Wellness shouldn’t feel like another full‑time job. In this episode, Dr. Ryan Lazarus brings compassion, perspective, and practicality to the way we think about health and longevity.

If you’re interested in learning more, please visit: lazarusmethod.com

Dr. Ryan Lazarus is not affiliated with Hartford Funds.

Hi. I'm John.

And I'm Julie.

We're the hosts of the Hartford Fund's human-centric investing podcast.

Every other week we're talking with inspiring thought leaders to hear their best ideas for how you can transform your relationships with your clients.

Let's go!

Dr. Ryan, welcome to the Human Centric Investing Podcast. We're so excited to be here with you today.

Hi, Julie. Hi, John. It's great to be here.

Good to see you, Dr. Ryan. You know, today's episode, we wanted to talk about some of the trends in performance management, if you will, as it relates to overall health, because I don't think there's a week goes by that Julie or I or folks on our team were speaking about social connection, mental health as we retire, even physical health as we retire. And we'll get 15 questions. What about cold plunges? What about magnesium? What? About this? What's about that? And I know from conversations that we've had, you've said we've got to be really careful about what the kind of the shiny objects are out there that we find on social media. But this is where coming to a trusted person like you, while we have you on our podcast today, how do we sort the wheat from the chaff essentially? How do we know or what are some things that you're seeing out there, that you would say to Julie and I and the financial professionals who are listening that. You know, this is something that holds a lot of promise. This is something to keep an eye on. So how would you think about those things today?

Yeah. This pertains to what we talked about previously, which is information overload and the confusion from this. You even have influencers or experts that are very reputable in their field that are arguing, even about like food and diet. Is somebody is saying plant-based over here and somebody is seeing carnivore and keto over here? And the answer, like many things in finance and... And politics is the answer. And the truth is really somewhere in the middle. And that middle is a personalized for you. And so to answer your question, John, there's so many shiny things. My advice to a listener would be if there is something that is a trend, do your own research and or consult with somebody that is an expert on how long you would take that for, what the dosage might be, the best practice. And like we had talked about previously, you could just use AI and throw it in there. And most everyone is now becoming a doctor because AI is giving them the medical advice. But the reality is there is a lot of truth and it can provide, if prompted correctly, it can't provide some accurate information. And so. If you're generally lost and you want to try something, I would, you know, risks, benefit, advantages, disadvantages, best practices, but ultimately consult with a human being that has a degree and some training that could eventually help. And I'm happy to, like, if you guys wanna ask me questions about a lot of that shiny stuff, I can give you a objective, non-biased opinion.

I'll dive in because I'm so curious. So I'm on Instagram just for the fashion and the recipes. Yet it seems like things are constantly flying in about protein, creatine, electrolytes. I mean, those are just, I think the three that popped up first thing this morning. And obviously I hovered too long over one of them and now it thinks that this is what I really want to consume. But maybe those are three things that I'm always curious about. So maybe you could touch on those. But also how do you help people sort of tune that out a little bit? Right, they're on social media for one thing and then they're being pulled or drawn into these other areas. How do you end up not having an Amazon cart filled with supplements and powders and things that maybe you don't need or aren't headed in the right direction? So it's a two-part question.

Yes, we all struggle with this right now. I'll answer, let's do protein and creatine and electrolytes and then how to maybe filter the noise. There's personalization to protein. Protein is an important macronutrient. The range that a human should consume ranges from 0.5 grams to one gram per pound of body weight. So across the board, that's a large range. If you weigh 150 pounds, you know, we're talking about. 75 grams to 150. So that's a large range and it gets more specific based on where you are and what your goals are and what you're trying to do. And if you aren't aware of the amount of protein that you're consuming, there's an easy way to track it now and find out what your normal diet looks like. And then protein powders, if you are deficient, protein patterns can be. Really easy tools to get anywhere from 25 to 40 grams really quickly to get you into that range. I also want to state that when you say protein powders and you say, protein to most people, they generally think bodybuilding and muscle, but the evidence is very clear. Protein is more than just being ripped and jacked and having a good body composition. It's extremely important for many aspects of our health, our hormones, our neurotransmitters. All these amino acids are crucial for our repair and our recovery. And so that's the range that your listener and you guys should be aiming for. When it comes to protein powders, you just don't want crap in there. By crap, I mean artificial sweeteners and fillers and preservatives and seed oils, because there's a lot of crap products out there that have those in them. You just want clean protein at that range, anywhere from 25 to 40 grams per serving. And so there's the answer on that creatine, you know, that it's been around forever. A lot of the science back in the day was all about muscle and it is a, it is a safe supplement. We have creatine. It's an amino acid. We have it flowing through our body. That's how we generate ATP and energy and recover. And there's creatine in the food that we eat, and so by taking just a clean, pure creatine monohydrate, you know, anywhere from five grams to eight grams, that's a very reasonable maintenance dose that can be very beneficial for performance and muscle recovery. Then now the new science has emerged showing what it does for brain health and acts on the energy system in the brain. The research is now in the 15 to 20 grams per region. But creatine is generally safe. The contraindications against it would be if there's some kidney issues. So, but generally really, really safe. I have my own brand of it. So I note if you bloat, some people get really bloated. If you start to exceed 10, 15 grams, because again, it's pushing water into the cells, there is a form called creatine hydrochloric acid, HCl rather than monohydrate, and you don't get the bloating with that. So that's my quick answer there. Electrolytes are four different minerals, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. They have to be there. They have be balanced because the water we consume every single day needs to be moved into the cell and that requires the electrolytes to be present. And so ultimately we wanna get those through food, but if you sweat a lot, you train a lot or you don't drink a lot of water, then that electrolyte balance is very important. So I'm a big fan of electrolytes. Their There's many different types, but if you sweat a lot or you exercise, then having an electrolyte packet per day is a good practice.

Dr. Wright,

And then,.

Go ahead. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Yeah, I was trying to be even more precise than that. But then I'll just speak to all of this information because we could get into like so many things of longevity and biohacking and peptides and all of the things that I think we are bombarded. And I'm happy to answer all that. I would just say back to my original thing or like, what are your goals? What are your goals? And having, and maybe what are your symptoms? Because I can literally make an argument for 50 things and I just see people come into my office all the time that literally bring a shopping bag full of 35 different supplements because there's benefits to all of these things and they're not really using any discretion. They're just grabbing it and then not knowing really why. And so if you could go, okay. There's a basic algorithm to supplements or any of these is like the foundations and then what are the symptoms or the goals and then if you have information about where you want to prevent. So that's the ultimate goal when it comes to supplements, or peptides of this is what do we know is the safe? Everybody needs this. What are my current goals or symptoms I'm trying to support? And then number three is am I trying to prevent something? And that usually has knowledge about labs or like genetics or things like that.

So Dr. Ryan, as we think about either ourselves who are getting a little bit older all the time or our clients who we're helping, a big concern is mental acuity, right? How do I stay sharp mentally? And I'm sure that there are methods, both pharmaceutics, but also other things that we can do. What are things that you talk to people about who say, look, Obviously, I'd want to avoid long-term cognitive issues if I could, but even just staying mentally sharp and crisp day-to-day, what are some of the things you recommend if that's what the client is presenting to you?

Yeah, great question, John, and it's not going to be a sexy answer that you're going to want to hear because you know it's going to super simple, right? Your sleep has to be quality, and in my experience working with all types of corporate athletes and endurance athletes and professional athletes, and everyone in between, a lot of the sleep is compromised, and so that is where our brain repairs itself. And so that, that is a foundation. Okay? So I have to say that. Um... Stress does a lot of things to the brain. It kind of moves us into that, you know, system one where we're not really present. I alluded to this a little bit on the previous talk. So breath work and stress management, I can, I'm happy to give examples of that. You know, I talked about Trevor in the previous call about. You know, just what simple mental fitness and focusing on one thing for a short period of time can do, that's extremely important. So these are the fundamentals about brain health. Your diet, if your diet is high in sugars, that is a perfect way to really mess with the brain. I don't think many people know, but type three diabetes is Alzheimer's and dementia. And that's not, you know, that is not, you know, some. Term I made up that's actually a diagnosis and so the the brain does not thrive on Massive amounts of sugar and so concentration of focus Can suffer from there and then there's there's supplements. There are safe supplements that can really Upregulate or upgrade your ability to think clearly and your memory So yeah, I would say the fundamentals first and then you know, maybe stacking a couple supplements on on there

Could we dig in to sleep a little bit more? Because I think, I know for John and myself, we travel a ton. And when you're in a different hotel in a difference city every night with different noises and things going on in the room, I mean, I think it's just by nature, not a lot of quality sleep. Maybe you're landing at 11.30 p.m. And then you're up at 6 a.m for your meeting. And then I think also about the financial professional and then maybe at late night, thinking about clients, waking up at 2 a. M, worrying about this or that. What are your thoughts on the tracking sleep, whether it's through a ring or a smartwatch? I've never done it because I'm afraid it's going to look so terrible, but it would actually throw me down a whole different mental issue. But I'm curious about what your thoughts are. Are they powerful? Does that help you start to create better routines or put some structure around it?

Yeah, the wearables are helpful, they are helpful because they bring in objective awareness or metrics. And so something like an aura or a whoop or anything that is revealing your deep in your REM sleep, the total, the quality, and it can give you a score. Very powerful to see where you're at and then track and hopefully improve. I think, so we all know what it feels like to not sleep well, we don't need a ring to tell us, but when you wear these things for a period of time, it starts to understand your physiology. And if you fly from the West Coast to the East Coast, you meet somebody at the bar, You have four drinks and then you go into a hotel room. Your ring is going to show you. It's going to show you your heart rate variability and your heart rate and your temperature. And so if it acts as a motivation marker to make help you make better decisions, then it is all net positive. So I am a big fan of them. There's also, you know, there's CGMs. CGM's are continuous glucose monitors that people wear that reveals their blood sugar right after. And that's food awareness. It's amazing what you can learn about how your body is reacting to the food that you eat. So I'm a big of the wearables. I would just say that the people that have worn them for many, many years, sometimes the, It will override your intuition. Let's say you're doing everything right. You're doing all of the correct sleep, hygiene. You wake up, this thing isn't perfect all the time. And if it tells you you're in 83 and you wake up and you feel great, sometimes if you're not careful, can override how you feel and then say, oh wait, I'm in 83 today. I've seen the opposite with that. And so it's just taking the data and understanding and using it with your intuition, but. But Julie, I would say to answer your question, it is net positive right off the bat. And then like I have people, I hold people accountable, send me your sleep scores. And so that level of accountability is also really helpful when I'm coaching people as well.

It makes perfect sense. Thank you.

So Dr. Ryan, another shiny object has to do with movement. So I recently listened to a Ted talk that said there's research out there that says, if you move five minutes for every 30 minutes that you're sitting. So I think about financial professionals, we've all had those days where we show up in the office and it seems like we didn't come up for air all day. We turn around at four or five o'clock. How important is movement during the day, not just a regular, like, okay, I get up in the morning, go work out, but now I'm going to go sit in the office for eight hours until, other than maybe to grab a bite to eat for lunch. I'm not really moving that much. Is that, is it something I should really be attentive to?

Yes, there's a lot of research now showing what the benefits of what we call NEAT, N-E-A-T, non-exercise activity thermogenesis, which is really just the amount of calories that is burned by doing activities of daily living. So I'm standing right now talking to you and I don't know if I hopefully I'm not distracting you with some of my wiggling. Not at all. Okay, but I'll take all my calls standing. I'll do my zoom and all my virtual standing. If it's a phone call, I am pacing around my office or going outside. I'm using every opportunity I can to move. And again, it's so strange term if you never heard about it. But if you are stuck in meetings all day long and you are just sitting the whole time, this is the kind of fact of what they called Sitting is the New Smoking, which came out about 20 years ago, that it's, it's not necessarily like not burning calories, but your hormones are actually changing when you're sedentary for more than four hours in a day. And so John, every finding every opportunity you can to still be busy or be productive and do what you need to, but find an opportunity to wiggle and shake and and pace and walk around your office and find that opportunity is crucial. Not only that but you don't want to sit for too long. You eventually get tight hip flexors your back gets tight You can mess up your posture. So there's the ergonomics of that as well. And and so for a lot of the you know Financial professionals that are obligated to sit or drive or commute looking for every single opportunity to move, that's a defensive movement strategy. Obviously we can talk about offense, waking up, going to fitness class or running or doing all of that, but using that as an opportunity and just finding ways to insert it into your day is crucial.

So the air crew, Julie, better get used to you and I running up and down the aisles on our next.

I was just thinking that. I'm going to be the person walking laps up and down the flight.

Dr. Ryan, I do think thinking about this offensively, I love that offense versus defense, and I think you're absolutely right. So often, especially on those busy days, we're literally just playing defense and we're trying to find these little teeny tiny pockets where we can at least make the best of a worst decision. How do you help people really think about the offense? I mean, I love, previously when we spoke, You know, you talked about if you're not managing your health, it will manage you and your limits, right? All of a sudden, I mean, you you can't do necessarily what you want to. And I think that's such a great way of looking at it. How are you helping people think about the offense side of this and really sort of make strides and, you know, raise their ceiling limit, if you will, rather than having it fall onto them?

That is the magic. This is the magic. This is where if you take a moment and you have a playbook, think about this, where you would never go into a game or a sport or a competition, not knowing who your opponent is. That's just, if anyone who has played sports, you know that. Or you would probably not sit down in a meeting with a client and not have. A strategy about how we're going to lay out your finances or how you're going to advise them. We all have a game plan that we use throughout our day. And many of you or your listeners have this internal game plan that they use with their profession, their career, maybe even their family. And that's where my argument about having one for your health lies. And so the analogy is having a playbook. Here is here is the playbook and so You know, you having a moment where you just take inventory, and I recommend it first thing in the morning. I open my playback now. I'm you can do it symbolically or figuratively. But what am I trying to achieve today? Am I very busy? Because if I'm busy, I'm going to be on defense. And that's where I just go check boxes and get this done. But if there's if there is time, if there was flexibility, if there are some structure and routine, this is this to to your question. And this is my offensive. And in your mind saying, okay, this is where I want to eat. This is how I'm gonna prepare my food. This is where am gonna get my 30 minutes of exercise in. This is the time that I am aiming to go to bed to get my seven to eight hours. Having a moment to just sit down, take inventory, open your figurative playbook and say, these are my goals and this is how I visualize me doing this. That is what I teach people. And the more you practice this, the more, you don't really need to sit down and do it. It just becomes second nature. And now what you're doing is you're ultimately building a habit. And that is the goal. The goal for being healthy is stringing across healthy habits, not perfection. You don't need to be perfect, but you are acting on habits consistently around those essential health elements. And then being balanced and flexible when things come up and they inevitably will. And so you have an offensive game plan. This is what I want to do. And then you get to the office and you're putting out this fire. You got this email and all of a sudden you have to make this meeting and your offensive playback can go right out the window and your ability to realize, okay, now I'm moving to my defensive game plan, it's about balance. It's about being flexible. And that removes a lot of the stress and the frustration with trying to do everything offensively and then not being able to do it. And so Julie it's, it's being organized and having this like offensive laid out, but also the ability to pivot right on the moment and say, okay, now I'm here. It's only temporary because in any sport, again, it is offense and defense. I'm on defense over here, but it's not going to be the whole time. And then I'm eventually going to go back into here. And if you can do that with a head space that knowing that that's part of of being healthy and part of life, then the pressure falls off and then that's where consistency can start to show up.

I can think about that offensive game plan and then I fumble or somebody intercepts me instantly on defense, right? So, um, Dr. Ryan, my last question for you, um. We hear a lot about genetic testing, right. Should I go. And be measured for things that I may be predisposed for. If I do that, am I constantly gonna be thinking about it? Where do you stand on those types of inventories? It seems like all these guys that are writing about wanting to live to 150, when we think about longevity in mind, what's your stance on some of that genetic testing stuff?

Yeah, longevity is a trend. And for good reason, there's a lot of new science that has revealed some old thinking and some new paradigms. And so it's valid. I'll speak to the different testing. So everyone should have a blood test, a functional medicine blood test that goes well beyond that of like your standard liver panel, cholesterol panel. I won't go into the biomarkers. I'm happy to answer that later, but everyone should that because that's a baseline. There are longevity panels that show the difference in your biological age and your chronological age. And there are some that are valid, truly valid. And I won't get geek out, but I'll give you a couple of terms that, it's called epigenetics. And epigenetic is basically your environment, your everything about your lifestyle, all the decisions you're making are actually being received by your genes and turning on genes and turning them off. And so there are labs that now, can look at these markers and say, let's look at the gap or the delta between what your actual age is and your biological age, and those are valid. And then you asked about genetic testing. There are genetic tests that would reveal that you are prone to different conditions and diseases. And that does come with a responsibility because once you plant a seed in someone's mind that I might be prone to this, for some people, there's almost a manifestation of that. So there is some responsibility with running those, BUT There are other really great genetic tests that reveal how your body is unique. And then you can leverage that for the personalization and I run those as well. It's called genetic SNPs, single nucleotide polymorphism. And it just says, hey, what do I use fat or do I used glucose better? Like when I'm stressed, does the cortisol and the epinephrine stay around in my body for a while, or is it quickly detoxified? It's do I. Absorb Omega 3s efficiently or not, and D3. And so those are very, very meaningful productive panels that let me create the funnel and say, here's what you would want to do. And so there's valid labs that can allow for personalization, show you where you're at, and then provide a roadmap on where you want to go. And so. I would say I'm on board with most of all of that testing. It's really how it's interpreted, and then it's how it is laid out to the person. Again, you don't want to overwhelm them, and that's the beauty of explaining how you implement these things. There is a lot of noise on the longevity about... Certain peptides and certain supplements that are claiming, you know, that they are guaranteeing you're going to live longer, I mean, just use your BS radar on those. And I'm not going to speak to those, but yeah, there is a valid way with science and labs to optimize longevity. And then I'll finally say this, it's not about just living longer. It's about making sure your cells are living optimally. So when you're 65 years old, you feel amazing and you're doing all the things and you are utilizing all the wealth that you've created and living your quality life. So, yeah.

Well, that's really, really helpful. And if you don't mind, before we let you go, Julie and I would love to run a few questions by you to maybe help our listeners better understand a little bit more about Dr. Ryan Lazarus. So if that's okay with you, I'll ask Julie to start by asking a few question and we'll go back and forth and top of mind answers, Dr. Rhyne, just whatever comes to mind, maybe a hint or two as to why you think that way. Is that okay with you?

Of course, yeah, let's do it.

What's your favorite way to unwind after a long day?

Uh, to, um, take my golden retriever, Charlie, um behind our house. We have a little hiking hill there and, um just kind of follow him. So it would be just a quick walk, a quick hike, um with my.

If you had a time machine for one trip, where and when would you travel to?

Is this a place I've been or I have not been?

It can be either so it's a time machine you can go into the future or go to the past.

These are great questions.

We wanted to give you a mental work workout. That's why we do this.

I'm kind of going back and forth between the past and the future. I can make arguments for both. I would say that where we are right now and where we're going is so interesting. I love history as well. I watch ancient aliens and I think that is some of the most intriguing information about different civilizations and all of the great evidence that is there. But I won't. Get weird and do that. So I'm gonna say future. Okay. And to probably see what my kids, grandkids life looks like.

Great answer. Love that. What's one thing you always pack when you travel?

I hate to say this, but I'll give you the answer and then maybe something a little bit more sexy. It's insulin. I don't go anywhere without insulin. I just came back yesterday from being gone for five days and that is my lifeline, obviously as a diabetic. So when I'm checking and the last thing before I close the garage is do I have that? But that's not fun and sexy. Got it, you know, maybe even a foam roller. I have these little tiny foam rollers and I can pack them. And I pack them and I've been through some injuries in my life and it's crazy what a foam roller could do to make your body feel mobile and flexible. And so it's part of my routine. And when I travel, I always regret not taking it. And so I would do that. Again, maybe that's not as sexy as I wanted, but it's the truth.

Hey, mine is Clorox wipes, so I mean, we all have our thing, right?

So if you had a moment of weakness and departed from your eating plan, what is your favorite comfort food that you would probably fail on?

Nachos, nachos. And we can, my free, we build nachos to be like somewhat healthy. But yeah, you know, the thing with nachos in a diabetic is, you Know, the chips, the corn chips, they don't raise your blood sugar immediately. It's usually about three to eight hours later. And so I have to be super careful, because then I have the careful about my blood sugar in the middle of the night, but like a really good Mexican nacho platter, you know, we live in California and we go to Mexico often. That's my weakness.

Now I'm hungry. What's your favorite quote or mantra in life?

So many. I recycle two right now. And I think it's perfect because they apply to every single one of us. It's not what you look at that matters. It's what you see. And the catch is you often see what you're looking for. So, and that is true. It's all a matter of perception. What is, what are we looking at and what is the filter here? And one of my favorites, you got to think about it for a while, but maybe your listeners can think about it as much as I do. The bad news is we're falling through the air, headed towards the ground without a parachute. The good news is that there's no ground to hit. So my interpretation of that is we all have panic and fear and chaos of the unknown, and we can start to manifest anxiety and fear when we are unsure what is going to happen. And that to me says it's normal, the parachute isn't there, there's fear and there's chaos. Surrendering and knowing it's going to be OK no matter what happens is very powerful for me. So that is a mantra I often use, there's no ground to hit.

Well, Julie, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to top either any of those. So I'm going to call my questioning to an end. Dr. Ryan, thanks for being with us today. I really enjoyed the time we spent together today.

Well, Dr. Ryan, we can't thank you enough for joining us today. And for our listeners, if you're interested in learning more about Dr. Rian Lazarus' work, you can visit www.LazarusMethod.com or feel free to order his book on Amazon. It's called, The Essential Health Playbook. Dr. Ryan, thank you again for all of the information and education today.

Thank you, Julie. Thank you. John, I really appreciate the opportunity.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the guest who is not affiliated with Hartford Funds.