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#HURDLEMOMENT: Understanding Your Metabolism With Levels Co-Founder Dr. Casey Means · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: We think about metabolism in terms of like weight and energy,
0:02
Speaker 1: but really it finally comes down to power our body
0:05
Speaker 1: with a currency that we can use. We have to
0:07
Speaker 1: convert food to something that is usable, and that is metabolism,
0:11
Speaker 1: and that is every cell.
0:27
Speaker 2: What's going on everyone, Emily A body here bringing you
0:30
Speaker 2: another installment of Hurdle Moment from Hurdle. I feel the
0:34
Speaker 2: need as the year is starting to wind down to
0:37
Speaker 2: revisit what my goal has been with these weekly Hurdle
0:41
Speaker 2: Moment episodes, dropping them more often than not on Wednesdays.
0:47
Speaker 3: These episodes have.
0:48
Speaker 2: Been my way to offer you more information, to bring
0:52
Speaker 2: both new experts into the fold, and just give you
0:55
Speaker 2: tips and tricks that you can use to live a happy,
1:00
Speaker 2: your healthier and more motivated life. And that continues today
1:04
Speaker 2: with my guest doctor Casey Means. Casey is the co
1:10
Speaker 2: founder and chief medical officer of Levels Health. I feel
1:14
Speaker 2: like I've been hearing about Levels absolutely everywhere lately, so
1:18
Speaker 2: I'm so amped about this conversation and to be able
1:21
Speaker 2: to bring you some information about what Levels is and
1:25
Speaker 2: more importantly, perhaps what we need to know about our metabolism,
1:31
Speaker 2: about metabolic health.
1:33
Speaker 3: So let's talk about what Levels is.
1:35
Speaker 2: Levels tracks your blood glucose in real time so that
1:40
Speaker 2: you can maximize your diet and your exercise. Simply put,
1:43
Speaker 2: the team at Levels believes that metabolic health is the
1:46
Speaker 2: key to warding off chronic diseases that make us more
1:50
Speaker 2: vulnerable to viral outbreaks. Seems pretty relevant to what we
1:54
Speaker 2: are going through right now. I know, I know that
1:58
Speaker 2: this can all seem a little bit complicated, but that's
2:01
Speaker 2: why I've got Casey here at the ready to help
2:04
Speaker 2: us really understand how we can gauge metabolic health, what
2:09
Speaker 2: metabolic health really means, talk about things like inflammation and
2:13
Speaker 2: how blood sugar levels affect body temperature, and really help
2:18
Speaker 2: us understand the science in a way that feels relative
2:22
Speaker 2: to our every day now, just because it is the season.
2:26
Speaker 2: If you are listening today and you like what you
2:29
Speaker 2: hear and you want to try out Levels for yourself,
2:32
Speaker 2: I worked with a team there to do something pretty
2:34
Speaker 2: awesome right now.
2:35
Speaker 3: Their app actually has a sixty.
2:37
Speaker 2: Thousand person waitlist and they're running a closed early access program,
2:42
Speaker 2: but you are.
2:43
Speaker 3: Welcome if you're interested.
2:45
Speaker 2: You can skip that line and purchase Levels today by
2:48
Speaker 2: heading over to a special link just for Hurdlers. It
2:51
Speaker 2: is Levels dot link slash Hurdle again, that's Levels dot
2:56
Speaker 2: link slash Hurdle. To skip the line today and check
2:59
Speaker 2: it out for yourself. As always, as you're listening today,
3:03
Speaker 2: make sure to tag me over on social media at
3:06
Speaker 2: Hurdle podcast and I am at Emily a body I
3:09
Speaker 2: would love to interact with you over there. I always
3:12
Speaker 2: promise to check into my dms, so if you've got questions, comments, concerns,
3:17
Speaker 2: love letters, I'll take it all. In addition, I know
3:21
Speaker 2: we're in the home stretch of twenty twenty, but trust me,
3:24
Speaker 2: stick around for the next few weeks in your podcasts
3:28
Speaker 2: app keep checking in on Hurdle because I have some
3:31
Speaker 2: really exciting content and special special guests to round out
3:35
Speaker 2: an awesome year and kickstart a brand new one. With that,
3:41
Speaker 2: let's get to hurdling.
3:54
Speaker 3: Today. I am chatting with Casey Means.
3:57
Speaker 2: She is a co founder of Levels and their chief
4:00
Speaker 2: medical officer.
4:01
Speaker 3: How you doing today, Gasy.
4:02
Speaker 1: I am doing so well. Great to chat with you today.
4:06
Speaker 3: Thanks for coming on.
4:07
Speaker 2: So I could give a brief synopsis of Levels, but
4:11
Speaker 2: I feel like it'll obviously be better if you do it,
4:13
Speaker 2: so give me the brief synopsis.
4:16
Speaker 1: Sure, So Levels is really the first biowearable company. So
4:20
Speaker 1: what we are is we are a wearable sensor called
4:23
Speaker 1: a continuous Glucose monitor that you put on your arm,
4:25
Speaker 1: and it's actually doing like a little lab test twenty
4:27
Speaker 1: four hours a day on your arm. It's measuring your
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Speaker 1: glucose in earn internal biomarker, the key substrate of metabolism,
4:34
Speaker 1: every fifteen minutes, twenty four hours a day, and it's
4:36
Speaker 1: sending that information to your smartphone. And what Levels does
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Speaker 1: is interpret that metabolic data stream and helps people understand
4:44
Speaker 1: exactly how the food they're eating and the exercise they're
4:47
Speaker 1: doing and their different lifestyle choices are all affecting their
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Speaker 1: metabolism in real time.
4:52
Speaker 3: So it's the.
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Speaker 1: First closed loop biofeedback that we've ever really had on nutrition.
4:58
Speaker 1: So you can sort of say, like I just had lunch,
5:00
Speaker 1: Was that a good meal for me or was it not?
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Speaker 1: Are those foods I should be eating or are they not?
5:05
Speaker 1: Or you can do the same for a workout. So
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Speaker 1: we're really bringing biowearables, meaning wearables that are testing internal biomarkers,
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Speaker 1: to the mainstream for a market of people who are
5:17
Speaker 1: trying to improve their health, optimize their diet, optimize their
5:20
Speaker 1: athletic performance, and just really live their best life. Live
5:24
Speaker 1: their best life.
5:25
Speaker 2: Now, I know that the statistic is almost ten percent
5:28
Speaker 2: of the US is diabetic. That's increasing rapidly. Eighty four
5:32
Speaker 2: million Americans are pre diabetic. Seventy percent will be diabetic
5:35
Speaker 2: within ten years. So that's kind of to my understanding,
5:39
Speaker 2: where the idea or the thoughts for the necessity of
5:45
Speaker 2: a product like levels really came from.
5:47
Speaker 3: Is that right?
5:48
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is you've got the stats, you know,
5:51
Speaker 1: exactly right. It's kind of astronomical. We have one hundred
5:53
Speaker 1: and twenty eight million Americans with pre diabetes or diabetes,
5:58
Speaker 1: and of those, thirty percent diabetic and the rest are
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Speaker 1: pre diabetic, and those who are pre diabetic ninety percent
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Speaker 1: don't know that they have this problem. It's just really incredible,
6:07
Speaker 1: like that's a huge percentage of our country. And what's more,
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Speaker 1: and this, you know, these are disorders of metabolism. We
6:15
Speaker 1: can't control our blood sugar properly. But even more broadly,
6:18
Speaker 1: there's more recent data from UNC actually from last year
6:21
Speaker 1: that suggests that eighty eight percent of Americans actually have
6:25
Speaker 1: at least one marker of metabolic dysfunction, So expanding just
6:29
Speaker 1: from glucose, it's also looking at things like weights, to
6:32
Speaker 1: hip ratio, or cholesterol levels, all of which have to
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Speaker 1: do with metabolism in general, metabolism being the core way
6:38
Speaker 1: in our body that we make energy for our cells.
6:42
Speaker 1: So eighty eight percent of Americans are not doing this
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Speaker 1: exactly properly, and only twelve percent of people are considered
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Speaker 1: optimally metabolically healthy. And this is really rooted. Most of
6:52
Speaker 1: this is entirely preventable. It's rooted in the way we're
6:55
Speaker 1: living our lives now. It's what we eat. It's lack
6:58
Speaker 1: of sleep, it's you know, incre east chronic stress, it's
7:01
Speaker 1: lack of physical activity, lack of quality micro nutrients in
7:05
Speaker 1: our diet. All of these things translate into problems with
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Speaker 1: the way we make and process energy in the body,
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Speaker 1: and that is fundamentally metabolism. So when you think about
7:15
Speaker 1: a tool like a continuous glucose monitor, you can imagine like, oh, well,
7:19
Speaker 1: this would be fantastic for people who have a disorder
7:22
Speaker 1: of glucose like diabetes, and that's what this technology has
7:25
Speaker 1: been used for for the most part. It's actually an
7:28
Speaker 1: FDA approved wearable device for people with diabetes. But when
7:32
Speaker 1: you think about the fact that, you know, it's not
7:34
Speaker 1: just diabetic people who need to think about glucose. This
7:37
Speaker 1: is a core substrate for all of us in terms
7:40
Speaker 1: we have how we process and utilize energy in the body,
7:44
Speaker 1: and so all of us can can optimize this aspect
7:48
Speaker 1: of our health to improve our current performance and prevent
7:51
Speaker 1: future disease. So what we're really doing at the company
7:54
Speaker 1: is is taking it out of really that medical realm
7:57
Speaker 1: just sequestered to a population who has been diagnosed with
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Speaker 1: over metabolic disorder and making it, you know, bringing it
8:03
Speaker 1: to the masses for people who want to take control
8:06
Speaker 1: of their health and who want to have some insight
8:09
Speaker 1: on these daily behaviors that they're doing that impact our
8:12
Speaker 1: overall current performance but also future risk of disease. And
8:16
Speaker 1: so yeah, so that's exactly right. We're you know, we're
8:19
Speaker 1: trying to you know, help people have insight and awareness
8:24
Speaker 1: into some of these key factors of our health that
8:27
Speaker 1: underlie so much of the chronic disease we're seeing in
8:29
Speaker 1: our country.
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Speaker 2: And of course, as you mentioned many times over that explanation,
8:35
Speaker 2: we're really talking about metabolism and better understanding metabolism, which
8:39
Speaker 2: I think for so many is something that just kind
8:41
Speaker 2: of seems like out of their own realm. They don't
8:45
Speaker 2: really understand like what it means to have a fast
8:47
Speaker 2: or a slow metabolism, or maybe the only thing they
8:50
Speaker 2: think to themselves is like, oh, my metabolism is so
8:52
Speaker 2: slow because it's just not helping me, you know, do
8:56
Speaker 2: the things that I want to do. So what I
8:57
Speaker 2: would love to do with you is kind of talked
9:00
Speaker 2: through probably some of the most popular questions that are
9:04
Speaker 2: asked about metabolism. Firstly, metabolism it differs from person to person,
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Speaker 2: Is that right?
9:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd say that that's right. I mean zooming back
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Speaker 1: a little bit. Metabolism really refers to all these cellular
9:18
Speaker 1: pathways sort of the chemical reactions that are happening in
9:21
Speaker 1: the body that take the food we eat and convert
9:25
Speaker 1: it into energy. So food is sort of this like
9:27
Speaker 1: basic building block substrate that can be used for energy,
9:32
Speaker 1: but we have to convert it in our cells, and
9:34
Speaker 1: every single cell in our body, we have trillions of them.
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Speaker 1: They all need this usable form of energy to function,
9:41
Speaker 1: every single cell. So we think about metabolism in terms
9:45
Speaker 1: of like weight and energy, but really it finally comes
9:47
Speaker 1: down to power our body with a currency that we
9:50
Speaker 1: can use. We have to convert food to something that
9:53
Speaker 1: is usable, and that is metabolism, and that is every cell.
9:57
Speaker 1: And this is why when metabolism kind of goes off course,
10:02
Speaker 1: we can see almost any type of symptom or disease.
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Speaker 1: We right now know that metabolic dysfunction, these chemical reactions,
10:11
Speaker 1: these pathways in the body of converting food to energy
10:14
Speaker 1: that we can use. When those are off course, we
10:17
Speaker 1: can see things ranging from obviously diabetes and obesity, but
10:22
Speaker 1: also heart disease, chronic liver disease, dementia, chronic pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, wrinkles,
10:29
Speaker 1: premature balding, infertility, the most common cause of infertility of
10:33
Speaker 1: Polysisicoherian syndrome, which is a metabolic condition. We see a
10:36
Speaker 1: rectile dysfunction, We see athletic lack of athletic endurance. We
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Speaker 1: see so many different things in all parts of the body.
10:45
Speaker 1: And when you think about this, you know, intabolism is
10:47
Speaker 1: this core fundamental pathway. You can imagine if that's going awry,
10:52
Speaker 1: basically where that's showing up is where you're going to
10:54
Speaker 1: get symptoms. It could look like anything depending on what
10:57
Speaker 1: cell type it's arising in. So if we think of,
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Speaker 1: you know, all these diseases that I just mentioned and
11:03
Speaker 1: symptoms as separate things, that's kind of a fallacy because
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Speaker 1: really they're all branches that the root of the tree
11:10
Speaker 1: is metabolic dysfunction. And so, you know, in traditional medicine,
11:14
Speaker 1: we've often looked at things very reactively of like, you know,
11:17
Speaker 1: you have this symptom or this disease, and we think
11:19
Speaker 1: of it like very specifically as part of its organ system.
11:23
Speaker 1: But the reality is we are a and we treat
11:25
Speaker 1: it accordingly. You know, we give a very specific drug
11:27
Speaker 1: for that type of thing. But we are a unified
11:30
Speaker 1: body and there are core pathways that dictate so much
11:32
Speaker 1: of our health. And so I think there's really a
11:34
Speaker 1: movement in medicine now to think more from a root
11:37
Speaker 1: cause perspective of what are the actual what's the physiology
11:41
Speaker 1: that's linking so much of the chronic conditions and symptoms
11:44
Speaker 1: that we're seeing, especially in our population now, And one
11:48
Speaker 1: of those key root causes is dysfunctional metabolism. So it's
11:52
Speaker 1: a complex thing. There's a lot of things that feed
11:55
Speaker 1: into it because it is fundamental cell biology. So you know,
11:59
Speaker 1: the food eating and the micronutrients that we have in
12:01
Speaker 1: our body that are key cofactors, and a lot of
12:03
Speaker 1: these metabolic reactions, those will have an impact on your metabolism.
12:07
Speaker 1: How much stress you're under, and there the hormone cortisol
12:11
Speaker 1: that will have a huge impact on metabolism. How much
12:14
Speaker 1: sleep or how little sleep you're getting translates into tons
12:18
Speaker 1: of downstream hormonal pathways. Growth hormone, insulin, cortisol, grelin, leptin,
12:23
Speaker 1: All of these hormones impact metabolism based on how much
12:26
Speaker 1: or how little you sleep. And then of course physical activity.
12:28
Speaker 1: When our muscles move, we actually increase our metabolic processes.
12:33
Speaker 1: We increase our insulin sensitivity, insulnce the hormone that allows
12:36
Speaker 1: glucose to get into cells. So, you know, it's when
12:39
Speaker 1: we say people have different metabolisms we're talking about basically
12:44
Speaker 1: people have different genetics and different behaviors which translate into
12:48
Speaker 1: biochemical reality reality that basically creates different types of metabolisms.
12:54
Speaker 1: So I like to frame it that way because so
12:57
Speaker 1: much of what are you know, our personal quote unquote
12:59
Speaker 1: mata is is actually just how our daily hundreds of
13:04
Speaker 1: micro choices are translating into our biochemical reality of ourselves
13:07
Speaker 1: and our bodies.
13:09
Speaker 2: Right, And I mean obviously a lot to take in here.
13:12
Speaker 2: I think that's something that's interesting to me and something
13:15
Speaker 2: that can be difficult for many is with a tool
13:18
Speaker 2: like levels, it is so much about keeping track of things, right,
13:23
Speaker 2: keeping track of the foods that you're eating, keeping track
13:26
Speaker 2: of the fitness, keeping track of you know, how long
13:29
Speaker 2: you are sleeping, and then like seeing you know how
13:32
Speaker 2: all of this is being monitored, monitored, how all this
13:35
Speaker 2: is being put into play For someone who's curious about
13:38
Speaker 2: their metabolism but would think like, oh, this thing isn't
13:41
Speaker 2: for me, Like what can they even what options do
13:43
Speaker 2: they have to to kind of take back control without
13:46
Speaker 2: spending so much time logging every day? Well?
13:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean one of my sort of like core
13:53
Speaker 1: maxims of behavior change and health is that it's really
13:57
Speaker 1: hard to change why you can't measure. So you really
14:02
Speaker 1: need to measure things, I think, and to be able
14:04
Speaker 1: to know your baseline and the progress that you're making.
14:08
Speaker 1: This comes from from basically the closed loop theories and
14:12
Speaker 1: control theory, which is that the quicker that you have
14:17
Speaker 1: feedback on a very specific action, the more you can
14:20
Speaker 1: create a one to one relationship between an action and
14:24
Speaker 1: an outcome, the easier it is to actually change that.
14:28
Speaker 1: Nutrition in particular has been notoriously an open loop feedback system,
14:33
Speaker 1: where you know, we might eat fifty different things in
14:35
Speaker 1: a day, fifty different ingredients, and we have really no
14:39
Speaker 1: idea how one of those is impacting are directly impacting
14:42
Speaker 1: our health? We maybe weigh ourselves the next day and
14:44
Speaker 1: are like, okay, well what I ate yesterday seems to
14:46
Speaker 1: make you way more. Is it inflammation, is it fad?
14:49
Speaker 1: Is it water? What is it? Then we get like
14:50
Speaker 1: a cholesterol test once a year, like maybe you know,
14:54
Speaker 1: and then you're like, okay, well my cholesterol's high. What
14:56
Speaker 1: of the thousands of things I ate this year actually
14:58
Speaker 1: did that? Or you get a fasting glucose tests to
15:00
Speaker 1: the doctor. It's very hard to create behavior change when
15:05
Speaker 1: one there's tons of different nutrition ideologies out there, We're
15:08
Speaker 1: getting different information from the government, from influencers, from doctors.
15:12
Speaker 1: It's very confusing, and we don't have any closed loops.
15:15
Speaker 1: So I really fundamentally believe in closed loop biofeedback for
15:19
Speaker 1: being a huge catalyst of behavior change. And the nice
15:23
Speaker 1: thing about passive data streams like glucose, where you're not
15:27
Speaker 1: actually having to track or check anything, it's just doing
15:30
Speaker 1: it in the background and sending it to your phone.
15:33
Speaker 2: You know.
15:33
Speaker 1: That's really nice because it's a very low lift for people.
15:38
Speaker 1: And I think that a big part of the future
15:40
Speaker 1: of healthcare is going to be the combination of these
15:43
Speaker 1: really easy to use biowarables or wearables in general, with
15:46
Speaker 1: software that makes the interpretation just like totally easy on
15:50
Speaker 1: a silver platter, like basically just like, yes, no, this
15:53
Speaker 1: was good for you, this was bad for you. When
15:55
Speaker 1: you do this activity, you have twenty percent higher chance
15:57
Speaker 1: of having X. You know, don't do that less. Basically,
16:00
Speaker 1: just make it really really simple for people. Because the
16:05
Speaker 1: trial and error that we've had to do so much
16:07
Speaker 1: with you know, nutrition and exercise and all this stuff,
16:11
Speaker 1: I think it can be very discouraging for people. Sometimes
16:13
Speaker 1: sometimes there's very obvious results, you know, you have a
16:15
Speaker 1: reaction to a food immediately, but a lot of times
16:17
Speaker 1: that's much more nebulous, and so it leaves us just
16:20
Speaker 1: with so much trial and error, which I think is
16:22
Speaker 1: actually a bigger cognitive burden than just you know, tracking,
16:27
Speaker 1: even if it's for the short term and kind of
16:29
Speaker 1: just figuring out some clear answers and then moving forward,
16:32
Speaker 1: moving forward with your life.
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Speaker 2: We're talking about, you know, overall metabolic health obviously kind
18:00
Speaker 2: of going hand in hand with that, and what levels
18:03
Speaker 2: monitors here?
18:04
Speaker 3: Your blood sugar levels.
18:05
Speaker 2: Blood sugar levels, they can affect a ton of stuff
18:10
Speaker 2: in the body, as you said, But something else that
18:13
Speaker 2: I know that they can affect is your body temperature.
18:16
Speaker 2: So how do your blood sugar levels affect your body temperature?
18:21
Speaker 1: Oh, that's such a great question and really an interesting one.
18:24
Speaker 1: So yeah, so we know that when your blood sugar
18:27
Speaker 1: goes up and down like very frequently, so you know,
18:31
Speaker 1: spikes and dips throughout the day, which is not what
18:34
Speaker 1: we want. We want our glucos to be as stable
18:36
Speaker 1: and as as sort of low in the healthy range
18:39
Speaker 1: as possible. But when you've got lots of different fluctuations happening,
18:43
Speaker 1: that can trigger quite a few things. That can trigger
18:47
Speaker 1: what we call endothelial reactivity. So that means the lining
18:50
Speaker 1: of the blood vessels get a little bit reactive, and
18:52
Speaker 1: it can actually cause you to you know, change the
18:56
Speaker 1: blood flow and the way blood is slowing the body
18:57
Speaker 1: and make you hotter. So when you have what we
19:00
Speaker 1: call glycemic variability, these ups and downs and in blood sugar,
19:04
Speaker 1: it can make your core body temperature actually go up.
19:08
Speaker 1: And so this is actually really relevant to sleep because
19:10
Speaker 1: we know that sleep quality is worse when your body
19:14
Speaker 1: temperatures is higher. You kind of want to be cool
19:17
Speaker 1: when you're sleeping, and so eating you know, your higher
19:22
Speaker 1: carb higher glycemic meals late in the evening, right before bed,
19:27
Speaker 1: and having sort of and then maybe following me with
19:29
Speaker 1: dessert or a sugary drink, that could cause like a
19:32
Speaker 1: very large glucose spike in the evening, causing you to
19:36
Speaker 1: then sort of like crash down and sort of bounce
19:38
Speaker 1: around with your glucose throughout the night. And so that
19:41
Speaker 1: can that can be related to insomnia and worse sleep.
19:45
Speaker 1: And we know that in diabetic individuals who are going
19:47
Speaker 1: to have more glycimic variability because they have less glucose control,
19:51
Speaker 1: we do see higher body temperatures at night and worse
19:54
Speaker 1: sleep patterns. So even just getting your evening meals more
20:00
Speaker 1: stable in terms of your glucose response to them can
20:03
Speaker 1: be a nice way to kind of get your sleep
20:06
Speaker 1: more on track, which is a wonderful cycle to get
20:09
Speaker 1: into because when your sleep quality is better, it actually
20:12
Speaker 1: also feeds into good metabolic health. So it's kind of
20:15
Speaker 1: like this two way street. And what's kind of interesting
20:18
Speaker 1: is that we know from more recent research that two people,
20:23
Speaker 1: any two people out there, are actually gonna have very
20:25
Speaker 1: different responses in terms of how much their glucose changes
20:29
Speaker 1: and in response to the same food. So like you
20:31
Speaker 1: and I could eat the exact same cookie and I
20:34
Speaker 1: could have a huge glucose response and you could have
20:37
Speaker 1: a very small one, And so in terms of how
20:40
Speaker 1: that's going to affect something like our glycemic variability, it's
20:43
Speaker 1: going to be different in each of us. So that's
20:46
Speaker 1: one area where tracking can be really helpful in personalizing
20:50
Speaker 1: and knowing exactly what your your response is to a food.
20:54
Speaker 1: So there's a lot of different factors that go into
20:57
Speaker 1: that why you and I would respond differently to the
20:59
Speaker 1: same food, ranging from you know, our microbiome composition to
21:05
Speaker 1: how much sleep we've got, into our body types, our
21:08
Speaker 1: insolence activity or genetics, things like that. But it is
21:11
Speaker 1: interesting we've thought a lot, you know, in the past,
21:13
Speaker 1: we've really oriented around this idea of like a glycemic
21:16
Speaker 1: index chart and that can tell us like how much
21:18
Speaker 1: or how little something's going to spike your glucose, But
21:20
Speaker 1: it's actually likely much more personalized than that, where each
21:24
Speaker 1: person's going to respond a little bit differently and have
21:26
Speaker 1: their own personal and glycemic index to a particular food.
21:31
Speaker 1: So so that's something to keep in mind when you're kind
21:33
Speaker 1: of choosing like what to eat, especially late at night,
21:37
Speaker 1: choosing something that specifically for you doesn't have a large
21:41
Speaker 1: glucos response. Is what's going to be you know, most optimal, right.
21:44
Speaker 2: And of course, as we as you mentioned, this can
21:47
Speaker 2: definitely vary from person to person. The last thing that
21:49
Speaker 2: I do want to hit on before I've let you
21:52
Speaker 2: go today we're talking about, you know, the different things
21:55
Speaker 2: that could impact increase levels of glucose, and one of those,
21:59
Speaker 2: as you touched on earlier briefly, is of course stress,
22:03
Speaker 2: something that God in twenty twenty all time high for
22:07
Speaker 2: so many of us and pushing us to do things
22:10
Speaker 2: like overeat, which can raise our glucose levels, and then
22:13
Speaker 2: in turn, I know back can lead to us being
22:15
Speaker 2: fatigued and having low energy. So what is it about
22:19
Speaker 2: stress that has such a major impact on the circulating
22:23
Speaker 2: glucose in the body and the metabolism.
22:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a fascinating pathway. So it's really actually stems
22:30
Speaker 1: from an evolutionarily advantageous response that we had, which was
22:35
Speaker 1: basically that when we were stressed, you know, back in
22:39
Speaker 1: the day, you know, old old times, it was usually
22:42
Speaker 1: because we had some sort of physical stressor that we
22:44
Speaker 1: were dealing with. Like the old example would be like
22:47
Speaker 1: we were being chased by a lion, you know, And
22:50
Speaker 1: so when we were feeling stressed, meaning we were releasing
22:53
Speaker 1: cortisol and epinephrin and other catacholamine hormones, our body was
22:58
Speaker 1: preparing to have to do something physical, and so to
23:02
Speaker 1: do that you need to use your muscles, and so
23:04
Speaker 1: the muscles needed really quick energy. So these stress hormones
23:08
Speaker 1: actually trigger our liver, which stores a little bit of glucose,
23:12
Speaker 1: to dump that glucose into the bloodstream rapidly to feed
23:16
Speaker 1: our muscles. So that that was useful then because we
23:19
Speaker 1: needed that energy quickly. Now in this day and age,
23:23
Speaker 1: we have very few actual physical stressors. Most of our
23:27
Speaker 1: stressors are psychological. They're low grade psychological stressors that, for
23:31
Speaker 1: better or worse, actually release the exact same hormones. When we,
23:35
Speaker 1: you know, get a stressful text, we hear honking, we're
23:39
Speaker 1: having a difficult conversation with a coworker, or we're giving
23:42
Speaker 1: a talk or something like that, our body registers that
23:45
Speaker 1: exact same way as like we're chased by a lion,
23:47
Speaker 1: but the difference is that we don't actually need to
23:49
Speaker 1: then go use our muscles. So we end up having
23:51
Speaker 1: these glucose spikes essentially in our blood when we're stressed,
23:55
Speaker 1: which don't actually have a purpose, and so then we
23:58
Speaker 1: just have higher circulating level of glucose in the bloodstream
24:01
Speaker 1: for essentially no reason. And you can imagine when we're
24:05
Speaker 1: walking around all day with our digital devices and so
24:07
Speaker 1: many like little little stress signals all day, this basically
24:11
Speaker 1: can keep us elevated, you know, artificially, just like through
24:15
Speaker 1: for a lot of the time, and that's bad for
24:17
Speaker 1: our body for so many reasons. You know, glucose being
24:21
Speaker 1: elevated in the bloodstream can cause three main processes. Like one,
24:25
Speaker 1: it will generate inflammation. The second thing it'll do is
24:29
Speaker 1: it can generate oxidative stress, which is where the body
24:31
Speaker 1: basically produces more reactive free radical molecules that can be damaging.
24:36
Speaker 1: Free radicals go around and damage you know, proteins and
24:40
Speaker 1: other structures in the body and make them dysfunctional. And
24:42
Speaker 1: the third is that high glucose circulating causes glycation, which
24:46
Speaker 1: is where sugar in the body actually just sticks to
24:49
Speaker 1: other things in the body, like it Glycating is essentially
24:52
Speaker 1: sugar getting stuck to things, and that can also cause dysfunction.
24:56
Speaker 1: And so those are the three things that glucose, you know,
24:58
Speaker 1: can just do by being ele which you're problematic. The
25:02
Speaker 1: other thing is actually it stimulates insulin in the body.
25:06
Speaker 1: Insulin is the hormone that's released from the pancreas when
25:08
Speaker 1: glucose salivate in the bloodstream, like after we eat, that
25:11
Speaker 1: tells the cells, oh, you can take up glucose now.
25:14
Speaker 1: So insulin actually has to buy into the cell for
25:16
Speaker 1: glucose to go into the cell to be processed for energy.
25:18
Speaker 1: And what happens is when we're spiking our glucose over
25:21
Speaker 1: and over and over again, whether it's through stress or
25:23
Speaker 1: it's through a refined carbohydrate refined sugar diet. When we're
25:27
Speaker 1: doing this over and over, our pancreas is having to
25:29
Speaker 1: do all this work. It's producing all this insulin, and
25:31
Speaker 1: the cells actually become numb to insulin. They become what's
25:34
Speaker 1: called insulin resistant. They can't take in all that sugar,
25:38
Speaker 1: and so they block it by becoming insulin resistant. And
25:41
Speaker 1: then you can imagine you have higher circulating glucose levels,
25:43
Speaker 1: and it's a vicious cycle. And for young and healthy people,
25:47
Speaker 1: the pancreas compensates by just saying, Okay, well we can't
25:50
Speaker 1: get the glucose in because you're insulin resistant. We're going
25:52
Speaker 1: to produce more insulin to just try and shove it in.
25:54
Speaker 1: And then what happens is you get what's called hyper insulinemia,
25:58
Speaker 1: high insulin and you've got rising glucose, and that insulin
26:03
Speaker 1: being elevated is sort of a problem in its own rate.
26:05
Speaker 1: So now you've got too much energy substrate i e.
26:09
Speaker 1: Glucose in the bloodstream and you can't get it into
26:11
Speaker 1: the cells to actually convert it to energy. So you're
26:13
Speaker 1: in this sort of energy deficit in the body. So
26:17
Speaker 1: you think about like, Okay, someone who's chronically stressed, they're fatigued,
26:21
Speaker 1: they start getting sick, you know, they've got you know,
26:24
Speaker 1: other symptoms, they might break out this and that's it's
26:28
Speaker 1: so much of it is linked to the fact that
26:30
Speaker 1: that's stress is causing metabolic dysfunction. It's causing you to
26:33
Speaker 1: not be able to utilize energy effectively in the body
26:36
Speaker 1: despite having a lot of resources circulating and available, but
26:39
Speaker 1: you're not using it well. So you know, if I
26:42
Speaker 1: would just to sort of sum it up, you know,
26:44
Speaker 1: one glucose spikes from generated from anything, whether it's stress
26:49
Speaker 1: or food, that is going to cause physiology that ultimates
26:52
Speaker 1: your body metabolically dysfunctional. The best thing we can do
26:55
Speaker 1: is keep those spikes down over time, so we kind
26:58
Speaker 1: of perk up our cells again and come insulin sensitive again.
27:02
Speaker 1: And you do that by just living a life day
27:04
Speaker 1: in and day out that keeps your glucose spikes down,
27:07
Speaker 1: and that can be you know, if it's stress, we're
27:09
Speaker 1: working on mind body practices. You know, deep dry, fragmatic breathing,
27:14
Speaker 1: which lowers cortisol has been shown to improve glucose control
27:18
Speaker 1: and metabolic function. Decreased perceived stress can actually improve our
27:24
Speaker 1: glucose control. And then of course lots of things with
27:27
Speaker 1: the diet we can do to get our glucose spikes
27:30
Speaker 1: down and help with that process.
27:32
Speaker 3: So that's sort of how it's all.
27:34
Speaker 1: Related between stress and metabolic health.
27:38
Speaker 2: This is one of those episodes where it's just like
27:40
Speaker 2: a drop of knowledge and probably one of those moments
27:44
Speaker 2: where someone would say, maybe I should listen to all
27:46
Speaker 2: of this at least, I think it's all super interesting.
27:50
Speaker 2: I think it's all super helpful. I also think that
27:52
Speaker 2: when it comes to metabolism and glucose and you know,
27:56
Speaker 2: the things that y'all are focused on over there at levels,
27:59
Speaker 2: a lot of it is is just stuff that if
28:01
Speaker 2: you don't know, or if you're not informed, if you're
28:04
Speaker 2: not equipped with the intel to better understand what is
28:07
Speaker 2: going on in your own body, then you don't know
28:09
Speaker 2: what could be the cause of so many of your issues.
28:12
Speaker 2: So here we're talking about, you know, your metabolism and
28:16
Speaker 2: the things that can impact your metabolism, the things that
28:18
Speaker 2: can certainly make an impact in your overall body, your mood,
28:22
Speaker 2: so many things, and it's a lot.
28:24
Speaker 3: It's a lot for us to figure out. It's a
28:26
Speaker 3: lot for us to learn about.
28:27
Speaker 2: But with time and with great resources and experts like yourself,
28:32
Speaker 2: that is, you know, that's what we can do here.
28:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, you know, and it is you know, it
28:38
Speaker 1: can feel I think complex, you know, on the surface
28:41
Speaker 1: of like, oh my gosh, there's a lot to think about,
28:44
Speaker 1: and you know, the physiology is kind of complex. But
28:46
Speaker 1: I think I think boiled down, it's like, you know,
28:49
Speaker 1: we are these you know, awesome biologic machines. Our bodies
28:54
Speaker 1: are incredible. And you know, we as Americans are eating
28:58
Speaker 1: like a hundred times more find sugar and carbohydrates that
29:01
Speaker 1: we were one hundred years ago and throughout human history.
29:03
Speaker 1: That's a lot for a poor little body to like process.
29:06
Speaker 1: It's you know, and every single molecule of sugar that
29:10
Speaker 1: goes into your body, and you know, refined carbs also
29:13
Speaker 1: turn into sugar we have to process. And so the
29:15
Speaker 1: less burden you can kind of put on your body,
29:18
Speaker 1: you know, just and so to keep making it really simple,
29:20
Speaker 1: you know, eating whole foods and not you know, trying
29:23
Speaker 1: to avoid some of the refined carbohydrates, the refined sugars,
29:26
Speaker 1: you know, making sure you're balancing your meals with if
29:28
Speaker 1: you're going to eat carbs, eat the protein and fat
29:30
Speaker 1: with it. There's just some really simple steps people can take.
29:34
Speaker 1: I think once there's an awareness about how much this
29:36
Speaker 1: is related to so many aspects of health and how
29:39
Speaker 1: when we can get that glucose a little bit more stable,
29:42
Speaker 1: get our blood sugar more stabilized, like we can, yeah,
29:44
Speaker 1: we can up up level our lives in so so
29:47
Speaker 1: many different ways. So it's really it's low hanging fruit
29:50
Speaker 1: and and so you know, it's yeah, tracking is great,
29:54
Speaker 1: and it's it certainly can help. But there's even certainly
29:57
Speaker 1: small things we can do to get at that blood
30:00
Speaker 1: sugar more stable from the from the simple food swaps
30:03
Speaker 1: from refined foods to whole foods, and then of course,
30:07
Speaker 1: you know, trying to be more mindful about our stress,
30:10
Speaker 1: you know, really getting our quality sleep per night, and
30:13
Speaker 1: then making sure we're we're physically active. So yeah, a
30:17
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of simple steps we can take
30:18
Speaker 1: to make huge impacts on so many aspects of our health.
30:21
Speaker 2: We like keeping it simple, we like big impact. So
30:24
Speaker 2: thank you so so much, Casey for your time for
30:27
Speaker 2: breaking it down, for your expertise. How can the hurdlers
30:31
Speaker 2: keep up with you? How can they learn even more
30:33
Speaker 2: about levels? Give me the details?
30:36
Speaker 1: Sure, so people can visit us at levelshealth dot com
30:40
Speaker 1: and there you can sign up for our wait list
30:44
Speaker 1: and you'll there you'll you'll be able to get on
30:46
Speaker 1: our newsletter and we've got lots of great information coming out.
30:49
Speaker 1: I would also definitely recommend on the levelshealth dot com
30:52
Speaker 1: slash blog. There we we write all about this type
30:56
Speaker 1: of content and metabolic health, and we're just really trying
30:59
Speaker 1: to people better understand how this is relevant to so
31:03
Speaker 1: many aspects of our lives and performance, specifically nutrition, athletics,
31:08
Speaker 1: and and just you know, simple ways to kind of
31:11
Speaker 1: get our metabolic health back on track. And then you
31:14
Speaker 1: can also follow us at levels on Instagram and Twitter,
31:19
Speaker 1: where lots of members of our community who are tracking
31:22
Speaker 1: their glucose put up tons of fun like experiments and
31:25
Speaker 1: what they've learned and how they're kind of using glucose
31:29
Speaker 1: tracking to improve their lives. And then I personally am
31:32
Speaker 1: at on Twitter and Instagram at doctor Casey's Kitchen Dr
31:35
Speaker 1: Casey's Kitchen, and I am I am vegan, and I actually
31:38
Speaker 1: talk a lot about metabolic health and plant based food.
31:41
Speaker 1: So please reach out and get in touch with us.
31:44
Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from any of the Hurdle listeners.
31:47
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
31:48
Speaker 2: I am over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle
31:51
Speaker 2: Podcast Another Hurdle Conquered.
31:53
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.