August 19, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode, Dr. Alfred Alessi explores the importance of muscle mass in health, sharing his background in functional medicine and personal health journey. He defines functional medicine, emphasizing its focus on inflammation, gut health, and hormonal imbalances. Dr. Alessi discusses patient treatment experiences and the personalization of functional medicine, including the integration of technology. The episode highlights muscle health, featuring success stories with MyOSMD, and includes a message from the sponsor, MYOSMD. It concludes with closing remarks and a call to action, inviting listeners to connect with Dr. Alessi for further insights.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
As we stop moving or as people stop engaging inresistance training, you are gonna have that
(00:05):
natural loss of muscle mass over time.
And, really, muscle is your metabolic engine.
It's how your body is able to maintainlongevity.
It's it's armor.
Right?
You have more muscle on your body, you're lesslikely to fall and get injured.
You are less likely to develop diabetes orinsulin resistance because muscle makes your
body more sensitive to insulin.
It's utilizing that glucose.
(00:26):
Welcome to Health Decode, your number onesource for real health information with your
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
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(01:12):
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(01:36):
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And remember, your health is in your hands.
Welcome back to another episode of HealthDecoded.
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
Today's episode is a really fun one, and thisis actually something a little different than
(01:58):
what we normally do.
I was recently a guest on the power panelpresented by MYOSMD.
This is a show that focuses on highlightingdoctors in different areas of medicine, and
really digging into the concept of how muscleis an organ for longevity, and for health and
(02:18):
for vitality.
And so I was on this panel with doctor SwatiVaranasi Diaz, and she basically interviewed
me, asked me a ton of really awesome questions,and dug into a bit of why I do what I do and
why we're doing what we're doing at AlessiFunctional Health, and as well as how we
(02:39):
partnered with myosMD and their product to helpour patients to improve outcomes and become
more vibrant and live healthier lives.
So I hope you enjoy this conversation.
This was a really, really great conversationthat we had, and I look forward to seeing you
in the show.
Okay.
Welcome to another episode of the power panelbrought to you by MYOSMD.
(03:04):
So let's hop right into the topic at hand.
So, first and foremost, we'd love to have anintro from, our guests today.
Would you mind giving a little background onyourself before we get into today's topic?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you so much for having me, by the way,and it's great to see you again.
My name is doctor Alfred Alessi.
I own a clinic in Tampa, Florida, called AlessiFunctional Health, where we specialize in a few
(03:30):
different things.
We really have three pillars of how wepractice, but the physical medicine, which is
chiropractic, spinal decompression, reallyfocused on, you know, getting people
functional.
And then functional medicine, which is verymuch a growing part of our practice using
comprehensive blood work, testing, you know,gut testing, all kinds of stuff, really getting
in detail with people to get to the root causeof what their issues might be.
(03:52):
And then we're tapping into regenerativemedicine as well, utilizing things like
peptides, regenerative medicines like stemcells and soft wave therapy, which is really
cool stuff.
We just invested in a whole body red lighttherapy system, which is gonna be awesome for
our patients for inflammation.
So, you know, realistically, we're our goal isto kind of upset the conventional medicine
(04:13):
model and get people better instead of justkeeping people sick and unhealthy and on pills
for the rest of their life.
Amazing.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for that introduction.
So before we dive into today's discussion, Iwanted to mention that today's power panel is
brought to you by MYOSMD, the cutting edgenutritional supplement designed to combat
muscle loss and support healthier aging.
(04:33):
Powered by Fortetropin, a natural bioactivecompound which has been clinically shown to
enhance muscle growth and reduce anabolicresistance, MYOS MD is changing the way we
think about muscle health.
So, you'd like to learn more about MyOSMD, youcan go to myosmd.com.
Alrighty, so into today's episode.
So we want to focus today quite a bit onfunctional medicine.
(04:56):
We haven't had an expert yet dive into thattopic.
And so how do you define functional medicine?
And what got you interested in it in the firstplace?
Yeah.
The concept of functional medicine is reallywhat it's called is that we're trying to
optimize the way the body functions.
And the way the body functions is as a system,not just a bunch of isolated organs talking to
(05:19):
each other.
Right?
And so everything is connected.
If someone comes in with, chronic joint pain orsay it's, you know, fatigue or or they're
having cognitive issues, often I'm looking atthe gut because the gut is our first barrier of
defense for our immune system and for wherethat inflammation may be coming from.
And so again, in conventional medicine, docsare not going to take that out of the box
(05:42):
approach.
And so we really focus on, again, like lookingat the patient as a whole and not just a list
of symptoms and lab values.
Because you can often get lost in the numbersof, the cholesterol is high.
Let's do this.
Or, you know, the inflammation is high.
It's like, how is their lifestyle affectingthat too?
So we incorporate lifestyle a lot within ourclinic, because that's, you know, that
(06:04):
everything starts at home realistically withhow our patients' lives are going.
So to answer the second part of that, I gotinto functional medicine, really, my own story.
It started as as becoming a chiropractor due toan injury I had, had really good results from
chiropractic care, and then, you know, startedlearning more on the functional side, had a lot
(06:25):
of nutrition training through that.
I've always been more health conscious as, youknow, even growing up.
Then diagnosing myself with an autoimmunecondition, actually Hashimoto's thyroiditis,
where I really didn't I didn't know anythingabout it at the time.
I ran some blood work.
As I was tapping into it, I found that StandardLabs missed it because they just ran a thyroid
(06:48):
stimulating hormone test and a T three, which,you know, I was I was in the normal range.
It wasn't until I ran an antibody test andfound that I had presence of antibodies
attacking my thyroid and then took action onthat.
Went down the whole rabbit trail of healing thegut, right?
Fixing the leaky gut, balancing stress levels,cortisol, all the adrenals, and ended up
actually getting remission from that autoimmunecondition where my antibodies are now within a
(07:12):
normal range and not clinically diagnosable asHashimoto's.
And so I think experiencing it myself is whatkind of gives me the passion and the empathy to
really be able to talk to patients about thepower of functional medicine.
Yeah, that's incredible.
So many people that I've met that are either infunctional medicine or in integrative medicine
(07:32):
I'm an integrative specialist as well.
I think so many of us come from the personalexperience whether it is something that we
experience or some one of our loved ones orsomeone in our community experienced and then
we kind of take it from there and realize thatthere is more than one way of just healing.
So, yeah.
That's right.
Definitely.
So, let's talk about some examples.
(07:52):
So, when a patient presents to you with fatigueor brain fog, what are some of the root causes
that you look to investigate first?
Yeah.
You know, kind of what I alluded to, just nowis the fatigue and the brain fog are really
just their signs or their symptoms.
They're the check engine light, right, or thealarm that's going off within the body.
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And so now it's okay.
Like, where's the fire?
Right?
If the fire alarm's going off, where's the firethat's causing that to happen?
You know, the the analogy I use with a lot ofpatients is like, say there was a fire in the
back room and the alarm's going off.
If I just turn the alarm off, did I put out thefire?
I did not.
Right?
And so that's what medication, aims to do is tojust turn the alarm off, but not actually get
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to the root cause of why that alarm's goingoff.
And so we're gonna look into, you know, kind ofwhat we call, like, the big four.
What is the metabolic situation?
Right?
What's blood sugar doing?
Mitochondrial dysfunction is a big one thatpeople experience that is very difficult to
test for.
Thyroid is huge.
It's maybe like sixty percent of peoplenowadays have some type of thyroid dysfunction
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or autoimmunity.
And then toxins is a big one.
The environment, the world we live in right nowis it's impossible almost to avoid exposure to
toxins from the air, the things we put on andin our body, and even the clothes we're
wearing.
So from there, you know, you you get some data,and then you start to understand, like, okay.
(09:16):
Like, how is this now, attributing to thosesymptoms?
And now we can put together a a plan, right, tobe able to, you know, write that and rebalance
and find equilibrium within the body.
Yes, definitely.
It's all about thinking about the root cause.
I've never actually heard someone talk about itwith the fire alarm and then finding like the
(09:37):
cause of the fire but I think that that is agreat analogy and I mean it is something you
should consider maybe with just trademarkingbecause that is the most.
So how do you differentiate betweeninflammation that is a symptom versus
inflammation that could be a driver of chronicdisease, or is there a difference between the
two?
(09:57):
Yeah.
I I think there is a difference.
You know, again, is a good thing in in shortamounts.
Right?
Like, you sprain your ankle or you get stung bya bee.
You you want that inflammation to go to thesource.
Right?
And your body to use its immune system to fixthat.
But when it's chronically elevated for longperiods of time and it becomes systemic, then,
yeah, there's a problem.
(10:17):
Right?
Your body's not meant to be in that high, stateof chronic inflammation and stress.
And so kind of going back to that analogy.
Right?
Inflammation can be both the fire and thealarm.
Right?
You can feel inflammation.
Your joints are achy and sore.
Right?
You can feel like your gut, you have IBS, maybeyou run to the bathroom five, six times a day.
And then if it starts to stick around longenough is where then you have long term damage.
(10:42):
And so again, testing is key.
Right?
Signs and symptoms are good, and it's asubjective analysis from patient if they are in
tune with their body.
But then let's accurately test and get data.
And so we do look at some really in-depth,really cool tests within our office.
And and again, it's maybe a little bit broaderthan what you're gonna get with insurance based
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medical care because when the insurance companyis telling you what to do, right?
They're like, Oh, we're gonna we're gonna lookat these few things.
It's like, No, I I need more, right?
I need to if I wanna determine whether a movieis good, am I gonna just watch the first five
minutes, or am I gonna watch the whole thing?
Right?
So I I need the whole picture of before I canmake a judgment call if I actually like that
film.
So kind of the same concept.
I need to see a broader picture to be able todetermine what's actually going on.
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And then talking more about what's actuallygoing on, let's talk about gut health.
So how does gut health play in terms of longterm health outcomes And how can you assess it
from a functional medicine perspective?
Yeah.
Great question.
You know, the gut is again, it's like our firstline of defense.
Statistics are somewhere like eighty to eightyfive percent of your immune system is actually
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housed in the gut.
And so it's constantly this feedback netmechanism from your gut to your brain.
Right?
The gut is actually probably your first brain.
It's controlling more of our body's dailythings than even our brain does.
Right?
And there's more, of these organisms andneurosynapses that are actually creating in in
the gut versus in the brain.
So that constant feedback, the gut is paramountto long term health.
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If your gut is inflamed, if your gut isdysfunctional, if you have leaky gut, it's
going to affect everything.
It is one of the major drivers of autoimmuneconditions, which is where your body's
attacking itself.
And so when it comes to testing, again, it'slike starting with some symptoms is good, but
then we like to get some in-depth testing usingthings like stool tests, where we can see the
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balance between good and bad bacterial flora.
We can look for parasites.
We can look for toxins.
We can look for, mold, fungus, all these kindof things.
Yeast is a big one.
And, you know, realistically, I'd say maybelike seventy five to eighty percent is just a
kind of a guess number.
Of the patients that come in with any type offunctional medicine issues, we're focusing on
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the gut heavily on the front end.
And so it's about like, okay, you get the gutclean.
We take them through what we call our five Rs.
And I can name it.
We remove.
Right?
So that's like get rid of the things that areoffending the body or the gut.
Replace, start putting good stuff in that thebody can use and rebuild with.
Reinoculate, right, good bacteria, probiotics,some of those buzzwords people are probably
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familiar with.
Then we reinoculate with healthy foods andthings that are healing.
Then again, repair and rebalance.
And so when we go through this protocol, it'sactually this has been used for a long time in
functional and Eastern medicine, the body canthen heal.
And so really, that's probably ninety percentof patients are going to go through some type
of detoxification 5R protocol when it comes tohealing the gut.
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Yeah, and going a little off script, but Iwanted to ask your perspective on the use of
probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics.
How do you view that for patients who arecoming into your clinic?
Is it like, we want to put most patients onthese, all patients?
I hear quite a lot of different perspectives.
(14:07):
Would love to hear yours.
Yeah.
Probiotics are awesome because they have somany different functions, right?
The way that certain things are broken down andutilized within the body is controlled by the
bacterial colonies in our gut.
And so certain bacteria can affect certainthings.
And so we use different strains at differenttimes within the protocol.
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But one thing I want to make sure people areaware of is if you have bloating, if you have
diarrhea, constipation, or any type of gutdistress, and then you see an ad on Facebook or
Instagram, probiotics fix my gut.
People just think that that's kind of like alike a one stop shop pill, right?
You just take that pill, it's going to fix yourproblem.
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Maybe, but maybe it's the wrong timing, right?
If you start putting probiotics into adysbiotic gut system, you're kind of feeding
that that bad bacteria a little bit.
And it's almost like pouring gasoline on afire.
Can make the problem worse.
And so I see that a lot.
Patients are like, tried to take this probioticand my bloating got worse or I felt more
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inflamed.
And it's because it was right product, wrongtime.
Right?
And so there is an order and a sequence ofevents you need to go through.
Definitely.
And you mentioned a little bit in the beginningabout your own experience with Hashimoto's.
So can you talk a little bit about hormonalimbalances and how they can often be downstream
effects of dysfunction?
(15:31):
And how do you approach someone who has like ahormone imbalance?
Yeah.
Again, right, like, so in my situation, it wasvery much that I had leaky gut, which is where
the barrier that controls kind of what your gutallows to get into your bloodstream was, was
weak.
And and undigested, you know, protein strandsand and larger molecules, even bacterias and
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pathogens can then get into the blood.
Your body is smart.
It's gonna mount an immune response to that.
Right?
It doesn't want that in your bloodstream.
And so when that immune response is chronicallygoing on all the time, your body can get
confused.
And those proteins that are in the blood canlook similar to other, you know, proteins that
make up our body.
We see this in rheumatoid arthritis, the tendonand cartilage proteins, right, start to get
(16:17):
attacked by our own immune system.
That's what autoimmunity is, right?
It's it's our body attacking itself.
And so again, like, yes, addressing gut numberone with any type of hormone imbalance, healing
and sealing the gut, and then looking upstreaminto, like, what is the the cascade doing?
Right?
If I just look at someone's, sex hormones andsay, oh, they have low low t, for example.
(16:40):
Right?
I'm I'm gonna just put them on testosterone.
Again, that's a very kind of, rudimentary, justbasic look.
It's like, wanna see, how is their adrenalstress response maybe hijacking that.
Right?
Because cholesterol, through the melaninpathway creates those sex hormones.
Right?
And so we have if we have low cholesterol, ifwe're on a statin drug, it's inhibiting our
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body, the ability to convert now cholesterolinto sex hormones.
And so, you know, again, you're not gonna justthrow somebody at something and think that's
the answer.
It's like, how do we get to the bottom of it?
And so, yeah, that's the way we'd approach it.
I know it's very similar in kind of everysituation, but that's because as complex as the
body is, it's actually pretty simple too.
(17:23):
It's like the the body wants to be in balance.
And so remove the bad stuff that's hurting itand then replace with good things and
ultimately find that balanced, state.
Definitely.
And I'd love to hear a little bit more aboutwhen you're seeing patients in your clinic, is
it oftentimes that they've seen a lot of otherproviders and now they're turning to functional
medicine as almost like they've kind ofexhausted their other options and now they're
(17:50):
finding functional medicine as something thatthey want to explore?
Or how does that process work when you havepatients walking through the door and what's
their previous experience?
Yeah, I would say I'd say that's a majority,like probably a pretty big majority of the
patients we see.
They've, you know, because that's you and Iprobably both, right, grew up in more of the
(18:11):
conventional medicine model.
Oh, you sprained your ankle.
You got an injury.
Here's an Aleve.
Here's an Advil.
Go to your doc.
They'll give you maybe like some type of Z Pakif you have a cold.
And so we're just used to that and it's kind ofingrained in us.
So people usually go that route first, right?
Unless, say, they are out of the box thinkingand they come to functional medicine first.
That's just not often.
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So yeah, they've probably gone down the rabbithole of visit to visit, specialist to
specialist.
And again, these docs are looking at onespecific area that is their specialty, not
connecting the dots and the pieces of whatmakes the person a person.
And so, yeah, we we kinda get that a lot, thefrustration piece of, man, I have no answers,
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and I've been to eight doctors and a milliontests and invasive tests, like people getting a
lot of, you know, colonoscopies and thingskinda stuck in places you don't want them.
Right?
And no answers from that, and it's it'sunfortunate.
And so we always wanna start with, like, hey.
We're here to listen to you first and reallykind of get to the bottom of this.
And we're also honest if it's something wecan't help with, we're not going to claim to be
(19:16):
able to help you.
But majority of the time, there is an answerwithin functional medicine.
And so, yeah, to answer the question, yes, likethat is a overwhelming majority of what we see.
And so where we lead to then normally is like,okay, what do I need to see to make a good
determination of what's going on here?
And that's, again, the testing piece.
(19:37):
And then coming up with some type of programfor the patient, including, you know, whether
it's dietary movement based lifestyle basedstress reduction, toxin removal, all of that.
Probably a combination of most of those thingstoo, because at the end of the day it is so
important to personalize protocols andpersonalize the entire experience because each
(19:59):
person really does have quite a differentconstitution and list concerns that they want
to address.
What are So some of your go to strategies orframeworks when you're thinking about
personalizing the experience on the protocolsper patient?
Yeah, cool question.
The framework or like the system and theprotocols we use is very much a framework, and
(20:23):
then we add or remove based on the person.
Right?
So not everybody's gonna get the same exactkind of approach, but the the the frame of it,
the foundation of it is gonna look the same.
You know, we gotta test.
Right?
I got I need data.
What gets measured can get managed.
Then we need to remove the interference or theoffensive, things that are causing the stress
(20:44):
on the system, support the systems with, say,nutraceuticals or peptides or whatever it might
be.
And then again, retest.
Right?
And it's like, you want to see that what you'redoing is working.
You can't just kind of throw a bunch of thingsat it and be like, Yeah, you're good.
Symptoms are a bit of the story, but the datatells a lot as well.
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And that's how we can be more proactive withpeople.
You solve a problem, then it's like, hey, nowwe want to maintain a level of diligence.
Looking at this every six months, we recommendblood work be done.
Even if it's just a kind of a comprehensivepanel, not as much the gut stuff, but just
knowing, Hey, are things trending in the rightdirection?
Are we having kind of a backtrack of thesethings?
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And then, you know, everything we do is testbased protocol driven and then high
accountability.
Like my patients have access to us 20 foursevenif they need.
And we also, make sure we're kind of on top ofthem.
You know, we're like a coach.
Like, hey, did you do your 10 push ups?
Right?
Like, we're making sure, are you doing thethings we told you?
Because that's the only way this is gonna work.
And I think oftentimes, what falls through thecracks is based on compliance because people
(21:54):
are only seeing their providers, you know, oncea year, maybe twice a year and so when they are
not seeing their provider they don't have thataccess or accountability to actually engage
with their provider.
They might forget the suggestion or they mightjust not be able to figure out a way or a
strategy to actually build it into their dailylife.
(22:15):
So I think that kind of one on one or thatexperience of actually working with a patient
and being available to them is just soimportant for their success.
Yeah, you know, it's the twenty first century,right?
Like we have technology.
So being like, look at this, we just hopped ona video call and we're across the across The
States from each other.
And this did not take any time at all.
(22:36):
So, you know, we want that availability pieceto be known to our patients, like, hey, if you
have something urgent, you reach out, you know,we respond within twelve, twenty four hours.
We have a text based system.
We have an email based system.
We have chat like that.
You're gonna get ahold of a member of my teamand and get the answer you're looking for
shorter than trying to call and make anappointment.
Right?
(22:57):
So and sometimes it's something that you don'tneed to call and come in and make an
appointment.
You just needed to figure out, hey.
What's the dosage here I need to take?
Or like, How how long am I doing this thingfor?
Right?
What did you say about that again, doc?
Right?
And so then it's just a quick answer, back ontrack.
Yes, definitely.
And what would you say to providers who areinterested in learning more about functional
(23:17):
medicine or even integrating some of theprinciples into what they do?
How can they start learning about it?
Yeah, you know, I think step one is like, yougot to think outside the box a little bit, you
know, medical docs, and I hate to pick onconventional medicine, but it is just kind of
the truth of how it's done is it's a it'sreally like a program system that they're kind
(23:39):
of stuck in.
It's like they're kind of told how to thinkversus like, Hey, why don't I think a little
bit differently here?
What could really get this person better?
And so the way I started with this was Ithought about how many people are going to the
ER with chronic low back pain.
And it was an alarming number.
Somebody taking up a seat in the emergency roomfrom someone who needs urgent care is maybe
(24:01):
bleeding, maybe has some serious infection.
And now there's someone in front of them whohas low back pain that could be solved by some
therapeutic traction or chiropractic care,right?
And so, you know, being able to direct peoplebetter, asking better questions instead of just
like, oh, like, you know, this is this.
I normally just give this person that kind ofthing.
It's like, no.
(24:21):
Like, let's let's dig in.
What is their lifestyle?
Right?
Is this person chronically stressed becausethey're going through something in their
personal life?
Right?
You know, maybe they just got fired.
Maybe they have this heavy burden emotionally,right, mentally, and that is now
psychosomatically exposing itself, in aphysical way.
And so then, again, like, you you ask betterquestions to direct, like, what kind of
(24:44):
investigation do we need to do?
And so looking at more.
Right?
Again, I'm always like, get as much data aspossible.
Right?
You watch movies.
We all watch movies.
Like, you don't watch five minutes of a movie.
I always come back to this.
It's like, you don't watch five minutes of amovie or a trailer and be like, oh, I loved it.
You have to watch the whole thing, and thenmaybe the ending sucks, and you didn't like
that movie.
Right?
And so it's like you have to get the fullpicture before you can make really a
(25:06):
determination or an educated decision.
And so it's not about rejecting thatconventional medicine model, but it's about
really evolving it and and getting back to thebasics of listening to the patient, spending
time with them.
I think so many patients are rushed and forcedand kind of, you know, taken through just this
conveyor belt.
And then treating the person, not the numbers.
(25:27):
Right?
Just because there's a lab value that's high, Iwanna make sure a protocol fits into their
lifestyle.
I'm not going to give somebody something theycan't handle.
And so that's very important as well.
Yes, definitely.
And I would love to ask your perspective onmuscle health.
So how does muscle health fit into what you doas a functional medicine specialist?
(25:48):
And particularly as it pertains to aging,metabolism and hormones, which we touched a
little bit on before, but could you talk alittle bit more about that?
Yeah, and obviously that makes sense with thepower panel here that right the myosMD
sponsored we use myosMD a lot because we do seemore of an aging population or an older
(26:10):
population and as we stop moving or as peoplestop engaging in resistance training, you are
going to have that natural loss of muscle massover time.
And really muscle is your metabolic engine.
It's how your body is able to maintainlongevity.
It's it's armor.
Right?
You have more muscle on your body, you're lesslikely to fall and get injured.
(26:30):
You are less likely to develop diabetes orinsulin resistance because muscle makes your
body more sensitive to insulin.
It's utilizing that glucose.
And so very much so we focus on muscle anytimewe're going through a functional medicine
protocol because we want to get people moremetabolically healthy.
We want to lower insulin resistance, improvesensitivity, and we wanna support, you know,
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their ability to to move and to activate, youknow, in whatever whatever it might be,
whatever hobby they have.
Right?
It tends to be pickleball nowadays.
So it's like everybody's playing pickleball.
But, you know, you gotta have the muscle to beable to perform.
So it's it's huge.
It's a staple in in what we focus on.
Definitely.
And could you share, like, one or two successstories that you've had using MyOSMD?
(27:16):
Yeah.
Definitely.
You know, one guy came in, and he was a gosh.
I I can't remember his age.
Sixties.
I'm just gonna say mid sixties and baseballplayer throughout his whole life and now was
playing, like, fast pitch softball because hewanted to maintain, obviously, that, that game.
He loved it was his thing.
And had a couple injuries.
(27:38):
Definitely had a couple discs that is why hesought us out.
And so we did a protocol of some chiropracticspinal decompression and stuff with him.
And then he started asking questions on like,hey, man.
Like, I I feel like I'm always sore.
I feel like I'm always having these, like, myrecovery is is, is not what it used to be.
And I was like, well, you are 65.
(27:58):
Right?
And so, like, it's not gonna be what you werewhen you're 25, but we can enhance it, and we
can, you know, start to reverse some of thoseeffects that you're getting.
And so he he dialed in on the MyOSMD and was,he was doing two or three scoops a day, which I
told him maybe is, you know, a little overkill.
But I was like, hey.
If if you like it, then go for it.
But, yeah, he did really well with it, and hewas able to perform at a higher level was the
(28:22):
feedback we got from him.
And he felt that his recovery was faster, whichis awesome at at 65 years old.
Right?
He didn't feel like he would go play a a couplegames of softball at night and then the next
day be out for four days.
Right?
And so myself too, awesome success story.
I when I had my my two boys, I have twin boys,and before they were born, I was like, gotta
(28:43):
get in the best shape of my life.
Right?
So they're like, I can just, you know, be thereto support and obviously be ahead of this
thing.
And so I did a protocol of the MYOS for aboutsix months, and I probably stacked a good,
like, five to 10 pounds of muscle through thatprocess.
I was resistance training heavy, and I was, youknow, probably the best shape of my life at
that point right about to have my kids too.
And then I maintained it through, which wasawesome.
(29:03):
So, it's a great product and and something thatwe definitely incorporate in.
Amazing.
Thank you so much for sharing.
So this was a very quick thirty minutes, veryquick session, but as we wrap up, we'd like to
thank MyoMD for sponsoring today's power panel.
Fueled by the proprietary ingredientFortetropin, MyoMD is trusted by healthcare
(29:24):
professionals like our guest, Doctor.
Alisi to deliver real results backed byscience.
If you would like to learn more about MYOSMDyou can go to the website myosmd.com where we
have a number of other recordings both thereand on our YouTube channel.
You can learn more about bringing this powerfulsolution to your practice.
(29:44):
If people want to learn more about you, Doctor.
Alisi, how can they do that?
Doctor.
Yeah, so a few different ways.
Our website is alessifunctionalhealth.com.
In the functional medicine side of things, dotelehealth as well.
So we have patients from all over the countrywith the physical medicine side, obviously,
primarily in Tampa, Florida.
So if you're in the area.
(30:06):
And then we have a podcast as well that weeducate on, on kind of how we operate within
our clinics and some success stories frompatients.
That's called Health Decoded.
You can listen to that YouTube or anywhere elseyou get your podcasts.
We're on all platforms.
And I'm Doctor.
Alfred Alessi on Instagram.
You can follow me and kind of see some thingsgoing on within the clinic, which is really
(30:26):
cool as well.
Oh, thank you so much, Doctor.
Alessi.
This was a great conversation.
We talked about everything from functionalmedicine all the way to muscle health.
So yeah, anyone who's listening to either thelive or the recording, please do not hesitate
to reach out to either of us to learn more.
Alrighty.
Well, have a good rest of the day.
Bye bye.
Thank you so much.
You have a great day.
(30:48):
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded,where we break down the truth about all things
health and empower you to take charge of yourwell-being.
If you found value in today's episode, pleasesubscribe, leave a review, and share it with
someone who needs to hear this.
For more resources and personalized support,visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
(31:10):
up for our newsletter.
To hear your questions answered live on theshow, send them to askalessiFXhealth dot com.
That's ask@alessifxhealth.com.
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered,and remember your health is in your hands.
As we stop moving or as people stop engaging inresistance training, you are gonna have that
(00:05):
natural loss of muscle mass over time.
And, really, muscle is your metabolic engine.
It's how your body is able to maintainlongevity.
It's it's armor.
Right?
You have more muscle on your body, you're lesslikely to fall and get injured.
You are less likely to develop diabetes orinsulin resistance because muscle makes your
body more sensitive to insulin.
It's utilizing that glucose.
(00:26):
Welcome to Health Decode, your number onesource for real health information with your
host, doctor Alessi and Matt Tack.
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And remember, your health is in your hands.
Welcome back to another episode of HealthDecoded.
I am your host, doctor Alessi.
Today's episode is a really fun one, and thisis actually something a little different than
(01:58):
what we normally do.
I was recently a guest on the power panelpresented by MYOSMD.
This is a show that focuses on highlightingdoctors in different areas of medicine, and
really digging into the concept of how muscleis an organ for longevity, and for health and
(02:18):
for vitality.
And so I was on this panel with doctor SwatiVaranasi Diaz, and she basically interviewed
me, asked me a ton of really awesome questions,and dug into a bit of why I do what I do and
why we're doing what we're doing at AlessiFunctional Health, and as well as how we
(02:39):
partnered with myosMD and their product to helpour patients to improve outcomes and become
more vibrant and live healthier lives.
So I hope you enjoy this conversation.
This was a really, really great conversationthat we had, and I look forward to seeing you
in the show.
Okay.
Welcome to another episode of the power panelbrought to you by MYOSMD.
(03:04):
So let's hop right into the topic at hand.
So, first and foremost, we'd love to have anintro from, our guests today.
Would you mind giving a little background onyourself before we get into today's topic?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you so much for having me, by the way,and it's great to see you again.
My name is doctor Alfred Alessi.
I own a clinic in Tampa, Florida, called AlessiFunctional Health, where we specialize in a few
(03:30):
different things.
We really have three pillars of how wepractice, but the physical medicine, which is
chiropractic, spinal decompression, reallyfocused on, you know, getting people
functional.
And then functional medicine, which is verymuch a growing part of our practice using
comprehensive blood work, testing, you know,gut testing, all kinds of stuff, really getting
in detail with people to get to the root causeof what their issues might be.
(03:52):
And then we're tapping into regenerativemedicine as well, utilizing things like
peptides, regenerative medicines like stemcells and soft wave therapy, which is really
cool stuff.
We just invested in a whole body red lighttherapy system, which is gonna be awesome for
our patients for inflammation.
So, you know, realistically, we're our goal isto kind of upset the conventional medicine
(04:13):
model and get people better instead of justkeeping people sick and unhealthy and on pills
for the rest of their life.
Amazing.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for that introduction.
So before we dive into today's discussion, Iwanted to mention that today's power panel is
brought to you by MYOSMD, the cutting edgenutritional supplement designed to combat
muscle loss and support healthier aging.
(04:33):
Powered by Fortetropin, a natural bioactivecompound which has been clinically shown to
enhance muscle growth and reduce anabolicresistance, MYOS MD is changing the way we
think about muscle health.
So, you'd like to learn more about MyOSMD, youcan go to myosmd.com.
Alrighty, so into today's episode.
So we want to focus today quite a bit onfunctional medicine.
(04:56):
We haven't had an expert yet dive into thattopic.
And so how do you define functional medicine?
And what got you interested in it in the firstplace?
Yeah.
The concept of functional medicine is reallywhat it's called is that we're trying to
optimize the way the body functions.
And the way the body functions is as a system,not just a bunch of isolated organs talking to
(05:19):
each other.
Right?
And so everything is connected.
If someone comes in with, chronic joint pain orsay it's, you know, fatigue or or they're
having cognitive issues, often I'm looking atthe gut because the gut is our first barrier of
defense for our immune system and for wherethat inflammation may be coming from.
And so again, in conventional medicine, docsare not going to take that out of the box
(05:42):
approach.
And so we really focus on, again, like lookingat the patient as a whole and not just a list
of symptoms and lab values.
Because you can often get lost in the numbersof, the cholesterol is high.
Let's do this.
Or, you know, the inflammation is high.
It's like, how is their lifestyle affectingthat too?
So we incorporate lifestyle a lot within ourclinic, because that's, you know, that
(06:04):
everything starts at home realistically withhow our patients' lives are going.
So to answer the second part of that, I gotinto functional medicine, really, my own story.
It started as as becoming a chiropractor due toan injury I had, had really good results from
chiropractic care, and then, you know, startedlearning more on the functional side, had a lot
(06:25):
of nutrition training through that.
I've always been more health conscious as, youknow, even growing up.
Then diagnosing myself with an autoimmunecondition, actually Hashimoto's thyroiditis,
where I really didn't I didn't know anythingabout it at the time.
I ran some blood work.
As I was tapping into it, I found that StandardLabs missed it because they just ran a thyroid
(06:48):
stimulating hormone test and a T three, which,you know, I was I was in the normal range.
It wasn't until I ran an antibody test andfound that I had presence of antibodies
attacking my thyroid and then took action onthat.
Went down the whole rabbit trail of healing thegut, right?
Fixing the leaky gut, balancing stress levels,cortisol, all the adrenals, and ended up
actually getting remission from that autoimmunecondition where my antibodies are now within a
(07:12):
normal range and not clinically diagnosable asHashimoto's.
And so I think experiencing it myself is whatkind of gives me the passion and the empathy to
really be able to talk to patients about thepower of functional medicine.
Yeah, that's incredible.
So many people that I've met that are either infunctional medicine or in integrative medicine
(07:32):
I'm an integrative specialist as well.
I think so many of us come from the personalexperience whether it is something that we
experience or some one of our loved ones orsomeone in our community experienced and then
we kind of take it from there and realize thatthere is more than one way of just healing.
So, yeah.
That's right.
Definitely.
So, let's talk about some examples.
(07:52):
So, when a patient presents to you with fatigueor brain fog, what are some of the root causes
that you look to investigate first?
Yeah.
You know, kind of what I alluded to, just nowis the fatigue and the brain fog are really
just their signs or their symptoms.
They're the check engine light, right, or thealarm that's going off within the body.
(08:12):
And so now it's okay.
Like, where's the fire?
Right?
If the fire alarm's going off, where's the firethat's causing that to happen?
You know, the the analogy I use with a lot ofpatients is like, say there was a fire in the
back room and the alarm's going off.
If I just turn the alarm off, did I put out thefire?
I did not.
Right?
And so that's what medication, aims to do is tojust turn the alarm off, but not actually get
(08:34):
to the root cause of why that alarm's goingoff.
And so we're gonna look into, you know, kind ofwhat we call, like, the big four.
What is the metabolic situation?
Right?
What's blood sugar doing?
Mitochondrial dysfunction is a big one thatpeople experience that is very difficult to
test for.
Thyroid is huge.
It's maybe like sixty percent of peoplenowadays have some type of thyroid dysfunction
(08:54):
or autoimmunity.
And then toxins is a big one.
The environment, the world we live in right nowis it's impossible almost to avoid exposure to
toxins from the air, the things we put on andin our body, and even the clothes we're
wearing.
So from there, you know, you you get some data,and then you start to understand, like, okay.
(09:16):
Like, how is this now, attributing to thosesymptoms?
And now we can put together a a plan, right, tobe able to, you know, write that and rebalance
and find equilibrium within the body.
Yes, definitely.
It's all about thinking about the root cause.
I've never actually heard someone talk about itwith the fire alarm and then finding like the
(09:37):
cause of the fire but I think that that is agreat analogy and I mean it is something you
should consider maybe with just trademarkingbecause that is the most.
So how do you differentiate betweeninflammation that is a symptom versus
inflammation that could be a driver of chronicdisease, or is there a difference between the
two?
(09:57):
Yeah.
I I think there is a difference.
You know, again, is a good thing in in shortamounts.
Right?
Like, you sprain your ankle or you get stung bya bee.
You you want that inflammation to go to thesource.
Right?
And your body to use its immune system to fixthat.
But when it's chronically elevated for longperiods of time and it becomes systemic, then,
yeah, there's a problem.
(10:17):
Right?
Your body's not meant to be in that high, stateof chronic inflammation and stress.
And so kind of going back to that analogy.
Right?
Inflammation can be both the fire and thealarm.
Right?
You can feel inflammation.
Your joints are achy and sore.
Right?
You can feel like your gut, you have IBS, maybeyou run to the bathroom five, six times a day.
And then if it starts to stick around longenough is where then you have long term damage.
(10:42):
And so again, testing is key.
Right?
Signs and symptoms are good, and it's asubjective analysis from patient if they are in
tune with their body.
But then let's accurately test and get data.
And so we do look at some really in-depth,really cool tests within our office.
And and again, it's maybe a little bit broaderthan what you're gonna get with insurance based
(11:03):
medical care because when the insurance companyis telling you what to do, right?
They're like, Oh, we're gonna we're gonna lookat these few things.
It's like, No, I I need more, right?
I need to if I wanna determine whether a movieis good, am I gonna just watch the first five
minutes, or am I gonna watch the whole thing?
Right?
So I I need the whole picture of before I canmake a judgment call if I actually like that
film.
So kind of the same concept.
I need to see a broader picture to be able todetermine what's actually going on.
(11:28):
And then talking more about what's actuallygoing on, let's talk about gut health.
So how does gut health play in terms of longterm health outcomes And how can you assess it
from a functional medicine perspective?
Yeah.
Great question.
You know, the gut is again, it's like our firstline of defense.
Statistics are somewhere like eighty to eightyfive percent of your immune system is actually
(11:51):
housed in the gut.
And so it's constantly this feedback netmechanism from your gut to your brain.
Right?
The gut is actually probably your first brain.
It's controlling more of our body's dailythings than even our brain does.
Right?
And there's more, of these organisms andneurosynapses that are actually creating in in
the gut versus in the brain.
So that constant feedback, the gut is paramountto long term health.
(12:16):
If your gut is inflamed, if your gut isdysfunctional, if you have leaky gut, it's
going to affect everything.
It is one of the major drivers of autoimmuneconditions, which is where your body's
attacking itself.
And so when it comes to testing, again, it'slike starting with some symptoms is good, but
then we like to get some in-depth testing usingthings like stool tests, where we can see the
(12:36):
balance between good and bad bacterial flora.
We can look for parasites.
We can look for toxins.
We can look for, mold, fungus, all these kindof things.
Yeast is a big one.
And, you know, realistically, I'd say maybelike seventy five to eighty percent is just a
kind of a guess number.
Of the patients that come in with any type offunctional medicine issues, we're focusing on
(13:00):
the gut heavily on the front end.
And so it's about like, okay, you get the gutclean.
We take them through what we call our five Rs.
And I can name it.
We remove.
Right?
So that's like get rid of the things that areoffending the body or the gut.
Replace, start putting good stuff in that thebody can use and rebuild with.
Reinoculate, right, good bacteria, probiotics,some of those buzzwords people are probably
(13:22):
familiar with.
Then we reinoculate with healthy foods andthings that are healing.
Then again, repair and rebalance.
And so when we go through this protocol, it'sactually this has been used for a long time in
functional and Eastern medicine, the body canthen heal.
And so really, that's probably ninety percentof patients are going to go through some type
of detoxification 5R protocol when it comes tohealing the gut.
(13:47):
Yeah, and going a little off script, but Iwanted to ask your perspective on the use of
probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics.
How do you view that for patients who arecoming into your clinic?
Is it like, we want to put most patients onthese, all patients?
I hear quite a lot of different perspectives.
(14:07):
Would love to hear yours.
Yeah.
Probiotics are awesome because they have somany different functions, right?
The way that certain things are broken down andutilized within the body is controlled by the
bacterial colonies in our gut.
And so certain bacteria can affect certainthings.
And so we use different strains at differenttimes within the protocol.
(14:29):
But one thing I want to make sure people areaware of is if you have bloating, if you have
diarrhea, constipation, or any type of gutdistress, and then you see an ad on Facebook or
Instagram, probiotics fix my gut.
People just think that that's kind of like alike a one stop shop pill, right?
You just take that pill, it's going to fix yourproblem.
(14:49):
Maybe, but maybe it's the wrong timing, right?
If you start putting probiotics into adysbiotic gut system, you're kind of feeding
that that bad bacteria a little bit.
And it's almost like pouring gasoline on afire.
Can make the problem worse.
And so I see that a lot.
Patients are like, tried to take this probioticand my bloating got worse or I felt more
(15:10):
inflamed.
And it's because it was right product, wrongtime.
Right?
And so there is an order and a sequence ofevents you need to go through.
Definitely.
And you mentioned a little bit in the beginningabout your own experience with Hashimoto's.
So can you talk a little bit about hormonalimbalances and how they can often be downstream
effects of dysfunction?
(15:31):
And how do you approach someone who has like ahormone imbalance?
Yeah.
Again, right, like, so in my situation, it wasvery much that I had leaky gut, which is where
the barrier that controls kind of what your gutallows to get into your bloodstream was, was
weak.
And and undigested, you know, protein strandsand and larger molecules, even bacterias and
(15:54):
pathogens can then get into the blood.
Your body is smart.
It's gonna mount an immune response to that.
Right?
It doesn't want that in your bloodstream.
And so when that immune response is chronicallygoing on all the time, your body can get
confused.
And those proteins that are in the blood canlook similar to other, you know, proteins that
make up our body.
We see this in rheumatoid arthritis, the tendonand cartilage proteins, right, start to get
(16:17):
attacked by our own immune system.
That's what autoimmunity is, right?
It's it's our body attacking itself.
And so again, like, yes, addressing gut numberone with any type of hormone imbalance, healing
and sealing the gut, and then looking upstreaminto, like, what is the the cascade doing?
Right?
If I just look at someone's, sex hormones andsay, oh, they have low low t, for example.
(16:40):
Right?
I'm I'm gonna just put them on testosterone.
Again, that's a very kind of, rudimentary, justbasic look.
It's like, wanna see, how is their adrenalstress response maybe hijacking that.
Right?
Because cholesterol, through the melaninpathway creates those sex hormones.
Right?
And so we have if we have low cholesterol, ifwe're on a statin drug, it's inhibiting our
(17:02):
body, the ability to convert now cholesterolinto sex hormones.
And so, you know, again, you're not gonna justthrow somebody at something and think that's
the answer.
It's like, how do we get to the bottom of it?
And so, yeah, that's the way we'd approach it.
I know it's very similar in kind of everysituation, but that's because as complex as the
body is, it's actually pretty simple too.
(17:23):
It's like the the body wants to be in balance.
And so remove the bad stuff that's hurting itand then replace with good things and
ultimately find that balanced, state.
Definitely.
And I'd love to hear a little bit more aboutwhen you're seeing patients in your clinic, is
it oftentimes that they've seen a lot of otherproviders and now they're turning to functional
medicine as almost like they've kind ofexhausted their other options and now they're
(17:50):
finding functional medicine as something thatthey want to explore?
Or how does that process work when you havepatients walking through the door and what's
their previous experience?
Yeah, I would say I'd say that's a majority,like probably a pretty big majority of the
patients we see.
They've, you know, because that's you and Iprobably both, right, grew up in more of the
(18:11):
conventional medicine model.
Oh, you sprained your ankle.
You got an injury.
Here's an Aleve.
Here's an Advil.
Go to your doc.
They'll give you maybe like some type of Z Pakif you have a cold.
And so we're just used to that and it's kind ofingrained in us.
So people usually go that route first, right?
Unless, say, they are out of the box thinkingand they come to functional medicine first.
That's just not often.
(18:34):
So yeah, they've probably gone down the rabbithole of visit to visit, specialist to
specialist.
And again, these docs are looking at onespecific area that is their specialty, not
connecting the dots and the pieces of whatmakes the person a person.
And so, yeah, we we kinda get that a lot, thefrustration piece of, man, I have no answers,
(18:54):
and I've been to eight doctors and a milliontests and invasive tests, like people getting a
lot of, you know, colonoscopies and thingskinda stuck in places you don't want them.
Right?
And no answers from that, and it's it'sunfortunate.
And so we always wanna start with, like, hey.
We're here to listen to you first and reallykind of get to the bottom of this.
And we're also honest if it's something wecan't help with, we're not going to claim to be
(19:16):
able to help you.
But majority of the time, there is an answerwithin functional medicine.
And so, yeah, to answer the question, yes, likethat is a overwhelming majority of what we see.
And so where we lead to then normally is like,okay, what do I need to see to make a good
determination of what's going on here?
And that's, again, the testing piece.
(19:37):
And then coming up with some type of programfor the patient, including, you know, whether
it's dietary movement based lifestyle basedstress reduction, toxin removal, all of that.
Probably a combination of most of those thingstoo, because at the end of the day it is so
important to personalize protocols andpersonalize the entire experience because each
(19:59):
person really does have quite a differentconstitution and list concerns that they want
to address.
What are So some of your go to strategies orframeworks when you're thinking about
personalizing the experience on the protocolsper patient?
Yeah, cool question.
The framework or like the system and theprotocols we use is very much a framework, and
(20:23):
then we add or remove based on the person.
Right?
So not everybody's gonna get the same exactkind of approach, but the the the frame of it,
the foundation of it is gonna look the same.
You know, we gotta test.
Right?
I got I need data.
What gets measured can get managed.
Then we need to remove the interference or theoffensive, things that are causing the stress
(20:44):
on the system, support the systems with, say,nutraceuticals or peptides or whatever it might
be.
And then again, retest.
Right?
And it's like, you want to see that what you'redoing is working.
You can't just kind of throw a bunch of thingsat it and be like, Yeah, you're good.
Symptoms are a bit of the story, but the datatells a lot as well.
(21:04):
And that's how we can be more proactive withpeople.
You solve a problem, then it's like, hey, nowwe want to maintain a level of diligence.
Looking at this every six months, we recommendblood work be done.
Even if it's just a kind of a comprehensivepanel, not as much the gut stuff, but just
knowing, Hey, are things trending in the rightdirection?
Are we having kind of a backtrack of thesethings?
(21:28):
And then, you know, everything we do is testbased protocol driven and then high
accountability.
Like my patients have access to us 20 foursevenif they need.
And we also, make sure we're kind of on top ofthem.
You know, we're like a coach.
Like, hey, did you do your 10 push ups?
Right?
Like, we're making sure, are you doing thethings we told you?
Because that's the only way this is gonna work.
And I think oftentimes, what falls through thecracks is based on compliance because people
(21:54):
are only seeing their providers, you know, oncea year, maybe twice a year and so when they are
not seeing their provider they don't have thataccess or accountability to actually engage
with their provider.
They might forget the suggestion or they mightjust not be able to figure out a way or a
strategy to actually build it into their dailylife.
(22:15):
So I think that kind of one on one or thatexperience of actually working with a patient
and being available to them is just soimportant for their success.
Yeah, you know, it's the twenty first century,right?
Like we have technology.
So being like, look at this, we just hopped ona video call and we're across the across The
States from each other.
And this did not take any time at all.
(22:36):
So, you know, we want that availability pieceto be known to our patients, like, hey, if you
have something urgent, you reach out, you know,we respond within twelve, twenty four hours.
We have a text based system.
We have an email based system.
We have chat like that.
You're gonna get ahold of a member of my teamand and get the answer you're looking for
shorter than trying to call and make anappointment.
Right?
(22:57):
So and sometimes it's something that you don'tneed to call and come in and make an
appointment.
You just needed to figure out, hey.
What's the dosage here I need to take?
Or like, How how long am I doing this thingfor?
Right?
What did you say about that again, doc?
Right?
And so then it's just a quick answer, back ontrack.
Yes, definitely.
And what would you say to providers who areinterested in learning more about functional
(23:17):
medicine or even integrating some of theprinciples into what they do?
How can they start learning about it?
Yeah, you know, I think step one is like, yougot to think outside the box a little bit, you
know, medical docs, and I hate to pick onconventional medicine, but it is just kind of
the truth of how it's done is it's a it'sreally like a program system that they're kind
(23:39):
of stuck in.
It's like they're kind of told how to thinkversus like, Hey, why don't I think a little
bit differently here?
What could really get this person better?
And so the way I started with this was Ithought about how many people are going to the
ER with chronic low back pain.
And it was an alarming number.
Somebody taking up a seat in the emergency roomfrom someone who needs urgent care is maybe
(24:01):
bleeding, maybe has some serious infection.
And now there's someone in front of them whohas low back pain that could be solved by some
therapeutic traction or chiropractic care,right?
And so, you know, being able to direct peoplebetter, asking better questions instead of just
like, oh, like, you know, this is this.
I normally just give this person that kind ofthing.
It's like, no.
(24:21):
Like, let's let's dig in.
What is their lifestyle?
Right?
Is this person chronically stressed becausethey're going through something in their
personal life?
Right?
You know, maybe they just got fired.
Maybe they have this heavy burden emotionally,right, mentally, and that is now
psychosomatically exposing itself, in aphysical way.
And so then, again, like, you you ask betterquestions to direct, like, what kind of
(24:44):
investigation do we need to do?
And so looking at more.
Right?
Again, I'm always like, get as much data aspossible.
Right?
You watch movies.
We all watch movies.
Like, you don't watch five minutes of a movie.
I always come back to this.
It's like, you don't watch five minutes of amovie or a trailer and be like, oh, I loved it.
You have to watch the whole thing, and thenmaybe the ending sucks, and you didn't like
that movie.
Right?
And so it's like you have to get the fullpicture before you can make really a
(25:06):
determination or an educated decision.
And so it's not about rejecting thatconventional medicine model, but it's about
really evolving it and and getting back to thebasics of listening to the patient, spending
time with them.
I think so many patients are rushed and forcedand kind of, you know, taken through just this
conveyor belt.
And then treating the person, not the numbers.
(25:27):
Right?
Just because there's a lab value that's high, Iwanna make sure a protocol fits into their
lifestyle.
I'm not going to give somebody something theycan't handle.
And so that's very important as well.
Yes, definitely.
And I would love to ask your perspective onmuscle health.
So how does muscle health fit into what you doas a functional medicine specialist?
(25:48):
And particularly as it pertains to aging,metabolism and hormones, which we touched a
little bit on before, but could you talk alittle bit more about that?
Yeah, and obviously that makes sense with thepower panel here that right the myosMD
sponsored we use myosMD a lot because we do seemore of an aging population or an older
(26:10):
population and as we stop moving or as peoplestop engaging in resistance training, you are
going to have that natural loss of muscle massover time.
And really muscle is your metabolic engine.
It's how your body is able to maintainlongevity.
It's it's armor.
Right?
You have more muscle on your body, you're lesslikely to fall and get injured.
(26:30):
You are less likely to develop diabetes orinsulin resistance because muscle makes your
body more sensitive to insulin.
It's utilizing that glucose.
And so very much so we focus on muscle anytimewe're going through a functional medicine
protocol because we want to get people moremetabolically healthy.
We want to lower insulin resistance, improvesensitivity, and we wanna support, you know,
(26:52):
their ability to to move and to activate, youknow, in whatever whatever it might be,
whatever hobby they have.
Right?
It tends to be pickleball nowadays.
So it's like everybody's playing pickleball.
But, you know, you gotta have the muscle to beable to perform.
So it's it's huge.
It's a staple in in what we focus on.
Definitely.
And could you share, like, one or two successstories that you've had using MyOSMD?
(27:16):
Yeah.
Definitely.
You know, one guy came in, and he was a gosh.
I I can't remember his age.
Sixties.
I'm just gonna say mid sixties and baseballplayer throughout his whole life and now was
playing, like, fast pitch softball because hewanted to maintain, obviously, that, that game.
He loved it was his thing.
And had a couple injuries.
(27:38):
Definitely had a couple discs that is why hesought us out.
And so we did a protocol of some chiropracticspinal decompression and stuff with him.
And then he started asking questions on like,hey, man.
Like, I I feel like I'm always sore.
I feel like I'm always having these, like, myrecovery is is, is not what it used to be.
And I was like, well, you are 65.
(27:58):
Right?
And so, like, it's not gonna be what you werewhen you're 25, but we can enhance it, and we
can, you know, start to reverse some of thoseeffects that you're getting.
And so he he dialed in on the MyOSMD and was,he was doing two or three scoops a day, which I
told him maybe is, you know, a little overkill.
But I was like, hey.
If if you like it, then go for it.
But, yeah, he did really well with it, and hewas able to perform at a higher level was the
(28:22):
feedback we got from him.
And he felt that his recovery was faster, whichis awesome at at 65 years old.
Right?
He didn't feel like he would go play a a couplegames of softball at night and then the next
day be out for four days.
Right?
And so myself too, awesome success story.
I when I had my my two boys, I have twin boys,and before they were born, I was like, gotta
(28:43):
get in the best shape of my life.
Right?
So they're like, I can just, you know, be thereto support and obviously be ahead of this
thing.
And so I did a protocol of the MYOS for aboutsix months, and I probably stacked a good,
like, five to 10 pounds of muscle through thatprocess.
I was resistance training heavy, and I was, youknow, probably the best shape of my life at
that point right about to have my kids too.
And then I maintained it through, which wasawesome.
(29:03):
So, it's a great product and and something thatwe definitely incorporate in.
Amazing.
Thank you so much for sharing.
So this was a very quick thirty minutes, veryquick session, but as we wrap up, we'd like to
thank MyoMD for sponsoring today's power panel.
Fueled by the proprietary ingredientFortetropin, MyoMD is trusted by healthcare
(29:24):
professionals like our guest, Doctor.
Alisi to deliver real results backed byscience.
If you would like to learn more about MYOSMDyou can go to the website myosmd.com where we
have a number of other recordings both thereand on our YouTube channel.
You can learn more about bringing this powerfulsolution to your practice.
(29:44):
If people want to learn more about you, Doctor.
Alisi, how can they do that?
Doctor.
Yeah, so a few different ways.
Our website is alessifunctionalhealth.com.
In the functional medicine side of things, dotelehealth as well.
So we have patients from all over the countrywith the physical medicine side, obviously,
primarily in Tampa, Florida.
So if you're in the area.
(30:06):
And then we have a podcast as well that weeducate on, on kind of how we operate within
our clinics and some success stories frompatients.
That's called Health Decoded.
You can listen to that YouTube or anywhere elseyou get your podcasts.
We're on all platforms.
And I'm Doctor.
Alfred Alessi on Instagram.
You can follow me and kind of see some thingsgoing on within the clinic, which is really
(30:26):
cool as well.
Oh, thank you so much, Doctor.
Alessi.
This was a great conversation.
We talked about everything from functionalmedicine all the way to muscle health.
So yeah, anyone who's listening to either thelive or the recording, please do not hesitate
to reach out to either of us to learn more.
Alrighty.
Well, have a good rest of the day.
Bye bye.
Thank you so much.
You have a great day.
(30:48):
Thank you for tuning in to Health Decoded,where we break down the truth about all things
health and empower you to take charge of yourwell-being.
If you found value in today's episode, pleasesubscribe, leave a review, and share it with
someone who needs to hear this.
For more resources and personalized support,visit us at alessifunctionalhealth.com and sign
(31:10):
up for our newsletter.
To hear your questions answered live on theshow, send them to askalessiFXhealth dot com.
That's ask@alessifxhealth.com.
Until next time, stay curious, stay empowered,and remember your health is in your hands.
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