Tomo Marjanovic worked for 12 years as a police officer before changing careers to the health and wellness sector. In 2019, he launched the Aspire Rejuvenation Clinic in Orlando, Florida, specializing in hormone therapy and regenerative medicine. He grew the business to three additional locations across the United States.
He has explored the issues impacting physical and emotional health in his “Tomo Talks Podcast” and in Substack columns. His first book, “Operation Optimal,” includes two short, blunt sentences that embody his philosophy.
The first sentence: “Health is not rocket science.” The second sentence: “Medicine is economics.”
While “Operation Optimal” offers some insights that have been presented in other health and wellness books, this book is different due to the author’s frank and no-nonsense tone. It is a tough-love motivational text that identifies the multiple forces working against the goal of achieving good health.
Those forces, he cautions, are not just external pressures, but internal mistakes triggering potential self-destruction. In reading “Operation Optimal,” it is easy to recall the classic aphorism from Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” comic strip: We have met the enemy and he is us.
A Take-Charge Challenge
Marjanovic begins his book with the stern warning that the individual is the only one who is completely responsible for his or her well-being. The author stresses self-empowerment and being cognizant of the too-easy temptations that can create wreckage instead of wellness.
While he is skeptical of how many doctors emphasize the treatment of symptoms rather than the prevention of disease and illness, Marjanovic stresses he does not hate doctors. But he has problems with medical training that emphasizes “a pill for every ill.”
The answer, according to Marjanovic, is a patient who practices common sense. He details how many of the health problems plaguing people today are the result of a dismal lifestyle that values a dismal diet and avoids physical activities, which can easily be readjusted.
The Stress Factor
Complicating matters are stressful environments and not realizing how to address emotional challenges. Marjanovic recalls how he inadvertently prolonged the many stressful situations he endured during his years as a police officer.
Perhaps the most memorable wrong approach the author took during that tumultuous time was when he returned home from an uncommonly difficult night of policing and devoured the 3,000-calorie contents of a giant bucket of ice cream in one sitting. A tasty attempt at self-comfort, to be certain, but not a smart solution.
Ultimately, he recalls, he redirected his life by recognizing that traditional medicine did not always have the right answer and general practitioners did not always give proper treatments. In learning how to unilaterally improve his health, he came to appreciate why too many Americans are not in a great state of health.
A Wider Concern
Even worse, this problem has become intergenerational. Marjanovic is particularly unhappy with how some parents are not being responsible for their children’s health. He sadly notes that one in three American children will get Type 2 diabetes. He blames this situation on lazy parents who would appease their offspring with poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles.
The author is harsh with parents who invent problems by claiming their children have gender dysphoria. He is vehemently opposed to pediatric gender reassignment treatments, including surgery and giving hormones that are antithetical to the child’s biological gender.
In his view, doctors who pursue these treatments should lose their medical license.
Patient, Teach Yourself
“Operation Optimal” aggressively encourages the readers to pursue self-education as the starting point for improved health. “Learn how the body works when it’s perfect,” Marjanovic writes, adding, “You don’t start with what’s broken. You start with how it was designed to function.”
The book includes a checklist of what doctors traditionally focus on in yearly checkups and what often gets missed in these tests. Marjanovic encourages the readers to openly question their doctors on what they are being tested for and what is not being probed.
He blames omissions on general practitioners who are either not able to interpret this kind of data or who are dealing with insurance providers that only allow certain tests.
The most serious of the missed considerations are identified as tests involving the major hormones, thyroid functioning, and inflammatory markers. The author views these as “silent saboteurs” that can create heart and autoimmune issues.
Marjanovic cedes a chapter to Dr. Joseph Clark, the head medical director of Aspire Rejuvenation Clinic, who details emerging technologies that could positively impact wellness. These include stem cell and exosome use in treating neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Traumatic Brain Injury.
There is further exploration of developing hormone therapies and the quickly evolving incorporation of artificial intelligence into medical research and treatments. The author fears the obstacle to the future widespread use of these new offerings would be an intransigent medical profession that is not comfortable in having its status quo disturbed.
“Operation Optimal” is a provocative work that dares the reader to think and challenge medical authority with intelligent questions about their treatments.
Marjanovic does not promise a cure-all. He opens the door to the potential of a healthier tomorrow.
‘Operation Optimal: Health, Wellness, & Becoming Your Best You’
By Tomo Marjanovic
Choice Press: April 11, 2026
Hardcover, 202 pages
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