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?
Hello, and welcome. We're so happy to have you today, James. My pleasure — it's always exciting to come on these and talk to your clients and the population generally in Kansas City and Missouri. It's just a matter of getting folks out there and getting them educated, letting them know what products are available for them and how they can all be helped.
So today we're going to start off talking about the KBMO FIT test, which is a food sensitivity test. Tell us a little about it and what it's used for.
Sensitivity vs. Allergy
I'm going to start up front by giving you the quick definition of the difference between a sensitivity and an allergy — and I'll be honest, everyone who's listening, providers get this as wrong as you guys do. It's not to educate you, it's just one of those things that get intermingled and interchanged, so we want to make sure you're clear on it. As you quite rightly pointed out, we are looking at sensitivities, not allergies. They're both immunological responses. Allergies are instant — think anaphylactic shock, think of a kid eating a peanut, an instant response. The sensitivities we're after are more of a delayed response. It's both an immunological response, but it's that delayed nature of up to 72 hours, which makes it much harder for you, the patient, and the providers to work out what you might have consumed in that time scale that leads to the symptoms you present with when you come in and see Dr. Mark and Tandi.
The idea is trying to work out that delayed nature, which makes it much harder than the instant reaction, because that's generally a cause and effect. Those acute symptoms, folks typically know — "as soon as I eat that peanut, or have that product, my lips or tongue swell." But this is a different situation; it's more of a long-term, chronic thing that creates trouble with repeated use. So we can catch those things nicely.
Because it's delayed, that's why testing really makes more sense — it's much harder to work out. We could all play the detective, but why guess when you can actually test for it? The key thing is what you as an individual respond to, because we're all built differently and we all respond differently. So it's worth understanding on an individual basis which foods may well be leading to the symptoms you present with.
What Makes the FIT Test Different
What makes the KBMO a little different than some of the other sensitivity tests? A lot of the tests out there are measuring — without getting too scientific — a thing called IgG, which is an immunoglobulin. What it's doing, in essence, is telling you which foods you're exposed to, based on your diet. (I love the gong in the background there — good sound effects.)
So that's the IgG. What we're doing at the same time is looking at two pathways. We look at IgG because we want to know what you're exposed to, but on top of that, we want to know which foods are actually leading to an inflammatory response — and that's looking at what they call the innate immune system. By looking at these two pathways, it moves you on from having a long list of foods you might be exposed to, down to a much shorter list that are actually causing an inflammatory response.
A good example: there's a company called Everlywell — anyone on Instagram will have seen them, they're mass marketing, a great company — but they're looking at that IgG only. We ran one of those on the same day we ran our Food Inflammation Test, and what we saw was 25-plus foods on the Everlywell test, versus five on the FIT test. So when we talk about scientifically eliminating false positives, in essence what we mean is identifying the key foods leading to that inflammation. If you show a list of 25 foods to a patient, they'll lose it — there's no way; they've got to eat something. Exactly — it's like bread and water. Oops, low bread! So the idea is getting them to a position where we're really zeroing in on the foods causing inflammation, versus just exposure.
We've got a great provider in Ohio, and she said, "James, what I love about the FIT test is you're measuring the whole immune system versus just half of it" — not just stopping at the exposure, but going on to really look at which foods are causing that level of inflammation, which is really the key to getting to the root cause.
An Easy-to-Read, Color-Coded Report
I also like the accuracy of how the testing works, because it breaks it down into different levels of severity. It lets you know, "These are the ones that are really set — I really need to stay away from these guys," or "do they fall into my 80/20 rule, where 20% of the time I can have something I really like but shouldn't." Those maybe have a little different color coding.
What we tried to do is make this something every provider and every patient could really understand, because sometimes you see these reports that are 30 pages long, and none of us are getting any — our attention spans certainly aren't getting any longer. So the idea was to color-code it: red is bad, that's a four-plus, and dark green is fine, that's zero on our scale. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how whiz-bang and smart your test is — it is the only patented food test on the market, developed by the guy who invented the first rapid HIV diagnostic — but that's irrelevant if the patient isn't compliant. So how do we make it compliant? That color coding is one of the key ways, as well as — who knows what's happening from climate change — we wanted to cut down fewer trees, so it's a three-page report, really easy for the patient and provider to understand.
How the Test Works
You may want to describe how the testing occurs. It's a finger stick, so it's really easy to do in the office or at home. If you choose to run it at home, it can be drop-shipped to your house. We'll put in two of the lancets, so you literally prick the side of your middle finger, drop the blood onto a five-blood-spot card, leave it an hour to dry, and stick it in a stamped, addressed envelope — we want you to be able to find your mailbox, put it in, and we send the results back to the provider.
When it hits the lab, from a quality standpoint, the lab is ISO registered, all our manufacturing is done under FDA guidelines, and we're inspected routinely by CLIA as well. So all of these different agencies come in and make sure we're doing exactly what we should be doing. And we do above and beyond that — for example, every 10,000 tests we run, we'll run extra samples to make sure that between each lab tech we employ, the results are the same. Our founder invented the first rapid HIV diagnostic, so we do everything through an infectious disease lens. We want to make sure this is highly accurate, because if we're going to ask you to stop drinking beer or coffee, or stop eating wheat, we need to be really accurate with those results. We'll do 15 extra tests per patient to make sure of what they call standard and control. So when Dr. Mark says, "Looks like gluten is your problem," we can be really confident standing behind those results.
The Gut-Immune Connection
Noticing the way some of the testing comes back is really quite interesting, and these things are important to know from a long-term standpoint, because they can lead to autoimmune disorders for folks with leaky gut processes. There's a lot of buzz these days about leaky gut and autoimmune diseases — there's a lot that's just not completely understood — but if we have another tool in our belt to look at that and be the investigators we are, it certainly helps us change lives for folks and their gut health.
If you think about it, when you go buy a new car, they tell you to make sure you put this specific oil or gas into your car — think of your body exactly the same way. Your body is an engine, and you want to know, as an individual, what's the best oil and gas for your body. That's where this test helps, because with this multiple-pathway approach, it identifies which foods are going to cause you inflammation that you need to avoid, and which foods actually aid your engine to make it work as effectively as possible.
Leaky gut is one of those areas where some providers say, "Well, we don't believe in that," but the reality is it's working out what's going on from an immune health standpoint — and it's only taken a pandemic for us all to understand that immune health is important. So with this testing, we can look at which foods cause inflammation, and now we've added a gut health panel to see which elements are causing leaky gut. It's the only test on the market that does it, so we can work out the classic chicken-and-egg question: which came first, the leaky gut or the food sensitivity? It doesn't really matter which, because if it's leaky gut, you want to heal the gut, and if it's a food sensitivity, you can eliminate that food from your diet. What you generally see then is a reduction of inflammation, which very tightly links with the symptoms you present with.
The FIT Test Panels
Now let's get into the different types and levels of testing. We have three different panels: the FIT 22, the 132, and the 176. There's nothing magic behind those numbers, apart from being the number of foods, colorings, and additives that we measure. It's really key to measure those colorings and additives, because as we go about our daily lives, you'll see them in processed foods that we're all guilty of eating, increasingly in supplementation, as well as personal hygiene products — think of your skin as the third barrier, so you want to be aware of what you're putting on it. We hear stories about when some of those markers are elevated, like benzoic acid — you'll find that in washing powder and shampoos.
The 176 is the biggest one. The good news is that the 132 and the 176 both include our gut barrier panel, so it gives you a way of looking at that leaky gut and food inflammation at the same time — a really powerful way of working out what might be going on from an immune health standpoint, versus which foods, on an individualized basis, are causing inflammation.
Why Get Tested
One thing I'll say: I'm yet to find a patient who casually says, "Oh, let me tell you what my triglyceride levels are," or "my cholesterol's really high, I'm really proud of that." However, people really love to talk about this test result, because there's no judgment attached to it. It shows you're going the extra mile as an individual — "I want to find out, am I sensitive to dairy? I think I am, but I'm not sure. Or is it wheat, is it eggs, or is it some of these colorings and additives?" As we all know, heart disease isn't based on what you did yesterday; it's what you did over the last 20 years. So the sooner you can look at these things in a preventative way, the better — and that's the great thing about Dr. Mark and Tandi, they're doing that preventative work for you.
I just can't imagine anybody who wouldn't want this information from a general health standpoint. But anybody with an autoimmune problem — this is kind of a key to really getting to the bottom of understanding a lot of what can flare those things up. And it doesn't just stop at autoimmune disease — with this test, you're looking at the root cause of inflammation, and inflammation is basically the backbone of every disease state. Whether it's migraines, arthritis, or autism, one of the underlying causes is inflammation. If you've got joint pain, that's inflammation; skin-related issues, that's inflammation — it's your body's natural mechanism telling you what might be going on. The one thing we all do is eat, at least three times a day, so why not work out which foods are good or bad for you, and keep that inflammatory burden down?
How Often to Retest
We may want to touch on how often you should retest. This is an unusual thing for a guy who owns a testing lab to tell you, but with the foods test, generally people run the test, identify the foods, and they're good to go — so don't retest for that. What we're actually saying is look at the gut barrier, because what we want to do is heal the gut. Back in the Greek times, they said all disease begins in the gut, so let's adjust and heal the gut. If your markers are elevated on our gut barrier panel, we suggest retesting six months after you've run the test — a much smaller, lower-priced test — to make sure you actually healed the gut.
I was at another trade show this weekend, and a lot of providers were telling me they think they should do stool testing. I asked them, "How's the compliance for stool testing?" and they said, "Fair point, James, not very good." Nothing against stool testing, but this is a finger stick — really easy to do, and we give you a lot of information around inflammation as well as immune health, just with a prick of your finger. And if, after those results, you still believe you need to go on to that next step, go do that as well.
Meal Plans and Compliance
I really love the food plans you send as part of the test. Once you get your results — sometimes it takes a couple of days — you get a food plan that gives you ideas of how to cut those things out and still eat well. That's intentional; we spent a lot of money investing in compliance tools, because if patients aren't compliant, they're not going to get the maximum benefit from the investment they're making. So we make it approachable — the report is short and color-coded, so you don't have to be a PhD to understand it (though the good news is a PhD invented it). And the meal plan — the number of providers who tell me the patient gets the report back and goes, "Oh my gosh, what can I eat?" — so we give them a direction of what they can eat. We also put that on a phone app, because everyone has a smartphone these days, so when you're out for dinner or grocery shopping, you can check which foods you should be avoiding.
For all the pricing out there, this is a great marketing tool, because people love to share it with friends and family — as I said, there's no judgment attached, almost a badge of honor. And it's very affordable testing, which makes it nice — it's easier to get a lot of folks to really see what's going on inside their gut and their general inflammatory health status. That was intentional, which is why we've got the three bands: the 22, the 132, and the 176, to make sure it's affordable for all. The only 1% we talk about is the 1% of providers who understand the importance of nutrition, and we want to make that 1% into 2%, 5%, 10%. It's legendary, the number of physicians who, after eight years of training, have done one 40-hour course on nutrition, which is crazy to me — but that's a different subject. The point is to make this available to as many people as possible, working with amazing providers like yourselves who understand the importance of this functional medicine, holistic approach — looking at everything in the round, versus, "I'm going to go to my gastroenterologist, then my dermatologist" — it's a nightmare. The idea is that it's joined up.
The New Cardiovascular Test
One of the things we added was a cardiovascular test. Cardiovascular health, inflammation, and gut health are all linked together, because a lot of the markers are interchangeable. Dr. Mark will explain how all these things are interrelated — they're not separate silos. When we look at cardiovascular health, it's kind of disappointing to hear the standard lipid profile that all of us get if we go in and get a medical. They call it standard of care — and I have to be careful, because we'll get into trouble — but the standard of care basically means 50% of patients who have a heart attack had a normal lipid profile the day of that heart attack. I would argue that's not a great standard of care, but it's a standard of care.
So we wanted to add a number of markers to make it way more robust and give you some predictors. We added a thing called ApoB, which internationally is the number one indicator of cardiovascular health. Unfortunately, only 5% of the US population have had that run, so go in and see these guys and get that marker run on you. The other one — this sounds really nerdy, but my favorite marker of all time — is a thing called Lp(a), lipoprotein little a. It's a genetic marker present in one in three of the population. A lot of people talk about genetic tests and say, "Well, I'm 1% Icelandic," whatever it might be — that's only one or two percent — whereas this is one in three, so 30% of the population are walking around with Lp(a). The significance is that it increases the plaque activity in your system, and plaque is really bad from any cardiovascular perspective. That marker alone, if you go in and it's positive, these guys can dramatically change your outcomes. So those are some of the things we've added to that panel to give you a really good way of working out your cardiac risk profile, rather than waiting to be one of the 50% who didn't have a normal lipid profile on the day of a heart attack. It's all about prevention and giving you the tools — some of those markers will have a dramatic impact on how you live your next 20 to 30 years on this planet.
Inflammation Is the Common Thread
I can't tell you how many times I've seen patients over 30 years of practice come in with rashes or congestion. Being trained in a traditional ear, nose, and throat setting, a lot of people just have a chronic inflammatory process. These skin rashes, the eczema people have, or their chronic sinus disease, or their allergies in general — these things are aggravated by a chronic inflammatory process, and this is just an extra tool we can use to help calm that down. Exactly — I'm not saying it's going to cure anything, but what it is going to do is identify that inflammation. It's one of the parts — it's stress, it's all these other things — but eating is something we all do, and it's not optional. So let's at least work out, on an individualized basis, whether whatever we're eating is actually doing us good, not bad. Let's keep that inflammatory burden down, which is hard enough on all of us as we go about our daily lives.
That's absolutely true, and this is just another thing we can do in this new style of medicine, where we're empowering our patients by giving them the information to make good choices for themselves. It can be frustrating, and certainly not the most positive experience, if you've spent a long time with the wrong healthcare outcome and you go in and they just bash you over the head — "Oh my gosh, you're overweight, you've got this." It may not be down to you. If we can identify some of these things, we can help you lose weight or adjust some of these things based simply on what you're consuming. We're not saying don't eat anything; we're just saying, why don't we work out what it is for you as an individual? That power is amazing to see — how it transforms people's health, and in turn their lives.
What KBMO Stands For
It's one of those great privileges for me and everyone who works at KBMO. To give you an idea of why it's so personal to me: KBMO stands for K, my wife Katherine; B, my son Ben; M, my son Max; and — we always say we save the best to last — O, Olivia, my daughter. It means that much to me that I've named it after my wife and three kids. It's important to us that everything we do is making sure we try to do the best possible thing for our providers, and we've got some wonderful ones out there. It's a privilege to be on this show today.
Wrapping Up
Well, James, we really appreciate it — thank you for giving us a lot of information to think about, and I hope we can spread the word. I just want to let everybody know that this is the kit you'll get for some of the products and services you guys offer. In today's new age of medicine, trying to create and promote health, it's nice to have control over what we can do, instead of just taking a medication. Let's look and see the reason why — let's get to that root cause of why we're in this situation. We certainly appreciate you taking your time today.
Thank you both — and again, anyone who has the privilege of working with these guys, you're in great shape. What a privilege to get to providers who are asking that question, "Why?" If you go to a hundred standard docs, none of them are going to ask you that. It's a great step forward, working with these guys and the type of tools they've got access to, because they're out there banging the streets at these trade shows I have to attend as well, looking for the next latest, greatest thing. That's an amazing thing they're doing on your behalf. Well, we sure appreciate it. Thanks again, James. My pleasure — take care, bye-bye.
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.