#350 Homerun Hormones, Biomarkers for Blood Sugar, and Healing from Paleo with Isaac Pohlman, RD and T1D (Part 1)

This week on The Less Stressed Life Podcast, I am joined by Isaac Pohlman who is a registered dietician. In this episode, Isaac tells me how his personal health story led him to helping adults with type 1, 2, and prediabetes. Isaac tells us why everyone should be concerned about blood sugar, what biomarkers he looks at with clients, and why regulating stress is so important. You are going to love Isaac's detailed explanations!

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Type 1 diabetes conspiracy theories
• Why should everyone care about blood sugar?
• What biomarkers signal blood sugar dysregulation?
• What blood markers signal that iron is being stored in the body?
• It’s not the stress that kills us, but our perception of it.

ABOUT GUEST:
Isaac is a dietitian originally from a small rural town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and is currently residing in Chicago.
During his formal education in undergrad and grad school, he studied human physiology and nutritional sciences and has since gone through a series of trainings, including internships to become a Registered Dietitian, mentorship programs under Josh Rubin and Morley Robbins, and independent research.
Despite his formal education, his personal experiences with health and working with clients 1:1 have been just as if not more valuable to his work. He was inspired to pursue nutrition after developing a series of health issues, including hypothyroidism, low testosterone, chronic fatigue, cystic acne, and type 1 diabetes, during his high school and early college days.
Isaac currently helps adults with type 1, type 2, and pre-diabetes improve their blood sugar control without cutting out carbs, in his coaching program, The Balanced Blood Sugar Roadmap.

WHERE TO FIND:
Website: https://www.isaacpohlman.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isaacpohlman/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC13UVlKgTCNG325KpiVxXHA

***WORK WITH CHRISTA***: https://www.christabiegler.com/fss

WHERE TO FIND CHRISTA:
Website: https://www.christabiegler.com/
Instagram: @anti.inflammatory.nutritionist
Podcast Instagram: @lessstressedlife
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@lessstressedlife
Leave a review, submit a questions for the podcast or take one of my quizzes here: https://www.christabiegler.com/links

NUTRITION PHILOSOPHY OF LESS STRESSED LIFE: 

• Over restriction is dead; if your practitioner is recommending this, they are stuck in 2010 and not evolving
• Whole food is soul food and fed is best
• Sustainable, synergistic nutrition is in (the opposite of whack-a-mole supplementation & supplement graveyards)
• You don’t have to figure it out alone
• Do your best and leave the rest

EPISODE SPONSOR:
A special thanks to Jigsaw Health for sponsoring this episode. Get a discount on any of their products. Use the code lessstressed10

Transcript

[00:00:00] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I think a lot of times we're missing some of the roots and one of the roots of good hormonal health is actually good blood sugar because good blood sugar balance ultimately takes the stress off our body so we can either produce those hormones in the right amount or our body can utilize them better.

[00:00:15] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm your host, Christa Biegler, and I'm going to guess we have at least one thing in common that we're both in pursuit of a less stressed life. On this show, I'll be interviewing experts and sharing clinical pearls from my years of practice to support high performing health savvy women in pursuit of abundance and a less stressed life.

[00:00:45] Christa Biegler, RD: One of my beliefs is that we always have options for getting the results we want. So let's see what's out there together.

[00:01:03] Christa Biegler, RD: All right, today on The Less Stressed Life, I have Isaac Pohlman. Isaac was inspired to pursue nutrition after developing a series of health issues including hypothyroidism, low testosterone, chronic fatigue, cystic acne, and type 1 diabetes during his high school and early college days. His formal education Includes human physiology and nutritional sciences, including internships to become a registered dietician and then mentorships under Morley Robbins root cause protocol and independent research.

[00:01:30] Christa Biegler, RD: He currently helps adults with type 1, type 2, and pre diabetes blood sugar control without cutting out carbs in his program, the Balanced Blood Sugar Roadmap. Welcome Isaac. 

[00:01:42] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yeah. Thanks, Christa. Appreciate you having me on. 

[00:01:44] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. So let's talk about that crap storm of a health situation you had.

[00:01:49] Christa Biegler, RD: I'd love to hear about when it sounds like maybe you were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in high school, potentially. Is that where it all started? 

[00:01:57] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yeah, that's actually an interesting start. So I actually wasn't diagnosed with diabetes in high school. It was actually in college, but interesting thing came about in, in high school.

[00:02:07] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So it was around my sophomore year. I was getting really heavy into like soccer. It was a sport that I was getting more and more serious about. There were coaches that said, Hey, Isaac, you should. Probably pursue this as a, college thing. I think you'd be really good at it. And I was like, okay, that I've never heard that before, but let's try it out.

[00:02:25] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so I got more and more serious with it. Started to play more travel teams. And I think the pressure of that too, got to me at least at that time with wanting to get into a really good school and wanting to perform really well and. Athletics because now I had this new pressure that I should be a college soccer player.

[00:02:43] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I think at that time it was there's a lot of stress on me internalized and I trained a lot. So I'd play like a 90 minute match and then like practice right afterwards. And so at that time, I really didn't have a sense of, solid understanding of nutrition as I do now in the recovery process.

[00:03:00] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And I, the reason I say that is because I, in some degree, I think I burnt out a little bit, just under nourishing over training in a sense. And at that time I started to notice where I felt like less and less hungry. Especially like to start the day or at lunchtime or dinner time, where normally I would be eating like double the size of people, like two times bigger than me. Like I was known as that person that would just eat a ton of food. And so it was really at a normal thing and slowly, but surely I started to lose weight. And at that time I was like probably a hundred pounds, five foot five.

[00:03:34] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So very like rail skinny, like I really couldn't afford to lose weight. And yet that's what I did. And so I got down to 85 pounds. And at that time I was really fatigued. It was. in the midst of like basketball conditioning. So the last place that you really want that to happen. And so we didn't really understand what was going on.

[00:03:52] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I got a bunch of tests done. They were like you have slow digestion went up to Mayo Clinic and they're like you have you have gastroparesis, they called it. And so if you're not familiar with gastroparesis, it's basically a slow emptying of the stomach. And it's the, thought to be sometimes like a complication of type one diabetes.

[00:04:09] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Now I didn't have any signs of type one at that time. My a one C was just fine. My blood sugar was just fine, but that's what they diagnosed with that with me at that time. And so after that point, I didn't quite recover until started working with people like Josh because I felt like the fatigue never really resolved and I was still struggling with that even into my college days.

[00:04:31] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And I ended up pursuing like college soccer and I did okay, but the edge they had at high school was now gone because I was just fatigued and didn't really have the extra gear that I had before. And so I had the writing on the wall and to couple that with academics, like I really wasn't doing good in school at all.

[00:04:48] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It was like the first time I got like below a 3. 0 in my life. And then I was struggling with soccer. And so it was like a really big identity crisis for me too, at that time. So just a lot of things I had more symptoms now I had food intolerance. And cystic acne and low testosterone in addition to the fatigue.

[00:05:06] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so it was like everything was hitting the fan at the same time. Really wasn't getting very many answers from my doctors like, Hey, you're Isaac, your labs look normal. You're making this up in your head. And I read the reports of the doctor's note and they said that like this guy is making this up in his head.

[00:05:20] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so that felt very invalidating, of course, because I didn't know what was going on and I felt physically that I wasn't right. And so that's where I really started to. Pave my own path in terms of going into the health space. And I knew nutrition as far as performance nutrition, but certainly not to the extent that I probably needed it at that time.

[00:05:38] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so that's where I started doing my own research, really diving into books, articles, the rabbit holes of the internet just to explore what was really wrong with me. And I came across people like Ray Pete and Josh Rubin that were really big inspirations of my work and started working with Josh at that around that time and really improved my ability to manage my fatigue, my energy went up, my mood, my personality is totally shifted in a positive way.

[00:06:06] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And everything was going well up until that point, but I think I still had some qualities that probably weren't still supportive of me. I went on to grad school at the university of Michigan and it was a great time, but it was also very stressful. For me I was working part time. I was participating in entrepreneurship competitions.

[00:06:26] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I really didn't understand quite then, like the need for like self care and and really, pausing and taking breaks. I was all in all the time it felt like. And around my last year at Michigan, I started noticing some weird symptoms come about. I was Never somebody to drink a lot of water, but I was noticing I was drinking gallons, like gallons of water each day.

[00:06:47] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I was like really thirsty. I'd wake up in the middle of night needing like a huge glass of water just to be quenched. And I thought that's weird. I've never had that before. And then I would wake up the next morning and it's like you have that sensation where you really have to go to the bathroom and pee.

[00:07:03] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And it was like that sensation like all throughout the day, especially when I woke up. And so I thought that's really weird. Let me tell you. Check my weight and I was down like 10 pounds from where I normally stand. I was logging my intake at that time too and I was eating about 3, calories and still losing weight.

[00:07:22] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So it was like, wow, like something's going on here. And my first thought was like, I have diabetes. But then I was like, ah, I don't know. I have a lot of stress going on. This is, I can't have diabetes. And so I passed it off for a week. And I was like These symptoms aren't improving.

[00:07:36] Isaac Pohlman, RD: In fact, they're getting worse. I'm feeling really lethargic. Anytime I eat, especially with something with carbs, it's gotta be related to my blood sugar. So I went in to my local grocery store. It was Meyer in Michigan at that time. And I got a glucometer, which is the meter that you use to check your blood sugar with.

[00:07:54] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And checked my blood sugar, it was 275. So I thought, wow, yeah, I definitely do have some form of diabetes here. It's just a matter of, hey, is this probably type one or type two? And the antibody test came back the next week, which is how they confirm a type one diagnosis and the GAD 65 antibody was the one that was positive for me.

[00:08:13] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so from there It it was interesting. Of course it was a tough battle and a tough transition. And it's never something I think is easy to be. Given a diagnosis like that. But I think it's also given me a place to help support others because the first thing I hear from other people that either follow my work or I work with is you have type one diabetes, so you know what it feels like to maybe have blood sugar that isn't.

[00:08:37] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Balanced and is affecting your day to day. And so having that personal relationship with them, I think increases a lot of the buy in that I get with clients. And I love, supporting them as best I can because I've been that person that was scared and fearful and not really sure what to do.

[00:08:52] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And it's really allowed me to focus in on a particular niche when it comes to coaching. As well. So it's a blessing in disguise. I think wasn't easy by any means at the beginning, but that's really how I got into more of the blood sugar nutrition side of things. It was more of my personal journey.

[00:09:06] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I have a couple of questions you had started working in a very, I would say specific niche, a mineral niche functional medicine in college. Fortunately, I wonder if you had some strikeouts before then, cause that was a lucky place to land in my opinion. 

[00:09:21] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yeah, was.

[00:09:22] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And that's the thing I didn't mention is I went through a series of things that really didn't work. I went to after my visits with like more conventional doctors, I ended up going to like naturopaths. And at that time, and I don't know really, I would say I, know a little bit of how it is now because I have clients that work with naturopaths and I think they can be very supportive.

[00:09:41] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I also think at times they can over prescribe like supplements and there can be like a list of. 10, 20 different supplements and the client doesn't even know why they're taking them. And so that was my experience too. It was like a restrictive diet at that time. I think it was like the popular thing was like paleo.

[00:09:56] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so it was like, Hey, you got to do paleo. Here's your book on paleo. And here's 20 different supplements to take. And so I went down that supplement rabbit hole where, I was taking all these things, I was buying all these supplements and it wasn't really working. So I didn't. quite understand what was up.

[00:10:09] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so I went really back to does it really make sense for me to be consuming all these supplements? And does this really have an impact? And could it have a negative impact? And that's really what I started to dive into with Josh and minerals is it's not always about all the supplementation, it's about doing the right things.

[00:10:26] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And sometimes those, Extra supplements can actually be working against you and so that was one thing that I had to learn. So I certainly didn't hit the nail on the head right away, but eventually I got to that point out of some trial and error. 

[00:10:37] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, and like you, used to think that functional medicine meant you go to someone, they give you a zillion supplements, it's hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

[00:10:44] Christa Biegler, RD: Then you come back and then they throw it all out and try a new one and that was a huge issue to me. And so I would say this is the challenge where there's actually now a big gray area and functional medicines. What's your actual philosophy around that stuff? Because for me, I have that wound of that.

[00:10:58] Christa Biegler, RD: So I like people to use up their stuff. I really like people to understand what they're doing. So they're not just being pulled by a leash through it. I really like. That's like my dream is for people to understand what they're doing so they can address things on their own afterwards.

[00:11:10] Christa Biegler, RD: So I hear that you had those same pains. And I think if you haven't gone through that, you can't appreciate a different model necessarily always, right? Like you can't appreciate that it's ultimately more sustainable to go the model you went. Now I'm curious, you did have some initial massive success around fatigue, et cetera earlier in college.

[00:11:28] Christa Biegler, RD: And how long did that take? For you to see those changes. Yeah. 

[00:11:31] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yeah. I think it took me actually just a couple of weeks to start seeing some initial positive results. The thing that I had to really do was in my start, like before even working with Josh or anybody else, like I really started to understand the need that I probably need to eat a little bit more.

[00:11:49] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Now I probably went a little bit too fast into it, knowing what I know now, I had a really low metabolism, my body wasn't able to process those calories and carbs very effectively, and so I went full bore into it. Where I just started to eat whatever I could, and it really boosted up my calories.

[00:12:07] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And then as a result I gained weight in the process, too. And that, it was probably needed to some extent to recover maybe some of that muscle and even just healing, healing tissue, I think. But I think I did it probably too fast and even what Josh would have recommended at that time.

[00:12:23] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so as a result, I gained weight. But. I felt there were so many positives that occurred that I push that a little bit to the side, not to say that it was something that I wanted, but like it was something, there were so many positives. My whole mood, my whole demeanor shifted. I was able to laugh again.

[00:12:38] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I was able to make jokes again, where previously I was so serious about life, so fearful about everything. And I was just felt so much. more calm, so much more resilient, so much able to better manage stress just as a result of just eating more. And within a couple weeks I saw that.

[00:12:55] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So it did take time for it to fully recover. And the mineral piece was a part of that with like morally, but initially seeing benefits with just strictly eating enough to be able to recover from probably from high school, which I never. Quite recovered from up until that point, really think I needed the extra boost.

[00:13:14] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And that's what that provided me at that time. 

[00:13:16] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. You should add athlete recovery to your mini niche. I care a ton about that topic too, because it's like, it's amazing. Especially I personally feel, so I started at a really big sports school, my freshman year, and they had a special cafeteria for the athletes there.

[00:13:33] Christa Biegler, RD: It was like a huge deal. And then. Some of the athletes I've worked with, the college athlete girls, I see. Absolutely the opposite. I've seen girls at small private universities doing multiple sports and barely nourishing. And that's there's a whole toxicity in sports, especially female sports around shrinking women for sure.

[00:13:54] Christa Biegler, RD: And like the coaches having, cause most of the baloney that's perpetuated in any place is like everyone's own personal crap. They're projecting on the next kids, yeah. So it's interesting. 

[00:14:06] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It is. 

[00:14:07] Christa Biegler, RD: So let's talk about your diabetes diagnosis. So first of all, it's considered atypical, right?

[00:14:12] Christa Biegler, RD: To be diagnosed that late. And I'm just curious. I have a really good friend who also, I think, I don't know what age he was when he was diagnosed with type one diabetes, but he definitely has some feelings about why his body went into that autoimmune reaction and we might call them like fringe theories.

[00:14:28] Christa Biegler, RD: And so I'm curious if you have any conspiracy theories about your type one diabetes by chance. 

[00:14:33] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I do. And I want to keep this in context too, because I think sometimes when I say this, people take it out of context and they're like this is just a theory that I have. It's not it is somewhat research based.

[00:14:44] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It's just my, understanding of autoimmune diseases in general. But I think there still needs to be some work done around okay. Proving, that, but one of the most influential books that I have read was by Gaber Mate. It's titled when the body says no. And it's all about autoimmune disease.

[00:15:01] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I don't know if you've ever read that crystal. I haven't yet, 

[00:15:04] Christa Biegler, RD: but I know it's like one of the top recommendations. 

[00:15:07] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yeah. Yeah. It's really good. It's really good. And it's interesting. Like basically what he says is like the autoimmune disease personality. He doesn't call it that, but that just for simplistic, burping that's what I interpreted it as.

[00:15:20] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And it's basically saying that people with autoimmune disease, a lot of them have challenges with respecting their own boundaries to the point where the. Person that they are it's hard to separate them versus everybody else And so like it's a lot of people that put like others before themselves.

[00:15:38] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It's a lot of people that Might put others at the expense of themselves and I was certainly that case. I think You know growing up. I have a tendency to like people please to like Wanting to people to like me, and over time I've, I don't know if that's something that you all like totally outgrow, but I think I've gotten better with that and just taking things as is, but at that time I especially cared what people thought of me and and 

[00:16:03] Christa Biegler, RD: by the way, 

[00:16:05] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I'm a twin, I'm a twin.

[00:16:06] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So I'm. 30 seconds younger than my twin sister. So I guess I'm the youngest by a few seconds. But but yeah, he looks at that too. When it comes to autoimmune disease, it's a lack of distinguishability. If that makes sense, distinguishability between your body and what is foreign, because theoretically your immune system is basically attacking your own body.

[00:16:27] Isaac Pohlman, RD: But it thinks. to some degree that it's foreign, right? And so with something like type 1 diabetes, it's taking out dysfunctional cells in the pancreas that they think are something that's possibly causing you problems, and as a result you're not able to produce insulin. And so that's one of Gabor Maté's kind of thoughts.

[00:16:46] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It's like a lot of this shows up More than just the condition itself, but the way that you live your life. And I thought that was really interesting for me personally I think there was a lot of stress leading up to it. And I might've addressed like the nutritional piece, but I still didn't quite understand 

[00:17:02] Isaac Pohlman, RD: the all in go how problematic that can be when it comes to like minerals and being able to actually process carbohydrates. And so that at that time, I if I had to give a theory, like that was probably a buildup of all the years of me doing that. Yeah. 

[00:17:19] Christa Biegler, RD: Do you, have you ever looked at what emotions are stored in the pancreas and Chinese medicine?

[00:17:24] Isaac Pohlman, RD: That's something that I haven't delved into Chinese medicine. I did get into that initially. I want to say like early on in college where I forget exactly where there's some laser involved where it was like certain pressure points, especially around the ears. I don't remember exactly what it was, but But yeah, that was my first inkling into it.

[00:17:43] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I think I probably dismissed it maybe a little bit too early to just because I almost grouped it in with some of the paleo stuff that I was doing at that time and identified with minerals. But it's an area that I haven't explored just yet, like really thoroughly to be able to educate and comment on that piece.

[00:18:01] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, for sure. Okay let's get into some of the nutrients around blood sugar stuff, but before we go there, I think maybe we should just give a little primer on maybe why should everyone care about blood sugar, whether you're diabetic or not, and then let's talk a little bit about Insulin resistance.

[00:18:19] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Okay. Yeah. We can start with the why everybody should care about blood sugar. I think that's a good starting place because I think I get a lot of comments around blood sugar. I have a lot of like folks that are following me, not necessarily because they have diabetes, but they just want to improve the way they feel or their hormonal health or reduce the stress on their body.

[00:18:37] Christa Biegler, RD: They're smart people, right? If they're recognizing a blood sugar account can help them with that. So this is a good sign. 

[00:18:42] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Absolutely. And I think, that's the case. I have a very educated audience and wants to, and loves to learn. So I think that's very good. And when I look at blood sugar, certainly there's a level of truth that those with like diabetes, like me, or people with type two, like diabetes.

[00:18:58] Isaac Pohlman, RD: That we probably need to pay a little bit more attention to the numbers specifically. But at the end of the day, we all have blood sugar. We all have a brain. We all have a pancreas. And since there are those commonalities, like to some degree, it's going to impact us and I almost compare it to this, like blood sugar is that initial fuel source that we all use, no matter what we're doing.

[00:19:18] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Like for me to. Talk to you, Christa. It's taking blood sugars, taking energy to be able to do that. And so if we like just had like a car, like one of my favorite cars is like a Lamborghini. So if we had a Lamborghini out here, it's a beautiful design machine. It's really powerful, but that car is not going to move.

[00:19:35] Isaac Pohlman, RD: If it doesn't have gas, premium gas. And so it's the same thing for us. If we. Don't have that consistent source of fuel. Our body's going to give us signs and symptoms that is probably off. And I think one of the companies that did a really good job of recognizing this was Snickers.

[00:19:53] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And I don't know if you've seen those commercials back in the day. I think it was like 2010s where one of them specifically was like Betty white was like playing football. And his friend was like, you're playing like Betty White out there, here take a Snickers, and he eats the Snickers, and then all of a sudden he's playing like himself again, and the tagline is, you're not you when you're hungry.

[00:20:13] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I'm not saying to go out and eat a Snickers, but what I am saying is you are not you when your blood sugar is out of balance either, right? Because it can show up in the form of a few different things, depending on which stage that you're, in. It can come up initially as symptoms so you can feel like more hangry, meaning you can't go long without eating.

[00:20:33] Isaac Pohlman, RD: You have to eat very quickly, very soon, otherwise you will feel more angry emotionally. You'll tend to feel more fatigued. I've noticed in a lot of clients they tend to crash. Like in the afternoons, like that one to 3 p. m. where they're like, really need something like sugary or like a coffee. They often get like a blood sugar crash where they're really not feeling like themselves.

[00:20:55] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So they often live on like caffeine and sugary beverages to feel good. I find a lot of clients have like sugar cravings. If it's more of an extensive problem, I also see clients that have more weight gain around their stomach. Even brain fog where they they might try to recall what they're trying, they want to say, but they might not have the words to really say it.

[00:21:15] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I also see folks, especially with PCOS, have more menstrual cycle irregularities where maybe their cycle is a little bit longer. I see especially a low immunity where folks are getting sick, but really frequently even frequent urination challenges with sleep as well. So in the short term, I can show up as.

[00:21:34] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Like minor signs like that in the long term, the more that blood sugar is dysregulated, it can show up more in terms of like symptoms. It symptoms in terms of conditions. So it can be like PCOS, it can be prediabetes, it can be insulin resistance, it can be more susceptibility to autoimmune disease as well.

[00:21:51] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So Hashimoto's psoriasis rheumatoid arthritis, things like that, right? For other folks too, if this is a longstanding issue, we know that like hormonal health is such a popular niche. And I think many times yes, buzzword. That's a great term for it. And I think many times it's just how do I support progesterone or how do I support estrogen detoxification or how do I lower my testosterone or heart for males?

[00:22:17] Isaac Pohlman, RD: How do I increase my testosterone or thyroid panel? But I think a lot of times we're missing some of the roots. And one of the roots of good hormonal health is actually good blood sugar, because good blood sugar balance ultimately takes the stress off our body. So we can either produce those hormones in the right amount.

[00:22:34] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Or our body can utilize them better. And so that's why I think for many people, they might have normal lab work, normal hormonal levels, but their body still is experiencing those symptoms because they're not able to use those hormones very well. So I see that quite a bit too. And so that's where it's more of a longer standing issue where these blood sugar imbalances have been happening for, months, years, decades at a time.

[00:22:57] Christa Biegler, RD: So we'll come back to insulin resistance, but you made me jump to another question, which was, let's talk about the biomarkers you use when you're helping your clients looking for blood sugar dysregulation before it's on someone else's radar. You might be running mineral tests, but are you also running specific blood tests?

[00:23:13] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yes, this is a great question. It ultimately depends on the client and I can give you a few examples of how I might typically approach this. When it comes to like testing specifically there's two different tests that I typically will run depending on the person. Now, if the person I have a lot of clients that have like reactive hypoglycemia as well, or.

[00:23:33] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Low blood sugar throughout the day and so for those individuals or for people with like type 1 diabetes even for folks that have PCOS, like an HTMA or what's called a hair tissue mineral analysis I found to be very helpful especially the blood sugar ratio it's a part of the test, it's a ratio between calcium and magnesium if you're not totally familiar with that.

[00:23:55] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Both of those minerals play a huge role in the result of someone's blood sugar. For example, calcium, it's a huge signaler for insulin. For magnesium, it's big in insulin sensitivity and carb tolerance. In other words, the ability to tolerate carbs and still keep your blood sugar within a Now, when I see this ratio is high, meaning the amount of calcium is above the amount of magnesium listed on the test, I find for many people, they're going to struggle with low blood sugar because they're relying a lot on their insulin to support insulin production.

[00:24:28] Isaac Pohlman, RD: keeping their blood sugar within range, right? And that can happen for a few different reasons. And I can certainly delve into more of that if you'd like. But that is one of the first things that I would look at to really tell what is someone's mineral balance look like? And how is their lifestyle and nutrition all three setting themselves up for that kind of mineral balance?

[00:24:46] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And how can we slightly adjust this so that they get more stable blood sugars moving forward? And that's not just about, in my opinion, with HTMAs, it's not just about, hey, you're low in calcium or you're low in magnesium. Here's magnesium or here's calcium, right? Because one of the biggest influencers of this is, in fact, stress.

[00:25:05] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And I must compare it to this If we're trying to improve our blood sugar balance, envision like filling up a bucket of water, but that bucket of water has holes in it. And so the more that you try to fill that up, the more that water is actually going to leak out. And so if we were just to continue pouring water in that would be very ineffective, right?

[00:25:25] Isaac Pohlman, RD: The water is just going to seep out versus if we looked at plugging those holes. In other words, the stressors that person has in their life. Or improving their resiliency, the way that they perceive those stressors, that's going to help to plug those holes. So when they do consume that calcium or when they do consume that magnesium, it actually sticks.

[00:25:44] Isaac Pohlman, RD: They actually retain that a lot more effectively, right? Because with stress, what ends up happening is you use minerals more quickly. And so that is especially the case with someone with blood sugar imbalances. The more widely their blood sugar swings, the more imbalanced and the more deficient they tend to be with minerals.

[00:26:02] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And HTMA will certainly show a piece of that. I do like to run something like that if the client can benefit. If they're really insulin resistant I tend to run something called a Monty panel. And so that is, in, in the Morley Robbins root cause protocol world, that's a little bit more familiar, but if you're not familiar with that, it's basically a panel, a blood panel that is, that really looks at the relationship between iron and copper and the minerals.

[00:26:30] Isaac Pohlman, RD: That impact that ultimately. And with iron and copper, it is a huge piece for those with instant resistance, because this is not to say that iron is bad. I don't want to make that seem that way, but when we have an excessive amount in our body stored away. What it tends to do is lower metabolism, it impacts the beta cells of the pancreas, it makes them not work as well, which makes our body unable to produce adequate levels of insulin.

[00:26:58] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It, Is stored away in our liver, which makes our liver kick out more glucose in the bloodstream, especially when we're not eating, right? And so when you have a ton of iron stored away in your body, it's actually really not a good thing because it increases inflammation. It decreases our ability to effectively manage blood sugar.

[00:27:18] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And that's why for many folks, when they have a lot of iron stored away, they're going to have problems with typically I see blood sugar energy. energy and digestion are those main pieces. And this is especially true even when they're not eating, which can be really confusing, right? Because I think we associate blood sugar problems with like just eating too many carbs or too much sugar.

[00:27:39] Isaac Pohlman, RD: But I find for many clients, when they have a lot of iron stored away, their blood sugar in the morning will be the highest part of the day, meaning when they're not eating, when they've been fasting for seven, eight, nine hours. And part of that is because when iron is stored in the liver, it increases the liver to kick out more glucose in the bloodstream, therefore raising blood sugar.

[00:28:00] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so by addressing that relationship, we can improve someone's blood sugar balance, insulin sensitivity by addressing that ratio. 

[00:28:09] Christa Biegler, RD: I don't know if we want to go into this, but the blood panel for iron is complex. So what are some of the markers blood wise, not tissue wise, in the HTMA that you're looking at for?

[00:28:21] Christa Biegler, RD: Lots of iron being stored in the body. 

[00:28:24] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yeah, that's a great question. 

[00:28:26] Christa Biegler, RD: Probably one of the most underrated nutrients I use in practice is potassium. Low potassium can be a huge factor in energy, relapsing gut issues, thyroid function, and even regulating blood pressure. Now your blood test for potassium will look normal most of the time. Otherwise you'd feel faint and maybe like you're going to pass out, but your tissue levels of potassium will decline with an increase of the stress hormone cortisol.

[00:28:51] Christa Biegler, RD: Big picture. I find it's just really hard for humans to get enough food based potassium in their diet, unless they live in a tropical place. And I'm usually recommending my clients get at least 4, 000 milligrams of food based potassium per day. That's why I really commonly recommend Jigsaw's Pickleball Cocktail to help my clients.

[00:29:10] Christa Biegler, RD: It's one of the only electrolyte products on the market with a hefty dose of potassium at 800 milligrams per scoop. When most electrolyte products only have about 200 milligrams. Making it really hard to reach those high doses of food based potassium I recommend per day. Plus, it's automatically the best choice if my client is dealing with swelling, which can be related to imbalances of sodium and potassium in the tissue.

[00:29:36] Christa Biegler, RD: I'm a potassium evangelist, and Jigsaw's Pickleball Cocktail is one of my most used tools of the trade. You can get a discount on any of Jigsaw's amazing products, including Pickleball, at JigsawHealth. com with the code LESSSTRESSED10. That's three S's, LESSSTRESSED10.

[00:29:56] Isaac Pohlman, RD: this is the thing that gets confusing with iron too, because we don't want to label iron as just being one measurement because it's not, and if we just label it as one, there'll be people that have anemia or low iron and actually have a lot of iron stored away in their tissues.

[00:30:11] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So you can be deficient in one area and overloaded in another. And so I look at iron as being like. In two places, one in the bloodstream and another sort of way in our tissues, like our liver, for example, and one of the places that I look at primarily is it's ferritin, it's a reflection of how much iron is stored away in someone's tissues.

[00:30:33] Isaac Pohlman, RD: I'm not trying to play doctor here with any clients that I work with, that's for the physicians. This blood panel is more to show us trends of the higher that this ferritin value is, the more problems that person is going to have with digestion, energy and blood sugar and insulin resistance.

[00:30:50] Isaac Pohlman, RD: So if ferritin value, that's like 50, 100 200, 300. I'd seen, I've seen 500 before. That person is going to be definitely not feeling their best. They're going to have more insulin resistance. They're going to have trouble with carbohydrates. They're not going to be feeling very energized to do exercise.

[00:31:08] Isaac Pohlman, RD: For most people, their digestion is going to be very slow. They may not be able to tolerate many things. They may be bloated, a lot of gas. And When it comes to storage, that's the one of the areas that I look at. Now, there are other areas of markers of iron too that we really need to consider because someone could have like theoretically a high ferritin, like at 200, let's just say, and have a low iron, like for a female, if it's under 80 that would be considered low iron, right?

[00:31:35] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so you'd want to do things differently in different steps, depending on where those measurements might lie. And so I look at. Serum iron, I look at what's called T I B C or the binding capacity. I look at iron saturation as well. All of those have to do with the amount of iron on board or how much our body's able to transport to different areas.

[00:31:57] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so if you're able to look at the full picture of that, it's a lot more clear than us just saying, Hey, you have low iron or you have high iron because the spots where that iron is at will dictate the steps that will be supportive for them. 

[00:32:10] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah, I would say iron is probably one of the very oversimplified things in conventional medicine, right?

[00:32:18] Christa Biegler, RD: Probably. Generally, when they have a lot of high tissue iron, is the recommendation donating blood? 

[00:32:27] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Good question. depends. With working with a lot of people in this predicament, there are some that Theoretically are ready to donate, meaning they have enough to give. But they might be struggling with other symptoms.

[00:32:40] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Maybe it's the fatigue, maybe it's like lightheadedness. Maybe it's their sleep is really struggling. And I typically would never start someone off just with donating, unless it was really, their serum level was really high. And so here's the distinction. There can be some people with high ferritins and low serum iron, and there can be people with a high ferritins and high serum iron, right?

[00:33:06] Isaac Pohlman, RD: The person with the high serum iron will be more ready to donate than someone who has a low serum iron because they have nothing to give, because when we think about giving blood, it's coming from the serum. It's not coming from a ferritin, right? And so if we don't have enough to give even if we have a higher ferritin, if they were to donate, they'd probably feel worse afterwards.

[00:33:27] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And I've had clients that have done that gone against kind of my suggestion and they have made the connection that they have high iron levels and they have made the connection between, yeah, I need to donate blood at some point. And they have gone. Yeah. through it first before I said that they probably should and as a result they felt, it for a few days afterwards in terms of feeling fatigued just down and really not having that resiliency, that energy that they really need to do their work or care for their kids, throughout the day.

[00:33:53] Isaac Pohlman, RD: It, the timing with blood donations is important in understanding the context. It's not just about the ferritin. It's about making sure that you have enough to give, because when you have a low serum iron, it's like trying to pour from an empty cup, there's nothing really there to give. And as a result, most people are going to feel that.

[00:34:10] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah. Are you mobilizing it from the liver with. Liver support. And then are you rechecking in the blood before you do a donation? 

[00:34:17] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Yep. For most people that is, is the way that would be most supportive is really getting that iron moving again, because iron isn't really a problem when it's being put to use, like when it's.

[00:34:29] Isaac Pohlman, RD: being able to form like red blood cells. If we can put it to use, that's a good thing. The problem is when it gets stagnant and it gets stored in other organs that's a huge issue. And that's what leads to the inflammation. And so what we want to do, if someone especially has a low serum value is we want to move that Iron from the storage places that it's in to being able to be used so that we can get rid of it with a donation.

[00:34:53] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And so things like, real food, vitamin C liver, like the copper and vitamin A from liver, copper and vitamin A rich foods, especially from seafood. Those can be ways that over time we can get that iron moving again. But there is one caveat to this, because we can be doing all of that, but if we're not regulating the stress, throughout our day.

[00:35:14] Isaac Pohlman, RD: By providing, outlets in breaks and things that really restore us, really re energize us. There's actually research to show that iron will just stay stuck in the organs that it's in, meaning it won't be able to be mobilized as well. If we don't have that in place. And so that's the other thing.

[00:35:31] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And I think for some people they have the experience when they feel like they're doing a lot of the things right. But maybe their labs aren't improving or maybe they're not able to donate just yet. A lot of times it has to do with that stress piece because that is a huge piece with the body making iron available.

[00:35:47] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And the thing of the matter is it won't make iron available unless our body is less inflamed and less stressed. And so by having that that nourishing routine outside of just food, it's really one of the most effective things to help to regulate iron levels as well. Okay. 

[00:36:02] Christa Biegler, RD: Yeah helping clients with stress regulation is, I would say it's all a lifelong thing for us, right?

[00:36:09] Christa Biegler, RD: I don't know about you, but it's you know all of this stuff nutritionally, biochemically, the physiology, and then it's We just have to fix your stress as the thing. So 

[00:36:20] Isaac Pohlman, RD: it 

[00:36:20] Christa Biegler, RD: It's an interesting feeling. 

[00:36:22] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Oh, it is. It is. And I think none of us are, I don't think ever going to be perfect at it.

[00:36:27] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Like I have stress, I'm sure Christa, you have stress. And I think whenever I approach this conversation, people are like Isaac, I can't get rid of stress. There's no way in this modern world that I can. And I would frankly agree with that. I'm staring at a laptop with. Blue light coming directly at my face.

[00:36:42] Isaac Pohlman, RD: There's EMFs all over the place. There's things that we could say about food here and there that probably aren't the most supportive things, but it's not, in my opinion, about like getting rid of stress. It's about making our body more resilient to it. Even I consider him the founder of stress, Hans Selye, the brilliant physician that he has a book, Stress of Life, that is one of the more influential like books that I've had a chance to read.

[00:37:07] Isaac Pohlman, RD: And he talked about this, he said it's not the stress that kills us. It's our perception of it. 

[00:37:13] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Absolutely. Perception of stress is a huge thing, and in my experience too, and this is personal and professional, I think we're able to perceive stress a little bit more supportively when we're in a good, healthy, metabolic state.

[00:37:26] Isaac Pohlman, RD: Meaning we're providing nourishing routines, nourishing foods, supplements, downtime that our body really needs. Because when it's not getting what it needs, it tends to feel more stressed, it tends to feel more anxious. We tend to React to stress a little bit more than maybe what we normally would be. If we hadn't gotten what we need out of our routine.