From Health Crisis to Success: Chris's Inspiring Transformation Story

0:00 Okay, guys, it's Dr. Ryan and today we're talking with one of my patients has been with me for about six, seven months or so. And this is Chris and Chris is gonna tell us a little bit about his experience with CMR odd press. Why don't you go ahead and a couple of sentences tell us a little bit about yourself where you're from what you do some of your hobbies and family cetera. 0:21 Yeah, exactly. Right. So Chris, as you mentioned, I've been a patient for about six months now live out in Silicon Valley in California and work in corporate finance, specifically private equity. I do love to ski golf, play tennis, former college athletes. So I've always been into that athletic mind and and got to a point in time when I recognized that I was no longer have that 22 year old physique and wanted to kind of get back to it. 0:47 As with a lot of my patients who are highly successful, I think you're kind of downplaying your athletic prowess, you were a very accomplished collegiate athlete, which I think is pretty amazing. That's, that's just really, really wonderful. Thanks. Let's go ahead and talk a little bit about your experience prior to starting with Summa or really just your experience prior to SEMA up in terms of the antiaging longevity space. 1:13 Yeah. So before sum up right before I was, you know, coming out of the pandemic and realizing, like a lot of people with the gym closures and a lockdown lifestyle that I was just getting into bad habits. So you know, binging on Netflix, and what I call the O's, Doritos, Cheetos Oreos, it started to take its toll on my health, you know, I gained unnecessary weight got to an unhealthy space, my blood pressure was extremely high, my cardiovascular health had deteriorated. And the doctor, my general practitioner, my GP, let me know that my blood pressure and the vitals were at an alarming rate and kind of gave me a choice to get back in shape, or else he's going to start putting me on some fairly extreme medications to get everything back in line. 1:54 Gotcha. And let's double click a bit more outside of your blood pressure and assuming certain markers like your lipid panel, what exactly were you trying to improve in terms of your physique and overall health? Was there like a BiPAP percent you're trying to achieve? Was there like a ballistic markers you're trying to get to? Yeah, 2:11 I mean, if I'm, if I want to be really candid, in I was six, three and a half, I got to 253 pounds coming out of the pandemic, and that's not me at all, you know, kind of my fighting weight, if you will, was right around 215. And, you know, I'm a former elite triathlete as well and my race weight in triathlon was 183. So I was a long way away from from being an optimal shape and optimal physique. And then to compound that, you know, my blood pressure was extremely high, my cholesterol was extremely high. And you add all that up. And, you know, my doctor said, I'm a candidate for heart attack. And I tell you what, there's nothing that's more eye opening and alarming than to hear somebody say you could you could have a heart attack and die tomorrow. 2:54 I mean, that's, that's a, that's very, that's very, very concerning. And that you, you took the, the measures to say, Hey, I'm going to make some some big changes, sometimes it just requires a, you know, an inciting event like that to put us into action. And you kind of alluded to how some of the changes in your physique affected your ability to perform athletically. But how did those How did those changes affect you in terms of your career, or your relationships, your family, things outside of your work? 3:22 You know, it's a, it's a sliding scale, and worse, it's more of a downward spiral, you get into very bad habits, at least I was I wasn't working out, I was getting very relaxed with the diet, finding excuses for not being active. And over time, you lose the energy, you lose the motivation. And that kind of self feeding for this downward spiral, that lack of energy, that lack of desire to, you know, put in the extra effort at work, putting the extra effort everywhere, with family with friends, and getting complacent, and eventually in my case, it took its toll I gained a lot of weight and my vitals were right on a very unhealthy level. Okay, 4:03 well, you're at the situation and you know, you need to make a change. How'd you find out about CMR? 4:08 I found out about zoom UPS through social media. I think it was an Instagram ad and wanted to inquire and learn more about it. 4:16 And was there because and I recognized that there are many other options out there. Was there something about the clinic that kind of piqued your interest and finally made you say, Okay, this is the the individual on work with the clinic, I want to start therapy 4:30 way. Yeah, I think to you, and to your credit, your team's credit, you took a very holistic approach. It wasn't just about, you know, reducing the body fat or getting to a certain physique. It was a much more holistic approach towards towards healthy lifestyle and longevity. And so one of the things that I admired most is one you're a licensed physician, your medical doctor, but to you've actually been in the space you've been in the physique and competitive world and that gave me a lot of confidence and affirmation. that you can talk to talk, which you can walk, walk as well, you've actually been there. And I've been very pleased with the level of professionalism and understanding throughout your entire team. It's been a great experience. 5:11 So why don't we take this opportunity to kind of transition and some of the changes you've noticed after joining. So let's first kind of talk a little bit about the changes you noticed in terms of your physique, and your overall health. And before we start, I just want to brag on you a little bit, I am just pretty amazed at how quickly you're able to change one aspect of your health natural lipid panel, you had mentioned that your cholesterol levels were a bit high. And these are the level these were the sons of lipofilling, how we started, and just in a mere three months, and you can see your total cholesterol is 237, your LDL is 167. And your triglycerides, well, not bad, we're a little we're a little on the higher side 98. And just within a matter of three months of therapy and diet, adherence and adhering to the workout program, were able to drop your total cholesterol was 30 points for LDL, a significant amount more than 50 points in your in your triglycerides dropped in half, which I think is really amazing. Yeah, 6:06 thanks. And again, it's that shock and alarm, right, you don't want to be a heart attack candidate, the thing that I'm most proud of is, those were simple lifestyle changes that you and the team had suggested getting back into exercise and eating better, and no medications, right. And so I didn't want to take another pill and and you know, do some of the research that once you get on those those medications, it's very difficult to come off and and, you know, the cluster on support can can skyrocket back up because you haven't made the appropriate lifestyle changes. And so, you know, again, credit to you and your team for recognizing how to make those quick changes. 6:41 Well, I totally agree with you some very common medication that we use in conventional medicine that we use is our statins. I'm not the biggest fan of them, because the side effects that can be associated with if you're a black individual, it's well known they can cause myositis, inflammation, your muscles and there's some evidence suggests increase GERD, reason gastric cancer, so trying to avoid those and utilizing a healthy diet and workout regimen is key as well. Good. Well, what about some of the changes that you saw in terms of your career? And in terms of your relationship with your family? Did you notice any changes in that aspect? 7:17 Yeah, I didn't, once I started to make the commitment really, it was it was a commitment to myself to get back in better health, I found you know, greater motivation to have positive change and positive impact, you know, across the board in terms of my life and, and in all aspects. And so that change in mindset allowed me to correct bad habits. And so overall, just improve kind of my daily my daily life. So scheduling workouts into my calendar, making that a priority, prioritizing my health, you know, acknowledging that I wasn't going to be alone on this journey with you and the team, but also with my family and telling them that, you know, hey, this is my commitment, I'm going to stick get away from the junk food and, and reduce the alcohol consumption and all the other bad habits that I was getting into. And, you know, it was great to have that kind of support to people, friends and family, we're recognizing, hey, he's really kind of committed to this and, and we're going to help support him, 8:06 that's actually almost a universal observation, as you know, plantations, their their friends and family start to comment pretty regularly, colleagues, etc. And it's a really good feeling, it's clear to me that you have a very strong self image, you wouldn't be as successful as you as you are, if you didn't, but it's always nice to, it's always a nice boost your self confidence, when you recognize, hey, you're looking great, your energy levels are optimized, you're feeling awesome, you're more present with the individuals that you care about. Very cool. So were there any other benefits that you noticed outside of some of the improvements in your biomarkers, improvements in your physique and perhaps the increased energy and ability to interact with family staff, etc? 8:47 Yeah, you know, I've always seen athleticism or athletics and working out as a as a healthy outlet for stress relief. And that's precisely what it had had returned to. So you know, business colleagues, friends, family, and all recognize that, that I wasn't quite as high strung anymore, that I was a lot more pleasant to interact with as a result of a reduction in stress, you know, my business activities and seeing greater focus, improved energy, greater drive and motivation towards success. And with that stress relief, managing that incorporating my exercise routine into my daily life. You know, again, everyone had seen all those improvements, and I was simply wasn't a much more pleasant person to be around as a result. 9:30 Again, it's something that I've noticed again, and again, just the idea of being cool, calm and collected, and that ability to channel your energy in in a more effective and more useful way is really key when you're making decisions that impact you know, hundreds, if not 1000s of people and if you can make better quality decisions and make high quality decisions in a quicker manner. That's that's a big deal. Clearly in private equity. It's a huge deal. Okay. Well, what would you tell someone who's watching this video and is uncertain about when they make What would you tell that person, 10:01 there are a lot of benefits that come with working with sum up, and of course, you Dr. Ron and your team, your commitment to longevity. And more importantly, I think one of the things that I've recognized is preventative care, which really doesn't exist in American medicine today. I think that's a very unique aspect to what you and your team are offering, you know, what's unique in the industry. And first and foremost is, is, you know, you, you're looking at this, and you're looking at making these changes, because you recognize this as an issue. And so once you committed and made that commitment to yourself, or you know, improving your health and well being, those positive changes will cascade into every aspect of your life. And very quickly, you know, you recognize, in my case, the cholesterol and blood pressure issues that had come down, you know, within 90 days, and that's no medications that's simply making the commitment to to better health and better lifestyle. And so, you know, once you make that commitment to yourself, you're gonna be very glad that you did and, and sum up and your team are, are the great catalysts to actually help along that path. But the hardest part is starting. And so once they make that commitment that we're very happy to begin, 11:08 I don't think I can paint a more glowing recommendation of the clinic needed. So I really appreciate that, Chris. Well, Chris, I understand your time is super valuable. I'm so thankful that you took the time to talk a little bit about your experience at the clinic and discuss it today. Thanks again. 11:26 My pleasure. Dr. Ryan. Thank you