Low libido, erectile dysfunction, hormone imbalance, and sexual frustration in marriage are often treated like isolated problems. But what if they’re actually connected to something much bigger?
In this episode of the Get Your Marriage On! Podcast, I sit down with Dr. Jerry Dugger to talk about the link between physical health and sexual health. We discuss testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, thyroid, gut health, inflammation, sleep, stress, and why the body has to be understood as a whole system.
You’ll also hear practical insights on how better health habits can improve desire, energy, confidence, and connection in marriage.
Resources and Events:
We invite you to explore our Get Your Marriage On coaching program. Get ready for our men’s and women’s groups starting up again in May!
We have one more spot available on our cruise! We’d love to have you join us!
Disclaimer: The opinions and values expressed by guests on the Get Your Marriage On! podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and values of the host. Appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of the guest or their products by Get Your Marriage On or its host. While we work hard to bring you quality and valuable content, listeners are encouraged to use their own best judgment in applying the information or products discussed on this podcast.
Guest: Dr. Jerry Duggar
Dr. Jerry Duggar is a husband, father of 4 amazing kids, total health geek, choral singer and soloist, and wannabe golfer. He’s also a chiropractor and functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner with over 22 years of clinical experience helping people figure out how to maintain their own health and the health of their family in the midst of this crazy, stressed-out world we live in.
Transcript
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors or inaccuracies. For the most accurate and complete experience, we recommend listening to the full podcast episode.
Boost Testosterone Naturally and Optimize Sexual Health with Dr. Jerry Duggar
Dan Purcell: If you’ve ever wondered about low libido in midlife and hormones and how they affect our sexual health and interest, [00:01:00] this episode, and the next, one or two episodes following are gonna be definitely ones you wanna listen to. I’m gonna do a little mini series on sexual health and hormones. Now, a lot of this comes from my own personal interest.
I, myself, and am. Midlife, I’m not immune to the effects of aging, and like many of the friends around me and those that I work with, I’ve seen how my body changes has affected a sexual drive and sexual interest as well. Now I’ve had friends that have gone on testosterone replacement therapy and others that have made lifestyle changes and have seen big positive effects to their sex life.
And there’s others too that still struggle with their sex lives, even though they’ve. Maybe have tried many things and are still looking for answers. So if this is you, I hope this episode in the next few episodes are coming out here on Get Your Marriage On, are very helpful for you. They give you a practical resource to help you find that joy because we don’t wanna face the second half of [00:02:00] our life with a boring or with a loss of sexual interest or sex drive.
We want that. that part of us that brings so much joy, so much connection to be alive and thriving well into our older ages. So, this episode is great for people in midlife looking for ideas from a health perspective on how to improve their sex drive. So. I met Dr. Jerry Duggar at an event in 2022.
I was very impressed with his intellect also he’s charming, he’s funny, and he’s very passionate about sexual health, and I think he’s very knowledgeable and I, you’re gonna like what we get to talk about today. Now before we begin, I do wanna tell you some great things we have coming up.
First is in our program, it’s called the Gary Mary John Next Level program. We do these men’s and women’s small groups. These are limited to six to 10 men or women in our men’s and women’s groups, and they’re led by myself and my team.[00:03:00]
We do a deep dive on, sexual intimacy in your relationship. These are 14 weeks long, and our next cohort starts in the middle of May, and you’ll find those details on our website. You don’t wanna miss that. Another is, we have a few openings left for our crews coming up in October. You don’t wanna miss that either.
We’re calling it the intimacy C cruise with C spelled SEA get it. We’re having a great time, with a bunch of couples. We’re going on vacation together and doing a deep dive on. Enjoying the joys and fun and the aeros energy in our marriages, that we talk about so often on this podcast, on this wonderful cruise.
So, the cruise sales in October, you’ll find all those details at Get your Marriage on.com. Click events, scroll to the bottom, you’ll see it there. All right, let’s get started on today’s conversation about sexual health.
Dr. Jerry Dugger. I’m so excited for this conversation that we’re gonna be having today.
You’re a, chiropractor [00:04:00] is your background. Mm-hmm. But you’ve explored holistic health for so much of your career. We’re gonna talk about how this applies to sexual health today. This is gonna be a great conversation,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: I’m excited. I’m excited. It’s gonna be fun.
Dan Purcell: and we’re gonna talk about sex, and I’m gonna get personal real quick.
How did your. How did your sex life start out?
Dr. Jerry Duggar: well, you know, I thought I was really well prepared, you know, as a
Dan Purcell: Uh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: boy, just somehow thought I knew what I was doing and, uh, but I’ll be honest, we really actually had a really. Honeymoon and everything was so natural and felt so comfortable. And I was like, man, we’re, we’re just cruising through this.
This is not a problem at all. But our very funny thing happened, the week after we got home from our honeymoon. And, um, so I’m sleeping. We’re in the, you know, after sex. Okay. then we go to bed and I get woken up in the middle of the night. my wife punching me in the [00:05:00] groin. Okay, so I gotta tell you this story here. So evidently, you know, she’s so not used to sleeping with another human being next to her,
Dan Purcell: Uh, let alone a man, uh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: alone a man, she’s having a dream. And in this dream, her like high school rival girl
Dan Purcell: uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: always mean to her and just whatever was, was bullying her. And so in her dream. She punched. punched the girl, but in real life she just went wham and dropped her, hit me right in the groin.
And so I’m walking from a dead sleep and I just roll out of bed and I’m moaning on the floor. So she comes to figures out that she just punched her husband I was terrified for the next few nights. I was like, I’m not sure if this is safe. And, uh, maybe, maybe this whole marriage, sleeping in the same bed is not gonna be quite so good.
But luckily, that was a one time [00:06:00] only,
Dan Purcell: Oh, good.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: other years of marriage, it’s never happened again. But, uh, yeah, that was, that was a funny, funny experience that happened.
Dan Purcell: That’s so good. That’s good.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: yeah.
Dan Purcell: So tell me more about your training. Where is your background from? What’s your theoretical approach towards sexual health?
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So, you know, I, had a sports injury when I was a kid and, um, to be referred to
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: a chiropractor and just had phenomenal results. I really enjoyed kind of how chiropractic worked and, I loved how I felt after I was getting adjusted. So I just kind of really loved this, uh, this profession. Then I went to, Asia on, uh, church Mission and got exposed to got exposed to kind of meridians and energy flow through the body. And then I got, also got exposed to Chinese and, uh, you know, uh, Chinese medicine or Korean medicine, Oriental herbs. [00:07:00] And there was kind of a joke, if you got sick
in Korea, um, you could either get Western medicine or you know,
Dan Purcell: Turn those up. Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And always the eastern medicine worked faster and better so quickly. We would just kind of go and, uh, you know, go right past the Sudafed, you know,
Dan Purcell: Uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: go for some guy mortar and pestle in the back making new this crazy tea.
If you didn’t even know what the heck it was, you just knew you were gonna get knocked out like crazy and then by the time you, you kind of felt came up, you’d be better. So I had these great experiences with acupuncture in Eastern medicine. When I came back from my, my church mission, I got injured again and I went to another, uh, chiropractor at that point. And this is after I had met my wife. And so we just kind of, uh, into chiropractic care again and once again, had a phenomenal healing response. And now I’ve kind of got this background like, huh, this is kind of fun. Maybe I should think about this.
Dan Purcell: Uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: [00:08:00] day I’m laying on the chiropractor’s table. And he says, what are you gonna do with your life?
And I said, I have no idea.
Dan Purcell: uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And he just said six magic words. He said, you, you should become a chiropractor. And by the time I left his office, literally the proverbial heavens opened
Dan Purcell: Uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: was a download. Like, this is what you should do.
Dan Purcell: uh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So long story short, I’m off to chiropractic school after a few months of, of schooling and what have you. But in chiropractic school. I had another profound experience happen, and that was my father passed away.
Dan Purcell: hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So, I was in Georgia and, and my father passed away, at the age of 69. And he had had terrible health all of his life that I, all of the life that I knew of his.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And, as I flew home, my wife was eight and a half months pregnant, so she couldn’t come to the, the funeral.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: flew by myself and as I was flying back, Sitting on the airplane, I was just thinking about father’s [00:09:00] life and I was thinking about his lifestyle, the his diet, his exer. I thought about all of these things and how they contributed to every chronic disease that he had. Diabetes, you know, congestive heart failure. Emphysema. Like it’s just literally degenerative disease you can think of. He was dealing with, and it took his life at 69. then I had a mother who lived a completely different lifestyle. She would make two dinners. One that was good for you and one that my dad would eat. Like, I mean, she was just, you know, uh, very different. She would walk and exercise and take her supplements and dah, dah, dah. Okay. and I just could see in perfect contrast. The outcomes of those two lives
Dan Purcell: Within the same household. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: in the same household. And
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: I was growing up in a social science experiment, like just, you know, uh, and it was profound. And I, as I came back, I said, you know, I love chiropractic.
I love doing adjustments and helping people in pain, and that’s an [00:10:00] important part of life. But I really want to be the type of doctor who could have helped my father. He
Dan Purcell: Right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: taking 15 or 16 medications because every time he’d go to the doctor to have a new complaint, they’d give him another drug. And so it was just, he’d wash ’em all down with his coke, right?
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: that was a pivot point for me to get into health in a much deeper level with nutrition and, emotional work. Energetic work. you know, so functional medicine kind of is a new term. It came about as I was studying this. So now I got into functional endocrinology and functional mental health and somatic breath work training and, you know, all of these things because they’re all components of, building a healthy lifestyle.
And so I’ve been on that path for the last 27 years.
Dan Purcell: That’s great. I have a very active Facebook group and often I’m almost on a daily basis there’s some comment or something. So here’s a recent scenario. A [00:11:00] wife is on there. She’s like, my husband, uh, is struggling with erectile dysfunction. He’s no longer interested in sex with me. I’m trying everything I can please help.
Like I want to have a sexual relationship with my husband.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Yeah.
Dan Purcell: And a lot of the comments are like, this is Facebook, so sometimes. The comments are very thoughtful and other times, I don’t know how much thought’s put in, if it’s more just to, you know, quickly type something and move on to the next. But
Dr. Jerry Duggar: right,
Dan Purcell: I do see a repeating pattern of people saying things like, oh, he must be looking at porn and that’s why he is not having sex with you without any context.
That’s kind of like an automatic, that might be the case, but there’s no evidence for that from, from what we know. But another automatic response is. Oh, he has low testosterone. He needs to go get his testosterone checked. And I sometimes bristle at that because it is turned into such an automatic thing.
Like if a man has low sex drive, [00:12:00] he has low testosterone, so he needs to go to a urologist or a, a specialty. Place these tea clinics and you know, get on testosterone. And I’ve talked to men who have gotten on testosterone and their life has changed. Like this has really helped me. This has been a great thing for me.
And there’s others that are like, ah, it hasn’t done much for me. I, I don’t know.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Right.
Dan Purcell: now they’re, they, they feel like they need to take it for life and there’s other things. Anyway. So I want your opinion as a holistic doctor talking about sexual health here. In that context, what would you say?
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So I wanna back up, and without taking too much time here, there’s a, parable.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: From India
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: that has shaped a lot of the way I think about life and health. You may have heard it. It’s called the Six Blind Men and the elephant.
Dan Purcell: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Have, have you heard this?
Dan Purcell: Yes.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So I won’t go through the whole thing,
Dan Purcell: tell us.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: know, it
Dan Purcell: Tell us anyway.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: uh, it was six men from in Tostan to [00:13:00] learning, much inclined who went to see the elephant.
Though all of them were blind, that each by observation might satisfy his mind. approach, the elephant in happening to fall against his broad and sturdy side at once began to baw. God bless me, but the elephant is very like a wall. The second feeling of the tuss cried ho. What have we here?
So very round and smooth and sharp. To me it’s mighty clear. This wonder of an elephant is very like a spear. Okay? I’m not gonna go through the whole thing, but
Dan Purcell: Uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: these six men come across a different piece of the elephant.
Dan Purcell: right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: grabs the tail and thinks elephant is like a rope. The other one grabs the trunk and says the elephant’s like a snake, and the other grabs the leg and says the elephant is like a tree.
Okay? So the point is. Yeah. is having their own experience their own experience is their reality,
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and the the closing of this poem says, and so these men of inand [00:14:00] disputed loud and long each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong. Though each was partly in the right and all were in the wrong. And so I, I say that as a precursor. To this whole idea you mentioned. Okay, somebody jumps in and says, oh, he must be looking at porn. Why? I guarantee they’ve been, they’ve been affected by pornography.
Dan Purcell: Right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: They’ve either seen it and it’s had an impacted them or their spouse has. Okay. And, and maybe somebody went and got on testosterone and it changed their whole life.
So that’s check his testosterone levels, right. But what I want to do is just back way the heck up and say. You gotta check it all, brother. It’s all possible,
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: We want to see as much of this elephant as we can.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: is impossible for a person to have low testosterone and have everything else right.
Dan Purcell: Oh, really? You can’t have low testosterone only and everything else be fine. Uhhuh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Testosterone [00:15:00] is in this big, massive, production chain of all sorts of hormones. Starts with cholesterol and goes to pregnenolone and then turns to cortisol and progesterone. It’s this big network. Everything’s moving through,
Dan Purcell: uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: moving through these little pathways. Okay? Testosterone just happens to sit right here. In fact, testosterone then converts to estrogen.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So every, you know everybody who’s every woman who’s got estradiol in their body that came from testosterone. So are moving through and none of these levels are just like static. They’re all related to one another. you can’t just have everything else working perfect in your body and your testosterone low
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: work that way. body is an integrated of communication. Our hormones, our digestive system, our detoxification pathways, our brain, our neurochemistry, like all of these things are playing into our, [00:16:00] our situation. So. I, I bristle. Not that somebody said, get your hormones checked. It’s that they also didn’t say, get your gut checked, get your sleep checked, get your cholesterol checked. Like, in other words, I get it all checked.
Dan Purcell: Uh huh. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay. Yeah, certainly problems might be there on the physiological
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay? Now you as a, you know, relationship and, and sex coach, your kind, your default position is. What’s going on in the dynamic between the, the husband and wife. So your frame is like, I’m grabbing the tusk, so this must be a relationship problem. Okay.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: somebody else is just saying, oh, well I’m grabbing the leg and this must be a hormone problem.
Dan Purcell: Right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: The smart approach is to step way back and just say, how much of this elephant can I kind of get in my mind
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and work on all of it?
Like you don’t have to work on all of it at the same time.
Dan Purcell: Uh huh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: you have to start [00:17:00] somewhere and then keep moving.
Dan Purcell: Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Does
Dan Purcell: So do you have a framework or something that you work, work from for that
Dr. Jerry Duggar: That is
Dan Purcell: for.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: the downside of what I just said is you gotta do everything is that you don’t know where to start. You don’t even have a conceptual idea of, of how to handle this.
So yes, models are, are very helpful. So I’ve kind of created what I call the Duggar Wellness Health Matrix, and it, there’s. levels to this. And each one of these levels has seven components. So I, I’m gonna keep this really simple. but the base level, we have root causes
Dan Purcell: Okay.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and really there’s only seven root causes of all illness and, and disease.
So let
Dan Purcell: Give me, yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: really
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: We’ve got genetics.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And something called epigenetics.
Dan Purcell: Yep.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Uh, but remember, genes don’t usually pull the trigger. The, the gene loads the gun and something else pulls the trigger.
Dan Purcell: Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So we have genetics, we have our [00:18:00] immune system becoming dysregulated. Now that could be autoimmunity, it could be infection, could, you know, something to do with the immune system not being able to, you know, completely regulate itself. Then we have toxin exposure, so we can be poisoned either really, uh, you know, acutely.
Dan Purcell: Uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Arsenic or something like that. Or we can be poisoned really, really slowly like lead paint, like so a point or lead in our water, like so we can have toxin exposure that drives, that drives illness. We can also have nutrient imbalance and that could be nutrient deficiency, it could also be nutrient excess. It could also be, uh, what we call macronutrient imbalance, an imbalance of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. So all of these things, nutrients can, can drive illness. Then we have of course, injury and trauma. People get injured and die for that. We have psychosocial stress.
Dan Purcell: Uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: That’s, you know, work demands and stress, coming from their relationship.
Challenges, absolutely. Those can be drivers of, of [00:19:00] illness. And then I’m in this last one’s a little bit hard to explain, but it’s communication breakdown. are systems in the body that their job is to talk to each other.
Dan Purcell: Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: The brain talking to the hormones and the immune system feedback, these feedback
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: disrupted.
So we’re calling that communication breakdown. So those are our seven root causes
Dan Purcell: Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: those are, I say that’s are why things go wrong. Where things go wrong are systems. And so we talk about seven main systems, the brain, so neurological system,
Dan Purcell: Uh huh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: the endocrine system, hormones. Immune system, well, I call a detoxification system, our structural system then our cardiometabolic system.
So you can tell, I, we could spend an hour on every one of these things. There’s a
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: information
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: just know that those causes affect systems
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: every one of these systems is connected,
Dan Purcell: makes sense.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: [00:20:00] there’s a interplay. And when you disrupt one piece of. You know, let, let’s say we disrupt the gut microbiome.
We get, food poisoning and our gut gets disrupted. Maybe we take an antibiotic, and that is, we think that’s only affecting the gut. Well, no, it’s actually affecting the entire immune system,
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: which then can be having an effect on
Dan Purcell: Uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: pathway. So all of these things are playing off of each other all the time. So that’s my role kind of as a physician. Is to assess those systems and figure out going on. Is the gut functioning well? Uh, what’s going on with the hormones? Okay, back to this idea. What’s testosterone looking like? you know, what’s estrogen looking like? and, and other things like thyroid. Hugely important. Adrenal cortisol, this is another critical hormone insulin, another critical hormone. So, We have to kind of look at all of those hormones together and all of the other systems together. [00:21:00] Once we do that, then my work starts and I’m gonna try to help nudge those things in the right direction.
And that may be with a hormone replacement,
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: but in my philosophy, I would never want to replace something that I could just rejuvenate
Dan Purcell: right then it’s just like a bandaid. You’re uhhuh, you’re not addressing the underlying system or how it’s interconnected.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Exactly. We’re not addressing the system and we’re not addressing the root cause.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: so now we might have solved this symptom. Great. I wanna have sex with my wife again. But we really haven’t fixed the, pathway that caused that low T in the first place.
Dan Purcell: Right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So we haven’t necessarily changed their health.
Dan Purcell: Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Does that make
Dan Purcell: Yeah. Makes sense.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: I say my job as the, as the physician, is to work on the seven systems and then my job as the coach, because honestly, I, I hated just telling people what to do and not giving them any tools
Dan Purcell: Uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: on how to [00:22:00] implement it. So I decided I’m gonna go get a health coaching certification. And now I’ve got three or four because I want to get in and help you actually change your life. that’s where the coaching piece comes in. And we start addressing what I call the seven Habits of health the book we wrote. It’s called the Simple Seven Solutions. So, eat Well, move well, breathe Well, sleep well, love, well play well and think well. Okay, so
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: is what I help my clients. Do on a daily basis. This is how we all affect our systems.
Dan Purcell: great. Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: it would be great. So let’s go back to, uh, Larry, who’s got low T
Dan Purcell: Uh huh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: to sex, have
Dan Purcell: Well, we don’t know. Yeah. Let’s assume he does have, uh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: let’s assume he is got low
Dan Purcell: Yep.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Well, we actually, we probably ought to put it back up just a little bit because sometimes people are only getting a total testosterone level
Dan Purcell: Gotcha. When there’s, it’s more about tell, explain. It’s.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: so [00:23:00] you’ve got total testosterone and then you’ve got what’s called free testosterone because most of the hormones floating in our, around our body are bound up by proteins called albumin and sex hormone binding globulin. So these bind most of the hormones. So there’s only a small fraction of the hormones we make that are actually free or bioavailable to be, you know, to dock on a cell and do what the hormone does.
Dan Purcell: Uh, is that by design? Is that normal? Like we want that.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Yeah, that’s exactly how the body wants to operate because then it has a fine tuner knob. It’s got like a production but then it’s got another place where it can say, I want a little bit more or a little bit less. And it can do that by increasing how much is bound and how much is free.
Dan Purcell: Got it.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: brilliant, brilliant design.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: really smart about designing
Dan Purcell: uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: these bodies.
Dan Purcell: yes. Thank on Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: But many people are just looking at total testosterone and saying, oh, it’s high or low, and they’re not looking at free testosterone.
Dan Purcell: Is it ’cause it’s harder to measure free testosterone?
Dr. Jerry Duggar: it’s not [00:24:00] harder at all. It’s just, it’s just beyond me. Sometimes the same could be said for thyroid.
I see this all of the time. People get a TSH mark, you know, they get their blood test and it says TSH, and there’s no further assessment. TSH is is only one small piece of the overall puzzle of thyroid health. So we do need to run much more comprehensive panels and look deeper. uh, but I see a lot of men who have low testosterone on labs and they have elevated estrogen.
Dan Purcell: Interesting.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: so now, what we have to understand is that there’s a conversion. From testosterone into estrogen.
Dan Purcell: Yes.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: may, that’s normal. That’s just what it’s supposed to
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: But there’s an an enzyme called aromatase does that action. So if somebody comes in and they’ve got low testosterone and they’ve got high estrogen, we know that too much of the testosterone is[00:25:00]
Dan Purcell: Aroma is active.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: is overactive.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: driving aromatase obesity? Insulin, uh,
Dan Purcell: Resistance.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: blood sugar issues, sleep problems, alcohol, like, in other words, lifestyle
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: is driving this problem. So what happens if I don’t address the lifestyle in this gentleman
Dan Purcell: Well, you just,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: more testosterone?
Dan Purcell: uh, more of it will, can be converted to estrogen.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Exactly. We haven’t fixed the. actual physiology, we’ve just poured more testosterone in and they might feel a bump for a little while. They might feel better, once again, eventually the problem kind of gets worse. So it’s never that testosterone replacement is a terrible idea. It’s just a, has to be part of a much bigger discussion. And the same could be said for women estrogen and progesterone and testosterone. all of these things have to be really evaluated [00:26:00] and understood holistically and looked at in, in the context of the person’s life. There’s really no reason. I mean, let’s say somebody’s 35 years old, a man’s 35 years old, like he should still be able to make some testosterone. Let’s figure out what’s going on.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Maybe it’s different if he’s 55 or 60, and it’s like, okay, even with a great lifestyle, I’m a little lower than I want to be. Well, that’s a different discussion.
Okay. So I just think idea is look bigger, like step out and ask the question why is it low if it is, or what happens if it’s not low at all? What happens if his testosterone’s still okay? But is cortisol sky high because he’s way too stressed and he is got tons going on at work and maybe the relationship itself is stressful and there’s anxiety. And now, yeah, he could get blood flow to his penis, but his nervous system is actually shutting it down.
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay, so [00:27:00] we’ve got elevated cortisol, and that is putting his body into sympathetic overdrive, right? So
Dan Purcell: Yep.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: sympathetic nervous system that’s firing too much. He can’t drop into a sexual state
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and it. So, and then, gosh, let’s say three times in a row he gets Ed. Now what happens now that’s
Dan Purcell: more it’s.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: 300%, right? So, so you, you’ve got to understand the whole picture of this, for this guy. And we are saying the guy, but it, the same thing happens with
Dan Purcell: With women too. Yep. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: during perimenopause and menopause, massive shifts And so, yeah. Uh, I was at a, I was at a conference just last night talking about the impact of the gut microbiome not only the immune system, but on the hormones.
Dan Purcell: Let’s talk about that. Tell me.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: once again, we, we have to understand, the, the easiest one to talk about is the fact that as you’re from an [00:28:00] estrogen point of view, I’m gonna start there, as. A woman produces estrogen. It does, it, it, it kind of goes and it docks on its receptor and it does its magic thing. And then the body needs to clear it. So it has to go back through the liver, through the gallbladder and be conjugated and methylated, and they do all, all this fun chemistry, and then it gets dumped into the gut. Well, the wrong type of microbes in the gut can produce something called beta glucuronidase, which reconvert. That estrogen back into an active form. Then it goes back s systemically, and now we’ve got the new stuff that’s been made and the old stuff that didn’t clear, and we start getting situations where there’s too much estrogen or estrogen dominance.
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So now we’re talking, okay, we’ve gotta figure out what’s going on with the gut and what happens if there’s inflammation in the gut. Because of a food sensitivity or a overgrowth of bacteria that also causes [00:29:00] increased cortisol. Increased cortisol is a stress hormone. It causes inflammation. So you see how these webs just start inter tangling and, and, and you’re like, okay, we’ve gotta look at a lot more than just sticking a shot of testosterone in someone’s butt.
Dan Purcell: Yeah. So how do you test for gut microbiome and
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So,
Dan Purcell: gut?
Dr. Jerry Duggar: in my office if we’re looking at small intestine issues, we typically do a breath test. drink a, a sugar solution basically feeds those bugs. And if they’re there, if they’re overgrown, those bugs will give off a gas that can be measured in the breath.
Dan Purcell: Interesting.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: fascinating.
Dan Purcell: It’s breathalyzer.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: It’s breathalyzer for your, uh, for your bugs in your small intestine. condition, is known as SIBO or SIBO, um, that’s one thing that can kind of be going on in there. Usually when we’re looking at microbiome, in the colon, we do stool testing
Dan Purcell: Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and, um. [00:30:00] It used to be stool testing was some unfortunate.
So in a, in a laboratory looking under a microscope slides, trying to see if they see any bugs, okay. Or parasites. we’ve got DNA sequencing of the entire microbiome. You can see of like everything that’s in there. And we’re starting to understand which species are. keystone species, which ones just are critical to be there. Which, which ones are, we call commensals. So they’re, they’re normal and natural and they, they’re helpful,
Dan Purcell: Uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and then which ones may be opportunistic or pathologic.
Dan Purcell: it’s.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: in the wrong situation, they can bloom, they can grow and become problematic. So.
Dan Purcell: It sounds like the social scene in middle school, you have the bullies, right? You have the good kids.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And, and really in, in the world of, nutrition and probiotics and things, the idea is that the more diverse the microbiome
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: the healthier the body
Dan Purcell: [00:31:00] Gotcha.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: because that diversity that there’s not enough room. For the pathogens and the opportunists to,
Dan Purcell: Dominate.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: to dominate. And so keeping lots of friendly bugs coming in through your diet, through fermented foods, uh, or for probiotics, that can be really helpful. Now, probiotics is a lengthy discussion because there are better ones than others. But, um, let’s just put it, let’s just leave it at, at trying to encourage a healthy. microbiome lowers inflammation, regulates the immune system, and actually really helps to stabilize hormones. And for our, your female listeners, there’s profound implication between the gut microbiome and the vaginal microbiome, and profound implication on the gut microbiome and urinary tract infections.
So not only if somebody’s dealing with, you know, chronic UTIs. [00:32:00] Not only do they need to be considering, uh, estrogen and other things that might be at play, we also have to be addressing not only the vaginal microbiome, but the gut microbiome because there’s crosstalk and these bugs are basically signaling and communicating and teaching our immune system how to stay regulated.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So that’s some pretty fascinating. Stuff. This gut microbiome is 80% of our immune system lines our gut. what’s happening there is talking to all the other parts, um, and shouldn’t ever be overlooked. Yeah,
Dan Purcell: So sometimes I guess as you coach people, the answers are like the elementary answers, I’m guessing. It’s like, eat more vegetables,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Right.
Dan Purcell: sleep, like, you know, work on stress management and.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Yeah.
Dan Purcell: Move your body more like things like that, I’m assuming, is that,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Sure,
Dan Purcell: uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And, there are some basics. You know, you can kind of [00:33:00] paint with a pretty broad brush unfortunately, uh, the average American’s lifestyle sucks so bad that you’re gonna help a lot of people with really generic information.
Dan Purcell: Okay.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: that kind of tongue in cheek, but you know, I mean, I think what 6% of the population is getting adequate micronutrients.
Dan Purcell: Oh, interesting.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: it’s like, you know, we’re just, our diets are not great. our sleep habits are not great sedentary lifestyle. Like, so there’s a lot of things that we can improve without having to get too nitty
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: But, um, obviously when people are paying me for their health, uh, I, go into the weeds, like we’re gonna get really specific, and, and help them. Figure out exactly what needs to be done. so, you know, I do that in groups. I do that one-on-one. Um, but, uh, yeah,
Dan Purcell: So can you give us like. a case study of, of the whole process end to end, and how
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Yeah. And, and, uh, I’ll talk about kind of the, the health piece, the physiologic [00:34:00] piece, but then I also wanna make sure. That I talk about kind of the psychological piece and, and the way this rolls forward in other dimensions of a person’s life. So, yeah, this, this friend really stuck.
Dan Purcell: mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: He’d been quite stuck in his life for quite a long time, and so stuck that just not really paying attention to himself uh, his health at all.
Dan Purcell: Cool.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: so. We, we wanted to just do a deep dive. We wanted to look at, all of the metrics. We did some blood work, we did some, you know, other testing. and as we did, I gave him some really targeted, nutritional support. But then we ran through a 12 week reset program and in that, resetting the entire lifestyle. So it’s really the eat. Well move, well sleep well, breathe well. Okay. Like that whole model. we were very specific on what foods to eat, much of them to eat, to eat them, what state of mind to be in when you’re eating them.
Like [00:35:00] really detailed.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: We talked about, you know, how much movement, what type of movement, you know, just started going through these in, detail. in about six weeks, he had lost 28 pounds.
Dan Purcell: Which is awesome.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: close to there.
Dan Purcell: Because he was overweight.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: oh yes, very overweight, and low energy, low mental, you know, clarity, just not really thriving well in life. and so yeah, six weeks he’s down close to 30 pounds. And then we do another six weeks where we kind of simplify we, we. lessen some of the restrictions and we start to kind of try to create a little bit more of a sustainable approach.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So it’s a six week kind of intensive and followed by a six week kind of more sustainable
Dan Purcell: Uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and and behold, even during that six weeks, there’s more weight loss and
Dan Purcell: in the second half of the sec. Yes, Uhhuh right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: even though it’s quote unquote not as targeted for weight loss, but. then, uh, we get done with the 12 weeks [00:36:00] and he goes and does another round. Anyway, uh, we’ve just kind of continued to coach and, and work him through this in a cyclical manner. Supporting his hormones, supporting his gut. mean, the right type of diet should help every system of the body.
Dan Purcell: Yes.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: have a diet that’s great for your blood sugar and then crappy for your gut microbiome. You know what I’m saying? So
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: we are, we’re considering all of those things. Making sure that the nutrient levels are dense and, and all of that.
So I think, I think he’s down 70 pounds now. And, what’s interesting now is the confidence to actually make the tough choices that he was afraid to make,
Dan Purcell: Yeah, that he’s been delaying for a long time,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: been delaying for years
Dan Purcell: but he is also thinking more clearly. He’s feeling better about himself. He’s changed some habits. Now. He’s got some good, better habits. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Yeah, happens all the time. Thinking of another, female [00:37:00] who, just me a little shout out testimonial the other day. very similar situation. very overweight, mental health issues, a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, not sleeping well. Hormones, she said, we’re just, you know, my hormones are a mess. That’s kind of how she says it. And trying to be a coach. She’s actually works with other people a kind of an energy healer.
Dan Purcell: Uh huh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: You, how, how do you think her business is going?
Dan Purcell: Not so well.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Not good. Right? Okay. So she’s got a skillset, but she isn’t living an energetically balanced, healthy life, right? So she can’t thrive in her business.
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: So we. We kind of go through, we do this as you know, do the assessment. We get her started. She needs some hormones.
We, we support that. She needs work on her gut. She needs things to lower her inflammation. Anyway, we build this protocol for her. She goes through the same program. She loses [00:38:00] 25 pounds. But here’s the kicker. Her business improves. now her husband, was actually kind of okay with his ED because she didn’t ever want to have sex.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: just easier to hit for him not to deal with it,
Dan Purcell: Yeah,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: you know? So they weren’t having sex at all ’cause she didn’t have a libido
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and he was kind of okay with it. ’cause then he could hide and he didn’t have to work on
Dan Purcell: Great.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay, well now she’s like, let’s do it
Dan Purcell: Uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Like come on. And he’s like, oh shoot, now I actually have to get healthy myself.
Right? So he, so now
Dan Purcell: of systems affecting other parts of the system now, it’s not just the individual, it’s gonna the marriage system.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: now the whole marriage system is changing. I have another f female, same thing. They, their sexual relationship wasn’t as bad, but he was a smoker and, he was depressed and basically self-medicating with alcohol and tobacco and
Dan Purcell: uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Soon
Dan Purcell: uh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: got her health in place, he said, you know what? I want to eat what you’re eating. And, you know, he started [00:39:00] making changes in and of himself. She didn’t tell him, you know, we know how. Helpful it is to try to fix your spouse, right? So she just modeled and she just did what she should do and he goes, Hey, I’m kind of interested in what you’re doing. So now he’s come along, he’s quit smoking, he’s lost weight, he’s starting to exercise. Like, so all of his behaviors are starting to change because she went first.
Dan Purcell: That is so good.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: that’s kind of the magic that we’re all looking for, right? Is that ripple effect. One person gets healthy, gives you another, another person. permission or a model to follow, and then they start making those changes. And what you and I are both interested in is really thriving in life,
Dan Purcell: Yes. Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And we want marriages to thrive, and we want bedrooms to be passionate and free and fun. And if you feel like crap, it’s not gonna happen.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: It’s [00:40:00] just not. And so. You know, I really, I just love seeing that ripple effect and how it impacts the whole health of the family.
Dan Purcell: Hmm. That’s so good. That’s inspiring. I love it. Thanks, Jerry.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: absolutely.
Dan Purcell: Jerry. This is great. So let’s say you’re a listener. You’re like, okay, I’m gonna take charge of my health. They’re looking at all seven domains, you know, they’re eating better, breathing better, sleeping better. Now their sex life is starting to improve. Libido is a little more natural and easy. Now they’re ready to take their sex life to the next level.
Ana, hear from you what you would say to that couple as a black belt sex tip.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay, so here’s the move guys. You put her, she lays down on her’s side, on her right side, and then with you, with your right hand, you took No. right. I used to think that there was some sort of move that you could make. I think there was a sign for. know, I know I did. What is that? Don’t, don’t you remember that?
I remember a Seinfeld episode where he talks about the [00:41:00] move and, and somebody steals his move. But that’s, that’s, uh, is no move. Right? and there’s no position. One of our friends, uh, I think a mentor to both of us, uh, often says, you know, it’s not the position of your body. It’s, it’s the position of your heart.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: it’s. It’s where you are. so the black belt sex tip is to start wherever you are and just keep on trying to improve,
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm. I love it.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: okay?
Dan Purcell: That’s good.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: the goal is absolute freedom. So if freedom and play is your goal, you are going to hit up against every single one of your barriers.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: You’ll hit shame.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: You’ll absolutely hit shame because as soon as you start saying, oh, pleasure’s the goal, then you’re gonna run into, is it okay to feel pleasure?
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Okay. And you know, I, here’s my, [00:42:00] here’s my litmus test to whether I’m feeling shame or not. touch my nose
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: feel my nose,
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: breathe in and I smell.
Dan Purcell: Uhhuh.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And I go, did I? any shame in that? And I say, no.
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: my elbow
Dan Purcell: Huh?
Dr. Jerry Duggar: then I move my elbow. There’s no shame in that.
Dan Purcell: Right.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: I touch my genitals and I go, okay, was there any shame in that? In other words, every single part of your body is equally important
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: every single part of your body has a function,
Dan Purcell: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and that function is good.
Dan Purcell: Yeah. It’s to serve the whole system. Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: serve the whole system. So the point of my wife’s clitoris and the point of my penis and like these, part of their role is to feel pleasure. Therefore, that pleasure is good, right? And so it, I’m just always checking in. Okay. [00:43:00] Do I feel any shame? Now let’s clear that shame. Get rid of it. And you know you’re gonna hit the relationship issue, you’re gonna hit the attachment style problem.
You’re gonna hit all of these things, as you, as you go. But like I said before, if you’re looking at your health, it really doesn’t matter where you start. As long as you keep going through all of those pieces of the hub and with your sexual relationship, it doesn’t matter where you start, you’re going to eventually hit all of the different dynamics that are holding you back. And just be collaborative and remember, it’s all about freedom and pleasure.
Dan Purcell: That is so good.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: don’t know if that’s a black belt tip,
Dan Purcell: Uh, it totally is.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: brother.
Dan Purcell: That is fantastic. Where can people go to learn more about you and what you do
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Oh
Dan Purcell: and uh, I think you have some like download or something on your site too that kind of helps.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Yeah. My, uh, URL is duggar Wellness, D-U-G-G-A-R wellness.com. So that’s the, website from my brick and mortar clinic up here in Bountiful, where I do my chiropractic work. But I also, [00:44:00] you know, have a, a. Thriving, telehealth, coaching, online coaching program and things like that.
So, but that’s a good place to start. So two things that will happen on that website is, number one, you’ll find a link where you can purchase, uh, the book that my wife and I wrote together, my wife, by the way, is also a life coach and nutrition coach and, and is in this world. So, we wrote a book, During the pandemic because
Dan Purcell: Uh,
Dr. Jerry Duggar: had lots of free time.
Dan Purcell: yep. Uh
Dr. Jerry Duggar: Uh, so you can get a copy of that. but then there’s also, an online assessment. I call it the health matrix snapshot.
Dan Purcell: hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: that will ask you a few questions in all of those domains. Now, it’s not the most thorough, right? It’s not just where we stop, but it’s a great place to start. And, if you fill out that, questionnaire. you’ll get a report back, tells you exactly where your weaknesses are, you know, and some spots to pay attention to. And it will, if you’re interested, we can even sit down and do a free health strategy session and I can give you some ideas on where you might want to go from there.
[00:45:00] And if it so happens that you wanna work with me, we can have that discussion at that point. But, I just want to close by saying the reason I do what I do is because, I don’t want people. To have the same experience I had with a father dying way too young.
Dan Purcell: Yeah.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: And, I wanna make sure that, people are building health, and preventing disease and really living their very best life.
My mother lived to 92 years old. She got her brown belt in TaeKwonDo at age 70.
Dan Purcell: Wow.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: came into the office and got an adjustment every week. I told her exactly what supplements to be taking and, the last 10 years of her life, we cared for her in our, uh, in our home with our children.
And, the, joy that I feel in knowing that I can make that difference for my mom is, is the balance, to the fact that I couldn’t help my dad
Dan Purcell: Hmm.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: and I don’t like. that idea of not being able to help somebody. So I am motivated [00:46:00] to change the world, one middle-aged dad and mom at a time.
Dan Purcell: Well, thank you.
Dr. Jerry Duggar: My pleasure. That was that. A fun
Outro
Dan Purcell: I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode and if there’s anything you can do to help improve your sexual health, I hope you’ve been inspired to take action on that and do it today. Don’t delay, and if you’d like some more help in going even deeper. Me and my team would be happy to meet with you, whether privately or in a group setting.
You’ll find details on how to, work with me and my team on my website@getmarriageon.com. Love to work with you. meanwhile, I hope you and your spouse hug each other closely and share this podcast with all your married friends and, um, promise they’ll thank you for life and go get your marriage on.
