Ep. 169 Why Should You Care About Your Metabolic Health? Empowering a Deep Understanding of Our Bodies with Dr. Casey Means

I am delighted today to be interviewing Dr. Casey Means! She is a Stanford-trained physician, Chief Medical Officer and Co-founder of the metabolic health company Levels, an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and a Lecturer at Stanford University. Her mission is to maximize human potential and reverse the epidemic of preventable chronic disease by empowering individuals with tools that can help facilitate a deep understanding of our bodies and inform personalized and sustainable dietary and lifestyle choices. Dr. Means was recently featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and more. 

Dr. Means has an interesting story to tell. She trained as a surgeon and an ear, nose, and throat doctor. Her interest in the impact of diet, lifestyle, and nutrition on people’s foundational health started at a relatively young age. She began focusing on nutrigenomics when she was still an undergraduate student at Stanford. It was an exciting time at Stanford because the human genome project was happening, and 23andMe was going online. She enjoyed learning about the correlation between nutritional compounds and gene expression and finding out that our genes are a blueprint and not our destiny.

Dr. Means is joining me today to talk about metabolic dysfunction and using continuous glucose monitors for facilitating your personalized diet. Stay tuned to find out more!

IN THIS EPISODE YOU WILL LEARN:

• Dr. Means talks about how her journey started and how she became interested in the impact of diet, lifestyle, and nutrition on people’s foundational health.
• The shocking amount of refined sugar that gets consumed by the average American each year and the impact that has on their metabolic health.
• What chronic inflammation is, what it does in the body at the cellular level, and why that is so detrimental.
• What happens in your body when you are overfed, when your blood sugar stays elevated over time, and when your insulin is kept high.
• What you should, and should not eat to maintain your metabolic flexibility.
• The benefits of fasting.
• Some practical ways of pairing proteins to help reduce blood sugar fluctuations.
• The impact of sex hormones on blood sugar control.
• What a continuous glucose monitor is and how it works.
• Why you need to know what’s going on in your gut microbiome.
• Why long-term adherence to a low carb or keto diet can cause reverse metabolic inflexibility.
• The correlation between blood sugar instability and debilitating hot flashes in women in perimenopause or menopause.

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