August 20, 2025 • 37 mins
Ever felt trapped in a healthcare system that sees your symptoms but misses you as a whole person? Dr. Kevin Smith pulls back the curtain on why so many individuals feel chronically sick and tired despite countless doctor visits. The answer lies in understanding the profound difference between conventional medicine, which treats symptoms with drugs, and functional medicine, which asks the critical question: why is this happening in the first place?
The statistics are alarming—chronic disease affects more Americans than ever before, and at increasingly younger ages. Through enlightening explanations of autoimmune conditions, blood sugar dysregulation, and the gut-brain connection, Dr. Smith reveals how seemingly unrelated symptoms often share common root causes. Most surprising? About 90% of mysterious medical issues that conventional doctors can't diagnose are autoimmune-related, where your body's defense system has turned against itself.
What sets this conversation apart is Dr. Smith's breakdown of how testing differs between medical approaches. While conventional doctors order minimal tests (often dictated by insurance companies), functional medicine examines your entire metabolic landscape—ordering nine thyroid tests instead of one, for example. Even more revolutionary is understanding that lab ranges themselves are based on averages from sick populations, while functional ranges reflect truly healthy individuals. This distinction alone explains why so many people feel terrible while being told their tests ar
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Hi friends, welcome to the new normal, Big Life Podcast! We bring you natural news and stories about nature that we hope will inspire you to get outside and adventure, along with a step-by-step plan to help you practice what you’ve learned and create your own new normal and live the biggest life you can dream. I’m your host, Antoinette Lee, the Wellness Warrior.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
New Normal Big Life overcome chronic health
challenges.
Dr Smith reveals why accuratediagnoses are hard to come by,
how to uncover root causes foryour biggest health challenges
and game-changing functionalmedicine solutions.
Let's dive in to talk aboutconventional versus functional
medicine, the immune system andso much more to empower you to
(00:40):
be a wiser healthcare consumer.
Hi friends, welcome to the NewNormal Big Life Podcast.
We bring you natural news andstories about nature that we
hope will inspire you to getoutside and adventure, along
with a step-by-step plan to helpyou practice what you've
learned and create your own newnormal and live the biggest life
you can dream.
I'm your host, antoinette Lee,the Wellness Warrior.
(01:01):
Hi, dr Smith, welcome to theshow.
Thank you for having me, I'mglad.
Host Antoinette Lee, theWellness Warrior.
Hi, dr Smith.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So I'd like to start off with a really important
question why are so manyAmericans, from youth to young
adults to seniors, feeling sosick and tired?
All over the internet,everyone's talking about how
sick they feel, and we'restarting to see younger and
younger people, for example, intheir 20s and 30s, with diseases
(01:30):
that we used to think of assomething that happens to you
when you're in middle age orseniors.
What's going?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
on?
That's a great question.
So first of all, I want to saythat there are two broad
categories of health care inthis country.
There is allopathic healthcareand there's functional medicine,
and allopathic healthcare iswhat people get when they go
visit a medical doctor.
(01:54):
The purpose of allopathichealthcare is to treat symptoms
with a drug, and so if you havehigh blood pressure, for example
, they're going to give you amedication that's going to help
you with your blood pressure.
If you have thyroid low thyroidthey're going to give you
(02:15):
medication that's going to helpyou with your thyroid issues.
That's allopathic medicine andthat's the predominant type of
healthcare that we have in theUnited States today.
The other type of healthcare iscalled functional medicine, and
that's what I do.
I'm a functional medicinepractitioner.
(02:35):
Functional medicine is differentfrom allopathic medicine in the
way that we ask questions.
One of the most predominantquestions that we ask is why?
Why does the person have thisproblem?
Medical doctors don't ask thatquestion.
They don't care.
If you have a high bloodpressure, you walk into the
(02:58):
guy's office and you're put in acertain diagnostic box and
there are certain drugs that areprescribed based on that
diagnostic box.
That's called the standard ofmedical care.
Sometimes that works, sometimesit doesn't work.
The functional medicine doctorsays why do you have high blood
(03:18):
pressure?
Why do you have thyroidproblems?
And so they take a more holisticapproach to look at the
complicated interworkings of thebodies.
For example, if your gut issick, if you're not making
enough serotonin or dopamine inthe gut, you're going to have
brain problems and then you'regoing to have thyroid problems
(03:40):
and then you're going to haveenergy problems.
So when you trace it back, itcould be a problem stemming from
the gut.
So the the two primary types ofhealth care in this country is
allopathic medicine andfunctional medicine, with
allopathic medicine being themost common kind, and that has
(04:01):
failed a lot of people and a lotof people are experiencing
diseases and symptoms andthey're not getting any results.
They're not getting anymeaningful dialogue with their
doctor, because the only thingthat they know what to do with
is chase their symptoms.
Functional medicine is we don'ttreat symptoms, we treat the
(04:21):
patient.
So it's a personalized,patient-centered approach to
healing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
When we think of allopathic medicine, that's what
most people hear of asconventional medicine Diagnosis
you get a prescription, maybeanother therapeutic remedy, like
massage therapy for example,and then, if that doesn't work,
surgery.
In this endless cycle, how isit that a person could have what
(04:55):
you might think of as a complexautoimmune situation, meaning
it doesn't quite identify as anyone specific type of autoimmune
disease?
How can that person go fromtheir allopathic or conventional
medicine practitioner tosomeone like you with this
(05:18):
complex series of symptoms andget a diagnosis and treatment?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
of symptoms and get a diagnosis and treatment.
So, first of all, I'm veryrarely the first person that
people go to when they havethese problems.
Usually they've already gone totheir primary care physician,
they've gone to a couple ofspecialists, they've gone to a
couple surgeons, they've gone toa physical therapist, maybe a
chiropractor, an acupuncturist,and I'm way down the line.
And so when they come to see me, one of the first things I do
(05:50):
is I gather their medicalhistory, I gather their
information, and the secondthing I do is I have them fill
out these very long, complexquestionnaires that asks them
questions about the nature oftheir problem, how long they've
had it, what have they done forit.
So that I'm not like retracingsomebody else's steps, I'm going
(06:12):
to move in other directionsthat other people haven't done.
Now, when you have anautoimmune condition, as a rule
of thumb, anytime that somebodycomes in my office with this
weird, mysterious medicalproblem that nobody can figure
out what's wrong with them,nobody can diagnose what's wrong
with them.
(06:32):
90% of the time it's autoimmune, and so that's one of the
things that I spend a lot oftime working on Autoimmune.
For those people that don'tunderstand what that is, the
immune system is your body'sdefense system, so it protects
you from viruses or bacteria ora parasite, and it's your white
(06:58):
blood cells that circulatesthroughout your body to get rid
of any kind of invading bacteriaor invading viruses.
It keeps you feeling good.
Sometimes the immune systemstarts to turn on your body and
so it starts to attack your ownbody tissues, and so that's what
(07:22):
autoimmune means.
Auto means self and immune isrelated to the immune system.
So one of the areas that'sattacked very frequently is the
thyroid gland, and when thathappens that's a them have
Hashimoto's they have some kindof an underlying autoimmune
(07:47):
component.
It can affect the brain.
So in the brain, if you have anautoimmune attack in the brain,
that's called multiplesclerosis.
If you have an attack on thecolon, that's called Crohn's
disease.
If you have an autoimmuneattack on the joints in your
hands or your spine, that'scalled rheumatoid arthritis, and
(08:10):
psoriasis is a variant of that.
That's when it starts to attackthe skin.
So there's about a hundreddifferent autoimmune diseases
that have been identified bymedicine, and they're all based
on what part of the body isbeing attacked.
Is it the lung fields, is itthe liver, is it the bladder?
(08:30):
All kinds of different areascan have trouble and it's
because of the immune systemattacking your body.
You don't really appreciate theimmune system and how powerful
it is until it starts turning onyour own body.
That's a wake up call.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Is there a similar component in folks with blood
sugar that's difficult toregulate, whether it's too low
most of the time or too highmost of the time, or if it's
component that something withinthe body is experiencing
(09:08):
dis-ease and then it causes yourblood sugar to be dysregulated?
How?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
does that work?
So when it comes to blood sugarimbalances, that's called
diabetes, and there's actuallyfour types of diabetes that have
been identified by medicalresearchers.
Type 1 diabetes is where youhave an autoimmune attack that
affects the pancreas.
(09:37):
It affects the beta cells ofthe pancreas and the immune
system.
The white blood cells attackand destroy the beta cells and
the person can no longer maketheir own insulin.
That's a hormone produced bythe pancreas.
So whenever you eatcarbohydrates, proteins or fats,
that food is broken down intoglycogen and it goes throughout
(10:01):
the body in simple glucose.
And it goes throughout the body, simple glucose, and those
glucose molecules are shuttledinto the cells where it's burned
as energy.
And if you don't have enough ofthe hormone insulin, it cannot
get into your cells.
And that happens as a child.
That's type 1.
Type 1.5 that a lot of yourlisteners may have never heard
(10:25):
of is adult onset autoimmunedisease.
It's the same mechanism thathappens with type 1, but it
happens as an adult.
So it's an autoimmune diseasewhere the white blood cells
attack and destroy the pancreasand they cannot manufacture
their own insulin and they haveto take insulin for the rest of
(10:49):
their life.
Type 2 diabetes is the mostcommon kind.
That's the kind that's relatedto lifestyle and related to your
food choices, your exercisehabits, your stress.
Your exercise habits, yourstress, your ability to manage
your stress, I should say.
And that's the most common kindthat's probably about 97% of
(11:13):
all diagnosed cases of bloodsugar imbalances is type 2
diabetes.
And so it starts off as insulinresistance.
Where your body can make insulin, there's no problem making
insulin.
But the problem is taking theinsulin and shuttling it into
the cells to be to take theglucose out of the, out of the
bloodstream, into the cellswhere it can be made into energy
(11:36):
.
So the, the insulin presentsthe glucose to the cells.
The cells don't listen to theinsulin and so the, the glucose
starts to accumulate and buildand build, and build and build
in your bloodstream until youhave high blood sugar.
That's what we know as diabetes.
And then there's a fourth typeof diabetes that's not very well
(11:59):
known by most people.
It's in the medical literaturethat's called type 3 diabetes,
and another word for type 3diabetes is Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So there's a direct relationship between high
insulin levels, highinflammation in their brain and
cause further problems down theroad that, in addition to
(12:52):
protecting, to those lifestylechanges that you need to make to
regulate your sugar, you alsoneed to make not just lifestyle
changes but also maybesupplements that will support
brain health.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That's not a bad idea .
It's a very, very good idea tosupport your brain health as
much as you can.
First order of business alwaysprotect the brain, always
protect the heart, make surethat they're not at risk.
Well, type 2 diabetes comeswith a lot of risks Heart attack
, stroke that affects the brain,and early onset dementia,
(13:26):
blindness, kidney failure,peripheral neuropathy.
There's a lot that can go wrongwith that, and so I always
start off by looking at thelifestyle.
Is the person eating properly?
Are they just eating Pop-Tartsand Pepsi for breakfast?
Are they exercising on aregular basis?
(13:48):
Are they managing their stress?
Meditation, exercise, going fora walk, walking the dog it's a
phenomenal way to decrease yourblood sugar levels and to
stabilize them.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
And let's back up and talk a little bit about low
blood sugar.
What's happening in thosepeople back up and talk a little
bit about low blood sugar.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
What's happening in those people?
Well, I think that the way thatI use the phrase is called
reactive blood sugar metabolism.
So when your blood sugar is upand down, and up and down, and
up and down, and it's riding aroller coaster ride, that's an
indication that the foods thatyou're eating may not be proper
(14:30):
for you.
I'll give you an example.
Let's say, for example, thatyour blood glucose level should
be stabilized it should be evenacross the day but it goes up
and it goes down, and it goes upand it goes down.
Let's say, for example, itspikes and then it goes all the
way down, it goes below thebaseline and then it goes all
the way down.
It goes below the baseline andthen you have low blood sugar.
(14:51):
Those people feel shaky, theyfeel irritable, they feel
terrible.
So what do they do about it?
They eat, and usually they eatsomething very bad for them,
like a donut, or they eat acandy bar or something, and that
causes the blood sugar to go upand it goes above the baseline,
goes way high up, and then,when the energy is burned out,
(15:14):
comes back down again, goes tothe baseline, dips below the
baseline and then guess whathappens at that point.
Now the cycle starts all overagain, and so they eat again,
and they eat something verycarby.
One of the things that I wantto do with people is to teach
them how to eat properly so theycan stabilize their blood sugar
levels.
(15:35):
Not only is it going to helpwith the blood, stabilize the
blood sugar, it's going to alsohelp with cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone in yourbody that's produced by the
adrenal glands.
Cortisol is a hormone in yourbody that's produced by the
adrenal glands.
It regulates your fight orflight symptoms.
So you're going to either fleefrom dangerous stimuli or fight
(15:59):
it, and cortisol has an inverserelationship with insulin.
So when insulin is spiking andgoing up, insulin is going down.
When insulin is going down,cortisol is going up.
(16:20):
So when you're riding a rollercoaster ride with insulin,
you're also on a roller coasterride for cortisol, and that is
very dangerous.
It leads to brain fog and italso leads to belly fat
production, and so if you areout of control with your insulin
and cortisol, you're going tohave mood swings, you're going
to feel nervous, irritable,you're not going to be able to
(16:42):
go to sleep very easily.
You're going to.
It's just going to cause a lotof lifestyle problems.
It's also going to cause a lotof physical health issues and
that you probably don't want tohave in your body at all.
You want to try to maintaincortisol levels normally and you
(17:05):
want to maintain your insulinlevels.
That's, by the way, the secretto weight loss.
Want to maintain your insulinlevels.
That's, by the way, the secretto weight loss is to control
your insulin levels, yourcortisol levels.
Also, ghrelin and leptin aretwo other hormones that are very
much impacted by it impactsyour weight.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Before we cover the next topic in this episode, I
want to introduce you to theadventure sports lifestyle with
what I call a micro story aboutan adventure that I've had.
The adventure sports lifestyleand my deep connection to nature
is essential to my good health.
So here's the story.
Over the past few weeks ifyou've been watching the news in
America, there have been 100weird floods breaking out all
(17:47):
over the country.
Here's a good time to thinkabout preparedness preparing
yourself, your family, youranimals and anything that you
care about to survive, no matterwhat, whether it's a wildfire,
a flood, a hurricane, social,civil unrest.
(18:07):
There are a few things that youshould do and throughout the
next few podcasts, we're goingto talk about just a few of
those things, but we'll devotean entire podcast episode to
this subject.
You want to make sure that youhave at least 14 days of food,
fresh drinking water andnon-potable water or water
(18:28):
that's not drinkable but you canuse it, for example, to flush
your toilets.
One of the stakes that peoplemake is not planning for your
picky eaters during a disaster.
You would think.
In a disaster, your childrenand the other people you're
sheltering with won't care whatyou're serving, as long as they
have food because they're hungry.
(18:48):
But think again.
Picky eaters will still bepicky and not so.
Picky eaters won't want to eatthe same thing every day for two
weeks.
That's why I've partnered withReady Hour as an affiliate, so
that you can have access tohealthy food choices made in
America with a large variety anda 25-year shelf life.
(19:13):
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For a short time only ReadyHour is having a special.
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You buy one 30-day supply offood and get a 30-day supply
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Use the affiliate code link inthe show description and be
(19:36):
prepared for whatever comes yourway.
Now back to Dr Kevin Smith.
Chronic pain and gut healthchallenges are a big part of a
veteran's life veterans like me.
Can you tell us a little bitabout what's happening in
individuals who have chronicpain, whether it's from
degenerative arthritis, whichmany of us who served in the
(19:59):
military experience it in our20s and 30s and it only gets
worse as we age and then alsothe gut health issue?
As a military person, you don'teat great.
Sometimes you miss a lot ofmeals and then the MREs with a
five-year shelf life.
(20:19):
Who even knows what's in thatright?
So talk to us a little bitabout how to kind of come back
from the brink.
We had lifestyle conditionsimposed on us lack of water, you
know.
A lot of times you had onlyGatorade and no water, believe
it or not available, readilyavailable, the MREs.
(20:42):
The other foods that were nothigh in nutritional value, the
other foods that were not highin nutritional value.
How does someone come back fromthose imposed lifestyle
constraints?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for your
service to this country.
I appreciate it.
In addition to being afunctional medicine practitioner
, I'm also a chiropractor, so Iknow a thing or two about joint
pain From my experience.
The joint problems, or justproblems in general, can a lot
of those can be based by?
(21:15):
Go back to the basics, go backto lifestyle type things.
Are you moving or are you asedentary person?
The body was designed to moveand so, if you're going for
walks, if you're lifting weights, if you're doing stretches,
those are things that areessential for general wellness
(21:38):
for the joints and for themuscles and all the soft tissues
that surround them.
Are you getting plenty of sleep?
Are you sleeping six to eighthours a day?
And the body was designed to beable to get plenty of restful,
replenishing sleep.
That is absolutely essentialfor musculoskeletal problems to
(22:01):
be able to heal.
Are you paying attention toyour ergonomics?
Your ergonomics has to do withhow your environment is
coexisting with your body.
So, for example, are you makingsure that your chair is set up
properly?
Are you making sure that yourworkstation is set up properly?
(22:23):
Are you making sure that yourchair in your car is adjusted to
your height and your body?
Are you making sure that you'reflipping and rotating your
mattress and your bedding?
Every 90 days and every coupleof years you have to get a new
mattress because they start tobreak down and when that happens
(22:44):
you're doing your body a hugedisservice by not investing in
yourself.
Is your shoes, is your footwear, the right kind for your body?
I had a guy that was in hisearly 30s and he had plantar
fasciitis, or inflammation inthe bottom of the foot, and it
(23:04):
was because he was using cheap,crappy shoes that he would buy
at Walmart because he was, hewas cheap and he didn't want to
go and to buy decent, uh uhsneakers like, like other people
.
But, um, those are things.
And and of course you know notto toot my own horn, but a
chiropractic adjustment everyonce in a while feels great, so
(23:25):
it keeps the bones moving.
Every once in a while feelsgreat, so it keeps the bones
moving, it keeps the posturewhere it should be, and so those
things are really, really thecenter of all this Gut health.
You have to pay attention towhat you're eating.
I know that sometimes you don'thave a choice.
In your case, you know, relyingon MREs not the most
(23:47):
nutritional thing in the world,but you know your gut health is
an enormous topic.
When I was writing my secondbook, my chapter on gut health
was 100 pages long, and so onepage equals about four pages in
(24:11):
a regular book.
Um, I had I had to prune thetree.
I had to whittle that down to10 pages so to fit the fit.
The rest of the book, um, thoseare things like um absorption
how's your inflammation in yourgut?
Water retention, bowel transittimes, occult blood how's your
(24:34):
microbiome, that's the ecologyof bacteria that lives in the
gut, and all those things can bemeasured and they can be tested
and that has a massive impacton your immune system, on your
neurotransmitters, on your mood,everything.
So the medical literature saysthat the gut is the body's
(25:02):
second brain.
Nervousness or ADD symptoms orsome other type of a problem
with memory or cognition.
I always look at the gut firstto see what I could do to help
the brain.
So that's the pathway toimproving the function.
A lot is by improving guthealth.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If you've missed our episode on gut health, be sure
to catch that.
When we come back, we're goingto talk with Dr Smith about how
functional medicinepractitioners help their
patients.
World events are constantlyteaching everyone some very
painful lessons.
Without warning, everything wetake for granted can suddenly
fail, and if you're not preparedin advance, you really don't
(25:48):
have a chance.
The fact is, the modern worldruns on a just-in-time supply
schedule.
Even the biggest grocery storescan carry only enough food for
a few days' worth of normalshopping.
So when disaster strikes andchaos ensues at your local
stores, the odds are simplyagainst you.
If you don't have emergencyfood and gear stockpiled in
(26:09):
advance, you will probablysuffer.
My partner, ready Hour, is hereto help you ahead of time.
Ready Hour has a long historyof providing calorie-rich,
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They're part of a family ofcompanies that have served
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(26:31):
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They're not just reliable,they're also your affordable
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Long-term survival foodshouldn't break the bank.
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It's your bridge to safety andsurvival when things just aren't
(26:52):
normal anymore.
So make your next decision,your smartest decision.
Be ready for tomorrow, today,trust Ready Hour, ready to shop.
Use my affiliate link in theshow description.
Right, we're back.
Dr Smith, when you're workingwitha brand new patient, how
does that work?
What's it like coming fromsomeone's?
(27:15):
What's it like having someonecome from, gone through
allopathic or conventionalmedicine, they're at their wits
end and now they've come to seeyou, frustrated and probably a
little bit scared.
What next?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Okay.
So the first thing that has tohappen is I have to gather some
information about you and aboutthe different problems that
you're having.
So the first thing I'm going todo is that we're going to take
a look at your medical history.
We're going to look at all thethings that you've tried, all
the different traumas thatyou've experienced, your drug
(27:49):
list, all the different problemsthat you've been previously
diagnosed with, and then fromthere we're going to progress
into a consultation where we'regoing to have a conversation and
I'm going to look at, I'm goingto say what are your goals?
What would you like to try toachieve?
There's no one size fits allsolution to that.
(28:10):
So everybody's an individual.
Everybody brings with them aunique perspective and certain
challenges.
So I would say what would ittake to make you happy?
From there, we would look atgetting some foundational lab
tests.
So my foundational lab testscome in the form of blood and
(28:33):
urine tests.
So the difference between whatI do versus what, say, a primary
care physician will do is theprimary care physician will
order this much tests to arriveat a diagnosis in order to
justify prescribing a drug.
In other words, he's going todo exactly whatever the
(28:54):
insurance company dictates tohim that they will pay for and
nothing else to them that theywill pay for and nothing else.
So by the time you even walk inthe primary care physician's
office, your treatment plan hasalready been predetermined for
you by an actuary that sits in acubicle in New York City or
(29:14):
Chicago that has never met, you,has never looked at your
history, has never looked atyour done a consultation, done
an exam, looked at your labtests, but they know exactly
what you need.
So that goes back to one of theearlier questions you have why
(29:35):
are so many people sick in thiscountry?
It's because they're notordering enough tests, the the
because the insurance companiesare in the driver's seat when it
comes to health care decisions.
So when I order my tests, Iorder a huge amount of tests
because I want to see the entiremetabolic landscape.
(29:56):
I went, for example, I'm goingto order a comprehensive
metabolic panel that's going tocover your kidney and liver
health.
I'm going to order yourvascular lipid panel to see
things like triglycerides,cholesterols, ldls, vldls all
(30:17):
these different types of bloodlipid panels.
I'm going to look at your ironcycle to see if you could
potentially have an anemia.
We're going to order a cbc witha differential.
That means a complete bloodcount we're going to be able to
see check for red blood cells,platelets, white blood cells and
(30:38):
then the different types ofspecialized white blood cells
like eosinophils and neutrophilsand basophils and things like
that.
We're going to order not justone but nine different thyroid
tests.
Nine different thyroid tests iswhat's required to see the
entire thyroid landscape and seewhat's going on and see where
(31:02):
there could be some breakdowns.
So, for example, if a personhas low energy, where is that
happening?
Is it happening because you'renot making enough T3?
Is it happening because youhave problems in the liver and
the gut?
You're having problemstransporting thyroid hormone to
different parts of the body?
Maybe you're having a problemwith inflammation that's causing
(31:24):
cytokines to form on thereceptor sites.
So by ordering a lot of tests,I can figure out what's going on
.
Where they can't, they justdon't have enough information to
properly evaluate what's goingon.
They just don't have enoughinformation to properly evaluate
what's going on.
(31:47):
Then I'm going to look at thedata in a couple different ways.
When you get test results fromQuest or from LabCorp, they have
what's called a referenceinterval and the reference
interval has a low number onthis side and they have a high
number on this side, and if yourscore is between those two
points, you're okay.
I do something a little bitdifferent.
I look at that and I look atthe functional normal.
(32:10):
The functional normal is basedon healthy patients.
The reference normal or the labnormal is based on sick
patients.
So let me ask you a questionwho would you rather be compared
to?
Healthy people or sick people?
Definitely healthy people,absolutely so.
The functional normal is basedon the healthy patient
(32:32):
population.
That's a very narrow bandwidth.
It's a very tight,non-forgiving way of looking at
this.
And so we look at this as thefunctional normal, the lab
normal and lab abnormal, andthen we color code the report.
And so if you're functionalnormal, we color code that as
green.
That means you're doing great.
(32:54):
If you color code that asyellow, that means you're
outside the functional range butyou're still within the lab
range.
And yellow if you look at astoplight.
A yellow means slow down, it'sgoing to turn red soon.
You need to proceed withcaution.
So when a person is in theyellow zone, that means that
(33:15):
they're already moving in thewrong direction.
Medical doctors never look atthe functional rate.
They only look at the labnormal, and if they're outside
the middle section but they'restill within the lab normal,
they're moving in the wrongdirection.
They're going to say, oh,you're okay, let's just go.
(33:36):
So I am able to diagnose andfigure out what's going on long
before they can, because theirrange is so big and so forgiving
.
And then, obviously, if they'reoutside of the functional of
the lab range, that means thatthey're in full blown pathology
and they need some help rightaway.
(33:57):
So the first thing is to lookat the parts that are outside
the lab range.
The second part is look at theparts that are outside the
functional range but they'restill within the lab range and
move in that direction.
So by ordering enough tests andapplying the right metrics to
(34:17):
the tests, I'm able to figureout what's going on with the
person and hopefully put an endto the problem.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I can tell you that I've never had a screening exam
that has been that comprehensivein my life.
How can new patients work withyou?
Are you taking new patients and, if so, how do they?
They contact you and do theyneed to live in the pits pencil
pittsburgh area?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
so, first of all, they don't have to live within
the pittsburgh area, because Iam able to speak with these guys
and uh talk to them uh throughzoom, or I can talk to them
through Zoom, or I can talk topeople from other states.
We can work with people fromTexas or California or Florida,
(35:09):
outside of Pennsylvania.
That's no problem at all.
As long as we can get on thephone or talk on the Zoom
connection, we can work togetherand we can get you some help.
The way to do this is by givingme a call at area code
412-595-7332.
And when we talk, we're goingto schedule a discovery call.
(35:31):
The discovery calls when it'sjust a simple five to 10 minute
phone call conversation whereI'm going to talk to you about
what do you want to achieve,what do you want to, what are
your goals, what is going onwith your body, and then from
there we'll decide what we needto do about it, what's in your
best interests.
But the way to start is bygiving me a call and then
(35:54):
scheduling a discovery call.
So just give me a call at areacode 412-595-7332.
And then we will progress fromthere.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Look, you know that I always give you the truth.
Listeners.
I never mess with you becauseyou're my friends.
This is a doctor that I wouldtrust to help me not only
identify my health challenges,but help me fix it so that I can
live a longer and healthierlife.
So give him a call.
You'll find all the informationin the show description.
(36:28):
Since 2012, the Health Rangerstore has been answering your
calls for a trustworthy,responsive and affordable source
of health-focused products,Built from scratch, with its own
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(36:48):
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Thank you.
New Normal Big Life overcome chronic health
challenges.
Dr Smith reveals why accuratediagnoses are hard to come by,
how to uncover root causes foryour biggest health challenges
and game-changing functionalmedicine solutions.
Let's dive in to talk aboutconventional versus functional
medicine, the immune system andso much more to empower you to
(00:40):
be a wiser healthcare consumer.
Hi friends, welcome to the NewNormal Big Life Podcast.
We bring you natural news andstories about nature that we
hope will inspire you to getoutside and adventure, along
with a step-by-step plan to helpyou practice what you've
learned and create your own newnormal and live the biggest life
you can dream.
I'm your host, antoinette Lee,the Wellness Warrior.
(01:01):
Hi, dr Smith, welcome to theshow.
Thank you for having me, I'mglad.
Host Antoinette Lee, theWellness Warrior.
Hi, dr Smith.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I'm glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
So I'd like to start off with a really important
question why are so manyAmericans, from youth to young
adults to seniors, feeling sosick and tired?
All over the internet,everyone's talking about how
sick they feel, and we'restarting to see younger and
younger people, for example, intheir 20s and 30s, with diseases
(01:30):
that we used to think of assomething that happens to you
when you're in middle age orseniors.
What's going?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
on?
That's a great question.
So first of all, I want to saythat there are two broad
categories of health care inthis country.
There is allopathic healthcareand there's functional medicine,
and allopathic healthcare iswhat people get when they go
visit a medical doctor.
(01:54):
The purpose of allopathichealthcare is to treat symptoms
with a drug, and so if you havehigh blood pressure, for example
, they're going to give you amedication that's going to help
you with your blood pressure.
If you have thyroid low thyroidthey're going to give you
(02:15):
medication that's going to helpyou with your thyroid issues.
That's allopathic medicine andthat's the predominant type of
healthcare that we have in theUnited States today.
The other type of healthcare iscalled functional medicine, and
that's what I do.
I'm a functional medicinepractitioner.
(02:35):
Functional medicine is differentfrom allopathic medicine in the
way that we ask questions.
One of the most predominantquestions that we ask is why?
Why does the person have thisproblem?
Medical doctors don't ask thatquestion.
They don't care.
If you have a high bloodpressure, you walk into the
(02:58):
guy's office and you're put in acertain diagnostic box and
there are certain drugs that areprescribed based on that
diagnostic box.
That's called the standard ofmedical care.
Sometimes that works, sometimesit doesn't work.
The functional medicine doctorsays why do you have high blood
(03:18):
pressure?
Why do you have thyroidproblems?
And so they take a more holisticapproach to look at the
complicated interworkings of thebodies.
For example, if your gut issick, if you're not making
enough serotonin or dopamine inthe gut, you're going to have
brain problems and then you'regoing to have thyroid problems
(03:40):
and then you're going to haveenergy problems.
So when you trace it back, itcould be a problem stemming from
the gut.
So the the two primary types ofhealth care in this country is
allopathic medicine andfunctional medicine, with
allopathic medicine being themost common kind, and that has
(04:01):
failed a lot of people and a lotof people are experiencing
diseases and symptoms andthey're not getting any results.
They're not getting anymeaningful dialogue with their
doctor, because the only thingthat they know what to do with
is chase their symptoms.
Functional medicine is we don'ttreat symptoms, we treat the
(04:21):
patient.
So it's a personalized,patient-centered approach to
healing.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
When we think of allopathic medicine, that's what
most people hear of asconventional medicine Diagnosis
you get a prescription, maybeanother therapeutic remedy, like
massage therapy for example,and then, if that doesn't work,
surgery.
In this endless cycle, how isit that a person could have what
(04:55):
you might think of as a complexautoimmune situation, meaning
it doesn't quite identify as anyone specific type of autoimmune
disease?
How can that person go fromtheir allopathic or conventional
medicine practitioner tosomeone like you with this
(05:18):
complex series of symptoms andget a diagnosis and treatment?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
of symptoms and get a diagnosis and treatment.
So, first of all, I'm veryrarely the first person that
people go to when they havethese problems.
Usually they've already gone totheir primary care physician,
they've gone to a couple ofspecialists, they've gone to a
couple surgeons, they've gone toa physical therapist, maybe a
chiropractor, an acupuncturist,and I'm way down the line.
And so when they come to see me, one of the first things I do
(05:50):
is I gather their medicalhistory, I gather their
information, and the secondthing I do is I have them fill
out these very long, complexquestionnaires that asks them
questions about the nature oftheir problem, how long they've
had it, what have they done forit.
So that I'm not like retracingsomebody else's steps, I'm going
(06:12):
to move in other directionsthat other people haven't done.
Now, when you have anautoimmune condition, as a rule
of thumb, anytime that somebodycomes in my office with this
weird, mysterious medicalproblem that nobody can figure
out what's wrong with them,nobody can diagnose what's wrong
with them.
(06:32):
90% of the time it's autoimmune, and so that's one of the
things that I spend a lot oftime working on Autoimmune.
For those people that don'tunderstand what that is, the
immune system is your body'sdefense system, so it protects
you from viruses or bacteria ora parasite, and it's your white
(06:58):
blood cells that circulatesthroughout your body to get rid
of any kind of invading bacteriaor invading viruses.
It keeps you feeling good.
Sometimes the immune systemstarts to turn on your body and
so it starts to attack your ownbody tissues, and so that's what
(07:22):
autoimmune means.
Auto means self and immune isrelated to the immune system.
So one of the areas that'sattacked very frequently is the
thyroid gland, and when thathappens that's a them have
Hashimoto's they have some kindof an underlying autoimmune
(07:47):
component.
It can affect the brain.
So in the brain, if you have anautoimmune attack in the brain,
that's called multiplesclerosis.
If you have an attack on thecolon, that's called Crohn's
disease.
If you have an autoimmuneattack on the joints in your
hands or your spine, that'scalled rheumatoid arthritis, and
(08:10):
psoriasis is a variant of that.
That's when it starts to attackthe skin.
So there's about a hundreddifferent autoimmune diseases
that have been identified bymedicine, and they're all based
on what part of the body isbeing attacked.
Is it the lung fields, is itthe liver, is it the bladder?
(08:30):
All kinds of different areascan have trouble and it's
because of the immune systemattacking your body.
You don't really appreciate theimmune system and how powerful
it is until it starts turning onyour own body.
That's a wake up call.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Is there a similar component in folks with blood
sugar that's difficult toregulate, whether it's too low
most of the time or too highmost of the time, or if it's
component that something withinthe body is experiencing
(09:08):
dis-ease and then it causes yourblood sugar to be dysregulated?
How?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
does that work?
So when it comes to blood sugarimbalances, that's called
diabetes, and there's actuallyfour types of diabetes that have
been identified by medicalresearchers.
Type 1 diabetes is where youhave an autoimmune attack that
affects the pancreas.
(09:37):
It affects the beta cells ofthe pancreas and the immune
system.
The white blood cells attackand destroy the beta cells and
the person can no longer maketheir own insulin.
That's a hormone produced bythe pancreas.
So whenever you eatcarbohydrates, proteins or fats,
that food is broken down intoglycogen and it goes throughout
(10:01):
the body in simple glucose.
And it goes throughout the body, simple glucose, and those
glucose molecules are shuttledinto the cells where it's burned
as energy.
And if you don't have enough ofthe hormone insulin, it cannot
get into your cells.
And that happens as a child.
That's type 1.
Type 1.5 that a lot of yourlisteners may have never heard
(10:25):
of is adult onset autoimmunedisease.
It's the same mechanism thathappens with type 1, but it
happens as an adult.
So it's an autoimmune diseasewhere the white blood cells
attack and destroy the pancreasand they cannot manufacture
their own insulin and they haveto take insulin for the rest of
(10:49):
their life.
Type 2 diabetes is the mostcommon kind.
That's the kind that's relatedto lifestyle and related to your
food choices, your exercisehabits, your stress.
Your exercise habits, yourstress, your ability to manage
your stress, I should say.
And that's the most common kindthat's probably about 97% of
(11:13):
all diagnosed cases of bloodsugar imbalances is type 2
diabetes.
And so it starts off as insulinresistance.
Where your body can make insulin, there's no problem making
insulin.
But the problem is taking theinsulin and shuttling it into
the cells to be to take theglucose out of the, out of the
bloodstream, into the cellswhere it can be made into energy
(11:36):
.
So the, the insulin presentsthe glucose to the cells.
The cells don't listen to theinsulin and so the, the glucose
starts to accumulate and buildand build, and build and build
in your bloodstream until youhave high blood sugar.
That's what we know as diabetes.
And then there's a fourth typeof diabetes that's not very well
(11:59):
known by most people.
It's in the medical literaturethat's called type 3 diabetes,
and another word for type 3diabetes is Alzheimer's disease.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So there's a direct relationship between high
insulin levels, highinflammation in their brain and
cause further problems down theroad that, in addition to
(12:52):
protecting, to those lifestylechanges that you need to make to
regulate your sugar, you alsoneed to make not just lifestyle
changes but also maybesupplements that will support
brain health.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
That's not a bad idea .
It's a very, very good idea tosupport your brain health as
much as you can.
First order of business alwaysprotect the brain, always
protect the heart, make surethat they're not at risk.
Well, type 2 diabetes comeswith a lot of risks Heart attack
, stroke that affects the brain,and early onset dementia,
(13:26):
blindness, kidney failure,peripheral neuropathy.
There's a lot that can go wrongwith that, and so I always
start off by looking at thelifestyle.
Is the person eating properly?
Are they just eating Pop-Tartsand Pepsi for breakfast?
Are they exercising on aregular basis?
(13:48):
Are they managing their stress?
Meditation, exercise, going fora walk, walking the dog it's a
phenomenal way to decrease yourblood sugar levels and to
stabilize them.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
And let's back up and talk a little bit about low
blood sugar.
What's happening in thosepeople back up and talk a little
bit about low blood sugar.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
What's happening in those people?
Well, I think that the way thatI use the phrase is called
reactive blood sugar metabolism.
So when your blood sugar is upand down, and up and down, and
up and down, and it's riding aroller coaster ride, that's an
indication that the foods thatyou're eating may not be proper
(14:30):
for you.
I'll give you an example.
Let's say, for example, thatyour blood glucose level should
be stabilized it should be evenacross the day but it goes up
and it goes down, and it goes upand it goes down.
Let's say, for example, itspikes and then it goes all the
way down, it goes below thebaseline and then it goes all
the way down.
It goes below the baseline andthen you have low blood sugar.
(14:51):
Those people feel shaky, theyfeel irritable, they feel
terrible.
So what do they do about it?
They eat, and usually they eatsomething very bad for them,
like a donut, or they eat acandy bar or something, and that
causes the blood sugar to go upand it goes above the baseline,
goes way high up, and then,when the energy is burned out,
(15:14):
comes back down again, goes tothe baseline, dips below the
baseline and then guess whathappens at that point.
Now the cycle starts all overagain, and so they eat again,
and they eat something verycarby.
One of the things that I wantto do with people is to teach
them how to eat properly so theycan stabilize their blood sugar
levels.
(15:35):
Not only is it going to helpwith the blood, stabilize the
blood sugar, it's going to alsohelp with cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone in yourbody that's produced by the
adrenal glands.
Cortisol is a hormone in yourbody that's produced by the
adrenal glands.
It regulates your fight orflight symptoms.
So you're going to either fleefrom dangerous stimuli or fight
(15:59):
it, and cortisol has an inverserelationship with insulin.
So when insulin is spiking andgoing up, insulin is going down.
When insulin is going down,cortisol is going up.
(16:20):
So when you're riding a rollercoaster ride with insulin,
you're also on a roller coasterride for cortisol, and that is
very dangerous.
It leads to brain fog and italso leads to belly fat
production, and so if you areout of control with your insulin
and cortisol, you're going tohave mood swings, you're going
to feel nervous, irritable,you're not going to be able to
(16:42):
go to sleep very easily.
You're going to.
It's just going to cause a lotof lifestyle problems.
It's also going to cause a lotof physical health issues and
that you probably don't want tohave in your body at all.
You want to try to maintaincortisol levels normally and you
(17:05):
want to maintain your insulinlevels.
That's, by the way, the secretto weight loss.
Want to maintain your insulinlevels.
That's, by the way, the secretto weight loss is to control
your insulin levels, yourcortisol levels.
Also, ghrelin and leptin aretwo other hormones that are very
much impacted by it impactsyour weight.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Before we cover the next topic in this episode, I
want to introduce you to theadventure sports lifestyle with
what I call a micro story aboutan adventure that I've had.
The adventure sports lifestyleand my deep connection to nature
is essential to my good health.
So here's the story.
Over the past few weeks ifyou've been watching the news in
America, there have been 100weird floods breaking out all
(17:47):
over the country.
Here's a good time to thinkabout preparedness preparing
yourself, your family, youranimals and anything that you
care about to survive, no matterwhat, whether it's a wildfire,
a flood, a hurricane, social,civil unrest.
(18:07):
There are a few things that youshould do and throughout the
next few podcasts, we're goingto talk about just a few of
those things, but we'll devotean entire podcast episode to
this subject.
You want to make sure that youhave at least 14 days of food,
fresh drinking water andnon-potable water or water
(18:28):
that's not drinkable but you canuse it, for example, to flush
your toilets.
One of the stakes that peoplemake is not planning for your
picky eaters during a disaster.
You would think.
In a disaster, your childrenand the other people you're
sheltering with won't care whatyou're serving, as long as they
have food because they're hungry.
(18:48):
But think again.
Picky eaters will still bepicky and not so.
Picky eaters won't want to eatthe same thing every day for two
weeks.
That's why I've partnered withReady Hour as an affiliate, so
that you can have access tohealthy food choices made in
America with a large variety anda 25-year shelf life.
(19:13):
If you can't afford to purchaselong-term storable food
outright, you can purchase itover time with Ready Hour.
For a short time only ReadyHour is having a special.
For a short time only ReadyHour is having a special.
You buy one 30-day supply offood and get a 30-day supply
free.
Use the affiliate code link inthe show description and be
(19:36):
prepared for whatever comes yourway.
Now back to Dr Kevin Smith.
Chronic pain and gut healthchallenges are a big part of a
veteran's life veterans like me.
Can you tell us a little bitabout what's happening in
individuals who have chronicpain, whether it's from
degenerative arthritis, whichmany of us who served in the
(19:59):
military experience it in our20s and 30s and it only gets
worse as we age and then alsothe gut health issue?
As a military person, you don'teat great.
Sometimes you miss a lot ofmeals and then the MREs with a
five-year shelf life.
(20:19):
Who even knows what's in thatright?
So talk to us a little bitabout how to kind of come back
from the brink.
We had lifestyle conditionsimposed on us lack of water, you
know.
A lot of times you had onlyGatorade and no water, believe
it or not available, readilyavailable, the MREs.
(20:42):
The other foods that were nothigh in nutritional value, the
other foods that were not highin nutritional value.
How does someone come back fromthose imposed lifestyle
constraints?
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for your
service to this country.
I appreciate it.
In addition to being afunctional medicine practitioner
, I'm also a chiropractor, so Iknow a thing or two about joint
pain From my experience.
The joint problems, or justproblems in general, can a lot
of those can be based by?
(21:15):
Go back to the basics, go backto lifestyle type things.
Are you moving or are you asedentary person?
The body was designed to moveand so, if you're going for
walks, if you're lifting weights, if you're doing stretches,
those are things that areessential for general wellness
(21:38):
for the joints and for themuscles and all the soft tissues
that surround them.
Are you getting plenty of sleep?
Are you sleeping six to eighthours a day?
And the body was designed to beable to get plenty of restful,
replenishing sleep.
That is absolutely essentialfor musculoskeletal problems to
(22:01):
be able to heal.
Are you paying attention toyour ergonomics?
Your ergonomics has to do withhow your environment is
coexisting with your body.
So, for example, are you makingsure that your chair is set up
properly?
Are you making sure that yourworkstation is set up properly?
(22:23):
Are you making sure that yourchair in your car is adjusted to
your height and your body?
Are you making sure that you'reflipping and rotating your
mattress and your bedding?
Every 90 days and every coupleof years you have to get a new
mattress because they start tobreak down and when that happens
(22:44):
you're doing your body a hugedisservice by not investing in
yourself.
Is your shoes, is your footwear, the right kind for your body?
I had a guy that was in hisearly 30s and he had plantar
fasciitis, or inflammation inthe bottom of the foot, and it
(23:04):
was because he was using cheap,crappy shoes that he would buy
at Walmart because he was, hewas cheap and he didn't want to
go and to buy decent, uh uhsneakers like, like other people
.
But, um, those are things.
And and of course you know notto toot my own horn, but a
chiropractic adjustment everyonce in a while feels great, so
(23:25):
it keeps the bones moving.
Every once in a while feelsgreat, so it keeps the bones
moving, it keeps the posturewhere it should be, and so those
things are really, really thecenter of all this Gut health.
You have to pay attention towhat you're eating.
I know that sometimes you don'thave a choice.
In your case, you know, relyingon MREs not the most
(23:47):
nutritional thing in the world,but you know your gut health is
an enormous topic.
When I was writing my secondbook, my chapter on gut health
was 100 pages long, and so onepage equals about four pages in
(24:11):
a regular book.
Um, I had I had to prune thetree.
I had to whittle that down to10 pages so to fit the fit.
The rest of the book, um, thoseare things like um absorption
how's your inflammation in yourgut?
Water retention, bowel transittimes, occult blood how's your
(24:34):
microbiome, that's the ecologyof bacteria that lives in the
gut, and all those things can bemeasured and they can be tested
and that has a massive impacton your immune system, on your
neurotransmitters, on your mood,everything.
So the medical literature saysthat the gut is the body's
(25:02):
second brain.
Nervousness or ADD symptoms orsome other type of a problem
with memory or cognition.
I always look at the gut firstto see what I could do to help
the brain.
So that's the pathway toimproving the function.
A lot is by improving guthealth.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
If you've missed our episode on gut health, be sure
to catch that.
When we come back, we're goingto talk with Dr Smith about how
functional medicinepractitioners help their
patients.
World events are constantlyteaching everyone some very
painful lessons.
Without warning, everything wetake for granted can suddenly
fail, and if you're not preparedin advance, you really don't
(25:48):
have a chance.
The fact is, the modern worldruns on a just-in-time supply
schedule.
Even the biggest grocery storescan carry only enough food for
a few days' worth of normalshopping.
So when disaster strikes andchaos ensues at your local
stores, the odds are simplyagainst you.
If you don't have emergencyfood and gear stockpiled in
(26:09):
advance, you will probablysuffer.
My partner, ready Hour, is hereto help you ahead of time.
Ready Hour has a long historyof providing calorie-rich,
reliable and deliciousnourishment for life's
unexpected situations andcritical emergency gear too.
They're part of a family ofcompanies that have served
millions of people like you fordecades.
(26:31):
My family and I use Ready Hourproducts for camping,
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That's why they have greatsales and payment options for
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(26:52):
normal anymore.
So make your next decision,your smartest decision.
Be ready for tomorrow, today,trust Ready Hour, ready to shop.
Use my affiliate link in theshow description.
Right, we're back.
Dr Smith, when you're workingwitha brand new patient, how
does that work?
What's it like coming fromsomeone's?
(27:15):
What's it like having someonecome from, gone through
allopathic or conventionalmedicine, they're at their wits
end and now they've come to seeyou, frustrated and probably a
little bit scared.
What next?
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Okay.
So the first thing that has tohappen is I have to gather some
information about you and aboutthe different problems that
you're having.
So the first thing I'm going todo is that we're going to take
a look at your medical history.
We're going to look at all thethings that you've tried, all
the different traumas thatyou've experienced, your drug
(27:49):
list, all the different problemsthat you've been previously
diagnosed with, and then fromthere we're going to progress
into a consultation where we'regoing to have a conversation and
I'm going to look at, I'm goingto say what are your goals?
What would you like to try toachieve?
There's no one size fits allsolution to that.
(28:10):
So everybody's an individual.
Everybody brings with them aunique perspective and certain
challenges.
So I would say what would ittake to make you happy?
From there, we would look atgetting some foundational lab
tests.
So my foundational lab testscome in the form of blood and
(28:33):
urine tests.
So the difference between whatI do versus what, say, a primary
care physician will do is theprimary care physician will
order this much tests to arriveat a diagnosis in order to
justify prescribing a drug.
In other words, he's going todo exactly whatever the
(28:54):
insurance company dictates tohim that they will pay for and
nothing else to them that theywill pay for and nothing else.
So by the time you even walk inthe primary care physician's
office, your treatment plan hasalready been predetermined for
you by an actuary that sits in acubicle in New York City or
(29:14):
Chicago that has never met, you,has never looked at your
history, has never looked atyour done a consultation, done
an exam, looked at your labtests, but they know exactly
what you need.
So that goes back to one of theearlier questions you have why
(29:35):
are so many people sick in thiscountry?
It's because they're notordering enough tests, the the
because the insurance companiesare in the driver's seat when it
comes to health care decisions.
So when I order my tests, Iorder a huge amount of tests
because I want to see the entiremetabolic landscape.
(29:56):
I went, for example, I'm goingto order a comprehensive
metabolic panel that's going tocover your kidney and liver
health.
I'm going to order yourvascular lipid panel to see
things like triglycerides,cholesterols, ldls, vldls all
(30:17):
these different types of bloodlipid panels.
I'm going to look at your ironcycle to see if you could
potentially have an anemia.
We're going to order a cbc witha differential.
That means a complete bloodcount we're going to be able to
see check for red blood cells,platelets, white blood cells and
(30:38):
then the different types ofspecialized white blood cells
like eosinophils and neutrophilsand basophils and things like
that.
We're going to order not justone but nine different thyroid
tests.
Nine different thyroid tests iswhat's required to see the
entire thyroid landscape and seewhat's going on and see where
(31:02):
there could be some breakdowns.
So, for example, if a personhas low energy, where is that
happening?
Is it happening because you'renot making enough T3?
Is it happening because youhave problems in the liver and
the gut?
You're having problemstransporting thyroid hormone to
different parts of the body?
Maybe you're having a problemwith inflammation that's causing
(31:24):
cytokines to form on thereceptor sites.
So by ordering a lot of tests,I can figure out what's going on
.
Where they can't, they justdon't have enough information to
properly evaluate what's goingon.
They just don't have enoughinformation to properly evaluate
what's going on.
(31:47):
Then I'm going to look at thedata in a couple different ways.
When you get test results fromQuest or from LabCorp, they have
what's called a referenceinterval and the reference
interval has a low number onthis side and they have a high
number on this side, and if yourscore is between those two
points, you're okay.
I do something a little bitdifferent.
I look at that and I look atthe functional normal.
(32:10):
The functional normal is basedon healthy patients.
The reference normal or the labnormal is based on sick
patients.
So let me ask you a questionwho would you rather be compared
to?
Healthy people or sick people?
Definitely healthy people,absolutely so.
The functional normal is basedon the healthy patient
(32:32):
population.
That's a very narrow bandwidth.
It's a very tight,non-forgiving way of looking at
this.
And so we look at this as thefunctional normal, the lab
normal and lab abnormal, andthen we color code the report.
And so if you're functionalnormal, we color code that as
green.
That means you're doing great.
(32:54):
If you color code that asyellow, that means you're
outside the functional range butyou're still within the lab
range.
And yellow if you look at astoplight.
A yellow means slow down, it'sgoing to turn red soon.
You need to proceed withcaution.
So when a person is in theyellow zone, that means that
(33:15):
they're already moving in thewrong direction.
Medical doctors never look atthe functional rate.
They only look at the labnormal, and if they're outside
the middle section but they'restill within the lab normal,
they're moving in the wrongdirection.
They're going to say, oh,you're okay, let's just go.
(33:36):
So I am able to diagnose andfigure out what's going on long
before they can, because theirrange is so big and so forgiving
.
And then, obviously, if they'reoutside of the functional of
the lab range, that means thatthey're in full blown pathology
and they need some help rightaway.
(33:57):
So the first thing is to lookat the parts that are outside
the lab range.
The second part is look at theparts that are outside the
functional range but they'restill within the lab range and
move in that direction.
So by ordering enough tests andapplying the right metrics to
(34:17):
the tests, I'm able to figureout what's going on with the
person and hopefully put an endto the problem.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
I can tell you that I've never had a screening exam
that has been that comprehensivein my life.
How can new patients work withyou?
Are you taking new patients and, if so, how do they?
They contact you and do theyneed to live in the pits pencil
pittsburgh area?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
so, first of all, they don't have to live within
the pittsburgh area, because Iam able to speak with these guys
and uh talk to them uh throughzoom, or I can talk to them
through Zoom, or I can talk topeople from other states.
We can work with people fromTexas or California or Florida,
(35:09):
outside of Pennsylvania.
That's no problem at all.
As long as we can get on thephone or talk on the Zoom
connection, we can work togetherand we can get you some help.
The way to do this is by givingme a call at area code
412-595-7332.
And when we talk, we're goingto schedule a discovery call.
(35:31):
The discovery calls when it'sjust a simple five to 10 minute
phone call conversation whereI'm going to talk to you about
what do you want to achieve,what do you want to, what are
your goals, what is going onwith your body, and then from
there we'll decide what we needto do about it, what's in your
best interests.
But the way to start is bygiving me a call and then
(35:54):
scheduling a discovery call.
So just give me a call at areacode 412-595-7332.
And then we will progress fromthere.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Look, you know that I always give you the truth.
Listeners.
I never mess with you becauseyou're my friends.
This is a doctor that I wouldtrust to help me not only
identify my health challenges,but help me fix it so that I can
live a longer and healthierlife.
So give him a call.
You'll find all the informationin the show description.
(36:28):
Since 2012, the Health Rangerstore has been answering your
calls for a trustworthy,responsive and affordable source
of health-focused products,Built from scratch, with its own
US-based fulfillment center anddedicated in-house customer
support.
They've got you covered, Fromnutritional supplements and
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Thanks.
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(36:48):
Use my affiliate link to getstarted.
Thank you.
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