How Functional Lab Testing Guides Holistic Lifestyle Choices

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Hello, Laura. Great.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So good to have you. And when I say you’re my friend, I mean, we live in the same county. We come hang out at each other’s houses. I just knew that once I introduced you and my husband that it would be on, that you guys would be fast friends because you have a lot in common. I love it when I love Sam.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

You know.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

He’s a good guy. You guys are both dudes. Dudes, right? You like to you like to do heavy labor, and you do it for fun.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

We like getting dirty.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You do? My husband’s a landscape contractor. And, Reed, you’ve got this big, beautiful space that you’re making into an oasis. You’ve got heavy equipment out there. It’s like a it’s like a man’s paradise out there.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

We play in a sandbox, so, like, we do this kit, you know? The only difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

There you go. There you go. Well, you also are an expert to bring onto the summit. Not only are you a friend and a fun guy, but you’re also a big deal in the functional medicine space. So you’re a you’re a double board certified holistic health practitioner. You’re a certified nutritional therapist, you’re a bestselling author, and you’re an expert in functional lab testing and holistic lifestyle medicine and really your legacy to the world. Reid is you’re the founder of the Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, otherwise known as FDA and Certification Course. You’ve put over 4000 graduates in 50 countries through that course. This has really changed the world for health coaches to be able to be impact more impactful with their clients. So I mean, your legacy in that is enormous as such.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Thank you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You’re welcome. And actually, for our viewers, you should know that a lot of physician friends of mine go through Reed’s course because they don’t teach this stuff in medical school. So not only are you are you putting health coaches through this, you’re putting doctors through this and other health practitioners as well?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Yeah, they’re opting in to learn something useful to help their patients and clients. You know, that’s the purpose. And it’s was kind of an honest effort. That’s how I got into it. I just wanted to help people. So all I ever signed up to do.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah. So let’s do that today. Are you into helping some people today?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Yes, ma’am. Okay. Today and forever. Yep.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

All right. So today what we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about the effects of how diet affects energy production and how to make sure the body is fueled properly. And then I’d like to do a dove into laboratory testing. And some of the labs that I really recommend are the first line labs that we need to do to help people. So we’ll unpack that. So our audience listening today can expect to walk away with some really good tools and nuggets of information and they’ll know what to ask for. So first off, can you dove into diet? You know, we hear a lot about taking supplements, this or that supplement, but really what it comes down to first and foremost is what we’re eating. So how can we make sure that people’s bodies are fueled properly?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Yeah, this is a really interesting area. And I started a quarter century ago searching for that answer because when I switched from environmental law and conservation to, you know, saving the planet to working with people, I wanted to work on myself. And, you know, I read books on diet and tried different things and then when I found what worked for me and tried to, well, look, just tell everyone in the clinic, you know, here’s what works for me, man. Some of them did great. Some of them, it didn’t affect them. In others, it actually made worse. So the first thing about diet to understand is that food doesn’t have sort of an intrinsic value across the board. It depends is eating, it depends is eaten as food and it can be right for you, but not right for the next person. So biochemical individuality, it’s called in and it really matters, Laura. 

And so what people decide, you know, why do I eat? You eat for fuel and you basically oxidizing this fuel you’re burning oxidizing the fuel in the cells, including in the mitochondria. And that’s where your energy is produced for the most part. So what’s the best fuel? Well, back to who’s who’s eating is the person and the first. There’s two things about food. There’s the macronutrients, protein, fat and carbs, basically. And then there’s the micronutrients. That would be the vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, antioxidants, trace elements, phytonutrients. You know, you saw the the little teeny things. 

And what fuels cells best is getting the macronutrient ratios right. So the amount of protein that and carbs in it can just this is something you could dial in gearshift you’d be aware that hey you want to produce energy is produced on the or level you want to match the fuel ratio, the protein folate and carb percentage just with your own particular bio, your individual oxidative rate. So we all burn fuel some burn it really fast. I’m a fat oxidizer kind of like an Eskimo. You know, the they burn, you know, they’re very fast oxidizer. But if you’re from the mountains of South America, you might be a very slow oxidizer. So you need fast burning fuels. Best oxidizer needs low burning fuel. That’s slow oxidizer need fast burning fuel.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So, so real quick, let me let me jump in here for 1/2. Now, it’s important, I think, for you to unpack right here that living right here in the United States or living in Canada or Europe or Australia or these countries where most of our viewers are coming from, you can be a fast or slow metabolism right here in a first world country with varying temperatures. So I was very surprised to find out that I am a slow metabolize or when I am thin and I am high energy and I don’t struggle with weight, but I am a slow metabolism. So can you talk about that, how our environment and how our living, our life can impact that?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

You can have a functional oxidative rate, but you’re basically born with it. So genetically it comes from five generations ago, millennia and millennia. You know, we ate as indigenous people, even you and I, the great world travelers have sort of an indigenous aspect from somewhere. So that’s your genetic requirements. So it comes from again from three generations ago, your people were living in a certain geographical area where the climate and geography was such that there was and there was certain vitamins and minerals. All those micronutrients were in the soils different from the micronutrient levels in the soils somewhere else. Now animals we eat those vegetation that comes out of the soil and we eat the animals that eat those vegetables and things, the vegetation. And we the animals that eat, the animals that eat those things. So that’s bread in their bones. Those not only the the macronutrient ratios, the amount of meat and fat and carbs that we eat. So that’s important. 

I think that’s the most important thing. But also illustrating that point, you know, the even the minerals, the mineral levels and ratios and things in the soils that ended up in the plants that ended up in the animals that we age if we’re eating animals. So that’s true and it’s bred in your bones. The whole point is that it’s bred into your bones, and if you eat according to your genetic requirements, you have a better chance of being really healthy, producing energy on a cellular level at the right rate and quality quantity so that those cells can do their job. And here’s the beauty in our view. You don’t have to teach cells what your job is. A cell knows, you know, it’s called the innate intelligence. 

The same thing that created the universe, created our cells in those. And so but those genetic needs came from where your father and your father. And a generation ago, ancestors ate. Where did they live? Were animals and plants and things were in the soils and all that. So all that really, really matters. And so that’s how we ended up being a fast or slow oxidizer. Well, that was your answer.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This makes sense because I am descended from Vikings, so this makes sense. So cold climate, right? Maybe not a lot of food available. Slow down the metabolism. So two questions for you. Number one, you mentioned before I interjected and asked a question, you mentioned that slow metabolism should eat fast foods and fast metabolism should eat slow food. So I want to know the difference and then I want to know how people would know what their metabolism type is. I know people are going like, well, how do I how do I learn this? How do I find out one difference?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

And this is not to pick on anything, but I don’t use the word metabolize. So is oxidizer because that’s the actual scientific crisis that’s ongoing. It’s there’s a lot to going on in metabolism. But in terms of producing energy, that’s oxidation and there’s there’s different things going on. And again, on a cellular level, you want to fuel yourselves so that your cells that they’re producing that energy at the right rate quality quantity. So they do their job in the you don’t have to teach them what their job is. So going back to that like a fair stocks or does, you’re like me or again Eskimos and certain native tribes and things like that. They’re fast oxidizing, slow burning fuel is protein and fat, fast burning fuel be the carbs. So if you take by the way, I have a cousin was a priest up in Canada and his parish is retired now, but his parish was to Cree Indian villages. Now they’re very fast, just genetically, man. They’re fast oxidizes, so they have to burn slow burning fuel. And as long as they’re doing that, if they’re eating the, the, the fish and the caribou, and if you go even further north to the Eskimos, they’re eating just fat blubber, you know, basically sea animals for the most part, very slow burning fuel because they’re burning very quickly. So you can picture like you have a a bonfire. What do you put on a bonfire? Big, slow burning logs. You throw a piece of paper, a fast burning fuel onto a and you have no energy. It won’t produce in the sky. So what happens if you feed an Eskimo or these Cree Indians that were his perish carbohydrates, this all carbs, they don’t get any energy. 

They get tired ever satiated by that food and they feel like crap. They are depressed and they they have the highest rates of suicide on the planet, you know, things like that. So if you eat according to your oxidative rate or type bass slow or somewhere in the middle, you’re going to produce energy on a cellular level the right way so that your cells do their job better. And if you don’t, you’re going to pay the piper, because that seem to create Indian villages that my cousin administered to Chris Davis. We’re all sick because they’re eating from standard more like government and and sort of, you know, the commercial foods are eating at Tim Horton donuts instead of eating salmon for breakfast. They’re eating donuts and pancakes. So they never have any energy. The necessity, they’re always craving something. They end up overweight, diabetic, and they get suicidal. I mean, it sounds like a very depressing picture. 

And in a way it is. But what dictates the entire thing was the fact that their best oxidizer was eating their fast burning fuel instead of nice, big, slow burning fuel. So I know for a fact that I do much better in. Even in the early days, I was eating the Atkins diet back in 2000 and all that meat and fat was good. It fueled me. I feel great eating, you know, mostly I’d say about 75 to even 80% protein and fat. And so 20 to 25% of my plate would be the carbs high quality, nutrient dense vegetation. And that works for me. But if you give a slow oxidizer, that fuel knows to take take someone who is a slow oxidizer. Again I think about the genetics and geographical areas of your catch you an Indians from the Andes and all of their descendants you know the corn and potatoes it’s almost you know it’s the opposite of me it’s it’s 80% carbs and only 20% some proteins and things, which there’s plenty of plant proteins. 

You don’t have to eat me but but and they do they have lots of high energy, lots of satiate so that craving things and an air in a pretty good mood we call it sense of well-being. And that’s what you should get. Well, that’s what you should get from food. Every meal should fuel you up for high energy, quality energy at least enough to get to the next meal. It should satisfy you completely. No cravings. Nothing was missing. What a great meal. And that’s how you should feel. Like 2 hours after eating high energy satiation, no cravings and that sense of well-being or being in a pretty good mood if you’re cranky for no reason, only need to get slapped. But if you’re craving for a reason, maybe it is the way you fuel up. You’re not really getting energy production on its cellular level based on those macronutrient ratios. It’s in it’s not a secret and it’s not a trick. It’s the laws of nature coming through, shining through. Hey, eat this way. You feel great and your cells are full. You can stay healthier. The cells know what their job is, but eat wrong. You will pay the piper.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So how do you know? How do you know what type of oxidizer you are?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

So there’s something called the metabolic typing test empty. You go to the empty diet adcom you’ll see that test. Anyone could do it. But the other way is you would know how you feel 2 hours after eating 90 minutes to do. How’s your energy? How how’s your sense of satiation and how is your scent, your mood? And so if you wrote down what you had for breakfast and checked in with yourself takes a little self-awareness. Or, as you know, we’ve had this discussion in private. You know, the things were pretty important so that you can read the signs of your own body. You know, we separate a spirit from our mind in our bodies. And we we check in on ourselves and go, you know what? My energy sucks. My, you know, I’m craving all the time going after this, going after that. I’m living on coffee and alcohol and whatever the heck your your passion is. I love those potato chips, right?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

But, you know, so you, you know, if you know the criteria energy satiation and sense of well-being or mood, well, that’s the criteria. And you check in you get more self aware about did that fuel make you feel that way or did it not? If you’re craving in a you don’t have the good energy and you’re in a bad mood, that’s a sign. Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong. And the first most obvious place that goes to your what you had for breakfast or lunch or whatever that is. And you do it right. You feel great energy and then your cells are working, right? They’re doing their job the way they’re trained, where they’re in inborn. And then you have good hormones, you have a good immune system, your digestion is working well. Detoxification systems are very well because energy production was right and then you bounce it. Your nervous system, sympathetic person that you’re happy, healthy person.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So it sounds to me read like what you just did was you blew the whole concept of carnivores best vegetarians, best vegans, best kiddos best. You just blew that out of the water. Because some people what I just heard you say is some people are going to feel better and process their cells are going to be happier and they’re going to be better. Oxidizes on perhaps a higher fat, higher protein diet versus a more plant based carbohydrate diet.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, there’s there’s some nuances here. But if you go back to what’s really going on in the body, this idea of burning fuel, you oxidize your proteins first and curves in different ways. Some, some of it’s happening in the mitochondria. Some of the more the cellular matrix. But, but energy is being produced and everyone will have that same aspect protein, fat and carb, that’s your fuel. You get it in the right mixture. You produce energy and the cells know what their job is. So what’s probably a better term for me is I like the word incest to die and I would completely buy in. Yeah. And so should a curfew. Which one? You know. And how do you know? It’s a little convoluted because we don’t we’re not indigenous people anymore. We’re we’re spread out and we’ve intermarried and, you know, all these different, wonderful things that happen in the modern world in the last 12,000 years, since travel became easier and, you know, so so it’s a little harder to figure out who your ancestors were and what would be the perfect fuel mix and their interbred. So how do you find the perfect fuel mixture? You’d have to like do the metabolic typing test to give you a starting point, but anyone could just say, okay, I’m going to write down what I have for breakfast. 

This much protein, this would spread this mass curves and it’s think of it as a pie chart. So yeah, you’re right. Throw out the name of your diet, keto and ancestral and primal and you know, all these different things. It’s going to be ancestral for you based on a number of things. But the science behind is that oxidative re So you can start keeping track of your energy satiation and, you know, well-being levels based on what you ate and it’s how it looks in a pie chart. So again for me is there’s no measuring of grams, there’s no measuring of calories. You’re in this stuff, it’s on your plate. Does it’s, you know, say a steak, which is the protein and the fat and a side of your favorite high density green stuff. Does that satisfy you or is it the opposite? And then what you do is you start dialing it in like, I don’t know if you remember because you’re so young or.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You know, I’m 50 read, you know that.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Okay. Well, we got you beat over here, but a little bit. No, but will you then you remember cause we’re the radio, you had to dial it in.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Television sets without remote controls. And I had. Oh, my.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Goodness.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Cards.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Oh, I know. That was the youngest kid in the family. So, you know, I was when I had to get up and change the channel.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yeah.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Back in the day. But a radio dial is where we and we all did it the same way. You’re dialing up to the next station and you’re hearing it come in louder and louder and louder and you get it to where it sounds just right. And then what do you do? You go.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

One over.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

You go past it, and then you come back.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You come back.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Because that’s just how we make sure it’s true. You could dial in your protein, fat and carb ratios the same way, you know, like the empty diet test even just gives you a starting point. Well, you’re a fast oxidizer. Probably more than half your plate should be protein and fat. And this much remember it’s never cheap carbohydrates and processed and it’s a given that we’re going to eat the mostly organic, you know, quality stuff. So we don’t have to deal with that either. But that ratio, you can literally dial it in. You say, God, I felt pretty good this morning. And I had, you know, ham, ham and eggs for breakfast or whatever it is and just enough quotes so that the next day you see a bowl of oatmeal with it. Well, that’s a lot of carbs, some protein. You would start playing with it. Just add in. Remember, dial it in a little more, go to 100% protein of that if you want. You’re not going to feel real good. Hardly anyone is that. 

And you’re going to then back off to where. No, I need those carbs. They mean as fast and oxidizer I am. I’m not super fast. I need some carbs. It’s time lows. It’s high quality. My wife and I love growing our own vegetables and cooking them and things. I know that you’re doing the same thing and so you get to play with that percentage and you can dial it in for yourself and you’ll know it when you hit the right ratios because it feels so good you don’t have to worry about now. That’s all things being equal. You don’t have leaky gut, you don’t have the bad liver, and your hormones are all whacked up because the stress and things like that. So, so but on an equal footing you can dial in that ratio and produce energy for a mitochondrial summit. I would think energy production would enter into it. Yeah, we could then we could start talking about the micronutrients, the the minerals and vitamins. That’s almost it’s not secondary, it’s equally important. But if you start with those ratios, you’re going to do real.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well for your we have lots of people talking about micronutrients and phytonutrients and enzymes and antioxidants and all of that. So we got lots of coverage on that. I want to stay right in this link. Okay, good. Okay. So on this test, is this what kind of what kind of specimen are people collecting to figure out their oxidative?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

You know, there’s what you can do objectively is measure your glucose tolerance. Testing is a good one that would tell if you’re fit, you know, if you’re kind of fast or slow based on how well your process carbohydrate you do. The glucose tolerance test is one. We also could measure the levels of saliva and urine and things, but guess what? There’s actually a better way in is through written exams. You would want to know someone’s physical characteristics, their psychological traits. They were not because the autonomic nervous system is involved and most fast socks advisors will lean genetically towards being parasympathetic dominant. And then you get got you’re you’re sort of slow oxidizer. You’re more vigilant vegetable eating genetically, vegetable eating, basically. They’re more sympathetic, they’re more warrior driven and that kind of a thing. So you find people like the Eskimos very peaceful. 

You know, they just mean fat and they just don’t bother anybody, you know, and they can see 4000 miles without worrying about anything sneaking up on them. Where’s your your traditional we are talking about back to the tribal times of your real slow oxidizer. So we live in a jungle and they’re always afraid of snakes and and animals and warrior tribes, you know, and they’re very, very sympathetic to them. And so this idea of sympathetic parasympathetic comes in for me here. But going back to your question, you know, it isn’t that hard to figure out when you know the principles and there’s no real it’s hard to do some of the objective testing this questionnaire about your dietary traits, your psychological characteristics and your physical characteristics, an empty dotcom, it’s almost free, you know, and anyone can go do it and get that starting point. So, you know, if you’re fast, slow or in between what we call a mixed oxidizer, and then that would give you a starting point to release ratios. Obviously, it’s organic, you know, grass fed and hormone free.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

And given you’re not eating properly.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

All those givens. And when you eat like that, you can play with the percent of just start dialing it in based on energy production. Solid energy, not nervous energy, not not like jittery energy with some tiredness underneath and seems like we have a criteria excuse these diets record sheets or call that list. How satisfied are you how much energy you get? And believe it or not, will, you’re actually in a good mood or not? That sense of well-being. So we dial in the diet for energy production and mitochondrial health. We dial it in.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So interesting. Okay. This has been fascinating. This is a whole different perspective that people were not expecting. So basically basically what we’ve just said is, yeah, it’s important that you eat organic, free range, grass fed, wild caught. You know, all of that is important, unprocessed. Now this is the next level. What does your body want? So in the next bit of this talk, I want to talk about labs. So in the time we have left, you and I both know the power of laboratory testing. I mean, I came from the Western world where a lot of what we do is driven by labs, but labs that don’t necessarily give us the information that’s so helpful in from a preventive strategy or a root cause strategy. And so I like to run labs. You like to run labs? You teach people how to run labs. So let’s talk about some of that. Why are labs important and why are functional medicine labs not necessarily covered by health insurance?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Well, some of them are experimental, basically, but we’ve been using them for over 20 years, 25 years. And they’re still called experimental. I’m not sure exactly why, but the class of some of our lives as researchers only, so there’s no medical diagnosis can be given. It’s just not approved by the. So I call it sort of big white coat, big pharma and government, you know, so so they’re just the classified research use only. We’ve been using some of them for a quarter century. They’re still that way. So that means insurance won’t pay for them.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Because there’s no drug being prescribed on the other side of it.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

They’re not used for the diagnosis treatment paradigm. So there’s a diagnosis treatment paradigm that you worked in for so long where you have to have a code in a CBT code to bill. You can’t bill without that. And so that whole all the algorithms around standard medicine kind of work that way and there’s gatekeepers and insurance companies that just, just won’t pay for things. So, so I think that compromises the whole approach for us, the world’s oyster, you know, we can run any lab we’re hungry for, for lab companies and scientists to come up with new labs so we can get new markers that give us something that we can leverage. So the tests that I learned in the I’ve spent ten years in the clinic running thousands of lives, of thousands of people, and I made observations about certain pattern. I saw some patterns, evil. It didn’t matter what people’s problem was. I knew I had to check their hormones. I knew I had to check their immune system overactive underactive hormones, immune system, digestion. I wanted to know not how good your eating that’s important, but are you breaking down? Assimilating, absorbing all the nutrients, all the amino acids and all the things we measured. So hormone immune digestion ahead of the liver was actually detoxifying. Not it was a disease, not if your, you know, enzymes were high. This will watch it for you know is it congested or not? Is it is it doing its job? Hormone immune digestion, detoxification, energy production? We just spent the first part of this on, you know, on a cellular level, are you eating right to get energy? And then is your nervous system balanced? I touched on that a little bit. Now that spill’s hidden inside DNA hormone immune digestion, detoxification, energy production, nervous system bounce hidden. And it’s pretty much hidden, you know, like people aren’t even looking for a lot of it. But when you put it together as a package, look what you get on. Every person is this entire constellation. You could add oxidative stress and some other things, but you get this constellation of data. The lab testing gives us data. It’s actionable that tells us what’s really wrong, not what is the direction. Secret codes so you can billions years coming. 

It’s what’s really wrong. This is Smith and when you show Mrs. Smith, you know her data, which belongs to her, doesn’t belong to the doctor’s office, or this is Mrs. Smith’s data, and you need to understand it so you can take action, change the things that produce those crappy test results. So we’re not about treating the paper either as the important thing. You know, this lawyer I’m preaching to the choir here, but, you know, the data gives you something actionable. You know, if your hormones are balanced. Well, what got them out of balance? You can read the paper, but just oh, take some of this and take some of that. But what where’s the stressors? Where are the contributors to what I call metabolic chaos that have produced these results so that we can help people live themselves out of the problems they’ve lived themselves into?

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I always say that I switched teams along the way, so I was on team prescribe a downstream bandaid solution and now I’m on team solved the upstream problem so that they don’t need me anymore. Right. My essential goal with every one of the people I work with is you will get to a point where you don’t need me. And that’s a very different paradigm in the Western world where you need that prescription, you need that visit, you need that reevaluation over and over and over again because there’s no way out of it.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

I agree completely. And I used the announcer uses your letters on the wrong wall. So when when people were coming in the office, when I switched careers from environmental law and conservation, saving the planet everywhere, trees, bees, two people, I decided I made a conscious decision. You know, I want to work with people. I went to work in a clinic and I had a lot to learn and nothing to unlearn, you know, hadn’t been indoctrinated in any way other than maybe just naturals better, naturals better. So that and I’m not a physician so I did labs around where the are you oh testing I bet everyone listening to this has or knows someone who has been told nothing’s wrong with you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I said that a lot of times. I can’t tell you the times I said your labs check out. I’ve got nothing you should go see a psychiatrist.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Yeah. Then so poor Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones, you know. Well, I don’t feel like I know something is wrong. And so those that’s why we started looking upstream, like you’re talking to the hormones and immune system and digestion. Not for disease, not for some diagnosis of synergy, but for the actionable. What what can they do to take control? But I just had to finish this thought for is that the people who come in the office were caught in this cycle of trial and error. They’ve been told nothing’s wrong with you or here’s a pill. Well, they just had their letter on. They were going to medical for what isn’t medical, so they had to get their letter. Noth Because I was blaming the doctor. Oh, those doctors must suck. No, they don’t. So they just don’t do what you need doing. 

And so they’re graded if you have a disease, if the if the downward spiral in your condition is so contracted, then you need that. That’s exactly what you need, because the observations I make take time to capitalize on we need you to live. So if you’re if you’re down with spouse really contracted you need that letter on that will go get a diagnosis and treatment and get out of the woods, you know, get the life jacket on and get get out of the drowning pool, you know, no one. So you don’t go there or what’s not that kind of problem. You you come to a like a really highly trained practitioner. Absolutely. Or someone like you’s done both sides. And and we we start with the basics and we’re going, oh, yeah.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

On that note, somebody who’s been on both sides is very valuable because when my clients, which I call clients now, not patients, when my clients are drowning in the deep end of the pool, I have the clinical skills to say, you need to put your ladder on this wall right now because you’re drowning. And once you get that life jacket on, then let’s go back over to the prevention side of things and dig you out of this, right? Yeah, very. It’s really incredible. And like I said at the beginning of this talk, there’s many doctors, Western medicine doctors who have done FDA and training. So they are very valuable because they can see that, you in the deep end of the pool drowning. And this is a crisis and you need medical help right now. And they also know when it’s time to just focus 100% on the more functional preventive lifestyle supplement, you know, solve the root cause problem.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Absolutely. So in that sense, you know, the people that I train who aren’t licensed practitioners, they’re perfectly understanding and happy with being the junior partner. When someone is in that critical, you know, attendant care situation, you got a downward spiral. You’re going to die in six months while you you know, we might need more than six months to do what we do. So you better go get that life jacket on, like you said.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Exactly. And I think the last point I want to cover here is which we get a lot of, is why isn’t this covered by health insurance? And, you know, so I think we’ve really unpacked that is that the insurance model is really dependent on a problem that doesn’t ever actually go away, a reoccurring thing that you need to come back for again and again and again, get a new prescription, get a new assessment, get a new evaluation. It never goes away. And I like to say functional integrative medicine, since I’ve been on both sides, I like to say it’s a higher standard of care and insurance doesn’t pay for the highest standard of care. Insurance pays for kind of catastrophic problems.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

It’s good to have health insurance, don’t get me wrong. But we also have things like health savings accounts where you can’t you’re spending sort of pretax out-of-pocket dollars and there’s some savings there. But if you think getting health is expensive first, then say, you know, I know that sounds cliche, it might even be a cliche, but the truth is that when you pay attention, when you’re self-aware, you start making better choices and you’re always spending the money on something. You’re spending on the wrong things, you know, like maybe start diverting some of that to your organic foods and eat them in the right ratios quality, you know, things like that. So it’s not that expensive. The lives we do get objections. Yeah. 

Don’t you know, why do I have to spend $1,000 on lab work? Well, that’s the only way we’re going to get the data that’s going to show us what’s really wrong upstream. Yeah. So you can use your insurance to go get a blood test and they tell you, you look fine. I and you know, you’re not, you know, so we look further upstream right now. That’s out of pocket. But there are companies, you know, they’re working on prevention and anti-aging and and things. So so it might come around, you know, to it’s your best investment. You can make a better investment. So put put a little bit aside, have a house, sell it. You know, I tell people to sell one of your children, you know, you got six just and spend the money on lab work.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You know it’s so funny you say that. My daughter’s in her senior year right now, and she got purchased by the underclassmen to, like, work for them all day. Right. So she actually got sold at school. It’s a whole funny thing that they do with the seniors, but yeah, I mean, you.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Know, I mean, people can’t have the resources if it works in the clinic for ten years and people, you know, if it was their dog, they’d spend the money. Yeah, your dog is sick. Oh, you go to the vet and he says, oh, it’s three grand, no problem. Oh, yeah, just do it. They don’t even think about when it comes to their own health. Well, I don’t know if you want to run that $300 lab, because what’s really going into what’s going to change your whole life, you know, and I’ve had stories like that, you know, I know that we’re running out of time, but I’ve had people where absolute miracles occur, right? A couple lives. And it changed their life. Changed their lives the way we find out things. I’ve had migraines and ADHD and ADHD and kids and asthma and skin condition, you name it just disappeared, gone because they ran the right lab. So I completely hundred percent support.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Absolutely. Well, this has been so informative. This has been amazing. I want to make sure that we have a lot of practitioners, people who want to be practitioners, health coaches that watch these summits. It’s like a whole education. You’re being firehose with education. So you have as the founder and CEO of FTN, you the power to make some important choices here and you’re offering a special deal to anybody who wants to get an FDA certification. So can they learn more about that?

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

I would go to FDA and training dot com slash might 23 in honor of your summit which you are so honored to even be here. Thank you for that. And there might be a free gift in there for you too, but definitely we we would love to educate. Just go there and check it out if you have any interest and we have people to support you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Say that one more time because everybody’s going wait to.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Be in training dot com slash Mylo 23 or if the end is it’s around the world no functional diagnostic nutrition information training at the end training dot com slash -23 and thank you, Laura, for the opportunity and I would love to do some work with you any time.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thank you so much, Reed. I’m so fortunate that I get to see you. You know, locally as a friend, I realize I have a lot of people on this summit who are my friends. It’s true. Yes. I’ll get to know each other and we all hang out. And San Diego is kind of like a hub for a lot of practitioners. We all do so. So I’ll be seeing you on the fun side of things soon. And as far as collaborating together, always, I always read. I love collaborating with you.

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

See, some say hi to Sam.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I will take good care now.