Sports Therapy Overview, by Nevin Pratt

Disclaimer: Everything here is my opinion only. I am not a medical doctor, and this is not medical advise.  Please consult with your doctor.

"Add Years To Your Life, And Life To Your Years"

Doing this effectively depends on a foundation of three parts: (1) proper diet, (2) proper sleep, and (3) sufficient exercise.  It takes effort to effectuate any of those three properly, but the degree of extra human effort falls in that same order.  This means proper diet is #1 priority.  You can exercise until the cows come up, and it won't do you any good if your diet is poor.  You will die early.

Measure Everything

If you don't measure it, you probably won't improve it.  Measure and track everything.  Every few months, I get a comprehensive blood test and also a Dexa Scan.  And I track my food all the time.

Food Tracking

I recommend and use the phone app "Lose It!".  It is comprehensive, fast, and in my opinion the best tracker on the market.  If you track it, and limit your calories to what the app suggests (based on the goals you tell it), you will naturally adjust your diet to be more healthy because you will find it impossible to stay within your calorie budget otherwise. 

I recently met with Dr. Jeffrey Gross who looked over my latest blood tests, turned to me and said, "you don't each much sugar, do you".  I replied, "no", whereupon he responded "I can tell from your blood tests."

I am not off sugar, but I found it impossible to meet my targets, as tracked by "Lose It!", without more careful selection of foods.  And once you begin making those adjustments, it will become easy.  But you must start with tracking.

Blood Tests

Every few months, I get a full blood test panel done.  For a full panel, they will pull 3 or 4 vials of blood.  If they are only pulling 1 or 2, you are not getting a full test panel.

Make sure you include a "Free Testosterone" test with your blood panel, and not just a "Total Testosterone" test.  The number that matters is the Free Testosterone.  Total Testosterone usually tracks Free Testosterone, and the Free Testosterone test takes longer and is costlier, which is why doctors usually just order the "Total Testosterone" test.  But it is not necessarily going to track together.  Get a Free Testosterone test each time you do a full blood panel.

Dexa Scan

The most accurate test for total body composition is a Dexa Scan.  Accurate determination of body fat percentage is only one of those data points, but a Dexa Scan will give you that data point more accurately than anything short of hydrostatic weighing.  Get a Dexa Scan immediately so that you can see your baseline, and then watch it change as you progress.

Weight Loss

I would never recommend Bariatric Surgery (stomach stapling), but statistics have shown (on average) it increases life span for patients that opt for it vs. similar patients who do not.  This does not mean stomach stapling is good.  It means fat is bad.  Given a choice of staying fat without the stomach stapling, and losing weight via stomach stapling, the stomach stapling is the lesser of two evils.

But there are much better alternatives.

The bottom line is: you must get your weight down to where you are not medically  overweight.  This is the single biggest impact item you can achieve.

And do not measure progress with a BMI calculation. BMI is a worthless number.  Get a Dexa Scan.

As I am writing this, I am sitting at 28.6% body fat (according to my last Dexa Scan).  About 60% of men my age are heavier than me, so that means I am doing great, right?

Wrong.  It just means almost everybody is fat.  For men, over 25% body fat is considered overweight.  So get your body fat under 25%, as measured by a Dexa Scan.  And tracking your food intake, via the "Lose It!" app, is where to start.  And for many people, it will be enough.

If you are struggling to lose weight, I recommend a dual agonist peptide (Tirzepatide,) or a tri agonist peptide (Retatrutide).  These are short chain amino acids, or a "mini protein", and they are found naturally in your body.  They regulate stomach hormones, which in turn tell the brain to stop eating.  Do NOT use a single agonist peptide (Semaglutide).  There are a lot of reasons not to use a single agonist peptide, for reasons which will be discussed in another section.  But just like Bariatric Surgery, any of these are better than staying fat.  And if the peptide is what it takes to give yourself that kick in the butt to move forward, I recommend it.  But talk to your doctor to make sure.

Joint Damage

People are generally too fat, and that stresses their hips and knees.  Lose weight to save your joints, and your quality of life.  Either that or be miserable as you age.  Your choice.

There are ways to rejuvinate the joints, including peptide therapy, PRP shots, stem cell shots, and more.  I have tried all of them, and next month I will be undergoing experimental exosome injections into the bone ends around the left knee.  Some of what I have done has helped, and some has not.  I am optimistic about exosomes, and I talk about it in another section.

But so far, the single biggest thing I have done that has helped my hips and knees is to lose weight.

Lose weight, or be miserable.  Your choice.

Peptides

Peptides are a relatively new "discovery", and there's a peptide for nearly every malady.  In my opinion, about 70% of the cases where a doctor would normally prescribe a chemical prescription drug, that case would be better met (safer and with greater efficacy) with a targeted peptide.  Only a few of the peptides have had clinical human trials, probably because a quality trial costs around $100 million dollars and big pharma hasn't yet gotten their claws around most of them.  Such a trial will never happen unless there first exists significant anecdotal evidence together with animal trials to support the use of that peptide.  And there's a LOT of that for many peptides that are not currently FDA approved. 

Peptides work.  Insulin is a peptide.  Ozempic is a peptide.  Mounjaro is a peptide.  And these are all on the market and sold by big pharma for big bucks, because they fill a need.  They help many people, but are not for everyone.  Talk to your doctor.

Where To Buy Peptides

Buy from a compounding pharmacy, as prescribed by your physician.  However, if you choose to "go it alone", remember that peptides should only obtained from quality USA sources.  China sources are much cheaper, but I would not recommend using them.  Only use quality USA sources.

The first place I bought peptides from was from a compounding pharmacy, prescribed by my doctor.  After that, I got adventurous and placed an order with Livv Natural (https://livvnatural.com).  They are a large Wellness Spa with two locations in California, with several MD doctors on staff.  After I placed my first order (it was for BPC-157 and TB-500), one of their doctors called me to discuss my order.  After the discussion, they promptly shipped my order.  Since I was vetted by a doctor first, I guess this was another example of purchasing from a compounding pharmacy, prescribed by a doctor.

But then I found less expensive places, by purchasing directly from research labs.  Probably the largest in the US is Peptide Sciences (https://www.peptidesciences.com), and it is my opinion that many health spas purchase from them and relabel the vials with their own name. 

Another large multi-national supplier is Swiss Labs (https://swisschems.is).  This is (I believe) an Egyptian company (not a Swiss company), but they are huge, with locations all over the world, including several offices in the US.

If you buy from a research lab, you will need to buy bacteriostatic water (BAC water), syringes, and alcohol wipes separately.  Peptide Sciences includes one bottle of BAC water free with any order over $500, but BAC water can be purchased from many locations, including Walmart.  I purchase mine wholesale from bacteriostaticwater.com

If you buy from a research lab, they will invariably include the disclaimer: "All products on this site are for Research, Development use only. Products are Not for Human consumption of any kind."  I imagine they do this for liability reasons, because most of these peptides are not FDA approved.  If this bothers you, then you need to buy from a retailer such as Livv Natural, and have a real doctor vet your purchase.  An advantage of this route, though, is they will pre-calculate the dosage protocol for you, otherwise you will need to know how much BAC water to use, and how many units per dose to pull, and what your titration schedule should be.  It is more complicated without their help, but you pay extra for this. 

Both Peptide Sciences as well as Swiss Labs include certificates of purity with their products, tested by yet another nationally known testing lab.  So I personally feel fine about them, and have purchased from both of them.

If you decide to do it yourself, the following peptide calculator is useful:

https://particlepeptides.com/en/content/48-peptide-calculator

Peptide calculator apps are also available for iPhone and Android phones.