Dr. Z Age Fit

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04/30/2026

“There is no data to support that.”

I have heard that line used to dismiss treatments, supplements, and procedures more times than I can count. And after 20 years in practice I want to tell you what it actually means most of the time.

It means nobody paid for the study.

Here is a real example from my own practice. I perform a procedure called a medial branch block and radiofrequency ablation on the spine. It targets the nerve that innervates the joints from the top of the spine all the way down to the tailbone. Insurance has covered it in the neck and the lower back for years because those areas were studied extensively and the data exists.

The thoracic spine — the mid-back — uses the exact same nerve with the same function. The anatomy is consistent throughout. But for years Medicare and most insurers refused to cover it there, citing a lack of supporting data.

So why was there no data? Not because the procedure did not work. I have a full roster of patients who paid out of pocket because it worked and they knew it. The data did not exist because there was no financial incentive to generate it. No pharmaceutical company profits from proving a procedure works. No academic career is advanced by studying a mid-back nerve block. So nobody studied it.

Medicare just changed its position this year and now covers it. The procedure did not change. The anatomy did not change. The money finally moved.

This matters enormously when evaluating nutrition, supplements, and emerging treatments. Absence of data is not evidence of absence. It is often just evidence of absent funding.

Keep that in mind every time someone uses “no data” as a conversation-ender. I will be coming back to this concept in future videos on nutrition and supplements.

Questions in the comments or sign up for the newsletter via the link in bio.

04/27/2026

I want to tell you about a moment early in my career that changed how I evaluate medical data forever.

I was at a conference and a presenter stood up and told a room full of physicians the following: OxyContin is safe, effective, and carries a very low risk of addiction.

We now know that was catastrophically false. It contributed to one of the worst public health crises in American history.

Here is what that claim was built on. A single letter — not a study, a letter — written to the New England Journal of Medicine in 1980. It looked at addiction rates in hospitalized patients in a narrow and poorly designed way. Purdue Pharma took that letter and used it to market OxyContin aggressively while shaming physicians who pushed back.

I did not prescribe it. Not because I had access to better data, but because I understood the physiology. One OxyContin pill was equivalent in potency to roughly ten Percocet. They wanted me to give it twice a day. I knew from basic pharmacology that flooding op**te receptors that aggressively would downregulate the receptor profile, suppress the body’s own endogenous production, and create a cycle where patients actually felt more pain over time — not less. That is why short-acting op**tes used sparingly and rotated between molecules is the correct approach.

The data told one story. The physiology told another. The physiology was right.

So how do you protect yourself from bad data presented with authority? Two options. Learn enough about the underlying physiology to evaluate claims yourself — that is the gold standard. Or find two or three people who are rigorous, credible, and genuinely invested in getting you accurate information, and follow them closely.

That is what this channel is built to be.

Questions or topics you want broken down — put them in the comments or sign up for the newsletter via the link in bio.

04/23/2026

People tell me I am just making expensive urine when I talk about taking vitamins every day.

Here is my counter to that.

Let me show you what actual vitamin deficiencies look like — not theoretical risks, real documented disease states.

Vitamin D deficiency leads to osteopenia, osteoporosis, elevated fracture risk, proximal muscle weakness, increased susceptibility to respiratory infections, and in severe cases a bone disease called osteomalacia. There is a receptor for vitamin D on nearly every immune cell in the body. Deficiency has consequences.

Vitamin B12 deficiency causes megaloblastic anemia, peripheral neuropathy, poor wound healing, and significant cognitive decline. In profound deficiency it can progress to spinal cord degeneration. That is not a minor outcome.

Vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, poor wound healing, joint pain, and anemia. We have known this for centuries.

These are not fringe claims. These are well-established disease states caused by the absence of nutrients your body requires to function.

So when someone tells me I am wasting money on vitamins, my answer is simple: it costs me about $1.50 a day to give my body more than it needs. And with water-soluble vitamins there is no meaningful downside to taking more than necessary. Even with the fat-soluble vitamins — D, K, and A — it takes a significant effort to reach toxic levels.

The question is not whether vitamins work. The question is why you would wait until you are deficient to care.

My next video covers the exact regimen I follow. In the meantime — go to the link in the bio and sign up for the newsletter.

04/22/2026

Here is one of the core reasons I take vitamin C and vitamin D every single day — and it comes down to understanding what is actually happening inside your body as you age.

The free radical theory of aging goes like this. Reactive oxygen species — essentially unstable molecules — are constantly interacting with your DNA, your mitochondria, and other critical cell functions.

Over time that damage accumulates.

There is a strong argument that this is one of the main reasons cancer rates are dramatically higher in older populations than younger ones.

Your native ability to neutralize these things is robust when you are young and declines steadily over time.

So what can you actually do about it?

Two things.

First, you can take supplements that directly neutralize free radicals. Vitamin C is the classic example. It attacks and neutralizes reactive oxygen species — the tradeoff is that the vitamin C molecule is consumed in the process, which is why consistent daily intake matters.

Second, you can optimize your immune system’s own ability to seek out and destroy abnormal cells before they become a problem. Natural killer cells do exactly that — they identify precancerous cells and eliminate them. Vitamin D is critical here. There is a receptor for vitamin D on nearly every immune cell in the body. That is not a coincidence.

The free radical theory of aging is probably correct. Your body’s native defenses decline with age. These supplements support both lines of defense with no meaningful side effects.

That is enough for me.

04/21/2026

People ask me all the time what supplements I actually take. Here is the honest answer.

A multivitamin every day. When I am fasting I use a gentler formula that agrees with my stomach. When I am eating normally I switch to a higher potency option. Simple rule — the best supplement is the one you will actually take consistently.

D3 and K2. I take between 15,000 and 20,000 IU daily and monitor my levels twice a year. Despite that dose my levels stay in normal range — which tells you how deficient most people are running without even knowing it.

Zinc at 50mg. Critical for immune cell function and for holding onto your hair as you age. Both matter.

Magnesium glycinate at 400mg. There are two forms of magnesium out there. Take whichever one your stomach tolerates. A slightly less optimal form you actually take is worth more than the perfect form sitting in your cabinet.

NAD — that deserves its own video and it will get one.

Fish oil for inflammation and lipid support.

The broader principle: do not build a supplement stack you cannot sustain. If you are taking 20 things and feeling terrible, you will quit. Research, spread your dosages throughout the day, and find the combination you can stick with long term.

Consistency wins every time.

04/21/2026

Healthy mind or healthy body — which one matters more?

I had one of the most memorable conversations of my career with an 80-year-old patient recently, and his answer stopped me in my tracks.

He laid it out simply. Picture two people going through something hard.

The first has a therapist, a psychiatrist, friends to call — but isn’t exercising and doesn’t have a healthy body to fall back on.

The second has none of that support structure. No therapist. Nobody to talk to. But they’re moving every day, turning anxiety into action, channeling the angst into something physical — and they come out the other side.

Which one does better?

We both agreed — it’s the second person. By a wide margin.

And the science backs it up. When you exercise, your muscles release signaling molecules called myokines that directly improve brain health. Your body also produces brain-derived neurotrophic factor — a hormone that measurably improves cognitive function and intelligence.

Here’s the hard truth he wanted me to understand: an unhealthy body will drag a healthy mind down to match it. You cannot think your way out of a body that is deteriorating. The mind follows the body — not the other way around.

As you age, physical health is the foundation everything else is built on. Get that right, and the mental health follows.

04/18/2026

If you or someone you know has had a compression fracture, this is the conversation most people never get to have with their doctor.

The question I hear most often: should I get it treated?

Here is how I answer it.

First, ask yourself one question — is this fracture affecting your activities of daily living? Bathing, moving, transferring, taking a deep breath, getting through your day? If the answer is yes, the case for treatment is clear.

When we treat a compression fracture with a procedure called kyphoplasty, we are targeting three things:
Pain. The fracture is unstable and moving. We go in, stabilize it with bone cement, and the pain stops. That’s the immediate win.

Progression. Left untreated, a compression fracture keeps wedging. You’ve seen it — the person in the grocery store stooped forward, posture angled toward the floor. That is the deformity that develops over time when these fractures go from flat to wedged. Treatment stops that process.

Retropulsion. This is the serious one. Keep compressing the fracture and the back wall of the vertebra can break out and push bone toward the spinal cord or the descending nerves. That is a very different and much more dangerous problem.
The procedure itself is 30 minutes.

If you or someone you love is dealing with a compression fracture and struggling to get through the day, find a physician who can treat it. Stabilize it. And get back to your life.

04/17/2026

This is the first class of peptides worth understanding — growth hormone releasing peptides — and here’s what you need to know before considering any of them.

The mechanism is straightforward: these peptides mimic the ghrelin receptor in the hypothalamus, triggering your body to release its own growth hormone. The downstream effects of that are well documented — reduced body fat, increased lean muscle mass, better sleep, and improved collagen production for tissue healing and recovery.

Here’s how the main ones compare:

Ipamorelin
The most widely used in this class for good reason. It stimulates growth hormone release without significantly raising cortisol or prolactin — two hormones you don’t want spiking, as they carry their own set of consequences. Clean profile, strong results for recovery, fat loss, and sleep. Dose range: 100-300mcg, morning or before bed.

GHRP-6
Also stimulates growth hormone but comes with a strong appetite increase. If you’re trying to put on size, this works in your favor. If you’re trying to lean out, it’s going to work against you. Same dosing range, subcutaneous injection.
GHRP-2
Similar action to GHRP-6 but with a less pronounced appetite effect. A middle-ground option worth considering depending on your goals.

Hexarelin
The most potent growth hormone releaser of the group. The tradeoff is a meaningful increase in both prolactin and cortisol, so this one requires more careful management.

Next video we move into the tissue repair and recovery class — BPC-157 and TB-500. Follow so you don’t miss it.

Questions? Drop them in the comments.

04/16/2026

This is exactly how I execute a 42-hour fast — the full protocol, the challenges, and what actually makes it work.

Before you even attempt this:

Build up to it first. Spend at least 4 weeks doing intermittent fasting — a 16:6 or 16:8 protocol — before jumping into 42 hours. Your body needs to learn how to run on something other than glucose before you extend the window this far. Skip this step and you’ll struggle unnecessarily.

The day of the fast:
Electrolytes are non-negotiable — potassium, sodium, and magnesium throughout the entire day. Stay hydrated.
Resistance training in the morning — I’m actively signaling my body to hold onto muscle mass even in a fasted state.
Cardio in the afternoon — capitalize on the deficit, keep the burn going.
Sauna in the evening — one more lever to maximize the calorie burn while you’re already deep in the window.

The hardest part:
The first 8 hours of the second day. You’ll feel hungry. Push through it — it passes. By the evening of day one, it gets surprisingly manageable. Most people are shocked by how easy the final stretch feels.

Breaking the fast:
Keep it light. Egg whites, a protein shake, something easy on the digestive system around 2-3pm. Maybe something small in the evening if you need it.

The result? A 3,000-4,000 calorie deficit in a single contained window. Improved insulin sensitivity. Autophagy activated.

And the rest of the week you feel like you’ve genuinely accomplished something — because you have.

Five weeks in. Still going. Questions? Drop them in the comments. 👇

04/15/2026

INSTAGRAM
I’ve lost 9 pounds in 4 weeks — and I only fast one day a week to do it.

Every Monday I do a 42-hour fast. Here’s why I do it this way instead of the traditional calorie-deficit-every-day approach.

The honest problem with daily calorie restriction: it’s nearly impossible to sustain. I have a wife, kids, and a life I actually want to enjoy on the weekends. Maintaining a 500-calorie daily deficit for weeks on end while living a normal life is a setup for failure. And when you stay in a prolonged caloric deficit, you also start losing muscle — which is the last thing any of us want as we age.

The 42-hour fast hits a different set of levers entirely:

Fat burning — a deep, sustained caloric burn in a single contained window

Insulin sensitivity — one of the most underrated markers for long-term metabolic health

Autophagy — at the 24-36 hour mark your body starts recycling damaged cells, which is where the real anti-aging benefit lives

Muscle preservation — my lifts haven’t changed in 5 weeks, so I’m confident I’m not catabolizing muscle in this window

The 42-hour mark is a sweet spot. Deep enough to get real results. Short enough to protect what you’ve built.
My next video breaks down exactly how I trained my body to do this, the challenges I ran into, and how you can integrate this into your own life.

Follow so you don’t miss part two.

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1859 S TOPAZ Way STE 100
Meridian, ID
83642

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