amino acids. Generally. There's a bit of people a bit on the fence about which number it turns into a polypeptide. But generally we say from two to 50 is a peptide 50, but upward is a polypeptide. And that's when we start talking about growth hormone and things like that. And then eventually it turns into a whole protein. The subcategory of peptides is peptide bio regulators . And these are two to four amino acids. And what is key here is that once you start going above the sort of 4, 5, 6 amino acid chain, it then becomes very, very difficult for the body to be able to absorb it, for it to become bioavailable orally. So for it to break the endothelium , uh, it needs to be this sort of small chain of, of peptide bio regulators . So when you see congen , I've seen some great results from collagen, but you know, there's , uh, around about 17 to 20 amino acids there. It's , when people are taking this orally, they lose so much of it in the gut. Uh , but the good thing about collagen is it actually heals the gut. So it doesn't actually need to break through the helium 'cause it's healing your gut. Same with bone broth, right? And it's actually, the , the protein powder is , is a really interesting one because we see for years everyone's been gulping down these protein powders. And actually when I had my first NH n h s , um, health check, they said to me to stop drinking protein powders and it's destroying your, your , uh, kidney, your liver , uh, because I used to drink same muscles . And so training in the bro science . And what , what I've learned since actually is that, you know , 'cause we see that protein powders work, we see people consuming them every day and getting bigger because they're obviously absorbing the protein somehow. But the majority of it is not being broken down in the gut. And that's why people do tend to suffer consuming all these powders with some sort of gut health issues. But the element that does break through the intermed is actually the amino acid element , uh, which is now we understand to be the bio regulator . So we actually do a muscle bio regulator that can digress. So that's the biology lesson then onto the peptide bio regulators , these were created in the 1980s by a gentleman called Professor Kasson . He was a general in the Soviet Union. And they basically, the government approached him and said, look, the cosmos and the submariners are premature aging, you know, and we need to find something that's gonna slow down their aging. And this is where , where bio regulators are born. He was given an open checkbook, he could , uh, use anything he wanted. And this is where bio regulators are born. And , uh, there's, there's so many studies now dating back. We , the good thing is there's 40 years of data, 25 years of the data was , uh, in Russian. And that was the problem. It was actually a millimeter secret for a while . So, which makes it really exciting. It sounds much .

16:07

Oh wow. Yeah. How fascinating. Yeah, I mean, you had me at like, I heard the word astronauts, Cosmo auts. I was like, yeah, onboard with this

16:12

<laugh> . Love it .

16:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell me more.

16:15

And yeah, there was, there's one really interesting story actually where there was a military weapon that the US were going to be using. They never used it where they'd fire a laser across the battlefield. It would blind the opposition, if you like, one of a terror . The wall's not my thing . And , um, they created a peptide, which I'd take Wrigley called uh , the retina , uh, the retina peptide where I was doing this on my phone. I'm , I'm a granddad now, so I , you know, I couldn't, I couldn't see the phone properly and I started taking the retina peptide. Now I don't need to do that. Stop. Yeah . Wow. So , and , and this, this really explains well what a peptide bio regulator does. It says it on the tin, it regulates your biology. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> the target area. So these are amino acids. They match the amino acid of the target area. So once it breaks through the endothelium, what it does, it searches around the body to find that amino acid match. So these amino acids match my retina. So it finds a retina and it says, right, what do I need to do here? Do I, is it long sighted? Is it shortsighted? I need to create balance. So I need to regulate that target area . And that's what it did. It took about six months. It wasn't quick, but it worked well. The other good analogy on a , a good example is the thyroid. So you have hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, right ? Hyperactive and underactive . Now the thyroid peptide, it will again target the thyroid area, but then it will work out whether you are hypo or hypo . So it will downregulate or upregulates. It actually creates balance, which is just amazing. 'cause you don't see that in allopathic medicine. You know, it's , it goes there , it suppresses, or at best it upregulates. Uh , and that's probably one of the key examples of how to explain how a peptide bio regulator works. So

17:50

Essentially it's kind of , it's healing you and I mean it's slowing down aging, is that fair to say as well?

17:56

Yeah, yeah . Uh , when , when I take the liver peptide, I am exhausted. This is, this is a key point actually because when you read Professor Cassons reports and studies over the 20 years, he says over millions of people have taken these. And nobody ever gets a side effect or an adverse reaction. There is a side effect if work needs to be done because your body is trying to fix, it's trying to create balance and to do that, it wants you to sleep. 'cause obviously foundation of health and that's when you're gonna be repairing. So when I take the liver peptide, 'cause my liver is 50 years old, right ? There's no , there's no denying the fact . And that's what it does. It's , you're right, it's trying to slow down the aging, even reverse aging of that particular target area. And when it's trying to create that balance , uh, when I was first taking the liver peptide, I was very tired. I needed afternoon naps. And that was the same for the penial as well. The penial , which is one of the most important. You know, if you was gonna take any peptide, bio regulator or start anywhere for anyone, I would say take the penial.

18:50

Wait , why?

18:51

The penal gland is , that's , it's the center bottom of the brain, right? And that regulates your circadian rhythm. So why it's trying to regulate your circadian rhythm is creating a balance throughout the whole body because we call that the conductor to the orchestra of hormones and glands. So it's trying to , so , 'cause it's trying to balance your cicada rhythm, it's trying to balance everything. Uh , now that one, I dunno anybody when they take that for the first three to 10 days, do not need afternoon naps or are just absolutely exhausted. Because of course most of us don't go to bed as soon as it gets dark. And most of us don't wake up as soon as it gets light. But of course, that's what regulated circadian rhythms should be doing. So I'll say about eight o'clock, you're <laugh> for a little while, but after about I say after about seven days, you're good. And actually afterwards you feel amazing. Yeah ,

19:35

No , no , it sounds fantastic. I mean it's probably , it's quite a deep answer to the this, but like, why aren't people talking about these more? Is there , I mean, you know, you mentioned your eyes, like I'm sure that, you know, the millions of optometrists in the world would rather that you went and got your eye test every six months and got your glasses rather than take a tablet that is gonna help improve your vision, right? So I, I feel like is there maybe sort of a bigger reason why these are not getting so much airtime? Or is it just that they're just quite new to people's consciousness and we're just now starting to understand more about them?

20:03

Oh , I think all of the above. Uh , I think , uh, number one, as I say, was a Russian , uh, Russian military seeker for quite a long time. Then it had to be translated from Russian to English. Uh , there has been a few mistakes, actually. This is a thing. So I work in peptide research, that's what I've been doing for six or seven years. And uh , when you are researching peptides, you're , you , you're a bit of a Guinea pig and , uh, what happened, actually the translations are wrong. So people were taking the wrong dose.

20:28

Oh my goodness.

20:28

The good thing with breg, you can't overdose. You know, you can , you just, the body just says that it's , I'm balanced enough, just, just get rid of it type of thing. So that's the good thing. And then you've got the conspiracy side. It's not allopathic medicine. You can't, it's gonna be very, very difficult to patent and tip . 'cause it's a natural product to monetize it, it is gonna be very difficult for pharmaceutical companies to monetize it. And you know, it's like anything, it's very , it's very, very hard to, for many people to believe that it would work this well. And the thing is with peptides and environ and health in general is that the best results take time. So, you know, when you pop a pill and you know, you have injectable peptides that you can work with, with healthcare professionals, you know, when you inject, you get , oh , I should get a quick response. Or when I take a a capsule that's so profound, then I should feel something straight away , at least in a few days. Not always the case. You know, sometimes the more chronic issue is the quicker you'll feel results. There's something there. But a lot of us are health optimizers really feel great. So if I say to some , right , take the penial, but you're feeling great, they take it well , this is maybe more tired, you know, it's, you know, it's maybe month three, you know , take one box a month. And then month three, actually I feel amazing now feeling better. But you know, through that cycle you wasn't feeling good at all. So it's , it's the stickability as well, I think is another thing .

21:45

Well, I wanted to ask you about that. Like, do you, once you start taking them, do you have to take them forever or is it something that, you know , your body could heal and then, and then like you can stop after that and then move on to something else? Or is it a lifetime commitment?

21:55

It's subjective really. I guess if you have something to aim for, you have something to focus on. And you know, that actually I have a problem with my adrenals. Okay, I'm , I'm chronically adrenal fatigue, then, you know, we'd put you on an aggressive course of the adrenal peptide and we , we would do that for three months, well actually one month on and then 20 days off one box, 20 days off one box because it's the pulsing of it . Now everything works as a pulse. Our hearts works as a pulse, our body works as a pulse. So anything that you need to stay on order at a time, I would say I'd definitely question it Now that's really not the idea. So coming off and coming on, and then even if it's a chronic issue, you know, you may then have six month break, do the cycle again the following year, just do one cycle and then, you know, the , the idea is that you don't need to go back on them. But if it's something that you're a bit concerned about intuitively, you might just take one box a year, you know?

22:44

Oh, that's interesting. Um , and what about children? Is this something that just adults could look at? Or is this something that kids, you know , could benefit from as well? When you , me , you mentioned something about when you said about I interview people and you know, the first time they ever had antibiotics and I was just thinking about my daughter who was sick when she was, I don't know , six months old and had antibiotics and thinking, oh my goodness, you , is it something that kids can benefit from or is it more for adults

23:05

With peptide generally? I like to think that these are more appropriate for adults or people up from the age of 21 upwards just because needs developed and, you know, there's , there's no point to giving anti-aging products to teenagers and kids. Right. But yeah, good

23:19

Point. Good point.

23:20

Even even though the thymus , uh, for interestingly the thymus, which is obviously very important for the immune system, that does start to decline. Uh , I hear from around about the age of 15, 16,

23:30

My goodness,

23:31

Because of , from an evolution perspective, you've done your job, you should have had your, you know, you've had your babies and on you go <laugh>. Oh gosh . So

23:38

The pharmac, how interesting.

23:39

Yeah , the thi is quite interesting. Someone says , you know, when , yeah , some people say it's doom and gloom from the minute you're born, you're dying. But actually these people behind Pep, I say it's not true . It when we're around about 16, 17 <laugh>, <laugh>

23:51

En enjoy those first 16 years, folks I saw downhill from there. Yeah . Gosh, after I was , I was hoping 40 was the new first scene , I feel depressed. Um , <laugh> , the product sound amazing. And it just got me thinking as I was sort of doing my research and reading about them. There is a price tag obviously attached to these as there is with, you know, lots of health. I mean, yes, you can go for a run and it just costs you, you know, your cost of your sneakers or whatever. But you know, if you wanna like really optimize yourself, you wanna eat really healthily, you wanna try and buy organic fruit and veg, you wanna be cooking from scratch, you know, all these things come at a price tag. I mean, it , it feels a little bit to me like this is sort of becoming, you know, to be truly healthy is a privilege. You know, it's , and it's , and it's reserved for people you know, that really have money or a certain income bracket. I mean, you don't have to go quite as far as you do the Mark Zuckerberg because I'm sure he's sleeping in a cryogenic tent or something every night, which you know, is not accessible to many of us. But, you know , how do you feel about that? Do you think that that is the case? Do you think that really your sort of health is becoming for the privilege ? Or do you think that we can all access it in different ways and that's something for all ?

24:49

Yeah, there's levels in a hierarchy to this. I would say , uh, I mean firstly on the peptide bio regulators, you know, endear Z 245 s a box , um, you could take one box every three months and uh , you'll be absolutely fine with your target area. So I don't think that's too expensive. Okay,

25:05

Yeah, that makes sense .

25:05

Excuse me . If you wanna do all 20 or 21, obviously this comes across and look, I have, you know, V V I P clients that, that do 19, 20 peptides over a two month period every single day just because they feel great. Right? So, but you don't need to do that. But as I say , one box every three months for your areas , you're fit and healthy, that's absolutely fine. Then it comes to just addressing the basics to be healthy. And you , you don't have to be obsessive about this. This is the thing. I've been there, you know , when you first, when I first started functional medicine, it was food is information. That's the first thing they tell you. So when you, you forget food as anything else, apart from nutrition and information. So when you consume something, as soon as it goes into your digestive system, it's gonna be good or bad, right? And then this is what you learn. I got good or bad. Oh , I can only eat good, you know, so nothing bad would pass from my lips. And actually what I've learned over time is that, you know, managing stress is key and trying to stay perfect is more stressful than having a magnum ice cream that will have more stress on your body than eating in a magnum ice cream. I promise you. I've seen it time and time again. People have got health issues, they've got the most perfect diet. They're in pain. Oh , like , oh , you know, I had a potato and I dunno if I should have that potato. I'm , I'm in pain now, you know? And these people, they, you know, we've gotta go back into the psyche. The mind will start saying, okay, what's going on here? Because it's not the food, it's the stress that's created this issue. And it's a big job because trying to reintroduce food is difficult for them . 'cause the stress is there. It's a deep and hard job for people like that because we've got to heal everything first, reset the mind, and then do a , a pro an elimination diet and then reintroduce the foods. So , uh, I've completely got the questions.

26:40

<laugh>, if being healthy is really a privilege. Yep .

26:44

So the answer, the , the quick answer is no. I think you just gotta get the basics right. So first and foremost, let's don't look at your phone when you wake up in the morning. Okay? So the first thing you do becomes , I dig my phone because it's my , my timer. So I , so I need to see the timer. I put it on airplane mode or whatever. I put my phone on black and white and I go to bed at night. So I don't have color. And I look at the phone in the morning, see the time, time to get up . Great. Put the phone down, go outside. Even this bit earlier here, because I'm in , uh, I'm in Europe. So even this morning I did exactly that. Went outside, looked at the sun, even though it's by the clouds. We looked towards the sun, did that for five minutes, did some breathing. Uh , I've got an ice bath, chest freezer. I mean it's, you know, anyone could have anything. It is easy to find some sort of cold exposure, expose yourself to some cold, some sort of stress, not good stress. I did that for five minutes now I had a stretch. And if you start your day like that, that's a , that is gonna set you up for a good, strong, healthy day . And then we talk about food that , as I said , I've been around the houses of this over the last seven, eight years. I really have, I've seen hundreds of clients and you know, don't let good be the enemy of perfect. Don't try to be perfect. Eat whole foods. Try and stay away from packaged foods. Make sure you feel good, make you feel healthy. And if you fancy making livestream every now and then , have one, you know, it is okay.

27:59

Music to my ears. <laugh>,

28:00

You've had love mum <laugh> . Exactly. You band slice pizza every now and then have one. It's the stress of avoiding stuff like that. And you know, being out in social environment saying , oh , you know , I'm just gonna have a salad while you eat your pizza. It's , uh, it's just not healthy for the mind or the body in my opinion.

28:16

Mm-hmm . <affirmative> . And this is the , there's so much sort of psychological stuff wrapped up in food as well, isn't there? I mean , like you said, you know, some things are good, some things are bad. We don't use food , food as it was intended to be. Right. Food is supposed to be fuel, I guess. And we use it as a reward. We use it as also , especially, I mean I'm , I'm speaking as a woman as well, I feel it's quite gendered, you know, there's a lot of issues around food for , for us, a lot of the time we say have a magnum now and again, what's now and again Dean,

28:39

It's so intuitive. If you have a i why you use magnum as a , I dunno , but

28:43

I'm going with it. I'm happy with it, let's go with it.

28:45

Which type of magnum we <inaudible> that if we talk about this Daz dessert or Magnum ice cream and you have one every week or one every, a couple every week. 'cause it's the summer, then it's fine. But you know, if you have that mag where then you know, you are mindful that the next morning you don't feel good or that your gut's not good, then don't have it, you know, for a , have a good break. What I say with inflammatory foods and everybody's very individual to what food is inflammatory to them, is that if you have a food that you think might be inflammatory to you or you know, it will be like a mized cream , then I say that you need to allow it time to heal or to not be inflamed anymore. So I like to give it sort of a seven two hour window to allow the time, the body to reset. And then you can, if you wish, go again.

29:27

Okay. Alright . Good to know. I'm not on a daily basis yet, but I I'm having a bad week.

29:32

Okay.

29:33

I'm can't lie to you Eugene speaking section days in there. That

29:36

Is , well if you've had a few then it sounds like a good week, not a bad week

29:39

<laugh> . But I mean , this kind of comes on to , to , what I also wanna ask you about as well is like, there's just so much messaging at the moment and I think, you know, we're all becoming a lot more aware about, you know, what we shouldn't be doing. You know, it's not bad or good, but you know, everyone's trying to live a sort of more optimum healthy life, whether that's mental, spiritual, physical, and there's so many messages now, you know, I'm reading things about salt is actually good for you and, and you've got, you know, the states where the meat lobby, you know, markets the government and they tried to have one week free week or day a week and you know, they couldn't do it 'cause the government and the lobbyists wouldn't allow them to do it. And one minute cholesterol's good, the next minute cholesterol is bad. So how do we sort of cut through all of this? I mean, there's just so much to cut through. I mean, if you had to give people, there's a few questions in here. How do we cut through it maybe as one, and then secondly, like what three pieces of advice would you give to people who wanna try and start some sort of positive health journey, like right now, today? Right .

30:30

Number one common sense, I would say, okay, so , uh, whole foods , uh, foods that don't come in packets, foods that you need to cook for yourself is number one. So, you know, and we all know what processed foods are, so what's processed, we know what processed foods are. So, you know, you want to try and avoid them as much as possible. So you , you're just starting out and you want to get healthy with processed foods. I would say vegetable oils, but that's a big one for me. I believe they've just done it with alcohol in Ireland, I believe, where they put the health warning like to do with cigarettes. So that was obvious. You know, I think I said I had that conversation, something about seven years ago. They will need to start bringing health warning on alcohol soon. I think for financial purposes they've been avoiding it, but you know, they've done it with cigarettes so there's no reason why they won't and have started to it with alcohol. And this is a little bit , uh, out there, but I think that in 10 years time we're acute this recording that they will put that on vegetable oils as well.

31:21

Oh , interesting.

31:22

I think they're, that they're that bad as a genic . I mean that's been proven through lots of studies and some people just say , oh , I've had , you know , I always eating fish and chips growing up. I'm fine, you know, as we all were . Right. So, but we're all learning new things coming to light and I think vegetables is a big one. Process. The oils and it's just using alternatives. Coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, you know , all the alternatives are there and very, very accessible. And yeah , so when we talk about the, the lobbying and the food, as I say , we simplify it. You know, we eat whole foods. Omnivores are the past, the present, and the future. So people say, I feel great when I went on a vegan diet, but of course you did it 'cause you're probably doing a healthy vegan diet and you've eliminated all the rubbish. It was the power of the elimination of all the other foods. Not the meat, not the fish, not the fact you're just eating vegetables. It was the fat and you eliminate all the rubbish. Same with the carnivals. Carnival has been a big thing over the last year, you know , it sort earlier , vegans versus carnivals, it's hilarious. And same thing, you know, they've eliminated all the processed foods, all the rubbish, and they're just eating meat. So guess what, if you eat meat, your vegetables and some nice sort of whole, you know, beans or legumes or whatever, then that's a really healthy diet. You know , that's really healthy. You don't need to , uh, just be so what's what I'm looking for, for, you know , so , so extreme is , is the word . You don't need to be extreme, be sensible. Mm .

32:45

It sounds like. Yeah , I , I like the idea of using your common sense. Um , it just is that sometimes common sense just gets, can get confusing, right? When there's just so much out there. Um, and so much, you know , everyone's got an opinion on something and all these different like, experts trying to tell you something, which is difficult to, to kind of cut through .

33:01

Well, the point you did , I mean, you you brought up a great point. I mean, cholesterol has never been , uh, cholesterol's never been bad and salt has never been bad. It's just the way that it's , you know, there might have been one study and then, you know , that one study then just sort of compounds. Everyone says , oh , salt is bad, but it is table salt . There's a difference. You know, it's like the fructose versus is , you know , processed sugar. You know, you get a good sea salt or a good Celtic salt and you know, you put that in your water every morning to start your day. It keeps you hydrated. You now , especially you're in the heat. So we are in , I mean, you it hot here as well now. So, you know, you put that in your water and it keeps you hydrated. When I, when I go out and play paddle and I'm sweating a lot, you know, I, I do three, four pints of electrolytes, lots of salt in there, you know, just to stay hydrated and stop getting headaches and stuff. Cholesterol is a precursor to your sex hormones. Having good levels of cholesterol is good. And this is one of the frustrations in, in allopathic medicine and blood tests in general, is that they tested their , there's an average, right? So we're all completely different. So I could have been born with a slightly elevated level of cholesterol 'cause that's good for me. And you know that , that's why our body's created. So if my cholesterol's higher than your cholesterol, but we've got no base to test it from no base point, then how do you know my cholesterol's high ? I it's high compared to everybody else. Nonsense, <laugh> , it's nonsense. And there's people walking around with high cholesterol in the nineties and hundreds and they're having no problem at all. So cholesterol's never been bad. There's a few other things that are linked to it, like triglycerides. Now , triglycerides are bad. If you've got high levels of triglycerides and high levels of cholesterol, then we need to dig a little bit deeper. If you're a triglycerides low and you've got high cholesterol and the cholesterol ratio is out, then for me it's much, much less of a concern.

34:40

Very interesting. You must hear loads of bad recommendations and we were kind of touching on them now. I mean, what are the sort of typical bad recommendations that you hear in this sort of area that really frustrates you?

34:52

How long have we got

34:53

<laugh> <laugh> ? Just pick the top couple .

34:55

Gotta focus onto the negatives. I think , um, what , what's in my mind at the moment, which is more prominent, is the , uh, weight loss injections. And so the , the gyros , yos and beaks that they're , the name of them is Semaglutide and Teza Peptide. Semaglutide is Oz being Teza Peptide is , uh, manjaro. It's extremely frustrating because I've worked with these for many years and there's a lot of studies coming out now saying that , that , you know, the long-term outcome is gonna cause cancer or the thyroid, it's gonna cause major gut issues. And the difference between a medicine of poisoning is generally the dose. So if you get the dose and cycles right, this is an amazing product. There's people that've been trying to lose weight for years and they just can't do it. You give them this product sensibly and they will lose weight. And if they're being coached and , and have some guidance, rather than saying, take this injection, take it away and have it every week. And actually when it starts to not work as well, just up the dose and you can just take it forever. A doctor said that, take it forever, right? So when we're talking about these long-term terrible side effects, that's because of information and , and what the , and now these protocols they've been given for me when I've worked with people, so over the counter for Manjaro, the smallest amount you can get is 2.5 milligrams. When I've worked with this on a research basis, the sweet spot is 1.5. So straight away it's almost double what you actually need. But people to get such good results on two point , and people are taking 15 in Dubai, you know, they're , they're going into the pharmaceutical. I'm taking 15 milligram injections every week.

36:21

My goodness. Wow, that's crazy. Without

36:23

Any guidance. And then people say, oh yeah, but you are gonna rebound, but you don't, you know, I'm working with some very fit healthy people that just wants to lose a few kilos and they've taken it for six weeks. They've lost that few kilos , they couldn't , they're pre-menopause. They've had, they've struggled for a long time to lose that weight. We've lost the weight. But guess what, while she was doing it, she was strength training three, four times a week. She was actually , was taken a muscle by a regulator I think, which, you know, which is important 'cause you're losing muscle maps . Uh , she was eating plenty of protein even though she's vegetarian and she's come off it, she's managed to keep the weight down and she's not rebounding, she's not craving sugar. What people do, this is the common sense factor again, is that because they're losing weight without doing anything, this is amazing. You know, I'm just gonna stay on this for the rest of my life and I can still have a piece of cake every night or or a magnum every night and I'm still not putting weight on. But of course what's gonna happen the minute they come off of that poly, it's a polypeptide. The minute they come off that polypeptide , uh, they're gonna rebound and they're gonna wanna eat even more and they're gonna crave sugar even more because that, that slower , that that , um, slow down of the digestive system in which these polypeptides do, it's no longer gonna slow down. It's now you've got a quicker appetite and you're gonna wake up craving sugar. So, you know, it's, it's the guidance around this. 'cause this is gonna , I think it's already or will be the biggest selling drug ever. Uh , monja predicted this year already. And the information around it is just extremely frustrating.

37:40

It's just, it's been fascinating. Just, I mean, from a lay person's point of view, obviously watching all the celebrities on it. And I saw Oprah the other day on Insta, on her Insta and straightaway, I didn't even go into the comment section, but I thought, gosh, Oprah's gotta be on it because she struggled with her weight all her life, hasn't she? And all of a sudden she's skinny, like really skinny. And I went into the comments, everyone's like, gosh , she must be on it. She hasn't obviously come out and said anything. But yeah, I mean when you see these sort of iconic celebrities who have perhaps you've seen battle with, you know, going up and down and then they're so hugely influential and they start, it's just seen as a quick fix, isn't it? And this is the solution I've been looking for and yeah. Rather than taking a more holistic approach. Yeah, it seems a little terrifying. I mean, especially in Dubai where, I mean, it seems like you can get a tummy talk via , via WhatsApp these days. Like just someone comes to the house and sorts you out, it's uh , a little bit terrifying. Yeah,

38:25

No , I guess that's the foundation of the answer to your question really, is that , um, I get frustrated at just everyone being given the same dose in alpaca medicine. You know, we are so individual and we just react and respond so differently to different medicines , uh, and even supplements and just saying to someone, you know, take two of these and you give it to a six year old girl, so take two of these tablets should be fine and give it to a 60 year old man. Say , take two of these and you get the same outcome. It's extremely frustrating.

38:52

Yeah, very much so. You look picture of helps you look extremely motivated. Do you ever wake up in the morning and think, you know, I just can't, I can't do today, today . I mean, does Dean ever sit on the sofa with a bad Cheetos? Do you just kinda like have a slump or have you just basically like trained yourself now this just isn't an option and you're just, you know , you always functioning at this super high level. I mean, if you have a bad day, does it happen? How do you handle it?

39:14

Of course, of course. I have a bad day for me sometimes. Number one, you just got to accept it. And this isn't, I have my own companies and I'm not actually employed by anybody. I haven't been since I was 26 really. So, you know, I've always sort of worked for myself as such, which has its own demands and pressure, right? Sometimes if it's a really bad day, I can't face anything. I just don't face it. You know, I will sit down and I , I will binge watch some rubbish on Netflix, mind-numbing, rubbish. I do try to throw myself into a cold plunge or an ice bath if I'm having a really bad day. Uh , or a bad start today just to say, look , you know, I did this. I didn't want do it. And the fact that I had done that makes me feel better. Nine times outta 10 , I say , this is the miserable cure. But nine times outta 10, once you give yourself some real cold exposure, press it on the face and the head. When you're having a day like that, you get a little bit of brain freeze. Uh , you feel good, you know you are ready to go. And you actually, you know what , I didn't wanna do that, but I did it and that's all the perfect answer. But in the real world, I just, some days just don't wanna do it and I just don't, you know, I just sit down and say , I accept that I can't do it today. If you have to go to work, then you know, you gotta say , look , you know, you speak to your boss or whoever and say, today's not gonna be a productive day. I don't feel good. You know, you're not gonna get out me what you would normally get outta me, but you have to bear with me. You know , it's okay to have bad days. Yeah.

40:26

Well that makes me feel better about life. Um , and I loved what you said about the ice bath. I mean, Tony Robbins famously, he jumps in one every morning. I mean, he's got that beautiful house in Hawaii facing the beach and everything. And um, yeah, I've seen him kinda like tromping around the side of the house and he says every day he says, there's not a single day that I wake up and think I can't wait to get in it . He knows it's gonna do him good, but he's not thinking I can't wait to get in the ice bath. But he does it anyway, right? It's like I don't negotiate with myself. That's what he says. But yeah , I'm not quite there yet. But yeah , the , the good ,

40:52

No, no. And I don't think I am, but uh , no , I don't like , I'll stand looking , why am I doing this? Why am I doing this today or wanna do it? And then you get it and you get your head and even if it's sometimes 30 seconds, you know , as long as you, you know, get your head and neck , uh, you know, your thigh , everything covered , then uh, you will generally feel better. And again, that's not expensive. Uh , I would say you can have all these nice baths . There's lots of cheap options now, but I buy a chest freezer and , um, I just feel my chest freezer with water, turn it on overnight or full it hours in it , the water's nice and cold and just dunk myself in that

41:21

Amazing idea. I think Angie Green, do you know Angie Green? She's like a , an American. Yeah, ex uh , been through ex-athlete, been through a lot. She has a chest freezer in her garden, which I

41:30

Love. Just unplug it. Human water , <laugh> , electricity .

41:33

Yeah , just be very, yeah , good point. Massive, massive disclaimer. So your , everything that you do and your whole sort of life's purpose really is about helping other people, you know , achieve their full potential. You know, you're basically nourishing others all the time and like helping them be fantastic. Who helps you Dean? Like, who nourishes you and who helps you stay strong and focused?

41:55

Yeah, it's , uh, I , I think I , I did go through a stage, you know , there's real thing in this , you know, there's this female male thing going on at the moment. Men's mental health, females mental health, and they all need the same amount of focus, obviously. Uh , but I think men over the years have become very sort of stubborn in a way, or they don't wanna talk to their friends about any issues. And obviously mental health's a big thing at the moment, and I work on that. I have a , a company that , um, a company called State Mode Medical in the uk and that's got , uh, that we are , um, licensed by the Jersey government to grow psilocybin for mental health research. And actually Australia's already legalized it, so we're now looking to export to Australia soon as possible. And that's such an interesting thing because again, sorry , I digress here. But what's happened is that over the past a hundred years in medicine, we've really focused on here downwards, you know, cholesterols are heart attacks and everything else, but in fact, we've not been focused on brain and mental health. And that the next hundred years is gonna be massively focused on the brain and mental health because from an evolution perspective, again, our brains wasn't supposed to be around this long. So that's why Alzheimer's, neurological diseases are such a big thing. And uh, you know, we're working heavily on that now and I love that field . But for me personally, I think, you know, the breathing and meditation is good. Um , connecting with people, you know, when we've got families , I have a big family, you know, you're always with your, your family and sometimes you need to speak to people that, not saying my family judge me, but where you're not gonna be judged, you know? And you know, you just have a, have a chat with friends and you know, it is about not being stubborn if you're having a bad day. So, because friends say, do you wanna talk? Friends? Say, do you want to , do you need to talk about something? You know ? So actually I do, you know , what is it? You know, and it might not be as bad as your problem, but it doesn't matter sometimes just good to talk and just don't feel bad about being negative. Remember to someone's , oh , how are you? I'm really good. Okay, cool. Next thing. How are you? I'm not so good that , oh , here we go, <laugh> . But you know, it's okay. It's okay. And I just feel my lifestyle and my exercise, you know, being out in the sun, being out in the sun's very underrated. You know , if you're having a bad day and you go and stay outta the sun for 10 minutes, don't care what heat you're in, now you go and do that for 10 minutes, then um , you start to feel a bit better, I think.

43:51

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, this is one of the reasons why I'm like , I put in Dubai for 15 years and people, you know, especially my friends in the uk, they're teasing me. They're like, how do you cope with the summer? And I was like, I would take a hot, hot Dubai summer. This is my 16th any day over, you know, a cold, gray, drizzly, sorry UK . I love you. But you know, I just, I can't, I can't live in a cold country anymore. I can't live in a non sunny country. I just find, even if there's a gray day during the Dubai winter, instantly, suddenly like, why do I feel down? It's the weather, right? I think the weather is hugely underrated.

44:21

Yeah, I completely agree. And you know that we had this conversation prior to the call, but uh , we know that , uh, well for me, 99% of the people I've tested in Dubai have vitamin D deficiency, right? And that's because they're avoiding the sun, because they live in the hot climate. You just think, oh, I must have high levels a bit of a deep , but you're never in it . <laugh> , get your vitamin D levels up, and especially in the height of the summer, you avoid it. So, you know, in Dubai you've got a natural sauna. It's amazing. You know, you go outside for half an hour in the morning and then you sweat from all the humidity and you're getting the goodness of the sun as well. We do that half hour, three, four times a week and then avoid the sun for the rest of the day, if you like. But at least you're getting that vitamin D intake and the positivity that I believe that we'll get from the sun.

45:00

Yeah, definitely. My October beach runs are quite interesting 'cause it's, it's still really sticky and disgusting and Yeah , I'm , I'm gonna probably not running, I'll be honest. Let's be clear. It's kind of like run , walking , like running, walking. But yeah, there's something fantastic about 'em at the end when you, when you get home, you just feel amazing. But you have some amazing clients, I'm sure. But if you could coach anybody, Dean, like from the world of fame, fortune, celebrity, a world leader, who would you like to get your hands on? Who would be your ideal coaching client?

45:25

Yeah, I'd like the fact you said get your hands on. 'cause that is what <laugh> and I think probably a health minister of some sort or Bill Gates.

45:36

Oh, interesting.

45:38

So if Bill Gates said , right , you we're gonna do a proper coaching Yeah . Protocol with you. So I need , so I need you to be , uh, trust me, work with me for the next three months and we are gonna work out how to make you healthier and how to give you how to optimize your health and longevity. And then sit down and do it and stop talking all in rubbish that you talk at the moment , <laugh> . And let's get you back to understanding what the benefits of Whole Foods and how you can eat sustainably. Not try to make this manufactured meat, which is just gonna poison people. You know, let's really get to the basic, understand , let's do a function of medicine timeline. Let's find out why you feel the way you feel about things. And actually , you know, historically we know this does work and we know it is sustainable. And if we just focus on real foods and exercise and movement and don't put processed meat in the same category as grassed sustainable meat, you know, there's a huge difference between the two. I , I would have a field day of him for three months, I think .

46:31

Gosh, I mean, if you could somehow record that and televise that, that would be fascinating. Yeah, please do. <laugh> , bill, if you're listening, and I mean, I can see lots of nice books on your bookshelf , um, behind you, Dean , is there any book that you've either like given to people as a gift or that you, you know, you recommend that people read in this space or just even not in this space at all? Are there , are there any books that have really influenced you that you've loved during your life?

46:52

I'm smiling 'cause my wife always takes a at me for never finishing books anymore . She <laugh> , there's lots of books that looks impressed with him , but , uh, no , uh, the one , the one book that I, I think is life changing for me, and I gave it to my daughter who's now just had a daughter , uh, she's 30 and I , I gave it to her when she was a teenager. It was a , it was a discussion negotiation about a tidying a room or something at the time. I've gotta remember said , you have to read this. And it's called The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson. And , um, that is really about everything we're discussing. It's about just doing little things. This will changes every day to get to your ultimate objective. Now that 1% every day you have a success curve and you have what he calls , I think a failure curve. And you need to just check in with yourself to make sure every day that you're on that right curve . And if you're not, stop, reassess and then start again. Because obviously you just leave it and you're gonna continue on the failure curve and that 1% becomes, you know , 50% and then suddenly you're in a decline. But if you can reset stock and think , okay, was today productive, you know , get , get into bed and say , did I have a good day today ? What did I achieve today? Actually, you know, sometimes just slightest little things. I read a page of a book or I did go to the gym , I did connect with my children, I did play a game with them , you know, so you , you will find a positive , uh, you should be able to , and if you can't then you know, there was an issue that day and you should readdress it the next day. Gosh ,

48:06

This sounds like a fantastic book. I haven't heard of this one before. Thanks, Dean . Yeah, no , I love this kind of like small habits . It almost sounds a bit like practicing gratitude as well. Like it's like, it's like it's celebrating the smaller wins because yeah , I'm never, well, maybe one day, but I'm never gonna run for an hour, like three times a week. But I will run 30 minutes and I'll definitely run for 25, like yeah , 30, 45, 20 I've got the time because I just don't, I used to always feel very overwhelmed by, you know, these big targets, like meditate for an hour a day. I mean, maybe if I didn't have a job, but I can do 10 minutes, like I can always do, 10 minutes is fine and that's gonna have a huge, huge impact. Fantastic. What a great book. Okay, I'll dig that out. Any others that you want to recommend to Aine ? Not really.

48:42

I think that that's, that's the main one for me. All , all the books I read now are just, you know, these, you know, you've got Ben Greenfield's Boundless, which is, you know, for , for the biohackers amongst us or for the health optimizations, that's almost like , uh, an encyclopedia, you know, you can say because you don't , you don't read it from cover to cover . So actually what don't wanna look at stage adrenal open up , you know, check the index and look at adrenals. So that's a , that's a fantastic book as well. I really like that. And all my other books are just peptide books now. I just, you know , over , over the last or three to five years, I've just immersed myself in peptides and I decided that I built up a lot of basic knowledge on health in general over the years, but I needed to become an expert in, in a field. And that for me now has been peptides because I, I believe they are the future of medicine and , and are life changing.

49:24

Amazing. And you've done so much, Dean , you've got all these countless businesses. You're living your best life in Abi , you've got children, grandchildren, like out of all the , all of these things, like what would you say is your your greatest achievement? Yeah ,

49:35

I say so it's really hard to articulate because I don't think that I've achieved what I want to achieve yet. And the more, you know, we're going through our second round of teenage daughters now and we've got a third cycle to come yet. And then the granddaughters , I think that is the most challenging thing that I've ever had to do is , uh, bring up a teenage daughter. Um , as a Matt , really I've

49:57

Got, oh my goodness, okay. So I've got a nine, almost 10 year old, so I'm facing, I'm about to go down this road.

50:02

Good , good , good luck. Good luck. That's , I , I think just trying to, I went on a bit of a spiritual journey last year. I did some plant medicine and you know , it sort was quite , quite out there, but it was amazing for me and I think some of the takeaways I've had now is that , you know, you learn more from your, I think actually the cheating would be that I've opened to the fact that I learn more from my children than I can ever teach them. And you know, once you start to stop being that, you know , my dad was a , he's a Caribbean sort of san kit , you know, old dad, like , you must do this, you must do that. And actually we're , we're not there anymore. You know, we've evolved and I think trying to be less stubborn and just trying to be more open and understanding, actually you can learn from them. And I think, you know, I dunno if that answers the question, but that's my biggest challenge for me is trying to be a good dad, trying to find the balance. And hopefully one day I will find that balance. I don't think I have yet, but I'm trying hard. So maybe , you know, once the youngest one's grown up, we can have this conversation again. <laugh>.

50:55

<laugh>. Yeah, completely. I mean, I think, yeah, the realization when you have a child, they're not for you to mold and shape , they're like to unfold themselves, right? And then you just have to kind of support and be around and, and it's a really, it's a real mind boggling thing to go through. So I totally understand what you're saying. And yeah, the , the amount they teach you without wishing to sound too, like, woo . And you know, your children have greatest teachers , like they really are. And that's very humbling. Like, like you say, I'm watching my husband go, like, we're both going through it at the moment and yeah , it's , it's a really interesting, far deeper than , and no one tells you about this stuff, right? They're like, okay, so when you've got a baby's type bur , it's like , make sure the car seat's this way and then feed them. But no one tells you about like the minds, the psychological depths and ties that you're gonna go through when you have a child. And I think that's, yeah, that's really interesting for us all as we navigate.

51:42

Yeah, it'll never be smooth all the way, you know, as say , especially in the teenage years , especially with social media now, all the demands are getting very rare and their peers and it's a , it's a bit of a mess really. And because things haven't gone well, it's not your fault as a parent, you , oh , well , you're bit how they're brought up. Well , not necessarily, you know, their , their biggest influences are actually, you know, out there and probably more so social media. So , well , you shouldn't let your child on the phone until she's 16. Try that <laugh>, see how that goes for you, you know? And then suddenly they're isolated because they're not on , they're not on social media and not connecting with their friends. That's the challenge in itself. That's the biggest challenge actually, is, you know , this you balance .

52:18

Yeah, it must be huge. So , and can I just ask you as well, just to end, do you feel sort of optimistic about the world life humanity? You know, given all of these things that you're seeing good and bad, do , do you feel optimistic about where we're going?

52:30

Um, COVID was a tough one for me. That created a lot of unnecessary, unnecessary negativity, I think. And there was a lack of focus, extremely frustrating on the immune system. You know, I did a Instagram post about in 2019 about , uh, the vitamin D epidemic. And it's proven now. Some people don't adhere . It's proven now . People had optimal amounts of vitamin D optimal amounts. When they got covid, they didn't get sick. I got tested positive twice and didn't get sick once. My vitamin D levels are extremely high . But if I go to a , a traditional , uh, medicine blood test to say it's too high, I'm gonna die <laugh> , I'm gonna die in toxicity. Um , I'm all right <laugh> . So yeah, that , that was, that was really tough. And I , I felt that creative on negativity. But what I'm hoping out of that now is that people do start to look at health . Actually, I've seen a little bit of a cycle during the pandemic. People were really, really focused on health. And then I think people gotta be fed up with it . You know what , I , I can't be bothered with this anymore. I'm just gonna go out and eat rubbish and not take supplements anymore. And there was a bit of a decline in the whole , uh, you know, keto and supplement industry. But now I think it's just edging back up and people finding that balance , uh, with everything around us at the moment. Uh, even the use of AI technology, which a lot of people, you know, are a bit adverse, but, you know, I've, I I'm using AI technology to grow the , um, the natural mushrooms, these big containers, opticum type containers. They communicate with each other to make sure it's all grown at the same potency. So that's one of the key that everything has to be at the same level. So it tells this hub to have more red light and green light and more vibration while slow down and catch up with this. So we just need to use all these things to our benefit. And I think with the focus on mental health as we discussed now, I think that's gonna be huge for us. And the more that people start opening up and actually understanding that, you know, this plant medicine that's been accessible to us forever, if used correctly, is gonna be amazing for the future. Amazing.

54:17

Gosh. Okay. So we, we feel optimistic, which is great. And that's a very good point to end on. So , um, gosh, that was so interesting, Dean. Thank you so much for your time. I, I <inaudible> quite a bit of your time.

54:26

No problem. Uh , thank , thank you again for having me. It was really enjoyable.