NBA Legend Chris Paul on Longevity, Nutrition & Staying Elite at 40

21:11Dr. Mark Hyman:Recipes and habits. And habits. Yeah. Exactly. And it's crazy because for me, when I talk about my first six years in the NBA, right? And nothing against all of this stuff, right? Because you don't know what you don't know. But I didn't even know unsweet tea existed. I didn't even know there was a such thing as unsweet tea. First of all, I don't drink that. But I grew up, it's sweet tea. Give me sweet tea. You don't understand all the sugar, all these different things, right? And so just like with money, what I learned is that I have to budget. I have to budget, right? And food and all that should still be fun.

21:53Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. Right? Like food should still be an experience. But what I learned is I have to budget with different things that I eat or what I may want to eat. Because that gut thing, when your gut doesn't feel well, it'll change your whole day. It will. It'll change your whole mood, attitude, and everything. It probably affects your game, too. Yeah. Yeah. I used to get bloated sometimes during games. Right? Oh, that's so funny. Just like real gassy and like burping and all this different type stuff. But you don't realize that's from a lot of the stuff that you consume. And it affects your problems. You know, I think you mentioned Functions.

22:31Dr. Mark Hyman:For people listening, you're talking about Function Health, which is a company that gives you access to all your personal health data. And you're head of the NBA Players Association for a long time. Yeah. And advocating for players. I mean, they were in the 60s. They were making nothing and they were taking advantage of. And so, you know, you've really been one of the leading players in the last decade. taking care of other players. And one of the things you did was sort of partner with Function Health to help get access to data for players. So they would know what's going on in their body and they would know what's going on in their health.

22:59Dr. Mark Hyman:And just like you've done with your tests and you said your family's getting to actually understand this. What are you finding out about your family and what are they kind of learning from this? Man, tell you the truth, it's really cool to find out the information that I'm finding out about Function Health because I'm one of two boys, right? I have an older brother. Having a wife now, having a daughter also, right? So one of the most interesting things to me was that the women that do the functional health, you have to do it twice. You have to get blood work twice. One when you're on your cycle, one when you're off, right?

23:35And that just shows like women dealing with a whole lot of things, right? Like serious, like hormones and all these different types of things. So So my wife, to find out some of the information that she found out, the thing that I appreciate so much about function health and especially people in general, but especially like black men, a lot of times you don't go to the doctor.

23:57Dr. Mark Hyman:No. Right? No. Because you don't want to know. Right. You don't. It's a masculinity thing. It's a scary thing. I think for me, a lot of times it's been like just scared. Yeah. Right. Like you don't know what you're going to find. Right. Exactly. But when you find out you can actually do something. Yes. Yes. It's actually a relief when you know and you change something and you like, oh, this will help me. Yeah. This will help me. And I told a story one time before about my dad. I never forget my dad's 60th birthday. My dad had just turned 60 and I had did a partnership with Just Egg. Right. So my parents, my family, everybody, you know, eating Just Egg and stuff.

24:50And so my dad, I don't think people realize how just subtle changes of not so many juices and all of that and just consuming water, what that'll change for you. So my dad just being around and all that stuff, he made a few subtle changes. And my parents are sort of at that age and back home where, unfortunately, they're constantly at funerals.

25:11Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. At funerals or friends are sick and diagnosed with this or that. my dad called me and I was on the 405 driving and my dad was crying and so I pulled over I said dad what's going on this was on FaceTime and he said you're on FaceTime when you're driving yeah yeah yeah I answered but now in cars I got the little thing so you can put the phone over there but I pulled over more so because my dad was like crying and I called dad what's wrong him. He said he went to the doctor, you know, for his checkup because it was his birthday. And his doctor asked him what he was doing differently. He said, your numbers, your vital, all this stuff looks so much better.

25:57And I think my dad was just so emotional because like I said, for him at his age and having a lot of friends that he's losing and stuff. And it just shows you, And, you know, my biggest maybe flex is that I have my family. Yeah. Right. And selfishly. I want them around. What? Exactly. I want them around. Even if they want to be hardheaded about certain things or whatnot, I've had that conversation with them. I said, you know what? At this point, it's not even about you. It's about the fact that I don't know what I would do without you. Yeah. Right. So that's why Function Health and making sure that we give everybody and anybody opportunity to be better.

26:46Dr. Mark Hyman:It's true. It's like, you know, the biggest gift you can give someone is the gift of health. And knowing your information, you know, people are scared about it, but people don't realize that like over 90 % of your health is determined by what you do, your choices that you make. Like we talked about earlier about your food choices, exercise. You tell your dad, you know, we want to golf. You got to exercise. You move it. And people don't realize that you can modify these things. You find your tests are not fixed. They're actually changeable, whether you've got diabetes or whether you've got high blood pressure or you've got low vitamins or you've got hormones that are off.

27:18Dr. Mark Hyman:You can fix everything. And that's the thing that you learn with function is you actually have a roadmap on what to do. Exactly. And even for me, being a professional athlete for all these years since I was 19, there's a part of you that feels like invincible. Yeah. Right? Like, oh, that's what happened to them. That ain't going to happen to you. I'm telling you, after 35, and then especially at 40, at 40, I'm at the age where I've lost people that I know or people that have different, you know, sickness, disease, and all this stuff. So it becomes really real. And what did you notice and find out that you didn't know about yourself from testing?

27:56I had really bad gut issues. Right. And I think that's from stress.

28:01Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. Right. And that is the biggest marker, right? One of the things, that's a great question you just asked me because when you asked me, I'm like, well, there's a whole lot of things. Yeah. But one of the things that I try to pay a very close attention to is cortisol. Yeah. Right? Mm-hmm. And that's one of those things that. It's your adrenals, yeah. Like stress levels, you can become stressed thinking about being stressed. Yeah. Like seriously. Stress is what happens between your ears, really. Stress is what happens between your ears and it registers in your body. Yes. You think about your heart and how all this stuff can be affected.

28:37And I think for me, knowing the different gut issues that I've had have been somewhat stress related. And it's trying to simplify things if you can. Right. Because the hustle and bustle of life, we all want to work. We want to do this. You want to do this. You want to do this. And so I found that I have to sometimes say, let's take a break. Slow down. Slow down. Let's chill. Let's reset. Let's make sure I get around my family. Because trying to be everything for everybody, it'll run you ragged. And what you learn, too, is everyone thinks that money is everything. Right? And there's a lot of things that can come with it, but it can't buy you happiness.

29:29It can't buy you peace. It can give you convenience and all these different things. But the thing that money can't buy you is health. Health, that's right. And when you see that, when you see this person that has all this wealth, you know, get sick or whatnot, there's nothing you can pay a doctor or something like that. There's no pill or anything like that yet that you can buy. And it says, give me a clean bill of health.

29:53Dr. Mark Hyman:Well, it's mostly what we do to ourselves. I mean, that's what you've learned for yourself is if you want to have a long career in basketball, you've got to take care of your health. And it's not just exercising. It's what you're eating. It's what you're putting in your body. It's a supplement you're taking. And you only can know what to do if you actually get the data, right? Yeah. And I just thought about something when you said that, too, which you also realize is that it's really an individual journey, right? As much as I love being on a team and being together, it's an individual journey because no matter if it's your spouse, your partner, whatever it is, you can't make that person get up and exercise.

30:34You can't pass some of your heart to that person.

30:40Dr. Mark Hyman:I did lock my mother in my house once for three months and I made her eat everything I gave her. She lost like 30 pounds. She reversed her heart failure. Her lungs got better. so they get off her oxygen. It was pretty amazing. But I made her go on an exercise bike. I might have to find out what lot she used. Well, she couldn't drive. She was really sick and she couldn't go anywhere. So she just had to eat what I gave her. And how was she like afterwards? Not health, but emotionally. She was so much happier. She could live on her own again. She was functioning. Of course, then when she went back to live on her own, she started bad habits again.

31:12Dr. Mark Hyman:She wouldn't listen to me. Right, but at least that was something. She got a chance to see. Yeah, but the thing is, when people know the data and information, there's things that they can do. And so whether it's your dad making those changes after learning his lab data and getting insights about his health that he wouldn't have known, or you're making changes that improve your performance and health and well-being, or giving this gift is a powerful gift. Information is king. And you're doing this for the NBA players, too. So how do you imagine them using this? Because you mentioned a lot of guys just don't pay attention to their health, and it's true.

31:43Yeah. So I tell you, one of the things that I'm probably most proud of as president of the union, the time that I was there, was that we're the only sports league that has health insurance for retired players.

31:58Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah, that's right. Right. Only sports league that have that. And so retired players, every so often in different regions, we have like clinics that players can show up and go to. And there have been a number of players who have been to these clinics and they found out different things. The legend, Tiny Archibald, I'll never forget when he went, he found out that he had a heart condition. Right. And because of that, they were able to save him. Yeah. Right. And so for all the different players in the league to be able to use function, it is a it's a tool. Right. It's a it's a. Are you hearing stories from them?

32:39Not yet. A lot of guys are kind of private with their things, but you will. You will at some point because, you know the average career for an NBA player? 10 years? No, not even close. It's like three and a half. Really? Yeah. Because a lot of times people see the stories of, you know, myself, Kyle Lowry, LeBron, all this stuff like that. Michael Jordan, yeah. Yeah, but you don't see the guys who come in for a year and then they go overseas. for the time period that guys are in the league, the fact that you get a chance to get exposed to function health, right? If your career is on the shorter side, at least you've been exposed to this, right?

33:21Talking about like how I was exposed to the food sensitivity test, right? Once guys get exposed to it, right? And it's something that guys can do because there's a lot of things that when you're in the NBA, you'd be like, oh yeah, we just get this because we in the NBA. You want to find those different things that, more of the masses can lean into. Yeah.

33:40Dr. Mark Hyman:Right. Yeah. It's only a dollar a day. So most people, not everybody, most people can afford a dollar a day for their health. And that's what I'm saying. So that's why this is such a game changer because it is for more people. Yeah. And it gives, you know, as we're, as we're functioning and becoming, you know, a more mature company, we're actually building more intelligence into the product. And so it gets smarter and smarter and smarter. And we're able to guide people on actually what to do. So it's sort of like, you know, supports them in decision-making about their own health, helps them work with their doctor better.

34:10Dr. Mark Hyman:It really creates an ecosystem where they can actually change their health and see the change over time. And I think we never had that before. You had to go to the doctor, you had to get insurance, but people wouldn't go. And it's empowering people in a way that we never had before. And you can see this with your own family. They're probably finding out all kinds of stuff they didn't know about themselves. And they're able to say, oh, wait a minute, I can do something about it. And the fact that you get to go to your phone and you can look at it and you can see it and you can check what's going on and you don't have to wait a week or two weeks for the doctor to tell you, you know, this is what's going on with you.

34:43Right. And the fact that you can communicate and talk with somebody to tell you how to get better at it, because there's a lot of things that the things that I learned about food, right. When I said I went plant-based, right. I started learning about all types of stuff that I had no clue about. Right. Like I grew up in North Carolina, like my snacks was little Debbie's oatmeal cream pies, right? And then being out here in California. Little Debbie's, yep. Yeah, and then being out here in California and my kids growing up asking for seaweed, asking for seaweed and they coming up to me and they breath smell like the ocean.

35:20Right. It's different, but you don't know what you don't know. And so, like you said, the information that Function is able to give you is amazing.

35:30Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. Was there anything in your results that were surprised you that you were like, Like, hey, I didn't know this and I would never have found this out. I'll be very honest with you. When you first get your results back. It's a lot. It's a lot. A lot. It's a lot. It's kind of scary, right? Because I'm a self-diagnosed hypochondriac, right? So when I see the different levels or whatnot and they say this marker right here should be here, I'd be like, oh, I'm dying. Yeah. I'm dying. I'm dying. I already died. I'm dying. You know, but. I just scored 42 points, but I'm dying. Right, right, right. Right.

36:01But to not just get the results. Right. Because there's sometimes like people give you results and be like, here you go. All right. And then you like, what do I do with this? What am I supposed to do? And so to have someone that can coach you. More supportive.

36:15Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. Yes, the support, the support is necessary to be like, this is probably just like this because you were doing this, right? Or have you eaten a lot of this? Yeah. Or have you been - Maybe you have too much tuna fish and didn't know that. Sushi or mercury's really high. Mercury really high. You know, I think you mentioned that people don't have a dashboard for their health. Like they can go on their phone and they can look at their bank account. Yep. They can check their stocks or whatever, but they can't have a dashboard for their health. But now people can. Yeah. And that's the beauty of this.

36:46Dr. Mark Hyman:And it's continuous over time. It's just like you don't check your bank account once and say, oh, I'm good. I'm checking the rest of my life. You keep checking and making sure you're okay. And it's the same thing with your health. You've got to keep after it. And to get the information, and even me being a professional athlete, feeling like I know so many different things. I have a nutritionist, her name's Mary, who works with me, right, who coaches me on my results and all these different things and try to figure out how I can make it more performance-based and all this stuff. And it's been amazing for me because, right?

37:19Like saying I'm 40, but at my age at 40. Don't leave a day over 35. I need every little advantage that I can get, every little edge that I can get. And so -

37:32Dr. Mark Hyman:You're playing against guys 15 years younger than you. Exactly, exactly. I mean, I'm paying attention to what I eat. So if game is at seven o 'clock, I know my pregame is usually three hours before. Right. Four o 'clock. I usually eat my pregame meal. Then an hour before the game, I have a snack. Right. And so a game will start halftime. I have another snack because people don't realize the game is three hours long. Right. So one of the things that I didn't like to do early in my career is, and I'm sure there are plenty of people like this in the world, like when you're exercising, you don't like to drink.

38:09Dr. Mark Hyman:No, right. Right? You don't like to drink. But I actually, in my brain, I've blamed a few of my injuries on hydration. Being dehydrated, yeah. Yep. On being hydrated. Dehydrated. Yep. Had one of my trainers, you know, in the past few years or whatnot, whenever I come out the game, I be like, give me my drink. even if I don't even ask for it. Yeah. Right? Because you have to. For that amount of time that you're playing. And you're having electrolytes too. Exactly. That's the other thing too. I think a lot of times people think you're just drinking water. No, you need electrolytes because you have to replenish, right?

38:46And so all of that stuff, when I became a lot more intentional and dialed in with that, changed everything.

38:52Dr. Mark Hyman:And you said you noticed, you mentioned earlier we were chatting, you said when you change your diet, like your face looks different. Oh, man. Swollen or puffy. and less inflammation in your body, better recovery, less injuries. I'm going to tell you this. Talking basketball, I was a real live killer when I played in New Orleans, right? Like I downheeled. That was before I had knee surgery and all that stuff. But it's so funny for me to look at pictures of me back then, right? And in weight, I may have been lighter. I think I was, but I look so much heavier because my face is so much fuller. And like you said, I know now that that's inflammation.

39:29That's inflammation.

39:31Dr. Mark Hyman:That's something you can pick up on the blood test, too. You pick that up on the blood test. But I think what happens and why, I'm not a hoarder of information. If I learn something, I want nothing more than to pass it to the next person. But people will be like, yo, man, you don't hurt. You don't ache. How are you still playing? They'd be like, man, if I go out and play right now, I hurt so bad. But it's because I found the different things for me that - yeah, recovery, and I eliminated as much inflammation as possible. And then when I make choices, right, that I know could possibly cause some inflammation, then I try to take the proper steps or whatnot to get rid of it.

40:12Adjust it. Yeah.

40:13Dr. Mark Hyman:You know, to adjust it. So what's it like an average day for you look like when you're playing in terms of how you take care of your body, what you eat and how you rest, how you recover from games? Walk us through it. Because, you know it's unusual i mean you know tom brady played but you know he's quarterback and he's just he's he's he's a few seconds of intense exactly i'm running up down you're like going going going right yeah i love time he's a friend but like yeah it's like and i'm having to guard these point guards right who 19 20 years old and all that stuff like that that's real shifty and all that stuff but um and is that's the competitiveness that comes in and that's what It makes me, so on given days, I mean, at one point I felt like I was having digestion issues.

40:54So I wake up in the morning, I have celery juice, right? I got to do that. And then, you know, when I was with the Clippers, what I would do is I would leave. We practiced, I think, at like 11. So say practice at 11. I mean, I'm out of my house because it would take me 40 minutes to get to the practice facility. I would leave my house around 6, 630. Yeah, I'm up early. I'm up early and I'm gone. I get to the arena and my trainer, Donnie, we would be in the gym and we would lift. Like, that's the other thing that I, the older I got, the more I lifted. Yeah. Right. Like, that's the thing that I'm sure, you know, as far as like muscle mass and all that stuff, the older you get, the more days, like the days you take off the body, you know, you don't use it, you lose it.

41:46Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. When you're younger, you kind of got a lot of hormones going on. And then when you're older, you got to, I know I'm 66. I get it. Yeah. You got to, you got to keep, I got to get after it every day. Yeah, exactly. So I'm at the gym, uh, Donnie, me and my trainer, we lift in probably like 730 to 845 or so. And then I would go, uh, eat. I would go make sure I get, uh, my protein and all that stuff in before practice. Cause practice is at 11. And then I would usually be on the court maybe like around 9, 30. Is coffee good or bad for me? This is a question I get asked all the time. And here's the truth.

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43:33Dr. Mark Hyman:That's P-I-Q-U-E life.com slash hymen. People often assume I love cooking because I'm a doctor and focused on food as medicine. But the truth is I love cooking because it's creative, it's grounding, and it connects you to what you're eating. In fact, last night I cooked one of my favorite recipes, our Mediterranean lemon chicken soup. It's simple, nourishing, and it's built around whole anti-inflammatory ingredients. Nothing complicated, just real food prepared well. Cooking isn't about talent. It's about confidence. And confidence comes from having the tools that actually work. And that's why I use Made in Cookware.

44:07Dr. Mark Hyman:The heat distribution is incredibly even, whether I'm sautéing aromatics for soup or simmering broth. Made in creates professional quality, chef-trusted cookware that's designed for the home cook. It makes the process seamless. And when your cookware performs well, you're not worrying about hot spots or uneven cooking. You're focused on flavor and nourishment. Try it today. Visit madeincookware.com and use the code HYMAN10 for 10 % off your order. So we'll be there breakfast with a protein. Because being vegan, it's a little more challenging to get proteins that actually build muscle. So you needed different combinations of amino acids and things.

44:39Dr. Mark Hyman:How do you work around that? I mean, when I was fully plant-based, I would do that. But because I've started to incorporate fish and all these different things, it would vary on a given day. Like maybe smoked salmon and things like that. So do that in the morning. And then after practice is over, I'm laughing because I've had so many different stages of my career. It was when me and my brother just lived together. Yeah, eating pizza. It was me and my girlfriend, right? Yeah. Then she became my wife. Then we had one kid. Then we had two kids. So now, like, when practice get over, dad starts. Yeah.

45:23Right? Dad starts. So now it's go home, eat lunch. Well, after practice, depending on what I have on my schedule that day, do you like the red light beds, the trifecta beds or whatnot? I like that, yeah. Yep. So I would do that before or after practice. And I usually try to do a sauna. Sauna. Like 20 minutes.

45:43Dr. Mark Hyman:Yep. In cold plunge. You use like hyperbarics too? Yeah. I've done hyperbarics. That's crazy. I need to go back. I ain't did that probably in the last month. It helps recovery too. Absolutely. I used to have one. I have one in my house. Like the one where you zip your - Blow up one, yeah. Yep, the blow up one. They actually got the ones here in Beverly Hills where like two people, three people can go in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Big hard ones, yeah. Yeah, you can actually like watch TV in them and stuff. That's right. So I'm open to all the different things, right? But what I try to do is there's so much monotony in life, right?

46:17Like with drills and all this stuff. So with my recovery, I try to change things up, right? Like so some days I'll do cold tub. Some days I'll do cold tub, hot tub, contrast, right? So someday it'll be massage, right? So just depending on how I feel. Why pick? quench them all the same day. No, that's a long day. I know. That's a long day. But the other thing that the days or whatnot, what's really nice about the sauna or the red light bed, all these different things, is the time without your phone. Right? The time to connect. The time to just sort of be in daydream. I sort of talk about this all the time as far as like kids with phones or iPads is growing up when we were in the car with our parents and we would be riding in the back seat and our parents would be listening to whatever they wanted to listen to.

47:16You would catch yourself just looking out the back window. Right. And the trees just going by. And then you just start daydreaming. Yeah. About any and everything. Like a meditation almost. Exactly. Yeah. And with the speed of life and everything going on in the world now where it's always an app, there's always a show, there's always something, there's very few time for us to disconnect. And so I find in those times it gives me an opportunity to be.

47:46Dr. Mark Hyman:Well, that's how you focus and be so focused as you are to succeed at something because you can't be on your phone all the time if you want to be an elite athlete, right? Or you want to be successful in anything in life. Yeah, anything in life. But that's what basketball always has been. And it's been a safe haven and just sort of a happy place. So when you can get out there on the court, a lot of guys probably don't even think about it. Yes, you love playing basketball. But what it is, is you love being and not being on your phone and someone asking you for something or doing something like that.

48:19You don't even have your phone on the court. Exactly.

48:20Dr. Mark Hyman:They probably lock it in the locker room, don't they? Oh, yeah. It's gone. It's gone. that's right so chris i want to ask you also about sleep because you know you can work out you can eat well but you're on the road all the time different cities different time zones playing at different times and all the circadian rhythms get screwed up how do you how do you handle taking care of your sleep man sleep is is everything and i don't have my aura ring on now which is crazy but um i um i think about sleep um that's just as important as the diet and the food and everything. And what's interesting is that I'm a napper, right?

48:58That's good. I'm a napper. And let my family tell you, they probably say I'm narcoleptic. But because of the days, right? The days are so long and I'm up so early. And when you play in the NBA, you're on these planes and you get out of this high intense game and then you fly and land at 2 a.m. Then you got I practice at 10, right? So I don't get eight hours every night, no. But when I do get home or whatnot and I'm sitting there, I will nap. I will fall asleep. I find time to do that because...

49:35Dr. Mark Hyman:Napping is a very good power skill if you can do it. Yeah, I have to, especially in season on a game day. On a game day, I allow myself two hours. To nap. To nap. Amazing. To nap. Go into a room, phone go on, do not disturb. I want the lights dark, right? Like you constantly learning stuff. Little tricks. Yeah, little tricks. But even my wife, right? Because I played six years away. Like six years I lived away from my family. One year in Oklahoma City, three years in Phoenix, one year in Golden State, and then one year in San Antonio. So my wife now, she would always sleep with the TV on. Right.

50:17But she would do that because she's home alone. She said she's hearing things. Right. Like just the anxiety. Exactly. So she would sleep with the TV on. And since this season, when I've been back home, like I'll tell her, I'll be like, okay, we got to cut that off. Because I heard that like when you're sleeping, even if the TV's on, it's like doing something to your brain and all that. So, you all see, just last night, I woke up in the middle of the night and was like, cut that damn TV. Right? But the sleep thing is so important. And I'll tell you this with Aura, which has been amazing because.

50:51You can see what affects it. You can see what it affects you, tells you your deep sleep, tells you all of these different types of things. And so, we had a playoff game, 2021. We were playing against the Clippers, ironically, when I was with Phoenix. And this was like game six, the game that could take us to the NBA finals. And the funniest thing about Aurora is, I mean, I would be on the bus headed to a game and it'd say like, you should be winding down right now. And I'm like, winding down. I'm winding up. I got to get up. I got 30 points. I got to score. I got this game going on. But one of the best games I ever played in my career, I woke up that morning.

51:31And you know, like when you get a good night's rest, it'll tell you, it'll give you a score and it'll usually give you a message. Yeah. Mine that morning said, bring it on. Bring it on. I'll never forget it. It said, bring it on. My aura ring told me when I was about to have COVID. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. I missed two games in a playoff series because that was the year that COVID was going on. But my aura ring was telling me that my body temperature was elevated. Yeah, heart rate. And all that sleep.

52:01Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. is, is everything. And you, in my profession, you also have to be able to function on little sleep, little sleep. Kind of like a doctor. Exactly. Exactly. No, seriously. And I know pretty high functioning people that don't always get a whole lot of sleep. And I've never been, I don't eight, nine hours. Who doing that? I, that's not me. I'm not going to lie. I try. But when you do, you take the time to really do it. And you see the difference in like when you bring it on, when you had a good score, you got 41 points. Yes. And I believe in napping. Napping. All right. That's the trick, folks.

52:40Dr. Mark Hyman:Nap if you can, when you can. Yeah. You do a lot of sort of nonprofit work too and food access and try to help people. Yeah. Maybe share a little bit about that because I think it's, you know, you're trying to give back in a way to help empower people around their health. Always trying to give back to empower people. But also a lot of things that our foundation do, we start with kids. We start with kids because kids, they're very open to learning. They're very open to learning. If you can introduce things to kids, sometimes people don't realize, but kids are teaching their parents things. Even think about technology, social media and all that stuff.

53:21Like kids are teaching their parents. So if you can teach kids different eating habits or different things like that, which is already changing. Right. As far as like snacks or whatnot. So my snack company, Good Eatin', right? Like the whole purpose of that was to leave with taste, obviously, but there are clean ingredients. That's right. Right. So if you can start with that, because obviously food, like breakfast, lunch and dinner or whatever, it's hard to change that aspect. But people in general, like if we were sitting here talking, I should have brought the snacks anyway, but people just find themselves snacking.

53:57Yeah. Yeah. Right. So when we talked about budgeting. Yeah. Right. So if you can at least enjoy the snacks that you eat and know that you don't have all these different crap in them, crap in them. That was the whole point of me starting my snack company, because like I said, I'm a snacker. Right. I like food. And so I wanted to make sure that at least when you're doing that, you're not feeling guilty and feeling bad that you're putting junk into your.

54:22Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. I saw some of those cookie recipes. They were kind of interesting. The ingredients were pretty clean, but they were like, you'd think they wouldn't be, right? Like Ragers or cookies and cream popcorn. Exactly. And that's because. I'm like, wait a minute, Chris, wait a minute. I checked it out. I was like, all right. Well, that's because, right. Like, I mean, if I say it, like, These kids are still eating Doritos and Cheetos and stuff like that every day. You know what I mean? Like, why not have something that tastes good but have better ingredients than that? And are kids liking it? Love it.

54:56Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. Love it. That's amazing. Wow. And how do you think about the next phase of your life? Yeah, I'm excited about it. I have a production company. I have the snack company. I have a lot of other things that I want to continue to work on. But the thing that I'm most excited about is being present. Right. With your family. Exactly. Being present for my family, even for my friends. Right. Like, I'm so grateful for the life that I've been able to enjoy and play for all of these years. But I haven't been able to show up for friends, for my family, for them for a very, very long time. So I'm really excited about that.

55:35Dr. Mark Hyman:And that's a hard thing. You know, success always comes with a price, right? You've got to work hard. You've got to do a lot. And, you know, your job entails a lot of travel, which means being away from your family. And that's got to be one of the hardest parts. And people don't realize that. But it's so much gratitude. It's been an unbelievable journey in my family. Everybody's been able to go on this ride with me. But now, you know, it's time to do something different. And one of the things that I want to sort of touch back on what you said, which I think is really important, is the power of community and doing things together, whether it's your teammates, whether it's with your family.

56:08Dr. Mark Hyman:You know, you kind of were chatting on another podcast about this group of friends you had since you were a kid, and you have a group chat. And they know you not as Chris Paul, the NBA player, but like just this dude who's like... You know, to speak on that, my homies, my fellas group chat back home, my boy John John, I think it was John John or Petey, probably like a week ago, which I need to follow up with them because we talked about it, but then nobody put it in motion. We said we was going to do something for like a month. We was going to make a month challenge of, uh, but because everybody's body type is different, we was going to do like a body fat loss or something like that.

56:44And we said we was going to do that. Um, but nobody followed up, which just, I need to follow up because that's, that's fun to do. Keep each other accountable. It keeps everybody accountable. And my homies, I love y 'all to death, but everybody definitely got different body types. Yeah. Well, you know, as you get older, it's like, you don't pay attention. No, no, no, no, no. Very different body types. And everybody makes sure they tell each other in the chat just about every other day. But we can't just do body fat because a couple of them, they got a lot to lose. They got a lot to lose. My homies.

57:19I'm excited about doing this challenge with them because we said we was going to do, and I don't know that. You might know how to, like, how do we make it competitive for all of us if we all got to get the fat.

57:30Dr. Mark Hyman:Well, you just say the percent. The percent. amount of, but the thing is you're not going to lose a lot because you're going to win the contest because you're already We got to figure out how to make it competitive now. They can't just win just because they, no, no, no, no. Nuh-uh, my cousin Rod, my cousin Suit, well, Suit, nah, but Yeah, you can figure that out because it's percent of change, right? It matters. Wherever you start, how much can you improve? But if you're already really good, it's hard to get that extra edge, right? If you get that extra.1 second on 100-yard dash, it's not easy.

58:01We're going to figure it out, though, because that's going to be a fun competition to do with them.

58:04Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. Well, actually, I created a program. We do a group program. We call it the 10-Day Detox, but you can do it for a month. And essentially, it's where people eat an anti-inflammatory diet for a month. Yeah. And they get reset, and all their numbers get better. You can do function before and after, and you can compete on that. I'm going to put that in the chat, dude. Yeah. I'm going to put that in the chat. Get them all functioned,$365 a year. I'm serious. I'm going to put it in the chat because that's actually been some of the... the coolest days for me, right? Like my homies that I'm talking about, my fellas group chat, I never get to see them, right?

58:38We usually go on a trip once every summer. Usually every season, I try to bring them out to a game, but they have lives. They have things going on. But it'd be so dope when one of the guys or something put in the chat or we all get on FaceTime and we look at, I remember we looked at my cousin Rod one time when we was all on FaceTime and his face had just looked so different. We was like, yo, what you got going on over there? he was like, man, I've been basically doing like a detox or something like that. So to have real friends that you can encourage to do things like that, because these are my like real friends since we were, since we were younger and some of them have had different health issues.

59:17And when you find out these guys, like they're in the hospital, you're like, what?

59:21Dr. Mark Hyman:Yeah. You know, they're in the hospital. Don't take care of yourself. It catches up. Yeah. So I'm going to definitely put that in the group chat. So just everybody got to remember, it's really about, you know, doing it together, right? Health and enjoying life and enjoying experiences. And the only way we get a chance to do that is with our health. Last question is, Chris, you're looking back to your 22-year-old self and you're giving him some advice. What would you advise him to do? Ooh, I'm looking back at my 22-year-old self. Health advice. You know what? Honestly, I probably wouldn't have did anything that different.

59:58Right. And I say that because I've learned so much. You would have Krispy Kremes and McGriddles? Yeah. Yeah. Sweet tea. I had to. Right. I had to. And nothing against it or whatnot, but I've met like kids that have never had a cheeseburger or never had a, well, not a cheeseburger, but hamburger. Cause I don't like cheese anyway. Yeah. But they've never even experienced any of those things. Right. So the things that I've gotten a chance to eat and understand, I learned. I learned a lot. 22, where I was? I was still playing in New Orleans at the time. Maybe not as, man, my chef used to make this Krispy Kreme bread pudding.

1:00:39Whoa. That's what I'm saying. I can't say that I wouldn't. Krispy Kreme bread pudding. It's definitely on the Dr. Hyman diet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But probably at that age, what I would have done, honestly, if I could do anything different, is not as much sugar. Yeah. Because I didn't know.

1:00:58Dr. Mark Hyman:Sugar, yeah. Sugar is the most inflammation. Everything that I had then, right? I was, man, to think about what I would have for dinner, right? I would have fried chicken, sweet tea, finished with that Krispy Kreme bread pudding. Wow. And then while I was chilling, watching games at night, I'd go in there and get me a honey bun. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's when I'd probably double back, go get me an oatmeal. Thank God you were running up and down the court all day. You would make two, 300 pounds. Absolutely. Absolutely. Amazing. Well, Chris, thanks for being an example for how to take care of yourself and how to give back to the world and take care of the players and, you know, tell them the world about, you know, why it's important for everybody to take care of their health.

1:01:42Dr. Mark Hyman:So thank you so much. Thank you. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it You can find me on all social media channels at dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out I'd love to hear your comments and questions Don't forget to rate review and subscribe to the dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts And don't forget to check out my youtube channel at dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the dr. Hyman show This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the ultra wellness center my work at Cleveland Clinic and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer.

1:02:15Dr. Mark Hyman:This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at ultrawellnesscenter.com and request to become a patient.

1:02:47Dr. Mark Hyman:It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.