From The Front Line to The Front of Health with Dr. Mark Sherwood

When life handed you a uniform and a badge, it didn't provide a manual on how to maintain health amidst the chaos. Today's episode is nothing short of a revelation, as Dr. Mark Sherwood, a retired police sergeant and beacon of wellness, joins us to discuss the seismic shift in his life's path. From the gritty streets of law enforcement to the holistic corridors of fitness and functional medicine, Mark's transformation is a testament to the impact of proactive health and the potent power of hope in our lives. We dissect the overlooked health crisis festering within the ranks of those who serve and protect, and how Mark's insights are changing the game for officers nationwide.

Have you ever considered the intricate ties that bind pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and the medical industry? Mark pulls back the curtain on this subject, revealing a landscape where conflicts of interest and systemic issues could be compromising our health. We confront the alarming reality that prescribed medications aren't always the lifesavers they're marketed to be, and how a more informed approach to our wellness can keep us off the path of dependency and despair. With Mark's guidance, we explore how to reclaim control over our well-being through comprehensive blood work, lifestyle adjustments, and the courage to step outside the conventional healthcare narrative.

Ending on a note of inspiration, we echo Dr. Sherwood's call for courageous leadership and personal accountability in law enforcement, and indeed, in all walks of life. Travis shares the story of his own health transformation, sparked by Mark's mentorship and the realization that vitality isn't just a professional requirement, but a personal mission.


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Transcript

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 0:00

And if you've got a little bit of hope in that, you can do something different and better that keeps you going forward. But when you lose hope, you go backwards. And law enforcement man. This is the truth. People need to listen to this right now. You are gifted. You're gifted because you've faced life in all kinds of circumstances. You've seen the best and the worst of humanity.

Intro/Outro: 0:23

Welcome to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.

Travis Yates: 0:33

Welcome back to the show. I'm so honored you've decided to listen to us today and spend a few minutes with us. If you weren't aware, you can get all of our episodes at www. YatesL eadership. com and I know many of you are listening on your own platforms, whether that be Spotify or Apple, but that website has collected all of the reviews that have been coming in for the podcast. I'm so thankful for them, so it's a great place to sort of really quickly see all of our episodes and all the great men and women that we've been talking to, and today is no exception. On today's show we have Dr Mark Sherwood. He's a retired police sergeant from the Tulsa Police Department. He dedicated 24 years of service to his community in a variety of capacities, including SWAT, training and patrol. He revolutionized the wellness section of the agency and was in charge of that section when he retired.

Travis Yates: 1:29

Mark is a former Oklahoma State and regional bodybuilding champion, professional baseball player and traveled the world for over 10 years with the world famous power team. He's completed training and certifications in age management, nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics, peptide therapy, hormone therapy, stress management, gi health and immunology. He's a dynamic, motivational speaker whose presentations are sought by audiences nationwide and currently works with his wife, Dr. Michelle Neil, at their clinic, the Functional Medical Institute in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and they serve patients nationwide. Along with his wife, they have authored multiple books and produced and acted in multiple movies, including the popular documentary Fork your Life. You can find this and a lot more at www. Sherwood. tv.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 2:27

Man, I'm doing well.

Travis Yates: 2:31

Well, I appreciate it.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 2:32

I appreciate it Absolutely.

Travis Yates: 2:34

Yeah, man, I've been looking forward to doing this and it was just time. You know, it seems the further, the further we go down this road called life, the sicker and sicker people are getting, especially in the law enforcement profession, and you have just excelled in that area for many, many years. Of course, you've helped me out tremendously in that area, as well as other people, and I just wanted to start off with obviously, you were in law enforcement for 24 years but specifically, what got you interested in the fitness and wellness space?

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 3:09

Well, I think, probably as a kid, you know, I wasn't the most fit person, but I always had the drive to achieve things and I always admired, you know, fit people. And I wasn't necessarily fit, I was more fat than fit. And then, when I got in the police department, well, actually back up a little bit, I was a baseball player, and professionally, and I was living in Australia, Travis, and I was all alone, I had nothing to do in the day. This was before cell phones and before computers. I know people are listening right now. Really, there was such a day as that. Yes, there was, and I lived in it and so did you probably somewhat.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 3:46

But I started to go into a gym, you know, during the day, and when I came back after living abroad for a year, my whole body had changed and people saw me differently, they related to me differently and I realized that, you know, fitness was something that could affect me in a positive way and could help myself as a team, and that was kind of how it started. And then, when I got in the police department, being on the SWAT team, you had to kind of be in a level of shape and, as you know, I was given the opportunity to teach a few classes while employed at the Tulsa Police Department, and that got me looking at statistics, and this really got me going. I saw the statistic that's well known to law enforcement. That was an FBI study back in the 70s, as I recall, but the average life expectancy for the male police officer who served 20 years was 66 years of age, and so this was back in the early 2000s when I was put in charge of the wellness program development for the Tulsa Police Department. I started digging into those same statistics and I thought, well, golly, what is it for Oklahoma? What is it for Tulsa and Travis? I found out it was the same 64 and 66 years of age respectively.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 5:03

And that kind of broke my heart because I thought people work really hard in law enforcement and the officer is certainly under the gun a lot with stress and the way they serve and protect our communities their heroes, in my opinion. And they're not getting to enjoy that retirement at all. And then we brag about the pension systems being so healthy. Well, that's because the officers are so unhealthy. It's kind of an obvious, and I kind of made an omission to that point to go figure out why.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 5:35

And that got me into studying about health and learning about health, and that's now 24 years ago and I haven't stopped yet. I realize that people are probably too sick right now, more sick than they should be. We're increasing sick span and decreasing life span and there are unscrupulous people in our world that are profiting off of sick people and specifically with law enforcement, I have always thought, always thought and still absolutely am convinced that officer wellness is officer safety and it is not looked at nearly enough at all in regard to those areas. So that got me started. My passion hasn't changed at all. I'm still serving and protecting as best I know how.

Travis Yates: 6:23

And no, I mean you're exactly right. I mean you look at professional sports teams. They treat their employees, their athletes, like athletes. You know they don't just stop when they get hired and don't pay attention to their fitness anymore. And in law enforcement, as we all know, that's pretty much what happens. You got to get in really good shape before you get to the academy. They keep you in shape in the academy, then they just forget about you and the rest is history and you just describe the statistics.

Travis Yates: 6:47

And one thing I want to make sure our audience knows, mark, is obviously you were an expert in the profession, in law enforcement, in this area, but you lived it. I worked with you for a year on graveyard and you know when you've been on, I retired for 30 years and there's not a whole lot of things that are ingrained in your mind. After all, that time is sort of culminated together. But the one thing I always remember is is we'd be on graveyard I think you were a sergeant and I was a corporal working for you and all the guys or gals would be going to the Denny's or the IHOP or the breakfast place it's almost a social gathering, right and you would come because you're a nice guy and we would all be eating whatever crazy thing we would eat and you'd bring your chicken or you'd bring your little packaged meal and I, you know, and you were the only person I ever knew that did that and you never missed a beat. I can remember being with you one day and I was just begging you to eat a piece of pizza and you just wouldn't do it. I just from whether you know it or not, that's inspiring.

Travis Yates: 7:45

And you obviously took wellness to a different level on the job. But you've done more than that. I've spoken to you about mindset and motivation a lot and your accomplishments away from the job, what you're doing now. They go far beyond just a general interest or even a business. I mean, a lot of those in law enforcement today are suffering from what I call an imposter syndrome, meaning that many of them just don't believe they have the skills and talents to do things outside of that profession. But you clearly are a unicorn mark. I mean you have excelled, in my opinion, much more away from the police department and what you're doing now than even when you were in the police department, because regardless of how expert you were, you were still constrained by the rules, or who you work for, or your assignments and whatever else may be. Tell us why you think you're so different and what people in the profession now can learn from that.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 8:43

Well, I think that I just have, and I've always had, the desire to sort of think and work outside the box, to believe in this thing called hope. The hope is what drives the system and drives the body and drives our life and drives our motivation. If you got a little bit of hope in that you can do something different and better, that keeps you going forward. But when you lose hope, you go backwards. And law enforcement man, this is the truth. People need to listen to this right now. You are gifted. You're gifted because you've faced life in all kinds of circumstances. You've seen the best and the worst of humanity and you face it head on. You see it, you have a wide range of experience and you can relate. You also realize with law enforcement that only by the grace of God is that you are not capable of anything goofy and also anything good. And it's kept me in track.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 9:40

And through that process I realized that what I learned in law enforcement was something that I could share with the world in an area of creativity. That was what reflected of me yes, fitness, yes, health, but I was able to sort of keep learning and go back and become a naturopathic doctor and really become this, that we became this thing, my wife and I, that we represent hope now in health for 12,000 people around the world. I would have never seen that coming, but now that I look back on it, the law enforcement experience set the tone for that, travis, and it really. It inspired me and it trained me and it worked on me until it helped me become who I am today, and there's not a person out there that has served in law enforcement that doesn't have the same capabilities. It's not doing the same thing, but it's going beyond who you think you can be.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 10:36

I've watched too many cops that are just broken down and beat down that can't get rid of the gun because they don't think they can do something else. I'm not saying that guns are bad. I'm saying just all you know. You think all you got is security. You retire and all you got is security. It's hard to stop. No, you don't. You've got more protection and service to do. Find the areas of protection and service that motivate you and go for it. You, if people have served in law enforcement and have been successful or still alive, come on, man, there's nothing you can't achieve.

Travis Yates: 11:11

Yeah, I mean I watched it firsthand and for those listening, I mean I watched Mark Sherwood when he goes, I think I'm going to learn Spanish. Then he just goes out and next thing you know he's no Spanish. And then you retire, mark, and within just a matter of a few years you've got your doctoral, yeah, and. And you just start doing all this amazing stuff and, as you said, helping thousands of people across the world. And it's not about money, because I know plenty of people, included myself, that have easy access to you for you to help, and you don't ask for a dime, and it's so you take, you've taken that service that you had in law enforcement, but you're still in service, just in a different capacity, and I can't think of any better advice. And so you and your wife, you specialize in functional medicine.

Travis Yates: 11:57

I want you to kind of explain to our audience, because I talk to people all the time about this and they think whatever their doctor tells them, whatever their insurance tells them, is always in the best interest of them. But here's the problem with your doctor. Your doctor is trained to solve, to, to, to, to wait till you're sick, right they? And then they. They're not always trained in how to prevent the sickness. It's just to maybe put a bandage, so to speak, on the sickness, and so there's a huge difference with a medical, medical philosophy. And some of you listening maybe familiar with some of the biohackers out there or maybe watch some of the YouTube folks out there, but there's a whole different world of medicine that very few people in law enforcement, in the general public are exposed to because it's not part of the health care system, or should I say the sick care system, and so kind of explain to us what you do there at the Functional Medical Institute and why that is so important.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 12:54

Well, certainly, what we do is kind of a cross between functional medicine, conventional medicine and biohacking. But to really get into understanding the point you're making is, health care is one of the biggest conjobs that has get this. I'm going to say something strong hurt and killed more cops than any bad guy on the street ever could. Here's why Because police officers are trained, go to the academy, you prepare, you prepare, you prepare. You go through annual in-services, you prepare, prepare, prepare. You have trainings, you prepare, prepare, prepare. We have these mandatory in-services of preparation, preparations of mindset. Except in one area, health. We don't prepare at all. We are trained to react. Conventional health system is not health at all, it's sick care system. We have an expectation of a medically trained doctor to know what to do to keep you healthy. That is not what they're trained in Travis and I'm not knocking, there's some of the most brilliant people around but they're trained like this If you go in and you present or you show up with certain symptoms, the symptoms are a cough, stuffy nose, maybe watery eyes they assess that symptom algorithm formula to prescribe a medication. The medication is a pharmaceutical drug that's designed to either stop or mitigate the symptoms. It never goes into what created that presentation of those symptoms. It is downstream philosophy only. It's like this Pretend that you and I are people that live next to a river, and this is the illustration what people catch.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 14:44

When the water comes up and you live near the river and it's flooding, it's over the river, over the flood stage, it's getting up near your front door. That's like your life. When you get sick, you go to the doctor. The doctor gives you a medication that's synonymous with giving you a sandbag. Well, the water keeps coming. You go back and get another pill slash sandbag. So what happens is nobody ever determines why the water came up. Eventually, you're gonna run out of sandbags and the water's gonna flood out your house. You're gonna die. That's what happens, law enforcement officers. But I wanna know what created the flood.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 15:18

So if you go back to that analogy, I go back upstream and I see a big dam up there. Well, the dam is my genes, or my genetics, and we check that. I wanna know how my dam genes work, if you get the analogy. And above that, I wanna know what the reservoir looks like. The environment and I know the cop environment is tough. So you get that reservoir, dam, river analogy in your head.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 15:44

So to really get to the root cause of disease, you have to go back and understand what was the origination of the issues that led to the imbalances that led to the symptoms, that led to the medication. We look at it differently. We're not we are experts at the symptom treatment, but I also wanna know what caused it. So upstream, we look at genetics, environment, lifestyle, et cetera. We remediate or fix the cause. Therefore, the symptoms go away. Therefore, disease then becomes irrelevant, and so this is a healing mentality. The conventional system manages diseases. The functional medicine, biohacking, et cetera prevents diseases. We need to have the option today to pick which side we're on, and I've not seen a police department yet not one in all of my years that took what I just said seriously and did anything about it.

Travis Yates: 16:47

No, we very much have to understand that, while we may have trust in doctors, we have to understand who we're trusting and I agree, some of the smartest human beings we have on this planet. But the fact is doctors get less than a day of nutrition classes in medical school, and the fact is that whatever they graduate with the knowledge of medical school is they go out through their career and work in the healthcare system where they're getting more 20, 30 patients a day with hardly no time to talk to any of them. They're not getting retrained, they have to choose to do that and so that's why when I go to a doctor that's maybe 67 years old, this guy's talking old school to me, because I have gone out there and looked for myself and people don't want to hear that, because they just want an easy solution and easy answer. They want to get a pill, but that whole system is broken.

Travis Yates: 17:35

If you care about your health, you must listen to what Dr Mark is talking about, and it's interesting. You talk about the research you did, mark, because I was with you when you pulled the pension data from the state of Oklahoma and found that 64 number and how it had not changed in 20 years. Well, the same is happening to the civilians in America. Our life expectancy is actually going down. It's one of the few, you know, not a third world. It's one of the few major countries on the planet where our life expectancy is not growing. It's actually going down, which kind of defies logic in a technology savvy country as we are, and it's because the system that's designed to give that longevity is completely broken.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 18:20

It is broken and I believe it's beyond repair because, as you also know, I'm very politically savvy, having ran a campaign at one time. Well, how did that?

Travis Yates: 18:32

not make it into bio Mark? Sure would ran for the governor. I don't know how I left that out.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 18:38

Well, it is fine, but I learned a lot. I learned about lobby. So Big Pharma is one of the most powerful lobbyists. Most politicians take money from Big Pharma Travis. We are one of two countries in the whole world Us and New Zealand that allow Big Pharma to advertise directly on public television to our people. How twisted and sick is that? We are? Absolutely, and I'm glad you shared that. About life expectancy it has declined the last couple of years for the first time in the last five decades and it's been primarily because of what you talked about.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 19:18

We are looking for a pill for an ill. We are taught that the Big Pharma, big Medicine, big Government is here to help you. But, as we all know, using the police analogy, when you're out on the street man, you gotta know how to take care of yourself or you're gonna get killed. This is the same thing people need to do with the healthcare. That thing is an enemy of itself.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 19:40

Not that we don't need pills sometimes, not that we don't need the acute emergency care, because we've got some good ones out there, but our preventive care is horrible. We spend more money per person on this fictitious healthcare than any other country in the world and we're near the bottom of return, or near the bottom of health of all the industrialized nations in that same world. So look at that, I'm like that's not working. And if it's not working and it hasn't worked in 75 years, it's probably time to start embracing what I would consider more traditional care, as what my wife and I do, more care that's been around for the last thousands of years, and really support systems like that so that more of them will come up. Because, as you know, we're kinda out there a lot doing what we do by ourselves a lot of the time. Now we're starting to get some traction, but, man, it's been a hard road.

Travis Yates: 20:37

Yeah, and I applaud you for it, because going down that narrative path the way we've always done it path that's easy and that's what we talk about in courageous leadership. That is not helping us, and you and your wife have been extremely courageous, because that is not only a difficult path, it doesn't always pay as well as the other path, and so you guys truly believe in this. I don't wanna go too far down this rabbit hole, but I want the audience to understand how broken everything is. One of my wife and I's passions is when we listen, we watch television and we hear. See the pharmaceuticals commercials. We wait to the very end and we hear all of the potential side effects and they say them really quick. But it is outstanding and crazy when you hear that.

Travis Yates: 21:20

But people need to understand the studies that you have to produce to the FDA to get a drug approved are studies financed by the same drug manufacturer, and then you have many of the people that approve these pills or medicines, for people then get jobs when they leave the FDA with the pharmaceutical companies.

Travis Yates: 21:40

We have similar things in law enforcement the police chiefs that are down with the DOJ end up getting jobs as DOJ consultants and it's all about the money, but it is a twisted system that our own government is permitting, and when you've made that statement early on that this is actually killing us more than any bad guy ever could. That is why Because the system is set up to harm you. And if anybody has any question about this, watch some of those documentaries on OxyCotin. Oxycotin, I mean I think Hulu's got some, netflix has some but it shows you that it was our own government that said this was not addictive. And now we're losing over 100,000 people a year in overdose deaths because of what our own government approved and it's, I think a lot of people mark they don't want to know this because they don't want to believe this. But if you don't understand this and you don't study this, you are risking your health, are you not?

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 22:39

Yeah, you really are, and people need to understand that. And I think it's kind of comical but also very sad when you play those commercials, that at the end of those they always talk about these side effects. But side effects are not unknown side effects. Those are noted in the studies, noted in the studies, so much so that they tell you that that these should be expected. Well, a lot of people don't understand this statistic I'm getting ready to say the third leading cause of death, depending on what database you look at, is properly prescribed medication and properly done procedures.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 23:16

Now, come on, does that even make any sense? Now, most of law enforcement. I'm just going to use a simple little analogy that I use. When law enforcement officers work, shift work and all that, they end up getting on about three medications before they've been on about ten years Blood pressure medication, blood sugar medication and probably antidepressant. So you know, when I look at my database and I go, okay, what nutrients does that pull out?

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 23:42

Nutrients is what drives the system right, and so if I put in those three drugs into my system, get this. I get pulled out zinc, which is important for immune system. We pull out folic acid, b12, which is important for blood health, brain health, energy and we pull out sodium, which is important for heart. Okay, so when you take drugs you actually can get nutrient pullouts that actually create more harm. Wouldn't it be better to go back and say how can we fix blood pressure, how can we fix blood sugar, how can we fix our mindset? We need to put drugs in the right category, travis, use them appropriately, but one of our mission statements here at our clinic is to avoid all unnecessary uses of medication. The other one we have is to reverse or eradicate all self-imposed, choice-driven diseases. When I say it's bad, I mean I don't even think that word even comes close to the criteria of how bad it is. People have been completely conned and they're in bondage right now to a system that has them enslaved.

Travis Yates: 24:50

Yeah, I mean, you're right, I'll speak to like some elderly folks that have sort of been inside the system for so long and you just can't convince them. Like, people are just so sold out to these doctors and the pharmaceutical companies. I'll give you one quick example. Obviously, I do a lot of reading about this and I found some studies on metformin and, by the way, we're not giving medical advice here, but I found some studies on metformin. Metformin is one of the most prescribed drugs for diabetics. It keeps your insulin down. Of course, insulin is a driver for weight gain, and so there's some studies out there that say, hey, the studies show that people that weren't diabetic took metformin. Their lives were actually extended. They believe that the properties in this particular drug actually does, because it reduces the insulin over a long period of time, that your life is actually extended.

Travis Yates: 25:36

So I'm at my regular doctor, mark, and she's asking me she made the mistake of saying is there anything I can do for you? And I say, well, yeah, you know, I've been reading these studies on metformin, I'm kind of interested in trying that out. And she says, well, you're not a diabetic. And I go, yeah, but these studies say this. And she tells me well, I know they say that, but you're not a diabetic. And unless you're a diabetic, I'm not going to give you this drug. What's what's no? Big deal.

Travis Yates: 26:04

No big deal. We could. You know, there's some supplements and other things like that that we could get into that can do very similar things. But I will say this let's talk about supplements, because you talked about scams earlier and I have been talking to law enforcement and tell my head spins about the stuff that they're buying.

Travis Yates: 26:21

They think that's in it. Every study I've ever seen on the general supplements off the shelf, the vast majority of them don't even have what it says it has. Of course it's not. You know, the supplements industry is a is a Wild West. It's not.

Travis Yates: 26:34

There's no oversight to that, so to speak, and you can pretty much guarantee that if a supplement is sitting on a Walmart shelf, it probably doesn't work very well, or the pharmaceutical company would have taken it over, because that's exactly what they did with ozempic and some other ones, because those were around in the peptide form long before we heard this word ozempic. And so give some advice to the law enforcement officers, because law enforcement does they gravitate to. I mean, I think they understand that they want substances, they want things to make them better, they understand that athlete mindset, but they get sent off in so many different directions and you can't just go to Walmart and start grabbing stuff off a shelf. How would you tell? What would you tell them that they should do if they're wanting to, you know, add supplementation or add peptides or add certain things to help them, as any athlete should.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 27:22

Well, I agree with you. They need today supplementation. Peptide use I don't look as an option. I look at it as something we ought to be doing Everybody. Now, having said that the sub, just a couple of ground rules people need to keep in mind. The supplement industry is a hundred and fifty nine billion dollar industry as of last year and it is completely full of corruption. The supplement industry is regulated by the FDA. However, as long as you don't say the supplement treats, cures, mitigates, prevents diseases, it's perfectly legal to be on the market and that's a broad thing you can do. So you could hire a hired celebrity to give you a testimonial. That's a lie. But as long as he doesn't say that it treats diseases and falls the criteria, it sells a lot.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 28:13

The looseness of the guidelines out there in order to get something specific, to get it where it's actually pure, those are all over the roadmap. You got to look for something that's at least CGMP certified. Certified good manufacturing practices is what that stands for, but CGMP is kind of what you're looking for as a label of professionalism. I only deal with those companies that do that and meet the levels and actually go through the labs. I'm that crazy one that does that and people didn't look for that. I would not buy anything at all from a grocery store, from a supplement store. I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't buy it online. I would find somebody a clinician hopefully that knows that at least looks the part that they know and ask them the question and then have the clinician get them or connect them with the best sources at this point. Otherwise they're going to get ripped off and with peptides especially, those are able.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 29:23

You can get those right now kind of on the market out there. They say right on them, not for human use. You're setting yourself up for a potential problem because there's no one that's regulating that. It may be good, it may not be good, but you got to know what you're putting in your body. Just like you know how to put the bullets in your gun. You want to make sure they actually have a bullet in there. It's not just a casing. Pay attention to that. Find people that know what they're doing. Gravitate to those. I see it all the time. Travis, and I'll conclude that answer with this Know that you cannot bill away, pray away, hormone away, supplement away or exercise away a bad diet.

Travis Yates: 30:03

Yeah, and what you said is so true. And I know why cops do it because they're cheap. We're cheap, our profession's cheap, we want the cheapest stuff. But you're literally wasting all your money. None of it's going to work and I know you and I both know all the companies that are great companies. Some of them are sold on Amazon, but the easiest thing to do is go to your website, Sherwoodtv. You guys actually sell supplements. You don't got to buy them from Mark, but you'll see these supplements companies that they're using and maybe it's not Mark, but maybe there's a functional doctor in your area. If they're carrying supplements inside that clinic, you can guarantee if they're a legitimate functional doctor they're going to be the ones you need to get and they're not that much more expensive. And plus, to know what you're getting is worth what you're getting.

Travis Yates: 30:48

And there's a listen. It's been a godsend for me, Mark, because I've been talking to you for years and you've got me dialed in with the right supplements. I just talked to you a few weeks ago about grounding. I've been doing that. We're going to get back to that hopefully by the end of the show. That's been incredible, and so there's so many things that doesn't take a lot of time that you can really tune in what you're doing and make yourself feel amazing. I'm going to link up an interview with Dana White because he was a guy on his deathbed and he tuned in some of these things that we're talking about, things that you do in more Mark, that literally, that you can't even recognize a guy now. He looks so much different and he's so much happier.

Travis Yates: 31:25

And so I do want to address this Mark, and sometimes we address health and healthy as well. I look fine, I feel okay, but one thing that I noticed after I left the job after 30 years is I didn't know how bad I actually felt. Stress induced mainly, and you don't know if you feel bad unless you feel good. So if you feel bad for a long time, you become used to that. That becomes the normal. So let's say, an officer is listening to us right now. They think they're doing everything right. Their regular doctor did that much to say to them they're never really sick that much. They look tactical, cool in their uniform and maybe even got some tightened up sleeves right. They're looking good. They lift a little weights. What would you tell them to do if they, if they really truly want to make sure that they are on that healthy path.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 32:12

Well, they need to get a quality blood work done, not your general practitioner blood work, because it's completely inadequate. In my opinion, is antiquated with old data and Mark, let me interrupt you.

Travis Yates: 32:26

That's important. Yeah, the blood test that you get annually from your primary care physician or your health insurance mandated tells you literally nothing. That's right, nothing. You've got to get a legitimate full panel blood work done. I'll let you finish that.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 32:44

Yeah, you know they'll tell you other things. Fine, but just know the averages come from this population of people in our country and if you fall into an average of that, they're basically saying you're fine, slash, you're dying like everybody else. You need to get a more complex blood work panel done that and do it annually, and find a functional medicine doctor that does that. I mean we actually. Our panel is when we created, we run it through the Cleveland Heart Lab that looks at a variety of a broad based amount of markers so we can see where a person is on disease processes, and I see it all the time. You know, when people do that they're like shocked. They have no idea.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 33:22

That's one Number. Two check your body fat percentage. It's not about weight, it's about body fat percentage. I like men somewhere around 10 to about 18% and ladies somewhere between 18 and about 26%. Health cannot be equated to scale weight anymore and that's been the case for a number of years. Also, you know, check your ability to sleep. Sleeping is one that law enforcement officers suffer with because, as time goes on, shift work can take its toll on you. A lot of people don't take inventory of that and you just don't rest well.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 33:59

And one thing I find about myself. I found that I probably became more cynical and negative over the course of time because you're in a negative environment. You don't. People don't give a call for service and say, hey, come, let me buy you a cup of coffee. No, no, it's always a negative thing. So that can change you and you've got to kind of find things that interest you in other areas and challenge you in there. So I mentioned I learned Spanish. I look forward to my annual Mexico trip because I want to go. You don't have to go to Spain, you know. I need to practice it more, you know, and so I really think that learning new things and skills like that officers can do that and they should. So those are some things that people need to do actively speaking. And then, last thing, build relationships with people that are outside of your normal law enforcement circle, because you you see that there's a whole other world out there that that makes, basically, you need and that needs you.

Travis Yates: 35:03

Well, I know this mark. The last time I met with you, you gave me that 10 to 18% body fat range and you told me 15. And I I tried to argue a little bit because I know that the government tells me that 20% is a healthy percentage. And I was right around that and you pretty much put me in my place because, as you just said, they're comparing me to the other sick population. So I'm fighting hard, brother. So the next time I see you you'll be happy with me. But you're right, we put so much stock into appearance and weight that literally has nothing to do with it. We've heard that term skinny fat or skinny sick. It doesn't matter what the appearance is, what's on the inside. And the healthcare system is just not set up to be accurate and tell you that. Right, because you go to the doctor, what do you do? You get on a scale and weigh. They don't take your body fat at the doctor's office, they just weigh you and you're good.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 35:57

Yeah, the the person is as old as their vessels, right? The whole idea of vascular health has got to be looked at and I think that you know we look at the biological aging processes and the biological aging speed and actuality different than we do the chronological age, and we actually have tests and things that we do that can actually slow down, even reverse, if you will, somewhat the biological aging processes and speeds. So we can actually test that, quantify that and move the needle in that. That's a whole different way to look at it and that's what I would encourage people listening to sort of get their mind around that.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 36:37

We've been told that this is the way you do it you get sick, you go to the doctor, you get a pill and move on. We've been told that you retire and if you live five years, that's good, if you live to 70, you've had a good life. Stop Hard, stop. That is not the case at all. I believe our organ systems as a whole are generally created, in all things being equal, to live and exist about 120 years. That doesn't mean we're going to live that long, that's not the point, travis but it means that we need to start exhibiting a higher quality of life in the years, as opposed to a decline of years in life, and that's increasing six-span. We don't need to do that anymore. We need to increase the fullness of lifespan.

Travis Yates: 37:28

Yeah, and you know, when I read the Bible you'll read about people living for hundreds of years, and there's some theologians that will tell you that that's I believe that. Let me tell you why I believe it, mark. Because back then we didn't have what's in our water now we didn't have what's in our food now, we didn't have all the artificial lights and all the things in the environment that, literally, is killing us. We didn't have any of that. And you look what the generations have done to the body. Because, I agree, I think we are set up to live much longer than what we're told, but it's almost like we expect to live, to be in our 70s. That'd be great, right, we're going to get to 80. But what you're saying is that's not the case at all. But we have to put some effort into it.

Travis Yates: 38:11

Before I get to this one question, I want to sort of preface the audience here. You've got to change your mindset about healthiness and wellness, and here's how, because it took me a while to do it. Once I did it, my life was forever changed for the better. You're going to have to spend money to be healthy. Your health care system, where you pay your deductible or you pay $5 to see a doctor or you get your prescriptions for $15, that is not set up to keep you healthy. So when you start diving into these issues we're talking about, you're going to have to understand I'm going to spend some money, but what better thing to spend money on than being able to live a long, happy life?

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 38:52

Yeah, Travis, the whole idea of cost should be analyzed into this microscope. It is more expensive to live sick than it is expensive to live well. People that end up having needless procedures in the hospital. You know hospitals stay. Average right now is over $5,000 per night. Just wow, how many vacations could you take and stay at a five-star resort? You could stay at a $500 a night room for 10 days and enjoy yourself with good food, as opposed to spending a one night in the hospital with a sterile environment and the absolute poor food that you could find. It's like fast food on steroids.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 39:38

That is not okay, and I think previously you said something about what we're designed to do. People need to know that, and we run genetics a lot. The genes have changed 2% in 10,000 years. That's it. So if we believe the creation theory and we believe the earth was destroyed by water, that would mean that you and I had pretty much the same genes as Noah had when he stepped off his boat. Now, if that's true and I believe it is then the diseases and sickness processes we have today, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancers, autoimmune autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer's, dementia, osteoporosis, maybe, just maybe we've been conned to believe that those are normal, but in reality there are diseases of environmental force. The environment that we have as law enforcement officers and just people in general needs to be checked all the time. And on the last thing about spending money, when you're a law enforcement officer, you want the best equipment To protect you. You want the best to pit equipment to protect you from a defensive standpoint and an offensive standpoint. This is no different, it's just more important.

Travis Yates: 40:56

Yeah, and it's so, so valid Mark. And, and I know we have some officers listening us right now that are thinking themselves man, I'm in trouble. I know I need to sleep better. I know I need to lose some weight. I know I'm not feeling great because it affects your entire life. I'm not just a job, it affects you at home and everything else. I'm too tired when I get off work to play with my kids. So if and they and they're feeling overwhelmed because every message they're hearing is is take a pill for this, take a shot for this, what would you tell that officer that, step by step, to get a handle on that? What advice would you give them?

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 41:31

Well, first of all, I say you know, understand where you are and know that You're in a bad spot. To admit that is is courage. To admit that you need to change is courage, and to actually make changes Is even more courageous. I know you talk about that in the idea of courageous leadership, travis. It it means that you're not gonna be like everybody else anymore man. You're gonna do what you need to do because it's the right thing to do, and I think people should take inventory. They should immediately seek out some help.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 42:03

Find somebody like my wife and I that cares about you, loves you and is wanting to build a relationship with you in the teamwork of your health care and in truly health care and Interview doctors, ask questions. If they don't satisfy what you're looking for, go somewhere else. Certainly there's, there's a few out there. Find somebody that respects and loves law enforcement I mean Travis. When I see somebody that comes in front of me that is a former or Current law enforcement officer, my eyes light up, my heart goes bitter powder, because I appreciate them so much and I want to do everything I can To not just keep them alive, but truly keep them alive. So I think that if you're out there right now and that's you man. Seriously, there's hope out there. Find somebody that's doing it, that can help you, that will and gravitate and hang on to them with everything you got, and that way you win.

Travis Yates: 43:03

I've told this story multiple times. I told it on one of your stages one night mark and the importance of leadership in law enforcement. When it comes to this issue, you as leaders have a much bigger role than just checking the doc, checking the box and paperwork and sending your officers of training and doing the evaluations. I Was about 240 pounds now I don't know how big I actually was. That was just the last time I wait, and I worked for a police chief at the time that kind of had a six since the humor and he put me over the wellness unit at the training Academy and I was one of my assignments. I had multiple signs, but one of them was the wellness unit and you were my sergeant at the time mark and I felt compelled not because I really understood any of this at the time, but I felt compelled to try to get in better shape from the leadership standpoint because I'm the leader of this unit and officers are Coming to these in services of this phenomenal class. That mark was teaching and here I was and you know I was a little forced in because I'm I'm almost six foot four. I held my weight pretty well. People probably wouldn't believe that I weighed that much, but I did and I probably weighed more. I may have been bucking 353, 55, whatever it was. I felt terrible and all the things you talked about, from sleep apnea To all the medicines. I was on it all.

Travis Yates: 44:25

And I was in the gym one day, because it's hard to not go to the gym with the gyms right down from your office and that's what your assignment is. And I did what a lot of really out of shape people did. I got on the elliptical and I'll watch TV. Now, nothing wrong with that, do something. But that's what I did, that was my go-to and I'm in there one day and I'm on the elliptical and Mark sure would walks by me because, mark, when you see mark and I'll have a photograph of mark here in the show, in the show notes he looks like he works out about ten hours a day, but Mark's workout is actually less than an hour. Like you don't work out that long, you just know what to do and you eat right and it's pretty amazing stuff. And you walk by me and you said, travis, what are you doing? And I said I'll do a little elliptical work. And all mark said to me was now, just remember, travis, you were an athlete. You were an athlete in high school. You were an athlete in college. You are still an athlete now. He didn't know this at the time, but those words were all it took, mark. It's all it took, and I lost, over the course of a couple years, over a hundred pounds, and From that day forward I've been on this health journey, and there's no telling where my life would be if I wouldn't even had a life, if a leader, a Sergeant in that department that, by the way, I outranked him, but that's not what leadership is about, has nothing to do with rank had the courage to talk to his captain that he worked for and gave me those words of encouragement.

Travis Yates: 45:50

And so I just want to encourage everyone out there listening that you are responsible for this. You may not realize that, but the people that work for you rely on you to protect them, not just on the calls but in their life as well, and I could never thank you enough, mark. I love telling that story and, man, we have so much more to cover, but we're not gonna do it now. We're gonna bring you back and we're gonna get into all sorts of stuff, and if you're listening, I'm gonna tell you what we're gonna get into next time. We're gonna get into hormones and we're gonna get into weights and cardio and the importance of sleep and some of the things that you may be Hearing about on YouTube, like red light therapy and grounding all of these stuff that we have interested.

Travis Yates: 46:28

But before you get to all that, before you get to hormones or testosterone or all that stuff, you need to think about what mark said. The first thing you need to do is to find the right doctor, get on the right supplements, get that blood work checked a real blood panel check. Get your foundation. In a few months You're gonna get the second part of this interview. That's going to blow your way. Dr Mark Sherwood, I can't thank you enough. What you've done for law enforcement, what you've done for me, what you continue to do Serving thousands of people nationwide. Thank you so much for being here.

Dr. Mark Sherwood: 47:02

Oh my gosh, great honor. I was looking forward to this and I look forward to coming back.

Travis Yates: 47:08

And if you've been listening, thank you. And just remember, lead on and stay courageous.

Intro/Outro: 47:15

Thank you for listening to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates. We invite you to join other courageous leaders at www. Travis Yates. org.