Can Herbs Replace Prescription Drugs?

Nick Urban [00:00:01]:
You’re listening to High Performance Longevity. The show exploring a better path to optimal health for those daring to live as an outlier in a world of averages. I’m your host, Nick Urban, bioharmonizer, performance coach, and lifelong student of both modern science and ancestral wisdom. Each week we decode the tools, tactics and timeless principles to help you optimize your mind, body and personal performance span things you won’t find on Google or in your AI tool of choice. From cutting edge biohacks to grounded lifestyle practices, you’ll walk away with actionable insights to look, feel and perform at your best across all of Life’s domains. A 2024 DNA barcoding study found that 60% of supplements on the shelf don’t contain the herb on the label. That’s why my guest today became a formulator. Dr.

Nick Urban [00:01:03]:
Robert Beltran is a triple board certified surgeon and pharmacist with 30 years of experience. In 2014, an accident put him on OxyContin. A colleague handed him an herbal blend from an Asian market in Irving, and three weeks later, he was off the opioids. He spent the next decade running clinical trials on what was in that bottle. He runs recommend nutrition. Welcome to the show.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:01:32]:
Hey, thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m very honored and appreciative and thankful.

Nick Urban [00:01:37]:
Take us back to that exact moment in 2014 when your colleague handed you a bottle of six herbs from that Asian market. What was happening in your body that morning and what was running through your pharmacist mind as you read the label?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:01:53]:
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. So what happened is I had an accident. I had to have six surgeries. Excuse me, eight surgeries in 18 months. And of course, I needed pain medication because five of those were major surgeries. And my weapon of choice was oxycontin. And I did become addicted. So I became addicted not because I wanted to be an addict or it was from street drugs.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:02:17]:
It was from prescription medication. And beginning of 2014, enough was enough. So I decided that I needed to get off the OxyContin. And the withdrawal was pretty torturous. I went into rehab for eight days. I should have stayed longer, but I thought I knew more than the counselors knew. And so for seven weeks, I basically withdrew at home. And I had to basically discover things on the fly to help me through that.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:02:51]:
But I was able to make it through. Probably the worst part of it all was after I knew I was no longer physiologically addicted. Nick. I had what we now know as brain fog. Back then, that Terminology was not utilized as much as it’s used now, but I had a horrible case of brain fog. I was mentally and physically stagnant and lethargic. I could not get going. I could not get motivated.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:03:18]:
And I found myself just sitting at home on a couch watching television for way too much of the day. And that’s something I just never did before in my life. So, of course, my wife was very concerned, but I just couldn’t get going. I told her, hey, I just don’t have the energy. I’m just totally lacking any kind of medical or physical energy. So I wasn’t going to go on prescription drugs. Of course, all my doctors at that time, they wanted to put me on antidepressants, mood stabilizers, sedatives for the anxiety I was having, and prescribed sleep aids. And I just know way too much about pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:04:01]:
And every one of those medications that I just mentioned, they all cause some degree of brain sedation, they all cause some degree of cognitive impairment. They all diminish your motivation and they alter your personality. I used to be able to walk into a room where it would be a social function, a party or whatever. I could pick out the people that were being medicated with antidepressants and sedatives. It was. It was very easy for me because their affect just wasn’t that of a normal person. So, anyway, get back to your question. I wasn’t going to go on prescribed medication, so a Chinese colleague of mine recommended herbs.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:04:43]:
I was very hesitant at first because I said, you know, I’m taught in Western medicine, modern medicine. This is ancient medicine. We’re talking about this. This is ancient Chinese medicine. And then I discovered it’s not just Chinese, but people in the Afghanistan mountains, the Andes in Peru, the Amazon basin, have been using these things for hundreds of years. And anecdotally, they’ve documented some unbelievably positive findings. So when I started reading and finding that out, I said, you know, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’m going to give this a go.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:05:22]:
And within three weeks, and it was a packet of. He actually referred me to an Asian market, and there was a lady there who had been a pharmacist in China, and we developed a very good rapport. And we put together a combination of five herbal medications. And within three weeks, everything changed for me. My minimal physical energy, my clarity, mental clarity, focus and alertness, they all returned in a very big way. And I was back to being myself. And I was so excited and so happy. And then about three to six weeks later, I started noticing some amazing benefits in the realm of intimacy.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:06:09]:
And I became so excited and so happy that this became my passion. And I just started studying and researching and learning as much as I could about the individual ingredients. And I started thinking about my own making, my own formulations, which I did. And the results just were amazing. The more I added to the equation, the better everything became. We had a problem initially in that all the herbs and the dosages I wanted resulted in the need for taking 16 capsules a day. Well, we knew that wasn’t going to fly with the public. It was barely tolerable for me, so I had to go back to the drawing board.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:07:01]:
And what happened was we started finding, discovering that there were some extracts we could use. 8 to 1, 10 to 1, 20 to 1 extracts. And that.

Nick Urban [00:07:12]:
Will you explain what that is for someone who doesn’t know what an extract is?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:07:16]:
An extract is a concentrated form of the. In this case, the herbal ingredient. So for the same quantity, or you can use instead of the standard quantity, you can use one tenth of that or 1/20 of that, not lose the potency if the extraction is done with precise scientific technique. So we did that, and we were able to get down to four capsules. But we still had at that particular time, and this we’re talking about 2018, 2019, we still had one formulation, a sort of shoe fits all, one size fits all. And we had a meeting one time where my CFO raised concerns. He said, you know, I think the public’s gonna be confused because we’re telling people that this is for mental energy, mental health, and it’s also for sexual wellness for both men and women. And he was absolutely right.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:08:20]:
So I went back to the drawing board, and by then I really had a good understanding of all the benefits that the different herbal ingredients had. And I was able to change the ingredients and change the dosages so that we ended up with three formulations, one for brain power and brain health, that we call clear focus, one for ladies sexual wellness and general health that we call lady plus, and one for men’s sexual wellness and general health that we call Man Plus. And I’m very happy because all of these products have amazing benefits, benefits that you can notice subjectively and objectively. They’re safe. They have negligible side effects at best. A few people that have taken the clear focus have indicated that initially they become a little bit nauseated, a little bit lightheaded, but each of them that has cleared as they continue to take it and then most importantly, or just as importantly, I should say, besides the target specific benefits, each of these products stimulates vital and important physiological processes that are known to promote healthy aging, preventative health and longevity. And how do they do this? They do this by the. They increase the microcirculation throughout the body.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:09:46]:
They replenish and optimize brain neurotransmitters, they promote neurogenesis, which is the restoration of damaged neural and brain tissue. All of them have adaptogens which moderate our response to stress. And we’ll get back to that later. But stress compromises a lot of lives and it kills people. Stress is responsible for a lot of things that happen that eventually terminate or shorten people’s lives. We’ll talk about that some more as we advance. And then because of the probiotics, they all improve digestion, the health of the gastrointestinal tract, and the very important gut brain axis is optimized. And the gut brain axis is so important for our mood, our emotion and our energy in any given day.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:10:35]:
And then last but not least, we selected strategic amino acids. And the amino acids are building blocks for everything. So amino acids build proteins, they build peptide sequences, and eventually they strengthen the integrity of all of our, all the structures in our body. And the ones that are very important, of course, are our long bones, our muscle and our collagen. So we’re really happy with what we’ve created. I think we’ve taken the. I’m going to be very bold in saying this, but I say this not as someone who’s patting himself on the back, but someone who is very familiar with the benefits and is very happy and appreciative for what we were able to develop. But we really think we’ve taken the nutraceutical industry to a whole new level.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:11:19]:
Some of the concerns that the industry has, and I know this because I go to their meetings, they have concerns about backing up their. A lot of bold statements that are made with scientific data. And they also have concerns about the quality assurance, quality control and regulatory issues that pertain to these products that are being formulated. And we took that into consideration, all of that into consideration when we started our business, that we were going to have scientific support for every comment that we made. And they were going to make sure we used top of the line quality ingredients and that these ingredients were tested when they came in, they were going to be tested when they were formulated, and they were going to be tested from time to time down the road when they were in store, just to make sure that we didn’t lose, that there weren’t any microbial infestations, and that we didn’t lose any of the potency. So we’re really happy. We think we’re on top of the game. We think we’re setting a whole new standard for the industry.

Nick Urban [00:12:20]:
I think from my own cursory look into it, in normal conventional pharmacy, the more substances you add together, the more the potential interactions and the more complex and complicated it becomes. Was it difficult for you, when you were approaching this, to decide, you know what, I don’t need to just take one isolated herb and use this. I actually want to get the Entourage effect, the synergistic effect of combining multiple together, and I’m okay with that.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:12:50]:
You raised a great point because, you know, in pharmaceutics, you’re absolutely correct. There are a lot of contraindications between different pharmaceutical agents. And that was initially a concern I had, but I became my own guinea pig. So I guaranteed the safety of. Of all the various combinations that we put together. And then, of course, we did our studies, and no one had any significant side effects. So we know that we’re putting a very safe product out in the marketplace.

Nick Urban [00:13:19]:
Yeah. Before you started taking it, though, were you skeptical? Did you wonder if maybe I should just try taking one of these five or so herbs and then eventually layer on the other ones? Or was it okay because you were already in a tough enough spot that you figured, I’ll try anything if it’ll actually get me out of this hole?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:13:36]:
Well, I came to that point, but you’re absolutely correct. I was very hesitant. It took me weeks before I finally moved forward and started taking these because I didn’t know the impact they were going to have on me. I, you know, I trusted the doctor who referred me over there, but you just never know. You know, I’ve seen some unbelievable things in medicine where people have had reactions that you just didn’t anticipate. So, of course, I was very hesitant. But I’m glad to say that we’re way beyond that point now.

Nick Urban [00:14:09]:
Yeah. So in some of your formulas, you have all kinds of different ingredients. Some of the more classical ones, some of the ones that are now going into more vogue. I know you started with your original formula, and you mentioned that you tweaked it as you became aware of the need to have multiple different formulas to reduce the confusion to the general market. How do you go about choosing and figuring out what to do, which ingredients to use, first of all, because obviously the ingredients all have their own profiles. But then even within a particular ingredient, you can have seven of the same ginseng, say Korean ginseng products, but then you have different extracts that are standardized to the different active ingredients in those. And all of it becomes like a very complicated thing to choose.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:14:53]:
Well, we’re going to work backwards. So yeah, these are great questions. We had to choose people that provide the ingredients. We did our research and make sure that everybody that we worked with had a very, very high standard and that nowhere did I find any kind of concerns that were expressed by anyone that was involved in the industry, whether it be other formulators or people taking the products. We made sure that we went to top notch people who take these ingredients, purify them and make sure that they’re ready for utilization by the public. And the same for the manufacturers. We interviewed five different manufacturers until we found someone who we felt very comfortable with, that they were going to do the things that were necessary. As I alluded to earlier, testing the products as they came into their door, testing the products after they were put together in formulation, and then also having the ability to send products back to them from time to time and get them retested to make sure, as I said earlier, that they were not infested with any microbes if they were sitting on the shelf for a month or two and that they did not lose any of the potency.

Nick Urban [00:16:21]:
Yeah, yeah, it’s a real issue. And I mentioned in an email newsletter if you guys want to opt in to get that, you can go to outlier.com join I mentioned why buying on Amazon has historically been a really bad idea because of the category, especially for herbal medicines, herbal supplements that is one of the most notoriously counterfeit and contaminated among all of them. So it’s great to hear that you guys are aware of that and you’ve taken steps to actively mitigate that in your supply chain.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:16:54]:
Interesting. So we sell our products two different formats. One is via our website and those come to the public via Shopify. But then we also sell through Amazon. And interestingly, before Amazon would take would accept our products, they made us send them to another third party testing entity that tested them for microbes, tested them for heavy metals and tested them for other impurities. And you know what, initially we thought it was bothersome, but we were very thankful for that situation because it just gave us another level of quality assurance.

Nick Urban [00:17:34]:
Yeah, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but before I think it was March 2026, there was a practice called co packing when you would order or I guess suppliers would all send their product in, Amazon would store it in a warehouse and then you’d order it and they would ship it out from whatever’s closest to the user for the last mile delivery. There used to be a big issue with Amazon that they wouldn’t actually verify the products were exactly the same. So you’d have the company who actually sells it. Then you’d have a third party who’s selling on Amazon. They’d co mingle, mix the supplements together in the same, same vat, the same container. And then if a company was selling counterfeit, like actual bottles that don’t have anything what they claim inside them, but they, they slap your label on it, they could still send that out to consumers. But I think they’ve taken steps to reduce that. And so it’s nice to hear that Amazon has, is aware of that problem because it’s been a big issue with them for many years and they’ve been working to remedy.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:18:31]:
Let me just say this is as we were moving forward in this industry, you know, with our passionate research and study of the industry itself and then the different herbal formulation ingredients and formulations, we learned a lot of things. We learned that there are studies out there to show that at least 50% of products that are, that are available to the market have no subjective or objective benefit. So you have to ask yourself, is there any benefit at all? And let me tell you about a couple of them. Nad, it is big, it is a billion dollar industry in and of itself and it has an important function. You know, it stimulates intracellular metabolism and energy. But that is just one small step in the various physiological processes that are required to even consider that you’re stimulating the body with or promoting in your body healthy aging, preventative health and longevity. And a number of medical, scientific studies have been done at high, high level medical centers. None of them have ever found a patient who was able to say after taking NAD that they had a very obvious subjective for objective benefit.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:19:55]:
And the clinicians themselves who did these studies were never able to find anything physiological that suggested to them that the NAD was having a positive and obvious physiological effect on the body that would be consistent with any type of anti aging. And then you have these fellows that are promoting DNA analysis because of the MTHFR situation where some of the methyl units on DNA strands are absent and then trying to connect these to things like mood, mental health and energy. And once again, there’s never been any kind of scientific study that has ever confirmed that and yet both of these have become very big industries in and of themselves.

Nick Urban [00:20:54]:
Yeah. With NAD specifically also. That’s an interesting one because if you actually look into it, I’m sure you have much more background on this than I do. I would hope so. At least. When I looked into it, it seemed very clear that, yes, you can introduce like the precursors. I mean, NAD itself, that molecule is. You’re not going to get anything if you take it orally.

Nick Urban [00:21:11]:
Like even if you introduce the precursors, that might move the needle a tiny bit. But like you have the whole salvage pathway, which is where the vast majority of the NAD in the body comes from and is recycled. That’s where it comes from. So if you’re not working on that pathway first, you’re wasting a lot of time, money and resources.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:21:30]:
Yeah, I think, I think you are anyway. But yeah, you’re absolutely correct.

Nick Urban [00:21:35]:
So why, why herbs? Do herbs play a role in the longevity and youth span promoting world?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:21:45]:
Absolutely. The herbal regimens that we have, and let me just say this, besides herbs in our formulations, we also have a vast array of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. We thought that all these were very, very important to achieve what we were looking to achieve. So we didn’t just discover an herb and say, oh, that has benefits, we’re going to put this herb on the market. We were looking for specific, target specific benefits and as I alluded to earlier, also promoting the physiological processes in the body that we knew were going to promote healthy aging, preventative health and longevity. So we had a plan of action and we brought the herbs together that we thought would help us accomplish this plan. The herbs and amino acids, because amino acids are very important, also the herbs and amino acids that we felt would allow us to achieve the target specific benefits that we were wanting to accomplish.

Nick Urban [00:22:50]:
So which would you say are the neglected areas either on the longevity anti aging side of things? Like are there particular pathways or areas you think that everyone’s talking about nad, but they should really be talking about this over here.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:23:03]:
Yeah, you’re absolutely right. We should be talking about what increases the microcirculation throughout the body on an ongoing basis, what promotes restoration of damaged neural and brain tissue, what allows us to reduce our response to stressful situations because these are compromising and terminating a lot of lives prematurely. What allows us to improve our digestion and the health of our gastrointestinal tract, because this optimizes the very important and vital gut brain axis and what allows us to optimize the integrity of every structure we have in our body and that is quality and specific amino acids. So like I said, I feel very comfortable in saying I think we’ve taken this industry to a whole new level because we had a good, our science background is extensive, especially in the biological sciences. We have a very good understanding, high level understanding and knowledge of human biology and human physiology. And of course we understand pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, pharmacology, clinical medicine considerations, chemical medicine applications and effects. And when I say effects, I mean the beneficial effects and the side effects. So it’s easy to compare what we’ve developed with the nutraceutical formulations that we have to pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:24:32]:
And the one big, the one big situation that is so dramatically different are

Nick Urban [00:24:37]:
the side effects for the microcirculation or essentially improving blood flow throughout the body. Are there any particular things that you find are extremely effective in that regard?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:24:51]:
Well, yeah, absolutely. L. Arginine, ginseng, ginkgo biloba and maca root, all of these are known to stimulate and increase the microcirculation throughout the body. I mean, think about that. That’s the essence of wellness right there in and of itself. You know, we saw that with wound healing. As a surgeon, anything we could do to increase the oxygen carrying capacity, the microcirculation into an area that needed healing, that always optimized the healing that we needed to see take place.

Nick Urban [00:25:30]:
Yeah, yeah. And it seems that there’s a lot of popular other interventions in the market, such as certain peptides that people are excited about because they help with microcirculation. But like peptides, especially the way they’re usually administered, different risk profile from an herb that has a thousand plus years of use in these different medical systems,

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:25:51]:
you know, there’s specific peptides that are proven entities. You know, of course the peptides now that are used by these GLP1 stimulators, I’m blanking on a few others. But the rest of them, once again, there’s no scientific basis to support the claims that are being made. There’s three or four that are proven. Okay. The rest of them, there’s so many claims out there and they’re not scientifically justified. And so, you know, what’s happened is that there’s some really sharp business people that have created business plans and unfortunately they’ve taken to science the facts and the statistics and manipulated these to fit their business plan. But yeah, peptides are right there within 80 plus where people are spending tens of money and there’s not any scientific or medical observations that support the claims that are being made.

Nick Urban [00:26:59]:
So in your formula, I’m looking at in the man. Plus, you have some ingredients here that I hadn’t heard of or I wasn’t very familiar with, such as. I don’t even know how to pronounce it properly. Murana, puama. And then. Yes, appendium. And then I have heard of tribulus butea.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:27:18]:
Medium, medium Sagittarium.

Nick Urban [00:27:24]:
How do you find these when you’re doing your research into like, what should I include in this formula? Because it’s one thing to like, look, okay, everyone knows that vitamin. If you’re formulating a multivitamin, you’re going to include these things. These are the things on the table and some of these are much less well known.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:27:42]:
Epithelium sagittarium is also known as horny goat weed. It’s been around for a while and the reason it was given that name is because there was this weed growing in the ground and goats would, would eat it. And they noticed that these goats became very, how should we say it, very sexually oriented. And so that’s how it obtained its name. And we’re going back quite a few years, you know, not something that just happened yesterday or in this century. Butea superba is known as nature’s Viagra in places like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. It’s everywhere. Men use it on a regular basis and they swear by it.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:28:26]:
Tongkat ali has been known to stimulate testosterone production in our testicles and also to increase the amount of free testosterone circulating in our bloodstream. It’s the free testosterone that’s active. The majority of our testosterone in normal situations is bound to circulating proteins. And when the body needs stimulates that protein to release the bound testosterone. And so that’s kind of what we’ve accomplished. We’ve been with some of the products that we have, like maca root, like tongkat Ali, like matea superba, we’ve increased the amount of production of testosterone and the amount of free testosterone that’s circulating in the body. So we like to think that we are the safe, more effective and healthier alternative to testosterone replacement therapy, which, as you know, has become literally an epidemic amongst men. And I honestly feel that this is a big mistake in the making.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:29:37]:
People are being fed misinformation because you have these studies coming out of Harvard by this, this group of doctors that are responsible for a lot of research as it pertains to testosterone replacement therapy. But the concern is this in the medical community that a lot of that data is biased and Tainted because they’re being supported by a number of pharmaceutical companies that are involved in testosterone synthesis. Yeah. This has been circulating for quite a few years. Concerns that the medical community has. It pertains to that data and the impact it’s having because there are studies out there that show that 70% of men who take testosterone for greater than 12 to 18 months are going to have side effects. 50% of those side effects are going to be compromising side effects, and 25 to 30% are going to have increased risk of dangerous side effects. And what we’re talking about there is primarily a higher incidence of early onset cardiovascular disease and of course an increased risk of cardiac heart attack, stroke and blood clot formation.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:30:55]:
So I guess it’s going to be somebody like myself that’s going to have to do everything they can to put it all in the right perspective and educate the public in the proper manner, in a manner that’s not biased and tainted.

Nick Urban [00:31:06]:
Yeah. And one of the things, piece of pushback I’m sure you get is that, yes, perhaps these have been shown to improve testosterone. But usually it’s like 10 points. See, someone goes from 250 to 260, like, does that really move the needle? Do you notice a behavioral difference? And like, that’s a straw man, of course. But like, what do you see in terms of people who do pre and post blood work and perhaps even in yourself?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:31:33]:
Well, a lot of people don’t, don’t do the blood work they’re supposed to do. And the therapeutic range for testosterone in the body is 400 to 800 nanograms per deciliter, and you start getting close to 600 nanograms per deciliter, you are definitely going to start having side effects. And those side effects can be pretty dramatic. Some of them are cosmetic, a lot of them are internal, affecting the physiology of our body. And, you know, I’ve had a lot of discussions with a lot of men who are taking testosterone. You know, men can be stubborn as, you know, they can be stubborn. Despite the fact of my background, you know, having doctorate degrees in pharmacology and pharmacy and medicine, despite the fact that I’ve been involved in medicine for 35 years. You know, there’s just so many people that think they know better than the experts now.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:32:30]:
And, you know, you can literally look at them as you’re talking to them and you can see some of the effects of the testosterone happening. But I also get contacted by guys who say, my libido’s gone, I can’t enjoy sex. And what’s happened in that situation is that they have compromised the hypothalamic pituitary gonado axis. So all of that is involved, from the brain down to your gonads, of stimulating the natural production of testosterone. And what they’ve done by taking all this external testosterone is they have compromised that very important physiological process. So what happens when they go back to the clinic? Their doctor says, you need a higher dose of testosterone replacement therapy, and then the whole cycle just exacerbates itself. And these are things that the public’s not hearing from the pharmaceutical companies. Actually, they do hear it from the pharmaceutical companies, but it’s in very, very fine print.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:33:37]:
But these testosterone replacement therapy clinics do not have a legal responsibility to share that with the public, and they don’t.

Nick Urban [00:33:47]:
So you said your reference range is like 400 to 600 nanograms a milliliter. Like, I am completely natural. I’ve never.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:33:54]:
400, 800.

Nick Urban [00:33:56]:
Okay, so I’m completely natural. I’ve never used pro hormones or Testosterone. Mine is 900. Would I. Would you expect that I’d be having negative side effects if I’m. If I’ve achieved that naturally?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:34:07]:
No, because it’s natural. This is your physiology. That’s the point I’m trying to make. You know, nature has its own way of maintaining, and there might be something. You’re taking a natural product that’s also helping you achieve that number, but it’s being done naturally. Physiologically, you’re stimulating your own production from your own gonads, your own testicles. So, yeah, that’s you, and that’s who you are. My testosterone, my natural testosterone was always pretty high.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:34:39]:
Also, I was always above 600 nanograms per deciliter. That’s just the way some of us are.

Nick Urban [00:34:47]:
Okay. In your man plus formula, when I first saw it, I knew you were onto something, because I looked at the label, and I saw one of your first ingredients in your blend is something that I’ve heard very few people talk about, and that is called catawaba. What is that, and why did you choose that?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:35:05]:
Well, again, it’s been known to stimulate energy, it’s been known to stimulate microcirculation, and it’s been known to have positive effects on men’s libido. So, of course, we wanted to, you know, put as many of these different ingredients in that have these same or similar properties, because we noticed that a lot of these different ingredients complement each other. So, you know, they don’t challenge each other, they don’t compromise each other. There’s an additive effect of one plus one equals two. So. So of course, that’s always good. But we also noticed when we put maca root and epidemia and sagittarium into the original five ingredients, we got a much greater effect than we anticipated. It was a synergistic effect.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:35:53]:
And so, you know, you went from a level of three to four, all the way up to eight. It was just amazing, the difference that we noticed. So, yeah, these are the things that, using precision scientific engineering, these are the kind of things that you accomplish. And we’re very, very happy to have discovered these things and been able to promote them into our formulations and create an effect that’s just amazing. I’m going to share with you some of the things I’m talking about, because right now we’re just talking about the ingredients and the properties or effects that the ingredients have. But let me tell you now about the effects that our formulation has, and we’ll start with Mamm. So we noticed immediately that men were experiencing a significantly increased intensity and duration of the Mayo climax. And so, of course, we were excited by that.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:36:47]:
But what we also noticed is as time went on, as they continued to take this product, the intensity and duration continued to increase. And we attribute that to the ongoing improvement in microcirculation and, of course, pleasures perceived by a combination of neural stimulation, neural response, and what the stimulation that our brain receives from neurotransmitters, in particular dopamine, serotonin, and gaba. So we attribute it to that’s ongoing improvement, which we referenced as the thermostat of pleasure. It just kept increasing and getting better. For men who were taking this product on an ongoing basis, utilizing it as a daily supplement. And then to our surprise, after nine, the 18 months, obviously everybody’s a little bit different. Men started having multiple male climaxes without a refractory period. So refractory period is you lose your.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:37:55]:
A man loses his erection either partially or completely after a full male climax. And this is what’s reported in the medical literature. When I started noticing this, I started contacting all of my colleagues that are urologists. And I said, hey, help me out here, because I’ve been reviewing the medical literature and I haven’t found anything to support this. Are you aware of men being able to have multiple male climaxes without a refractory period? And they say, no, that’s not supposed to happen. You know, theoretically, after a complete male climax, there should be some degree of refractory period. There is a very Small subset of men who can have one to three complete male climaxes, but it’s a very small subset. I mean, we’re talking about a minuscule number.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:38:53]:
But now with this product, it’s happening on a regular basis and we’re talking about anywhere. And I’m not exaggerating, I’m being honest with you. And the reason I feel comfortable talking about this is because I am a physician and I do have a responsibility to share with the public anything that I’m aware of, any type of pill or therapeutic agent, any type of device, anything that improves somebody’s health, helps people survive, helps people revive, helps people thrive. I have a responsibility to share that with the public. And that’s why on shows like yours, I feel very comfortable speaking about these things because I want the public to be aware of what’s out there. And more importantly, it’s out there and it’s safe, it’s efficient, it’s so effective. And it also promotes, as I said earlier, physiological processes known as to help with healthy aging, preventative health and longevity. So, yeah, as you can tell, I’m real excited, I’m really excited about what we developed.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:40:13]:
I’m real excited about sharing with the public and I think it’s just a matter of time where the benefits of. I’ve never taken lady plus, but having taken man plus and clear focus, it’s just a matter of time before the public becomes aware of these and they basically are going to market the benefits that they have are going to market themselves.

Nick Urban [00:40:32]:
Yeah, you didn’t go out with this in mind. You were not looking to create a sexual health related business or products initially at least. And now two of your three products are in that realm. What is the link? What’s the importance of sexual wellness to overall health? Because I haven’t covered that much on the podcast yet.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:40:54]:
Well, we also, we’ve also have in the incubator, we have a product for pain and inflammation management. We have a sleep aid, we have a safer version of a product of a GLP1 simulator that is safer than Ozempric and Bonjouro. You know, those are very, very effective peptides, but they aren’t without side effects. There are a lot of very dramatic side effects that I’m aware of that aren’t shared with the public. And so anyway, we have these other products, but we want to get the first three we’ve developed up and running at a healthy capacity before we introduce additional products to the marketplace. But yeah, you’re right, you nailed it. My intent was not to. I didn’t leave medicine and say, hey, I’m going to go into the nutraceutical industry.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:41:49]:
It’s something that basically just fell into my lap. We call it what you will chance encounter serendipity. It just happened. And I was blown away by the amazing benefits that I noticed. And I just said, I’ve got to do more with this. So that’s what we did.

Nick Urban [00:42:08]:
Yeah, makes sense. And so you’re in your own journey. You noticed the, let’s say, intimacy benefits after you had already progressed out of the situation that you were in. Were there other things that you were noticing alongside it? I assume you felt more mentally clear because of the ingredients in there. And also you mentioned you had brain fog at that point. And then also. Anything else?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:42:34]:
Yeah, no. I felt that my energy mentally and physically, my mental clarity, my focus, my alertness, they were all back to normal and then some. And then it was like a few weeks after that when I started noticing the additional benefits in terms of the marked enhancement in the fulfillment and pleasures during intimacy. And then, of course, that excited me so much, I was able to corral four friends of mine, colleagues of mine, and say, hey, look, help me out here. I’ve got this product. I’m blown away by what I’m noticing, the positive effects. I need some more guys to take it and just tell me it’s not just me, you know, that it’s something that every man can benefit from. And that’s what we were able to accomplish.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:43:24]:
And then, of course, we did an even bigger study. Once we started isolating the ingredients for, as I alluded to earlier, the ones for Clear, Focused and ladyplus and man

Nick Urban [00:43:35]:
plus in the lady plus formula, I’m pulling it up and I see a lot of B vitamins in it. Is there a reason that there’s a lot of B vitamins in the lady plus and there is not in the men?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:43:47]:
You know, I put a lot of research into how do I create a formulation that’s really going to help women because they’re dramatically different than men. And two things that I kept coming to my attention were in order for women to really enjoy intimacy in a manner that they look forward to, if you will, that’s healthy for them. They have to feel good. They have to feel good medically, and they have to be in the mood. So that was kind of the way we targeted the ingredients that we were looking for. We wanted ingredients that were going to take away some of their aches and pains. We wanted ingredients that were going to increase their vaginal lubrication. We wanted the ingredients that were going to improve their digestion.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:44:35]:
We wanted the ingredients that were going to improve the integrity of all the structures in the body. And of course, we wanted target specific benefits that were going to improve their libido and improve their ability to enjoy the benefits of fulfillment and pleasures of intimacy. And then we wanted ingredients in that particular formulation that were also going to improve their brain health. Because of course, having mental energy is as important as having physical energy in terms of navigating through the day in a very efficient and productive manner. So, yeah, we were able to accomplish all that. I’m just very happy and thankful. I actually feel like lady plus is probably the best of the formulations because it was the most challenging for me.

Nick Urban [00:45:25]:
And I’m guessing it’s most challenging for you because you couldn’t personally take it and notice the intended effects.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:45:32]:
Well, we had enough women around us that were willing to take it that it wasn’t that as much as finding the right core of ingredients that were going to allow women to achieve what we alluded to earlier, take away a lot of their, just make them feel healthy, make them feel healthy in a very positive and productive manner. And also during intimacy, it just wasn’t going to be something that they were, you know, going through in order to please their partner, that it was something that they were also going to be able to enjoy in unison with, with their partner. So, yeah, that’s kind of the mindset that I had to work through in terms of putting the various ingredients together.

Nick Urban [00:46:19]:
On that note too, if someone looks at your label, they’ll notice that the different extracts have different numbers to them, say 4 to 1 or 8 to 1. What does that refer to and how did you settle on those extractions?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:46:33]:
Yeah, well, we started off ordering different products. Initially the ingredients were full strength, and then we, we started ordering products that were quarter extract, 18 extracts, 1 10th and then 1 20th. And we’re just, you know, once we were able to put the various formulations together with the number of capsules that we thought would be something that the public would, would accept and, and, and, and not challenge, then we kind of stopped there. But we’re looking into the possibility of even creating the ability to have more ingredients if necessary, by enhancing the extracts. So taking for example, some of the 1 to 4 extracts and making them all 1 to 8 or 1 to 10 and even maybe changing some of the extracts to 1 to 20 because we’re just very happy with the, the people that we purchase our ingredients from, that they’re able to accomplish these things for us and not lose any potency along the way.

Nick Urban [00:47:42]:
So on one hand you have the herbs in their raw form. Like you just pick it, you grind it up and that’s like the pure raw herb. On the other you have, let’s say a pharmaceutical which is like as purified, it’s synthesized as you can get. How do you draw a line like, where, where will you say like it no longer is a. It is like the herb itself. So you extract it one to a hundred, one to a thousand maybe. Where, like, would you feel comfortable pushing that? Bound to.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:48:13]:
They’re not synthesized, they’re not synthesized, they’re extracted. So they use that primarily alcohol, ethyl alcohol for the extraction process. And it’s a very safe process. It’s unlike synthesis, which involves a lot of different chemicals. And you have to ultimately ask yourself, how do they rid themselves of all those chemicals in the process? And obviously they don’t, because otherwise there wouldn’t be so many dramatic side effects, so much dependency and addiction that can occur with all these products that we discussed earlier. So not only do they have very significant side effects, but all of them have the capacity for some degree of dependency, addiction and death. In fact, let me just bring something to your attention since we’re talking about this to some extent. The combination of antidepressants, mood stabilizers, sedative and prescribed sleep aids are responsible for 60,000 deaths per year.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:49:15]:
That’s a big number, Nick. That is a big, big number. And yet the public just accepts it as fact and moves lockstep with these pharmaceutical companies that are, that are producing these products. I mean, to me, one death is too many. We’re talking about 60,000 per year.

Nick Urban [00:49:37]:
Yeah. With these extractions though, like, how do you know? Because like every time you extract you’re changing the, the balance of the ingredient itself. And usually that’s desirable. That’s why we tend to extract things if we have the ability. And it’s also a, can be a natural process too, especially if you’re using ethanol or a lot of the old fashioned forms of extraction. But then eventually if you extract, extract, extract to a certain point, say like I was saying before, one, 100 to one or a thousand to one, or 10,000 to one or something, essentially you just have the one active constituent within the herb or the plant itself. But a lot of times in these plants there’ll be multiple active ingredients at different ratios. And like, that’s why you’ll have one Extract.

Nick Urban [00:50:23]:
One patented extract, and it’ll have a certain effect profile. You’ll take another one which has a different ratio. It has a different effect profile. Like ashwagandha is like the classic example there, where there’s some that make you more cognitively enhanced, some that are more like sleepiness inducing, some that are like imperceptible, like imperceivable. So how do you know, like personally, where is the right place to go? Because otherwise we can get. If we push it all the way, each ingredient can be extracted a thousand to one. And it’s like half of a capsule contains 55 different herbs in it.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:50:58]:
Yeah. You know, obviously there’s ways of testing the potency and you’re absolutely right. You can only go so far and then you’re compromising the potency. And that’s the one thing you don’t want to do, you know, especially when you have formulation, you know, it works. You don’t want to do anything to alter any chance of altering the potency or altering the mechanism of actions, if you will, the various stimulations on important physiological processes. You just don’t want to risk that. So, yeah, we feel very comfortable for where we’re at, but we also feel very comfortable that we can take a 1 to 4 extract, make it a 1 to 10, not lose any of the potency, and that would give us a lot more volume to work with, if you will. If in fact we wanted to add other ingredients or increase the amount of one of the ingredients that we think is very important and vital.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:51:50]:
So we have that ability, we have that capacity. And I think it takes somebody that really understands not only the nature of the ingredients, but the science. The science that helps accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish. And you have a good understanding of what can be done and what can’t be done to optimize the benefits and the potency.

Nick Urban [00:52:15]:
When you’re deciding on how you’re going to reformulate and you’re going to optimize your formula even further, how do you plan on running those tests to make sure that you’re actually improving the formula? You’re not going to kill the golden goose.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:52:27]:
I’m laughing because about a year ago, I took a couple of guys aside and I said, hey, you know, I can make man plus more potent. And I knew exactly what ingredients we probably had to increase to make it even more potent. And they stopped me in my tracks and they said, Dr. B, it doesn’t need to be more potent from start to finish. The benefits, the fulfillment the pleasures are so amazing. You don’t need to do it. I don’t think it’s necessary. So that kind of stopped you in my tracks, at least for this particular time.

Nick Urban [00:53:06]:
Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, I know this goes against a lot of what we discussed so far today. If you were stranded on a desert island, you can have three ingredients in any of your pro. Your products. You could take either take them together or separately. Which three would you personally choose?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:53:26]:
Well, definitely maka root, definitely tongkar ali, and possibly ashwagandha.

Nick Urban [00:53:33]:
Interesting. Is ashwagandha.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:53:36]:
In our experience with ashwagandha, at least the ashwagandha we’re familiar with and that we utilize is that it’s not necessarily something that makes you sleepy as much as it creates calm and mood balance. And that’s why in clear focus, we really put a healthy amount of a very high grade ashwagandha because we get people who you basically dial in the energy you want with clear focus. If you want a mild amount of energy, you take one capsule. If you take a mild, moderate amount of energy, you take two capsules. If you want a moderate amount of energy, you take three capsules. If you want the kind of energy you get from three energy drinks or Adderall or other amphetamine derivatives, you take four capsules. But what you don’t get, you don’t get the nervousness, you don’t get the jitteriness, you don’t get the anxiety. And that’s probably because of, most likely because of two products, Ashwagandha and the L Theanine.

Nick Urban [00:54:37]:
Interesting.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:54:38]:
And you know, the energy drinks and the Adderall are not without risks. They both create wild swings in your heart rate and blood pressure and the contractility of the heart. That’s the way the heart contracts and over time. Well, first of all, on the short term, we know of so many people that have gone into abnormal arrhythmias and have had to go into the emergency room and be cardioverted to get out of that abnormal arrhythmia. And then also there’s people obviously who didn’t make it out of there that they ended up in the morgue. It’s such a small number that it’s not something that’s overly reported. But it does happen. It has happened.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:55:27]:
And then long term, because of these wild swings in heart rate and blood pressure and the contractility of heart, people are predisposed to early onset cardiovascular disease with associated hypertension, increased risk of heart attack, stroke and deep vein Thrombosis once again. So people need to start thinking about these things. You know, they need to start thinking of their safety and well being and looking at which, which products promote that the best.

Nick Urban [00:56:01]:
Yeah. All right, I’ve got a couple quick questions for you before we start to wrap this one up.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:56:08]:
Absolutely.

Nick Urban [00:56:09]:
What is the biggest mistake you see people making when it comes to dietary supplements and. Or herbalism?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:56:17]:
Well, herbalism, the nutraceutical industry is aware of their own limitations because I go to their meetings all the time. And they are aware that the public is concerned about all these bold claims that aren’t supported by scientific data. And they’re also aware that the public is concerned about quality assurance, quality control and regulatory issues. They don’t have the FDA looking over their shoulder like the pharmaceutical industry does. And so that’s why we were talking about earlier. We know, or studies have shown that 50% of the products that are out there don’t have any known subjective or objective benefits. And 25% of the products that primarily come from outside of the country, especially Asia and Eastern bloc countries, are what you alluded to earlier have ingredients in there that aren’t listed on the label. And some of these ingredients are potentially dangerous.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:57:22]:
We’re talking about things like five phosphodiesterase inhibitors, anabolic steroid precursors, and these over time can be very, very dangerous. So, yeah, the public has to do their homework. They have to be aware that this isn’t an industry that’s as regulated as it probably should be. And they need to pick and choose the companies that they feel most comfortable with, that they feel are being honest with them as it pertains to safety, efficiency, effectiveness and overall health and well being.

Nick Urban [00:57:55]:
Yeah, I was on Amazon the other day for a newsletter I was writing and I was looking and I found placebo pills. You can actually buy placebo pills and get this, they cost like 50 cents a pill for placebo pills and they’re rated 4.3 stars on Amazon out of a ton of reviews. I’m like, that is saying something literal.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:58:16]:
Placebo pills. That’s consistent with. But what happens out there? Unfortunately, people just don’t do their homework like they should.

Nick Urban [00:58:24]:
Yeah, what’s a question that you wish someone would ask you that they haven’t so far?

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:58:32]:
Well, I have a very productive life. I’m 73 years old and the last 12 years have been by far the best years of my life. There was two years where I had left. I was no longer a surgeon and I found myself very depressed and Disappointed I couldn’t find the same amount of stimulation to my self confidence, my self esteem, my self image. I had lost quite a bit of that, no longer being a high profile surgeon. And then I started noticing the benefits that I was getting from the herbal ingredients that I was taking at that time. At that time. We’re talking now about like 2017, 2018.

Dr. Robert Beltran [00:59:26]:
We still didn’t have the total formulation that we had in 2019. But I remember one day thinking, literally thinking as if I was looking in the rear view mirror and thinking about my career as a surgeon. And all I saw was a lot of hard work, a lot of responsibility and a lot of stress. And I realized I’m in a much better place now. And as I told you earlier, the last 12 years have been by far the best years of my life. I’ve never been this passionate, I’ve never been this productive. I’ve never had this much fun. I’m just really enjoying myself.

Nick Urban [01:00:06]:
Perfect. What’s the unsexy truth about formulating supplements that the wellness influencers will not tell you?

Dr. Robert Beltran [01:00:17]:
Well, you know, I wish I could answer that question in the manner that I think you’re asking it. I just keep learning so much about these ingredients and how to make them beneficial to help people. And as I’m doing that, I keep thinking about the counter effect of what the pharmaceutical industry is producing and how so many people become compromised by the side effects. And so I haven’t got to the point yet where I’m not enjoying what I’m doing. It just my passion keeps growing and growing because I keep learning more and more about these various ingredients and how to put them together in formulations in a very helpful and impactful way that it just keeps motivating me.

Nick Urban [01:01:10]:
If a 40 year old executive came to you with brain fog and low libido plus chronic stress, what’s one thing you’d have them do before any supplement?

Dr. Robert Beltran [01:01:22]:
Oh yeah, absolutely. And I’m glad you. Thank you for bringing that up. Because if you go to our website and if anytime I have a chance to speak, one pill or one formulation or one therapy isn’t the answer. The answer is holistic. People have to exercise. Exercise is so important because it increases the microcirculation throughout your body in a very dramatic way and it increases or floods your body with endorphins, which are feel good neurotransmitters and, excuse me, endorphins, which are the body’s natural opioids and feel good neurotransmitters which we’ve discussed earlier dopamine, serotonin, GABA and norepinephrine to some extent. Although norepinephrine could be a double edged sword.

Dr. Robert Beltran [01:02:14]:
So you got to be careful with that one. But the more and the more vigorous you exercise, the more of a flooding effect you get. We also recommend very highly meditation or some degree of self awareness because that again has been shown scientifically to increase the release of endorphins and feel good neurotransmitters and of course diet. Diet and healthy living is so important. You know, create for yourself a diet that’s high in protein, has a controlled amount, a moderate amount, limited amount of carbohydrates and fat. And stay away from fried foods, stay away from highly processed or ultra processed foods, stay away from any products that has unnatural dyes and stay away from or moderate the alcohol that you put into your body because alcohol has a lot of deleterious effects. And it’s really good that I’m seeing that the younger Gen Xers and the millennials are really paying attention, or I should say the younger millennials and the Gen Xers are really locking into this, that alcohol is not healthy. And so that’s good to see.

Dr. Robert Beltran [01:03:31]:
I mean it’s not good for the alcohol industry, but from a health and wellness perspective it’s a really, really good thing. And then last but not least, one that I’ve been big on for a long time and that’s why putting these formulations was so important to include adaptogens is moderate your stress. Because stress is gonna, at some point it’s gonna compromise your well being or it’s gonna terminate your life prematurely. And you can deal with it, you can deal with it in a lot of different ways.

Nick Urban [01:04:02]:
Well, perfect. Dr. Robert Beltran, how do people connect with you? How do they check out your recommend line? Where do you want to send them?

Dr. Robert Beltran [01:04:11]:
Well, we have our products available as I said earlier on Amazon, but we also I like to send people to our website because not only do they have access to our products in our website, but we have a tremendous amount of useful information. And I’ve also written, I think it’s like 16 blogs that I’ve done a lot of research on and I think it’ll be very helpful for people in terms of educating them regarding a lot of the things that we’ve discussed today on your show. Cool.

Nick Urban [01:04:40]:
I will put a link to that in the show notes for this episode. Recommend is spelled R E C O M N M N D.com so in case someone doesn’t have access to that, they can go check that out. Any final parting thoughts before we wrap this one up?

Dr. Robert Beltran [01:04:58]:
Absolutely. I don’t care if you’re 18 or 80, your health and wellness should always be your number one priority. And as we said earlier, if you really, if you really, if it’s important to you to maintain your health and wellness in an optimal manner, you need to exercise, you need to meditate, you need to eat healthy, healthy lifestyle and take a really good supplement like the ones we offer from recommend nutrition.

Nick Urban [01:05:27]:
Well, from a surgeon and a pharmacist to holistic health advocate and someone that recommends meditation along with other pillars of a healthy lifestyle. Never thought I’d see that transformation. Great to see. Thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and thank you all for sharing your time, your energy and your focus with us today. Until next time, be an Outlier. Thanks for tuning in to high performance longevity. If you got value today, the best way to support the show is to leave a review or share it with someone who’s ready to upgrade their healthspan. You can find all the episodes, show notes and resources mentioned@outlier.com until next time, stay energized, stay bioharmonized and be an Outlier.