Have you ever wondered if the annual or quarterly tests you get at your doctor or Endocrinologist's office are enough to give you real insight into your overall health? I know I have, and today I answer those questions.
I got to sit down with my good T1D friend and colleague, Registered Dietitian Kelly Schmidt. Kelly talks with us about the difference between conventional and functional labs and why it's so important to advocate for yourself. This episode aims to educate you on the different types of functional tests and empower you to ask for more than just the basic labs we get quarterly.
Kelly's Functional Tests:
Wheat Zoomer - (An At Home Test)
Additional Functional Labs
Kelly's Website:
Kelly's Instagram:
Check Out My Other Episodes With Dietitian Kelly Schmidt:
*Reach out to Kelly and mention the podcast for a 10% discount on products.
My Diabetes Coaching Resources:
Website: www.simplifyingdiabetes.com
Newsletter Sign Up
"More Than A1C" - My Signature Coaching Program
The Diabetes Nutrition Master Course
The 5-Pillars Of Diabetes Success Worksheet
Don't forget to check out Ancient Bliss an herbal supplement company.
Use Discount Code KEN20 for 20% off at check out.
Have a question, send me a DM or email. I'd love to connect and answer any questions you have.
You can find the show on any platform you listen to your podcasts!
Don't forget to click on that subscribe button and leave a 5-star review, so you're notified when new episode drop every week.
Questions about diabetes, don't hesitate to reach out:
Podcast Disclai
Have you ever wondered if the annual or quarterly tests you get at your doctor or Endocrinologist's office are enough to give you real insight into your overall health? I know I have, and today I answer those questions.
I got to sit down with my good T1D friend and colleague, Registered Dietitian Kelly Schmidt. Kelly talks with us about the difference between conventional and functional labs and why it's so important to advocate for yourself. This episode aims to educate you on the different types of functional tests and empower you to ask for more than just the basic labs we get quarterly.
Kelly's Functional Tests:
Wheat Zoomer - (An At Home Test)
Additional Functional Labs
Kelly's Website:
Kelly's Instagram:
Check Out My Other Episodes With Dietitian Kelly Schmidt:
*Reach out to Kelly and mention the podcast for a 10% discount on products.
My Diabetes Coaching Resources:
Website: www.simplifyingdiabetes.com
Newsletter Sign Up
"More Than A1C" - My Signature Coaching Program
The Diabetes Nutrition Master Course
The 5-Pillars Of Diabetes Success Worksheet
Don't forget to check out Ancient Bliss an herbal supplement company.
Use Discount Code KEN20 for 20% off at check out.
Have a question, send me a DM or email. I'd love to connect and answer any questions you have.
You can find the show on any platform you listen to your podcasts!
Don't forget to click on that subscribe button and leave a 5-star review, so you're notified when new episode drop every week.
Questions about diabetes, don't hesitate to reach out:
Podcast Disclai
I like a vitamin D. Different seasons, we need different supplemental doses. It is very possible to have an A1C in a non-diabetic range. So while some targets especially if you look at this download which I'll share with you can put in the show notes that the ranges are really tight and it might be overwhelming. It might not be where your target is right now, but no, it is possible.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to the Healthy Diabetic Podcast. As always, I'm your host, coach, ken Kness. Before we get started, please remember that nothing that you hear on this podcast should be considered medical advice or otherwise. Please always consult your medical team before making any changes to your diabetes management. Also, before we get started, make sure that you like subscribe to the show. You have a five star review. Apple Podcast is the only platform that you're able to write a written review. If you're listening to Spotify or Amazon Music whatever you're listening to this podcast on, I'd really appreciate that five star review because it does help the show grow and it helps new listeners find the show as well. So thank you to everyone that has been able to do that and if you haven't, please do that. Also, I want to encourage you to make sure that you share this episode and share the show with someone that you know is going to get some really good value out of this. Maybe you know a newly diagnosed diabetic or a diabetic family. Maybe you're a newly diagnosed diabetic yourself. Share that episode, or share this episode with someone that you know is going to get value out of it. This episode is going to be really cool. I've got Kelly back on my type one diabetic and dietitian friend that I work very closely with, with a lot of even my own personal clients, even my own management, my own nutrition and she just has a wealth of knowledge and if you've been listening to this show for long enough, I know you've listened to her speak on this show. So today we decided to talk about functional testing versus conventional testing. There's some really good conventional tests that you can get at your end of office, but a lot of times you have to advocate for that, and there's some tests that you typically won't get at your at your end of office or your doctor's office, and that's what functional testing comes into play. This is why functional testing comes into play, and a lot of the tests that we're going to talk about today that Kelly does are super powerful because they are able to look at our overall health, not just a specific issue or problem. So it's not just about the lipid profile, it's not just about your hemoglobin A1c, it's about all kinds of different things that you can do to look at your overall health and improve your life.
Speaker 1:At this time of the year, beginning of the year, a lot of people want to make resolutions. It's why people go to the gym. People think about you know, they reflect on the previous year and they just ask themselves you know, last year was good, it was bad, whatever it was. But I want something different out of this year. I want to do something different, and this is a perfect opportunity for us to look at functional testing and start the year off right.
Speaker 1:So before we jump in with Kelly, I want to just give you a heads up that Kelly's house is under construction. She's remodeling her house, which is incredible, and so there's a lot of workers and some noise in the background. I was able to take out some of the background noise when I edit this episode, but there is still a little bit of background noise, so I just want to give everyone a heads up on that. And we decided that we weren't going to record the episode because there's just so much great stuff in it, so I didn't want to take time and, like, miss something that we recorded before. So there will be a little bit of background noise in this episode. So, without further ado, let's get with my good colleague and friend, type one diabetic, kelly Schmidt. Oh, we're back. We got you back.
Speaker 2:It's been a while.
Speaker 1:It has been a while. I feel like every time I talk to you on and you come on, we're like oh yeah, you know, we'll have her back in two or three weeks, and then it's like six weeks or 10 or 10, you know. Whatever you pick your poison, you know yeah, but we're here.
Speaker 1:You always grace us with your presence and I'm excited to get into this topic when we were kind of talking back and forth about, like you know, what we wanted to talk about. We have so many different things that you know, you have, you're so knowledgeable on, so you know, we're always wracking our brains like what can we bring to the table that everyone want to hear about? And you brought this up about functional testing and and I thought to myself, holy, holy crap. That is a beautiful thing because it's at the beginning of the year.
Speaker 1:People are doing resolutions, people are doing cleanses, people are doing things, people are looking at their overall health and I think that I know, when I did your, your test, it was very illuminating, even just even for me, that you know, for someone, that I understand body signals and I understand, like you know, you know bloating and like what's been going, like what's, what's could be going on in your system. But being able to go through some of these tests with you was just was mind blowing. So I'm super pumped that we're going to talk about this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one of my most downloaded handouts for my website is one of my documents that's actually going to become an opt in its functional ranges for conventional labs. So when we go to get labs, even with our inner connolly, on an annual basis for example, one that we should hopefully get annually is a vitamin D and that range is so large. So just seeing so many consumers not only just people with diabetes want that handout, you know, maybe there's a needed conversation to just talk about what labs are worth considering investing in, because functional labs, unfortunately, are usually out of pocket. But how can they give you different direction on where you should focus your energy and investor time to get the results you want?
Speaker 2:In caveat my house is under renovation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what to say. You got some crazy stuff going on at your house.
Speaker 2:Sure do.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love it. I love it. The whole house is being redone right.
Speaker 2:Yes, for the most part it's been a.
Speaker 1:Oh, and not by plan.
Speaker 2:It just happened when your house is 101 years old. There's problems that occur and for you know we should have.
Speaker 1:You want to fix one thing and then you got to fix 10 things.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's what's happened, but I apologize in advance for the background noise. Hopefully my message still comes across, and thanks for your patience, everyone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure it will and absolutely will, so let's dive into this. So the first question I have for you, kel, is why don't you just give the listeners some quick understanding about just the regular tests that we go through as Diabetics, hemoglobin A1c, vitamin D, like all of these tests that we typically get once or twice a year anyway, so people have some understanding and clarity when we dive into functional testing and the differences.
Speaker 2:Great. I think if today's recording had a title, it would be Advocate your Needs with Labs. And I think the step one is, of course, see your doctor routinely and also make a folder of your lab so you can benchmark where your numbers are trending and where they were the last session or measurement before, and just always have that saved down in a folder or a physical folder. Overall, so annual labs that we get with our endocrinologists hopefully they're telling you, okay, it's time for this, that and the other, but again annually or even every six months, I like a Vitamin D. Recently I had asked for Vitamin D from my endo and she's like, oh, you got that over 12 months ago. And I was like, I know, but different seasons, we need different supplemental doses. So Vitamin D, certainly.
Speaker 2:Of course A1c that's the one we all kind of sweat over and we're like, okay, how am I doing, although we might even be wearing a CGM and we know how we're doing.
Speaker 2:And of course A1c is important to watch and watch your trends and evaluate and reflect on that. Also with A1c is, of course, benchmark see where you've been since your diagnosis. And one thing I tell my clients once you have a blood sugar strategy in place, it is very possible to have an A1c in a non diabetic range. So, while some targets especially if you look at this download which I'll share with you, ken, to put in the show notes that the ranges are really tight and it might be overwhelming and it might not be where your target is right now, but no, it is possible. So, of course, a1c, vitamin D, fasting's, glucose, and I always look at that and I also write down what my CGM's telling me or what my meter reading is, just to see like what's the most accurate, especially the meter. If I have a meter for a while, a few years, I wonder like how old or dated it is and how accurate it is. So I always bring my meter with me.
Speaker 2:Now my dog is going nuts.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it Everybody, if you're listening. So we told the workers just to try to keep it down before we started recording and now the dog's got this quick toy. I love this. We're totally leaving this in here. I just absolutely leaving this in here, 100%.
Speaker 2:I'm like embarrassed. I love it, but with the fasting blood sugar, like I never thought of this. But to bring my meter with me and just to see, like, do I need a new meter? Because we whip out that meter. You know, occasionally, even if we're on a CGM, we still whip it out. And how accurate is it, especially if we're trying to compare data. So those are some big ones. I also like looking at liver enzymes, AST and.
Speaker 2:ALT and liver enzymes are really important for fasting blood sugar but also overall liver health. And, ken, you've done a number of my programs but I have a reset with Kelly or a cleanse with Kelly, and if I see those liver enzymes a little in the higher range of what the lab range from the university or your office would give you, maybe the liver needs some love. Are you drinking a lot of alcohol or blood sugar is trending higher? Are you eating more processed food? And then I'll consider a real food cleanse. And if anyone has questions on a cleanse, I am your girl.
Speaker 2:I've always, always scared to do any form of a cleanse or fast. As someone with type one diabetes, it's something that's incredibly important for us to do, but with the proper care. And then, of course, thyroid. One of the top secondary autoimmune diseases for type one diabetes specifically, is hypothyroidism, as well as celiac. So celiac could be something that your doctor, even my endocrinologist, is still testing me for celiac. It's something they should ongoingly test you for and not a lot of endos are actually doing that annual test on celiac disease because it can come anytime.
Speaker 2:Other big ones, of course, cholesterol. You want to know what your cholesterol is. And one little functional nutrition kind of tip is when you look at your labs for your cholesterol lipid panel, you'll have your HDL and your LDL. Hdl is the happy or the good cholesterol, ldl is the loser or the bad cholesterol. So that's kind of ways to remember. But you want your HDL, your happy cholesterol, to be a one to one ratio with triglycerides. That's a good measurement to take in consideration with functional testing. And again, I'll have this handout for everyone to reference. But those are some big labs that come to mind immediately for me. But, ken, are there any labs that you go through with your doctor, that you have questions on conventionally, that are tested?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, just the big ones that I know I get tested on every single year is A1C lipids. They do do vitamin D, but sometimes I have to advocate for that one. They don't always do, they don't always put that one in. So every time I'm doing them I tell my endo like hey, you got to add vitamin D especially for me, because I know I'm deficient in it, especially in the winter months, which I know a lot of people are. You know, even just working in the fitness industry and seeing and talking to people about that, they actually don't do my thyroid that much, Like I haven't seen a thyroid in a while. So that's something I would definitely advocate for and add into the testing that they're doing. And the liver enzymes. I don't know if they're doing liver enzymes. Well, I guess maybe if you're doing lipid tests, those would be include. That liver enzyme would be included, correct? Well?
Speaker 2:it'll usually come with like a CBC or a metabolic panel or like the red blood cell count and just kind of those basis ones. You'll just see ALT and AST. It won't even it likely won't even spell out liver enzymes. It'll just be AST or ALT.
Speaker 2:But I'm always seeking those when I have new clients and like give me the labs you have, let me create, identify needs and then I'll look into functional tests if it's needed. You know, if you go to a functional dietician or doctor, they should not be giving you all of the tests. And Ken and I both are here in Columbus, ohio, and there's one integrative doctor in our neighborhood, per se and Columbus, and I'll get a lot of his clients and they'll be like oh, I did all these tests with this doctor and it's like tens of thousands of dollars of functional testing and a good practitioner will identify your unique need and ask for that test and use that data to drive behavior change or change. But just know, functional testing does come at a cost but you shouldn't have to do everything at all. Especially, I have a handful of tests that I'm going to walk through today.
Speaker 2:With thyroid low thyroid it's more common in women, but certainly do advocate for it. With vitamin D, it can be if it's lower than 40, so the range is like 32, 100 and I'll have clients, even type one clients, and their vitamin D will be 32 and they'll say, oh, my endocrinologist and my labs are fine, but usually I'm sure doctors they are so spread then for time that they're probably just looking for those flagged H's and L's to identify a need. But 32 is really low and if we're below 40, 45 for our vitamin D it'll make us more insulin resistant. And I remember even Ken you specifically years ago. You're like hell starting vitamin D. My blood sugars are, my insulin sensitivity is so high.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's spot on and that's advocating, that's reviewing, that's analyzing, knowing. So maybe, as you're listening to this podcast, friends, maybe take some notes or certainly follow up with us with questions, yeah, but I wanted to talk a last thing with vitamin D. So a lot of type one diabetics again, I know we're talking to a lot of people with diabetes gestational type two, type one a lot of people with autoimmune form type one diabetes were at risk of hypothyroidism, as I mentioned, also celiac disease. But we're also at a much increased risk of gluten sensitivity, and one thing I'll see of a gluten sensitivity are very low vitamin D levels that can't get up. So if you're like gosh, my vitamin D is so low and it just won't get up, I question are you consuming gluten and if that's something that should be removed, yeah, just think about yeah.
Speaker 1:so I think that the other thing that I want to ask you with this because you said something that I think is a very interesting thought process that I think is like that I personally think is like well, that's easy, why are we not thinking about it in this way, which is, when you go to your doctor and whatever test that you're getting, you're either on the lower, high, lower, low side, but still in the range, or on the higher, high side, but you're still in the range, but then they just tell you. They just tell you oh, your numbers are fine. You know that example of vitamin D the low is 30, someone's 32. So if I'm the doctor, I'm saying well, you're just, you're lower than I would want you to be. I want you to be more mid range at the very least, you know. So let's do some supplementation, let's figure out how we can bring this level up a little bit so you're not Two points away from where the low point is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just don't understand. I guess for me, like the, if I'm a doctor I don't understand, like that's why that's not my first thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if that makes sense, I mean they've again. I give all the love to all the endos and physicians. They just have a lot on their plate.
Speaker 2:Yeah but again, you can reach out to us for further help If you're seeing these lower higher ends and investigate further Something with the low and high ends I was gonna say as well when people do get labs done type 1, diabetes, type 2, the average Joe just getting their physical those lab ranges are created off people getting labs done and it's usually an ill population. So, again, you don't want to be average, you want to be functional. So, again, that's why it's really helpful to print off this worksheet I have and just have in your health folder. We should all have a health order and and that should have, you know, benchmark labs we have annually, just keeping an eye on our own health and knowing what we can do to prevent and to thrive even more overall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is there it of these conventional labs, when you get these labs in front of you from a, from a client, and let's just say as an example, there's three of them that are out of balance, or you know whatever. Is there a specific one that we listed that you're like we have to attack this one first.
Speaker 2:Thyroids, usually an area that needs further exploration. Okay, people ask for the thyroid to be tested. Physicians may only test for TSH. Okay, we want the full panel, even cholesterol. If you borderline high cholesterol. You want more than triglycerides, hdl and LDL. You want the full lipid panel with APOE. You want to know maybe the your calcium score or part calcium particle size. So there's way many more tests that can be added on if numbers are hovering in an unfavorable way. Yeah it just depends.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so I love this because I just have so many things that are running through my brain because I'm, I'm We've talked about it before on the show like making sure that you're prepared and you're being proactive when you're going to the endo, you know when you have to get labs done, or if the endo is sitting there like, oh, you need to get labs done before your next appointment. It's like making sure you have these questions ready to rock and roll, to ask them. Because the question I would have is, if my endo is saying you need to get labs done and I know I want to advocate for some of these things that necessarily wouldn't be tested, can I just blank and we say to my endo, hey, I want to get a full panel of everything that I need, like not the bare minimum. Is that enough? Or do you actually need to advocate and say, hey, I want this test, this test, this test, this test, I want all these different tests?
Speaker 2:You usually have to be very specific. So if you're like, hey, I want a liquid panel, it would be cholesterol, again HDL, ldl, the triglycerides, the ratio non HDL, but again they won't go into. There's APOB or lipoprotein or those More again. I think one very specific is the particle size For heart health.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, gotcha, okay, cool, this is good. Okay, now that we've kind of talked a little bit about the conventional side, let's let's switch gears to the functional side, because this is I I personally think, as a holistic person, this is, this is the fun part, this is the really cool part, where there are tests being done, or you're doing these tests or whatever, and and we can find out so much more information of what potentially could be either going wrong or potentially is something that needs immediate attention. That isn't going to be done on the conventional side.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, mike, there's two things I want to say is like my goal with type 1 diabetes is, of course, to have us live our best life, but attacking our health in a functional way to prevent those further autoimmune diagnoses because once we have one autoimmune disease, we can collect them but also preventing complications. So that's where these tests really come in and that's why I embrace them so much. But one thing I do want to say, as we're talking about vitamin D specifically quite a bit in those few other labs is just be careful where you get your supplements. I've mentioned that finding a supplement that's third-party tested is really important, but also getting supplements that are practitioner grade. So, for example, all my clients and myself too, I'm like I love me some Costco, but if I go to Costco and get their fish oil, even though it has that third-party testing, I'll need to take 12 of those vitamins, 12 of those fish oil capsules, compared to two capsules from some of the go-to brands I use which I could get. And people can get off of full script. And actually there's a lawsuit, december 22nd 2023, that the FDA issued to Amazon because, again, amazon is the easiest thing to get anything you want but they issued them a letter warning them about tainted supplements that were distributed from Amazon, and there's a lot of mishandling on Amazon too. So if you're taking the effort to do the good thing for your health, make sure you are going for quality and potency. So let's talk about these functional tasks. Just wanted to plug those two things in there.
Speaker 2:I took a lot of notes so I hope I don't sound too lecture like, but I just wanted to really give the pearls for today, and a lot of my conversation will stem more towards type 1 diabetes than 2. But as we know, type 2 diabetes, there's a lot of genetics involved in metabolic derangement, so I'm just trying to open my notes up here. So Ken has done a few of my tests and I know how open and transparent you are, ken, you could easily chime in and specifically you did my MRT food sensitivity test. But first I want to talk about a few others. One is called IBS Smart, and I put IBS Smart on here because with diabetes our blood sugar obviously is not a perfect 100. Every day there's various things that influence our blood sugars and when our blood sugar moves it can cause cellular damage, but particularly it can cause damage to the gut lining, our gut bacteria and our vagus nerve. So some people with diabetes for decades and decades may say you know, I have gastroparesis, where my food, I have slow motility of my food and my digestion is really slow.
Speaker 2:In a nutshell, and this IBS Smart test was very helpful for me in my health journey and I did it on myself and I have had experiences of food poisoning. So people who have food poisoning can have post infectious IBS. Basically, our body is creating an autoimmune response to our vagus nerve and it's slowing down our motility. So this test was very black and white. It tested for anti CDTA I'm not going to try to pronounce that and it also tests for anti-vinculin and that anti-vinculin is basically an antibody to the vagus nerve and I was positive for this. And I had a head injury and I also had a lot of food poisoning. So if you have a head injury, you're more susceptible to food poisoning.
Speaker 2:And, anyways, my vagus nerve, it has an autoimmune reaction and it doesn't work as well and I simply just take specific supplements for this. I take a supplement called mega guard and it has artichoke in it, or I'll take another supplement that has five HTTP in it, and you should never take five HTTP if you're on an anti anxiety or anti depression pill, but I'll take that. I just rotate them around and it's really high in ginger. So simple supplements like mega guard by microbiome labs or motile pro by pure encapsulation can really support motility. And even if you're, like my, motility is really slow, you can try these supplements and just see if that helps you evacuate better, have overall better digestion. So that one is I be smart, I be smart and that one can get covered by insurance and you can just go to their website and submit to get that test done. At the end of the day, I think out of pocket, it might be close to $100, but insurance will cover at least overall. The test is close to 300. But insurance should have some coverage on that.
Speaker 2:The second test I was going to bring up is my absolute go to. It doesn't have a very fun fancy name but it's the number one test that I use with all of my clients and it creates really strong behavior change and that's called my wheat zoomer and I talked to you a little bit about wheat zoomer with. You can, but wheat zoomer is gosh. I just love it. It is so black and white on tolerance to wheat, so we can be sensitive to wheat and not sensitive to gluten and vice versa.
Speaker 2:It tells me how leaky someone's gut is. It tells me if there's a lot of dysbiosis in the colon. So the colon's basically a parking lot of bacteria and there's good and bad and all parking spots are always taken and we want it to be 50 50 or we want more good bacteria than bad. With type one diabetes, we have a leaky gut but we also have dysbiosis to a degree, but it's varying on in all of us. You know, our type one diabetes management is very unique to our own needs and it comes down to how our gut health is. However, if those parking spots have more bad bacteria in the spot, then the good.
Speaker 2:It'll produce this toxin called LPS and this wheat zoomer lab will tell me someone's score for LPS. Lps, again, is a toxin in the body. It'll continue to break down the gut, but it'll leak into our cells and our bloodstream and it sounds like I'm getting like into this, like fear factor of Halloween or something. But this, this test, can help me know how to stop someone from complications. So people who have a high LPS, people with type one diabetes, usually have four times the amount of LPS compared to the average healthy adult and type two diabetes person usually has two times the amount of LPS than the average healthy person or adult. And when these LPS is high specifically, one study showed diabetic retinopathy is through the roof and those who have high levels of LPS.
Speaker 2:So if I do a wheat zoomer on someone, I want to know how leaky their gut is if they're eating gluten or wheat and they're really sensitive to it. But also what is their gut bacteria parking lot look like and how can we turn that around. And that takes some nutritional strategies. So it's not about calories and calories out. Everyone thinks, okay, I need to eat a whole real food. But eating whole real food is helpful and we all should get as close to the farm as possible.
Speaker 2:But sometimes there's needs to be some strategies and protocols in place to really optimize health and labs can really paint the way and pave the way of what you need uniquely. So wheat zoomer is the absolute go to this test runs. I sell it for 499. So it's not the cheapest test, but I also will give clients the results and I'll also write a full analysis of what they should do with the results and exact steps they should take. So there's a little bit of work included with those results. Wheat zoomer is just again one of the go to favorite test. And then someone may think oh well, I've done a stool test. Stool tests are different and I'll go into that in a minute, but it looks like you have a question.
Speaker 2:No, I'm good, did I lose you?
Speaker 1:at all. No, absolutely not, but mostly. Mostly because, one, I know what you're talking about, but two, because I've heard you talk about all this stuff so many times. But I think one thing to. I think there's one thing to kind of look at here with all these tests is do you feel like, if you get a client that has a bunch of dysfunction metabolic dysfunction, whatever it might be is the wheat zoomer the first test that you're going to recommend or is it based off of the labs that you are getting regardless?
Speaker 2:So with my training and how I approach a client, like I want to hear the full story and then I look at labs and I listen to symptoms equally as lab numbers, where often symptoms might be more dismissed in conventional practices. But I will try to resolve hard symptoms or create balance without testing, like usually I don't work with clients for one session. It's almost like you know as a person. I train someone once what are they going to do with that? Burn some calories for that day, build strength for a moment. So usually it's a progression. But I don't usually out of the gate throw like we need to do this test. Usually I listen to the needs first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, gotcha, and I will also add to this because I have been able to see the results that Kelly's getting with her clients because I've sent multiple of my personal clients to her and the amount of work and the amount of conversation that you have even in that first consultation is incredible. And I think that's where you lay the really cool thing about laying the groundwork with all of these tests and looking at everything, because I've seen so many times of people going to doctors, going to dietitians, going to different types of professionals, and that person is automatically just saying, hey, go do this lab, I need this information, or go do this, go do this, Instead of like what you're saying. I love it understanding the whole entire person and having that first conversation to be able to get a good understanding and foundation of knowledge about what's going on right now and what's been going on in the past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and too understanding, almost like people's birth stories to their diagnosis story. Like I go far, far back and usually in a first session, even before talking about labs is to build a wellness vision, you need to have foundation before adding the building blocks and so forth. But functional labs, at the end of the day, they just help us look under the hood in a different way to identify, like where energy, time, money, nutrition needs focused overall. But I was going to say too most consumers with diabetes or without, they just they're like oh, I want a food sensitivity test and a food sensitivity test and a lot of nutritionist, dietitian, health coaches will sell the food sensitivity test out the wazoo and I think it's a delicate balance. Even, ken, one of your clients came to me and they were saying they wanted to do the food sensitivity test for their newly diagnosed child. And the child is a teenager and I know what it's like to be a teenager and I don't know what it's like to be a teenager in a different world, as we kicked off our conversation today with. But I think if someone got a list of 180 foods that were good or not good for them, it would just drive extreme anxiety and overwhelm. So I think food sensitivity tests are delicate.
Speaker 2:I think they're really interesting, but I think they should be only done for specific needs. Usually that would lead to migraines Migraines in absolute. If you're having migraines, you should definitely do the MRT food sensitivity test If you have an autoimmune disease of the gut or just some major digestions and we need a pinpoint of food. But I think the gut zoomer will give us a deeper, clearer picture because they'll tell me the gut lining and what's going on in the gut colon and specifically, susceptibility to celiac and gluten and wheat and again, the risk for diabetes and blood sugar mismanagement and metabolic disease. Usually there's alignment with not tolerating gluten and wheat as well. So it's just something I just like to clear. And one last thing I'll add on here. So there's a few programs I do in my business and one is for non-diabetics to wear a CGM and I'll have.
Speaker 2:I have private clients that have done the wheat zoomer and they're like that's so insane I have no symptoms of not tolerating anything but like their gluten wheat and will look really harsh on their health. And then you know, months later they will do my CGM program because they're like I want to identify, like why my energy is so low or why I'm waking up at night or why I can't lose X, y and Z, and they'll wear my CGM and it's very specific to when they eat something with gluten that wheat zoomer identified. Gluten is a problem. Blood sugar spike drastically differently than other food with the same amount of carbohydrates. So every carb isn't created equally because we all think about our food, we all think about our carbohydrates, but no one. Calorie to calorie there's different quality of those calories, but carbohydrate to carbohydrate it can be very different on how it influences blood sugar control, specifically gluten, as it can be very inflammatory and spike blood sugar more dramatically than the equal amount of carbohydrate from a banana or or so forth.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, interesting stuff I've seen there. Yeah, I love that. My other question, because you you mentioned, you mentioned stool tests. You talked about gut sensitivity tests or gut tests. Can you explain the list to the listeners Because I know when? When I first you heard you heard you talk about this, I I was like so can? I didn't understand. I thought they were both the same thing and being able to do a blood test to look at what's going on in the gut and being able to look at what a stool test is for what's going on in the gut, or two total even things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, such a good question. I'm so lucky for pulling me back. So when we talk about gut health, people might even be referencing, like your capability of chewing your food well enough. So gut just is a large umbrella from mechanical process of chewing our food to our stomach there can be deficiencies there of hydrochloric acid or digestive enzymes to the small intestines where there's a leaky gut. Leaky gut is the gut lining of the small intestines which I visualize as a garden hose and it's a very long tube and that large small intestines goes to the large intestines, which is also known as the colon, so the wheat zoomer itself. It's a testing of the garden hose, it's a testing of the small intestines and it also gives me a picture or an idea of what's going on in the colon, the large intestines.
Speaker 2:That's a finger prick test. You prick your finger, put blood on that index card, ship it off in the mail. A stool test is you're literally getting out a paper boat and taking a poo and this plate boat and collecting a sample and shipping it off to a lab. And the stool test what your doctor, conventional doctor, might do if they're suspecting, you know, some sort of pathogen H pylori, a parasite, some sort of like illness going on in your body. But it won't actually do a comprehensive analysis of the bacteria in your gut. So, again, one your doctor will do insurance will cover somewhat just looking for pathogens.
Speaker 2:But then a stool test, a conventional excuse me, a functional stool test is collecting your bowel movement but it's a comprehensive analysis of good to bad bacteria and it'll tell me inflammatory markers like how protecting, and it'll kind of be like a report card of your overall health. So I had, like my one friend dietitian. She's like I don't even go get a physical, I just do a stool test every year is my annual appointment, but it just tells us a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:Overall. So they're not fun to collect but they can be incredibly insightful, especially if you're just sensing a number of things, let that be infertility or early menopause or I'm thinking of that because I've just been doing so much women's health work or major digestive distress, or even again going back to having an autoimmune disease. It's very worth doing a stool test to understand how can you support or rebuild that bacteria balance. Research on the microbiome overall is pretty young, so I think even just in a decade the research will be even more pronounced. But doing a stool test can be very helpful in changing your overall health and a worthy investment Overall.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you had to pick one of them, which one would you pick?
Speaker 2:I'm going to summarize again. So there's food sensitivity that's a blood draw that you did, ken. There's wheat zoomer. That gave me the parking lot and the small intestines kind of visual and celiac susceptibility, and then stool test. I think the best investment for money is the wheat zoomer. I think the food sensitivity you know. Trying to work with the orchestra of 180 ingredients and reintroduce those foods is so tedious and not realistic in modern day and also the results can't be as pronounced as what the wheat zoomer can tell me.
Speaker 1:Hmm, gotcha Is the wheat zoomer a blood test as well, then?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a finger prick test done at home. That's the other huge, convenient thing too. The food sensitivity is a blood draw. The stool test, yeah.
Speaker 1:I was going to say that, yeah, because I remember when I did this sensitivity one I had, we did a full blood draw.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Not a finger prick yeah.
Speaker 2:And there's an art of interpretation too. So you don't just want to go on Instagram and find a test that sounds like what I'm talking about, because with your MRT results, ken, I gave you very good guidance from experience of understanding the patterns that your test results had too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I remember, because you sent me the results without like talking to me yet about it, because we did an episode on it and I'll make sure everyone that I put that episode number in the show notes. It should be, because I have all of Kelly's episodes will be in the show notes anyway, but I'll make sure that I will make sure that we highlight that episode because we talked about the results. Kelly went through a whole entire session of like talking to me about the results and what she was seeing, because I remember vividly of you sending me the results and I'm looking at it and I'm saying I'll say bad, oh yeah. And then you're saying you're saying to yourself, the colors don't really matter, it's the numbers that matter.
Speaker 2:The size of the bar, the bar grass. I was like, don't worry about the colors.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh yeah, I got. I got a couple of yellow, I got some yellows, a little bit of greens, a couple of reds. I mean I'm good, yeah, but two. No, I was not.
Speaker 2:But even two. It's like, okay, remove reds for six months, you remove yellows for three and then you should build in the greens. And it's just this process that it's tedious and it's tough as an entrepreneur that I think again wheat zoomer, bang, this is exactly what you need.
Speaker 2:And it's so easy to drive that behavior change and then have long-term overall feeling good. And again I'm looking at that wheat zoomer, I'm looking at type one diabetes, I'm looking at risk of complications and I'm zeroing deeply on that LPS score and how to turn that around. And there's great strategies and protocols to do that. But you don't want it to read it blindly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. This has been great.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:This has been great. Is there any other functional tests that we need to know about?
Speaker 2:I would softly mention a few. Okay, I'm going to summarize again to you, because it sounds like those tests I just mentioned sound like the same thing. So again, food sensitivity test is a blood draw. Mrt is the best one on the market. Don't waste your money on other ones. Mrt is by far the best. And that's a blood draw and it's a measurement of 180 foods and chemicals give or take.
Speaker 2:The second test is the wheat zoomer. That's something I'll send you a link, ken, and people can buy it direct. As soon as you buy it direct, I'll follow up and ask for a client intake so I can write you a proper analysis and that'll tell me how your gut lining is, how leaky is your gut, what's your risk of gluten sensitivity, wheat sensitivity, risk of celiac and how your microbiome is, how's your good and bad bacteria and your colon and is LPS being produced and leaking into your bloodstream. That will increase your overall inflammation risk of complications. That's wheat zoomer. And then the third one is a stool test, which is a comprehensive analysis of the bacteria in your bowel movement. That will also identify pathogens or parasites or extreme imbalance.
Speaker 2:One thing I didn't mention with stool tests. I've done a number of them on clients as needed. But what I'm finding is most people have really low diversity and I know I've talked about this a bunch, but really low diversity comes with eating the same foods. So it is so important, like lately Ohio kind of feels like spring break already but I've been just making random soups with a ton of spices in there and just those different spices will give a lot of diversity to that gut bacteria and help it be the healthiest and strongest it can be. When we eat a lot of sugar or blood sugar is really high, it feeds bad bacteria. So that's a little bit of chicken and the egg with diabetes. But really diversify your diet is a strong takeaway from that. So those are the first three.
Speaker 2:I would also recommend, if you're having pre menopause, perimenopause symptoms, that a Dutch test is a worthy functional test investment. Also, if you're just feeling really exhausted and you know you're human that can't get through your day without coffee, it's really important to look at your organic acids or how well your adrenals are functioning. Because if we burn out our adrenals it's a chronic burnout of sex hormones and an ongoing spiral and we want to live long, healthy, robust, amazing lives. So Dutch test, sex hormones, organic acid test, adrenal health. And then the third, which is really fun, is a micronutrient test.
Speaker 2:I use one called metabolomics. That's a mouthful metabolomics. That'll give me organic acid tests. It'll also tell me people's toxin levels, the more toxin our cells might be. You know, I'm literally living through construction inhaling paint right now. But the more toxic our cells are, the harder it is for our cells to work properly and manage blood sugar. So of course I like my cleanses to run on clients. But the metabolomics does organic, it does micronutrient testing and it does a toxin measure. But micronutrient testing can help us know if we're supplementing the things that we actually need. So a lot of us love buying supplements. It's a billion dollar industry, but are we supplementing for things we need? Of course we know if we're supplementing vitamin D from our you know, annual physical, hopefully. But you know, do we need choline? Are we are our minerals deficient? Is our magnesium on the floor? Is our B6 super low because we're stressed out all the time, and so forth. So micronutrient testing can be helpful as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. This has been incredible. I want to leave you with one, one more question, and this is more of a personal question for me. Okay, this is not a functional test question. Okay, because I came across this, what I think this week. So natural flavors on food labels.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have always been under the assumption that natural flavors for me because I label everything green, yellow or red on in terms of when I'm looking at an ingredients okay, that's that. That's a red flag, this is a yellow flag, this is a. This is a green flag. That's good. I've always labeled natural flavors as a red flag. Yeah not say that I would. I won't get that product, but it's something that I'm trying to investigate a little bit more to figure out what the natural flavors are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was told my friend, brian Armstrong, who owns Propella life, he has he just got out a new, a new protein bar, peanuts and there's like nothing. There's not really anything. It's peanuts and it's peanuts, peanut oil, so natural flavors. And then he's got vanilla extract. So I asked him these natural flavors, why is this in here when you don't need it? He was like no, there's no natural flavors in that product. But because the FDA like you have to put that in because there's vanilla extract, because it's a food product.
Speaker 1:And I'm like this is so weird, I don't understand this. Why is it so? It's and maybe it wasn't from the FDA, but it was like some type of restriction because he's doing a, some type of food and Selling some type of food, that that it was required to put that in the food label. And it just got me thinking of like these science experiments that we see in these food labels, these things that we can't really identify unless you Do some really deep searching and on in like research. So I wanted to ask you about that. Have you heard about that? Is this a thing? Do you know anything about this? What is your take on natural flavors? Is it something that isn't really that big of a deal, or it maybe it is a big deal. We just have to keep looking and doing some research on it. What's your thoughts?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think if it's a food you're eating every day, like, surely investigate. But something can be labeled, like a quick Google will say if it's an extract from a natural occurring food, can be labeled as natural flavors. But also it could be a variety of things. It could be lighter, fluid.
Speaker 1:Right, but that's I'm saying like it's. So that's why I always thought of natural flavors as like this red flag thing, because when it says natural flavors, like it could be like a hundred, some different things that they're not putting on the label.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. And if something has less than 2%, if an ingredient is less than 2% and an end product, it doesn't have to be on the label. So again, I think, at the end of the day, continue to Pre-plan what you're gonna eat a day in advance. That'll go a long way. And Try to eat more whole foods that aren't so packaged. But I know when I'm really busy my lunch is a variety of packaged things in an apple. But continue to do your best and planning is usually the first step.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. This is a Incredible like always, just a wealth of information. Everybody if you're still listening to this episode with through all the construction. Thank you so much. We we appreciate you.
Speaker 1:But if you don't follow Kelly, you have to go on Instagram and followers. She throws out so much great content on nutrition, about food. She has just a whole the crazy holistic and functional thought process on food and how we should be eating as human beings, and which is one of the main reasons why I love her and I keep bringing her on the show and like she. Just she's just a wealth of knowledge and I always Communicate and talk to her when I have questions, so please reach out to her. All of her information in terms of these tests will be in the show notes. We'll try to get links for all the show, all of the tests. So if you're interested in the test, you can go on and either send her a message and ask her more questions about it, or you can click on the link and purchase it for yourself. I promise you will not regret doing these tests. They are so helpful For looking at your overall health. So, kelly, thank you so much as always for coming on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you and Announcing it first here, but I am actually going through a business name change. I think I told you can and you'll see me as Kelly Schmidt wellness all over, but that'll evolve to T1D functional nutrition, so You'll see that in transition. So the links hopefully won't be broken by the time you're listening to this. But, no matter what, I will always be at Instagram diabetic dietitian and, and that website will be in transition here soon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when the transition does happen, as we continue to have Kelly on future episodes, the links will always be accurate on the most recent episodes, because we'll we'll always get the most recent links and update everything, so 100%.
Speaker 2:Thanks Ken, thanks everyone for holding up with the noise and more, and I hope you learned something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you Kelly. Thank you everybody for listening and we will see you next time. You.