00:00:00
As we stop moving or as people stop engaging in resistance training, you are gonna have that
00:00:05
natural loss of muscle mass over time.
00:00:07
And, really, muscle is your metabolic engine.
00:00:10
It's how your body is able to maintain longevity.
00:00:13
It's it's armor.
00:00:14
Right?
00:00:15
You have more muscle on your body, you're less likely to fall and get injured.
00:00:18
You are less likely to develop diabetes or insulin resistance because muscle makes your
00:00:23
body more sensitive to insulin.
00:00:24
It's utilizing that glucose.
00:00:26
Welcome to Health Decode, your number one source for real health information with your
00:00:31
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00:00:37
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00:01:47
Welcome back to another episode of Health Decoded.
00:01:51
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
00:01:54
Today's episode is a really fun one, and this is actually something a little different than
00:01:58
what we normally do.
00:02:00
I was recently a guest on the power panel presented by MYOSMD.
00:02:06
This is a show that focuses on highlighting doctors in different areas of medicine, and
00:02:11
really digging into the concept of how muscle is an organ for longevity, and for health and
00:02:18
for vitality.
00:02:20
And so I was on this panel with doctor Swati Varanasi Diaz, and she basically interviewed
00:02:27
me, asked me a ton of really awesome questions, and dug into a bit of why I do what I do and
00:02:34
why we're doing what we're doing at Alessi Functional Health, and as well as how we
00:02:39
partnered with myosMD and their product to help our patients to improve outcomes and become
00:02:47
more vibrant and live healthier lives.
00:02:49
So I hope you enjoy this conversation.
00:02:51
This was a really, really great conversation that we had, and I look forward to seeing you
00:02:56
in the show.
00:02:57
Okay.
00:02:58
Welcome to another episode of the power panel brought to you by MYOSMD.
00:03:04
So let's hop right into the topic at hand.
00:03:07
So, first and foremost, we'd love to have an intro from, our guests today.
00:03:12
Would you mind giving a little background on yourself before we get into today's topic?
00:03:17
Yes, ma'am.
00:03:18
Thank you so much for having me, by the way, and it's great to see you again.
00:03:21
My name is doctor Alfred Alessi.
00:03:23
I own a clinic in Tampa, Florida, called Alessi Functional Health, where we specialize in a few
00:03:30
different things.
00:03:30
We really have three pillars of how we practice, but the physical medicine, which is
00:03:34
chiropractic, spinal decompression, really focused on, you know, getting people
00:03:38
functional.
00:03:40
And then functional medicine, which is very much a growing part of our practice using
00:03:45
comprehensive blood work, testing, you know, gut testing, all kinds of stuff, really getting
00:03:49
in detail with people to get to the root cause of what their issues might be.
00:03:52
And then we're tapping into regenerative medicine as well, utilizing things like
00:03:56
peptides, regenerative medicines like stem cells and soft wave therapy, which is really
00:04:01
cool stuff.
00:04:02
We just invested in a whole body red light therapy system, which is gonna be awesome for
00:04:06
our patients for inflammation.
00:04:08
So, you know, realistically, we're our goal is to kind of upset the conventional medicine
00:04:13
model and get people better instead of just keeping people sick and unhealthy and on pills
00:04:17
for the rest of their life.
00:04:19
Amazing.
00:04:20
Yeah.
00:04:20
Thank you so much for that introduction.
00:04:22
So before we dive into today's discussion, I wanted to mention that today's power panel is
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brought to you by MYOSMD, the cutting edge nutritional supplement designed to combat
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So, you'd like to learn more about MyOSMD, you can go to myosmd.com.
00:04:49
Alrighty, so into today's episode.
00:04:51
So we want to focus today quite a bit on functional medicine.
00:04:56
We haven't had an expert yet dive into that topic.
00:04:59
And so how do you define functional medicine?
00:05:02
And what got you interested in it in the first place?
00:05:06
Yeah.
00:05:06
The concept of functional medicine is really what it's called is that we're trying to
00:05:11
optimize the way the body functions.
00:05:13
And the way the body functions is as a system, not just a bunch of isolated organs talking to
00:05:19
each other.
00:05:20
Right?
00:05:20
And so everything is connected.
00:05:22
If someone comes in with, chronic joint pain or say it's, you know, fatigue or or they're
00:05:27
having cognitive issues, often I'm looking at the gut because the gut is our first barrier of
00:05:33
defense for our immune system and for where that inflammation may be coming from.
00:05:37
And so again, in conventional medicine, docs are not going to take that out of the box
00:05:42
approach.
00:05:42
And so we really focus on, again, like looking at the patient as a whole and not just a list
00:05:48
of symptoms and lab values.
00:05:50
Because you can often get lost in the numbers of, the cholesterol is high.
00:05:54
Let's do this.
00:05:55
Or, you know, the inflammation is high.
00:05:58
It's like, how is their lifestyle affecting that too?
00:06:00
So we incorporate lifestyle a lot within our clinic, because that's, you know, that
00:06:04
everything starts at home realistically with how our patients' lives are going.
00:06:09
So to answer the second part of that, I got into functional medicine, really, my own story.
00:06:14
It started as as becoming a chiropractor due to an injury I had, had really good results from
00:06:19
chiropractic care, and then, you know, started learning more on the functional side, had a lot
00:06:25
of nutrition training through that.
00:06:26
I've always been more health conscious as, you know, even growing up.
00:06:32
Then diagnosing myself with an autoimmune condition, actually Hashimoto's thyroiditis,
00:06:37
where I really didn't I didn't know anything about it at the time.
00:06:40
I ran some blood work.
00:06:42
As I was tapping into it, I found that Standard Labs missed it because they just ran a thyroid
00:06:48
stimulating hormone test and a T three, which, you know, I was I was in the normal range.
00:06:52
It wasn't until I ran an antibody test and found that I had presence of antibodies
00:06:56
attacking my thyroid and then took action on that.
00:07:00
Went down the whole rabbit trail of healing the gut, right?
00:07:02
Fixing the leaky gut, balancing stress levels, cortisol, all the adrenals, and ended up
00:07:08
actually getting remission from that autoimmune condition where my antibodies are now within a
00:07:12
normal range and not clinically diagnosable as Hashimoto's.
00:07:16
And so I think experiencing it myself is what kind of gives me the passion and the empathy to
00:07:22
really be able to talk to patients about the power of functional medicine.
00:07:26
Yeah, that's incredible.
00:07:27
So many people that I've met that are either in functional medicine or in integrative medicine
00:07:32
I'm an integrative specialist as well.
00:07:34
I think so many of us come from the personal experience whether it is something that we
00:07:39
experience or some one of our loved ones or someone in our community experienced and then
00:07:44
we kind of take it from there and realize that there is more than one way of just healing.
00:07:48
So, yeah.
00:07:49
That's right.
00:07:49
Definitely.
00:07:50
So, let's talk about some examples.
00:07:52
So, when a patient presents to you with fatigue or brain fog, what are some of the root causes
00:07:58
that you look to investigate first?
00:08:01
Yeah.
00:08:01
You know, kind of what I alluded to, just now is the fatigue and the brain fog are really
00:08:06
just their signs or their symptoms.
00:08:08
They're the check engine light, right, or the alarm that's going off within the body.
00:08:12
And so now it's okay.
00:08:14
Like, where's the fire?
00:08:15
Right?
00:08:15
If the fire alarm's going off, where's the fire that's causing that to happen?
00:08:20
You know, the the analogy I use with a lot of patients is like, say there was a fire in the
00:08:24
back room and the alarm's going off.
00:08:25
If I just turn the alarm off, did I put out the fire?
00:08:28
I did not.
00:08:28
Right?
00:08:29
And so that's what medication, aims to do is to just turn the alarm off, but not actually get
00:08:34
to the root cause of why that alarm's going off.
00:08:36
And so we're gonna look into, you know, kind of what we call, like, the big four.
00:08:41
What is the metabolic situation?
00:08:42
Right?
00:08:43
What's blood sugar doing?
00:08:44
Mitochondrial dysfunction is a big one that people experience that is very difficult to
00:08:48
test for.
00:08:49
Thyroid is huge.
00:08:50
It's maybe like sixty percent of people nowadays have some type of thyroid dysfunction
00:08:54
or autoimmunity.
00:08:56
And then toxins is a big one.
00:08:58
The environment, the world we live in right now is it's impossible almost to avoid exposure to
00:09:04
toxins from the air, the things we put on and in our body, and even the clothes we're
00:09:10
wearing.
00:09:10
So from there, you know, you you get some data, and then you start to understand, like, okay.
00:09:16
Like, how is this now, attributing to those symptoms?
00:09:19
And now we can put together a a plan, right, to be able to, you know, write that and rebalance
00:09:25
and find equilibrium within the body.
00:09:28
Yes, definitely.
00:09:29
It's all about thinking about the root cause.
00:09:32
I've never actually heard someone talk about it with the fire alarm and then finding like the
00:09:37
cause of the fire but I think that that is a great analogy and I mean it is something you
00:09:41
should consider maybe with just trademarking because that is the most.
00:09:46
So how do you differentiate between inflammation that is a symptom versus
00:09:51
inflammation that could be a driver of chronic disease, or is there a difference between the
00:09:56
two?
00:09:57
Yeah.
00:09:57
I I think there is a difference.
00:09:59
You know, again, is a good thing in in short amounts.
00:10:02
Right?
00:10:02
Like, you sprain your ankle or you get stung by a bee.
00:10:05
You you want that inflammation to go to the source.
00:10:08
Right?
00:10:09
And your body to use its immune system to fix that.
00:10:12
But when it's chronically elevated for long periods of time and it becomes systemic, then,
00:10:17
yeah, there's a problem.
00:10:17
Right?
00:10:18
Your body's not meant to be in that high, state of chronic inflammation and stress.
00:10:22
And so kind of going back to that analogy.
00:10:24
Right?
00:10:25
Inflammation can be both the fire and the alarm.
00:10:28
Right?
00:10:28
You can feel inflammation.
00:10:29
Your joints are achy and sore.
00:10:31
Right?
00:10:32
You can feel like your gut, you have IBS, maybe you run to the bathroom five, six times a day.
00:10:37
And then if it starts to stick around long enough is where then you have long term damage.
00:10:42
And so again, testing is key.
00:10:44
Right?
00:10:45
Signs and symptoms are good, and it's a subjective analysis from patient if they are in
00:10:49
tune with their body.
00:10:50
But then let's accurately test and get data.
00:10:53
And so we do look at some really in-depth, really cool tests within our office.
00:10:58
And and again, it's maybe a little bit broader than what you're gonna get with insurance based
00:11:03
medical care because when the insurance company is telling you what to do, right?
00:11:07
They're like, Oh, we're gonna we're gonna look at these few things.
00:11:09
It's like, No, I I need more, right?
00:11:10
I need to if I wanna determine whether a movie is good, am I gonna just watch the first five
00:11:15
minutes, or am I gonna watch the whole thing?
00:11:16
Right?
00:11:16
So I I need the whole picture of before I can make a judgment call if I actually like that
00:11:21
film.
00:11:21
So kind of the same concept.
00:11:23
I need to see a broader picture to be able to determine what's actually going on.
00:11:28
And then talking more about what's actually going on, let's talk about gut health.
00:11:32
So how does gut health play in terms of long term health outcomes And how can you assess it
00:11:40
from a functional medicine perspective?
00:11:42
Yeah.
00:11:43
Great question.
00:11:43
You know, the gut is again, it's like our first line of defense.
00:11:47
Statistics are somewhere like eighty to eighty five percent of your immune system is actually
00:11:51
housed in the gut.
00:11:52
And so it's constantly this feedback net mechanism from your gut to your brain.
00:11:57
Right?
00:11:57
The gut is actually probably your first brain.
00:12:00
It's controlling more of our body's daily things than even our brain does.
00:12:04
Right?
00:12:04
And there's more, of these organisms and neurosynapses that are actually creating in in
00:12:09
the gut versus in the brain.
00:12:11
So that constant feedback, the gut is paramount to long term health.
00:12:16
If your gut is inflamed, if your gut is dysfunctional, if you have leaky gut, it's
00:12:20
going to affect everything.
00:12:21
It is one of the major drivers of autoimmune conditions, which is where your body's
00:12:25
attacking itself.
00:12:26
And so when it comes to testing, again, it's like starting with some symptoms is good, but
00:12:31
then we like to get some in-depth testing using things like stool tests, where we can see the
00:12:36
balance between good and bad bacterial flora.
00:12:39
We can look for parasites.
00:12:41
We can look for toxins.
00:12:42
We can look for, mold, fungus, all these kind of things.
00:12:45
Yeast is a big one.
00:12:47
And, you know, realistically, I'd say maybe like seventy five to eighty percent is just a
00:12:52
kind of a guess number.
00:12:53
Of the patients that come in with any type of functional medicine issues, we're focusing on
00:13:00
the gut heavily on the front end.
00:13:02
And so it's about like, okay, you get the gut clean.
00:13:05
We take them through what we call our five Rs.
00:13:08
And I can name it.
00:13:09
We remove.
00:13:10
Right?
00:13:10
So that's like get rid of the things that are offending the body or the gut.
00:13:13
Replace, start putting good stuff in that the body can use and rebuild with.
00:13:18
Reinoculate, right, good bacteria, probiotics, some of those buzzwords people are probably
00:13:22
familiar with.
00:13:23
Then we reinoculate with healthy foods and things that are healing.
00:13:27
Then again, repair and rebalance.
00:13:29
And so when we go through this protocol, it's actually this has been used for a long time in
00:13:34
functional and Eastern medicine, the body can then heal.
00:13:37
And so really, that's probably ninety percent of patients are going to go through some type
00:13:42
of detoxification 5R protocol when it comes to healing the gut.
00:13:47
Yeah, and going a little off script, but I wanted to ask your perspective on the use of
00:13:52
probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics.
00:13:55
How do you view that for patients who are coming into your clinic?
00:13:59
Is it like, we want to put most patients on these, all patients?
00:14:05
I hear quite a lot of different perspectives.
00:14:07
Would love to hear yours.
00:14:09
Yeah.
00:14:10
Probiotics are awesome because they have so many different functions, right?
00:14:15
The way that certain things are broken down and utilized within the body is controlled by the
00:14:20
bacterial colonies in our gut.
00:14:22
And so certain bacteria can affect certain things.
00:14:25
And so we use different strains at different times within the protocol.
00:14:29
But one thing I want to make sure people are aware of is if you have bloating, if you have
00:14:35
diarrhea, constipation, or any type of gut distress, and then you see an ad on Facebook or
00:14:40
Instagram, probiotics fix my gut.
00:14:43
People just think that that's kind of like a like a one stop shop pill, right?
00:14:47
You just take that pill, it's going to fix your problem.
00:14:49
Maybe, but maybe it's the wrong timing, right?
00:14:52
If you start putting probiotics into a dysbiotic gut system, you're kind of feeding
00:14:57
that that bad bacteria a little bit.
00:14:59
And it's almost like pouring gasoline on a fire.
00:15:01
Can make the problem worse.
00:15:02
And so I see that a lot.
00:15:04
Patients are like, tried to take this probiotic and my bloating got worse or I felt more
00:15:10
inflamed.
00:15:10
And it's because it was right product, wrong time.
00:15:13
Right?
00:15:14
And so there is an order and a sequence of events you need to go through.
00:15:18
Definitely.
00:15:19
And you mentioned a little bit in the beginning about your own experience with Hashimoto's.
00:15:23
So can you talk a little bit about hormonal imbalances and how they can often be downstream
00:15:29
effects of dysfunction?
00:15:31
And how do you approach someone who has like a hormone imbalance?
00:15:36
Yeah.
00:15:36
Again, right, like, so in my situation, it was very much that I had leaky gut, which is where
00:15:42
the barrier that controls kind of what your gut allows to get into your bloodstream was, was
00:15:47
weak.
00:15:48
And and undigested, you know, protein strands and and larger molecules, even bacterias and
00:15:54
pathogens can then get into the blood.
00:15:56
Your body is smart.
00:15:57
It's gonna mount an immune response to that.
00:15:59
Right?
00:15:59
It doesn't want that in your bloodstream.
00:16:00
And so when that immune response is chronically going on all the time, your body can get
00:16:06
confused.
00:16:07
And those proteins that are in the blood can look similar to other, you know, proteins that
00:16:12
make up our body.
00:16:13
We see this in rheumatoid arthritis, the tendon and cartilage proteins, right, start to get
00:16:17
attacked by our own immune system.
00:16:19
That's what autoimmunity is, right?
00:16:21
It's it's our body attacking itself.
00:16:23
And so again, like, yes, addressing gut number one with any type of hormone imbalance, healing
00:16:28
and sealing the gut, and then looking upstream into, like, what is the the cascade doing?
00:16:34
Right?
00:16:34
If I just look at someone's, sex hormones and say, oh, they have low low t, for example.
00:16:40
Right?
00:16:40
I'm I'm gonna just put them on testosterone.
00:16:42
Again, that's a very kind of, rudimentary, just basic look.
00:16:47
It's like, wanna see, how is their adrenal stress response maybe hijacking that.
00:16:52
Right?
00:16:53
Because cholesterol, through the melanin pathway creates those sex hormones.
00:16:58
Right?
00:16:58
And so we have if we have low cholesterol, if we're on a statin drug, it's inhibiting our
00:17:02
body, the ability to convert now cholesterol into sex hormones.
00:17:07
And so, you know, again, you're not gonna just throw somebody at something and think that's
00:17:11
the answer.
00:17:11
It's like, how do we get to the bottom of it?
00:17:13
And so, yeah, that's the way we'd approach it.
00:17:15
I know it's very similar in kind of every situation, but that's because as complex as the
00:17:20
body is, it's actually pretty simple too.
00:17:23
It's like the the body wants to be in balance.
00:17:25
And so remove the bad stuff that's hurting it and then replace with good things and
00:17:29
ultimately find that balanced, state.
00:17:32
Definitely.
00:17:33
And I'd love to hear a little bit more about when you're seeing patients in your clinic, is
00:17:38
it oftentimes that they've seen a lot of other providers and now they're turning to functional
00:17:42
medicine as almost like they've kind of exhausted their other options and now they're
00:17:50
finding functional medicine as something that they want to explore?
00:17:54
Or how does that process work when you have patients walking through the door and what's
00:17:58
their previous experience?
00:18:00
Yeah, I would say I'd say that's a majority, like probably a pretty big majority of the
00:18:05
patients we see.
00:18:07
They've, you know, because that's you and I probably both, right, grew up in more of the
00:18:11
conventional medicine model.
00:18:13
Oh, you sprained your ankle.
00:18:14
You got an injury.
00:18:15
Here's an Aleve.
00:18:15
Here's an Advil.
00:18:16
Go to your doc.
00:18:17
They'll give you maybe like some type of Z Pak if you have a cold.
00:18:20
And so we're just used to that and it's kind of ingrained in us.
00:18:24
So people usually go that route first, right?
00:18:27
Unless, say, they are out of the box thinking and they come to functional medicine first.
00:18:31
That's just not often.
00:18:34
So yeah, they've probably gone down the rabbit hole of visit to visit, specialist to
00:18:39
specialist.
00:18:39
And again, these docs are looking at one specific area that is their specialty, not
00:18:44
connecting the dots and the pieces of what makes the person a person.
00:18:48
And so, yeah, we we kinda get that a lot, the frustration piece of, man, I have no answers,
00:18:54
and I've been to eight doctors and a million tests and invasive tests, like people getting a
00:18:59
lot of, you know, colonoscopies and things kinda stuck in places you don't want them.
00:19:03
Right?
00:19:03
And no answers from that, and it's it's unfortunate.
00:19:07
And so we always wanna start with, like, hey.
00:19:09
We're here to listen to you first and really kind of get to the bottom of this.
00:19:13
And we're also honest if it's something we can't help with, we're not going to claim to be
00:19:16
able to help you.
00:19:18
But majority of the time, there is an answer within functional medicine.
00:19:22
And so, yeah, to answer the question, yes, like that is a overwhelming majority of what we see.
00:19:28
And so where we lead to then normally is like, okay, what do I need to see to make a good
00:19:33
determination of what's going on here?
00:19:35
And that's, again, the testing piece.
00:19:37
And then coming up with some type of program for the patient, including, you know, whether
00:19:42
it's dietary movement based lifestyle based stress reduction, toxin removal, all of that.
00:19:48
Probably a combination of most of those things too, because at the end of the day it is so
00:19:53
important to personalize protocols and personalize the entire experience because each
00:19:59
person really does have quite a different constitution and list concerns that they want
00:20:06
to address.
00:20:07
What are So some of your go to strategies or frameworks when you're thinking about
00:20:11
personalizing the experience on the protocols per patient?
00:20:16
Yeah, cool question.
00:20:18
The framework or like the system and the protocols we use is very much a framework, and
00:20:23
then we add or remove based on the person.
00:20:26
Right?
00:20:27
So not everybody's gonna get the same exact kind of approach, but the the the frame of it,
00:20:32
the foundation of it is gonna look the same.
00:20:35
You know, we gotta test.
00:20:36
Right?
00:20:36
I got I need data.
00:20:37
What gets measured can get managed.
00:20:39
Then we need to remove the interference or the offensive, things that are causing the stress
00:20:44
on the system, support the systems with, say, nutraceuticals or peptides or whatever it might
00:20:51
be.
00:20:52
And then again, retest.
00:20:54
Right?
00:20:54
And it's like, you want to see that what you're doing is working.
00:20:57
You can't just kind of throw a bunch of things at it and be like, Yeah, you're good.
00:21:01
Symptoms are a bit of the story, but the data tells a lot as well.
00:21:04
And that's how we can be more proactive with people.
00:21:08
You solve a problem, then it's like, hey, now we want to maintain a level of diligence.
00:21:14
Looking at this every six months, we recommend blood work be done.
00:21:18
Even if it's just a kind of a comprehensive panel, not as much the gut stuff, but just
00:21:22
knowing, Hey, are things trending in the right direction?
00:21:24
Are we having kind of a backtrack of these things?
00:21:28
And then, you know, everything we do is test based protocol driven and then high
00:21:33
accountability.
00:21:34
Like my patients have access to us 20 fourseven if they need.
00:21:37
And we also, make sure we're kind of on top of them.
00:21:40
You know, we're like a coach.
00:21:41
Like, hey, did you do your 10 push ups?
00:21:43
Right?
00:21:43
Like, we're making sure, are you doing the things we told you?
00:21:46
Because that's the only way this is gonna work.
00:21:48
And I think oftentimes, what falls through the cracks is based on compliance because people
00:21:54
are only seeing their providers, you know, once a year, maybe twice a year and so when they are
00:22:00
not seeing their provider they don't have that access or accountability to actually engage
00:22:06
with their provider.
00:22:07
They might forget the suggestion or they might just not be able to figure out a way or a
00:22:13
strategy to actually build it into their daily life.
00:22:15
So I think that kind of one on one or that experience of actually working with a patient
00:22:21
and being available to them is just so important for their success.
00:22:26
Yeah, you know, it's the twenty first century, right?
00:22:28
Like we have technology.
00:22:29
So being like, look at this, we just hopped on a video call and we're across the across The
00:22:33
States from each other.
00:22:34
And this did not take any time at all.
00:22:36
So, you know, we want that availability piece to be known to our patients, like, hey, if you
00:22:41
have something urgent, you reach out, you know, we respond within twelve, twenty four hours.
00:22:46
We have a text based system.
00:22:47
We have an email based system.
00:22:48
We have chat like that.
00:22:49
You're gonna get ahold of a member of my team and and get the answer you're looking for
00:22:54
shorter than trying to call and make an appointment.
00:22:56
Right?
00:22:57
So and sometimes it's something that you don't need to call and come in and make an
00:23:00
appointment.
00:23:01
You just needed to figure out, hey.
00:23:02
What's the dosage here I need to take?
00:23:03
Or like, How how long am I doing this thing for?
00:23:06
Right?
00:23:06
What did you say about that again, doc?
00:23:08
Right?
00:23:08
And so then it's just a quick answer, back on track.
00:23:12
Yes, definitely.
00:23:13
And what would you say to providers who are interested in learning more about functional
00:23:17
medicine or even integrating some of the principles into what they do?
00:23:21
How can they start learning about it?
00:23:24
Yeah, you know, I think step one is like, you got to think outside the box a little bit, you
00:23:30
know, medical docs, and I hate to pick on conventional medicine, but it is just kind of
00:23:34
the truth of how it's done is it's a it's really like a program system that they're kind
00:23:39
of stuck in.
00:23:40
It's like they're kind of told how to think versus like, Hey, why don't I think a little
00:23:45
bit differently here?
00:23:46
What could really get this person better?
00:23:48
And so the way I started with this was I thought about how many people are going to the
00:23:53
ER with chronic low back pain.
00:23:55
And it was an alarming number.
00:23:56
Somebody taking up a seat in the emergency room from someone who needs urgent care is maybe
00:24:01
bleeding, maybe has some serious infection.
00:24:04
And now there's someone in front of them who has low back pain that could be solved by some
00:24:08
therapeutic traction or chiropractic care, right?
00:24:11
And so, you know, being able to direct people better, asking better questions instead of just
00:24:17
like, oh, like, you know, this is this.
00:24:19
I normally just give this person that kind of thing.
00:24:21
It's like, no.
00:24:21
Like, let's let's dig in.
00:24:23
What is their lifestyle?
00:24:24
Right?
00:24:24
Is this person chronically stressed because they're going through something in their
00:24:27
personal life?
00:24:28
Right?
00:24:29
You know, maybe they just got fired.
00:24:31
Maybe they have this heavy burden emotionally, right, mentally, and that is now
00:24:35
psychosomatically exposing itself, in a physical way.
00:24:39
And so then, again, like, you you ask better questions to direct, like, what kind of
00:24:44
investigation do we need to do?
00:24:45
And so looking at more.
00:24:47
Right?
00:24:47
Again, I'm always like, get as much data as possible.
00:24:49
Right?
00:24:50
You watch movies.
00:24:51
We all watch movies.
00:24:52
Like, you don't watch five minutes of a movie.
00:24:54
I always come back to this.
00:24:55
It's like, you don't watch five minutes of a movie or a trailer and be like, oh, I loved it.
00:24:58
You have to watch the whole thing, and then maybe the ending sucks, and you didn't like
00:25:02
that movie.
00:25:03
Right?
00:25:03
And so it's like you have to get the full picture before you can make really a
00:25:06
determination or an educated decision.
00:25:09
And so it's not about rejecting that conventional medicine model, but it's about
00:25:14
really evolving it and and getting back to the basics of listening to the patient, spending
00:25:19
time with them.
00:25:19
I think so many patients are rushed and forced and kind of, you know, taken through just this
00:25:24
conveyor belt.
00:25:25
And then treating the person, not the numbers.
00:25:27
Right?
00:25:27
Just because there's a lab value that's high, I wanna make sure a protocol fits into their
00:25:32
lifestyle.
00:25:33
I'm not going to give somebody something they can't handle.
00:25:35
And so that's very important as well.
00:25:37
Yes, definitely.
00:25:39
And I would love to ask your perspective on muscle health.
00:25:43
So how does muscle health fit into what you do as a functional medicine specialist?
00:25:48
And particularly as it pertains to aging, metabolism and hormones, which we touched a
00:25:54
little bit on before, but could you talk a little bit more about that?
00:25:58
Yeah, and obviously that makes sense with the power panel here that right the myosMD
00:26:04
sponsored we use myosMD a lot because we do see more of an aging population or an older
00:26:10
population and as we stop moving or as people stop engaging in resistance training, you are
00:26:16
going to have that natural loss of muscle mass over time.
00:26:19
And really muscle is your metabolic engine.
00:26:22
It's how your body is able to maintain longevity.
00:26:25
It's it's armor.
00:26:26
Right?
00:26:27
You have more muscle on your body, you're less likely to fall and get injured.
00:26:30
You are less likely to develop diabetes or insulin resistance because muscle makes your
00:26:35
body more sensitive to insulin.
00:26:36
It's utilizing that glucose.
00:26:38
And so very much so we focus on muscle anytime we're going through a functional medicine
00:26:43
protocol because we want to get people more metabolically healthy.
00:26:46
We want to lower insulin resistance, improve sensitivity, and we wanna support, you know,
00:26:52
their ability to to move and to activate, you know, in whatever whatever it might be,
00:26:58
whatever hobby they have.
00:26:59
Right?
00:26:59
It tends to be pickleball nowadays.
00:27:01
So it's like everybody's playing pickleball.
00:27:03
But, you know, you gotta have the muscle to be able to perform.
00:27:06
So it's it's huge.
00:27:08
It's a staple in in what we focus on.
00:27:10
Definitely.
00:27:11
And could you share, like, one or two success stories that you've had using MyOSMD?
00:27:16
Yeah.
00:27:17
Definitely.
00:27:17
You know, one guy came in, and he was a gosh.
00:27:22
I I can't remember his age.
00:27:24
Sixties.
00:27:24
I'm just gonna say mid sixties and baseball player throughout his whole life and now was
00:27:29
playing, like, fast pitch softball because he wanted to maintain, obviously, that, that game.
00:27:34
He loved it was his thing.
00:27:35
And had a couple injuries.
00:27:38
Definitely had a couple discs that is why he sought us out.
00:27:41
And so we did a protocol of some chiropractic spinal decompression and stuff with him.
00:27:46
And then he started asking questions on like, hey, man.
00:27:49
Like, I I feel like I'm always sore.
00:27:51
I feel like I'm always having these, like, my recovery is is, is not what it used to be.
00:27:56
And I was like, well, you are 65.
00:27:58
Right?
00:27:58
And so, like, it's not gonna be what you were when you're 25, but we can enhance it, and we
00:28:02
can, you know, start to reverse some of those effects that you're getting.
00:28:06
And so he he dialed in on the MyOSMD and was, he was doing two or three scoops a day, which I
00:28:12
told him maybe is, you know, a little overkill.
00:28:13
But I was like, hey.
00:28:14
If if you like it, then go for it.
00:28:15
But, yeah, he did really well with it, and he was able to perform at a higher level was the
00:28:22
feedback we got from him.
00:28:23
And he felt that his recovery was faster, which is awesome at at 65 years old.
00:28:28
Right?
00:28:28
He didn't feel like he would go play a a couple games of softball at night and then the next
00:28:32
day be out for four days.
00:28:33
Right?
00:28:34
And so myself too, awesome success story.
00:28:37
I when I had my my two boys, I have twin boys, and before they were born, I was like, gotta
00:28:43
get in the best shape of my life.
00:28:44
Right?
00:28:44
So they're like, I can just, you know, be there to support and obviously be ahead of this
00:28:48
thing.
00:28:48
And so I did a protocol of the MYOS for about six months, and I probably stacked a good,
00:28:53
like, five to 10 pounds of muscle through that process.
00:28:55
I was resistance training heavy, and I was, you know, probably the best shape of my life at
00:28:59
that point right about to have my kids too.
00:29:02
And then I maintained it through, which was awesome.
00:29:03
So, it's a great product and and something that we definitely incorporate in.
00:29:09
Amazing.
00:29:10
Thank you so much for sharing.
00:29:11
So this was a very quick thirty minutes, very quick session, but as we wrap up, we'd like to
00:29:16
thank MyoMD for sponsoring today's power panel.
00:29:19
Fueled by the proprietary ingredient Fortetropin, MyoMD is trusted by healthcare
00:29:24
professionals like our guest, Doctor.
00:29:26
Alisi to deliver real results backed by science.
00:29:30
If you would like to learn more about MYOSMD you can go to the website myosmd.com where we
00:29:36
have a number of other recordings both there and on our YouTube channel.
00:29:40
You can learn more about bringing this powerful solution to your practice.
00:29:44
If people want to learn more about you, Doctor.
00:29:47
Alisi, how can they do that?
00:29:49
Doctor.
00:29:49
Yeah, so a few different ways.
00:29:51
Our website is alessifunctionalhealth.com.
00:29:54
In the functional medicine side of things, do telehealth as well.
00:29:58
So we have patients from all over the country with the physical medicine side, obviously,
00:30:03
primarily in Tampa, Florida.
00:30:04
So if you're in the area.
00:30:06
And then we have a podcast as well that we educate on, on kind of how we operate within
00:30:10
our clinics and some success stories from patients.
00:30:13
That's called Health Decoded.
00:30:15
You can listen to that YouTube or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
00:30:18
We're on all platforms.
00:30:20
And I'm Doctor.
00:30:21
Alfred Alessi on Instagram.
00:30:22
You can follow me and kind of see some things going on within the clinic, which is really
00:30:26
cool as well.
00:30:27
Oh, thank you so much, Doctor.
00:30:29
Alessi.
00:30:29
This was a great conversation.
00:30:31
We talked about everything from functional medicine all the way to muscle health.
00:30:35
So yeah, anyone who's listening to either the live or the recording, please do not hesitate
00:30:39
to reach out to either of us to learn more.
00:30:43
Alrighty.
00:30:43
Well, have a good rest of the day.
00:30:45
Bye bye.
00:30:45
Thank you so much.
00:30:46
You have a great day.
00:30:48
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded, where we break down the truth about all things
00:30:53
health and empower you to take charge of your well-being.
00:30:57
If you found value in today's episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with
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00:31:12
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00:31:17
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00:31:23
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered, and remember your health is in your hands.