The Life-Saving Test Every High-Achiever Needs

Introduction to Functional Edge and Steve Adams 0:00

Yeah, well, it was a lifesaver for me first because I went through all of the traditional screenings and that all said I had no blockage and I had a very low, very poor glycochex spore. And so I've corrected it already because I used our nutraceutical Rovaska and in five months I was completely out of the danger zone. So I'm very thankful for that. But vascular health is huge because You know, you need oxygen and nutrients distributed to your entire body into all of your organs, including your brain, by the way.

Brain health is very vascular. The other thing that is a challenge for men my age is our endurance and energy. Welcome to the Functional Edge. I'm Dr. Julia Ward, and this is where science meets real-world strategies for living healthier, sharper and stronger. From uncovering hidden environmental toxins to unlocking peak performance and mental clarity, we cover it all. Ready to take control of your health and thrive? Let's dive in. Okay, welcome to the Functional Edge podcast. I'm your host, Dr.

Julia Ward, medical director and founder of Balanced Body Functional Medicine. Today, we're honored to welcome Steve Adams to our show. Steve is the CEO of Tiger Medical Institute and the host of Tiger Health podcast. After building and exiting a $100 million business, Steve found himself burned out and physically depleted by the time he turned 50. His five-year search for answers through conventional medicine left him empty-handed until he discovered the power of personalized root cause care. In this episode, Steve will be sharing insights on how to quote, exist a roadmap for high achieving men over 60 to reclaim their energy, restore their clarity and extend their health spans so that they can fully enjoy the legacy that they work so hard to build.

Stay tuned for an engaging conversation that promises to empower and inspire your path to wellness. Welcome Steve, thank you. It's Julia, it's an honor to be on this podcast with you, thank you. Awesome. Well, let's just sort of jump in and get started because I have a lot of questions. Okay. So first of all, you've spoken openly about the burnout and depletion that you experienced after building a hundred million dollar company. What was the moment that made you realize something had to change?

You know, I've described it for my friends. I felt like I was going down a railroad track and my feet were on each side sliding down the rails and it was gradually getting wider and wider. And it was about 2016. But at that point, I had been in the business that I was in for 20 years. And it wasn't that rail getting wider wasn't me falling behind and being able to manage the growth.

Burnout, Health Decline, and the Search for Answers 2:50

You know, that wasn't a problem. We had I had great leaders, had built a leadership engine there. And it wasn't that. It was simply the stress and the lack of sleep and the travel over 20 years that just the bill came due, man. It was affecting me deeply. And I had the advantage, two of my best friends, one's an M.D. and the other one is a D.O. and they're traditional primary care doctors. And I was explaining that You know, I haven't slept more than two hours a night in 10 years. I was in bed for seven hours, but so I was exhausted all the time.

I had terrible acid reflux and I had systemic pain throughout my whole body. I thought it was from playing football in college, but it wasn't ultimately when we got digging into it. You know, I also had a lot of anxiousness and mood problems and I couldn't understand it. You know, I'm a person of faith. I had this great company. I had a great family. Why do I feel like this? And as we kind of explore how we decoded all that, I'll kind of unpack that. But it was about two years before I ended up exiting the company where it kind of hit me that something's got to change.

And the other big thing, Julia, is that my... So this was about when I was 51. My dad's dad died at 62. He had a brother die at 46 and another one at 53, all of heart attacks. His mom died at 55. His sister died at 59 of cancer. And so I'm like, the track record's not real good here and I'm not feeling well. So something's got to change. That was it. So you tried conventional medicine for five years without answers. What was missing from that approach and what did you discover in the process of seeking root cause care?

Yeah, it was well intentioned. You know, these physicians were working hard. But what I learned is the system requires these steps and everything. Yes. Because insurance payers don't want to pay for much. Right. And I think that added to the process. So it took months and months and months. Yeah. to even start to progress toward answers. And what I found was I had a fairly routine, normal set of circumstances for a middle-aged type A male, but they weren't showing up in terms of how they classified something as a disease.

And if you don't have a disease or an actual potable ailment, they can't do anything. And so I was getting, well, maybe it's this or this. And so then the advice was generic. And it was not helpful. And I wasn't feeling any better. And I was getting passed from specialist to specialist. So it took two or three years of that. And finally, I'm like, this isn't going to work. And so when I made the decision to sell my company, after I got through all of that and recovered a little bit, I actually got into a little bit of a business of doing neurofeedback.

Because back when I had that epiphany, I said a couple of years earlier, my son was going through real bad problems with ADD in college. He was a college baseball player, had a lot of anxiety. And I was introduced to a neuropsychologist who used that tool. And he got a lot better. And so I started doing neurofeedback and doing heart rate variability training, you know, the breath work. And it didn't heal all that stuff, but I started, it gave me just enough space. I felt a little bit better, like my stress was managed better.

And I realized that stress was contributing to all of this. And so that's what really catalyzed. So when I sold, I took a year off to kind of recover. And then I started searching for different answers. Yeah, so how did being a high performing entrepreneur influence the way you approached your own health recovery? Were there parallels between business strategy and healing strategy? You know, in my development as an entrepreneur and prior to that as a corporate banker, you know, what I learned was you have to apply rigorous thinking and that's what will separate you as an entrepreneur.

Do your research, only try things that have been rooted in research, you know, and that's not just science. I mean, that's management, that's leadership theory, that's finance, it's marketing, all of those have If you search for it, you can find people who have done the research and have gotten good results. And so when I got out, I applied that same approach. And I was calling on a clinic in California with the neurofeedback. And I happened to get the guy who was the medical director there. And he was a naturopathic MD.

And he said he would meet me. So I went out to California and met him. in Los Angeles and we talked a little bit about the neurofeedback, but I was telling him how I'm feeling and because he was asking me and he said, well, why don't you let me work with you for six months to a year and let's see what I can do. So this was 20 and the 18 and the 19 and sold my company in 17. And so I went through a process with Dr. McNamee And it was incredible. He applied that functional root cause approach because he's a naturopathic MD.

And within four months, my reflux was gone. Within six months, all of the IBS and all of the cramping I had and all the constipation, that was all gone. And by nine months, my inflammation was down 600%. So all my pain was gone.

Discovering Root Cause Care and Functional Medicine 8:40

That's great. And my mood swings were gone because he ran genetics. He ran microbiome testing, you know, the blood work, obviously. And it was out of that process that I said, there are so many people like me. Will you consider being my partner? And so that's what we formed Tiger Medical out of that chance encounter in 2018. Wow. That's great. You often say that your health has to be your greatest investment. How do you help men shift from a reactive to a proactive mindset, especially after age 60? That is a challenge to do and that's why I niched into this group because when you get to the point where you're 60 years old and you've sold a company or you're late stage and you've got great people around you and you've got time, basically I'm selling out of my own story because I'm 61 now.

It's eight years ago I started this journey. And the mindset when you get to be late 50s, early 60s is because you're trained by culture to think this way, I may only have five or 10 years of good health left and then I'm going to spend my 70s going to the doctor. And so that group feels that pressure and that tension. And so when they get exposed to what we do at Tiger Medical, I don't have to convince them. They really want it. The way I get them there is the first thing that someone does when they engage with our brand is they purchase a health test.

It's a health assessment. It's only 500 bucks. It's guaranteed. There's no risk. and it has like 70 some markers and I have our physician write up a report for them and then I get on a call with them and I kind of lay out where they are and all of them typically have pretty significant issues. You know, a lot of them have autoimmune things showing up. Their advanced lipid markers aren't looking so good. Be surprised how many kidney issues we see. And all I do then is I help them connect the dots.

OK, everything we're looking at is reversible. Here's the process. But I don't end with that. What I say is, you know, tell me, do you have grandchildren? How old are your kids? And usually that's where the connection is, is they want to have an extended period of time where they can have a legacy impact on them. And they realize if they don't get proactive about this, they're going to get into the system like I was, and it's probably not going to go as well. What role does stress, sleep, and cognition play in determining whether someone is truly thriving?

And how do you help clients address these issues, areas specifically? One of the things we do is all-day cortisol testing tests. where our doctor makes them spend all day doing that. Nobody loves it. Everybody, 100%, have a very elevated cortisol profile. So we tell our clients that they have to commit to the stress management and sleep protocols up front because if they don't, we can't help them because an exhausted and stressed body can't be healed. And so we really make a strong case for that.

But we're also big on using positive behavioral change kind of science with people. And we start them really small. I say, I need you to breathe for three minutes. I teach them diaphragmic breathing. And I get them to do it three minutes in the morning when they turn their coffee pot on, seven days a week. I said, this is something you're going to do every day the rest of your life. And I say, I was a busy person like you. I do 40 minutes a day. If I can do 40, you can do two, three minute sessions.

And usually within a week or two, I get a text going, man, I'm feeling better. So it's a win right away. And we teach them the science of autonomic nervous system health. And then once we get them hooked on that, now we can start working on the sleep. Because when they do that at night, it helps them fall asleep a little bit faster. And then we go to work on sleep. And really, with the sleep side, there's three kinds of things. One is the hygiene side. Are they doing stupid stuff that's keeping them from sleeping?

The second thing is routine, to manage their circadian rhythm. And then the third is, that's the hardest part to get. That's when all of the effects of functional medicine happen. And you start balancing their imbalances and that will actually help sleep as well. So that's how we approach it. It's in the first third of our process, you know, because the first 60 days they're getting labs and they're getting results. And so we really go to work on stress and sleep to give them a win. And then that that amplifies the the medical intervention benefits that happen in months four through 12. What are the biggest gaps in traditional medicine that you think high achievers should be aware of?

And how does Tiger Medical fill those gaps? Well, the big glaring gap is that traditional medicine is built to take care of you when you're sick. That's not an indictment. It's just what it is. You know, your local doctor is a good person probably that works hard. I'm very much pro doctors. I'm pro-traditional. My dad's had nine heart attacks. He'd be dead if we didn't have traditional medicine. But the gap is if you want to be proactive and address things before you hit the wall of disease, the traditional system is not going to do that for you.

Building Tiger Medical Around Personalized Health 14:20

That's the gap. That's what Tiger fills. And you know this. We have tools today that weren't around 20 years ago that are just tremendous in terms of testing for toxin burden. measuring the microbiome balance and leaky gut syndrome, looking at hormones, the lipid markers and things we have today that we didn't have years ago. In genetic testing, we can construct a very accurate mosaic of data that gives a person, hey, here's what your future looks like if there's nothing changes. But the beauty is everything we test, you can reverse it or correct it.

And that's the opportunity. And these people we work with, all their lives have been proactive in building their companies. All I'm saying is transition your thinking now and be proactive about the one body you have. And you can rewrite the narrative on your health in the next 20 years if you do it. So you use tools like genomic testing, precision biomarkers, and executive health coaching. How do you build a plan from these data points that someone can actually follow and see results? So it's really twofold.

We have eight health habits that we ask every person to adopt over the course of that year. And so I've partnered with a company called Stamina Labs, who has really well-trained functional health coaches. And the reason I work with them is that they have a behavioral change model designed by one of their co-founding partners, who's a PhD in behavioral science. that just works, and because behavior change is the hardest thing for everyone, okay? And it's an ongoing battle. You know, I'm in Florida, when we're done with this podcast, I'm gonna go have dinner downtown Fernandina Beach where I'm at, and I've gotta battle the, do I wanna have what I want or what I should have?

You know, I mean, that stuff never ends. So what we do is the doctor, of course, is gonna customize 100% for them. based off the medical data. So the doctor has a plan that he develops based on data. We're not guessing with any of it. It's all very objective. And then the health coach learns what the doctor's plan is and then integrates that in the habit change, lifestyle change. And so the person meets with the doctor, I don't know, six, eight times during the course of the year, but they meet with the health coach every month and set goals for the month.

And then we support that with an online course, university on all of our health habits. And then I put out a weekly video five minutes down a micro thing that they can do to get a little bit better every week, kind of 1% better concept. So that's how we support them is, you know, all those different ways. And how important is mindset in this transformation process, especially for men who are used to like being in control? Well, you know, they still can be in control because we tell them, look, we're not going to invest more in this process than you do.

So you got to show up and do the work because we actually give people a get money back guarantee on our process, but only if they go the whole year and only if they show up. Like it's a conditional one. They got to do the work. And I never had to pay out on it because it works every time. So the mindset shift, it isn't a really a big one because the people that we work with already have a great mindset or they wouldn't be successful and exited a company. It's more about helping them see the mindset you've had all your life and building your company.

Now you just need to transition it to your health. Because I'm trying to avoid massive shifts because people don't like to make those. So I just appeal to you've already done hard things. This is something you can do. Take out the discipline you've had all your life, apply it here, and then we baby step them. That's the big thing. You can't ask somebody to do four new habits all at once. So your work at Tiger Medical focuses on optimizing executive health. What role do you see the microvascular system playing in achieving peak performance, and how has the glycocheck testing shaped your understanding of vascular health?

Yeah, well, it was a lifesaver for me first because I went through all of the traditional screenings and that all said I had no blockage and I had a very low, very poor glycocheck score. And so I've corrected it already because I used our nutraceutical Ravaska and in five months I was completely out of the danger zone. So I'm very thankful for that. But vascular health is huge because You know, you need oxygen and nutrients distributed to your entire body into all of your organs, including your brain, by the way.

Brain health is very vascular. The other thing that is a challenge for men my age is our endurance and energy. And if you have a depleted glycocalyx and a compromised vascular system, no matter what you do, it's going to be hard to restore your energy fully. And so, you know, by restoring the glycocalyx health, you're not only restoring your energy, but you're also lowering your risk of strokes and cardiovascular,

Stress, Sleep, and Behavior Change 19:40

you know, major adverse cardio events, kidney failure, things like that, by improving blood flow. So I think that they're very connected because at the end of the day, for the most part, at Tiger Medical, we're a metabolic health company. If we can, because that's what most people have an issue with, is their metabolic health. And your vascular health is tightly connected to that. Because we, you know, at Genesis Health, where I also am an owner, you know, we see people, you know, treatment resistant hypertensives getting normalized, we see blood sugar regulation becoming less brittle, easier to manage.

And then obviously, the cardioprofile risk is going down. Can you share how you first became aware of the glycocheck system and what made you decide it was worth integrating into the TIGER medical model? So one of our clients at TIGER introduced me to the founders of glycocheck back in 19, I think, 2019. And so we maintained a friendship over the years and they just were not at the point of development where the tests could be administered quick enough to integrate into the workflow of our Tiger Medical work.

It just took too long. I mean, they had tremendous research, tremendous data. And just last year, they were able to achieve that where they can do a fast test now. And so we enthusiastically adopted it. And that's what also got me interested in being part of the company because, you know, my dad's story is really a good one. He's, like I said, had multiple heart attacks and he just had another kind of event in April. And when I was there, the cardiologist said, this is what he said to me, he said, you know, your dad doesn't have major vessel blockage right now.

He has a microvascular problem. And unfortunately, we don't have any tools for that. That's what he said. And I was able to show him our website and he got pretty enthusiastic. He's like, this is the missing link for us as cardiologists because a lot of people have this dysfunction and we don't have any tools. And so he was pretty excited that there's something in the works because we're in the process of seeking Medicare approval and insurance reimbursement for it. It's going to take time, but that's what it's going to take for a traditional cardiologist to be able to use it.

So the glycotech measures something most people and even many clinicians have never heard of, which is the glycocalyse. How do you explain this concept to your clients and what kind of like aha moments do they typically experience when they see their report? So how we describe it is, think about a hose. and cutting a cross section of it, you know, there's the wall of the hose. We explain that that's the endothelial lining and that in a healthy blood vessel, which is like a hose, the blood cells flow down the middle.

and scientists for years when they were looking at that didn't understand why does it flow down the middle? Well, the reason is that there's a gel inside that hose and that gel protects the endothelial wall and provides that narrow channel which the blood vessels flow down. What happens though is we age and we have poor lifestyle habits that gel gets perforated and gets holes in it, and then it gets big gaps. And then the blood vessels start bouncing off the walls, and that's when you get inflammation, that's when you get atherosclerosis buildup, and that's when there's something like 25 different diseases where that deterioration of that gel is one of the core causes of the disease.

And so then the big question is, How do you know that about me? And we relate the different scores that the glycogen provides, the microvascular score, the PBR score, which is really the one that talks about the inflammation levels. You know, we say when you're in these ranges, that gives you an indication of how healthy or not healthy that gel is. And then the next question is, how do I correct it? And we talk about, well, you've definitely got to change lifestyle habits that are contributing to that gel being destroyed.

But we've also, for the past 13 years, had products that fill the holes in, build the gel back up, and protect the gel for the long run. And that's currently our product called Ravaska, which is a nutraceutical. That's great. People are usually very excited that they can do something about it. Yes, yeah, and that it's a natural product. I love that as well. Correct. What patterns have you observed in glycotech results across your patient population, particularly among high-performance or high-performing executives?

Closing the Gaps in Traditional Medicine 24:50

Are there any surprising or consistent trends? The surprising ones are sometimes you get a body type person that doesn't look healthy and they have a great score. And it's just like they have good genes. They have good genes. For the most part, most of the people I'm measuring that are like me have high PBR scores, a lot of inflammation, and low capillary density. Dr. Vink, who is the inventor of glycocheck, the scientist who discovered we have a glycocalyx, he's on our team at Genesis. He said that stress is one of the biggest things that cause the deterioration.

And so, of course, you know, type A personalities who have built companies, they've lived on stress for 40 years. So the commonality is, is that they have poor scores, but also. The commonality is they're excited, they can do something, and usually three to four months later, they're quite a bit better. And that's what's great about the glyco check and the Ravaska working together is we can validate the nutraceutical. I was just at an event in Napa Valley, and I personally measured 25 people at this event.

And there were five, four people that were at an event two months earlier that went on the Rovaska and made some lifestyle change. And they were all significantly better just in 60 days. So they were very excited to see that validation. So you work with individuals who are often quote normal on standard labs, but still don't feel their best How has the glyco check helped you identify human physiological stressors or early dysfunction that traditional labs miss? Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna answer that two ways one the traditional labs Especially around lipids are not very helpful.

They're just very basic And so one of our doctors has showed me several cases where he has traditional labs from their primary and then our labs. And the primary, based on what they see, says you're low risk when, in fact, when you start measuring some of the more advanced markers like we do, there's a lot of risk there. You know, they're not looking at homocysteine and, you know, the particle size of the cholesterol molecules, any of that kind of stuff. So that's one area is the misdiagnosis of risk levels of cardiovascular disease risk.

The other one is we have a few more blood sugar regulation markers. So we can see that a lot earlier and we don't accept traditional medicine 6.0 or whatever A1C. Our doctors want it 3.8 to 5.3 or they're pre-diabetic and we're working them on a protocol. The other areas that are missed, the doctors in traditional aren't seeing autoimmune, you know, because we have we're testing for autoimmune because our doctors explained to me if I can catch it asymptomatic, where it's just a smoldering smoky fire underneath, we can do something about it.

If it's if it's full blown, it's a lot harder. Traditional is not looking at mycotoxin burden. They're not looking at microbiome. very little look at hormones and so that's where that comes in and then the glyco check basically just kind of validates all of it because when you've got a lot of imbalances physiologically that will corroborate and correlate with these low scores. The reason it helps so much is it's got all this good stuff in it that is helping restore some of the markers, but you also do need the lifestyle change as well.

It's not sober bullet because it'll help get you started, but you've got to really change how you live. Hopefully I'm answering your question here. Yeah, absolutely. So when you see a compromised glycocalyx in a patient, what are some of the first interventions you recommend? And how do you balance lifestyle supplement and biohacking strategies into your approach? So first of all, when people come to Tiger Medical, we tell them, look, all these biohackers are great. but none of their advice you should listen to unless you have testing because you don't know if that's going to help you or not.

There's a lot of people out there that push really hard plant-based diets and our doctors in general agree with that, but certain people genetically,

Microvascular Health and Glycocalyx Testing 29:20

that actually increased their cancer risk based on certain genetic parameters. And so you need to know this stuff before you start eating a certain way. And so obviously the Ravaska is going to give them the biggest bang for their buck right away. What we write on our evaluations at both Tiger Medical and with Bikocheck Company is go on Roveska, number one, but secondly, you've got to get on the stress management protocol. We also encourage time-restricted eating, like a fasting window of 13 hours.

That's all the data. At 13 hours, all the magic happens, autophagy, metabolic improvement, and something as simple as hydrating. because if you don't hydrate well, your glycocalyx is full of water and that gel will make it get worse. I mean, we don't give them the full eight from Tiger, but the next one is movement every day. Get out and walk, move, because that's also a stress management mechanism in addition to the benefits of Daily moving. Those are the basics. And then I always tell them, if I'm wearing my glyco check hat, you really should find a functional medicine practitioner somewhere.

I mean, I tell them about Tiger, but I also say there's lots of them locally all across the country, because if you really want to restore your microvascular health, you're going to have to start adopting that method of medicine instead of waiting till you're sick. Right, right, being more proactive. Yeah, and a big thing we talk about, you know, we have a study in Europe over six years. The big marker that was used in that study was PBR, which is the Profuse Boundary Region. Basically, it's measuring the level of deterioration and inflammation in your glycocalyx.

The general population in that study had a one in seven chance, 14% probability of having a major adverse cardio event over six years. For the people that had a PBR score over 2.1, their probability increased as high as 88%. Wow. And so we share that statistic every time. And when they're over that number, we say, we're not saying you particularly have an 88%, but you have a significantly higher probability of a major adverse cardio event, which means strokes and heart attacks if you do nothing.

Yeah. That alone right there causes them, OK, I've just been confronted with data. It's backed by research and I need to do something about it. And to me, that excites me because that's a gift because we just gave them years in advance this early warning system to now start making changes before they hit that wall. You know, one of our medical advisory board members is an interventional cardiologist. He's the head cardiologist at Sutter Health in California, the second largest system. And he said he's excited about this.

He said, I'm going to be able to risk stratify my entire practice. I'm going to be able to have early detection prevention. And then there's something called secondary risk mitigation, meaning people have already had a MACE event. I'm going to be able to lower the risk of those people having another one. And he goes, on top of all that, he goes, 70% of my interventions are planned. I can put them on Rivaska and I'll have lower complication levels and improved outcomes by dilating the microcapillaries before the surgery.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so those are the possibilities. Yeah. How has showing clients their glyco check scores changed their level of engagement or motivation to improve their health? Big change. Dr. Mark Debrinkett is the good news doctor. He's had a glyco check in his practice for four years, five years now. And he's a guy that has a lot of devices. He does brain assessments. And he said consistently over the last five years, the device that causes people to change the most is the glyco check because brain health is out there a ways.

All this other stuff is out there. This is like real and present danger. I have a cardiovascular related issue and I need to do something about it now. And I think if you're a clinician listening to this podcast and you have your own practice, This tool will integrate with everything else you're doing and really differentiate your practice and give you an opportunity to give this early warning system gift to all of your patients. And it also will validate everything you're doing with your patients and show that they're getting better.

And I can't think of a better tool than that to really kind of take the next step in your clinical practice. Yeah, yeah. Do you see that this really helps connect the dots for some people who are otherwise resistant to change? It does. I've seen it personally. My own life, too. There were some things I was holding out on. One is cardio. I hate doing cardio. And now I do it every day, unless I'm traveling. And so it kicked me over the edge. And I'm one of these 1% disciplined guys. And I still had this area where I didn't want to do it every day.

But yeah, in general, it's a wake up call and people change. And that's what every functional doctor in the world struggles with is compliance with patients. I mean, that's what every traditional doctor does as well. But I think that this can give your practice a real boost because you're going to increase engagement and compliance. Yeah, absolutely. Well, so you focus on helping men over 60 extend their lifespan or their health span so that they can fully enjoy the legacy that they've worked hard to build.

What does a well-lived like third act look like to you? Wow. Thanks, Julia. That's a fun question. Well, out of my own life, you know, when I sold, I was just sharing this with somebody today. The Monday after closing, I realized the world just keeps going and they don't need to return my call anymore. And it was a shaky moment because I realized my identity. you know, was wrapped up in the business. And what I needed to figure out was what's next after the exit. And I think a life well lived is, I mean, obviously someone who has built something up and exited, somebody wanted it and paid them real value for it.

They did something good in life, but our identity shouldn't be necessarily wrapped up in a business. And so what we do at Tiger Medical and what I hope people do to have this good life is that they identify a purpose outside of that business. And I think that if you can do that, then you're going to finish well. You know, one of the things our doctors talk about is this inner terrain 10 of things we want to optimize so that we optimize the internal physiology and maximize the immune system and all of that.

Well, one of them is not sending decay signals.

Using Glycocalyx Scores to Drive Change 36:40

And what happens when somebody at a cellular level does a full stop retirement and they have no purpose, and now they start to struggle with mental health, you're sending huge decay signals to your cells. And your cells need to have a challenge. Your body needs to have a challenge. And so I think that if there was one thing somebody would take away, and by the way, we work with women who are 45. It's just that our main niche is men over 60 who have sold their business, but people find us and if they want to proactively address their health.

We work with them all day long. But what we tell people, especially that sold, is you've got to discover that purpose. And it doesn't need to be another company. It can be a nonprofit, a charity. It can be, I'm going to mentor my grandchildren. You know, whatever it is, find that purpose. Because if you do, then everything else will work. But if you have no purpose and you're drifting, I don't even know if what we do with the health side is going to be beneficial because If you're sick on the inside with emotional toxicity and you don't have purpose and you have mental health issues, that's going to overwhelm anything we're doing on the medical side.

Where do you see the future of microvascular testing headed? Do you think it will become standard of care? And how would that shift the landscape of functional or precision medicine? I believe it will. That's why I signed up for this. I didn't sign up for small vision. My desire and dream is that at first wave we'll be in every cardiology clinic in the world. And eventually in the primary care, our pitch to Medicare is you should screen every single person that enrolls in Medicare annually. We believe it'll save billions and billions of dollars on later stage macrovascular angiograms and stress tests and things like that and prevent heart attacks, prevent strokes.

But you're going to save the system just billions of dollars because, you know, I'm up on Capitol Hill regularly, we're lobbying for this. In five years, Medicare as a percentage of the US government budget is going to be something like 40%. And it's not sustainable and they cannot save it by squeezing reimbursement. They've got to change society's way of living. They've got to bend that cost curve by prevention. Otherwise, it's going to bankrupt the U.S. government. So I believe that it will become standard of care for everybody.

And the great thing about the glyco check is it's non-invasive. It's just under the tongue for three minutes. And it's a fraction of the cost of a stress test or an angiogram or a stent or an open heart surgery. It's a fraction. It's like two or $300. And I believe it'll be both in functional medicine and in traditional medicine because like 50% of the population doesn't go to a primary care doctor. So there's still a lot of people for everybody to work with. Absolutely. So if a patient or a practitioner is just now learning about the glycocheck system, what would you say is the most important takeaway they should understand about why the microvascular health matters?

The takeaway would be you want to find out what your score is because it will tell you almost everything you need to know about what you should do next in terms of your basket or health. I'm not going to talk about other areas. It literally saved my life because my score, my PBR score was so high that our doctors felt like I might be at risk within the next 12 months and have an heart attack. I'm tall. I'm six foot three. I'm only 175 pounds. I'm lean. I'm fit. And I have no major vessel blockage.

No one would ever think that I'm a time bomb. And I was. And so it saved my life. So I would say, get a test. You can reach out. We have a contact person on the website. that people can reach at glycocalyx.com, which is a horrible word to spell. It's G-L-Y-C-O-C-A-L-Y-X dot com. And if you're really worried about it and you don't have time or can't find a place to get tested, you can always just go on Ravaska and it'll work for you.

Purpose, Legacy, and the Future of Prevention 41:00

Yeah. And we'll have a link to that in our show notes. Good. Yes. So if you could leave our audience with one principle or practice to start today, what would that be? It would be, do not be afraid to lean into your health. Go find someone who will start testing you and finding out where you are. I know most people want to stick their head in the sand like an ostrich because if I know nothing, I can't feel anything. But eight years ago, I was not feeling well, but I wasn't sick. I just wasn't feeling well.

Yeah. And I have this horrible family history and I could have played it two ways. I could have went, you know, I'm just going to just live my life and not worry about it. And probably, I might have probably had my first heart attack already. I might have even had cancer because I had a lot of bad stuff in me that we've pulled out. I could have went this proactive route and went, you know what? Facts are my friends. I'm going to lean in. I'm just going to learn and change. And at 61 now, Julia, I feel better than I felt in my early 40s.

That's awesome. All of my markers, I mean, literally all of them are optimal now. Yeah. And so that doesn't guarantee I'm going to live to 100 or 90, but I've stacked the odds in my favor of having 20 more years of good health. And because I have some big dreams I want to pursue both in a nonprofit, I do micro lending around the world. I want to see this become standard of care globally. And so I got to be healthy. I got to have a lot of energy for that to happen. And so that would be the one thing is don't sit back, get proactive.

That's great. That is great. Well, thank you so much for all your time and your expertise on this topic. And thanks, everyone, for joining me on the functional edge. I hope today's episode gave you fresh insights and practical tools to level up your life. If you found value in what you heard, don't forget to hit subscribe, share the podcast with someone who needs it, and leave a review. It's the best way to support our mission of bringing powerful health solutions to more people. For more resources, updates, and behind-the-scenes content, visit drjuliaward.com.

Until next time, stay strong, stay healthy, and keep living on the functional edge. Thank you for joining me on the functional edge. I hope today's episode gave you fresh insights and practical tools to level up your life. If you found value in what you heard, don't forget to hit subscribe, share the podcast with someone who needs it, and leave a review. It's the best way to support our mission of bringing powerful health solutions to more people. For more resources, updates, and behind the scenes content, visit drjuliaward.com.

Until next time, stay strong, stay healthy, and keep living on the functional edge.