Vitals & Values: Concierge Medicine of West Michigan

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The Scariest Things We See in Healthcare

2026-11-0330:17

Send us Fan Mail What actually scares a doctor? Usually not what you’d expect. David and Dr. Lara Baatenburg count down the healthcare moments that genuinely worry clinicians. They cover the sudden “worst headache of my life,” dangerous lab results in people who feel completely fine, high blood pressure left untreated for years, and the jar of loose pills nobody can identify. They also dig into the newer risks: unverified peptides bought online, AI health advice, skipped follow-up, and relyin...

Muscle Is Medicine: What It Actually Takes to Build It

2026-10-2755:20

Send us Fan Mail Muscle isn't vanity. It's medicine. Dr. Lara Baatenburg spent 15 years as a runner before walking into her first CrossFit class. That shift changed how she thinks about health as a physician. In this episode, she and David break down why muscle matters for blood sugar, bones, and aging well, and what actually builds it. They cover progressive overload, how hard to train (and why soreness misleads), how much protein you really need, protecting muscle on a GLP-1, why cardio i...

Suck It Up, Buttercup: Physician Burnout, Private Equity & Fixing Healthcare | Dr. Todd Otten

2026-10-2049:11

Send us Fan Mail Doctors are told to “suck it up, buttercup.” So are patients. Dr. Todd Otten is done accepting that. Dr. Todd Otten is a family physician, former Naval flight surgeon, and executive producer of the documentary Suck It Up, Buttercup: Trust & Betrayal — Healthcare in America. He joins Dr. Lara Baatenburg and David Roden to talk about his path through medical training and burnout, and how that led him to advocate for healthcare reform. We get into what’s really driving clini...

WHY I LEFT INSURANCE MEDICINE

2026-10-1340:19

Send us Fan Mail What changes when your doctor isn’t racing the clock? Dr. Lara Baatenburg spent years in a traditional insurance-based practice with a panel of roughly 3,000 patients before moving to concierge medicine. In this episode, David sits down with her to talk honestly about both sides: what patient volume does to a visit, how urgent problems and lab results actually get handled, and why “patients often feel like they’re pushed out the door” in a system built around throughput. We g...

Healthy Habits in Marriage: What Changed in Our First 4 Months

2026-10-0635:15

Send us Fan Mail Nearly four months into marriage, Lara and David get honest about what it actually takes to build healthy habits as a couple. One of them comes at health from the clinical side and the other from the anti-diet, biology-over-willpower side. Most of the time that works beautifully. Sometimes it turns into a negotiation over the snack cabinet. They cover workout routines and personal preferences, meal prep, handling sweets and snacks at home, the sleep boundaries that keep the p...

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Vitals & Values: Concierge Medicine of West Michigan