Dr. Richard Maurer: Decode Your Blood Tests For Optimal Results – Managing Insulin, Cholesterol, Thyroid, Weight, Fitness and More

February 27, 2017
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Dr. Richard Maurer is a naturopathic physician, author, and expert in metabolic recovery and health. His 2014 book, The Blood Code, demystifies blood test results & body fat measurements to reveal the primal diet and fitness needs that lead toward health and longevity and also that correct weight problems, hypothyroid symptoms, prediabetic conditions and type 2 diabetes. he’s also a triathlete and comes from a family of endurance athletes. Get the book here.

Get out your pen and paper to take notes on this special episode:

  • Richard’s story and why he chose to be a naturopathic doctor and write this book to empower us, the patient.
  • The Blood Code empowers us with tools to be our own expert, use metabolic to assess our health, and prevent or reverse health issues including:
    • Type 2 Diabetes
    • High blood pressure
    • Weight issues
    • Cholesterol and lipids
  • Dr. Maurer’s family history of diabetes and his personal ordeal becoming pre-diabetic, even as an athletic doctor. How he turned this around and “manages” his genetics to avoid disease.
  • Getting into insulin, glucose, the lipid panel, and HbA1c.

Insulin

  • We want to be insulin sensitive, but going too LCHF all the time can lead to too much insulin sensitivity, which can be a bad thing. Why this is the case.
  • Read more from Dr. Maurer on why too much insulin sensitivity can be harmful as well.
  • HOMA IR: Calculating insulin resistance vs. insulin sensitivity based of blood tests.
  • Use the HOMA IR calculator here.
  • How to fix IR.
  • To clarify: What’s the deal with LCHF people or athletes still having high blood glucose even fasting? Is it genetics….stress…. IR….some or all of the above?
  • On monitoring BG throughout the day
  • Metabolism is burning excessively and not able to keep up with glycogen requirement))
  • When to recommend LCHF diets vs. when to avoid them.
  • On men and LCHF, using Dr. Maurer’s experience.

Cholesterol 

  • It seems like we’re still conditioned to think we should just want to see lower cholesterol but this isn’t always true. What are the key things we should assess and consider when looping at a lipid panel?
  • Can triglycerides (TG) and HDL be too low and why?
  • A LCHF diet can lead to too low triglycerides/cholesterol, why?
  • What Dr. Maurer considers to be ideal cholesterol numbers for men and women separately, and the answer might shock you!
  • TG:HDL ratio, don’t go less than 0.5 (TG divided by HDL).
  • More on the TG:HDL ratio here.
  • On LDL and particle size and number.
  • With conventionally “high” cholesterol, how Richard will guide a patient and make recommendations.

Supplements

  • Dr. Maurer’s thoughts on using supplements for certain conditions, including BG regulation.
  • Supplement as little as possible.
  • What he takes.

Thyroid

  • Defining thyroid conditions, in particular hypothyroid issues.
  • Perhaps hypothyroid is not as bad as it sounds.
  • More on Dr. Maurer’s thoughts on thyroid.
  • Defining TSH, what ranges he uses for TSH (i.e. what’s his definition for high TSH that could be indicative of hypo), and why is TSH not enough to assess thyroid health, and
  • Free T3 is the most active form of thyroid and we want good thyroid health to convert into active T3….. but diet can screw this up.
  • T3 can drop with too much insulin sensitivity/LCHF; this slows down metabolism.
  • T3/thyroid also sensitive to the exercise and temperature in which we exercise.
  • Overheating = hypothyroid, it’s fast to react

Words of wisdom

  • There’s often a tradeoff some exercise is great, but too much exercise starts to extract from our health. What do you think the threshold is for this and how to manage it?

Comments (5)

  • Jason says:

    I met (and roomed with) Dr Maurer at PaleoFX a few years ago. Great guy with a ton of knowledge.

  • corryfitz1 says:

    Tawny,

    First, great podcast, second I was looking into getting some of those tests done, but maybe I was confused. Do we have to go through Dr Maurer to order the tests, and would he be the doctor helping with getting the results? The idea seemed to be that we use his book to go through the tests ourselves…right?

    Secondly the labs seem really cheap compared to others, having had a so so experience with Theranos I just wonder why this Ulta Labs is so cheap?

    • Hi, Thank you and glad you found the show helpful. You do not have to go through Dr. Maurer, but of course you can if you want! These are all standard markers and any lab can test for them, you just have to make sure your doctor orders the necessary markers to be measured. Does that help?

    • Dr. Richard Maurer - The Blood Code says:

      Richard here,
      No – there is absolutely nothing proprietary about these tests. ULTA negotiated great pricing from quest on a U.S. National scale. ULTA labs are significantly less costly than my wholesale physician account with Labcorp or Quest. So I use it for my personal and family labs tests as well. ULTA is just a platform to access Quest, enjoy and be well,

      Richard
      (BTW, I am glad Theranos did not accept my request to invest in early 2013, it was a Ponzi scheme more than a lab.)

  • hallneby says:

    Thanks for yet another informative podcast! Very timely for me too as I am about to dive more into my own values in the pursuit of becoming a better and stronger ultra runner!

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