¶ Health and Sports Medicine Conversation
Today on the Ever Onward podcast we have Dr Caleb Redden . He is Dr Thor from the Titan Games . We've known him for a long time . He is a wonderful guy . He's a sports medicine doctor here in town . He does a lot of great things here and we can't wait to catch up with him , see what he's up to and talk all things health and wellness Dr Caleb Redden .
Caleb , thanks for coming on . Man Pleasure Straight from the hospital .
Yeah , straight from work here . Yeah , it's good stuff , it's been a while .
It's going to be fun getting caught up . Yeah , I'm excited . We were just talking about your kids . I didn't know you Listen . Yeah , we've had the joke today . This is like the handsome , like uh athletic dude uh day on the podcast , but uh , you have a 19 year old I do .
Yeah , 19 year old son , he's doing great . It's been . The one of the best parts of my life is being a dad . But yeah , he's 19 and um , then I have a 15 yearyear-old son and a 13-year-old daughter , and she is a boy . Oh boy , the boys were easy to take care of .
Oh amen , I had boy , three girls , and I remember the very first time , like at 13 or 14 , there was like just some random crying and I'm like what is this ? This is different .
Yeah , if she would have been born first , we'd only had one . She'd have been an only child , I'm pretty sure .
Yep , oh , that's great , that's great . Are your kids into sports ?
They are yep . So my daughter , she's a hard charger . She loves volleyball , does club and pretty busy with that . I'm sure a lot of Idaho parents are aware of what it's like to have a kid in club sports . It doesn't matter what the club is , but it stays pretty hopped up . And then my boys both like football and track .
Both play football and track Pretty intense with club sports nowadays , right it is . It's not like when I grew up like you did . You did it in a season and then you went and played in the fields and then whatever . It's different now , right ?
It is , yeah , club it in a season and then you went and played in the fields and then , whatever it's different . Now , right , it is .
Yeah , club sports are an entity all their own and just I was the same way like I played club hockey growing up and it was club just because it wasn't a school sponsored sport , but you just paid for your ice time and the ref time and your parents carted you around the state and you traveled because you had . Where'd you grow up ? In Wyoming , wyoming .
Where were you born ? I was born in Provo , utah . I never lived there . My dad was doing his training . He works for Williams , which is a big natural gas processing company , so he was doing training there . They had me and then they moved right to Wyoming , essentially , so I was born there what town ?
Big Piney is the name of the town Big Piney is the name of the town Big Piney , Wyoming . I think I remember this .
Yeah , population is like 350 , 400 people . It's a pretty small , isolated place , but a bunch of tough kids come out of that small town .
Let me tell you what was the closest bigger town ?
It's a 65-mile drive to Kemmerer , which had a couple thousand , and then big like Walmart . The closest Walmart was like Rock Springs and that was a two-hour drive to get to Walmart .
Yeah , Kemmerer , right .
Mm-hmm . Spelled funny , yeah , spelled funny , yeah , kemmerer Isn't there like a reservoir there or something . Yeah , so Fontenelle , fontenelle Reservoir , and it's got some big I'm trying to think of , of think ling cod are in there like crazy huge ling cod yeah , yeah , there's some , there's some good fish in there , for sure .
Well , I went there once and never again . So my father-in-law's a nut , right , I remember this , that's why I remember camera . So he says , hey , we're gonna go fishing , you want to go ?
And it's the middle of winter and he's like there are these great big fish in there and , and I will remember , he had this little aluminum boat with like a 25 horsepower outboard and we'd go fishing , trolling for these lean cod in the middle of the winter . And I just remember sitting in that boat because he is a , you know , we got there .
We I can't remember what time we got there and got there in the dark and all day long and we didn't catch one fish . He showed me all these pictures and I just thought there's a point at which , like , I just would rather die . I'm so cold that it's , definitely , it's a .
It's a cold place , that's for sure , yep um , how's it ?
how you , how you been ? How's business ? Let's talk about that . Let's get caught up first .
Yeah um , you know it's funny , uh the uh . The community has grown at such a remarkable rate , um , that the number of patients that need to be seen are increasing exponentially , but the number of physicians is not , and we can only work so many hours a day , see so many people a day , so we're busy , to say the least .
A lot of people who have moved into town , who like outdoor activities , you know , mountain biking , skiing , hunting and fishing , those types of things , and I'm a sports medicine physician , so as a sports medicine doctor , you know those are sort of our bread and butter patients . And then the club sports that's exploded and getting bigger and bigger and it's busy .
Yeah , we see a lot of people and a lot of injury care and then a lot of performance enhancement and optimization . It's kind of like my niche and there are a lot of people who are interested in that . So from a physician standpoint , we're really busy .
And I think the biggest complaint that I think everybody has in town is it just takes too long to see a , you know , a doctor . It's a long wait and we're aware of that . We realize that it's definitely a problem , trying to do everything we can to fix it , but it it .
Just there's a lot of people that need to be seen and you know , I think , um , that's a good and a bad problem , right like it's job security , but at the same time , we feel that stress oh , yeah , yeah , how does it ever correct itself ?
we're talking in the hallway on your way in here and you're like , yeah , I'm working 65 hours a week . Um , like it's just , yeah , it's just . Do you worry ? And when we talked about you coming on again today , I'm like what do you want to talk about ? I'm like I don't know . But there's a lot of things I want to talk to you about .
One is just do you worry about burnout ? Because even I mean you think of all the specialties that there are in medicine . You are a sports medicine doctor , so in theory , you've picked the thing that you're around healthy people all the time , happy people all the time people to get better .
I mean you're not dredging in the ERs , like some of us schmucks do , but just the pressures of modern . I hear it from all my colleagues that were in medicine with me . They're just like I don't know man . It's just , it's different now . Talk about that .
Well , and I know I'm preaching to the choir because you've you know , working in the ER definitely has different levels of stress and I recognize that and realize that . I think if you work in a dermatology clinic you would you know , if you work in Durham , the stress that you feel there is different than the stress you feel as a in the ER .
But you're right , I did pick a profession that I enjoy , so there's passion there . I really like where I'm at . I can't really see myself being a doctor or doing anything else . So , that being said , when I , when I feel like you know , I talk to people about burnout , I don't look at it as burnout .
I look at it as being tired because I enjoy what I'm doing . And I look at the definition of burnout . There's a sense of , there's this lack of purpose , lack of autonomy , lack of drive .
That's a great distinction , because that's not what it is right . You went in it for the right reason . You're passionate about it , you love it , you're just freaking tired .
Yeah , it for the right reason . You're passionate about it , you love it . You're just freaking tired . Yeah , you're just tired , you're worn out . And I I had a conversation with an older doc years ago who told me that burnout and granted , I'm not sure that I totally agree with this , but he told me that burnout was a luxury , he said .
He went so far as to say depression is a luxury . Like you , you know , he's like , and he brought up my dad , who's a hard-working blue-collar guy . He's like when was the last time your dad didn't go to work because he was sad ? And I was like never he goes . When was the last time your dad didn't go to work because he was tired ?
And I was like oh yeah , no , no , he just he always went . Like when was the last time your dad didn't show up ? Because he was , you know , he like brought these things up and he was like you know , burnout is a state of mind and he's like , you decide the state of your mind .
And yeah , of course there's certain levels of you know , the tissue breaks down . We get , you know , I get that , I recognize
¶ Finding Purpose and Balance in Work
that . But I think burnout really comes down to losing the joy in your work . And as long as the joy is there and you're able to manage being tired , I don't . I don't like . For me , I don't feel burned out Now . That being said , I definitely acknowledge the tired you know working .
I work in clinic five days a week and then I work walk in like urgent ortho , orthopedic , urgent care at least one weekend , if not two weekends a month .
And then I work nights , at least two or three nights a week I'm covering some sport and then at least one or two weekends a month I cover a sport and then I try to make it to my kids sports and then I try to do the things that are .
You know , I have other jobs outside of medicine with you know , social media and content creating and you know , sponsorship things that I do that are ancillary income . So I feel like I realistically probably work seven days a week but I don't mind that I . I sort of probably enjoy that in some ways .
But I recognize that the people that I work with and you know , the the majority of people that I work with don't really want to work seven days a week , 365 . They like breaks . They want to have some some change in the the scenery , and I definitely have . You know , we were joking as we were coming in .
I , I'm a blue collar guy with a white coat and I work like a blue collar guy that came from nothing and has something to prove .
And , uh , you know , I've been in practice for six , six , seven years and I still feel that way and I think that as long as I feel like my my work has purpose and that there is some benefit to it outside of just a paycheck , I feel okay with it .
And then all the other things that I do keep me busy and keep me out of trouble , as simple as that sounds . I have got pretty bad ADHD and if I sit still too much I get pretty bad anxiety . Truthfully , a dangerous place for me is on a beach with nothing to do . It causes me to be quite unrested and pretty agitated .
Nothing to do it causes me to be quite unrested and pretty agitated . So the more busy I am , the less there's time for the demons to get in my head and rattle me up . So I recognize that there are a lot of people who get burned out . I recognize that a lot of people feel tired and there's probably some crossover there .
But for me , as long as there's some purpose there , some mastery , some autonomy it's been written about that those things create a feeling of success for me . Seeing patients that are improving helps me to feel like , you know , if I wasn't here and helping this person , then their life's affected in a negative way .
The people that work with me I don't say for me , I say with me , because they're my team and you would know this as well as anyone If you don't have good nurses in the uh , in the ER , you're not going to do well Like you're just not going to do well .
So the team that I work with , I'm I'm definitely very aware of their level of being tired and everybody's is different and I don't want to overdo it for them . But for me I'm , I'm , I'm doing okay still Definitely work hard and definitely tired from time to time , and I'd acknowledge that . And for me to recharge it doesn't take much .
I go to the mountains and go hunting or go fishing , or I have a little ranch , I have some cows , I do a small cattle business . So going out to work with my hands helps me , doing things with my family helps me . So I think there's a way for me to recharge .
It doesn't take a week off , it just takes maybe a couple of hours and then I feel like I'm ready to go again . It's great .
It's great . One of the one of the things , as I'm listening to you , is I um , medicine , healthcare , helping people is such a , it's such a pure interaction .
I mean you think about , like , if you strip it down to that , like someone's got a problem and they don't know how to fix it and they need , they need a physician to help them or heal them , um , and it's such , there's nothing like it and I mean it's just such a privilege . I mean .
I think , I truly mean that I think most of the people that I knew , associated with for years , you know decades of my life , they felt the same . They felt the same kind of honor and privilege . It is gratitude for just being able to wake up every morning , go to work and take care of people , and I think that will always be the essence of health care .
I think what happened to health care in my time and is the , the , the bureaucracy and business and interactions just are mind-numbing in today's world .
And and um , thank heavens that you still have the good part of it right , there's still patient care and it still motivates you and you still walk away every day saying , man , I had some , I had wonderful interactions and I got to take care of patients , the sacred privilege , because the rest of it's it's changed Right .
Yeah , and that's that's where it feels like I think a lot of the people who are burned out , a lot of the docs that I know that that would describe themselves being burned out . It's not that they're burned out with doing the job which is taking care of people . The science is still exciting to them . You know the learning opportunities .
You're a lifelong learner as a doctor . You constantly reading , like that's exciting , you know it's , it's challenging in a good way . But it's those other things you're talking about , like the . You know the fights and the struggles with insurance and the fights and the struggles with an administration .
Or you know gosh , the chart notes , and I mean litigation and surveys and complaints and all the things that , like , you know it's all that other stuff that makes it more difficult . My dad used to joke . My dad's definitely like my dad is one of the coolest like blue-collar guys .
He's got a book full of quotes and he always talks about like when he's he got out of cattle business , cause my grandpa was a it was a cattle hand , my dad was an oil guy , so he's , you know , moving up breaking these chains of bondage from the cowboying days and stuff , and so when I , I was the first one to get a bachelor's degree in my family , and
when I went to school , my dad he was like you know , just remember that with cows you always win . And I didn't , you know .
And I grew up cowboying and working in drilling and I worked on rigs for a lot of years too , and like now that I've got my own kind of life and some hobby cow business on the side , I recognize that the value in that was , even though he got out of the cattle business too , he realized that there were days where the paperwork was killing him .
For him it was working with engineers that like they're telling him that it's supposed to be built like this and he's telling him it doesn't work like that . Like come and put the wrench on the nut and I'll show you .
Like you can't do it because the engineers are like , well , on paper , I don't care what it says on paper , come put it on , you know what I mean . And then for us it's the same thing .
It's like well , we need you to see this many patients , or we need you to do it in this amount of time , or we need you to get these things done before you order that MRI . I say , hey , listen , I hear you , but that's not how it works . Yeah , like come , that saying comes from the cows . You always win . Like you can't argue with that .
Like eventually you're going to get them into the next pasture , eventually they're going to get fed . Eventually you're going to get them in the trailer , eventually you're going to get slaughtered . Eventually you're going to put them in a package . Eventually , like at some point with cows , you it may fight , at some point you're going to win .
I can't wait to—Corey Hall is my good friend , oh yeah , and he's just a cowboy and we do some of that together and I love that line . I love it With cows , you're always going to win .
I also—I'm really connecting with you right now because I think of my life now and what I enjoy more than almost anything is going out and taking care of the cows , doing those simple things . There's always something to do . It's so good for me , it's so , in fact it's . You know we go up to McCall , to the ranch , and that there's always work to do .
And it's fun work and I enjoy it . I'm outside and I'm with my dogs and I'm not thinking about anything . I don't care where my phone is . I don't even check an email and for me , if I go on vacation , like to Hawaii or somewhere like that , it's like I'm a wreck .
So I'm really yeah , there's a lot of just I'm looking at my phone .
It's just so different . So it's funny that you spend all your life trying the first part of your trying to get off a farm and then you spend the last part of your life trying to get back on 100% .
Yeah , and it does drive my own man nuts . He's like boy . I thought I got you educated , you get out of this life and you know I'm shaking his head , but it's good though . That's really cool .
Um , talk about your craft , which is a sports medicine , which is a great field , I mean .
Uh , a lot of advances , a lot of treatment , and you get to be part of the performance side of it too , and that's got to be exciting because you're around healthy people that are trying to improve their physiology and those sort of things , and what advances have you seen .
And it's an exciting time to be , you know , I think we started kind of with the hey , I just got off work , I'm tired , I'm dragging ass coming in here to now like , hey , there's great things going on , right .
So that's the flip side of it yeah , talk about that for yeah , it's really exciting . Um , I think one of the things that we see that is changing rapidly is the field of orthobiologics . Yeah , and non-operative treatment for orthopedic concerns I would say the vast majority of complaints .
We use that term , of course , in medicine , but the vast majority of orthopedic complaints are non-surgical and you know , finding treatment for people that is successful , that doesn't require a surgical intervention , is remarkable .
Getting people back to doing the things that they want to do , or getting them to a higher level of doing the things they like to do , is is very , it's very um enriching , and so I think orthobiologics is a field where we're seeing advances and um improvements in outcomes , which is really exciting .
Um , I think , a lot of to understanding I'm I'm really happy to see that um , strength and conditioning is and and improving body composition is being looked at more as a medical treatment . Now , yeah , it's more common um and it's more accepted , I think , in the in the public's view .
Uh , 20 , I mean , I've been , I've been working as a personal trainer , writing diets for people and exercise programs since like 2002 . So I've done that for a long time and I always used that , incorporated that in my practice along through medical school and residency . I was always the guy in the back that's like , well , hey , what about if they get stronger ?
Like , would their knee pain get better if they got a better quad VMO activation ? Or hey , what about if they get stronger ? Like , would their knee pain get better if they got a better quad vmo activation ? Or hey , what about if their hip , if they're oh hey , what about if they got their glute needs stronger ? Would they get better ?
Like you know , I was always that guy that was the professors where I was like , here's the meathead again talking about lifting weights . But but really now we see that , gosh , that actually is a huge component . Like we can prevent significant orthopedic concerns as well as metabolic and health concerns .
Lifespan improves and healthspan improves with , you know , improving conditioning and um and improving body composition , like reducing body fat , improving skeletal muscle it's , it's the silver bullet and you know , there people have known that a long time but it's becoming accepted that . Oh yeah , it's not just the doctor harping on me to lift weights .
I actually think this is a good idea . It's becoming common knowledge . So , as a sports medicine provider , being able to use exercise and nutrition as medicine is really exciting to me , because that's a .
That's another passion for me , and being able to incorporate that to where you know , even if it's someone who's never exercised before , we're helping them so that they're learning how to exercise and eat differently versus someone who's really good at exercise .
I mean , like a big part of my practice with sports performance is helping professional , semi-professional , collegiate olympic athletes improve . In what ways can they improve ? And it's really exciting to do that as well . Like that's .
I mean that's like if you , if you were going to compare that to like mechanics , that's like someone who works on uh , you know the , the , the jalopies , the . I don't want to like honda civic right versus a ferrari . You know what I mean .
Like that , of course , you need to work on the Honda Civics because that's what keeps America running is all those cars that have great gas mileage and stuff . But once in a while you get to work on a race car and that's really fun and exciting .
That's cool .
That's a big part of what I do too , and I I really enjoy that . I'd like working on Honda Civics . It's not like I don't , I know , in the seven-year-old pickleball player for sure , but also being able to work with those high-level pro athletes that really want to get better is super exciting .
Let's , let's . I'm going to take you down both those paths . So let's do Honda civics for your 40 , 50 year old weekend
¶ Building Healthy Habits for Longevity
warrior . Want to be healthy , want longevity in your life , want to be healthy and and live long and enjoy your things . What are the things you're telling your patients right now ?
Deconditioning kills and fragility is fatal . So if you're 40 or 50 and you want to live a healthy and strong life , do not allow yourself to become deconditioned . Aerobic and anaerobic exercise If you're not doing it , we're going to start now . It doesn't matter where you're at , we're going to start today , kind of a thing . And then fragility is literally fatal .
I mean ground level fall , the hip fracture leads to all cause mortality , right . So if we can improve your skeletal muscle and your bone density , that's what we need to work on right now .
And if you're 40 or 50 and you have a sport you like you know you like golf , pick a ball , whatever tennis , it doesn't matter what it is like let's , let's get you to the point where you can do those things more frequently with less pain , right .
So , less of the idc type pain , and a big part of it is just making really simple small changes with people and then just keeping them accountable isn't so much of a consistency , totally like , like , go go through like , so we're . Honda Civic . Yeah , sticking on Honda Civic Honda .
Civic , probably 15 , 20 , 30 pounds overweight . Yeah , probably not eating well , eating the usual American diet a little mental fog , tired , not sleeping well , too much time on the phone , too much work , busy , and you take that person and you start with sleep and then you say , hey , start exercising . What ? What is that actually ? What is your ?
Yeah , what does their exercise program look like to really make a change in their life ?
it just has to be very consistent , just like you said . Like people will talk about inspiration and motivation . Uh , they're useless . Like , dedication and commitment are 10 out of 10 more useful . If you're committed to something and you continue to do it , you don't need to be inspired to do it , you don't even motivate you , you just do it .
I mean , did you brush your teeth today ? Yeah , why ? Well , it's just part of my routine . I want my teeth to last me a lifetime . Right , like well , you look at it like that , then ? I mean , people used to ask me in the gym like man , how do you stay motivated to work out through residency ? It's like I don't .
I'm usually full of answers not all of them , right , I had no answer . I was like I don don't know . Nothing really motivates me . What inspires me is seeing some 50 year old guy that's overweight , that's come into the gym two or three times a week Cause he wants to be healthy and be around for his grandkids , like that . You know how hard that is that .
You know how difficult that is for that guy to show up here in the morning going to work 12 hour shift driving a FedEx truck , and he's going to come in here in the because he wants to be able to be around for his grandkids . You know how hard that is . This guy never worked out before right With a Honda Civic .
If you put oil in the machine , you fill it up with gas , you put tires on it and if you drive it like a reasonable human , it's going to last you a long time , right . Same thing if we're in our 40s .
Dude , I feel like I'm back in rural Wyoming right now getting a lecture from your dad . I love it . He's going to love . He's got to listen to this and go . Man , my son is killing it . Put oil in there .
Put oil in it , put fuel in it , like put tires on it . Make sure you , you know , fill up your blinker fluid . You see that wink Where's the camera at ? Fill up your blinker fluid , make sure the Duma flotchies are flashing .
I mean , if you just take care of it and maintain it , if you stay ready , you don't have to get ready Right and so with with someone who's like in that timeframe , by the way , that your thirties or thirties and forties were probably the most influential , and most 30 and four year olds don't realize this .
This is a whole nother lecture that I give people but , like in your thirties and forties , you don't realize how pivotal and quintessential that decade of life is to set you up for the next 30 . You really have like people have no idea how important it is , Cause they usually gain 10 or 15 pounds in their twenties .
And it's habits , right , totally yeah . Like to your point , like I want to brush my teeth every day . If you stop brushing your teeth in your twenties , your thirties and forties , teeth would fall apart , fall apart . But but it's just it it is . It is habit for me , yep .
And if you , if you look at like the really simple things like , so that 40 year old person is like , how do we start that Right ? Like I asked him to do very , very simple things like have a conversation with him about what their normal life is like , what are the normal routines , what are those things like ?
And then how can we alter that in a way that isn't catastrophic Usually does not need to be a catastrophic change . It can be very simple . Like you know , stop drinking your calories , right , drink water instead of , or drink a calorie free . You know these are the foods you really like . Let's just eat a little bit less of those things Like .
You can still have spaghetti meatballs . Just eat a little bit less . You drive by three gyms on your way to work . Would it ? Would it kill you to get up an hour earlier , or maybe leave work a little bit earlier or maybe sneak in there ? You know what I mean .
Like there's options , right , and so I'll tell people too , like , even if they've got a desk job or something , it's like , well , hey , can you stand up and walk for 90 seconds ?
Usually people , even I mean , I'm busy , like my job is like , but I can spare 90 seconds to walk up and down the hall and if you do that 10 times , like all of a sudden you're adding steps , adding minutes and you're exercising throughout the day .
Talk a little bit about so , seven days in a week and for that Honda Civic , 40 year old person . Um , it's consistency over time and but , but the amount of time a day . You can be pretty effective if you stretch like let's talk about stretching a day .
You can be pretty effective if you stretch like let's talk about stretching , stretch and and get some cardio and some weight training in . It's not a lot of time every day .
It's the consistency over time , correct ? I work out for 45 minutes , maybe an hour . I like to work out , mind you , it's something I enjoy . So I work out at least six or sometimes seven times a week . But you don't need to do that right , like if you work out for 30 minutes most days of the week and you modify your caloric intake .
Most people see dramatic changes If you go from , like Honda Civic .
And what I love about the human body is like if you did that consistently for a month , you would feel different Totally . Everything changes , everything changes .
Your taste buds change , like your cravings for sugar decrease because your taste buds turn over after 60 days or whatever . It is like 45 to 60 days your taste buds are changing , so now you're not craving it as much , doesn't taste as good like .
If you can do , if humans can change a pattern and maintain that pattern for three months , they start to notice a big change . Maybe not the rest of the world , but if they're able to do that for six months , then you know people that they know really well are going to notice there's been a difference .
If they do it for a year , they're a completely different person . Cellular level , everything changes mitochondria , red blood cells , white bloods all of it changes right within a year and so you can be a completely different person in a year . The hard part for people it's not complicated , it's just difficult to do .
The science is not complicated , it's very simple , right ? The equation is very simple , the biochemistry is very simple , even though metabolism would take up this entire wall Calories in , calories out , and then macronutrients , micronutrients and then output , and lean muscle mass is the metabolic organ that we're really focusing on .
So increasing lean muscle mass , appropriate intake , consistent time frame it really isn't complicated , but it is really hard to do for most people and I think that , having some very simple , achievable goals , you can't set the bar so high that you walk in on day one and you're like , well , I am never going to climb to the top of that mountain , not going to
even try , like that . It just shuts people down . So if you , if you're like , well , how about today , at our 15 minute break , maybe we don't have a cigarette , maybe instead we just have a conversation , don't smoke . And tomorrow , instead of having three Pepsis at lunch , maybe we just have one .
And then , a year from now , you're drinking water and you're not smoking and you're exercising and live a longer half of your life .
Um , before we leave this , um talk about the mental health advantages that come in a world where we I mean you look at how our world's changed , right ? Most people live attached to a phone , checking social media , comparing their real lives with someone else's make-believe version of their life . We're more sedentary than ever .
Testosterone levels are lower than ever historically , Cortisol levels are higher than ever , Sleep's worse than it's ever been . I mean , you start going down all the trends that we have in america . And then you look at just the obesity rates in america and comorbidities that are happening in america , and and then so there's all that .
And then just go to like , well , why would we be having more anxiety , depression than ever before ? And you're like , well , I don't know ?
Yeah , right , it doesn't take a doctor or a scientist to look at that and say I don't know , that doesn't seem like that . That equation doesn't check , right , yeah , yeah , I think exercise is one of the most overlooked antidepressants , for sure , and I think food is probably one of the most abused antidepressants .
I mean because people do , they use , they use food as a way to deal with their stress and anxieties and that's it's not an appropriate method , but it is quite common . Exercise changes your brains , you .
You have a pharmacy floating around in your body and people may not realize this , but as you exercise you release hormones and endorphins that change your brain chemistry the same way that a tylenol would or an aspirin would or an antibiotic .
I mean it changes your chemistry , your neurochemistry , and those , those chemical changes that occur have a dramatic effect upon the way you feel and , as you mentioned , cortisol levels , stress hormones , neurotransmitters , which are responsible for a lot , lot of the function , the functions of your body , and homeostasis and how it all works .
But exercise pretty much plays a role in every human system . I mean everything from your skin . I mean , even if you start exercising and you have difficulties with inflammation in your skin , I mean , I've got a good friend who's a dermatologist .
I've talked about this with him a lot like how exercise improves your skin , and that doesn't seem like something that would come up in Chapter 1 of dermatology , but it probably should , because it's something we have , all of us have access to .
Not all of us have access to the medications that might make your skin clean and healthy , right , but we can all exercise and it does . It has a direct effect upon your cells and your skin and can clear up inflammatory responses that occur in your skin , and I've seen that happen with patients too . It's remarkable .
So if you're looking at one tool , one lever that you can pull to improve mental health , that pretty much we have data that supports its use for everybody . It's exercise . I mean , it works on your neurochemistry , it works on your mood , it works in a plethora of other ways that are .
You know , the science is really incredible and it's exciting , but it's also really simple . You know , just get your heart rate up and keep it up and do some resistance training , release some endorphins , release some chemicals , change , change your hormone levels and feel better . I mean it's , it really does work . That's powerful stuff , okay .
That's great . Let's talk about the Ferrari . Yeah , so now you have the Ferrari right , these , these people athletes you , you , you help all types and and they're fine-tuned . It's got to be fun for you for them to come into you and say , okay , my performance is here , I want to take it to here . It's kind of the other end of the spectrum for you .
It's really exciting . And I should say for the people out there who think they're a Civic , the Ferraris have just as many , if not more , problems than the Civics . Social media , people comparing themselves and stuff .
Comparison will rob you of happiness and you know , if you're a civic , don't compare yourself to a ferrari and remind yourself that civics do just fine . Yeah , it's interesting like you'll find things , sometimes big things , that can be improved upon with the Ferraris , the pro and the higher level athletes , and it's often the same component . We're humans .
We have one heart , two lungs , 10 fingers , 10 toes , right Like you've all got . For the most part , we're all built the same , but we're all built different , and I mean that in the most as simple as that sounded , it was incredibly profound that you just have one heart beating in you , just like everybody else . So if it's possible , it's possible .
It doesn't matter where you start from , but the Ferraris . Usually you have to dig a little bit deeper to find the key to making this car faster . How do we make this person more effective ? How can we help them with improving their rest and recovering their sleep ? How do we help them with their mental health ? How do we help them improve muscle .
They're already quite big and quite strong or quite lean and quite fast . Like , how do we improve upon that ? And it's not . It's interesting because you know the the term asymptote right . Like this continual improvement but not a lot of change on the on the x-axis .
They get to this point where , like super trained athletes , will feel like they're they're not really improving anymore . They've just met this plateau . But they really are . It's just it's such a small increment that it's hard for them to notice it . So a lot of times what we're doing is showing them like , hey , you are improving and here's how you're improving .
And like sometimes they're data driven , sometimes you know , sometimes it's not . It's like having them step back and look and say , oh , you're right , I , I do feel like I'm I'm doing okay in these aspects , and then you know it's interesting too , it's it's fun to find ways for them to get you know to build strength .
¶ The Impact of Social Media
The human body is a phenomenal machine . Oh my gosh , it's so exciting to to watch it , watch it work at its highest level and and honestly , I'm just enamored by performance . For someone who's a fifth grade kid that just learns how to swing a bat , it's like man . Did you see how that kid swung the bat and hit the ball .
It takes so many motor neurons firing on the same way for him to do that . It's just as exciting as watching someone hit their 50th home run in the season or whatever . It's still just powerful to see . But I love working with those high-level athletes because it causes me to work a little bit harder too . I have to dig a little bit deeper .
I have to find new , unique ways to improve upon where they're at , and that's fun and exciting . That's cool .
Talk a little bit about the availability , through your practice here , for people to . I mean , I know you're hard to get into , but what are , what are the options within your practice for those that need , need help or or ?
we try to be as accessible as possible . I mean we're we're trying to be open to , to to seeing new patients , like we're . We're definitely seeing new patients . Everybody in my clinic is seeing new patients and , um , you know it's .
The hard part is like if you call in and I work for you know a big hospital system and you're on hold for a long time , I would just say don't give up , stay , stay on the phone don't give up . Don't give up like don't give up , like stay on there till you get what you need , like don't take no for an answer , kind of a thing .
Um , you know , it's funny , people reach out in a lot of ways now that they didn't used to social media , being one of them , and I have a hard time there because I can't legally , like really communicate with people through social media . It's not a safe way for that , you know , for lots of reasons .
But people reach out through social media all the time to get appointments and things like that . But you know , people get on online and they they can request a consultation and we're we try to do our best to get people in . We're probably only really booked out maybe three or four weeks from a , you know , a new patient evaluation .
But , um , the hard part is like the type of evaluation , the time frame . People often will call and be like , well , I want to be seen on a tuesday at three o'clock , and it's like , well , yeah , you know how , about a wednesday morning at 8 am ? No , I can't do mornings . It's like , and that's you know how , about a Wednesday morning at 8 am ?
No , I can't do mornings . And that's sometimes what pushes people out a little further is like their availability .
I just looked down on time . I got three more things I've got to get through with you . So , people that are , I'm going to do a formal introduction on you , but you're Dr Thor during the Titan Games . Right , that's what you . It was a big , it was a big deal . Right , that's what you . It was a big , it was a big deal right .
Yeah , people have been calling me Thor for a long time before the Titan games . They just ate it up , like Dwayne Johnson thought that was hilarious and he's obviously friends with Chris Hemsworth and like would just totally like running down . So you're on Titan .
So for those listening you know you were on the Titan games and that's . That's where I mean it was from . You know your story . It was really cool . I mean it was for people that knew you it was . It was really awesome . But because of that you got a pretty big social media following , which has continued .
Talk about how that fits into your life and content and all that .
You know it's funny , it did nothing for my social media actually , like all of it didn't . Like my social media actually changed in the last like six months . I gained 85,000 followers in six months because I started working at it .
The same way you would start working at trying to get into college or going to a new job or something like that yeah , dude , look at that . Oh man , a couple of magazines I didn't . You know what's funny ? All those things that I do on social media , too , are it's just learning the process and understanding .
I looked at it like I was trying to learn calculus social media . I thought that , going on the titan games being on tv , I was expecting this mass expansion social media . I might have gained 500 followers after that so you know , dustin portella yeah , I do okay . Yeah , he's done it .
Yeah , phenomenal and and the amount of money he has coming in off what he does yeah , it's like he's good at it , but it's , it's a second job , right ?
yeah , it is , and that's how I've treated this is it became . You know , it's still a way for me to connect with family and friends , because I grew up without it , right ? so I'm in that generation that facebook was a college thing , that my senior year like , oh , you got to get this facebook thing right .
In med school they told us get rid of all social media right . So I canceled , deleted everything , and then in residency they were like , no , it's okay if you have social media . So I started a social media account , got on the Titan Games shortly after , thought it was going to blow up . It didn't .
I was like man , I thought they were going to help us , like that was the trade here , but it didn't . It really got big when I started learning . I started learning the process and using social media like a tool , just like I was learning calculus and once I learned how to improve it . Now now I understand how to continue to make it grow .
But it is a lucrative . It is a lucrative business tool and it is also something that my perception of social media is that it can be so terrible that and everyone has it that I want to create , at least in some ways , some positivity out there .
That's what I love about it . I mean , you look at what Dustin's done . It's positive , it's using a medium . Same way it can be used in a negative way , in a very positive way , to help improve people and Dustin has been a great mentor for me .
We've been buddies for a long time . We met in Costco one day , like randomly 10 years ago or something , and like we've been friends ever since , but that guy has been a very like . He's been a great mentor for me on how to like . More than anything , I ask him how to deal with the negative ramifications Cause the heart .
The the bigger your social media following is , the more there are people who say mean things . And uh , and you know , and I've had people get jobs , like I had a guy in Canada get a job using my name and credentials from a picture off of social media . He made fake ids and stuff and I got called by this company like hey , are you coming to work today ?
I was like , what are you talking about ? And so like there are weird things like that that happen through social media that I had no idea it was even going to be a thing and I used dr pertella as a reference often to be like , hey , man , what do you do in this situation ? You know , and he was like , oh , yeah , anyway , so that's been cool .
But social media is a great way for me to connect with people and and to create . Um , I think I do two things I try to make people laugh , create positivity , and then I slip education in there . If you just did education , it's it . It like I did that for a long time and I would get you know , nobody sees it .
Yeah , you , yeah , you got to do it all . You got to do it all , yeah .
So it's Dr Caleb Redden , mm-hmm .
R-E-D-D-E-N Dr .
Caleb Redden yeah , I love it . Hey , one last thing yeah , boone Bartlemay . Yeah , I love that kid Boone Bartlemay , a great kid , here , locally paralyzed playing football , and honestly , he's probably one of the most inspirational human beings I've ever interacted with and I've known him for years , but how's it been being his doc ?
Because , you're his doc , right ? Yeah , yeah , yeah , like I couldn't argue with anything you just said . The only thing that I have over Boone is that I'm better looking than he is . Hopefully he hears this . Boone um , I got a better mustache than he does . That guy is you don't have a better truck ? No , you're right , he's got a better truck .
That dodge is remarkable . I started working with boone um . It was really interesting . He was training at the gym just shortly after his incident and I was like , hey , man , like he was trying to do a tricep press down and he couldn't quite get to the rope to change it .
And I was like you know , I knew enough about , uh , adaptive athletes to know that he doesn't want someone to help him . He wants to do this on his own . It's important for him to learn how to do this . But at the same time , I was like , hey , the real goal is for you to make those triceps bigger and tougher , isn't it ?
So , yeah , I'm like so what if I create an opportunity for that to occur by moving this down for you ? And he goes that's fair deal , so I'll take that deal . It's like all right , and that's how it started .
¶ Inspiring Friendship and Resilience
And then , from there , I was like , hey , you need to get , uh , you need to get stronger , and you can't do it here .
And so I had him come work out with me at the mecca gym for a few years , like we worked together , like I would train with him two or three times a week , and then from there it became like he needed help from a physician standpoint with other things , and so I would see him as a patient . But I didn't know it started that way .
Yeah , it's not super cool it started . It actually doesn't surprise me a bit , but yeah , the guy that guy .
He's so freaking tough and like there would be days where I was so humbled I mean , I'm a , I'm not a . I'm not a , I'm past . I'm not a pro athlete , but I'm a pretty strong guy and I feel like I'm a pretty good athlete for my size and my strength .
I don't want to sound boastful , but I'm pretty stout and there would be days where I'd be training with Boone and I'd be like holy crap , this kid just not only did he stand up out of this wheelchair to do what we're doing , and the weight maybe isn't the same , but he's making me work , and like I'm supposed to be training him .
And like there'd be days where I'd just be like you good , hoping he'd say yes so that we could quit , because that kid , yeah , does not understand quit .
And and that's one of them like that's like uh , that's an inspiration to me is watching someone overcome adversity , make adaptations and modifications in their life to be successful , and do it with a positive attitude . And he'll , he won't lie to you until he never gets sad or gets down to the dumps . He does just like all the rest of us so great .
Yeah , so he's so vulnerable and he has so many people because he is . He's like hey , look at what I'm doing and look what I've overcome . But hey , I have bad days and it's hard and it's rough .
There's a mountain to climb .
Yeah , he's nothing wrong with calling it out boone , if you're listening to this man we love you sure do , boone .
And , by the way , it's about time for us to get back in the gym . Push some iron brother . Yeah , I love that hey thank you for coming on .
This was super fun . I want to do it again .
Let's do it this is . This is really good yeah , thanks for the opportunity and all you do for everyone .
It's a , it's a . It's a great thing .