Dr Mike ON: COVID 19 Latest Updates & Best Practices To Stay Healthy & Safe

Dr. Mikhail Varshavski, known on social media as “Dr. Mike”, breaks down COVID-19 with Jay Shetty, giving viewers evidence and information people can actually use and understand in this special episode of ON Purpose. As a doctor first and a YouTube sensation second, Dr. Mike talks about his passion for family medicine and how his calling as a doctor has always taken precedence over fame. Watch the entire episode to learn practical ways to stay safe and healthy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

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• 0:44Jay Shetty?

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• 2:16Jay Shetty?

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• 2:59Jay Shetty?

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• 3:09Speaker 01

  If you are going to be around other people, like going grocery shopping, you're part of the essential workforce, the recommendation is to stay six feet apart. That six feet is also really arbitrary. You know, we've seen studies where sneezes and coughs travel further than that. And that's why someone asked in my video, if can I have a party in my house and just make sure everyone stays six feet apart? No, because that's six feet apart again is an arbitrary number that we've created that we feel sort of safe with if you have to go out. You don't have to have a party in your house. It's not something you have to do to survive, so don't do it.

• 3:46Speaker 02

  Hey everyone, welcome back to On Purpose. Thank you so much for joining us today. I'm so excited because I'm about to dive into a conversation with an individual that I've wanted to speak to for a long time. We're trying to get him on the podcast and trying to get our schedules to align. But we found that COVID-19 was a time for us where we could actually really get together, have this conversation, a really important one, get it out to you right now as well. And You already know who the guest is because you saw it on the link. But his name is none other than Dr. Mikhail Baryshovsky, or commonly known and famously known as Dr. Mike. Now, Dr. Mike is a multifaceted, board-certified family medicine physician,

• 4:28Speaker 02

  media personality, educator, writer, and philanthropist. Emigrating from Russia to New York at the age of six, Dr. Mike grew up to pursue his medical degree at the New York Institute of Technology. And this is the crazy thing about Dr. Mike. If you don't know who he is, where have you been, first of all? But if you do know who he is, you already know. But if you haven't, his videos are phenomenal. He's busting medical myths, giving us real insight. He makes it fun, entertaining. I love watching him react to memes about doctors and medical memes. And so, the one and only Dr. Mike. Thank you so much for joining us today, man.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Thank you so much for that warm introduction. I mean, especially coming from you. I've been such a big fan for a long time that it's crazy to hear my name come out from your mouth, especially hearing all those kind of words afterwards. So I very much appreciate that.

• 5:19Speaker 02

  Absolutely, man. When I reached out, I had no idea you knew who I was. I was just a secret fan too. So we were just fucking each other. I was blown away by what you were doing because I think you do it effortlessly. I really feel like your intentions in the right place. You're really trying to help people. And I think people really need your voice. And that's why, when I was thinking about who I wanted to speak to as a medical professional about COVID-19 and the challenges we're going through, I felt you were the perfect person because I think you're great at understanding what's happening, being really honest and transparent, and then helping us understand what to practically actually do. So, thank you, man.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  I think a lot of my strengths come in the fact that I'm a family medicine physician, first and foremost. I've never given that up, despite all the time that I've put into social media. I still work half the week seeing patients in my practice. So I know not only what to expect from a practical standpoint, because I'm in that field, but also on the media side of things, to hear what patients are getting from the news. They're constantly getting outbreak warnings, numbers thrown at them, and it can get quite scary. So I like to tone some of that anxiety down by arming them with quality information, evidence and information that they can actually use. Because you know, it's not so helpful to hear that, oh, when we did studies, we found that this virus

• 6:36Speaker 01

  can survive in the air for 2.8 hours. What does that mean? What should I do with that information? So I like to bring it back all to a practical standpoint, how I would explain it to a patient sitting in front of me. And I've been luckily, luckily doing this for 5 million people at home through my YouTube channel.

• 6:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's insane. So that's what I was just about to say to everyone. When you talk about balancing two worlds, we already know that doctors have incredibly hectic lives. And then Dr. Mike has over 413 million views and 5 million subscribers on his YouTube channel and another like 3.5 million people that follow him on Instagram as well. I mean, I'm gonna start off with a very creator question, but genuine, how do you balance those two worlds? Because you know how hard it is and tough it is to be a creator, someone who's creating content and in that world, and then you're a doctor in your other life. Like, how do you find that balance? And that's like, that's some serious work.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  It's tough. I think what makes it a little easier for me, despite what most people think, is these fields have a lot of in common. So you think being a YouTube creator and then a doctor, there's nothing there that goes hand in hand. But in reality, I think both of these careers help me be better in their respective fields. So for example, if I'm doing research on YouTube video about a condition like diabetes or prostate cancer, that research that I'm doing is also going to make my life easier as a physician when I'm talking about it with my patients. When I'm in my medical practice and I'm treating a patient, I'm getting a sense for what questions they may have. What language do I need to use so they actually understand what I'm talking about? So it's essentially,

• 8:10Speaker 01

  I'm practicing with them for my YouTube videos, getting the research from the YouTube videos that I'm using there and bringing it to my patients. So really, it helps that both of these fields are actually compatible with one another. I think when you're going into the field of social media or media in general as a doctor, it's very easy to make a misstep. Say the wrong thing, take the money from the wrong company, corrupt your ethics. It's very easy to do so. But I went into this saying that I'm a doctor first. That's always been my passion. That's why I went through 10 years of education in order to get here. And I wasn't interested in being a mega star. Because of that, I was able to turn down everything that could have derailed my journey.

• 8:51Speaker 01

  And now that we've come here to a point like this where COVID-19 is such a scary time for everyone in the world, and somehow this young doctor who is not from an Ivy League school, I'm not a double board certified cardiothoracic surgeon or a leader of an institution, I'm a primary care physician, I'm a family medicine doctor who cares about his patients, who has learned how to communicate the message of medicine to his patients, and now I'm able to share it with the world, getting four or five million views on COVID-19 videos where CNN, Fox News, ABC News aren't getting that kind of notoriety.

• 9:30Speaker 02

  Well, that's what I was seeing, yeah. I was seeing you, and you've interviewed Dr. Foci as well, and you've been speaking to, you are, you are one of the spokespersons in this conversation and in the conversation very much, as you said, on CNN, now this, Dr. Foci directly, who's leading the task force at the CDC, like, that's what I'm so, and impressed is the wrong word, I'm just, I'm just really happy it's you. And I'm really happy with the way and the way you're going about it. That's why I'm so grateful to share your message and share this message with my audience today, because I think you're an incredible messenger and I think you're the right person to hear it from, so.

• 10:06Speaker 01

  I think a good learning point, well, first of all, I'm very grateful for what you're saying, but I think a good point as a takeaway for the audience from this is to see that if you do something you're truly passionate about, there's many people who are going to be your naysayers, but if you have good reasons for whatever it is you're doing, it's really important to push through that negativity. Because of how many times I was told on different rotations or on clinical sites that, wow, you know, you're so good at this, or you have good hands-on ability, why don't you do something different than family medicine? You won't make a lot of money in family medicine. I said, who cares about the money? This is about passion. This is about if you're good at what you do and you love what you do, you will find success irregardless of.

• 10:51Speaker 01

  Money, because that's not the ultimate barometer for success. At least when we look at psychological research and you're obviously one of the the main people speaking about this online. But it's something I truly believe in. So I think first and foremost, you have to find something you're good at, develop a passion for it. And then all the levels of success, whether it's finance, friendships, passions, all that will come later. But you need to get that good foundation set up first.

• 11:22Jay Shetty?

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• 12:06Jay Shetty?

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• 13:34Speaker 02

  Tell me about that. Let's start there a bit because I do want to. I want this podcast to be extremely informative for everyone listening. So everyone who's listening or watching right now, we are going to get into COVID-19 questions, but because Dr. Mike is just a fascinating individual and person and just the honor I like to give to the guests that come on the podcast. I wanted to hear a bit more about him too. I, I want to, you've worked 10 years to, to become a medical professional. You've worked so hard. What made you feel so driven to turn that into content? And why was that so important to you? Because like you said, it wasn't like you dreamed of being a mega star or any of this stuff, but why did you start? Why, what was your first video and why?

• 14:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I think it's, I adapted well to my circumstances. When I was in medical school, I wanted to show people that you could have a healthy medical life. Meaning go to medical school, do your residency while still being with your friends, your family, going to events. And I just posted casually on Instagram and my following grew to a few hundred thousand people. And that was a big deal to me, the fact that people cared about a young guy becoming a doctor. And then when I was already a physician during my intern year, I had a little moment of fame. It's funny, I used to call it a viral moment, but during COVID-19, I don't think we should be saying viral anymore than we need to.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:52Speaker 01

  And a lot of websites and news outlets started sharing my story, but they weren't sharing the fact that I was the youngest doctor in my hospital. That I've done research, that I'm really interested in primary care and I want to talk about prevention. It was the hot doctor angle. And I initially viewed that with a lot of skepticism because as a good doctor, you should be a healthy skeptic, not so much a cynic. So I didn't want to shut down that opportunity and I said, okay, well, wait, what if I go on these television shows and while they say the hot doctor thing, or they use that as the tagline to get people watching, but then while people are watching, we tell them about how they can take care of their mental health. How can they can make lifestyle changes that can be even more important than taking a medication. And I basically used that as a springboard to launch my media career.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  I had no media training. I had no idea what I was doing. I took it one day at a time, one opportunity at a time, with my ultimate goal being, I want to educate as many people as possible as a doctor, because that's what we do in our exam rooms. Yes, we treat patients, but a big part of it is education. So I thought if I can go from educating thirty, forty people a day in my practice, and then grow it to a million people on social media, that's amazing. I mean, social media is the ultimate democratic tool. We can now publish to millions of people without answering to a network, a CEO, nobody. It's just to ourselves. It's to our moral compass. So I launched my YouTube channel saying, I don't like the media that's out there. I don't like the media stories that are being covered in medicine.

• 16:21Speaker 01

  I don't feel they're being covered honestly. I feel like it's about getting clicks, buzz. It's about detox cleanses, supplements that are gonna cure everything that ails you. And it really bothered me that we as doctors go through all this training. We want to help people. And then I see all this information that we're giving to patients, and their attention goes to, oh, there's a pill that can make all this go away, and I don't need to exercise. It doesn't exist. It just doesn't. And I would watch the medical dramas and I would get frustrated. I'm like, no, this is giving people the wrong idea of what it's like to be a doctor, or this is not like what happens in hospitals. And then what do you know, I did it on YouTube, doing that exact same thing, and people fell in love with that concept.

• 17:02Speaker 01

  So I went on social media to be myself, to further my goal of educating people, and luckily it worked out. I didn't know it was gonna work out. I had no special abilities to make this happen. But luckily, putting yourself out there, being honest, that's the best approach.

• 17:16Speaker 02

  Absolutely, man. I can relate to so much of what you're saying, apart from becoming a doctor, that the, you know, just the... The idea of you not knowing where it's gonna go, you're starting one day at a time, you're figuring it out, finding your space. But the thing that really resonates with me there, and I've seen those videos of you comparing, you know, a real doctor's life versus the movie doctor, and I think it's brilliant. What I love about that is that it's so easy to sit on the fence and complain that people aren't giving the right advice and complain behind closed doors. But what I love is that you took the responsibility to say, hey, I am a doctor, and I'm actually gonna go on the same platform, and I'm gonna share messages that I think are useful with people. Because I think it's easy to sit on the sidelines and be like, well, I'm a really,

• 17:59Speaker 02

  you know, I've got the status of being a doctor, and I'm just gonna sit here and criticize people who are giving bad advice, or whatever it is. But here you are actually stepping up. So that's great, man.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  I think there's like, I think there's like two factors that play in there that I think people should know about. And part of it is, I hate the idea of politics, where you come and you just say, oh, this is horrible, without actually giving any kind of meaningful feedback. I see that frequently in the medical community when we talk about vaccines. Look, we know vaccines work, we know they save lives, we know the benefits outweigh the harms. But now, when a patient comes in and they have a stance of maybe not getting all of their vaccines, the traditional response from the medical community was get them out of your practice. Tell them that unless they get the vaccines, they have to get out. Or if someone says on television, we call them a kook or an anti-vaxxer. Naming them that, excluding them, does not help.

• 18:52Speaker 01

  It's not, it's not a practical approach to getting them to change their minds. And I spent a lot of my young career in studying the foundation of influence. And I thought, as a doctor, you have to be a good influencer. And it's funny that we call ourselves influencers on social media, but I think doctors need to do more of this influencing. Not to just say, oh, you should exercise, you should lose weight, you should do this. That doesn't help anybody. Yes, they should. But if they don't, don't just call them obese or fat and say they're lazy. Figure out what their barrier is. How can you help them? Is it about motivating them and saying some really strong words to them? Or perhaps this person needs a little different approach. They don't have enough money to join a gym. Perhaps you can find them a community program.

• 19:35Speaker 01

  And as a holistic osteopathic physician, that's part of what I do. It's not enough to just give someone a diagnosis and a treatment and walk away. It's about gauging their, it's about understanding their understanding of the diagnosis. It's about understanding the feasibility of the treatment for this person sitting in front of you. What else are they going through in their lives that they may not be complying with this treatment? So it goes so much further than that. And piggybacking on the influencer subject, doctors are afraid of being labeled influencers or marketers. They think it's somehow a knock on their professionalism. That if they go on television, that's somehow corrupting their medical ethics. Well, it's only corrupting your medical ethics if you let it do that. If you go on television and you take a sponsorship from a watch company,

• 20:19Speaker 01

  what does that have to do with your medical ethics? That allows you to get better quality equipment, to send a message to a bigger audience, to motivate you to continue doing this, to take care of your family, to grow your practice. I don't think we need to be afraid of being marketers. I think we just need to be marketers for the right things, like good quality, evidence-based medicine and understanding of the human sitting directly in front.

• 20:41Speaker 02

  I love that, man. Well said, well said. So let's dive into what I really wanted to speak about today. And again, I can't wait till we actually get to me in person and get in the studio and we get to do this again from a different perspective. But I know that there are so many questions right now that my audience has. And this is what I like to do too, that when it comes to an area that I'm not a medical expert and I want to bring in someone who can actually answer those questions effectively. So what I did is we went and got a long list of questions for my audience. Some of them are going to be super simple and basic for you, but I think it's important to address them and other ones we'll get into it. So the first question that I have here is, what are the biggest myths or mistakes we're making around COVID-19 right now?

• 21:26Speaker 02

  I think that's really worrying people is misinformation. And I know you've done so much work on this, you've made a lot of great content. So after this, I highly recommend everyone goes and watches more of Dr. Mike's videos. But on that question, Mike, what would you say?

• 21:39Speaker 01

  I think especially with the audience that I have, I feel that young people feel they're immune to this virus. Because we consistently hear on media that this virus primarily affects those over the age of 60 or compromised immune systems. And while the majority of cases that's true, it doesn't mean that by being 20, 30 years old, you're immune from this virus. Absolutely not. There are healthy 30-year-old doctors, nurses, who have lost their lives because of this virus. And on top of that, by you potentially taking the risk and going out and not socially distancing yourself, you're actually serving as a vector to continue the spread of this virus and potentially cause lives for people who can't protect themselves, like those who are of older age or have a compromised immune system.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  So my message to those who are young is, let's not be selfish. Let's think about others and figure out how we can protect them, but also understand that this virus can easily affect you and your family.

• 22:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, great one. Is there any other myths or mistakes you think we're making around COVID?

• 22:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I think also, as far as media and politicians goes, we're making a lot of missteps in how we're educating the public. We think we need to constantly update numbers and give media flashes of outbreak, news alert, flash. Like, it's not necessary. In fact, my latest video that I put out today, I encourage people to not look at the news more than once a day, or perhaps even every other day. Because those numbers can fuel so much anxiety, just by the way it's presented. So with the politicians and the media in mind, I'd love for them to get medical experts on. Allow people like Dr. Fauci to have the microphone more and more often, so that they can explain to the audience what's happening, understand what we don't know about this virus, but

• 23:25Speaker 01

  at the same time, explain what steps we're taking to figure it out. Like, the number one question I've been getting is, when is this gonna end? And people start throwing out potential dates, April 7th, Easter, this. We don't know, and we have to be honest, and we have to not be afraid to say, I don't know. But then say, what's our yardstick gonna be of when we're gonna start considering opening the country back up? So I really urge the media to tone down that alertness, that scary like, oh my god, outbreak alert, warning, and make it more meaningful. Let's put information out there. Let's not make it so political and controversial about what China's doing wrong, or what this party is doing wrong. It's about medicine. And in medicine, it doesn't matter what race you are, it doesn't matter if you've committed a crime or not, we treat everybody, and that's

• 24:10Speaker 01

  how we need to think about this situation.

• 24:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's a great answer. And it's so great hearing you say that, because I've been recommending a lot of similar things. And people are only checking the news once a day, so totally aligned with you on that. And I was telling people, just have the alerts set up for the place you live in, where your family lives, so that you're in knowledge and have the information you need. But you don't need to know what's happening halfway across the world. If it doesn't directly affect you right now, it's just safer for your mental health. So I'm glad, we're gonna touch on mental health, too. Another question that I think is super useful right now, which is what you mentioned earlier, you were talking about how long COVID-19 lasts in an airspace. And you were talking about how does that practically affect? I think a lot of people right now are wondering, like, if I am at the grocery store, like, how close can I get to someone? When I bring groceries home, how much should

• 24:57Speaker 02

  I be washing them, disinfecting them? What are the rules around being around people and objects and deliveries coming through your door?

• 25:04Speaker 01

  I love that the first few questions of this interview are literally the first three questions of the video I posted two hours ago. So that's awesome.

• 25:11Speaker 02

  No way, really?

• 25:11Speaker 01

  No, it's great. This is awesome. I'm glad I'm answering the top questions. And I'm also very prepared. So the question that I get about the virus, if it's airborne, preliminary research says that it's not airborne. It's primarily spread through respiratory droplets, which is the fine mist that you see people shoot off if they cough or sneeze and they don't cover their mouth. Now, those respiratory droplets, they're heavier than a virus that typically lives in the air full time. They actually end up falling to the ground. They have some hang time, but they end up falling to the ground. Now, the research from like, the New England Journal of Medicine states that they hang around to a max time of three hours. What does that mean? That means we took a machine, and we took very fine mist of this virus, and we threw them in the air, and we saw how long they hung around.

• 25:55Speaker 01

  That doesn't mean that when someone practically breathes in an area, that the virus will be there long enough and in the amount that's necessary to infect someone else. So it's not enough just to say, "Oh, we found some genetic material three hours in the air." No, no, we did this in a contained, controlled, temperature, humidity-controlled environment with a very specific machine, and we found that there's some virus that hangs around. Whether or not that virus will infect you two, three hours out of life, we don't know. And in fact, from my professional experience, I would say no. The main way this virus spreads is from someone directly coughing or sneezing on you, an area that you touch with your fingers and then make contact with your mouth, nose, or eyes, and that's it.

• 26:41Speaker 01

  It's not about being worried that, "Oh, I entered a space that someone may have..." That's just going to be anxiety-provoking. What is useful for you is to wash your hands so that you're not making contact with your face with dirty fingers. If you are going to be around other people, like going grocery shopping, you're part of the essential workforce, the recommendation is to stay six feet apart. But that six feet is also really arbitrary. You know, we've seen studies where sneezes and coughs travel further than that. And that's why someone asked in my video if, "Can I have a party in my house and just make sure everyone stays six feet apart?" No, because that six feet apart, again, is an arbitrary number that we've created that we feel sort of safe with if you have to go out. You don't have to have a party in your house.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  That's not something you have to do to survive, so don't do it. And don't let the media scare you when they say the virus is airborne and lives for three hours. We don't know that yet. Again, coughs and seizures are the number one thing. So if you see someone sick, get as much space between you and them as possible.

• 27:44Speaker 03

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• 28:44Speaker 07

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• 28:46Speaker 06

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• 29:15Speaker 02

  And in terms of like grocery store items when people are bringing things back, disinfecting, cleaning them? Yeah. A positive habit, what's the best way, if it is?

• 29:23Speaker 01

  For sure, there was actually a video of a well-meaning doctor, which went viral. It was like 20-plus million views over a few days of him mentioning that you should wash your groceries with soap and water. Unfortunately, that's actually incorrect advice. You shouldn't be putting soap on your produce or soaking them in soapy water because most of the fruits and vegetables are porous, which means that they absorb the soap. And then when you eat it, you could actually get gastrointestinal symptoms like nausea, vomiting, even diarrhea. So we don't recommend that. Running your produce under cold water will get rid of 90 to 99% of anything on there. And even if there's a small amount that remains, the acid in your stomach is going to get rid of it. And we haven't seen numbers of people get infected by eating produce that someone may or may not have touched.

• 30:06Speaker 01

  It's just something that's so low risk that it's not worth worrying about. Much how when we talk about phobias in medicine, like what's the definition of a phobia versus something that's a true fear? Like if a bear walks into my room, I'm not having a phobia of this bear. I'm having a true fear. Phobia is an over-exaggerated response to this type of fear stimulus. Now, me being worried about whether or not I walk outside where someone may or may not have sneezed, that's entering the phase of phobia where we shouldn't be thinking or worrying about that because it gets less benefit than risk getting that insight.

• 30:41Speaker 02

  Right, so you're actually saying that sometimes we're worrying about the wrong thing because our worry is being misplaced?

• 30:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, because in the world, there's so many things to worry about, you really have to do a pros and cons list of each one. And when we're talking about how long the virus survives in the air, yes, that's useful scientific research, but for the average citizen who's going to be spending minimal time outside, that's not the greatest risk to you. The greatest risks are those coughs and sneezes and touching your, touching objects with your hands, so keeping them clean, and that's all you should be worried about.

• 31:11Speaker 02

  And I was, I was reading actually that I saw a piece that was about forty-seven people in New York having a house party and the police had to go and shut down the house party.

• 31:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:23Speaker 02

  And it's, I feel like there's still that belief, like you said, of the question that you were asked, like, can we have a house party and stand six feet apart, or can we all be in the same space? Or, I've been hearing from a few people here in L.A. that there are people getting invited to movie nights and game nights, like, in the same space, just undercover, like, these undercover, underground game nights and movie nights happening at people's homes. But you're saying that for certain is a no, people should not be doing that?

• 31:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, we shouldn't be doing that. I mean, if people have game nights every now and then, is it going to change the trajectory of this virus on a big scale in the United States? Probably not. But it's still not advisable because you're putting everyone at risk, as well as all the people that are going to make contact with those people later on. And also, you mentioned that party in New York of forty-eight people. I don't know who has a square footage in New York to be six feet apart and have forty-eight individuals in their apartment. I gotta see that place.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  I don't think they were six feet apart. That's a good point, though. That's a great point. Can I just about the real, this is something from me, and I'll go back to the questions in a moment. You know, you're going, you're treating people right now, too. So tell me about the pressure that you're seeing on healthcare professionals right now, the real frontline experience of what that is. Because I think if people don't have a family member that's a healthcare professional or someone who still has to go to work, it's hard to really comprehend where this is. So a lot of us are staying home, but there's people like yourself and so many others that have got cousins that are doctors and family members that are doctors, who are actually on the front lines. And some of them, you know, my friend's sister is pregnant, she's a doctor, and she's still going out on the front lines and help serving.

• 33:00Speaker 02

  So tell us about what that really looks like and how hard it is and how tough it is.

• 33:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's incredibly hard. A lot of people say, how do you deal with the fear and anxiety of going out during a viral pandemic like this and treating patients? And the reality, at least for myself, is I don't think about it. I think about my patients, I think about their families, and I think about how to help them as best as I can. That being said, there's doctors and nurses and all types of health professionals that are putting not only their lives on the line, we think about that, but also their families. When they come home, they can be bringing this infection to their entire family. There's actually really heartfelt videos online of doctors that are coming home and still not hugging their children because they don't want to get them sick. They have to sleep in separate bedrooms or even stay at hotels because they don't want to put their family at risk.

• 33:48Speaker 01

  And that's not an easy situation to go through. I mean, to spend weeks apart from your family or to be disconnected during a time where you need moral support and social support, it's really hard. So I think anything you can do to, just give a shout out to a healthcare professional, tell them thank you for what they're doing, thank you for putting their lives on the line. Especially, it's not even that there's a viral pandemic. Yes, that's one thing. But this is a viral pandemic with a huge personal protective equipment shortage, where we don't have masks. I have a friend of mine that I train with that works in the emergency room here in New York City, who has to use the same N95 mask every single day when this is meant to be a disposable mask.

• 34:32Speaker 01

  This person is essentially saying, look, this is not ideal to protect me, but I'm still going to keep doing this because if I don't, we have no one to take care of our patients. So this is really an unprecedented scenario where doctors are not only putting their lives on the line because they're treating a virus, they're also doing it with subpar protection and subpar equipment, meaning we don't even have ventilator support. We have to decide which patient gets this ventilator, when have we tried too much and we have to now use the resources on another patient. That's really never happened in a city like New York. And part of that is, we didn't know how bad this virus was going to be. Part of it is political. We didn't prepare as good as we can. And also, the fact that it's

• 35:15Speaker 01

  such an infectious virus, but at the same time, not as fatal as the other viruses like SARS and MERS. This is actually, it's kind of a weird point to make, that because this virus isn't as lethal, it makes it more dangerous. That's a weird point of view, right? Because if this was a lethal virus, and everyone who had it showed symptoms, you could easily contain it and say, "You're sick, you're sick. Oh, unfortunately, you lost your life." But now, the virus is contained. Here, we have a virus that's infecting millions of people across the globe, very quickly. Some of them don't show any symptoms and are still walking around spreading it. And then the fatality rate is low, but then the hospitals are overwhelmed with a huge spike in patients because they happen so quickly. And our healthcare

• 35:59Speaker 01

  system just wasn't prepared for it. And honestly, I don't think it could have been prepared for something like this, because if we constantly stocked our healthcare systems with thirty, forty thousand masks to be used a day, that would be a tremendous spending of money that probably wouldn't be necessary.

• 36:13Speaker 02

  Yeah. And how can we help, as the common person, is not a healthcare professional, how can we help in our own ways, in our communities, in our towns, in our cities? How can we support, can we support it anyway?

• 36:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, of course. I think first and foremost is the reach out, moral support, asking if you can help by mowing someone's lawn, take care of their family members, bring their children a meal, take them to their appointments. Second is, contact your local hospital and ask what supplies they need. You know, the N95 masks that we've all been talking about, there are medical-grade ones, but there's also ones that construction workers use, painters use, to not get the particles inhaled in their respiratory tracts. Use those and donate them to your hospital systems, so that a doctor can take care of a patient without putting themselves at risk. I think those are the three main ways we can, as ordinary citizens, get involved with our healthcare system.

• 37:06Speaker 02

  That's brilliant, man. That's really great advice. And thank you for sharing that because I know that my audience and community are always wanting to help and serve and support. And sometimes you just don't know where to start. And so I think that that's a that's really good one. Okay, this this was another question that came in, which I think is really important to ask is if I've if I've shown COVID nineteen symptoms and now I feel better, can I am I now immune from it? Right? So it's like people who've had the experience, even they may have gone through it for four to five days. Two days. I've had a lot of friends in London, actually, who we had a really unfortunate event where we lost a really important person to a lot of us. A lot of people went to the funeral and the memorial. And this was just before the quarantine and just before

• 37:51Speaker 02

  Britain and everywhere else started taking this really seriously. And so they all went to this memorial and the funeral and literally like tons of people got it from that event. And so many of the people had that. Now, does that mean that they are now immune from it moving forward? And and when can they still give it away to people? How does that work?

• 38:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, there there's two, uh, there's almost two questions within that question. So first and foremost is if you had upper respiratory symptoms, like let's say a fever, a cough, or runny nose, uh, does that mean you definitely had COVID nineteen? And the strong answer to that is no. In fact, when we test people, we find that ninety percent of people who have symptoms don't have COVID nineteen. There's so many other viruses that still are around that are not Corona, this specific novel coronavirus. In fact, the traditional common cold, thirty percent of the time, is caused by a different coronavirus, one that's been around for years. So you may have coronavirus, but not this coronavirus.

• 38:45Speaker 02

  Right.

• 38:46Speaker 01

  You may have the influenza virus. You may have the rhinovirus, which also causes the common cold. So again, just because you had upper respiratory symptoms does not mean you have COVID nineteen. Now, the next question is, if you had tested positive for COVID nineteen and recovered, are you now immune to it? I asked this exact question to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is a part of the CDC task force on this. And him and I see eye to eye. When your body fights off a virus like this, it builds a lasting immunity. How long that immunity lasts? Meaning weeks, months, years, or a lifetime? We don't know the answer to that because the research is yet to be done. But we're confident that if you were to get it, fully, fully recover, that weeks down the line, you are very unlikely to get it again.

• 39:31Speaker 01

  There's always exceptions to the rule and there's going to be case studies that pop up. But the general rule here with viruses is once you get it, you're covered. Chickenpox, you get once in your life, not going to get it, you have lasting immunity. If you get your two measles vaccines, 98% lifelong immunity. We think the same thing will happen with this virus. And when we look at this virus, since it started at the end of 2019, we see that it's not mutated rapidly. Like the influenza virus, it mutates. That's why it's so seasonal. This virus has shown a lot of stability, which means that if you got it, it's very unlikely that you'll get it again. So we're fairly confident on that.

• 40:07Speaker 02

  Right, that's good to hear. What was the most important thing you learned from your conversation with Dr. Fauci? Because I know you've been a big proponent of making sure he gets more airtime and wanting his message to be out there. What was the most important thing you learned from that conversation about this?

• 40:22Speaker 01

  My first question to him was, I think, the most important because there's politicians saying we should all end social distancing, get back to work, boost the economy. Even President Trump mentioned Easter as a potential time to return. And Dr. Anthony Fauci said this really great. He said, "The virus does not have a timeline. It does what it wants. We have to monitor. We have to see how many people are getting sick. We have to see how many people are dying for it, from it." We also have to see where in the United States, because the United States is large, where it's happening. And then if you see an area that doesn't have a lot of virus in it, you start loosening restrictions in that area. Now, the naysayers to that will say, "But what if someone from there travels to another area, then it spreads?" That's always possible. But again, the point of what we're doing

• 41:06Speaker 01

  in loosening these restrictions is not to eliminate this virus completely. It's already so widespread, you can't eliminate it completely. But what you can do is you could mitigate it. You could limit its spread, and you could allow our hospital systems the time to deal with this virus. We could buy time so that treatments can come out, and we could fight the complications of this virus. We can decrease the spread with a vaccine that's going to come out, ideally in 2021. So, Dr. Fauci told me this clearly. They will be doing trials, opening up certain areas where the virus isn't so prominent, and seeing how those communities react. Once we see promising results there, we can start doing that on a larger scale. But again, we have to be ready. If we see the virus start going down, we open restrictions, and we see a spike, we have to be ready to institute those same

• 41:51Speaker 01

  sanctions all over again.

• 41:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, that, and it is, I do feel that, that, it's almost like that obsession with when is this going to end, and when can things go back to normal, that kind of, us pushing that speed is what's going to cause this to continue even longer, right?

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, I think it's natural to want that answer. I mean, the economy is going down, and people are losing their retirement. I try and be really understanding with this. I'm blessed because I have financial security with the job that I have. But, for example, my father, who is a primary care physician, he's over the age of 60, he's at risk for this virus, so he had to shut his office down. He's a solo practicing doctor. So that means for the next, you know, month, zero income for him. And we came here as immigrants, and by the time he did medical school and residency here in the States for a second time, he's only been practicing for a short period of time compared to other doctors. He's going to be facing a tremendous amount of hardship, just like everyone else who's a small business owner, and those who are getting furloughed and losing their jobs. So it's natural to

• 42:53Speaker 01

  wonder when it's going to end. It's just, we have to, as doctors, really explain when we say, "I don't know," why we're saying, "I don't know," and what factors are we going to be looking at to give that answer moving forward.

• 43:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure. Okay, great. Next question is, are there any success stories of people having a full recovery?

• 43:13Speaker 01

  Oh, absolutely. There is over a hundred thousand recoveries worldwide with COVID-19. And again, we have to remind people that eighty-two percent of these cases are mild cases. So while there are severe cases that end up needing hospitalizations and they're overrunning our hospitals, there is a huge amount of recovery, and that's a part of the good news that's rarely covered. And I think that while we should tell the seriousness of this story, because we need people to socially distance and take it seriously, we also need to decrease some of that anxiety by sharing the good news aspect as well.

• 43:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. And it's good to know that. I didn't know that there were that many cases of recovery. Which is great. And I agree with you. It needs to be in balance because unfortunately, as humans, we like to get complacent when we hear too much good news too. So I get that it's the spine balance. Okay, great answer. Another one, this is more, I guess, generic, but I do think it's important. And I'd love for you to share some typical and mental habits that you suggest, because it would be good to hear your perspective on both. What are your tips for keeping your immune system vibrant and effective? And of course, there's generic things, but I guess specifically now, what are you seeing mentally and physically?

• 44:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. The one thing I probably shouldn't even mention it when you asked your first question about misinformation. I feel marketers have really taken this opportunity to prey on people's vulnerability and sell them magical supplements that are going to immune-boost their system. In reality, we in the medical community know there's no such thing as an immune-boosting supplement. Because your immune system is so complex, the fact that if you were able to just rev it up, that would be a really bad thing. In fact, the huge majority of deaths in COVID-19 are as a result of the immune system doing something known as a cytokine storm, which rushes all sorts of inflammatory markers to fight off this virus, and as a result harms your breathing and causes you to need ventilator support.

• 45:08Speaker 02

  Wow!

• 45:09Speaker 01

  You do not want to be boosting your immune system. That being said, you can't boost your immune system through supplements, so you can't make that happen either way. So I really don't like these marketing companies coming in and preying on people and saying, "Take my pill because it's gonna help you." There has been no research to show that any kind of supplement will prevent, treat, or anything like that with COVID-19. So first of all, don't think about supplements. Obviously, if you're an exception and you've been tested and you have a deficiency in something, then you're taking that as a medicine, not so much as a regular over-the-counter supplement. Next, there are things you can do to actually optimize your immune system so that you don't hamper it during a time like this. Because really, that's what's under your control. You can either have your immune system functioning optimally, or you can hurt it.

• 45:55Speaker 01

  That's it. You can't really boost it. So, in this scenario... That's awesome. The things that harm your immune system are actually under your control. And the first one is sleep. If you don't get enough sleep regularly, seven to nine hours, at the same time ideally every night, you are gonna be hurting your immune cells known as natural killer cells. Research has shown, if you sleep less than six hours a night, the number of these natural killer cells, they're the ones that actually fight off COVID-19, drops by up to 50%. So you need to be getting your sleep in because that is one of your first defenses in protecting yourself against the virus. Second, you want to eat healthy. Now, do I have a magic formula of what you should be eating? Absolutely not.

• 46:41Speaker 01

  You should be eating a diet that's rich in fruits and vegetables, and then you have to make a decision for yourself what you need to be eating. Every patient needs a different plan. There's no magic diet that I could recommend. Not intermittent fasting, not keto. None of these are magic solutions for COVID-19. Next is exercise. Just because we're quarantined doesn't mean it's an excuse to not exercise. So pick up your tablet, your iPhone, take a class. There's all sorts of free classes that are being given by companies. Go outside for a run. You don't have to be next to someone to do a run. You could be six feet away and go for a run. I actually started doing a lot of these calisthenic bootcamp style exercises in my

• 47:22Speaker 01

  living room and I found out how out of shape I am, even though I was able to run, but I couldn't do these exercises. So I think have fun with it, do your exercise. And the final one, sorry, I shouldn't have said that.

• 47:34Speaker 02

  Optimize.

• 47:35Speaker 01

  Optimize your immune system. And then the final one that could really hamper your immune system is bad habits like smoking, which can increase your risk of having a severe case of COVID-19 two to three times, and over drinking. I see a lot of people going to liquor stores here in the US and getting a lot of liquor or wine and saying, I'm just gonna drink and have a good time. Look, have a glass here and there. But if you over drink, be prepared to know that this is gonna hurt your immune system. There's also been research that if you have a high blood alcohol content, the monocytes, which are a type of white blood cell that protect you from COVID-19, also get hurt when you have a high blood alcohol content. So you don't want to be over drinking during this time as well.

• 48:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's great. And I thank you for making that distinction between boosting and optimizing. I think that I've never heard it put that way before. And also just, it's interesting to hear you're hearing, just, it's always about the basics and we know that. And I just feel like this is giving us an opportunity to prioritize the basics. Like, we all know we need to work out. And it's like, hopefully, for those of us who are at home and in our own spaces, we have more of an incentive now. Same way, we know we need to eat healthy. And now again, because we can't eat out all the time, you know, that's that's gonna hopefully give us a little bit more incentive to get more focused. Tell us about a mental health perspective, things that you're seeing that are really working and helping people and what you're suggesting and recommending.

• 49:01Speaker 01

  I'm a huge fan of positive psychology. I've read plenty of research in the field. And in fact, I like to take away positives from even the most dark situations. It's a really good example of post-traumatic growth, going through something difficult, but then coming out ahead as a better person. We don't talk about that as much. The big focus in medicine is always about PTSD, which is a very important condition. We need to be talking about it, bringing light to it. But PTG also deserves its time in the spotlight. And I think even our conversation here, we've been trying to meet, we've been trying to schedule this conversation between you and I, and it took a worldwide pandemic in order to give us the time needed to have this conversation. So I think we should be thinking

• 49:45Speaker 01

  about the benefits of spending time with our families. We are oftentimes so overworked that we don't get to enjoy the little things in life, like reading a book, spending time with family, having time for hobbies. Now's the time. Use this very difficult moment to bring something positive out of it. Now, the few pieces of advice that I've given to people on mental health has been to not get idle. And there was a really good quote I've read somewhere, that an idle mind is the devil's playground. Because the human mind is really set to be a little bit anxious. That's how we've survived through the millennia of making sure that we weren't dancing in the prairie when there were lions hunting. So we've always been a little bit attuned to be somewhat anxious. Now, when we're at

• 50:28Speaker 01

  home and we have nothing to do and nothing occupying our minds, that anxiety starts getting amplified. And when anxiety is amplified, you're gonna have a worse physical state, meaning your blood pressure is gonna be higher, your hormones are gonna be out of whack, you're not gonna be repairing, not gonna be as digesting as well. So you have to figure out how to keep your mind occupied on things you enjoy, find some positivity in a moment like this, and really think about how you could be a productive member of society by helping those around you, spending time with family, contacting your local hospital for donations. Because giving a little bit back will actually give you more back in the long term from a mental standpoint.

• 51:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks for addressing those, man. It's great to hear you say them, and for my audience to hear you say them, and for me to hear you say them. It's very reassuring around the type of work that I'm trying to do and the type of work that I'm trying to help with. And so, hearing you say it definitely boosts me into feeling like we're giving people the right support. And I think that's what I took to right now. And this is what I've been trying to really get out to people about. Everyone's gonna help in the way that they can with their gift and their passion and whatever they have. So for me, it's like, I'm not a doctor, but I can teach mindfulness and meditation. And so I've been doing that every single day on my channel because I've been trying to give people a moment of calm, a moment where they can switch off from the noise and give them that clarity and that positive psychology of creating affirmations and positivity in

• 51:50Speaker 02

  people's minds so that they can deal with the challenges and the issues that they have with clarity and calm. And same way with, you know, whether someone's singing live on their Instagram or whether we're a medical profession, we're really going out there and on the front lines. Everyone can contribute with whatever passion and gift they have. And we shouldn't feel that any contribution is big or small. We all just need to get involved. I think that's key.

• 52:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, not only will it help the community in general, but it'll help you as a person. You know, like the fact that you are able to offer the mindfulness component, that's huge. The fact that I'm able to give the medical component is huge. But then there are fashion houses that are normally making clothes, high-end clothes, may I add, that are now making surgical masks for the cities where they live. So we all are able to participate. Maybe not even in COVID-19 related matters, but in totally different matters that are still very relevant in the world today. Just because COVID-19 is present, doesn't mean all our problems disappear. There's still many issues in the world that need attention. And a great example of this is, I go to medical schools a lot and I talk to students and they

• 52:57Speaker 01

  say, well, Dr. Mike, like, what should I do? What kind of specialty should I go in? And I tell them all like, what's your strength? If you can write down like three strengths or get your friend to tell you what your strengths are, I promise I could find a field where they work. And they'll say, but oh, someone told me I was funny. It's not important for a doctor to be funny. I said, pause. As a doctor, who do you think, like as a future doctor, who do you think needs to laugh the most and enjoys laughing? And they all raise their hands. They say, oh, so I should be a pediatrician? No. Everyone needs to laugh. Everyone needs to have a good time. And those who have the most serious diagnoses need to laugh the most. So if you could do that tastefully and bring that component to being a doctor, you're gonna be a very successful doctor and your patients are gonna be really happy.

• 53:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, I love that. You've definitely mastered that. So it's good that you're passing along to other people. What's been, what's been keeping you positive? What's been keeping you upbeat? What have you been doing daily that has helped you deal with this for yourself?

• 53:55Speaker 01

  The fact that I think of this problem as larger than myself. You know, it's very easy to get lost in my daily duties of constantly having media interviews, YouTube commandments, hospital duties. It's very easy to get overwhelmed. But if I think of myself as just sort of a piece in this larger puzzle that I'm contributing to, that we're all working together towards, that's how I calm myself down. And I think of the world as a much bigger place than just what I'm involved in. At the same time, I don't think about all the things that need to be done next week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks from now. I think about the next project, the next thing that I need to tackle, and I work on doing that as best as possible.

• 54:36Speaker 01

  Also, Coach Bennett, I don't know if you know him, he's the Nike Running Global Head Coach, and he does those audio-guided runs I've been listening to when I go.

• 54:45Speaker 02

  I'm gonna take them out, okay?

• 54:47Speaker 01

  Really great stuff. He says a good piece of advice that I take into heart is be kind to yourself, especially in these difficult moments. Like, it's COVID-19, you don't know what's gonna happen. You can't get everything done. You may be late on some payments. Give yourself that kindness that you're okay with a little bit of failure, then, and figure out how you're gonna make it better. How are you gonna make yourself a better person? But it starts with being kind to yourself.

• 55:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've been saying the same thing. I've been saying just stop. I feel like when this hit and we all moved inside, we just started judging ourselves and then feeling guilty that we weren't making the most of it. I'm like, guys, it's been a week, like, it's been like five days. Give yourself that breathing space. You're not gonna be the perfect partner, the perfect parent, the perfect person in, like, five days. It's gonna take us time to adjust and adapt. And you're spot on, we have to be kind to ourselves. I think that's great. Tell us about your best advice on, and this is a balance I think everyone's trying to strike, and I'd love to hear your advice on it. How can we continue to be alert but not anxious, right? And I've never heard you say that. So it's like, how do we do that?

• 55:51Speaker 01

  I think there's two parts to it. First is you want to be alert to only what's important in the info sphere. So if the CDC and the WHO puts out an important regulation out like stay at home unless you're a essential employee, you want to be alert to that. You want to be keen to that. But at the same time, you don't want to be getting anxiety by listening to all these opinionated news sources that are really trying to drive up that emotion. Because they know if they can get you anxious, you're going to watch for longer. If they can cause anxiety with a headline, you're more likely to click on that. So allow yourself that control, to be alert to the important messages, but then not get anxious by all the other filler stuff that's out there. The second part of it is being alert to your

• 56:34Speaker 01

  own body systems. You know what's normal for you. I, as a doctor, will never say, "Your pain is not real. Your stuffy nose is not important." These are true symptoms, and only you know what can be wrong, that something's not right. So you need to be attuned to what's normal, but at the same time, you don't want to cross into that level of anxiety that just because you coughed once means you have COVID-19. We have to get out of that. So think about to yourself, very rationally, almost like a form of cognitive behavioral therapy. Okay, I'm worried I have COVID-19 because I had a few coughs. The reality of the matter, I probably don't have it. What will it change for me? Nothing. I still have to be quarantined whether or not I'm coughing a little bit or a lot. So I'm going to stay, keep doing what I'm doing, and continue listening to my body. And really

• 57:19Speaker 01

  just constantly give yourself those rational moments of thought that replace the irrational thoughts that can come, causing you to be anxious.

• 57:26Speaker 02

  And this is why we have to be well informed, because if we're not, what happens is that the irrational fear that we're seeing with all the alerts and all the crazy headlines is going to overcome our rational thought because we haven't done the research. And I think that's what happens, is like, this noise just completely crowds that information. So this is why I'm so glad that, you know, and I know you've had to do this a million times, Mike, so I'm so glad that you took the time to talk to Mike through it with us today, because just going through the basics with you, I feel like when you keep reminding yourself of the basics, it's like, okay, I'm good, you know? It's like, whereas when you get carried away with all of the anxiety and the stress that's coming up. I want to read to you, this was actually from your YouTube channel, that we took a comment that someone left.

• 58:09Speaker 02

  And they said, and I want to share it with you, I'm sure you've seen it, and maybe you haven't, but I felt the need to share with you, says, "We all take a moment to appreciate how hardworking and dedicated Dr. Mike is, working as a healthcare provider during this difficult time, and although he's exhausted, taking the time to educate the world. We truly appreciate you and all the healthcare providers, working their butts off during this time. Stay safe and thank you." And I thought, you know, it's, I just, I wanted to share that with you. I thought, you know, it's, you can hear it, and then maybe you don't hear it enough, and maybe hearing it from one person on YouTube is impactful and useful, so.

• 58:45Speaker 01

  It definitely means a lot, you know, here, when you, like, I film here in my home studio with myself and my videographer, that's it. I don't have a huge team that does this, and it's sometimes hard to wrap your mind around the fact that the information that I'm shooting here on my couch with this one other person has such huge implications for the world, for millions of people, it's difficult to swallow that and understand what that means. So when I look at those comments and I see the gratitude that people express, and I know that I'm helping them on another level, it motivates me to continue doing it. When I'm frustrated and I don't want to film, or the words just aren't coming out, I think back to comments like that, and it allows me to push on moving forward. It also reminds me,

• 59:29Speaker 01

  as a moment of humility, that while what I'm doing is special, you know, I'm educating people, there's doctors that have worked a 36-hour shift, they're gonna take a four-hour nap and come back and continue working. They have bruises all over their face because they have to wear the same mask all day. There's nurses that are gonna catch this virus and get hospitalized with it. And I've been fortunate enough to not get this virus, I've been fortunate enough to do the majority of my patient care through telemedicine, through remote precepting, and still be able to continue delivering this information. So I think about how blessed I am as well.

• 1:00:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's awesome, man. So we're gonna end this episode like we usually do with our guests, is I'm gonna ask you these two segments, one's called Fill in the Blanks, it's a bit of fun, seeing as we've been talking about some deep topics today. So, being a doctor has allowed me to?

• 1:00:19Speaker 01

  Connect with the world on a level I've never imagined.

• 1:00:22Speaker 02

  Okay. Your health should?

• 1:00:25Speaker 01

  Be the first and foremost focus in your life, because without good health, you don't have anything.

• 1:00:32Speaker 02

  In my profession, I've learned.

• 1:00:36Speaker 01

  That there's so many variables outside of your control, you should just be kind to yourself and take a breath every now and then.

• 1:00:44Speaker 02

  Nice, good, good answers, man. Quick, too. What fascinates me most about humans is?

• 1:00:50Speaker 01

  Their ability to heal themselves and get through difficult moments exhibiting post-traumatic growth.

• 1:00:57Speaker 02

  The most difficult aspect of being a doctor is?

• 1:01:00Speaker 01

  Struggling with the unknown.

• 1:01:02Speaker 02

  I wish all my patients would.

• 1:01:06Speaker 01

  Improve what is under their control to give them the best chance to live a healthy life.

• 1:01:11Speaker 02

  Nice. Okay, and then the final five is your final five question. So, how are we, and this goes back to your positive psychology, how are we as a whole better because of this? This troubled situation?

• 1:01:26Speaker 01

  Through difficult moments, uh, come a lot of learning opportunities. Um, I think when we all start returning to work, which will happen, I want to encourage people to think that way. We're going to get past this. This is not the end of the world. When we do return back to work, that people are going to be happy about their jobs. The jobs that they were just complaining about a few months ago. So I think it'll be a nice wake-up call to understand how blessed we are and how lucky we are to be doing the things that we're doing. We don't take for, we take for granted oftentimes little things like just going outside and hanging out with your coworkers. And I think it's going to be a really stark reminder of that.

• 1:02:00Speaker 02

  I, I think you're so right. Like that moment we step back into our offices, the moment we go on the plane again, the moment we travel again, like it's going to be like one of these like, you know, it's going to be a momentous occasion, whereas now like getting on a plane, like we rule like, oh, well, we do that anyway. I think you're spot on. It's beautiful.

• 1:02:17Speaker 01

  There's a great comedian who said something like, um, people complain about flying, that there's delays, that they had to sit on the tarmac. You're sitting in the sky in a chair. You're like a Greek god right now. We don't think about that enough. So when we do return and are able to go down for a quick vacation, I think we're going to appreciate it so much more.

• 1:02:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think you're, you're totally right. Okay. Second question for you is the one video you're most proud of and why?

• 1:02:44Speaker 01

  The video sharing my experiences in El Salvador. I spent a two-week mission, a medical mission, going down to El Salvador with Americare's, where we were able to pilot a medical program where doctors actually exercised with their patients and were able to institute a few changes to their clinics down there. I learned so much that I've been able to bring back. And it's a shame because that video was so early on, it didn't get nearly the exposure that it would if I uploaded it today. I may re-upload it again.

• 1:03:16Speaker 02

  You're gonna re-upload it, man? I'm waiting for it, you're gonna re-upload it. Yeah, I was like, I haven't seen that one. So yeah, you've got to re-upload that. Okay, good, I'm excited to watch it. Okay, if you could create a law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be?

• 1:03:29Speaker 01

  A law, that's, it's funny, you got me stumped on that one.

• 1:03:32Speaker 02

  Take your time.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  A law that everyone has to follow.

• 1:03:40Speaker 01

  Take a moment and be compassionate to the human sitting in front of you. Like, you have to. Even if you're mad, you have to take a moment and think about the other person.

• 1:03:51Speaker 02

  Okay, nice, great answer, man, really good answer. Okay, question number four, what is the biggest misconception when it comes to our health?

• 1:03:59Speaker 01

  That doctors have all the answers. That when a patient comes in, we give a diagnosis, it's a hundred percent. When we give a treatment, it's a hundred percent. There is no certainty in medicine. When a patient comes in and they may have a chest pain that I ruled to not be a cardiac source, it doesn't mean that when they go home, they could not have a heart attack. So we have to understand that medicine is a field of probabilities. It's a field where we have to deal and struggle with a lot of unknowns. And we have to be kind to doctors when they don't know, because that's a really powerful thing. There's too many doctors out there that will claim to have all the answers and claim that they're the experts and everything. When a doctor says, "I don't know, but here's how we're gonna find out," we should applaud that.

• 1:04:43Speaker 02

  I love that. And question number five, final one, what's been your biggest lesson from the last 12 months for you?

• 1:04:52Speaker 01

  That you should never put a limit to yourself. That just because you think that you're not capable of something, you shouldn't handicap yourself to reach those higher, higher limits. Before, I've read books of setting huge goals for yourself. You know, The 10x Rule by Grant Cardone. These are great in theory. I think most people, what we end up doing is we create irrational thoughts where we limit ourselves more so. So I think to say, okay, I'm setting a modest goal, but I know I'm capable of 10x.

• 1:05:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, I love that, man. Thank you so much, Dr. Mike. I'm so grateful and I'm excited for you coming back on the podcast and us dissecting your whole story and journey together. I'm really, really looking forward to that, man. And you're welcome back on anytime you like. And as soon as this is all over and calm down, which it will be. And this is going to be super useful for my audience right now. So thank you so much.

• 1:05:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, thank you so much for allowing me the opportunity to educate. That seems like it's become my sole mission in life. And the fact that you're giving me that opportunity, I really have to say thank you.

• 1:05:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, for sure, man. I'm excited to continue this relationship as well. So thank you, man. Thanks for your time. Sorry, I hope I didn't take too much. And it was great. Everyone, go and follow Dr. Mike. Subscribe on YouTube. Follow him on Instagram. Go and check out all his content. It's, like I said, super entertaining, highly educational, and it will make a change in your life. So please, please go and follow him. Anywhere else, Dr. Mike, that we can find out more about you or you'd like anyone to go?

• 1:06:17Speaker 01

  That's it. That's it. Just Dr. Mike everywhere on social media.

• 1:06:22Speaker 02

  Perfect, man. I love it. Thanks, man. Thank you for doing this. I hope it was useful and enjoyable.

• 1:06:27Speaker 01

  I think so. I think people need this information. They have a hunger for it. And hopefully, we're satiating that hunger, but in a responsible way. We're not just feeding them crazy things that are going to cause them to panic.

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  Thanks for listening, everyone.

• 1:06:57Speaker 05

  Mr. President, my company foreme of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:07:00Speaker 04

  On October 2nd.

• 1:07:01Speaker 05

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:07:06Speaker 04

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess, and Digger's gonna dig us up! From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:07:13Speaker 06

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze in there. That's what...

• 1:07:18Speaker 04

  With great power, comes great deniability.

• 1:07:21Speaker 06

  I'm not the first then!

• 1:07:22Speaker 04

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a middle without parent.