Dr. Gabrielle Lyon is a board-certified family physician trained in geriatric nutritional sciences, focusing on skeletal muscle to support longevity for high-performers. She has registered the term “muscle-centric medicine,” which she describes as shifting focus away from reactively quantifying and treating disease to proactively quantifying and optimizing your health by focusing on the biggest organ in your body: skeletal muscle.
In addition to hosting her own hit podcast (you can listen to MLM founder Greg Scheinman’s episode on that podcast here), she has appeared on Dr. Andrew Huberman’s podcast, among many others.
MLM: When it comes to the state of the modern Midlife Male, you’ve uncovered some startling figures. Would you mind sharing those?
Dr. Gabrielle Lyon: Yes, I wanted to share some statistics. Suicide rates among older adults are rising, and the most at risk are men. Marriages are hurting. In 1990, 8.7% of all divorces in the United States occurred among adults 50 and over. By 2019 the percentage had grown to 36%.
MLM: How is this affecting men’s health?
Dr. Lyon: Well, there is also a growing longevity gap between men and women in the United States. Life expectancy in 2021 was 79 years old for women and for men, it’s 73.2 years of age. There is a 5.9 year difference, and this is actually the largest gap that we’ve seen in a quarter of a century.
MLM: These are some scary numbers that reflect the state of midlife men’s happiness and health. And health drives many of these statistics, as you know. If you’re not healthy or you’re overweight you’re more likely to be depressed, drink, use drugs and on and on… What’s the biggest misconception you see when you talk to midlife men?
Dr. Lyon: They think, “Okay, I’m 51 now it’s too late. Or the people that are young and listening or watching this will say, You know what? I’m 32, I don’t really care about my health. I’m so stressed about other things.” What you are doing at MLM is showing everybody that it doesn’t matter how old you are, it’s possible you can actually get better with age.
And we’re not talking about high amounts of testosterone. We’re not talking about additional anabolics. We are not talking about crazy nutrition, health and wellness strategies. In most cases we’re talking about getting back to basic health principles.
MLM: You mentioned testosterone. For some men, that’s a huge buzzword. Some guys think it’s illegal or shady. Others are all in. Most fall in the middle. What’s the bottom line here?
Dr. Lyon: When it comes to testosterone, there had been safety concerns in the past, and really those have largely been disproven, if not completely disproven. We know that testosterone replacement therapy for the right individual is safe, protective of bone and brain health and all kinds of things.
MLM: So many midlife men take stock of their lives and feel like they’re behind where they want to be. Or that they need to catch up. Or work harder. All gas, no breaks. It can be very stressful and destructive for them. Do you see the negative outcomes of that?
Dr. Lyon: This is an interesting perspective, because in the age of the internet, there’s a lot of discussion about hustle and grind. It’s very divisive. So it’s the hustle and grind or it’s the warm bubble bath, destress, chill out. There is no middle ground. But there has to be.
MLM: You work with many elite, highly successful, highly trained men. What is the main reason they feel so comfortable with you?
Dr. Lyon: A lot of my private concierge patients are men. Part of the reason is because there has been a dynamic that’s been very successful with them, whether they’re Navy SEALs or tier one operators or CEOs. These are people that really want to push the needle, and I think it works because of our actual conversations.
Oftentimes, I feel that they’re willing to speak to me, whether it’s because I’m a woman or, you know, maybe nurturing. But they’ll tell me that they want to have meaning and purpose and live the rest of their lives as strong as they can without regret. They may not share that with everyone.
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For Greg’s full Interview with Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, listen here on Apple Podcasts.
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