150: Restoring Your Manhood Through a Dignified Approach to Hormone Therapy – with Saad Alam

Attention Men Who Are Struggling with Low Energy & Low Libido: You Can Get Your Spark Back 

If your male mojo is currently lost, this episode of the Awesome Health Podcast could change your life. 

There is nothing shameful about having “low-T” or “low testosterone” or any other hormone imbalance as a man. You did nothing wrong. Your endocrine system changed for some reason, which is something entirely out of your control. 

There are answers if you know where to look. 

Our guest in this episode, Saad Alam, wants you to know that you can feel like your old self again through his unique approach to hormone therapy. Saad experienced low testosterone firsthand and shared his personal story during this interview with our host Wade Lightheart. 

Saad knows what it’s like to “feel sad all the time” and not understand why. He knows what it’s like to lose your sex drive, causing relationship issues. 

He’s been there and done that. And came out on the other side happier and more energized about life than ever before.  

Once he figured this out through a long and difficult journey, Saad decided to channel his entrepreneurial spirit into starting the Hone Health business, dedicated to offering dignified hormone therapies to men. 

Saad understands the “seedy” vibe surrounding men’s hormone therapy. He knows that too much shady marketing, quackery, and cookie-cutter approaches tainted the male hormone therapy industry. This is why Saad dedicated his business to providing a comfortable, respectful service for men struggling with hormone challenges. Saad helps men by educating them on male hormone issues as well as providing therapies. Through education, you can find clarity on your condition and make better decisions about your needs. 

If you are feeling “off” these days, listen in as Wade and Saad go on a deep dive into the world of testosterone replacement therapy.  

In this podcast, we cover:

• Saad’s journey from rugged athlete to ZERO energy and libido, then back to restored manhood
• How steroid scandals in professional sports confused men’s perceptions about testosterone
• Other hormone therapies for men apart from testosterone 
• How to navigate through the adjustment phases while receiving testosterone therapy
• How Saad has streamlined the hormone process, so you don’t spend too much time and money 
• Why men need to be careful who they get medical info from and avoid the “bro science” on social media
• Why men should monitor their hormone numbers regularly

Why you need more than just a test result – finding out your hormone numbers is only the beginning.

These days, a guy can go to a service like Lab Corp. and get their hormone levels lined out. That’s fine. But what are you going to do with that information? Unless you’re a medical professional, we don’t advise you to try to figure it out through a Google search. 

As a man with hormone issues, you are likely to be dealing with some psychological issues. Saad says, “The psychological problems that result from all the changes are worse than the physical changes alone. Because all of a sudden, you are questioning yourself and your identity as a man. So much of a man’s identity is wrapped up in providing for their family, taking care of aging parents, caring for children, being a role model for a younger sibling, building a business. All these things can hit you at once. You can get into a negative feedback loop where you question yourself over and over. Frankly, it messes with you. As guys, we are bad at admitting something is wrong.”  

Saad says he sees too many men who go five, ten, or fifteen years keeping their struggles to themselves until things get so bad they have to talk. 

If you think it’s okay, this is what happens to men when you get to be 35 or 40 years old. Stop right there! No – it doesn’t have to be like that at all. 

Saad says, “I’m blessed that so many of the people I get to see daily are ages 60, 70, or 80 years old, and they look like they’re 30 to 45 years old. So much of this is a mindset. They think they’re young, and they take care of themselves.” 

What was the trigger point for Saad when he knew something was wrong?

At one point, Wade asks Saad what brought him to the point where he acknowledged there was something wrong, and he needed help? 

Saad said, “I’ve been very fortunate that I can juggle a lot of things all at once in my life. I’ve always gone home to see my family every other weekend, regardless of where I lived. And there came the point where I couldn’t. I remember it was clearly in the back of my mind – something is off. But I can’t figure out what is going on. But I couldn’t figure out how all the concepts connected. I couldn’t apply this idea to other subject matters, even though I knew applying this idea would make those other areas juicier.”

“Then, on top of that, I was supposed to go see my family that weekend. And I remember I was planning to take my girl out to dinner, and I told her I couldn’t do it because I don’t have enough energy.”

“All of a sudden, I thought, I’m that guy – something is wrong.” 

“I love reading, and one day I was reading something really valuable, something that excited me. But I couldn’t grasp it. I couldn’t put the pieces together. I knew the idea was brilliant. It was giving me a rush through my entire body.”

“I knew I was sleeping well. So that wasn’t the problem. At that point, I knew I needed to go figure it out. It was emotionally tough. When my first doctor told me nothing was wrong, and it was all in my head, it was devastating because he was a guy I trusted.”

Saad saw 11 specialists in 6 months before he began finding answers. 

Now, he wants to help you find answers to your male hormone issues.
 

There is much more to this conversation you don’t want to miss. Ladies, if your man struggles with low libido, low energy, mood changes, or depression – tune in to this episode. And share it with someone who could use this great information. Saad shares his knowledge in a respectful, easy-to-digest way. 

Check out this episode – you CAN feel like a man again with the correct information! 

Episode Resources: 
Check out more about Saad Alam
Email Saad directly at [email protected] 
Hone Health YouTube Channel
Saad Alam on Instagram

Read The Episode Transcript:

Wade Lightheart: Good morning. Good afternoon. And good evening. It's Wade T. Lightheart from BiOptimizers with another edition of the awesome health podcast. And we're today, we're going to talk about men's hormonal health, a real bio hacking adventure, and how all of this idea came to a company called home health. And we have none other than sod alum who is going to talk about his journey in the past decade. In fact, he experienced a health Renaissance via a biohacking journey that has dramatically changed how he eats works out recovers and leads. One of the fastest growing men's health company in the United States hone health, which facilitates access to hormone testing, physician consultations, and treatments from the comfort of your own home side. Welcome to the show.

 Saad Alam: Welcome. Wait, I got to tell you, I am jealous of your ability to do that kind of introduction. I feel like if I could do that, my life would be a whole lot better.

 Wade Lightheart: Well, you know, I I've, I've always been fascinated. We're off topic, but Hey, well, let's go there. I've always been fascinated with ringing announcers and those things, you know, like the Michael buffers and Bruce Buffer's of the worlds and how their melodic introductions let's get ready to rumble. You know, like that's my fault guests. Can I capture a little bit of that energy because I believe that if we can make our day-to-day life fun and we can add an element of a little bit of showmanship into, you know, what really deserves that type of energy and insight, you're out there doing an incredible job with your company. That's helping men across the world. I think that's more important than who's going to duke it out in the next UFC event. No disrespect. I love USC. I love sports announcing, but more importantly, I love helping people get healthy. And so I'm excited to have you on the podcast today.

 Saad Alam: Listen, I can't tell you I'm I'm thrilled. I feel honored to be here and I'm excited to have this conversation.

 Wade Lightheart: All right. So you have an history. I think that we should unpack first before we get into this men's health issue, because there's a first and foremost, there's a crisis going on. Let's not kid ourselves. And men's health. Second thing. There's a Renaissance going on in the world, which is biohacking. And third, there is biotech which is an expanding field in human potential of extending life and giving us all sorts of data. And you kind of have a fusion history of all of these things wrapped in one, even though you're really young for your, you look amazing. Obviously you're a, bio-hacker a company, you know, funder or developer, I guess in a bunch of big Mary's. And more importantly, you have this super fast growing men's health company relative to solving one of the problems that we have today in the modern world. For men. You want to talk about how you got started in this whole journey?

 Saad Alam: Yeah, absolutely. Wade. And thank you. I mean, what would you just said, just actually just put goosebumps on my back. I feel like I'm going to have you announce me every time I go into the bedroom from now on. So you're right. Like I have been incredibly lucky and I feel grateful to kind of like chase after what was been my life's passion for so long. And I can give you a little bit of a background on myself. I can tell you how the problems started, how I started chasing after it. So basically a little bit of background on myself, right? I have, I've been obsessed with health my entire life, and frankly, a ton of it came from the fact that my parents were immigrants. I grew up here and right when you're a kid, all you want to do is fit in.

 Saad Alam: And I didn't know how to, until I learned how to play sports and playing sports was the beginning of kind of like this path that gave me confidence. I played sports all through high school, through college, and I still like to consider myself an athlete. I'm touching about 40 here and I'm probably not as fast and I probably don't move as sharp as I used to, but I, I try I've worked, oh man. Basketball was my sport out of all things. I played a ton of football too. I mean, anything where you're running and probably even anything where you're jumping out of a plane or you're driving a car fast to give you adrenaline. Like it's been, it's been on my list. Right. whatever I can do. And I think a lot of it is I'd like to see how far I can push myself.

 Saad Alam: And so, you know, I've worked out six days a week for the past 25 years of my life. I have, I eat perfectly, I'm constantly researching diet fitness protocols. I meditate twice a day, twice a day. I track my sleep with three different devices. I do 40 vials of blood every three months to see literally like 28 pages worth of biomarkers, what they look like. It's. And if there's any fitness product out there, a new wellness product, I'm buying it. Right. Just because I absolutely love the idea of being able to extend kind of our health span. Right. And I think that you, you were a perfect example of someone that understands how the arc of our life is being redefined right now. And we have the potential to live until a hundred ten, a hundred and twenty, a hundred and thirty, whatever it may be. And so the question is, how can you push yourself?

 Saad Alam: And when I turned 35, just sold my first company. And the couple of things started happening to me that were really weird, right. I was really good health, although I was working absolutely crazy hours, which I continued to do, but all of a sudden my mental acuity and my stamina started to slip. So I was having trouble kind of recalling very simple linear. And frankly, like I started to be sad at certain times, which in my entire life has never been something I've had to deal with. Second thing, body composition started to change dramatically, started to put quite a bit of weight around my midsection, which just wasn't my, my, my body type my entire life. And then all of a sudden libido right. Gone. And I don't mean like sorta kind of gone. I mean, like plumbing is not working which as you can imagine makes for some incredibly awkward conversations between me and my girl cliche kind of conversations where it's not, you it's me kind of deal. And 

 Wade Lightheart: All of the male rationalizations that have to be implemented as defense mechanisms, because there's something going on internalized. And I think it's hard for guys to come to talk about those things or deal with those things. Or even to recognize, let alone to develop a strategy around,

 Saad Alam: You know, you hit the nail on the head, right. But let's even talk about that quickly. The psychological problems that result from all of the changes are actually far worse than the physical changes itself. Because all of a sudden you are questioning yourself and your identity as a man. And so much of our identity is wrapped up in, can we provide for our families and the people we love, I'm thinking, will I be able to take care of my aging parents will be able to take care of my girl. Will I be able to be a role model to my brother? Did I just build my last company? Like all those things were in my head and they don't just hit you once. Right. As the guy they start. And it becomes like the self-defeating negative feedback loop where you just question the question and question and question and to be Frank, like, it really messes with you. And as guys, the other thing we're really bad at too is we're really bad at saying something's wrong. Yeah.

 Speaker 3: I'm good from back there, but I'm good. Yeah. Can't remember anything. I'm good.

 Saad Alam: It's like, and like, I think the thing that's interesting is like, so many of men go through the same problem that I went through and they quite literally for five or 10 years or 15 years, they don't say anything until it's at a point where it's so bad and right. The psychological trauma that has the physical trauma and they just resigned themselves to thinking it's okay. It's kind of like, what happens when you get to 35 or 40? This is just old age. And I think what people don't realize, it's like, no, it doesn't have to be like that at all. And so many of us, I guess, I'm, I'm blessed that so many of the people I get to meet on a daily basis, 60, 70, 80 years old look like they're 30 or 45. And so much of it is mentally. They have thought they're young for all this time and they've been taking care of themselves.

 Saad Alam: Right. And so you realize it's a hundred percent possible. And so that's kind of what really, I went to my doctor, right. And I said, Hey, something's dramatically wrong with me. He said, let me take your blood, takes my blood, come back a couple of weeks later. And he sits me down and like really seriously looks at me in the eyes. And he says, sod, it's in your head. And I said, are you crazy one? You couldn't have called me over the phone to tell me that. And two, you're going to come in here and tell me it's in my head. I said, that's just not an acceptable answer. Like I know I've got to, I said, let me see the blood. And, you know, he basically took a look at my, my, my, my hormone levels. And he says, well, look, you're in the reference range for all these things.

 Saad Alam: I said, yeah. But I'm telling you like these reference ranges, they feel like they're pretty off. And so that's what began this journey of me seeing, I probably saw 11 different specialists over the course of six months. And I finally, I finally met a group of physicians that are really like hormone optimization and regenerative physicians. And I re I, hadn't probably spent a ton of time with physicians up until that point in my life, because I had just been super healthy. I'd been trying to figure out what's the coolest way to meditate. And they basically looked at the blood work and I said, sod, you had the testosterone level of an 80 year old man. And I said, that sounds horrible. I said, it's actually not that big of a deal. Like the large majority of our patients now are actually pretty young guys like you coming in for the same problem.

 Saad Alam: And I think the initial reaction to is like, oh, testosterone, the T word. It's super, it's like dirty underbelly, kind of like late night infomercial kind of stuff. And they were like, look, it's actually like pretty common that at the age of 30, you start your body starts losing its natural ability to produce one to two, one to two percentage points of testosterone per year. And they said, there's also this entire, there's a very large kind of like global what we'll call it, silent pandemic going on, where men are beginning to lose more testosterone than the previous generation. And when you dive into it, it almost feels conspiratorial. Right. and what I mean by it is our father's generation in comparison to us had 26% more testosterone and 50% more sperm. And then when you start looking at the reasons why the scientific community is actually kind of galvanizing around the fact that they're what they call, some people call them EDCs, endocrine, disrupting chemicals.

 Saad Alam: Some people call them plastics. Some people call them PCPs, right? Depending upon who you're speaking to, there's a different way to categorize them. But at the end of the day, they are these estrogenic compounds that get into your body and they tell the natural or the hormone regulating centers in our brain to stop and dodginess production. And so now you have these guys that have lower testosterone levels that are, that are also passing them epigenetically on to their, to, to another. And so you've also started looking at like 40% of men over 35 have this problem. And we're going, I'm like, I'm almost, I'm sitting there going like, this just doesn't seem real. Like we just had a conversation, wait about another thing in Canada. That doesn't seem real. I felt the same exact way. And so that's kind of like really inspired me to say, is this a problem that's worth kind of like dedicating my life to, and I went on optimization therapy and it quite literally fundamentally changed my life.

 Saad Alam: Right. I went from feeling like I couldn't get a bed certain days to feeling like my 25 year old self then. Right. And I don't mean, I don't mean the ability to pick up cars or having superhuman strength. I mean, just feeling like my best self when the best day ever. And, and the moment that happens, it creates this momentum in your life. And all of a sudden you're starting to go, oh my God, I can dream again. I feel a little bit more confident. And, and you're saying to yourself, I know exactly what it is I want to do. And for me, it was helping, it was build a company that helped men have conferences they age, and we've been really lucky and fortunate that it worked out well so far, knock on wood.

 Wade Lightheart: There's a few things that I think in that story that I think is really important to address to the males in our audience that might be listening to that. And I think it goes back to the 1990s when all of the information came out about the, the, the use of anabolic agents in sports, which shattered a lot of people's visions, whether that was, you know, the bash brothers for the Oakland A's, whether it was in the late eighties, the Ben Johnson testing positive in the Olympics, and then subsequently virtually every person that was in that race when they back-tested all were on that. And so I remember Linford Christie saying, I wish all of these golden halos of all the athletes would fell down and then kind of emerging into the various doping aspects, the Icarus stuff. And then of course, maybe the most popular negative association was the Lance Armstrong.

 Wade Lightheart: And most history, history and doping has been something that's been going on. And yet men who are dominant in sports are often associated with hypermasculinity, they're associated with products they're associated with all these things. And it's, it's kind of in the culture of men to recognize the quote unquote iconic alpha male, which every man kind of identifies at least on a subconscious level and rates himself against that. And men have their own competency hierarchies, which kind of go by those. And that could be, you know, academic achievement, but in the world of sports, which is so predominant in the, in the American culture for certain, we now have this association that if you use exoticness testosterone or testosterone derivatives, which are anabolic agents or anything in that nature, somehow you're dirty, you're cheating. You're not ethical. You're not being an honest male. You are subverting something.

 Wade Lightheart: And, and if you don't go down that road, you're not a competitive person either. Now you can't compete at the highest level. So it's kind of damned if you do damned if you don't component because you go, yeah, that's what those guys are doing. And this is what the alpha males are kind of doing. We kind of know that when we see the WWF stores that we see the UFC stars, but we weren't, I'm going to do that. But that means I got an out, but I don't have that competitive advantage because we do know cognitive behavior, memory, mood identification with this. And the female industry has hyper accentuated, the beauty aspects of, you know, face symmetry and estrogenic qualities of youth and skin and all that sort of stuff. And it's very well understood in the female market. And that has its own series of pressures, but nobody talks about this than men and the, what I call it, the silent suffering, because to admit that you're not that alpha male gorilla makes you feel, I feel like somehow I'm less than, and if I go get help, that help could be construed as I'm not ethical.

 Wade Lightheart: How did you resolve that particular dilemma? Because I think men, men, and I've got lots of men in the middle age category, and I've not used a testosterone replacement therapy as of yet. It's, it's kind of a tool in the toolbox. I'm kicking down the road, but I have almost all of the biohacker friends I have are on testosterone replacement, a great number of the 30 year old men that I, that I know in the tech world specifically are on TRT. And there's differences between TRT and steroid. We can maybe get into that or, or testosterone like for sports enhancement versus replacement. How did you navigate this? What was the emotional psychological process that you had to go through to get to the point, to get to that doctor's office or to G and then the subsequent, what did you say? 11 different medical specialists. What was going on for you in that point? Because I think this is the part that men have got to get a grip around. This is going to sound

 Saad Alam: Silly. Do you remember the last time someone broke up with you? I do. How did it feel?

 Wade Lightheart: That's a great question. I think there's a numbness at first, so there's what I would call a surface of of acceptance with indignation. Fine. That's the way it's going to be better than we're hitting this right now. Cut the arm off, see you later. So there's the outfacing masculine response. I'm not going to flinch in the face of chaos. And then afterwards there's a, there there's an unpacking of the psychological and emotional components that are processed out over months, and that can be accelerated or extended depending on who you reach out to what tools you have in the toolbox, and that you're able to do that. And so I think that's an important journey for people, but with the proliferation of information today in technology and people and expertise, I think extended suffering which is beyond the reflection point.

 Wade Lightheart: I think you always, when there is a challenge, you want a reflection point. It's like, okay, we wanted, I was listening to Eric Weinstein, talk about this the other day. It's like, there's an evolutionary response. Is that when something goes wrong, we w we dwell on that so that we might be able to learn a lesson. And that's a value of what's made humans evolve so quickly over other species. However, there's a point where you've, you, you, you've got to move on and, and, and dwelling too long. And what is that sweet spot? I think in the world of TRT, I think that that sweet spot is starting to compress. I think it's been drawn out, like you said, 10, 15 years for a lot of guys, and we've got to turn that down to maybe 10 or 15 weeks.

 Saad Alam: So one, I agree with you. It's got, it's gotta be a faster level of introspection of men to basically say like, Hey, I want some help. I actually think we're at a turning point right now where men will basically say, this is pretty common stuff. I'm just going to go get my, my, my third of the life tune up or whatever it may be because my body's changing and there'll be okay with it. And so I'll tell you the, for me, the way I got around it emotionally was my, and I'll be very honest. Right. You know, my doctor didn't believe something was wrong with me cause I was in such great shape. And I was like, man, I'm just always sad. And I felt heartbroken, right? I tried ed medications cause I had problems in that department. He wanted to put me in on anti-depressants frankly, I wasn't going to touch an antidepressant.

 Saad Alam: I used to, to market them at a pharmaceutical company and God bless them for certain people, but that wasn't the path that I wanted to go down. I was sleeping great. Like I was, I was optimizing all of the other things that should have given me the kind of satisfaction in my life that it deserved. I had a wonderful girlfriend, my family super supportive and I just felt sad all the time. And so for me, it wasn't a question of who am I going to go ask? Because the option was quite literally becoming a, a, like a shell of myself and I could see it. I was living in it every single day and excuse my language. And I was like, no, this is not going to happen to me. I'm not going to let this happen to me. And it was like I intend to get so much more out of life because I just absolutely enjoy it.

 Saad Alam: And my parents have given me so much in life. My family has been so supportive. How would it be if I couldn't be there for them? And honestly, that's been my role. And the oldest oldest son in the family, my parents are starting to look legitimately, get old now. Right. And like one of the greatest joys of my life is to be able to take care of them as well as take care of, you know, all of the other things in my family. It's just, I get so much excitement from it. You're gonna tell me you're gonna take that away from me and tell me, I can't build a company again, based upon something I'm in love with. Absolutely not. And so for me, you're right. I was a little bit PR I was overly proactive and it didn't happen all, but all of a sudden it happened gradually, but then all of a sudden it was so bad that I said, I have to act on

 Wade Lightheart: It. What was the trigger? What was the trigger that took you from, Hey, this is kind of a descending level that I'm I think I can fight my way through this somehow. Or I'm going to have a breakthrough to like, you know what, I need help here. W was there an event, was there something that, that, that made, you said, you know what, okay, this is, this, I've got to come to grips with this program isn't working.

 Saad Alam: Yeah. You know, it's actually, I've been very fortunate that I can, I can juggle a lot of things all at once in my life. And you know, I've always gone home to see my family every other weekend, regardless of where I lived in the country, frankly. And there came a point where I couldn't, I remember it like, actually like very clearly it was right in the back of my mind. You're like, something's something's off, but I can't really figure out what it was. I was actually I love reading, write and read all the time. It's reading a book and I kept on going through a chapter and I knew it was really valuable, but I couldn't put the pieces together. Right. Like they just couldn't come together. And I knew the idea was exciting. And like, when you get excited about an idea, like it just gives you a rush through your entire body.

 Saad Alam: And I remember I couldn't figure out how all the concepts related and how I could draw it to to, to, I would say other subject matter that would have made it even more juicy. And then on top of it too, I was supposed to go see my family that weekend. And I remember I was supposed to take my girl out to dinner the night before, and I told her I can't do it because I don't have enough energy. And all of a sudden it was like, you're that you're that guy, like, something is wrong. Like, shoot, you actually slept in every day over the past week. Like, that's not like you either. And it was like, at that point in time, I said, I got to figure it out. It just doesn't make sense. And it, you know, it, I think that the thing that was also hard emotionally is like, when my doctor told me nothing was wrong with me, that was, it's like here, here's a guy that I trust.

 Saad Alam: And he was obviously a professional and saying that it's in my head. And then I was like, no, like psychologically, I know I'm pretty. I mean, I'm constantly journaling doing gratitude exercises, questioning myself. I was like, I don't think it's in my head. And then, I mean, honestly the scary thing was like, is it some form of dementia that I can that setting on early? Right. And that's terrifying. And my father is a type one diabetic, that's a kidney patient. I've seen him struggle with a chronic disease and be on dialysis for 20 years. And I had vowed to my God, listen, he's the most amazing guy. But I also told myself I'm not going down that path because it's just a really hard life. And so I said, I gotta figure this thing out because it would be really scary if that's, that's really what it was. And I said, I'm going to go face it, head on. And I think I said it was the, it was wonderful. And it was meant to happen. That's probably the best way I can describe it.

 Wade Lightheart: It's, it's, it's great. And I think those moments, those inflection points in life, the sooner that we have, and when we have that transparent conversation with ourselves and our trusted professionals with the people close to us, that's friends or family members or things like that, I think the better off, because oftentimes they're acutely aware that you're off as well. You're not really hiding it as well as you might think. And I think that's the piece where opportunity hits in that we can as men in society, because the roles have changed. The world's changed. We're in a radical proliferation of technological innovation with our old biological systems in place. And we haven't worked out many of the parameters around here nor do we understand all of its complications by all logically. But what we can say is low testosterone levels or in balance of hormones, high estrogens, low testosterones, and the cascading interrelations between how we develop cultivate produce and going down to the whole cascade, because it's not just about testosterone, there's a whole other aspect of this.

 Wade Lightheart: A lot of people just think it's testosterone, but it's, that's the starting point or the one that's the most common element, but there's these co-factors and co hormones and stuff. And this is where expertise comes in. And now we have that expertise. So the question becomes, what is your suggestion? And we'll get into the tech side of things first. How do people overcome or how to men particularly overcome the stigma of low testosterone and what that means, or, or, or hormonal imbalances, if you want to call that. And then also maybe you have some insight into how men's partners, women can also help initiate that conversation in a way that doesn't threaten their guy. Cause I think that's it, you know, women who, I know a lot of women in this space talk about, they talk about it too. You know, my guy's not on, he's not on, you know, like they're, they're, they're suffering as well and they don't know how to bring it up either.

 Saad Alam: So the breaking, the stigma is there are two parts of it. Right. And it depends upon, let's see, there, there are more than two parts, but let's talk about different ages. Right. And kind of like for, for guys that are probably 50, 55, 60, 70, I think there's a, there's a different kind of masculinity that they probably hold and identify with than someone that's in their 30 or 35 kind of age or bathroom. Right. And, and I think that for the, for the guys that are far more alpha and hyper-masculine what you have to realize is that, I mean, your body has been changing for the past 20 years and frankly, it's literally not your fault at all. And everyone's body is different, but your body is just not producing. Like you don't produce as much hair or your skin is not as elastic as it used to be.

 Saad Alam: You're just not producing as many hormones as you were when you were younger. And frankly, like it's incredibly empowering to know that there's nothing wrong with you as a person. And there are ways to kind of like help your body get back to where it used to be. Right. And what's, what's interesting is that, so we're not a, we're not an optimization clinic, right guys that just want to come in and get, get treated. And we can even talk about like in what dosages guys get treated. We are specifically when men are hypogonadal or clinically low below, kind of like a 300 nanograms per deciliter threshold, we then help. And so the guys that come and they, they work with us to do the at-home assessment, or they go to like the lab core and they bring their like, they're medically in a place where they actually need help.

 Saad Alam: And so there's nothing to be ashamed about. If anything like you should be really proud that you're taking a step in a direction to help make yourself even better for yourself, for, for you, for your family. Right. For, for younger guys, there's a completely different stigma because it's almost unfathomable to believe that at 35 years old, that you have low testosterone and, and it's almost, it's on one sense on one hand, it's a lot scarier. On the other hand, I think that if you're 35 years old, you almost have a different kinds of acceptance in the sense that you've kind of been like, you've been part of like this digital age where you see a lot of stuff on your phone. It's okay to talk about your feelings a little bit more. There are lots of innovative companies that are offering services to, to kind of like help you break through that wall.

 Saad Alam: And so you're just a little bit more open and willing to do those things. And so I think that the stigma there though is understanding your body may be changing, but not because your body is actually your, your hormones are going to say your body is your body needs an adjustment. That's probably the best way to say it in the sense that you may live in an environment where there are a large number of pollutants that are really kind of just have beat you down or you're not sleeping, right. Or you've been eating it appropriately. Right. You may be, you may be a little bit obese. And so there are things that are within your control. There are things that are outside of your control that no matter how much you try to fix, you just never will actually improve them. And so I think that men that are younger are actually, what's really interesting, the average age of a testosterone user and the countries 53, the average age of our users, 39.

 Saad Alam: Well, so what you're seeing happen is there is a much younger demo that knows there's something wrong with them. And I think because they've seen their parents go through chronic conditions and they know that they, that there's this promise of, of living longer, they're proactively saying like, I want to get this addressed. Now I do think there's a large number of guys that are not educated yet to understand that there's something that's wrong with them. And I think that that is that the key is to basically say, can we help men understand that in their late thirties, early forties, their bodies just start moving a little bit differently. The environment is kind of beating them down and for them to feel like, Hey, this is just the normal thing. Like I would go get a vaccine or take a Tylenol to go get my hormones looked at. She don't have to always do anything with it, but how do I proactively say, I'm just going to make sure that I'm keeping an eye on these numbers. And I think that's another important thing too, is within this particular science. And tell me if I'm going too deep here, Wade, cause I'm going to dive into some of like, okay, all right. And here's the other thing I have to say, this I'm not a medical professional. So this is not medical advice.

 Wade Lightheart: Need to go do anything. We're doing all that legal mumbo jumbo stuff that we have to do to protect yourself. Talk to your, ask your physician.

 Saad Alam: God bless you. Thank you so much. So in the world of testosterone, there is a reference range and that reference range is 900 to 300 nanograms per deciliter. So if you were anywhere within that reference range, your testosterone is okay. The reality is that that is based upon a normal distribution and it's the bell curve. And it doesn't take into account. There are people on both ends and I'll give you, I'll use me as an example. And I'll use a, another gentleman. I know, as an example, when I went to get my testosterone tests at the age of 35, I was at 181. And the lab that my physician used had a reference range that was 180 to 780. And he said, well, you're in the range. There's nothing wrong with you. Another doctor took a look at it and said, come inside. You should clearly be at like 600 or 700 nanograms per deciliter, your age, looking at the health that you're in.

 Saad Alam: We didn't know where I was before, because I never had a measurement before. And so it was interesting as I went on first a medication called HCG and then I tried Clomid to help bring my natural levels up. And then eventually I use testosterone, a athlete doing kind of like anabolic steroids or a bodybuilder may do a thousand to 1500 milligrams of testosterone per week. Yeah, I do 20 milligrams. Yes, 20. Right. And that's in some, some guys will need to do a hundred, but it doesn't go up too much higher than that realistically. And so what's interesting too is I went from 181 and then I went to about 400 and then my doctor's like, oh, you can be more optimized. You can be better than that. Like 400 still low. I went up to 800, honestly, I hated the way I felt at 800. And so what I've realized is actually my sweet spot is four 50, right? Like that's just, that's just where I am.

 Wade Lightheart: This is something I want to talk about because virtually all my friends who go through testosterone replacement therapy report, first off, there is an adjustment phase as you go through that initial stage is that there's kind of like an increased level of drive and aggression. And you kind of have to reframe that the short response mechanisms, and that can take maybe six months to come. And can you talk a little bit about the like UK? So we've got through the stigma, you go through your testing and now you're starting to find your optimal level for what you want.

 Saad Alam: Yes. So this is the most important thing it is personal. And what I mean by it's personal is even when, when we do an assessment, we take a look at, or the physicians that we work with, they take a look at your raw numbers and then they ask you a bunch of qualitative questions that help us determine how you're feeling. And frankly, if your numbers are low, but you're feeling great, there's not a problem. Right. if your, if your numbers are low and you feel horrible, there is a real problem. And so you said it perfectly is that once you start taking it, there's this period where you have to get dialed in. Right? And that, that's one of the things that we make sure we do is we work with patients every 90 days to continuously think about how are their blood pressure, blood parameters changing, but more importantly, how are they feeling?

 Saad Alam: And so at different different amounts of testosterone and the way your body metabolizes it, you, your different parts of your personality are accentuated. And so you have to really think very hard about did I like that version of myself and you keep in mind, right? So much of it, as you said it really well, let's say that your physician provided you with a slightly higher dose and one week you're Uber aggressive, and maybe you said something stupid. That could be a function of you learning how to not say something dumb. So that right. That is a, that is a very, that is a very deliberate response to say, I know I need to chill out. Or you may just be so aggressive that you can't control it. And you actually don't want to be that way. And so you have to think about which versions of yourself you actually want to be.

 Saad Alam: And so that's where it makes a lot of sense. Having a physician you can consistently work with, that's very experienced with this that can help you understand which parts of your personality you want to dial up and down. And so I'll tell you, this is probably the most interesting thing. When I started this company I ended up spending 175 hours with about 150 men. And I sat down with them and I basically asked them about their life longevity, their health and 35% of the men, the way that they turn their life around is that they were in the worst place of their life. Meaning like they basically said, Hey, look came out of college, felt like a million bucks. 30 years old, got married, had two kids work responsibilities, went up, started making more money. All of a sudden life got really heavy.

 Saad Alam: And then by the time I was 40, I also gained 30 pounds and I was in the worst place in my life. I didn't know who I was. And it was those men that are in kind of like the bottom of this pit. And they'd almost like liken it to a grave. They'd say I can either. This was so interesting. I remember hearing it. I could have either like literally just turned over and like gotten worse and kind of gone that the path of resignation, or I could say, I know something's wrong. Be very honest with myself and change my mindset first and then start figuring out what are the different behaviors I have to incorporate? What are the, what are the medications I may need to incorporate? What are the what are the lifestyle choices I meet need to incorporate? And they slowly pulled themselves out.

 Saad Alam: And so I think what's interesting to note is right. The guys that come to us are very often the guys that are in that hole. And so their families are suffering, they're suffering. And so the moment that they start to see some symptom relief, there's this new momentum in their life and the momentum it's so important that you work with like a professional to figure out what do you do with that momentum, right? Like where are you putting that new energy? Are you just running around with your shirt off and trying to go to the gym and like do more pushups? No, like you're working on yourself. And, and so it's really important that as you get on the medication and you start to feel these new changes coming about, and you start to see parts of your mind waking up again, all of a sudden you're saying like, who is it that I want to be? And how do I take that moment? And the harness it. And so many people think it's the testosterone. It's not the testosterone, right? It's the testosterone gives you the single biggest insight I've gained from running this company is that it's not muscle, it's not libido. Although like the libido and the muscle give you more confidence. Guys just want energy to feel like themselves again, so they can just get back to it. Right. And it's like the easiest calmest thing at the end of the day, they're chasing after

 Wade Lightheart: My my coach who was my bodybuilding coach who I rehired recently, we had long hiatus after my career. And just hired him recently because I'm getting ready 50 weeks to 50. So I said, Hey, I need to add the icon. I was when I was competing in Mr. Universe contest, he has a great video on that on testosterone replacement when to use it. What's the difference between that and the use of that as testosterone, as you referred to as like anabolic steroid use, which is completely different. And that was the word, the phrase specifically, I just want to feel like myself again. That is the most common L I don't feel like myself is the common descriptor. And then when people have got that optimized, I do feel like myself is the common description afterwards. And then how you define that and where you channel that energy is going to vary from person to person, walk me through your company, hone health, and how, you know, you went through your own transformation, got this sort of thing. Obviously probably, you know, being the type of person you have my guess is that you saw there was, there were some flaws within the model that was going that you thought that you could say, Hey, you know, what, if, if this was delivered to people in a, in a smooth, effective, easily accessible way that didn't create all the friction points that you went through, there might be an opportunity here to be of great service to mankind. Is that accurate statement? And if it is

 Saad Alam: Exactly the statement, can you

 Wade Lightheart: Kind of go down that route and describe what home health is, what they offer and what makes them unique relative to other companies or offerings in this space?

 Saad Alam: Yeah, absolutely. So let me maybe even describe the problem a little bit more. Like, I think you heard me talk about when, to my primary care physician, that's me taking time to go out there, drive, maybe get my blood tested somewhere else had to go somewhere else had to go back to my primary care physician spent six months. Cause I was determined. Seeing different specialists finally met someone. And then after I met them, I mean they're, and he they're wonderful. Went on an oral medication and then eventually moved to a combination of an oral medication plus a TRT. And I had to go into the office every week. Right. Is

 Wade Lightheart: That an injectable or a gel?

 Saad Alam: A gel, I'm sorry. An injectable injectable. And so it was an incredible amount of time that I had to spend it was a lot of money that I had to spend and frankly,

 Wade Lightheart: Any type of cost are you, are you talking about for that whole process? There's a time cost six months and all that lost opportunity costs all the friction, if you will.

 Saad Alam: I mean, right. So like, luckily I've got really good health insurance, but even with the health insurance, driving different places, parking different places. Like I live in New York city parking is not cheap sometimes right. Criminally insane. And like I had take a subway, a bunch of places, but like sometimes I had to leave the city. Like, it's just, I mean, I probably spent, I don't know, a thousand, $1,200 just running around doing different blood tests that weren't necessarily covered. Like it wasn't cheap, but I'll tell you, I would actually, I think what we basically, the, the, the conclusion we've come to is that people would pay the money if they got the time back. Right. Like you can't get the time back. I can't get the time. And, and right. I don't have children yet. Imagine if I had two kids, right. Like that's just really difficult to do.

 Saad Alam: And lucky I worked for myself so I can kind of make my own schedule. I mean, if I had to work for someone that's really hard and like, what do you tell someone? And you want to admit it? I don't want to admit it. And so we basically came, I came to the conclusion of, and I think the entire process felt so sterile. Like no one really cared. They weren't in coordinating care. Also too, like at the end of the day, the option of going to like a true TRT clinic was kind of felt, I hate to say it felt dirty and it was just super time consuming, right? Like it's just a, it doesn't feel like they have my best interests at heart necessarily. And so what our company does is we, we send an at home assessment to you and that at-home assessment essentially is a set of land sets that you prick your finger with.

 Saad Alam: And you provide us with some blood on basically a fancy piece of filter paper. You then take that fancy piece of filter paper. You drop it in the mail and you mail it to one of our CLIA and cap to credit labs. So basically they've done a bunch of testing to make sure they can verify that the blood that goes on that fancy piece of filter paper is equivalent to venous function. We then analyze it for eight different hormones. And then we basically send you a text once it's all done. And we hook you up with a within affiliated physician and the physician does a 30 minute, tele-health consult with you where it's an audio visual console, right? None of that asynchronous tech stuff that some of the other larger kind of telehealth companies do. Like this is a personal conversation between two people where we need you to be vulnerable.

 Saad Alam: Right. And what, what the physicians do is they ask you questions about like, who do you want to be? Why are you really doing this? And then they educate you on what your hormones and your biomarkers mean, right? Cause it's not just a, Hey, this is what your levels are. You should do this. It is a, it is a collaborative process where you're having a conversation with a physician understanding what's happening in your body. And then more importantly, the physician is saying, you've got some options, right? You've got these, you've maybe have a natural option. Maybe you have a, and then here are a couple other options. It is not just, you should do this. And they go over the benefits and the side effects. And they're very, very clear about things, right? And then at the end of the day, right? And this is the most one, the wonderful thing is those physicians, they will never get compensated based upon their prescribing.

 Saad Alam: They only get compensated just for seeing you. So the moment they click that camera, we pay them. So it means they don't have an incentive to sell you a medication. And so basically you make a decision. Is it something you want to do? Is that something you don't want to do? If it's something that you do want to do? We basically help collect or coordinate the entire kind of like getting medications experience too. So you really click a button on our website. You drop a credit card in if it is a non-controlled substance that a physician is prescribing to, we then have the non-controlled substance sent directly out to your house. If it is a controlled substance. Cause we are the most conservative clinic out there because it's incredibly important for us to make sure that we were doing the safest thing by our patients.

 Saad Alam: We do an a confirmatory test just to make sure it's, it literally is not going to cause any problems for you. We've sent you the medication, you have complete access to our customer service team and to your physician, but then more importantly, we don't just sell a medication and leave you alone. We literally say every 90 days, if you want to continue getting this medication, you have to do another at-home assessment. You have to talk to a physician every 90 days. And we are, we require patients to do that because it's really important to have someone to bounce off. How are you feeling? Is this, is this medication not working really well for me? Should I add a different medication in, should I actually titrate down a little bit? And that's what becomes like really at the end of the day, it's the relationship that we're, that we're, that we're, that we're servicing for the patient. And I think the other really interesting thing is you're going to see, we start introducing a lot of new medications, other therapeutic categories, but the thing that I'm really excited about because no other company has decided to be brave enough to do it. Cause they're, they're afraid of, of what it could mean. But basically very often when most guys go to physicians or they, they go talk to someone about TRT, what's the first thing they do in order to go look for information,

 Wade Lightheart: Go online, go

 Saad Alam: Online. And you probably end up in like some CD form where it's a bunch of bro science. And it's a bunch of like LOL and like and a bunch of really well-intentioned people, but they don't necessarily, if you don't know if it's, if it's quality information, right.

 Wade Lightheart: And so, and even in the best situation, it's only offering generalizations, which may have no biological implication or relative safe for your personal situation because of the variance across a subset of populations. Like there's only one you, one lifestyle that you're living, one genetic history, one hormonal health profile, which is subject to a lot of variables that only a professional is going to be able to pick apart to get the leverage that you need in order to get dialed in. And this is what biohacking actually is hacking. Isn't taking a bunch of generalizations from some peer review journal and applying it carte block that is sold on an nebulous website from a foreign country. That's sending in some, you know, whatever thing in that makes you feel great. And it has, who knows what kind of negative side effects or contaminants biohacking is about selecting the expertise that is able to initiate the proper quantitative and qualitative procedures and testing so that you can say make educated, informed decisions based on the end of one, you, the thing that ever counts the decision.

 Wade Lightheart: And then, and then you made another piece I think is important. You're, you're continually tracking as the, the, the process of time goes by because we are not static beings. You can't just say, Hey, you know what? I solved this. I'm taking my 20 milligrams a day. I'm good for the next 20 years. And you know, eight months, a year, 16 months down the road, two years down the road, you're, you're, you're, you're not getting the results. Well, again, you went back to the problem that got you into the situation in the first place, the lack of monitoring by qualitative and quantitative expertise.

 Saad Alam: Yup. Yup. And, you know, it's so important that you say that I'm going to go back to the end of one. You are so incredibly different. And the other thing that's important to realize a lot of stuff you read in that boards, what works for someone else could very well work for you. Right? And, and I would say like, I am a obsessive collector of different bio optimizations, and I had a stack that's super personal to myself. And I've only learned what that stack is because I've tried a lot of different things and qualitatively and quantitatively assess them. Right. And I'm sure you have as well too. And I think that a lot of those boards, they they've served an incredibly an incredibly prolific purpose in helping people get information in a very unfiltered fashion. But you also have to have the skill set of understanding how to filter through that fashion.

 Saad Alam: And so one of the things that we're doing is we're basically saying, how can we take the conversations happening on that board and have them directly on our site where you're talking to not only team members that we have that can give you information, but we have vetted our own kind of community members that have been through therapy that are very well attuned to never providing medical advice, but helping you think through your own personal journey and also including our physicians on it. Right. And so other people won't do it because they're saying, Hey, look, it could potentially bring, bring the war to, to your house and we're going, no, no, look, it is our duty to make sure that those conversations are had, and that we are providing people with facts. And it is our duty to make sure that they're getting the truth in a lot of circumstances. And so that's one of the things I'm really excited about. And it's right. It's not a TRT community. It's a, how do you be a better man community, more than anything? Love

 Wade Lightheart: It. I think that's a great service and something I think is a well, well positioned and of vital importance in society today. There's a lot of extraneous stress going on major shifts in the last 18 months, if you will, based on the pandemic. I think it's been disastrous for men's health. If you look at the competent data, the average weight gain has been 30 pounds that has been most impactful for the lower range of the economic status. That that's all been now proven Harvard just came out with a study on that the co-morbidities relative to the pandemic issues are real, an overweight and obesity, which are correlated with low testosterone levels, high anxiety levels and depression. Excessive cortisol levels are all suppressing agents that are on mat and right now, and then of course the loss of identity through impact to financial PR for financial constraints rising debt loads, maybe aspects of providing for his house and the, the identity issues that kind of compound that can trigger a cascade of devastating hormonal and psychological components.

 Wade Lightheart: If there ever was a time for men in this country to kind of, you know what say, Hey, the circumstances require and a radical intervention within my own self and my own operational parameters to, to adapt and the sign of an evolutionary being someone who's dialed in and ready to take charge throughout history, what's separated us from other species on the planet is our ability to assess the emerging situation and adapt to it through the cultivation of community and technology. That's what makes us human. And I think if I heard you correctly, what you're providing is you're providing an extraordinary blend of human interaction with technological wherewithal to deliver a very convenient service to men so that they can get into a conversation, get down to the brass tacks of what's going on in their life and to alleviate the both psychological and physiological challenges that low testosterone creates and how to get out of it and go back out there because we need men to step up right now.

 Wade Lightheart: We need guys to take charge in their life. We need them to have these conversations and to, to let go of the stigma and go out there and, and, and win back their life and win back our society. And I think this is a pretty exciting time. So maybe you can kind of talk about where people can find about your company, how do they get access to it? Who like what, what's the process? Where do we get started? How do we get going on? And all those sorts of things, if you can unload for our listeners who are sitting there going to skip me the psych and where do I go, how do I say, I need to go now, where's it available? Who, how can you get it, all that sort of stuff?

 Saad Alam: Well, we'll wait. I have to take a second to just to like, applaud that the narrative you just put together on the spot. That was absolutely amazing. And it couldn't have been more spot on about if there's ever a time now is the time, right. And it's so much deeper than kind of like my company an and, and I'll call it like telehealth it's it really is like coming together with community and helping each other be better. And like, that really is what it comes down to at the end of the day our small part that we're trying to do, you can find us at hone health it's H O N E health.com. The process I'd like to say is pretty simple. You can buy an at-home assessment, it costs $45. That includes not only the hormone analysis, plus it includes a physician console. You know, if you had to go do those things by yourself, like it's,

 Wade Lightheart: That's like a, it's like a Starbucks coffee and a scone for you and your

 Saad Alam: And so it's, it's basically what you do to get started. And then, you know, once you have a physician consultation, there, there are, there's like a, a baseline level membership. It's $120 per month. That includes your physician consultations. That includes all your blood tests. And it includes two day shipping. It includes access to customer service. It includes access to your position again. And then basically the most interesting thing is a lot of other, I would say, like companies out there, they mark up their medications. We actually literally pass on the cost of the medication from exactly what we paid from the pharmacy directly to the patient. And I think that that is, that is like one of the keys is I'm, we're incredibly transparent on it, about it. Like we want you only paying for your meds, which you basically pay. And so we've been, that's basically that the way the business operates you can find me on Instagram at M Assad album. You can email me yourself. It's S a alum, S a L a [email protected]. And then you can also find me on Twitter at Saad S a a D under slash hone as well, too. And honestly, like, if you have a question just feel free to email me at any point and, and I'm more than happy to help out.

 Wade Lightheart: So this has been an extraordinary conversation. I think you're doing great work in the world, and I wish you and your company home health, the best of success. I think you're providing a very timely, you know, service to men who are struggling to kind of get to where they need to be, where they know they should be, where they want to be. And more importantly, helping us smash through the stigmas. You've got a great story, a great company, and I think that your expansion will continue to grow exponentially. And you know, one of the values of that is, and I know this as a business owner myself, is I always see growth, not necessarily the dollars in the bank account, because I prefer to redeploy it to continue the mission. And you talked surely about the mission driven component of your company when we were offline. And I love because we're the same way, but it's success is, or income or relative influences is only valuable in the sense that it's the amount of people's lives, which you're impacting. And I think you're impacting people in a really positive way, and I salute you and commend you and wish you the best success in all your endeavors. So thanks for being on the podcast today.

 Saad Alam: Thank you so much. Wait, this has been honestly like one of the highlights of my month, frankly, like this has been incredibly exciting and you are an absolute God, I wish more people got to hear you. Like, it's, it makes me mad that more people don't get to hear you. And we've got to figure out how to, how to get you out there to as many people as possible, because you're incredibly eloquent. And I think that you have so much to say, so I really appreciate you as well, too, man.

 Wade Lightheart: Well, thanks for all the kudos. I'm not sure if they're all valid, but Hey, you know what? I'll take them today. Pump up my own testosterone and myself my self evaluation, just a little bit higher, and I hope to, Hey, get over the stigma guys get out there. If it's girls listening today, you know what, talk to your husband, your partner, your boyfriend, and say, Hey, look, you know what? This is a conversation we need to have. This is a conversation that we're going to have because I care because I love you. And I want the best for you. And it's time that we get into that conversation sooner, as opposed to later, hone health is an opportunity for you to take advantage of, check out the website, check out his links, to check out the social media, get integrated and get involved.

 Wade Lightheart: Forty-Five bucks. You get a test. Can't beat that. That's a, I've never heard of anywhere, any place at any time at that kind of value with a physician consultation, that's insanely great value. And I hope you enjoyed this episode. And more importantly, I hope that you take action in your life. If you're not feeling your best, you want to go strike out on your own recapture the essence of masculinity and go out and crush your genes. Change the world. I'm Wade T. Lightheart from the Awesome health podcast. I want to thank you for joining us and we'll see you on the next episode. Take care.