#236: The Truth about Metabolic Dysfunction and How to Address It Head On with Dr. Casey Means

October 27, 2020 in Podcast, Women’s Health 0

If You Want to Understand Your Metabolism Better You Should:

Understand which of your lifestyle practices are contributing to the vicious cycle of insulin resistance
Learn what your body needs to process energy effectively by continuously monitoring your blood glucose levels
Implement simple behavioral changes by increasing your accountability and awareness of your bodies levels

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Episode Summary

Did you know that almost 90% of Americans deal with some type of metabolic dysfunction? Metabolic dysfunction is, by far, one of the biggest epidemics in this country and can impact everything from your mood to the health of your immune system.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way! It is possible to monitor which foods are sabotaging your insulin, metabolism, and energy levels so that you can limit your risk of chronic illness and start to heal your insulin sensitivity.

Taking Hold of Your Metabolism and Your Health with Dr. Casey Means

Dr. Casey Means is a Stanford trained MD, biomedical researcher, and surgeon-turned-metabolic health evangelist. As Chief Medical Officer of pioneering digital health startup Levels, she’s leveraging breakthrough technology to solve metabolic dysfunction.

Dr. Casey is passionate about scaling the behavioral changes necessary to create conditions in the body that allow for thriving metabolic health, stable glucose levels, and less inflammation. By merging what we know about medicine with digital tools and products, Dr. Casey is bringing root cause medicine into the digital era.

Why Metabolic Health Matters

The truth is, no part of your body is safe from metabolic disease if you do not treat it right.. The good news is that your body can become metabolically fit again with the right behavioral changes. These changes are low hanging fruit that can help you control your insulin and get on top of your symptoms.

It is not just food that impacts your glucose levels. Food timing, sleep, exercise, and stress all play major roles in your metabolic health. These factors are also closely linked to many chronic illnesses and show the importance of making your metabolic health something that you care about as early as possible.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring of the Future

Traditional glucose monitoring systems have many limitations and do not provide a holistic overview of all of the varied reasons that your glucose could be spiking. This is why Dr. Casey and her team at Levels have developed software to help people track their numbers and find actionable solutions.

Dr. Casey believes that everyone can uplevel their lives by getting their metabolic health in check. By tracking and measuring how your own unique body reacts to the environment that you place it in, you can start to take action and improve your metabolic and overall health.

Do you or someone you know struggle with metabolic dysfunction, insulin sensitivity, or chronic inflammation? Share this episode with them and let me know what actionable behavioral change you will start implementing into your routine in the comments below!

Quotes

“We want everyone to understand what is going on in their own metabolism and be able to act on that so they can move the needle in the right direction.” (7:23)

“We have trillions of cells in our bodies; we are made up entirely of cells. That’s the reality. And every single cell, for it to work, it needs energy to function. It needs a usable form of energy. And that is created from our metabolism.” (16:48)

“The beauty is, while we can move sort of in the wrong direction on this pathway, we can also move in the right direction. It’s not a one-way street, it is a spectrum that we can move back and forth on.” (20:43)

“We can go out and take a 2-mile walk and know exactly how many steps that is giving us. And we don’t have that for a meal. We don’t know that if we eat this meal, this is the impact it had on our body. So that is what excites me so much about continuous glucose monitoring, finally, we can close the loop and create a one to one relationship between this food I ate and what it did to me.” (34:22)

“We have created software that helps people get to the root of all of these things, get to the root of what is working for them, what’s not working for them, and be able to actually make those behavior changes. (47:18)

In This Episode

Discover what metabolism is and why it plays one of the most central roles in our body and our bodies function (16:10)
Why continuously monitoring your blood glucose is the gold standard for understanding how your metabolism and blood sugar work (22:08)
The four things other than food that are dramatically impacting your glucose levels (26:44)
The most exciting ways that continuous blood glucose monitoring can impact your health accountability (33:20)
Foundational ways that you can minimize glucose spikes after a meal and keep your levels in check through food (39:52)
How Levels can help you transition to healthier lifestyle behaviors (46:55)