Episode Details

"The good physician treats the disease. The great physician treats the patient." - Sir William Osler

You deserve better than the broken, assembly-line medical system. The world deserves the optimized version of you. We can get you there.

So claim my guests on today's show, Dr. Matt Dawson and Dr. Mike Mallin of Wild Health, with physical locations in Versailles, Kentucky and Bend, Oregon. Dr. Matt Dawson is a precision medicine physician in Lexington, KY and co-host of the Wild Health podcast.

Dr. Dawson has been obsessed with performance optimization as long as he can remember. He received scholarships to play two sports in college even with "minimal talent" because of his voracious reading and implementation of any fitness or nutritional techniques that would give him an edge. He continued that obsession in medical school and, as a physician, he has won national awards for education, innovation, and leadership. He has lectured in over 20 countries and trained thousands of other physicians through live lecture, online education, two textbooks, and an educational app. He combines his training in genomics and functional medicine to give personalized, precise medical guidance. His obsession with performance optimization has morphed from initially athletic to now mental performance and longevity. Whether it's a professional athlete or a grandparent optimizing their mental clarity and mobility to keep up with their grandkids, Dr. Dawson is passionate about helping everyone perform at their absolute peak.

Dr. Mike Mallin is a physician in Bend, Oregon who is obsessed with health performance and precision medicine and is co-founder of the Wild Health podcast. He completed medical school in South Carolina, and trained in Emergency Medicine in Salt Lake City, Utah where he competed in several ultramarathons and found his love for the mountains and performance. Mike currently practices in Bend, Oregon and Lexington, Kentucky in his precision medicine clinic. He is also co-founder of the Ultrasound Podcast, an educational podcast that has taught thousands of physicians all over the world how to use ultrasound, as well as Wild Health, his newest podcast focusing on health performance and longevity.

During our discussion, you'll discover: -How Dr. Dawson played two sports in college despite possessing "minimal talent"...8:55

• Received two scholarships: tennis and soccer
• Became obsessed with performance; auto-didact
• Focused on helping others optimize their fitness and performance goals
• Ben had to figure out ways to train to overcome physical limitations in college - first foray into biohacking

-The story behind the founding of Wild Health...13:05

• Met 12 years ago, residency in Salt Lake City
• Interested in personal health for performance; competed with each other
• Became interested in genomics trying to fix Dr. Mallin's cholesterol numbers, which were very high
  • Extremely high LDL; over 300
  • Used epidemiology; lots of guess work.
  • Frustrated with conventional methods
  • Saw need for adding genomic and microbiome data into the treatment
  • Began studying "precision medicine"
• Treat patients primarily in person, in their respective clinics
• Data is important, but focus on a relationship, know patient's lifestyle, etc.

-What the heck is "precision medicine"...17:45

• First and foremost: not treating a patient as a statistic
  • What may be true for a "population" may not necessarily be true for an individual
  • Two individuals with the same problem (ex. insufficient Vitamin D) may require completely different treatments

-Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence used in precision medicine...20:10

• Closest we can com