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(0:00) Introduction to health engineering and the future of medicine (2:11) Comprehensive panel testing: Chemistry, cardiac, hormones, and thyroid (7:01) Gut health: Understanding chronic illness, nutrition, and food sensitivities (11:07) Sponsor: Functional Medicine Starter System (12:34) Advanced testing: Nutrient levels, omega profile, and toxicity (16:27) Conclusion: The health optimization cycle00:00:00
Health is not an accident.
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You don't get there by guessing, by just trying things.
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It has to be engineered and engineering requires data.
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It really does.
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Not fragments, not guesses.
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Let's see what happens if I try this.
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That's how people spin their gears and waste time and money.
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Test, map, treat, retest, optimize.
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And that is really the future of medicine.
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Welcome to Health Decoded, your number one source for real health information with your
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host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
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Welcome back to another episode of Health Decoded.
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Today, are gonna talk about something really cool that I believe represents the future of
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medicine and quite frankly, the dividing line between reactive health care and true health
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restoration as we call it.
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And the topic here is the five lab tests you need but probably have never done and your
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doctor isn't going to do for you.
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Let me say something upfront here that may challenge how you think about healthcare
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overall.
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And that is that standard labs are really becoming a thing of the past.
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Not because they're useless, but because they're incomplete.
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They were designed for a medical system whose primary objective is to detect disease once
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it's already developed.
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But what if your goal isn't just to avoid disease?
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What if your goal is resilience, longevity, metabolic strength?
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What if your goals are cognitive clarity and hormone stability or a strong immune system?
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Quote me on this, You cannot build elite health with limited data, and I will stand by that.
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And yet, single day I meet intelligent, motivated people who tell me, My doctor said
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everything looked normal, doc, but they're exhausted, they're inflamed, they're
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struggling, they're mentally foggy, they know something's not right.
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So let's offer maybe a simple analogy here.
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Waiting for standard labs to catch a problem is like waiting for your car engine to cease
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before you decide to change the oil.
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Maintenance always beats breakdown.
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So waiting for something bad to happen isn't always the best approach.
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So comprehensive testing like we do here at Ascend Functional Health is what we call
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maintenance medicine.
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If you're not running these deeper tests, you are not practicing proactive healthcare.
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You are waiting for something to go wrong.
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And so, today I'm going to walk you through the five lab tests that allow us to map the body's
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internal ecosystem and what I often call biological terrain mapping.
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Because if you cannot clearly map what's going on, you are not ready to treat.
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And so let's get right into it because we're going talk about a few pretty deep topics here.
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So I don't want to make this episode too long.
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So, lab number one.
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Okay?
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And this is the one that we run on basically every single patient that comes into the
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office, our comprehensive panel.
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Now, this is a customized test that I formulated myself based on what I've seen I
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need to fully understand the ecosystem inside somebody's blood and what things we need to do
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and how we can make the right moves and changes going forward.
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And so everything begins here.
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Before we begin optimizing before peptides and advanced protocols, have to understand the
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terrain.
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And so a true comprehensive panel is not just a CBC and cholesterol, which you're going to get
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at your standard doc.
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It's a multi system physiological snapshot.
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So let's walk through what that means.
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Foundational chemistry.
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We evaluate the CBC and comprehensive metabolic panel alongside electrolyte levels, looking at
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oxygen delivery, immune patterns, kidney and liver function, as well as your cellular
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hydration.
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Because subtle shifts here often will precede disease by years.
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We look at what we call cardiac intelligence.
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We're not guessing if you're going to have a heart attack.
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We're not saying, Yeah, maybe.
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Right?
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It's going be okay.
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We analyze advanced markers including, and these are the ones that you will not get at
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your standard doc, a PLA C score, this is basically a cardiac artery plaquing score,
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homocysteine, an inflammation marker, oxidized LDL, myeloperoxidase or MPO, HSCRP, and then NT
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proBNP.
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These are all myocardial risk inflammation factors.
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And so these markers will reveal inflammation inside the vascular system long before a
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blockage occurs.
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Heart disease is not sudden.
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We know that by now.
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It is quietly brewing for decades until something triggers and someone has a heart
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attack.
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The next thing we look at is hormonal architecture.
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We assess total and free testosterone, sex hormone binding globulin, is your body
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utilizing these androgens, estradiol, DHEA, cortisol, progesterone, FSH and LH.
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And because hormones do not just influence reproduction, they actually regulate your
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metabolism, your brain function, sleep, recovery, and motivation.
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They operate in a cascade where if one thing is off, the body's going to prioritize producing
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other hormones and we can create an imbalance over time often due to stress and lack of
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intervention.
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The next thing we look at is thyroid, basically your metabolic governor.
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And so we're going to evaluate TSH, T3, T4, reverse T3, but we also always include anti TPO
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and anti TG markers for autoimmune risk because the thyroid dysfunction is often missed when
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practitioners rely solely on TSH and T3.
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They're only getting a piece.
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We look at glycemic control.
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So we're gonna analyze fasting glucose, insulin, hemoglobin A1C, beta cell function and
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ferritin.
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Insulin resistance begins silently.
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We often miss, Patients often miss this ten to fifteen years before they develop diabetes,
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they had some level of insulin resistance building.
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That goes into our marker that we test which is an HOMA IR.
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It's basically an algorithmic score of your body's insulin resistance developing.
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And so, we'll see somebody and I see this all the time.
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I literally just saw two of these this week.
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Patients who have normal glucose, normal fasting glucose, normal insulin and normal A1C,
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but they have this high HOMAIR score basically telling me that the pancreas is working to
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produce insulin and becoming more resistant over time.
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Even if it's a moderate score, it tells me something under the surface is going on.
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And then we look at nutritional markers as a part of this panel as well.
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Folate, vitamin D, B12, and this is not optional.
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These are foundational markers that give us the physiological map because this is the overall,
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what I call it, widest net that we can cast to get the most information, the most efficiently,
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if you will.
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And so, this is the beginning because there's other tests that we're going to talk about now
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that take it a little bit deeper.
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But again, you are not getting these at your standard doc, your PCP with your checkup.
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And I air quoted that.
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And so the next test that we're going to run, and this is probably the one we run second
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most, that's why it's number two, is our gut zoomer or our gut scan.
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And so most chronic illness, and I will stand by this, most chronic illness has a gut related
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component or origin.
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The Gut Zoomer provides us with deep insight into your digestive and systemic symptoms by
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analyzing the gut microbiome, pathogens, inflammation markers, and your overall gut
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function.
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It identifies markers linked to leaky gut, immune reactivity, poor detox capacity,
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nutrient malabsorption.
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All of these are drivers of chronic inflammation and hormone imbalance.
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So, we're going to evaluate critical markers in this test, in particular zonulin and anti LPS
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or lipopolysaccharide.
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These are indicators of intestinal permeability or leaky gut.
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We're gonna test for calprotectin.
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This is a signal of inflammatory activity in the gut.
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Beta glucuronidase which is tied to toxin and estrogen clearance.
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And then short chain fatty acids which are essential for metabolic and gut lining health.
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This test also goes very deep and very specific into the different microorganisms, both
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probiotics, commensal biotics, pathobiotics, viruses, fungus, yeast.
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And it's often the things that are missed in standard testing.
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And again, those fungal, parasitic and viral contributors that can drive things like
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fatigue, skin issues, and immune dysregulation.
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And so the reality here, you know, clinically is you can't optimize your hormones, you can't
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optimize inflammation, you can't optimize your brain function and energy with a dysbiotic gut
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because that is built there.
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Your neurotransmitters are built in the gut.
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We've talked about this in previous episodes.
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And so gut restoration often becomes the first domino, the first thing we approach.
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Next, basically the test that we run-in conjunction with the gutsumer almost ninety to
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ninety nine percent of the time is a food sensitivity test.
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This pairs with the gutsumer.
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Because now once we understand the gut, we have to understand also what's maybe triggering or
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aggravating it.
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The food sensitivity profile measures both IgA and IgG antibody responses to detect immune
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reactions to commonly consumed foods.
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So, these are delayed sensitivities unlike an allergy, which if you don't know the
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difference, an allergy is an IgE response.
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Your body has an allergic anaphylactic response to food.
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These are severe.
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These are things you need epinephrine for or even to go to an emergency room because it can
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cause your throat to swell up or severe reactions.
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Sensitivities are different.
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Sensitivities are often under the scenes.
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You don't even really notice it.
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Maybe you get some digestive discomfort, maybe you feel brain foggy if you're very in tune,
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but most people are not and they miss these.
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And then we're eating these foods on a daily basis that are just triggering constant
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reactivity and inflammation within the body.
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And so this test will call that out.
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Many patients are going to say, I tried the elimination diet and it didn't help.
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Well, it's because you were guessing.
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You were trying to figure out, oh, which things worked for me and which didn't.
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This test actually analyzes your body's immune response to over 97 foods helping uncover
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hidden drivers of inflammation and immune activity.
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And so when we remove inflammatory triggers by eliminating the foods causing it, now we can
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accelerate healing dramatically.
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And so, let's get into the next test that we often run, the whole blood nutrient and omega
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panel.
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But real quick, before we do that, I want to take a quick word from one of our sponsors.
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Hey, busy professionals and parents.
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Let me ask you something.
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Do you need help with your low energy, stubborn weight, brain fog, gut issues or hormones, but
00:11:36
you don't know where to start?
00:11:37
Well, you're not alone.
00:11:39
The biggest problem is that modern healthcare is designed to diagnose disease, but often
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misses the dysfunction that begins years earlier as under the surface symptoms.
00:11:51
That's exactly why I created the Functional Medicine Starter System.
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This is a structured, physician led process designed to uncover what is actually driving
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your symptoms, whether it's rooted in gut health, metabolic function, inflammation,
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nutrient status, or hormonal imbalance.
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No guessing, no generic protocols, just real data and a clear plan.
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So, you're tired of searching for answers, but you're not sure how to begin solving your
00:12:18
health issues, go to the link in the podcast show notes to learn more about the functional
00:12:23
medicine starter system.
00:12:25
Because once you have clarity, you can finally start to feel like yourself again.
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All right, let's get back to the episode here.
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Thank you for that.
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So, the fourth lab that we often run and is a part of what we call our big five is the whole
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blood nutrient and omega profile or the micronutrient profile or the nutrient zoomer
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has a few different names.
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And a mistake I constantly see is that people are taking supplements because someone told
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them, Oh, this helped me.
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Or because someone told them, Yeah, this one's good for you.
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Or because their chiropractor, not to shed any shade here, but told them, Yeah, just take this
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random supplement.
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Without knowing if it actually was helping them.
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That's not functional medicine, that's just guesswork.
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The whole blood nutrient profile evaluates over 40 nutrients, including vitamins, minerals,
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antioxidants, amino acids, to identify deficiencies that could be affecting your
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health.
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What makes this test powerful is that it measures both intracellular and extracellular
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levels, offering a true snapshot of your nutrient status.
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Why does that matter?
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Because serum levels alone can look normal while the cell might be starving for nutrition.
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So, deficiencies here are often linked to conditions like heart disease, osteoporosis,
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neurological disorders, fatigue, mood changes, and one we see a lot is that impaired recovery
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or impaired healing.
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We'll have patients coming through here doing one of our physical medicine programs.
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Maybe they're working on restoring an injured disc or a hurt, you know, an ACL or a knee or a
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shoulder or whatever it might be.
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And they're trying to heal and it's slow and it's taking forever and they have relapses.
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And it's because their body's lacking the nutrition, the building blocks to allow them to
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heal and recover.
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And so when we lack those building blocks, performance will drop as well.
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Recovery will drop and optimization obviously becomes impossible at that point.
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So it's a very important test.
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And then the fifth test on the list here that is something that I love and this is because
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this is becoming more commonplace now with just the world we live in is the total toxicity
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score.
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And so basically we call it the total toxic burden test.
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And this is going to check for basically every toxin that could be within your body, the total
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toxic load we call it.
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And so this panel analyzes excreted toxins, detox capacity, and oxidative stress to uncover
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contributors to your fatigue, immune dysfunction, and cognitive issues.
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It reports 87 urinary markers including 20 heavy metals, 29 mycotoxins or mold toxins, and
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38 environmental toxins such as plastics and xenoestrogens that could be developing building
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within your body.
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We also assess detox pathways such as glutathione conjugation, sulfation, and
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methylation.
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All are essential for safe toxin clearance.
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And so, here's the uncomfortable truth is you can take every supplement in the world, you are
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not going to out supplement toxicity.
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You just won't.
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Even a lot of these over the counter Instagram ad detoxes or pills or binders or whatever you
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call them.
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If they're not done in an appropriate way, can actually make you worse because they're going
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to pull toxins into the blood, but not actually help you clear them.
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So, has to be done.
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I always recommend this is done under the supervision of a professional who knows what
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they're doing.
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Like the doctors that ascend functional health.
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And so, again, interference must be reduced before optimization can occur, as always.
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And so, again, those are the big five labs we call them.
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This is the optimal panel that we will run with the patients coming in here who are really
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hoping to get ahead of things and really get to the highest level of health.
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This isn't for everyone, most patients will start with either this or some level of this
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and we'll get the overall snapshot of how we're going to help this person go from sick,
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struggling, confused, to optimizing their health and living the life of their dreams.
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And so, in closing here, let me just leave everybody with this thought.
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And I would love, love, love if you found value in this.
00:16:53
If this seemed like something that could help someone yourself, please just follow the show,
00:16:58
subscribe to stay in touch, but also share this with somebody.
00:17:01
When we share these episodes, we're getting the word out there that there's more to medicine
00:17:06
than just waiting to get sick and it could help somebody.
00:17:09
Really could.
00:17:10
So, health is not an accident.
00:17:14
You don't get there by guessing, by just trying things.
00:17:18
It has to be engineered and engineering requires data.
00:17:21
It really does.
00:17:22
Not fragments, not guesses.
00:17:25
So not, Hey, let's see what happens if I try this.
00:17:27
Right?
00:17:28
That's how people spin their gears and waste time and money.
00:17:31
So in this order, test, map, treat, retest, optimize.
00:17:37
That's how we operate and that is really the future of medicine.
00:17:40
So if this episode resonated with you, please, if you're ready to stop waiting for something
00:17:45
to break, I invite you to learn more about our functional medicine programs.
00:17:49
You can visit our website, ascendfunctionalhealth.com.
00:17:52
You can schedule a free discovery call with us, talk to one of my team members or myself.
00:17:57
And when you mention the podcast, we actually have an exclusive gift for you to say thank you
00:18:02
because your health should not be left to chance.
00:18:05
It should be something that you take control of.
00:18:08
And as always, our tagline and what we say is your health is in your hands.
00:18:13
Let us help guide you, but you are the hero.
00:18:17
Thank you again for tuning into Health Decoded.
00:18:19
I'm Doctor.
00:18:20
Lesse, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.
00:18:25
Thank you for tuning into Health Decoded, where we break down the truth about all things health
00:18:31
and empower you to take charge of your well-being.
00:18:34
If you found value in today's episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with
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someone who needs to hear this.
00:18:41
For more resources and personalized support, visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
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To hear your questions answered live on the show, send them to askalessifxhealth dot com.
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That's askalessifxhealth dot com.
00:19:00
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered, and remember, your health is in your hands.