Hi and welcome back to the fit me Turo fitness podcast. I'm your host, Turo Virta, and today we are talking about topic I have never really got gone up in so deep in this So, and it's a men's health so if you are, if you are a man listening. This episode is about you, and if you are a woman listening, this episode is about your partner, your dad, your brother, your son, or the men you care about. A lot of men are quietly struggling with things like low energy prostate issues, frequent nighttime bathroom trips, low lipido or erection problems feeling old way too early, and most of the time, they are either told this is just aging, or they get quick fixes that treat the symptoms while the real root cause is never really checked. My guest today is someone who has dedicated her career to changing that. Dr Liz petroy is a board certified functional and Regenerative Medicine Physician. She's a founder of The Doctor studio and the creator of prostatic Gen method for men's health. Her work focuses on finding the hidden infections, toxins, inflammation and hormone problems that drive chronic prostate issues, low libido, performance problems and low energy in men. Instead of just giving one more pill, she looks at the whole system and helps men actually heal and age with purpose. I wanted to bring Dr Roy on the podcast, because I see the impact this has in real life. When a man is tired, in pain or scared about his health, it affects everything, his mood, his confidence, his work and his relationships. And many women, I quote, Tell me my partner is struggling, but he doesn't want to talk about it, or see a doctor. In this conversation, we are going to go talk about why so many prostate and performance diagnoses miss the real root cause, how toxins, infections and inflammation can quietly damage Men's Health, and what root cause testing and treatment can look like in practice and the simple daily habits that help men protect their energy, performance and longevity. My hope is that this episode gives you language, hope and next steps, whether you are man going through this yourself or someone who loves a man in your life. Dr Roy, welcome to the show. I'm really, really happy and excited that you are here. Thank you very much for having me. So today, I would like, I would love, to focus on three big, big, big things. First, why so many men's health problems are treated like simple like plumping issues, while the real root causes are deeper. Second, how things like inflammation, toxins and hormones are actually show up in a daily life, tiredness, bathroom trips, low drive mood. And third, what men and their partners can practically do so which tests to ask for which habits matter the most and how to get help without shame. So, Dr Roy, for someone who has never heard of you before, how do you explain what you do in simple words, I go well beyond symptoms and try to figure out why the symptoms are occurring to begin with. It's, it's, it's very opposite a conventional approach. A conventional approach is about diagnosis and managing a disease, and there's absolutely a place for a conventional approach, but many people aren't served well in that system. And so what I learned throughout the years is that you have to ask, Why. Why is this happening? Once you find that why? You typically have to ask, why? Again, because there's layers and layers of of problems. So it is, it's a it's a disservice from the system that it is that we've established. And it's also a lack of understanding that these root causes are often deep, and they show up in the form of leaky gut, for instance, and a consequence of that chronic infections that we didn't even know that we had, forming biofilms and suppressing the immune system, toxicity that we're surrounded by, but we we don't really understand how it affects our bodies. So it's it's not a one root cause. It's. Typically multiple problems that have converged and are presenting as symptoms for different people in different ways. I focus on men with prostate issues because it's a very challenging problem. It's a head to toe problem, and nobody seems to really be looking at the root causes, and there are several. So you was you are known, like you said, that for working with men's prostate and performance issues in a very different way than traditional orology. So was there, or what was the moment when you realized that we are missing something important in how we treat men. Good question I have. I have been a generalist in functional and regenerative medicine since the beginning of my practice, and what that means is there wasn't any particular problem that I was interested in. It was really whatever it was that couldn't be solved otherwise through a conventional approach, people would find me or get referred to me by their friends and family, and I would figure out how to fix that issue by, again, digging deep and looking at the gut and toxicity and occult infections. And so I realized that we all share similar root cause, it just presents in a different way for us, often down a genetic pathway. So for instance, most of us have heard that inflammation is the precursor of all disease, and inflammation is going to manifest in down a genetic pathway, typically. So for instance, if your family history is cardiovascular disease or diabetes or cancer and you experience inflammation, you're likely going to follow that family family disease, because that's your genetic, biochemical weak link. And so that's still very superficial. When you want to dig deep, you say, Well, what is the cause of that inflammation? And it's either toxicity or pathogens, microbes, infection, or both and and so as I started to realize that these see these patterns, I thought, okay, these are big problems to try to fix, because they're multifactorial, and people don't understand how a chronic Lyme infection that they never knew they had is associated with, you know, their prostate or, you know, whatever, whatever the the problem is. So I thought, if I find a problem that is, again, a head to toe problem that isn't being fixed, it will help me develop some sort of depth. I wanted to understand everything about a problem, instead of just painting everything with the same similar brush. So I decided prostate issues were one was an excellent problem. It's always associated with erectile dysfunction. I wrote a book on erectile dysfunction and how to how to look at that as a whole body issue as well several years ago, and so it just, it really interests me to help men. I believe that men don't come to the doctor unless there's real issue that moves them. And, you know, prostate problems, erection problems, are real issues that that they can't seem to, you know, run away from, so that it's really what it is. I am very grateful for the decision that I made several years ago, because I'm starting to really understand the depth at which these, these issues do occur and and, you know, we're diagnosing so many men with very early prostate cancer and seeing the connection, seeing that vulnerability and understanding better why that's where it's helpful. Yeah, no, and I totally agree, like it, I got a big smile on my face, and you said that means, usually, like, don't go to doctor or until there is a real issue. And that that is, that is so true and and my own little background is like my grandfather, he was diagnosed with prostatic cancer already. Like, that's a long, long time ago. I wasn't even here yet, but, but he always told me that go to check it you are now over 40, make sure that you do all this just to even you don't have anything. Because he was already, that's like. 50 years ago, but he got diagnosed, and at the time it was a miracle that he survived and he's still living his 91 year, 91 years old. So at the time it was a huge, huge miracle that he's still here, because that was back in the days, it was kind of, when you get the diagnosis, it was like death sentence, almost, yeah, for sure. You know the cancer testing that's available in a conventional practice that's covered under insurance for men's prostate issues is really not sensitive. So PSA, for instance, is what most people follow. And the PSA, although it's, you know, I suggest doing PSAs, it fluctuates for lots of reasons. There can be inflammation in the prostate without cancer, and the PSA increases. Enlargement of the prostate will increase the PSA. Even having sex the night before or the morning that the blood is drawn will increase the PSA. Sometimes we find men with perfectly normal PSAs that have early prostate cancers developing. So we have tests available to us outside of the insurance system that are much, much more sensitive, and I'm hoping that those will become mainstream at some particular point, because too many men have biopsies that are unnecessary, that cause problems that are very uncomfortable, very, very scary, and sometimes miss a cancer that's there. You know, cancer is really systemic. From the very beginning, it takes a billion tumor cells to aggregate in one area in order to form a tumor large enough to be seen on even the most sensitive imaging. So that's a billion cells. So we know from the testing that we have that many times, most of the time, some of those tumor cells escape the tissue and they go into the bloodstream and they go into lymphatics. And so we can diagnose the presence of these cancer cells, cancer stem cells, and know everything about them just from a blood test and biopsy is often not necessary. Is certainly not the first thing I would do, because again, it's it misses a lot of things. It doesn't really recognize that that this is systemic. It's a systemic issue right from the very beginning. So I think the testing sensitivity is a real problem when it comes to prostate cancer, in particular, because this is, I want to go little bit back like, because what I see that a lot of men ignore prostate symptoms and or performance issues until things are really bad. From what you see, why do men wait so long before they start to do something? Well, you know, most men that we see have actually gone to their urologist and have sought care. The problem is, the care is very sub optimal. You know, when men start to have prostate symptoms, meaning they're urinating frequently, they're having some discomfort with urination. They're getting up four or five, six times a night, so their their sleep is interrupted. All these things are considered normal aging by a conventional urologist, and I can tell you that it's common, not normal. That's important. The urologist will often prescribe a medication for the symptom, and that will help for a while. The reason it doesn't help forever is because it doesn't actually fix the root cause of the problem. It's just treating the symptom. Even if they have a procedure like a TURP or laser or some of these steam ablations, that's still just treating the symptom. It's not treating the reason why the prostate is enlarged or why the prostate is irritated. Again, it's a it's a lack of sensitive testing that leaves the urologist and the urologic literature to say that an enlarged prostate is not infectious. I can tell you that an enlarged prostate is infectious. 99.9% of the time there is a chronic infection in the prostate that's causing this enlargement, that's causing this low level inflammation, that's causing the symptoms. So I think that you know, men are with their friends. They're golfing. They're at the office, they're having these symptoms, and the men around them also have these symptoms. So they think, Oh, well, this is just normal. They go to their urologist maybe once it gets so bad that they can't stand it. It's interfering with their quality of life because their sleep is interrupted so much. And their urologist said, Yeah, this is normal. You're just getting older. Here's a pill. So it's, it's, it's, it's just that we've become so complacent with these issues that we've considered them part of normal aging, and they're not, yeah. And was like, you said that is, that is so well said. And it's, it's so true, like that means, like, if you you go golfing with, with friends, and all have, or 80% of men you talk with, they have, they face similar issues and and it's labeled as a normal but from your point of view, what are the deeper root causes that connect many of these problems, like low testosterone, chronic prosthetics, and, yeah, great question. So we always find infection in the prostate. We're doing a sensitive test using next generation sequencing of the prostate secretions. So we're looking at prostate secretions, we're always finding infection. The microbes that we're finding are often from the gut. Well, they got to the prostate because they leaked through the wall of the gut into the bloodstream and settled in the prostate. So there's a gut that is unhealthy, that leaky gut is something that, again, has become so common, because of the food, because of stress, because of antibiotics that are that are taken quite frequently. The inside of the gut lining is a single cell thick, and so these cells are held together by what's called tight junctions. And those tight junctions are meant to keep the large food stuff, to keep the bacteria, the fungus, the things that are normally in our gut, medications that come through to keep them in the gut. The gut is supposed to be selectively permeable, meaning the food is broken down into nutrients and small molecules that passes through the immune system plays a major role. The immune system as part of the gut, is significant at helping to protect us. So there's leaky gut. We're also finding oral bacteria in the prostate. So we actually send men for Cone Beam CAT scan of the mouth, and we find a cult infection in the mouth all the time where there's no bleeding gums, there's no discomfort, but root canals might have some infection still that's active, many people will grind their teeth or clench their draw Jaws because of stress that loosens the teeth just a bit. So bacteria settle deep in the root, next to the root, and there's infection that just seeds into the bloodstream. So infection is a big one. Leaky gut is a is a problem. The gut plays a major role in hormone production and hormone regulation as well. So your question about, you know, why does so many men have low testosterone? Even younger men have low testosterone, and it's often because of gut dysbiosis, and the way that the gut is signaling the brain and we have a decrease in stimulation of testosterone. So hormone sub optimization is part of why the prostate suffers and why the prostate becomes inflamed and vulnerable to this infection. We also have systemic, chronic inflammation and infection like reactivated viruses. We check men for Lyme and tick associated microbes as well as reactivated viruses. We find them all the time. So so we're infected and we're toxic. We have mold toxicity, metal toxicity, chemical toxicity. So our immune systems are overloaded and they're shut down. And when your immune system is shut down, it means that it's not mounting the appropriate response, which means that the microbes they have their way, they come into the body and they are able to thrive. So it's, it's, when I say it's head to toe, it's, it's head to toe, these biofilms develop in the prostate. They. Develop in the gut. They develop in your coronary arteries, and they are microbe and toxicity associated. So you know, our bodies are very well equipped to protect us in a natural world, but our world is not natural anymore. Yeah, really big problem. Oh, yeah, and, but you mentioned something like interesting about testosterone, like, what I see that many men are prescribed testosterone therapy now, and maybe some feel better, but some feel worse or see no changes. So why does that happen? And how do you decide if testosterone is really the root, the right tool, or not? Yeah, that's a great question, and you're right. There's a lot of practices that are are now practicing hormone replacement without an understanding of how it is that the testosterone is low to begin with. Most men, if they come in with low testosterone, they'll have elevated estrogen, low testosterone and and that imbalance causes more of a problem. Their DHT will be elevated. They've got, you know, adrenal issues as well. It plays a role in the thyroid. I mean, you can't look at these things as as just simple fixes. And though, although that's what is happening out there when you, when you fix a man's hormones, I think that it's reasonable to give hormone replacement initially, while you look deeper at the root cause, because they need testosterone to feel better, they need testosterone to sleep well, they need testosterone for their immune system to be competent. So it's like putting a band aid on a wound. It's okay to put a band aid on a wound, but you have to also understand that, you know, if it's not healing on its own, it might need some help. It might be bigger than just a scratch, right? So to to provide hormone replacement is, in my mind, a reasonable thing to do, but if you do it without looking deeper, and the gut is the first place to look, and the detoxification ability is the is also a close second place to look. Then it's somewhat irresponsible, and it's why men will feel great at first, and then they don't feel good anymore, even though their hormone levels appear to be normal. It's because it's more than just that end hormone. It's how is the hormone being metabolized? Is it interacting with the receptor appropriately? No, there's a there's a lot to it. So, you know, most people have some degree of leaky gut or gut dysbiosis, even if it's not a fulminate infection. And so you really have to start there. I wouldn't replace testosterone without evaluating the gut first. It makes, makes sense. And then the other thing, what I what I hear, like a lot of men, say that, like you said, that this is just getting older, that, of course, my energy and sex drive are lower, but from your experience, what is actually normal aging and what is early dysfunction that can usually be improved, normal aging in a healthy body is just, you know, a slowing down. It's not aches and pains. It's not degeneration that interferes with normal function. Normal aging is a healthy aging. Cognition is intact. The body slows down. I mean, you know, look, we have people walking the earth that are over 100 years old, that are still functioning really quite well. I would say that that's not common anymore, but that is a normal aging, yeah, that is a normal agent. When, when you think about aging, you think about regeneration, degeneration, okay, when we're young, our regeneration outpaces the degeneration. As we get older, degeneration then starts to outpace regeneration. There are so many things in our environment, like toxicity, like chronic infection, that accelerate the degeneration that we're getting old, right? If we want to define aging, it's really the rate at which you degenerate. That's what aging is. There are many, many, many ways of control. Pulling the rate at which you degenerate the primary you know, I think about this all the time, because this is hard work, and it's hard work because there's a lot to it, and it's makes it really hard because people don't don't understand it. They don't understand why do you have to do all this testing? I just came in for my prostate gut. What are you talking about? I have chronic infection and reactivated viruses. Aren't you supposed to be fixing my prostate? You know? So, so it's hard work, but you're only ever as healthy as your immune system. Your immune system protects us from invaders. The immune system regulates inflammation, and it's an inflammation is a good thing, because it's a protective mechanism until it becomes dysfunctional. When it's dysfunctional, it is the single most powerful accelerator of that degeneration, right? And so I've started testing the immune system on my patients and just saying, Okay, I've got a lot of young people that I love and I want to take care of and make sure they're healthy. They're not exhibiting any symptoms at this particular time. What kind of testing can I do to make sure that I understand that they're on a wellness trajectory and not a disease trajectory. Sure, I could look for toxins. They're all going to have toxins on board. Yes, I could look for chronic infection. Most likely they're going to have some chronic infection and reactivated disease viruses rather. Yeah, gut dysbiosis is likely there too. But if there's one thing that I could look at that tells me whether whether they're on track or off track, it would be the immune system. I use a test from a lab in Greece called rgcc, and it's called immune frame, and it gives me a lot of information about the humoral and adaptive immune system, whether their T cells are up regulated. If they are, I have to look for cancer. I have to look for infection. If they have no natural killer cells, then they're vulnerable. Those are the surveillance system for the immune system to fight viruses and to fight cancer. So if you have somebody with a an over an up regulated immune system, where the it's also suppressed at the same time. And you can tell that by this test, and there's no natural killer cells, you can say either they have cancer now or they're headed for cancer because they have no defenses. And so you can evaluate, really, that person's potential for wellness and potential for devastating disease by just looking at the immune system. And then let that guide you with where you go to determine what's the priority, right? What's the priority that we need to address here, and are those, is that testing? Where is it available worldwide, or what if you if some woman is listening, or men who is interested, that this is something, what I I would probably need to do, or I would love that my husband, or men I love is doing where they could get started. Unfortunately, this particular test, it is available worldwide. That is true, but it's selective practices that are using this test at this particular time, and it is the only test that I'm aware of that tests these different elements of the immune system. I've I've looked, I've searched, to try to find something that's more available, that's a little easier. So rgcc is the name of the company. They could go to the rgcc website and look for a provider near them. It is, it is a great test for for the men in their life who are having prostate issues, I think that, again, it's not just one thing. They really have to dig in and understand all the different elements. We call it seven clinical dysfunctions that we look at when we're we're looking at assessing the the prostate and what it's going to take to get them to a state of wellness and gut infection, prostate infection, the gut tests Are, there's several of them out there. Those are more prevalently available, again, through functional and integrative providers. To my knowledge, there isn't a conventional gastroenterologist who does a functional test. You know, they they look, they'll do an endoscopy. Or a colonoscopy, but the truth is, function changes long before structure, meaning an infection, a dysbiosis, a low pancreatic enzyme, gut inflammation, all of these things are easily diagnosed with the right functional test, typically a stool test. There are some blood tests that also give significant insight, and yet the gastroenterologists don't do them. Don't even know how to interpret them. They just look and they'll look at the tissue and say it looks fine, or you have a gastritis Here, take this pill and and, you know, they're not really understanding if there is a structural change. It's been in the works for a long time, and they're not really understanding how that works. So, yeah, no, this is it's all because this is, unfortunately, how so many doctors are working. You know, they look the results. There is something get a bill for that, and there is no like, really, that, what is the root cause all behind and getting and that is so helpful. So thank you so much. On this podcast, I often talk about women in their 40s and 50s, about hormones and menopause. What would you like these women to know about, about what is happening in the bodies of the men in their life around the same age? I would like them to know that there is a cause of that inflammation. It's the same for them. So it can speak to them both if you have hormone imbalance. Let's speak about women real quick for in perimenopause and menopause, the way this is supposed to work is pre menstrual before we start our menstrual cycles, our adrenal glands make our sex hormones. They make our cortisol. They make all our estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. Women have estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. DHEA pregnant alone as do men, just different ratios so our adrenal glands support us once we start menstruation, that's when the ovaries start to do this monthly adventure to prepare the endometrial lining for implantation of a fertilized egg. That's the intention, if there is going to be a pregnancy, then the hormones adjust support the pregnancy, and then we're back to our monthly menstruation, when the adrenals are healthy, and you move into your post menstruating years, you should not experience any menopausal symptoms, because the adrenals go right take you right back to that strong foundation. So there are women who move from menstruation to menopause with zero symptoms, and the reason is because their adrenals are healthy. So what makes the adrenals unhealthy? Same thing, toxicity. Stress is a form of a toxin as well. Gut health is super important and systemic inflammation and infection, so it's perfectly reasonable same for women to again go through the process of a healthy bio identical hormone replacement strategy so that you can feel better, because you're going to need to sleep, you're going to need your energy, you're going to need immune function in order to fix the underlying issues. But you need to look at the underlying issues. You need to do a gut test, gi test, you need to look for toxicity and start to clear that toxicity at the same time. So they're the same problem. It's just manifesting differently. And I and we can talk about anything, it's the same problem. Yeah, no, it makes, it makes so much sense. And you see big smile on my face when I'm listening this. So it's kind of it's the issue. The root issue might be exactly the same, exactly Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, you know, it's chronic fatigue, it's all the same. You it's it's infection, it's toxicity. You have to find it and you have to fix it. And some of them are more challenging than others, depending upon your genetic ability to detoxify. For instance, a lot of us have variability. There. We a quick little story. I was taking care of a couple of. Been seeing them for years. They're from Uruguay and and I tested again, their mold, their toxicity. I do a test called Total toxin. That's a great test the wet the lab is called vibrant wellness, and it's available to a lot of people. So anyway, I look at them and their toxicity panels are so different. He hardly had any issues. Hers was a disaster. Oh, they've lived together for 30 years. They're exposed to the same toxicity. And you think, you know, why is his so different? And hers is so bad? Then they invited her sister to have her toxin test done as well. They haven't lived together for 30 years. They live in different countries, they're not exposed to the same thing. And yet, the two sisters toxicity panels were very, very similar, and it just goes to show you, they share a genetic predisposition for being poor detoxifiers. Wow. And so genetically, some of us are better detoxifiers than others, you can identify that relatively easily, and then you can support the body's detoxification pathways accordingly, and really help to move these toxins along so that they don't end up accumulating and causing inflammation and other problems. So you are saying that it was, it's, but how big role genetics have, and what is, what is, then, how much you can we can do with the decisions or our living environment, like, what is the is there some like ratio? What is, how much is genetics? How much is environment? Or yeah, most of its environment, genetics really help to help us understand where it is. We might be challenged in this environment. If there are several detoxification pathways, if you can identify which ones are not working properly, and you can identify which ones are not working properly through various tests, then you can support them. For instance, methylation is a, is a very necessary biochemical process. It participates in building things. It also is a is a detoxifying pathway. Women and men metabolize their hormones, down a glutathione pathway, calm T down a methylation pathway. In women, very clearly, if the methylation pathway is sub optimal, then they don't metabolize their estrogens effectively, and those intermediary estrogens build up as toxins and have a direct correlation to breast cancer. So we do a urine test that looks at the hormones, both for men and women, that show us those estrogen metabolites, they show us the comp T detoxification pathways and and so if they are poor methylators, you simply give them trimethylglycinate, methylated folate, methylated B, 12. So you can, you can skip over the biochemical process that they're not good at by giving them the next nutrient that can then follow suit and go through the process. And so, you know, just doing that test relative to the hormones tells you a lot about their detoxification pathways, and you can certainly apply it across, across the board. You can do genetics. Also, we have great genetic tests available. They can be somewhat confusing, but if you know how to read them, be helpful. Thank you. I want to talk a little bit about that emotional side and relationship. So because when when a man has a prostate pain or performance problems or low lipido. It's not only physical. So what emotional costs do you see in confidence, relationship even work? Yeah, yeah. That's a great question. It's a big problem. You know, men don't feel like men. If they're not able to perform sexually. They don't feel like men if they're not able to please their partners, they they feel very defeated if their sleep is interrupted. And you know, they're tired all the time and not able to be productive at work, not able to participate in the family as much as they'd like to men will often have to know where every single bathroom is along the way, if they're taking a long trip, you know it's embarrassing, because they have the whole family in the car, and they. To go the bathroom again. You know, usually that's your teenage daughter who has to use the bathroom all the time. You know, it's not very manly to have to stop at every every bathroom, and so it's very embarrassing for them. And you know, prostate issues and erection issues go hand in hand. Not every man with prostate issues has significant erectile changes, but most of them do, and so they start to withdraw. They start to withdraw from their relationship, from intimacy, they start to withdraw from all kinds of different activities. I know men that would love to take a trip. But they, they, they don't dare to. They they, they're worried they're going to be in a situation where it'll be even more embarrassing because they have to go to the bathroom, they can't hold it, or they end up in a situation where they can't go to the bathroom at all, and then they have to go to a hospital. Yeah, so it's a, it's, it's devastating for them, yeah, and women don't quite understand. And I think that's a big conversation that needs to be had. You know, men hide and women don't quite understand. And we could say the same thing about men and women with menopause as well. We need to talk more about these things, and we need to under we need to give each other some space and to to understand that we have different problems, but they're they're equally challenging. They affect the whole family. Oh, yeah. And this is, this is probably one of the most common issues that we are not talking enough about these problems and for partners listening, how they can bring this up in a kind supportive way, without shaming the man or making him sat down even more. Yeah, I think they could say, Hey, I heard Dr Roy on a podcast, and she's talking about men with prostate issues, and how common it is, and that there's really a root cause and and how men, if they're proactive, can avoid these things from happening, and certainly avoid them from controlling our lives. It would be amazing for you to go and get an assessment. Because, again, you don't want to point out that they have a problem, although they may it may be very obvious that they're getting out of bed, and you might be frustrated with that whole thing, but, but just, I think even giving permission for them to take the time to evaluate, have evaluated their state of wellness is a good thing, so we have to encourage each other to be proactive. I love it when the partner comes with the man to the assessment, because the more she is involved, the better the outcome, the better the outcome, the more she understands what's going on, the more she's engaged in the lifestyle changes that are going to be necessary, the more she understands the details of the root cause of the problem, the more she starts to see herself in it as well. And typically, you know, they both get healthier as a result of going through this process. Do you? Do you have, as I'm big, I love all kind of stories. So do you have any story would like to share, obviously, anonymously, like, don't mention any names of a man who thought his situation was hopeless and what changed for him after you address the broad course? Yes, actually, I have so many stories. Big one, good, good ones, good ones. Yeah, so I'll tell you a story about a recent patient that we're taking care of right now. He was a cyclist and rode his bicycle across the United States several times. Was just always athletic and very, very health conscious. For whatever reason, things went sideways. He started feeling fatigue. He he started having these prostate issues. The prostate issues made his interrupted his sleep. He then felt even more fatigue. He had erectile changes, just all of the sudden. Some of this coincided with with covid and covid vaccination, and that was a tough time for a lot of people. And then he was diagnosed with low thyroid, and yet he didn't have low thyroid. It was very confusing. His whole life just changed and became derailed. He came to me, he also developed diabetes during the same time. I mean, it was just this big storm. Like his whole body just just started falling apart, and he came to us, it's only been about two months, and we we got to work, we took a deep dive. We realized that he actually has an auto immune thyroiditis and an autoimmune diabetes. He has a significant gut infection. He has active Lyme, probably reactivated. He has some active viruses and a prostate infection. Okay, so that's a pretty big deal, and so we have started to treat his prostate infection with ozone and customized antibiotic and antifungal injections, we started cleaning up his body using Eboo, which is a high dose ozone with some UV blood irradiation, giving him some IV nutrients, big doses of glutathione, fixing his gut, and we've taken him through a very short process, actually, at four, at two months here, and he's already feeling significantly better. His prostate symptoms have almost resolved. His erections are not yet back online. He's doing better, but he's found the love of his life. He's getting married, and he wants to be able to have a baby, and his fertility has been way off as you can imagine, because of everything that's gone on. And so I just saw him on Friday, and I couldn't believe the difference in the prostate symptoms when we started versus the prostate symptoms. Now we have a validated questionnaire that we have men answer, and it just went beyond that. He's so excited and so hopeful that that they'll be able to conceive. I'm very confident that they will be able to conceive. We just need to get him cleaned up a bit and to modulate his immune system so that that that's a that's a great story. You know, men transform, we call it a prostagen Trans transformative health program. When they come in and let us get to work, it takes, you know, takes about a year of peeling away that onion. We take them through a process of not only injecting their prostate, but cleaning up their body, breaking up biofilms, getting their detox drainage open, fixing their gut, doing deeper detox, fixing the infections and the endothelium. And by the end of the year, I mean, they have lost weight. If they need to lose weight, they've gained weight. If they need to gain weight. Their energy is much, much better. They're likely on hormone support. Some of them get to come off hormone support because their body's working again. They have more clear thinking. They're so energetic. They have the libido again. They have hope, and they have just this new lease on life because they feel like they're in control. I think one of the biggest problems especially for men, though, I think this happens with women as well. They feel out of control because they don't know what's happening to them and why it's happening. I mean, when you're when you're when the symptoms are being treated, and suddenly that symptom treatment doesn't work anymore, and you don't understand why this is happening, and your doctor doesn't seem to understand why this is happening, then you don't know what's next. When you go through a program like ours, and you come out the other side, and I mean, even through the process, just seeing your whole body change, and you're saying, Wow, I now know what to do to keep myself healthy, I now can see how what I put in my mouth makes such a big difference, right? How I don't ignore my acid reflux and just take acid medication, how I know that if something happens like this, I need to look and fix it. So I think that that's the biggest shift that happens, is a feeling of control, because you know what to do, and you know that there is, there are answers, I bet, I bet. So was you. You use so much because I want to talk a little bit about treatments and daily habits, so because you use the face root cause clarity a lot. And so if you could design a basic checkup panel for every man over 40, what would it? What would be on it that most doctors are not checking today? Yeah, it would be a stool test for the GI system. It would be blood work that included advanced lipids, inflammatory markers, full hormones, metal toxicity and. Metabolic markers, like fasting insulin, for instance, that's a that's a big one, the insulin increases long before the sugar increases. So fasting insulin, I would have them do an express prostatic secretion test and send it to a lab that is has sensitive testing, not just a culture. The biggest reason why urologists don't realize that an enlarged prostate is infectious is because they used to test and they never found anything. So they just made the assumption they don't even test anymore, most of the time, because they just didn't have the right testing. So I think that's it. A full blood panel, a prostate secretion infection test and and the stool test, that would be a great annual exam. And, of course, if you could find somebody to do the immune frame test, then you know, that's a that would be a great addition as well. Thank you. That's so awesome. So what about then daily habits like, what are one or two lifestyle choices that have the biggest impact on the prostate health and long term sexual vitality? Okay, great. So number one is eating whole fresh food. If, if God didn't make it, you shouldn't eat it. You know, it really has to be whole, fresh food. Some people might not even understand what that means. That means, you know, organic, healthy vegetables and fruits, grass fed, grass finished, raised animals, you know, pastured eggs, those kinds of things. So that matters, food that is in a package, a box, bag or a can, is typically processed to some degree or another, and that processing is very problematic to our bodies. The the process by which the food is robbed with nutrients is a problem. You know, the chemicals that are often used in processing is is a problem. You are what you eat, but you are what you ate. Ate what you eat, eight as well, right? So for instance, animals, if we're eating animals, how they're raised is so important to the information that gets transferred to our bodies. Food is information. You put good information in, you're going to have a healthy body. You put bad information in, and over time, you will have a very unhealthy body, and that is the fact moving your body right? So I have a stand up desk. For instance, many of us are tied to our computers, which isn't healthy, but it's the reality of our normal of our modern life. So if you can stand at your desk, if you can drink lots of water, right? So hydration. Most of these guys that we're talking about, they're limiting their water because they have to pee all the time. So they, you know, they that's a problem. Now they're dehydrated. So staying hydrated, eating healthy salt, like healthy sea salts for the minerals, putting some in your water every day. That's a that's super easy, putting some raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar in your water. Things like this can be simple exercising, so maintaining your muscle, and it's not talking about heroics, where you know you're in the gym every day for hours, just some simple movement, breathing fresh air, drinking filtered water out of glass and not plastic. That's a big one. We have plastics, not using K cups for coffee, right? You take a plastic pod, you put it in a machine, and you push it through that plastic. You're just drinking microplastics, you know, using, using French press, or using, you know, an old school coffee maker where it's through a paper filter, simple things like that go an awful long way, never rolling into a fast food restaurant. Oh, that. Those are. So it is, it is like, when like listening this, I believe most of the people know these things. They are not that, wow, this. I never heard this before, right? So it's, it's more than putting it into your daily habits and starting to do these things from now. So I want to close this episode. And I said it time have I would love to, I would have still so many questions, but because of time, we gotta do wrap this up soon. So just a little last question, so if a man is listening. Right now, feeling embarrassed, ashamed and or thinking it is it is too late for me. What you would say to him directly, I would say it's not too late. It's rarely too late this, if I have a web page that I have put up specifically to help answer some question. It's called Ask Dr roy.com we'll have some information on that website. I'd like to give away as much information as I possibly can so men can find some help no matter where they are. So if you visit that page frequently, or, you know, put your name in and subscribe. I'll be sending some information. It's not too late. You really just need to find somebody to work with who can dig deep into the root cause. If you're in the United States, we have a lot of men that fly into our clinic, but we also, I work with a group called forum Health Forum, health comm. There's functional and integrative practitioners across the country. They all have access to me, and so find somebody that that you can work with. Start with the simple things that we just discussed, that aren't you know, they're easy, not simple to do, because you will not believe the impactfulness of all of these things you've been told time after time, and just didn't believe they were that important. They are. Yeah, and then for women listening, who recognize their partner in this episode, what is one step you would recommend they take after listening, sitting down and having a conversation with them, making some space and just saying, Hey, I've noticed this. I've noticed that you're having to get up frequently at night. I've noticed that you're, you know, pulling away or not wanting to do certain things. What do you say? We talk about this and try to find somebody who can help, I think, bringing it up and and again, just just inviting them to have a conversation. And they could say, you know, what I heard today is more than 50% of men over 50 are suffering with these problems. So this you're not alone. You know, men. Men have these issues, and they think no one else has them, you know, or they watch their friends when they're playing golf. You know, somebody's got to pee behind the bushes or something, and everybody laughs, but they don't realize that it's more than that for that person, and it's more than that for them as well. And so if they can't talk to their friends about it, which I, I think it would be wonderful if men just started saying, hey, you know, I, I heard this podcast, and this isn't normal guys, you know, let's talk about it. But, but the women can certainly make space to have this conversation with their men. I think it would go a long way. I really do. Yeah, I can. I can totally confirm that men, for sure, do not talk enough between men about these problems. So if you are women listening to this, you recognize your partner or man you love in this episode, I would love that you share this episode with them and have that conversation with the man you you love. So thank you so much. I really, really learned a lot again having you here. So where can people find you, your clinic and your work if they want to learn more about your like you have. We didn't even have time to talk about your process and method or see if they are good fit to work with you. I think going to ask Dr Roy, A, S, K, D, R, R, O, y.com, is a great place to start my practice. Website is doctors studio, all spelled out, doctor's studio, where you search my name, Elizabeth Roy, you'll find me in many different places. We have information on the website. You can schedule a call with one of my educators, and you can talk through what some of your issues are and some of the options that you might have that's probably the best, the best first place to go. Awesome. I will add all those links your website and into show notes. So please take check them there. And as we said, would love if you know someone who is struggling. Please share this episode and leave a five star review, as those are helping so much. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your wisdom. Dr Roy, I really, really enjoyed it. Thank you very much. So did I? Thank.