The Dangerous Lie About ‘Normal’ Labs (And What Your Doctor May Have Missed)”

We're now listening to the Unshakeable Health Podcast with Dr. Thomas Hemingway, all right.

Another week, another month, we are nearly halfway through actually we're over halfway

through.

Man, the time flies through March.

We are coming into April.

It's going to be Easter and just a little under two weeks, it's unbelievable how the time

flies when you're having fun.

Oh, I've been having so much fun with my family.

We've been traveling.

I went to an amazing event last week as well with my wife, a mastermind, kind of couple,

couple's event that was just incredible and I just got back from Japan with my son,

which was unreal, unbelievable and it's no surprise to me why they continually rank the

folks that are in Japan, the Japanese folks are one of the most healthiest populations

in the world.

And I got to see that in action real time.

I'll tell you a little bit more about that actually during this episode, but it had had

a great trip.

So pumped to be back here with you.

Sorry, I missed a couple of weeks.

I've been thinking so much about you.

I love, love, love this group.

This audience you guys are amazing and I'm so grateful you're here and I don't take that

for granted.

I am so pumped and so excited about this topic because while I was traveling, I had a lot

of people ask me questions that really were related to this and I can't wait to share

that.

I'm going to get into it in just a moment.

But first I just want to thank you for being here, thank you for being part of the show.

Thank you for all those that have dropped reviews here on Apple podcasts over the years.

We've been doing this now.

Cheese over five years since 2020, actually March of 2020 was my first episode.

We talked about COVID.

It's crazy to think it's been that long where she's like nearly six years in 200 plus

episodes and you guys are the reason.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I just wanted to share a quick review I got just from, I don't know if it's a guy or

a gal, it was like ecstasy or something was the sign in which was amazing.

Five stars says, I'm one of the, I'm on a new health and wellness kick and I came across

your podcast.

I listened to the last two episodes.

I've already learned a few things.

I've been fortunate to spread some of your knowledge already.

I can't wait to continue to listen.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Appreciate the five stars.

The feedback because I read each and every one of these.

If you have not dropped a review, you've got to do it.

It takes literally 30 seconds over there in Apple.

You just scroll down to where you see the five stars.

Click on the one father to the right, hopefully, and drop a review.

There's a little button there that looks like a square with the pencil coming out the

top right and it says, right, a review.

And I would love to hear what you're loving, learning, what's shaking, how this is helping

you in your life.

I just love to see that.

That feedback is priceless and thank you in advance.

And for now, I just want to just get into this episode of without further ado, because

this is something that I have literally been thinking about for many months and while

I was traveling, this was actually super fun because I met a lot of folks that were asking

me really specific questions when we'd chat.

My son and I this week, we were in Japan talking in different folks.

Like when they found out I was in my 52nd year of life and we're hitting these giant

snowboarding jumps and really only a couple of guys were hitting these big jumps that we

found at this cool resort called Rizutsu in Hokkaido, Japan.

And they were like, what, you're in your 50s, I don't even get it.

What's going on?

And they would ask me, you know, certain questions like, well, what should I be doing?

Should I get labs done?

Which one should I get?

How do I know if I'm healthy?

How do I know that I can live to be like you and keep crushing the things that I love

and enjoy so much in that age?

Because most of them were like 20 year olds, or even less than that.

And so this episode, I'm so pumped because so many people have asked me this question like,

I don't get it.

I'm quote unquote healthy as my doctor says, I don't, you know, maybe have medical problems

or maybe I do, but they say my labs are normal.

I don't feel normal.

I feel like crap.

Like, I don't have the energy that I wish I had.

I don't sleep well.

I have this kind of cloudiness of the brain, if you will, the brain fog.

I don't feel it is sharp.

I don't have the energy.

My drive is declining.

I have this stubborn weight gain or on the midsection that just won't go away.

Doesn't matter what I do, I eat a clean diet.

I'm exercising three to five days a week, like what gives?

And my provider just tells me, hey, your labs are normal.

You're fine.

This is just part of aging.

And that's, I'm sorry, that's crap.

That is just not right.

And it's a disservice.

And I feel horrible when I hear this because it happens every single day to thousands,

hundreds of thousands of people, especially here in the U.S., where traditional healthcare

is not spotting things early enough, like these labs that most of us are getting with

their primary care provider are there to detect disease, but they're not there to optimize

your performance.

Like the normal laboratory range, that's not its job to detect where you are performance-wise.

It's just a look for disease, which is kind of like towards the end stage, if you will,

because you already have a diagnosis by that point, and they're missing the bow.

Like here's one simple example, fasting insulin, right?

How many of your primary care providers have been getting this for you for years?

It's been around like 50 years, and nobody gets it.

I asked my doctor a few years ago, it's been five to six years, I affectionately fired

this doctor because he just wouldn't come aboard with me and was like, dude, you don't

need that test.

You're not a diabetic, you're fasting glucose is fine.

It's like 90, and I'm like 90 is not fine.

My A1C was like 5.6, but I'm like, I want it to be 5.4, I've got to know my fasting

insulin.

Let's get it.

He's like, no, my insurance is not going to pay for it.

I'm not going to get it.

Like, dude, I'll pay for it out of pocket.

I need to know this, because literally this can detect blood sugar imbalances, and what's

called, you guys have heard of this term insulin resistance, which is out there in basically

about 90% of Americans, like that is the benchmark we are measuring our, quote unquote, normal lab

values is a sick population, 90% of them have insulin resistance, and I wanted to know

if I had this.

So I got it checked.

I hope you'll get yours checked.

So here's the thing, you don't want to wait for a diagnosis, like type 2 diabetes, hypertension,

heart disease, whatever it is, and if you have a diagnosis, don't dismay, most of these

things can be reversed, and that's what we're going to talk about.

You want to be sharp.

You want to perform.

You want to be energized.

You want to be focused.

You want to be strong.

You want to be at your peak, both performance, energy wise.

I get it.

That's what I want to, and that's why I keep doing things, not only checking my labs, what's

under the hood, I check nine, three to four times a year, but I'm also looking at the things

I'm doing from the day to day, and we're going to get into what that looks like, because

here's the thing.

The quote unquote, normal labs, like we talked about, are made up of all of the population

here in the US, for example, in the US labs, you're measured against the quote unquote

normal population.

And 90% of them I just shared with you have insulin resistance.

So what do you think that means?

Your doc's not going to detect it early, because they're not looking for it.

You're going to get a fasting blood sugar.

That's it.

Maybe you'll get an A1C, but those two things are not going to tell you early, early insulin

resistance, which you can tell by a simple thing called fasting insulin up to 10 years

before the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.

And I realize that many of you could even have that, or maybe a family member relative,

because that is climbing at astronomical rates.

In fact, it is estimated in the next 50 years that over 50% over half of our US population

will have type 2 diabetes, and that is astounding.

Millions and millions of people already have it.

Many more millions will get it, and yet this is nearly 100% preventable.

You can, yes, C-A-N, do something.

So when we go and get our routine blood work, and usually this is just a CBC, which tells

you your blood counts, to make sure you're not anemic, your chemistry panel, a really routine,

lipid panel.

Most of these numbers are actually calculated.

They're not looking for specific size of the LDL cholesterol.

For example, the particle size, they're not looking at that.

Most of them don't even measure the total numbers of the different types like LDL, HDL,

and certain subtypes.

They almost never measure.

They just do a calculated example here, and then they measure you against the quote-unquote

normal population, many of which, probably 88% to 90% is what the data shows are metabolically

unhealthy.

And so your quote-unquote normal could mean, yes, you're metabolically healthy, unhealthy.

Sorry.

Yes, you have insulin resistance.

Yes, you could have some early inflammation signs symptoms that could lead you towards

diagnoses in the future, such as heart disease, or even cancer.

And your doctor has not even seen any of this.

They're not seeing it.

So here's the thing.

If you want to look like everybody else, absolutely go for it.

But I'm telling you, that's not who this podcast is for.

You guys want to be at your optimal health, right?

You're high performing people.

You don't take normal or average as your wish or goal in life, and I commend you for

that.

You're here because you want more.

And I'm going to give you more of how you can get there, how you can get that performance,

that energy, that focus clarity, whatever it is you're searching for, you want to have

the strength, you want to have the drive that maybe you're lacking right now.

Well, that's why we are here.

So here's the thing.

There's lots of evidence about this.

In fact, there was a recent study that came out that showed that this insulin resistance

that I speak of literally is present up to an average.

And I kind of shared this 10 years before type 2 diabetes can actually be diagnosed with

standard labs, like the so-called fasting insulin at A1C.

And so when you're told your stuff is normal, your labs are normal.

My guess is most of the time you're not getting these deep dive labs, and you may have already

been in this decline, this 10-year decline, who knows maybe half a decade, maybe even

a decade before you're told anything is abnormal.

So here's the thing with your body.

Your body knows something is up, and that's why you have the symptoms of lower energy.

Maybe you're gaining some weight around the midsection.

Maybe you're not sleeping well.

You have this brain fog.

Those are early symptoms signs that your body's whispering to you and saying, hey, something

is not right.

You're feeling it.

You're going to the doctor like, I commend you.

That's amazing.

I'm glad you're doing it.

You should be doing that.

You should be getting these things checked.

But when they tell you, oh, I'm not going to get a fasting insulin.

I'm not going to get a highly sensitive CRP.

I'm not going to get a particle size on your LDL cholesterol and things like that.

Like you might consider looking for someone else or democratizing this whole thing as it's

beginning to be done in many platforms, you can go and get these labs yourself.

Like if your doctor says no, don't take no for an answer.

You're your health, your life, the way you live your life, your performance, your energy.

You can't take no for an answer.

Be your own best advocate because your body, you know it.

It's telling you something.

It might be just a whisper right now.

It's not screaming because you're not type 2 diabetic yet.

Maybe you don't have these end stage kind of conditions where you already have heart disease.

You already have cancer and whatnot.

And if you do have these conditions, don't worry.

Most of these can be completely resolved with this functional and performance and specialized

integrative medicine approach that I like to do with my peeps because there's so much

more out there than just standard medication, if you will, or just standard measures.

Because this standard of this normal, it's only going to get you so far, so that's going

to get you to your best cell.

Here's another example.

I talked about fasting insulin.

Well, what about just the simple one that our doctors usually do check, which is your

fasting glucose?

Well, you know what the normal range for that is?

It's up to 100, so anything up to 99, basically from like 60 to 99, is considered normal.

And that's a huge, you know, that's 60% change between those numbers like that is insane.

Why would you say that there should be a range that big and they're all normal?

That doesn't even make sense.

Here's the truth.

Data actually shows cardiovascular disease or heart disease is actually starting.

And anytime you're over 80, especially over 85 in the fasting blood sugar, which is where

I was and I was, I was like, I knew something was up and I had to get this, you know, handled

and so I asked for all these additional tests that we're going to talk about today, like

the fasting insulin, for example, the highly sensitive CRP, the particle size and LDL cholesterol

panel and things like that.

And so here's the thing.

Cardiovascular disease, the data shows is already starting when your blood sugar is above

85.

In many populations, like literally 85, like holy crap.

So you could be between 85 and 99 and still told everything is normal.

Your doctor could say, Hey, looks great.

You're fine.

I'll see you in another year.

What the heck is happening here physiologically?

If you look under the hood, you know and you know the way you feel you know you're not fine.

You know you're not fine.

There's already things happening in inflammation.

For example, that are going to not get better over the next year when you wait for your doctor

to check again, right?

So here's the other thing.

There's so many markers that are just not checked.

I already told you a couple, right, fasting insulin.

Who's doing that?

Well, docs like me, integrative and functional medicine docs, we're doing that, right?

Your primary doc may just be doing a fasting blood sugar.

And we already told you how that's not going to get you to where you need, right?

Because the insulin can rise up to 10 years before the fasting blood sugar gets significantly

abnormal or into the so called abnormal range, which is then when they say, Oh, you probably

have a little bit of hyperglycemia, maybe type two diabetes is in your future.

Like I could potentially with these measures and with others, you know, others, you could

have a 10 year, you know, ahead of time, look at this so that you don't get to the point

where you have type two diabetes, like, would that be worth it to you?

I mean, I think so, right?

Because this fasting insulin, this fasting insulin is so simple, it's not expensive.

It can tell you a lot of things.

And this insulin resistance that's so prevalent out there up to 90 percent of people most

have no idea that they even have it.

Here's another that I do on all my patients, highly sensitive CRP.

That's C reactive protein, highly sensitive version because that's an early warning

sign that you have something going on in your body.

You don't feel great, right?

Your little cloudy.

This goes up as a warning sign for heart disease that's in your future for even Alzheimer's

dementia, other cognitive decline for cancers.

This is something that comes up early or other metabolic dysfunction disorders such as the

insulin resistance, obesity, you know, you're waking, all of these kinds of things, high

blood pressure, all of these things usually start with a low grade increase in your inflammation.

Inflammation is not your friend when it's going on on a daily basis and most docs aren't

measuring it.

So here's the thing.

If you measure the highly sensitive CRP, you'll get some kind of, you know, the check

engine light, if you will, if you're checking it, that'll give you some indicator that you

got to look a little deeper, something's going on.

It could be early heart disease, it could be an early form of cancer, it could be early

metabolic disease, obesity, it could be insulin resistance, like all these things could show

up in the highly sensitive CRP and what that tells you is you got to go deeper, you got

to go further because that's kind of a very sensitive test.

In fact, what I love about it is so sensitive.

In other words, you're not going to miss a lot of cases of this inflammation, but it doesn't

tell you exactly or ascribed to you where it's coming from.

So you got to keep looking, but it gives you at least the starting info that, hey, we

got to get more info.

We got to get on the hood because this could mean that I'm later going to have heart disease

or cancer or brain disease, like Alzheimer's dementia and all these kinds of things Parkinson's,

they all start with a slightly elevated, highly sensitive CRP, most of the time.

Here's another, APOB has your doc checked in APOB recently and you're like, what the heck is

APOB?

Well, it's a cholesterol number that you can have checked and 99% of primary care docs I would

say that are not functional in integrated medicine train, which is most of them are not.

This is not included in their profile.

It's just simply not and it's sad.

It should be because your LDL cholesterol just doesn't tell the whole story, whereas the

APOB looks more at in detail, all of the particles that potentially could cause atherosclerosis,

which is heart disease, right?

Wouldn't you want to have this test done?

Wouldn't you want to do that?

Well, you can get that test done.

APOB, for example, here's another, as far as hormonal panels, like so much of the population

is getting thyroid disease, right?

Hypothyroid is super common, low thyroid, for example, even hyperthyroid or inflammatory

conditions that you've heard of, Hashimoto's, et cetera, are out there and increasing sadly

in the population.

That's because also inflammation is rising in the population and it's not being detected

early.

And your doc, if you say, hey, man, I'm tired, I don't, I don't have the energy I used

to have.

I'm gaining some weight.

Oh, it could be the thyroid.

Well, what do they check?

They check this thing called TSH.

Yet they forget.

That's like the universal screening test.

That's what I was taught in medical school 30 years ago, but it's not enough, right?

It's not enough.

You've got to go deeper.

You've got to see what the active thyroid hormone is called the free T3, the free T4, is

the other form that is converted into T3 to become active.

These are kind of the end points of the thyroid function.

So you've got to get a free T3, a free T4.

You've got to also get, and there's reverse T3, almost no doc test, this is so important.

You've got to look at those thyroid antibodies that are out there because you've heard about

it, right?

Hashimoto's and other inflammatory thyroid conditions are on the rise, yet most doctors

aren't checking all these tests.

This is what I do each and every day because we're missing too many things in the healthcare

world that we live in, and it's not awesome, right?

It's not awesome.

Another thing that maybe you've had some of them checked is a hormone panel, right?

Well, typically, if you're dude and you're over 40 or sadly in this country right now,

if you're over 30 chances are, I'd put money on it, go to Vegas and say, all in that

your testosterone levels below where it should be, in other words, it's below like 900,

if you're over 30.

It shouldn't be, but in most men, I would say over 90% over 30 that aren't on TRT or replacement,

they're total T, total testosterone is most likely less than 900.

Why would you want that?

You want to perform well.

You want to have the energy, you want to be able to build muscle mass because muscle

is the organ of longevity, and you could be completely missing this because what does

your doctor do?

Well, they might do if you twist their arm, if you're over 40, they might do a total

testosterone number, but they most likely are not getting a free testosterone.

They may not be getting SHBG, which is sex hormone binding glopulin, which you need to know

all these three numbers.

At a minimum, you should also get some estrogen and female hormone numbers too, because we

have those as guys as well, and they tell us something, right?

There's this conversion that happens in guys, especially those that are not metabolically

healthy, they're gaining weight around the middle.

There's this estrogen, estrogenization that's occurring where some of that testosterone

could be funneled through this pathway through an enzyme called aromatase and made into,

yes, testosterone can go into female hormones like estrogen, for example, like you could

be even on TRT, and that could be funneled through to estrogen if you have an increased

aromatase activity, which happens in the fat cells, for example, in the adipose cells

that many of us have around the midsection.

So you've got to get the full picture, because your doc may say, oh, I checked the hormones

and they were quote, normal.

Well, you know what?

Normal means, like often, depending on your age, they'll say the testosterone of 200 or

250 is normal, like BS that is not normal, normal for a sick population, but is that ideal

is that optimal heckno.

If you want to feel great, I would say you need it between 800 and 1000, I would shoot

for 900.

And if you're not that, you feel it.

That was me.

I've been watching mine for several years, and at first I'm like, screw it, you know,

this, this, something's got to give, and so I did all these things naturally.

I took all these supplements, and I'll get into that in another podcast episode, and I've

talked about it a little bit before, there's only so much you can do with just supplements

with working out, lifting heavy, like it helps, it definitely helps.

It could not.

It did not in me, and basically 100% of the people I've worked with, I've never got

their number up to 900, for example, and a dude with just diet and lifestyle alone.

I've got them to double their cholesterol, or excuse me, their testosterone number, which

is phenomenal to literally double it, like just with diet and lifestyle kinds of stuff.

Like, that's really great data, and that almost never happens, but I've seen it happen.

But it still doesn't get up to the optimal level, 800 to 1000 with just diet and lifestyle,

and most people that are over 40, for example, but it can be done through these things, plus

adding the replacement and whatnot that we can get there anyway, just kind of the midpoint

here of this.

I just want you to know it doesn't matter where you are today, don't stress out, don't

be hard on yourself.

If you're listening to this and you're like, man, you're telling me stuff that I've noticed,

you know, I have this brain fog, I have this lack of clarity focus, I don't have the

energy I used to, I wish I did, I don't sleep as well, I'm gaining weight around the

midsection, I can't get rid of it, I'm still living healthy, I'm exercise in three to

five days a week, I'm doing, you know, real whole foods, and I just can't, I'm sleeping,

you know, getting my seven, eight hours, I got, and it's just not doing the trick, like

what the heck?

Well, don't worry, that's okay, that's super, super common.

These things can all be changed, both the lifestyle stuff as well as your health, your

vitality, your performance, your lab markers, all these things we can optimize and get so

much better through, first of all, taking a look under the hood, right?

You've got to test, you cannot just guess, right?

You can't just guess, this is not going to work that way, and even if you go out and get

these lab panels done at some third party place where you can get them done, often you,

your left foot, well, what do I do now?

And they might give you some generic chat GPT stuff, this is some stuff you can do, but

it's not specific for you, it's not necessarily coming from somebody who's been there and

done that.

Like, I importantly, I walk the walk, right?

If you guys know, I mean, my 52nd year of life and I'm as active and healthy and vibrant

and have the muscle mass that I did as a teenager, even maybe a little more, like, who's doing

that?

That's a physician out there that's seeing patients actively, like I am, there's not

a lot of them out there, but here's the thing, you've got to start at least with testing.

Can't just guess, even better if you test and you get a mentor, you get a doc, you get

a provider that can help you, that can give you the road map, somebody who's actually

done it and also seen others do it, even better, right?

Why do you want to walk it alone?

You don't need to walk it alone, there's so many resources out there.

So don't stress out, we'll get to more things you can do, I'm going to give you a quick

little road map that will help most people right here on this show today.

So don't worry if you feel not optimal today, right?

That's great, that means there's room to improve, there's room to work with, you want to

feel better?

That was me, I wanted to feel better, that's why I've been on this journey and I'm going

to help you get there as well.

But here's the thing, in the current system, what you can maybe access with your health

insurance, with a regular primary care provider, most likely you're not going to get all of

what you need.

The current system is no good at optimizing health, it might be okay at treating disease

once it's there, but not good at preventing it, right?

It's terrible, terrible at preventing most disease and even worse at improving your performance,

right?

Your numbers are normal, come back in six months or come back in a year, how is that helping

you?

Is it helping you feel better?

Are you gaining muscle?

Are you losing weight?

Are you increasing your mental acuity, sharpness, focus, your energy?

No, it's still gradually declining, they're just like, oh, you're getting older, it's part

of aging.

And that's where I would urge you to just say, you know what, I'm going to get what they

call a second opinion, I'm going to get some more info, I'm going to take a look under

the hood, I'm going to talk to somebody else, like don't take no for an answer, oh, you're

just getting older, like BS, there's so much that can be done.

So here's the thing, what can you do?

Well, here's the good news, there's a lot you can do and these things are all fixable,

if you will.

And I'm somebody who loves to get in there and help you get this resolved, so you feel

better.

So you don't end up with type two diabetes, so you don't end up with heart disease.

So you don't end up with all these other metabolic conditions that are out there insulin

resistance, et cetera, et cetera, like brain disease Alzheimer's Parkinson's, most of

these can be largely prevented, maybe not 100%, but maybe 90% preventable, like that's

why I wrote the book, right, preventable, five power practices to avoid disease and build

unshakable health.

You probably read it, if not grab it, it's a minimal investment, right, 20 something

bucks and you get a lot of that data of what's happening in our world and how you don't

have to be like everyone else, you don't have to be quote unquote normal because normal,

especially in this country is not optimal and it's not very healthy.

So here's the framework that I use, I'm just going to tell you, it's not a secret.

The first thing you got to test, you got to do the appropriate test, you got to go deeper,

deeper dive, you got to get a look under the test and not guess.

And once you have that data, you got to interpret it properly.

You can't just compare it to everyone out there that's getting the test done because that's

how it's going to come back to you, it's going to say, well, according to the lab ranges,

you're still within the normal range, even if you did the deeper dive test, here's where

you need a little help.

You need somebody who's expert at looking at the scale of optimization, right?

You want to not just know if you're normal or not normal range.

You want to know where optimal is and what that looks like and how to get there, right?

So you got to interpret them optimally, not just versus normal or not normal.

Then you got to take an even deeper target approach through looking through what is deeper

than this.

Go another level deeper.

If your cholesterol is a little bit elevated, and maybe you even have some of these small

dense LDL particles, which are not the ones that you want, right?

You want these fluffy ones that just bounce off the walls, they never stick.

They don't clog up the arteries, but so let's say you have a big proportion of these

smaller, denser ones.

Well, that's good news to know that you have them because now you can do something, but

then what do you do?

How do you find out what's actually causing that?

You got to go a step back or two steps back, target a little deep, look at what the root

cause is and traditional medicine is horrible at that.

They don't get to the root cause.

They just say, here's this thing, one of these pills, cholesterol lowering pills.

We got tons of them.

Most of them end in statin, for example.

Many people say statin should be in the water, and I'm going to tell you that there's a role

for them.

Do I think they should be in the water?

No.

Do I think everybody should take them?

No.

Do certain people benefit?

Absolutely.

What I prescribed them in certain cases, absolutely, but may not to every person like many

providers are basically giving them to anybody over 40.

Well, I don't think that's always the best approach.

You've got to target this.

You've got to be specific.

You've got to be personalized and a lot of that's missing.

You've got to target the root cause.

Wouldn't you rather get down deeper, get to the root so you can not only resolve it,

get it better, optimize it, and not have it come back, then just throw a bandaid on

it.

You know the so-called bandaid medicine that we've been practicing in this country for

decades.

That's how it was taught.

Way back in the day, 30 plus years ago, bandaid style medicine.

There's a pharmacologic for everything.

And here they are.

I'm going to prescribe them, right?

And I prescribe medication.

And you're talking to somebody that does prescribe medication when it's really needed.

Like lifestyle, diet, all these other things, behaviorally, I go with that first because

it's more powerful in the end and you can actually get to the root cause.

So after you find the root cause, you target that.

You track it.

You adjust it.

You make changes.

You get personal.

You get specific, right?

You got to look specifically at what is underlying all this oftentimes.

It's what I shared with you at the outset.

It's inflammation.

Many of us have inflammation going on in our body and then we got a target where it's

coming from.

And then you got to do additional testing and then you got to target that area and usually

it's many things, right?

It's diet, it's lifestyle, it's exercise, movement, it's your mind to plays a big factor,

a big role.

Like, that's one of the most astounding things I've learned over the years, especially

over the last 10 to 15 is that our own mind, if you will, what's between our ears can

play into this significantly, not only to how we live each and every day, like how happy

we are, how fulfilled we are, how well we just feel about ourselves and humanity in

our life, but it also affects our physiology down at the microscopic molecular, which is

much deeper, right?

Then microscopic at the molecular level, what happens between our ears affects that and

we have lots of evidence of that.

So here's the thing.

If you want to get more info, you want to go deeper, we'll keep listening here number

one, right?

This podcast about every week, I'm sharing pertinent info and pearls and it's helpful and useful,

but it may not be enough for you.

Maybe you need a guide, maybe you need to work with somebody, somebody that has been there,

has been through that process that knows how to do it, somebody who's had specific education.

Usually these are doctors that specifically work in areas like integrative and functional

medicine.

You can go to the website called ifm.org Institute for Functional Medicine.

That's a great resource.

Dr. Mark Hyman is a guy that has been involved with this in the training, in fact, including

my own.

He was one of the first guys that I was following and getting his specifics back when I first

got into this functional integrative medicine.

Like he was one of the guys I was following closely.

He was involved with a group called the Institute for Functional Medicine.

They have a great website, tells you who the trained guys are in functional medicine.

You can find me there, for example, or somebody that's in your area as well.

You've got to get some additional specific personalized help.

I offer something like this.

It's called the Accelerator Longevity Labs and Strategy Session.

We get deep.

We go into the hood.

You've got to get the testing done.

Test, don't guess.

You've got to interpret them with not just normal or abnormal, but with this performance lens.

You've got to target what's the underlying root cause and get a plan specific for you.

It's not just having information.

There's tons of information out there.

You can ask chat to answer about any question you have information, but it's going to

be hard to get as targeted and personal as you need without some additional help.

You've got to have, and then you've got to take action, right?

But you want to take the right action, the most precise for you to get the results that

you want.

Just remember at the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you are now, you can optimize

your health and your life.

It is possible.

This is what gets me excited and out of bed, honestly, each and every day, because I love

to share with you ways that you can not only feel better about yourself and your health,

but you basically can age in reverse, right?

I am, in my 52nd year biologically, I'm 35, like legit, you can get this testing done.

I can help you get it done.

But at the end of the day, information and knowledge is just information and knowledge.

It's not power.

It's not power without the action steps with what comes next.

You've got to know that you're measuring the right things.

You've got to get a plan to do it.

So here's the thing.

It doesn't matter where you are today.

Don't stress out.

Maybe you've got an extra 10, 20, 30 pounds you want to lose.

That's okay.

No worries.

Maybe you already have elevated biomarkers like your highly sensitive CRP.

Maybe that's already climbing a little bit.

Maybe you have a little bit of insulin resistance, and if you do, don't worry.

There's like nine out of 10 people in the US have that right now, but most of them don't

even know it.

Well, let's see if you have it and let's get deeper.

Let's find the root cause.

This stuff can change quickly if you have the right approach.

You have the right plan.

I've seen it time and time again, and this is what fuels me.

So don't stress.

It is possible to feel better.

You don't have to accept what you may have been told that, oh, you're loud, you're normally

just getting older.

Like BS.

I'm going to call BS on that.

There's so much you can do, and this is why I'm here with you this week and just about

every week podcast.

You can be following me on Instagram, DR Thomas Hemingway, Thomas Hemingway, and MD on

Facebook.

Go to my website, Thomas Hemingway.com, because I want to provide for you free resources that

can help you to take your next best step towards better health, a better life, more joy,

just feeling better, more energy like all this is possible.

And I'm grateful you're here.

You're in the right place.

You're with the right community.

Give yourself a pat on the back, you're here, and let's keep moving forward.

So thank you in advance for following along.

Please drop a review.

If you haven't already, share this with somebody that may need this information.

They have no idea what an APOB is or a fasting insulin or highly sensitive CRP.

It's okay.

They're starting, and it's exciting.

Until next time, Aloha.