Mark Bell's Power Project - What Men Don't Know About Prostate Cancer || MBPP Ep. 1021

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

In episode 1021, Clark Bartam shares news that he was recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer, Mark Bell, Nsima Inyang, and Andrew Zaragoza ask him how he contracted it and what his approach will be. Follow Clark on IG: https://www.instagram.com/clarkbartram/   Official Power Project Website: https://powerproject.live Join The Power Project Discord: https://discord.gg/yYzthQX5qN Subscribe to the Power Project Clips Channel: https://youtube.com/channel/UC5Df31rlDXm0EJAcKsq1SUw   Special perks for our listeners below! The Athletic/Casual Clothes we're wearing! 🕺 ➢ https://vuori.com/powerproject to automatically save 20% off your first order at Vuori!   💤 The Best Cooling Mattress in the GAME! 🛌 ➢ https://www.eightsleep.com/powerproject to automatically save $150 off the Pod Pro at 8 Sleep!   🥩 HIGH QUALITY PROTEIN! 🍖 ➢ https://goodlifeproteins.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save up to 25% off your Build a Box ➢ Piedmontese Beef: https://www.CPBeef.com/ Use Code POWER at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $150   Best STYLISH Barefoot Casual/Training Shoes! 👟 ➢https://www.vivobarefoot.com/us/powerproject to save 15% off Vivo Barefoot shoes!   🩸 Get your BLOODWORK Done! 🩸 ➢ https://marekhealth.com/PowerProject to receive 10% off our Panel, Check Up Panel or any custom panel!   Best 5 Finger Barefoot Shoes! 👟 ➢ https://Peluva.com/PowerProject Code POWERPROJECT15 to save 15% off Peluva Shoes!   Sleep Better and TAPE YOUR MOUTH (Comfortable Mouth Tape) 🤐 ➢ https://hostagetape.com/powerproject to receive a year supply of Hostage Tape and Nose Strips for less than $1 a night!   🥶 The Best Cold Plunge Money Can Buy 🥶 ➢ https://thecoldplunge.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save $150!!   Self Explanatory 🍆 ➢ Enlarging Pumps (This really works): https://bit.ly/powerproject1 Pumps explained:      You Need Greens in your Life 🥦 ➢https://drinkag1.com/powerproject Receive a year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 & 5 Travel Packs!   ➢ https://withinyoubrand.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off supplements!   ➢ https://markbellslingshot.com/ Code POWERPROJECT to save 15% off all gear and apparel!   Follow Mark Bell's Power Project Podcast ➢ https://www.PowerProject.live ➢ https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast ➢ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/markbellspowerproject ➢ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/markbellspowerproject   FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢https://www.tiktok.com/@marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell   Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ https://www.breakthebar.com/learn-more ➢YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NsimaInyang ➢Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/?hl=en ➢TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nsimayinyang?lang=en   Follow Andrew Zaragoza on all platforms ➢ https://direct.me/iamandrewz   #PowerProject #Podcast #MarkBell #FitnessPodcast #markbellspowerproject

Clark, tell us why you're here, buddy. Well, I've been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Any idea? I'm like, what this is from? I believe it's from stress. I want to attack this from all angles possible. I'm pushing back on these guys, and they're going, wow, this guy's educating himself. But with mine, they want to do radiation and hormone deprivation therapy.

They want to eliminate Clark Bartram. I put my finger in his face and I said, f*** you. Do you have any symptoms? Do you feel weak? Do you feel anything? No. Prostate cancer is asymptomatic. What advice do you have for them to stand up for themselves? That. Stand up for yourself. What about when you saw your wife and what about when you communicated with your wife? My wife heard me on the phone, on a Zoom call with the doctor. She lost it immediately. Power Project family, we've had some amazing guests on this podcast like Kurt Engel, Tom Segura, Andrew Hooperman. And we want to be able to have more amazing guests on this podcast.

And you can help it grow by leaving us a quick rating and review on Spotify and iTunes. If you're listening to the podcast, just go ahead and give us a review. Let us know how you dig it and help the podcast grow so we can keep growing with y'all and bring you amazing information. Enjoy the show. I think I've been fairly responsible. The most I've ever done was I did two of these at one time. Oh, shit.

And that was just like kind of for the fuck of it. We got it on camera. And I kind of learned my lesson. I was like, that was not good. Did it knock you out on the couch? Kind of just sent me off into outer space a little bit. And we were doing a podcast. And so I think he just kind of went silent.

Yeah. Yeah. It hit too hard. Yeah. So I never did two of them at the same time again. We did it because I think it was episode 500. Oh, okay. It was a celebration.

Yeah. Dosage. Let's give it a shot. Clark, tell us why you're here, buddy. Well, I've been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Last thing I ever thought that I would be hearing about eight months ago, the way it came about, I was in the driveway of the gym in the parking lot, and I was just looking at my blood work. I work with Merrick Health, and I was with Jariah on the phone, and he – I was looking at my testosterone, and he was looking at my PSA numbers.

He said, bro, your testosterone is way up there, man. That's awesome that you can do this naturally and you're teaching all these men, but your PSA is 9.8, bro. You better go to your doctor. So I didn't think too much about it. I'm like, all right, whatever. I'll go to my doctor and I'll get checked. So I show up at the doctor and he looks at me and he does the thing that no man wants done, the DRE, right? I'm not talking Dr. Dre. It's digital rectal exam, finger up the bunghole. So me, being the social media guy that I am, I set my phone up on the stool. He had no idea that my camera was running, so I'm bent over while this man's shoving his finger up my butt, checking my prostate. Andrew, pull a video up.

It's on. It's on. Oh, yeah. It's on. I figured Andrew would have. Oh, yeah. It's content. It's way back there. It was way back there, wasn't it?

Yeah. Yeah. So you put a camera on the doctor's finger. I didn't quite go on his finger, but it was on the stool while I was leaned over there. And I'm looking in, and I'm like, this guy has no idea that I – and he goes in there, and he says, yeah, I feel something a little curious, but I'm not worried about it. a little curious, but I'm not worried about it. So he, you know, sent me on my way and I thought, if he's not worried about it, then there's no reason for me to be worried about it. And I went on about my life and then he reached back out to me and said, Hey, we want to send you in for an MRI. So then the insurance turned down the MRI. So there's a lot of stuff to go in

deeper with this right here. But so the insurance turns it down. I don't say anything. My doctor reaches back out. He's like, Hey, what's up with the MRI? I'm like, you tell me. The insurance turned it down. So we appealed it, got the MRI. We got the results back. And on the MRI, there's a score called a PIRAT score. So I scored 85 out of 100 on the PIRAT score. And he's like, man, or I'm sorry, four out of a five, something like that on the pyrite score. He goes, there's an 85% chance that you have cancer unless you're an anomaly. I'm like, bro, have you looked at me? I'm 60. I'm an anomaly. He's like, well, I get it, but we need to go to the next level. So then I went in for the biopsy, which wasn't fun. And they did 12 core samples.

the biopsy, which wasn't fun. And they did 12 core samples. We got those back. Out of the 12 core samples that they did, seven of them were cancerous. Six were a three plus four on the Gleason scale. And one was a four plus three on the Gleason scale, all of them equaling seven. But the four plus three is a little bit more contentious than the three plus fours because the four means there are more cancerous cells found in that particular biopsy. So then we went to the PSMA PET scan to see whether or not it metastasized anywhere else in my body. And thankfully, it hasn't. So it's contained within the prostate right now.

So it's contained within the prostate right now. My diagnosis is unfavorable intermediate risk type 2C prostate cancer. So that's me going in, I think, getting – It says PSA checked. Yeah. These guys don't know it. I'm setting up my camera without anyone knowing that I'm doing this. Yeah. So this is the video.

This is not the one. He's pumping up. I'm like, you need veins? I got veins. But that's not the one. I think it's even further back than that. Okay, I'll keep digging. Oh, no, this is just the other day.

I go every Monday to get my PSA checked. Yeah, it's a while ago, I think. Yeah, that's way back. So anyway, so that's where we're at. I have unfavorable intermediate risk type 2C, which requires two types of treatment if I go standard of care. So anyway, that's the update. Any idea, like, what this is from? I believe it's from stress.

I really do believe it's from stress. I really do believe it's from stress. Because, you know, we all have stress in our life. And the world that we live in today is full of stressors, whether they're endocrine disruptors or mental stress, all sorts of different things coming at us. And as I look back and analyze my life, I know for sure that I got this because of stress. And I'm managing that stress now to help eliminate it. You know, that's certainly one way of treating this. I'm not going to say it's the only way, but I would say if you're not managing your stress when you're faced with something like this, you're missing out on an element of healing that you could have taken

advantage of if you realized that was part of the cause. Yeah. Cause what's the other option? Just cry all day. I know. And I have not had one bad day. The second I got the diagnosis, I went into action. I'm like, how can I take my platform that's already serving men over the age of 50 who want to get in shape, and they're already listening to me and trusting me and liking me and all of the things that we know are necessary for someone to follow your content, know, like, trust. I'm like, now I'm going to use this shocking information because the reality is if you line up 10 guys and say, which one has prostate cancer, I'm probably the last guy you're going to say him. Yeah. Yeah. But the reality is cancer is no respecter of persons. It could hit any of us. And black men are more at risk of prostate cancer than white men are. Ah, shit.

Yeah. Okay. Well, let me, let me ask this. How long have you had this diagnosis? About eight months. Eight months. So with your current diagnosis, how are you faring versus other people that are in a similar situation? Yeah, I don't know because I'm not regulating anyone else. All I'm doing is focusing on mine because if all four of us in this room had it, it would be different for each one of us and it would require different treatment protocols for each one of us. And that's the problem in my opinion now with standard of care or typical allopathic medicine is if we all four went in to the same urologist, that urologist, if that urologist was the surgeon, would say,

hey, cut it out. That might not be the right thing to do because I'm older than everyone here, so maybe my lifespan is less than yours. So you cutting yours out and risking incontinence and erectile dysfunction for the rest of your life is not a good option. So why would you cut into that nerve bundle and do all of these things that would require – that would happen in surgery? So maybe for you, it might be seed implantation. And for you, it might be some other sort of radiation, proton therapy or maybe a focal therapy, there's a lot of different ways to treat this. So it depends on that person's individual diagnosis. And that's another thing that doesn't happen.

There's not enough of a diagnostic with the diagnosis to determine what is going on in your body. Because if you just willy-nilly go in there and get it cut out without really looking into why you got cancer, there's a really good chance it could come back later, because you're not dealing with the root cause of it. You're just dealing with the check engine light. If the check engine light comes on in your car, you're not going to smash the dashboard with a hammer expecting that to fix it. That's what tearing out or just plain old radiating your cancer is going to do if you don't deal with what's going on inside. Yeah, it's so difficult to figure out where cancer comes from. I know we think that it comes from this or we think it comes from that. Sometimes people will say, oh, it's those energy drinks or it's the plastics or it's – do you think there's any validity to any of that stuff or what are your like general thoughts on that?

I would say yes, that all of that adds to it because like I had mentioned earlier, we live in a world with all sort of things coming at us, stress being the biggest one. Then plastics are a really big one and then energy drinks play into it. So it's not one of them. Just like if a man came to me and said, Clark, how do I get in shape? I wouldn't say, hey, get on the treadmill and eat white fish and asparagus and that being the only thing I have him do. Remember last time I talked about my five principles. I would say get your mindset right. Get your meals right.

Get your movement down. Get in a good community. Have some integrity in your life. So those five things collectively together will lead that guy to losing weight. in your life. So those five things collectively together will lead that guy to losing weight, no differently than eliminating what we're eating and drinking and doing and the people we're exposing ourselves to could help in healing this thing. So if there's someone that's causing a bunch of stress in your life and you want to get rid of cancer, having that stress continue on in your life certainly isn't going to help you get rid of it.

I'm not saying it's going to eliminate it completely in and of itself. But what I'm saying is if you eliminate that factor and then start doing all of the other treatments along with it, the chances of you getting this again down the line are minimized. And this is just me speaking from my unique perspective now and walking through this process and really being on the balcony of my life and observing me as I go through my life going, okay, what did I do? Is that what I think it is? It's a dickhead. It's a little penis. This is great for this episode. Yeah, exactly. So if that was my wiener, my prostate's down here and that's what the issue

is. And that's probably representative of all of you, real life. Just when you're cold. Yeah. So anyway, you know, my unique perspective is that I want to attack this from all angles possible. And every time I sit down with any one of these doctors that I'm listening to, I sit back and I watch with a different lens than I would have if I was anxious and if I was worried and if I was in a hurry and if I was just blindly believing everything this person in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck is saying. I'm not doing that. I'm pushing back on these guys and they're going, wow, this guy's educating himself and he understands that he has options, he has choices, and ultimately it's up to him

which way he wants to go. So like, let me ask you this then in those, cause you know, it's hard to know what questions you should ask if you're in these situations. Right. But like how, how have you pushed back? Like what are maybe some suggestions that docs have had that you've been like, eh, let's not do that yet. Let's instead do this. What are you, what are you doing? docs have had that you've been like, let's not do that yet. Let's instead do this. What are you doing? So one really interesting one. So with my diagnosis, unfavorable intermediate risk type 2C, they want to do more than one modality of treatment. So typically, if you had something that was favorable risk, not being as scary as mine, you could go in and do radiation alone. But with mine, they want to do radiation

and hormone deprivation therapy. They want to eliminate Clark Bartram, the guy who's been on the internet for the last 10 years teaching guys how to boost their testosterone naturally. They want to put me on Lupron, the same drug that a man who's transitioning to be a woman The same drug that a man who's transitioning to be a woman would be on. And I told them, I put my finger in his face and I said, fuck you. And he dropped his head and he said, I knew you were going to say that. I said, good, don't say it again because that is not an option for me. Because quality of life is something that you need to consider as you're going through these treatments.

So for me specifically, that's not quality of life. I don't want to go through menopause. I don't want to deal with all of the things that I would deal with if they took my testosterone from it's 572 right now, naturally with nothing down to zero, like zero. I like being a man. I like being a strong, confident man. And if me not doing hormone deprivation therapy as a secondary treatment lowers my chances of success by 10% or 15%, I'm willing to take it. I'm willing to take it. So some people might go, Clark, that's silly. What about your family and this and that and the other thing? I don't want my family to live with me being the Clark Bartram that I would be with no testosterone. You know, and another really interesting thing is this.

If a man is transitioning from male to female, he has to go to a therapist for two years, from what I've heard, and be asked the question over and over again, are you sure you want to take this Lupron? Are you sure you're going to take this to take all of your testosterone away and turn you into a woman two years? For me with prostate cancer. It was two minutes You need to be on this shot. I'm like, no, no, no I don't need to be on the shot So I took control of that moment and the really funny thing is the next doctor I went to see had already been warned don't talk to this this dude about hormone deprivation therapy because I saw him getting to the part in his sales pitch where he was ready to bring that up.

And he looked at me and said, oh, I heard about you. And then the third guy, all of these are very, very qualified practitioners in their own right. They've treated thousands and thousands of men. practitioners in their own right. They've treated thousands and thousands of men. But I don't think that there are too many men that come through and look at them and say, fuck you. No way. I'm not doing this. Don't even say it. Because the third guy said, I'm not even going to say anything to you because you might beat me up. I said, I'm not going to beat you up, but I'm going to let you know in no uncertain terms. This is not an option for me. It just isn't. Because I know there are alternative ways that I could get the same increase in benefit by doing something maybe as simple as resveratrol to help with the radiation

treatments and things like that. But you don't know that until you do a very deep dive diagnostic on yourself. And most men don't do that. You look great. I mean, you look healthy. You look strong. Do you have any symptoms? Do you feel weak? Do you feel anything? No. Any pain? No pain. So prostate cancer is asymptomatic.

You don't know. You have it. I was probably walking around with this for, my doctor has said, maybe up to a year, and I was doing my blood tests. And here's another thing, too, is I was on finasteride because I don't want to lose my hair. If you're on finasteride, it cuts your PSA level in half because finasteride is also used for prostatitis. So guys use it. What's prostatitis?

Swollen prostate. Okay. Prostate. Or HBP, hyper, whatever. So guys will use it to either not lose their hair or to make their prostate smaller. And if you're not revealing this, so say you get it off the street

or say you get it at one of these clinics somewhere that they're just willy-nilly doling out things to people and you don't tell your urologist, hey, I'm on finasteride, and you have a PSA of four, which would be at the top of what's acceptable, it really is eight. You see what I'm saying? So it really is eight, and you're not telling someone.

Now you're running around with a warning sign saying, hey, you better go get checked. But if you're not divulging what you're doing because you got it it from some source, you know, the internet, Canada, some bullshit like that, whatever, you, you, you know, now you're doing some stupid stuff. And yours was 9.6 on finasteride? I was off finasteride then. Yeah. Then it bumped up. So I don't remember, you know, I always told, because my doctor put me on finasteride and it was for the prostate, but you know, I was having the benefit of the hair thing. So yeah, I don't know what went wrong along that line. There was some point where somebody could have told me, Hey, you need to get this checked earlier. I know that for sure. I don't think it

just suddenly bumped up to 9.8 out of nowhere. Is the blood work enough, you think? Or do you think that, you know, guys my age, I'm going to be 47, you think guys my age just need to go and get this stuff checked beyond just blood work? No, blood work's enough to, so a PSA really is probably the gold standard. Some urologists will argue against it. Some actual general practitioners are the ones that really were pushing back originally with PSA being the standardized test

to determine whether or not you need to go to further lengths to determine whether or not there's something more nefarious going on in the background. So consider PSA like a check engine light in your car. So if you get a high, if you get anything above four, that's check engine and Mark Bell's body to go to the doctor and say, hey, doc, look at my PSA. Let's maybe get a DRE and see if there's any swelling in there, if you feel any nodules like they fell in mine. So that's all it is. It's not saying you have cancer. It's saying,

go check to see what the issue is because you either have a swollen prostate or there is something going on, or you could just have a big prostate. Like there's a lot of different reasons a PSA could be elevated. Do you know if it's possible to have a normal PSA and still have, like, that's what I'm wondering wondering like with this, what if your PSA comes back normal? Is there a chance that you could still have prostate cancer? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. And like, what's the, what, what's the age that guys need to start trying to like get these tests done? I'm, I'm 31, right? So I get my blood work done. I'm, I think the PSA number is in there in the blood work that I get with Merrick, But when should a guy start thinking about looking more into this?

If you are at risk, so I would go home and ask my family, hey, is there anyone in the family who's had prostate cancer? And typically, it would be more concerning if it were your dad, because an uncle or someone kind of outside the immediate bloodline isn't necessarily indicative of whether or not you should be concerned. So I would just ask anyway. And then if there is anyone, I mean, what's it hurt to say, Hey, Jariah, throw the PSA on there for me to make sure. Cause I heard you helped Clark because it was Jariah, me and Jariah on the phone, man. And I owe that guy a lot because he's the one that told me, but typically what standard of care is going to tell you at the age of 40 is probably when you should start getting checked. But for me, I'm like, if you have any concern,

or you just want to check things off your list to know that there's nothing going on, it doesn't hurt to have it done. Now, the problem is if you're 30 years old and you go to your doctor, they're going to say, well, we're not going to do that because you're not within the guidelines yet. And the guidelines, I don't think, really encompass all of what we deal with in the world as it relates to what we spoke about earlier, stress and all of these different endocrine disruptors and different things that affect our hormones. Because the minute you start that cascade of hormones

going the wrong direction, then things can start to manifest just because things are out of whack. Like who knows, man? No doctor knows. The amount of arguing that goes on within the urology and all of these different oncologists as to different protocols and stuff, it's alarming.

If you listen to these very educated people who know what they're talking about not agreeing on things, it's pretty scary. That's why I'm taking this into my full and complete control and learning as much as I can and taking my time. One thing I want men to understand is if you do get a diagnosis, don't let your anxiety dictate your treatment. Because if you hear the word cancer, you get scared right away. And then if a doctor says to you, we got to get this out now. Well, you don't know why he's saying we get this out now. Is it because he's so busy? Or is it because he needs to make rent next month? You don't know. I'm not putting anything past anybody. I'm not saying our healthcare system

is crooked, but what I'm saying is they see somebody every seven minutes. And with a diagnosis like this, seven minutes is not enough time to have a thoughtful conversation about what the next best move is. I love Oprah Winfrey, and she always says, what's your next best move? So that's what I'm thinking. What's my next best move? So that's what I'm thinking. What's my next best move? My next best move is to talk to another practitioner who's going to give me their sales pitch. And that's another thing that men need to understand. If you get the diagnosis and you're shopping around, you are being sold, period. It's a sales pitch.

When they sit there with a little whiteboard and they're explaining to you everything that you have going on, they're informing you. But at the same time, at the end of that thing, they're going to close you and say, when can you book your appointment? I'm backed up for four months. You better book now. Scarcity, right? That's it. It's a technique. And I am going through this. So there's nobody anywhere that can argue any of this with me because even though my science might not be perfect or anything, my experience is one that is currently in the midst of this, not yet choosing a treatment option, but all the while treating myself with, we'll call them alternative methods of treatment. One of them being EWOT training. My doctor that I hired in Scottsdale put me on exercise with oxygen. And I've been busting my ass every night.

I bought a $3,000 EWOT system. It's in my garage next to my Stairmaster. I fill that bag up. I put that mask on. I put my weight cut suit on, hoodie up, headphones on. And I go at level 10. And I go until I am drenched with sweat. And the goal there would be to sweat out some of the stuff that has infiltrated my body through

the energy drinks and through the alcohol in there, really, that may or may not have added to my diagnosis. Power Project family, we talk about beef and meat all the time on the podcast. That's why we partner with Certified Piedmontese Beef. But did you know this, that 85% of all grass-fed, grass-finished beef in the united states is imported from other countries 85 but certified piedmontese is made in the u.s of a america america fuck yeah so go and get some of the best tasting some of the leanest some of the best beef from piedmontese andrew how can they get it absolutely uh so you guys can head over to cpbeef.com and check out enter promo code power to save 25% off your entire order. And if your order is $150 or more,

you get free two day shipping again, cpbeef.com links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Is it a oxygen like deprivation or are you getting more oxygen? I'm getting more oxygen. That's why you can train at twice the capacity you would. I normally couldn't do 10, level 10 on the Stairmaster, but now I go level 10 for 20 minutes and I put a podcast on. What's this thing look like? It's just like a mask. It's a mask.

There's some stuff on my thing that you put a mask on and there's a giant bag that you turn on this little machine and it takes regular air and it converts it into oxygen. And then you put that mask on and you just start training, man. And it's, it's thankfully I use training mask for a long time prior to doing this because breathing through any mask is not fun right there that's so that's me going after it and have you uh has this uh have other people utilize this and and found some success with it that's how you stumbled upon it yeah so tom inkled on the guy that i'm working with in scottsdale has everybody that comes through his center on this, and he swears by it.

So I've trusted him. So I'm just going to blindly believe what he says. But I also – when I bought it, I talked to the guy that owned it. He had some kind of like Graves' disease or something that he claims he healed himself with using this sort of training. You can't go wrong with oxygen, right? Oxygen's a great thing. You like training anyway, so this is a little notch above maybe what you want to do every time.

Yeah, when I put that suit on, you've got to go into a different place mentally. I'm sitting there and my wife's watching me put that on because there's sweat on it still from the time before. It's uncomfortable. It's hot in that garage. And it's like, man, I got to do this, but it's part of what I got to do. You know, it's, it's part of my new lifestyle. And if this in and of itself encourages another man to go, wow, look, look at this guy, honey, this, this guy's fit. He's, he's, you know, been in the fitness industry forever. He got it. I better go get checked. And she's like,

well, I've been telling you that for a year. You know what I mean? So if I can be the catalyst for another man to look at me and go, damn, honey, if this guy got it, I better go in and get checked. And if him seeing me doing that is motivation, I'm all about it, man. This is really my new calling and my purpose in life. And as weird as this might sound, I'm kind of excited by it. I really am. And the second I got the diagnosis, I leveled up. I leveled up. I've not had one bad day. I've not thought, woe is me, why me, or any of that sort of stuff. I thought, I am the perfect guy to get this because I know men, because I deal with men every day. And I hear the bullshit that they say, well, I don't sleep. I deal with men every day and I hear the bullshit that

they say, well, I don't sleep. I stay up till two or I don't go to the doctor or I haven't done this or I don't do that. And they hold it like a badge of honor and they think it's something cool when there could be something lurking in their body that could have been dealt with had they not been such an idiot and said all of this stuff, that they know themselves is bullshit. They're just afraid to go to the doctor. They're afraid of a needle. They're afraid of getting a diagnosis. I just lost a friend to brain cancer,

and I sat with his only son after we watched him pass away, and he said to me, I wished my dad would have went in and got checked more. And you know what he always used to say to me, Clark? I don't want to find out anything they're going to tell me. Well, when he found out it was too late, and I promise you, he wished he would have found out earlier to deal with it. How did you, you know, with pushing back against the doctors, like, so my mom, she's losing her battle with cancer right now. Her thing, like, because I would put her in front of, like, really good information, really good doctors.

And I had told her, I'm like, hey, everything you're about to learn right now, when you put this in front of your regular, like, traditional doctor, they're going to think that this doctor's crazy. They're going to tell you that your son's crazy and that that's going to actually make you worse. I'm like, I don't think MCT oil powder is really going to do that. But in my opinion, you're getting no fat, so you should probably take some in. And so I told her that. And so maybe I shouldn't have, maybe I should, something I'll always question. But when she did tell her doctors, of course, they were like, no, you can't do that. Take Ensure instead. So they freaked her out so much that she was not open to pushing back against the doctors. Everything the doctors wanted to do, she followed suit. Not really an understanding that their plan was just to preserve, not actually cure. And so right now,'s just, that's the whole goal is just to live as long as possible until she's just, her body shuts down. So what advice do you have for men that when they do get that pushback, because it's like, especially if they're finding us right now, it's like, oh, you're just a fitness guy. You don't know anything about cancer. You're not a

doctor. I went to school for this, or I've, I've, you know, put my whole life into this practice. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Uh, when they receive that type of blowback, what advice do you have for them to stand up for themselves? That stand up for yourself. So first and foremost, sorry to hear about your mom. That that's painful, but I'm fortunate in the sense that my doctors are all very open to me doing what I do. But when I come back to them with, hey, what do you think about this? Unless they can go into PubMed and find research and data and published articles about whatever it is that I've mentioned to them, they're instantly going to blow it off. They're going to say, ah, no, we don't have any data on that. Well, the reality with data is anyone can cherry pick data and say what they

want, right? And everything is anecdotal until you try it and have success in your own life. So with respect to whatever she's doing, you being the intermediary should stand up and say, no, no, no, I respect what you're saying. And we're going to keep you informed of what we're doing. That way you can keep an eye on where she's at. And if anything spikes or if anything changes radically, then you'll know that we were doing other things and we could stop that if in fact it becomes an issue. Always communicate, never do anything, you know, in a clandandestine fashion like, ah, fuck those guys, we're going to do our own thing. They need to know, right? And I've let my doctors know. And

when I go back to them and say, hey, what do you think about EWOT training? Before I'm even done, they're like, nah, nah. And I'm just like, why would you say that? Why wouldn't you say, hey, bro, if that's working for you and you feel good doing it, go ahead and do it. If there's no data that proves that it's going to make me go in the wrong direction, they should encourage it because we're trying to live. You want your mom here. And the unfortunate thing is with standard of care, if they make her live for five years in one day, that's a success to them. So the day she started treatment, if she gets in remission or cure, whatever it is that they call it, for five years in one day,

they got their hands up and go, yeah, Dr. Jones, we did it while you're handling the other part of it. Yeah, it's tough because they will say like, oh, look, this is working. And I'm like, I don't think it's really working. I had to step in when I heard the protocol or the program was going to be we're going to do chemo until – and the terms that they use too. It's like – They need to change the terms in cancer. They would say stuff like we're going to continue chemo until the host expires or some shit like that. You know what I mean?

And I'm like, okay. It was like, wait a second. Let's go back. I was like, host, you mean my mother? I was like, and expires you mean until she dies? I don't know about anybody else in the room, but that sounds like it's incredibly wrong that you're going to do the thing that's killing her until she dies like that's insane to me and so that's why i was like i we need to not do this but like i said because the doctors are very like uh i don't know

if they ever told her anything about like insurance but i'm sure that that that has something to do with it too where it's like well this is you, what your insurance is going to pay for. And if you go a different route or you go against what we say, maybe they're not going to cover it as much or something like that. So I don't know, man, it's just, it's cool that you stood up and that you're like, you know, telling other men to like, hey, like just because they say it doesn't necessarily mean you have to follow exactly what they're telling you. You know, and the reality is the doctors only know what they know. We make the assumption that they know more than they know. And part of the fear with doctors is if you go off on your own and start researching and learning what other ways of treating whatever type of cancer you have

are, they're going to... Now, again, I'm not saying all doctors are bad or I thank God for our system. Thank God for the treatments that we have. Thank God for all of this stuff. But if you go and get treated somewhere else, they just lost a bunch of money. They're in business. That's the bottom line. Doctors are in business, and they're studying what they study. So a surgeon is not studying radiology. So he can't or she can't effectively speak about radiology the way you could if you went and interviewed four or five different radio oncologists like I have. I've interviewed the best in the world because I'm creating a documentary of my process. Like this will be part of it. This will be included. I've interviewed the best in the world because I'm creating a documentary of my process.

Like this will be part of it. This will be included. I've snuck video footage being in doctor's offices. I told them I'm going to shoot HIPAA. I'm the one that's exposing myself, so HIPAA doesn't apply. If I say, yeah, I'm open, I don't even need to put you on camera if you don't want. But most of these doctors are willing because they believe in what they do. And I don't want a doctor who doesn't believe wholeheartedly in what he or she does. I want them to say, I'm the best in the world because I'm the best in the world at what I do. I want the best coach on my team saying, we can take you to

the state championship or whatever. So I get that bravado and I expect that bravado, but that bravado shouldn't make me sit down and cower like, oh, this is what they told me to do. Not at all. You stand back up and go, okay. And here's the deal. I've never felt more alone in my life. I know that I'm not, but I am. At the end of the day, I'm alone. My wife can't help me. My kids can't help me. No one here can help me with respect to what is my next best move. I can get information, but I have to determine for myself what steps I'm going to take to do something with respect to what you said, Andrew, about the names, radical prostatectomy, chemical castration. Words like this that are horrifying, cutting off women's boobs and things like this that we've been doing, there's got to be different ways to do this stuff, man. You know, this whole chemical castration thing came around in 1941. They believe that testosterone is what drives prostate cancer. There are some doctors out there now on the cutting edge that are really giving super physiological doses of testosterone

to do the opposite, proliferate these cells in a way where they kill themselves, something to that nature. It's not exactly right, but something like that. So thank God for these people on the cutting edge that are looking at different things. And here's the reality. I'm willing to talk to people who are doing different things like that, like we had talked about earlier, Mark, and be somewhat of a guinea pig as to, hey, let's try this treatment. Let's try that treatment. I'm open because I have time. I check my PSA every

week. I'm making sure that there's no PSA velocity. It's not rapidly moving in the wrong direction. I went back to my urologist. I said, hey, can we get another PSMA PET scan to make sure this hasn't gone outside my prostate? And he said, no, it probably hasn't in two months, but we'll do an MRI. So I'm getting another MRI. So I'm not being dumb. This is really what I want people to understand. While I'm talking all of this other stuff, I am looking at standard of care. I'm taking advantage of all of the science and the technology and the research and the education that's been done there.

And using those tools to guide my personal decision as to what I'm doing. Like I'm doing more than 95% of men on planet Earth would do. But everyone who knows me and loves me is like, when are you going to get treatment? Because that's what we're used to. It's the conditioned behavior like, hey, go get it cut out. No, no, no, no. Slow down.

I got time. I'm not going to let my anxiety or lack thereof dictate my treatment. I'm not going to let a doctor who says he's got a four-month waiting list force me into making an appointment to go do something I'm not sure that I'm ready to do. Do I really want to be radiated? Do I really want that going in? And if I do, how much radiation do I want and how do I want it applied and what's the best way to apply it? So, man, there's a lot. There's a lot out there, man. It's confusing as hell.

I'll say that. You mentioned you leveled up when you got the diagnosis. But was there any feeling like did you feel like sick or something? Did you feel worry? And then on top of that, if you didn't feel feel any of that what about when you saw your wife and what about when you communicated with your family because to me that's always like the gut-wrenching stuff you know i've had family members die and friends die and for me it it's it doesn't necessarily always make me super emotional but then i see somebody that reminds me of them or

see somebody uh that they loved and they cared about or see somebody else brokenhearted, it's just like I can't help it. I lose my shit. Well, now you got me emotional because that's the one thing that does matter to me. And I just lost my brother last month. And having to tell my kids and my wife and seeing my wife's reaction and seeing my kids' reactions is as tough as they are. And knowing how I am and how I go around with all of this badassery attitude, I know that they're worried. You know, I know that they're thinking, come on, dad, you know, come on, honey, come on, brother. My sister was just out here and she needed a vacation from, you know, what we just went through. And

she was in the car while I was talking to my doctor and she had a lot of questions afterwards that only helped me understand how concerned people are about me. So with respect to that, and with respect to how I've been acting this whole time, I do understand that there are other people out there in the world who are depending on me to be here, depending on me to be here healthy, and I'm certainly not just going to die, right? That's not my plan. I'm not just going to go, fuck it, I'm just going to go off like a man,

high testosterone and high PSA, I'm out of this bitch. I'm thinking of them. And I remember having to tell my kids, I was outside and we were working out and I just kept doing this. You know, when you do that, you, you're kind of prepping somebody else to say, what do you want to say? You know, I know you want to say something. So I did that like 10 times. And then finally my son's like, dude, what's up, man? You know, I got cancer. And then I called my daughter and just told her. And then my wife heard me on the phone, on a zoom call with the doctor. And she walked in and she just looked at me and she said, what's up? And I said, well, I have cancer. And she lost it immediately. So I feel for them, but I want them to know that I'm a smart guy. As much as I act,

as tough as I act, I'm very smart. And I think that me doing all of what I just said only proves that I am a smart guy that understands that what we've been taught and conditioned to do isn't necessarily the right thing for everybody. And it certainly isn't for me. So I'm taking these other options. And I clearly explained that I'm doing all of these things to maintain an understanding of where I'm at in this process. And I'm not going to go so far down the line where, Clark, if you would have did this a year ago, it wouldn't have been spread throughout your entire body. Now you're really messed up. Now you really have to do hormone therapy. So, yeah.

Sleep is something we talk about all the time on the podcast because it's your biggest driver in terms of your health and you sleep for a third of your life. So you want to make sure that your sleep is optimized and that you're taking every advantage to make that recovery period as strong and as effective as possible. That's why we've partnered with Eight Sleep Mattresses. It's the Tesla of beds. You can control the temperature of your side of the bed and your partner's side of the bed. And the cool thing is over here at the podcast, we're all sweaty sleepers. I used to wake up in a puddle of my own sweat and I could probably say the same for Andrew and Mark. So that's a thing of the past because now my bed is cool. I wake up every morning feeling refreshed and there's so many things that this mattress does

and tracks that it is just ridiculous. So check them out. Andrew, how can they get it? Yes, you guys got to head over to 8sleep.com slash power project. And when you do, you're automatically receive $150 off of your order. Again, that's at 8sleep.com slash power project links in the description, as well as the podcast show notes. I'm just curious, how do you know when that point may be? Because you said you're getting scans done. So from the first MRI to now, has it progressed? Has it stayed where it is? And what's the point that you're like, okay, maybe I do now need to pull the trigger? What's it like? It's a really good question, and that's what everybody is asking. Yeah. And that's what I'm wondering too because I don't think there's a definitive answer to that. But with me testing my PSA every single week and seeing it holding steady, it's gone up from 9.8. Now it's at 13.6. But this has been over eight months, and the cancer is in there. So if it continues to climb – I mean, there are guys with

PSAs of 2000. Yeah. With cancer? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And, and, you know, as long as I stay below 20, I think I'm good based upon what I'm learning. And, and I'm listening to a, an organization called PCRI. There's a doctor named Mark Scholes who's pretty neutral about all of these different ways of treating cancer, prostate cancer. So I'm listening to him and what I'm learning, and I'm not throwing this man under the bus, I'm not quoting him specifically, but what I'm saying is I feel comfortable that if I'm below 20 on my PSA and I have these scans and it's not showing it getting any bigger or changing shape in any sort of way, that I should be okay to continue on the path that I'm on until I see if what we're doing is helping. So to go into that, I'm on phase two now of a bunch of supplements that I'm taking to deal with some of the bacteria that we found in my gut, because there's so much talk about the gut right now, gut biome and all this stuff.

Well, it's real. And that's where we've determined from the bacteria and the chemicals and the heavy metals that we discovered in my body through these different forms of testing and all the data points that I have, over 100,000, that that is the main area that we want to attack first. So I'm on two phases of really intense fiber and pre and probiotics and essential fatty acids and all these different things. I just signed a new deal with a company. They have a product called Pectosol. Oddly enough, this company reached out to me during the time that I was going through this, not knowing that I had prostate cancer. And they said, hey, we want you to try this product. So I did the research on this Pectosol,

and it's pectin from the apple that has science behind its ability to, one, help men reduce swelling in their prostate and a host of different things as well. So we have a deal together. So that's part of the treatment that I'm using. And then GreenFat, too, a company called GreenFat that I'm working with has me on some essential fatty acids, pumpkin seed oil in there helps with prostate. But anyway, all of these supplements that I'm taking, once I get through phase two, we're going to look at where I'm at again, test. And if no significant change has been made, then I'll probably start scheduling the treatment option that I'm going to go with.

So what I've determined that I want to do, I talked to a doctor by the name of Dr. Stephen Kurtzman in Palm Springs the other day. He does brachytherapy, which is seed implantation. So the two modalities that I want to go with are seed implantation. They go in your perineum or your taint or your tween meat, whatever you want to call it. I've never heard tween meat. You've never heard tween meat? No.

What? The meat between your balls and your butthole. It's tween there. I was thinking tween, like isn't a tween like a young kid? Like a between? I think so. Is it tween? No, in between.

In between. In between. Okay. Yeah, yeah. So they go in through your perineum and they implant seeds. And with real-time data, they have a 3D model of your prostate in there. So they do the mapping when they go in. So I'm laid out, you know, legs up in stirrups.

They go in there and they put like some sort of radiation. I don't know which one they use. And they plant them in there and they see it stay in there forever. But they die off within like 10 days. So they radiate the specific areas where the concentration of the cells are, the cancer cells. And then they'll do external beam radiation at the same time. So the two different modalities would require less radiation inside and less radiation outside, totaling the amount of radiation needed both from internal, external sources

to fight that cancer. But at the same time, I'm eliminating all of the other things inside my body. So after the fact, there might not be things in my body that were there to begin with that could cause it to come back

because I'll still have a prostate. They won't take the gland out of my body because surgery is not an option for me either. I'm not interested. So there's two big things, like I had mentioned earlier. You could either lose your ability to have an erection or you pee your pants the rest of your life. I would rather not get a boner than pee my pants the rest of my life. I don't know how you guys feel about that, but I ain't going to... I don't want to be pissing my pants right here, right now, but you'll never know if I can't get a boner again.

And I've had plenty of sex and we're done having kids. My wife loves me as I am. I know how to do other things. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, okay. I agree with that. You know? Yeah.

So neither option is good. What about something like red light therapy? Do you think that has any value? Have you talked to anybody? I do it every day. I do it before I came here. So not to give you a visual image, i butt ass naked feet up on the wall balls right in front of the red light little glasses on naked listening to the power project

man yeah dude i do red light too and i'll pull my sack and i get it right in front of there so it can just just hit me it feels good right in there man yeah i Yeah. So shout out to Cozy Red Light for hooking me up with that. So I do that. And I do the sauna. I do the contrast therapy. So I'm doing all of those. I do the PMF as well. PMF mat?

Yeah, the mat. It's like a grounding mat, right? It's a grounding mat, but they send the electrical stimulation through. So there's a mat underneath and a mat on top. So they lay it over your groin and that electrical energy goes through. And anything that is causing a disruption in the flow, like I felt it in my back. So I've got a knot in my back from wrestling. I got my shoulder thrown out of place.

But I felt it stopping in that knot in my back. So if there's swelling in the prostate and that electrical current's trying to pass through the bottom mat to the top mat, it's going to be hit there, and then it's going to do its work on that right there. And I don't know what the desired outcome is, whether it's breaking it up or reducing the swelling.

I'm sure it's reducing the swelling. So yeah, I'm doing all of these things, right? And if I went to my doctor and said, hey, what do you think about, yeah, we don't have, it's not in PubMed, so we're not going to even talk to you about it. Why wouldn't you encourage me to do it? You know, and another thing, this, you know, I'm lifting weights. So when I go to this wellness center in Scottsdale, you walk in and it's like your gym. It's a full-blown gym. And he has old ladies in there dumbbell rowing like 70 pounds. Let's go.

Because if they have to go get surgery, he wants them strong. If they have to go get surgery, he wants them 100 pounds less than they were when they showed up. So if you're fat and out of shape and weak, that is no way to show up for surgery. So if a doctor doesn't say, yeah, continue to go to that guy, go get strong, go do this and that. And the other thing, and, and encourage you to lose weight and get stronger. Yeah. They're, they're, they're malpractice. They're, they're, it's malpractice in my opinion, because I'm going to have a better chance of overcoming the surgery and all of the trauma that comes from surgery than a guy 100 pounds overweight. That's just facts. No one can argue with that.

So why not get stronger? What about something like a full-body MRI? I've heard people are starting to do that now. Have you heard much about that? Yeah, the PSMA PET scan. So those are just relatively new. And I was listening to a podcast last night saying the guy that I listened to was saying, you know, some urologists didn't know about this. And I'm sure this was an earlier podcast from maybe 2020 or something like that.

These scans are just new. So they fill you with a radioactive material and they scan your entire body. So that's not free. Like that might cause something, right? Well, yeah, anytime you're exposed to radiation. And that's the thing too is they're treating you with respect to Andrew's mom. Chemo is what kills you. It's the thing too is they're treating you with respect to Andrew's mom. Chemo is what kills you. It's the chemotherapy.

The cancer is not killing you as much as the chemo is killing you. So anytime you're exposed to radiation, you're increasing the odds and the risk of cancer presenting itself somewhere else. So they do this full-blown scan and then any area in your body that has any sign of cancer will light up. And, you know, mine certainly lit up and then there were some other areas in my ribs that they found, but they thought that I was just from trauma from, you know, breaking my ribs when I was young or something like that. How about diet? Is there anything like in terms of diet that is helpful or? Yeah, I think most people agree that like a Mediterranean or a keto diet would be the way to go eliminating carbohydrates, which

obviously converting to sugar and all that sort of stuff, even though prostate cancer doesn't have a direct relationship with sugar, it does with testosterone, but it's, it's good again, just to be leaner. So I asked my doctor. He's like, yeah, absolutely. Go on a keto diet, man. Okay. And I'm just getting leaner and in better shape, and I feel like my skin's getting better because I'm in front of the red light. Now I got a reason to be in front of it all the time,

where before I'd be like, meh, I don't have the time. I'm not going to do this. We have all of these things available to us, but we walk right past them like, ah, shit, I don't want to use that today. When we were begging someone to give it to us like six months earlier. So now I got a reason. But I'm seeing these benefits.

I swear to God, I feel like I'm better looking and better shape and more positive than I've ever been in my entire life. With cancer. With cancer. Shit. And that's my goal is I want to be the best looking, most fit, most positive cancer guy ever. So that way when people see this, they're like, damn, it's not a death sentence. Damn. I can handle this.

I don't need to be all sad about it. I can get my family up and positive. Positive things can happen. So I had mentioned, listen, man, I'm going to keep it real. I had mentioned that stress was what caused my cancer. I've been going through hell in my relationship with my wife for the last 10 years. And I know for sure that that stress is definitely added to it. So here's the silver lining in all of this. Me and my wife are back on track now because I was able to look at her and she knew that this time it was real.

I'm like, listen, we ain't doing this shit no more. I will cut you out of my life if you add any negativity to me at all. I don't care who you are. I'm losing your number and I'm moving on because this is a matter of life and death for me. So the beauty of it is some people may be in Clark. You're putting your business out on the street. Absolutely. That's part of what I'm doing here. Because am I the only one that's ever had marital problems? I don't think so. Am I the only one that's ever had stress from those things? I don't think so. Am I the only one that's ever had some sort of manifestation

because of that? Absolutely not. So me being honest and saying that this has helped my relationship now I invited my wife to come up here with me I never would have done that 10 years ago I'd have been bitch I'm out of here

I want to be gone he didn't even say he said he said with his chest yeah so look anyone's out there like oh my god

I'm not the only one to ever say that or act that way we know send in your hate mail. I don't care, man. All I know is me and my wife are back on track and I wanted her to come here. I wanted her to be with me. I was looking forward to being in the airplane with her where before it was, that was not the case, you know? And I certainly wasn't saying, honey, I don't want you to go. You know what I mean? So let's just be real about all this stuff, man.

I'm tired of people playing games and acting like, you know, it's bullshit. So anyway, I made this kit, this kit right here. It's an in-home blood test kit that every man needs to get in his life because this tests seven different markers. We have HDL, LDL, and the ratio, and free and total testosterone, and cortisol, and obviously PSA is in here. I'm doing one for PSA only, so it's very affordable. But you get this thing at home, you prick your finger, six drops on two different squares on a card, let it dry, ship it to my lab. I have access to a lab. Talk about a God thing or a serendipitous moment, however you want to look at it. I'm in the gym doing the

assault air bike. Shout out to Roger, assault air bike. And a dude came up to me. He's like, hey, meet my buddy Bart. He owns or he runs US specialty labs. We are the lab. They do all the blood work for like a lot of the blood work for the different labs in the area. And he said, my place is yours. You come in anytime you want and get your blood tested. Matter of fact, why don't we make you a kit? So they made me this kit and I ship it out to men. I've had men reach out to me and say, Clark, thank you for saying what you say and being as honest as you are. Thank you for creating this kit because I finally checked my blood for the first time. And I found out a guy just reached out to me the other day. He said, I found out I have prostate

cancer. My guy that runs my foundation, Check It Like a Man, he's like, I might as well go get test, get a test because I'm running this foundation. He went in and got checked with his doctor. And unfortunately he found out some really bad news. So men are hearing the message and they're finding out this thing's getting out into people's hands and men are checking themselves when they wouldn't normally have checked themselves because, you know, I've taken this on as my mission and my purpose and my new calling in my life to take my platform and expand it and say, here I am, you're not going to find anyone more honest about life than me. It sucks that I have it, but I'm grateful at the same time because I know that someone's going to watch this.

I know for sure that there will be more than one man who watches this and go, fuck, I better go do this. How do they get the kit? They just go to my website, clarkbartram.com or clarkbartramsystems.com. Either one has it. We'll ship it out to you. You register it. We text you when it's received. We text you when the test has been done. We text you if there's anything of concern. You have a portal where you get to keep all of your stuff. I'm actually in there testing blood from time to time. If I'm in there on a Monday and my guy will say, hey, one of your guys' kids came through, I'll go through and say, hey, Wayne, here's your thing. And I know now how to take it and put it on the machine. And another thing that's really important when you're getting tested is going to the same facility and having the same machine. Because guys have been tested and the

machines have not been calibrated properly and they're given the wrong information and they freak out. I talked to a guy last night who the machine wasn't calibrated. He was told he had stage four prostate cancer. He's going to die in a couple of weeks. Him and his wife went through a couple of weeks of hell. Maybe it healed their relationship. Maybe that in a couple weeks. Him and his wife went through a couple weeks of hell. Maybe it healed their relationship. Maybe that was the silver lining. But he now found out that the thing was calibrated wrong. So, yeah, right there it is.

And what is the – like if there is a – like I guess general or not general, but like a percentage of like the male population that has been diagnosed or maybe they're walking around, they don't know it. I'm pretty sure. I was one. Yeah. I was one. I didn't know it. I was walking around for a long time. Everyone said, Clark, oh, look how ripped you are. Look how great you are. This is your age. This is the other thing. Little did we know lurking inside me were all these cells that were going batshit crazy. So let's say that you've already gotten your blood work done with Merrick Health. You've gotten the right supplementation. You've handled your nutrition. But how about the people

close to you? How about the people in your life? Recently, I had my mom get her blood work done with Merrick Health and she's gotten her blood work done many times in the past. But Merrick did an amazing job at looking at her blood work and giving her the supplement ideas to help her move forward. Because one thing is, is when you go to hospitals and they get your blood work and they do your blood work, when they look at your numbers, they're comparing you to the average person. They're not trying to optimize you and help you move forward. They're just trying to make sure that you're not breaking. Whereas Merrick Health, when their patient care coordinators look at your blood work and when they looked at my mom's, they're trying to figure out how to optimize you and make you live the most vital life possible. So if you've gotten your blood work done, great.

But think about the people close to you. Would it be good for them to get their blood work done and get this type of work done? If so, Andrew, how can they get in contact with Merrick Health? Yes, super important stuff, guys. Head over to merrickhealth.com slash powerproject. That's M-A-R-R-E-K health.com slash powerproject. And at checkout, enter promo code powerproject to save 10% off the PowerProject panel, the PowerProject checkup panel,

or any lab that you select on their website. Again, merichealth.com slash PowerProject. Links in the description as well as the podcast show notes. Does anybody talk about living with cancer? Yeah. Yeah, there are people. So like, I just, I've never even really thought of this, but like, you know, is it possible for someone to live 10, 20, 30 years with cancer?

Well, that's my goal in all honesty. I want to push this back as far as I can and not get any of these radical treatments like radiation. Keep your PSA under 20. Keep my PSA under 20 and I'm getting these scans and I'm making sure it's not getting outside of my prostate. And everyone's saying, well, you're fine. Everything seems to be okay. You feel good. That's and I'm getting these scans and I'm making sure it's not getting outside of my prostate. And everyone's saying, well, you're fine. Everything seems to be okay. You feel good. That's what I'm doing.

And then there is a stage, like if you're at a 3 plus 3 Gleason, you would do what they call active surveillance. You just watch it. You never get treated. If any doctor is treating a three plus three, then it's just purely for money because most urologists and most oncologists will tell you that it's not even really cancer at that point. It's just something to look at and watch. So in theory, yeah, they are living with it. And I'm being exposed to more and more people who are overcoming this diagnosis and dealing with it in different ways that aren't as radical as some of the ways that we do with standard of care. Because again, we just get scared into this because of the word. We get scared into it because that's what we're conditioned to understand and believe from

the day we were born. We always went to these doctors who knew the best, all of these diplomas on the wall and speaking very confidently with authority. So we just assume that what they're saying is right. And if it's not right for you, you need to speak up. That's what I'm gonna tell you. And I do want to say this, my wife's not a bitch, man. Honey, I love you. I'm sorry. Hey, it was a joke. I told you I'm not dumb. I'm sorry. Hey, it was a joke. I told you I'm not dumb.

Do you have – was there any like plans that you've made in case – because sometimes these types of cancers can hit somebody hard. Yeah. Right? It's like they could look great one moment and then unfortunately things can go sideways real quick. So is that anything you thought of, like a will and all that kind of stuff? Yeah, I'm working on that stuff right now. And just let me say it right now. If this goes fast and I'm out of here in a short amount of time, I love you guys. Thank you for the platform and the opportunity.

I love you too, man. And really do, man. Here's the deal. I love people, man. I love doing what I do. I love having, man. I love doing what I do. I love having the opportunity. So if my life is shortened and I leave a legacy of, man, did you hear this guy's attitude? I'm grateful for that. The reality is we're all circling the drain. We're all circling the drain, man. And I could

be this close to it or I could be this far out. I don't know. Hopefully that drain's a little clogged or something. Yeah, it's a little clogged. And that's what I'm trying to do is clog it. But my mission statement is to positively and powerfully affect everyone I come into contact with. I want to leave here and have everybody going, damn, we love it when that guy comes around. Wow, that guy was really nice or whatever. And it's not for any other reason that I understand and value human relationship. So I don't want anyone in my life to never know how much I love and respect them.

So to answer your question, that's all I want anyone to know who's ever come in my path. I love my family. I'm so grateful to have raised, along with my wife, two amazing humans who are phenomenal. Taylor, my daughter, my son, Mitch. I sit back in awe and look at my kids and go, that's my greatest accomplishment in my life. And I know that my kids are proud of me. And I know even in this moment, and probably especially in this moment and through all of the hard times with my wife, they say the most influential person in someone's life is the same-sex parent.

So for my son to see me go through some of the things that I went through with my wife and to see me continue to try and continue to push back and continue to remain faithful and continue to be a good husband and a good father and sacrifice and do all of these things, that to me is one of my greatest accomplishments is to be an example of what a man should be in the midst of a relationship that isn't going perfectly, not just backing out

and going and banging other chicks and doing all this sort of stuff that a lot of guys would do, especially in my situation, man, you know, in the fitness industry and all this sort of stuff that a lot of guys would do, especially in my situation, man, you know, in the fitness industry and all this sort of stuff. I want to be that guy. So all of that is in answer to what you just said. So yeah, I mean, the reality of the fact that I am not someone who, what's that word they use? Immortal. I'm not immortal. I'm someone who one day will no longer exist on this planet. So I wake up every day and I get busy living. When I had the opportunity to come here, I'm like, let's go. Hop in an airplane, talk to the people next to me, have fun, enjoy the delay that I have tonight in the airport because something cool might happen, man. So I've got a very, very refined vision of life now of this is the day

that the Lord has made and I will be glad and rejoice in it. And I'm not sitting here bitching and complaining about anything, man. I'm living this life, man. Less stressful? Less stressful, completely. And healing too. Like I said, my relationship with my wife is better. I actually can't wait to get home and see her because she's going to have, you know, she's going to be there for me and want to hear about this where before I never would have said anything. I would have just been like, yeah, it was cool. Yeah, they're cool guys. And that would have been it. But now it's exciting. And it was all because I got this diagnosis. So that's the cool thing. And that's what men need to understand. If you get this, let this be something that elevates you and helps you appreciate life instead of lowering it down and having your vibration just go down.

My shit is like, you know? Yeah, I'm extremely grateful that you wanted to come back. Didn't be on the podcast so soon because we just had you on like, I don't know, less than a year ago now to share this story, especially with, you know, again, like I'll be sharing it with a bunch of my friends and our audience is listening to it. But I'm just curious, what made you want to come back to share it on our show specifically? Because you guys are awesome. You have a great show. And when I was thinking about it, I'm like, man, I want to reach back out to Mark and see what he says. Because I know you reach the audience of men that need to hear this message. Out of everyone that I know, I honestly think that the guys that you guys serve are the guys that need to hear this the most. I know you have young guys. So the young guys, what I want them to take away from this is,

look at me. Look at me. I'm 60. I'm as fit as anyone half my age, but this still happened to me. So think about what you're putting in your body. Think about the drugs and the drinks and all of the other things that you're doing that could cause something in the older guys. Look at where you're at. Are you overweight?

Do you need help? Do you need to lose weight? Should you listen to your wife? Are there areas in your life that need to be taken care of? Like, come on, man. Put the attitude down. Get on the balcony. Observe your life and go, what's my next best move?

How about, because obviously you've probably found so many different resources that maybe some people who are in this current situation have never heard about, things that you've listened to. So what are resources that you think people who are currently going through this or people who are interested in learning more about how to deal with this should look into for themselves? Yeah. in this process because this guy by the name of Dr. Mark Scholes, with all of the knowledge and education he has in being a urologist or an oncologist, whatever his specific area of practice is, he just spoke about it in such a way that made me understand that I am in control. And being that person who I would look at as like, oh, here's an authority figure, but he's not speaking in a way that is trying to lead me in a direction that is for anyone's benefit. I can look at this man and go, wow, I trust this guy. And he's saying

certain things about different ways to treat it that I'm resonating with. So that's really helped me. They come out with a new video every single week. So that's kind of a standard of care person that I look at. So then on a non-standard of care, we'll call it alternative medicine, if you will, I'm working with a guy in Scottsdale by the name of Dr. Tom Ingladon, who, like I had mentioned, is a powerlifter. He's got a PhD in exercise physiology. So he understands the human body and he's coming at it from that capacity, like let's get stronger. Let's look at this supplementation. Look at this natural supplement that we can take because if we know anything about prescription drugs, they're derived from natural sources and they're synthesized into a drug, basically. So that means there's a form that comes from the earth naturally, like resveratrol is one of the really good ones.

Broccoli sprouts are another really good one. I've been hit with every anecdotal treatment possible from Soursop to all of these different things. And I appreciate all of that. But what this guy has done for me on that side is done the diagnostic for me that standard of care wouldn't have done because of insurance, to your point, because of time, because of all of these other factors that are limiting their ability, not saying they don't want to, but they just don't have the ability to. So this guy specializes in that. And he even told me the other days, like, Clark, there's no way I can scale my business. I just can't do it.

There's not enough time in the day. And I need to figure out how to manage this better because I'm now struggling in my workouts. And he said something to me in front of my sister that made me really proud on speakerphone the other day. He said, man, when you came in here and I saw you, I got my ass back in the gym and I started training again. You really encouraged me. And I love having that impact. And that's always been my goal is that when I walk into a room, people look at me and go, oh, shit, it's given me another vibrational thing of energy outside of the physical prowess that I have. Now there's this other thing out here, this new knowledge and this

new passion and this new desire that's resonating more. You can't not notice when I walk in the room and that's not anything that's ego driven. That's you driven. That's like, I want to leave here and go, fuck man, I'm getting my damn prostate. I had that shit done last week, but I'm going to do it again just to make sure, you know, that's the kind of impact that I want to have. And this is what I teach my men in my coaching program, Maximized Man Elite, is you should be the guy that walks into the room that causes the room to look because there will be one person you do that you know what i mean i mean you can't not be that size and walk in the room and looking that good you know what i mean with that mocha colored skin and all that shit you got going on and not get attention come on and then they leave yeah like oh my God, I ain't been here for a little too long.

Parts like the sea I've heard. Yes. So that's how we should all strive to be. And we all have that on different levels, right? Because we all command that. But the question then becomes, what do we do with it? So going back to your question, Andrew, about why did I come here? Because you guys are badasses, man.

And those are the rooms that I want to be in. And I want to rub elbows with people that can get me out in front of more people, you know, and, and have me in, and I appreciate your platform. And I want you to understand something. This is important for me. Every podcast that I go on, there's a process that I go through and I, from the airport to here, you should hear me in the car. I should record it sometime. I'm Clark Bartram. I'm the baddest dude on the planet. God put me on this planet to do this. I'm strong.

I'm smart. I'm confident. I'm witty. I'm powerful. I'm, you know, and I'm going through this. Affirmations. Luckily, I have a voice. So when I show up here, I hit the ground running.

I am not showing here trying to get revved up. Like, you know, I owe you my best because I value the platform that you've worked so hard to create. And, and this is something when I'm walking in here, I'm like,

man, this is an opportunity. You don't get invited back a second time anywhere unless you did something right the first time, or you have a message to share the second time. So you did something right the first time or you have a message to share the second time. So you seeing that in me, I just want to let you know how grateful I am for that because this shit is real, man. You know, we're saving lives out here. And again, this is not an ego statement. This is a statement of fact. We're helping people get in shape. We're helping

people get stronger. We're helping people think differently. We're helping people get in shape. We're helping people get stronger. We're helping people think differently. We're helping people understand that we have one life and it's up to us to really take advantage of it and give our best effort for everybody that is affected by our circle of influence. We're all influencers. A lot of people out here wanting to be an influencer. You already are. You're an influencer right now. So my question is, how will you influence the people in your circle? Yeah, when I went to come get you after we were done, we had a podcast with just the three of us earlier.

And when I went to go get you, you were in the gym, benching. Wouldn't be anywhere else, man. Audibly counting out his reps in there completely by himself. Nice. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. He gets up. He's like, man, I love this shit. He's all fired up.

It's the greatest, man. It's the greatest. Well, thank you for coming out again. Really appreciate it. Where can people find you? Clarkbartram.com. Instagram is at Clark Bartram. TikTok is TheRealClarkBartram.

And DM me whatever you want, man. I'm here. And yeah, I'm available. Strength is never weak. This week, this is never strength.

Catch you guys later. Bye. That's a good thumbnail for you, Andrew. Yeah.