Episode 78
How do I know my supplement is a good one? This is a question I’m sure many of you have asked, and it is something I get asked all the time. The supplement industry is ripe with deception and, frankly downright dirty practices. Dr. Frank Bodnar of Orthomolecular joins the podcast to discuss the supplement industry and give you critical insights into how you can rest assured that your supplement is of high quality.
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Episode Transcript
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:00:00] Hello, my name is Dr. Richard Harris and welcome to the Strive for Great Health Podcast, a podcast where we empower you to take control of your health with lifestyle medicine and the health mindset to live with purpose and joy. And if you’ve ever asked, how do I know this supplement is a quality product or what do these labels on my supplement mean, then this is the episode you’ve been waiting for. I have Dr. Frank Bodnar with me of Orthomolecular. Orthomolecular is one of the top three supplement companies. In fact, you can only get this through authorized health professionals because that’s how high in quality and standards and potency and dosing this company is.
They are one of my favorites and it’s a pleasure to have Frank on the episode to talk about the supplement industry, how we can make sure we’re getting quality supplements, what to look out for, how to read a supplement company’s website, and then we talk about what supplements we actually take. So are you ready to boost your health EQ and IQ?
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Now to this week’s episode. Welcome to the Strive for Great Health podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Richard Harris and today I have with me on the podcast, Dr. Frank Bodnar, who is an amazing person, highly suggest you follow him. We’ll get his social media links at the end of the episode, but he post a lot of really crucial information related to holistic medicine and nutraceuticals. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today because he is a nutraceutical expert, works for one of the premier companies in nutraceuticals, Orthomolecular and that’s what we’re going to talk about today. We’re going to be talking about supplements, but first Frank, thank you for coming on the podcast. Hope everything is well with you.
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:04:02] Yeah, doing great. No, thank you so much for having me on, I’m always excited to talk about nutraceuticals and definitely passionate about health and wellness in general, informing people about the potential when it comes to efficacious, high quality supplementation.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:04:16] Yeah. So how did you get into this? We all have a story that gets us into the holistic wellness, cause it’s usually not something that most of us are exposed to right out of the gate. It’s not taught in schools. It’s not something that, we usually have mentors growing up who push us into this.
So how did you get involved in holistic wellness?
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:04:36] Yeah. You know, it’s, it’s been a little bit of a journey, some of it, personal experience with, so I’m sure most of us have gone through either personal journey or someone close to us type of thing. And it really, for me, it started back when I was in college and, I majored in biology.
So I took anatomy and physiology and that’s really when the light kind of clicked to go down the health route for me. And part of that too, was, during that class, my dad was actually diagnosed with type two diabetes. So I saw the beginning of his journey, but then also the recommendations that he was given and the recommendation was, there’s nothing you can do for type two diabetes.
You simply have to manage this with, with pharmaceuticals and hope that it doesn’t progress to a level where you’re going to need a limb amputated or something like that down the road. And, you know, I thought to myself as we’re learning the Krebs cycle and we’re learning all this physiology, how the body works, I’m like, well, this seems to be a metabolic disorder at the root cause.
And how come you can’t correct that through lifestyle and other more conservative options. So that kind of caused me to look into that and go down that down that path. But another personal story I would say too, is I had a brother-in-law and so early on in my marriage, unfortunately he passed away from osteosarcoma.
And so you watch someone go through the cancer treatments, the drugs, the surgery, radiation therapy, and there was no alternative. And not that there is a lot for, osteosarcomas an extremely aggressive cancer, but you look at cancer as a whole, and you start to think about what’s preventable.
What can you reduce the risk on? And once again, there’s not much that’s being talked about. There’s not much hope that’s given outside of chemo and radiation and surgery, unfortunately. But I think the thing that really maid me want to get into holistic health and pursue chiropractic and more functional medicine nutrition was the fact that it wasn’t talked about that much.
And when you look at the research, when you actually look into things for yourself, you’re like, wow, exercise does actually make a huge difference in someone’s life. Diet, supplementation can actually make a huge difference in someone’s life. More people need to know about this. So I think that’s maybe a little bit of a rebel in me as well.
I’m just kinda going against the grain, but just seeing those experiences in my life as well, I’ve been fortunate to remain healthy. I’m not perfect, but you know, that’s kinda, my goal is to kind of be practice what I preach type of thing, and really be a proponent to magnify people like yourself. I follow you and you’re constantly posting awesome content and that’s kind of how we got connected as I’m just a fan of yours.
Here’s a guy who is very, well-educated very humble, but very committed to what he’s doing and I’m not stalking you, but I see your Instagram stories. I see you’re in the gym. I’m seeing what you’re eating and I’m like this guy’s a real deal. I’ll meet someone that is going to be motivating for a person like me.
But also that more people need to know about and get connected with as well.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:07:35] So thank you, Frank. I really appreciate that. And thank you for sharing your story. We always start with stories because stories are so powerful and there’s meaning in them. And it’s really interesting because a lot of us holistic practitioner.
The proof is in the pudding. We do the things that we ask people to do that we recommend. Where you hear all the time, you go to a PCP and the PCP is overweight or they smoke, or they say it doesn’t matter what you eat and things like that. And people are starting to wake up and realize that that’s not the case.
It, of course it matters what you eat. How does that not matter? If you have a diesel car and you put regular gas in there, there’s going to be problems. So the fuel you put in your body determines the outputs. And this is another thing that we hear all the time is there’s a massive backlash against supplements.
And some of it for good reason, some of it is unfounded, but I hear all the time that supplements are a waste of money. And I say, what do you mean by that? And try to get into why they think that. But what do you say when you hear people say something like that supplements are a waste of money?
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:08:42] Now, this answer might shock you a little bit, but I agree if they’re buying the lowest quality, cheapest supplement that they can find.
And so they’re exactly right, supplements are a waste of money if they’re not at the right quality at the right dose for the right specific situation. And so as a clinician, obviously you’re very well educated, but there is a lot of junk out there and that’s what gives the supplement industry a bad rap.
And unfortunately there’s reports of products that are tainted with heavy metals and tainted with pharmaceuticals and tainted with things that shouldn’t be in there or quality assurance tests are run, and there’s maybe 20% of the dose of the active ingredient that should be in that product.
And so that’s not acceptable in my opinion. And from a clinical standpoint, if you do want to get someone better and let’s say you’re the doctor prescribing the medication, but you don’t really know it’s kind of a gamble what they’re actually going to get in that pill. It’s very hard to guide them towards that goal of overall health or improving the state of a chronic disease.
So I do agree if they have no idea what they’re buying, what they’re purchasing, it can definitely be a waste of money and you can go down a lot of rabbit holes in the supplement industry. And unfortunately, sometimes it’s very hard to decipher what you’re actually getting in a product.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:10:10] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I always tell people that cheap supplements make expensive poop and urine. That’s all they do because people tend to think that, oh, if I go buy vitamin D, vitamin D is just vitamin D or if I go buy vitamin C, that vitamin C’s just vitamin C and that’s not necessarily the case. There’s lots of things that go into it.
Where did the product come from? Where did they source it from? Did they source it from an area that’s known to have a lot of soil contamination with heavy metals and did they get it from a place where pesticides are used quite frequently. How did they actually put the product together? Because it’s not as easy as people think it is to fill capsules correctly. It’s not like you just measure it out, put it in the capsule and then ship it off. That’s not the case .There’s a whole science behind encapsulation and making sure that each capsule is within a narrow margin. Of what you actually want in there. And so there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that it can either make a great product or a product that’s, you’re not getting any benefit from.
There’s a big difference in supplementation. And so how can we tell, this is one of the things that I get asked all the time. People ask, well, how do I know a product is high quality? How do I know a product is poor quality? What should I be looking for when I’m making these purchasing decisions?
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:11:33] That is the million dollar question, right? So at the end of the day we want to be able to know by looking at someone’s website, by looking at their packaging, by looking at the ingredient that listed on the supplement facts label, what exactly we’re getting. And if it is what they say it is essentially. It is not always easy to decipher as we talked about before.
And the reason is because a lot of companies are extremely good at marketing and it’s tough to decipher for the lay public what is a sort of more of a marketing claim and what is a true quality claim that can be backed up with testing and regulation and things like that. So there are a few baseline certifications that we’ll get to that I would definitely recommend, but I would say that for the most part if you’re browsing Amazon, if you’re walking the aisles of Walgreens or Walmart or Costco, you can’t always tell what you’re getting in that bottle, but we’ll talk about some of those certifications and what they mean and help you sift through what’s more of a buzzword in marketing versus an actual quality certification. So without the help of someone like yourself, I would say not that it’s impossible and they won’t just pick a product that may just happen to be high quality, but it is very difficult and they do need help and they do need guidance to arrive at a product that’s going to get the outcome that they want.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:13:05] Yeah. So let’s get into that. What are these, these certifications? Because there’s a lot of them and some of them actually mean something and some of them you’re like, what does this mean? I don’t even know who this company is this label that certified this. So when people are looking at these things, cause that’s one of the first things I tell people to look at, Hey, look, to see if it, has some of these certifications to make sure that the product is meeting certain quality standards or certain QA standards, right? You want to make sure that the company is testing their products regularly to make sure that the label is accurate. And that the process of actually making the supplement from the harvesting to the processing, to the packaging, to the shipping, that all of that process is in line with acceptable standards for the industry. So what are these certifications that people should look for?
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:13:56] Yeah, a few right off the bat and we’ll kind of dig into a little bit more of the details, but you hear the term GMP thrown around a lot. A lot of people have no idea what that actually means. And you know, I’ll just say for context, I’m definitely not a quality or regulatory expert.
I don’t have the legal background nor do I have the science background to really fulfill both of those roles. So keep in mind, I’m speaking from a marketing perspective and that’s kinda my role within the company that I’m at, but within my role I’m part of product development so I get to learn a little bit about that.
I get to work with our quality side, our operation side or science team. So I’m definitely not the expert, but kind of going back to GMP where it all starts and it’s just stands for good manufacturing processes. And actually if we back up a little bit more. No, before we get into certifications, I want to talk about kind of the elephant in the room with supplements, which is a lot of people say, oh, it’s an unregulated industry.
That’s not true. Number one, it is regulated but as you already alluded to, there are varying degrees of quality within the supplement industry. Not everyone adheres to the same level. So let’s back up to is the supplement industry regulated, I would say yes, it is and that’s due to the the DSHEA act of 1994.
So the FDA does, in fact, hold supplement companies responsible for the quality and the claims of their product. So they want to make sure that safe products are being released in the market. Now, are they able to audit every single product that’s ever released before it hits the shelf, not entirely. And that’s where some things do kind of sneak through the cracks and end up on a shelf and maybe tainted with a heavy metal or pharmaceutical.
And cause some liver damage in someone that you’ll read about in the case study or something. But anyways, so long story short, just to back it up at the beginning. Yes, it is regulated by the FDA and there are, there’s kind of an update that is due from the FDA to that DSHEA act. And we’ll probably see some more updated regulation coming down the pipe, maybe in the next five years or so, but it’s going to take some time with everything going on right now.
COVID obviously is primary focus for the FDA doesn’t mean they’re not working on other things. So, but I then getting into the GMP side of things, so there’s different levels of GMP and at a baseline level, the FDA does require that any US manufacturers comply with GMP standards to be able to manufacture our product.
So what GMP essentially requires companies to do is to establish proper processes. You can get into everything from how a facility is run, to how they require their employees within that facility to dress and handle product. And so you can get into all of these processes. You have to document everything that you do, everything you intake, what was the weight of that product?
Where was it ordered from? When did it arrive? All that stuff has to be kept in records for a certain amount of time, just like medical records. Like we have the seven year record that we have to keep and be able to show at any point, it’s a similar process for GMPs and they have to be able to prove how they manufactured, what was tested, everything like that.
So that’s a US standard. That’s a very good thing that was passed in 2008. Then you can go a couple layers deeper on GMPs. We can go more towards the product testing side. And that’s when you get into another certification, I should say, you’ve probably heard of NSF certifications.
That’s another one that is a good indicator that number one, if they’re not following GMPs, they probably shouldn’t be in business. They should be alerted to the FDA and I don’t know if any companies are even able to open and manufacturer products if they’re not following GMPs, I don’t know how they could cause that’s an annual thing that needs to be kept up. But NSF is an independent agency that ensures that GMPs are not only followed, but exceeded, like you’re going to pass that FDA audit with flying colors. So within NSF there’s different levels. We talked about the manufacturing side a little bit, then they offer different tiers that will actually get into product testing side of things as well. So they have NSF for sports. They have sort of a level two that just basically will hold you to a certain standard of testing and make sure that what you put on your labels at a certain level and things like that. So that’s another thing to definitely look for NSF is popular. USP is another one that comes up quite a bit, and it is a good certification. It is an independent certification, NSF and also USP are not required to become a dietary supplement. So there is some variation within those there’s different tiers, but I’m actually curious what certifications you would recommend and things that you’re telling your patients to look for as well.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:18:49] Well thats what I tell them to start with. You could go into the levels of GMP. You can go into levels of ISO if you wanted to and these are looking at what degree of the process are they following and how closely they’re following, how their facilities are, all of that. So I always tell people, look for things that are CGMP.
And look for things that are NSF or USP, because this means that these companies are so assured of their product, that they’re proud of their product. They stand by their product. They’re like we trust our product so much that we’re paying somebody else to come in here and test our product because we know our products.
It’s like the old infomercials where the guy has the gorilla tape or whatever, and like breaks the window and then the water comes pouring out and he slaps the tape on there and the water stops. You’re standing by your product. And so that’s what the USP and the NSF, it gives you a level of assurance in the products that you’re taking that, Hey, someone’s looked at this for heavy metals.
Someone’s looked at the processing. Someone’s looked at the QA as far as the dosing. That you know the product says 200 milligrams and I’m actually getting 200 milligrams. I’m not getting 20 milligrams. I’m not getting a thousand milligrams. That it’s not tainted with pharmaceuticals. Cause a lot of these products have been pulled off the market.
That’s what happens. They find pharmaceutical drugs in them that were unlabeled. So people literally don’t know what they’re getting in their body. The other thing I tell them to look at is take a look at what they display on the website and what they’re proud of. If you can easily find information about sourcing, Hey, we get our materials from the US, or we get our materials from some other place. Most of them will tell you that if they really stand by their product, they’ll also tell you that we do things that are specific for certain brands. Like there are certain brands that are really hypoallergenic. Like we want to be a brand that uses material, that’s not active ingredient you know what we call filler or in the technical terms, excipients that are hypoallergenic. So people aren’t having reactions to those things. You can tell that based upon what you see on their website, what are they marketing? Are they marketing to you based upon efficacy, are they marketing to you based upon a quality about QA and assurance.
And then look, a lot of the great companies will have their certificate of analysis that you can see on the website so that you can say, Hey, you know, we’re so confident here is the actual science where we had this tested, or you can see the results of that testing. And so those are some of the things that you will see on some of the higher end products, because they’re proud of that. They’re proud of the fact that their supplements are so high grade and that they pass the test with flying colors. It’s like when you’re a kid and you, put your report card on the fridge, you put your report on the fridge when there are A’s and B’s you didn’t put your report card on the fridge when they’re D’s.
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:21:52] Absolutely correct. Yeah. You brought up a few really good points and there’s a couple of other things that actually sparked a few thoughts there too. The first being that there’s different levels of certifications. I would say that there’s as you already alluded to this certificate analysis, that brings me to the point of transparency and a few things.
That you should look for in a good company is are they willing to share some of that testing that they’re doing and the results of those tests? Yeah, and if they’re not, why? Are they not willing to open up and be transparent? So that’s something that even before I worked for my current company that I would look for, are they willing to put me in touch with somebody directly from that QA departments?
The other thing too is there’s sort of this gray area of quality and I would call it maybe there’s companies that commit and invest to, I would call them marketing certifications. So maybe they don’t hold much weight in the quality world, but you see terms like all natural, you see terms like grass-fed, you see terms like pasture-raised, even some of the things that companies put on their label like non-GMO. So non-GMO is generally a better way to go, but by which definition are they going by? Cause there’s multiple definitions out there. And then what percentage of that product is non-GMO? Is it a hundred percent? So there’s a lot of things, there’s a lot of sort of gray area with what someone puts on their label. Doesn’t mean that they’re all bad.
But the other thing to keep in mind, I would say is that the more certifications they invest in, the more things they have on their label, that’s cost as well that at the end of the day is built into the bottom line of that product too. So that’s something to consider. So even if a company doesn’t have USP, but they are like you said, they check all the boxes on transparency. They’re willing to share the CFA. They’re willing to put you in contact with all the testing parameters that they do, but they’re not USP certified. It could still be a great product, therapeutically, dosed, efficacious, but the USP certification does require a significant investment as well, but that is definitely a good one to go by, but kind of going back to grass-fed pasture raised, you’ll see that some of these be for animal products and those are not regulated terms. Those are not held to a standard by the USDA or anything like that.
So we don’t really know. What type of grass, the animals eating, or what percentage of the animal’s diet is grass fed? Is it 10%, 20%? What qualifies it to meet that certification or get that label on the, on the bottle? Do they find a governing body that all you have to do is pay your annual fee and you’re able to get that on your product as well.
So like you said looking at a company’s website, Reading between the lines on what they’re committed to. If it’s quality driven language, that’s usually a very, very good sign. If it’s marketing driven and full of influencers and it looks great. Sometimes that’s a red flag but it does require working with an expert I would say to really decipher at times,
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:25:00] It’s like anything else. There are people who do this on a daily basis and this is their passion is. And so one of the things I always tell people is, yeah, I have an e-store. I have access to high quality supplements. It’s like, I don’t care if you get your supplements from me, I just care that you’re taking high quality supplements.
And so you can ask me, I do it all the time where I do supplement a reconciliation for people and just try to get them on high quality products. So we can’t talk supplements without talking about the supplements that you actually use. So I’d be curious to see what’s in your supplement cabinet, cause I’m a supplement guy.
I think I have, I don’t know, 12, 13 different supplements out there. And that’s mainly a little of my biohacker side. I love just taking things and then doing the testing on myself and seeing what changes, you know, I’ve got an Oura ring and I like checking the data on different types of CBD and CBG and different terpene profiles. I do a lot of lab testing on myself because I think it’s fun. But what are your go-to supplements? What are some of the things that you actually take for yourself?
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:26:07] Yeah, absolutely. I have way more supplements at home right now than I need similar to yourself. My wife is constantly yelling at me when I get a box of free samples or whatnot, and I bring them home.
But I do focus in on the basics. I focus in on the multivitamin, fish oil, probiotic. I will kind of dose up on magnesium from time to time, if I know that my stress is high or I just did a really intense exercise. And of course, vitamin D so most multivitamins are going to have anywhere between maybe a thousand at most, maybe 2000.
I use this time of year, especially in the Midwest where I’m in the Chicago area. I’ve been dosing up for quite a while. I have a 50,000 IEU cap I take at least once a week and I’ll even take more than that from time to time, but that’s a big one for me.
And then as you said too there’s other specific circumstances where I’ll take other products. I don’t have any chronic diseases, so I don’t really need to take a ton of additional stuff, but there are some adaptogens that I’ll take if I’m doing a workout later at night, and I want to lower cortisol to get to sleep quicker, and I don’t want my mind racing or running cause I definitely get a boost of energy if I do a workout. Seven, eight o’clock at night and when I want to go to sleep, I want to go to sleep and I don’t want to wake up just feeling terrible the next day from a workout. But yeah that’s pretty much it for me.
I will experiment. I’m curious, I read all this information. I want to try everything, but I’m pretty selective as to what I take consistently. And I’ll try some things here and there just to see if I notice anything or like you said, if we’re running a test, what do I see on that test?
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:27:44] If you can’t do the testing the people are like, well, what should I take in that case? You try to maximize the bang for the buck. And so if you don’t do your micronutrient testing, don’t do your genetic testing because that’s the way you can narrow down really.
Okay. These supplements you’re actually deficient in these areas you may need a little bit more support, but in general, the most common deficiencies we see are vitamin D. Of course 42% of the country’s vitamin D deficient and my vitamin D podcasts, I talked about, if you live in the Northern parts of the country, you make no vitamin D from October to about March, just no vitamin D synthesis.
And so most people in that situation will need. 5,000, 6,000, something like that IU’s per week to maintain. And then they come back down once we get back into the spring and summer months, but that’s common. Magnesium deficiencies are very common because most people don’t eat enough magnesium in their nutrition plan.
And also we have soil depletion. So we see magnesium deficiencies all the time. We also see issues with probiotics and prebiotics, not enough people eat enough good fiber, eat enough fruits and vegetables. So the probiotic prebiotic combination is very popular and all the GI mapping I’ve ever done, I’ve never seen anyone with a normal microbiome, including me.
My microbiome was severely jacked up and that’s mainly because I work in the hospital. So I’ve picked up some pretty nasty multi-drug resistant hospital bacteria. Yeah, I bet if you tested most docs who have been in the hospital, you probably see the same that we’re just colonized by some really nasty stuff.
And so I had to decolonize myself and put myself on a probiotic regimen and then a good multivitamin. You know, I’m a big fan of, of liquid multivitamins taken with meals. There is some, some evidence that we absorb that a little bit better, and that just helps you cover all of your bases. Your B vitamins, B vitamin deficiencies, aren’t abnormal, zinc deficiencies, aren’t abnormal selenium, iodine.
These, these deficiencies are not abnormal and in most people it’s not severe enough that it’s going to cause a disease, but you’re not going to be optimal. And if you have enough systems that are not optimized, that can lead to a disease. Or it can increase your risk or predispose you to some things, especially as we get older, because as we get older, then we get more nutrient deficiencies.
Anyway, as we age vitamin D you don’t convert as well. Selenium magnesium, these are typically things that we can see happen as we get older. Anyway, it’s really important just to cover that metabolic basis a good multi, vitamin D, magnesium, probiotics /rebiotics. If you start there.
You’re in a pretty good place as far as just a general wellness routine. And like you said, I’ll throw in some stuff PRN. Like if I have more inflammation, you know, I love the Resvoxitrol supplement. I love it. I take it myself it’s a great anti-inflammatory. If I go too heavy in the gym and pull something that my go-to and just like anything else, we have stuff that we take regularly and we have stuff that we take as needed. So I have supplements on there that I just take as needed. Or if I feel more inflamed, I’ll take more fish oil. Like I’ll take three or four grams of fish oil. If I feel more inflamed for a couple of days and then back down to one or two.
So this is why it’s important to work with someone who knows this area, because we can come up with a plan for this is your maintenance stuff, and this is stuff if your problem flares, this is what you do when your problem flares, this is what you do to maintain. And I think that’s the proper use of supplements. So you’re not just scattershoting, but if you can always, always, always test if you can, because it gets you really down to the root cause and, and what exactly is going on.
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:31:37] Absolutely. Yeah. I think a big, the thing that you brought to light in a few of those comments were the nutrient deficiencies.
And I think in the US the misconception is, well we’re able to consume enough food and we don’t have maybe some diseases like some other countries do, but we consume calorically, dense food and highly processed food, but not necessarily nutrient dense food. And I think that as you said, we may have some mild nutrient deficiencies that are n’tovertly causing disease, but they’re not helping our chronic disease. They’re not helping our insulin resistance. They’re not helping our blood glucose sensitivity. They’re making it worse, especially over time. Like you said, especially as we age and our pancreas is less efficient in our ability to bring glucose in the cell is less efficient.
Micronutrients can definitely help in that and you’re not going to necessarily feel it. When you start taking it, it’s such a microscopic level in such a thing that is unnoticed. That not everyone that takes a multivitamin, there’s like, oh, I feel like I’m 20 years old again. It’d be great if we all found that product and we just felt like we just drank a cup of coffee, it’s those little tiny things over time that really build up and like you said, become big things. And I love the idea of testing. Like you said and working someone who knows what test to order, has done it before can point you in the right direction and help you get off on the right foot in terms of what supplements you should take at what dose and even PRN as needed, what’s good beyond your basis to help you optimize in certain areas.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:33:15] Absolutely. So last question, and I think this is interesting because as wellness professionals, there’s always something that we’re working on. There’s always some element that we’re trying to shore up or add, or just, just improve on in general, we tend to be very process oriented people and we tend to like to not really change, but tweak things to see if we can optimize certain systems. So is there a particular wellness goal you have for this year or your mindset goal or anything like that related to health and wellness that you’re working on?
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:33:52] There’s a couple of goals. And I like to focus on a physical goal.
I’m not as heavy this year on nutritional goals. I have my supplementation in place and for nutrition, I just really wanted to simplify and I really wanted to take the complexity out of that. And I’m just focusing on for lunch and dinner, eating meats and vegetables, and really making that a focus.
Not worrying about tracking right now, not worrying about a certain amount of grams of protein or anything like that. I have done programs like that before, and they are very helpful, especially with a knowledgeable coach, but just kind of taking the complexity out of that. And like you said, covering your bases with your nutrition.
Physically, I have some aggressive goals this year, probably because I slacked off a little bit last year. So I want to get as close as possible to a six-minute mile. It’s an intense run. I’d rather do that than a 5k or anything longer. I’m not a long run type guy. And then I have a couple of lifting goals as well, but I really want to hone in on those, make those a priority, stay motivated on the exercise part of things, because just like with nutrition when focused on that, I feel like I stay in a routine I’m motivated, I’m energized. And then lastly, I would say with everything going on in 2020 and like the pandemic and the political climate and everyone finding something to complain about or blame or whatever with a mindset, I wanted to focus more on gratitude and contentment and make that a focus of 2021.
Because I mean, at the end of the day I live in America, I have a roof over my head, God is good and I actually have nothing to complain about.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:35:23] Amen. That’s amazing to hear, and it’s always good to have goals. Every year I have a different goal. Last year, my goal was to work on my posture because I felt that my posture was terrible.
It was worsening some of the skeletal abnormalities that I have Yeah. I was 35 years old when I found out I had a scoliosis and a tight L4 L5. And I was like, what, how come I didn’t find this out when I was a kid. And so because of that, I’ve been really working on my posture, but my main goal this year is more functional movement, being more intentional with my movement in my active times, because we all spend a lot of time at a desk, but I intentionally get up. I move around, I stretch. And before it was just kind of haphazard this year, I’m really working on a functional movement plan for those breaks.
So I can make sure that it, my skeletal issues don’t get worse. And so every time I see my chiropractor, he’s not mad at me for for issues that are going on. So I hopefully just see them for just general maintenance and not because things flare up because I’ve been better with my intentional movement.
So that’s my goal for 2021. Okay. This has been awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. And like we started with the show with, I know you are a person who posts a lot of evidence, a lot of studies, new ongoing things. So if people want to see the information that you’re putting out there working, they follow.
Dr. Frank Bodnar: [00:36:57] I’d say the best place is at the nutrient fix probably Instagram is where I most consistently post and I’ll post things to LinkedIn, maybe a little bit different type of content. You can search me really on any social media platform besides like Tik-Tok, I don’t really get into that too much, but my dance moves are terrible. That’s probably why. I thank you so much for having me on and good to talk to you and just discuss this topic. I think this has been a lot of fun.
Dr. Richard Harris: [00:37:25] Yes, it has. I really appreciate it. And something that we’re both very passionate about and my wife tells me I should get on Tik-ToK because I can actually dance.
She’s like, you’re a dancing doctor. I’m also almost 40 years old. I don’t need to be. No, but serious dancing is actually one of the best things we can do for our health. I mean, there’s multiple studies on the elderly and dancing and improving coordination and mobility and actually improving some mental function as well.
So. Yes, dance people. All right. So maybe, maybe that’s coming in 2021. Thanks Frank. So if you see me on Tik-ToK, you know who to thank? All right. Well, I appreciate your time and to all my listeners. Thank you. And have a blessed day.
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