I'm taking a break

Dr. Anthony Akave, so good to see you here. I want to share a story that I had here in this operating room with a patient right before we went to sleep with the anesthesia. This patient looked me in the eye and said, "Doctor, tell my family I love them. I didn't spend enough time with them. " I think this is really deep. And it really sounds that way. It was for a really diddle minor knee arthroscopy. This is like a 5-minute surgery. So, there's a branch point. I could have blown the patient off or I could have recognized that, "Huh, this is a patient had ME/CFS, chronic fatigue syndrome. " You guys heard of that before? Let me know in the comments below. And any minor bit of stress on these folks' bodies, it could be walking 2 miles or it could be having a small surgery here, little bit of anesthesia, can induce what's called post-exertional malaise, PEM. You guys haven't heard of this, write it down. PEM is one of the hardest things that folks have to deal with. And you can't tell it from the outside. Most lab tests can't show a problem, either. They'll look for very specific markers, and even they aren't always consistent or reliable. So, this patient here taught me something that led to me being here today. This guy had a mitochondrial insufficiency, what I believe underlies a lot of ME/CFS. But all the rest of us without ME/CFS, myself included, are not invincible. This patient had a normal surgery, but he was so devastated from the PEM crash after surgery that it really made me think. This was years ago, but it made me realize that I've been working at a pace that's not sustainable. I work like 80 to 100 hours a week. And I've always justified it to you guys and to myself and to my family saying, "Oh, I love what I do. I love the patients I take care of. I love being a doctor. I love YouTube, etc. " But that time is ending because I don't want to end up like that patient, nor would I want any of my patients to end up like my ME/CFS patients if they can control it. We can't always control it. Sometimes illnesses get in the way. For those of you who have ME/CFS, and I see folks who have heard of it, even say they have it. If I can get everyone on here, and so many folks know what I'm talking about. This is an example where I need to take my own advice. I would never tell one of my patients to do what I do for a living. Uh even, you know, I used to justify it. I used to say, "Hey, well, if you're really passionate about it, you should do it. You can do it. " That only goes so far. I have some big family changes coming. Fortunately, everyone is for the most part healthy, but I need to take some time, not only for myself, but also for my family. So, I want to announce a couple things that are really exciting in this transition of mine that I hope all of you, whether you have ME/CFS or not, can appreciate. So, that you don't make the same mistakes I've made or that my other patients have made. First off, my book is coming out. I spent the last couple of months writing it. It's why I've been a little bit missing from YouTube and from Facebook here. And I wait for you guys to read it. I spent a lot of time documenting all sorts of stories I've seen here in the operating room, the curiosities of the subconscious that no doctors talk about. I want you to be able to read these. I'm going to post a link below once it's done. It is submitted to the publisher, so it's out of my hands now. Secondly, I'm going to continue doing some live streams for our members because I'm going to be taking a little bit of a break from social media as I take care of my family and some of the changes coming up in it, and most importantly, take care of my health. Cuz I can't take care of my patients nor my family if I'm not here for them. And I don't want my mitochondria to be stressed any more than I want my patients' mitochondria to be stressed. And a lot of doctors can have a little bit of this ego thing that drives what they do, and to a degree that's helpful. It helps them take good care of their patients, but not if it comes at the expense of their well-being. Doctor, take your own medicine. And I don't want any of you guys to miss out. I'm going to keep posting on our website, at our clinic's website, all sorts of the latest health information around hormones, other topics that folks get gas and so on. So, there'll be information, but you might not see me on YouTube as much, and I'm okay. In fact, I hope I'm doing better and better every week. I want you to do the same. I want to answer a couple questions before I split here, but I appreciate the folks here that are commenting on ME/CFS and just how real it is, even though us doctors don't learn about it in medical school. And I don't want folks that might be at risk of developing ME/CFS to be putting themselves in a position where they might be gaslit into it. And uh so many folks here, like you can't pour from an empty cup. Your mitochondria don't tend to become more in number or efficiency with age. They only go down.

Other molecules that support your mitochondria also go down, whether it's NAD or whether it's hormones. We don't want to accelerate the age-related declines. You can't pour from an empty cup. Very well said. Yeah, and I appreciate everyone's kind comments here. I am certainly going to be taking the best care of myself. I'm not leaving the United States. I'm going to continue practicing here in my clinic in San Francisco, and I'll be on YouTube as much as possible. I want all of you all to not make the mistakes that your doctors might make. Just like if you know, you see a doctor smoke, you shouldn't just emulate what your doctors do. You should try to emulate the right practices, and I want to make sure I'm a good model for my patients, as well as for all of you. So, I cannot wait for my book to come out for you all to share to read. I'm sure you're going to learn so much from it. It was inspired by you all and my patients in my clinic here in the operating room. I cannot wait for you all to see other things that I've been doing. So, if you have any questions, leave them in the comments below. If you want to join our lives, I'll be doing them more frequently outside the operating room in this next phase of my life. So, you can join the membership there and support other folks that get to learn as well. And I'm want to remind you all that you have more power over your health than you've ever been told. If you know someone with ME/CFS, lend them a helping hand. Don't underestimate the post-exertional malaise that my patients here have to deal with after surgery and even in far more benign situations. They need to deal with. The struggle is real. And just cuz you don't understand it, doesn't mean we should ignore it. It's certainly not gaslight them or put ourselves in their shoes if we can avoid it. I mean, put ourselves in their position by stressing our body prematurely. Remember everyone that you have so much healing potential. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Until next time.