In his "marketing" seminar, Dr. Mixon explains that his therapies are to lift your levels to "optimal" levels rather than "normal" levels and makes it very clear that none of it is covered by insurance. He is also very careful to explain that the hard work is to be done by you in maintaining a consistent and healthy diet and exercise regimen. He promises that the program will be personally "customized" for you and you alone.
First, the diet and exercise information that he provides can be had for far less on numerous websites over the internet.
Second, the "customization" is merely tests run to determine whether certain hormone, biological and chemical levels in your body are within "optimal" levels and then prescribing "supplements and hormones" to increase those levels and, again, giving you standard advice on how and what to eat.
Third, if you use Longevity's products, you will find that their inventory supply control leaves a lot to be desired and, particularly, if you are on auto-ship, you can find yourself without a consistent delivery of what you are supposed to be receiving.
From a result standpoint, when I first signed up for their program, my testosterone was low; even from what would be considered "normal". I was told that if we built those levels I would build muscle (provided that I was working out) "faster". I had decided at the same time that I would virtually eliminate animal products from my diet. I don't attribute the significant drop of weight that I experienced in my first thirty days (approximately 12 lbs) to the hormone replacement or anything else that Dr. Mixon was doing, but rather the fact that I had eliminated a significant portion of animal protein from my diet. Unfortunately, despite my extremely consistent efforts to use the dietary counsel I had been given and my regular (6 days a week) time spent exercising, not only did I plateau for a while, I actually gained weight. With respect to building muscle, it was clear to me that despite the significant increase in the testosterone, my muscle development did not increase. I expected that I would build muscle faster than I ever had and this simply did not prove to be the case; any muscle that I built was consistent with my experience of building muscle in the year prior to my application of the hormones that had been prescribed.
Despite the fact that I was consistent in applying testosterone, my levels, which for the first approximately 9 months, were in the optimal levels, then dropped and an increased dose of testosterone was prescribed. About a month prior to the end of my first year, I ended all hormone replacement because I wanted to see where my body was. My testosterone dropped to half of what it was before I started. One can conclude that by supplementing with testosterone, I had told my body to stop producing. This is scary and strikes me as being dangerous.
One of the promises is more energy and not losing energy. In my case, that simply did not prove to be the case. I did not have more energy than I did before starting.
After dropping the testosterone replacement, I discovered that I actually started to lose weight while at the same time building muscle. At the time that I stopped supplementing my hormones (testosterone, DHEA, Pregnenolone and Anastrazole) my body fat, as measured by my gym was 30%. Two months later, it is 22.5%. Consequently, I have lost more body fat after being off of the Longevity regimen.
I had no problems with the Dr. that I was assigned. He was cordial, friendly and gave me his best general advice. I would say that it appeared to me that he had very little independence working for Longevity; they have a system and he didn't deviate. However, with one minor exception, he suggested rubbing testosterone on my calf muscle to prevent pulls (which I am still not sure worked) he did not really have much "individualized" or "customized" information to give you. You still keep your physician; the Longevity Doctors will not "examine" you for any reason--they will simply tell you to go see your physician or some other specialist if you are having problems which is obviously good sound advice but probably not worth the cost of the clinic.
The staff is friendly, but both Doctors and staff seem to be a little insensitive to your pocket book. For example while the cost of "most" tests are included in your regimen, all or not. I remember the second time I had labs done, going out the door, I was surprised with a bill for $75.00. I learned from that to ask well before going in if there were going to be any charges for labs and then had to make a decision whether I really wanted the lab.
In conclusion, as far as helping with reducing fat, despite the fact that I ate healthier than I ever had, and exercised as much or more as I ever had (Over the past ten years I have had long stints of good consistent exercise) and lifted weights as much or more than I ever had, my fat was not reduced by participating in the Longevity program and that the hormone replacement therapy may have actually increased my body fat; not decreased it.
As far as having more energy and being leaner and stronger, again, participating in the Longevity therapies did not help.
With respect to reducing LDL, I started taking red yeast rice, which I had not previously done. My LDL is down, but not to optimal levels. However, this is advice you can get for far less than what you pay Longevity and, I suspect the results will be the same.
Longevity also made inflammation reducing recommendations which included their optimal relief system, ginger root, flax seed and avoiding oils. You can purchase their optimal relief system which includes fish oil, tumeric and a couple of other ingredients, without paying for their therapies or you can get the combination of the optimal relief system ingredients on your own. Despite my best efforts, my inflammation has not been reduced.
My sleep patterns, which I really don't find annoying or problematic, did not change with Longevity's recommendations. One of the recommendations was to get a sleep study done, which I choose not to do.
My energy levels remained consistent with what I had before I started Longevity; Longevity therapies did not affect them one way or another.
I hope that the reader will find this post helpful. I hope that it is not taken as a "hateful rant" against Longevity; that is not my goal. Before I started, I looked for patient information and found none. I suspect that there are some who think that Dr. Mixon's program was helpful to them and well worth the money. However, I also suspect that there are others, like me, who wish they had their money back because his program simply did not provide the results he touts. Based upon my experience, you will get better nutritional and physical guidance from your local gym than you will get from Dr. Mixon and his Longevity Medical Clinic.
If you wish to see any of the Longevity information, including the contract that you sign, the release and even some of my labs, please email me.
