Nick Koumalatsos and HRT: How to Beat Low Testosterone

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

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So go and check them out at savethebrave.org. With that, thank you guys so much. Let's get into today's programming. What's going on everyone? We are continuing Marine Raider Week here on the Warrior Soul podcast.

And if you haven't listened to the first two episodes this week with mister Josh Honsberger, you need to. The very first episode, we talked about how Josh got into MARSOC. He joined the Marine Corps, was regular infantry, and then he trained himself up to get into marine corps special operations. And, if you don't know who Josh is, Josh is a trainer. He works with Nick Koumalatsos.

He was on the same team in in MARSOC as Nick was. They worked together, really good friends. And then afterwards, they partnered up and they created these Marine Corps boot camp prep programs, and they created the MARSOC prep programs together. And Josh is an amazing dude, really inspirational guy, really awesome guy too. He just really wants the best for everybody and wants to put good information out there into the world.

So part one of our interview with him, I talked to him about his entry into MARSOC. And then part two, we got into his career. We talked about his deployments. We talked about a catastrophic injury. And I'm telling you, this was one of the craziest things I've ever heard in my life.

My mouth was open the whole time. You need to hear about how that happened, and you need to hear about how he put himself back together with the help of a lot of really great professionals, and now has himself on the right track. We talked a bit about his post military life as well. So you definitely want to check that out. In this episode, we are bringing Nick Koumalatsos on.

Nick is here for the second time and I got to sit down with him a few months ago. We had an excellent conversation. If you haven't listened to that conversation, you need to go back and check that out. I'm gonna have links to all these episodes up on the show notes. But in this episode, we're talking specifically about the impact of a career like marine special operations on hormones.

And even if you didn't serve in special operations, even if you didn't serve in the military, there are so many men out there who are dealing with low testosterone, who are dealing with hormonal problems. A lot of us, we automatically think about sex. We automatically think about sex being the thing that we're not able to do. But this really plays into your overall mental health, your happiness, your ability to live your life without getting depressed, your ability to feel like you're a capable man. This is so important for all of you guys out there who are listening to this.

And, you really want to pay attention because Nick's brought some really great resources to the table for anybody who's dealing with low t. And we break down, in this episode, we break down some of the causes, we talk about how low t can happen because of inflammation and a whole host of other things. We talk about things you can do to try to stem, or or keep low t from happening. And then we talk about some of the resources that Nick is bringing to the table. So break out a pen, break out a piece of paper.

You're definitely gonna wanna take notes on this, and let's get into this conversation with mister Nick Koumalatsos. What is going on, everyone, out there in Warrior Soul nation? This is Chris Albert, and I am joined once again by Nick Koumalatsos. Nick, how are you doing today, man?

Nick Koumalatsos 00:06:06 (link to this point)

I'm great, and thank you so much for having me back on. This the last conversation was really good. I don't know if we'll be able to beat that one, but, yeah, that was a that was a great podcast.

Chris Albert 00:06:16 (link to this point)

Dude, I love that conversation. It's one of the favorite one of my favorite episodes that I've done and was just outstanding. And been following you along, man, and and I see you're doing jiu-jitsu now. Right?

Nick Koumalatsos 00:06:30 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. So I I something that, you know, I did earlier on in life, you know, I can't say that I got really any good at it. It was just more like I liked getting beat up. It was just weird thing of just, like, waking up and and and getting the shit kicked out of you.

I don't know. Maybe it's the marine in me. Yeah. But yeah. So I wanted to get before I went I I started up again, I wanted to get healthy, because I didn't wanna get injured or anything and and prolong that.

So, you know, you those who've been following along and and I know you have with the the whole baby saga. So I had to come off. I guess that goes right into our conversation. Right? I had to come off.

I I went on HRT about a year and a half after the Marine Corps, which I didn't realize. I had a bunch of symptoms, and a buddy of mine said, hey. Really feel like you should get your testosterone checked because, you know, not to put not to say anything as post traumatic stress or anything else, but, you know, it sounds like low t issues.

Chris Albert 00:07:28 (link to this point)

Right?

Nick Koumalatsos 00:07:30 (link to this point)

And I'm not talking about the sexual stuff. I'm literally talking about quality of life, sleep Right. Recovery that people people immediately go to sex for some reason, and they overlook all the other things. And so so I did that for six years, And then, miss Koupper and I, you know, made the you know, we wanted to start our own family. I had two kids.

She hasn't have any kids, we really wanted to start our own family. But I I had a lot of things going against me. I had a vasectomy in 2007 because I almost lost my last wife, around the child the the birth of my second, daughter. And at the time, you know, you make the best decisions that you can make at the time. Right?

That's all any parent can do. You we don't have all the answers. Right? We never we never really know what we're doing. Just making the best decisions that we can at the at that given time.

So I made a I had a I had a vasectomy because I was like, raising two girls without a mother? Like, that's not a good idea. You know I mean? It takes it takes both sides. So I made that conscious decision to get a vasectomy, not really thinking too much of it.

And obviously, life happens and here we are again. So me being on testosterone, obviously not a great thing to try to have a baby, and then having a vasectomy also kind of puts a roadblock. But man, the miracle of modern medicine and science, it can be done. So I had to come off testosterone. And with that, man, my whole life was just wrecked.

I mean, you could have no. You could imagine.

Chris Albert 00:09:05 (link to this point)

Yep. Yeah. And and that's something I I wanna address there because, you know and you said that at the beginning, everybody automatically goes to sex. Mhmm. But when it comes to low t, low testosterone, everybody associates testosterone with this kind of aggressive angry thing, but it's not.

Testosterone actually helps to calm you down, makes you feel really good, makes you feel really good, happy. Right?

Nick Koumalatsos 00:09:33 (link to this point)

Yeah. I was, so immediately, my mood went in a crapper. Like, I would say probably more aggressive, or short fuse because I just didn't feel good. I didn't feel good. So and and then, like, like, almost like a depression feeling kicks in.

What's different about this time, though, is I knew. Mhmm. I knew what it was. Like, even though it put it still puts don't don't get me wrong. It still puts strain on the relationship because, I mean, I just felt like a sad sack of shit, really.

Like, I just it was just I'm just like a a sad sack of potatoes. You know? And I I no drive to do anything, that sort of thing. And we had a common goal, so we knew where we're heading. But it was still very, very difficult.

And, Chris, when I was I was going to the gym, I, you know, I and I still try to stay active. Man, I would go to the gym. I would do literally a calisthenic. I remember doing a calisthenic workout. I went out back to the gym at my gym, and and, I was doing, like, lunges and then, you know, a little bit of burpees in between the lunges and nothing real crazy.

Right? Like, four rounds of of lunges and burpees or something. And I was sore for three weeks.

Chris Albert 00:10:51 (link to this point)

Wow. Wow.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:10:53 (link to this point)

That's crazy. How do you train with that?

Chris Albert 00:10:56 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:10:56 (link to this point)

You can't.

Chris Albert 00:10:57 (link to this point)

You can't make progress. Right? Plus on top of that, you're running seven different businesses.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:11:02 (link to this point)

Yeah. I'm trying to, like, I'm trying to keep things up. I'm trying to because, you know, like, doesn't happen on its own. Like, you gotta make like, this podcast doesn't grow on its own. Right?

You have to push it. You gotta you gotta talk to people. You gotta have, you know, interesting topics and things. There's a lot of work that goes beyond things. Things just don't just blow up and happen on their own.

And so that, you know, you're try I'm trying to make all that happen, and it's I'm just not there. And, so anyway, so back to jiu-jitsu. Because of that, I lost a bunch of weight. I gained a little bit of unwanted weight. I I kept my diet in check at the same time.

But, man, when your when your hormones are off, your whole life is off. And I think so many people are missing that connection. They just think that maybe they're gotten older, like, they're frustrated. Like, I don't understand. I diet a little bit, and nothing happens.

And, you know, if I work out, I get hurt, or my back hurts, or, you know, I'm sore for a long time. There's a lot of different factors that are probably they're not looking at. So for me, I wanted to wait, until I got healthy, put some muscle back on my my joint spaces because as you know, if you know, for those of us that have injuries, as you know, especially the ones that served in the Marine Corps with shoulders and doing pull ups and all kinds of stuff and rucking, it actually helps your shoulder to have that muscle mass on there. So if you're gonna build the muscle mass up and encapsulate that joint space, it's gonna protect it, and all those ligaments are gonna be a little bit tighter. And, and, you know, obviously working on mobility, but that muscle protects that joint, and you just feel so much better.

So waited until that to get back into it. But man, it's been it's been fun getting my, getting my butt kicked every morning.

Chris Albert 00:12:45 (link to this point)

It's an awesome sport. I've I've been kind of in a similar situation to you, not not with the hormones, but I'm sure my hormones have have taken a dive. I have a autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:12:58 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:12:58 (link to this point)

And since August, I I dropped 40 pounds in body weight, just because I'm going through a flare up. And I'm recovering right now. They've got me on biologics, Remicade, and things like that. Yeah. But, you lose if you lose that I mean, I was going into jiu-jitsu.

I'm I'm getting back on the mats now, and I feel like a little rag doll, like being tossed around and things like that. You know?

Nick Koumalatsos 00:13:21 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:13:23 (link to this point)

It's it's what

Nick Koumalatsos 00:13:23 (link to this point)

it's what it is, man. But it just you know what? Here's here's a little lesson. So in my life, and this is kinda comes off of testosterone, but this is just, you know, talking about that same subject. In my life, there's not many areas that aren't controlled anymore.

Chris Albert 00:13:40 (link to this point)

Right? Mhmm.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:13:41 (link to this point)

Like, I push myself hard. That that's granted. Most people can see that. I push myself in business. I take risk.

I take risk with money. I take risk with opportunities. It is very it is very it can be very frightening and and fearful on everyday biz everyday life of mine. But at the same time, it's very controlled. Who the people that I work with, the people that I engage with, that I choose to engage with, everything in my life is very controlled and thought out.

Okay? So starting so so pushing yourself and and getting something you know, I always talk about being uncomfortable or being comfortable in the uncomfortable. Okay? And And I really looked at it and I was like, when have I truly been uncomfortable? Because I'm so comfortable in the uncomfortable in my my arenas.

Right? But I haven't really pushed myself outside the zone, like outside my comfort zone. Now, you know, like, you know, taking $20 and and and and and gambling on a business opportunity, for some people that might be like, holy crap. Like, this is a big deal. For me, I'm super comfortable doing that.

It's not really for me, longer is that a big deal. And I'm fortunate to to have those kind of opportunities. But but waking up at 5AM and going into a thing where you don't know anyone where they and for me, you know, not to not to, like, sound like a a big deal, but they're more they more than likely, because it's a military town, know who I am. Yep. I don't know them.

They're better than me at what I'm about to do. So I'm literally walking into an unknown environment. I'm gonna give them my money, and then they're gonna beat the shit out of me.

Chris Albert 00:15:38 (link to this point)

They have Everybody's gonna be like, hey. Let's make the marine raider guy cap. Yeah. Let's let let's let this

Nick Koumalatsos 00:15:43 (link to this point)

YouTube guy who thinks he's hot shit on YouTube. Let's let's let's break him off a piece. So for me, that was a I would for the first time, I was actually nervous. Like, I don't I don't get nervous about going on stage and and delivering a keynote anymore. I don't get nervous about there's just a lot that I'm soup which in the grand scheme of things, people are like, that's super uncomfortable.

But I'm comfortable in that uncomfortable spaces now. But so it's been a long time that I've been able to, like, you wake up and you got those butterflies. Like, should I even go? Should I do this? You know what I mean?

Like, I'm and I'm being a 100% honest. I honestly thought. I was like, ah, do I really wanna put myself out there like this? Like, you know?

Chris Albert 00:16:22 (link to this point)

This is this is outside

Nick Koumalatsos 00:16:24 (link to this point)

my bubble. Right? This is outside my control environment. And, and and and and I it hit me. I was like, wow.

This is the first time in in a in a good amount of time that you have pushed yourself in a zone that is outside your comfort zone. Right? You know, that's really, really outside your you're stepping into the unknown. They know you. You don't know them.

You you have no idea what's gonna happen. And and, you know, and honestly, it was like that. They did know me. They didn't know who who I was. They definitely put the freaking they definitely put the pain down on it.

But you know what? You show up the next day.

Chris Albert 00:17:08 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:17:08 (link to this point)

And they and you let them put the pain on you. And you know what? You you show up. You get up. And in my mind, it's like a movie.

It's just like it's on repeat, like Groundhog Day. You wake up, you take your pre workout, you grab your shit, you go out the door, and you do it again. And then you do it again, and you do it again. And you know what happens? All of a sudden, you look back and you go, it's not that uncomfortable anymore.

Chris Albert 00:17:28 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:17:28 (link to this point)

This is what I do. This is part of my routine.

Chris Albert 00:17:31 (link to this point)

Right. And that's that's the thing because I I remember my first day walking into into jiu-jitsu class, and this was years ago. I was a I was about two hundred and ten pounds. I could deadlift over 600 pounds. I could squat over 500 pounds.

And then I get on the mats, and the coach puts me with this guy who's about a hundred and forty pounds. He wore your ass out. Dude, he broke me in half. Like, broke me in half. I was like, what the hell?

And I'd been a wrestler before.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:18:00 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:18:00 (link to this point)

And it was just like, it was ridiculous. And that's where I was like, alright. Maybe for the past few years, all the strength I have, I need to figure out how to utilize it in another way and maybe figure out how to how to create other types of strength in my body and and and get uncomfortable in another way.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:18:18 (link to this point)

Yeah. Try to figure out how to use that leverage against those hundred and fifty pound guys. Right? You how to use that way. Exactly.

Yeah. Every pretty much every every, every class, I get beat up by probably I don't even know how much he weighs. Probably a hundred and fifty pound 18 year old. And he just I mean, he just wears me out, man. Like, I he's just so fast, and he's on he's over here for one second, and then I'm like, I'd much rather go with, like, the bigger guys because we're slow or methodical.

But those dudes those little small dudes, man, they just are so fast. So that's that's my joke. He's like, what'd you do today? Well, I woke up at 5AM, got choked out by an 18 year old. How's your day going?

It's so true, though. But if you do it, you love it. That's for sure. Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:19:08 (link to this point)

Absolutely. And I I highly recommend it to everybody at home. And and I think it does play into what we're gonna talk about here because, you know, I think as guys get older, you know, in conjunction with some of the health things that go on, we lose that band of brothers that that Yeah. We're supposed to be around. We lose that that that, you know, male Yeah.

That tribe. Right? And and jiu-jitsu is a great way of doing that. It's a great way of getting yourself back into that position, and and that could have a positive mental and hormonal effect down the line. I'm not saying it's gonna, like, automatically raise your testosterone levels or anything like that, but it's definitely something that could help.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:19:47 (link to this point)

Well, does. It creates a dopamine response. And that's where I think people that are stuck in life and they're depressed are, you know, they're not, this is why physical fitness is such a huge crucial portion of of of health and and mental health. You know, back in the day, we all had like most jobs were manual labor. We no longer have to do manual labor.

What we what do we do? A lot most of are the ones that are really healthy. We we basically go to the gym and recreate manual labor so that we can, you know, be healthy. And and there's an immediate dopamine response with that with any sort of physical fitness. And that's what was in that was in the Excommunicated Warrior book.

It's it's one of the steps of of getting right is doing something because we create that dopamine response, and all of a sudden you have a guy or girl that starts looking in the mirror. They don't look any different.

Chris Albert 00:20:42 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:20:42 (link to this point)

But within a week, you go into the gym, they're like, oh, I look better. You don't. There's like there's no way that within a week, you're gonna have make a noticeable difference in the in the mirror. But what it is is there's a hormone pushing to your brain saying, I feel better and I so there's therefore, I see myself different and I look better.

Chris Albert 00:21:03 (link to this point)

Yep.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:21:03 (link to this point)

And that's a huge thing. And on the tribe thing, I mean, absolutely, that is find your tribe. Right? Like we all as much as we love the Marine Corps and we love the Marine Corps brotherhood and or the military brotherhood in general, even for law enforcement, I did a I did a two and a half hour podcast with a with a a sergeant, that was in a special unit, of law enforcement agency. And we talked about the same thing.

When you're in it, it's it's there. Right? But when you leave, which everyone will, I don't care where you're at in your career, at some point, you will leave that circle. You will leave that tribe. And while we always say, like, oh, the brotherhood's forever.

The brotherhood's forever. It's not. It No. It's there while while you're there. But, like, the mission goes on.

That mission continues on. So it's up to us to find a new tribe and to find, find another, you know, kind of brotherhood. Is the reason why CrossFit is a, I don't know, probably a billion dollar industry at this point, you know, because what that's what they've done. They've created it's it goes beyond fitness. They've created a tribe of people, and you get in there, and it's kind of like a cult following.

The same thing with jiu-jitsu, same with a lot of different things. And it can be whatever. But if you are alone and out there, like, struggling on something, you need to go find your tribe.

Chris Albert 00:22:30 (link to this point)

Exactly. Exactly. Get off the couch and go

Nick Koumalatsos 00:22:34 (link to this point)

find something. And it might not be the first thing. It could be the tenth thing. But you've got to go out there and figure what that is for you.

Chris Albert 00:22:41 (link to this point)

Right. Exactly. And I think the problem with a lot of guys is they they'll get out, they'll get married, or they'll get involved with somebody, and then they just put everything else off. They think, okay. Now I've gotta be a husband.

I gotta put all this this masculinity male stuff to the side for a bit. Yeah. Focus on providing, focus on on on my family duties, focus on my job, and then your life just becomes like you become an automaton. Right? You're just a robot just going back forth, and that's where, Groundhog Day starts.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:23:13 (link to this point)

Right? No. And that's yeah. And and then what's what's sad about that is it is we all every man, every good provider falls into that trap. Right?

I fell into myself like, need to come home. I need to be with my kids. I need to do this. I gotta help homework. I gotta help with dinner.

I gotta do all these different things, which are all true. Yes. You have to do that. But if you are putting your own health and mental health and and physical well-being off, you turn into that robot. And now you're miserable.

And now you start looking at your your kids and your wife and your family and your situation like they're the problem because you don't feel good. So it it's it's like that old thing. It's like, you have to be, oh, this is a good one. My wife just did this skit for her. She did a talk at the at the women's club.

And you know how it says they, when you're on an airplane and the mask come down and it says, put your mask on first so that you could, you know, you and then put the, you know, on your kid or something like this. So she made the point of why they do that. Right? Because everybody's like, I'm not doing that. I'm gonna put it on my kid first.

So she had this funny skit where she had some employees, like, act it out where the the kid was just being ridiculous, and they were trying to put the mask on. And before she could finally get the mask on, the mom passes out.

Chris Albert 00:24:39 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:24:40 (link to this point)

And then the kid just looks at her mom and then pulled the mask through her face. So the kid's good, but then the mom's passed out. So now you can't so the whole point is, like, you need to make sure that you are taking care of yourself Right. You know, so that you can take care of the other ones around you. If if Chris is falling apart, then how how good are you gonna be for your family if you're not

Chris Albert 00:25:04 (link to this point)

You're not gonna be present at all. You're you're gonna be else.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:25:08 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:25:08 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:25:09 (link to this point)

If but if you're taking care of yourself and you're healthy and you when you show when you walk into the house, you feel good, you're excited, you got that dopamine going, life is good, time to get to work.

Chris Albert 00:25:21 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely. When with so as far as our community, veteran community, I've been talking about this for a few years now. It seems like low testosterone is a problem amongst our community. As far as when guys get out dealing with things like traumatic brain injury, dealing with with dealing with a lot of the other things that are happening. In fact, I've had experts on here before like doctor Mark Gordon, Andrew Marr, who've talked about the idea of hormonal shutdown being one of the reasons why we have a high suicide rate in the veteran community.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:26:03 (link to this point)

I I agree. I think not to take anything wrong from from trauma, but let's let's identify what trauma is. Right? A lot of people say it's post traumatic stress and this and that, but, you know, yes, that is a real thing, and that is something happens. But do not get PTSD twisted in some sort of way of, like, it's a combat related thing.

I'm I'm not that I'd not that I'm over PTSD or whatever, but when you look at it from a a mental, physical side from a human being, trauma is trauma. Your brain doesn't give a shit whether it was a combat situation or a horrific car crash where you lost a kid and you got injured really bad. Like, your brain doesn't know the difference between combat and and and and something horrible that happens here stateside. Just trauma. It it could be the same thing as a a bad firefight or a girl getting raped at 16.

Mhmm. If you look at the brain, that's a traumatic event regardless how you look at it. So those things happen. Now you take that stuff away and then just look at the lifestyle of of of someone. Highly unknown lifestyle.

Right? Like, you don't know what's gonna happen. It's always changing. You are operating in the red. You're just revving that engine Mhmm.

As long as for years and years and years. Right? So if I go take out if I go take my if I go outside, put put my truck in neutral and then smash the gas and just let that thing rev, how long do you think it's gonna before something starts shaking loose?

Chris Albert 00:27:40 (link to this point)

Right? Definitely.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:27:42 (link to this point)

Right. You can't it it's not meant to operate that way. We're our human bodies are not meant to operate that way. So so what's happening is, I I think and and, you know, I'm not I'm not as as I'm not a doctor, and I'm not any of, like, what the you know, guests that you've had on here past, but I've experienced it personally. And I've kinda, I don't know, dope you know, kinda gave my life to this because it's a it's a it's a rampant issue.

But our adrenal glands are shot. We're over caffeinated. We're taking you know, we're, you know, we're chewing up a tons of, know, sixteen hundred milligrams of Motrin before we go step out on a mission, and then we chew up another 1,600 when we get back or while we're on it. You know, guys are, you know, taking, opiates to to deal with body pain at, you know, after ten years just to just to be able to function and go on go on and operate. And and then you've got trauma, then you've got, you do have TBIs that just absolutely crush your preparatory gland, pituitary gland, which is what secretes your hormones and your testosterone.

So that's kind of what happened to me. I got injured. I had a head injury and all of a sudden now my, I'm just not producing it anymore. And then we find out so this is a great like you before we we press record, we were talking about my buddy Josh Honsberger that had a big injury. So now you say you have someone that has a really traumatic injury in either training or combat or car crash or whatever.

They're finding out that immediately your testosterone production shuts down.

Chris Albert 00:29:14 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:29:15 (link to this point)

And that was amazing to me because now I'm like, well, why aren't we testing? Why isn't the military immediately testing these people and finding out why you know, making sure that their testosterone is is on point? Because what's what's that gonna do? If it goes in the crapper on an injury, then their their healing ability is gonna be so much slower.

Chris Albert 00:29:42 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:29:43 (link to this point)

But so so we take say we take a guy like Josh. He has a bad parachute incidents. Luckily for everyone, his family, his friends, everyone, you know, he survived. It was a very long road to heal, as you as you heard. Mhmm.

But, you know, he got better. But that was a lot on him. And he did have to get on testosterone. But why wouldn't we check that immediately, see where he's at? And if he needs supplementation while he's going through therapy, let's give it to him.

Let's get him back.

Chris Albert 00:30:11 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:30:12 (link to this point)

And maybe it takes a year and a half to get back instead of three years.

Right.

Chris Albert 00:30:16 (link to this point)

And and that's the thing. You know, that that show is gonna be released before this one does, and and his injury, I I mean, he literally broke his femur in half mid flight on a parachute accident. Like, insane injury when describing it. I was I was getting nauseous. And, you know, injuries like that, I mean, you think about the amount of money they put into the average troop and then the amount of money they put into to people like you, you know, you would think that they'd wanna bring in some force resilience to try to to to keep guys going and try to put guys back together.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:30:52 (link to this point)

But it's kinda Yeah. Think the cost is

Chris Albert 00:30:54 (link to this point)

something like, I don't know, $10 a week at cost. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's crazy. Yeah.

It's crazy how how much money they could save and how many resources they could they could keep in the Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:31:07 (link to this point)

So real quick, if you haven't if you're listening to this and you haven't listened to Josh's story, rewind, push pause, go back, listen to that, and then and then come catch up with us.

Chris Albert 00:31:16 (link to this point)

Def Hey, guys. I hope you're getting a lot out of this interview. You know, the Warrior Soul podcast is built with the mission to empower its listeners to live absolutely epic lives. And that's why we recently created a group called the Warrior's Obituary Society. This group is built to empower its members to live epic lives worthy of epic obituaries.

And it starts with an eight week development program. And with this development program, what you're gonna do is you're gonna outline a vision for your life. You're gonna get very specific about what you want. Because without that specificity, you don't know where you're going, and you don't know what you're doing. From there, we help our members to develop specific goals, objectives that they are going to push toward, and that their fellow members of the Warrior's Obituary Society are going to hold them accountable too.

From there, we're getting down into specifics. We're going to help you to develop and customize your own personal fitness and nutrition plan to help to fuel your body and fuel your mind for the quest ahead. From there, we're going to work on your personal finances. We're going to help you to knock down debt. We're going to help you to start saving money and to create a plan so that you can start investing in your dreams.

Then we're going to get into your business and career. We're going to help you to develop the skills that you need to develop yourself so that you can have a major impact in the field you choose. If you choose to go into business, we're going to help you to set up the foundations that you need to create your own company and get started on your path in life. From there, we're going to be working on your relationships. We're going to help you to develop a world class network.

And all along the way, you're going to have your fellow members of the Warrior's Obituary Society pushing you in every single area. We meet once a week over a live call, and we're constantly communicating over our own private floor forum on Slack. We don't do anything over social media, and that's because I don't want anybody feeling like anyone's looking over their shoulders, and I don't want you exposed to the crazy distracting alerts that you get on Facebook and some of the other social media platforms. Normally, programs like this cost thousands of dollars. This one does not.

For the price, it is the best development program on the Internet. And that's because our mission here at Warrior Soul is to empower people to get more out of life so that they can in turn make the world a better place. We've got a great mix of active duty military, US military veterans, and civilians in this group. We wanted to keep it really eclectic so that we get a lot of different types of views up there and a lot of different people with different areas of expertise. If you think that this is something that would be of interest to you, and that this is something that could empower you to live your absolute best life, head over to www.warriorobituarysociety.com.

That's www.warriorobituarysociety.com, and you can sign up today. And if you have any questions about it, just reach out to me at chris@warriorsoulagoge.com. That's chris@warriorsoulagoge.com. I'm happy to even sit down with you for a phone call for a few minutes to see if the group is right for you. I look forward to seeing you guys in there, and let's get back to this awesome interview.

One thing I wanna break down here though is because you mentioned you mentioned the Motrin. Right? You mentioned Yeah. The lifestyle of of somebody who's in the military. And I bring a lot of that stuff from time to time in the community community, and I get lot a of people come back at me like, okay, boomer, because it it sounds kind of pious and stuff like that.

But the thing about testosterone production in a couple of ways. Number one, your digestion heavily affects your testosterone production. Yeah. Your gut your gut lining. Your gut brain axis because your brain is connected to your gut via the vagus nerve in a couple of different places.

But beyond that, your your testicles are outside of your body for a reason. They don't like heat. They don't like inflammation. So you consider about 75% of your immune system is in your gut. So if you're not digesting food properly, what happens is the food particles interact with your immune system that sends, inflammatory cytokines.

I don't want get all scientific, but it sends inflammation throughout your body that starts killing off your leydig cells, which are the cells that produce testosterone, right? The thing about chewing Motrin, Motrin and NSAIDs, they shut down all inflammation in your body. But what they also do is they keep your intestinal tract from healing. You couple that with a high drinking lifestyle, lack of sleep. I know you had doctor Kirk Parsley on your show.

Yep. And and he's been on my show a couple of times. That keeps you from healing your intestinal lining. You know, a a lot of the other things we're doing, sucking down MREs, which are pretty hard to digest as well. That can that can be a huge, huge detriment to you being able to produce testosterone in the future.

Plus, when it comes to traumatic brain injury, what they're finding is something as little as mating a 50 cal can interrupt that pituitary gland, and the pituitary gland produces a follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone. And if that shuts down, the whole cascade shuts down. So a lot of you guys at home who are listening, you know, you you maybe you're 21, 22 right now, you feel like you're invincible. You gotta think about how the stuff you're doing right now will affect your resilience down the line because you don't feel invincible forever.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:37:25 (link to this point)

Chris, can you can I just I'm gonna tell you a story real quick about what you just said before I lose it?

So what you just said about the, like, the, the 50 cal. Okay?

Chris Albert 00:37:35 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:37:36 (link to this point)

When I went to an inpatient brain clinic, in '14, and I I never got blown up in an IED. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's happened. Right? I got there was an IED that went off, but I wasn't that close to it. So in my mind, a typical Marine, I'm like, I'm good.

Nothing. You know, I didn't get launched in a rocket out of a Humvee, you know, I I didn't step on one, nothing like that. So so I'm good. And he just kinda looked at me like I was stupid and said, let me ask you a question. And he had been treating a bunch of special operators for, for a couple years.

So he kinda knew us and and knew, you know, knew our story and knew our our life. And he goes, let me ask you a question. How many rockets have you shot? And I was like, what? I don't I don't I don't know, doc.

Are you kidding me? He goes, how many flash bangs have gone off by your feet? How many parachute openings have you had? How many doors have you breached? How many times have you done pugil sticks and got knocked in the head?

He said, all of these micro things add up. Like, you don't get to like, when one happens, you don't get to heal from it. Like, they it's you have a ticker, and more that you add to it, it fills that bucket of water until eventually it falls over. So if you're a guy out there, it's like, why didn't get a TBI? But you've been doing that job and you've shot a bunch of AT4s, you've been shooting 50 cals, you've been shooting an M16 you know, an M4, M16, doesn't matter.

That all has concussion that comes around you. And over a period of time, that does everything what Chris does, that that that that beats that gland up. And it and it because our brains are just literally sitting in a in a, you know, bucket of water. So it's just bouncing around in there. So anytime there's any sort of overpressure, it is damaging your brain, and it's damaging your your gland to where you're not producing that luteinizing hormone.

And that's how he found out. He goes he goes and not to get super weird on the sex side, but he goes, let me ask you a question. He goes, how's the quality of your orgasms? Which I was like, woah, bro. Like, we just met.

But he could tell, and that would that and that's how he knew my pituitary gland was down because my luteinizing hormone was in the crapper. And he was like, and that's and your luteinizing hormone is where basically and and again, not a doctor, but is where, like, the quality of your orgasms and quality of everything come to play. So if you're having low quality, low count, low volume, that's where that's kind of where that count that comes from. And, and I was, you know, not that I was kinda being cocky, like, no. I'm good, man.

I'm good. And he's like, well, all of this data from your brain and from your lab says different. You know? So if you're and I the only reason I won't interrupt you because I want I want people to know that because they're like, well because there there's everybody's like me. You're like me.

You're like, well, I didn't do anything that bad, So I'm good. Right? I didn't I didn't lose a leg in an IED. You know, I didn't get launched out of a Humvee. You know, I only did my fifteen, you know, ten years, four years, whatever you did.

And, you know, so I I have no excuses. I should be fine. The truth is that job over a period of time of doing all that does give you brain injuries. Right.

Chris Albert 00:40:52 (link to this point)

Exactly. And and that's the thing. I mean, you you're exactly right as far as that job over time, but also for those civilians at home who are who are listening to this, those of you who played football.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:41:03 (link to this point)

Right?

Chris Albert 00:41:04 (link to this point)

Yeah. Those you might have played lacrosse. Those of you who might have boxed or or or or done MMA for a bit. Plus, if you're you're you're a 20 year old who's sitting at home and and, you know, you're doing all this other stuff that might be ruining your digestive system, taking Motrin every day after you get a hangover or things like that. Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:41:23 (link to this point)

It all adds up. Yeah. It it's all adding up. So everything that you're doing from from from the very beginning, it's not like it goes away. Right?

Like, as we age, we're just filling up different buckets of of shit, and we're carrying that around with us. And you've gotta deal with it. You know?

Chris Albert 00:41:42 (link to this point)

Right. There's one more thing I wanna wanna cover here too, before we get we get into talking about some of these solutions, is the idea of sex hormone binding globulin and, aromatase. And aromatase is an enzyme that turns testosterone into estrogen. Alright?

Nick Koumalatsos 00:42:03 (link to this point)

Right.

Chris Albert 00:42:04 (link to this point)

Sex hormone binding globulin is a protein that will bound up your testosterone and make it less bioavailable. And and the thing that happens there is that is also also has to do with lifestyle as well. Because if you're not eating enough, you're gonna upregulate sex hormone binding globulin. If you're eating too much, you're gonna upregulate, aromatase. And so, again, diet and exercise are are are gonna be huge things here as well.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:42:34 (link to this point)

Yeah. And I'm glad that you said that because people we I think this is the biggest thing. And and and if you're listening in The US, and and I can't speak on other countries, can speak on the countries that I go to. But from where from where I travel, for instance, Greece, the food is very different. And we have we have changed you know, I think it was Jimmy Carter, I think, that really the whole corn industry in the seventies, but we changed our food in the seventies.

And this is really where you start to see now granted lifestyle and this and that, but from a fundamental basis, we we literally changed our the way we eat and then changed our food in the seventies. And this is the reason why from the seventies on, you know, Americans are typically obese. Right? So now we're putting essentially this crap in our body. But if you take someone who is and and I'm not trying to say, like, go crazy hippie and only eat stuff that you grow in your backyard.

It's not what I'm saying. But listen, shit in, shit out. Right? So when you're talking about gut lining, you're talking about these things and all these different foods, if if make it real simple for yourself. If you wanna get healthy, eat real food.

Mhmm. Eat vegetables. Eat meat. Eat good meat. Go eat like, I don't wanna turn this on a meat thing, but eat healthy meats.

Lean, healthy meats that aren't, like, processed and and overproduced. Hell, if you could go find a cow in your neighborhood and go and go half it with your neighbor, and he's been out there chomping on on grass for, you know, for a year, do that. Like, go get a freezer. It's a $150 at Lowe's. Go half a cow with somebody, and he'll go to and get it all butchered up and throw it in there.

But, like, you know, you you have to if you want your body to run the way that human beings are run, we have to start looking at the quality of food that we're putting in our mouth. Because like you what you said about your gut lining and everything, that's we need those nutrients. We need everything that that food gives us. And it's not just to to feel good, you know, and and and unfortunately, we've we've made food like a comfort thing, but it's fuel for our body. That's the way I look at it.

I wanna I wanna put the very, very best inside of me so that my gut lining does heal. My intestines absorb every little nutrient that it can so that I can operate at my best. And a lot of people will be like, well, I'm not losing weight. And I start looking at what they're eating and it's like, well, I had this meal that I warmed up in the microwave. And I'm like, yeah, great.

Macronutrient wise, yeah, you're on point, but it's it's garbage.

Chris Albert 00:45:11 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:45:11 (link to this point)

Right. Go grill a piece of chicken, go grill some thighs, and then make yourself, you know, some some butternut squash and some zucchini.

Chris Albert 00:45:20 (link to this point)

Exactly.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:45:21 (link to this point)

And you know what I mean? Like, grind up some beet and a juice, you know? Yeah. And the go ahead.

Chris Albert 00:45:27 (link to this point)

The the the best way I heard it described is is you wanna go after foods that your great grandfather would would have recognized.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:45:35 (link to this point)

Right. Before we changed everything. Right? Exactly. Exactly. Yeah.

And it it's and now it's, like, so foreign. It that that concept is such a foreign concept to the general populace because it's not it's harder. Nobody knows how to cook anything. It's so much more difficult. Unfortunately, it can be more expensive.

Chris Albert 00:45:56 (link to this point)

Yep.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:45:57 (link to this point)

Than just going and getting a, you know, DiGiorno's pizza and throw it in the oven. Like, that's cheap. Blows my mind.

Chris Albert 00:46:04 (link to this point)

Well and that's the thing too. I mean, if you know how to cook, once you learn how to cook, you can prepare a meal in, like, twenty minutes.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:46:11 (link to this point)

Mean Yeah. It doesn't take much.

Chris Albert 00:46:12 (link to this point)

Yeah. It doesn't doesn't take much at all. And and the other thing is, I mean, I I'll post my food on Facebook, and and I eat a lot of organ meat because it's nutrient dense, like grass fed beef liver. Super nutrient dense. People were like, oh my god.

How could you eat that? Blah blah blah. I'm like, dude, it's freaking delicious if you know how to cook it, and it's so good for you. It's so good for you.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:46:35 (link to this point)

And and and you're gonna see the benefits of it. And and if anybody that like, you know, when we do survive in the cut groups and things like that, that's the biggest thing. So every once in a while, we'll run, like, a ninety day thing on, you know, losing weight or something like that, and it's really like looking at their food. You know the biggest difference? You know what the the people that the people that get the most out of it and make the biggest changes?

It's not because they're eating less and they're working out more. It's the education piece of what they're putting in their mouth. When that starts to happen, everything changes. And that 100 going back to testosterone, that 100% has to do with what your hormones are, especially if you're going to Walmart and just buying the cheapest thing on the shelf or cheapest thing on a thing. That crap is pumped full of hormones. I'll tell you this. So my wife went plant based for a little while, we're trying to have a baby because she was having a lot of hormonal issues.

And and that and we're when you're going through the IVF process, it is so crucial that your hormones are, like, exactly what it was. So her estrogen was like 300 and something. And they're, you know, and they're like, okay, well, we need to come that down. So she went plant based. And then and that means cutting out all the meat and everything and just, you know, eating pea proteins, lentils, and and soy and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

So the next week it dropped a 100. The next week it dropped another 100. It went down to 19. The doctor was like, we've never seen anything like this in so fast. Whatever you're doing, keep doing it. So they went in.

When they went in, they saw that her estrogen was at 19. They were like, what are you doing? She's like, well, I stopped eating processed food and plant and and meat. And they're like, that's amazing. They're like, well, you're good to go.

And guess what happened? We we put we put little smush in and boom.

Chris Albert 00:48:28 (link to this point)

Mhmm. Pregnant. Yeah. Yeah. And and that's another big point is that if you're eating a lot of that crap that's been treated with pesticides or that has all these chemicals.

Mean, there's xenoestrogens in the food that can mimic estrogen in your body. Right. Right. And you're taking in all this exogenous stuff. And for women, those women out there who are listening to this, particularly women who are like either premenopausal or about to hit menopause, when when you're going through that, both estrogen and progesterone drop.

Progesterone is meant to keep you calm. It's meant to counteract the effects of estrogen. But what happens is estrogens, because they come in exogenously, they're still there at a high level and you get what's called estrogen dominance.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:49:15 (link to this point)

That's what I'm say, it becomes estrogen dominance. And that's where like the weight gain and all kinds of mood stuff happens. Cancer. Yep. And and and if you look at it with men too, like, so if we're eating those same foods, this is the reason why men's, like, you know, not throwing anybody in the bus, but, like, you see a lot of people with men having boobs and they're having you know, you see a kid that's young kid and he's got like a womanly shape.

He's got wider hips. He's got boobs because he's eating what's available to him. His parents are feeding what's available to him, but we're getting this estrogen dominant situation where this is what we're producing.

Chris Albert 00:49:53 (link to this point)

Exactly. Exactly. Now, you've been working with Core Medical Group, to to for your therapy. And and I want to get into this because I think guys at home should know the difference between a quality clinic versus some of the other clinics you're gonna see out there. I don't want to bad mouth anybody, but but, you know, I think there's a lot of cookie cutter aspects to that industry that that have come up particularly over recent years because a lot of men are going through low t.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:50:23 (link to this point)

Yeah. I've seen a couple that are literally like almost no labs. Like, you sign up, and then they just issue you a cookie cutter solution. Like, here's your testosterone. Here's whatever the here's your anti e and then see you later.

And we'll just auto deliver this thing every month, which is for me, like, for what I know and what you know is totally scary because it's it's not a cookie cutter solution. It is 100% about you, your symptoms, how you're feeling, and what your levels are.

Chris Albert 00:50:55 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:50:55 (link to this point)

And so I I don't have experience with any I I'm very, very lucky, Chris. I don't have any experience with anything bad. I I I got on with a doctor in Kansas City who is a Vietnam surgeon. Absolutely loves he absolutely loves his marines, man. He just loves loves his marines and service members.

And so that's who kicked me off. Not unfortunately, but he's 75. He's kinda winding down. He's in Kansas City. I'm in North Carolina.

So as much as I love him and support his family, it was it just wasn't being conducive conducive to to being here. When I came out about my because I never, you know, personal on a personal basis, I would tell people that I was on HRT, but I never came out public on social media and said anything about it, really. Not not with a message, you know? So coming coming off, having having surgery to get my to get my sperm out so that we could have a baby, which should probably be its own podcast in itself. But, and then coming back on, I wanna take that opportunity to to really educate people on the truths of it, right?

That that you're not like it's not steroids. You know, testosterone is a natural is a natural substance, natural hormone that our bodies create. We're just reproducing it. So like what the difference is between, you know, quote unquote steroids and what, you know, testosterone and HRT is. And then when that happened, when I did that, I was getting a lot of questions like, hey, man.

Like, everything you just described as far as symptoms I've been having, I feel like I I should go get checked out. And I didn't really have a solution for him. So my good buddy, Vince, Vince Vargas, I don't know. Has has he been on the show?

Chris Albert 00:52:42 (link to this point)

He's been on the show. Yep. Yep.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:52:43 (link to this point)

Great guy.

Chris Albert 00:52:44 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:52:44 (link to this point)

Great guy. So so Vince had been working with him. He's like, man, they're really solid dudes. They cut above. Right?

So he did an intro with me, and then and then we I sort of I switched over and started working with them, about three months prior to our official partnership. And, I can let me tell you, man, these dudes, as far as the science and the care for of the patient, I have I am blown away. I am absolutely blown away by their, what is it called? They have, oh, patient coordinators. So you get issued a patient coordinator and all that kind of stuff.

But yeah, I am just absolutely blown away by the way that they manage patients and the way that and how smart they are with, and I haven't pushed it out yet, but like how smart they are with peptides. And I don't know if you've talked about that on the show. But

Chris Albert 00:53:36 (link to this point)

We haven't talked directly about peptides, but but that's definitely an an important thing. I've been I've been looking at peptides for for my ulcerative colitis.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:53:45 (link to this point)

I'm I'm blown away.

I'm like, I I literally started researching peptides, and I got and, Chris, I got angry because after what I was and I'm not researching, like, Google, I'm reading medical research papers about what different peptides do.

Chris Albert 00:53:59 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:53:59 (link to this point)

And I'm like, what the hell, man? Why is not every recovering veteran on this peptide? Like, Okay. Like, fat loss, bone density increase, re re the rehabilitation of of ligaments and joints and Right. And and joint fluidness.

I'm like, this is why are we not taking this? Regenerating the interior lining of your intestinal tract.

Chris Albert 00:54:26 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:54:26 (link to this point)

Right. It's a huge one too.

Chris Albert 00:54:27 (link to this point)

Like, there's so much that they can do.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:54:30 (link to this point)

I was pissed, man. I was pissed that nobody had told me about this, like, for years. And and it's just so taboo and it's so negative, you know, and it's because people are uneducated. So, anyways, they are just they they put they put you and I to shame as far as what they know and how they handle it. If I call them and I'm like, hey, man.

I have, you know, I have this is what I feel. This is what I'm this is what's happening. And they're and they almost go, oh, well, this is what's happening. Let me look at your levels. Yeah.

This is what's happening. You need this. Boom. Done. And it fixes the problem like that.

Chris Albert 00:55:05 (link to this point)

That's awesome.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:55:07 (link to this point)

And I'm thinking, like, you know, especially for, you know, those the veterans that are out there that have to deal with the VA. It's just that's not a normal situation. Right? Like, that's not somebody that's, like, on point with that and and is ready to help you out and and and is so knowledgeable about a about a subject that they immediately have a a solution to your problem and then can handle it immediately. It's just like that just that just typically doesn't happen.

So my experience with them has been just just absolutely amazing. And and now and and because of what they do, like, they can offer they can take care of anyone, anywhere. They have patient coordinators. They they work through LabCorp. It's not a it's not a super I mean, it's fast process, but it's not like you're gonna call them and then get a bottle of testosterone shipped to you.

That's not the way it works. You've gotta do the due diligence. They do the due diligence with their doctors and everybody on the staff. You go do I don't know, at LabCorp. I went to LabCorp, and they, the guy had one vial pulled out, and then he pulled up my record.

He was like, oh, oh, damn. They're taking all your blood today. They're like I think he had, like, six of those big vials and, like, two other little small ones. But they do. They they they run the biggest, lab panel that I've ever had. They really, like, pulled everything that they could. And, and then with with that, you have access to it.

Right? So through LabCorp, you log on, you can see everything, and then they just work through it with you. They line by line, they go through and explain every little line.

Chris Albert 00:56:41 (link to this point)

And that's so important because let's say you do go to one of those cookie cutter things. And and by the way, if you're in the VA system, they're probably gonna send you to a cookie cutter program if just because they

Nick Koumalatsos 00:56:53 (link to this point)

Yeah. And they're and they try to do it. Yeah. They're not good at it. They don't have the education and and the experience in it at all.

They didn't the VA didn't even want me on testosterone.

Chris Albert 00:57:03 (link to this point)

Right. Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:57:04 (link to this point)

And I'm like, my testosterone my testosterone is low. They're like, well, no. It's it's within the range of Right. You know, Within the 250 to to 800 or whatever they wanna call it at the time. And I'm like, yeah.

But it's it's two it's 259. They're like, well, technically, it's in the range. I'm like, but I'm 32. I mean, this is this is when I was 32. I'm but I'm 32.

They're like, yeah, but that might just be where your level is. I feel like shit. Yeah. But it's in the range. I'm like, okay.

Never mind. But there are some people that, you know, are getting taken care of. They just they don't the problem I have with the VA and HRT is they do one thing. So they'll give you a little bit of testosterone, but they won't give you HCG. They will not give you any sort of Arimidex.

They they they don't do they don't look at your b 12. They don't look at they don't look at the whole picture. Right? They're looking at one thing, and they're and they're and they're operating within a range. And I and I'm gonna say it right here, and this is this is Nick's personal opinion, but the range is bullshit because

Chris Albert 00:58:04 (link to this point)

Complete bullshit.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:58:04 (link to this point)

It's complete bullshit. What I feel what if me at 800 might be Chris at 500. Right? Like, there is no range. It's all BS.

It it it is complete I've met a 65 year old with a natural natural testosterone level of 1,500. Now he's yes. He's just genetically gifted, but he's 65 and has a 1,500 in testosterone naturally. It's like

Chris Albert 00:58:28 (link to this point)

Dan Dan Pena, the the the the crazy guy. Yeah. He says his his testosterone's, like, 1,500. He's, like, 70.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:58:36 (link to this point)

But the thing is is like that's that it that just shows you how different it is for everyone. It it depends on your lifestyle, your your traumatic events. Like, there's just so much that goes into it that you should never so if you so now I've told I've said this on my videos. If you go to a doc and he pulls out he pulls out this piece of paper with this range, just get up and leave. Yeah.

Get up and walk. Walk out.

Chris Albert 00:58:59 (link to this point)

No, exactly. That range is I mean, it's the average of everybody from 18 to 80. And if you've got average testosterone for an 80 year old and you're 35, they're going to say, you're in the range, man. Not going get any testosterone. Right?

But the other thing I want to say here is that if you go to one of these cookie cutter clinics and they give you, they just hand you a vial of testosterone cypionate and they don't give you anything else, essentially, what'll happen is you'll inject that, you might feel better, but it's not hitting those underlying issues that we were talking about earlier. And you're gonna cause more problems.

Nick Koumalatsos 00:59:35 (link to this point)

Yeah. And you're you're gonna and you're gonna cause more problems for yourself. Because, yes, your testosterone will go up, but your your your your testes will go into atrophy because you're you're giving it synthetic testosterone. So your natural your what what natural production you did have is gonna shut down.

Alright? And then if there is any any sort of aromatization of testosterone to estrogen, now you're gonna have an estrogen dominance problem. So Right. That this is the reason why it is absolutely crucial that you work with somebody that has their shit together.

Chris Albert 01:00:09 (link to this point)

That's awesome. And and so CORE is running they were running a special for veterans that you had up for a while. Right?

Nick Koumalatsos 01:00:16 (link to this point)

Yeah. And actually this don't I know when you're gonna put this up, but they're running that same special now. Basically, it's a it's a 199 let me pull that up. Yeah. It's 199 to get started with your labs, which is usually a lot a lot more than that, which I don't know if anybody's ever done lab work privately, but that shit that shit is expensive.

Chris Albert 01:00:40 (link to this point)

To tell.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:00:41 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 01:00:42 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:00:44 (link to this point)

So but, yeah, they I'm trying to find it, man. It's like $199 to get set up, and then you kinda go from there, and then here it is. And then once you get set up, once you get set up, it's something like I think they have a plan that's, like, $35 a week for your whole package. This sets that's testosterone, your HCG, Arimidex, everything. It comes out to, like, 35 a week or something, which is crazy to me because people go, like, well, I don't I can't afford it.

I'm like, oh, yeah, asshole. Like, how much you spend in a Starbucks a month? Go run that in your in your QuickBooks. You know? Like, there's and we don't have to get into a money spending problem, but, man, there's so much as far as prior prioritizing of what is where to spend your money and what's good for you. But, yeah, it it doesn't come once you get set up with them, it comes it doesn't come out. So $199 for for your blood work blood work, and then, and then after that oh, yeah.

It's normally $399, I think. Then no and then no new patient fee. So they're waiving the patient fee. So, I I mean, that's just

Chris Albert 01:01:51 (link to this point)

That's awesome.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:01:52 (link to this point)

Yeah. That is awesome. Huge. And and for those of you that have looked into it, you're probably going shaking your head going, well, that's freaking good. And for those of you who saying that's expensive, go go shop around.

Go shop around.

Chris Albert 01:02:06 (link to this point)

And and and here's the thing. I mean, what are you gonna spend your money on and and and how how priceless is your life?

Nick Koumalatsos 01:02:13 (link to this point)

That's what I'm talking about your life. Yes.

Chris Albert 01:02:16 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:02:16 (link to this point)

And we talk about that in the gym, and it's like somebody that's overweight comes in and talks about a gym membership and talks about working with a trainer. And I'm like, okay. You know? And and and I kinda I kinda get hard with people because I I want people to take them take their own life serious. But if somebody's obese, and I'm like, let me go ask your kids what your life is worth.

Is your life worth $2,000 a year? Because I'm gonna tell you right now, you're 350 pounds, and if you don't get this weight off, you're gonna die young. Right. And your kids are gonna bury you young. So let me ask them if that if working with a personal trainer is worth $2,000 a year for them.

And their tone usually changes because I'm like, now we're talking about the price of a human being. What is your life worth to us? So if it comes down to what is your life worth to you? What is your quality of life? Is your quality of life worth $35 a week?

Chris Albert 01:03:09 (link to this point)

I think yeah. Right. That's the most important thing too because you might think you're gonna get to, like, 50, 60 years old and you're just gonna wanna sit on the couch and wanna read the newspaper, but you're not. You're not. You're not.

You're wanna do shit. And and if your if your energy is tapped and you're done, like, life's not gonna be happy for you.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:03:33 (link to this point)

You Yeah. Chris, I feel like I feel like actually as you get older, the more shit you wanna do because you feel like time is moving so fast. You're like, I wanna do more. Right. You know?

But the other thing with signing up with them is and this is what and and it almost I get, you know, in my older age, I'm starting to get a little more emotional. But I when when I have the feeling that the person on the other end of the phone or the other end of the desk genuinely cares about me, it it hits me. So when I when I first started talking to Sydney and Mal and and Nick, my patient coordinator, and all the people at CoreMed, there's this feeling that, like, they truly give a shit about you. And they truly give a shit about how you feel and your life. So when you approach someone that is talking to you and you can feel how emotionally connected they are and how, like, how much they care about how you feel and your quality of life, it hit me, man.

It truly, truly, like, touched me. And, and that's the that's the big difference with them, I think, is just how much they give a shit about their patients. They and I and it's not a sales pitch, man. They it's just especially with their veterans, they just they just care so much. And they want they want the best version of that person to be there.

And, that's because that was my personal experience when I first signed up when I first got signed up with them, you know, several months ago.

Chris Albert 01:05:09 (link to this point)

One more question for you on this, you know, because I know we're coming up on time. But, you so for people who are considering doing this, but but let's say they haven't had kids yet and they're waiting to have kids. With with the way they do this, do they do this in a way where you can come off and it's managed effectively?

Nick Koumalatsos 01:05:30 (link to this point)

Yeah. So that was in my podcast with Mel. I don't know if you caught that, but a great story. Guy was a was the youngest president of the Hells Angels, ended up going to going to spend a lot lot of time in the pen. Got right, came back out. They they reco they recoacted his whole crew.

He had to go back for another nine years, but he's amazing that he's still positive. I mean, now he's helping vets and helping everybody and all kinds of stuff. But that was what we talked about is I wish that I was with CoreMed Group then. Because for instance, Vince had Vince was on testosterone and they managed his symptoms so that he could have the surgery and they could they could do IVF and get pregnant. So he didn't have to do what I did.

Chris Albert 01:06:15 (link to this point)

Oh, man.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:06:16 (link to this point)

Yeah. So if I would have been there with them then, they could have, okay, we're gonna lower you. We're gonna put you on some Clomid. We're gonna maybe put you on something else. And and then we're gonna test you and and see where you're at.

And they made it happen, man. So he never had to fully come off and and go into the crapper like I did. And so yeah. So if if you're in say you're in your thirties, you need to be on testosterone. You can get signed up with them at at the point that you're at the point that you're ready to, like, if, you know, with your significant other, like, hey, we're gonna have it's time to have some kids.

They can they will come up with a plan for you that for you to be successful. And they're gonna be and they're gonna walk you through the whole thing. So we talked a little bit about that, and I was like, well, damn because that was a really rough eight months for me, man.

Chris Albert 01:07:07 (link to this point)

Yeah. No. That's that's that's I mean, coming on and this is the thing. If you go on this, follow the protocol. Don't be one of these guys who just decides to come off and because No, man.

That can lead to some really bad things, particularly if if you you're prone to depression and things like that too.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:07:26 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's not it's not a it's not a good idea. And, and and that's really where I found out because everybody was like, well, is this a six months thing? It's like, no, man. This is me for life because I damaged my gland.

My luteinizing hormone was damaged. It's like on in the labs. Like, I broke I broke that fucker off. You know, like, broke it. And, so this is a this is a long term thing.

We're not doing we're not talking about steroids. We're not talking about cycles. We're talking about stuff that's in your body already. And if it's messed up and here's the deal. Even if you don't get injured, as you age, this happens anyway.

As you age, this is essentially what makes us die. Right? Like all of our things that help us heal and help us regenerate skin and our organs and our gut lining and everything that happens, that all starts to fade off. And when that fades off, that's how we age. That's how things start to die off and then we we get old and die.

But we're living in a world now that we don't have to feel like crap, you know, for the last 75% of our life, which is a lot of life. Know? Yeah. So I I went on around 31, 32. That's essentially a a core if I lived to to 90, the third of my life, man.

Chris Albert 01:08:41 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:08:42 (link to this point)

You know? I'm the third of my life, I'm gonna feel like crap? Absolutely not.

Chris Albert 01:08:47 (link to this point)

No. You don't there's too much to do, guys.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:08:50 (link to this point)

Too much do. I got a lot I got a lot of stuff to do, Chris.

Chris Albert 01:08:53 (link to this point)

Exactly. Exactly. Well, Nick, man, I wanna thank you for coming back on here and and enlightening us on this. And and again, I just want to acknowledge you, man. I love your message. I love what you put out there into the world. I love your channel because when you people go to your channel, they're literally learning about everything.

Your business, how you conduct your business, family life. I love what you're doing with the tips for 2020 this year.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:09:18 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 01:09:19 (link to this point)

And and, you know, if if you haven't checked out Nick's YouTube channel or any of his stuff yet or his book, Excommunicated Warrior, you need to be on top of that because he's putting out some of the best content out there.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:09:31 (link to this point)

So Thank you, sir. Thank you very much.

Chris Albert 01:09:34 (link to this point)

Awesome. And and to everybody out there, you know, think about what we said here today. We're gonna get links up on the show notes for Core Medical Group so you guys can go check this out. Do this the right way. Don't go to your local dealer and try to get it that way because you will screw yourself up.

Right? So go with a reputable professional like this if you're going to do it. And and, you know, thank you again, Nick, for putting these resources out there, man.

Nick Koumalatsos 01:10:02 (link to this point)

My my pleasure, man.

Chris Albert 01:10:04 (link to this point)

Awesome.

To everybody out there, thank you so much for listening. We'll be back at you next week with some more awesome content. And this is Chris and Nick, and we are out. Alright. That is the interview.

The second interview with Nick Koumalatsos. If you haven't checked out the first, you should go check that one out. That is an absolutely awesome conversation. I am such a fan of Nick and such a fan of all the work he's doing. Him and his team are putting some of the best content in the on in the universe out there.

I think he's got some amazing stuff, because he's really, like, pulling back the curtain on all of the businesses he runs. He runs seven different businesses. He's pulling back the curtain on everything in his life, how he's putting himself back together in in his post special operations life. Like, as a civilian, he's he was broken. He details this in his book, Excommunicated Warrior.

He was broken for a while, and he literally pulled himself back together, pulled himself back together health wise, pulled himself back together relationship wise. And he is out there. He's dominating in the business world right now, making a lot of money and helping a lot of people, which is what business is really all about. And so you guys should definitely go follow him on his YouTube channel. It's one of the most educational YouTube channels out there, I think.

For veterans and anybody else who wants to get into this space of personal branding and building businesses. And, if you are interested in becoming a marine special operator or even becoming a marine or even just joining the military, There's also tons of awesome information on his channel there as well. Also, definitely go check out the first two episodes in this series with, Nick's friend and former MARSOC teammate, Josh Honsberger. Those were absolutely awesome episodes. Josh is a great dude as well.

He partnered up with Nick in producing those Marine Corps boot camp prep and Marine Raider prep programs. And he's a super smart dude, has a really inspirational story. You need to check those out too. For those of you out there who are getting a lot out of this podcast, who are enjoying the Warrior Soul podcast, who have found it to lead to positive change in your life, you know, I really appreciate you guys listening. I am it's one of the great honors of my life to do this show.

And here's the deal. I don't ask for anything in return. If you don't ever want to buy anything from us, that's fine. All I ask is that you spread word about the show, that you share these episodes out, that you head over to iTunes and write us a written rating and review. It takes a couple of minutes of your time, and with every review we get, that helps us with the iTunes algorithm.

That helps to get this information into the ears of more veterans. I think we're putting some amazing information out there. I think that this show is doing some of the best work when it comes to empowering veterans, empowering the veteran community, and and empowering people to live their best lives. And if you're getting that from this show, then all I ask of you is that you tell other people about it. I know a lot of you don't listen on iTunes, but iTunes is what drives the algorithms.

You could also like and share our episodes from YouTube, Stitcher, Google Play, and all that. But with reviews, I'm really asking you guys to head over to iTunes and do that. If you wanna support the podcast in other ways, if you wanna support us monetarily, we have an amazing shop, the Warrior Soul shop. We sell awesome t shirts designed and printed by US marines. You can head over to www.warriorsoul.shop.

Get yourself a skivvy shirt or a graphic shirt. And if you want to support yourself, head over to the Warrior's Obituary Society. I did an announcement on that earlier in the show, and you guys should definitely check out that out. That's our personal mastermind, and that's where we are helping our members to live epic lives worthy of epic obituaries. We help them develop their own customized fitness plans, their own customized finance plans.

We focus on business. We focus on life. So check that out at www.warriorobituarysociety.com. Beyond that, I want to thank our sponsors, F Bomb Nutrition, Awesome company. You definitely need to check them out.

20% off your first order of F bombs if you head over to www.dropanfbomb.com and use the code 20 uses the code Warrior Soul at checkout. And then a big thank you to the work that save the brave. Savethebrave.org is doing to provide camaraderie events for veterans and just a really awesome organization. With that guys, thank you so much for listening to this show. Thank you for your support, and thank you for putting the work into yourselves.

The more work more you guys work on yourselves, the more impact this show has. How? Well, it's because when you're living a better life, that means that you're gonna wanna bring it back to the community. And the more of you who do that, the more we're gonna shape this community to do what it's supposed to do, to take a leadership role in this country and in this society so that we can make this country as great as possible. Thank you guys so much for listening.

I love you all, and I'll be back at you later on this week with some more awesome content. This is Chris Albert, and I am out.