In this episode, I go through my deep and fascinating experience with the Stride health optimization program.

You’ll hear me walk through the six detailed reports from my DNA and microbiome testing—starting with the methylation report, where I had impaired efficiency in the folate cycle, methionine cycle, and BH4 cycle, and finally got a normal score in the transsulfuration pathway. I talk about the role of key nutrients like B vitamins, choline, magnesium, and zinc, and how specific gene variants like MTHFR affect my ability to methylate, detox, and produce neurotransmitters efficiently.

I also share my microbiome results—including a 93 out of 100 for diversity—along with some areas for concern like low serotonin and dopamine, which matched my long-standing results from the Braverman neurotransmitter questionnaire. You’ll hear about the consultation I did with Bianca from Stride, how she helped interpret the results, and the personalized supplement stack they created for me based on everything. Then I wrap it all up by pulling up years of blood test data, going through my male hormone panel, fasting insulin, and cortisol patterns, and why I don’t stress over red-flagged total cholesterol.

This is a detailed breakdown of how genetics, gut health, and blood markers come together—and how Stride helps make sense of it all through one powerful platform.

TIMESTAMPS:

This show takes you through amazing package of benefits and information that you get when you sign up for personal health optimation. [00:51]

Stride combines DNA test results, gut microbiome testing. and blood tests. [06:22]

Gathering this information, you see your likelihood and your propensities for certain elevated dietary needs. [08:19]

Brad demonstrates, with his own use of this service, how it applies to his dietary needs. For example, he talks about the need for vitamins B6 and D. [11:09]

Beyond the 60th parallel, the human is not able to synthesize vitamin D at all because the sun’s rays are never intense enough to trigger that tanning, [18:01]

There is a tendency for middle aged men who are otherwise healthy, athletic and fit to develop sludgy blood with too much iron. [21:01]

There is a large concern for females for iron deficiency. [22:23]

Lactose intolerance is a term we hear often. [24:41]

Is there a difference in how breads and grains affect the body? [26:02]

In the fitness portion of the report, Brad found that he has a mix in his muscle fiber composition between power and endurance. [29:58]

What are you doing with your training and do you have any genetic information to help? [38:43]

Recovery efficiency is also measured with these tests. [39:46]

Your genes have much to do with your skin.  [41:02]

Humans and all other living things on earth are highly calibrated to circadian rhythm. [46:06]Genes affect methylation. [54:34]

It is important to cross reference your blood test and you genetic and miocrobiome testing. Looking at LDL cholesterol is not a great predictor of heart disease. [01:03:56]

It’s important to test male hormones. [01:09:33]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns.com
• BradNutrition.com
• B.rad Whey Protein Superfuel – The Best Protein on The Planet!
• Brad’s Shopping Page
• BornToWalkBook.com
• B.rad Podcast – All Episodes
• Peluva Five-Toe Minimalist Shoes
• Get Stride — Save 10% with the code BRAD.
• Ultra Lab Test.com
• The Carnivore Code
• The Primal Blueprint
• B.rad Nutrition Guide

LISTEN:
We appreciate all feedback, and questions for Q&A shows, emailed to podcast@bradventures.com. If you have a moment, please share an episode you like with a quick text message, or leave a review on your podcast app. Thank you!

Check out each of these companies because they are absolutely awesome or they wouldn’t occupy this revered space. Seriously, I won’t promote anything that I don’t absolutely love and use in daily life:

• B.rad Nutrition: Premium quality, all-natural supplements for peak performance, recovery, and longevity; including the world’s highest quality whey protein!
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• Ketone-IQ Save 30% off your first subscription order & receive a free six-pack of Ketone-IQ!
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• Online educational courses: Numerous great offerings for an immersive home-study educational experience
• Primal Fitness Expert Certification: The most comprehensive online course on all aspects of traditional fitness programming and a total immersion fitness lifestyle. Save 25% on tuition with code BRAD

Brad’s Favorites on Amazon

I have a newly organized shopping experience at BradKearns.com/Shop. Visit here and you can navigate to my B.rad Nutrition products (for direct order or Amazon order), my library of online multimedia educational courses, great discounts from my affiliate favorites, and my recommended health&fitness products on Amazon.

TRANSCRIPT:

Brad (00:00:00):
Welcome to the B.rad podcast – where we explore ways to pursue peak performance with passion throughout life. I’m Brad Kearns, NY Times bestselling author, world #1 ranked masters age 60-plus high jumper, and former #3 world-ranked professional triathlete. You’ll learn how to stay fit, strong and powerful as you age; transform your diet to lose body fat and increase energy; sort through hype and misinformation to make simple, sustainable lifestyle changes; and broaden your perspective beyond a fit body to experience healthy relationships, nonstop personal growth, and ultimately a happy, healthy, long life. Let’s explore beyond shortcuts, hacks, and crushing competition to laugh, have fun, appreciate the journey, and not take ourselves too seriously. It’s time to B.rad!

Brad (00:00:51):
Okay, you may have heard my enthusiastic commercial for my wonderful podcast sponsor Stride at getstride.com, talking about the amazing benefits of cutting edge health optimization testing consultation in supplementation at their online portal. Get stride.com and I thought I would do an entire show to take you through the amazing package of benefits and information that you get when you sign up for their personal health optimization testing at getstride.com. Okay, it is time for the unveiling of my Get Stride DNA and biome testing kits. I want to go through it with you right out of the FedEx envelope so that you can see how simple it is that you don’t get intimidated by opening this up and seeing all these instructions and things that you’re supposed to spit in and seal and put in the bag and send it back. So what we have is to wow, FedEx really beat this thing up, but we do have two boxes of DNA test collection and biome test collection. So in the first collection kit, what we see here, the biohazard that you’re gonna put things back in that says your DNA swab, pretty simple. Here’s the kit the red with the box, and I’m going to open this up and on the back it has very simple instructions for how to collect your DNA sample. It says 10 x if you can’t read that, going into your cheek and getting enough saliva and then sticking it back into the bottle. So quick demo here. Okay, so let’s open up the envelope. What do we have here?

Brad (00:02:52):
A cotton swab with some solution underneath. What we’re gonna do is get the sample with the swab and then unscrew this, turn it upside down and land it in the solution for preservation as we send it off to the laboratory. And again, on the back it says 10 times swabbing down here in the lower cheek area next to the lower teeth. Then you unscrew it. It has a little x sign. Be careful not to let it drip and you put it right back into the solution and then shake it up 10 times as follows. There we go down there in the lower quadrant, getting some good DNA samples like they do on TV in the crime shows, right? Okay, 10 times. Now I’m gonna unscrew the top, turn it upside down, get it into the solution, no spilling allowed, screw it, uptight, shake it 10 times.

Brad (00:04:03):
And that is going into the handy dandy plastic bag that says biohazard. Hopefully not in my case, but you know, good to be safe into the biohazard. That is the DNA collection. Isn’t it amazing that this little vial of spit is going to identify all manner of my genetic particulars? Now let’s go on to the next part of the collection process, which is the biome kit. Okay, so now I’m all registered and we’ll proceed to get my DNA sample and then my biome sample. Okay, we open up a slightly larger box. This has got a lot of stuff in it, don’t worry. Here’s the FedEx label receipt and the FedEx envelope where you’re gonna send your samples back by applying their pre-printed label. No need to go wait in line at the FedEx store and write out any addresses. It’s all set for you. Again, they’re reminding you to get started with the biome kit and we have another bag for this specimen.

Brad (00:05:18):
So the specimen will go into the same FedEx envelope as your DNA swab. This one’s gonna be a little more involved because we have to go collect a stool sample with the, uh, recommendations mentioned here. And we have the other sample kit with the solution. Hopefully you in any language can follow the recommendations. And then we’re going to end up with one of these bags that I first showed you. And this bag all finished with a little stool sample. I’m going to to get it into the envelope heading over to the United Kingdom around Norwich area. So we’ll put the things in there, put the things in FedEx, they’ll put this thing on a plane, take it over to Get Stride, and then, oh my gosh, you open yourself up to the wonderful world of internet portal with all your results, all your data.

Brad (00:06:22):
So if you haven’t heard of this cutting edge area of medicine and biohacking, we now have the ability to kind of take our Health peak performance longevity disease prevention into our own hands with personal customized testing, direct consultation with experts, and even customized supplementation protocol. It is night and day difference from going to your physician in Western medicine getting an annual blood test or an annual physical, for example. Of course, those things are important, but this is about peak performance and going further and deeper into your own genetic profile, your own blood markers, and your own microbiome testing, which again, is another cutting edge area of medicine that simply did not exist a few years ago. So what Stride does is it combines DNA test results, gut microbiome testing, and they have their own blood testing service if you’re in the United Kingdom. If you’re not, for example, in America, there are so many awesome online resources where you can order your own blood tests at a fraction of the cost of what the insurance system is billing you for when you get a blood test from a doctor.

Brad (00:07:33):
So don’t be afraid to order comprehensive blood panels for a hundred or 200 or 300 bucks for the Cadillac of profile markers. You might pay thousands for that or be billed for that much in mainstream medicine. I’m a big fan of a very simple online portal called Ultra Lab Test.com where I go, I order the blood tests, I go to a local lab. You put in your zip code, there’s a lab very close to you, I’m sure if you live in an urban area. I ride my bike over there and I get blood tested so frequently that they kind of recognize me at the place. And it’s all for peak performance markers like male hormone panel. So I have these blood results, I’m gonna show you and cross reference with the things I learned from the Stride DNA and microbiome testing. So you put all those three together.

Brad (00:08:19):
Stride has a wonderful online portal where everything is organized. Then you’re able to test and retest in the future. See how these dietary fitness, lifestyle, sleep changes take effect. And it’s a wonderful way to keep track of your own personal health. So the centerpiece is the DNA testing. So actually testing your genetic profile. And now with emerging research mapping these individual genes to predict through worldwide global algorithm with all the data, your likelihood and your propensities for certain elevated dietary needs. There’s fitness markers, sleep, there’s skin, there’s cognitive performance and mental resilience. There’s your dietary needs and sensitivities and your methylation profile. So the term methylation refers to the way that the body engages in the important chemical reactions to help cellular function, performance recovery, things like that. I’m gonna show you my disappointingly low score on my methylation tests. And it basically confirmed what I’ve known all along my whole life that I am pretty fragile and sensitive.

Brad (00:09:28):
So I require a lot of optimal sleep. I require a lot of recovery when I’m pushing myself with high intensity workouts and I need to really look after my immune function and my stress levels because I might have low scores in methylation. I can’t bounce back and rally like perhaps some of my peers did when they were, uh, we were training together for triathlon. I was training with the top guys in the world and a lot of them could handle perhaps twice as much training as I could. I was still able to race with them if I followed my own plan and my own stress and rest balance. But it was interesting insight to realize that, yeah, deficiencies in certain areas, I had attributes and other areas and I made the best of what I could. And I still am trying to do so as an athlete.

Brad (00:10:14):
But when you get these insights, that’s when you have the power to modify and optimize your lifestyle. So I’m gonna open up each of these reports that I got from the DNA test. Go through them really quickly, not to bore you. I’ll also go over my gut microbiome health results and then cover the blood results that I have had over many years from my personal individual testing with the laboratory. So here we go. Let’s go to the nutrition report. So what they’re doing here is they are looking at your DNA test. You basically spit into a tube and send it off in the mail. And they are mapping your own personal genetics. And the result is sort of it lasts for a lifetime, right? So you have these genetic markers, they don’t change, but they will give you these direct applicable insights to how you are organizing your diet.

Brad (00:11:09):
And if you want to look at the screen, I will go slowly through the precision nutrition report. So they’re gonna give you an overview at the start learning terms like what’s a gene, what’s a genotype, what’s a phenotype, a micronutrient, a vitamin, an enzyme, a co-factor. And then we get into my personal sensitivities and proclivities, I guess. So the first one is carbohydrate sensitivity. And I come out with high sensitivity for carbohydrates. They’ll give you a little narrative of what that means. And, some advice, some of this is kind of a cookie cutter boilerplate. It might not be super meaningful or directly applicable to you, but something that’s interesting to note, saturated fat sensitivity is medium. So if you get someone with the genetic markers for a very high sensitivity to saturated fat, you might have heard these stories from, especially during the height of the keto craze where people that went off into deep into the ketogenic diet the so-called bacon and butter strategy where they had free reign as long as they cut carbohydrates to go and slam a bunch of saturated fat, they started coming in with really adverse blood values.

Brad (00:12:27):
It was adversely affecting those important, uh, blood markers that we watch for for cardiovascular disease risk factor. So someone with very low saturated fat sensitivity that would indicate they can handle a lot of it and very high would be someone that showing went keto, messed up their blood panels. I’m right there in the middle medium. So no big concerns. Vitamin a, fat-soluble vitamin. I have a raised sensitivity for vitamin A. Where’s the best source of vitamin A retinol in the diet? That’s right, liver and other animal organs, ground beef, the things that are centerpiece of my diet. We often hear these throwaway terms like eat more carrots to get your vitamin A. But as Paul Saladino talks about in his book, The Carnivore Code, converting the plant form of vitamin A, like beta carotene into the usable form of vitamin A in the body takes 21 times more chemical reaction than actually consuming directly, let’s say from liver.

Brad (00:13:26):
So if I raise sensitivity for vitamin A, I’m gonna go looking to keep animal organs as a centerpiece of my diet. It’s very difficult to communicate this to the masses. And so we still have sort of, uh, with stride at least making the effort to show the eggs on there. ’cause a lot of internet fodder you might see, we’ll be pointing you towards broccoli and other high beta-carotene plants, which are vastly inferior sources, but going for the eggs and going for the meat. Big stuff. And we’re going through various other key dietary micronutrients learning that I have raised sensitivity for riboflavin vitamin B six. Interestingly, when I was tested with functional testing, I would often come up low on B six when I was training hard and be prescribed a B six supplement by my old friend Dr. Belly. He used to take care of me as a functional neurologist.

Brad (00:14:17):
And so this correlates with that easily depleted vitamin B six from high stress training patterns. And as I also mentioned, those low scores in methylation. So they’re giving you some suggestions for foods rich in B six. Same with things like folate. Another raise sensitivity, vitamin C. The report is going into some, uh, brief comments about what a deficiency might mean, how to improve it, normal sensitivity there. Vitamin B12, normal sensitivity, that is also reflected in my blood test results where I’m usually strong there, where I might be, uh, more fragile in the B six area. Vitamin D, my sensitivity is raised, that means I want to make a concerted effort to get a lot of sun exposure. Of course, you can get rich sources of vitamin D in the diet, but they pale in comparison to the amount of vitamin D synthesis you can get from devoted sun exposure during the times of peak solar intensity, the times of day and the times of year.

Brad (00:15:20):
So you’ll find me laying out in the sun all summer long here in the Western hemisphere at around the 37th parallel, I believe where I’m living at now. And trying hard to get that vitamin D into a strong level. Uh, we’ll see on my blood test result. I’m typically in the fifties and I’d love to be in the sixties or seventies as recommended by the real vitamin D advocates and experts. There’s a lot of commentary in the updated Primal Blueprint book. Mark Sisson and I did a deep dive into that and the particulars that affect many different people trying to get that vitamin D high. Remember that most modern citizens are deficient or highly deficient in vitamin D and it’s a huge risk for cancer, especially cancers of the reproductive system. That’s why dark skin people have a much higher rate of reproductive cancer than people who have lighter skin and can more easily make vitamin D from sunlight.

Brad (00:16:19):
Again, diet is a minimal source of vitamin D. So drink your milk just like the commercials say that’s only a hundred IU, laying out in the sun for 20 minutes during a nice warm summer day, you’re gonna make 10,000 iu. And the highest sources of vitamin D in the diet are the oily cold water fish. For example, cod liver oil number one ranked there. You’re gonna get like a thousand IUs of vitamin D from a serving that’s probably a tablespoon of cod liver oil. So again, 10,000 IUs of vitamin D laying out in the sun for 20 minutes to get a slight tan, never a burn. 1000 from cod liver oil and 100 from the good old glass of milk that has been touted thanks to marketing hype for decades as a vitamin D source for your body. Absolute nonsense. So we really want to get out there and look how cutting edge Stride.

Brad (00:17:12):
I give them so many tips ’cause I’ve seen a lot of this type of, uh, work and programming other online health optimization testing. And they’re kind of backdated a little and not even talking about the sun, they’re talking about getting your sardines and your salmon. So those are the top dietary sources, the oily cold water fish. But sun beats all. That’s why when you go to brad kerns.com and you download the free eBooks, the offer on the front page is type in your email and we’ll send you a half a dozen wonderful eBooks. One of ’em is a complete overview of vitamin D made simple to help you optimize vitamin D, especially from sun exposure. Also from diet 13 minutes of midday sun exposure during the summer. Three times a week is enough to maintain healthy natural levels among Caucasian adults. As I mentioned, there’s a little bit of nuance there.

Brad (00:18:01):
Interesting side note. Did you know that above the 60th parallel on the globe? So that’s up there pretty high like Canada, Scandinavia, not a ton of people living up above 60 and virtually no people except for those scientists living in Antarctica in the southern hemisphere beyond 60. But beyond the 60th parallel, the human is not able to synthesize vitamin D at all because the sun’s rays are never intense enough to trigger that tanning, that melanin release and that vitamin D production in the skin. So those humans who tried to migrate in the old days, the Scandinavian ancestors who went up there however many thousands of years ago, would not have been able to survive due to a lack of vitamin D. They would get sick and die from vitamin D deficiency. However, the only way that humans were able to populate the highest latitudes were to slam the highest dietary sources of vitamin D.

Brad (00:19:05):
That’s right, oily cold water fish, which is, where is it found in great abundance that would be Scandinavia. And the higher latitudes, of course, the oily cold water fish have to be that way in order to keep warm enough to survive in the cold waters of the ocean. So you might have seen this on the B.rad nutrition guide, the SMASH family of oily cold water fish. The fish that happen to have the overall most nutritional benefit of all the fish. They also have that really high vitamin D level. So we have the SMASH family is salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, and herring. So you go and focus on those, especially if you have an indoor dominant lifestyle, especially if you are living at a latitude incongruent with your ancestral genetics. For example, someone with dark skin living at at the higher latitudes.

Brad (00:20:02):
You got two strikes against you there. So trying to emphasize diet for those people that are sun deficient. But for all of us who can make an effort, get out there and get some sun. Read my wonderful ebook. And especially if you have genetic results here to show that you have a raised sensitivity to vitamin D, that’s when you really have to prioritize sun exposure. Then we go down into other vitamins, raised sensitivity for vitamin E. Here’s some genetics about your propensity for iron overload based on your results.

Brad (00:20:33):
You have a moderate risk for hemochromatosis, which is a very dangerous condition of excess iron in the body. And I have noticed a tendency to drift up above the healthy range. You’ll see that on my blood test result. And the instant and immediate remedy for that is to go and donate blood, which thereby lowers your iron content and your hematocrit immediately. Mike Mutzel also has some really good videos about this because there’s a tendency for middle aged males who are otherwise healthy, athletic, and fit to develop what’s called s sludgy blood with too much iron and too much hematocrit.

Brad (00:21:17):
This is the same thing that the endurance athletes dope. In order to get a higher hematocrit to compete in the Tour de France and the Olympics, it’s the greatest performance advantage ever discovered. It completely changes endurance sports because doping with EPO and getting your hematocrit up to 50 provides a 6% advantage as compared to a racer, an athlete with a normal hematocrit. But there are ways that you can drift into the high hematocrit levels, which is a very concerning risk sign for poor health. You don’t want sludgy blood as you age. So isn’t that interesting? I don’t know the exact particulars wh someone can get unhealthy with that high hematocrit whereby a healthy hard training athlete can dope up to the high hematocrit and get the performance benefits anyway. When you’re looking at your blood tests and you’re looking at your propensity for iron overload, we wanna pay close attention there. Donate blood, of course, we’re about to scroll onto iron deficiency, which is the complete opposite example.

Brad (00:22:23):
This is a large concern especially for healthy, athletic, energetic females who might not be consuming a lot of dietary iron, which of course is concentrated at the highest levels in red meat. So if you’re an athletic female and you like to trend toward plant-based eater and you’re menstruating and losing iron every month anyway, you have a high risk of iron deficiency. And then if you run your genetic testing and you come out with a high risk of iron deficiency, now we really have to sit down and talk about measuring things carefully, your folate levels, your iron saturation, all the stuff that you see on a blood test, and watching those levels carefully and discovering ways to, increase your blood levels of iron, uh, mainly by consuming red meat.

Brad (00:23:13):
Okay, so for me, I am watching from, uh, many years of blood test results that propensity, which my genetics show is a medium propensity oh, for iron overload and also a medium propensity for iron deficiency. Isn’t that great? So I happen to consume quite a bit of dietary iron, I would guess because I’m always cooking in cast iron skillet, eating a lot of red meat. But when that number gets high, I’m donating blood and then backing off, let’s say with the cast iron skillet. Okay? So there’s some, foods high in iron, oysters are up there on the list. Meat, liver, eggs. Isn’t that great? They’re putting this stuff into mainstream, but well cutting edge health optimization, hopefully it’s gonna become mainstream. ’cause you’re never gonna see comments like these. Uh, in traditional western medicine. You will not find a classically, clinically trained doctor nor any information put out by, for example, US government and other resources recommending that you go eat red meat, fish, shellfish, liver, and eggs.

Brad (00:24:18):
So this is the cool club people and this advice you can trust from the people who are deep into this and the cutting edge of genetic testing and blood testing. Let’s get through this pretty quickly. I think you get the point now where you see a normal need or a raise need. So I have raised need for antioxidants, going for those high antioxidant foods, normal need for Omega-3.

Brad (00:24:41):
Lactose intolerance. My score is tolerant. Isn’t that interesting? My genetic testing from the ancestry, DNA, the family where you originate from, I’m like 98%, uh, British Isles and Ireland. So that is in that area of the globe. If you trace your ancestry back there, especially to Scandinavia, there’s a very high rate of lactose tolerance. The pure Scandinavian ancestry are 90% lactose tolerant, whereby the globe in general, the global population is about 80% lactose intolerant as adult.

Brad (00:25:23):
That includes all of African descent, all of Asian descent. But the people who again, who migrated up to those high latitudes and lived that rough life, they had to rely on herding. And so they became, they developed a tolerance for lactose. I don’t consume a ton of lactose, especially heavily processed lactose like mainstream dairy milk and things. So I’m not worried about that. But I remember when I was back young, running in college and having these horrible stomach, uh, problems, they resolved when I cut milk outta my diet. ’cause I was chugging milk out of the carton. Back in the old days. And this is heavily processed, homogenized, pasteurized milk, which is vastly more difficult to digest and assimilate than, for example, raw milk. So, that was a turning point for me to cut that processed dairy product out of my diet and improve my lactose tolerance.

Brad (00:26:20):
Okay, celiac predisposition is raised, so I’m not chowing a whole bunch of grains in my diet either. Interestingly, when I went primal back in 2008 when Mark Sisson and I started to work on the Primal Blueprint book, I ditched all grains in the spirit of living what I’m writing about. And that lasted for probably five or six or seven years where I ate almost no bread or rice cereal, anything. And these days I really enjoy the highest quality bread. And my rule of thumb is the bread has to go stale in three or four days, then it’s a thumbs up and I’m allowed to eat it. Where do you find that kind of bread? You go to the farmer’s market and you go right to the bakers who bring their fresh baked sourdough loaves to the market. You grab it, you have some delicious, what I like to do is pan fry it with a nice butter on there and have that over my eggs or my meat.

Brad (00:27:17):
And again, three or four days later, you’re slicing into that sourdough loaf and it’s already going bad. So the bread in the bags in the loafs at the grocery store has so many chemicals and preservatives in there in order to keep the loaf from going moldy in three or four or five or seven days. So we wanna stay away from processed foods, including bread and going and getting that really high quality artisan bread is thumbs up for most people. Even someone who has a raised sensitivity to celiac. I got a fructose tolerance score. I have raised sensitivity for salt, so I definitely put in a lot of salt and alcohol response. I actually wrote back and asked about this because I don’t drink any alcohol, but I have a positive response to alcohol. I assume that means that if I were to drink some, or it’s like, how did you know I have a positive response if I don’t drink any?

Brad (00:28:14):
But something to think about. If you have these things in your diet and you’re wondering how you can further optimize or you have some complaints, same with caffeine sensitivity, low sensitivity. No wonder I can get away with enjoying my squares of dark chocolate even late into the night and not having any sense that the caffeine is affecting my ability to go to sleep. That’s because I have low sensitivity and I’m metabolizing it quickly.

Brad (00:28:43):
Now we get into some deeper types of genetic information detoxification, phase one toxin generation speed, and some advice about how to be dialed in when it comes to detoxing. Here’s another test for the need for cruciferous vegetables due to the health benefits they provide. I have a raised need. My advice is to consume more of those sugar preference. I have a normal risk of over consuming sugar rather than a raised risk, which might be someone with a hardcore sweet tooth.

Brad (00:29:19):
Won’t it be fun to test yourself? And if you declare that you have a sweet tooth, let’s see what your genetics really say. If it’s normal, that means you’ve probably habituated to a sweet tooth by consuming a lot of sweet foods. And I can tell you that over the course of my life when I’ve had a varying consumption of sweets, when you start slamming those things things and have ’em as a centerpiece in your diet, you develop the tendency to want to consume them more and need them more and so forth. We’re going into things like bitter taste perception, and that would be a wrap on the dietary profile.

Brad (00:29:58):
So I’m going to come up with the fitness report here next. Again, this is just fromm spitting into a tube and generating all these things. And if you go deep into the, the protocol and how this is, how this is happening, what they’re doing with each of these nice pretty graphics is behind the scenes. They are looking at a whole bunch of different gene markers, which are named by letters of the alphabet, the CCTH gene, the GCM gene, whatever. I’m making that up, but they put it in the algorithm and realize that I have a heightened sensitivity. I mean a low sensitivity to caffeine. I can tolerate more caffeine thanks to these genetic markers and the studies they’ve done on larger population. So this is the probably the most revelatory and profound insight that I have obtained from my genetic testing that I have a mix in my muscle fiber composition between power and endurance. And this blew my mind when I discovered it because as you may know, I have a really devoted background in endurance sports. I competed as a professional triathlete for nine years doing extreme endurance training and competition every single day, training for hours and hours.

Brad (00:31:15):
But genetically speaking, I was a 50 50 guy. A 50 50 guy might excel in certain events like the mile run, which was my event in high school. Something that has that anaerobic in that power component as well as an endurance component. Actually a 50 50 event with exercise physiology research backing this up is an all out effort of one minute and 15 seconds only. So a one minute 15 race, which would be like a 600 meters for an Olympic athlete or a little over 400 500 meters for someone like me, only one lap around the track is half aerobic and half anaerobic. Mind blowing when you think about it. ’cause most people would think of a one minute 15 race as a hardcore sprint and then an endurance race would be 15 minutes or 20 minutes or two hours for a marathon. But the aerobic system really kicks in even anytime you go after, uh, just a minute or two.

Brad (00:32:16):
Okay? So, uh, as a mixed athlete, I was going out there doing extreme endurance training and extreme endurance racing to the extent that I was going against my genetic particulars. Had I known this years ago when I was putting together my training schedule, what this means is that I cannot handle the extreme endurance training as well as my peers, as I mentioned, who are probably self-selecting for people with really high endurance genetic profile. Super interesting was my wife Mia Moore had 81% endurance genes and contrast to mine, which was like 54 strength power and 46% endurance. And she is an endurance machine in life. She can crank all day without taking a break at the computer and she can handle minimal sleep and get up again and do it the next day. Go, go, go. When we go on five-hour hikes, she’s the one pulling me to the finish line.

Brad (00:33:16):
I’m feeling exhausted, sore, tired, hungry, but she is a true endurance machine as revealed in her unique genetic testing. So had I known this information, I would’ve set up a program that involved much more rest than a true hardcore genetically optimized endurance athlete. And I would have carefully structured high intensity power strength sessions, perhaps even things in the gym that my genetics had a propensity to do, box jumps or, explosive power, things like the sprinting that I’m doing now. And I would’ve likely, uh, adapted better to the training than just following blindly the conventional wisdom and the prevailing approach to endurance training in a population who was already self-selected for endurance. Also interesting, looking at my competitive results was my best distance on the triathlon circuit was actually the occasional sprint distance race that they would hold, infrequently in comparison to the Olympic distance race, which was what the international circuit was all about.

Brad (00:34:23):
Not to mention the Ironman and the ultra distance races that I also competed in, but I didn’t fair as well as I did at Olympic distance. So Olympic distance, of course, that was the main competitive distance, but when they cut those in half, sometimes I would be vastly superior overall results profile from, let’s say my entire career results at Olympic distance because these races only took an hour. Your swimming for half the time, biking for half the time, running for three miles instead of six, for example. And I was able to really turn up the power and the anaerobic contribution when it was time to go even faster. So I’m so happy to report today that as a sprinter, uh, going for the high jump and the 400 meters, I’m really optimizing my genetic profile and tapping into, uh, that power training, which I neglected severely.

Brad (00:35:16):
Also interesting, the founder of this company, Andrew Steele, former British Olympic 400 meter runner. He was a semi-finalist at the Beijing Olympics, running a world-class time of 44 98. He also won a medal in the relay. So he is an Olympic medalist, 400 meter relay runner. Halfway through his career as he was preparing for what he was hoping to be the culmination of his career, and that would be competing in the 2012 Olympics at home in front of the home crowd in London. He wanted to improve from his awesome semi-finalist top 16 in the world in Beijing in 2008. So what he did was he worked on his supposed weakness. You can hear all about this in our podcast interview that we did several years ago. So search for Andrew Steele on the BA podcast, but he was a guy who was known for his strong finish in the 400 meters.

Brad (00:36:10):
So he might start out a little behind, he might not explode outta the box as well as some of those more powerful explosive athletes. And then he would bring it home strong and have a beautiful finishing kick at the end. So it was thought, Hey, what if I got more powerful, more explosive and worked on that top end stuff rather than my bread and butter training, which has worked so well for me that made me an Olympic semi-finalist. So he proceeded in the years leading up to the super important London Olympic Games to get injured, to get pneumonia, to get another debilitating injury and a total crap out. It was a devastating way to come from that high point of being an Olympic hopeful coming into 2012 Olympic medal hopeful at home, a hero in the country to another level. And it was, did work out for him because he changed his training.

Brad (00:37:04):
This led to his fascination with genetic testing and his long career. He’s founded other companies. The first one was DNA fit, one of the first providers of genetic testing. Andrew was a principal in that company. And so now he’s founded his own operation with his partners co-founded. And it was all based on that horrible lesson learned from screwing up his training program and going away from what got him to be a world class athlete to try to model what some of the athletes were doing that probably worked better for them. And as he was detailing on our show, as a 400 meter runner, he would do 5K training, runs three miles, which is crazy for most 400 meter runners. Wouldn’t even imagine that, especially those schooled in the short to long training philosophy where they’re spending a lot of time doing shorter sprints.

Brad (00:37:56):
And then as the season goes on, they inch the distance up of those sprints rather than long to short. Where endurance athletes are familiar with this. You start with base training and doing over distance things. Maybe you’re doing repeats of 600 meters, and then as the season goes on, you go faster and you go to 400, you go to 200. So that’s different training protocols. But think about all these coaches who think they know what’s right and they’ve had success with this athlete or that athlete. Michael Johnson’s coach Clyde Hart is noted for being a, a long to short philosophy and he can point to his world record holder and his Olympic medalist to say, this is a great way to train. But what about that genetic overlay where it might be great for Michael Johnson as an athlete, but not so great for Andrew Steele?

Brad (00:38:43):
And this is so near and dear to my heart because I realize in reflection that my triathlon training and my career could have been so different if I’d known my genetic profile. So I want to ask you right now, what are you doing with your training and do you have any genetic information to help frame and get a protocol that’ll work best for you? So I spent a lot of time on this one element of the report. ’cause that was a mind blower. I would’ve guessed I was way far over there on the endurance side like Mia Moore, but not to be. And so of course the advice is to try to dial in some training philosophy, knowing your ratio of strength power to endurance aerobic trainability. I got some nice medium scores there. So in your face, because I’m also gonna measure who crosses the finish line first. And I had a few of those back in my day too. So, the medium turned out to be okay, uh, as far as whatever my genetic starting point is in aerobic trainability,.

Brad (00:39:46):
Recovery efficiencies medium, injury predisposition high. Whew, thank you very much. Yes, that has also been proven true in real life, especially in the last five years as I’ve really focused on being a sprinter and a high jumper. And I’ve had to deal with a succession of minor injuries thanks to my genetic sensitivity and have to be more and more careful with recovery. And as I’ve spoken about a lot on the show getting out of that endurance mindset, rejecting that, and embracing the sprinter mindset, the anaerobic athlete mindset, which requires a lot of downtime. Low volume and high intensity, the exact opposite of an aerobic or an endurance athlete requires a lot of intensity, not a lot of downtime.

Brad (00:40:37):
High frequency, low intensity, did I just say that wrong? Low intensity, high frequency, high volume. So, honoring that high injury risk predisposition, I can do my mobility, my flexibility, my preparation drills, and also organize my training schedule accordingly. So that was the fitness report. I told you I was gonna try to, uh, get through these pretty quickly.

Brad (00:41:02):
We have a skin report. So again, we’re looking at my genetic results, the genes that I show, and some of the, uh, direct practical application to what I’m doing about my skin. I have high rate of intrinsic skin aging. And indeed for healthy 60-year-old, I might have more wrinkles than the next guy down the street. If you ask Dr. Sean O’Mara, he talks about how chronic system-wide inflammation and visceral fat accumulation can even go into the face and make the face look a little puffy, but free from wrinkles.

Brad (00:41:42):
So you look like a healthy cherubic 60-year-old if you’re overweight and inflamed. So I like hanging my hat on that to say, Hey, yeah, look, I I little, I look a little wrinkly and gaunt, but I also have low body fat and hopefully it’s not a direct indication of my overall health, but more the genetic predisposition of my skin to wrinkle. And there’s other members of my family who complain about their wrinkly skin despite showing incredible health particulars in other areas. So if I have a high rate of intrinsic skin aging, probably a good idea is to not overexpose those heavily exposed areas to sun. And so I talked about the importance of getting out, getting sun, getting vitamin D from your skin. But this is the vitamin D production comes from large skin surface areas of the body. So definitely I’m trying to expose my legs, my torso, my back to a lot of sun, but the vitamin D potential of my face is inconsequential.

Brad (00:42:48):
So I will try to shade my face from the sun at all times. I also, um, not a huge sunscreen user, ’cause almost all of them are pretty terrible, but you can definitely find some good clean ones made with natural agents. Cynthia Monte Leone Fast over 40 on Instagram has just come out with her own line of skincare supplements. Tanya Teske, Bordeaux Kitchen on Etsy has healthy skincare items made with things like tallow that also serve as a good sunscreen. So I’m not out that often where I’m gonna be burning my face. You definitely wanna avoid burning, if you have the genetics for skin aging. Okay, I reduce capacity to neutralize your radicals, therefore, a higher susceptibility to oxidative stress. And as I talked about, that has played out quite significantly in my life when it comes to the oxidative stress generated by extreme training.

Brad (00:43:46):
So you can also get oxidative stress other ways, uh, let me think, smoking, drinking, uh, high level of personal stress, uh, living in a polluted environment, that kind of thing. So I’m also looking for good dietary sources of antioxidants and to manage stress levels. Here’s that sensitivity to refined carbohydrates. And glycation. Glycation is when the critical protein molecules that are responsible for important chemical reactions in the body, such as maintaining healthy hair, skin, and nails, they get gunked up with an excess of, uh, glucose in the bloodstream and render them dysfunctional. So if you have this high carbohydrate, high insulin producing diet, you have a propensity for glycation. And the longest lasting cells in the body are the most vulnerable. What do we have? We have the skin, the collagen, any lastin in the skin, the heart, the cardiovascular system, the retina, and the kidneys.

Brad (00:44:54):
So those are the most susceptible to glycation driven by high carbohydrate, high insulin producing diet and other high stress lifestyle practices. Isn’t it interesting to note the type one diabetics who have difficulty regulating blood glucose also tend to have problems with vision and renal function due to those areas being highly sensitive? Not to mention the cardiovascular system. So based on your results, Brad, you have a higher genetic sensitivity to refine carbohydrates and a higher risk of glycation if you were to stuff your face with sugar your whole life and not burn enough of it off. Okay, pigmentation. I have pigmentation genes, so I have an average risk of melanoma. Melanoma. This is result is typical for people of light skinned European ancestry. Then we go on down to things like nickel sensitivity, detoxification gene scores. This is as, especially as they relate to the skin. ’cause you heard me talk about some of these in terms of my diet too, my inflammatory response. And that is the wrap on the skin report.

Brad (00:46:06):
Now we’re gonna go to the sleep report. Interesting. So they have these chronotype genes, which you might have heard a lot of discussion on podcasts now with sleep experts talking about what’s your chronotype, are you a night owl? Are you a morning bird? And how do your genetics perhaps predict this besides your lifestyle habits? My personal opinion without being an expert here is I think that the way you manage your circadian rhythm can easily turn you into an early bird or a night owl due to habit patterns. And you can extract yourself and get out of there as you are forced to do when you travel through time zones. And so I don’t think it’s set in stone that, oh, I’m a night owl so I can never get to sleep early.

Brad (00:46:51):
Oh yeah. How about turning off your mobile device and the screens that you put on for hours and hours after the sun sets in your area? Remember that humans and all other living things on earth are highly calibrated to circadian rhythm and have been so for billions of years. So we are finally, uh, in only the last couple centuries overcoming the powerful force of the circadian rhythm, uh, by, uh, allowing ourselves to, uh, remain in a light environment after it gets dark. So the sun rising in the setting has such a powerful impact on our hormones. And when we overwrite it with artificial light and then adding digital stimulation after dark, that’s when we can screw things up and get a genetic disconnect from our optimal sleep and wake and stress management cycles. So the more you mess with your relationship with the sun, the more difficult it is to have an optimal circadian rhythm regardless of your genetics.

Brad (00:47:57):
But it is cool to see your chronotype where I am again in the mix, kind of an average guy as it turns out as we go through these results, huh? So they have more tense toward night owl and more bias toward morning, like morning lark. Interesting to note my sleep quality genes, based on your results, you’re at the lower end of the genetic sleep quality scale to improve your sleep quality, try to control your sleep environment, get to bed at the same time, have the right temperature. And indeed, I make a concerted effort here because I’m very sensitive to my sleep requirements, possibly due to not having the greatest sleep genes. I remember Mike Pigg, one of the greatest triathletes in the world, and I was talking to him about his sleep habits one time because he was famous for, he was written up in Mark Allen’s book where he moved to Boulder for the summer.

Brad (00:48:51):
So he drove from northern California to Boulder all night in his van with all his stuff, his trailer, and was trying to make this important 20-mile run in the morning with all the best triathletes in the world on this really difficult trail that went up, up, up into the mountains. So here’s a guy who drives all night, all day and all night for however many 21 hours or something, pulls into the parking lot to crash out for an hour or two, gets up and bangs out a 20-mile run with the other great triathletes in the world. And Mark Allen wrote about this because he was comparing and contrasting to how he gets up from his bed in Boulder, has a pretty good night’s sleep, and is wondering, gee, I wonder if I got enough sleep and feeling insecure because he slept, uh, seven and a half hours instead of eight and a half or whatever.

Brad (00:49:40):
And coming and seeing this, this vagabond from the road in the parking lot, get up and rally. It was a mind blow to, you know, realize that hey, we maybe are more resilient than we think. Mike Pigg was also famous for picking up his girlfriend at the time. Marcy now his longtime wife after her work shift was over in the old days. So she’s off Friday night at five o’clock, and he would drive her all night up to Bend, Oregon for a weekend of skiing. And I’m like, how can you possibly do that and get up the next morning and ski? And his answer straight face to me was, oh, I just sleep extra hard the next night. So for Brad Kearns with low sleep quality genes, I can assure you, at no time in my life was I ever able to rally in that manner.

Brad (00:50:28):
I would be an absolute wreck for perhaps a week if I had an interrupted or an extremely abbreviated night of sleep where I only got three, four or five hours of sleep. I can probably count on one hand the number of days in my life where I’ve had to rally through that and function the next day, oh, excuse me, two hands, because every time I produced the Auburn Triathlon and the other big endurance events that I put on for about a decade, I wouldn’t get hardly any sleep the night before and I’d have to rally all through the next day and then collapsed for a week after the race was over. Yeah, a race directing is a tough, tough job, especially when you have low quality sleep genes. Now, also in the sleep report, of course, is one’s caffeine sensitivity because that can interfere with sleep.

Brad (00:51:15):
I had that higher sensitivity to caffeine, so that means that I can get away with it and burn through it pretty, uh, pretty easily. Uh, a raised tolerance. This might reduce your overall stress tolerance to stress. This may position you as someone with a raised tolerance to stress, oh, your genetic results did not detect variations in the genes that might reduce your tolerance to stress. So I might have a raised tolerance to stress. Isn’t that nice to know? I’m not sure I would relate to that except for, or I make a concerted effort not to get too stressed about the everyday happenings of daily life getting better and better as I get older. For the most part, I have to relate not a lot of great things about getting old and is it slowing down in certain ways

Brad (00:52:04):
But I think my stress tolerance is better due to the psychological component. That’s such a big deal there. Uh, it is interesting. So again, a lot of science behind this. People spending their life’s work, PhDs analyzing these genes in the microscope. And then with careful and extensive study coming up with ideas like, are you a warrior or a strategist, strategist response. The COMT gene determines our individual metabolism of dopamine fluctuations in response to stress, and therefore, which circumstances and environments we are better equipped to handle. Fascinating. So I have way over here on the warrior genotype. This means you are a fast metabolizer of dopamine and as associated with greater stress resilience, but you’ll often require increased stressed to perform. And there’s entire books about this. Dr. Ben Lynch, the title of his book, Dirty Genes. I interviewed him many years ago, and he has a whole chapter, big section on the COMT gene.

Brad (00:53:15):
But learning about your psychological genetic profile as applied to how we deal with stress or how we organize our life, I think can be really useful and valuable. So the advice coming from my genetic result set yourself goals and deadlines to try and maintain a pressure that encourages improvement and keeps your mind sharp. Your genetic, your genotype implies better stress, resilience, and emotional regulation. However, it’s still important to practice mindfulness as a way to mitigate overwhelming feelings of stress by training the ability to keep your attention on the here and now. Final advice, although you may thrive under pressure, it is still important to practice efficient time management, which will prevent you from becoming overwhelmed and will help mitigate the accumulation of stress. Again, this is not a website with articles about today’s stress tolerance. This is a report directed to me due to my response on the genetic test, my result of GG. Those are the particulars of my genetic profile coming from my own test. Okay, so that was a quick look at the sleep report.

Brad (00:54:34):
We did skin, we did nutrition, and now we’re going to do methylation. This is where Brad has to go to the back of the class. And, uh, a detailed description of how our genes affect methylation. Very important to read this. I’ll just quickly, like I tried to encapsulate methylation as a biochemical process involving the transfer of methyl groups between molecules crucial for regulating gene expression, protein function, and detoxification. Methylation occurs billions of times per second in every cell impaired methylation can lead to health issues such as cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, and impaired detoxification. While overactive methylation can cause abnormal gene expression and potentially cancer. A lot of education here about vet methylation. I’m gonna read this further, not on the show, but it’s, it’s great stuff.

Brad (00:55:35):
And they’ve taken a lot of really detailed and complex topics and put ’em in. Look at that nice paragraph form where you’re learning about the nutrients that affect methylation, neurotransmitter metabolism, all kinds of stuff. The folate cycle results show an impaired effect. So again, this is getting into my ability to do important chemical breakdowns in the body, key genes associated with this and how I stand on my results. And now if you can see with the smaller type on the screen there for the first time, getting into detail with individual genes. So, the has a column for how much effect that has, the name of the gene and a specific gene advice. So with the M-T-H-F-D gene and the M-T-H-F-R gene, you might have heard of that gene. ’cause it’s nicknamed mother fucker<laugh>, uh, because it’s a key player in cancer risk prevention and a smoking in particular messes up the MF gene and gives you increased risk of cancer.

Brad (00:56:47):
So this is all from the methylation report. The methionine cycle shows an impaired efficiency, Brad. So again, I’m gonna have to go looking for, uh, good sources in the diet and manage my stress, understanding that my methylation might be suboptimal. The transsulfuration pathway, again, this is more methylation results. Ooh, I got a normal finally. So I’m okay there. And the rationale for giving me these scores with the commentary on the specific genes, although your transsulfuration pathway is working efficiently, it’s still important to ensure sufficient intake of things like vitamin B two, B six, B12 choline, zinc, and batam. Now, another report, the BH four cycle shows an impaired efficiency. Are you getting bored yet with my impaired efficiencies? Advice for you? look at your, uh, neurotransmitter balance and urine tests. Eliminate heavy, heavy metals from your diet. Things can, that can be adversely affecting your methylation.

Brad (00:57:52):
Here’s another one. The urea cycle. I have a moderate score. Okay, finally getting out of the impaired and into moderate. So that was the methylation report. Super important and interesting stuff. And I believe I told you that, part of this whole program here is a targeted supplement regimen. So they pick and choose the supplements for you based on your results. I don’t know of any other resource that has any comparison to that. In terms of supplement recommendations. Uh, you can save yourself a thousand YouTube videos or internet articles about what are the recommended supplements, and instead get this comprehensive genetic report and get supplements that are designed and calibrated for you. And of course, I’m taking those from my Get Stride report. Very impressive. High quality supplements and targeted, which for the first time ever in my life, I’ve had such the privilege.

Brad (00:58:49):
Okay, so I had a amazing talk with Bianca Van Wiggan going over my results in detail. I believe this looks like a, AI helper here, spit this out and basically recapped everything we talk about in this fast moving 30-minute consultation. I’ll just read one paragraph. So the whole idea is here to get an example of the experience and the personal service you’re gonna get when you do this. Bianca began explaining the folate cycle where dietary folate is converted into its active form five MTHF. Bianca recommended reviewing the PDF reports with diagrams of all five cycles. She detailed Brad Kearn’s variance on DFHR, Mt HFD one and MF genes explaining their impact on Foley production and availability. And on we go magnesium supplementation, methionine cycle choline intake. Bianca inquired about Brad Kearn’s intake of choline-rich foods. Brad reported a mostly animal-based diet with sufficient nutritious carbs, including red meat and eggs.

Brad (00:59:52):
Bianca concluded that Brad’s choline intake was likely sufficient. Onto the next one. Onto the next one. So we have a seven page report talking about all the details that Bianca went over with me on all the five reports that I just covered for you. Iron overload, micronutrients, and food sensitivities. I don’t think you can find anything that remotely compares to the amazing service you get here from the Stride Experience. DNA test, microbiome test and genetic tests. I didn’t even show you my microbiome test results. But these are available online and interestingly enough, there’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, uh, six further links you can hit. Uh, you can see here as a highlight. My gut microbiome score was an impressive 93 out of a hundred, and that’s great for microbiome diversity. But I also had some concerns and objections in other areas of microbiome function.

Brad (01:00:58):
I can click on something like the gut brain access. So you’ve probably heard this before, that the gut and brain are connected. They have a, have interesting graphic on YouTube where, um, they kind of like, uh, separate and go their separate ways in fetal development. And the brain and the gut kind of looks similar and they’re directly connected. 80% of serotonin is made in the gut. You may have heard one-off comments like this. And so on the microbiome report, you get all kinds of information about the functioning of your gut brain access and the neurotransmitters. And I noticed that just for a quick look at this detailed report on gut brain access, I had kind of a low presence of serotonin and dopamine, but higher in gaba. And interesting part about that was this directly correlates with my test results in the world famous Braverman neurotransmitter questionnaire.

Brad (01:01:55):
So this is a really cool questionnaire. You can Google it and take the test yourself. There’s some outlets that’ll charge 15 or 20 bucks for the results, but you get good information with it. You can probably find a free resource to take the Braverman neurotransmitter questionnaire. I’ve taken it several times in my life. The results come out the same every time, which is interesting. It’s sort of like a cross between a personality test and it’s predictive of your neurotransmitter makeup, your, whether you’re sensitive to dopamine like the other test result was talking about. And I was GABA dominant and also had a propensity for GABA deficiency. So GABA is a inhibitory neurotransmitter, a calming neurotransmitter. That means that I require a lot of careful downtime in order to rise to the occasion and answer to those high dopamine demands for peak performance, as I mentioned briefly.

Brad (01:02:51):
So again, this is the microbiome report. There’s several sub directories learning about that, and I talked about spitting in a tube for the genetic test results in those six reports. The microbiome, of course, is a poop test, and they’re looking at all the things that can be related and predictive of that. So there’s a report on digestive health as well. That gets into further detail. I got a 94.6 score in digestive health. High diversity index and some advice that correlates with that. So I think the, as we try to wrap up here, uh, I can’t recommend enough, the stride experience at getstride.com. Everything comes to you at your online portal where you can navigate and, uh, again, um, visit time and again when you, uh, let’s for say, for example, do another microbiome test or do another blood test. So now to close the show really quickly, ’cause I’ve done other podcasts on my blood results and blood testing, I’m just gonna pull up this Ultra Lab test profile.

Brad (01:03:56):
It’s a collection of my mini visits to the blood lab over the last six years. And kind of go through that and see how important it is to cross reference this with your genetic and your gut microbiome testing. So these are sections broken down in the familiar way. If you’ve probably seen your own blood tests. We have, uh, cardiovascular health markers. Green is in the normal range, and then when it turns red, it’s flagged as high. And this bugs the crap outta me because they will flag your total cholesterol high when it’s over 200 which is absolutely of no concern. And I’m relying on the greatest cholesterol experts in the world. You can listen to great content on Peter Atias podcast, The Drive, I believe Thomas Dayspring is one of his favorite experts where they have like six hour podcasts going into extreme detail about cholesterol and the flawed and dated notions that are still spouted by mainstream medicine where they’re obsessed with keeping your cholesterol low.

Brad (01:04:59):
Even though, as Dr. Ron Sinha describes in detail in his book the South Asian Asian Health Solution, and on his wonderful Meta Health podcast and his website, the data shows that looking at LDL cholesterol and total cholesterol is not a great predictor of heart disease. And there are vastly more important blood values to track Dr. Sja and other experts like Dr. Cate Shanahan. Dr. Paul Saladino recommend tracking your triglycerides to HDL ratio as the key marker of cardiovascular health and minimal cardiovascular disease risk. So you want trigs and HDL to be around one to one or better, and you definitely urgently need to get those numbers in a 3.5 to one or better, otherwise you’re in a red flag. High disease risk factor. So we know that mainstream wants your triglycerides under one 50. You can see on my screen the reference range.

Brad (01:06:04):
So the widespread recommendation is to get those triglycerides under one 50. Dr. Sinha emphasizes that really under 100 is the goal to shoot for. And anything over 100 is red flag borderline. So we don’t wanna mess around with triglycerides over 100, even if you get a green score from your mainstream medical test provider like ultra lab tests. And the lower down the triglycerides can get in relation to HDL indicates really superior cardiovascular health and absence of disease risk. So you can see mirages at 40 and my HDL down here at 79. I’m well below or well better than the desired one-to-one ratio of tight triglycerides to weight to HDL. So this totally trumps the red flag, quote unquote on that total cholesterol level. It’s almost a certainty that, uh, the preponderance of my LDL cholesterol is of the harmless, large fluffy variety, generally harmless, large fluffy variety as opposed to the potentially problematic small dense LDL.

Brad (01:07:25):
And you can test further for particle size if you are in the medium or high cardiovascular disease risk categories. And of course, I’m gonna breeze through this blood test reminding you that this is not medical advice. I’m just referencing the great experts that I’ve heard from and learned on the show. So you can take that to the bank. There’s another red that I completely breeze through and scoff at, thanks to my great resources that have helped me form my beliefs about what it means to eat healthy and have healthy blood work. Generally speaking, like in thyroid. Uh, l Russ expert on this, she’s been on the podcast, but you’re looking to be in the green here. And if you are in the green, these things are of minimal concern. This is funny because anything over a hundred on fasting glucose is flagged as elevated.

Brad (01:08:16):
But I’m certainly not bothered by that. And of course, I’m making a lot of glucose for my, uh, day-to-day activity, especially if you traffic in things like fasting or ketogenic eating, which I do not anymore at all. But when I perform and wanna do workouts, I might have done a workout before delivering this blood test. I don’t know, uh, certainly not concerned with glucose in the low one hundreds because my fasting insulin, which Dr. Paul Saldino contends, is the single most important marker for overall metabolic health is right down there at 3.2 and the reference range, you can see anything under 20, they’re saying is okay, but really, up at 15 is a huge concern. And you want that fasting insulin ideally under, I believe Dr. Paul Saldino said nine, he might’ve said six, but you definitely want single digits for fasting insulin indicating that you are not engaged in a hyperinsulinemia style eating pattern, which is identified by and agreed upon by many experts as the single biggest problem with Western society in terms of disease risk is too many processed foods, too much insulin production leading to oxidation and inflammation, heart disease and cancer.

Brad (01:09:33):
The two major killers in modern life. I had a cortisol test at one point, so I’m nicely in the morning reference range. Remember that cortisol varies throughout the day. You want it to spike in the morning to help you wake up, and then you want to gradually drift down. And if you’re tired and wired, as Sean Stevenson says on his wonderful model health show, that means that you’re not making enough cortisol in the morning. So you feel like drag ass, you feel like crap in the morning, you can’t get up, and then you get a second wind at night. And that’s an undesirable spike of cortisol that will interfere with healthy sleeping. And also <laugh> keep you wired when you should be going to sleep. How is that happening? One way the trigger is bright lights, artificial light, digital stimulation after dark high stress programming. In many cases, high stress entertainment programming will help you spike cortisol, interfere with your sleep cycles, have you waking up feeling lousy so you don’t want to be tired and wired.

Brad (01:10:38):
And that salivary cortisol test can be really valuable. So as you can see with all the greens here, this is my favorite test. That’s why they know my first name at the blood lab because I typically go in and just do a quick test for male hormone panel because it definitely serves as a proxy for my overall state of health and wellbeing, energy, vitality, longevity, potential and all that. Because when the male hormones are tanked, that is an indication of a overly stressful, imbalanced, fatiguing, exhausting lifestyle rather than having that health peak performance. And we will have entire shows on testosterone and how important that is. But as you can see from these numbers dating back to 21, I’m in the, well 1,008, that was a record, uh, and some significant fluctuation down to 5 84, 6 25, 7 92, 6 65, 8 1 3 8 56, 42. So I’m in the 600 to a thousand with an average really quickly there from my, super genius mathematical brain average looks to be about seven 50, which is in the top two or three percentile for males of my age, over 60 plus it’s actually in the top five or 10 percentile for younger males.

Brad (01:11:57):
And as I’ve said a couple times on the show, as I pat myself on the back for maintaining a high serum testosterone level, even at age 60 and totally natty as I described that entire show, I’m not taking any needles or outside sources of testosterone at this time. We’ll check back later in five or 10 years if I’m doing everything I can and I’m experiencing decline hormone replacement is a popular thing, but for most people it’s just a bandaid measure when you’re not optimizing everything you can possibly do to naturally produce healthy levels of testosterone even as you age, which I’m proving is possible. And you know, my number one attribute here, my number one recomme recommendation is I get so much sleep. I really think that helps optimize my testosterone level. And I also suspect that the fluctuation, why am I not a thousand every time, which is off the charts top one percentile even for males in the peak testosterone years of 20 to 30.

Brad (01:12:59):
Why am I down at 5 84, 6 25 7 92, 6 65? I think it’s the fluctuations in my overall life stress, particularly as applied to my training and training load. So those lower numbers I think are coming from the training cycles where I’m pushing my body pretty hard, struggling to recover and maybe heading to the blood lab while I’m still trying to regenerate testosterone in a recovery phase. Free testosterone is also important. So serum is the total circulating amount and the free is what’s in the bloodstream available to act upon target organs. So on some rare occasions, you can be making a lot of serum testosterone and have low scores in the free testosterone because the, the hormone is being bound. That’s why we have a test for sex hormone binding globulin. And look at me, I’m flagged as high outside of the 10 to 50 range every time with sex hormone binding globulin in the sixties.

Brad (01:14:02):
So there’s a lot of street talk how you wanna try to lower that sex hormone binding globulin so that more free testosterone can be released to target organs and muscles. So I studied this further and have some commentary that I’ll publish someday, especially inspired by, uh, discussions with Dr. Tommy Wood, one of the smartest guys out there, one of my favorite podcast guests. We have, I believe, three podcasts from years ago that you can still reference. I don’t think he talks about these hormones specifically too much in the podcast, but it’s a overall big picture, great resource to go and listen to those shows about how to be healthy, eat healthy, live a stress managed life. But high sex hormone binding goin is not a concern when you have really high serum testosterone levels, which I do. So I have good amount of testosterone being produced.

Brad (01:15:01):
Yes, I have high SHBG, but low SHBG is a sign of frail health as seen in diminished seniors who have low testosterone production, low sex hormone bin NI globulin. Everything’s low, low, low. So I’m okay with this because I’m still delivering a healthy and high amount of free testosterone into the target areas that need it. And you can see these scores ranging from 60 something to over a hundred on the free testosterone scale of 35 to 155. Looks like actually as we see these SHBG scores over time that I get back into, oh, it’s two different reference ranges. So, um, green by these, by these guys, and red by these guys. Uh, for whatever that’s worth, I’m not concerned about, uh, lowering my SHBG too much. DHEA is a precursor hormone for testosterone production and doing okay with some higher results there.

Brad (01:16:09):
And, lower results earlier. Again, these are very sensitive hormones that fluctuate. That’s why I go and test them often. Then we go down other panels and we’re just about done here, just, uh, looking through a typical blood results, looking for those greens, getting concerned if you don’t see a green. But generally speaking, I’m really a big fan of testing the male hormones, uh, trying to optimize my training, which is my biggest variable for life stress and especially honoring all the insights I get from Stride. So again, the website to go and get yourself tested and signed up and get your portal going is getstride.com. You can find them on social, get underscore stride and have a fabulous discount for you. The code is Brad for a 10% discount on their testing services and they also describe their supplement capsules that you can take that are really top top quality.

Brad (01:17:12):
So Stride Daily is a high absorption liposomal liquid multivitamin tailor made to your lifestyle and optimally for your DNA, GS zero one is a symbiotic capsule featuring five clinically studied probiotic strain. So that’s the one after your gut health results. And then MS oh one are methylated B vitamins. These ones are really important to me because I have trouble with methylation, so I’m a huge fan of taking these methylated B vitamins to support detoxification energy and methylation related pathways. Should I pay attention to taking all this stuff? Yes, because of my low scores, maybe someone else can get away with it and not need to constantly be on top of their b vitamin intake, but not me. And that’s been my conclusion from The Great Journey with Get Stride. Thanks for listening, watching the show. Go to getstride.com, learn more from their wonderful website, and I’m sure you’ll sign up for all the wonderful services they offer.

Brad (01:18:10):
Thank you so much for listening to the B.rad Podcast. We appreciate all feedback and suggestions. Email podcast@bradventures.com and visit brad kearns.com to download five free eBooks and learn some great long cuts to a longer life. How to optimize testosterone naturally become a dark chocolate connoisseur and transition to a barefoot and minimalist shoe lifestyle.