the bossbabe podcast - 377. The Common Causes of Cancer, Depression + Infertility, the Ozempic Era + How Trauma Impacts Your Health w/ Dr. Casey Means

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Alzheimers, Cancer, Depression + Infertility - what do all these have in common? In today’s episode Natalie sits down with Dr. Casey Means, the founder + Chief Medical Officer of Levels, to dive into the root-cause of most diseases. They talk insulin resistance, blood sugar issues, why weight is NOT important, the Ozepmic zeitgeist, how trauma affects our health long-term, plus everything you need to know about mitochondrial function + how to improve it. If you’re health-obsessed + wanting to take your wellness to the next level, you won’t want to miss this episode! TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Coffee Talk + Introduction 02:27 - The Root Cause of Most Diseases 05:19 - What is "Metabolic Dysfunction" 09:46 - Insulin Resistance + Blood Sugar Issues 11:33 - Importance of Mitochondrial Function 16:04 - How to Recognize Mitochondrial Dysfunction 22:29 - Why Weight Is NOT Important 25:50 - The Ozempic Era 32:16 - How to Improve Mitochondrial Function 40:36 - How Trauma Affects Health Long-Term 51:38 - Closing Thoughts RESOURCES + LINKS Join The Société: The Place to Build A Freedom-Based Business Get Our Weekly Newsletter & Get Insights From Natalie Every Single Week On All Things Strategy, Motherhood, Business Growth + More.  Drop Us A Review On The Podcast + Send Us A Screenshot & We’ll Send You Natalie’s 7-Figure Operating System Completely FREE (value $1,997)  FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Casey Means: @drcaseyskitchen

You said, what if depression, infertility, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer, and many other health conditions actually have the same root cause? Can we talk about what that root cause is? This is the key question that we all need to be talking about. The truth that the healthcare system is honestly blind to. I'm so curious. I'm sure you get asked this a lot. What your thoughts are on this wave

of ozempic? The obesity epidemic that's facing our country, it's representative of our bodies really breaking on the cellular level. Welcome back to the Boss Babe podcast. All right, we have Dr. Casey Means on the podcast. I think this is actually her third time coming on this podcast. I'm super excited. She's written a new book, so we're going to get into all the things metabolic health. So just a little bit about Casey. She is a Stanford-trained physician and co-founder of Levels. That's a health technology company with the mission of reversing the world's metabolic health crisis. I'm an investor in Levels. That's a health technology company with the mission of reversing the world's metabolic health crisis. I'm an investor in Levels. I am a huge advocate of it. It's absolutely incredible

and life-changing. And she has written a book called Good Energy that is all about metabolic dysfunction and mitochondrial function. It's so, so good. So she was trained in head and neck surgery before leaving traditional medicine to devote her life to tackling the root cause of why Americans are sick. She is incredible. I learned so much every time I get to know her. What I will say in this interview, especially in the beginning, we go into a lot of detail and it might feel like, oh my goodness, I'm not getting this. This is so detailed and a little bit over my head. Stick with us because we really, really break it down and we get there and we talk all about

what the root cause of most illnesses really is and a lot of simple things you can be doing in your life to start counteracting that. So I will also say I caught Noemi's viral infection, so I'm not sounding my best right now. So just to be aware during the interview, I'm not crying. I'm just very bugged up. Okay, let's dive in. Casey, welcome back to the podcast. So good to see you, Natalie. I'm so excited that you have this book out because all of our episodes

that we've done in the past have been such a hit with our audience because metabolism, blood sugar, all of that is such a hot topic. So speaking of the book, I'm going to dive in with a pretty, pretty deep question right away. So reading, reading the blurb of your book, one of the things that stood out to me, you said, what if depression, anxiety, infertility, insomnia, heart disease, erectile dysfunction, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's, dementia, cancer, and many other health conditions that torture and shorten our lives actually have the same root cause. Can we talk about what that root cause is? Natalie, this is the key question that we all need to be talking about. The truth that the healthcare system is honestly blind to is that almost every symptom and disease that are facing Americans today across the whole

lifespan, from children to adults to seniors, they're all rooted in the same thing. And that thing is metabolic dysfunction. It's a core foundational problem within our cells that causes them to actually not have the power to do their work. And really, the message that I want to share to people who may feel frustrated with their health journey is that there's a different perspective that we can look at the body with. We can look at health and disease with, which is one that's really focused more on connection rather than silos. Right now, the Western healthcare system is incredibly focused on silos.

We have every single disease being seen by different specialists. We're on a different pill for every single thing that we have. The average American sees over 20 different types of doctors before they die. There are over 42 medical specialties. And the odd thing is that the more we specialize in American healthcare, the sicker we're actually getting, not to mention the more we spend on healthcare in the United States, over $4.5 trillion per year now, the sicker we're getting. And I think the reason we're seeing these alarming trends that the more we specialize and the more we spend, the sicker we're getting is because that system, what it's doing, it's focusing on the downstream manifestations of disease, the symptoms symptoms rather than the underlying root cause

that connects all of them, which is metabolic dysfunction and a core process in how our cells power themselves, showing up in different cell types as different diseases. So my message to really share is that we really need to understand a metabolic lens on our health. We need to understand how to understand our own metabolic health and how to improve it. And this is really foundational to having the incredible health that so many of us desire. So for someone that is new to this, what is metabolic dysfunction? Like at its simplest, what is it? Yes, yes, yes, yes. So

I'll start with what is metabolism because I think that's really foundational. So metabolism is how we convert food energy to cellular energy. Every single one of our cells, we have over 40 trillion cells or so in the body. Every single one needs cellular energy to function. Wildly, we have these 40 trillion cells, and each of those cells is doing literally trillions of chemical reactions per second. And all of those chemical reactions happening in all of our cells bubbles up into our lives. That's what our life is. It's all of these chemical reactions happening every second. And for each of those to happen, they need a currency of energy to pay for them, essentially. And that energy is what comes through metabolism from food. So if we have a problem

with metabolism, if we have metabolic dysfunction, it's essentially a block of this incredible flow of food energy to cellular energy. And then what happens is we don't have enough of this currency around to pay for all these chemical reactions. And every cell is like a little city, like a little machine, a little factory. And it's constantly churning through this currency of energy to do its work. So of course, like any machine that doesn't have enough energy, it's not going to produce well, it's not going to be as efficient, it's not going to be able to do its job. And so that's really what we're seeing. That's the root of the American healthcare crisis is that we have underpowered cells, that is metabolic dysfunction. And the reason that there are so many symptoms and diseases that are

fundamentally rooted in this core problem, like the reason we can have diseases that look so different, like Alzheimer's dementia and PCOS, which we talked about a lot on our last episode, and erectile dysfunction and depression and anxiety and arthritis and migraines and cancer and type 2 diabetes and obesity and heart disease and stroke, the reason that all of these can be related to the same problem is because when you have underpowering, when you have metabolic dysfunction happening in different cell types, like a brain cell or an ovarian cell or a liver cell or a blood vessel lining cell, it can look like different things. Dysfunction in different cell types or underpowering in

different cell types, of course, that's going to look like something different. But where our system is really behind the times is that we're still describing and treating and managing diseases based on what they look like, what that symptomatic manifestation is, rather than understanding the disease on the invisible factors that are actually happening inside the cell. And it makes sense when we sort of were categorizing diseases throughout history, we couldn't really understand the molecular biology of what was going on. We didn't have the tools to do that. So we described the disease based on how it appears.

So depression is defined as a constellation of symptoms. And what I'm really asking people to understand is that we need to actually start describing something like depression based on what is actually happening inside the cell that's leading to dysfunction. Because that, when we really address that core physiology, we can really heal. We can really get better rather than just managing the downstream symptoms arising from that. So that's really the call to action in my book, Good Energy, is to put on these metabolic goggles and start to look at the body that way. And what's so beautiful about this

perspective, and I think so empowering, is that we're living in a time right now where we can understand if we have metabolic dysfunction. It's not complicated, and it's actually quite simple to improve it, but we have to know what the problem we're actually trying to solve is. And every single person has the power and the knowledge to do that. And this is really a guidebook to help people figure that out, since unfortunately, the healthcare system isn't quite caught up yet to seeing disease through this more connected lens. We're still very dependent on our siloed perspective. And so when we talk about then metabolic dysfunction, how much of that are we talking about as insulin resistance and blood sugar issues and how much goes beyond that? And

what are the stuff that's not linked to that? Yeah, so that's exactly right. When we're talking about metabolic dysfunction, I think some of the words that kind of fit in that same word cloud are blood glucose, dysregulation, blood sugar issues, insulin resistance, mitochondrial dysfunction, metabolic dysfunction. It's all wrapped up in each other. And then all these different chronic diseases and symptoms that we're facing are really trunks. I'm sorry, they're really branches of that same trunk of that tree. And the way to conceptualize how those things are related, like metabolic dysfunction, mitochondrial dysfunction, blood sugar dysregulation, insulin resistance, really comes down to just

understanding a little bit about the mitochondria. So everyone probably remembers from high school biology that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell. It's that incredible part of our cell that does the conversion of that food energy to cellular energy. So if the mitochondria are hurt, this is the root of metabolic dysfunction because we have this block to this incredible flow of food to energy that we can actually use. Right now in our modern world, the reason we have this chronic disease epidemic is because so many aspects of our modern, rapidly changing

industrial diet and lifestyle synergistically and uniquely damage the mitochondria. So that's why this is all happening and why all these diseases are going up right now is because so many aspects of the way we live and eat just over the past several decades, really since World War II and 1900, and then things kind of got worse after World War II with more industrialization of food, it all hurts this precious part of our cell that does this conversion process. And because our healthcare system isn't actually changing those environmental factors that hurt the mitochondria, we're obviously not getting better. We're throwing a lot of money at the problem, but since it's not actually positively impacting or relieving the mitochondria, we're not actually getting better.

The disease rates are really all going up. And so now how this relates to blood sugar. So if the environment is hurting the mitochondria, you have this problem converting food energy to cellular energy. And the two main sort of pieces of food energy that we convert to cellular energy are fatty acids and glucose. So we break down foods and we get a lot of glucose in the bloodstream from either carbohydrates, sugars, and then obviously fats from the fats that we eat. And those can essentially be converted into something that goes into the mitochondria to be converted to ATP. So if the mitochondria is hurt by all its environmental factors and it can't do its work, it's going to try and protect itself by essentially blocking more glucose from coming into the cell. If it can't process it, it doesn't want

more coming in. So it blocks glucose entry into the cell. And the way it does that is it tells essentially the body to stop allowing insulin to do its job. Insulin is the hormone that allows glucose to be taken up into the cell. So the cell says, we can't process this, so we're going to block it from coming in. It creates an insulin block, which is insulin resistance. And then that blocks more glucose from coming into the cell. So that's when you start to see those blood sugar levels rising in the blood. You also see insulin levels rising because the body's like, oh no, we got to get this out of the bloodstream. We're going to produce more insulin to overcome this block to try and

drive glucose into the cell. And of course, that's not great for the cell because the mitochondria is hurt. It can't process the glucose that comes in. And so it creates this vicious cycle of mitochondrial dysfunction leading to an insulin block, an insulin block leading to glucose rising in the bloodstream and insulin rising in the bloodstream. And until we actually relieve that mitochondrial dysfunction, nothing's ever going to get better. So I think the other really interesting thing to know here is that, okay, so the body can't process that glucose to energy. So what's it going to do? It's going to convert that glucose to a storage form because it doesn't want it floating around in the bloodstream and high levels. So glucose gets converted to triglycerides. So we often see triglycerides go up when we have

insulin resistance. Also, we of course store some of that in fat. So fat stores go up, insulin is rising, and that's actually a block to fat burning. So this, you know, is associated with our obesity epidemic with 74% of people with overweight or obesity. And the cell also fills with fat because that glucose is being converted to fat because it can't be processed by the mitochondria if it's damaged. And when you have a cell that's filled with fat, lots of processes in the cell end up becoming dysfunctional because of that. You can't have a cell that's trying to do all these trillions of chemical reactions that's filled with toxic fat. So the root of it is the mitochondrial dysfunction that's caused

by our diet and lifestyle. And then downstream of that, you get these rises in blood sugar, in insulin, and dysfunction from both underpowering, but also the cell just being screwed up from being filled with toxic fats. And that's really, like I've said, that's the core of a huge percentage of the diseases and the symptoms that we're facing in the Western world today. And until we improve the environment, we can't improve the mitochondrial health. And if we don't improve the mitochondrial health, we're really not going to get better at scale. Got it. So repeating back to you to make sure I get it like in layman's terms, are we saying that even your metabolic health is determined on your mitochondrial function? Are you saying that your mitochondrial function, that's like

the baseline, that's the route that everyone gets to focus on to then have a downstream effect on everything else in the body? That's exactly right. Metabolic dysfunction is mitochondrial dysfunction. And if environments hurting mitochondria, mitochondria aren't making cellular energy, cells fill with fat, insulin resistance happens to protect the cell. And that is fundamentally the root or connected to most chronic diseases in the Western world. So what are some things, if anyone's listening, what are some things they could recognize in themselves to see whether they have that mitochondria dysfunction? Yeah.

So I think the easiest way to do it is actually to just look at five simple markers that are generally free on our annual physical. And these really define what we call metabolic syndrome. And they're so easy to access and free typically. So the five biomarkers are fasting glucose, triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, waist circumference, and blood pressure. And so what we'd call essentially like normal for those values, and this means that they're in this range and you're not on medication for one of these biomarkers, like cholesterol medication for

cholesterol or metformin for blood sugar. So we want to be under 100 milligrams per deciliter for fasting glucose, under 150 milligrams per deciliter for triglycerides. For HDL cholesterol, we want to be above 40 milligrams per deciliter if you're a man and above 50 milligrams per deciliter if you're a woman. For blood pressure, we want to be below 120 over 80. And then for waist circumference, we want to be less than 35 inches for women and less than 40 inches per men. So that's really the criteria for metabolic syndrome. So if you look at the recent research, this is just absolutely wild, but less than 12% of Americans are in those normal ranges for all five of those biomarkers, not on medication, only 12% of Americans. And so if you're in that 88% who is not in the normal range for one or more

of those biomarkers, that's a signal that there's something going on inside the cell with metabolic dysfunction. And I mentioned a little bit about this, like with the glucose, if the glucose is rising in the bloodstream, that's a sign that something's happening inside the cell with the mitochondria that's ultimately leading to the insulin block that causes blood sugar to rise. And then if the triglycerides are high, that's a sign that there's this excess glucose being converted to triglycerides, which then causes them to rise in the blood. And similar with blood pressure, if blood pressure is high, that is often a sign of insulin resistance because as insulin rises, it actually blocks the molecule in the body

that causes our blood vessels to dilate, nitric oxide. So it's all interconnected. And so these are biomarkers that can give us a clue as we read the tea leaves with these five basic biomarkers that there could be something going on in the cell. And we really want to make it our life's work to both understand if we're in that 12% and if we're not to get there, because it could really be 100% of people that are metabolically healthy. These biomarkers are generally not in the healthy range because of dietary and lifestyle factors. And so that's really something that all of us,

you know, really want to do. And then from a symptom perspective, um, you know, I think some of the things that could be clues that there could be a problem with metabolism, certainly like excess belly fat. Um, that's again, that gets back to the abdominal, the waist circumference as one of the five biomarkers. If we're having trouble kind of losing that belly fat, that could be a sign that we have what's called visceral fat in our abdomens, which is typically fat that's laid down in the setting of insulin resistance. We might find that we get very, very hungry in between meals. So like a lot of cravings, a lot of hunger between meals can't go

more than a few hours without a snack. That's a sign of metabolic inflexibility that your body is really having trouble tapping into fat stores when the glucose levels are low between meals, which could also be a sign of insulin resistance. Certainly PCOS, like we talked about on our last episode, that is very much related to insulin resistance and is the leading cause of infertility in the United States. Things like erectile dysfunction directly linked to metabolic dysfunction, because again, as insulin rises, it blocks our vessels from dilating. And of course, the way you get an erection is blood vessels dilate in the penis and blood flow goes there. So that can be a sign for men listening. And then of course, things like if your blood pressure is high, if your cholesterol is high,

specifically triglycerides, and really so many other symptoms. We've talked about so many other symptoms, like we've talked about so many conditions, even like depression and anxiety and mood instability and gout and migraine and chronic pain and aches and pains. There's a metabolic link to all of these things if you dig into the research. And so the way I would approach to people is like, if you're having a symptom, really any symptom, you're an American listening or someone in the Western world who is dealing with symptoms and you're not making progress towards resolution of those symptoms, my recommendation for anyone is to absolutely go down the route of understanding your metabolic health because metabolic dysfunction can look like almost anything. And it's also a very empowering place to look.

Because if you can clean up the metabolic health, it's very possible that some of your symptoms may improve. So those are some of the specific things you might want to look for, like I mentioned, like belly fat and sort of like hanger or being a little bit difficult, spacing out meals and things like that, and PCOS and some of these really clear metabolic links. But more broadly, I think for anyone having almost any symptom that is not resolving with their conventional therapy, go down the metabolic route and work to improve that because it's very possible that could ease your symptom in any part of the body. And even if you go down that route and it doesn't necessarily address the specific symptom

you have, you're going to be better off anyways by doing things to improve your metabolic health. I love those biomarkers you mentioned as well, especially given most people can go to their doctor and ask for them to be run. What if, for example, one thing we didn't talk about, what if your cholesterol comes back high, but you're not necessarily overweight or carrying extra weight? What is something you might look at there? Because I've also seen that, and I see this being part of the online conversation more and more, especially in the hormone world and PCOS world of high cholesterol. But then if you are on the lean side, doctors saying, you know, go manage your diet. And they're like, well, I kind of am already.

What is it that you would look at if you were seeing that in blood work? Yeah. I think a really important thing to remember is that in many ways, I think it's helpful to sometimes move away from the weight conversation. You'll notice that weight isn't even one of the biomarkers on the metabolic syndrome criteria. I think it's really helpful to move away from thinking about weight as the health marker to actually really understanding your metabolic health. Because there are people who are overweight, who are metabolically healthy, and those people tend to do very well. And then there's people who are of a quote unquote normal weight, and they can have their

metabolic biomarkers be off. And those people will be more likely to go on and struggle with symptoms and diseases. And so I think like orienting towards metabolic health, even more than weight is actually really, really helpful because we don't want people who are quote unquote thin to potentially be missing that there's some metabolic problem happening just because, you know, they wear a certain size. We know that there's actually this phenotype that is actually described in the literature. It's kind of a wild term, but it's called TOFI, which is thin on the outside, fat on the inside. It's kind of a

ridiculous phrase, but what it refers to is people who look lean, but inside their body in a place that's not going to change their jeans size or their pant size, there can actually still be fat around their organs. That's the fat that's laid down with insulin resistance, which may not change your size, but which actually is very damaging to our health. So no matter what our weight, we need to understand our metabolic biomarkers. And there's certainly a lot of people who are lean who are dealing with metabolic issues, and they'll feel a lot better if they get those under control. I would say that the thing that is about weight that is relevant is that as people's weight and BMI goes up, it is correlated with insulin resistance. Because if you have more of that subcutaneous fat, the fat that you can see that is going to change

sort of your dress size, that is often associated with people having that visceral fat on the inside. So that's how it's relevant, but it's not a one-to-one relationship. Yeah, that makes total sense. And I'm glad you clarified that too, because I have met some people when I was talking about wearing a CGM, a continuous blood glucose monitor, where they would say, well, you're really thin. Why are you wearing that? And I think there is that conversation around, well, if you're in good shape, then you might

not have blood sugar issues. And that's not necessarily the case. On this as well. I'm so curious. I'm sure you get asked this a lot, what your thoughts are on this wave of ozempic. Obviously this is something that's treating ultimately blood sugar and it's helping people lose a lot of weight, but other symptoms too, I'm sure because metabolic health is at the root of all of them. What are your thoughts on it? Yeah, it's such a great question. So when I think about the huge wave of interest about these GLP-1 agonists, I think what disappoints me about it is that the obesity epidemic that's facing our country with 40 to 45% of adults dealing with obesity, it's representative of our bodies really breaking on the cellular level

with metabolic dysfunction. And the reason that our bodies are breaking and really just like 3D printing fat all over our bodies is because our mitochondria are totally beleaguered by our toxic modern industrial environment across so many factors. The things that are hurting our mitochondria are multifarious and they're across food, sleep, movement patterns, stress, toxins, light exposure, and temperature. So like those are kind of the, the, you know, seven main factors that we, that modernity has just drastically changed our relationship with light, our relationship with natural food, our relationship with temperature, our relationship with synthetic toxins. And there's no shot that can change the impact of what the environment's

having on our mitochondria. So while it can cause weight loss, the reason I think it's problematic is that if it implies that this is a solution, it's not. It can cause weight loss, but it does not unbeliever our mitochondria. And so I think while it can work in individual cases to jumpstart people and to help them lose weight, we don't want to miss the forest for the trees, which is that there's an environmental biologic mismatch happening in our modern world that's crushing us that will only be really rectified if we change the environment. The other thing that I find so interesting, and I actually published an article on my blog about this called BY Ozempic, like bring your own Ozempic, which is basically about how I'm

astonished that with the tidal wave of this medication about GLP-1 agonist, there's been virtually zero conversation about the fact the body makes its own GLP-1, a satiety hormone, and it makes it naturally. And there are very specific food and lifestyle factors that impact how much GLP-1 we have in the body. And if you step back and think of a really first principles approach to how you would have more of this hormone in your body, it becomes really clear. There's really three things you can do. One, you could produce more of the cells in the gut that make GLP-1.

And so these are called the L-cells of the cells in the gut that make GLP-1. And so these are called the L cells of the intestine. You could get the L cells to produce more GLP-1. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has

really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business you know get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. Or you could stop the GLP-1 that you have in your body from being broken down and inactivated.

And we know that GLP-1 is degraded in the body by an enzyme called DPP-4. And all three of those things, more L-cells, having the L-cells make more GLP-1, and having GLP-1 basically be blocked from being broken down, all of which will raise GLP levels in the body, all of those are impacted by specific food nutrients and lifestyle choices in tons of literature. So this medication is on track to be the highest grossing medication in human history. And taxpayers are going to be paying for this. And in the midst of all of that, we're not talking about how we could naturally make more GLP-1 in our body. And it probably wouldn't surprise you what the research says

about how you can produce more GLP-1 through dietary strategies. It's things like really increasing the fiber in our diets, really increasing antioxidant-rich foods. There's specific foods like turmeric and ginseng that can help. Protein absolutely stimulates GLP-1, but there's actually specific amino acids in protein like valine that seem to have a very stimulatory effect on GLP-1. And so if you kind of know the foods that have high levels of valine or L-glutamine. That can be really helpful. Nuts, especially pistachios, have an impact. The green tea compound ECGC is shown to increase GLP-1. And then some other interesting herbs like chokeberry and Mexican oregano and rosemary

have stimulatory effects. So there's all these things we can do. So just to circle back to your question, I think, um, I would just like to see that broader conversation about how we can stimulate our own G GLP one. And for people to recognize that our obesity epidemic is a mitochondrial epidemic. The mitochondrial epidemic is caused by our synergistically damaging modern industrial lifestyle on our cells and a shot can't change the environment. So it's not actually going to truly heal us.

It may absolutely cause weight loss, but we also need to focus on cleaning up the environment so our cells can be free to do their best work. Totally. I mean, it's a pretty good case study for you. The fact that this medication is on track to be the biggest kind of proves the point that you're saying of like, yeah, metabolic health is really important and it's at the root of so many things. So going into that then, so talking about being able to improve mitochondrial function, when you talk about this industrial lifestyle that most people are living in the Western world, what are some things that people can be doing to focus on that root cause and to get their mitochondria, you know, firing in all the best ways and producing the best energy?

Yeah. So this is the key question, like how do we improve it? And I think big picture, it's about running through all the different dietary and lifestyle sort of pillars that we know impact mitochondria. And those are the ones I mentioned across food, sleep, movement, stress, temperature, light, and toxins, and understanding which things within those categories are relevant in your life. Because the funny thing is, is that you and me might have totally different pathways for metabolic optimization based on just the realities of our own lives. So for me to really help my mitochondria do their best work in my personal life, it might be, it might be healing certain childhood trauma. That's keeping

me in a chronic stress state. It might be improving my sleep consistency, and it might be getting rid of the synthetic toxins in my cleaning products at home. And for you, it might be, you know, reducing refined grains and sugar and doing more high-intensity interval training and getting more sunlight in the morning. So it's like everyone's journey is going to be different. killers that are affecting our mitochondria in the modern world, and then taking stock of really where there's opportunity in your own life, because it's going to be different person to person. And there's lots of quizzes in the book that help people identify where they need to make their own changes. But I think on the highest level, if we run through some of these, food is, I would say, foundational. We eat 70 metric tons of food in our lifetime. And that food is not only the molecular information

to tell ourselves how to work and what to do. It's this language of communication between the outside world and our bodies that tell our bodies what to do that literally speak to our mitochondria. So not only is it the sort of signaling molecule, the molecular information for our body's function, but it's also the building blocks of our entire body. Literally every single atom in our body comes from food. And we are constantly changing over our bodies every single day. You hear these statistics like the gut lining turns over every week and the skin turns over every six weeks or so fully. And we are just constantly 3D printing our body from food. And so we want to make every bite really help give our bodies the right building

blocks, but also communication, the language to tell it to do things properly and tell a mitochondria what to do. Unfortunately, right now, obviously our diet has become ultra processed, ultra processing of food didn't exist a hundred years ago. Like we didn't even have the technological capability to do what we do now to food, which is strip it into all its different chemical pieces and then rebuild frankenfoods that the body has no idea what to do with that is totally confusing information for the body, causing us to be sick. So 70% of the calories from the grocery stores are ultra-processed, which we should be eating zero ultra-processed food. And our soil in the United States has become so depleted because of industrial agriculture over the past 100 years,

like really aggressive tilling and pesticide use and synthetic fertilizers, that the soil is dead. And so the living soil is what injects our food with nutrients. And so of that 70 metric tons that we're eating, that is the building blocks and the communication for our bodies of what to do, 70% is ultra-processed. And even if we're eating a lot of whole foods, it's nutrient depleted because of the soil. So with all that said, from the food pillar, the key thing that we need to do is move away from ultra-processed foods and get as high quality, real whole food as humanly possible. To me, what that means, the simplest thing we can do, honestly, is try and buy as much food as we can from the farmer's market. Because the reason

that matters is because the food is fresher. And every day that the food is out of the soil, it's going to be losing nutrients. It's going to be just degrading its nutrients. So again, we're chipping away at that value of that 70 metric tons we eat in a lifetime. And so you want it closer to when it was alive because it'll have more nutrients, more positive molecular information. And you can talk to the farmer and hear about how they're treating their soil. Because ideally, they're not treating their soil with pesticides and tilling and all these things that damage the soil. So that is just one of the simplest things people can do is just buy the majority of their food

from the farmer's market, which is often cheaper because there's many farmers that they aren't certified organic because that's a very expensive and time-consuming product, but they're still not using any of the bad stuff on their soil. So they're not certified organic, but they are practicing good practices and they often will be a lot cheaper than organic products. So that's one thing. And in the book I talk about with food, really five specific things we want to get into ideally each of our meals to optimize our mitochondrial health. And the five things I talk about in the book are you want fiber, you want omega-3s, you want antioxidants, you want healthy protein, and you want a probiotic source. And what the book does is list foods from

each of those categories, each of which impacts the mitochondria differently, and basically have your mental list of your favorite things from each of those categories and make sure your kitchen has those things. And then it becomes very like mix and match to create what I call a good energy meal, which is, you know, if it's like eggs in the morning, I'm going to just make sure I have my eggs, which is healthy protein. And if they're pasture raised, they're going to have omega threes, put some sauerkraut on top. That's a probiotic source, maybe with a side of chia pudding and berries, which will be antioxidants and fiber and some greens and avocado, kind of get some healthy fats. So just like figuring out how to basically build

each meal with a few of those components. Um, and then of course, just eliminating the ultra-processed foods, which is as simple as looking at labels. And if you can look at a label and just make sure it does not have ultra-processed sugar, ultra-processed grains, or ultra-processed industrial seed oils, if it's packaged and doesn't have those things, you're probably in the clear. So there's a lot of packaged foods that you can eat that are healthy. Like for instance, one of my favorites is flackers, which is like crackers that are literally just made of flax seeds, apple cider vinegar, and spices. And so it's really looking at labels and just getting rid of those three toxic ultra-processed ingredients and

avoiding those and then getting a big majority of food from ideally as close to the source as possible. So that's just one pillar, food. But all the other ones, of course, matter as well from movement, moving more, clearing glucose to better sleep. In the book, I talk about three elements of sleep that all impact mitochondria, its quality, its quantity, and its consistency. So consistent bedtimes and wake-ups. We talk a lot about synthetic toxins

in our environment and where those are found, which ones hurt the mitochondria and how to make really simple swaps. The light one is so interesting because artificial light has now been classified as an environmental endocrine disruptor. So literally just like chemicals can be hormone disruptors, so can artificial light at the wrong times of day. So kind of going through each of those things, it's about just taking stock and then finding small ways to improve. But yeah, but food, I would say, is really foundational. And those are kind of the core things I focus on for mitochondrial health. I love this. And I really love that you talked about working on trauma that's stored in the body too.

Because there's a lot to be said for the food and the things that you do and movement, but there's also not enough conversation, I don't think, about trauma and things that you've been through that get stored in the body and continuously causes stress. Yes. I know personally working on that stuff

has been just as powerful for me in healing my PCOS than all of the other stuff. But I don't feel like it's talked about enough. Oh my gosh. First of all, that's amazing and beautiful. And I agree completely. Chapter nine in Good Energy is called Fearlessness, the highest level of good energy. And it's by far my favorite chapter in the book for the reasons that you're talking about, which is that in our Western world, we really, oh man, we really just don't talk enough about the psychosocial side of health and how beliefs that live as patterns essentially in our neurochemistry, like from childhood, they actually can create frameworks for how we process every piece of information that comes into our body every single day and filter it into essentially a more stressful pattern, which of course then translates

through biochemistry, through hormones, through nerve impulses to every cell in our body. So every cell in our body essentially hears all our thoughts. And if we haven't untangled the trauma or the limiting beliefs that we may have experienced, then every day we're essentially going to be living in a biochemical environment of stress and fear. And it's sort of a zero-sum game when it comes to health. Our body is either going to be channeling resources towards defense and towards alarm and towards protecting us, or it's going to channel resources towards thriving and helping us have the most incredible experience in this body. And so we want to untangle these webs of thought patterns that

can really be rooted, I think, in childhood experiences to essentially allow this breath for the body to just be able to kind of, you know, like take the foot off the gas of constantly having to be vigilant because of how that's sort of wired in our bodies. And so I think this is, this is the really the work. I mean, this is our most fundamental job as humans to take stock of anything that's causing a sense of persistent fear in our bodies and work to heal them or work to limit their exposure. And that is because we know that fear and stress essentially crushes all components of metabolic health on the cellular level. And I think a big part of this too, a lot of people will, I mean, I remember this from my practice when I was

practicing medicine. Like I would ask a lot of people like, do you have trauma? Do you have chronic stress? And a lot of people would say like, oh no, I don't know. And then we'd actually dig into like their life and ask really specific questions about like their childhood life and loss they've had in relationships and how their work is and all of, and like so many things were actually there, but they didn't necessarily classify themselves as having had, you know, having chronic stress or trauma. And I think that's in part because our Western culture just so doesn't have a language for these things. And, you know, I think for a lot of people, and I definitely feel like this was part of my therapy journey

because I had a very happy childhood, very wonderful family. But a child who's experiencing things that may be fairly normal for an adult to be able to process, a child experiencing them when you're not ready to process them, that can be stored as trauma. So even if life was like good and happy and all that, there's still maybe things in there that are kind of gripping your brain and body that are really worth going on that journey to identify. And I think one way to kind of identify those things is like asking yourself like what triggers you? Like what gets you upset and triggered? And if you still have things in your life that quote unquote trigger you or make you upset or

angry, or you just don't feel like super joyful, like a lot of the time, like it's worth going down this journey, you know? And I think, um, a big part of it too, is that our Western world is very de-spiritualized. You know. We don't have a really big emphasis on kind of the miraculousness of life. I think we have a very limited view of the body. We really think of life as like we have this body and we live and then we die. And it can create a lot of existential fear, I think, because without frameworks for like a bigger picture or a spiritual view of life, I think we all just become very petrified of death. You know, it's like we're dead and then we're gone. And it's like that just creates an existential grip of anxiety

throughout our whole lives that I think we also need to explore. So I think it's a personal work journey. It's a spiritual journey. And it's also a technological journey because I think the fact that we have, I mean, the food system, really bad. That is putting a huge strain on our bodies. But then you think about modern technology. In the past 20 years, we now have the technological capability with a device in our hand to be exposed to the threats facing any person anywhere in the world 24 hours a day. And we are absolutely not equipped to handle all that. And it's causing absolute terrorism in our brains. And so it's also setting boundaries of technology, I think, to really be super intentional about what you're letting into your eyeballs and ears. And all of that impacts metabolic health because chronic

stress, hormones coursing through the body or overactivation of the stress arm of the nervous system directly impacts mitochondrial function. So it's just such an important piece that we just don't talk about enough and certainly don't talk about in the Western healthcare system. Totally. And I remember when I was first starting to learn about blood sugar and all those things I would be so shocked looking at my cgm to see that a stressful meeting actually spiked my blood sugar more than like something sweet that I ate because I was one of those people that no I'm not under stress no like I just didn't want to buy into it and believe it but then you see it on the chart and you're like okay there actually is something to this it It's more than that. And like you say, the way that

we live our lives, I like how in the book you talk about all the biohacking stuff is great, but not if you're using it as a bandaid. Like if you're eating processed foods, you're staring at your computer all day long, you're not getting outside, you're not getting any natural light, you're stressed, all those things, then jumping into a red light or getting an IV and like all the biohacky stuff, it's not going, it's just a bandaid. And I think that's what hopefully people can get from this interview is there's so much natural things available to us that actually we can tap into when it comes to biohacking. And if we get all of that stuff right first, then we can start layering in kind of all the tools. I'm a big, big fan of the tools. I love

tracking. I love all the devices, but I also notice if I feel off, it's generally because I'm not even doing the basics and I can't cover up the basics from the biohacking. So it's really important. Totally. It's so important. Yeah. I think, I mean, you and I are both, yeah, we've both used CGMs and like I I'm wearing an aura right now and I sleep on an eight sleep mattress and I love that stuff. But I think it has been a journey for me of realizing that like this optimization culture, the longevity conversation, the biohacking conversation, it's important, but there's something like more foundational that we need to also be adopting, which is one, like you said, it's like a lot of the stuff to make us feel great is the basics. It's like no red light therapy necessary. It's literally just like food and sleep and taking

deep breaths and walking and hydrating, just like and hydrating. Like if we get those things right, like we will do so much better. Right. It's very simple. But and so there's, of course, micro optimizations on the extremes that can kind of take things to the next level. But actually, I think the system, and I mean the system, industry of wellness and health, it benefits off of us being confused. It benefits off of us thinking that it's really complex to be healthy because then what do you do? You're seeking different solutions and you're buying different products. But a huge message of the book is it is so much less complex than I think we're led to believe. And I think the other piece is that the foundation of health,

I do believe is what we were just talking about. It's the psychological piece of it too, because this is all supposed to be joyful. Like we're here in, it's, it's so miraculous that we're alive. Like each of us is a total statistical near impossibility and we are incredible. I mean, each person is just such an incredible, unique, you know, incarnation. Like we, we have these, I mean, just, it's just, it's just so miraculous, this earth that we live on and this universe that we live in and this body that we have. And we are here for a short time. And, you know, it really should be wonderful and joyful. And we can feel limitless. We can feel high on life. And so just making sure like we're always tapping into awe intentionally and realizing that like we're not doing all these be alive and to be a person who's

never going to exist again in all of eternity. And like some of these protocols can help unlock ourselves to do their best work, which fundamentally can help us, you know, just experience more joy in this precious life. And so just like making sure we're always tapping into that level of seeing ourselves as the miracles that we are and using health strategies to just, yeah, help us feel more in touch with our true nature, which is a total miracle. Like that's what we are. So, you know, always keeping that picture in mind. I love that so much. I'm curious.

Are you familiar with Dr. Ray Peet's work, the pro-metabolic diet? I'm not. No. familiar with Dr. Ray Peetsworth, the pro-metabolic diet? I'm not. No. What is he talking about? Maybe I'll get you back on the podcast for us to have a conversation about that because that's also something I'm really curious about. It's just a certain way of eating and prioritizing your metabolism and cues to look for and all those things.

But maybe we can do a part two on that. That would be really fun. For sure. Amazing. That could be your homework for part two. Any excuse to get you back on the podcast. Oh, anytime. It's such a pleasure to get to talk to you. Yeah, I love it. And I love talking about this stuff. It's changed my life. I just want more women to know about it and to know what to look for. And like you said, it's a root cause of so many things that when we're empowered with this information, we can also support our family members, maybe older family members that don't

understand this stuff. I know that's what gets me excited when I start thinking about family members who are having issues. I can see so many simple things that they could do differently. So I love it. Yes. Okay. Absolutely.

So good energy is out now. I'm so, so excited for you. This is so exciting. Um, the best place to grab the book is Casey means.com forward slash good energy. Is that right? That's right. Yeah. It's it's everywhere books are sold and that's my website, which will tell you more about the book and give you all the links to, for different places to get it. Amazing. Well, we're boss babes of great readers we are always into a brand new book so I'm so excited for you this is such a big deal and I'm so excited that you're doing this and really helping people get to the root so for anyone listening if you want to grab it it's caseymeans.com forward slash good energy and we'll also put the link in the show notes. And then where else can people connect with you? Yeah, so I'm on Instagram at Dr. Casey's Kitchen,

Dr. Casey's Kitchen. And on all other channels, I'm Casey Means MD. So that is where people can connect with me. And I have a newsletter called Good Energy Living. And that is where I share, yeah, just like so much of my weekly musings and thoughts about life and health. And so that's another place to get more info.

Amazing. Well, thank you for being here. This was amazing. Thank you, Natalie. Great to chat with you. Wait, wait, wait, before you go, I would love to send you my seven-figure CEO operating system completely free as a gift. All you've got to do is leave us a review on this podcast because it really supports the growth of this show. This is my digital masterclass where I'll show you what my freedom-based daily, weekly, and monthly schedule looks like as an eight-figure CEO, mama, and high performer, and I'll walk you through step-by-step how to create this for yourself. It includes a full video training from me and a plug-and-play spreadsheet to literally

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