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Naturopathic doctors and local business owners Cristina Romero-Bosch and John A. Robinson have recently entered the realm of podcasting, using the platform to shine a light on topics related to hormone optimization, nutrition, mental health and sexual wellness, among other subjects.
The duo, who are also married to each other, aim to share their decades of expertise in wellness and longevity medicine to clear up medical misinformation with factual insights and actionable advice, according to a statement initially announcing the launch of their podcast titled “Longevity Protocol”.
“There are so many people on the internet who don’t have a medical background and are giving medical advice. Our goal is to create a holistic platform that addresses the most popular health-related queries and debunks all the myths by providing accurate information,” Robinson said in the statement.
One of the misconceptions that the pair told the Weekly they seek to shed insight on is the idea “that it is normal to not want or need to have sex as you get older, and that ‘you just have to live with it.'”
“This is completely wrong. Also, sex is more than simply about intercourse, it is really about your ‘sexuality’, imbibing life with your partner and enjoying the world around you,” they said.
Through their company, Relicus Medical Holdings, the couple are at the helm of Livermore’s SculptMD Medspa, which is a facility focused on medical weight loss, CoolSculpting, skin tightening and other body enhancement treatments.
Additionally, the couple runs other businesses including a medical clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., called The Hormone Zone, which helps people navigate the effects of aging and improve the body’s resiliency against inflammation, dysfunction, and imbalance using naturopathic methods and hormone therapies, according to its website.
The doctors also specialize in treatments for various conditions that impact sexual wellness including low testosterone, low libido and perimenopause, to name a few.
Their work in these areas is what led them to become known as “The Sex Docs” — which they’ve embraced as part of their brand and lean into on their podcast.
With episodes that cover everything from the birth control pill to scheduling intercourse with your partner, the hosts do not shy away from intimate topics.
“We didn’t wake up one day and say we want to do all this stuff regarding sex and relationships and all that; it’s what came to us,” Robinson said in an interview with the Weekly. “With mostly menopausal women and men with low testosterone coming to us to help with their hormonal balance and inevitably they’re talking about their relationships, they’re talking about their sexual wellness and so it just sort of was born out of that.”
While listeners of the podcast range in demographics, the doctors said that people ages 35 to about 65 or 70 tend to make up the core audience.
“35-ish is about where people really start to get a little bit more interested in their health and their sense of longevity — also we’re seeing just younger and younger people being more involved than they ever have, it’s fantastic — and then of course the people who are over 50,” Robinson said.
Romero-Bosch and Robinson explained that the title for the podcast stems from longevity medicine, which is an umbrella term used in the medical field to encompass personal health practices such as anti-aging medicine, functional medicine, age management medicine and other treatments that seek to help people live longer and healthier lives.
“We chose longevity the minute we made the philosophical decision to specialize in naturopathic medicine,” Romero-Bosch said.
“When you’re studying natural therapies within the medical school program, you’re already considering about the importance of nutritional biochemistry, diet, botanical medicine, alternative therapies like energy — all the things that come in and out of fad — what binds all of those things is that at the core, they are about improving the way the body is supposed to be working,” she added.
Robinson noted that the term longevity medicine is fairly new — becoming popularized within roughly the past two years — but the principles are not.
“We’ve always said this is about living a long, well-lived life,” Romero-Bosch said. “Because we want to live to be as old as we can to enjoy our lives with our friends, our family of course, but you want to live it healthily. You don’t want to be suffering through your 80s and 90s — never mind centennials. So for us, longevity is at the core of our passion for how we live our life and it is also a word that makes it easy for the consumer to understand about ‘how do I live to be old and feel good?'”
The couple met in naturopathic medical school back in 2002. They’ve been in a relationship for 21 years and married for 12, with their most recent marriage anniversary coinciding with the launch of their podcast back in October 2024. Together, they have a combined total of 36 years of experience in their field.
In their professional partnership, Robinson said he is more of the researcher and technically savvy one while Romero-Bosch brings in more of the humor and charisma.
“I think one of the things John and I have always done really well together is he has a very strong technical mind and he is great with one-on-one — he’s an incredible counselor — but one of my strengths is definitely taking concepts that perhaps are a little bit more complicated and helping to spin them in a way that’s more user friendly for the average person,” Romero-Bosch said.
Their own, real chemistry plays a large role in the work they do together.
“Our personal life has informed our medical experience and how we approach patients and vice versa,” Robinson said. “There’s just been such a dynamic, just who we are as people and how we’ve evolved in our own relationship from the very beginning.”
The doctors noted that one of the biggest benefits their patients and listeners have is being able to see their methods and ideologies reflected in their own relationship, even as it relates to conflict.
“Fighting in a relationship is not a problem if the fight is a respectful one, there’s not purposeful hurt and if that intimate connection, love and respect is maintained,” said Romero-Bosch regarding disagreements or conflict that arises between them as business partners, co-hosts and spouses.
Robinson also highlighted how they prioritize communication, noting that they develop topics together and review most of them together beforehand, going in with a general understanding of each others’ position on an issue prior to recording the episode.
“Longevity Protocol” is just a few months old, available on YouTube and across all major podcast streaming platforms. The doctors have 16 episodes available so far that mostly feature the two of them in conversation, but they said they plan to feature guests in the near future, such as Jack Wolfson, known as “The Paleo Cardiologist”.
And while they may not have had a formal guest in-studio yet, their patients and listeners play a part in helping drive discussion topics.
“We had one particular listener call in and revealed some very personal details about her intimate life with her older husband. We were able to answer her questions on one of our episodes,” the doctors told the Weekly.
Romero-Bosch and Robinson shared that the podcast serves as a medium that brings together their work in aesthetic medicine and hormone therapies because they’re able to draw from their patient experiences to spread their message of helping people feel good about themselves from the inside out.
With Valentine’s Day in mind, Romero-Bosch and Robinson shared some advice about the importance of showing up for your partner.
“Make sure you’re just actually there for them,” Robinson said. “I’ll speak for the guys out there, sometimes they’re just not paying attention enough and these types of romantic holidays and romantic moments are really, really important.”
Romero-Bosch added, “I think of Valentine’s Day a lot like I think of new year’s resolutions. I feel like it’s not really about that day. It’s about a reminder on how to set the tempo for the year.”
She said that her suggestion is to consider the question, “What does my partner find to be romantic — not what do I find to be romantic — and how can I ensure that I’m incorporating those concepts into our day-to-day living?”
“If you’re committed to a relationship, then you want it to be sexy and sensual and love-filled all year-round,” she continued. “So, let Valentine’s Day be that day perhaps where you set up those resolutions but not a one-day-only mentality.”
