00:00:06:00 – 00:00:20:01
Synergee
Welcome back, Synergee listeners. We are so excited to have you here today with us. You’re going to want to lean into this one. Today we are joined by a guest who brings science, strategy, and even a little bit of humor to the world of functional medicine and integrative/holistic therapy in Ridgeland MS and natural healing in Ridgeland MS.
00:00:20:03 – 00:00:45:15
Synergee
Dr. Sam Shay is a functional medicine expert, a speaker, and a stand up comic who helps people escape survival mode and reclaim their energy, their focus, and their vitality. Known as the Friendly Lab Nerd, Doctor Sam makes advanced testing approachable, using personalized lab work and genetic analysis to help his clients balance their hormones, heal their gut, optimize sleep, and reduce inflammation.
00:00:45:17 – 00:00:58:01
Synergee
He’s the creator of the DNA Decoded Program and the Neuro Harmony model, two groundbreaking approaches that fuse precision based genetic insights with personalized nutrition and lifestyle coaching.
00:00:58:06 – 00:01:25:20
Synergee
After overcoming years of chronic fatigue, insomnia, digestive struggles, sugar addiction, and anxiety himself, Dr. Sam turned his recovery into a mission to help others thrive. With over 25 years of experience in nutrition science, mind body medicine, and genetics, Dr. Sam delivers insights with warmth, clarity, and his signature humor, making complex science both relatable and actionable.
00:01:25:22 – 00:01:37:10
Synergee
We are so thrilled to welcome him today to explore how our unique biology can become the roadmap to lasting health. Welcome to our show, Dr. Sam. We are so excited to have you here today to discuss natural healing in Ridgeland MS.
00:01:37:12 – 00:01:38:16
Dr. Shay
Thank you. It’s great to be here.
00:01:38:20 – 00:01:54:11
Synergee
Your story is so, so powerful. I want to make sure, before we get into anything else that you have an opportunity to really share with our listeners, your compassion that you have learned and you’ve lived, came from a place of pain.
00:01:57:04 – 00:02:19:01
Dr. Shay
Thank you. My story, the arc is quite painfully familiar to most people who become natural health care practitioners. The details vary amongst individuals, but I just want to acknowledge my story is unique to me, but it is not unique to the concept of the wounded healer.
00:02:21:12 – 00:02:45:10
Dr. Shay
I got into natural medicine the same way, you know, I got into comedy, through tragedy. So, basically, I grew up and I was very, very sick as a child. It started with my parents’ nuclear divorce, meaning that they, me, and my sisters were caught in the blast radius of a really horrible divorce.
00:02:45:12 – 00:03:03:08
Dr. Shay
When I was six years old, my sisters were older, and we all dealt with it in our own different ways. One sister basically fled the country as soon as she could. Another ended up in the hospital with a bleeding stomach ulcer. Another dove into her books. I just escaped into video game addiction and sugar addiction.
00:03:03:10 – 00:03:24:07
Dr. Shay
Crippling insomnia. To the point where it stunted my growth. And therefore, I was an easy target for violence at school for about a decade. And then, an eating disorder, overeating and just, it all just kind of fed on the insomnia, the bullying and violence and the gaslighting at home and just it was.
00:03:24:09 – 00:03:29:01
Dr. Shay:
And then my parents handled it terribly. You know, each one, they would weaponize the children against each other.
00:03:29:03 – 00:03:53:15
Dr. Shay
My parents became more focused on getting back at each other as opposed to attending to the emergent needs of a damaged and harmed child in school. And, my parents were more interested in medicating me into submission than actually dealing with what was going on.
00:03:53:15 – 00:03:57:11
Dr. Shay
Because if they were dealing with what was going on, that would require them to have some introspection.
00:03:57:13 – 00:04:14:18
Dr. Shay
The grand irony is that both of them were psychiatrists, and there’s a lot of humor in that. And, so that is one reason why I got into comedy. And, I just decided when I was in high school that I had to really take charge of my health on my own.
00:04:14:19 – 00:04:38:00
Dr. Shay
And I was supposed to be the third generation medical doctor in my family. My father’s father was a very famous scientist, and he was a medical scientist. He was actually the founding director of the Fels Cancer Research Center at Temple University in 1937, and he published over 300 articles in his career before he died from medical malpractice on the operating table, ironically enough, in 1963.
00:04:38:00 – 00:04:54:09
Dr. Shay
So I actually never met my grandfather and I took a hard turn into natural medicine starting in high school, and I just dedicated my life to natural medicine, starting as a teenager.
00:04:54:11 – 00:05:24:11
Dr. Shay
From there it was a journey from a premed, a holistic health practitioner degree, to going to chiropractic school, then falling in love with functional neurology to diving into nutrition and then getting an acupuncture degree, and then, training under an osteopath and then getting really, really, really, heavy into functional testing and functional genetics.
00:05:24:11 – 00:05:33:03
Synergee
In functional medicine, 80 plus percent of your practice is women. And that’s just across the board with the exception of a couple of like, male specific practices.
00:05:33:05 – 00:05:51:22
Dr. Shay
Because generally the person who is the demographic, rather who is engaging in functional medicine, usually is an age 35 to 60 female, who is concerned about their health in some meaningful way because there’s a transition in their life.
00:05:51:22 – 00:06:23:06
Dr. Shay
Either their hormones are shifting because of perimenopause, they’re in menopause, post menopause. They’re dealing with paternal fertility issues or trying to recapture their nutritional stores after they’ve given birth, or they’re trying to shift their body because they’re getting into a relationship or gotten out of a relationship.
00:06:23:08 – 00:06:55:08
Dr. Shay
And, and, or they’re trying to start over, after the kids have grown up and now they’re wanting to start their new phase of life, and there’s all these changes in their family life, and there’s changes in their physical life. And this is the key word here is change in transition. And, whatever that is and and there is an ongoing, albeit stereotypical ethos, you know, like a guy doesn’t come to practice once he’s being dragged kicking and screaming or it’s not getting up or shoulders falling off and duct tape ain’t working anymore.
00:06:55:10 – 00:07:06:07
Dr. Shay
There’s that there’s certain tropes that are true isms, not 100% true, but tropes are truisms. And, you know, I was putting together my models and frameworks,
00:07:06:09 – 00:07:32:19
Dr. Shay
I, when I, opened, my first practice, abroad, I worked with, I, I seem to have attracted, middle aged females who were struggling with a mixture of chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, digestive problems, hormonal imbalances, and an autoimmune disease or two on the same person.
00:07:32:21 – 00:07:54:08
Dr. Shay
Sounds familiar. Yeah. No kidding. Yeah. And and and I was and when I and I, and I was just listening through all of these yards and yards and yards of case histories, I realized that there were commonalities amongst everybody who had a chronic issue.
00:07:54:10 – 00:08:04:08
Dr. Shay
Right? Everybody. And in fact, I found that there were ten specific categories of people’s lifestyle to examine.
00:08:04:08 – 00:08:32:08
Dr. Shay
And the people who struggled chronically were, with one exception, had a minimum of seven out of ten of these categories or pillars that were crumbling. It didn’t matter which seven. And it was seven plus. Yes. And what I realized is, these were the same people. They they all have the same narrative. I have this, I tried this, this, this, this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this.
00:08:32:08 – 00:08:53:11
Dr. Shay
You can create a whole staccato symphony just from and this and this and this and this and that. Like, it’s just a drum line. They just kept repeating everything that ever tried. But what I noticed is that they were trying things sequentially, not necessarily simultaneously. And there was no roadmap to actually identify which of these, which of these pillars that were actually common that we should be focusing on.
00:08:53:11 – 00:09:03:11
Dr. Shay
And the people who most practitioners and clinicians, if they’re honest, are really, really, really good, really good. A three out of ten good and another three or so. Not so much framing for. So what you’re getting is people who bounce from one product practitioner or protocol to the next. And they help, you know, up to three pillars at once.
00:09:18:17 – 00:09:36:03
Dr. Shay
But that’s like saying you are sitting on seven or more tacks, you remove three of them and you’re supposed to feel better than your gaslit for not being better. For sure. When you get this, your.
00:09:36:05 – 00:09:37:09
Synergee
Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Yeah, I hear what I hear you saying to back up is that,you know, and we agree with you.
00:09:37:09 – 00:09:56:17
Synergee
I think Kelly and I have been in practice. Now, both of us, you know, right around 19, 20 years and our, functional medicine, integrative regenerative practices and the majority of people that come to the practice are women. And the second thing that we hear you saying that we talk about a lot is women have a lot of seasons. We have a lot of phases of our lives.
00:09:58:21 – 00:10:24:02
Synergee
Right? And a lot of transition communities for change. That’s right, baby, that’s right. Opportunities for change. And we are complex. Oh boy. Here’s another opportunity. My me up. So many opportunities for me. I have, you know, an abundance and abundance of opportunities. Wow. Yeah that’s right, that’s right. But it is unique that you are a male right.
00:10:24:02 – 00:10:57:11
Dr. Shay
In this industry which treats. I do have a feminine side. Yeah. And I love hearing that. But that connection, what I love about that is that, you know, most of our clients that come to us, they will typically choose providers of care that are women. And you have found it sounds like a glorious place where you offer probably a different, distinct way of looking at things, right, that can connect with them, probably on a level we may not be able to.
00:10:57:11 – 00:11:00:14
Synergee
So this is going to be really fun to dig into a little bit more. You know, when I hear you say, as you see these women that are stuck in survival mode,right?
00:11:05:13 – 00:11:28:18
Synergee
And they’re trying all of the things that they know to try and oftentimes one at a time, and they’re not getting the traction that they need to get to really fully reverse whatever they’ve got going on an inflammatory state. I can’t wait to get into these things with you and hear, like, what is your approach to looking at those things, making them aware of what change needs to happen, in what order to see the result that they want to see.
00:11:28:21 – 00:11:31:09
Synergee
So I’m so glad you’re here.
00:11:31:11 – 00:11:51:16
Dr. Shay
I’d be happy to. And like my look when I grew up, I was raised by a single mom and three older sisters and a nanny, and it’s just like I get around women my whole life and my, my, my my sense is, it’s also that it’s not like I don’t want to help men.
00:11:51:16 – 00:11:59:21
Dr. Shay
It’s just there’s, whatever it is that, it’s not it’s not as,
00:11:59:23 – 00:12:17:16
Dr. Shay
If I want, I would have to focus more on the term, like biohacking or entrepreneurs and just there’s, there’s other there’s other kind of outlets and, and wordsmithing that can message to a more male dominated group, which I’m happy to do. It’s just I haven’t really done it.
00:12:17:18 – 00:12:32:22
Synergee
One of the takeaways for listeners and viewers is if you’re going to work with a practitioner, find a practitioner who has a framework both for lifestyle and for labs. Now I’m going to show you mine.
00:12:32:23 – 00:12:37:15
Synergee
And I haven’t really liked mine, and I hope you do too. And whether or not you use mine or not is irrelevant. It’s to find a framework, not necessarily mine. If you find a practitioner that has no framework, good luck. Because it’s basically guesswork, laissez faire, or it’s going to be this rigid thing, like everyone who comes into my practice, does this test.
00:12:58:11 – 00:13:19:08
Dr. Shay
Now, there is a logic to that where if they just have developed a practice where 80% of their clients get 80% better from the 80% of the info from from these, you know, 2 or 3 labs, there’s value to that where like, here’s here’s the core foundational thing based on this niche that I serve, I actually have great sympathy for that.
00:13:19:10 – 00:13:39:12
Synergee
And that that has a, that has a plateau that has a limit, now, so one can find themselves in those practices, but then you may hit a plateau. And if you have a plateau, don’t blame the fuel of functional medicine. Right. Like look deeper. There’s other frameworks, there’s other lenses, there’s other tests.
00:13:39:12 – 00:13:50:05
Dr. Shay
There’s other eyes on the same labs. So and then with lifestyle, you know, I’ll share my ten pillars. The labs are great.
00:13:50:07 – 00:14:04:14
Dr. Shay
And you really need to have a foundation of lifestyle change in order for the labs to really, to really shift the results. 100%. 100%. Yeah. Otherwise, it’s just supplements for symptoms, you know?
00:14:04:16 – 00:14:17:21
Synergee
Yes, for sure. And I want to go back to I noticed, as you said, that about framework that came from a place of deep passion. And I expressed some emotion in that. So I want to go back and I want to ask the question, where does that come from? Because you’re very clear on this is if you’re going to do this, this is what you need to do. Why do you say that?
00:14:26:13 – 00:14:47:19
Dr. Shay
Well, I look, I’ve been chronically ill for the huge, huge, huge swaths of my life, in fact. And it’s not that it’s over. I just got out of a moldy apartment six months ago, as of this recording. And, that moldy apartment really took me down. And so, like, I’m dealing with, like, I lost muscle mass.
00:14:47:19 – 00:15:13:01
Dr. Shay
I was having wild mood swings. I was taking multiple naps a day. I even did an advanced MRI called neuro quant. And there’s multiple cortical areas of my brain that have shrunk as a result, which is pretty terrifying for someone like me that comes from such an academic medical family. And so I’m in midst of my, you know, mold detox journey and that I that that’s a conversation for another 1 or 5 podcasts.
00:15:14:18 – 00:15:19:17
Synergee
But we just actually had our podcast last month with Richie Shoemaker and so we. Okay. Oh yeah.
00:15:19:22 – 00:15:35:06
Dr. Shay
You’re fine. I yeah, yeah, literally the VIP molecules in the mail at the moment, you know. So gotcha, gotcha. Okay. All right. Now I attempted to talk. I’m not gonna talk one more time. Okay. Well it was. Yeah. I mean, I think you covered it,that tangent.
00:15:35:21 – 00:15:38:15
Synergee
And I think it’s really good to say, though, that that is a major calls of a shift in health and paying attention to your environment because you probably thought you were doing all the things. Right, right. And then you start slipping again and you’re like, why am I slipping? Why am I slipping?
00:15:50:05 – 00:15:56:13
Synergee
And what’s the mitochondria test? I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you what’s hard about losing weight, which is so bizarre because it’s working out more but still losing weight.
00:15:56:15 – 00:16:07:06
Dr. Shay
And then I was like, something was wrong. I ran a mitochondria panel, which we’ll talk about because I’m going to give you a framework for, you know what? I’ll use mold as references along the way. That’s why I can throw that needle. Okay. Figured it out. Awesome.
00:16:07:08 – 00:16:13:07
Dr. Shay
All right. Well, so what happened was that I ran a mitochondria panel because I was like, I’m exhausted.
00:16:13:07 – 00:16:31:06
Dr. Shay
I’m losing muscle. My mood is just absolutely in the wrong place. What is going on? I did my mitochondria panel, and. Look, I teach practitioners how to read mitochondria panels. I helped design in the last stages of the neutron star test, which is the largest mitochondria panel in the world right now. And I’ve given lectures and lectures on mitochondria.
00:16:31:07 – 00:16:59:00
Dr. Shay
This is all to say I know what’s on the test. I read it and I burst out crying. I was like I said to myself, I am literally dying. My mitochondria are retracting. They’re dying. I am literally dying. And the only way, the only way that I am dying, given my lifestyle and my profession and and everything that I do for my diet and everything, that the only way that is even possible is I am being invisibly, actively poisoned.
00:16:59:02 – 00:17:03:10
Dr. Shay
So then I ran an enviro bio mix, Swiffer test, and it checked for mold and
00:17:03:10 – 00:17:12:12
Dr. Shay
Act, you know, back there and endotoxins. Right. And all three came back super high. And I was like, oh, no wonder I’m dying and
00:17:12:14 – 00:17:23:12
Synergee
I’m not laughing at you. But I certainly think they’re sometimes you just have to laugh when you’re like, you’re talking, you’re telling this to a comic, like like you’re I’m the last person to worry about chuckling at makeup humor.
00:17:23:12 – 00:17:27:07
Dr. Shay
Like, I am literally the last person you have apologized to. Okay, I totally get it.
00:17:27:09 – 00:17:38:05
Dr. Shay
If people ever watch, I have a free YouTube show, a one hour YouTube show called Neuro Spicy, neuro spicy, love life and comedy on the spectrum. It’s for free on YouTube. Just put in Doctor Sam Shea neuro spicy.
00:17:38:05 – 00:17:58:20
Dr. Shay
You’ll find it. I already mentioned it. My parents are psychiatrists. I actually talk about it on the show, but it’s actually a punchline. I may ruin the punchline for people listening to this, but the makeup, humor, the build up of like, what they’re doing and then the punchline of what they are, it’s just like what? You know? So like the mock up humor is definitely an art form.
00:17:58:22 – 00:18:18:23
Dr. Shay
Yeah. So, I saw that when I got the results of my mitochondria test. Now, if I hadn’t run that test, and I was just someone who was not in the field of functional medicine, I could have chalked up what I was going through to, like, simple. Just like the stress of, you know, living life and running a business or whatever it might be now.
00:18:19:00 – 00:18:26:12
Dr. Shay
But if I hadn’t run a test and I hadn’t had awareness of, like, I had a checklist in my head of like, I’d be doing all these things for my lifestyle.
00:18:26:14 – 00:18:44:13
Dr. Shay
And I’m going backwards. Yeah. Framework. You’re like, clearly I’m missing information here. And I got the information. I was like, oh, cool, I’m dying now. I got to figure that one out. All right. So these frameworks literally saved my life. Not just the but not just the people I work with. So when you asked me before, Lori about, like, where’s the seriousness of it?
00:18:47:04 – 00:19:09:19
Dr. Shay
It comes from the seriousness of like, this has saved my life, but also from a more from a, from another part. That was painful. So like I went through what I call magic bullet therapies when I was just seeking one answer after the knowledge, one magic bullet therapy after another, after another after another. And, and it’s like, oh, if you, you know, you try it, you know, try this meditation, try this exercise, try this start.
00:19:09:19 – 00:19:30:06
Dr. Shay
No. This time. No, but this does. No no no no no. This diet for sure. No. Fifth time’s a charm. That diet is like no, take this. Goji berry juice and snorted off the left nostril. That will absolutely help everything. So it’s. And like. And I saw these people who were very sincere and very convincing that their magic bullet cured this thing.
00:19:30:08 – 00:19:47:00
Dr. Shay
And I didn’t understand why it worked for them. And they gave it to me. And their precious magic bullets and work. And the answer I got when it didn’t work was, well, you just simply need more of it. Use the right nostril next time and it’s it. Just do more of it. And then when I figured out the ten pillars of health,
00:19:47:02 – 00:19:53:05
Dr. Shay
I realized why magic bullet therapy works for some people and fails catastrophically for others.
00:19:53:06 – 00:20:12:14
Dr. Shay
So now I could understand both narratives, my narrative or didn’t work, and their narrative where it legitimately didn’t work. So. So what happens is that if someone’s pillars only crumble to like 70 to 80% and but nine of them are holding up, and you got one pillar that has a goji berry sized hole in it that is down to 30%.
00:20:14:02 – 00:20:32:01
Dr. Shay
It’s all goji berries from 30 to 80. And you snore on that. Goji berry juice is suddenly the one pillar that was lacking is suddenly up to 80%. You feel amazing. And then you start selling goji berry juice as an MLM downline and you make it a whole business. You start saying, oh, this is the one true goji.
00:20:32:01 – 00:20:52:13
Dr. Shay
You know, all that and and the pillars of health. Finally, explain that phenomenon of magical therapy. Now, what that means is that I can now analyze from the framework of ten pillars. And now select out the magic bullets as appropriate, in combination and in synergy.
00:20:52:15 – 00:21:05:05
Synergee
There you go. Back to synergy. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You are in synergy with the other pillar, the other magic bullets as appropriate to help rebuild the pillars in need.
00:21:05:07 – 00:21:25:17
Synergee
And what you’re really saying is there is no one magic bullet. What you’re saying is that it is the synergy of that. And in addition to that, it’s a qualified health care practitioner who is educated, right, and held to a level of expertise assessing, listening to the patient, listening to the client. Right. Hearing them because that’s 80% of the story.
00:21:25:22 – 00:21:38:12
Synergee
And then applying, doing the diagnostic testing to add in additional information that you may or may not have after the evaluation and choosing the things that work for them. And so
00:21:38:14 – 00:21:46:01
Synergee
I know how important that is. And I just wanted to go back for that reason, because there’s a lot of people out there doing a lot of things.
00:21:46:03 – 00:22:00:23
Synergee
And, it is important for the consumer of health when you’re really looking to align yourself with the right provider is to do your work, do your homework, investigate, ask really good questions, and look for a framework. That’s what I hear you saying. Look for a framework,bullet, but there may be a magic framework. That’s right.
00:22:04:00 – 00:22:05:15
Dr. Shay
Yes, that’s right.
00:22:05:17 – 00:22:22:17
Synergee
I think in the early days of practice development for Lori and myself, we came alongside each other during education and we would go to our conferences and go to things, and we would always have a list of patients that weren’t getting better, or they got better and they were regressing. And it’s like we’re lifelong learners.
00:22:22:17 – 00:22:38:23
Synergee
And I think in this field, you have to embrace that. You’re not going to know everything. Even within your framework. There’s always more to add to that layering effect of what we’re going to get. And I think as providers, we have to be humble and we have to recognize there’s no way we can know everything.
00:22:39:03 – 00:22:45:17
Synergee
The other thing is building our network. So knowing when to send to a person that maybe has more expertise.
00:22:45:19 – 00:23:13:16
Dr. Shay
Yeah. Thank you. That’s the other framework I haven’t shared yet. So another framework to double check someone, if they’re a good practitioner is to know where their expertise ends, whether they admit it. Yes they do not that they are not the one true practitioner. So I mean, just as an example, like I don’t work with infirmed, I don’t work with children, I work with adults, coachable, teenagers and older keyword coachable.
00:23:13:18 – 00:23:21:09
Dr. Shay
I say, wow, yeah. I don’t work with people who are younger simply because I’m not equipped for that. I have,
00:23:21:11 – 00:23:32:23
Dr. Shay
I just I’ve tried and just the triangulation between talking kid talk to the parent, talking to a kid, you have to convince multiple parties to do the one thing, and it’s not. It’s just not my skill set.
00:23:32:23 – 00:24:12:18
Dr. Shay
But working with coachable adults. And also, like, I don’t deal with, with really severe mental illness, really severe addiction. Really like there’s I don’t I don’t work with women who are pregnant. There are entire entire specialists of specialists on this that, I’m, it’s, I don’t, work with cancer, but what I do do is that if someone has a lead cancer professional, a specialist, I’m the person that can come in as the lab support to look at the foundational labs, not the super niche cancer ones.
00:24:12:18 – 00:24:28:12
Dr. Shay
Like I’m looking at mitochondria as such, looking at gut testing. As such, I’m not the lead clinician there at all. So I’m, it’s it’s fun, a practitioner that really knows their limitations.
00:24:28:14 – 00:24:40:08
Synergee
Yeah. And, yeah, you’ll go very far, and a network that will find you, that will find you the right person, which has been linked to and exactly who is also willing.
00:24:40:11 – 00:25:00:07
Synergee
And we teasingly say to, to play on the same playground too. Right. Because I say sandbox. Yeah, yeah. You know, because you do you do have to collaborate right there to stay willing to to absolutely collaborate. And, you know, that’s that’s knowing your limits and continually I think one of the other things that Kelly and I did very early is holding ourselves to a level of expertise, too, and, and even calling each other out when maybe it wasn’t necessarily like, you know, as we would begin to chat and kind of heading down a path and saying, Have you thought about this, have you thought about that really challenging me?
00:25:10:17 – 00:25:13:21
Dr. Shay
Actually, that’s another framework. So I have a super nerd team that we meet once every two weeks for a case study. So they love the suit with the super nerd team. And that I would encourage any practitioner who’s listening that you form a super nerd team, at most four people because you have 15 minutes, one hour or every two weeks, everyone can schedule that in the name of case work and learning it.
00:25:39:19 – 00:25:45:05
Dr. Shay
Honestly, 15 minutes per person is enough.
00:25:45:07 – 00:26:05:20
Dr. Shay
Yeah. Three. And what I would recommend is like the three people have a common training but different specialties. So my three super nerds, my team of three, including myself, we all had a common training and met when studying under Doctor Kalish. And so, but one is, one is like a detox mold expert.
00:26:05:20 – 00:26:30:04
Dr. Shay
Another is a women’s health, medical doctor, Chinese medicine doctor. And I bring up all the rest with all of my niche. Obscure expertise is in functional neurology. I mean, anatomy is being a chiropractor, genetics and just kind of broad spectrum. Yeah. Handling the 1000 metabolites at once, just with all the broad labs.
00:26:30:04 – 00:26:40:22
Synergee
So between the three of us, like, man, can we cover some weird stuff? Yeah. And, so having, having a super nerd team will not only accelerate your learning, but your clients to get better so much faster. Yep. We’re so blessed to have that as well. That’s what we do, you know, with our synergy team. We have and instead of just four people, we have practices.
00:26:53:21 – 00:26:55:20
Synergeey
Right. And within those practices, we have the multitude of different specialties within it. So whether that be an already health coach, health coaches, as well as, you know, the functional nutritionist and things like that. And I do mean, Kelly and I have really, really, set our stake in the ground to say this is not negotiable.
00:27:16:23 – 00:27:27:10
Synergee
This is something that we do and we will continue to do to really hold each other. So I want to move in because I know we talked about some of the framework stuff. I want to go through that framework. And then I’d love to shift into, really the mitochondria, because you spoke about chronic disease and, the, the, the things that you really were challenged with.
00:27:40:16 – 00:28:03:14
Dr. Shay
And at the end of the day, I think a lot of people are strict and unfortunately with chronic fatigue and chronic disease states. So let’s go there and see where it takes. So, for those just listening, I am sharing a slide. But I’ll be able to speak in a way that will it’s, it’s the slide that is supportive but not required.
00:28:03:16 – 00:28:28:07
Dr. Shay
So when what we’re looking at here is the overall we’re, we’re looking at here is the overarching framework called the neural harmony model. And what that means is the neural harmony model is the updated mind body system that we’ve got. But, what I’m doing is I’m placing labs where they where they should be, and it’s right in the middle.
00:28:28:07 – 00:28:54:07
Dr. Shay
The intersection of mind and body is chemistry. So biochemistry in fact, a molecule is like both physical and nonphysical. It’s basically electromagnetics with some protons and electrons negotiating for air space. So it’s an actual molecule. It’s kind of like a bunch of them clustered together. Creating this thing is a physical thing. But really when you get down to it, it’s kind of electromagnetic, nonphysical and it’s also physical.
00:28:54:07 – 00:29:13:22
Dr. Shay
It’s both. So the meeting of mind and body is biochemistry is where lab testing comes in. That’s where you fit lab testing into a mind body model. Now what I’m going to show first is the ten pillars of health, which is the mind body portion. This is this. Then we’re going one framework down. We’re going to show those ten pillars.
00:29:13:22 – 00:29:36:21
Dr. Shay
And then we’re going to shift into the lab testing framework. So the ten pillars of health are all begin with a B part. There’s ten pillars: brain bubble, body burst or power burst. Exercise bio toxins, bio nutrients, breakfast bothers bugs, bedtime brain bowel body burst, bio toxins, bio nutrients. Breakfast bothers bugs. Bedtime.
00:29:36:23 – 00:30:00:12
Dr. Shay
And you can see there’s even some sub frameworks in here. The basic brain is in the middle. And that’s because the hypothalamus is kind of the boardroom of the body. It’s deciding from chemical, emotional and physical, signals that are we under stress or can we go into a parasympathetic healing health long term repair state. And then there’s three physical pillars: bowel, body and burst.
00:30:00:15 – 00:30:23:08
Dr. Shay
There’s three biochemicals, pillars, bio toxins, bio nutrients and breakfast. And there’s three mental emotional pillars that bothers bugs and bedtime. So just going briefly through each of them in a bit more detail. Brain I don’t know that we have I would love to. I just don’t know that we have the time to do all of that. I almost think that we would have to do a breakout session just to go, because that’s really good stuff.
00:30:23:12 – 00:30:42:20
Synergee
And I love the way your mind thinks. Like, I could ask a million questions about this, right? Yes. But I think what I hear you saying is that you listen to them, because on that first slide, you actually have that neural harmony model of the mind in the body. You then incorporate the use of lab testing to fill in those gaps.
00:30:43:01 – 00:30:51:11
Synergee
And that diagnostic testing, combined with the listening, you sifted through your filter of what are the areas that need the greatest attention? Is that right?
00:30:51:13 – 00:31:02:23
Synergee
Am I following this? Yeah. So yeah, you take the most important pieces. When you run the pillars, you don’t find what’s wrong with each pillar. Now you prioritize which pillar is the most important.
00:31:03:03 – 00:31:16:13
Dr. Shay
Everyone is the same ten pillars, but nobody has the same order of priority. And I know because I’ve done heatmaps. Right? Chart it out. Took like 2020 people and I was like, what was the order of priority? Their pillars. None of them were the same. Now there were trends,but the top three were usually sleep deprived.
00:31:20:21 – 00:31:44:04
Dr. Shay
They had terrible breakfast and routines. They had some sort of massive stressor in their life, and they’ve got some weird weirdness with their toxic exposure, or they were really deficient, like so there and there was trends with exercise that was either they were fine on exercise or they were so injured or in so much chronic pain they couldn’t exercise.
00:31:44:05 – 00:31:56:03
Dr. Shay
Yeah. Or they hadn’t exercised in years. And now that was the first priority. So it’s like exercise is usually priority nine or 10 or 1. Right. I don’t know if you saw it. I don’t know if that’s what you’ve seen, but that’s what I’ve seen.
00:31:56:09 – 00:32:05:00
Synergee
Yeah for sure. And then your treatment plan is what you’re saying. Your treatment plan, what you deliver your deliverable to them or your roadmap or your blueprint.
00:32:05:00 – 00:32:28:00
Synergee
Right there. We’re talking about today. It comes out of that. Right. So from there it’s working them through that. And so is that burst section specific to mitochondria. I’m just curious. First is for burst exercise. I couldn’t find a B word for movement okay. So it’s just I mean you try to create a ten point alliterative framework and not try to look.
00:32:28:00 – 00:32:44:13
Dr. Shay
I put bio in front of toxins and bio in front of nutrients, I am totally fine. Yes. Well, I think I was reading it more like that push crash syndrome that no, no, that’s what we’ll jump. We’ll jump right into our lives. Okay. All right. So the framework on labs is there’s five major categories of labs.
00:32:44:15 – 00:32:48:05
Dr. Shay
And there’s benefits to lab testing.
00:32:48:07 – 00:33:07:09
Dr. Shay
So the five major categories. And then there’s just really quickly the major benefits of even considering a lab. So some people are hesitant because oh my God it takes time. It takes money. Well, the reality is, labs save you time and save you money across multiple domains. There’s an upfront investment of time and money, but we’re talking about long term saving time.
00:33:07:09 – 00:33:25:23
Dr. Shay
I mean, frankly, energy and attention. You’re going to be saving all of that because you’re not going to be going down these, you know, magic bullet, dog tail, rabbit trails that are not going anywhere and you’re not doing guesswork anymore. And honestly, the older one gets, time is the most valuable resource. You know, it’s it’s you want to figure things out fast.
00:33:26:01 – 00:33:38:06
Synergee
And I want to say something to Doctor Shay with time, because it’s not just time, and it’s not just money, but it’s also taking them down a rabbit hole that takes them nowhere because we didn’t take the time of testing.
00:33:38:06 – 00:33:47:20
Synergee
And so that leads to discouragement. That leads to them going off plan. Having an objective measurement can make all the difference for them. Staying the course. Right?
00:33:47:22 – 00:34:19:07
Dr. Shay
Totally. Data I call it data. Digital data driven decisions to direct your care. And let me just last bullet point to saving you money because it prevents veering off track. Was just chasing a protocol. Right. But you had the flip side to that to where you actually have a lot of practitioners, and I think we all can probably say that at one point or the other, we have listed too early in the treatment plan, or maybe not at the right time, or maybe under the right circumstances.
00:34:19:09 – 00:34:41:00
Dr. Shay
You know, it’s having that provider of care who knows when it’s appropriate to use the right test framework to get the answers that we need. So I think you have a lot of nuances with this that are really important. But I agree with you 110% that you got to take the test. It’s extremely important because you need metrics, because you cannot manage what you do not measure.
00:34:41:02 – 00:35:00:23
Dr. Shay
So what I’ll do is I’ll share my five my five point framework around testing. So there’s five major categories of testing. Number one it’s number one not because it’s the number one is just because it happens to be one. On my framework it’s hormone testing. And there are three major types of hormone tests stress resilience sex hormones thyroid.
00:35:01:01 – 00:35:30:23
Dr. Shay
And that’s adrenal. There’s adrenal testing sex hormone testing thyroid testing. And I’m giving a list of the different companies out there like Genova precision analytical doctors data. They all have adrenal tests, hormone testing. The most popular one is Dutch testing. There are other competitors out there now. And then there’s the thyroid testing, which is actually how I really got into functional testing in earnest, because I had a, patient of mine who was sitting in front of me with a full on goiter, and this was in another country.
00:35:30:23 – 00:35:55:06
Dr. Shay
So we had goiter there and goiter and had almost every single sign of hypothyroidism you can imagine, you know, trouble losing weight, disappearing eyebrows, falling out hair, just exhausted the bobbing eyes, a goiter just for fun, a goiter. And she sat in front of me and said, well, she went to the specialist and technologist and they checked her TSH.
00:35:55:09 – 00:36:13:19
Dr. Shay
And he said her TSH was normal and that she was just depressed and needed to go on medication. Yes. It’s again, another familiar story, right? Your labs are fine. I’d add one more test to this if you don’t mind or something. I would say blood sugar. Right. Blood sugar. And that’s on the next. That’s later on okay okay okay.
00:36:13:21 – 00:36:32:18
Dr. Shay
We’re not in the hormone category. Right. It’s not. So it’s not metabolic. It’s metabolic. It’s next to the mitochondria right now what you’re saying Leroy I actually don’t disagree with this is the hazard of making a framework. It’s where you put the things that can cross two lines of that. So I don’t object to what you just said.
00:36:32:20 – 00:36:50:12
Dr. Shay
It’s just your framework might be slightly different. But as long as you’re covering everything I find. So with that, with that patient, it was one of the few times I was not angry at her. It was angry at the end of the chronology, and I swore to her through gritted teeth, I promise you, I will find you a test to test for more than age.
00:36:50:14 – 00:37:07:05
Dr. Shay
Yeah. And that’s when I found the company that did the consolidation of all the tests and found all these six different markers. Your thyroid. But, you know, if you want to run a thyroid test at a minimum, you want to say 3233 T4 antibodies to thyroid globulin, thyroid peroxidase. And like, you know, verse three three is helpful. Not in all cases.
00:37:07:05 – 00:37:29:22
Dr. Shay
It’s kind of nice to have, but like five six markers at a minimum. So that’s the hormone. Then we come to the gut testing which I break up to the big gut test, Sibo testing and food sensitivities. Now you’ve got lots of options here with the big gut test. So the big gut tests I mean they check for hidden infections whether it’s H. Pylori parasites, Candida bad bacteria, viruses. The public will think of the word parasites in a very broad umbrella terms. Or do I have parasites? And like technically Candida is not a parasite, but they think of it as one. So you want to make sure your gut test has a broad spectrum of different categories of things. They also should check for normal gut flora, what’s called commensal bacteria digestion markers, whether it’s pancreatic function, fat absorption, immune system, gluten.
00:38:00:11 – 00:38:21:02
Dr. Shay
You really want to make sure something has gluten on it. Leaky gut or unknown permeability, depending on whose terminology you use. And there’s bunches of examples of these companies: the GI map from Diagnostic Solutions Lab, the GI effects from Genova Doctors data is a GI 360 gut tumor from vibrant seeds is kind of like the rotary phone of gut tests.
00:38:21:02 – 00:38:47:16
Dr. Shay
Still good. Still operates just old technology, but hey, it works. Bunches of the companies have a CD. Say, then you got Sibo testing. And this is called small intestine, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. It’s cousin cf0 small intestinal fungal overgrowth. And there’s some examples. Genova, as a Sibo test trial, smart has like the, the best one that I’ve seen so far, at least the most broad in terms of catching three different types of, Sibo.
00:38:47:16 – 00:39:05:17
Dr. Shay
And then you’ve got food sensitivity tests, which you’re looking at immune responses to different foods. And there’s lots of labs that do this. And they all get to some weird pissing contest. My food intolerance is bigger than yours, you know. So Pyrex has its opinions about Cat and about Viper and Vibrant and Genova vice versa.
00:39:05:17 – 00:39:39:22
Dr. Shay
And just even Diagnosis Solutions Lab has got into the food sensitivity game recently. I think within the past year or so, everyone’s everyone’s fighting over gut testing, but the most important one in my opinion, is the big broad gut test first. And if you want to start somewhere, you start there because a lot of downstream food sensitivities and even Sibo is just a function of poor function of the intestines in general, leaky gut, even Sibo could be just poor gallbladder function because bile acids the acid in the term bile acid damps down overgrowth.
00:39:40:00 – 00:39:59:10
Dr. Shay
So you can take as much, you know, slow release oregano oil as you want to to get rid of a Sibo thing. But really you want to fix things like the gallbladder. Sure, there may be many other factors contributing to you, but it’s an example of how not all testing is created equal. Some things I believe should be tested first before others, right?
00:39:59:15 – 00:40:17:14
Dr. Shay
And I think the minimum at a minimum. Yeah, sure. Yeah for sure. And I think with each practitioner I know again, once again, you know, Kelly and I have been working with our clients for so long, and have so much experience in that, but that took time to develop that experience and knowledge of knowing when to do what.
00:40:17:14 – 00:40:31:18
Synergee
And so, you know, I love that you, you know, that you’re talking about this, and helping people understand that there’s a lot out there. I mean, the moral of the story, there’s a lot out there, and you don’t need all of this. I want our listeners to because that can be no, no no no no no no.
00:40:31:18 – 00:41:02:04
Synergee
You know all that and they don’t. So yeah. Yeah. So we’ve covered hormone testing, gut testing. Now we’re covering mitochondria and brain liver anemia blood sugar. So here this mitochondria is what we’re going to spend some time on. That mitochondria eats mitochondria is a massive massive topic. Yes. And mitochondria require like 50 plus nutrients to work optimally.
00:41:02:04 – 00:41:22:15
Dr. Shay
And then it’s dependent on breathing oxygen perfusion the quality of red blood cells. Can you deliver all the things in the blood? How does blood sugar come in all these neurotransmitters? Do we turn on the emergency system and shutting down the mitochondria in favor of. We’re going to get a bit nerdy here. Anaerobic glycolysis for you Scrabble enthusiasts out there.
00:41:22:17 – 00:41:50:06
Dr. Shay
Are we going to keep going with the efficient energy production, the mitochondria, like, there’s so many things that influence the health and function of the mitochondria. And also, is it how much is dialed up or dialed down in terms of production, based on the current physiological state in the emergent needs of your life? So it is a massive topic, and the very, relatively few practitioners really know how to navigate a mitochondria test.
00:41:50:08 – 00:42:14:06
Dr. Shay
The reason why is the same difference between learning general anatomy, which I’ve done and taught. I taught chiropractors across the nation how to pass their registration exams or national exams in basic sciences. And so there’s a difference between general anatomy and neuroanatomy. That’s the difference that the jargon, the words, the polis logic, polis syllable.
00:42:14:06 – 00:42:34:04
Dr. Shay
But that’s a bad sign right there by the polysyllabic nature of how ironic I say that. What I’m trying to say is that, you know, the, the, the words make no sense when you’re looking at you. You’re just rattling. You can win a Scrabble tournament, being on a first name basis with some of the metabolites in a mitochondria test.
00:42:34:06 – 00:43:00:10
Dr. Shay
So the jargon jump is massive. And then you’re dealing with a whole separate metabolic milieu. And I train with Doctor Kailash for four years to learn how to not only read but also teach mitochondria panels. So I don’t want to make sure we get to it because I know how, you know, we have listeners that specifically are probably like, what the heck’s a mitochondria?
00:43:00:10 – 00:43:19:22
Dr. Shay
I mean, maybe, just maybe they are not. But mitochondria, just to keep it simple, is the powerhouse of the cell, right? Keeping it super simple, right? Keeping it simple. But it is complex and it is. Look at that. Right. It can be very, very complex and probably so for those that are listening. But let me take exactly what you said.
00:43:19:22 – 00:43:37:13
Dr. Shay
That’s a powerhouse of the cell. And let me make it simple from there. It’s a factory. It’s an electricity factory. So if you imagine a cell is a microscopic city, now, your mitochondria, depending on who you read, comprises 3 to 10% of your body weight. It depends on who you use, who’s arguing. So that means that imagine any major city.
00:43:37:13 – 00:44:03:23
Dr. Shay
Let’s take New York. Imagine 3 to 10% of the entire footprint of Manhattan is the electrical grid. That’s how big and important this is. Now, if it’s an electric factory, all the entire metaphor works. You need specialized walls called single lipids. So if you have bad fatty acids, it’s going to affect the walls of the factory. You need fuel delivered to the factory to burn protein, fats, protein, fats and carbs are delivered to the factory to burn to create electricity.
00:44:04:00 – 00:44:28:13
Dr. Shay
Those three fuels are delivered by three separate truckers unions. The fatty acid Truckers Union, the Carb Truckers Union, and the Amino acid or Protein Truckers Union. And they’re all paid in different currencies. The fatty acid truckers union is paid in carnitine B2 glycine for the long the long to the long haul. Truckers are painting lysine and magnesium, the amino acid truckers unions.
00:44:28:13 – 00:44:45:13
Dr. Shay
They’re paid mostly in divided, mostly B6. And then you’ve got the carb truckers union. They’re paid in light B vitamins, lipoic acid, chromium, it like this. There’s a bunch of other things in there, and if you don’t pay them, then the fuel sits on the docks. So this is when you hear people’s like, oh, I need to help my carnitine shuttle, which means like they’re carnitine truckers.
00:44:45:13 – 00:45:09:06
Dr. Shay
Union hasn’t been paid to deliver the fat to the mitochondria, to be burned, to make electricity. Then you’ve got. So you’ve got the delivery, then you’ve got what’s in the factory itself. Assuming you have good walls inside, you have machines that burn the things. Those are called vitamins inside, each machine is a computer chip called mineral. This is why heavy metals are so dangerous.
00:45:09:08 – 00:45:31:17
Dr. Shay
Because it’s like swapping out a 2025 chip for a 1995 chip in a computer. Modern day computer. It’s me. Might be functional. Keyword might. And if so, it’s super slow. That’s why heavy metals can completely screw up the mitochondria. CoQ10 is the giant conveyor belt this entire thing operates on. If you look at a CoQ10, this schematics is, oh, look, a little dot of coke.
00:45:31:17 – 00:45:50:00
Dr. Shay
You took no coke. You ten is an enormous molecule. It is huge. It’s kind of bonkers how big it is, but it is literally the conveyor belt that this whole thing is operating on. Then you’ve got the janitors who are putting out all the sparks that are flying off the burning of your fuel of protein, fats, and carbs.
00:45:50:00 – 00:46:12:04
Dr. Shay
When you put a log on a fire, it burns, but you’ve got sparks. And if those sparks get too big, you can start burning things outside the safe radius. And these sparks are called free radicals. Inside the mitochondria. The sparks that come off from the model from burning are 95%, Blaylock was the first person who really popularized that concept.
00:46:12:04 – 00:46:37:11
Dr. Shay
You remember that book way back? Way back then, 95% of all free radicals were generated inside this factory. 95%. And so what you need are these really heavy duty enzymes that are the janitors called Mansoor GPC, Goodson peroxidase, catalase. These three janitors are the ones to mop up all the sparks. So the factory doesn’t, you know, catch on fire.
00:46:37:13 – 00:47:00:22
Dr. Shay
Then you got viruses, which are the thieves. And vandals that come in and can destroy and take over, destroy or otherwise just slop around the slop up all the machinery. Then you’ve got your garbage removal system, which is your lever detox capacity. Then, can you remove the garbage that’s generated from the mitochondria? You got neurotransmitters, which are the signals from outside the factory phoning in.
00:47:00:22 – 00:47:26:18
Dr. Shay
Hey, we need this much electricity. You got peak hours. We got this, we got that, and it’s dialing it up. You got inflammatory markers and, like, how often does your factory catch on fire? That’s a good number to know. Then you’ve got the thyroid. Now the thyroid is actually the teeth. The thyroid, the mitochondria is the business end of the thyroid, which means that that’s the thing that people will ask me what is what is the thyroid to its basal metabolic rate?
00:47:26:20 – 00:47:48:19
Synergee
Okay. What does that mean? That means how much your mitochondria are burning protein, fats and carbs, to their tonic level of electricity production per day. What happens is that the thyroid makes T4, and I like the metaphor I use. It’s the four wheel car that pulls into the arterial superhighway, drives along and pulls into the mitochondria parking lot of a cell.
00:47:48:21 – 00:48:11:01
Dr. Shay
It makes that Transformers movie noise bumper, and one door opens and becomes this arm. So now it’s a T3 because there’s three wheels, because one one turned into an arm, and that becomes the engineer. That button mashes on the controls of the mitochondria to dial it up. So you need thyroid to activate and signal to turn up the mitochondria.
00:48:11:01 – 00:48:33:09
Dr. Shay
I’ve seen it so many times. People have had perfect thyroid panels. I mean, all of those markers that I mentioned, not just TSH, but they still have the signs of hypothyroid. It’s not a thyroid issue, it’s the mitochondria not responding to the engineer button mashing on the controls. It’s not the thyroid, it’s you just caught them in that one like a short window where the thyroid is still thinking about everything.
00:48:33:09 – 00:48:59:03
Dr. Shay
Oh if I just, you know, keep on mashing. It’s going to be fine until the like until the signaling has started to warp and now it’s affecting the thyroid molecules. So, that’s the best way to understand the thyroid. The mitochondria is the factory. But I do not know of anyone with a false multi-site, except myself, who’s actually taken the time to explain that metaphor in real detail.
00:48:59:05 – 00:48:59:23
Synergee
I love this. I love the metaphor, I love the schematic, and I love the metaphor because I think anybody can really understand that very complex situation, right?
00:49:10:21 – 00:49:31:08
Synergee
When you’re explaining it in the way of a factory. And what I heard you say throughout all of this, without saying it explicitly, was that we have to work on the foundation. We have to detox and load the body. We need to be getting the proper nutrients. We need to be moving our bodies. We need to be getting extra appropriate amounts of fatty acids in our diet.
00:49:31:08 – 00:49:45:23
Synergee
All of those things foundationally, are necessary to keep this factory, this mitochondria, working appropriately, to give us energy, to give us vitality, so that we are resilient. Right.
00:49:46:01 – 00:50:07:01
Dr. Shay
Totally. So. And then all of these sparks, it is accumulation of free radicals which increases risk of disease. And if your cleanup efforts aren’t greater than your sparks, yes, we’re going to be diseased. And so thank you. And here’s where we can tie and mold and all the other weird stuff. The fourth category is what damages the mitochondria easily.
00:50:07:01 – 00:50:24:00
Dr. Shay
And this is what I call the weird stuff category of labs. We did hormones, gut mitochondria and company weird stuff. This is mold, metals, environmental toxins, Lyme. What do all of these things do in space? Screw up the mitochondria. Right. In spades.
00:50:24:02 – 00:50:27:01
Synergee
Viruses would not be on that list as well.
00:50:27:05 – 00:50:29:17
Synergee
So viruses. So that would be it.
00:50:29:19 – 00:50:58:15
Dr. Shay
Yes. Thank you. It would be on this list. I just couldn’t fit it across the top there. Yeah. Yeah. So now you’ve got the fifth category is genetics. This is the thing I love dearly. I’m deeply, deeply, deeply involved in the genetics world. And here’s how genetics relates to mitochondria. Your genetics determined how agile and resilient and robust those three janitors are.
00:50:58:17 – 00:51:19:22
Dr. Shay
So I suffered with chronic illness my whole life. When I ran my genetics, I had, you know, the panel that I run, we prioritize. The genes don’t just give out, here’s 300 genes and here’s 300 health tips. Hope, good luck figuring all those priorities. Now we’ve prioritized the genes, because not all genes are created, but, spoiler methylation is not the priority.
00:51:20:00 – 00:51:37:22
Dr. Shay
It’s downstream of information. Like, I, I super disagree with Gary Breck on this. I listened to his podcast and I was screaming a little into my podcast. Mike, you know, when I get angry I make a PowerPoint. So then I went on this podcast tour debunking what he was saying on that podcast he did in like two, December 23rd.
00:51:38:00 – 00:52:09:04
Dr. Shay
So, my so what happens with me? Why was I chronically sick when everyone else with a similar lifestyle wasn’t because I had of the top 15 inflammatory genes I had, 13 out of 15 were pro-inflammatory. I also saw it in GG one bright red dot, meaning that my janitors were slow to nonexistent, which means when I started.
00:52:09:06 – 00:52:28:17
Synergee
Yeah, it’s so many, so many opportunities. Right. All those options. Exactly. I mean, oh my God, so many of the ways you’re reframing that I love learning about the next new thing that is afflicting me, that I now can learn and help others smile. Okay. Like more. Oh my God, the education I’m getting is in mode. Amazing. So worth it.
00:52:28:17 – 00:52:49:05
Dr. Shay
I love the opportunity. Oh my god I couldn’t. Can’t wait to share further. Yeah, what’s the skill I learned in graduate school? How to smile and grind your teeth at the same time. Right. So this is the same thing with these opportunities. So with genetics you know once and genetics radically change my health. I’ll give you just two examples.
00:52:49:05 – 00:53:11:02
Dr. Shay
One, I was having chronic arthritic pain like an 80 year old man in my 30s. And I did not understand why. And I was taking my one gram of fish oil, you know, cause, you know, for years, over a decade, easy, one gram fish oil. Then I got into genetics and I realized just how pro-inflammatory I was. And then I learned this new concept called nutri genomics.
00:53:11:04 – 00:53:32:16
Dr. Shay
Not nutritional dosing, but neutral genomic dosing. What does that mean? Nutritional dosing is when I check a gram of fish oil, throw it. It’s a widget into the machinery. Neutral genomic is I take 2 to 4g and I now change the machinery. That’s the difference. So what I did is I took one. One of many things that I did is I increased my fish oil.
00:53:32:16 – 00:54:00:05
Dr. Shay
Don’t go up. People don’t take, oh I just take more fish oil. And I’m great that I’m not saying that it was one tool there that was really potent, that I didn’t know existed till I heard about it. One of about a half dozen that I. One for my genetics. So what happened was that I did these neutral genomic interventions which are usually singular nutrients at higher doses that change the genetic expression to make me globally more anti-inflammatory, which then made my joints not hurt anymore.
00:54:00:07 – 00:54:29:11
Dr. Shay
But I didn’t know about that concept for forgot about genetics. The second major thing that happened is that I did a specialized genetics test that’s now available in the States to check for your ideal diet. Are you ideally keto, paleo, Mediterranean, or high carb, or some shade of gray in between? Now I always have a perfect Mediterranean Portlandia diet where I knew the names of my farmers and their chickens, and the quinoa was grown with my left handed monks.
00:54:29:11 – 00:54:50:15
Dr. Shay
Some have picked on the harvest moon, you know, all that stuff. And I was eating. My carb tolerance is actually that of a low carb paleo bordering on keto, genetically. And even I was having this perfect Mediterranean Portlandia diet. I was having energy swings, mood swings, indigestion. I was just like, what is going on here?
00:54:50:17 – 00:55:12:09
Dr. Shay
And then when I switched within one week, my digestive problems disappeared because I was switching to my genetic capacity. And it’s like there’s nuances now in the genetics world, it’s not just about variations. It’s actually about how many duplicates of a specific gene called copy number. Now that’s a whole other podcast. We should talk about genetics, but I’m just sharing this all with you.
00:55:12:09 – 00:55:45:05
Dr. Shay
Like all of these tests, they all matter. But the key is to have a framework to figure out what’s the ones that matter the most for you. So you combine a practitioner with a framework for lifestyle, whether it’s the ten pillars of health, the triangle of health, the inverted hypotenuse of wellness. I don’t care if, as I have a framework for lifestyle and then a framework for labs, minor hormones, gut mitochondria, weird stuff, genetics, and then knowing all the subdivisions underneath your lifestyle and labs.
00:55:45:05 – 00:56:07:03
Dr. Shay
Combine those. Now that’s holistic medicine, lifestyle and frameworks for both. That’s holism. That’s right. And then knowing when to punt or knowing when to bring up and to affirm with the team. Absolutely. Well, this has been incredible. Thank you so much. We have missed every ounce of our minutes. We’re right up against our next one. I mean, right down to the wire a little bit over.
00:56:07:04 – 00:56:09:11
Synergee
But this was really great. Thank you so much for your dedication. You can obviously tell how passionate you are about what you do and love it. I love the combination of the humor in and I really, truly I want to go back to that schematic. I might have to show it a few times if that’s okay.
00:56:26:10 – 00:56:45:11
Dr. Shay
It has your name, which is thematic. I love the, the, the, the mitochondria. Yes. Oh yeah. For sure. Yeah. Because I just think that was great. That section among other things. But thank you so much once again, for your dedication, your inspiration. You’re sharing your willingness to be here with us today, and share your knowledge.
00:56:45:11 – 00:56:46:23
Synergee
It’s been fantastic.
00:56:46:23 – 00:56:51:08
Dr. Shay
Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity. So as we finish up, I think you’re about to ask me, How do we get in touch with you? How do people connect? Yeah, Yeah. Yeah. So it’s very, very straightforward. Just my website, doctor Sam A.com, Dr.. Sam dash, Dr.. Sam Shay.
00:57:03:10 – 00:57:26:16
Dr. Shay
I’m not in a stadium. It’s not here and there. You can get, at the time of this recording, I’m still doing, you know, three 15 minute discovery calls for people who want to work with me directly. I’ve got links to my DNA decoded program. If they’re wanting to really dive in and get their genetics, through a whole kind of six month program where it’s an integrated journey of how to implement all these changes for life.
00:57:26:18 – 00:57:45:07
Dr. Shay
My YouTube channel. Just look up Doctor Sam, share on YouTube. You’ll find a couple hundred videos on there from other interviews. My comedy show. And, I just, I just love teaching and educating. And I really thank you, Lori and Kelly, for providing an opportunity in a stage to teach and educate at scale.
00:57:45:07 – 00:58:00:01
Dr. Shay
And it’s like, I love teaching, you know, so much. And I’m so grateful for the people that really have created the platforms, people to share information, scale to the people that need to hear at the most. So thank you very much for this, for this opportunity. I really love teaching us. You stay the course, keep going, keep going with what you’re doing. And good luck with this. Navigating this whole thing.
00:58:08:22 – 00:58:26:02
Synergee
The Synergee Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice. And no doctor patient relationship is formed. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
00:58:26:02 – 01:05:44:05
Synergee
Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.
01:05:44:07 – 01:05:50:03
Synergee
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Synergee
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Synergee
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Synergee
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Synergee
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Synergee
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Synergee
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