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The Top 5 Health Lies & The Truth You Need to Feel Better Today | Doctor Mike

Doctor Mike – the world's most followed doctor – sits down with Mel Robbins to expose the health lies that are making people sicker, more stressed, and afraid to trust their own bodies. If you're confused, overwhelmed, or frozen by conflicting health advice, this is the conversation you've been waiting for. Mel sits down with Doctor Mike Varshavski, the most followed medical doctor in the world, to expose the health lies and medical misinformation that are making people sicker, more stressed, and afraid to trust their own bodies. Doctor Mike (@DoctorMike ) has spent over a decade in clinical practice and continues to work in a community‑based family medical practice, where he sees patients of all ages and backgrounds. Every day, he witnesses the real‑world consequences of viral health myths, fear‑based medical advice, and misinformation spread online. Doctor Mike breaks down why taking care of your health feels harder than ever: you’re flooded with conflicting advice, extreme claims, and content designed to scare or sell - not help. He teaches you how to identify medical red flags, spot misinformation, and understand what actually works versus what doesn’t. This conversation will help you take back control of your health with clear, science‑based guidance without panic, guilt, or overwhelm. Doctor Mike also shares deeply moving insights on grief, how to navigate life’s most painful moments, and his personal story of coping with the sudden loss of his mother. In this episode, you’ll learn: - How to argue a medical bill and advocate for yourself in a broken healthcare system - The most dangerous health lies being spread online right now and why they’re so harmful - The truth about vaccines and how misinformation is putting lives at risk - How to spot medical misinformation, red flags, and fear‑based tactics designed to scare or sell - What to know about vaping, smoking, and nicotine patches - Why viral health trends and “miracle cures” often cause more harm than good - How grief, stress, and burnout impact your physical health and why basics can feel so hard - What actually improves long‑term health and what’s just noise - How misinformation hijacks decision‑making and fuels anxiety - How to have more honest, effective conversations with your doctor - How to make informed health decisions you can trust Whether you’re trying to get healthier, caring for everyone else while neglecting yourself, or feeling frozen by conflicting medical advice, this episode will feel like a lifeline. This is honest, research‑backed health information from a doctor who is committed to telling the truth. If you’re ready to stop being misled by health misinformation and start making confident, informed decisions about your health, this episode is where it begins. For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page: https://www.melrobbins.com/episode/episode-387/ Follow The Mel Robbins Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelrobbinspodcast I’m just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I’ll see you in the next episode. In this episode: 00:00 Intro 02:09 What is Health Misinformation? 10:58 What is the Biggest Problem in Healthcare Right Now? 16:25 How to Successfully Dispute a Medical Bill 21:37 The Most Important Doctor You Might Not Be Seeing 31:30 Coping with Grief: How to Start Healing on Day 1 40:46 Self-Care For The Caregiver 45:59 How To Spot Health Misinformation 48:08 Longevity is Overrated 51:01 How to Spot a Wellness Grifter 55:50 Protect Your Family From Medical Misinformation 01:03:34 The Myths and the Facts: Vaccines 01:09:39 The Risks of Cigarettes, Vaping and Nicotine Products 01:17:35 The First, Simple, Step You Can Take To A Healthier Life — Follow Mel: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melrobbins/ TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@melrobbins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melrobbins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melrobbins Website: http://melrobbins.com​ — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins​?sub_confirmation=1 — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here: The Let Them Theory: https://amzn.to/3IQ21Oe The Let Them Theory Audiobook: https://amzn.to/413SObp The High 5 Habit: https://amzn.to/3fMvfPQ The 5 Second Rule: https://amzn.to/4l54fah

Mel RobbinshostDr. Mike Varshavskiguest
Apr 16, 20261h 24mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 2:09

    Intro

    1. MR

      Today's extraordinary guest, he is here to tell you the top health lies and the truth you need to hear to feel better today

    2. MV

      This is how many almonds you have to eat. This is how many minutes of your life you'll lose if you eat one hot dog. Do you have headaches? You're not consuming enough pink Himalayan sea salt. Chemophobia, where they're scared of all chemicals. Water is dihydrogen monoxide, but that sounds scary. People view aging as a disease.

    3. MR

      Is aging a disease? Doctor Mike is the most followed medical doctor online, where every day he debunks medical misinformation, lies, and raises awareness on health issues to more than 30 million followers

    4. MV

      Smoking, then you have vapes. Now we get to the [beep] and all of a sudden, you have a very accessible, very easy, frictionless experience to get nicotine for teens. It can be more problematic than vaping.

    5. MR

      That's disgusting. What would you say to somebody who is focused on caring for everyone, but not themselves?

    6. MV

      This is effort. You've taken care of everyone and everything else except yourself, and if your cup isn't being refilled, you're gonna fail at helping your loved ones.

    7. MR

      What is your take on vaccines?

    8. MV

      I have no doubt children will die. It's a guarantee.

    9. MR

      Before we jump in, and the episode today is unbelievable, but I gotta show you something. My team just showed me 57% of you who watch the Mel Robbins Podcast here on YouTube are not subscribers. My goal is that we get that number to 50%. I know you're the kind of person that loves supporting people that support you, so if that subscribe button is lit up, it just means you're not a subscriber. Just hit subscribe. That is the number one way you can show your support to your friend Mel Robbins and to the team here at the podcast. It's free, and that way you don't miss a thing. It tells me, the team, that you love the guests that we're bringing. You're gonna love the guest today. You'll love the content that we're putting here on YouTube in an attempt to help you and the people that you love create a better life. Thank you for hitting subscribe. I really appreciate it. All right. Are you ready for a mind-blowing episode? I am too. Let's jump in.

  2. 2:09 – 10:58

    What is Health Misinformation?

    1. MR

      Dr. Mike, welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast.

    2. MV

      Thank you so much for having me.

    3. MR

      Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here for me and for the person who's with us, and speaking of the person who is here with us, they are probably feeling a little overwhelmed and burnt out and tired, maybe confused about what the best approach to take with their health is. And what I'd love to have you speak directly to is how might my life change if I take everything to heart that you're about to share with us, the lies you're about to dispel, the truth you're about to share, and I apply it to my life? What might change?

    4. MV

      You'll get better control of your life. These days, our attention is pulled in so many different directions, people promising us miraculous results, uh, healthcare communities confusing us, the healthcare system screwing us. So, my goal in presenting all this information and data that I've lived, experienced, practiced, guided patients through, is that you'll have better control to make the decisions based on what's important to you. As a doctor, my goal is to not make decisions for my patients. It's to present the data in the most transparent, relatable, honest way so they can take that data and make the decision for themselves that fits their goals, and that could be a different decision than I would make-

    5. MR

      Mm

    6. MV

      ... and that's okay. So the goal is to give you the power today.

    7. MR

      I love that you said, "That's okay." Why is it okay if somebody doesn't take the advice that you're giving them when you know that it could possibly make them healthier or feel better?

    8. MV

      Because as a doctor, we, we actually screwed this up many times over the last decades and probably even more so before my time, where doctors felt like they were telling you what to do. It's a very paternalistic relationship-

    9. MR

      Sure

    10. MV

      ... very parent-like. You have to lower your cholesterol. You have to do this. A patient doesn't have to do anything. In fact, everyone has their own risk tolerance that they're comfortable with. Everyone wants to live life in a slightly different way, and that's totally okay. What I wanna do is give my patients the choice with the best information that we have at hand, unadultered, honest, so that they can choose, "Do I wanna participate in this activity? Do I want my child to do this activity? What are the risks of doing this activity?" And then they can make the best decision. That's truly the heart of good medicine, and that's called informed consent.

    11. MR

      You know what I love about you? And it just occurred to me, that so many people first meet you because you have the largest health and medical channel online on YouTube. You are the most followed practicing medical doctor online. But you also are a doctor in clinical practice who sees firsthand patients that come in, probably with printouts, probably that have gone down rabbit holes, misinformation, things from influencers that, you know, they've been convinced to think. And so as a practicing clinical physician, you're dealing with the misinformation in exam rooms every single day.

    12. MV

      I would even venture to say that my patients are dealing with the misinformation. In fact, the reason why I started this whole social media platform was because I saw, in my residency training, my patients falling victim to the same traps over and over again, the same fear-mongering, miracle-promising approaches. And I hated the fact that they wanted the best for themselves. They wanted to live a healthy lifestyle, but they were making bad choices because they were presented with inaccurate information or over-hyped information. Because the people who were best at selling these things were usually the ones with the biggest platforms. So the reason why I started out in making this content, m- trying to become the most followed doctor on social media, was simply to compete with all these loud voices who are leading my patients astray.

    13. MR

      Why, Dr. Mike, is taking care of your health feel harder than ever?

    14. MV

      I think because there's so much noise, and it's not just healthcare noise, it's political noise, it's technological noise. I mean, you get a phone and two days later there's an update for your phone. A month later there's a better version of your phone. Uh, there's so many things fighting for your attention in this attention-focused economy that it becomes very difficult to make decisions without feeling overwhelmed. So I understand what that feels like when you're trying to do the best for yourself, for your loved ones, for your kids, and you're just not knowing what the right approach is 'cause you hear three different options or promises and they're all directly opposed to one another. So I, I sh- understand, I sympathize with my patients why it's so hard to make the right choice, especially with so much judgment out there as well.

    15. MR

      You know, I think it's one of the other reasons why I think a lot of us feel like when we really find somebody with the medical expertise or the research-backed expertise on a topic related to health in particular, the recommendations tend to be like, "Oh, yeah, that's right, I need to move my body. Oh, yeah, that's right, [laughs] I need to eat healthy." All the-

    16. MV

      Grandma was right a lot more-

    17. MR

      [laughs] Yes

    18. MV

      ... than we give her credit for, you know?

    19. MR

      But I wonder if the reminders are more important than ever because there's so much noise that's clouding what you really know are the true pillars of what we should and shouldn't be doing.

    20. MV

      Yeah, the reminders to do those basic activities, the tenets of health that we've practiced for generations, of sleeping well, eating a, a plant-focused diet with fruits, vegetables, lean sources of protein, exercising, social connections, all, sleep, all these things are so important. But then we also need to not get distracted off of these pillars, because it's easy to sell shortcuts.

    21. MR

      Mm.

    22. MV

      It's hard to sleep seven to nine hours a night, especially when you're anxious. And then when you don't sleep, well, you become more anxious. And when you're more anxious, you eat unhealthy, and then your weight changes, and you have a chronic health condition, and it's this spiral that you go down where it's like, how do I see the light? And usually that light is given by people who wanna weaponize that.

    23. MR

      Or sell you something.

    24. MV

      Or sell you something. And honestly, I think this is where we fail in healthcare.

    25. MR

      Mm.

    26. MV

      We have pushed patients away so far from believing that there is a light, that we've lost that connection to our patients, and the bad actors have capitalized on it. The grifters are partying day in and day out because doctors have lost that alliance that we spent years building with our patients. And partially it's the healthcare system to blame, but also it's us.

    27. MR

      Well, I also ... I'm just ... I'm gonna step in, though, and say it's also the fact that fear sells.

    28. MV

      Sure.

    29. MR

      And that when you start to, like, cast doubt on medical expertise, it builds distrust.

    30. MV

      Every time you go online.

  3. 10:58 – 16:25

    What is the Biggest Problem in Healthcare Right Now?

    1. MR

      There are so many symptomatic issues in terms of the healthcare system, but what do you see as the biggest problems, and who do they hurt the most?

    2. MV

      People who are busy, people who have jobs, multiple jobs, multiple children under their care-

    3. MR

      Mm

    4. MV

      ... multiple family members under their care. That is why people sometimes ask me, "What is the most proud moment of your career?" And it's my day-to-day job taking care of patients at my community health center. The people who need the highest level of care are oftentimes the ones who are left behind by our system.

    5. MR

      Mm.

    6. MV

      In fact, most people, uh, in my position when they're healthcare providers, when they get a level of notoriety, the first thing they do is they enter concierge care. They enter a high-paying care system where they get paid huge sums of money to take care of patients. But what I'm most proud of is that we've created this very unique model where because of my success on social media, I'm able to deliver that high level of concierge care to people who are under-insured, are in, uninsured completely, and they can ask me questions directly, they can text me, they can reach out on the electronic health record, where normally it's very difficultFor the average doctor to do because they're facing all these pressures from the healthcare system where they have to see a specific number of patients. They have to get the right number of RVUs, that's, uh, our relative value units that we, uh, sometimes get judged-

    7. MR

      What's an RVU?

    8. MV

      It's basically how doctors are judged on their productivity within a healthcare system, and some doctors have to perform a specific number of procedures, see a specific number of patients before they get their full salary, where I don't have to do that. I can just focus on making sure my patients are getting the best level of care. I wish I could be there for more patients, but the reality is if you wanna be a good doctor, a good primary care doctor for your patients, you can't shortcut the time.

    9. MR

      Hmm.

    10. MV

      Time is that most important variable that allows that alliance that we've lost focus on to be formed, trust to be earned, information to be adequately processed by both parties because while the patient is learning about the condition, I'm learning about the patient and what choices they wanna make.

    11. MR

      Hmm.

    12. MV

      So when I'm giving advice, I'm not giving advice based on what I want. I'm trying to give advice based on what I've learned and what's important to them, so that takes time.

    13. MR

      Well, and as you were just describing that person, which I think is basically a normal person-

    14. MV

      Yeah

    15. MR

      ... that has a tremendous amount of pressure on them, if you go see somebody that only has 10 minutes and your symptoms get dismissed or it's sort of like, "Well, you're just gonna brush it off," then yet again, you're getting the messaging that it doesn't matter anyway, and I gotta just keep on pressing forward and living like this, and-

    16. MV

      Yeah

    17. MR

      ... there's a way to actually reach people.

    18. MV

      There is, and there is a notion in the scientific community where people feel their doctors are gaslighting them more.

    19. MR

      Hmm.

    20. MV

      They're feeling that their complaints aren't being heard, they're being ignored, and I understand why they feel that way. It's reasonable to feel that way. First of all, we have to validate that right at the outset. But at the same time, I have to be honest, I don't think doctors in 2026 are suddenly gaslighting their patients more often because they don't care. I think our healthcare system is so broken and is set up in such a flawed way where doctors have no choice but to leave their patients sometimes feeling gaslit, and it's terrible, and that is what's also leading, on the flip side of the equation, doctors to feel more burnt out, more upset about the field than ever before, retiring earlier than ever before because of this feeling where, "Oh, my God, I wanna do what's right by my patient, but the system doesn't allow me to do it at my best capacity."

    21. MR

      What are some of the things that you've heard people say, just for the person listening who may have felt funny after seeing a doc who is doing the best that they can in a broken system, that is gaslighting? Is it, like, denying symptoms? Like, what does that even look like?

    22. MV

      Yeah. Sometimes it's-

    23. MR

      'Cause I, I will just say, I don't know that I've, at least in recent years, experienced it. Maybe it's 'cause I'm bossy as hell.

    24. MV

      [laughs]

    25. MR

      Um, but I can see how somebody could be run over and h- feel like their symptoms are not being taken seriously.

    26. MV

      If you happen to be a more passive personality type, you don't have a caregiver by your side to advocate-

    27. MR

      Hmm

    28. MV

      ... on your behalf, it's very easy for the healthcare system to leave you behind.

    29. MR

      I'm also a white woman.

    30. MV

      Yeah. Also true.

  4. 16:25 – 21:37

    How to Successfully Dispute a Medical Bill

    1. MR

      sad. Another thing that makes me very sad is the state of the cost of-

    2. MV

      Oh, yeah

    3. MR

      ... getting medical treatment and the reality of how many people face bankruptcy after a big diagnosis, or just the fear that people have over their medical bills. I have a very close friend who has a scan that she needs to get done.

    4. MV

      Right.

    5. MR

      It has been recommended by a doctor, it is not getting cleared by insurance. She is not getting it because she hasn't reached that kind of minimum payment that you need-

    6. MV

      Of course

    7. MR

      ... to make for it to be covered, and it feels like this weird, just unnecessary waiting game. What do you say to somebody who just opened a medical bill and they're panicked 'cause they can't pay it?

    8. MV

      Whether or not they're panicked-

    9. MR

      Yep

    10. MV

      ... whether or not it's a huge amount, argue everything. Argue every bill. You will get reductions on your bill. You will find resources to help pay your bill, financial aid to pay your bill. There are, there are so many underutilized programs that just patients don't know because they get a bill and they assume they have to pay it. I'll give you a very specific example. There was a gentleman, I believe he was in Texas, he had a heart attack. Otherwise healthy m- runner, teacher, good insurance, gets taken to an out-of-network hospital.

    11. MR

      Mm-hmm.

    12. MV

      It's not his choice. He's having a heart attack, but he's doing everything right. You have insurance, you have a job, you're taking care of your health, and yet you still have this unfortunate incident. Hundreds of thousands of dollars a bill to survive this heart attack. And what happens? He goes to the media, he tells his story. He explains how these predatory billing practices of this hospital system was taking advantage of him. The bill's reduced to-100 bucks. It's such a predatory system that you have to fight everything, and it's terrible that I have to put this on my already strained patients' backs, that I have to say, "In addition to dealing with your depression, your anxiety, your cholesterol, your blood pressure, but hey, also call the billing department and fight with them." But if I don't say that, they may pay it, and they may face bankruptcy. That's happening in our nation today.

    13. MR

      Dr. Mike, how do you fight a medical bill?

    14. MV

      Call the billing office.

    15. MR

      And what do you say?

    16. MV

      "I want an explanation why I need to pay this, why my insurance isn't paying this." Reach out to the medical office that, uh, did the service. Sometimes, Mel, because I, as a doctor, am putting on medical reasons for why I'm ordering a certain test, they may not be the ones that the insurance company likes to be placed for that condition. And sometimes it's as simple as getting the doctor to say, "Oh, well, I also ordered it for this," and put another code in. Boom, it's covered. Even worse, this is more aggravating, I order a basic antibiotic for my patient when they have a sinus infection, and because I'm ordering an electronic health record, I very quickly click the antibiotic, it was clindamycin, and I happen to order capsules. As a doctor, there's no difference between capsules and tablets in my mind. I get a denial. Patient's insurance doesn't pay for capsules, but they'll pay for tablets. The patient went to the pharmacy, got denied, goes home. I have to call the, the insurer-

    17. MR

      [laughs]

    18. MV

      ... find this out, ch- call the pharmacy, change this to tablets, tell the patient, "Hey, you gotta go back." What an ineffective, terrible system.

    19. MR

      And every-

    20. MV

      Disaster

    21. MR

      ... one of us has been in that situation.

    22. MV

      Correct, and here's the worst part. In any given moment of time, most people aren't sick. Most people aren't interacting with this broken healthcare system, but the reality is, at one point, we all will. We will all get sick. We will all have to deal with this crap system, doctor or not doctor. We will have to be p- a part of it. So if we don't advocate for this change, if we don't shine a light on these problems, it's only gonna get worse.

    23. MR

      What's so sad about the whole thing is it could be fixed.

    24. MV

      Which is why I look to people who wanna make Americans healthy again, and I say, "Please, focus on the real problems that are driving our healthcare disaster." Let's not focus on some random ingredient in Skittles, titanium dioxide. That's not where our problems are. Those are PR wins. Those aren't actual healthcare wins. So the people that support, uh, those in the administration that are wanting to make change, I feel bad for them the most because they're the ones that are being tricked right now. 'Cause w- I wanna be there for those patients. I wanna help them get the best quality care, for the doctor to have a discussion, "Well, do you wanna take an approach that's a little bit less aggressive, less medication-focused, more lifestyle fo-," to give you back the time, to make sure that pharmaceutical companies aren't playing games with pharmacy benefit managers to make sure your medications cost more. Let's address those inequities, where we'll get the best outcomes for our patients. Remains to be seen

  5. 21:37 – 31:30

    The Most Important Doctor You Might Not Be Seeing

    1. MV

      if that will happen.

    2. MR

      Well, if we were to put you in charge, what were the big things you would go after?

    3. MV

      Right away, transparency. The number one thing is we need to attack transparency.

    4. MR

      What does that mean?

    5. MV

      There are so many companies that are now functioning in all of these worlds, and I'll explain what I mean. There's companies that function in the pharmacy space, the pharmacy benefit manager space, where they actually decide what medications are covered and which ones are not.

    6. MR

      Capsules versus tablets.

    7. MV

      Yes.

    8. MR

      Generics versus...

    9. MV

      And the, here's the wild part about all of that. The PBMs, these pharmacy benefit managers, were created to save us money, and now they've become billion-dollar entities on their selves because they say, "Oh, well, if we save a patient $2, we can take a dollar for ourselves."

    10. MR

      And they're owned by-

    11. MV

      And by the-

    12. MR

      ... a lot of the pharmacies, pharmacies?

    13. MV

      They're owned by the pharmacies. They're owned by the healthcare insurers, and they're owning the entire system, so they're taking money out of one pocket, shifting it to another, and no one knows exactly how that's happening because it's not transparent, very poor regulation because of lobbyists, and no one's really talking about it in a way that's getting attention. And as a result, they're allowed to make a lot of profit at our expense.

    14. MR

      That's disgusting.

    15. MV

      Yeah.

    16. MR

      Well, what the hell do we do?

    17. MV

      Fight for transparency. Support those who are going to bat for patients in this way, where it's patient first.

    18. MR

      It sounds like a racket, honestly. It sounds like-

    19. MV

      It is a racket

    20. MR

      ... it should be illegal for a healthcare system to own a pharmacy and a, the pharmacy benefit management company at the same time.

    21. MV

      We should put you in charge.

    22. MR

      I don't wanna be in charge of that. I like doing what I do 'cause I feel like I'm doing what you're doing in a different way-

    23. MV

      Mm-hmm

    24. MR

      ... that I really wanna try to distill down-

    25. MV

      Mm-hmm

    26. MR

      ... the information that we all deserve and shine a light on the renowned and respected experts in their fields and give them a global platform to be able to teach and to empower and to call out misinformation, to give people options that really empower them to make better decisions in their lives.

    27. MV

      For sure. Yeah.

    28. MR

      And so I'm not the expert. I feel like I'm a, the conduit for conversation and information to flow-

    29. MV

      Yeah

    30. MR

      ... to somebody else.

  6. 31:30 – 40:46

    Coping with Grief: How to Start Healing on Day 1

    1. MR

      Speaking of good doctors, one of them was your dad-

    2. MV

      [laughs]

    3. MR

      ... who inspired you, and I wanna talk a little bit about your parents because they are very important to you. And I understand that your dad inspired you to want to become a doctor, and I'd love to hear the story.

    4. MV

      Yeah, it's paradoxical in nature because he actually was someone who was saying that the healthcare system is quite broken, and perhaps you should seek a different career path. But what was interesting in coming from Russia at age six, watching my parents adjust to a new language, a new culture, a new lifestyle, I got to watch them adapt, and I got to see how difficult life can be when you're facing limited resources, to live on welfare, to live in welfare housing. That is something we all experienced in my family, living the four of us in a one-bedroom. Watching-

    5. MR

      Was your dad a doctor in Russia?

    6. MV

      So he was a, he was a physician in Russia, and living in that moment, coming to America, watching him very quickly learn the language and apply to medical school again, apply to residency after medical school again, in his 40s, in a new language, I saw how strong he was and how strong you needed to be to overcome challenges. And, uh, because I was nine, 10 years old when he was going through his medical training, I was awake for it. I got to watch it. I got to watch his education process happen. He would bring me on his, uh, bring your child to work day, and I would see what it's like to be a resident, to sit in on-call room. And I fell in love with family medicine. I fell in love with the relationships that he was making with his patients, the ability to learn all of healthcare and be that quarterback. I really fell in love with the field, and I said, "There's so much value to this." So to me, family medicine was something I hard-headedly chose and fell in love with because of my father, and at the same time, in spite of my father, because he saw so many problems. He foresaw a lot of the problems that we're experiencing today.

    7. MR

      Hmm. Now, your mom passed away during your first year of medical school.

    8. MV

      Yeah.

    9. MR

      How did that experience shape who you are today and how you practice?

    10. MV

      You know, watching my parents come to a new country in their 40s, as I said, learning a new language. My mom was a PhD in mathematics in Russia. Her mom was the provost of the department. So when she came here, and she had to walk two miles to work to save on bus fare, to sweep the floors, I knew how hard they were working in order to set a good life for me and my sister. And then just as my dad was getting on his feet, he finished residency. They struggled, and now they were about to have a little bit of success where they can own their own home and travel a bit more and enjoy the fruits of their labor that they worked so hard for, to watch my mom get sick and progressively pass away from this cancer, it's a specific type of cancer called CLL. It was just heartbreaking to go through that. And being in medical school, I'm just starting to learn what it means to stop chest compressions. I'm learning what it means that we sometimes deliver too much care to people in their final years of their life.

    11. MR

      Yeah.

    12. MV

      And how perhaps we're actually hurting them rather than helping them. And while I'm learning those things in school, I'm taking my mom to her appointments at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and I'm seeing her get more sick, more sick. But then there's always a ray of hope, where just days before she died, I picked her up from Memorial Sloan, and the doctor shook my hand. He said, "We cured her cancer. We just have to have her recover now because she had a stem cell transplant, and now we just need her immune system to build back up, and she will be okay." And just a few days later, she got a mean infection. Her body went into gram-negative sepsis. It's a type of bacteria that creates an overwhelming response from the body. Blood pressure drops. We're all in the hospital, and she's getting chest compressions, and we're the ones that are having to tell them to stop. And when you're doing that to a loved one so unexpectedly because you have so much optimism and hope, it really awakens you to how short life is, how difficult our healthcare system can be, how healthcare providers who were doing the best that they could to save my mom also, when they went back to their cubbies, they were laughing about their everyday lives because they're humans too, and they have their own struggles, and I needed to be accepting of that. So there was so much learning that happened in that moment, and I think it really highlights an important factor, in that when you're a physician, we need to remind ourselves from this old adage, we're not robots. We're humans. If we wanna cry in an exam room, if we feel that with a patient, cry.No patient will judge you for that. In fact, it'll make you more human. Bring your experiences, your hobbies, your passions to the art of practicing medicine.

    13. MR

      Yeah.

    14. MV

      So I think it's those moments, these moments with our families, our moments of loss, that if we can bring them into the practice of healthcare in a meaningful way, we can be better. We can get better outcomes for everyone.

    15. MR

      You know, you mentioned these moments of loss. If the person who's listening right now is in grief or experiencing deep sadness and things just feel very, very hard, what do you wanna say to them about just the first step to take even today?

    16. MV

      To take the first step requires some bit of action. We're all seeking motivation, but the unfortunate truth is that action precedes motivation. We need to take some sort of action. So I try and think about what's the easiest action one can take. For some, that might be making their bed. For another, it may be taking a shower. For me, it was putting on my shoes. Putting on my shoes took me to the dog park. Putting on my shoes got me to take a boxing class. Putting on my shoes and taking a boxing class [laughs] 10 years later led me to fighting on Showtime PAY-PER-VIEW as a professional fighter. So-

    17. MR

      What? [laughs]

    18. MV

      ... you will never know where putting on your shoes may take you, but unless you take that first step of putting on your shoes, making your bed, taking a shower, you just don't know where you'll go. So that's, that's the simplest step, and I know it sounds easy to someone who's not in the depths of grief, who's not going through something. They say, "Oh, putting on shoes, that's not gonna get you anywhere." But when showering is hard, when combing your hair is hard, putting on your shoes is not the easiest task. But when you do, you never know where they'll, where they'll take you.

    19. MR

      I wanna stay right on this, 'cause I really, deeply appreciate you validating how hard it is to take a shower some days.

    20. MV

      Mm-hmm.

    21. MR

      How hard it is to brush your teeth.

    22. MV

      Oh, yeah.

    23. MR

      How hard it is to not just put on your shoes, but maybe walk out the door. Why do you think those little things feel so hard at times in life? Because to me, it's really important that we break this apart, because I think this is actually everything.

    24. MV

      It probably strikes at the heart of the humanity of meaning. When you live every day with your family members surrounding you, you have one idea of what life is. But when tragedy strikes and that gets completely flipped 180, you panic, and in order to protect yourself, your brain shuts down and says, "Minimal activity," much like when in boxing you get hit with a liver shot, [laughs] to make a strange analogy. You go down because you're worried about circulation. Same thing here. Your body's protecting you, but at the same time, you need to be able to be the judge of what's safe, what's acceptable, and sometimes it helps to have a team member. That's where doctors come in, therapists come in, and the most unique part of what I've learned in practicing healthcare for the last decade is that for mental health success, support system is crucial. So having family members, friends, so important. But then getting help from a medical specialist, a mental health specialist, is the second most important. But what's not so important is, are they a social worker? Are they a psychologist?

    25. MR

      Hmm.

    26. MV

      Are they a family medicine doctor? Are they someone from a religious background? As long it's, as it's someone who's not taking advantage of you and wanting to tell you the truth to help you get through this moment and shows you that you, too, are valuable, validated, and wants to help you overcome this, this tragedy, that's what gives you a good

  7. 40:46 – 45:59

    Self-Care For The Caregiver

    1. MV

      outcome.

    2. MR

      Doctor Mike, what would you say to somebody who is focused on caring for everyone but not themselves?

    3. MV

      Well, Mel, in front of us we have a really good example and a clear example of how this can devolve very quickly into everyone losing.

    4. MR

      Okay.

    5. MV

      We have five glasses here and a pitcher of blue-colored water-

    6. MR

      Okay

    7. MV

      ... just to show as an example of what happens in someone's everyday life as a caregiver.

    8. MR

      So the caregiver is the per- the pitcher of blue water.

    9. MV

      No. The, this is effort.

    10. MR

      Oh, this is effort.

    11. MV

      This is effort. This is energy. This is what's fueling the ability to do things.

    12. MR

      Okay.

    13. MV

      And each one of these cups will represent a different scenario in one's life.

    14. MR

      Okay.

    15. MV

      So for example, people have to show up to work. People work, right? That takes a lot of effort, a lot of energy. Boom, some of the blue water goes in there. But they also need to take care of their kids, right? That's important. I've read about the prom situation that you experienced-

    16. MR

      [laughs]

    17. MV

      ... and how stressful that was.

    18. MR

      A lot of energy.

    19. MV

      Should I, should I pour more [laughs] into that one? But look.

    20. MR

      Feeling I need to save it for other things. [laughs]

    21. MV

      Do, do you see how quickly we're losing the-

    22. MR

      Losing

    23. MV

      ... the energy?

    24. MR

      Yes.

    25. MV

      But then you're a caregiver to your aging parents. You continue losing. Uh-oh.

    26. MR

      Uh-oh.

    27. MV

      Uh-oh. Oh, wait, you have a spouse? Oh, wait, you wanna maintain some sort of connection with your spouse? You wanna love each other? You wanna spend time? You wanna travel? You wanna do something interesting, a hobby?

    28. MR

      Doctor Mike, that's the idea.

    29. MV

      Okay.

    30. MR

      Oh, my God, there's no energy, and I have to cook dinner, go to the grocery store-

  8. 45:59 – 48:08

    How To Spot Health Misinformation

    1. MV

      sure.

    2. MR

      Doctor Mike, you are known for cutting through just health misinformation and bullshit online.

    3. MV

      Mm-hmm.

    4. MR

      What is it about your approach to spotting and calling out, especially the lies and misinformation, that really makes you resonate with s- millions and millions of people every day?

    5. MV

      What I strive to do, which I hope people admire or appreciate, is to be as authentic and transparent as possible why I'm making certain recommendations. Um, being someone who had to study really hard to understand certain concepts, I had to simplify those concepts quite often. And in doing those simplifications, I realized I can use that same simplification to teach millions of people across the world these more complex subjects. And by being a family medicine doctor who's on the front lines and seeing what patients are experiencing, it really made me better to be on social media. And at the same time, when I'm researching certain topics for social media, it makes me a better provider for my patients. So it's this unique symbiotic relationship between healthcare and social media that I never knew existed and, in fact, was discouraged from going down this path-

    6. MR

      Yeah

    7. MV

      ... by some colleagues, by the medical community at large. And I think now they're waking up and realizing, "Oh my God, we've let this tool go underutilized." It was co-opted by bad actors, and now we're playing catch-up in some of the most difficult ways.

    8. MR

      I actually think people can thu- cut through bullshit and that it's very clear if you spend any time listening to your story that there is a genuine and authentic mission tied to what you're doing, and that's why you resonate with people.

    9. MV

      I appreciate you saying that.

    10. MR

      No, I mean that. I think your heart truly comes through, and that's why you resonate. I, I would love to know, um, what are the health trends and misinformation that you're seeing that drive you absolutely bananas? And since there's probably so many, what are the ones that drive you craziest or you think are doing the most damage right now?

  9. 48:08 – 51:01

    Longevity is Overrated

    1. MV

      I think in social media, the trend surrounding longevity is one I've been fighting against for a really long time, which sounds strange. Why is a doctor arguing against longevity? [laughs] But it feels like everyone is falling into this anti-aging bracket, and my main problems with it are twofold. Uh, one, people view aging as a disease, and I don't feel like that necessarily needs to be the case. There's a way to practice healthy aging that we can discuss.And not view it as a true pathology, as a true illness. And second is that it, a lot of times it takes information, research that is so preliminary that it should maybe give us hope for something on the horizon, and it gets blasted to the front pages, to the front headlines, to the Shopify stores, where people are selling these things that don't hold up under scrutiny. And therefore, people are not getting good care, or they're getting false information. In fact, when a doctor says they're a longevity doctor, it kind of throws me, because I think almost every doctor is a longevity doctor with one exception. I'm curious if you can guess what specialty is that exception.

    2. MR

      Palliative care?

    3. MV

      Yeah, hospice, 'cause they're focused on comfort, right?

    4. MR

      Yeah.

    5. MV

      Not prolonging one's life. But every other doctor wants you to live longer. They want you to have a better quality of life. Why is this being stolen?

    6. MR

      I, you know, I'm curious, Doctor Mike, is aging a disease?

    7. MV

      I don't think so. I don't think it needs to be viewed that way. And in fact, the more we view it that way, the more negative outcomes we get from aging.

    8. MR

      Well, this is gonna be one of those admissions that I kinda feel a little dumb saying. I'd never heard that aging... I, I... When you said aging is a disease, I'm like, "No, it's not. It, it's just something we do. It's not a di-..." But is it a disease?

    9. MV

      Well, people feel that they break down over time, they get more tired, they can't accomplish all of their goals that they were setting for themselves in their 20s. Their, they can't pull 18-hour days. But the reality is, you just told me, I think, before we started this conversation, that you're happier now than when you were earlier.

    10. MR

      Yes.

    11. MV

      So-

    12. MR

      I'm way happier in my late 50s. I'm way healthier.

    13. MV

      Yeah.

    14. MR

      I think I feel better, look better. I'm stronger. I can do more pushups. Again, it comes back to this thing you keep saying, which is, we are designed to grow.

    15. MV

      Yeah.

    16. MR

      We are designed to respond to the lifestyle and health things that our grandparents have always done, and your body loves it when you do it.

    17. MV

      And our minds evolve. Our neurochemistry evolves. Uh, how much we sleep evolves. We don't need as much sleep once we're older than when we were babies. So, things change, but if we view it with a negative lens all the time, it will make it worse.

  10. 51:01 – 55:50

    How to Spot a Wellness Grifter

    1. MR

      So, how do you know if somebody is selling you something, is a grifter, is trying to market something to you? He's got a red flag.

    2. MV

      This is, you gotta have one of these in your minds.

    3. MR

      Okay.

    4. MV

      In your mind's eye.

    5. MR

      Okay.

    6. MV

      All the time.

    7. MR

      Doctor Mike has a red flag. Tell me how we know. Give us a few examples.

    8. MV

      Okay. Overconfidence, you have to be waving this in your head, and I'll give you a very specific example. If a patient comes in with a symptom, the odds that I can definitively say that it's one condition is almost zero. I can be confident that, based on the presentation, my physical exam, the blood test, the scans, that it's pointing to a condition, a diagnosis. I still have a differential, which means I have other options of what it could be that are mimicking that same presentation, 'cause humans are not all exactly identical. So, in healthcare, good doctors, good nurses will always hedge. And when you're hedging, you don't look super confident. When a doctor says, "I don't know," patients do this, and that's when this should go down. Because when a doctor is not afraid to say, "I don't know," that's when they're being honest. That's when they're being vulnerable to tell you, from a humble standpoint, that this is tough. Further investigation is necessary. A clear answer is not here. Most importantly, they're not interested in slimming your wallet.

    9. MR

      Hmm. That's a good one.

    10. MV

      Yeah.

    11. MR

      'Cause it's true. When somebody says, "I don't know," you tend to go, "Red flag, you're not listening to me," and what they're basically saying is, "I'm thinking about all the things, and I don't have something definitive."

    12. MV

      Clear.

    13. MR

      "We gotta dig in."

    14. MV

      'Cause I could even think of bad actors that will make a short-form, uh, piece of content on TikTok, on Instagram, and will say, "Do you have headaches?" And if you have headaches, you're like, "Oh, my God. I have headaches." "You're not consuming enough pink Himalayan sea salt." Mel, this is content that exists online.

    15. MR

      [laughs] I got surprised, 'cause one of the big ones that I see online right now is somebody going, they're in a, they're in a grocery store, and I'm sure you've seen this-

    16. MV

      Yeah

    17. MR

      ... even if you're losing- They flip it over. Blabbity, blabbity, blah. And then they go to Home Depot or a hardware store, and they're like, "And this is in I don't know what else."

    18. MV

      Yeah.

    19. MR

      And I'm like, this is basic chemistry.

    20. MV

      Yeah, the chemophobia-

    21. MR

      What are we talking about?

    22. MV

      ... is real.

    23. MR

      The, what is it called?

    24. MV

      Chemophobia, where they're scared of all chemicals, and it's really strong, and they're really good at it. They scare people a lot. Because what's a chemical? I, I even had, this is interesting, the director of the FDA was on my show, and he said that he encourages people to eat organic produce. And I said, "Interesting. Why?" And he said, "Because traditional produce has pesticide residues on it, and organic means they don't use pesticides." And I had to kindly remind that there is organic pesticides. And he said, "Well, no chemical pesticides." What is no chemical pesticides? This water is a chemical. The air we're breathing is a chemical. And this chemical fear that we have needs to be validated, because there's some companies who have destroyed our environments by throwing-

    25. MR

      Yes

    26. MV

      ... chemicals everywhere. We're dealing with these forever chemicals in our environment that we need to desperately investigate and put money into research to see how they're impacting our health. Yes. But at the same time, we don't wanna be to the point where we're afraid of all chemicals when they can, in fact, be beneficial to us.

    27. MR

      I want you to explain to the person listening-What you meant when you said water is chemical, because you were talking about it based on the chemical property chart-

    28. MV

      Right

    29. MR

      ... that we learned about in chemistry class. But because there's so much misinformation, just you're talking about a specific definition of the word chemical that now everybody's like, "Wait, it's a chemical."

    30. MV

      W- water is dihydrogen monoxide, but that sounds scary. Water sounds [laughs] a lot more palatable. But in reality, it's just a chemical formula.

  11. 55:50 – 1:03:34

    Protect Your Family From Medical Misinformation

    1. MR

      What do you do if somebody that you loves goes down the misinformation rabbit hole, Doctor Mike?

    2. MV

      Validate, validate, validate.

    3. MR

      [laughs] Why do we validate?

    4. MV

      Because we, you, you have to seek to understand first. How did they get there? What are they experiencing? Perhaps you have a misread of the situation.

    5. MR

      Sure.

    6. MV

      Approaching it with that level of charitable thinking fosters healthy communication, and healthy communication, the goal of any healthy communication, should be truth-seeking together. So perhaps you'd learn something about your loved one by having that conversation that might change your opinion. I think we all need to approach these conversations with open minds. You know, I surrounded myself with, um, those who are vaccine hesitant on a show called Surrounded. It's like a Jubilee series that they do, and it was me versus 20 people who were vaccine hesitant. One of the people said, "There's nothing I could say that would change their mind." I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I actually read and study." I was bewildered because to me, when you approach a truth-seeking conversation with that mindset, you are making yourself more immune to facts and new information than you are to a disease. You're missing the opportunity to become immune to illness. So we have to be open-minded. We have to be skeptical for everyone. Be skeptical of me. Be skeptical of your doctor. Be skeptical of new treatments. Not cynical, but skeptical. Like, we should foster that trait in people a little bit more than we have over the last few years.

    7. MR

      The skepticism?

    8. MV

      The skepticism.

    9. MR

      Yeah, but, but I, I mean, the reason why I'm pushing back is I am shocked by the number of people that are trying to be healthy and end up going down some weird rabbit hole. And all of a sudden, they distrust doctors, they're anti-vaccine, they are suspicious of medical and scientific institutions, and I think the distrust is a real problem right now.

    10. MV

      It's a huge problem right now.

    11. MR

      Why is this, why do you think this is happening?

    12. MV

      I think the pandemic hurt people's trust of the healthcare system and the government of how they overpromise certain things with presenting data with perhaps too much confidence. They, we, we lost in healthcare a bit of humility, perhaps in an understandable way during a moment that is unprecedented, a new novel condition that was impacting the globe and we were scared, but we made a mistake. We didn't communicate well. And then the second thing, we wrote off social media as a tool that's beneath us. We thought we needed to be in our Ivy League institutions, at, at medical conferences and research journals, but that's not where people are, and people want information faster than ever before. And when you pair the difficulty it is to see a doctor, to get good quality access, with the fact that we're not communicating well, with the fact that we're not present in the one place where people are searching for answers the most, that's, uh, ingredients that are bound to explode, and that's what I think is happening with the distrust.

    13. MR

      I also b- believe some of the things that I've read from experts that I respect and trust, that when you're anxious, when you are uncertain, you automatically look for ways to control, and that the anxious and uncertain and upset brain is more likely to believe conspiracy theory than a brain that is calm and rational and strategic. That's just what I think.

    14. MV

      Yeah.

    15. MR

      That, that people reached for a lot of things that were unfounded as a basis to put blame during a situation that was unprecedented, that most people were doing the best that they could to try to navigate in real time, whether it was the school system or it was the healthcare system or your local hospital, all of it.

    16. MV

      To me, that's understandable. We weren't there. We weren't saying our side of the conversation-

    17. MR

      Sure

    18. MV

      ... accurately or honestly. Um, what do we expect? W- we created a vacuum that bad actors weaponized the system, the game against us, and as a result, people have this very scary or negative perception of what healthcare is, of what a doctor is. That when I go and do these Jubilee conversations with people who disagree with me, the first thing the participants say is, "Well, you're different." [laughs] It's no- I'm not any different. I practice in a healthcare system with hundreds of doctors, and they're all doing the best that they can, and they all want the best for their patients. But when on social media-The viral pieces of content only show the fearmongering of the evil doctor that doesn't care about you versus the flip side is what they care about you. They'll give you the natural remedy that will solve everything that ails you. I mean, the list of things that they claim some products work for is just, that's a miracle potion, because it, it, at some point it's like, wait, this cures mental health disorders, energy, uh, this makes me stronger, faster. Like, how can it do everything with no side effects? But when the healthcare system feels cynical, like they write off natural remedies, they write off lifestyle changes because they're so cynical that no one wants to make those changes, suddenly that person looks more reasonable than that evil doctor that you have painted in your head. So we need to be there. We ne- we need to use these tools and not just villainize them and saying, "They're what's responsible for misinformation." Well, yeah, if we're not gonna be there, they will be.

    19. MR

      You know, Doctor Mike, you're making a very compelling case for the first step, which is validate.

    20. MV

      Hmm.

    21. MR

      And whether it is you being somebody that has gone down a rabbit hole and you think your family's crazy for still believing certain things, or you have loved ones that have gone down a rabbit hole, the first step is just validate. How did they get there? Was it fear? Was it control? Was it that they were getting dismissed by the traditional systems in the, in medicine or whatever else? And once you validate, what's the next thing to do?

    22. MV

      Speak from your emotional side, and don't be a boss. No one likes bosses. They want people who empathize. In fact, the worst thing you can do when you're trying to seek some sort of community eye to eye with someone is put a stone in between you. So explaining why someone is so important to you, why you care about them, the reasons for why you're making these recommendations, a lot of times are more valuable than the recommendations themselves.

    23. MR

      Mm.

    24. MV

      And people want minds to be changed in the course of one conversation, in the course of just one statement, and that is so far from reality. There are stages to grief, and there are stages to behavioral changes, especially when those ideological changes become part of one's identity.

    25. MR

      Mm.

    26. MV

      So do not expect one's mind to be changed after one conversation. At best, you can take them one step in the direction of perhaps they're now in the pre-con- uh, contemplation stage of making a change. So it requires a lot of patience.

  12. 1:03:34 – 1:09:39

    The Myths and the Facts: Vaccines

    1. MR

      Doctor Mike, there's so much misinformation about vaccines. What is your take on vaccines?

    2. MV

      Vaccines are one of these advancements in scientific progress that should be considered a miracle. We can protect ourselves from infectious diseases that cause death, disability, harm, without ever needing to experience this disease. Because with many vaccines, yes, you can have immunity from experiencing the natural illness, but how great without having to experience any of the risks of having the natural illness, becoming immune, or perhaps mitigating the risks of having that condition. And when people try and throw shade or confuse people about vaccines, they're raising issues as if we haven't addressed those issues in healthcare research. They say statements like, "When it comes to vaccines, we should leave no stone unturned." There's no doctor, there's no scientist who would disagree with that statement, and we've overturned every stone. We've looked at population studies to hundreds of thousands to make sure at the highest level of scrutiny for vaccines. And why? Because vaccines, unlike pharmaceuticals, are given to otherwise healthy people. So we need to make sure that we're approaching them with a much higher level of scrutiny and a much higher level of surveillance than we do with pharmaceuticals, because those are given to people who need something. They're sick already. So if there's some benefit to be had, we might be okay with more side effects. When you're giving something to someone who's otherwise healthy, we're not okay with side effects. They need to be minimal to none for us to be accepting of that treatment, and vaccines are the, is that.

    3. MR

      What are some of the most common claims you're seeing, uh, Doctor Mike, and how do you respond when it comes to misinformation related to vaccines and scientific research?

    4. MV

      To be honest, there's not many clear claims that people make because a lot of times it's arbitrary. Oh, vaccines are a chemical that we introduce to children, and people get scared of that because of that chemophobia that we discussed before. They try and create lies about vaccines that they're not as tested as pharmaceuticals. Lie. It's the exact opposite. The first vaccine, smallpox, 1700s. We've been doing this for centuries, protecting people in order to prevent them getting illness. In fact, some of the community that is anti-vaccine a lot of times criticizes our healthcare system for being too reactive and not proactive, not preventing illness. And I agree, we do need to do a better job there. But vaccines are an example of prevention. They talk about pharmaceutical companies making money off these medications. Well, when you get a vaccine, you don't need treatments because you won't get sick with those illnesses. And the scariest and most sad part is the victims of this are gonna be kids.I have no doubt in my mind that this year children will die unnecessarily from vaccine-preventable illnesses like measles. It's a guarantee. And why those children need to die, I don't have an answer for. Y- these people who are proponents of anti-vaccine rhetoric, they used to say that it was thimerosal, a mercury component of vaccines, that was driving the autism epidemic, why autism rates were going up. That was a claim they made. We've eliminated thimerosal in childhood vaccines. Autism's still going up. All their claims that they made are untrue, but now they move the goalpost to another thing, another thing.

    5. MR

      Where do you fall on this, Doctor Mike, when it comes to all of the claims all over the internet and autism and vaccines that prevent children from dying of preventable diseases?

    6. MV

      Well, we need to be honest. Autism rates are going up.

    7. MR

      Mm-hmm.

    8. MV

      We don't have a clear answer. This is where we had a red flag, and we need to not wave it when the medical community says we don't know.

    9. MR

      Hmm.

    10. MV

      We need to understand that we're seeking the answers. But Mel, the way we get answers in science is not by just saying, "Oh, the expert said this, so we will agree with them." It's by testing different theories, constantly being self-critical, constantly putting forth a hypothesis, and ruthlessly testing it over and over again, trying to disprove our own theories. But in this day and age of social media, people wanna put out a theory and find evidence to support their theory, which is not how good science is done. Good science tries to put out theories and adequately challenge them over and over again, and the more you fail in challenging your own theory, that's when you usually have a good theory. And we're losing sight of that.

    11. MR

      As a medical doctor in clinical practice and seeing the impact that it has on the day-to-day life of your patients-

    12. MV

      Yeah

    13. MR

      ... how does this misinformation show up in your daily clinical practice, just seeing folks as a family medical doctor?

    14. MV

      Patients are turning down vaccines for their children. They're turning down the hepatitis B vaccine. And what's so wild to me is it's not like the research isn't there.

    15. MR

      Yes, and we have the health outcomes to prove that the recommendation works universally.

    16. MV

      Right.

    17. MR

      And yes, there are isolated risks.

    18. MV

      Correct.

    19. MR

      But it's... I haven't heard somebody delineate it that clearly, so thank you.

  13. 1:09:39 – 1:17:35

    The Risks of Cigarettes, Vaping and Nicotine Products

    1. MR

      I wanna run through some of the things that I know I'm seeing, I'm sure as you're listening or you're watching on YouTube, uh, you have seen or heard about. And I would love, Doctor Mike, to you, have you give us like your-

    2. MV

      Let's do it. Yeah

    3. MR

      ... medical take. I wanna talk about vaping. Okay? Um, so many parents are concerned about vaping. One of our, uh, kids recently admitted that we had no idea that there was a year or two long period in their life where they would literally wake up, reach for the vape, suck it in, had it in their pocket all... I had no idea. Absolutely no idea. Now what I'm seeing, I see those disgusting pouches-

    4. MV

      Hmm

    5. MR

      ... in everybody's mouth now and people pretending as if it has no real impact on anything, which I think is the bigger issue.

    6. MV

      Yeah.

    7. MR

      Let's talk about teens and vaping.

    8. MV

      Let's get this out here. Boom. Pouches.

    9. MR

      Oh. Yep.

    10. MV

      Vapes. Smoking.

    11. MR

      So Doctor Mike has three big mason jars. One is labeled smoke, the other is lab-veled vape, and the other is labeled pouch. So these are the delivery mechanisms for the nicotine.

    12. MV

      Correct. And here we have some good old poker chips-

    13. MR

      Okay

    14. MV

      ... that allows us to show the barriers one faces from a societal perspective or personal perspective into doing each one of these habits. Smoking, the most problematic behavior. The most cases of COPD, the most cases of cancer come from smoking. But society frowns upon smoking, so it makes it harder to smoke. Can't smoke indoors in most places. Gotta put a chip in there. Smoking stinks. Makes your clothes stink. People don't like it. Societal cost. Children of smokers, even when they don't smoke around their children, have higher allergy rates. So people who smoke wanna not hurt their children. Cost. Smoking, really expensive. Taxed up the wazoo in most states. Costs a lot of money. Wow, there's a lot of things to smoking. Let's move on to vapes.

    15. MR

      Well, also, like, there's the inconvenience. You gotta go outside.

    16. MV

      Well, yeah.

    17. MR

      Your partner may hate it. You can't stay in the house. Like, just-

    18. MV

      All of these very-

    19. MR

      I can see all the barriers that you're talking about.

    20. MV

      So it makes it a little bit, also, harder to hide.

    21. MR

      Very hard.

    22. MV

      [laughs]

    23. MR

      'Cause you smell like it.

    24. MV

      You smell like it. People know you're smoking. Very visible.

    25. MR

      In your car, on your clothes.

    26. MV

      Fire alarms are going off.

    27. MR

      [laughs] Well, God, what are you smoking?

    28. MV

      [laughs] Well, but the smoke is there, so there is some carbon monoxide. So then you have vapes. They don't smell that bad. They're easy to hide. They are expensive, so let's throw one in there. Can kids hide them?

    29. MR

      Well, yeah.

    30. MV

      Easily.

  14. 1:17:35 – 1:24:05

    The First, Simple, Step You Can Take To A Healthier Life

    1. MV

      oppor- and they fail, that could be an opportunity for learning what are those triggers that led you to fail that perhaps in the future you can address and be more successful.

    2. MR

      What, what, what really strikes me in having this in-depth conversation with you is how reasonable you are.

    3. MV

      Mm-hmm.

    4. MR

      That you are really trying to discern where people are coming from and then bring us back to the facts. The person who's listening really were to just try to tune out the noise and focus on the kinda core pillars that matter to your overall health, what are those things?

    5. MV

      None of them are novel. Sleep, eat, moderation, healthy foods, colorful foods. Uh, that's gonna be different for every person depending on genetics, choices, culture, medical conditions, family history. Uh, exercise. Now, some people say, "Oh, this exercise is better than this exercise." If you're exercising, I'm happy. Given the state of the United States right now, how sedentary we all are, how much we're spending time in front of screens, any exercise to me is a win. Now, if someone's doing something that's potentially raising the risk of injury, which will stop them from being consistent-

    6. MR

      Right

    7. MV

      ... I'll raise that flag. Or if there's a piece of exercise they could be doing, I'm thinking about women and resistance training and how beneficial it is to bone health, I'll recommend it. But if they wanna just walk with weights, I- I'm for it. They're getting their cardiovascular exercise in. They're getting their endorphins from that. That's important.Human connection, utmost importance. In as digitally connected world we live in, the fact that we're more lonely than ever is confusing, but it's also extremely problematic to the quality of our lives, to our mental health. So finding ways to connect in person is more important now than ever, and takes more effort-

    8. MR

      Hmm

    9. MV

      ... now than ever.

    10. MR

      Doctor Mike, what are your parting words?

    11. MV

      Some healthcare is better than none. More healthcare is not better than some, but find a primary care doctor who can guide you on what some is appropriate for you.

    12. MR

      You know, if the person who's listening does just that, that you re-engage with your primary care doctor, you re-engage with the pediatrician, that you really get back into a dialogue and you think not about sick care, but truly about your healthcare, and working together with that medical expert, you're going to be in much better shape because you're not gonna be alone in the sea of misinformation that we currently live in.

    13. MV

      I can't promise that they'll be in better shape, but what I can promise is they will be more in control of what shape they choose to be in. And ultimately, life is about making choices based on what's important to you. And what a lot of these voices that are popular on social media these days are doing is subliminally, they're, they're taking away your control. They're hijacking-

    14. MR

      Hmm

    15. MV

      ... your control over your health, your relationship with your doctor. And if you want that control back, invest in a good primary care doctor, get individualized care for what's right for you, learn about yourself, learn about science, and ultimately have not just a long life, but a life that's worth living for you, whatever that means for you.

    16. MR

      Doctor Mike, I cannot thank you enough for coming to Boston, for spending so much time with us, and more importantly, for doing the work that you're doing, not only in the community-based family medicine practice, but the way in which you're translating all of this information. You are just unapologetically going after the misinformation, the nonsense, and helping us make sense of a very confusing and overwhelming moment. And I just, on behalf of myself, this team, the person listening, and everybody that you inspire every day, thank you.

    17. MV

      Thank you for the opportunity to be able to reach people with this message, because these days it's harder than ever in the attention economy where we live. So any opportunity to allow people to see that there's so much humility behind healthcare. And when we are fact-checking misinformation, what we're really highlighting is how much we don't know as opposed to what we do know, and that there's so much more to be discovered, which is why I'm hoping that we stop canceling clinical trials that the NIH is funding, and we start putting funds back into researching, back into making innovations, so that our country can be the powerhouse that allows our loved one to live 10 years, 20 years longer in a more meaningful way.

    18. MR

      And isn't that what we all want, Doctor Mike? So thank you for helping us sort through the noise so we can make better decisions for ourselves and the people that we love. And thank you for making the decision to listen to this or to watch this on YouTube. There's no doubt in my mind that everything that Doctor Mike shared with you can change your life or the life of your loved ones for the better. So I just deeply appreciate you being here, and I'm so excited for all the positive change that can come from this one episode, and you sharing it with people that you care about. And in case no one else tells you today, as your friend, I wanted to be sure to tell you that I love you, and I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And one of the things that will make your life better is when you start prioritizing your health, you start taking better care of yourself, and Doctor Mike today gave you so many ways that you can do that. I truly hope you will follow his expertise and put his advice into action. All righty. I will be waiting for you in the very next episode. I'll welcome you in the moment you hit play. And thank you. Thank you for watching on YouTube. Thanks for watching all the way to the end, and if you're wondering, "Mel, oh my gosh, that was incredible. What should I watch next?" Well, first, if the subscribe button is lit up, you should hit that because it's the best way to say, "I love this, Mel," and, "Thanks, Doctor Mike," and, "Thanks, Mel's team." And I appreciate you doing that, so thank you. And you're gonna love this episode. I'll be there to welcome you in the moment you hit play. Check it out. [outro music]

Episode duration: 1:24:06

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