Enhancing Your Sexual Wellness In Your 50s and 60s and Beyond | Dr. Judson Brandeis | Better Man Podcast Ep. 031

Dean Pohlman: Hey, guys. Welcome to the Better Man podcast. Today I am joined by Dr. Judge and Judson Brandeis of the well. There’s a lot of stuff that he does. He’s the author of the 21st Century Man Book. He is also an expert in men’s sexual medicine. And today, we are going to be we’re going to be asking questions that you would want to ask a men’s sexual wellness expert.

Dean Pohlman: So, yeah, welcome to the show. Dr. Brandeis, thank you.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So we have we’ve actually gone back and forth a few years now. You reached out to me. Gosh, I must have been in 2019 or 2020 when you were working on the 21st century man book and asked me to be a contributor. And I remember writing, writing about that, getting a nice little I think it was a five or six page intro.

Dean Pohlman: But we have not actually had a one on one conversation. So this is a this is the one of the first times we’re actually chatting face to face.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, the first. But hopefully not the last.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, I hope so. So, you know, I kind of just wrote down a bunch of questions that I’m personally curious about. I also wanted to write down some questions that I think guys in their forties, fifties, sixties who are, you know, starting to realize that they’re not as young as they used to be anymore. And they might notice that their bodies aren’t doing, you know, all the things they used to do anymore.

Dean Pohlman: So I wanted to ask some questions that kind of focused on that. But to pique everybody’s interest, let’s just start this off by asking, you know, what goes into sexual well being. And I can tell you that for me, my assumption with a lot of things in general is that if you just exercise, if you if you eat well, if you sleep well, you manage your stress, you know, you live just a healthy, both physically and emotionally. A lifestyle that a lot of these things will just fall into place. But, you know, I’m kind of curious what what does go into sexual being in, you know, in your expertize? What do you think.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, you know, I think you hit on something really important and that is sexuality. It’s a function of circulation, but it’s a function of a lot of other things. So I kind of have this vision of a Maslow’s pyramid of of mid-life men. And at the very beginning is your physical being. So, you know, you have to make sure that you’re an ideal way, that you build muscle, that you do some cardiovascular fitness, that you stretch or do yoga every morning and that you take care of your your physical needs in terms of making sure you’re not diabetic or you don’t have cancers or et cetera, et cetera.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So go to your primary care physician and take care of yourself. In that way. And then there’s also mental health. So things like depression and anxiety really take down erectile function in a very significant way. And then there’s emotional health and then there’s spiritual health. And then very, very important is relationship health, right? So you can have everything, but if you don’t have a good relationship, with your partner or your spouse, you’re not going to be physically intimate.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And then once you’ve achieved all those things, then you’re sort of at the top of the pyramid. And the top of the pyramid is is intimate health and sexual health.

Dean Pohlman: Got it. So, you know, I just had I just had a conversation for a podcast last week and we talked about men and testosterone and how men have less testosterone than they did decades ago. And I’m curious, is that is that true? Is that something that that you found? Is testosterone something that we should, you know, that we should really be paying attention to?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, absolutely. I think most large studies show that testosterone has decreased about 30% over the past 50 or 60 years. And it’s a is a combination of multiple things, including the foods that we eat. But think about it this way, right. Your body is really smart. Your body will only make what it needs. So if you’re a hunter, you know, a caveman hunter out on the plains, taken down wild buffalo, you need a lot of testosterone in order to survive.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: If you’re a farmer growing crops, you know, it’s still hard work, but your level of testosterone doesn’t have to be quite as high if you’re sitting behind a computer in front of a desk all day, your body says, well, I don’t need that much testosterone to succeed at what I’m doing. I’m going to use that energy to do other stuff and store fat, so on and so forth.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And that’s the other thing, is that testosterone and estrogen are almost identical molecules, right? So we’re all taught men are from Mars and women are from Venus. But the difference between a testosterone molecule and an estrogen molecule is only one hydrogen atom. So it’s easy for your body to flip testosterone into estrogen. And a lot of that takes place in adipose or fatty tissue.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So the fact that almost half of men are obese means that there’s a lot of estrogen floating around instead of a lot of testosterone.

Dean Pohlman: And when that happens, what does that do to your health or what does that do to your body?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, I mean, testosterone is a it’s an amazing hormone, right? So think about it. When you’re 12 years old, you’re like this little scrawny kid. And by the time you’re 18, you’ve grown a foot, you put on muscle, you shed fat, your penis grows, you put on pubic hair, your voice gets deeper. You have libido, you have motivation, you have drive and that’s almost entirely due to a change in the level of testosterone that goes from like 200 up to a thousand.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. So then after you, 20 years old, it kind of peaks out and it on average, it declines about one or 2% per year. So as you decline in testosterone, your motivation declines your libido declines. It’s much harder to build muscle. It’s much more difficult to get rid of fat. Testosterone also is heart healthy. It also prevents diabetes.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: I mean, it’s amazing the number of things that testosterone does that we’re continuing to find out. Even, you know, a lot of people in the past said, well, you know, testosterone causes prostate cancer. It’s actually the opposite we found. So men with low testosterone have a much higher incidence of prostate cancer than men with a normal or elevated testosterone.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm. So I was kind of thinking before when you were talking about how men needed higher testosterone if they were hunting buffalo on a daily basis or whatever, it would be that, you know, it’s highly physical like that is there but is there could you have did you have too much testosterone? Is that is that a thing or.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, you know, the thing is, there’s this like it’s not an urban myth, but if like a roid rage. Right. So guys that are like when I do testosterone replacement in my office I, I tend to shoot for a number that’s a lot higher than most doctors would shoot for. And that’s because I’ve been doing this for a very long time, and I’ve seen the benefits accrue at different levels.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And a lot of guys will say, well, you know, am I going to go to a bar and beat somebody up? Okay, so let me just sort of get you through that. So when you’re 20, your testosterone should be roughly around a thousand. Right now, if you’re a professional athlete, a football player or whatever, and you want to get an advantage over other men whose testosterone are a thousand and or going to the gym and exercising, et cetera, et cetera, your testosterone is going to be 2000.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: 2500 or 3000. Right. Those are the guys that go into a bar and beat someone up because they’re in a roid rage like my 67 year old accountants that come in with a testosterone, a 250, and I get them up to a thousand or 1100 or 1200, you know, they’re not beating somebody up at the golf club, you know, they’re, they’re hitting the ball really far and they’re feeling great and you know, they’re trying to be sexually active with their wife, but, you know, they’re not in a roid rage.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So, you know, as long as testosterone is done properly, it’s super safe and super beneficial.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm. Got it. I’m glad you touched on levels because I was going to ask that I was going to ask that next. So a thousand that’s like that’s like an average if you’re in your twenties. What about if you’re in your forties? Your fifties, your sixties, and if you what is the average? And then what should what what should be what should you be striving for?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, I mean, that’s a great question. So when you get your testosterone reports back, it’ll list an average of like or the acceptable range of like 300 to 900. I mean, that’s a that’s a super large range. And then there are sort of expectations based on age. So, you know, in reality when you’re 20, most guys are around 900, and when you hit 80, you know, you’re around to 5300 and it goes down in a fairly linear pattern.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So as opposed to menopause where in your fifties you basically just drop off totally because your, your ovaries fail, your testicles your testicles kind of slowly decline over time. So you know if in your fifties maybe mid 500, you know 600 and then if you’re in your sixties, seventies, maybe four hundreds, so on and so forth. But the question is the other question you asked is what is really an appropriate level?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And so there’s two aspects to that. One is what is the actual level? And then the second is what are your clinical symptoms? So if you’re levels 200, but you feel great and you’re doing everything you want to do in your life, I wouldn’t touch testosterone.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And if you’re 400 or 500 and, you know, you feel like crap and your energy is low and your muscles are wasting, you’re putting on weight and your libidos crap Testosterone is going to be like literally a miracle drug for you. And it’s not really a drug. It’s a hormone. Right? So any guy with a bat and two balls, when you get their testosterone up to a thousand or 1200 is going to feel great.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, we know what for 100% of men, what the effects of testosterone are.

Dean Pohlman: It’s a great answer. Thank you for that. So I’m you know, if let’s say that we go in and or we go to your clinic and you say, you know what? I’m a little concerned about your testosterone what are some lifestyle changes that that guys can do? Or, you know, should I mean, I would I would assume that we should look at lifestyle before we jump straight to, OK, we’re going to do testosterone therapy. And what should we what should some things that guys look at? So.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, my, my, my my recipe for elevation of testosterone, better physical health, better mental health, better emotional health is pretty simple. Don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke. Don’t eat too much food. Don’t do drugs, exercise every day, stretch or do yoga every morning, do a little meditation every morning, get at least seven or 8 hours of sleep and be nice to other people.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And if you do that, your testosterone will go up and everything else in life will pretty much come around for you.

Dean Pohlman:So do you also go into so you know, I’ll just I’ll just be honest. So, like, I think it’s really easy to say that people it’s so much harder to do it. So what are some, you know, so for me, like, whenever, you know, I’m trying to help people with lifestyle change, I say, look, you’re going to have limited motivation.

Dean Pohlman: You’re going have limited energy. You can’t do everything at once. You’re going to have to pick something and start small. I also recommend a couple books in particular. So I always talk about Tiny Habits by B.J. Fogg and Atomic Habits by James Clear. Those are. And if we want to throw in a third, then I would say The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

Dean Pohlman: These are three books that are fantastic for helping you understand psychology behind behavior change and actually making these changes. So what are what are some things that what are some resources, maybe some mindsets or what would you tell people, you know, giving them advice in terms of, hey, these are things we should do? How do we go about doing this practically?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, you know, so I agree with you 100%. That’s super easy to say, all those things. And we live in a stressful world, and there are a lot of people with coping mechanisms. And, you know, we all carry baggage and skeletons in the closet. And so, you know, it’s it’s hard to live that kind of life. What I find that men really respond well to are numbers.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Hmm. Right. So, for example, I don’t feel like alcohol benefits people in any way. Right. I mean, I used to drink back in the day and but about for the past ten years, my wife and I both stopped drinking alcohol. And a lot of my guys come into the office. And one thing we do right away is a body composition scan.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Mm hmm. Right. So I know what people’s percent body fat is, what their basal metabolic rate is, what their left arm with the right arm, the trunk, the left leg, the right leg. You know how much muscle you have. So I can give someone a clear picture of what the insides of them look like. Right. And when someone comes in and it says, you’re 35 pounds overweight,

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, I ask them, you know, what is it like carrying around a 35 pound backpack all day? Are you tired at the end of the day? Do your knees hurt, your ankles hurt, your feet hurt? And, you know, people say, Yeah, that is OK. Do you want to do you want to lose that weight? Yes. OK, do you want me to explain how to lose that weight?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And I go through, you know, high protein, low carb diet. I’m trying to make it very simple, but really numbers based. I have them track calories with a simple Internet app. Mm hmm. And then the other thing that I do is I say OK, now your how much do you drink? Well, I have two drinks a day. So.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: OK, take out your calculator. Mm hmm. Do you drink wine? Yeah, I drink wine. OK, it’s 120. I go to the Internet. 125 calories for a glass of red wine. OK, I multiply that times to multiply that times 365. Divide that by 3500 which is the number of calories per pound of fat. Mm hmm. OK, what’s the number you get to?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: 28. OK, what does that mean? OK, that means that you’re taking in 28 pounds of fat per year in alcohol. And alcohol is three things. It’s a depressant so it affects your mood. It disinhibits you. So most of the dumb things we’ve all done in life have been done under the influence of alcohol and everyone shakes their head.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yes. And it’s empty calories. So it’s just basically calories that you’re burning or turning into fat. And so when you put it that way, people are like, well, OK, I could probably cut down to one drink a day or maybe I should for the next six months or a year. I’ll stop drinking at the end of the year. I’ll see how I feel.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And so but it’s I don’t tell someone not to drink.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: I just let the numbers and the logic of what they’re doing speak for itself.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And, you know, when somebody comes to that conclusion on their own, based on the numbers that you’re presenting to them, I think that’s much more powerful than than me telling them, listen, you have to stop drinking alcohol, because they’d be like, Well, screw you. Yeah, I like. I like my. But the other thing that I ask them, I look them in the eye, and I say, Why do you drink?

Dean Pohlman: Hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Because most people, you know, it’s just habitual, right? Because you watch TV commercials and guys are at the game and they’re drinking beer and they’re at a party and they’re with their wives and they’re drinking wine, or they’re out with their buddies drinking bourbon. But when you actually think about it, why do you drink? You know, if you’re addicted, that’s a whole different story.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, go find an addiction specialist. If it’s a habit, you know, find another habit. I mean, I started drinking Diet Coke, which may not be better than than alcohol, but, you know, it was a good transition. And if you really genuinely like alcohol, like, I know sugar is bad for me, so but I genuinely like ice cream.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So I just understand, OK, I’m doing this because I really like it. Not because but most people I don’t think genuinely like alcohol. I mean, I like beer with sushi, so I drink a nonalcoholic beer.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm. Yeah, I know. For me, I have my my treat is mineral water.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: [Laughs Loudly] Wow, Go nuts!

Dean Pohlman: I know, right? Yeah. Wow. I’m really fun. But, yeah.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: “My body is a Temple”

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. I mean, but it’s it’s kind of it’s the same. It’s the same habit, kind of. Right. It’s the sound of the carbonation. Coming out as you take the cap off, you know, and it’s like sitting down and then having that sip and feeling the carbonation. It’s very similar to, you know, having a beer in. You know, I used to drink a lot when I was, you know, when I was younger, you know, to the point that I probably should not have.

Dean Pohlman: But you know, now I and I stopped drinking. My my wife and I have been dating for for a few years. A few years ago, probably like 20, 15. And we realized like, why are we going out? Like, we go out, we drink, and then we just come back home together. Why don’t we skip all of that? So we did that and we stopped.

Dean Pohlman: We stopped drinking, you know, as much as we were she lost a bunch of weight. I started sleeping better and appreciating the mornings. And then we, you know, and then I developed a new relationship with alcohol where I had some and I was like, oh, my head hurts. Like, Oh, this sucks. So anyways, that was, that was my experience.

Dean Pohlman: But I also want to ask you, you know, you mentioned that you stopped drinking alcohol ten years ago. What were you know, do you feel comfortable with that? What’s what were your motivations yeah.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: I mean, my wife and I have four kids. You know, three of them are teenagers now. One’s 20, you know.

Dean Pohlman: And I can see them. Yes, right behind you.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You go so, you know, I mean, when I grew up in New York, it was like I was born in 67 and you could take your pencil and turn the seven into a three and then hand it to the guy, the bouncer at the front of the bar and walk in. Right. So I mean, super simple. Or you go to the dairy barn and get a 12 pack of beer, but now it’s much much more difficult because they’ve, thank God that they’ve cracked down on that.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So, you know, we were asking our kids and our kids friends like, well, where do people get alcohol and they’re like, Oh, well they just get it from their parents liquor cabinet.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And so my wife and I looked at each other and we’re like, you know, we’re just not going to have a liquor cabinet. Hmm. And so that was, you know, I mean, we would drink. Maybe you want a glass, glass and a half of wine a day.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Just at the end of the day to kind of release the stress of the day. But it actually wasn’t that hard to to get rid of it. It was just it was a habit. And when we replace the habit with something else and I. I feel much more productive, much more energy. Slept better. I just, people just don’t understand how damaging even a small amount of alcohol is.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. You know, something that that alcohol does do, not that I’m condoning it, but one reason why I think some people do it is because it does open you up emotionally. So there’s a lot of things that you wouldn’t do. And then you have you know, you have some alcohol and you feel the inhibitions come down to the point that you can be you know, you can let yourself be a little bit more of the you that you’re maybe repressing so I’m just curious for you, did.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You for better or for worse?

Dean Pohlman: For better or for worse, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah. I mean, you know, 50% of of motor vehicle deaths are related to drunk driving. You know, most of domestic abuse is related to alcohol. So, you know, there’s I sort of agree in some respects it opens you up. You know, if you’re a shy guy and you’re you’re drinking at a bar, you’re more likely to go up to that girl that you’ve been looking at for a long time.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But at the same time, I don’t know necessarily that the benefits outweigh the the downsides.

Dean Pohlman: I’m Not saying that I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that people have an outlet for their emotions when they when they when they drink. And then if they aren’t drinking those emotions, maybe maybe they don’t come out. Maybe they come out in other ways. I’m not saying that drinking alcohol and being emotional is healthy, but I’m saying that those emotions and that openness actually does come out.

Dean Pohlman: And then when you stop drinking, you either have to find another way for these these emotions to come out or, you know, a lot of people just start drinking caffeine more instead because, you know, will you rather have like an energetic guy than than a violent guy, I guess, right.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So well, I mean, you know, you wrote an amazing chapter in the book on mindfulness and I think that’s what it comes down to a lot of time is just sort of understanding, like why am I doing the things that I’m doing and if, you know, if if you’re going out to the bar and having a little bit of alcohol so that you’re a little bit less inhibited, so that you can open up your personality a little bit more, then just understand that that’s what you’re doing.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And if you’re you’re doing it to relieve stress or to hide your sorrow or you know, cause you’re mad at the world, then that’s a whole different dynamic. And it’s just it’s just sort of being mindful of what’s going on behind your actions. You know, if you’re eating too much, why? You know, you I mean, ultimately, one of the greatest things that we control is what goes into our mouth.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. So if you’re eating way too much or eating the wrong foods, why are you doing that? What’s… are you bored? Are you upset? Are you, you know, mad at yourself or eating sugar to kind of give yourself a lift I mean, just be if you’re going to be honest with someone, be honest with yourself and figure out why you’re doing the things that you’re doing.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And that way, those nine things that I rattled off mm hmm. You know, it begins you begin to be able to get more on that that path. I mean, I tell my patients every morning, wake up before anyone else in the house and do 15, 20 minutes of of stretching or yoga, because that gets the blood flowing it gets your, your, your mind centered. I mean, you just you kind of need those things.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm. Yeah. I think I’ll agree with that. Yeah. So we talked about testosterone, but I’m kind of curious about what are some other tests that men should be regularly getting from their doctor.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Well, you know, so it’s interesting, before I put anyone on testosterone, there are a lot of things that we need to rule out, right? So if you have a low thyroid level, it’s really important to replace the thyroid before you start giving someone testosterone. If you have sleep apnea.

Dean Pohlman: What is that? What does thyroid mean?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Thyroid is a it’s a hormone that regulates your metabolism.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. So if your metabolism is high, then you’re sort of body temperature is a little bit higher and you metabolize energy and food and things a lot quicker. And if your metabolism is low, then you’re much more likely to put on fat. And your your engine basically is running a little bit slower. Your body temperature’s a little bit colder. And you’re tend to be more sluggish.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm. OK, OK, I interrupted. Continue.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Oh, yeah. So, I mean, you got to make sure when somebody sleeping, OK, you have to make sure that their thyroid is OK. You have to make sure that their diet is OK. You know, their mental state, they’re not depressed. ET cetera, et cetera. And so then if you clear out all that stuff, then I would put someone on testosterone.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But I do, you know, basically a full panel of labs to check up on someone’s kidneys, to check up on their liver, to check their what’s called the CBC. So your red blood cells, your white blood cells or platelets, vitamin D levels. Right. Because it’s important for bone health, B12, which is important for nerve health and for energy.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Then we check a PSA, which is a prostate cancer screening test and you know, a lot of these things are also in the book because a lot of men don’t go to their primary care physician. Right. So men are less 50% less likely to go to a doctor than women.

Dean Pohlman: Right? Yeah. Do you think that’s because of lack of health insurance or is that because they just they think they’re too busy or what?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, I think it’s a combination of a lot of stuff. I think women are more keyed in to health insurance because one a lot of times they’ll take kids to the pediatrician. So they actually even know where their health insurance card is. Most guys don’t even know where their card is. Second of all, that yeah, it’s true. It’s true.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Second of all. Yeah. Second of all, they have babies. So they’re keyed into at least one doctor, you know, a gynecologist. And so if they need to go to a doctor for anything, they know the name of a doctor. A lot of guys before the age of 40 or 50, they don’t even know the name of their doctor or, you know, like I have, I’m blessed to be in the Bay Area.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So we have guys from Facebook, Apple, Google, Lawrence Livermore Lab. So I was sitting with this guy who’s a physics Ph.D. at Lawrence Livermore Lab, which, you know, makes all of our nuclear bombs and stuff like that. And I said, you know, well, do you have an HMO or a PPO? And he looked at me like I was like I was talking about something on a different planet.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: This guy’s got like a PhD from Stanford, a PhD from MIT. You know, I had a Ph.D. from Cal right. He’s like a physics, chemistry and nuclear triple PhD, but he doesn’t know whether he has an HMO or a PPO. Right. That’s sort of and there’s an amazing chapter on what you need to understand about health insurance in the book, right?

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Because the other thing is that we we live in a world of health insurance and the economics of health care are so messed up in this country that on average you get 15 to 16 minutes with the doctor. Right. For the doctor for the whole thing. Doctor’s got to do everything he’s got to do with you and or she’s got to do with you in 15 or 16 minutes, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So if you come in and talk about your pet cat and the weather and football, no, seriously, you know, and, and then you don’t provide the doctor with much information by the time the doctor figures out what is wrong with you, they’re going to be checking their watch because it’s time for the next patient. So in the book and then also on the 21st century man website, I have a whole thing on how to prepare to go to the doctor.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And in a nutshell, it’s write down your health history, right? What medical problems you have, what surgeries you’ve had, do you drink, do you smoke? Write down a list of every medication you’re on and some of the medications you’ve tried in the past but didn’t work or you had side effects from then. Write down every imaging study you’ve had, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: If you’re coming in for a back problem and you’ve had MRI’s in the past or x rays in the past, write them all down, right? And then write down your history of present illness. You know, what are you here for? How long has it been a problem? Write down as much detail as you possibly can and then write down a list of questions, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: If you want your questions answered, write them down. And then hand that to the doctor at the beginning of the visit or even send it in beforehand and the doctor will have a big smile. You know, I have a Dictaphone, so I just you know, a voice dictation system. I dictate everything into the computer in about three or 4 minutes, and then you got me.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: For 13 or 14 minutes. Because the thing is, you have to understand it from the doctor’s perspective, right? Medicare hasn’t given us a raise in about 20 or 25 years, but the cost of medical inflation has gone up about three or 4% per year. So, you know, physicians jobs, we’ve been getting a pay cut about three or 4% per year.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And so in response to that, you have to jam more patients into your office. And because of that, you have less time with patients and so a few figure out how to make the most of the time with your doctor, you’re much more likely to walk out of that visit Satisfied Then than being happy that your doctor knows the name of your pet cat.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Yeah, I’m laughing. I was laughing initially because some. So my wife’s a physical therapist. And she’s doing a lot of work from home right now, as you know, many have for the past few years. And, you know, sometimes she’ll come up to me after a call and say, like, that person talked about, you know, we don’t even talk about their injury. We just talked about random stuff for 30 minutes. And then I had 5 minutes, and then I had to go and so.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, you know, like, I’m not your friend. I’m your doctor. Yeah. I mean, I mean, I have a different practice now. I have a private practice because I think when to really deal with sexual medicine issues, you have to have a much more holistic approach. And so most of my initial patient input and you know, visits are about an hour.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But, you know, for 20 years I was in the insurance based world and that’s what you had to do.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, I just I dropped my pen and I forgot what I was going to ask. Oh, I was going to say. So, you know, there is, you know, guys, if you do have health insurance, a lot of those tests that, you know, for me, for example, I’ve always had historically low vitamin D levels. I don’t know why I live in Austin I’m outside like an hour and a half a day, but I’m on the very bottom of the what is an acceptable range of vitamin D.

Dean Pohlman: I’m going to blame it on growing up in Cleveland and my body just not learning how to absorb sunlight. But I’ve always had low vitamin D, so that’s something that I try to continue to get checked but this is something that can be covered by health insurance, even though it is sold privately. You know, it could it could be, you know, $200, $300 for one of these test but if you do have health insurance, you know, that’s that’s my insider knowledge, you know.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Well, I mean, if you if if bone density really is an issue, like if you have chronically low vitamin D, for whatever reason, you know, then you get a bone density scan. Then if the bone density is low and you try vitamin D and calcium and that doesn’t work, you know, there are a lot of other medications that you can take to improve bone density.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But the thing is, you don’t know it. I mean, the issue is right, that in your twenties and thirties, you’re healthy, right? Life hasn’t really caught up to you. Like, you know, take a car, right? You can drive the heck out of a new car and there won’t be a problem. But, you know, maybe by 40,000 miles that car is going to start breaking down.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But if you take care of a car at a hundred or 150 or 200,000 miles, that car’s still going strong and you know, your body’s really not much different.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: If you don’t take care of it, you know, the thing is like when you’re 30 and you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re a 60 year old self is going to be like, how come my 30 year old self didn’t take care of me? Because now you know I’m fat, I’m weak, I have diabetes, I have liver failure because I drank too much.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: I have lung cancer because I smoked. Right? So in your twenties and thirties, you can get away with it. But in your 50-60s, seventies and eighties, you, you can’t get away with it. And the what you did to yourself back in the day is going to catch up with you.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm. So what have men need to be on the lookout for as they get into their forties and fifties.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Well, so yeah, I mean, it’s a really interesting study I just read out of a lab at Tufts which looked at genetic expression after exercising and they took a group of 20 year olds and a group of 50 year olds and they ran them through the same exercises day after day after day, and they did muscle biopsies at the beginning of muscle biopsies at the end.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And what they found was that the genetic expression in the 20 year olds was three times what it was in the five year olds, which basically means that the 20 year olds, we’re building three times more muscle.

Dean Pohlman: Wow.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: With the same workout routine as 50 year olds.

Dean Pohlman: Right. Wow.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And we were all 20 at one point. Right. So don’t, you know, don’t complain if you’re 50 and you can’t build muscle like your your 20 year old son but that’s just reality. Or if you look at, you know everyone that comes in that’s, you know, aging I show them the graph of the world record for the 100 yard freestyle and swimming in the hundred yard dash and running and from 20 to 60 the numbers are pretty flat but after a 60 the the times start to decline pretty significantly.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And after 80 the decline is really dramatic right because you know like Jim Morrison said, no one gets out of here alive. Right. So we, we lose muscle. So you just you have to understand and that that’s going to happen and you have to begin to understand how to compensate for that. So you know, I’m 55 I know that in five years I’m going to be on the downslope.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: There’s really nothing that I can do about it. You know, I can replace my testosterone, I can eat a lot of protein I can take a nitric oxide booster like affirm, I can take creatine, I can take in a man or NA nuclear vitamin B3 I can take. But the other one I just started taking you know, you can take the proper supplements, you can get the right amount of sleep.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So there are a lot of things that you can really do to live as good and as clean and as healthier life as you possibly can. But you got to know that at some point you’re going to decline. Yeah. And so you want to maximize your health span as opposed to just maximizing your lifespan.

Dean Pohlman: So a lot of it is being antacip… a lot of it is being anticipatory of just realities that come with getting older and doing things to address that. So you want to get out of things ahead of time.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah. I mean, you know, the one of the, I think the great chapters in the in the 21st Century Man, written by Malcolm Johnson, who’s a friend of mine and his emergency room physician, is stupid things that men do. They find themselves in the emergency room.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So accidental death. Yeah. I mean, accidental death is number three after heart disease and cancer, right? And so, you know, sadly, I don’t single track mountain bike or snowboard anymore because I have, you know, some lower back congenital issues and one time I found myself a couple of years ago needing an epidural and it just in severe, unrelenting nerve related back pain.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And I just decided I can never do that again. But, you know, simple things like 90% of I injuries are preventable by using eye protection.

Dean Pohlman: Mm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. So do you want to be that guy out in the backyard with a sawzall cutting something up and having a little sliver of metal lodge into your eyeball and lose vision in one eye. Right? Because it happens an enormous number of times in the United States. You know, just when you look at statistics sticks, you realize stuff happens to people or 50% of hand injuries are preventable by using gloves.

Dean Pohlman: Wow.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. Or almost all ladder related issues are preventable. You know, every year, thousands and thousands of middle aged guys fall off roofs or fall off ladders and break their hips, break their backs, become disabled. Right. And the reason for that is you’re not as strong muscularly your vision isn’t as good, your balance isn’t as good, your reflexes aren’t as good, your tendons and ligaments aren’t as flexible as they used to be.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And sometimes your judgment isn’t as good. Right. And so the stuff that you weren’t able to do when you’re 20 or 30, you can’t do anymore. But you don’t really either realize that or accept it. And so you end up with a life altering injury when all you have to do is flip the kid next door 20 bucks and it would put the lights out for you, you know, is it really worth saving $20 to prove how manly you are that you can put stuff up, you know, put the Christmas lights.

Dean Pohlman: Up well, that’s what it is. We want to try and prove to ourselves that we can still do it right, you know.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So but you know, when you’re in a full body cast, yeah, it’s hard to prove stuff right?

Dean Pohlman: Good for you. You really showed us. Yeah. At that point. So I have two questions that they came up. So how important is as muscle to all of this?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Oh, man. Muscles, just the key. The key to everything for me. Right. I mean, it’s it’s it’s all about I don’t talk about weight in my office. I talk about the muscle to fat ratio, right? You want to build muscle and burn fat. In fact, what’s.

Dean Pohlman: What’s the ideal ratio?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, that’s a that’s a great question. So, you know, in our body composition scan, they have percentages of what you should be and so to be honest, I’m not sure what those are based on. But, you know, I try to get my patients over 100% on you know, all the metrics, you know, you can go up to like I have 49er players that are at 150%, you know, so for when you’re looking at percentage of body fat, for men it’s between ten and 20% that you want to be.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: For women it’s between 18 and 28% that you want to be. Women have to carry more fat because you know, they have babies and so and I did what they call sort of ideal is about 15% body fat.

Dean Pohlman: OK so I’ll just say that I was sitting below that for a really long time and I thought I was super bad ass because I was like, look at me, I’m 6% body fat. And then like I went somewhere had that assessed and they’re like, Yeah, you probably have, you know, low sex drive. You’re probably, you know, there’s just all these negative things that go with.

Dean Pohlman: So I just wanted to say that because I think a lot of people think, wow, you’re not as like cut as you used to be. I’m like, Yeah, I’m healthier now.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Well, you know, the thing is, people don’t the people don’t think about what the purpose of fat is, right? In life. Fat is bad, right? But what’s the purpose of fat? Fat is survival.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. So the sun shines on trees. Trees take carbon dioxide and water and make this thing called glucose or sugar. Right. Which is a storage form of energy. And then when you take in a lot of sugar, then and you turn it into starch, and when you have enough starch, enough energy, then you turn it into fat because, you know, like, I’m looking out the window right now and there are squirrels running up and down trees.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And why are they running up and down trees? They’re running up and down trees because pretty soon all the nuts are going to fall off the trees and they’re not going to have food. And it really depends on how fat they are. Whether they’re going to survive the winter or, you know, one of my favorite TV shows is Naked and Afraid.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right? Take a like a hot guy and a hot girl. Take their clothes off, throw them into the jungle in Belize, come back 21 days later and see if they survive. And they all lose about 20 pounds right. Because they don’t get meals.

Dean Pohlman: Right.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: They have to kill their food or they have to find their food. And so fat is like gold but we live in a world where you can go to Uber Eats in 20 minutes, you can get a 2000 calorie burrito. And so fat is sort of bad. But you have to understand the reason people put on fat is because we’ve evolved as animals.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, evolution doesn’t take place that quickly and so our bodies, any time they see extra calories, are going to store them as fat.

Dean Pohlman: So we have a biological drive to add fat.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Exactly. And, you know, if you put one of those big bodybuilders with 2% body fat on naked and afraid, they would fail miserably because they don’t have body stores.

Dean Pohlman: All right. So I want to I want to go back to the muscle question. So what are you know, in terms of adding muscle? What are what do you recommend in terms of activities or or what do you eat? Do you have to sleep more? You know, what are some lifestyle…

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, so, you know, I have a what we call the Brandeis said physical rejuvenation protocol. It’s a 12 step protocol. And I can run through it pretty quickly. So first of all, you have to get a decent level of testosterone, right? If you have a testosterone of 200, I don’t care how many times you go into the gym, you’re not going to build muscle.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So you need. Yeah, I mean, it’s true, huh? You know, it’s really sad. We have a prostate cancer patients and they go on what’s called androgen deprivation therapy, right? So metastatic prostate cancer is a testosterone sensitive cancer. And so one of the treatments is to medically castrate people. And, you know, I had a friend of mine who’s one of my patients and in I think nine months, he put on 14 pounds of fat and took off like three or 4 pounds of muscle.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. Because he was medically castrated. Wow. Right. I mean, dramatic, really. Just horrible. Right. And so, you know, you have to have a decent level of testosterone, otherwise you can’t build muscle. OK, second of all, if you want to build muscle, you need a high protein diet, right? You can’t build muscle out of starch, sugar, right? So you need protein.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And, you know, most of us need 80-120 grams of protein a day. And protein is really, really hard to change into fat. Right. So a tree turns carbon, oxygen and hydrogen into sugar and sugars turn into fat, which is carbon, oxygen and hydrogen but proteins have this thing called nitrogen in there. And it’s really hard for your body to take the nitrogen out and turn a protein into fat.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: That’s why you can pretty much eat protein with impunity and not get fat. Right. But carbs is a whole different story. So you need protein to build muscle. You need a nitric oxide booster like my supplement, affirm, right? Because that boosts circulation you lose nitric oxide as you age.

Dean Pohlman: What are the best protein sources? Just really quick.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, to be perfectly honest, I’m not an expert in diet, OK? So you can get it from you can get it from plant based protein. You can get it from animal based protein. And at the end of the day, it all breaks down to amino acids anyway. So whether you get it from a plant source or an animal source, they’re like 20 amino acids and all those proteins are made of the amino acids.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So you can take amino acids directly you can take protein powders, you can take meat, you can take fish. You know, a lot of it is depends on what comes along with the protein.

Dean Pohlman: OK, cool. Sorry, I interrupted.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Oh, no worries. Hydration.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. So everyone’s like, drink this many cups of water a day, right? Just take a look at your urine. If it’s a light, strong yellow color, you’re doing great. If it’s clear, you’re making your kidneys work too hard. And if it’s dark, yellow, you’re dehydrated, right? Creatine. Right. The purpose of creatine is to regenerate ATP. ATP is the source of energy in our body, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And the energy is carried in the bond between the adenosine and the phosphate. Right. So when the adenosine releases a phosphate, the energy comes off the molecule, but creatine basically takes the phosphate and sticks it back on the ADP and so you don’t need it if you’re just sitting around. But if you’re exercising, take some creatine before, take some creatine after and then in terms of exercise, I recommend what I call A-B-C, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: “A” Is ambulate. So walk, run, Stairmaster, elliptical, anything where you’re on your feet, “B” is for bike and then “C” is for circuit training. So grab a, you know, six or eight or ten different exercises and then just create a routine where you cycle through those for 40 or 45 minutes, right? And that you know, any of these things can be substituted for rowing or for swimming or for, you know, some other aerobic form of exercise.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But I think the key is that as you age, it takes longer to recover. So you need two days to recover because the thing is if you’re like all those people that bought those peloton bikes during the pandemic and were just riding like crazy every single day, they got a level of cardiovascular fitness but they didn’t really build muscle because every day they were tearing muscle down and they never gave their body a chance to rebuild the muscle.

Dean Pohlman: Right.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You need a nitric oxide booster, creatine, protein, sleep. So it’s important to get enough sleep to rebuild the muscle. So when you’re stressing the muscle you need two days for it to recover. And then I tell every one of my patients to wake up in the morning, do 15 minutes of yoga or some sort of flexibility and some some a little bit of meditation.

Dean Pohlman: Got it. Well, that was an awesome answer. Thank you. So I’m I’m realizing we’re probably going to have to do a follow up episode to do all of my other questions. So I’m going to try and I’m going to try and wrap up what we’ve what we’ve discussed so far but one question that’s that I’m thinking of. So I have two questions that I want to ask.

Dean Pohlman: The first is, and this is just going to be probably you giving like a random guess, your best guesstimate, how much of this has to do with lifestyle versus supplements and treatment.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: In terms of like how much of overall physical health or sexual health or ?

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, Let’s let’s just say in terms of overall physical health, how much of this has to do with, you know, with with with nutrition, with exercise, with stress management, with having healthy relationships, with sleeping well, with eating well, versus doing all the, you know, supplementation or the testosterone therapy or like all these other, you know, interventions?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, I’d say it’s probably a third, a third, a third. So a third of it is genetics. I mean, there are people out there that are just like I don’t want to call them freaks of nature, but, you know, they’re just blessed with with a better physical plant than than you and I. And then a third of it is sort of testosterone and supplements and medications and so on and so forth.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Then a third of it is just sort of what your motivation and drive is to to do better.

Dean Pohlman: Hmm. Cool. I like that answer. And then my second question is, I think the big reason and this is why I’m kind of apprehensive about testosterone therapy is right. Everyone hears that or at least, you know, I don’t I don’t know much about this. So but one thing that I hear and that I’m afraid of is like, well, if you started it, you have to keep doing it forever.

Dean Pohlman: Is that true or is that something that we should talk about?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah. So I’ll I’ll say two things. One, there’s a great chapter in the 21st Century Man book written by Gary Donovans, who was the founder of Bio-T, largest testosterone company in the in the country. The other thing is, if you go to my website, BrandeisMD.com and then go to the media tab and drop down to eBooks, I have three really, really good eBooks that are totally free.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: One is about testosterone. So that’s just like a regular testosterone thing. Then the second one is testosterone levels, right? Because there’s about ten different ways to replace testosterone and they all have pros and cons. And one of the pros and cons is the different levels that you’ll reach. So for example, if you want high levels, pellets or shots, if you want low to intermediate levels, then creams or subcutaneous, so on and so forth.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So it really makes a big difference. And very few people actually really understand the levels that they’re getting. They think that all testosterone replacement is equal, but it’s definitely, definitely not. So read the levels book. And then the third book is a performance enhancing drug book. So I get a lot of bodybuilders or people that have used sort of bodybuilding drugs and really, really mess themselves up.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: There’s just this huge lack of information. And I think a lot of it’s because the medical community hasn’t really gotten involved in testosterone therapy because nobody wants to be the doctor that goes to jail for jacking up Lance Armstrong or Barry Bonds. So, you know, doctors tend to shy away from that. And so I said, well, you know, this is not right.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: I have a lot of these guys that are, you know, on SWAT teams and police and fire. And if you’re a SWAT guy and you’re testosterone 400 and you’re chasing criminals, who’s testosterone are a thousand that are jacked up on methamphetamines, that’s actually life threatening, right? It’s an occupational hazard. I mean, it’s one thing if you’re a football player and it’s a $5 million contract that you’re trying to get, but it’s another thing if people are shooting at you.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Or You know, you got to jump fences to catch bad guys. And so, you know, I decided to really delve into understanding testosterone replacement therapy and testosterone derivatives like DHT derivatives and 19 doors and all of the the medications that go along with that. And so there’s a performance enhancing drug book that goes along with that. That’s really, really good.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: So that that’s a long answer to the to the answer I’m going to give you now, which is if you do things intelligently and from a knowledge base, and work with a physician that actually understands this stuff, you can do it very safely. So there’s the the hypothalamus pituitary testicular axis, right? So the hypothalamus produces general pitch, which tells the testicle to produce LH and FSA.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: FSA tells the testicle that makes sperm and LH tells the testicle to make testosterone. And then there’s this negative feedback loop from the testicle making testosterone back to the pituitary and to the brain. So if you’re just taking pure testosterone, it’s going to shut down the production of LH and FSH, which is going to tell your testicle, listen, you know, guys, you’ve been laid off, right?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You don’t have to make testosterone anymore, and you also don’t have to make sperm. So your testicles are going to shrink. And if you ever needed to stop testosterone for any reason, like you ran out of money or whatever, you’re screwed. You know, I had a patient who is this Raider player for like 15 years, all pro I did his vasectomy and his testicles are the size of peas.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Right. Because he didn’t have a doctor that actually understood. But there are medications like selective estrogen like what we call SARMs like Clomid or CLOMIPHENE that block the negative feedback loop. Or for my patients, who want fertility, you can do what’s called Beta ACG, which is very similar to LH and FSA. So sort of the the, the medium size answer to your question is if you do it intelligently with knowledge with a doctor who can prescribe properly, it can be done and maintain fertility and maintain testicular function.

Dean Pohlman: Now I have a bunch of other questions so I wrote one question that I really wanted to answer, that I really wanted to get to get answered. And then I’ll go into my, my quick questions but does frequent orgasm help with overall health? And if so, how frequent should it be?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Oh, that’s a great question. You know, physical intimacy and orgasm I think is good in in a lot of ways, you know, especially if you if it involves an intimate connection with a partner. So, you know, it’s good for emotional health it’s good for prostate health, you know, it’s good exercise. And so but in terms of frequency of ejaculation, you know, honestly, I’m not I don’t know that there’s ever been a study done to look at physical, emotional health.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But you know what? I’m going to the Sexual Medicine Society meeting there’s the joint meeting of the International Society of Sexual Medicine and the Sexual Medicine Society of North America. So if anyone can answer that question, that person is going to be at that meeting. So I’ll try to ask that question for you and see if I can come up.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. And if you do find that person, I would love to know what they call themselves an expert. And. Sure, what’s the because I’m sure it’s it’s a it’s a wonderfully medical term. Yeah. That really just translates to how frequent orgasm. So I’m I’m excited to hear that. All right. So the next part and this is this is the quick part of the conversation, but these are questions that I ask all of our guests.

Dean Pohlman: And these have to do with your experience in terms of your own life, but also in terms of your expertize so the first question is what do you think is one habit, a belief or a mindset that has helped you the most in terms of your overall happiness?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Oh, gosh. I think sort of be kind of people.

Dean Pohlman: Those quick what’s. Yeah, that’s a good one. What is one thing that you do for your health that you think is overlooked or undervalued by others?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: I think a nitric oxide booster is tremendously overlooked. You know, I had a patient who he had borderline high blood pressure and I don’t I’m not a big fan of blood pressure medications if you don’t need it. And he was being seen by a Stanford cardiologist and he was a CEO of a tech company. And so he was tracking his blood pressure, you know, on an iPhone.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: He’s showing me all those apps and stuff like that. And I said, you know, I want you to go on two tablets of Affirm in the morning and two tablets of Affirm in the evening. And start my lifestyle program, exercise more, eat better. And he came back two weeks later. His blood pressure was 118 over something and he said, is Stanford cardiologist couldn’t believe that he had turned things around so quickly.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: But nitric oxide, when I was at UCLA, it was the mechanism of action was discovered by one of my professors who won the Nobel Prize. And it’s really a supplement that has no negative side effects and will benefit athletes, will benefit blood pressure, will benefit cognition because it boosts brain blood flow and it benefits people sexually.

Dean Pohlman: Wow. OK, I’m intrigued. Um, checking out nitric oxide. So what’s the most important activity you regularly do for your overall, well, I call it stress management, but it also could be considered your mental wellbeing or your emotional well-being.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, I do 15 minutes of yoga before anyone else wakes up in the morning in my house and I exercise or try to exercise every day. I mean, those I can’t function without those two things.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, I hear that. What’s the most stressful part of your day to day life?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Managing a wife and four kids and the intimate relationships and the ebbs and flows of those kind of things? Mm hmm.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, I hear that.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, as a physician, there’s a dynamic between a doctor and a patient. You know, patients come in, they pound, they pay money to listen to me and to hear all the smart stuff that I have to say to them and look at my diplomas up on the wall. But you know, when you’re in a intimate relationship, it’s it’s a much more level playing field.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And that’s yeah, that’s a much trickier thing to manage.

Dean Pohlman: I’m smiling because my dad is an oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic, and he well, so, yeah, you know, he has he’s always. Right, right. He’s the doctor. So you know, having level conversations can get can be difficult. So yeah, I, I understand what you’re saying. My last question in this, I think, is the big question. What, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing men and their wellbeing right now?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You know, I think for American men it’s expectations. It’s our economy is contracting. The way that we live is changing. You know, it’s a hundred years ago, men lived one year less than women. Now men live five years less than women and mortality for men in the United States is going up even before COVID because of alcohol, opioids and and suicide.

Dean Pohlman: Mm hmm.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And so this is I think the number one challenge is setting our expectations properly and trying to figure out how to manage stress.

Dean Pohlman: So I want to dig into that a little bit more. But do you think that when you say managing expectations, are you talking about men’s success levels in terms of their professional lives or just in terms of and then not being able to attain what they think they should be attaining and just being emotionally stressed over that?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, I think that’s true. I mean, I think social media, everyone posts, you know, all these wonderful pictures of vacations or their hot girlfriend or their fancy car or, you know, what life is supposed to be and you know, life isn’t that way. Life is messy. Life is hard. You know, I, I see athletes and CEOs and, and very, very successful people as patients and everyone’s got problems.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: And when people realize, OK, everyone else has problems, you know, let me just deal with my problems. You know, there’s a, there’s a really important chapter in the book called The Hero’s Journey, which tries to tell men, you know, like just focus on your own problems. Like look at Tom Brady, right? Two years ago, everyone’s like, oh, man, that guy is on top of the world.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: He’s got seven Super Bowl rings and he’s got the hottest wife in the world that makes hundreds of millions of dollars. But damn, that guy’s life is a mess. You know, or Brad Pitt, right? You know, he’s got the hottest girlfriends. He’s in all these movies, pirates of Caribbean, whatever. I mean, I feel bad for him. But, you know, in some ways, I took a little bit of solace of listening to the stuff in the courtroom because I’m like man, you know, my life’s hard, but that guy’s life is really messed up.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah. So just focus on who you are. Your own problems and live your own hero’s journey. And don’t worry about what the next guy’s doing because he’s going to hide his pain from you. Focus on your own pain.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, well, that was an awesome conversation. I can honestly say that I was not expecting to be that that great I don’t know. And I mean that.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Well, I came in with low expectations. See, that’s the key.

Dean Pohlman: Exactly. I manage my expectations no, that was that was amazing. That was really that was informational. I think you did an awesome job making that, making it understandable to someone like me who doesn’t have a medical degree. And I hope you’ll come back on for a repeat show, but in the meantime, I am going to go dig into your website a little bit more. And once I finally unpack my boxes from for moving a few months ago and find all my books again.

Dean Pohlman: I want to you know, get into the 21st Century, man, and read that and dig into that a little bit more. Can you just remind us all how we can, you know, go learn go learn more about you and and find more of what you do?

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Yeah, absolutely. So a BrandeisMD is my website BrandeisMD.com and then the book is The 21st Century Man. So if you just go write it out all in Letters to 21st Century Man dot com, you’ll get to the book. And, you know, it’s a, it’s a beast of a book. It’s over 900 pages, 101 chapters.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: You had two incredible chapters, one on yoga and one on mindfulness. And it really encompasses everything that a 40 plus year old man will need to understand. And it’s written not just by me but you know, 60 other really top flight professionals in men’s health, whether they’re physicians or experts in their own little niches. And so each chapter is sort of bite size but you know, it’s not see spot run.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: It’s, you know, it’s written for someone who’s reasonably intelligent that really wants to learn what they need to know about how to take care of themselves. And then and.

Dean Pohlman: I’m assuming we should, we should read this book like the Bible, we should jump around to where we need to go, not read exactly start to figure.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Exactly exactly. And then that my supplement company is affirmScience.com and we have supplements for nitric oxide boosting for testosterone for premature ejaculation and for prostate health. And then I have a YouTube channel, I have an Instagram, I’m kind of all over the place.

Dean Pohlman: Awesome. Cool. Well, Doctor Brandeis, thanks so much for joining me on the Better Man podcast. It’s truly an inspiring episode. I look forward to having you back awesome.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: Hey, thanks a lot, Dean. I really appreciate it. And I really appreciate what you do. I mean, I think yoga, I recommend it to every one of my patients. Honestly, I have on my little Brandeis MD Male rejuvenation protocol sheet. I have your your website out, and I recommend everyone go there and figure out a some sort of stretching and yoga routine to do every single day to kind of get the blood flow going and create flexibility.

Dean Pohlman: Thank you so much for that.

Dr. Judson Brandeis: My pleasure.

Dean Pohlman: All right, guys. I hope this I hope this episode inspires to be a better man. And I look forward to having you back on or, you know, coming back on on in a more.

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