Hello, health enthusiasts, and welcome to Rev Up Health, your go-to podcast for all things wellness. I'm Dr. Mark Hechler, and I'm Tandi Hechler. Together we're here to fuel your health journey with the best of functional medicine and holistic well-being. Each episode, we'll dive deep into topics that matter to your health, bringing you the latest insights, research, and inspiring stories. Whether you're on a quest for vibrant health or just looking for daily health tips, we've got you covered. So let's embark on this journey together and transform the way you live. So, Tandi, what's on our wellness radar for today?
Welcome to the Rev Up Health Podcast. We are here about a week after some big travel — we'll talk about that in another podcast — but one of the things we got to do on this big travel was devour this fantastic book. Yes, we want everybody to go out and get this book and read it: Good Energy, by Dr. Casey Means. This will change your life and improve it for the better. We've sure talked about her before, because we really agree with everything in this book.
A Broken System — and a Lot of Hope
One of the things that's so great about this book is that she touches on our broken healthcare system — big food, big pharma, big problems — but at the same time, this book is filled with so much hope, and that's what I think is really cool. You don't realize how much of a hold big food and pharma have on you, as well as your access to healthcare, and the effect it has on your overall general health and well-being. That's kind of the reason we wanted to bring this up today.
It's certainly an eye-opener. We knew a lot, and unfortunately there's so much information that it's just overwhelming, so we talked about how you handle these types of things. I think you need to take it as just a small piece at a time — take off small bites instead of devouring the whole thing.
Good Energy vs. Bad Energy
The book is called Good Energy, and it also talks about bad energy, and the fact that bad energy is the reason for a lot of the health concerns we're facing. She mentions a trifecta of three causes of bad energy.
One of them is mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria are the true heart of existence — they allow us to have all our energy. For you to live, if you didn't have mitochondria that were functioning, you're not going to have a lot of energy. Every single cell in our body has mitochondria — some have just dozens, some hundreds — so it varies depending on the amount of energy that cell needs to produce. But when there's dysfunction, you have a lack of energy and a lack of production of energy.
Then there's chronic inflammation. You have the mitochondria that aren't functioning well, and then you have chronic inflammation, which is essentially all the environmental input — all the soup that we get exposed to, whether it be toxins or bad foods, etc. It's an accumulation of things that cause a chronic battle that's always going on inside our system, inside our cells, which leads to this dysfunction too.
And then you have the result, which is essentially oxidative stress — like rusty pipes, if you will. You can think of the particles or contaminants that float around and create damage to the cells too. That oxidative stress plays a big part in even something as simple as neurodegenerative problems and heart disease.
One thing I really thought was key is that our symptoms are our body's way of communicating to us that they aren't getting what they need at the cellular level. That's a really great way to look at it.
Metabolic Health and Five Key Biomarkers
Essentially, all of these things are talking about metabolic health, and that's something I feel like we've talked about a lot. We're hearing more about it, and the mainstream news media is starting to hear about it a little more in healthcare. She looks at some key markers, and the other great thing about this is that she really empowers the patient that they are their best ally. You are your best ally.
She makes it really easy — she's looking at five biomarkers that you're going to get at your regular annual exam from any doctor you go to, even your primary care doctor who doesn't practice functional or integrative medicine. Of those five markers, only three of them are on your blood work; the other two you can do yourself at home to identify those biomarkers, those indicators of metabolic dysfunction that lead to chronic disease.
We're looking at:
Triglycerides — ideally less than 80.
HDL — between 50 and 90.
Fasting glucose — ideally between 70 and 85.
Blood pressure — less than 120 over 80.
Waist circumference — the last marker — less than 40 inches for men and less than 35 inches for women.
When you take those biomarkers and see where you fall, if you're out of range in three of those, you have metabolic dysfunction. Then you get to go look and find out, from your symptoms, where your cells are not functioning well. There's a huge part of this book that talks about all the ways you can start to create good energy, and that's what is so hopeful.
Keep in mind that, as we've said before and you'll continue to hear, 92 to 93% of everybody in the United States is metabolically dysfunctional. So we have a component of metabolic dysfunction that is something we can work on and improve to avoid or even reverse certain chronic diseases. Nine out of 10 chronic diseases are something we can control in our own wheelhouse, so that's certainly something to remember.
Food as Building Blocks
When you begin to talk about food, she eloquently talks about changing your thoughts about food and your body, and looking at food as the building blocks. How does that change your thought process when you go to open up a box of Cheez-Its, and the kind of energy that is putting in your body? How are you going to process that highly overprocessed, nutritionally depleted food to try to give your cells what they need to repair, regenerate, and replace?
She talks about the body being a process. Your body is continually turning over cells, which is really hard to believe. You think, "I'm just getting older, cells are getting bigger and more mature." Yeah, they are, but you're also repairing and replacing these building blocks, and they all have function and they all have to work together. So if you're eating the right stuff, then you're giving your body the right nutrients to do that work and give you the good energy. When you think about your body as a process, how much more hopeful is that — knowing that what you do today can actually have an impact on your health and your body in the future? I really love that.
There are a lot of things besides just food, and I'm sure we'll touch on that in many other podcasts down the line, but this book really brings it all home with the food and good energy production.
Three Things to Cut From Your Diet
She has three key things to try to get out of your diet — we hate saying that word — three things to take out: refined sugars, refined grains, and industrial seed oils. Those things are simply bad. Easy? Not so much, because there are a lot of dependencies. The brain has been conditioned to have these dopamine rewards from the glucose and from the palatable foods that taste good, but that may not be the best nutrition for your cell. It makes your brain feel good, which you crave, and so when we have these cravings, it's sometimes hard to break through those cycles.
But these are things everybody can go into their pantry and cabinets and look at now. Start reading labels: what kind of sugars do I have in all this stuff? Sugar is in everything. We were just recently cooking dinner and I took the Worcestershire sauce — I can't even say that word — out, and it has molasses and sugar listed in the ingredients, and I don't even think of that as a sweet taste. Do a side-by-side taste test of just peanut butter. Get Jif or Skippy or whatever your favorite brand is and look at the back — obviously there are peanuts in there, but there's also sugar. Then get an organic peanut butter that's made from just nuts, and there's a difference. The big food companies that make these things know that — that's how they get you to have the cravings.
The Whole Picture: Sleep, Stress, and Getting Outside
Another great thing about this book is that it really touches on all areas of health — there's a lot in here about mental health, stress management, meditation, and sleep. We as a society are very sedentary, and that makes a huge difference. Getting outside, getting in nature, watching the sunrise and the sunset, getting sun on your eyes — we're so stuck on being indoors in our little controlled environments, and that doesn't really train our mitochondria to adapt or repair. They get sluggish. If it's always 72 degrees, they're always happy and comfortable and don't have to be stressed to try to make themselves better. And then now we start throwing in bad food and bad choices, alcohol, etc., and these things damage the mitochondria, which damages our energy.
All that then leads to mental changes too, not only from a pathologic standpoint — where we have issues like Alzheimer's, as well as other dementias — but, like I said, mental health, depression, and anxiety. Your gut is very responsible for a lot of how we feel and act during the day, and we're pouring this type of stuff into it, so it doesn't give it a chance to make us feel better.
Lessons From Traveling
One of the other interesting things as we were reading this book — obviously we were on this big trip, in a country that lives a lot differently than we do in the United States. First of all, we were jet-lagged, so we were falling asleep really early and waking up with the sun, and eating foods that were a lot less processed. We were moving lots — not every day, but lots of moving. I probably got more steps in a day there than I get in a week here. We're so used to sitting at our desks. And we were eating a lot less sugar — not nearly the sugar. We don't have the access there to all the sugary desserts being processed out there, so the sweets basically came in the form of fruit.
The Good Energy Plan — Go Slowly
In the last part of this book, she talks about the good energy plan and how to change, and her method is to do this slowly — which is perfect, because you can't make all these changes at the same time, it's just a lot. So it gives you bite-sized pieces, tips, and tricks to start with.
Since we've been back, we've been trying to get out in the morning and see the sunrise. It works out well that we're getting to be spring time, and the sun is coming up earlier, so it's nice. It may be cool out — it's okay, put on a couple of layers while you go outside, you're going to feel a lot better anyway. We've had some cloudy days, but I've definitely noticed a difference in my circadian rhythm just by getting out in the morning first thing, and then getting out several times throughout the day. If you can get outside for your lunch break, or just take a quick 10-minute walk around the parking lot — some way to get sun and light in your eyes throughout the day — it's super helpful. I can tell it's changed my sleep, because we've been doing a really good job. And then last night we had a little more screen time at the end of the day, and it's easy to fall off the bus.
Lots of little tricks like that — something pretty simple. If you can just start working these things in once a week, pick something new, and once you get that down, then add the next thing. It's always good to add new habits in that kind of inadvertently push bad habits out. Maybe it's something as simple as trying to keep a food journal — make yourself accountable, write down what you're eating and help yourself be a little more aware of what you're actually putting in your body to help refuel your cells.
Wearables and Accountability
That actually brings me to the other thing she talked about, which was a wearable device that will tell you how many steps you're taking. There are actually studies that show people think they're moving a lot more than they are — which is good to know, because if you don't have the information, you can't change or make improvements. So if you can get a Fitbit or a pedometer of any kind, just to see. Her recommendation is to get at least 7,000 steps a day. If you get 7,000 steps a day, you reduce your all-cause mortality and cardiac risk significantly, so it makes a huge difference.
It's just a matter of accountability. Maybe you need an accountability coach — somebody you can turn to, whether it's a friend or an actual nurse coach like yourself, who can say, "Okay, what have you done today? Have you done your steps? Did you get out? Did you get your sleep? What are you eating?" There's a lot someone else can help you with if you have trouble with your own actions.
I think that's another thing she does really well in the book — she talks about her own experience and how she's changed things just by having an accountability coach and checking in with someone who's helping with that. It's like, "Oh, I don't want to eat that cupcake, because I'm going to have to tell Susie that I ate that cupcake."
Wrapping Up
Anyway, I think we've pretty much covered everything — we don't want to give everything away, because this really is a great book and a great resource to have available. The information is a really easy read. We actually did a combination of reading and listening to the audiobook, because we were on the plane and we both had the one book, so it's also very easy to listen to. Either way you want to get it, have it. And if you know somebody who would benefit from it, what a good gift — get it for a spouse, brother, sister, or parents. It's something that can make a statement.
Anyway, I think that's it for today, but we appreciate you joining us on the Rev Up Health Podcast, and we look forward to seeing you again next time.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Rev Up Health. We hope you're leaving with some valuable insights to supercharge your health journey. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to Rev Up Health wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. Have a topic you want us to explore? Reach out to us on our social media channels — we love hearing from our wellness community. Until next time, keep thriving, and remember: your journey to health is a journey to a better you. Stay well, and we'll connect with you again soon. This is Tandi, and this is Dr. Mark, signing off from Rev Up Health. Take care.
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. The content is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient and their healthcare provider. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your healthcare regimen, including diet, exercise, or treatment plans. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Revelation Health and Wellbeing.