Ask Dr. Rehan

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Ask Dr. Rehan SoCal based physician specializing in primary care. BJJ black belt. Passionate about health, wellness & optimization

09/18/2026

My goal now is freedom. Being able to compete freely.

Part of that came from realizing that win or lose, my life is no different. Some of my friends are competing with their paychecks on the line. I felt that pressure once. I do not anymore, and that turned out to be a good thing.

I want competition day to feel exactly like a training day, because that is when I fight my best.

I could win a world title and it would not change anything.

Full episode is out now on YouTube and Spotify.

09/16/2026

You won't hear many doctors say this, but I'm going to say it anyway.

What's worse: being on a peptide, or being overweight with high blood pressure, diabetes, or prediabetes?

The medical system I'm part of has gotten too comfortable letting people carry extra weight and poor biomarkers without doing anything about it. That's harder to justify now that we actually have options.

Every medication comes with risk, so the conversation has to be risk versus benefit. If the answer is always "don't do it, it's too risky," my question is: what's the alternative?

Disclosure: I co-host Longevity University, presented by XYRx, a company that sells peptide therapies. Not medical advice. Talk to your doctor.

09/15/2026

Eight months ago Farshad's labs told me he was heading toward diabetes. His A1C was 6.2, and in my practice, once a patient goes above 6, that number gets much harder to bring back down.

Here's what his follow-up bloodwork looked like. Testosterone from the low 300s to 410. Free testosterone from 10 to 53, a five fold jump. Total cholesterol 218 to 202. Triglycerides from 194 all the way down to 85. And his A1C at 5.6, back in the normal range.

He reversed his pre-diabetes. My recommendation for him going forward is the one I almost never give: don't change anything, keep doing exactly what you're doing.

Full episode is out now on YouTube and Spotify, from our new series Longevity Intervention.

09/15/2026

This loss was tough for me.

I went to IBJJF Master Worlds in Las Vegas with high expectations and made it to the third round, where I lost to a very good black belt. No shame in losing to him. This one stings because I didn't stick to my game plan.

As a competitive athlete, I grew up with the mentality that if you don't win, you're a failure. If you're not first, you're last. We joke about the Ricky Bobby line, but that's pretty much how it was. At the lower belts, that mindset made sense. At the higher levels you sometimes lose more than you win, and if you take every loss as a catastrophe, it breaks you. I've gotten better. If I'm being honest, I still don't handle losses well.

Milan and I spent the new Longevity University episode on all of it: how much of my self-worth is still tied up in competing, why walking back into the academy afterward was harder than losing, and the one part of this that was preventable.

The full episode is on YouTube and Spotify now.

09/14/2026

Just wrapped training, and here's what nobody tells you about male adulthood: it gets hard to keep friendships.

After residency, my wife and I moved back to California and both had a tough time making friends. I hope that's not a reflection on our personalities. I think it's just how it goes as adults.

Jiu-jitsu handed me a built-in community. Competing matters to me, but the part I didn't expect is that a couple days a week I'm in a room with guys I genuinely like, who genuinely like me.

When we talk about longevity, community is one of the most underrated factors. A lot of people lack it, that turns into isolation, and we're now starting to understand what isolation does to your health.

Jiu-jitsu fills those holes for me. Athletics, fitness, intellectual challenge from studying a complex art, and friendship. As busy as work is, it's rare that all those boxes get checked in one place.

09/14/2026

I played Division 1 college football. Now I'm competing at the black belt level in jiu jitsu. People assume that translates cleanly. It doesn't.

Football was about getting riled up, being as aggressive as possible. Jiu jitsu has a little of that, but it's a far more technical pursuit. The nerves are different too. I'm not going to lie and say I don't get nervous, because I do. It's because this still matters to me.

I try not to think about what people will make of me winning or losing. A lot of work goes into this. I'm okay with losing if that's what happens. What I'm not okay with is going out there and doing something completely different from what I've been drilling for months.

I filmed this the day before World Masters. I lost in the round of 16.

The football part still helps. Every so often there's a match where you have to turn it up and dig deep, and that foundation was set playing other sports when I was younger.

09/05/2026

Not the result we wanted at International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation World Masters but hit a mounted triangle in competition for the first time in years. Onward.

09/02/2026

One of the most common questions I get: what happens when a patient simply cannot tolerate a GLP-1?

Some people start one and immediately deal with nausea or GI symptoms. They want the metabolic benefit but their body won't let them stay on it. MOTS-c is one of the few peptides I'd say can genuinely rival a GLP-1 there, and it can be a solid replacement for the fat burning and metabolic side.

If you tolerate your GLP-1 well, I'd still say add MOTS-c at some point. But if you're already doing well on it, ride that wave and let the GLP-1 give you its full benefit first.

The case I find most useful is the stall. I've had patients lose steadily, then plateau, and we didn't want to keep pushing the dose up. Pairing in MOTS-c can restart that process.

One real difference: a GLP-1 you can stay on for an extended stretch. MOTS-c needs to be cycled, roughly four to eight weeks on, then a break before reintroducing it.

The full breakdown of all six peptides the FDA advisory committee recommended is in the new episode.

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