Building Health to Build Wealth | RMT401

Wow, hi. This

is Laurel, and welcome back to Laurel's real money. Talks a podcast about money in every category. How do you make it? How do you keep it? How do you invest it? How do you use a wealth team and a business team? And we always talk about different people, the way they make money, the way they invest money, and how they keep it. So today I have Dr Phil ovidia with me. He's been a client, an extraordinary heart surgeon. I love the title of your book. Stay off my operating table. So and now does a lot of telemed and helps you with resources. So we're gonna have a really rich conversation, because you're not going to keep your money your wealth if you don't keep your health. So Dr Phil, welcome. Yeah,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: great to be here with you, Laurel. It's been certainly a huge assistance to me, help to me to be working with you and part of your community for the past few years, while I've built businesses, and I've figured out different ways to help people, and, you know, hopefully make a little money along the way as well. So

talk about your your just a brief like, where you came from, how you ended up a doctor. Was it like, you know, a lot of people? I say ra just because you know your parents wanted you to be one. Did you want to be one. Did you want to be one? Talk about your passion for why you are where you are.

Dr. Phil Ovadia: Yeah, you know, when you ask my parents, they're going to tell you that as long as they can remember, I always said I wanted to be not a doctor, but a surgeon specifically. And no clue why we have no doctors in the family. It wasn't like I was, you know, in and out of the hospital as a kid or anything like that. It just apparently was some inner drive that I had, and it continued, you know, through high school, college and then medical school. And again, my drive was always to be a surgeon. I ultimately decided to be a heart surgeon. I found that kind of specialty to be just fascinating work. And you know, you could help people so much with it. And so I've now been a heart surgeon for over 20 years, done 3000 surgeries. But along the way, I was becoming I was a very unhealthy heart surgeon, and I reached a point where I was morbidly obese, I was pre diabetic, and I realized that I was going to end up on my own operating table. And I also realized I didn't know how to change that I had followed the advice that I had been taught to give, the advice we've all heard, right? Eat less, move more, you know, follow the food pyramid. And it wasn't working for me. It wasn't working for my patients. And I realized that I needed to find a different way do something different. And fortunately, I was able to come across some different information, start asking different questions, and ultimately, I was able to lose over 100 pounds, reverse my pre diabetes and discover how to keep people off the operating table, and that's now become my kind of mission in life, is to keep as many people off the operating table as possible.

So you know, most of our audience, you know, they're from all over the world. This is my now 400th and first podcast. So super exciting. So we have entrepreneurs all walks of life, right from beginning to, you know, multi, multi, you know, worth hundreds of millions. Entrepreneurs seem to at least discuss stress more than others. So what are some of the the new information asking the right questions? You know that I always look at what you're doing and what I do and I they're so synonymous, because when you ask the right question, you get the right answer. What we're asking you to do is just different. It's not difficult, right? Wouldn't you agree? Like you're just saying, just do this different. So what are some entrepreneur health techniques, tips that you've come across, what helped you lose 100 pounds? What was that formula for you? Yeah, and

Dr. Phil Ovadia: you're right. There are so many parallels between what we do right the way that you approach finances being different than, you know, standard education, and that's the same approach that I take to health. When I talk about the pillars of health, there are really four major ones. We need to look at what you eat, what you do, how you sleep and how you manage your stress. And like I said, for entrepreneurs, you know that last one can be a big one, but you gotta get them all, you know, kind of right. And unfortunately, a lot of the information that's been put out there is you. The wrong information. You know, especially when we look at what you eat, what we've been told is healthy for us isn't necessarily healthy. And you know, we've been basically running a nutritional experiment here in the United States and worldwide for the past 50 years. And you know, the food pyramid, the US Dietary Guidelines and the results of that experiment are failing miserably. And so we need to start asking different questions about what we should be eating, how we should be living.

So let's dig into these four pillars and speak to what you're eating, and I want you to add in things like the cholesterol levels and testing, because again, what we've been told from what I hear from you, I mean, it's, it's so different. It's the same thing. When people you know come to me with taxes, again, our parallels are just right there. It's just, it's a little bit of the right information, but turned wrong, and it's like it's still wrong. So what would you say? Let's go through each of them, if you would just spend a little time on the what you eat, what you do, what you you know, how you sleep and stress, and give some techniques and tips to each of those and and some myths, like dispose, dispel some myths, because I think cholesterol is a massive one.

Dr. Phil Ovadia: Yeah, cholesterol really is the big one. And it it colors every all the advice around what we eat, all the advice has been on lowering cholesterol, eating a low fat diet, avoiding things like red meat and eggs, which it turns out that red meat and eggs are probably the most nutrient dense, most beneficial foods that we can eat, and they've been demonized over the past 50 years. And the whole myth around cholesterol, the you know, the the story around heart disease, is wrong. It's not cholesterol that causes heart disease. Cholesterol plays a role in the process, but it's a small part in the process, and what people need to focus on if they want to stay off my operating table, if they want to stay healthy in general, two concepts that even your doctor might not really know about, These are insulin resistance and metabolic health, and they're related. And the problem is, like I said, a lot of doctors don't know about it. Most people don't know about it, yet almost all of us, some of the statistics show that nine out of 10 people, nine out of 10 adults in the United States, are not metabolically healthy. They have some element of what we call insulin resistance. And all insulin resistance means, you know, a good high level definition of it is your body is not able to process the food that you eat well, and particularly it has problems handling sugar and carbohydrates, which is a vast majority of basically what we're told to eat. If you look at the food pyramid, right the whole bottom of it, that big layer at the bottom, it's all carbohydrates and sugar, with things like fruit, red pasta and grains, and most people can't handle it, and that's ultimately what leads to things like heart disease. Interesting.

So as far as what to do on eating eggs, I mean, to me, it sounds like just, I mean, it's basically high protein, some vegetables and proper fats is that, yep,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: exactly, high protein, healthy fat. And again, not what you've been told is healthy fats. What are actually healthy fats? And so the simple rule I give people is, eat real food, eat the things that grow in the ground and eat the things that eat the things that grow in the ground. We want to eat a lot of protein, primarily animal protein, the fats that come with it. And you don't need to fear the fats that are in red meat and the fats that are in eggs. The fats that you do need to fear are the fake fats, these artificial fat like vegetable and seed oils, things like canola, that are in everything these days. All of the processed food around us contains this stuff, and our bodies don't know how to handle that. We gotta remember, we've been eating red meat. We've been eating eggs. We've been eating, you know, the plants that grow in the ground. For millions of years, we have not been eating things like margarine or drinking things like skim milk and all of these fake foods, these processed foods that make up the vast majority of the supermarket these are the things that we need to avoid, because they. Not making us healthy.

And so I'm going to move on to what do they do? I mean, some level, that's obvious, but I know as a past athlete, you know, going back to the gym, you know, I think we're wired, you know, as we get older, that we can just go back and do what we were doing, what what really needs to happen in the movement category for people as they age, and how does it affect their metabolism? Yeah,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: so I tell people your priority when you're thinking about you know your activities, what you do is building and maintaining muscle. We know that. You know how much muscle you have as you age is the top predictor of not only how long you'll live, but what your quality of life will be. You know, the reality is that most of us don't necessarily want to live longer. We want to live better, right? We want to avoid what has become commonplace of spending the last 20 to 30 years of your life, the last third of your life, sick and debilitated and not able to do things, you know, again, all the things you talk about Laurel so that you can have, you know, wealth and be able to, you know, I know you don't like the word retire, right, but, but Being able to choose what you want to do in terms of work and activities, all of it's pretty meaningless. If you're sick and you're not able to do things, you're not able to travel, you're not able to, you know, interact with your grandkids, you need to have a good quality of life. And building muscle and maintaining muscle is the most important thing there. So stress resistance exercise. It can be things like lifting weights. It can be using resistance bands. It can be real simple at home, things like doing push ups and squats that can help you maintain muscle as you age and maintain your quality of life as you age.

And so when they tell me just in the exercise category, because I know there's a lot of myths around this, so I want you to debunk a few is around you have to do as much cardiovascular workouts. I mean, from intermittent, you know, doing just intermittent, well, intermittent fasting to intervals to, I mean, what's really the key? I mean, is it really 20 minutes at a certain heart rate? I mean, you know, I remember back in the day, it says physiology, it's like they have to maintain their heart rate zone. And it was all about the heart rate zone in the 80s and early 90s, and you don't really hear about any of that anymore. So what's real in the cardiovascular side of working out? Yeah,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: what's real is that you know you have to do something right? We know that the difference between being sedentary and even just doing what's really low levels of activity is important, so just incorporate it into your daily life. Make sure you walk. You know, take a 10 minute break a couple of times a day if you have, like, a desk job, and get up and walk around the building, or, even better, walk around outside after you eat, take a 10 to 20 minute walk at a moderate pace and just getting that type of activity. You know, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, when you can simple things like that, are going to be enough activity to keep you healthy. And then, like I said, prioritize the building and maintaining muscle, and you're going to be fine. Cardio is, you know, great if you have time. But I know, for you know, so much of your audience busy entrepreneurs, time is their most precious resource. So you don't have to spend an hour or two at the gym, you know, on the treadmill, doing that type of cardio activity.

And so let's move to sleep. How? You know, I think everyone knows statistically, what is it over 35 or 40 year sleep shifts. So talk a little bit about that. Because I, because, for me, that's my the number one, that's my number one issue.

Yeah, I think for many of us, it is. His brain just keeps going and going and going doesn't turn out exactly.

Dr. Phil Ovadia: So you gotta, you gotta set yourself up for success when it comes there. You know, we can't, we can't avoid it, right? You need sleep. Maybe you don't quite need eight hours, as everyone says, But you know, you do need good quality sleep. And this is something else that I think is a little different than most people talk about. It's not necessarily the hours, how many hours, the quantity of sleep you got to focus on the quality of your sleep as well. So you want to get yourself a good sleep environment. You want to, you know, the advice about your room being dark enough, you know, a good temperature, trying to avoid stimulating things like, you know, staring at screens for an hour before. Bed, drinking alcohol too close to bed, not a good idea. Simple things like that that will help improve the quality of your sleep. And then, yes, you have to get enough quantity as well. No one can really get by with four or five hours sleep. Over the long term, you might get away with it, you know, for a night or two, but prioritize sleep. Because, again, if you're looking to improve your performance, if you're looking to be at your best when it comes to running your business, running your family, you gotta prioritize your sleep.

Yep, any there's so many people who take, I mean, there's shelves and shelves and shelves and internet sites for, you know, sleep pills and all sorts of things. And I know some people, like in the past, that have taken ambient and now have, you know, brain issues from it, from taking it, as long as they got kind of addicted to it, and like, they stopped because they started noticing memory loss and things like that. So speak a little to the the meds in the sleep world, because I think it's extraordinarily prevalent.

Dr. Phil Ovadia: Yeah, I think the meds in the sleep world, you know, largely parallel what we see around meds everywhere, right? You shouldn't need these. You want to get your body in a state of health that, you know, you don't need medications. None of us really suffer from a medication deficiency, especially when it comes to chronic problems, right? Yes, if you have an infection, you take your antibiotic and you know it treats the infection. But you know, when it comes to chronic medical problems, medications are not the answer. The answer is, find the root cause, find why you're not sleeping well, or find why your blood pressure is high, whatever it might be, and address that. And you know, then you don't need the medications. But I agree with you, sleep medications, there really are no good ones. And, you know, if you find yourself relying on them, you gotta go back and ask, why aren't I able to sleep and address those root causes. Yeah,

now let's move to the big one, the stress, right? Which is just, you know, I remember all those, like, you know, early studies on just eliminate stress. I don't think you eliminate, you manage. So talk about like techniques to to reduce stress. And just put us another word on I think of which I prefer the word is so self care. Like, what are you doing? To take care of yourself, to be at you know, to regulate that stress,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: exactly. You know, stress is always the hardest thing to talk about, right? Because we don't have a great way of measuring it. We can't really quantify it as well. And, yeah, it's, you know, a little bit of a softer sort of science about how to deal with it. And what I tell people is, you just have to find your outlet, right? And this can be so many different things. Some people it's meditation. Some people it's religion. Some people it's just having a strong community around them, friends, family, you know, fellow entrepreneurs, being in communities that help you to deal with the stressful situations that are just unavoidable in life these days. You know, very few of us can truly avoid stress. It's just a matter of dealing with it and having an outlet so it doesn't become that chronic building problem in you.

So talk a little bit about your book, because I know we're going to be giving a gift to the first 40 pages, but talk a little bit about your book and what else they're going to be learning in there as our next part of our conversation.

Dr. Phil Ovadia: Yeah, so stay off my operating table, and the book came out over two years ago now, kind of amazing how time flies. Been been very well received, and it really is the guidebook to keep you off my operating table. We're going to go in more depth into all of these things that we just talked about, the pillars of health. I give you in there the five key metrics that you need to know to determine if you are metabolically healthy or not. We talk about a lot of the myth around you know that are present in medicine today that are keeping us from being healthy. And I give you the strategies to to fix it, to address these problems, all of the you know, everything from diet, sleep, stress, all of it we talk about in more detail in the book. And it really is the guidebook to keep you off my operating table. And the other thing to understand is it's really not just about heart disease. Disease, because it turns out that being metabolically unhealthy, having things like insulin resistance, they're not just putting you at risk for heart disease, but also things like cancer, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes. It turns out that nine of the top 10 causes of death in the United States can be attributed to poor metabolic health. So this book is going to help you avoid all of that.

And as a metabolic health I mean, it's, it's basically the, the benchmark, the marker for the four pillars we just talked about, right? Exactly, improving your metabolic health. I

Dr. Phil Ovadia: call them the KPIs for your health, right? It's going to be your scorecard. So you know how you're doing from a health standpoint.

And how do you speak to just the I'm going to say it again, and now the myth, or just the whole narrative, of you know, once you cross 4045 there's nothing you can do. You're going to lose your metabolism. You can't get it back. What do you say to those naysayers that, you know, they're just pretty to me, I think that's giving up because I don't believe that. Yeah, no,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: exactly it is. And, you know, I cringe when I hear my colleagues, you know, fellow doctors, giving that advice, because they're giving up on their patients. And I can tell you that as I sit here today, at 50 years old, I'm in better shape, more energy, feel better than I did at 30. And I know lots and lots of people, the patients I work with that do the same. We have patients. I now have a patient in my practice in their 80s that are doing this and getting better and getting more vibrant every day. That's

awesome. How do you find doctors? So let's talk about that. I know that's like, you know, people will always say on my ass Laurel show, they'll it's always, how do I find a better tax strategist? So how do I find a better team? Well, I think the same thing again, you know, parallels with what you how do you find the doctors that are really going to get in line with this, because there's so much misinformation I know when I lost my spleen now four years ago, when I about died, and it took me 22 doctors to figure out one that would even get along with how I was believing because some are like, we're going to do the CDC and you're going to take a shot a day, and you're going to be on meds for the rest of your life, And it's like, no, I'm not going to, I won't surrender to that. I am not going to be that person. And here we are, four years later, and no medicine. So I know it works, but how do you find the doctors? Because it was a lot of persistence to have to interview 22 different people to find one that would, you know, do it, do do it the way that you're talking about from a healthy perspective. Yeah, and, you know,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: it again, it's a lot of the same questions that you tell people to ask around finding a tax strategist and finding an accountant to work with, right? These same things work for your doctor. The problem is, is that people, oftentimes these days, they don't really put effort into finding their doctor. They, you know, go through their insurance company directory, and they find who's local and that's their doctor. And you need to approach it like any other you know, key advisor in your life, right? Ask people around you who have good health outcomes that you want to get, who they work with. Ask the doctors that you're, you know, considering working with, you know what? What kind of outcomes do their patients get? Right? If it's just, you know, all my patients are on the proper medications, and that's their metric of success as a doctor. That's probably not who you want to work with if your goal is to not be on medication. The benefit we have these days, right is that you don't just have to be limited to your local doctors. Telemedicine is, you know, become very prominent. This is one good thing that came out of the whole COVID, you know, pandemic, is that everyone got used to doing telemedicine. So, you know, I'm in Florida, but I see patients all across the United States and even internationally, and we can do that. And so people have those resources. So get online, start looking for the things that are important to you, and the doctors that are talking about those things perfect.

So talk a little bit about our giveaway. It's in the show notes. Those of you that want the first 40 pages of the book. It's ask laurel.com forward slash, iFIX hearts with an S at the end. So tell us a little bit about what they're going to be reading and that and more on how to get it. Yeah,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: so you're going to get the first 40 pages, the first section of the book. We go through a lot of the myths around medicine. You're going to get a little bit more insight into my sort of origin story and why I'm here doing what I'm doing. And. And and from there you'll have the opportunity. You can get the rest of the book. You can set up a strategy call with my team to see if you know me and my team are the right ones to help you with your help. Perfect,

doctor, Phil, it's been great to have you. We'll have you back again. And the one thing are you getting involved in maha just was offered some some opportunities into Maha, I think as Yeah, talk a little bit about that, because I think we're all excited that we're now going to have an opportunity to get rid of just products, foods that no other country even allows in their country, that you know, we just keep killing our nation with

Dr. Phil Ovadia: Yeah, it is exciting to see this being talked about at the government level. As a matter of fact, you know, as we're recording this a few days from now, I'm heading up to DC. I'm going to be at the MaHA inaugural ball, and it is exciting to see the government talking about it, but I don't want people to wait for the government to do this for them and to change. You take charge of your health. You make the changes today that will make you healthy great.

And then I want an update on that ball. I'm not able to make it, but as would have loved to have been, but not this time, because kids, kids, things as a mom, so I'm playing mom. So again, update me. Once you go through that ball, it's going to be an amazing next Monday night. We're recording this mid January of 2025 so Doctor Phil, thank you, and I will be back on your podcast. You'll come back on mine, and we're going to continue our conversation with health and wealth, because you need both to do this legacy that we're talking about. So thank you. Thanks as always,

Dr. Phil Ovadia: Laurel. Take care. You.