In the past year, I’ve been asked about health more than any other topic outside of tech and data. I’ve decided to consolidate my responses to those questions in a series of four Lucky7 posts.
Specifically, I’ll cover:
1. Nutrition (and my vegan power breakfast smoothie recipe)
2. The Cooper Clinic
3. OsteoStrong
4. Exercise and X3
For Part Two, I would like to discuss the benefits of an annual comprehensive physical examination. Personally, I chose to do this at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas ever since I turned 40. Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper is the founder and I always do my best to book with him. The Cooper Clinic has over 40 years of data about patients like me, which provides them with a level of pattern recognition that is unusual.
The Cooper Clinic has a very comprehensive and modern range of machines to check all of your vital organs for any signs of tumors, your heart for a cardio stress test, your blood for any nutrient deficiencies or early-warning signs, and your skin for any signs of early skin cancer or other issues. It is quite expensive but the convenience of everything being done onsite — in a single day — with modern machines and excellent doctors it is hard to beat.
I have heard that the Heart Hospital of Austin has a similar one-day comprehensive exam. You can watch a video about that here. I’m not sure what that costs by comparison as I’m hooked on the Cooper Clinic. I’ve heard it is less expensive though. But the Cooper Clinic has been doing this much longer, has more data, and I believe is more comprehensive. They also have very nice facilities, with a great cafe and gym — it is a good travel destination for a day or two.
I’ve had several major takeaways from going to the Cooper Clinic for years:
I stopped using fancy soaps. For a while we were using expensive Bliss soaps thinking that we had earned “the good stuff”. The Cooper Clinic’s comprehensive dermatology screening showed me that these fancy soaps were just drying out my skin and the best bet for almost all people is just to use regular old Dove soap for its moisturizing properties. Cheap and proven. I also use a daily facial moisturizer from Kiehl’s.
I stopped using honey in my morning smoothie and replaced it with zero-calorie monk fruit sweetener. I also switched to unsweetened almond milk and unsweetened Ripple Milk. My blood profile showed a bit higher glucose levels than I needed and these were easy ingredient changes. Why not save the glucose intake for the occasional margarita or wine instead of making it a morning ritual!
On my mostly vegan (sometimes vegetarian) diet, I was not deficient in any vitamins in a serious way but I started supplementing vegan B12 and D3 as a result of my blood profile. B12 is a common supplement for vegans, and I described why in Part One (also the documentary “The Game Changers” describes why). I detailed my full daily vitamin regimen in Part One.
The biggest change: I started doing zone-training cardio 2–3 times per week. The wakeup-call for this was a result of achieving only average performance at age 40 (according to Cooper Clinic’s age-bounded data) on the heart stress test during my first examination. I achieve this by getting on a treadmill or stairmaster for 35 minutes. The first 5 minutes I use to get my heart rate up to 135 beats per minute. Then I zone-train between 135–165 bpm for 30 minutes. This has made a huge difference in my heart health and energy level overall; in my most recent Cooper Clinic visit I achieved the “Fab Five”, which means I excelled in the top five tests, including the heart stress test. I went from average to top 10% performance on the heart stress test from age 40 to 47. Dr. Cooper explained that regularly doing this type of zone training has proven to extend your life by around 10 years — a healthy heart is the key.
As I mentioned in Part One, I was able to eliminate coffee as a result of my diet, which gives me plenty of energy without the afternoon slumps that many people experience. My energy also comes from regular cardio exercise and X3 workouts for muscular development, which I’ll cover in Part Four.
I hope this motivates you to get an annual comprehensive exam. It is especially important after you turn 40.