Beyond Normal: Redefining Real Healthcare

Feeling “normal” but anything but? We dig into why quick, reactive visits miss the root causes of fatigue, brain fog, stubborn weight, and burnout—and how a functional longevity approach flips the script with deeper testing, longer visits, and plans built around your biology. Zach from Nava Health joins to share the story that sparked his mission: his mother’s slide into pain, years of “everything looks fine,” and the turnaround that came from testing not guessing, restoring hormones and nutrients, and rebuilding the basics that actually move health forward.

We talk candidly about the system’s incentives, from medical education that sidelines nutrition to insurance that raises premiums while covering less. More people are shifting to catastrophic-only plans and investing the savings in what works: a four-to-six-month lab cadence, smart supplementation, and daily habits that protect energy and add years of quality life. You’ll hear why optimal lab ranges beat “normal,” how to interpret vitamin D, thyroid, and lipid markers through a longevity lens, and how to use wearables without drowning in data.

Food is a cornerstone. We break down the flipped food pyramid, why prioritizing protein supports muscle—the true organ of longevity—and how to build simple, real-food meals that curb cravings and stabilize metabolism. We also map a practical blueprint: assemble your health team, schedule regular advanced labs, and guard the pillars of sleep, movement, stress, and community. Walk away with a playbook to become the CEO of your health, not a passenger in a system built for volume over outcomes.

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Transcript

Meet Zach And Nava Health

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Hey everyone, welcome to another podcast of Living a Full Life. A really awesome guest this week, Zach from Nava Health. Thanks for being here, my man.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

No, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah, we had a great one podcast on yours, which was really great. I was like, man, we got to do one for Living a Full Life because people need to hear you, um, your story, how you got into this, and why you continue to deal with this. I'm sure it's the same reasons I do too. But let's get into some hard-knock health stuff and where the trends are going and what true health really means. So tell the listeners where you're from, and uh I'll stay quiet.

What Functional Longevity Care Means

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, so um, chief operating officer at Nava Health. Um, you know, we're a functional longevity medicine practice that's utilizing uh, you know, data-driven personalized medicine to root cause healing. Um, you know, it's uh very different than traditional care, right? We go really in-depth, we spend a lot of time with clients to truly get to know them, you know, get to know their lifestyle, get to know, you know, the the ins and outs in the inner workings of of you know what's working for them and what's not. Like you can't do that in your average seven to 10 minute traditional visit, right? You know, you might be able to ask, hey, you know, how's how are things going and and how's the family? And then, you know, doctors out, right? You know, we're spending, you know, on average 30 to 60 minutes with clients, um, doing really advanced uh diagnostic test testing to truly get a full understanding of everything that's going on, right? You know, we should be treating the body as not individual systems, right? We should truly be treating everything uh as a whole, right? Because it it all has inner workings with each other, right? To to be proactive and be preventive, which is the future of medicine, right? It's not reactive medicine, the the way that the traditional model is set up today. Um, it it's the future is being proactive and being preventive because we know uh of the chronic diseases that are plaguing our nation can be prevented, right? So we take that root cause data-driven personalized approach, right? Everyone should be treated as a one-of-one, right? There, there is nobody that is like you by, you know, on a biological level. You know, no one has the same body size, shape, it just everything, right? There is no one size fits all model, right? But the traditional medicine treats you that way, right? It's a cookie-cutter system. They get you into that hamster wheel to where you're just constantly being turned, churned, and burned, um, you know, through the traditional model with big pharma, you know, whatever it might be. But, you know, it's we we've really just like the uh uh the food pyramid was flipped, right? You know, we've flipped the script on how medicine is practiced uh to really be you know individualized treatment plans, not that cookie cutter protocol. Um so you know, that's a little bit about NAVA uh and what we do. It's really, you know, taking the offense instead of the defense and helping people, not just with chronic issues and diseases that they might be dealing with right now, but the people who do want to be proactive and want to be preventative, um, to set themselves up for success, right? You know, it's it's not just about living longer, right? But it's about living longer with a quality life. And that's you know what we set up and and what we do every day.

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Love it. Yeah, quality, not quantity. That's what it's all about. And forging forward, providers like you, providers like us, uh, that's it's real healthcare. And I think that's what drives our passion to keep doing it and dealing with all the chaos that comes with healthcare in America these days, and why we keep forging through it. It's not um, it's not profitable, it's not uh it's not a hundred percent, it is rewarding because your patients truly live healthier for sure, but it's a it's a grudge to you know, it's a grind to get through with what real health is. And I think that's why the medical model is so easy. It's turn and burn, it's the exact same thing, exact same labs. I mean, your blood pressure is high. Well, is it? I mean, you know, my descendants come from this part of the world. Is that really high? I don't know. So they don't look at these things, and um and I love what you guys are doing out there too with NAVA and the thing that you're building. But more importantly, what got you into this? I always love the backstory. What what pushed you to do this? And I usually find that whatever it was, it's why you still do it today.

The Broken Reactive Model

A Mother’s Story And A Wake-Up

SPEAKER_01 4:34

Yeah, no, of course. Um, you know, it Nava wasn't created just because you know, we thought, oh, this is an awesome idea. Let's go out there and create this company as an opportunity to just make uh a boatload of money. Um, it it started uh about 15 years ago, uh, because my mom got sick. Um, she was struggling and was being bounced around from doctor to doctor uh and being told that everything looked normal, you know, why why she didn't feel normal, where you know, she was bedridden, she was stuck in bed, you know, she was constantly just in excruciating pain. And, you know, we lived up in Maryland, so obviously we're surrounded by some of the most prestigious hospital systems in the world, right? I mean, if there's one place to be, you know, that people fly all over the world from, uh, is to Maryland, because you got John Hopkins, you got UMD, you got these just massive, um, you know, well-reputable uh hospital systems where you know they have the best specialists, right? So we had access to what are considered the best specialists in the world. Um, yet they couldn't figure it out. You know, they got it wrong. Um, and that experience just exposes to how broken, you know, this reactive healthcare model really is. Um, you know, that people you know talk about all the time how this system is is failing or it is broken. Um, but you know, I I like to kind of remind people that it's it's actually not broken or it's not failing, right? It is set up exactly to get the results that it gets, right? You you don't get that big of a conglomerate corporation, you know, whether it's big pharma, big insurance companies, uh just this traditional model by doing something that is broken, right? Their profits grow every year, right? They they make more money every single year. It's uh, you know, it's so that system is set up to drive and get the results that it gets today. And and it is considered a successful business. Now, is it successful for us as consumers, uh, as the ones who who whose health is on the line? No, I mean that that's where it is failing, that's where it is broken um in terms of the outcomes that we get from it. Um, but in terms of the system that they get and the outcomes that they get, it it's it's not broken and it's not failing. It it it's it's thriving. Um, and I think that's what people are really starting to wake up to, especially after COVID. Um, you know, that was a a big tipping point for a lot of people. You've known for uh a lot longer since COVID. Obviously, we've known prior to that. So um, you know, yeah, it started because my mom got sick and and couldn't figure out. And finally we found a functional medicine provider who took the time, right, to get to truly understand uh what was going on, did advanced testing, right? Took the the route that we take of Nava of testing and not guessing, right? Like I don't understand how a doctor can confidently sit there and get your medical history, get your symptoms and prescribe a medication just based off of what someone might be feeling, right? Because you know, your pain reason is completely different than what I consider pain, right? But to still write a a med uh uh a narcotic and a painkiller uh for pains that could be you know completely different because everyone has different perspectives without truly knowing the root cause of that, um, to me it is just bad medicine, right? You're I mean you're just guessing, right? And and that's kind of what really turned things around for us. Where, you know, when my mom found this functional medicine doctor, took the time, did advanced diagnostics, put together a personalized plan based off of her, you know, what the labs showed, what her symptoms showed, what her medical history looked like, her lifestyle, and you know, wasn't going for uh that band-aid to put over a symptom, right? Wasn't writing prescriptions, right? Changed her jet, her diet, changed uh uh the supplements that she was on, really started focusing on optimizing what she was deficient in. You know, her hormones were tanked, uh, so you know, focused on you know utilizing biotechnical hormone therapy, you know, optimized her thyroid, did IV therapy, and slowly but surely she started getting better and better and better. And that's kind of like where this light bulb went off. Like, why isn't this everywhere? Right? Why isn't this the first line of defense? Because essentially that's what I mean, that is what saved my mom. Functional medicine is what saved my mom. A doctor who was willing to take the time, go against what you know the medical school systems are teaching, what you know the insurance companies are telling them to do, what big pharma says to do, and you know, really treated her as a unique individual, look at diagnostics so that the recommendations that she was making and that he was making, because uh there was two of them, um was a holistic, uh, personalized approach to what she needed specifically. And and she's still here today. 15 years later, you know, she's not bedridden, she has that energy, you know, she's able to watch my three kids and you know, who are just a ball of energy. Uh, and so you know, I that's kind of where it that light bulb, right? And uh, you know, my dad had this this great idea of you know wanting to go out there and you know help people like my mom. You know, he didn't want you know uh the the system to fail others like they failed my mom, right? To be a place where people can truly come and get answers and find a place that is going to look at truly what's going on, right? You know, we're not here for a quick fix. There is no magic pill, right? For anyone who thinks there's a magic pill, right? You you have to get get rid of that mindset because it's completely backwards. You know, it it it takes work to get healthy, like to stay healthy, to be healthy, it takes work, it's going to be hard. Uh, but you know, you know what else is hard? Being sick, right? Dealing with you know the impact that it has on not only just the individual that's sick, but the people around her. You know, it played a toll on all of us. And so, you know, we really really wanted to go out there and create something that we could uh grow and and scale to really help, you know, as many people as possible. Because what we saw happen with my mom was just something that you know it it it would have been selfish of us not to try to go out there and do this to help others, and so that's you know, that's really where it started and and and where we're at today, 12 years later. Uh and we've you know seen and helped over 60,000 clients and counting.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Wow, yeah, it's amazing. Uh yeah, me too, my dad. Similar story. And then looking outside the box, how much better he did and how much quicker he did. He may not be here today if he didn't. Um, so yeah, and and that's what we try for we strive to to move forward, but there's a lot of restrictions now, both for the consumer, the patient, and the doctor to administer proper health care. And if you want to go back a couple weeks, I had a uh medical doctor on my podcast, she's a great, great lady. She was talking about uh lifestyle medicine. I I was like, I, you know, what is this? She's like, it's actually a board certification, just like internal medicine, pediatrics, and everything else. And I looked it up and she's absolutely right. And it opened up in 2018 in America, the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. So you can be board certified as an MD, and we get through it. I'm like, I'm like, well, what is it? And she's like, it's whole, you know, lifestyle, diet. I'm like, wow, you guys are 200 years late to the game, to the table, but we're so happy you're here. I'm excited for you. Welcome to the right side of healthcare. And she kind of just looked at me and she's like, Yeah, yeah, I guess I'm excited to be here. Uh, I just turned the whole table on her. I'm like, uh, it's great that you have this whole program, but functional medicine has been around from the beginning, and there's providers out there that have been building clinics around this around the world. Um, in Tijuana, in uh in Canada, in Vancouver, like on the borders in Puerto Rico, on the border of the United States, because of the conglomerates in the United States blocking this stuff, uh, from cancer healing to regeneration, all these things, people have to go overseas away from the greatest country in the world to go get great healthcare, which which makes no sense. So let's talk about the bureaucracy a little bit, what's holding people back. And I think 2026 is wonderful for this because my patients in my office are dropping healthcare, they're dropping Cigna, they're dropping Aetna, they're dropping Blue Cross, they're dropping because of the cost. I mean, yeah, they were paying, you know, 18,000 last year, they're getting quoted 29k for 2026. Like, this is a significant 40, 50, 60 increase in premiums. If people are like, well, hang on a second, my family line don't spend that much money on our health. And if we did, we'd probably be a lot healthier. So they're they're getting it, and it's amazing for the people to be saying it, and not me, because they think I have something to sell when I say that. So it's I'm just sitting there with my arms crossed, I'm like, this is wonderful. Um, where do you where do you see it's going? Where what is holding us back from true healthcare?

Testing Not Guessing

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Yeah, I mean, it it it is the the bureaucracy, right? You know, unfortunately, I mean the the system is so massive to to have such a a quick shift overnight to you know our viewpoints of what medicine should be, right? Being proactive, being preventative, uh, taking the offensive side uh of being healthier, you know, before you know, not waiting until you get sick. Um, you gotta think, right? There's there's massive billion trillion dollar companies, right, that are at the forefront that are controlling uh you know the medical school systems, you know, what's being taught. Um, and if you know they're taking these, you know, fresh out of college uh students going into medical school and basically teaching them all that they know, right? Saying, you know, this is how to practice medicine, this is the standard of care, right? If you don't prescribe, if you're not following the standard of care, guess what's gonna happen? We're gonna take your license, right? So not only are they dictating what's being taught, but now they're scaring, you know, the the providers of this is how you have to do it, or you're gonna lose your livelihood, right? So it it there's there's that piece, you know, the medical school systems, who's controlling and dictating the education that's happening there, right? You just talked about you know, um lifestyle. Uh, I think there's 75 percent of the medical school systems do not require a single hour of nutrition education. Nope. It it's I mean, it's just mind-boggling, right? Because there's so much data and studies and information out there of just how impactful food is, right? How it can truly drive outcomes. Food truly is medicine. You know, people, you know, a couple years ago might have thought that it's woo-woo, but people are waking up to that, right? It truly is medicine. You you gotta remove the ultra-processed junk, right? You have to eliminate some sugars, right? And I think that's you know, it was a big you know, step in the right direction, uh, with what uh the HHS just came out with with the food pyramid and the FDA, uh, of you know, flipping the pyramid, prioritizing protein, um, you know, putting carbs down at the bottom, trying to eliminate sugar, you know, eliminate alcohol as much as possible instead of giving you know uh guidelines of here's how much you should have. Um, you know, I think we're taking steps there, um, but there is so much money and power uh behind uh a lot of the the systems that are you know pulling the strings in the background that it it's it's gonna take time, right? It's gonna take voices like us, you know, speaking up to to truly help educate the population on on truly what's going on. Um you know, to your point, insurance premiums go up every single year. They're covering less also every single year. Yet, you know, they're they're not reimbursing more every year. And if anything, it they're they're reimbursing less. Um so they're they're certainly not there. You know, you could talk about the whole uh PBMs, the pharmacy benefit managers on on that truly driving, you know, some of the largest profits for the being the big insurance companies. Um, but you know, it it has to start with the cultural shift, right? It has to start with the people demanding better, uh you know, better, you know, us having holding the the people accountable that need to be held accountable to helping us drive where ultimately we need to go with healthcare.

Lifestyle Medicine And System Barriers

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yes, yes, for sure. Insurance um and the FDA and all these things are holding holding us back because the gold standard in healthcare has always been well, it's not FDA approved, so it can't be good, it can't it can't be right. Well, uh high fructose corn syrup is FDA approved, canola oil is FDA approved, uh uh red dye 40 is FDA approved, uh blue, yellow dyes, they're all FDA approved. If we go with what's FDA approved, you may or may not die. So it's not the best guideline for us. So this bureaucracy is is an illusion in medicine where they are the uh authority in healthcare because they've built it that way. The institutions, the medical schools, the prestige in being an MD has put them at the top, but but the entire curriculum is corrupt from the ground up. So everything that they're taught is all that. So I get that all the time. They're like, hey, what's the DC program versus the MD program? Like it's everything with the MD program, except instead of all that pharmaceutical classes that they take, we take radiology and nutrition. So I can read an MRI and an X-ray and diagnose better than an MD on that stuff, and I can also tell you how to eat. Uh so and that's been the chiropractic for 150 years. So that's from the DC perspective. But what about the naturopaths and the uh functional medicine doctors and the nurse practitioners and the MDs that are moving into functional medicine and lifestyle medicine? It's because they see it and they're like, no, this is truly what people do need. But the system works against them because there's no insurance coverage for it, there's no advanced testing coverage for it, and there's no uh follow-through for it. No one's gonna give you a stipend to go to your supermarket and buy healthy food either. So there's no coverage for any of this. But you can get food stamps for soda. Um, so that that that's I mean, it's an inverted table. So let's let's go into the food pyramid. That's a great example of what's and and it was funny, even with that medical doctor that we talked to at the very end, she's like, Oh, don't get me started about the inverted table. I'm like, we'll end the podcast before we both get in trouble here. Uh, she's like, I'm a vegetarian, and I'm like, Great. I mean, but that's not the point. The the prioritizing protein is still important as a vegetarian, but let's talk about that. So we flipped this thing, and now we've removed. If you remember the old one, there was like cereal at the top and milk and uh bread, right? Those remember, I remember it from a kid. We have a similar one in Canada too, and and they inverted it. So now you got the meat, you got a chicken up there. And I'm watching on Instagram all the people that hate this, they're like, they got fried chicken and and red. Meat, which is a carcinogen? I'm like, no, no, they got protein at the top to prioritize protein, and they don't even have cereal on there. At the very bottom, they have grain, whole grain, uh, which means protein first and carbs and sugar at the bottom. But what is your perspective on that? And what does it truly mean by inverting this table? What are we hinting at here?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yeah, I mean, I think right there there's always room for improvement. You know, there's always going to be two sides, someone who likes it, someone who doesn't.

unknown 20:51

Of course.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Um you know, obviously the the people who like it are more on the forefront of the functional medicine side, right? But I think that the big focus here is, you know, it's telling us to put more emphasis and focus on whole foods, nutrient-dense foods, right? The the guidelines are stressing to eat real, real, minimally processed foods, you know, reducing the added sugars. Um, um, you know, which I'm sure that isn't a surprise to people, you know, when you're when they're saying to remove sugars, right? Sugar is addictive. Sugar is poison, you know, the added sugars, right? You know, it there's difference from the the sugars that you get from foods, but you know, still having too much sugar from from you know what you're getting from natural, you know, in the in the foods can can be a problem, right? Yeah, but don't eat 14 pineapples a day. I mean, that's too much exactly. You know, but it people also need to understand, you know, to stop necessarily looking at the images, like you said, right? It it's we're just saying higher protein guidelines, prioritizing protein at every meal, right? Protein is essential for muscle mass, for strength, you know, to help with satiety so you don't overeat. Um, it's helping with recovery and metabolism, you know, especially as adults are getting older or you know, people who are super active, you need the protein to have the fuel to get through, to build, you know, repair and and build up muscle. Um, where you know, there there's more and more studies every single day that just shows that the number one organ for longevity is your muscle, right? And what's the best way to fuel your muscle? Well, higher protein, right? And so I think you know, we have to take that uh as the consideration, not necessarily the images that are put up there, but it it's it's to you know prioritize protein. Um I love that you know they've removed some you know the things like the cereal, right? It's but again, it's it's taking away some of the stigmas. Uh, the the the guidelines keep these these long-standing recommendations to limit the the sugars, right? The sodium, the excess saturated fat. This framework still, you know, discourages the ultra-processed foods in the sugary drinks. So um, you know, we have to I think at the end of the day to kind of like really make it easy and summarize it for people, it's really just eat real food, right? Eliminate as much junk as possible. Um, you know, that that's really what it comes down to. Try to uh you know, focus on what is truly going to fuel your body. And I think that's that's really what it's what it's saying. Um, you know, we're we're talking about these bureaucracies, you know, to kind of go back to that. You know, there there's no secret about this. People can look it up, but when the sugar uh the the cigarette industry was going down, right, some of those largest cigarette industries uh companies bought some of the largest food companies, right? And they did that because they they they saw that you know cigarettes were were gonna be going out because now all of a sudden, you know, there's studies showing that it causes cancer and they can no longer pay off doctors to say that it's healthy for you. Um, you know, they went into the food industry and they just replicated that model, right? Created these highly addictive, highly appealing uh foods, the same thing that they did with cigarettes, right? You know, to create a product that was going to make you addictive, uh, that wasn't going to be as as satiating so that you'd eat more of it, buy more of it. Um, but ultimately they weren't looking at the food of what can we do to this food to make it healthier, right? To to help people have more energy, to help people uh have a more uh sustainable quality life. No, they they're looking on on how can I make as much money as possible, right? How can I get people coming back and buying more of this, regardless of what I have to do to it, what do I have to add to it? Um, let's just build the cheapest food that I that we can make, and someone who will just continuously buy it, no matter what happens to their health. They they weren't thinking about the health outcomes when it came to that, they were thinking about what was going to drive the most business and profits.

Insurance Costs And Cultural Shift

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Correct. Yeah, great, great job. That's uh that is what is going on, and uh the shifts are there and you use the cigarette industry, they moved into you know vaping, but now we have a vaping epidemic. They're always having to pivot to to cover their their butts when they when they start sinking. And we're seeing this now with the GLP ones and the food industry, the fast food industry is already ahead of the curve. They're like, well, hang on a second. And in order to get these things passed, uh the food industry is part of the panels of uh the uh pharmaceutical companies. So they had a chairman that sit on the boards on the pharmaceutical companies allowing certain things to pass or not pass. There's been a few advanced GLP ones that are on the hang-up of being passed because the food industry is really concerned that uh completely taking away people's um appetite and cravings is going to shut down the fast food industry uh long term. They're thinking ahead and they're stalling these products from even going, even though these products are not the best thing to take, anyways. We've seen all the Ozempic side effects and all that too. So it's just funny that none of this has anything to do with the patient, with the person. Uh the drug's bad for them, the food's bad for them, and they're fighting on which one to inject and put into your mouth on both ends. So it's never been there. And I love the cigarette uh analogies because they were there, and my parents' generation was told it's okay to smoke and it may actually be healthy for you, may actually clear up your sinuses, um, and stupid things like that. And how the next generation, my generation, was like, No more. Uh, it makes no sense. And that's what we're seeing. So I'm excited for my kids and your kids to be learning the new food pyramid in school. So when they're 40 years old, they remember that images in their head of the protein at the top and the grain at the bottom. I think they're gonna be bet it's gonna be beneficial for everyone on that as well. Where do you see uh uh proper health care going on from here? What is your typical experience in your protocols that you do? No specific conditions because we'll be here all day, but the protocol of truly getting to the root cause of uh of uh people's function is what we're doing, not health or illness. We're not even even searching for that. What we're searching for is function. And you can do tons of different things and tests and and blood work and all that to do that. But what is the system that we put our patients through to properly assess and then follow up and follow through with to get them back to an optimal range of health?

Food Policy, Sugar, And Industry Power

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Yeah, I I mean I think it's the the annual physical is is needs to needs to be thrown out the window, right? The you you have to find, you know, uh you know, a provider, you know, a functional medicine provider, or someone who's just who's willing to you know run you know more advanced panels to to more consistency. Uh, you know, like what we do is we recommend that the you know an advanced panel be ran every four months, right? Because you can't really make a lot of decisions without the data, right? You don't know what what's going on, you don't know if you're starting to have a deficiency, you don't know if there's any imbalance if you're not testing for it. You can't know without having that, you know, you you can't make decisions, you can't have the answer without truly understanding what's going on and having the data in front of you to make decisions. That's why I think you know that all these wearables and and data tracking mechanisms uh that are that are coming out, I I think are are great, right? Because I think the more data that we can have, I think it can be overwhelming uh for just the average person who's not dealing with it every single day. Um, but I think it it really comes down to um obviously, you know, we could talk about the foundational pillars, you know, that where health truly starts, right? Your your diet, your sleep, your your movement, um, your stress management and your community. You know, obviously those are foundational pillars that just need to be considered as non-negotiables, right? You need an optimal diet, which you know we just talked about with the food pyramid, whole food, nutrient dense, as clean as possible, you know, eliminate junk, eliminate sugar. Um, you know, if you can go without how alcohol, great. I think you know, alcohol is is the next cigarette industry. You know, Gen Z is has already truly dropped and eliminated alcohol. And I'm not saying telling people that you can't have it. You know, I personally don't uh drink alcohol, but that was you know a personal decision that I had to make. Um and I feel great, right? You know, but that it not saying that people have to go do that, you know, but you know, people have to understand how important sleep is. You know, they it's sleep is is it it it's it's so foundational, and people you know talk about, you know, oh I don't well it's only a matter of time, right? Your your body catches up, right? There's enough studies and science that shows you need seven to nine hours, right? It's it you have to you have to get your sleep and and you have to dial in that that routine or else you know it will catch up with you, right? You're it it it sh it will flip your hormones, it'll cause you to to overeat and snack, and it'll just it's gonna drain and and just mess up your cortisol level. There's there's so much to sleep that people don't understand or think that they could just get away with, you know, especially you know, people my age, a little bit younger, um, that think that they can get by with it, but it it's only a matter of time where it catches up with you, right? Um, you know, we talked about muscle, right? It just how important movement is. We live in such a sedentary lifestyle um where people forget you know what it means to move. And I think that can be connected with uh we've lost you know sense of purpose or sense of community where and in having those gatherings because um it's you know, like right now, right? It's just so easy for us to to hop on a Teams meeting uh or to you know uh meet over at on our desk where you know we're not going out, we're not getting up, we're not walking, connecting. Um so that you know there's those things, but I think truly what's going to um turn things around uh is changing the mindset of this annual physical to doing more consistent lab work that is much more expansive than what we're used to, right? We're not just gonna run a CBC and CMP. Um, we need to you know look at your hormones, we need to look at your thyroid, need to continuously look at the metabolic panels and lipid panels, nutrient deficiencies to just constantly keep you in that optimal state, right? If if your body isn't in, and when I say optimal state, I'm not saying the reference ranges that are on lab core or quest, right? Because those are ranges based off of a sick population, yes, right? You know, 95-97 percent of the US is metabolically unhealthy. And we're saying that Lab Core and Quest reference ranges are based off of that population, right? So it's not looking at those, it's looking at what optimal ranges are, which you know, like what you're looking at, like what what you practice uh at at your uh clinics and what we practice at our clinics, right? There's a difference than normal and optimal, right? So, yeah, when you go to your doctor and they say, Oh, yeah, the you know, your labs look normal, right? Everything's okay, your pain's okay, your fatigue's okay, you're just getting older. This is normal. No, it's not, right? Something is wrong. Your body is the most um uh impressive, magnificent, uh, magnificent creation ever created, right? And it tells you and gives you signals when something's going up. If you have fatigue, if you have brain fog, if you're having a hard time getting weight off or putting muscle on, those are all signs that something is going on, right? Yes, you are aging, but that doesn't mean that you have to accept normal uh as a part of aging, right? We can do things today, you know. We we have the tools to constantly keep you in that optimal state, which is ultimately gonna give you more energy. It's gonna give you that mental clarity, it's gonna allow you to have that motivation to get up and go to the gym, you know, even when it might be easier staying in bed, right? It's gonna help you uh, you know, do what you know, live that healthier, longer life that we're all you know, searching after. You know, we're talking about longevity, anti-aging, right? We have tools today and and enough information backed by data, backed by science that says if we can keep you in these optimal states, in these optimal ranges, you in fact will reduce the risk of all-cause mortality. You will, in fact, reduce the risk of these chronic diseases that are plaguing the nation, right? But you can only do that if you have the information and the data in front of you. Um, and someone who has experience and has the knowledge on on how to act on those things.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Yes, yeah. Your provider you is is all about you if you want a certain result, you hire the right people, you delegate to the right people. And medicine is the study of pathology. We're not sitting here, Zach and I knocking medicine. They are the best pathologists on the face of the planet, and everything is based around those numbers. So when you see your vitamin D panel come back and it says the normal range is between 30 and 100, having a vitamin D range at 30 is not good. From Zach and I perspective, optimal is 70. That's where we want you to be between 60 and 90. So 70 is optimal. So very different looking at the exact same vitamin D panel that comes back from a medical perspective and a vitality perspective is two different things. One's a pathological viewpoint, the other one is vitality viewpoint. And I want you just to take that and run with it from this podcast as like, oh, who do I want on my team? We're playing football. Well, I want I don't want Wayne Gretzky on my team, I want Tom Brady on my team or Sydney Crosby. I'm too old. I don't want Sydney Crosby on my team, I want Tom Brady on my team because we're playing football. We're talking about my health here, right? So those are the people you want to put around in your corner when it comes to healthcare. And that's what I think Zach and I are just passionate about moving forward with this is your annual physical is really important. But going to your MD and knowing that your red blood cells and your white blood cells and your cholesterol is okay doesn't give us the full picture of how you're optimally functioning. Yeah. So that's it. And I love your thing about every four months getting that done. I would recommend that as well. We we say every six months um to do that if you're under 40 and more if you're over 40. Um to do that.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Yeah, I mean, we we we fall within that range too. Every four to six months. Um, part of our you know, programs or memberships, we include it every four months. Not to say that everyone does it every four months, but yeah, I mean it's I mean, just think about how much can change within in six to twelve months.

SPEAKER_00 36:33

I mean, imagine the stress you go through through a season, just winter. Let's just talk about the holidays or or a change in life or a loss in your job or whatever it is, that stress is immediate within that first week when you get the layoff papers. And then now the next three months is probably chaos for your mental state. Uh, what's your blood work gonna look like a month after all that? It's gonna be a mess. And that's why you want to get checked every six months. And if you rely on your job and you rely on your premiums and your healthcare premiums, they're never gonna take care of you. They're really never gonna take care of you. You have to put this into your own hands. And I think what people are doing, they're like, you know what? Screw the system. I'm gonna get a catastrophic uh policy that you can do through AFLAC or whatever, just in case you end up in a hospital, you have something so you don't stress out more and actually have another heart attack and die in the hospital because you're freaked out about the bill. At least that's covered. And then all that extra premium that you're saving uh either off your paycheck or this is more than enough to do your$190 blood work twice a year. Pretty, pretty simple stuff. Or if you're doing hormone panels or whatever, anyways. Uh, I think we're both beating the same drum.

Prioritize Protein And Real Food

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Yeah, no, I mean it, you know, one of the things that uh I you know we preach a lot about to to um to to our clients and what I talk to clients about, or you know, just people who I'm when they ask what I do, is you know, you don't rely on your car insurance, right? To um well, you can't rely on your car insurance to do your your routine maintenance, right? You know, to to do the oil change, to to rotate your tires, right? You know, that's you're you're doing that to to make sure that you have the best longevity of your car, right? You know, insurance is there for an emergency, right? It is there for an accident, it is there for you know you getting hit or rear-ender, whatever it might be, but it's not there to help your car live as long as possible, right? The thing, the difference between you know, cars and us is that you can buy a new car, right? You you can't buy a new body, right? You can't you can't start you know systems over um once they become too you know damaged, right? You know, that it's you you have to start thinking of your health insurance the same way, right? It it is not there, it's there for an emergency, to your point, right? It's there if if you do have that heart attack or you or you do have um you know some sort of uh of surgery that that's needed, a broken bone, whatever it is. Um but you know, people really have to start becoming CEOs of their own health, right? They have to stop outsourcing the responsibility. And I love the analogy that you said about football because my background is football, and uh uh you know, you have to start assembling your team, right? You have to, you know, start recruiting on who is going to give you uh the best chances to win, right? You know, you got to consider doctors as advisors, right? They're not saviors. Um, you know, you have to find the best nutritionist, the right trainer, the right DC, you know, to really start assembling, you know, your your your Avengers team, right? You know, we we we provide the expertise and roadmap, but at the end of the day, the ownership has to come from you, the individual, right? No one cares about your health more than you do, right? So you have to take that into your own hands. You have to take that responsibility uh because no one else is gonna come and do it for you, right? No one's gonna pick up the dumbbell for you, no one's going to uh you know tell you to stop eating that that donut unless you have a really, really good friend, right? Or or spouse that's gonna hold you accountable. You know, at the end of the day, it has to be you, you have to make that decision. Um And you know, when you start doing those little things and building those habits, um, is really where you start seeing things turn, you know, turn around.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

Yeah, agreed. That's uh that's awesome, man. I think this was great. Thanks for doing it. Uh leaves a lot of food for thought for the listeners. Uh, check out Nava Health if you need some more answers or in depth questions with some things there as another resource for you. Uh, and thanks for being here, man. I appreciate everything and all the best in 2026.

SPEAKER_01 40:49

No, thanks for having me and you as well.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Yeah.