#275 - What labs for micronutrient levels tell you about your health | Dr. Joel Fuhrman & Mike Haney

We can think of our energy capacity as like the currency in our bank accounts that helps support us. Low energy capacity is an indicator of mitochondrial dysfunction—the decline in in how well our cells produce and use energy. It can lead to chronic disease. Dr. Molly Maloof and Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew discuss how to optimize mitochondrial functioning for better overall health and well-being to prevent disease processes. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🎙 What Molly Maloof, MD, & Lauren Kelley-Chew, MD, discuss: (06:22) — Mitochondrial dysfunction drives disease processes (07:19) — Borderline lab tests results aren’t necessarily optimal (13:09) — Challenging yourself is good to a certain extent, but overdoing it can lead to burnout (14:45) — Health is a continual journey—one that constantly changes—not a destination (19:08) — Hustle culture can degrade health, especially if you’re constantly stressed (20:45) — Getting good quality sleep is a crucial health lever to mitigate stress (30:58) — Certain tests can provide insight into your fitness status (32:28) — Strength training helps support metabolic health (41:08) — Metabolic health doesn’t equate to weight loss (42:21) — Ultra-processed foods are inflammatory Transcripts & Show notes 🔗 Helpful links: Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/zFdu6ZUBLIE Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

31 Jan 202353min

Jeff Krasno, CEO and founder of Commune, experienced chronic fatigue and brain fog earlier this year and discovered he had prediabetes. He used Levels to learn more about his blood glucose and metabolic health and now enjoys metabolic flexibility. Sonja Manning chatted with Jeff about his health journey, his dietary changes, intermittent fasting, and his other learnings from the metabolic health world that he applied to his own wellbeing. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Commune is an online course platform featuring world-renowned teachers in personal development, yoga, meditation, health, ecological regeneration, and social activism. Jeff Krasno is also the founder of Wanderlust; part of Oprah’s SuperSoul 100; and host of the Commune Podcast, which ranks in the top 1% of podcasts; amongst many other accolades. Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🎙 What Jeff Krasno & Sonja Manning discuss: (04:30) - Wisdom is taking your own advice (07:05) - Learning the dietary patterns that work best (14:30) - Adapting intermittent fasting to become more insulin sensitive (18:41) - Burning stored fat through cold exposure (24:05) - Philosophy behind fasting in order to gain control (28:35) - A wandering mind is an unhappy mind (44:06) - Rediscovering metabolic flexibility (49:31) - Achieving the optimal rest and digest state through breathwork (54:44) - The one theme that arises again and again: Coincidence of opposites Transcripts & Show notes 🔗 Helpful links: Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

19 Jan 20231h 7min

How is functional medicine different from traditional healthcare? Functional medicine focuses on patient-facing time and individual biomarkers for forming a comprehensive, individualized plan to empower people in matters of their health and well-being. The Western medicine model often leaves much to be desired when it comes to building a long-term relationship with a patient that helps foster their ultimate health. Listen as Dr. Anjali Dsouza and Mike Haney discuss how functional medicine—with a focus on nutrition and metabolic health—helps address mechanisms and root causes, and why this is especially important for women. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🎙 What Dr. Anjali Dsouza & Mike Haney discuss: (7:30) — Addressing underlying mechanisms of conditions empowers patients (8:50) — The traditional Western medical system is built on billing codes, which isn’t optimal for patients (13:45) — Functional medicine, by it’s true nature, is rooted in science (15:55) — Functional medicine often focuses on nutrition, which can be difficult to study (21:20) — How do we fix a broken healthcare system? (32:33) — Normal ranges aren’t necessarily always optimal (38:12) — What to do when your biomarkers are out of range (40:50) — Group support can help implement lifestyle changes (45:30) — Women’s health still lacks research (47:33) — The importance of women’s health and metabolic health Transcripts & Show notes 🔗 Helpful links: Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/w7dH5cj3D5s Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1 📲 Connect: Connect with Dr. Anjali Dsouza on Instagram: https://instagram.com/anjalidsouzamd

5 Jan 202353min

Branding isn’t just about the visual identity of a company. In this episode, Ben Grynol talks with Nik Sharma, “The DTC Guy” who runs Sharma Brands and HOOX, about what it means to build a good brand in the direct-to-consumer marketing space. Nik points out the crucial thing to remember is that no one remembers your brand unless you’re one of the top global brands, so it’s best not to get overly invested in how your brand is perceived. It’s best to drive consumer awareness, be consistent in providing valuable content and products, and pay attention to how you talk to and pitch your audience. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🔗 Helpful links: Transcript: https://www.levelshealth.com/podcasts/197-building-a-brand-in-the-direct-to-consumer-space-nik-sharma-ben-grynol Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1 📲 Connect: Connect with Nik Sharma on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mrsharma Connect with Nik Sharma on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mrniksharma

23 Dec 202247min

Team members at a company want honesty, transparency, and a clear progression path to know how to get to the next level in their careers. It’s reasonable for people to want to see progress and want more money and recognition, and so here at Levels we want to make career paths explicit to encourage growth and limit staff turnover. This chat between Nicole Miller and Sam Corcos is about high trust between managers and team members, avoiding promo culture, performance reviews, and giving and receiving feedback. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🔗 Helpful links: Transcript: https://www.levelshealth.com/podcasts/196-career-trajectory-promotions-what-it-takes-to-get-to-the-next-level-nicole-miller-sam-corcos Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

19 Dec 202244min

Cleo Abram found her passion for content creation and independent journalism when she started her YouTube channel Huge If True, a journalistically rigorous show with optimistic explainers about tech that could change our future. Listen as Cleo and Ben Grynol talk about the tension between the quality of work you publish versus the velocity, a bottom-up versus top-down content creation approach, and the importance of fact-checking. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🔗 Helpful links:Transcript: https://www.levelshealth.com/podcasts/195-video-content-creation-and-maintaining-journalistic-integrity-cleo-abram-ben-grynol Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1 📲 Connect: Connect with Cleo Abram on Instagram: https://instagram.com/cleoabram Connect with Cleo Abram on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cleoabram Connect with Cleo Abram on TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@cleoabram Connect with Cleo Abram on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@CleoAbram

16 Dec 20221h

Over the lifespan of Levels, the company and the CEO role evolved drastically. Sam Corcos went from coding the initial product to CEO, and he experienced a lot of personal challenges and growth along the way. Listen as Sam chats with Ben Grynol about time management, strategy versus people ops, requirements at each startup stage, and taking time to reflect through quarterly Think Weeks. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🔗 Helpful links: Transcript: https://www.levelshealth.com/podcasts/194-personal-growth-as-a-ceo-in-different-stages-of-a-growing-startup-sam-corcos-ben-grynol Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

12 Dec 202245min

We often think that arthritis, musculoskeletal pain, and degenerative joint issues are an inevitable result of aging—but this is far from the truth. Good metabolic health can have significant positive effects on bones, muscles, and joints, and can improve longevity. Conversely, poor metabolic health accelerates the degeneration of joints and tissues for many reasons, like the impact of high uric acid levels, lipid or cholesterol deposits, chronic inflammation, and poor blood flow to tissues. Surgeon Dr. Howard Luks and Levels Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Casey Means discuss musculoskeletal health, how it is related to longevity, how it’s linked to metabolic health, and how to decrease your risks for musculoskeletal pain, degenerative joint issues, and surgery. Sign Up to Get Your Free Ultimate Guide to Glucose: ⁠https://levels.link/wnl Levels helps you see how food affects your health, empowering you with the tools needed to achieve health goals and improve healthspan. Levels Members gain access to the Levels app and continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), providing real-time feedback on how diet and lifestyle choices impact your metabolic health. Look for new shows every month on A Whole New Level, where we have in-depth conversations with thought leaders about metabolic health. 🎙 What Dr. Howard Luks & Dr. Casey Means discuss: (05:14) - Dr. Casey Means’ personal experience with an orthopedic injury (12:09) - The link between joint and metabolic health (18:19) - Maintaining activity may help improve musculoskeletal health despite osteoarthritic pain (27:53) - Cartilage cells, tendinopathy, and how metabolic health is linked to our tendon health, like with tennis elbow or shoulder pain (37:04) - The importance of blood flow and cellular repair (46:58) - The importance of being your best medical advocate in modern medicine (50:09) - How Dr. Luks started learning about metabolic health and wrote his book, Longevity Simplified (1:02:49) - The simple pillars of longevity (1:24:56) - Why you don't need to be concerned about osteoarthritis (1:32:00) - Trust your body by boosting its regenerative capabilitiesTranscripts & Show notes 🔗 Helpful links: Order "Longevity…Simplified" by Dr. Howard Luks: https://www.howardluksmd.com/book/ Watch the conversation: https://youtu.be/XbjORE6D8UA Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/levelshealth?sub_confirmation=1

9 Dec 20221h 40min