283: Toréa Rodriguez - Using Functional Diagnostic Nutrition to Maximize Your Health and Life

Functional Diagnostic Nutrition is not something most people have heard of. Nick and Ari’s guest on this episode, Toréa Rodriquez is just the person to help us understand. She’s a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® practitioner who offers lifestyle coaching to help her clients get to the root cause of what ails them - and she's a member of the Leverage community. FDN is based on functional medicine combined with modern diagnostic labs to build a customized health plan, unique to each individual. With Toréa’s help, her clients explore food, rest, movement, stress reduction and supplementation programs to rebuild their health and restore their quality of life. Hear how Toréa came to her current business and practice as an FDN provider from walking through a health crisis of her own, on this episode of Leverage. ## Lifestyle issues are always at the heart of physical conditions. Toréa Rodriguez says that at the heart of every physical illness or condition is some kind of lifestyle issue - whether it’s diet and nutrition, lack of sufficient rest, stress, or inadequate physical or mental activity. In her work as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner Toréa has seen many people turn around their health problems and restore themselves to a more satisfying and fulfilling life through addressing the lifestyle habits that have put them in a bad place, to begin with. You can hear how Toréa helps her clients, on this episode. ## Most people don’t have a clue about how they are REALLY doing from a health perspective. In modern society, we’ve relied on traditional, medicine-based approaches to health for so long that we’ve lost our ability to wisely consider other ways of assessing and addressing health issues. Toréa Rodriguez says that even the most basic blood work is not a part of how the average family practice or medical doctor approaches understanding and treatment… at least not until a situation is in dire need of a solution. On this episode, Toréa walks Ari and Nick through a handful of blood tests and evaluations she feels are crucial for most people and explains the kind of results you can expect and the path toward addressing each one. ## How important is family history for diagnosing risk of certain conditions? On this episode, Nick mentioned to his guest, Toréa Rodriguez that his doctor is concerned about his risks for certain conditions because of family history in those areas. Toréa replied that though family history is a factor to consider, it’s not always as telling a sign as doctors imply, simply because your lifestyle and diet choices may be far different than those in your family who have come before you. On this episode, Toréa walks through some of Nick’s test numbers and gives him advice on what additional tests he should do to get a clearer picture of his health. ## Time is time, whether personal or work related. Optimizing your ability to use it is vital. When asked about her 3 biggest pieces of advice for people who want to be more effective, Toréa Rodriguez said that people need to do whatever they can to automate their lives so they can do what is truly important. She says that no matter what you need to use your time for - personal or work-related - it’s all the same thing: time. That means you need to maximize it by automating everything you can in order to spend your time doing the things that are most important. You can hear her singing Ari and Nick’s song, can’t you? Get more of Toréa’s insights on this episode of Leverage. ## Outline of This Episode - [0:11] How Toréa went from being a commercial pilot to a functional medicine practitioner. - [3:47] What does it entail to work with Toréa? - [5:00] Toréa’s advice about essential bloodwork most people should have done. - [13:19] Why you need to do prior health work before doing heavy metal testing. - [14:57] Approaching issues in a phased approach to get the best, biggest gains sooner. - [15:51] Supplements Toréa r